Chapter 75
For a moment, he raised his eyebrows in mild surprise, then quickly broke into a casual smile.
“Well, if it’s not talking you want…”
“N-no! I do! Let’s talk! Really!”
Kiara’s cheeks flushed deeply from panic. Ael chuckled softly and lightly tapped her back again, adding teasingly:
“Alright then, try talking.”
“…Huh? You’re the one who suggested it, Ael!”
“Honestly, I’m more interested in other things than talking. I’m just putting up with your freaking out. So coming up with interesting topics is your job.”
“Seriously, that’s such nonsense…”
“Then you could try something else…”
“N-no! No, that’s not it!”
So flustered, Kiara covered Ael’s mouth with her hand. Even then, unsure what to say, she hesitated awkwardly. Ael watched her quietly for a while, amused.
Seeing the corners of his eyes curve warmly, Kiara pouted in frustration.
“…You’re mean.”
Hearing her mutter that to herself, Ael felt even more amused.
People had called him many things over time: the Mad Lion, poking fun at him as captain of the Golden Lion Order; a half-breed, since he was the child of a human and a witch; the Vampire of Grandilgale, because he’d spent more time on battlefields than in the palace after coming of age…
And lastly, the Red Lion.
‘Ugh, how exactly do you slash someone so badly that even your hair gets soaked in blood?’
He could almost hear Duncan’s old grumbling in his ear. It was his twentieth birthday. As if to celebrate reaching adulthood, a battle erupted the likes of which had never happened before or since. In the middle of it all, thinking it was God’s will whether he lived or died, he fought wildly, with a huge low-ranking soldier backing him up, shoulder to shoulder.
Swinging a massive zweihander that most men couldn’t lift with both hands — with just one.
‘No wonder they call you the Red Lion, the lion whose mane is soaked in blood!’
When he shouted that in a rough voice, he finally understood what the soldiers had been whispering about when they called him the Red Lion.
Compared to those nicknames, ‘mean’ was an adorably mild word. Though for Kiara, it was loaded with all her grievances.
Maybe it was about time to stop teasing her.
“…So, why do you suddenly want to learn how to write?”
At his sudden question, Kiara looked up at him with wide, round eyes. But since she was nestled tightly in his arms, she couldn’t see Ael’s face at all. To make things worse, as if he knew she was staring, he rested his chin on the top of her head, blocking her view even more.
“I… I’ve always wanted to learn. When you’re stuck inside the tower, there’s nothing else to do…”
“But now you can go outside.”
“You got so mad with me even just going to the library once, didn’t you?”
Kiara glared and snapped in complaint, but Ael just chuckled quietly. His low laughter seemed to spread through her whole body as he pressed his chin firmly against her head. Eventually, Kiara gave up the argument and sighed.
“…Actually, I was thinking maybe I could help you.”
“Help me?”
“My soulmate… You’re researching ways to break the bond, right? If I help, maybe we can figure it out faster. And to do that, knowing how to read and write would be useful.”
As Kiara explained her reasoning clearly, the smile that had lingered on Ael’s lips slowly faded away. It was true he had ordered Maeve to dig deeper into the witch and the First Emperor’s contract, to find a way to sever the soulmate bond. Kiara was just like him in that regard, yet he felt a strange heaviness settle over him.
‘Damn it, whether it’s letters or whatever, maybe it’s better not to let her out after all.’
Witches were supposed to be locked up — that was the safest way. Ael’s eyes darkened with that thought.
The imperial family had long passed down various methods of handling witches.
‘You can bind their limbs, but there are plenty of other ways too. The first witches who appeared in the Empire may have looked like adults, but inside, they were no different from children. So don’t teach them to speak or read. Make sure they depend only on you.’
As always when he was in a foul mood, his brother’s words floated up in his ears, irritably echoing like smoke.
Ael furrowed his brow. He didn’t want to make Kiara into that. He’d known a witch who couldn’t even speak a word properly. Though the reason she couldn’t speak had been different…
Regardless, he had no intention of following his brother’s ways.
“…Then I’ll tell you about my childhood.”
“What?”
Surprise laced Kiara’s voice as she echoed the words.
Honestly, Ael was just as startled. He had only spoken to distract both her and himself — from the uncomfortable thoughts and from her flustered look — but now here he was, bringing up childhood memories of all things.
It must’ve been because he’d been thinking about witches.
Because the one who hadn’t known the language of the Empire, who couldn’t speak even to her own son, had been his own mother.
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