Hey guys! Can’t thank you enough for sticking with me on this journey. It’s a bittersweet moment for me to let you know that we’re onto the final volume of WMMG. This novel has been a blast to translate, with every chapter offering a mix of emotions, and I’ve loved bringing all that awesomeness to you guys. But hey, all good things gotta come to an end, right? Although we’re not quite there yet, it’s definitely on the horizon.
That being said, buckle up for the first chapter of Vol.3! We’re diving straight into the action with a chapter from Temeraire’s perspective, which I must say is one of many heart-rendering moments from our ML.
Enjoy!
[Temeraire’s POV]
Temeraire had dreamed from time to time.
He dreamed of a future where he was in love with a goddess who had flown in from another world, where they had children together and lived a life full of mutual affection. But he knew better than anyone else that such a dream would never become reality. In a small room of a shabby inn in a neighboring country, Temeraire had sat by the window on the second floor, silently observing the snow descend from the gray sky.
He had watched the man, his black hair trimmed short, his eyes as piercing as a knife’s tip. From his tightly pursed lips exuded an undeniable wildness. His long, toned limbs had reminded Temeraire of a beast sprinting through the dark hollows of a mountain. If one were to encounter this beast, they would have had no choice but to brace themselves for the inevitable, to have their neck ripped apart in one swift bite.
Ogami Yuichiro.
Suddenly appearing in this world, he had driven his subordinates and people into madness with his rigid will, intent on incinerating the world to ashes with his tyranny. This heartless man, showing no hesitation in taking another’s life, and even ready to disregard his own, ruthlessly trampled upon enemy armies.
And yet, it was this savage man who was hailed as the “goddess” who would save this country swallowed up in civil war over the throne and birth the king’s child. The gods of this world must have been out of their minds. His followers, the “Rightful King” who adored him, and even himself, who surrendered everything to him, were all undoubtedly out of their minds. Something had been fundamentally amiss.
Still, Temeraire couldn’t help but love the man before him.
“What is it? Staring at me like that.”
The man who had been looking out the window suddenly turned around and raised his voice. Like a threatening dog, he frowned in displeasure. As Temeraire gazed at the furrows in his nose, he slowly opened his lips.
“It might be better to stay away from the window. You never know when you might be attacked.”
“To prevent that, I’ve sent Tyet and Belz to keep watch.”
“Where is Kiki?” he asked while casually scanning the surroundings. His loyal subordinates came with him to the neighboring country. They are all undeniably capable, but they also share a common ferocious nature. Temeraire knew that the man in front of him favored such people.
The one who chose the subordinates to accompany them to the neighboring country was his adjutant, Goat. He’s always elusive, an enigmatic man whose true nature cannot be grasped. Every time he recalled the way Goat looked at the man before him, a nauseating feeling welled up from the depths of his chest. Temeraire quickly understood the adjutant’s sticky desire that was seeping through from the trust and affection toward his superior officer. It was unbearable to him, precisely because he was looking at him with the same gaze.
However, it was said that Goat disappeared suddenly from the capital shortly after they set off for the neighboring country. ‘I don’t think he’s the kind of man to be easily killed, but if not, why did he disappear? As he pondered, he heard the man’s voice.
“I’ve asked Kiki to keep an eye on Aoi’s movements.”
Upon hearing the name, he felt a momentary bitterness surge within him.
Aoi, another goddess who appeared with him, the young girl who sided with the rebels, hated his Goddess, and was waiting for a chance to kill him.
He recalled the time when they first met, she stared blankly at him and said, “It feels like a dream to have someone as beautiful as you be mine.” He couldn’t deny feeling annoyed at the girl treating a stranger she just met as her own. “Unfortunately, my goddess is already decided.”
The moment Temeraire responded like that, the young girl’s cheek twisted in what seemed like mockery.
“An ojisan being a goddess seems absurd, don’t you think? I know. They say a curse of loving the goddess is cast upon those who serve and devote themselves to her. So, if ojisan dies, that would mean you, Temeraire will come to like me, right?”
The cruel words spoken in a cheerful voice revealed the girl’s shallow and brutal nature. However, at the same time, Temeraire had noticed a hint of desperate longing in her gaze. A deep and painful yearning, pleading, ‘Choose me, look at me.’ But Temeraire couldn’t find it in him to be understanding or kind enough to embrace those feelings.
Indeed, a “curse” had been cast on Temeraire. A curse of blindly loving the goddess, of being unable to resist offering everything to him. A curse accompanied by unbearable nausea and pain, as if his soul had been forcibly twisted and his heart had been bound in iron chains.
However, there was a moment when the chains wrapped around his heart evaporated into thin air, just disappearing.
It was when he was in the forest of the Yellow tribe people, desperately grabbing the hand of the man who was about to fall from a tree. The man, being dragged down by his own weight and about to fall, begged to let go of his hand, and then said, “Your…curse…will break.”
At that moment, the man had tried to lift Temeraire’s curse in exchange for his own life. He had wished for Temeraire’s soul’s liberation more than his own survival.
The moment Temeraire realized this, the chains wrapped around his heart loosened, and he felt his own heart become free. But the words that then slipped from his lips were unexpected even to him.
“Please, die with me.”
The moment he uttered this, Temeraire understood that he had chosen him by his own will. If he had still been cursed, there’s no way he would have chosen the death of the goddess he was supposed to serve and dedicate himself to. The decision to die with him wasn’t the duty of a devoted servant, but Temeraire’s own will.
The curse was no longer upon him. Temeraire loves a man named Ogami Yuichiro with all his heart. A cruel and sarcastic man, yet undeniably pathetic, fragile, and lovable.
But even if he told the man that the curse had been lifted, the latter probably wouldn’t believe it. By not believing, he was protecting himself. He believed that he was not worthy of receiving love from others. And he was most afraid of losing the love he was given. It was probably due to the loss of his wife and child in his previous world.
Temeraire found him, who wished to return to his deceased wife and child, extremely hateful and at the same time, terrifyingly indescribable. His teeth gnashed at the mere thought of him returning to his original world once this internal conflict ended and after he gave birth to the king’s child.
He didn’t want to imagine himself existing in a world without him. He even thought of cutting off the man’s limbs and locking him up in a cage just to keep him by his side. Temeraire found himself thinking this way more horrifying than anything else.
“Temeraire.”
At his voice, he was pulled back from his wicked fantasy to reality, and his fingertips trembled for a moment. He stopped to look at his own tremors and was asked with a questioning voice.
“Are you cold?”
“No…” He vaguely shook his head from side to side in denial.
Soon, the man closed the opened window and slowly approached Temeraire.”There’s still time before your shift. If you’re cold, go to bed and sleep.”
Before he could reply that he was fine, his hand was taken and he was led to the bed. He was forcibly stripped of his overcoat and was pushed into the bed.
“It’s not because I’m cold…”
“Just rest for a while. Tomorrow will be more of a battlefield than today,” the man said in a tone like threatening a child who wouldn’t go to sleep. But that was probably a prophecy of what was to come.
“Will you negotiate with Sasha tomorrow?”
“If there’s room for negotiation. After all, it’s hopeless to even consider talking to Nika,” the man answered indifferently, lowering his gaze in thought.
Nika, a surviving member of the royal family, held reign over the frontier village of Charlotte in the adjacent nation. It had been Temeraire who proposed the scheme to provoke Nika, and in doing so, stir up a rebellion in the bordering nation of Goldar, supplying strength to the insurgent forces.
However, Nika had surrendered to despair far more than anticipated. He had declared that he would lend an ear to whoever amused him more: Aoi, who sought to coax him into relinquishing the king’s proof to the reigning monarch, or Yuichiro, who advocated rebellion. And then there was Sasha, the commander of the village’s self-defense forces, who harbored fury towards the intruders that had infiltrated their village – the party of Yuichiro and Aoi. Recollecting the sight of Sasha vehemently uttering the term “vermin”, it seemed improbable they could engage in a constructive dialogue. Regardless, their precarious circumstance persisted.
“If Noah, who remained with Nika, could successfully persuade him, that would be quite convenient,” he murmured with a touch of jest.
At his words, Temeraire felt a shudder run down his spine for a moment.
Noah, the rightful king of Jeweld chosen by God, and Temeraire’s half-brother. His younger brother would one day impregnate his beloved, and make the man his wife.
He too loved the man deeply from the bottom of his heart. Yet, as a “devoted servant” without the ability to bear a child, no matter how much he wished, he would never have a child with him.
‘Why, oh why, despite sharing the same blood, could he and his brother be so different?’
Each time Temeraire pondered this, he was consumed with feelings of jealousy, resentment, and an unbearable sense of unfairness. He even felt destructive emotions, wishing for this world to be annihilated.
But at the bottom of his burning, blue hatred, there was a lingering sense of repentance and sorrow for his half-brother. Noah, his brother who was born to their mother and the former king, was tormented as a nuisance and not loved in the slightest by their mother.
If only he was a selfish and cowardly child, things would have been easier. However, Noah’s heart held an incredible sorrow. The moment he realized this, Temeraire could no longer simply hate Noah. His poor little brother. The rightful king that will change this country. Yet, the man who would take his beloved away.
Temeraire was constantly harboring these complex and twisted feelings. However, the reason his relationship with Noah did not completely collapse was because of the man before his eyes. Through him, Noah and Temeraire quietly observed each other and slowly mend their relationship.
As the man lowered himself onto the edge of the bed and turned his gaze back to the window, Temeraire watched him intently. Seeing his nose turning red, Temeraire approached the edge of the bed, lifted the edge of the blanket slightly, and murmured, “Please, get in as well.”
Upon hearing this, the man’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he lifted the corners of his mouth into a smirk. “Don’t expect us to do anything here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re cold too, I just want you to warm up.”
After replying in an exasperated tone, the man shrugged slightly, threw his coat off, and slipped into the blanket. As Temeraire gently hold his body close, he could feel the man’s body cold as ice.
“You’re cold.”
“If it’s too cold, just let me go.”
“I won’t let go.”
As Temeraire immediately retorted, the man slightly narrowed his eyes and smiled. Like a whimsical cat, he nuzzled his forehead against Temeraire’s chest. He felt a warmth slowly spreading in his heart at this endearing gesture. He found it incredibly foolish how easily swayed he was by each and every one of his casual actions. Yet, Temeraire could never despise this side of himself.
The man, with a relaxed look in his eyes, scooped up Temeraire’s hair with his fingertips. “Without Noah, I can’t braid your hair into three strands.”
A slight laughter bubbled up at his serene tone. It was their daily routine where the man would braid Temeraire’s hair, and Noah would tie the ribbon at the end. The time they spent slowly building their relationship was exceedingly comfortable and precious to Temeraire. “Please braid it again when Noah-sama returns.”
Upon saying this, the man let out a soft chuckle. He pulled Temeraire closer, his back rising and falling with each gentle breath, and whispered in a hushed voice. “You should sleep too until it’s time to change the watchguard.”
After urging him, the man closed his eyes slowly after one last glance at Temeraire. Burying his nose in his slightly snow-scented hair, Temeraire pondered about the future. A future of happiness with him that could never be realized.
To protect him from the cold, Temeraire pulled the blanket up to the man’s ears and gently closed his eyelids.