“Why? I want to play with Mason longer, father!”
Sylvia was dragged out of the training hall and screamed.
“It’s time for history class.”
“What!”
“No complaints.”
“There are not many people here to see!”
That stubbornness. I was walking behind, thinking she really looked like Kwanach.
Then suddenly a soft voice came in from the side.
“I saw it.”
“Brother!”
It was Zakar. He was born about two minutes earlier than Sylvia.
“Mother, father.”
Zakar greeted us politely in turn.
“Where are you going?”
“The library.”
Even though it was early in the morning, Zakar’s attire and hair were all neat. It was the opposite of Sylvia, whose clothes were ruined by sweating profusely.
“What about your history class?”
“I can’t listen well when there’s Sylvia in class. I already had a class yesterday afternoon.”
Zakar’s voice was calm and constant in height. Sylvia pouted her lips and murmured.
“Traitor.”
“What kind of fuss are you making this morning, sister? I heard the rumor.”
“What rumors?”
“I heard that you were angry with young master Mason in the training hall. Then you even hugged him. Are you getting engaged?”
Sylvia jumped.
“No! Just a hug after a real knight’s duel! It’s not like that, brother.”
“It’s already been the talk of the people. You are going to marry into the Brooks family. But it’s good. I heard young master Brooks is pretty handsome.”
Zakar looked calm as he scattered Sylvia’s mind softly.
Sylvia’s eyes went wide as if she were embarrassed. After blinking several times, she looked at me desperately.
“Mother, do I really have to get engaged to Mason?”
“No. You’re just kids. It’ll be taken as a joke.”
Since the commotion happened in the training hall, there was no way to prevent the rumors from spreading. If the two were a little older, they would have spread like salt.
“But my brother……!”
Sylvia huffed and pointed at Zakar with her fingertips. Zakar shrugged and said, without a change of expression.
“I was exaggerating a bit.”
“I’m so unlucky!”
Sylvia screamed and Zakar ignored her. It was a familiar scene. Sylvia said, restraining herself from further rampage.
“He always jokes around me with his expressionless face”
Zakar said calmly.
“Because you always fall for it.”
“Is that funny?”
Zakar only teased Sylvia. It was proof that they were comfortable with each other.
Zakar was always quiet in front of others and didn’t talk much about himself. Of course, he never joked like this.
Sylvia looked at Zakar with a resentful face.
“Is it fun to tease me?”
“Well, next to studying? Then I’ll be on my way. There’s a lot to see today.”
“Do you want to come with me?”
“With mother? Sounds good.”
First of all, I thought it would be better to leave Sylvia to Kwanach. Kwanach was the only one who would fully handle Sylvia’s anger.
If I joined in and added a few words of correctness, Sylvia would only get more angry.
‘It’s cute.’
She was honest with her feelings, burned up, and soon subdued again. She was an enterprising, outspoken, but affectionate child.
I stood next to my son and headed to the library together.
Zakar was quiet and sincere. He had never caused any troubles. A calm and well mannered child.
His platinum blonde, similar to mine, was always neatly arranged. His eyes were strangely gray. The pigment was light in every part of the hair, eyes, and skin.
Sometimes there was a time when Zakar looked like a wizard. He looked like that even though he was smaller than his peers due to his late development.
From the moment he opened a book, it seemed like he would absorb all the words in the world. He wouldn’t let go of the book for a long time.
The knowledge in this tiny head would already be enormous. Perhaps that was why he was very mature.
Sometimes I wanted him to complain about things like a child he was…
Sylvia said what she wanted without hesitation, but Zakar would not. As a result, there were many times when I was more focused on Sylvia.
‘Has he ever been upset?’
Perhaps because he was born a few minutes earlier than Sylvia, he acted more mature because he thought he was older.
With such worries, I would approach the child first and spend time with him even if Zakar didn’t say much.
A child who didn’t want anything. A quiet, calm, book-bound child. When I looked at Zakar, my first life would come to mind from time to time.
‘But I won’t let him be lonely.’
I clasped Zakar’s hand.
Zakar glanced up at me and smiled faintly. He was a child with a rare change of expression, but he often smiled like this.
“Aren’t classes difficult? I heard you’ve added one more subject.”
“It’s interesting. I think it’s a necessary knowledge, as transactions with ethnic groups are getting more and more active.”
Until now, there had been no exchange between the heterogeneous continent and the human continent. Now, several trade ships were passing through the intercontinental sea.
Zakar’s interests were vast. As if he wanted to know the whole world. This time, he became interested in sea trade and had just added a new teacher to the class.
“I’m going to read some books about the sea today. Can you recommend something?”
“Yes, let’s look around together.”
Zakar was always lost in thought as he walked slowly.
The child murmured.
“I think we’ve been away from the sea for too long. The ocean that stretches through the continent. And through there…… What is beyond the heterogeneous continent? Is there another sea?”
Zakar asked the same question I had when I was a kid.
‘He has a lot on his mind. Just like me.’
I answered with a small laugh.
“Nobody knows that yet. Since no one has been there. This species won’t open the way for humans.”
“But I want to know.”
Zakar’s face became quite serious. He looked like a wise man. A smaller child than Sylvia sometimes became serious beyond his age.
Zakar bent his head crookedly, frowned, and looked up at me and said,
“Mother, when I come of age…….”
“Yes?”
“I want to live on a heterogeneous continent across the sea. There must be a lot of other knowledge that we can’t get here, right?”
“You’re going to live there? Leaving the palace altogether?”
It was unimaginable. I hadn’t thought about letting this boy out of my arms.
I knew that Zakar’s quest was tremendous, but…….
This was unexpected.
“Yes, it would be beneficial for Sylvia if I’m not here when I come of age.”
“What do you mean?”
“The successor to the throne. There’s a lot of talk about us coming of age.”
The moment the word successor came out of the child’s mouth, a part of my heart pricked. My voice shook with surprise.
“Who said that?”
He was an eight-year-old child. He was born as a royal, but I wanted to raise him like an ordinary child. I didn’t want him to carry too much on his shoulders and be swayed by the waves.
However, Zakar already seemed to know what his veins and what the burden was on his shoulders.
“Just… the people in the palace talk about it.”
It was just gossip. I had never really talked to Kwanach about succession. And Kwanach was young and strong, and the children were too young.
“I’m not interested in the throne at all. I just want to study, for the rest of my life if possible. The emperor is busy, isn’t he? I won’t have time to study if I take the throne.”
Zakar moistened his lips with his tongue and continued.
“But because I’m the first born male, I think everyone expects something from me. I don’t like that. I just want Sylvia to take the throne naturally. I don’t want to fight her and the nobles for it.”
“Have you already thought of that?”
I could not help sighing.
“I’m eight years old now.”
“Yes, very young.”
“But I know everything.”
“I know you know a lot and are mature but you’re only eight….”
Zakar nodded proudly.
“Have you ever talked about this with Sylvia?”
“No, but Sylvia will like it if I ask her to be the emperor.”
Perhaps. At least Sylvia didn’t dislike the position of emperor like Zakar.
Sylvia was a child who was as greedy as passion. When asked the other day if her brother wanted it, Sylvia unexpectedly opposed it. Mason just didn’t answer, asking his parents to do as they please.
Sylvia had a strong desire to monopolize the affection of others.
‘A greedy person can rule.’
And there had to be stubbornness and toughness to push my opinion. Based on that tendency, it was Sylvia rather than Zakar that suited to be the ruler.
But the children were too young to make this judgment. I didn’t want them to be conscious of this.
“Jakar, I understand what you mean, but you don’t have to leave this place when you become an adult.”
“But there will be a lot of talk. If I’m an adult, and I’m staying with Sylvia at the palace…. It’s more stable and reasonable without me…….”
“Zakar.”
I cut off his speech. I squatted in front of him to meet his eye level.
Zakar looked at me without averting his gaze. He was talking with a very calm, indifferent expression, but the child’s eyes were wavering. As a mother, there was no way I could not have noticed it.
He thought it would be more reasonable for him to disappear completely from here. Zakar’s tiny head had too many thoughts.
The child’s lips trembled slightly. It would not have been a judgment with just reason.
The next emperor of a new empire. It was an important position, and maybe a few years later, there would be a lot of talk about it in earnest.
Fearing that the political situation would become chaotic, Zakar seemed determined to sacrifice himself. Leave Radon and go to a far away continent.
I said, clasping Zakar’s shoulders.
“You don’t have to handle everything by yourself.”
“…….”
“If someone does something to confuse the political situation, do you think His Majesty will stay still?”
Zakar flinched his lips for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, my father is strong.”
“Yes, he’s sweet to us, but he’s actually very strong. Let’s not worry too far ahead. And you two will be stronger together.”
Suddenly, I remembered what the silver forest said.
<When the two exist together like light and dark, their fate becomes more perfect. The fate of the human continent.>
I was sure that the relationship between the two would not go wrong even after coming of age. My children will live by holding each other together.
Zakar hesitated, then slipped into my embrace. The child’s body in my arms was too light.
Zakar murmured.
“……but can I go to the heterogeneous continent for a while? I really want to go there.”
“Of course.”
I stroked the child’s head. Until Zakar was completely in control.
* * *
That night. After getting ready to sleep, I lay side by side in bed with Kwanach.
Kwanach reached out, holding my neck, and kissed my nose and forehead.
As our bodies became entangled, it naturally flowed into that atmosphere like any other night. I tried to touch Kwanach, but I paused and grabbed him by the shoulder.
“……Are you tired?”
Kwanach’s low whisper touched my ear. It was a voice that seemed to melt my body at any time.
“No, it’s not that. I need to talk to you about something.”
Kwanach regained his composure and looked at me.
The conversation I had with Zakar in the morning continued to bother me and remained in my mind. I thought Kwanach should know.
When I told him what happened in the morning, Kwanach, who was listening quietly, slightly raised his eyebrows.
“Jakar told me that…….”
“He grows up too fast. He reads and knows so many things.”
“You must have felt bad.”
Kwanach gave more strength to the hand that held my shoulder. I mumbled as I was held in his arms.
“Yes, I was upset. I couldn’t believe he thought about that already. The children don’t grow up as we expect. It’s always a series of exceptions.”
“They’re not going to follow us if we force them.”
“They’re both stubborn because they are like someone.”
If Sylvia was openly stubborn, Zakar had a distinct and strong inner self.
“Who? Are you talking about me?”
Kwanach laughed.
“It’s you. Who could it be?”
“You’re quite stubborn, too.”
As I talked to Kwanach and felt his temperature, the lump of luggage that had been piled up in my mind all day seemed to be a little lighter.
Then, we naturally embraced each other and began to kiss lightly. I said, staring into Kwanach’s black eyes.
“But… everything will be okay, right?”
Words popped out of my head in the hope of gaining confidence once more.
Kwanach replied with a solid voice, with no sway.
“Yes, I’ll make it that way. So that everything is fine. So that nothing can hurt you and our children.”
Hearing what sounded like an oath, something from a long time ago suddenly came to my mind.
The memory of the day I went to the silver forest with Kwanach.
I remembered the convictions he made very clearly.
If this man was next to me, there was nothing I would be afraid of.
I would be safe and we would be happy forever.
With that belief, I embraced Kwanach.
Now Zakar and Sylvia were with us. The fence around us had widened a little, and we were happier.
At this moment, I realized again. The vows and the certainty we heard and felt in the silver forest was now a reality.
I, we, were whole and happy.
***
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