← The Doomed Mercenary’s Last Chance
Chapter 205
The corridor scenery melted away like paint, and a different scene appeared instead.
It was a wooden building bearing traces of long years. The inside wasn’t large but was well kept. Asad realized from the statues placed inside that this was a prayer house. In small villages, no temples came in, so there was one such prayer house each.
In the prayer house — so cramped by Asad’s standards that not even a bug could live in it —someone was already there. A black-haired man, presumably the owner of this wish.
The moment he saw that back, Asad’s indifferent expression changed.
No way…
The man was absorbed in prayer, as if he couldn’t feel the gaze watching him. Without opening his mouth, the man’s wish flowed naturally into his mind.
Kinain had said not every person’s wish reached the divine realm. Only wishes earnest and desperate enough to cross the boundary of worlds came to him.
This wish was such a one. Earnestly, desperately, the man prayed. His wish was not to save his own life that would soon end, nor to clear his unjust name.
The man only earnestly prayed for someone’s happiness.
The man who’d finished his short prayer rose. And from his bosom he took something out and set it before the statues.
It was a gold button. To this man, dressed in utterly shabby clothes, it must be a precious thing. But he set it down without a shred of regret.
“Take this, and please grant this wish too.” Asad’s eyes watching the man were already red and bloodshot.
The man had a corpse-pale face. The black eyes that had once been full of life had lost their light, and he was so thin his cheeks were hollow. You could tell from his outward appearance alone how much pain the man was enduring.
And yet this man’s wish was not for himself. Only worry for the one who would be left behind when he departed.
‘Why are you…’
Asad reached out a trembling hand. He wanted to embrace this pitiful man. But Asad’s hand passed through the man instead of touching him. As if to say you can neither embrace this man nor save him.
Something hot surged up in his chest. Asad clenched his fists and looked at the man with a contorted face. Even if his body were torn into ten thousand pieces, it would not be as painful as this.
—Asad.
Just then a warm hand swept his cheek, wiping his tears. Kinain, with long hair falling to his waist, was looking at Asad. Perhaps because of the eyes holding a hard yet warm light. Clearly the same person, yet he looked like a different person from the man wasting away.
—Over there.
Kinain gestured with his eyes toward the button before the statues. Asad understood his meaning and reached out.
Perhaps because it was an offering dedicated to a god? Unlike when he’d passed through the man, this time he could grasp the button.
The man, gazing at the statues with an exhausted face, seemed to have seen it too. The man turned to look back with a surprised face. But Kinain waved his hand, and white light burst forth so nothing could be seen.
Before slipping out, Asad heard Kinain’s voice.
“Your wish will come true.”
Strong certainty was carried in those words. Enough to reassure even a trembling listener. That man surely must have been too.
Soon the light faded and the bedroom came into view again. Asad realized the orb he’d been holding was gone. Instead he was gripping something. Spreading his palm, it was the gold button, as expected.
Staring blankly at it, Asad murmured.
“How is this.”
Was all of this really just an illusion he’d created?
If not, then…
Asad raised his head. There was much he wanted to ask Kinain.
But Kinain was not alone.
Beside Kinain stood a silver-haired man, glancing at Asad with cold eyes.
Kinain summed up the situation simply.
“My husband’s back.”
The ‘husband’ had a face exactly like a copy of Asad’s. Only, just as this Kinain seemed a bit more playful and relaxed than the other Kinain, the husband’s atmosphere was also a bit different. He still had a cold air, but the sharp edge was gone, replaced by a detached air.
The ‘husband’ opened his mouth.
“I’d forgotten about this day for a while, it’s so long ago.” Those words weren’t directed at Asad. The silver-haired man turned his whole body fully toward Kinain, as if when had he ever looked at Asad. Though his atmosphere had changed, in the past or the future, his attitude — as if only Kinain existed in this world — seemed unchanged.
“I wonder if some power intervened… but anyway, I suddenly remembered this morning and came back, and indeed it was here.”
“So it was an inevitable flow.”
Kinain nodded as if he understood everything with those words.
“Good. I was worried this incident might change the past and alter the future. But if it was inevitable, that won’t happen.”
Only then did Asad realize that Kinain, despite his calm act, had been worrying inwardly a great deal.
Kinain sighed as if relieved.
“Honestly, I even imagined living with both of you. Even as a god… I was worried two would be too much to handle.”
“That won’t happen. Two cannot exist in the same time period, so now that we’ve met like this, the one who doesn’t belong to this time period will soon be expelled.”
Just as the silver-haired man said. When Asad suddenly looked down, he saw his feet turning transparent.
The time had come for Asad to leave this thing, illusion or whatever it was.
Asad approached Kinain and handed over what he held in his hand.
“Then… this is not an illusion?”
“Well.”
Kinain, who’d received the gold button, smiled faintly.
“One thing’s certain, though. That my wish did come true in the end.” Kinain gazed at it quietly.
“Until I ascended to the divine realm, I believed what I’d seen that day was a god. But after ascending to the divine realm and realizing no god could interfere with the mortal world, I thought that day’s event was an illusion or dream I’d made up. After that I forgot it completely… but it wasn’t a dream.” The words were close to muttering to no one.
At last Kinain raised his head.
“Asad, I think it’s really time for you to go now.”
By now even the hand that had handed Kinain the button had turned transparent. The speed of turning transparent was quickening. There was no mistaking that little time remained.
Asad gripped the transparent hand tightly.
If all of this was real.
“Kinain, answer me.”
Then there was something he wanted to ask before disappearing like this.
“In the future, will I not make things hard for you? Will no problems arise, no danger? That we’ve come to the divine realm means an heir was born — is your body all right?” If he knew a problem in advance, he could prevent it. But Kinain shook his head.
“Sorry, I don’t think I can tell you all that.”
“Anything is fine. Even one thing, please tell me.” When Asad earnestly begged, hesitation crossed the face of Kinain, who was weak to him. But he wasn’t sure whether it was okay to say.
Kinain looked back at his husband. The one who had already lived through it all.
Kinain, as if reading his mind, slowly nodded his head.
“Don’t worry. Important information that could change the future will be forgotten anyway. I myself didn’t properly recall this day until this moment. So say what you want to say.” Only then did Kinain let his heart rest and tell the one thing he’d wanted to say.
Hearing Kinain’s words, Asad’s eyes widened.
“That… is it true?”
“Of course.”
Kinain rose on tiptoe and cupped Asad’s cheeks with his hands. He looked at his lover with warm eyes.
“Asad, I don’t know what you’ll forget and what you’ll remember. But even apart from today’s events, you already know, don’t you. What awaits us in the future.”
A dragon’s first wish is absolute.
‘Please make Asad happy.’
Everyone here knew that that wish had come true.
“So don’t worry too much.” Soft lips descended on the turning-transparent lips.
“Goodbye, Asad.”
“And…”
“…”
He wanted to hear the rest, but couldn’t.
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