Youngest 075
by Cristae75
“……”
“You were here this morning, too.”
“Did she fall asleep?”
Khalid’s reply was unrelated.
“If you’re that curious, you might as well have gone in.”
“…It’s fine.”
The boy answered coolly, folding his arms.
He looked, surprisingly, quite natural standing among the knights.
“…I don’t deserve to.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I’ll keep watch here.”
He spoke with resolve, turning his gaze away from Leviathan in a final way.
That stubborn resolve made it clear he wouldn’t say more.
‘All our little ones are certainly stubborn, each and every one.’
Seeing that expression, Leviathan realized sending him away now would be pointless… He gestured subtly to another knight standing nearby.
It meant to find the right moment to lead him away. The knight nodded minutely.
The couple headed up the stairs to where the bedchambers were.
Rosetta could no longer hold back.
“Who is that child?”
“Ruby’s friend.”
“Friend?”
Hmm. Seeing his wife’s eyes narrow, Leviathan asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Rubian’s boy-friend…”
Rosetta quietly stroked her chin.
To Leviathan, the word ‘friend’ lingered with emphasis, but to her, well…
Why was it? Her attention kept sticking to the ‘boy’ more than to ‘friend.’
“Rose, that look in your eyes… it’s a bit scary right now.”
“It’s just your imagination.”
She smiled sweetly, moonlight softly settling over her face.
Leviathan gazed at her as if mesmerized.
Come to think of it… it had been such a long time since he’d been alone with his wife. So many things had happened, and he hadn’t even properly welcomed her home.
“But what’s that you’ve been holding since earlier?”
He reached to take her hand, glancing at it.
“Oh, this?”
Rosetta opened her palm to reveal an adorable hairpin topped with a strawberry.
“I saw it on the nightstand and took it without thinking…”
As he watched her idly play with the pin, complicated feelings welled inside Leviathan.
“I’m sorry.”
“All of a sudden?”
“That room.”
“…”
“I opened it as I pleased, without even asking you.”
Rosetta was silent.
Exactly when, where, and why she’d bought that pin—she remembered as clearly as if it were yesterday.
Even down to the thinnest ribbon inside that eastern room, she and Leviathan had chosen every piece together.
“You apologize for everything at this point.”
“…”
“You did well. I would have done the same. It suited Rubian perfectly.”
She didn’t know how Rubian had come to wear the pin, but in truth, she was glad it had happened.
“And actually, I meant to talk to you about it when I got back from the south. That room… I think it’s time we let it go.”
“Rosetta.”
“We can’t live forever bound to painful memories. Oh, but of course, I don’t mean our baby was a painful memory!”
At her anxious addendum, Leviathan nodded.
“I know.”
“I just think we…”
A gentle spring breeze drifted through the half-open window. Its scent was warm, soothing—like a comforting hand.
“We’ve mourned long enough, I think.”
The man’s violet eyes flashed with unmistakable pain.
But it wasn’t as sharp as before. Instead, an equally great love held steady beside it.
‘It’s thanks to Rubian. That your pain’s eased.’
Rosetta gave a faint smile.
She’d thought nothing could ever fill up that gaping pit of loss.
But there was Liam, and there was Void, and by some miracle, Rubian had come to them, too.
No wound hurts forever.
“Yes… It’s already been ten years.”
Leviathan murmured.
“Maybe, as you say, we really have finished grieving.”
Though scars remained, he was no longer caught in the shadows of the past. Everyday life with Rubian had become, for him, the most precious time of healing.
“When we go back to Zelox, let’s visit the memorial together.”
He said it with a calm resolve. Rosetta shot him a look askance.
“…She may be angry with us for not coming sooner, you know.”
“I’ll have to beg for forgiveness, no matter what.”
Rosetta laughed softly and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You know… Leviathan.”
“Yes.”
“I really do adore Rubian. Isn’t it strange? We haven’t even known her that long.”
She remembered Rubian crying in the cabin, crushed by the weight of her secret. The memory made her chest tighten.
“If Rubian wants it, that room… I want to give it to her.”
Rosetta said this, sniffling a little.
“I agree.”
“I picked out everything in there for someone especially sweet and lovely. Honestly, it always felt like a waste just to pack it up again.”
“I know.”
“Levi.”
Rosetta called him again, resting her head against his chest.
“I’m so happy to have a daughter now…”
As the words came pouring out, Leviathan nodded heavily. The two held each other, sharing their warmth, comforting one another in silence.
“Why do you keep crying? You never used to, before.”
“I know, right?”
Rosetta pulled away, her eyes red as a rabbit’s.
“You used to be the one who cried more often…”
“Did I ever—”
“Don’t you remember? When I agreed to your confession, you cried. You even teared up when you proposed…”
“Don’t say things like that.”
Unable to listen any longer, Leviathan gathered her up in his arms.
He pressed a kiss to her lips and whispered,
“I never cried. Though, somehow, you always made me want to.”
“You always try to get your way physically when you’re at a disadvantage.”
Leviathan paused in his trail of kisses across her face.
“By the way, how’s your health?”
“You’re the only husband who worries so much about his wife. Maybe it’s time you stopped treating me like glass…”
“Ah, right.”
Hmph.
A strange smile tugged at Rosetta’s lips, and she realized all too late.
“M-maybe I’m not feeling so well after all?”
“Too late for that.”
His long stride covered the distance to their bedroom in moments.
Rosetta clung hurriedly to his neck.
“W-what are you doing? Your eyes are scaring me, my lord.”
“You said yourself I should act, not talk, when at a disadvantage.”
“That’s not what I mea—”
“I understand. I’ll be good at it.”
The bedroom door closed with a thud. Before Rosetta could protest, his long lashes brushed against hers.
This time, she was thoroughly defeated.
Khalid looked around frantically.
That day, at Zevert Hot Springs.
“Ruby! Where did you go?”
He’d been wandering nearby, and when the rain started to fall, he’d rushed back with an umbrella. But Rubian was gone.
He tried again and again to connect with Rubian’s magic circuit, but she did not answer. An old, familiar anxiety crawled up his legs.
“No way…”
Standing there on the damp earth, the boy’s arms dropped to his sides.
“She left me behind again, didn’t she?”
The realization hit, making the ground sway beneath his feet.
He staggered a little. He’d tracked down Rubian after losing contact with her in the Canalran Gorge.
Had he done something wrong?
Did Rubian… did she start to hate him?
‘My mana…’
Khalid clenched his fists tight.
He had a vast reservoir of magical power inside.
But whenever he lost control like this—some unfamiliar force, lurking in the depths, would raise its head.
A power even Rubian didn’t know about, lying deep at the bottom of his soul.
‘I can’t talk to Rubian in this state.’
His original mana and a muddy, foreign magic mixed together.
Quickly, his energy turned heavy, murky, corrupted.
‘This kind of power doesn’t suit Rubian…’
The boy took deep breaths and raised his head.
“Calm down. I have to find her.”
Yes. I’ll look for her again. I’ll use Allen of the mercenaries again… And send animals searching all across the continent.
If I’m abandoned a hundred times, I just have to find her a hundred and one.
But even as he resolved, his magic trembled, surging at its own wild pace.
“Ah, please.”
Khalid bent double, struggling for breath.
The bracelet around his wrist grew hot. The magic tool, meant to bind his powers, was barely coping—his mana tangled and thrashed, on the verge of spiraling out of control.
‘The price for touching a human soul is cruel indeed.’
A voice spoke from somewhere.
‘Will you surrender endless memory so easily?’
What was that voice?
He clutched his forehead, staggering.