CHAPTER 106……………………………
“Is that so… So what my son chose over land was that pale, flimsy kingdom?”
Kan set down his thick, half-drunk cup of Falke as if throwing a ceramic bowl.
“Disappointing.”
Giovanni, sitting across from him, also emptied his cup neatly.
“I find it hard to understand which part is disappointing.”
“Hah, you ask because you don’t know?”
Tilting the bottle, white liquor gushed out in a stream. Kan twisted his mouth, unfazed by the splash.
“I dislike the Kingdom people. Their limbs are weak like they were kneaded from flour, and they’d whimper to death if thrown into the desert.”
Giovanni froze mid-motion as he put down his cup, a small smile escaping him.
“Well, I think you’re mistaken. My Kingdom people aren’t weak.”
“…….”
“They are strong.”
“What?”
Giovanni smiled faintly at Kan’s bewildered gaze.
Kan stared at Giovanni with a peculiar look.
“You seem… different.”
“Is that so?”
“Just smirking and giggling.”
Giovanni ran a hand down his face.
Kan squinted suspiciously, and wrinkles formed around his eyes.
“What were you thinking? About the Kingdom people?”
Giovanni’s face grew serious.
“No.”
“No? You….”
“You sound like your old self again.”
“Who cares, now that there are no noisy chiefs around?”
Kan snorted and grumbled as he took another drink.
The harsh, peculiar scent of Falke seeped out with every word he spoke.
“You told me to meet a woman in the kingdom, Kan.”
“I said ‘even a woman,’ didn’t I? Since you weren’t coming for so long, I thought you might have been caught in your brother’s schemes.”
Kan’s tone and manner were surprisingly intimate, unlike the rigid demeanor he showed Giovanni’s group in the hall.
Giovanni, accustomed to this side of him, replied calmly.
“I wasn’t delayed because of Lordrakki. There was something I needed to do in the kingdom.”
“Bah, boring fellow. So you really only worked?”
“…….”
“Yet it’s unexpected. Even for a priest, to trade with the Ision Desert… Is she truly worth bringing back, making promises to that sly king in your name?”
“I answered in the hall.”
“Answer me again, now that you’re in front of me.”
Kan and Giovanni locked eyes.
“What were you thinking?”
“…….”
A false answer would not be tolerated.
Giovanni answered calmly.
“There was some sentiment involved.”
“……What do you mean?”
“I thought there was a chance she could become a priest, but I didn’t expect her to truly become one.”
“You handed over the Ision Desert without knowing she was a priest?”
Kan frowned at the lack of a return answer.
“I didn’t know, but I thought she would be helpful to me.”
“Why did you think that?”
“It was intuition.”
Though calm and natural, the content of his answer made no sense.
“My son, you….”
“…….”
“You’re just rationalizing wanting to bring her along, aren’t you?”
Giovanni flinched. His fingers holding the cup twitched.
A moment later, he calmly replied.
“That’s not true.”
“Not true!”
Kan was dumbfounded, his head spinning.
Even then, Giovanni stood firm.
“She is helpful. She is a talent.”
“Haah, foolish boy… They say late love is dangerous, but you abandoned land for a woman?”
“……Compared to that woman, the land holds no value.”
“…….”
“I am certain she will be helpful to me and the empire. I did not lie in the hall.”
“Madman, stop.”
Kan waved his hand irritably, looking at Giovanni with a conflicted expression.
Unlike the free-spirited chiefs around him, Giovanni’s proper posture seemed almost suffocatingly flawless.
“I asked you to find a flower trinket you could enjoy briefly, not a maddening mushroom to make you stupid.”
“……What’s so uncomfortable?”
“What are you saying?”
“You look anxious.”
Kan’s gaze sank, sharp and heavy.
“Get a strong wife.”
“…….”
“Licia said it. I probably won’t live long.”
Giovanni’s eyebrows twitched.
“Surely it’s… the lungs?”
“Yes. The wound got exposed to the wind.”
Kan spoke casually, but it was no trivial matter.
Before becoming Kan, he had fought a challenger for his position in a tribal warrior rite and received that wound.
During the ritual, warriors could challenge anyone they had long awaited. Kan received a fatal wound to his lungs from a challenger thirty years ago.
“Are you certain?”
Kan nodded.
“Thanks to Licia, I’ve lived thirty years in decent health, but there’s not much time left.”
Giovanni’s face stiffened.
“I’ll get medicine.”
“If Licia’s spell can’t fix it, nothing else can. You understand that, don’t you?”
“…….”
“Giovanni.”
Kan studied him intently. Neither the cold, harsh look in the hall nor the playful look before, but a serious, warm father’s gaze.
“You can’t yet match Lordrakki. I am the desert king. I am only watching.”
“…….”
“Get a strong wife. Expand your power. Fulfill the prophecy tied to your name.”
After a brief silence, Giovanni spoke softly.
“I always thought that prophecy was meaningless.”
“Hah, really?”
“Yes. I thought the prophet had gone senile.”
Kan snorted.
“He was a sorcerer who predicted my coronation.”
“A sick sorcerer.”
“True. He died soon after. But I believe.”
“…….”
“In the glory of God.”
Giovanni said nothing.
Kan smiled bitterly.
“Does this faith burden you?”
“…….”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you find the glorious name ‘Giovanni’ cumbersome?”
“I can’t deny it.”
Kan laughed heartily at the honest answer. His face, rough in impression, now bore a kind light.
“But Giovanni, if you want to protect everything you cherish, you will have to confront Lordrakki.”
“…….”
“Otherwise, both your life and the life of the Kingdom woman you chose will become desert bones.”
It was advice from an aged father to a still young son.
Seeing Giovanni’s face, Kan drank his cup with satisfaction.
“Seems you already know without me saying it.”
“…….”
“Well, she is pretty, though.”
The sudden comment raised one of Giovanni’s eyebrows.
“She is mine. Don’t covet her.”
“Bah, madman.”
When they arrived at the Fifth Prince’s palace, every servant and maid rushed out to surround Kichev.
“My goodness, Lord Kichev! How long has it been?”
“You’ve lost weight! You seem paler too!”
“Where is the prince? Our prince!”
“Yes. Almost a year. Lost muscle? Skin color hasn’t changed. The prince is with Kan in private.”
Kichev skillfully pushed through the noisy palace staff. I and Jenny stayed close behind him.
The palace people, seeing us, opened their mouths ceaselessly like baby birds waiting for food.
“Who are these?”
“Wow, their skin is white like mare’s milk.”
“Kichev, did you bring a bride?”
“They’re people I work with. Being from the kingdom, of course, they’re paler than us. Ha! What are you talking about? Tangli was going to be my bride, wasn’t she?”
“What are you saying! I got married!”
“While I was away, you got married?”
“Two years ago!”
‘They seem close to the people.’
Their unrestrained laughter gave a rough sense of the palace atmosphere—much more appealing than Kan’s palace.
Jenny seemed to like her room as well. I left her rolling on the bed and moved on.
I followed Kichev, observing the surroundings.
Perhaps because of the large land area, it was much bigger than the royal palace. The space itself was expansive.
The ceiling was as high as the temple’s origin hall, though it lacked the lavish decorations of temples or other palaces.
It felt clean, as if only the essentials were present.
‘Looks like its owner.’
We entered a doorless room following Kichev.
It was a study.
He slumped into a chair, shrugging his shoulders.
“Ask me anything now. As you’ve seen, the prince’s situation isn’t very good, so I’ll start with that.”
“Seems like it.”
I pulled the chair across from him.
“Let’s start with a verification.”
“Verification?”
“The power dynamics among the people in the hall.”
“There were so many……”
Kichev thought deeply and nodded.
“Ask about the people you’re curious about first.”
I immediately spoke.
“The one with the large teeth was the chief of the Great Winged Eagle tribe, supporting the Crown Prince. The one next to him was a chief, and the tall one with red hair was chief of the Red Hawk tribe, also supporting the Crown Prince. And the father of Malina Domikatun we saw earlier, right?”
Kichev blinked.
“The short-haired chief with the strange tattoo on the back of his neck, wearing a sleeveless shirt, was chief of the Great River tribe, supporting the Crown Prince. He seems to have sent his daughter to Domikatun as well. And then……”
Reciting every face I saw, Kichev’s complexion gradually turned pale.
“You remember all that?”
“The meeting was long.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t remember even if it were twice as long.”
My memory wasn’t bad to begin with. Recovering my sealed power had improved it further.
“To survive, you must learn as much as possible in a short time. The more you know but act ignorant, the higher your survival chance.”
Kichev smiled faintly and straightened his chair, ready to focus on the conversation.
