🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 36
Calix, who had been flustered, soon quietly met my eyes.
As if he had something he wanted to say, Calix hesitated for a moment, then closed his eyes briefly and let out a sigh. When he looked back at me, he finally spoke.
“I was simply talking about everyone in Henes.”
“That’s a lie.”
When Kate retorted, Calix slowly turned to look at her.
After silently gazing at Kate for a moment, Calix said,
“It isn’t a lie.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then if I were in danger, you’d come running to save me without thinking twice, right?”
“Without thinking twice…? Me?”
One of Calix’s eyebrows lifted. It was as if he absolutely could not agree with what Kate was saying.
“Yes. You, Captain.”
“When have I ever—”
“At the village of Advena. None of us said a word, but you rode off on your horse all by yourself.”
“That was….”
Calix’s brow deeply furrowed as if he were recalling what had happened in Advena.
“If you’re talking about that, don’t. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Oh my, why? Does it hurt your heart just thinking about it?”
“……”
Kate, looking delighted, began pressing Calix with questions.
“It seems like I’m right. You’re suffering again just thinking about it now, aren’t you?”
“……”
“And you’re still going to say it was all for everyone in Henes? Really?”
By now, Calix was simply staring at the excited Kate with eyes that seemed to have lost all emotion and soul.
Watching this was fairly entertaining, but it seemed Kate had misunderstood something.
For some reason, I felt like I should step in.
“Kate, but the Captain really is acting for everyone in Henes.”
“Huh?”
“The reason the Captain ran to help me was because I’m also a member of Henes.”
“…….”
Kate stopped talking after hearing my words.
It seemed she had been persuaded by what I said. Good. I should keep pushing while I had the momentum.
“If we don’t acknowledge the Captain’s sincerity toward us, he’d feel hurt too. So let’s choose to believe what the Captain says.”
“My goodness.”
Perhaps moved by my words, Kate slowly covered her mouth and turned to look at Calix. Calix, who seemed to have grown suddenly exhausted in that brief moment, quietly looked at me with slightly hollow eyes. Then, noticing Kate’s gaze, he slowly turned to her and said curtly,
“What.”
“Captain….”
“…….”
“I didn’t realize it was this much.”
It seemed Kate was touched by Calix’s sincerity.
“Just don’t say anything.”
“No, really, I—”
“Stop talking and go to sleep.”
At Calix’s firm command, Kate surprisingly nodded obediently. As she stood up, she spoke while looking at us with a wistful expression.
“Then I’ll take my leave for now, so the two of you can talk…. Riana, please take care of the Captain.”
Calix no longer even looked at Kate. With his eyes closed, he leaned his head against the wall. He seemed extremely tired.
‘He must be exhausted. There’s an important battle tomorrow—this is bad.’
So I quickly moved to sit right next to Calix. Even if it was minimal, it seemed better to give him a bit of healing.
I quietly watched Calix’s face as he sat leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, then cautiously reached out my hand and lightly placed it on his forehead.
At that moment, Calix’s eyes flew open in surprise. I quickly smiled as I poured a faint healing power into him.
“You look tired, so I thought I’d help a little.”
“……”
For some reason, Calix didn’t say anything.
‘Why isn’t he saying anything? At this level, it should at least feel like drinking a bottle of tonic.’
Perhaps because I wasn’t very talented at healing others, there was no reaction from Calix at all.
Growing a bit anxious, I raised my idle left hand and placed it on Calix’s chest as well.
‘Let’s pour it in through the torso too!’
Using a healing ability on someone else that I hadn’t used in a long time made sweat bead on my forehead. Honestly, this body really isn’t suited for altruism.
‘Thank goodness I quit being a saint….’
It was then. Calix suddenly grabbed both of my wrists, looked at me, and spoke.
“That’s enough… now.”
“Huh? No, just a little more—”
As I leaned in closer, Calix hurriedly pulled my wrists away and turned his gaze aside.
“I’m fine. It’s already enough.”
“Really?”
It hadn’t been obvious, so I wasn’t sure, but it seemed the effect had kicked in. Now that I looked closely, Calix’s complexion did seem better. A faint but healthy redness had returned to his once pale face.
I’m still pretty useful, aren’t I?
“It looks like it worked a bit. Your complexion’s better.”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief.”
While I looked at Calix with an unconcealed sense of pride, he glanced at me briefly, then suddenly looked away again and said,
“Um… have you ever been to the territory of Verpen?”
‘Verpen, all of a sudden?’
Someone who looked like he might fall asleep from exhaustion was suddenly bringing up work. Looks like my healing really did its job.
“I went there briefly a very long time ago.”
“Is that so? Then you must know something about the situation there.”
“Yes. It’s one of the regions that suffered severe damage from monster hordes. And yet, it hasn’t received the Empire’s protection.”
For decades now, the Rihardt Empire had been under nationwide attacks by monsters. Even though the scale and frequency increased every year, actions taken at the imperial level were extremely rare. Because the current imperial family was—
‘A bunch of deranged, stingy lunatics.’
The current emperor and his successor, Baldier, were thoroughly selfish people. Though they claimed to act for the sake of the Empire, most of it was to line their own pockets, and even the sacred imperial law was often twisted and altered to suit their tastes.
When I was a saint, Baldier held a memorial banquet for a certain territory that had been wiped out because he failed to send support in time. Watching the nobles at that banquet dance, laugh, and chatter made me feel genuinely sick.
‘Honestly, I seriously considered it that day—whether I should just run away and let these people be destroyed.’
But if the day of ruin truly came, not only those bloated nobles but also countless innocent people would inevitably be caught up in it. So I endured and endured. Even so, it all ended in ruin anyway.
Breaking me out of my thoughts, Calix’s voice reached my ears.
“When those in the imperial family say they act for the Empire, what they really mean is that they act for themselves. The countless citizens of the Empire might as well not exist to them.”
It was a little surprising. Calix had already grasped so clearly what I had only realized after experiencing the imperial palace firsthand.
“You seem to know the imperial family well.”
“Anyone could tell just by looking at how the Empire is run.”
Calix fell silent again, as if lost in thought. What was he thinking about now?
In truth, he was someone who carried the blood of the illustrious Rihardt imperial family. Though he was an illegitimate child, he was still in a position where, depending on circumstances, he could become a member of the imperial family. What kind of thoughts would someone like him have?
Before the regression, he had said something like this:
‘I am the previous emperor’s illegitimate child, and I lived my entire life in the shadows. Even that wasn’t enough, it seems, since things ended up like this.’
Yes. At this point in time, he must be living in the shadows while hiding his identity, avoiding Baldier’s eyes.
But even if he continued like that, there was a high chance that something similar to what I had seen before the regression would eventually happen.
The way to help him so that such things wouldn’t happen was…
‘Is awakening the only option?’
Even if I told Calix about future events now, he would probably think I was seriously ill. He might even assume it was a side effect of ghoul poison.
Still, leaving things as they were made me uneasy.
As I was thinking that, Calix looked at me and spoke.
“It’s obvious that even if the people of Verpen are massacred, the imperial family won’t step in.”
“That seems likely.”
“That’s why I intend to do what I can, at least. I can’t just stand by and watch innocent people die meaningless deaths.”
“I’ll help too.”
“Good. But reckless behavior like last time is forbidden.”
“Ah, about that….”
Honestly, if ghoul heads ever lunged at someone from Henes again like last time, I wasn’t confident I could just stand still. But if I told Calix that I’d do the same thing again even if it happened, I might end up listening to a lecture all night.
‘We can’t waste stamina on lectures with an important battle coming up.’
So I decided to change my answer a little.
“Then I’ll always stay right by your side, Captain. That way, you can protect me. That’s okay, right?”
I said it with a half-joking smile. But for some reason, Calix, who had been staring at me blankly, answered a beat later.
“…That’s fine.”
That short reply somehow felt like it warmly filled my heart
