May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 26.2
After discovering his true identity, Elizer no longer called Helena his mother. Yet to Helena, Elizer was still like her own child.
“Do not say such things again.”
She only wished that Elizer would have no part in the cruel struggle for the throne.
But it seemed as if the wheels of fate had already begun to turn, and no current could be stopped.
Before long, Elizer accidentally gained a reputation as the strongest swordsman in the north. At the age of eighteen, he finally became the knight of Prince Cassian, a position he had long desired.
When Elizer left the Percy household with Martin, Helena did not appear to see them off.
The youngest, Maria, who had accompanied the two brothers, comforted Elizer, who kept glancing toward the stairs.
“Do not worry too much about Mother.”
The third child, Maiel, who had started working in the forge, gifted them a sword made by his master.
“One day, I will give you a sword I make myself.”
Thomas rode alongside them until the Percy estate ended, seeing them off. From the rough touch that silently patted his shoulder, Elizer could feel the weight of affection.
In the end, he could not put down roots in the Percy household, and he could not call Thomas his father. Yet his childhood was far from unhappy.
***
Elizer did not remember Cassian’s face. It had already been ten years and one year since he had left Elmaril, so it was natural.
However, he clearly remembered Cassian’s glossy black hair and how remarkably kindly he had smiled at him.
Still, worry outweighed excitement.
When Elizer once wrote to Cassian that he wanted to become his knight, Cassian sent a reply faster than ever.
It was not a welcoming response. It was closer to one of exasperation.
The letter ended with words saying it was Elizer’s choice, leaving everything up to him, but the unexpected reaction embarrassed Elizer.
‘Perhaps a bastard daring to become a prince’s knight was too presumptuous.’
Suddenly losing his confidence, Elizer fell into a period of doubt.
Meanwhile, news arrived that Cassian had suddenly been sent to Ibella, at the southern edge. Everyone kept quiet, but there was no one unaware that he had been forced out of the capital because he married a princess of a vassal state rather than the Duke of Dazbel’s daughter.
Cassian was in danger.
Elizer gathered his courage once more. Just as Cassian had protected him as a child, now it was his turn to protect Cassian.
And so, when he reunited with Cassian in a foreign land…
“My goodness. My little dog has grown so big.”
“…It is an honor to see you, Prince.”
“So you no longer call me Cassian?”
He was still playful, like a boy.
“Prince, back then…”
“Welcome.”
He remained kind. Elizer felt that all his earlier worries were foolish.
It was also then that he first met Cassian’s wife, Priscilla.
“Nice to meet you, Sir. I am Priscilla.”
She was kind even to her husband’s half-brother.
In truth, she was not the only one. In relatively freer Ibella, the fact that Elizer was the king’s illegitimate son was not much of a problem. He could live not as a royal bastard, but as the prince’s knight.
“Yes, today, you will watch my back, Sir.”
The knight closest to Cassian was still Noel Briere, but Cassian often relieved him of duty and left Elizer in his place.
Each time, teasing him to call Cassian like he did when he was a child, Elizer suddenly asked.
“Prince, why did you look after a nameless bastard every day?”
Cassian smiled broadly.
“After my mother passed, I was lonely in the royal palace. Meeting you brought me joy.”
He patted Elizer’s shoulder and added,
“This time, you have come to find me. Thank you.”
Elizer thought he had made the right choice in returning to Cassian. He would not regret this decision in the least.
It was exactly half a year before he met Priscilla.
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