Even If The Light Is Lost (2)

“You’re asking me whether the stars are beautiful?”

The one who had made Azadine feel that the stars were beautiful was Aldis.

The tales and legends she had taught him, the devotion and love she had shown him.

That was why the stars had been beautiful.

Those tiny lights flickering in the night sky had not been mere light, but memories, longing, and faith.

“Right now, I don’t know. But why are you asking me that now? If it’s because you want to laugh at me…”

Hostility tinged Azadine’s voice, then faded away.

“Sigh. Do whatever you want.”

His attitude was that of someone who had truly given up on everything.

“Please answer. I have the right to hear your answer, Azadine.”

By what right?! He was about to snap back like that, but then Azadine remembered that Mediam really did have that right.

Yes. He had once laid out his beliefs to this girl.

The girl clearly had the right to question him.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

Ismail grew angry when he heard that answer.

Azadine should not have answered like that.

Why had they come all the way here?! They had gone through all that hardship to reach this place, only to watch Azadine lose all hope in life and sink into despair?!

Mediam held back the outraged Ismail.

“Then… is it beautiful to protect innocent commoners?”

“That is…”

Once, those had been Azadine’s own words.

But Azadine had now lost faith in his own words.

However, the girl who had sympathized with what he said was looking at Azadine with childlike, innocent eyes—eyes filled with deep yearning, compassion, and love.

“Azadine.”

The girl opened her mouth.

“The stars might not be beautiful. The heart that wants to protect the people might not be beautiful either. But… a person who believes the stars are beautiful is definitely beautiful.”

“!”

In this world, could there be any value greater than eating, excreting, and ruling?

Could there be any value in that meaningless cluster of light twinkling up in the sky?

Maybe there was, and maybe there was not.

However, the faith of someone who believed so was surely more beautiful than the stars themselves.

This girl gave back to Azadine the faith that had once been his own voice.

“Right. That was once my belief. I suppose I have to take responsibility for saying that to you. That’s quite a heavy burden.”

“There you go again…”

Ismail clicked his tongue at Azadine talking about responsibility, but then a blast of hot wind suddenly began to surge out from Azadine.

“Huh?”

Until just now, Azadine had been no different from a living corpse, yet now a searing heat could be felt from him, and a powerful vital energy filled his body.

Azadine had regained his faith once more.

The Ethar bloodline had ruled over and protected the boy’s family for a long time.

So the boy had to swear to protect the girl.

Because he had to devote all his talents and ambition to the girl, the boy adored her.

He could not endure it otherwise.

He would go on living like this, deceiving himself, from here on as well.

But one night, the girl called the boy to her.

An ambitious plan to challenge a certain Messenger rumored to be a half-wit and steal his position.

It was an absurd request, asking him to make that happen.

The boy knew this was an impossible task.

No matter how low-ranking a Messenger, one who served as a Messenger for a house that was not from some grand family was still fierce.

They had strength that could not be measured by mere numbers; that was why they had become a Messenger at all.

Perhaps after his body matured more, it might be different, but there was no way that the strength of a still-young boy and girl could defeat an active Messenger.

However, because the boy had to adore the girl, he decided to grant that reckless wish.

“As expected of you, Ismail. Thanks. Is there anything you want? A treasured sword? Or a good bow?”

“No, nothing. But if we’re going to travel far, we’ll need good shoes and a mountain goat. If we’re going to a hot region, a horse might be better, but if we leave with a horse, everyone will notice.”

“Heh, you really have no greed. If you had a bit more desire for things, it’d be easier for me to repay you, you know.”

“My lady, you don’t need to repay me. The Ethar bloodline has bestowed great grace upon my family for a long time anyway.”

“But…”

“Yes?”

“I still want to give you something. Ah, that’s right.”

The girl unclasped the necklace hanging around her neck.

“Keep this, and if you ever get called to account later, show it.”

“This is…”

It was a small talisman made of jade.

It was proof divided among the five ship-owners who had sailed here when the Aragasa first came to this land. It was a piece of Myeonsaok (TN: a special jade amulet the chieftain guaranteed as protection so the five families’ lines would not be cut off if their heirs committed crimes).

“I can’t accept it.”

It was something he dared not accept, and should not accept.

But the girl would not back down.

“It’s the most precious thing I have, so I’ll give it to you. If accepting it feels too much, then just hold on to it for me.”

“Hold on to it…?”

“I’m bad at keeping track of things anyway.”

Saying that, the girl laughed.

That girl was crying.

“Ah.”

Mediam covered her face with her hands.

Tears flowed down.

She had acted nonchalant, but in truth, she had been afraid too.

Her heart had hurt, seeing Azadine broken, his faith lost, reduced to a ruin of a man.

Even so, in order to return what she had received from Azadine, she had pretended to be as calm as possible while conveying the most precious thing in her heart.

Thank goodness.

She was glad it had been accepted.

And she was glad Azadine had answered her expectations.

Once relief set in, the rebound from the anxiety she had been suppressing spilled out as tears.

“Mediam.”

Azadine looked at the crying Mediam with a complicated expression.

“I really dragged my feet, didn’t I? Well then, how about we make up for all the slacking off? But before that, I’m starving.”

Perhaps because he had regained the will to live, the hunger he had just barely held back until now came rushing in all at once.

“It’s heavy anyway, so let’s just eat it all.”

Ismail started taking dried rations out of his backpack, then suddenly let out a sigh.

His hand had brushed against the necklace, the Myeonsaok, lying at the very bottom of the pack.

‘Ah… am I… free now?’

He no longer had to pretend to be in love with the girl in order to suppress his own ambition or his freedom.

He was already someone who had turned his back on the chieftain. He was in no position to keep talking about loyalty to the Ethar bloodline.

Then why did his heart feel so heavy?

Surely this had been something he had wanted as well.

He too had earnestly hoped that the girl’s feelings would reach him.

‘In the end, it’s not as if I had no feelings at all. How arrogant I am. Afraid that my pride might be broken, afraid that pride might be wounded, I kept even my feelings of affection at arm’s length and watched them from a distance…’

Just as Ismail was suppressing his tangled emotions—

[Are you all done?]

At some point, a bird had appeared, watching Azadine, Mediam, and Ismail. A huge eyeball was embedded in the bird’s torso.

[If you’re done, let’s meet up. If you follow the nearby river, there’ll be a port to the northeast. I’ll be waiting there, so come find me.]

It was Arael’s voice.

Waiting at the rendezvous point were Arael and her subordinates. There were the four members of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon and Dimia of the Flower’s younger sister Janis, as well as their servants, ten people in all.

Azadine glanced over them and clicked his tongue.

The state of Arael’s branch, which had once been so mighty, was pitiful.

‘Other than the four of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon and Janis, there aren’t any former Messengers. So once the chieftain showed his true colors and Korasar fell, everyone jumped ship, huh?’

Once the long-reclusive chieftain Hathir revealed himself and the Senate’s ambition was realized, most of those in Arael’s branch had turned their backs on her.

In the end, only these five and their servants remained loyal to Arael. And now, two more faces familiar to Azadine had joined them.

“Boss! I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Scott and Shati were standing there together with Arael’s group.

“What are you doing over there?”

“Well, you see, it turns out I’m such a talent that there are a lot of places inviting me. It’s hard work living up to everyone’s expectations.”

“Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, I was captured. I tried to escape, but they caught me.”

Shati corrected him.

“So. Why did you want to meet?”

Azadine asked Arael.

“Because we need to join forces, of course. Here, this was yours, right?”

Saying that, Arael tossed something to Azadine. It was Azadine’s saddlebag.

When he checked inside, he found the halberd head, Azure Executioner, made of Azure Steel, the gold coins, and even the imperial gold coins all intact.

But the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth were gone.

“How did you find it?”

“By attacking Amun-Jadek.”

“Oh? Don’t tell me you killed him? Even someone like that would have been needed to gather and direct the refugees.”

“You’re really something, defending the guy who threw you into a cell and left you there to die. Still the same as ever.”

“I owe the Golden King, so killing his son feels a bit much. But the way I see it, Arael, you wouldn’t have killed Amun-Jadek either, would you?”

Arael was not some bloodthirsty homicidal maniac.

Even if she had a personal grudge against Amun-Jadek and reasons to kill him, in a situation like this, wouldn’t she hold back from killing him?

Once this chaos settled down, Amun-Jadek’s power would wane anyway.

Originally he had enjoyed overwhelming prestige as the official heir, but based in Vthuma as he was, his power base had taken a serious blow.

In contrast, another of the Golden King’s children, Darhan-Jadek, who was training the army in the north, would preserve his own base. Even if Azadine did not take revenge on Amun-Jadek, the road ahead of him would be harsh enough.

If Arael was thinking clearly in this situation, she would not needlessly kill Amun-Jadek and stir up more chaos.

“Right. I only took the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.”

Arael said this and opened her hand.

On her palm, pure white magical letters rose up. A sphere made of countless languages of light danced above her palm.

The Heavenly King’s Book of Truth—though not complete and missing pieces here and there—was a powerful white-mana magic book, neither corrupted nor tainted.

“What’s that?”

“It’s something I made by combining the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth I gathered, the ones you gathered, and the transcriptions the Senate made a long time ago. If we embed this into Vthuma’s throne, it will purify the throne the chieftain defiled, and I will become Vthuma’s Heavenly King.”

“…”

It was an astounding achievement. That Arael could accomplish something like this…

If she had shown this to the clan before Aldis took Korasar, perhaps they all would have praised Arael and been ready to rebel against the clan for her sake.

But now that Hathir and Aldis had seized Korasar and even Vthuma had fallen, its significance had faded.

“You must have gathered an incredible amount, huh? But even showing us this, is this really all…?”

Azadine looked at the four of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon and at Janis.

“Most people are powerless in the face of the order the Senate has engraved.”

“They’re folk who have lived as slaves for countless years. Among the lowborn, there are those who sympathize with Lady Arael’s ideals, but they still don’t want to oppose the five families or the Senate.”

Seraph of the Bird and Aleph of the Wind burst out in frustration.

Hearing that, Azadine could not help but ask, his curiosity piqued.

“So what, exactly, is Arael trying to do that’s different from what the Senate wants?”