Chapter 59

Episode 59

Taking Roots

– Everyone I met on the street…… Did the dragon send them?

– Things that were not originally permitted due to causality, they were possible because I paid a sufficient price.

– Was it expensive?

At the indifferent tone, Jason was shocked and angry, so tears came out. What about his life?

How many years did he lose? Who will make it up to him?

He had endured to save the world. He endured it because he believed he had to save everyone.

But only after preparing for his death did he realize that he was nothing more than a puppet. He was only used as an expendable item to help the dragon commit suicide. All that time, all the pain…….

– What about me? How are you going to compensate

me?

– You will be the strongest man in the world.

– I didn’t want to be one!

Jason screamed. He ruffled his hair, then lifted his head and stared at the dragon. Tears ran down his chin like rain.

– I didn’t want to be…… Rather, ask for forgiveness from me. Say sorry, even if it’s empty words…… Say something empty. What the hell am I for…… Like this….. Like this…..!

– Nothing changed. If it wasn’t for me, you would have killed a dragon someday. Because that’s your destiny. Your ‘necessity’ in this world was just that.

Many moments that he had to give up to get here passed by. He was angry because it was all in vain.

However, even to Jason’s scream, the dragon only responded heartlessly without any apology.

– Finish your work.

The dragon shut its mouth one last time. What he saw was not the body of a living dragon. It was close to the dragon’s body, an illusion created by the fear of the dragon, so it had already disappeared without a trace when he came to his senses.

Jason bent his back for a moment and laughed, then screamed. When he finally pierced the dragon’s heart, the axis shook.

He got a life. But was that the life he wanted? Jason ripped his heart out in vain.

He was born to kill dragons? That’s all this world, needs from him? So after killing the dragon, how was he supposed to live now?

The boy, who had been raised as a tool to kill dragong all his life, has not grown a single inch emotionally

So Jason’s thinking went to the extreme, ending (suicide in that no one would need him now that he had killed the dragon.

The world survived on his sacrifice, and Jason was slowly falling apart.

Day after day, when he couldn’t find a reason to live and crouched in the field and blinked his eyes blankly, Jason remembered Helena. When even he didn’t believe in himself, she was the only person who held his hand.

– Trust your efforts. You worked harder than anyone. So it should be clear.

He had to live. He thought he had to come back alive. It reminded him of the promise he had made to himself that he would live for her if he returned alive,

That raised Jason’s body up.

Helena will need him. By Helena’s side, who needs him, he will finally be able to put down roots. (PR/N: ‘put down roots’ as in ‘settling down.)

The way back was not difficult. On the road he ran into the people he had helped, but everyone was hesitant and passed by Jason. Seeing this, Jason confirmed once again that the dragon had intervened.

He has been away from home for three years. It was not much time for rivers and mountains to change, but there was time for young children to grow up.

How did everyone change? Are his parents okay? Little Faena, Helena, Alecto…… Even if he tried to recall them, it was overflowing with blurry faces. If he were to do that, he would feel a little less lonely.

As soon as Jason returned, he headed to the Imperial Palace. He also had to report to His Majesty the Emperor, but it was because Helena was there,

After completing the formal report, he grabbed the attendants around him and asked where Helena was. He was informed that she was in the tea room near the garden.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw two people, who had grown up, but were not so different from what he had imagined.

A strange feeling swelled up in his chest. It was a relief that they didn’t change. If the two were unfamiliar, Jason would not have been able to bear it. Jason jumped up and hugged the two of them.

“Are you drinking alone without me?”

“Jason! Are you back already?”

“Yeah, I’m going to stay in the capital for a while. Isn’t it a dazzling afternoon, Your Highness?”

While greeting each other, Jason suddenly noticed an unfamiliar woman sitting in front of him.

Her ebony hair and fresh eyes were beautiful.

Only after blinking his eyes a few times did Jason realize that the woman was Eris Misérian, Alecto’s fiancée.

“Oh my. I was disrespectful, Lady Misérian. You’re still beautiful.”

He acted more sly because he didn’t want to be found out that he didn’t recognize her, but Eris didn’t seem to care. No, more precisely, she seemed uninterested in everything.

She looked at Jason for a second with her dead eyes as if saying that it was endlessly boring.

“It’s a dazzling afternoon, Lord Kazar.”

“I haven’t contributed to the Duke of Kazar, so that title is too much for me. I always say Jason is enough, but be formal.”

“As the prince’s fiancée, how dare 1.”

It was a small voice, but it was full of poison. Something was strange. Was Lady Misérian originally like this?

Jason glanced at Alecto, but Alecto just wrinkled his face as usual. Eris said calmly.

“There are many eyes looking, Your Majesty.”

“I don’t need to consider other people’s eyes.”

“There is only one person under the sky who can do that…. and he also cares about the comfort of silence.”

“Eris!”

Helena called out her name in surprise. Alecto clenched his fists, trying to contain his anger. Even though Alecto’s fists were clenched, Eris did not blink an eye, and then slowly got up from her seat. She said, to Helena with a subtle smile.

“Thank you for the tea, Lady Antebellum. But in crowded places, you shouldn’t speak informally to His Majesty and I. There are things like status and one’s gaze.”

“……Yes.”

Helena hugged Alecto, who was almost ready to run to Lady Misérian, and stopped him. Helena lowered her head in a timid manner and nodded.

At Helena’s expression, Jason suddenly showed hostility towards Eris, but he held it in.

If he took Helena’s side without justification, he risked making it even more difficult for Helena.

Eris smiled as if she was satisfied with his answer and left without any regrets. Her appearance was very unfamiliar. The Eris Misérian that he knew, was a child who could not be prideful in front of Alecto. But now, Eris turned her back to Alecto before anyone else.

A person who he’d never thought would change, has changed. No wonder her back drew Jason’s attention. Why did she change? What…… made Eris Misérian have such dark eyes? He became curious.

When he saw Misérian’s carriage, Jason impulsively got on the carriage, and became obsessed with the idea of talking to Eris.

As he waited for her in her carriage, the corners of his mouth went up in response to the reaction she would have.

Will she hate it like she did when she was a child? He didn’t think so, but she might be happy to see him. Last time he couldn’t say hello properly…

However, what Jason was faced with was the appearance of her small cheeks swollen and red.

Jason’s face hardened. There were only a few people in this imperial palace who would slap this child.

“Don’t mind it. Lord Kazar has nothing to do with it.”

“I’ll do as you say, Lady.”

As Eris shrugged, Jason pretended to step back. Killing the dragon and coming back was a bit imprudent and shameless, and it was also a way to get someone’s favor.

He was constantly smiling and talking.

Eris avoided his gaze with her tired face.

“Aren’t you going on your next adventure?”

“I doubt it, even if I wanted to, since I killed the dragon, the mother of nature, I’m thinking of spending some time in the capital city for a while, There are dragons who hate me.”

Occasionally I have nightmares of dragons coming.

They killed his people and turned the world into a sea of fire, it was a dream where people blamed themselves.

After that dream, he would instinctively check out the window. He wondered if people really didn’t die last

night, or maybe he couldn’t stop them because he couldn’t wake up.

“I have some time before I get to the Marquis, so tell me a little bit more about that story.”

Eris made eye contact for the first time. Jason was a little startled and looked into her blue eyes. Pretty, but……. It wasn’t as lively as before.

Originally, he was more mature than his peers, but now she felt more mature. Hearing his story, he glanced at Eris who was thinking hard and asked.

“I guess… you don’t speak informally.”

“Because we’re not that close. It’s not something you can ask for.”

– Why do I have to treat you with respect? There are only three people under the sky whom I will respect.

The lady, who proudly raised her head and spoke, no longer existed. Only the lady’, who acts thoroughly based on calculation, remains.

She’s changed. Jason bitterly clicked his tongue inside and spoke to Eris as if he was making excuses instead,

“Don’t blame those children too much. Since they’ve only been in the Imperial Palace, they haven’t met with anyone else of their age, so they’re a bit clumsy.”

“They are past the age of receiving forgiveness for being clumsy.”

– Even if you’re the Duke of Kazar, it’s the same, Jason.

One day, the comfort of ‘Lady Misérian’, who greeted him with courtesy passed.

While meeting the Marquis of Misérian and delivering his words, he kept thinking of Eris. It felt as if he were looking at himself. That aspect of pushing others away without taking root.