Diverging Futures (2)

Lerian glanced at the bewildered Callisis and immediately inserted the key into the lock and turned it. Soon, a high-pitched, unpleasant sound echoed thinly. Kilianerisa, who had been alternating her gaze between the open door and Lerian, asked in surprise.

“Why?”

She looked angry.

“Are you pitying me?”

Lerian didn’t respond to her question and turned away from them. And she said.

“Follow me.”

Following her as she strode forward, Callisis, who was confused, and Kilianerisa, who had a complicated expression on her face, took a hesitant step. Despite trailing behind her, Kilianerisa did not stop her barrage of questions.

“Tell me. Why are you helping me?”

“……”

“Do you know that if I scream here and call the guards, you’ll be arrested as an accomplice?”

At the obvious provocation, Lerian stopped in her tracks. Then, for the first time, she stared at her with eyes filled with emotion.

“That’s something I would say. If people were to come, how do you think they’ll perceive this situation? Will they see me as someone trying to help you escape, or will it look like I’m helping you because of threats?”

“Then why are you helping me?”

“Don’t be mistaken. I’m not helping you.”

Lerian resumed her steps after briefly pausing. Kilianerisa was frustrated because she couldn’t understand Lerian’s intentions, and neither did Callisis, who didn’t understand the situation. There was no reason for her to help them, knowing she had been poisoned by Kilianerisa.

When Lerian stopped once more, they had reached a door. Lerian took out another key to unlock the door.

“I didn’t see anything today.”

Beyond the opened door was another exit leading outside. Kilianerisa and Callisis exchanged uneasy glances before stepping through the door Lerian had led them to. As Kilianerisa was about to step outside, she paused for a moment and turned back to Lerian.

“You’re really not going to tell me?”

In response to that question, Lerian faintly smiled for the first time.

“A whim, I would say. I hope I never see you again.”

Just as Lerian was about to close the door she had opened, Kilianerisa said in a small voice:

“Thank you.”

The closing door paused for a short moment. However, the pause was brief, and the door soon shut completely. Kilianerisa stared at the firmly closed door with a complicated expression. Callisis said to her.

“Let’s go, Lia.”

Kilianerisa turned around.

The place they came out of was the backyard of the palace. There weren’t many guards around, so it wasn’t too difficult for them to escape. The escape unfolded strangely smoothly.

Callisis suddenly looked at Kilianerisa. While many questions came to mind when looking at her, he knew it wasn’t the right time. He understood that, through this escape, he would lose all the power and everything he had.

Still, he didn’t regret it.

The warmth he held tightly in his hand was more precious to him than anything he had ever had.

The Empress, who was facing execution, disappeared. According to the testimony of the warden who was guarding the prison at that time, Marquis Etrom paid a brief visit. The Emperor sent out his soldiers to search for them, but unfortunately, they were unable to find any clues about them.

***

Crash!

With a loud noise, Fabius’ body jerked and then hit the wall. He woke up with a sharp pain and immediately blinked his eyes open.

“Your Excellency, are you alright?”

Waking up from his sleep, his vision blurry, he could see the coachman’s worried gaze. It wasn’t until he looked at his surroundings that he belatedly noticed the interior of the carriage. It seemed he had dozed off for a while, probably due to exhaustion. He rubbed the spot he had bumped and narrowed his eyes.

“What happened?”

“A child suddenly passed by… I’m sorry.”

The carriage he was in wasn’t an ordinary one, but a carriage that belonged to nobility. In another circumstance, he could have been seriously injured. However, he wasn’t in the mood to make a fuss, likely due to the strange dream he had just had.

Moreover, it was a busy time, so he didn’t have time to relax in such a place. Fabius, who was about to wave his hand and instruct him to continue, paused unintentionally as he looked outside the window. He continued to stare at that place as if he had been nailed.

The coachman, who was unsure whether or not to start the carriage, carefully spoke to Fabius.

“…Is it alright to depart… sir?”

Naturally, there was no response. Seeing Fabius, who appeared like he didn’t hear him, the coachman naturally changed his words. He had been driving Fabius’ carriage for almost twenty years, but he had never seen him with such a face.

Wondering what was going on, the coachman also looked at where Fabius was looking. At the end of his gaze, there was a child covered in dirt from head to toe. It was the child who nearly collided with the carriage earlier. Seeing Fabius looking at the child with a complicated look in his eyes, the coachman’s heart also felt a bit conflicted.

…Does it mean I shouldn’t let this pass? But she’s just a child… The coachman pondered while carefully watching Fabius’ reaction.

“Wait. Just wait for a moment, I’ll be right back.”

“Yes?”

Wasn’t he in a hurry to go to the palace for a meeting? The words nearly left the coachman’s mouth, but Fabius had already stepped out of the carriage. The coachman stared blankly at the empty seat before parking the carriage in the corner of the road and waiting for Fabius.

Even after stepping out of the carriage, Fabius continued to gaze at the child as if he were in a trance. Eventually, the tousled golden hair of the child lightly swayed in the wind. When he saw that, he muttered under his breath without realizing it.

“…Kilianerisa?”

It was a name he hadn’t uttered in a very long time. He knew that it was highly unlikely and that there was no way the child could be alive, yet his heart inexplicably raced. The moment he was about to utter that painful name once again, his mouth trembling.

“Avena.”

There was someone who called the child one step sooner than him. A woman with golden hair similar to the child’s hair, who was squatting down, gently brushed the dirt from her daughter’s clothes, her face full of concern.

“Are you crazy? I told you not to go near the road!”

“…I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

The woman, who had been looking at the tearful child, immediately reached out and hugged her. Watching this scene, Fabius once again looked at the child. He then saw what he hadn’t noticed before. The hair he thought was golden was actually closer to a shade of brown. It was not the hair color he was familiar with.

…It wasn’t her.

‘Of course, it couldn’t be.’

He had never expected it in the first place, yet a strange sense of emptiness came over him.

He tried to return to where the carriage was, but oddly, his feet refused to move. His eyes, which had not shed tears since that day, became watery again.

In fact, he hadn’t felt much sadness in the past few years. After her death, he had undoubtedly been in pain, but it didn’t last long. People couldn’t live focusing on just one thing. He had the rest of his life to live, and he had family to take care of.

So he thought it was okay.

But… was it really okay?

Things he had never considered… no, things he had desperately ignored. Emotions that had been suppressed for a very long time were now attempting to resurface.

The prolonged absence of someone in one’s life makes the heart feel empty. Even if you believed that you hated them, nothing could fill the void left by their disappearance. A place that has once been filled by someone cannot be replaced by anyone else.

He believed it could be replaced, but the empty part of his heart still ached.

His gaze turned back to the mother and daughter. There was now an additional person there. A man who shared a part of the child’s features was present. It looked like a complete family.

They looked happy.

What he could not have or had missed out on was right there.

At the sight of their happy smile, he saw a scene that could never be realized.

The never-to-be-realized scene of everyone laughing together, with no one dead, looked so blissful that he couldn’t help but laugh. It could be an illusion, a delusion, or a hallucination – he didn’t care. He might have wanted to be like them.

No, he wanted to be.

As soon as he took a step toward his dearly missed family members, who were beckoning to him, the clear figures that were there just moments ago disappeared as if candles blown out by the wind. It was as if they were telling him that he couldn’t be with them.

He couldn’t deny it. He had no qualifications to be a husband or a father.

No one would let their child die like that. No one would neglect their daughter, whom their wife gave her life for. He might have had quite a few opportunities. And he had always squandered them.

He didn’t think of them as opportunities. He thought of them as useless. However, looking back, every moment was an opportunity for him. An opportunity to be happy, an opportunity to avoid sorrow, and an opportunity not to have regrets.

But he didn’t take all those opportunities.

He had everything, but he didn’t have one thing. On the other hand, that family might not have everything, but they had that one thing.

He envied them.

They soon departed, bearing the weight of his envy. Fabius gazed at the spot they had been for a very long time. Then he looked up and covered his eyes with one hand. A single tear, unable to be covered by his hand, trickled down his cheek.

Belatedly, truly belatedly—

He regretted it.