Chapter 13.9

Flash.

Kaiden woke up drenched in cold sweat.  

His breath was caught in his throat, his heart pounding, someone’s voice echoing in his ears.

He gasped for air, hurriedly rolled up his sleeve, and checked his arm.

He was back.  

No longer Arthur, but Kaiden Bannon himself.

Realizing this, Kaiden slowly looked around. An unfamiliar bedroom came into view.

Yes, he was definitely……

<I’m sorry, Kaiden.>  

<I…… cannot give up on Herace.>

Brienne’s voice, dreamlike, lingered in his mind.

Kaiden sighed and covered his eyes with his palm. The clammy sensation felt strangely unfamiliar.

Was he actually afraid?  

After hearing Brienne’s words, he had tried to act calm, preparing for the end alone.

He thought he would die, unable to stop the power of the god Demekia.

But now, he was alive and well.

If that’s the case……

‘……Herace.’

Recalling Herace’s cold, final moments, Kaiden sprang up from his seat.

Someone opened the door and entered at that moment.

“Teacher Erdin! You’re awake!”

A boy stopped at the doorway, eyes wide as he shouted. Kaiden immediately recognized him. He was the Young Master of the Seints Baron Family whom Kaiden had taught.

Another voice came from behind the boy.

“Oh, you! I’m so glad you woke up safely! Are you hurt anywhere? You didn’t wake for so long, my son was really worried.”

Confirming the face of Baron Seints, Kaiden asked,

“……How many days have passed?”

The Baron handed him a newspaper he was holding.

“More than ten days. All sorts of things happened in the capital during that time.”

Kaiden’s eyes shook as he checked the newspaper.

Hamartia’s rebellion, and the involvement of the lower class.  

Suppression of the rebels by Roeta royal family and the temple.  

Total destruction of Demekia Main Temple.  

Relief supplies from Rontiano Empire.  

Temporary closure order for Roeta Academy.

Kaiden, reading the newspaper headlines one by one, hurriedly stood up.

“Baron Seints, I’m sorry, but there’s somewhere I must go now. Thank you for the treatment.”

“Oh, but in that condition……!”

The Baron tried to follow Kaiden with a surprised face, but he disappeared down the corridor and stairs before he could be stopped.

Troubled, the Baron muttered,

“My, there was supposed to be an urgent letter……”

After lingering for a moment, the Baron placed the letter on the side table as if he had no choice.

It was a pitch-black envelope.

* * *

“Um, Lord Herace……”

Aaron approached Herace with a dark face. But Herace, sitting at the bedside, did not look back at him.

Aaron had been so worried about Herace, who for ten days hadn’t slept or even touched a piece of bread.

Aaron fiddled with the tray in his hand and approached the side table.

“I’ll leave your meal here and step back. If you need anything…… please call me.”

But Aaron could already predict that Herace wouldn’t call him.

Since Miss Ford collapsed, Lord Herace hadn’t left her side even once.

Suppressing his footsteps as he stepped back, Aaron let out a faint sigh as he looked at Herace’s broad back.

When the news came that a rebellion broke out in Roeta and the Main Temple burned, his heart had sunk.

Aaron was just grateful that the Young Master, who had disappeared after saying he would go to the Main Temple, returned safely.

But the problem was that Miss Ford had not regained consciousness.

Lord Herace’s healing magic and the priests poured sacred power into her to keep her alive, but the doctors said that was the best they could do.

There was no other way for now.

And those words were like a death sentence to Lord Herace.

“……Aaron.”

A low, cracked voice echoed in the room.

“Yes, yes?”

Aaron, startled, hurried to Herace.

As he wondered if he had been hearing things since Herace wasn’t answering, Herace spoke again.

“It’s time to inform Marquis Ford of this.”

Herace’s dark gaze turned to the deeply sleeping Brienne.

Until now, he had denied reality, thinking there might be a way, and had hidden the fact that there was a problem with Brienne.

He had asked Prince Garzen for help and sneaked into his palace, and had blocked the visits of Brienne’s guard, Sir Kelton, several times.

But now, truly……

Herace’s fist clenched tightly.

He could not help but resent Brienne’s choice, which showed no sign of waking.

Why did she sacrifice her precious life just for him?

He was the one who truly wanted to do that.

<Take me instead.>  

<I beg you, please…… take my life instead of Herace’s.>

As Herace gazed at Brienne in the distance, her tearful voice echoed in his ears.

Would it have been better if he had lost all memory of that time?

While he remained as a soul, Herace wandered endlessly through a dark path, searching for Brienne.

‘Where are you?’ 

‘Please, don’t say such things.’

Hearing Brienne’s voice, he cried out, but it did not reach her. He could not find Brienne anywhere. No matter how loudly he shouted, the sincerity he could not convey left him in despair, again and again.  

Herace let out a bitter laugh.  

Now he could finally say it.  

He could finally tell her that what he truly wanted was not for her to die in his place… that he could finally convey his true feelings.

“Please, Brienne……”  

He held the hand of the deeply sleeping Brienne and whispered desperately. Even though she was alive like this, the fact that he still could not reach her blurred his vision over and over.  

Where could Brienne be?  

Could things ever return to how they were?  

Beside Brienne, who lived but was not truly alive, he grew more and more exhausted with each passing day.

It was on that afternoon, when Diashi came to see Brienne, that Herace found a way.  

“This is all, all because of me……. If only I hadn’t told her about that hypothesis……”  

Diashi, who said she had only recently regained consciousness after collapsing at the Main Temple, hurried over as soon as she heard about Brienne.  

Diashi wept, saying that the reason Brienne could not wake up was all because she had told her about the hypothesis regarding the soul-binding magic.

“Tell me clearly what you mean.”  

“Um, that day on Peterman Shopping Street, when I met her……”  

Diashi continued in a trembling voice, as if barely holding back her tears.  

“At the bookstore, I told her……. There’s research that says mages bound by soul magic can die for each other……”  

“……Where can I read that research?”  

Immediately after, Herace went straight to Schurten Bookstore, searched the entire area, and found the book Diashi had mentioned.  

And soon, he reached a conclusion.  

If he wanted to save Brienne, he had to completely sever that magic, that cursed ‘soul binding.’  

Wasn’t there no way to cancel soul-binding magic?  

……If so.  

Then he would have to nullify the magic itself.  

He would have to restore Brienne’s sacrifice, make it as if it never happened.

A cold light glimmered in Herace’s dark gray eyes as he closed the book.  

“I’m going back to the royal palace. I must meet Prince Garzen.”  

“Pardon? You mean… him, Your Lordship? But, Lord Herace…!”  

Leaving Aaron, who tried to stop him, behind, Herace immediately went to Garzen’s quarters and knocked on the door.  

It was a night shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

“…What brings you to me at this hour?”  

The prince, who reportedly had not stepped out of his room since the death of his precious confidant, faced him with a lifeless expression.  

No greetings were exchanged between the two, who once could hardly stand the sight of each other.  

No one asked if they could come in, and no one invited the other inside.

“Please allow me to meet with the Deputy Priest.”  

Instead—

“I beg of you, His Highness Prince Garzen of the great Holy Kingdom of Roeta.”  

Herace Belif, who always teased the prince with an easy smile, now knelt before him in earnest.