Side Story.14

“……Oh my. I failed to notice the Princess’s arrival. My apologies, Princess.”

Just as Maia was staring at him with personal animosity, Krshunie, quick-witted, noticed Maia’s approach, looked surprised, and knelt to greet the Princess of Ilarya.

“Please rise, Polaris. Adelstein, what is so interesting?”

After accepting Krshunie’s greeting, Maia smiled and asked Adelstein.

A bright reaction appeared on his beautifully shining face.

His red lips, as if out of habit, tried to say ‘Maria,’ but suddenly he remembered he shouldn’t.

“……Seiya. It turns out Krshunie is truly remarkable.”

Calling the Princess’s name a bit awkwardly, Adelstein took Maia’s hand and pointed to the miscellaneous items scattered around.

“If you sprinkle this powder, you can make fire without any effort. And this… is a medicine that restores energy. I know some herbs with similar effects, but this is amazing.”

“Sir Adelstein, why don’t you try it yourself?”

At that moment, Krshunie, with a friendly smile, interjected into their conversation.

What was he saying? Maia’s face instantly hardened.

“Me?”

“Yes, to truly know the effect, it’s best to try it yourself, isn’t it? I’d be delighted if you would take my invention, Sir Adelstein…”

Adelstein looked down at the medicine Krshunie offered with clear eyes.

To eat medicine whose ingredients and side effects were unknown?

Maia’s violet eyes flashed fiercely.

Adelstein was too kind to refuse Krshunie’s suggestion.

She hadn’t realized how useful her status as Princess of Ilarya could be.

Getting rid of such riffraff was no trouble at all.

“That’s…”

Just as Maia was about to speak—

“Don’t eat it.”

Thwack—

An unnaturally pale hand struck Adelstein’s wrist as he picked up Krshunie’s medicine.

Hyperion, who had approached unnoticed, stared coldly at Krshunie, his golden eyes shining.

“……Oh, isn’t that Lord Luar?”

“Hyperion.”

Adelstein turned to Hyperion in surprise.

Hyperion, whose face was tinged with quiet anger, stopped staring at Krshunie and looked at Adelstein.

“Are you stupid? No, are you an idiot? You’re about to put something in your body when you don’t even know the ingredients?”

Hyperion, pouring out criticism in a sharp tone, then spoke coldly to Krshunie.

“You, you don’t look like an ordinary lunatic. Letting you in here was a huge mistake. Leave quietly while you still have your life.”

“Hyperion, what’s wrong?”

“If you don’t know, just stay quiet!”

Adelstein tried to intervene and stop Hyperion, but Hyperion seemed to have lost all composure and was furious. Adelstein’s face hardened.

Ah, emotions were running high.

Maia watched Hyperion and Adelstein gaze at each other, anxious, wondering when she should step in.

“……Oh my, it seems you’ve misunderstood. It doesn’t feel good.”

At that moment, Krshunie quietly put the very medicine he’d offered Adelstein into his own mouth and chewed and swallowed it.

Then he spoke calmly.

“Now, watch for any side effects as much as you like. And I was quite thoughtless, Sir Adelstein. To try to give an unknown medicine to someone as noble as you…”

“No, Krshunie. Why do you say you did something wrong?”

Krshunie, having provoked Adelstein’s sympathy, smiled quietly as he got the reaction he wanted.

“……You.”

“Hyperion.”

Just as Hyperion, still watching Krshunie warily, opened his mouth, Adelstein firmly blocked him.

“He had no bad intentions. So stop, Hyperion.”

The beautiful boy’s face twisted sharply.

“……Fine.”

Betrayal, resentment, and complex emotions that couldn’t be defined lingered on his face.

“Do as you please from now on. I won’t stay by your side anymore.”

Hyperion spat out the words as if chewing them.

“Hyperion!”

What was this?

Adelstein called his name, but Hyperion turned his back coldly and walked away as if he didn’t care.

No… He wasn’t really leaving, right? If they split up like this, what would happen to the founding of the nation?!

“Truly an arrogant person. Can’t be bent or broken.”

As Maia was struck with panic, Krshunie’s sweet voice lingered in her ears.

“So, Sir Adelstein, let go of your regrets for the one who left and listen to me. ……I have good ideas about what needs to be done next.”

Adelstein bit his lip as he watched Hyperion’s retreating figure.

Krshunie watched the boy in silence, then turned to Maia, trying to speak.

Since the hero wasn’t responding, he intended to get the Princess’s agreement.

However—

“Princess?”

Before Krshunie could say anything, Maia strode after Hyperion, who had left.

* * *

Hyperion walked, grinding his teeth.

He didn’t know where he was going, or where he should go, just moved blindly.

‘Why?’

An innocent voice echoed like a hallucination.

‘You are a great and perfect being. So why do you keep lingering by my insignificant side?’

“So stupid.”

Hyperion spat out the words, belittling Adelstein.

‘Now I understand. You wanted to help me.’

“……If you know I wanted to help, you should just accept it quietly.”

The boy’s steps slowly stopped.

His breath grew rougher and showed no signs of calming.

His beautiful, serene golden eyes were now filled with confusion and resentment, shining painfully.

He had refused Hyperion’s help to the end. Had guarded against it, rejected it.

But then, for the first time, he broke down the wall and reached out first.

Hyperion was helplessly drawn in.

Since they were entangled anyway, he wanted to help properly, so he picked out talents from the crowd gathered to follow the boy and presented them before him.

But all that effort was in vain, as he said—

‘No. I never wanted this.’

A rejection, no different from the beginning.

Why? What had he done wrong?

What would it take for him to accept?

Why, only to him…

“Hyperion!”

A familiar, clear voice urgently called his name.

Who dared to call his name so carelessly?

But lacking even the energy to fuel his arrogance, the tired Hyperion simply turned around in silence.

Reflected in his golden eyes was a woman, gathering her trailing garments in both hands, panting as she hurried toward him.

“No, wait… Why are you walking so fast? No, maybe it’s lucky you didn’t use teleportation…”

The mysterious woman who had taken the status of Princess Seiya.

The one Adelstein especially cherished and trusted…

“Why?”

“……Huh?”

Hyperion’s words slipped out unconsciously at that moment.

Maia’s eyes filled with confusion.

“Why are you… just like me, merely another person.”

There was no blood relation, and judging by the polite behavior, they hadn’t spent that many years together.

“You refuse and don’t accept my help. But you…”

She broke down Hyperion’s solid wall without hesitation, but wouldn’t let him inside the line she drew.

Yet why did Adelstein trust her so specially?

“……Are you… crying?”

At the moment when tangled feelings couldn’t become words and only silence remained, Maia’s face was shocked.

“Uh…?”

Transparent tears, like jewels, rolled down Hyperion’s pale face.

Hyperion couldn’t immediately tell what was flowing down his face.

He brought his hand to his face. It was lukewarm. And damp.

He couldn’t understand.

Maybe it was only natural. He had never cried once in his life.

“Ah, um… Please use this.”

Maia cautiously handed a white cloth to the dazed Hyperion.

His golden eyes, now even more brilliantly shining with moisture, looked at Maia.

“……Didn’t you say you never wanted to speak to me again?”

‘……I never want to speak to you again.’

‘Just keep your mouth shut. Forever.’

D*mn. The undeniable memory surfaced. Maia bit her lip.

“……This is an exception.”

She really didn’t like him right now, but couldn’t just ignore him.

Seeing him cry… it was really the first time.

“Fine. Forget what I just muttered.”

Hyperion, wiping the tears from his cheeks, spoke coldly, his eyes closed and then opened.

All the agitation had somehow been erased, leaving only bleakness.

“Do you think Adelstein is distancing himself from you?”

But Maia couldn’t just let it go.

Maybe fate would flow as it should even if she didn’t intervene.

But—

“So it hurt your pride.”

“……What?”

Coldness crept into Hyperion’s expression.

If she annoyed him any further, he might really kill her without hesitation.

That realization pricked her heart again, but Maia smiled bravely.

“Adelstein is a kind and devoted boy to everyone. He was the child who, without a moment’s hesitation, reached out to me when I was wandering with nowhere to go.”

Hyperion furrowed his brow slightly as he listened to Maia.

He didn’t know what she was getting at, but he was at least willing to listen.

“But he’s just as strict with himself. Lord Hyperion, you want to give Adelstein only the best things a human can have. But Adelstein will insist on refusing.”

“Why?”

Hyperion asked, suddenly a little desperate.

“Because he thinks he shouldn’t accept anything he didn’t earn for himself.”

Maia answered calmly.

“So if you keep acting like you’ll do everything for him and demand he follow your will, Adelstein will never fully open his heart to you.”

“……Even though I’m offering only the best, without any hardship?”

Hyperion spoke with a serious expression.

Maia nodded.

“That’s Adelstein’s conviction.”

“…….”

“Lord Hyperion, you were surely born blessed by providence, the closest to the noblest being in this world. But when it comes to dealing with people, you’re below average for your age.”

At Maia’s pointed remark, Hyperion’s face went blank.