He knew everything without having to look. Even with his eyes closed, he was able to see through the deepest recesses of anyone’s mind, like reaching into a pool of water. That’s one of the reasons why he didn’t care to notice people’s faces.
“But I’m telling you, I’m resistant to poison. Gosh, Honey.”
The voice that rang in his ears was like a clear bell, and it was an unfamiliar sound. He continuously tried to make sense of this situation, which was immensely far from the ordinary, however it wasn’t a problem that could be rationalized.
For a moment, he thought.
Was he dreaming right now? How else could this possibly happen?
When his thoughts concluded with this, a disbelieving chuckle slipped through his lips.
Then the woman, who was the cause of all this chaos within him, just tilted her head to the side as she looked into his eyes.
“Do you not like the nickname, Honey?”
It wasn’t about the nickname. That’s not what’s important right now.
“What about Darling then?”
The only thing that filled his eyes was the sight of her face, which resembled the look of an excited baby sparrow. It was as if his entire world consisted only of her—Reina was all that he could see.
Glass-like eyes that glimmered.
Luscious lips that opened and closed.
That gap between two beautifully arched eyebrows, which narrowed and widened.
Two soft cheeks, like freshly baked bread, that were slightly puffed one second, then back to normal the next.
Before he knew it, he began to admire her colorful expressions as he leaned against the railing.
Was a human being’s face originally this expressive?
He traced his memory and tried to recall a different example, but unfortunately, he couldn’t think of anything. As if he was a child who had first opened his eyes to the world and saw his mother’s bright smile first, there became ‘nothing’ before Reina’s expression.
“Then how about ‘my love’?”
Whether or not she knew about the turmoil that was going on inside of him, Reina was busy rambling on. Then, his ingrained habit once again reared its head before he could stop it.
“So it’s true that the cause of all kinds of illnesses is liquor.”
“What do you mean illness? The only illness I have is a fever— a fever brought upon by my love for you.”
What was going on here, why couldn’t he hear anything from Reina, and what was this strange feeling that was surging within him? He tried to ask these questions to himself, but he didn’t have the answers to them.
Inevitably, he turned away from her.
He decided to get out of here for now. And he had to calmly assess this situation first before anything else.
“You must be tired. Go ahead inside first, my love.”
As he took those steps, he gradually widened the distance between them. Then, the noise that he was so used to began to return.
‘What did they talk about for such a long time?’
‘His Excellency and Reina Chantra never met before this though, so why?’
‘What’s wrong with Ethan’s expression…? What happened! I wanna know!’
Right. His world was originally this vociferous. This was the only normalcy he had ever known.
* * *
“Reina Chantra, you say?”
“Yes.”
Benedict slowly closed his eyes and opened them once more.
“You can’t hear? That’s impossible. It’s clearly something that can’t be done, but it was done so simply?”
If these two people weren’t the ones Ethan was talking to right now, they wouldn’t have been able to detect the subtly bewildered tone of his voice as he said,
“I could hear her thoughts before. I’m sure of it.”
In fact, he never really cared about her before, so he couldn’t really recall what kind of thoughts she had.
However, since he acknowledged her presence only now, it meant that she was no different than others before this.
“I can’t hear her thoughts anymore.”
Instead, he could hear only her clear voice.
“Argh!”
“…What’s wrong?”
“Why is the world so dark?”
“The sun is out right now.”
“Ahh…! Every time you blink, my love, the darkness comes back. I think the sun is hidden behind my love’s gaze.”
Then, she proceeded to ask if he was hiding the sun from her.
He wondered how she could say such words so easily. They were close to blasphemy at this point.
As Ethan recalled Reina’s recent acts, Ethan burst into laughter.
Enoch, who was staring at Ethan, opened his lips to speak quietly.
“So there’s someone who’s like Rosé.”
Benedict blinked rapidly for a moment. Unlike Benedict’s reaction, there was a wry smile on Enoch’s lips, with an expression that seemed to say how he thought everything was dull and bothersome.
“This is the first time for me,” Ethan said.
Enoch and Benedict knew what kind of turmoil of emotions was going on beneath Ethan’s calm exterior.
He was probably very flustered. And uncomfortable. But soon he would be curious, and then…
Enoch and Benedict’s gazes met in the air. With one corner of his lips slightly raised, Benedict looked back at Ethan again.
“They come out every now and again. Those kinds of people.”
He placed one elbow upon the armrest of his seat, then he rested his chin on his hand. He spoke casually.
“You were born as a human being, yet couldn’t be a human being. However, your life will soon change.”
A tempest of emotions went rampant within Ethan.
Life as a human being.
“……”
Right. If he were to be honest with himself, there was once a time when he desperately wished to live as a normal human being. But then again, it was so long ago that he no longer had any lingering attachment to that kind of wish.
Certainly, that’s what he thought.
However… His conviction was changing, little by little.
“Maybe so.”
“It’ll be quite fun, Ethan. Who knows, maybe it’s the start of change.”
A voice that seemed to carry the sentiment of fun, but at the same time a hint of regret. A voice that seemed to hint at missing the other person, and at the same time the slight feeling of sadness. This voice rang in Ethan’s ear.
Yes, Benedict was right. At first, he felt uncomfortable, but then these days, he wasn’t all too sure if he still felt that way. To be honest, it’s true that he was experiencing ‘fun’ because of her.
In a distant memory, he recalled what it meant to have ‘fun’. How many times had he tried to not say it before.
At this point, he couldn’t deny it anymore.
She was someone who seemed to enjoy everything there was in this world. And for someone like him, who could see only black and white until now, she was bringing color to his world little by little.
All she needed to do was let him hear her voice, to let him stand in front of her so that he would no longer be disturbed by anything else. Because of this, he was now able to watch and admire a person’s facial expressions as they changed every moment.
And,
She, who was already bringing such changes to his life, was surprising him once again.
“It’s the same with things that cause people’s illnesses. You can’t even guess what it is at all because it’s so small that it’s not visible, and it’s something called a pathogen… Well, that is to say, it’s something very small. And it causes people to be ill.”