The winter sun was warm, the sky was blue, and the blowing breeze was pleasant. But that was all. He didn’t feel any excitement.

Raytan was sitting alone and leaning against a rotten tree. His gaze was directed to the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace looked so small that Raytan felt like it was just a dollhouse. When he stared at that place, he felt like everything that happened there had nothing to do with him at all, including everything that had happened in the last few days.

“…”

Raytan set a blank expression on his face.

‘Even in the past, someone like you… the same thing…’

General Hayden’s voice rang in his ears like a hazy dream.

“Someone like me…”

Who the hell did he mean? Raytan couldn’t understand even one of the things that General Hayden had said.

‘My ancestors… what they were trying to stop…’

General Haydn said he knew this was going to happen. If so, did the same thing happen in the past? Was that why he said something like that?

‘But just… be smart. This time too… Someone will stop you…The fact that it will be you who will eventually lose…’

“No…” Raytan closed his eyes tightly and muttered to himself.

He did not fail anything. It was running exactly like the scenario his mother had planned. There was nothing to worry about.

However, there was a strange sense of dread.

How could all of these damn things happen?

Who did that?

Who made him keep seeing and hearing strange things?

‘The cursed… those…’

‘Don’t let me down.’

General Hayden’s and Lize’s voices took turns piercing through his eardrums.

“Huh….”

Raytan inhaled roughly before lowering his head. After that, he covered his face. He felt like he could smell a whiff of blood. A bloody smell that did not go away no matter how much he washed and rinsed.

So, will these strange things keep happening to him?

His hands trembled a little.

‘I… How…’

“Brother.”

“…”

“Brother Raytan.”

Raytan froze for a moment.

“Brother, it’s me, Sezh.”

He did not reply at all, so Sezh gently reached out her hand. She grabbed Raytan’s hand, which he had used to cover his face, and lowered it.

He… had an unfamiliar face.

A lonely expression was carved on his face as if he was isolated from the world.

“… Sezh.”

“…”

“Sezh.”

“Yes, Brother?” While answering, Sezh held Raytan’s hand. “I’ve been looking for you for a while. I didn’t see you anywhere.”

“…Why?”

“What?”

“Why…”

‘Because I was worried.’

Sezh hesitated for a moment, then instead uttered a different sentence. It was because … Raytan may have come here to avoid being caught looking like this.

“I want to be with you, Brother.”

“…”

“It’s because I’m alone. I feel lonely,” Sezh sat down next to him.

Silence descended between the two of them. Sezh didn’t ask anymore. Instead, she decided to wait for Raytan to speak first. And after a while, Raytan finally parted his lips with a crackling voice.

“… I couldn’t think of any place other than here.”

“What do you mean?”

“A place to escape.”

“Why did you have to run away….?”

Instead of answering, Raytan bit his lips.

‘…I’m scared. I feel like I’m going to go crazy forever.’

However, he found it hard to be honest.

“There is… a smell.”

“…”

“The smell of blood… The bloody smell…”

Sezh suddenly remembered what happened yesterday. The red stain on his white shirt that she saw.

Maybe something was already happening. However… from what Sezh remembered, it was still not time yet.

Sezh felt an ominous feeling for a moment. She unknowingly turned her head to look at Raytan. But rather than his usual cold expression, Raytan’s trembling hand caught her eyes first. She could see his worn face as well.

“Brother, you look tired.”

“…”

“Are you having trouble sleeping?”

Raytan nodded his head a little.

“Wait.”

Sezh pulled back her hands from his and then stretched her legs out. Following that, she gently pulled Raytan by the collar. Raytan flinched a little but didn’t push her away. Sezh then laid Raytan’s head on her thighs.

“Close your eyes for a bit. I’ll wake you up.”

A small, white hand covered his pair of eyes. The sunlight was so bright that Sezh was afraid he might not be able to sleep because of it.

Raytan didn’t say anything more. He just lay down quietly. When Sezh removed her hand, she noticed that his eyelids were already closed. But did he fall asleep? She couldn’t be sure about it. Maybe he’s just closing his eyes.

Without Raytan knowing, Sezh slowly stretched out her hand. Soon the wind began to blow. The wind wasn’t that strong, but it wasn’t weak either.

There was no smell of blood in the first place.

Still, Sezh thought it would be good if the wind washed away the smell of blood that she couldn’t even smell. Sezh believed it would be better to blow that ‘smell’ far away so that Raytan will never make a face like that again.

It was a small consolation she could give him. His black hair, as black as night, fluttered in the wind. Sezh softly stroked his hair like how he did when he had tied her hair up back then.