His father looked at him silently, and his body trembled slightly.
That was because the moment he saw that intense gaze, memories of the hellish past of his childhood immediately came back and were displayed before him.
He felt as if his strong, adult self had shrunk back into the form of a terrified little boy.
In order not to reveal his shrinking heart, he did not avoid his father's gaze, but looked directly at him.
Then, his father's dry lips began to move with difficulty.
'Was he trying to leave a will?'
“...you bastard.”
"my dad?"
“...You bastard who abandoned... the family...!”
After Derek said those words, he closed his eyes again and lost consciousness.
Axion looked in amazement at his father, who was lying like a corpse.
He had to call a doctor immediately to tell him that consciousness had returned, even if only for a moment, but he didn't want to.
A bitter, sarcastic smile appeared on his lips.
“Dad, you are a really stable person.”
His blue eyes were filled with coldness.
“On the threshold of death, and all I wanted to say with difficulty was just that.”
After he finished speaking, he quickly pulled his hand from his father's grip that was holding his wrist.
The slender hand pulled away very easily and fell helplessly beside the bed.
Because of this, the cover slid down, but he did not tidy it up but left the bedroom.
After leaving the palace building, he walked in the garden without a destination.
He wanted to calm his troubled heart.
The look his father had seen a moment ago pierced his chest like a dagger.
'I swore I wouldn't care anymore, so why on earth...!'
He did not feel angry at his father who continued the verbal abuse even in such a situation.
On the contrary, he was angry with himself because he was still hurt by those verbal insults, and he felt self-pity and hatred for himself.
'Am I too, like my father, a constant person?'
How long did he walk without a destination?
A familiar building appeared in front of him, and Axion stopped walking.
This was the training room he had passed by escaping earlier.
A sarcastic smile returned to his face.
'This is the place I've arrived at after all this wandering.'
He approached the training room and opened the door.
Because if he ran away, he would somehow feel like he was losing to his father.
Axion's eyes widened as he entered the training room.
“…!”
The inside had completely changed.
The training tools were gone, and armor and weapons engraved with the emblems of the Ruppelt family and the Imperial Army were carefully arranged around the place.
In addition, pictures of his grandfathers who had been commanders of the Imperial Army across generations and the medals they had received from the Emperor were also carefully displayed.
It was a complete museum for the Ruppelt family.
If his father had been so self-aware about family, he would have created something like this and more.
As he was about to leave the place, he discovered something strange.
The family genealogy was kept in a glass box.
His eyes twitched as he browsed the genealogy.
His name, which was supposed to be under his father's name Derek, had been erased.
Instead, the name of a relative was written in its place.
This was the relative he heard had joined the Imperial Army a few years ago.
His fist trembled.
'I should have been the one to abandon this family and my father.'
He is determined to become the most powerful in the empire for the sake of his first love, and then abandon this family in grace.
This was true revenge towards his father.
So, he gritted his teeth and endured all of his father's hellish training for several years.
‘Moreover, I had already given the Heir Sword to Erhan as payment for bringing the Black Crystal.’
But he couldn't accept being abandoned by the family first like this.
Anger rushed to his head.
'You bastard.'
His father's voice echoed in his head, as if mocking him.
He mercilessly threw the family's carefully arranged weapons and medals onto the ground.
crash!
After destroying the storage room, he immediately packed his bags and left the palace, then headed towards the riverbank.
It was where he met his first childhood love.
He leaned against the river bridge and sat down.
Tears gathered in his blue eyes.
'Don't cry.'
‘If you cry, you will lose to that damned father.’
He gritted his teeth and calmed himself down, then closed his eyes and tried to remember her.
But unfortunately, he couldn't remember it well.
He tried desperately to remember her, but the more he tried, the fainter the memory became.
He slowly opened his eyes in despair.
'Did it really exist in the first place?'
'He knows nothing about her face, name, or where she lives.'
'Wasn't it just an illusion created by his tortured little self?'
'And the 'Baby' attachment doll as well, didn't he buy it himself from somewhere and then delude himself that it was a gift from her?'
These were thoughts that came to him from time to time, but he avoided them for fear of admitting them.
But he could no longer escape.
His blue eyes twitched.
'If that's really the case, if it doesn't actually exist.'
'He would have no reason to become stronger in this world, nor any reason to live.'
He climbed onto the bridge, just like he did when he was a child.
The blue water of the river was flowing.
Then, someone's voice rang in his head.
'Axion, you're cool enough.
You've endured a lot so far.'
‘Why does Erhan boy’s voice come to my mind now?’
It was his words to him in the Demon Realm Cave.
It was a surprisingly warm and gentle voice.
A drop dripped.
A drop of tear ran down his face.
Soon the tears he had been holding down fell.
He wiped his face with his sleeve and sobbed.
'What would Erhan that boy say to me if he were here now?'
'I would like to meet him.'
He felt a strong urge, so he got off the bridge and headed toward the city.
He arrived at the city's central carriage station, asked the clerk where the Tringen fief was, then boarded a carriage and set off there.
After getting off the carriage, he wandered around the estate of Treingen.
Unlike his fiefdom, it was a small and simple place.
‘Is this the home of that boy Erhan?’
Even though it was his first time visiting this place, he felt a strange familiarity.
But suddenly, it started raining like crazy.
The sound of spray.
He asked the employee about a carriage heading to Triingen Palace, but the employee shook his head no.
“In such heavy rain, the river near the palace rises rapidly, and carriages cannot pass.”
“How long does it take to walk?”
Upon saying that, the employee waved his hand.
“Something bad might happen!
You might be swept away by the water current... young man!”
After he knew the way to Trengen Palace, he ran, taking in the heavy rain with his entire body.
He ran and kept running, driven by only one determination: to meet Erhan.
He didn't feel any cold at all.
•
Axion slowly opened his eyes in the Trengen family's reception room.
Despite all this running, he was eventually unable to meet Erhan.
But he felt disappointed and, at the same time, strangely relieved.
That's because his head became calmer once that intense desire that had driven him to come here subsided.
'What would he have said to him if he had met Erhan?'
'An awkward and confusing situation would certainly have occurred.'
'Fortunately, Erhan wasn't here.'
'But…'
He looked out of the corner of his eye at Elya, who was said to be Erhan's twin sister, and was sitting next to him.
The more he looked at her, the more he found that she looked exactly like Erhan.
Without knowing it, Erhan was coming to his mind again and again, making him feel a strange feeling.
He had a strong desire to talk about what he had been through and receive condolences.
At that moment, the Baroness entered the drawing room and told him.
“The carriage will arrive in an hour.”
"Understood."
He nodded.
Meanwhile, Illya looked at Axion who was sitting next to her awkwardly.
She didn't know why, but she felt very uncomfortable.
'Because of that look.'
His eyes had a sad look the whole time.
Just like before, whenever she looked into those eyes, she would constantly remember the blind boy, her first love in the past, whom she had met in the Ruppelt Fief.
“Take this with you.”
Ilya brought out an umbrella and a raincoat and handed them to him.
"decent."
“Take him with you.
If you can’t come back properly, my brother will get hurt.”
Axion responded sharply.
“Since Miss is worried about her brother day and night, it seems that she really likes to intimidate that boy.”
At his words, Illya also reacted sharply.
“He's my brother, isn't that normal?”
Then, Axion smiled faintly at her.
“Why are you smiling?”
"nothing."
Axion was silent for a moment, then continued.
“Actually, I like him too.”
"What?
What do you like?"
“I mean Erhan that boy.
I love Erhan too.”