“Did the negotiation go well?”
“…Judas.”
Suddenly, Eliya, who hugged me tightly, called my name in a cold voice.
‘…No way.’
Her expression while looking up at me was rigid.
She looked like she was mad, with a blank face.
I tensed up completely.
Soon, her red lips moved.
“Were you with a woman?”
“…Huh?”
“I smell a woman.”
She sniffed around my chest and neck area.
She looked like a cat smelling things.
‘Did she find out? But it doesn’t seem like it…’
Still, it’s not that different.
I was with someone related to that fact.
‘But what smell is she talking about…? I don’t smell anything.’
I hurriedly shook my head.
I felt guilty for lying, but there’s nothing I can do right now.
“How could that be?”
“Hmm…”
She pouted her lips and then snuggled back into my arms.
“Alright, hug me.”
I obediently put my arm around her shoulders.
Eliya then rubbed her head against my body for a long time.
With her haughty expression, she looked just like a cat marking its territory.
‘At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if she grew ears and a tail.’
After a while, she finally replied.
“The negotiation fell through. The emperor demanded the Sun Symbol.”
That darned Sun Symbol.
It’s the item I found for the final test.
If used, any wish can come true.
The condition is to use it alongside the ‘Fallen Star Fragment’ sealed in the underground catacombs.
‘I definitely remember using it, but I can’t recall what wish I made.’
“When I refused, the emperor said he couldn’t accept that either.”
“What does he want to do with the Sun Symbol?”
“I don’t know. At least it’s certain I can’t trust him.”
Speaking of which, before I was reincarnated, I had stolen information from the royal palace and found out about the Sun Symbol’s location.
So, the emperor was already aiming for the Sun Symbol.
‘…What does he want to do with it?’
Since I took it away, the emperor’s purpose became a mystery.
“Looks like war is coming again.”
“Are you worried?”
“I know you’re strong, but it can’t be helped.”
Feeling good about it, Eliya smiled brightly.
“It’s fine. This war will be over soon.”
Even though we’re about to fight head-on with the empire, Eliya didn’t seem nervous at all.
It’s not arrogance.
She’s strong enough to be like that.
So, it raises even more doubts.
The emperor must have realized Eliya’s power while watching the Bevel Family’s internal strife.
Yet, he still became hostile to her.
Is he that confident?
‘The emperor isn’t someone to take lightly, but he shouldn’t be able to handle Eliya.’
Or perhaps, he expects me to do something?
‘But that’s too ridiculous of a hope.’
“Judas.”
“Yes, miss.”
“……”
There’s no response after calling her.
I glanced down at her subtly.
For some reason, her face is red.
Her trembling eyes looked at me, then she glanced away and asked.
“…Did you not want to see me?”
“……”
“I wanted to see you.”
It’s only been a few hours.
Just the short time apart because of the private meeting with the Emperor.
Even normally, when training, I’m often away for about the same amount of time.
But voluntarily stepping back and being pulled away for work are indeed different.
Eliya looked at me with hopeful eyes.
‘If she’s this cute without any warning, it’s unfair…’
I wrapped my arms around her.
“Of course, I wanted to see you.”
“Hehe…”
It’s only been a few hours, but it’s true that I wanted to see her.
It’s almost absurd how mushy I feel.
It’s not just today.
Even when I’m away due to training, all I think about is wanting to finish and go meet Eliya.
‘…Today, it was a bit less because of that surprising news.’
By the way, is it really the right decision to keep that fact hidden from Eliya?
Maybe it’s better to just say it now…
“Judas.”
Eliya spoke cautiously.
“Last time, you asked where I was before going to the main house.”
“Yes. I remember.”
“I’m going to answer that, but there’s a place I want you to go with me.”
Her demeanor was pretty serious.
I don’t know what she wants to say, but I nodded.
“I can go anywhere.”
*
The place she took me to was a town called Gethsemane.
It was the final station of the train I passed during the last exam.
I almost recalled some memories of being here before.
‘Something feels… a bit strange even now. I don’t know why.’
This time, I didn’t take the train like that day.
We arrived in an instant thanks to Eliya’s teleportation.
We walked from Gethsemane.
Eliya pulled on my hand as she spoke.
“Before going to the main house, I lived hidden with my mom.”
“Hidden?”
“Yeah. Narcissi was trying to catch me. I didn’t know if they wanted to kill me or train me into obedience. I thought it was the former, but when we reached the main house it turned out to be the latter.”
“……”
“Anyway, before that, I was always with my mom. We lived near a little village in the woods.”
“Woods? Isn’t that dangerous? Wild animals might come out.”
“It was relatively peaceful around there. The only wild animals were probably just mountain rabbits or squirrels. Besides, people from the nearby village would often come to help us. I was even born in that village.”
“What a kind village.”
“……”
Eliya shut her mouth at my answer.
An awkward silence followed.
Did something happen in that village?
“…Yeah. It was a very kind place. I was always hiding behind my mom, so I don’t remember much.”
Little Eliya hiding behind her mom…
‘…That’s just too cute.’
I don’t know why, but when she was very young, it makes sense she’d be shy and stuff.
Anyway, what’s important is that she’s cute.
I almost feel sad that I can’t see it for myself.
It feels painful to be unable to do anything.
“I was doing well there. Probably, aside from now, it was the only time I was really human.”
Before we knew it, we had arrived at a small hill.
Eliya continued to lead me.
As we climbed the gentle slope, she spoke.
“But nothing lasts forever. One night, it was raining, and my mom said she had to go out for a bit. She told me to wait patiently, she’d be back soon. Then after a while, someone knocked on the door. I thought it was my mom, so I went out, but it wasn’t. It was a knight from the Bevel family.”
“……”
“Narcissi found me. My mom never came back that day, and I was dragged to the family home… It was pouring rain then.”
Whenever it rains, Eliya usually snuggles up to me a little deeper.
It’s been like that for five years.
These days, we share the same bed every night, but it wasn’t always like that a few weeks ago.
Sometimes we slept together, sometimes not.
But on rainy days, that has never changed.
She’d crawl under the blanket with me every day.
“Balak wasn’t there at that time, and I only found out much later that Narcissi had killed my mom through the Assassin Guild… Until then, I believed my mom would come back someday.”
Her sweet voice, as if asking if that didn’t sound foolish.
I couldn’t muster a single word in response.
“This area is where mom died. And on this hill…”
As we climbed the gentle slope, we reached a middle point of the low hill.
There was a grave there.
It’s hard to see due to the grass and fallen leaves covering it, but it was undoubtedly a tombstone.
“Mom is sleeping here on this hill.”
“……”
Eliya’s vulnerability, which I’ve been aware of for five years, always had her mother at its center.
She mumbled “mom” every time she fell asleep.
Now, Eliya is trying to reveal her most precious and fragile part to me.
That means she trusts and relies on me that much.
‘…Is it right to keep hiding it?’
The fact that I’m Eliya’s assassin.
It constantly weighs on my mind.
I know it doesn’t need to be said.
It’s objectively true.
But human relationships don’t always operate objectively or rationally.
If they did, we wouldn’t be holding hands like this.
‘Since nothing has happened, maybe it’s better just to come clean…’
Eliya boldly approached the gravestone, pulling my hand along.
She brushed off the leaves covering the tombstone and said,
“This is my mom. Judas.”
As the dried leaves fell, the name inscribed on the gravestone was revealed.
‘…Huh?’
I know that name.
My body froze in place.
‘Could it be what Yurideke was trying to tell me earlier…?’
It overlaps with the documents I saw at the Assassin Guild.
‘The first target of the mission…. Maria….’
[Maria. Resting in peace here.]
‘And that mission was marked as successful….’
Eliya gently caressed the gravestone.
“It’s been a long time, mom.”
“……”
Eliya was saying something quietly to the gravestone.
“Did you have a good time?”
“How have you been?”
“I killed Balak, and Narcissi is dead.”
“And how about the rest of the Bevel Family, that sort of stuff?”
Everything sounded distant and faint.
My heart was pounding like crazy.
Cold sweat was dripping from my whole body.
My mind was in complete chaos.
Among that mess, a few clues poked sharply at my nerves.
The Empire and Molsin Church.
Assassin. Training.
Eliya. And Maria.
“And, the man I brought here….”
Eliya looked up at me.
I stared down at her, frozen.
It’s terrifying to look.
Beyond terrifying, it’s just horrific.
The situation itself is.
But Eliya seemed to interpret my tension as something else.
She smiled shyly and said,
“Judas, do you remember what you asked me a long time ago? What you mean to me?”
I suppressed my trembling breath to respond.
“…I remember. Yes.”
“You answered that I’m yours.”
She laughed playfully.
I smiled back.
I don’t know if I smiled properly.
“And a few days ago, you were curious again? If it’s not a metaphor of a pet, what am I to you?”
“…Yes. That was the case.”
It was when Eliya suddenly fed me.
Of course, I remember.
It seemed like she was about to answer that now.
She approached softly.
Wrapping her arms around my neck, she looked into my eyes.
With trembling hands, I wrapped my arms around her waist.
Her red lips.
Slowly moving.
At this moment, of all times.
“You are my world, my universe, the only color I have left, and my acknowledged weakness.”
“…….”
“Please stay as my weakness in the future too.”
A brief silence.
The dim afternoon.
The mountainside is a little dark.
Her sparkling red eyes below me seem like the only sun here.
Filled with fluttering emotions, they shine brightly.
I can’t tell how my eyes look while I’m looking at her.
She seemed to want to say something, then buried her face against my chest.
Was she changing the subject, or did she confess with a trembling voice?
“I really, really like you, Judas.”
I organized the undeniable fact swirling in my head into a sentence.
I am an assassin raised to kill Eliya.
I grew up in the Assassin Guild as part of my training.
In my first mission, I killed Eliya’s biological mother, Maria.
And Eliya ended up liking me.
A lot.
The more horrifying fact is.
That I also feel the same.
“…….”
I couldn’t answer her confession directly.
What should I say?
In a fleeting moment, numerous answers floated up and sank.
As my response was delayed, Eliya hugged my waist tighter.
She was waiting for my answer.
“…….”
In a garden of Gethsemane.
In front of Maria’s grave, I confirmed Eliya’s feelings.
I also uncovered truths I didn’t want to know, and I replied to her.
“I….”
