“Huh? Why?”
“Only those with permission may enter. My apologies.”
“But I’m a guest too, I—”
Da-on’s expression darkened as he was about to argue with the soldier. Right. I’m not with the delegation.
A glance at the soldier’s face showed it was quite stubborn. No matter how he begged and fussed, it didn’t look like he’d let him in.
There are so many people — how do they pick me out and stop only me? They don’t even seem to have entrance passes. Da-on stuck out his lips and obediently stepped back.
“How petty.”
In a country with more gold than water, how stingy. At best I’d have gone in and grabbed some food.
One jewel from the piles lying around would sell for a meal’s worth, easy.
Anyway, creeps with weird rumors have their reasons.’ Da-on cursed the unknown emperor — vicious and even cheap — and turned his steps.
Turning his steps didn’t mean leaving the banquet hall, of course. This was a festival, after all. He couldn’t just hole up in his room. Da-on crinkled his nose and smiled playfully.
The moment he was out of the soldier’s sight, he circled around the banquet hall. He was looking for a hole to slip through.
Da-on’s steps started hopeful but slowed as time went on.
Why is security so tight?!’
He couldn’t find a single gap. How many soldiers had they mobilized for the festival? Every one of them was burly — no way he was getting through.
Things weren’t going as planned, and Da-on kicked the ground with empty kicks. He didn’t have anything else to do, but he was annoyed at wasting time.
Well, the more evil things you do, the more you worry about your own safety. If you’re the kind who treats human life like feathers, keeping security on emergency twenty-four hours wouldn’t be strange.
Maybe I should just go back. Just as Da-on, seized by regret, was trudging along, he suddenly stopped.
“Huh?”
A breathtakingly beautiful melody flowed into his ears. Da-on stood rooted and raised his head in surprise.
The melody was clearly coming from inside the banquet hall. The banquet hall was surrounded by a low wall under two meters high, and above it was completely open, so the music came through clearly.
Da-on opened his eyes wide and carefully approached a pillar of the banquet hall. Lifting his heels and looking over the low wall between the pillars, he saw the feast in full swing inside.
Guests from all kinds of countries, mouth-watering food, a beautiful melody that would pull you into ecstasy if you just listened. It was the ideal festival scene.
Da-on, staring blankly inside as if entranced, darted his eyes busily around.
Who’s playing that?
All he wanted now was to find out where the music that had seized his eardrums was coming from. The music fit his taste so shockingly well.
Thanks to the banquet hall’s layout, finding the player wasn’t hard.
In one corner of the banquet hall, a group of musicians was performing in practiced harmony. Among them, the deep string instrument firmly and softly supporting the melody especially caught his ear.
Da-on strained, even hanging off the low wall, to observe the musicians closely. What kind of instrument is that? After watching them for a long time, he finally found the source of the sound.
“Wow…”
Da-on found the player and let out an exclamation without realizing it.
A little girl, half Da-on’s height, was spinning her bow with a sparkling smile. Her skill with the string instrument was unbelievably deft for her age.
The string instrument, covered in all sorts of decorations, looked heavy at a glance. It wasn’t held in the hands or leaned against the body — it was played set down on the floor.
The instrument was so big that the girl had to practically dance and fly around on top of it to play.
Could a person’s playing itself be art? If someone asked, Da-on would answer “Yes.” without hesitation. That was how magnetic the child’s performance was.
Oblivious to his aching arms, Da-on was stealing the music when a shadow fell behind him.
“They said thieving cats are on the rise. Looks like one’s gotten into the palace.”
A low, unhurried voice came without warning. A voice that made his chest chill.
“Eek!”
Da-on flinched at the voice suddenly speaking from behind. His elbow jerked, and his hands slipped from the low wall he’d been gripping. His body tilted backward.
“U-uh, aaah?!”
He hadn’t been hanging that high, but he was falling toward the back of his head, so it was quite dangerous.
Da-on flailed in the air and squeezed his eyes shut. After the sensation of tipping backward, he waited for the pain to follow.
But just before Da-on tipped over completely, a bronze arm firmly caught his waist.
“My mistake. For a cat, your balance is terrible.” At Da-on’s eyelids, which he’d squeezed shut, a smooth voice spoke.
Da-on nearly bit his tongue in surprise when he opened his eyes.
An enormous frame, overall dark skin, long, slightly wavy deep-golden hair, and above all the eyes. Red irises, like the sun blazing over the desert, seized Da-on’s gaze at once. All sorts of ornaments hung lavishly on the man’s body, but his face was so beautiful he couldn’t care less about them.
How can a person look like this?
When Da-on froze and only his lips moved, the man smiled mischievously, wrinkling the bridge of his nose.
“How long are you planning to stay in my arms?”
At his question, Da-on’s gaze dropped. The man’s body was pressed against him without a gap.
“Eek! I’m sorry!”
Da-on jumped back and pushed at the man’s chest. I’ve lost my mind. And it’s a guy with the same equipment as me!
His still-startled heart was pounding. Da-on stepped back a couple of paces, then looked at the man again.
The man was wearing the commonly seen Quantaran clothes. A countryman working at the palace? He didn’t look like an attendant, though.
He didn’t want to predict someone’s status from their looks, but the man exuded a particular arrogance and ease. To Da-on’s judgment, his bearing suited a noble better than an attendant.
The man brushed off his wrinkled clothes and held out a hand to Da-on.
“Pleased to meet you. Call me Atar.”
Da-on retracted all his guesses as he looked at the hand held out to him. The man’s hand was covered in old scars. No matter how generously you looked at it, you couldn’t call it a nobleman’s hand. He did manual labor.
“Ah, yeees. Ata—”
Da-on, used to ape-like guys from his all-boys schools, stammered at Atar’s ticklish manner of speech.
Forgetting even the basic principle of introducing himself after hearing the other’s name, Da-on hurriedly took Atar’s hand.
Atar held back a laugh at the tense Da-on, then tilted his head slightly. The way his lips curled and his eyes twitched felt unreal.
“What’s so funny that you’re peeking at the banquet hall? It’s just a feast held every day with a lot of outsiders — nothing special.”
When Atar tilted his head, the golden hair draped over his shoulder rolled smoothly. As the hair moved, the long-jeweled chain hanging over it swayed. Da-on, who had blanked out for a moment, hurriedly pulled his hand away.
“I-I’ve never been to a banquet before!” Da-on said, covering his heated neck with both hands.
At Atar’s eyes, a glint of something flickered and faded as he watched the fidgeting Da-on.
“Really?”
“Yes. And the music is so good…” At Da-on’s hesitant honesty, Atar’s expression brightened.
“That was it. No wonder you were so spellbound.”
Atar lifted his chin to look beyond the wall. With an unreadable expression, he watched the musicians closely, then asked casually.
“It’s a fine day for romance. So, which musician caught your eye?”
“Huhhh?!”
Da-on gasped. The tone sounded like he was digging into his love life.
The one he’d been staring at, hanging off the wall, was a child half his size. It couldn’t be romance, and it mustn’t be. Da-on shook his head hard.
“It’s not like that. I liked the song, not the person!” He did like the child performing as if possessed too, but saying that would only invite misunderstanding, so he held his tongue.
Atar raised an eyebrow as if surprised.
“Didn’t know you enjoyed music.”
Atar, who seemed to think about something for a moment, moved his body.
Atar’s hand dropped onto Da-on’s shoulder. At the strong grip, Da-on’s body was dragged along.
Atar pulled Da-on close to the wall and leaned his head against the snow-white wall. Da-on, bewildered, tilted his head after Atar.
Atar lowered his eyes and quietly looked down at Da-on.
“It’s a piece composed by a past imperial family member. I don’t remember the exact title, but we call this symphony ‘Corax’s Sorrow.’ Sorry, I don’t know much about music.”
“Corax… aha.”
“He seems quite taken with it.”
Da-on slurred the unfamiliar name. The red eyes roamed him slowly, as if Da-on were interesting.
Embarrassed by the gaze, Da-on clasped his hands together and stood crookedly.
The moment of receiving the gaze felt terribly long. Atar didn’t stop staring, even knowing Da-on was uncomfortable.
Just as an awkward air was wrapping around them, rumble! The tactless stomach made a loud noise. Because he’d only been fed thin gruel while lying sick with body aches, he was hungry.
Da-on hurriedly grabbed his empty belly and pressed his lips tight. Of all times. His cheeks burned with shame.
“Ahahaha!”
Atar, eyes wide, burst out laughing. At the laughter full of genuine amusement, Da-on furrowed his brow.
“Have you never seen a hungry person…”
Atar, unable to stop laughing for a long while for whatever was so funny, wiped his tears and said,
“You must be very hungry?”
“Well… a little?”
When Da-on said with a scrunched nose, Atar lifted the corners of his mouth coolly.
“Good. Wait just a moment.”
After saying that with a shrug, Atar left Da-on alone in the empty corridor.
Da-on leaned his back against the wall with a strange expression. Was he going to bring food? Then there was no reason not to wait.
With nothing else to do, Da-on listened to the sounds leaking from the banquet hall. Music and people’s laughter blended together. A noise that would make you feel a little lonely if you just listened.
Emptying his thoughts, Da-on was staring blankly into space when he suddenly felt déjà vu.
It was quite a large festival, so many people had gathered outside the banquet hall too. Hadn’t he passed quite a crowd on his way here?
‘But why is there no one here?’
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