Chapter 4

Nearly an hour later, Yuichiro could still hear secret giggles from Goat.

“Kekekeke, a male Goddess!”

Goat occasionally glanced at Yuichiro as if he was reliving the moment and continued laughing. Noah, who was carried over Goat’s shoulders, frowned as he was fed up with being shaken up and down every time Goat laughed.

“I told you, I’m not a Goddess.”

“—No, you are a Goddess.” Yuichiro felt annoyed at his replies being refuted by Temeraire every single time he voiced it out. [How many times have we had this exchange already?]

While on his way to the royal city of Am Wallace, Yuichiro felt a growing sense of inexpressible weariness.

“In the first place, has a male goddess before?” Gort questioned with a sneer on his face. Temeraire cast a thoughtful glance down, then shook his head in a small gesture.

“—This is the first time I’ve ever met a goddess. Six goddesses had appeared before, but all of them were women.”

“So, you are wrong.”

“No, I’m not mistaken.”

“What is it with you and your confidence?”

Temeraire looked at Yuichiro with a clear expression of amazement and extended his hand to Yuichiro. His slender white fingertips softly tickled Yuichiro’s neck. Temeraire’s slowly touched Yuichiro’s nape as if he was touching a fragile piece of porcelain. At Temeraire’s delicate touch, Yuichiro could feel a faint tingling sensation down his nape.

“First of all, the color of your skin. No one in our world has such a wheat-colored complexion.” Temeraire then continued to brush along Yuichiro’s nape and stroke his hair.

“And this hair. Every Goddess who had ever come here had hair colors that weren’t white. Gold, red, brown, and ash…As for black, we have not had a goddess with black hair in thousands of years, not since the primordial goddesses.”

Temeraire’s blue eyes gazed at Yuichiro. At the sight of these eyes, which were tinged with a trace of passion, Yuichiro wavered momentarily. To hide his agitation, Yuichiro clenched his teeth slowly.

Temeraire, possibly sensing Yuichiro’s agitation, quickly pulled his fingertips away from Yuichiro. He then averted his gaze from Yuichiro and muttered, “We, who come from the light, couldn’t help but be infatuated with darkness.”

“Infatuated?”

Temeraire did not reply to Yuichiro’s doubtful voice but bit his lower lip in silence.

“Back when I was a rouge, black is the most expensive and precious color. You have to dig deep beneath the earth’s surface to obtain a gemstone called obelisk. Obelisks are so rare that it’s considered a blessing if you can excavate a few pieces in a year. I wish I could dig up a lot of Alma” Goat interjected and tugged at the string that was hooked to his chest. Something hanging from the inside of his clothes came out. Yuichiro’s eyes widened when he observed the glimmering stone hooked at the end of the string.

“That’s a diamond, isn’t it?”

“Diamonds? This one is called Alma.” Goat chuckled as he shook the piece of stone carelessly from side to side. However, Yuichiro was not laughing. The diamond stone dangling from Goat’s chest was about the size of a marble.

Moreover, diamonds are not the only stones attached to the string. Emeralds, sapphires, and rubies hung carelessly on top of each other. If it were on earth, the necklace in front of him alone would be worth tens of millions of dollars.

“Do you get stones like that often in this world?”

“Hahaha! You can find a plethora of these things if you dig around here.”

The back of Yuichiro’s throat suddenly quivered at the sound of Goat’s voice, chuckling hysterically. Suddenly, he felt something sinister begin to creep silently inside his veins.

At that moment, Noah, who had remained silent until that point, peeked over Goat’s shoulder and gaped, muttering, “Am Wallace.” Noah’s voice sounded somber than relieved, as if he were returning to a familiar prison cell.

The city of Am Wallace shone white in absolute splendor. It looked as if an old European town had been stripped of its color. The sheer whiteness of the city made Yuichiro feel as if he were wandering around in a strange dream or a fog. When Yuichiro scanned around, he felt that this lack of reality may be due to the absence of life in the city. On either side of the street, the doors of the houses were shut, and very few people were seen walking along the streets. Those who were present were all looking down without any energy.

As he looked out over the street from the carriage that carried him to the entrance of this city, Yuichiro murmured to himself, “It’s like zombies.”

“Zombies?” Temeraire repeated in a clumsy tone.

“I’m saying they look like dead people.”

“They are not dead!” Noah retorted indignantly with his fists clenched tightly on his knees. “Up until three months ago, this was a beautiful town.” Noah continued, “It was peaceful; everybody was happy, smiling, and laughing.”

“Is this what happened when your father died?… Do you mean to say that when the king died, a civil war broke out, and the city lost its vitality in one fell swoop?”

In response to Yuichiro’s question, Noah cried out in a suppressed voice, “You’re not my father!”

Noah’s rebellious words involuntarily brought a snicker to the corners of Yuichiro’s mouth. Yuichiro then let out a mocking laugh that was previously suppressed until now. Immediately, Noah grabbed Yuichiro by his chest. His eyes were bloodshot with anger.

“Don’t laugh!”

“I am laughing. You’re just a kid who can’t do anything because you’re always under protection while whining endlessly. No matter what I say, you’ll just deny it. You are pathetic! A child like you should be beheaded by your brothers and hanged on the castle gate while crying out, ‘I am not a king!’.”

A smile crept onto Yuichiro’s lips as he said this. The color of Noah’s face faded quickly when he saw Yuichiro smiling cheerfully. His small hands that were holding onto Yuichiro’s gradually lost their strength. On his palm was dried blood. After seeing the blood on his own hands, Noah let out a muffled shriek at the back of his throat. Before his body could retreat, Yuichiro casually grabbed his arms and leaned closer to his face.

“It’s revolting to think that a spineless brat like you is king,” Yuichiro sneered while spitting out venomous words. At this moment, Noah’s eyes began to overflow with tears.

The tears falling from Noah’s eyes fell onto Yuichiro’s lap, soaking his trousers. As the tears continued to soak, he recalled an old memory, a silly and sentimental memory. His own daughter used to cry a lot. He remembered whenever she saw a dead stray cat on the street, she would plead with Yuichiro, “Please, let the cat live!” and pestered him endlessly. She was a compassionate child and would easily be touched by various things. She would cry and laugh all the time. Every time Yuichiro returned from the battlefield, his daughter greeted him with a smile while crying. If she had lived, she would have been about the same age as the boy in front of him.

When he thought of this, he felt a sense of helplessness akin to emptiness, as if he were doing something unprofessional and immature to a child. However, before Yuichiro could speak, someone’s arm pulled the weeping Noah towards him. Temeraire gently patted Noah’s back and looked at Yuichiro reproachfully.

“Please don’t put too much pressure on Noah-sama. Everything has changed so quickly… and he has yet to accept the current situation.” Temeraire’s voice became wistful.

“Less than a month after Master Noah was elected king, the city was attacked by an army from our neighbor Goldar. The city was not completely destroyed, but many nobles and influential people were gathered in a church, set on fire, and killed… Only the nobles who presumably supported his brother were ‘lucky’ enough to flee and avoid being killed.”

A short sigh escaped Temeraire’s throat. The tired sigh didn’t suit the attractive man.

“Even after committing such atrocious crimes, Noah-sama’s elder brother advised him to make peace with Goldar. He said that this was the only means for Jeweld to live in peace. However, it was obvious that the brothers had sold Jeweld to Goldar. What’s more, as proof of peace with Goldar, he even asked us to execute Noah-sama. He told us that by offering up the Jeweld chosen king by Hōshu, the old and abominable customs of the Jeweld would disappear, and we would be reborn as a new nation.”

Yuichiro was staring at that face that spoke languidly. The next moment, however, he felt his heart skip a beat. Temeraire’s lips were smeared with a brutal smile.

“How can a traitor who sold his country be revered as a king? If anyone should be executed and have their heads lined up at the gates, It should be those traitors themselves!”

Temeraire wore a mysterious tender smile. That perfect smile sent chills down Yuichiro’s spine. Yuichiro then hid his grin behind his hands, peering at Temeraire with his head downcast.

“You’re lying about not being able to kill people, aren’t you?” In response to Yuichiro’s question, Temeraire slowly blinked his eyes. His blue eyes peered from within as his eyelids opened and closed.

“I can’t kill people, but…”

When he heard Temeraire’s calm response without a trace of cruelty, Yuichiro couldn’t hide his laughter and held the source of his laughter in his palm while his shoulders trembled. After waiting for his laughter to subside, Yuichiro whispered in a soothing voice, “I’m starting to like you a little bit.”

Translator’s Notes

I told you that this novel wasn’t all rainbows and all that. We’ve peeked into Yuichiro’s background story a little bit now. He had a daughter. I assume his temperament now had to do with his past. Moving on, I also want to say that I somehow understand why Yuichiro’s hammering brutal facts at Noah. Yuichiro’s statements may have affected Noah’s mind, but I think Noah’s circumstances were also kinda unfortunate. I don’t really blame him for acting the way he did tbh.