Ren did not want to shed tears in front of someone he was seeing for the first time.

Especially not this hideously.

Grief surged up inside him. No matter if it was the king’s command, couldn’t they have left him at least one word? None of the Heroes had left Ren any message. Luman had told him to go carefully, but that had long since been erased from Ren’s memory. He remembered Giselle dragging Temar away by the arm, and he hated him.

His tender heart collapsed like a broken dam. Once the tears burst out, they would not stop, and in the end, Riperoman had to pause the story he had meant to tell him and wait for Ren to calm down.

“It’s raining.”

Tap, tap-tap. The raindrops seemed to blur against the window, and then, in no time, they began to pour down. The driving rain was far from ordinary. It did not look as if it would stop anytime soon.

Even as Ren cried quietly, swallowing his sobs in his misery, he worried about tomorrow. Tomorrow was the departure, so what would happen if the rain kept pouring like this? Would the road be rough and hard? No. To them, indomitable Heroes and gods of war, it would probably be nothing much.

Then he wanted the sky to clear for his own sake. He did not want to see their backs going away through the rain.

He did not know why the weather was never on his side.

At some point, a blanket had been draped over Ren’s shoulders as well. The rich cocoa in front of him gave off the scent of chocolate. Ren stared at the steaming mug, then reached for it. He had cried so much that his entire body felt limp and exhausted. He felt as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

When he swallowed the hot cocoa, a little strength seemed to return to his body.

Looking at Ren’s reddened, swollen eyes, Riperoman hid a bitter expression.

His son had told him the boy was strong. A comet-like boy who would not break in any moment. It was the first time Peruan had ever put another person in his mouth at all, and also the first time he had described someone that way, so Riperoman’s interest had been stirred.

But in Riperoman’s eyes, Ren looked different.

Was he not simply still a young boy? One crying this sorrowfully because his older brother was leaving for war.

A boy who had crumbled at a single “Are you all right?” and could not even cry properly out loud. A boy on the verge of adulthood who had grown up only just enough.

Perhaps because Ren’s twisted face and the tears dripping down had soaked Riperoman’s own chest, Ren looked terribly pitiful to him.

Yes. He had been on Riperoman’s mind from the moment he tried so hard in the banquet hall. Those eyes like a young beast glaring back at them, and the way he spoke his mind clearly without being overwhelmed by their pressure. To Riperoman, it seemed less admirable than heartbreaking, watching a boy try so hard.

It was a rather soft way of thinking for someone who could be called a noble. Riperoman was fundamentally a cold-blooded man with blue blood flowing through his veins, but he occasionally made exceptions.

When dealing with those who had no foothold in the royal castle.

“I suppose Peruan was the one who told you about Saint Leviantehnuk.”

“......Yes.”

Ren, who had been [N O V E L I G H T] drinking cocoa, paused and set the cup down. Once he seemed to have calmed, Riperoman decided to bring up the real reason he had called him over.

‘I’ll tell you what I can, as much as is enough to protect you.’

Ren recalled what Riperoman had said earlier.

‘Enough to protect me......’

Did that mean he had to be able to protect himself?

Or did it mean someone in this royal castle might try to harm him?

But if he simply sat still and let himself be taken advantage of, that would not be Ren.

Seeing Ren quickly begin to burn with fighting spirit, Riperoman looked as if he understood.

It seemed Peruan had not been entirely wrong.

At least, he understood the part where Peruan had said “unbreakable.”

“Do you know who Verdi is?”

“‘Verdi.’”

Ren quietly murmured the name in his mouth. It was an unfamiliar name, but he had heard it before.

Just today, in the banquet hall.

‘Hero Verdi has been gravely injured.’

At that single sentence, had everyone not scattered and hurried out of the banquet hall?

‘If you have questions, ask Verdi.’

Luman had said something like that in the forest too.

“Is he a Hero?”

“The king’s sixth star. Verdi.”

“......Why was he hurt?”

Ren asked.

‘They said he was gravely injured.’

Just how badly did someone have to be hurt for a Hero to be “gravely injured”? It had to be something serious. Then what would happen to tomorrow’s departure? Naturally, that person would be left behind. Then would the others be all right?

It was not Temar’s first time going to war, and there was no room to doubt a Hero’s power. Perhaps it was almost an insult to the Heroes for Ren to think like this. But he could not cut off his worry.

The exploding carriage. The blood bursting up.

The sight he had seen on that cliff had been carved into Ren’s mind. He had never once thought of it as a memory buried deep, but once it surfaced, he could not erase it from his head.

Verdi. That person was also a Hero. Yet that Hero had been gravely injured.

There was nothing he could say for certain.

Ren waited for Riperoman’s answer with a tense face.

For a moment, the man seemed to look at him in surprise.

“They say there was an attack. Explosives had been planted on the road he was taking.”

“But......”

Ren hesitated.

“It is hard to believe a Hero would be brought down so easily.”

Riperoman’s words did not stop there.

“If it had been a few years ago, that is.”

Riperoman’s story began.

It was about Verdi, the king’s sixth star, and the anti-Hero weapons. Along with that, he told Ren which nobles in the royal castle to be wary of and which people he should watch out for, reciting even their appearances and names. Ren had to memorize all of their names in front of Riperoman.

“To bring an outsider into the royal castle at a time like this does not mean they were simply showing kindness.”

“......”

“It seems you have some idea.”

“Yes.”

Ren answered politely.

“As long as you are not hasty, there will be a way through anything. His Majesty is a cautious man, so he does not make decisions in a rush. Even if some decision arrives before you, if you do not panic, you should be able to avoid it. That is the moment you must be careful of.”

“That moment?”

Ren narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he did not understand.

“When danger is lying in wait. The moment you curl in on yourself, do not let a hand with intent behind it push you forward.”

“......You mean someone is targeting me.”

“There are always people who wish for someone else’s downfall.”

“......Thank you for telling me.”

Ren moved his lips uncertainly, then added softly,

“Sir elder.”

“What?”

Riperoman’s eyes went wide.

He was middle-aged, yes, but he was on the younger side. Even with a grown son, he had married early, so he was still in his prime. But an elder! Uncle, maybe, but elder!

Ren’s eyes rolled aside.

It was easy to read that he was worrying, ‘Was that not right?’ Looking at that transparent face, it was almost a wonder how he had managed to act so calm in the banquet hall.

“Hahahaha! How about Father instead, then? Hm?”

Riperoman asked with a laughing face. When Riperoman had heard from Tom that Peruan had fallen for some boy he had just met and even proposed to him, he had been worried. He was not happy with a son who gave his heart to no one and filled every day with dating scandals, changing partners constantly, but proposing to someone he had met for the first time was hardly something to welcome with open arms either.

But he felt a little pleased too.

“......I don’t want that.”

The way Ren clearly spoke his mind even in front of a noble also pleased Riperoman. Yes, to keep up with his son’s peculiar personality, one could not simply be mild. They had to have some temper and a straight backbone. In that sense, this boy passed.

Though it seemed Peruan had not yet received a passing mark from this boy.

Riperoman was not someone who raised a celebratory glass too early, so he folded away his private wish again.

“I hope you remain unharmed.”

Riperoman spoke, setting aside both jokes and laughter.

For a voice wishing him safety, it was grave and cold, like a warning.

Looking at him as he instantly shed his benevolent face and became cold, honed sharp, Ren also nodded with a tense expression.

Riperoman was warning him. He was saying that in this royal castle, once the Heroes left, protecting his own body would not be easy.

After that, Ren briefly asked for advice about a few things, and then the two parted.

Riperoman left the castle, and Ren returned to his room under an attendant’s guidance.

The old apothecary still was not there.

Suddenly, something glowing in the dim room caught his eye.

The faint sound of music in the silent room. A statue spinning round and round as it looked up at the sky. Snow falling quietly beneath the warm yellow-orange atmosphere......

Perhaps it had been left turned on, because the music box was playing as it spun round and round.