TEOCH 46

“Mr. Rohan has a bit of an odd side to him, doesn’t he? Don’t you think?”

“I know, right. Seriously, if he was flustered, he should have just said so, but to hold onto someone for hours like that…”

It’s too timid to be called revenge. Rehas giggled, whispering. While the weary Hero slept curled up inside the tent, the other companions gathered by the campfire so as not to disturb his deep sleep.

Damian and Rehas seemed to think of the earlier incident as nothing more than a funny joke, and they delighted in talking about it throughout their watch. Rikiel simply gazed at the two of them.

Although he did not join in their conversation, Rikiel also agreed with them. He inadvertently glanced at his brother’s hair, who was sitting beside him. Not only was it remarkably cleaner than the other companions’, but it even looked as neat as it had when they were staying in the royal castle. Looking at him, it seemed fine to interpret Rohan’s recent strange behavior as a ‘petty act of retaliation.’

No, in a way, even calling it retaliation was an overstatement. Who in the world would perform three hours of labor just to bother someone else? Even if that had truly been Rohan’s intention, the recent event was more comical than unpleasant. After all, Rohan had ended up exhausting himself by doing Tristan a good turn, and had collapsed into a deep sleep.

Rikiel suddenly recalled what Rehas had said earlier. His words—that it would take longer to wash Tristan alone than to wash everyone else—had been spot on.

Of course, it was partly because Rikiel and Rehas had chosen to wash themselves, but considering it had only taken about thirty minutes to wash Damian, who had the longest hair in the party, it was simply absurd.

Did that Hero have a side like that to him? Rikiel tilted his head, intrigued. At first, he had just thought of him as a man who was unpleasantly blunt, but seeing this, he had a rather ridiculous side to him as well.

As he listened with amusement to Rehas and Damian’s conversation, he suddenly realized that his brother was being strangely silent and grew puzzled. He looked at Tristan once more.

“Your Majesty? What’s wrong?”

Then Rikiel noticed. At some point, Tristan’s face had hardened with a bitter expression.

“Hyung-nim?”

“No, Rikiel. It’s nothing.”

“What is it? Don’t tell me your feelings were hurt because of what just happened…?”

“Don’t worry about it. I was just lost in thought.”

Tristan gave a faint smile. Damian nodded as if relieved, and Rehas, after a momentary odd expression, apathetically looked away, but Rikiel noticed something was wrong with his brother. His expression was far too unnatural for someone who was simply lost in thought.

He wondered if it was because of what happened earlier, but Tristan was not so weak-willed as to fret over something so trivial. Then why?

Rikiel thought about questioning Tristan further but decided against it. He wasn’t the type to talk meekly just because he was pressed, and even if he did manage to pry the story out of him, it would likely just end with Tristan’s feelings being hurt.

As if trying to change the atmosphere, Damian gave an awkward laugh. He continuously dried his long hair with a towel and spoke to Tristan.

“Anyway, I feel so much more refreshed after washing up a bit! You feel refreshed too, don’t you, Your Majesty?”

“It certainly is refreshing. Being washed with such care for hours…”

“Seeing him wash you with such devotion, Mr. Rohan must care a great deal for you, Your Majesty. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes, your words are not wrong… Still.”

“Yes?”

“It would have been fine if he’d washed me a little less carefully; I would have preferred to exchange even a single word. I would have been more at ease if he had at least nagged me like he did you.”

Tristan’s profile looked somewhat lonely as he said that and lowered his head. Only then could Rikiel understand his brother’s feelings, at least a little.

It seemed Tristan wanted to get closer to that Hero. That was probably why he had asked Rohan to carry him on his back this afternoon, a task his younger brother could have easily handled, and why he was now casting envious glances at Rehas and Damian.

“Th-that… perhaps it’s because Mr. Rohan still feels awkward around you, Your Majesty? You are the king, after all.”

“Is that what it is? But perhaps.”

“It must be, Your Majesty. If that Hero truly disliked His Majesty the King, he wouldn’t have washed you so meticulously. Isn’t that right?”

Damian and Rehas diligently tried to console Tristan, but the bitter look on his face showed no sign of fading. Rikiel also tried to offer some words of comfort, but it wasn’t easy. It was true that Rohan treated Tristan with a strange formality that he showed to no one else.

He wasn’t sure what those two thought, but from Rikiel’s perspective, Rohan treated Tristan completely differently from the other companions.

When dealing with Tristan, Rohan was polite, yet there was a certain coldness about him. He would chat comfortably when he was with the other companions, but in front of Tristan, his tone would become strangely stiff, and the jesting rebukes he directed at Damian or Rehas were never aimed at Tristan.

‘It looks like he’s deliberately trying to keep his distance.’

Tristan was probably feeling down because he had noticed Rohan’s intention. Rikiel clicked his tongue softly, thinking to himself that he really did not like that Hero.

It wouldn’t be particularly strange for Rikiel to be on bad terms with Rohan, given what he had done, but Tristan was different. What on earth did Tristan do wrong for him to act like that?

This recent incident was a prime example. Even if Tristan had broken the laws of the world Rohan came from, it was not right to torment someone by refusing to even speak to him. It would have been far more reasonable to formally demand an apology and request a correction…

Rohan’s attitude bothered him, so Rikiel frowned faintly. Since it concerned his only brother, it was not easy to dismiss it as trivial, no matter how hard he tried.

“Rikiel?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t look well. It seems I’ve worried you.”

“No, it’s not that… I’m just a little tired.”

“Then you should go in and get some sleep.”

“No, I am fine.”

“Go on in, Rikiel. You look very tired.”

In the end, Rikiel heavily pushed himself to his feet. Although he was being ushered inside by Tristan, he certainly needed the rest. In the morning, his energy had been drained from using his unfamiliar wings, and in the afternoon, he had been exhausted from carrying Damian, so his whole body was bound to be aching.

Leaving Tristan staring at the campfire with melancholic eyes, he walked away. He wasn’t keen on going to sleep before the others, but it wouldn’t be a problem if he woke up early at dawn to stand watch. Hoping his brother would not be gloomy any longer, Rikiel entered the temporary shelter.

‘I can’t sleep.’

Rikiel stared blankly at the small shoulders of the man lying with his back to him. Of course, he only seemed small by Rikiel’s standards; in reality, his build was about average, but still, Rikiel found the young man quite unreliable. How did he not get tired leading the others with that frail body?

Rohan, asleep and drenched in sweat, looked quite uncomfortable. His hair was a mess of tangled dirt and dust, and sticky sweat was trickling down his neck and forehead. Until a short while ago, everyone had looked similar, so it hadn’t been very bothersome, but now that the other companions had all cleaned themselves up, it somehow got on his nerves. He couldn’t just leave him in that state…

‘If only he hadn’t spent so long washing hyung-nim, there would have been no reason for him to be so exhausted.’

Should he call it pathetic, or just desserts? Rikiel kept his eyes on Rohan’s back for a long time. A moment ago, he had only been upset by the fact that the man had been cold to his brother, but now, seeing him in such a pitiful state, his feelings changed again.

Come to think of it, Rohan was being sufficiently devoted to Tristan. In the first place, hadn’t the man come to this world for Tristan?

Rohan was someone who risked danger for a queen he had never seen, from a country he had not even been born in. Whatever Rohan felt toward Tristan, it was no cause to be upset. Tristan probably knew that fact as well, which was why he was trying to hide his disappointment.

‘Yes, even if this man doesn’t find hyung-nim agreeable, it can’t be helped, but…’

In the end, Rikiel sighed and approached Rohan. He wasn’t the type of person who could sleep soundly while leaving someone else sleeping and groaning like that. It wasn’t just a matter of cleanliness, but… it didn’t seem right, did it? For the person who had poured so much effort into caring for others to not receive a fitting reward.

He considered fetching some water from outside, but then he remembered that without the ability of purification, the water of the Demon Realm was nothing but poison, and he hesitated for a moment.

But he soon found a good solution. The water in the canteens had already been purified. After thoroughly soaking the end of a blanket with water, Rikiel carefully began to wipe Rohan’s face with it. He reasoned that it would be fine to use some of this water since they could use the water from outside for drinking anyway.

“Umm…”

As the cold touched his skin, Rohan frowned and let out a groan. Fearing he might wake up, Rikiel paused for a moment, but thankfully, Rohan only shifted slightly and did not wake. Rikiel let out a sigh of relief and continued to move his hand. As he wiped Rohan’s face with the more dampened end of the cloth, black smudges came off on it.

He felt he could probably even wash his hair if he pushed it a little, but Rikiel decided not to go that far. It would surely wake him up. While lifting the collar of his clothes to wipe his collarbones and chest a little more, Rikiel suddenly stopped his hand. Come to think of it, in this man’s world, wasn’t it customary not to expose one’s bare skin… He felt that even lifting his collar might be rude, so he slowly withdrew his hand.

‘Wait, now that I think about it, something’s odd.’

Rikiel tilted his head. Didn’t this man say he had forgotten everything about the world he used to live in? But he remembers the customs of that world? He faintly furrowed his brow at the contradiction he had just realized. Of course, he could somehow accept it and move on, but Rikiel thought of a slightly strange hypothesis.

What if this person had lied? What if there had never been such a custom from the beginning?

‘But is there any reason to tell such a lie? I don’t know.’

No matter how much he thought about it, no suitable reason came to mind, so Rikiel stopped thinking about it any further. It could always be explained by saying that although he had forgotten his other memories, he had not forgotten the ones about customs.

There would be no end to it if he started digging into every little problem like that. Pointless emotional squabbles were not what Rikiel wanted.

‘Right, I decided to trust this person for now.’

The Hero who acted like he knew everything, yet was naive and ridiculous in strange ways. A man who was vexing in many ways and whose attitude toward Tristan was impertinent beyond measure, but still, a man he couldn’t help but care about and watch over.

Since he had resolved to follow this man’s lead, at least while they were in the Demon Realm, he didn’t want to create any trouble by prying into his personal life. Everyone has a secret or two they want to keep.

After moving as carefully as possible so as not to wake Rohan, Rikiel finally finished wiping his face and neck. Just cleaning the visible parts made Rikiel himself feel refreshed for some reason.

After finishing everything, thinking that his sleeping posture looked a bit uncomfortable, Rikiel tried to lay him down properly.

But, it was at that moment.

“Mmm…?”

The body of the man who had been sleeping so deeply as if he would never wake up flinched and trembled. Did I wake him up after all? Startled, Rikiel instinctively tried to back away. Had it not been for the single phrase that flowed from between Rohan’s lips.

“Tri, stan…?”

“…!”

An unexpected person, and an unexpected name. Rikiel’s eyes widened without him realizing it. It didn’t seem like he was confusing Rikiel with Tristan, and it seemed to be nothing more than sleep-talking, but… why was he calling him by his name? This person always called Tristan ‘Your Majesty,’ didn’t he? Considerably flustered, Rikiel grabbed Rohan’s shoulder and was about to shake him awake. But.

RUMBLE—!

Stagger, the ground beneath his feet suddenly shook, and Rikiel staggered, losing his balance. In the sudden earthquake, everything swayed and his vision spun, but he somehow regained his footing.

Rikiel immediately tried to wake Rohan, but before he could get to him, Rohan was already scrambling to his feet. Rikiel hurriedly asked him.

“What is this? A demonic beast?!”

“That’s impossible! There’s no way a demonic beast that could cause such a large-scale earthquake would be on an island like this!”

“Really?! Maybe there’s a demonic beast you don’t know about!”

“Where do you think we are? What kind of stupid demonic beast would cause an earthquake on a floating island! If it did something like that, the ground wouldn’t hold!”

As Rohan immediately shot up and ran outside, Rikiel also followed him, forgetting everything that had just happened. The earthquake, which was strong enough to turn everything upside down, grew even more severe once they were outside.

What captured their attention as overwhelmingly as the earthquake was the sight of countless demonic beasts flapping their wings and flying into the sky. It seemed less like they were causing the earthquake and more like they too were panicking and fleeing from the sudden tremor. Of course, either way, it was threatening.

“What in the world is going on! Does anyone know the situation?”

Rohan shouted at the top of his lungs so as not to be drowned out by the deafening noise. The other companions were already running toward them from afar, as if they had gone to assess the situation. Judging by their pale faces, the situation seemed serious. While Damian and Tristan panted, catching their breath, Rehas, who was in a relatively better state, shouted as if vomiting the words.

“The island is collapsing, Rohan! What in the world is happening?!”

Rohan’s face began to fill with bewilderment and shock.

That alone was enough to feel the gravity of the situation.