Chapter 37 

“Ugh……”

The bedroom was filled only with the sound of muffled sobbing. Lyle did not move a single step from the bedside. Holding one of the sleeping child’s hands tightly, he shed tears for a long while. He needed to speak, but his throat was choked and the words would not come easily.

By now, perhaps having grasped the mood, even Sadea had retreated deep into the abyss and did not emerge.

After sobbing for a long time, Lyle finally steadied his emotions and spoke in a whisper by the child’s ear.

“Gin.”

The sleeping child’s brows trembled slightly.

It was as if he were reacting to the sound of his voice.

“You are precious. Because you are the only one in this world, the son of me and Etty.” 

Lyle drew Gin’s hand to him and rubbed it against his cheek.

“I couldn’t be by your side while you were growing. It hurts me so much that I couldn’t watch each little step of you growing up. So, so I’m asking you…… could you grow a little more slowly, no, just like an ordinary child? If you do, I think I’ll be very happy.”

Lyle felt tears streaming endlessly from his tightly shut eyes.

This situation right now was unbearably painful to endure. He already knew, from when it was his mother, what it was like for a blood relative to be ill, but facing his mother, who was active and living, and facing Gin like this, unconscious, were completely different things. And when it was one’s child who was ill, it even brought the sense of crisis that a part of oneself was being lost.

Lyle let go of the back of Gin’s hand for a moment and tried to wipe away his tears. When he opened his eyes like that, somehow, Gin was looking at Lyle with his eyes open.

“Gin?”

Lyle was startled. Seisil’s sleep magic was powerful; there was no way he should have been able to open his eyes through it, and yet Gin had.

“Gin! How’s the pain?”

“Ah……. I think I’m a little better.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It doesn’t hurt. Not at all.”

If so, that was a relief. But only then did a chilling suspicion occur to Lyle.

Just when had this child opened his eyes? If he had heard everything Lyle just said……

“My words, from where did you hear them?”

Gin blinked his heavy eyelids with effort and shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

What Lyle most wanted to know was whether he had heard the part about being his son.

Of course, even if he had heard it, perhaps it no longer mattered. But if Gin learned the truth, he was troubled and afraid of how Ethea would react.

Gin struggled to sit up and looked at Lyle.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes, go on.”

“I wanted to become a fine man like you, Your Majesty. But…… but now I’m so scared. I’ll just grow like an ordinary child.”

“Ah……”

Lyle pulled Gin into a tight embrace. Gin too raised his hands and placed them on Lyle’s broad back.

There had once been a time when this little boy had admired the Emperor’s broad back. He had wished and wished to quickly have a body like the Emperor’s. But when the Emperor pleaded so earnestly for him to grow like an ordinary child, Gin thought that of course that was what he should do. Then, astonishingly, the pain began to fade little by little.

“It’s really strange. Why was I hurting? Well, now I’m all better. It seems you are  something like my medicine, Your Majesty.”

“Honestly, you……”

Then a rustling sound was heard from inside the bedroom. In a space where there should have been only the two of them, there came the sense that someone else was there. Both Lyle and Gin turned their gaze toward the place where the rustling had come from. Listening again, it almost sounded like cloth fluttering.

Instinctively, Lyle wrapped Gin in his arms. The soft rustling moved toward the window, then gradually grew fainter. The unknown presence making the sound seemed almost to be fleeing. Only then did Lyle rise from his seat and go to the window. Still holding Gin in his arms, of course.

Tense, Gin asked,

“What do you think it was?”

“Who knows.”

The child burrowed further into his embrace. Seeing that, Lyle gave a faint smile.

“Are you scared?”

“No, not at all.”

“You little rascal.”

Acting tough, was he.

Lyle held the slightly trembling Gin more tightly and kissed his cheek as if to soothe him.

“I’m here, so don’t be afraid. It’s all right.”

A faint smile of relief spread across Gin’s face, which had been full of fear. The boy liked very much the warm kiss that came with the scent of lavender.

“I’m honored.”

“Hm?”

“I may not have a father, but…… still, Your Majesty, you are here by my side like this.”

From those words, it seemed Gin still did not know that the man holding him was his own father.

Lyle felt relieved. Someday Gin would learn the truth, but that would have to be only after obtaining Ethea’s consent.

But what exactly had that sound just now been?

Lyle, who had good instincts, judged that it was neither harmful nor dangerous. That was why he did not pursue it to the end.

As he tried to calmly think it over out of curiosity, somehow it seemed the ominous god knew the answer to everything.

From the back of Lyle’s mind came the ominous god’s sly laughter.

【Kik, kikikiki…….】

“Shu……!”

Lyle nearly shouted at Sadea to shut up.

But no matter how much he hated the ominous god, he could not use such harsh words in front of his young son.

When his son sensed the sudden violent shift in his presence, his heart nearly dropped.

For the moment, Lyle looked at Gin and forced a smile.

Even so, with his molars clenched tightly, he conveyed it to Sadea.

‘Be quiet.’

Then the ominous god responded with a cackling laugh.

【Hey, I know.】

‘Know what?’

【About the mouse-like child sneaking around in your house.】

＊  ＊  ＊

At some point in the past, Seisil had given Lyle an invisibility cloak.

Lyle had used the invisibility cloak when he secretly went to watch over Ethea and Gin.

Then he was driven out of Ethea’s house, and at that time he failed to take the cloak back, and completely erased it from his memory.

To ordinary people, magical items were extremely precious, so it was rare for someone to leave such a thing behind or erase it from memory.

But Lyle was different.

To him, who had often tested all kinds of magical items made by Seisil, it was merely one among many things lying about at his feet.

Ethea, the owner of the house, was no different in her lack of interest in the cloak’s whereabouts.

It was fortunate enough if Ethea did not use the cloak Lyle had worn as a rag.

As a result, the cloak ended up in the hands of an entirely unexpected person.

That person was little Lily.