127 – Jealousy Jealousy Jealousy
The words spoken by the Spirit Mother were astonishing.
“Can you really move in an instant?”
[By using the Spirit’s Gate, one can arrive in the human empire in the blink of an eye.]
As the Spirit King explained, Lily’s eyes sparkled.
[But in order to do so… I must first go meet my children.]
At those words, Lian remembered the spirits who had escaped with the knights.
“Come to think of it, we should have met them earlier… Where did they all go?”
As if answering Lian’s question, the Spirit King spoke.
[…As I taught them, they are hiding and staying silent in the forest. Unless another spirit directly opens the path, they cannot be found.]
As her words ended, the vast forest next to the wide road trembled. It twisted like a forest made of hallucinations, moving here and there. The trees quickly receded to the sides, and the dense grass that had stood tall turned its head and made way for the road.
As if the forest was calling them, those who were watching with awe and shedding tears of admiration all closed their mouths and stared at the forest in a daze.
“Now, let’s go.”
The Spirit King floated up in the air and moved forward. Noah hurriedly led the group, following behind her.
***
As she said, they were able to meet the knights and spirits inside the forest path. Almost a hundred spirits flew around, and the entire group stared in awe, their mouths agape, capturing the extraordinary scene.
“…! I’m glad you’re safe!”
The knight approached Lian with a moved expression and greeted her. Lian immediately introduced him to the others. At first, those who were cautious quickly relaxed their expressions at Lian’s introduction.
“…Huh?”
He, who had been smiling gracefully with a knightly expression, suddenly looked as if he had been struck on the back of his head as he gazed at Iris.
“Huh?”
His gaze began to alternate between Lian and Iris. The two of them had quite similar faces.
When looked at individually, they didn’t resemble each other at all, but they both had such gentle appearances that no one could object to them being siblings. It was even more apparent because their hair and eye colors were the same.
However, Iris had a slightly duller shade in her hair, a residue of the dark power Lian had used when he died once in the past. Even though it was dull, it had only turned to a light silver color, so it would appear white if not compared to Lian’s hair.
“Why, why both… both of them?”
Regardless of how it happened, for a knight, the situation of having two direct descendants of a duke present was nothing but confusion.
While he was still in a state of confusion, the Spirit King spoke in a calm voice.
[Fortunately, the area is overflowing with the power of spirits, so we can open the Spirit Gate right away.]
With a desire to leave the unpleasant place as soon as possible, she returned to her original form to open the Spirit Gate. The gazes of Lily and Nero, who were explaining the situation to the bewildered group, immediately turned towards the Spirit King. Following them, the gazes of the other members of the group also turned towards the Spirit King.
[Now, then…]
“Huh?!”
The Spirit King playfully laughed and embraced Lian’s shoulders once again. Lian could only awkwardly lean against her… no, against her chest.
“Gasp…”
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“Wow…”
Some people let out sighs of admiration and envy.
“As expected of Lord Lian… even the Spirit King is captivated by his irresistible charm…”
The followers praised Lian as the savior who captivated even the Spirit King with his irresistible charm. Just as there is a saying about the hero’s color, the talent to captivate beautiful women was an essential skill for a hero.
“Twice…”
Iris narrowed her eyes, drew her sword again, and Noa unconsciously looked down at his own chest before belatedly coming to his senses and blushing deeply.
“Do you like it, Jiwoo? Should I do it too?”
Jess approached Lian stealthily, tilting his head and revealing what he held beneath his chest. Just as Lian’s mind was about to drift to Andromeda, the Spirit King uttered words that sounded like an incomprehensible song to humans.
Swoosh.
With the sound of a light breeze blowing at night, a sudden door appeared in the air, like a moon that had just risen.
[If you keep it open for too long, the energy of the forest will scatter, so we must move quickly.]
After speaking, the Spirit King lightly waved his hand in the air.
Thud.
Then, the tightly closed door opened gently. Beyond the door, it revealed a completely different scenery from the forest where they stood, as if it was a door that led anywhere. Without any hesitation, the Spirit King embraced Lian and headed straight into the door.
“Uh? I, I’ll go first!”
Lian belatedly bid farewell and crossed over to the other side of the door. Jess naturally followed behind Lian, and Iris, with a dangerous expression on her face, followed them like a hunter chasing its prey.
“Indeed… Lian must be Your Highness’s descendant.”
The knight looked at Iris’s distorted expression and came to a conclusion, but then immediately thought of Your Highness’s angry face and became confused again.
“Oh, no? Perhaps the other one resembles Your Highness more…?”
The duke’s character was not one that could be called kind even with empty words, so it seemed that the knight’s confusion would only grow longer.
“Everyone, move quickly!”
Noah, who quickly regained his senses like a leader, lined up the group and led them through the door. The spirits playfully laughed, as if they were excited, as they flew over the heads of the humans and passed through the door.
And so, as everyone passed through the door of the spirits,
Creak, thump.
The door of the spirits disappeared naturally. However, no one paid any attention to it.
“Wow…”
“Where are we?”
The vibrant flowers and green leaves were so beautiful that they exuded an awe-inspiring vitality. Those who had grown up in the land of death were enchanted.
***
“When I was captured by the strange research facility, I thought I was really done for.”
“It turned out to be quite the opposite.”
As time passed, at the evening campsite.
The gathered individuals were happily engaged in conversation. Normally, they would have been alert, keeping an eye on their surroundings with wide-open eyes. But now, there was no need for that.
“I never imagined we would be able to move to the Empire in an instant.”
“No one can believe it. The idea that we moved to the Empire in an instant through the Spirit Gate.”
That’s right. They had moved to the Empire in an instant through the Spirit Gate. It was truly a situation where the saying “we used up all our luck” was fitting.
The forest, where cute rabbits hopped around instead of monsters, was so similar to the “paradise” they had imagined. Having lived in such a dreadful place, even an ordinary forest felt that way.
In such an atmosphere, there was someone nervously trembling.
“What should I do?”
It was Sir Pantone, the knight of the Duke’s family. When he realized that he had returned to the land of the Empire, the thought that this was the guidance of the gods naturally came to his mind.
It was a golden opportunity to safely bring back the missing descendants of His Highness. But a problem had arisen.
“Who exactly are His Highness’s descendants?”
Lian, who seemed to be different from his lineage even though he had grown up as a commoner, possessed dignity, grace, and even kindness… and Iris, who strangely resembled His Highness’s stern atmosphere.
The knight couldn’t tell which of the two was the descendant of His Highness. Because of that, he couldn’t easily bring up the topic of heading towards the Duke’s family.
“Indeed, it’s Lian… but… hmm…”
As the knight mumbled while sipping his soup, a small hand suddenly pushed against him.
“Hyung-ah, eat this if you’re tired.”
“Hmm? No, it’s okay-“
“I have something that Nuna gave me, so it’s okay.”
A young child, barely 10 years old, sat next to his look-alike sister, with only the length of their hair setting them apart. He smiled brightly, resembling her as if they were twins.
Kugukung!
“…!”
A bolt of lightning struck the knight’s mind.
‘…! If there was more than one? If they were twin siblings, everything would make sense!’
Both Lian and Iris had faces that showed traces of youth, but they possessed heights that were no less than those of adults, having gone through the second stage of development.
Although Lian exuded a more mature atmosphere and had a stronger image as an older brother, aside from that, they looked like similar-aged peers. This only deepened the knight’s confusion.
‘Immediately, I must send a message to the Duke.’
It was impossible to send a message through the air from a forest somewhere in the empire, so there was no absurd situation of him rushing out in excitement. However, his eyes sparkled like stars.
At that moment, Lian found himself in a difficult situation.
“He’s my older brother.”
“…”
Iris narrowed her eyes and glared at Noah. She became more guarded as he approached, getting closer to Lian, who was separated from her.
Noah awkwardly smiled and stood up, holding his soup bowl.
“If it’s uncomfortable, I’ll go eat over there.”
“Huh? No, Noah, eat here.”
Although Iris’s eyes were saying “go away,” her words were ordinary, which caught Lian off guard when Noah suddenly got up from his seat.
“No, I have something to talk to Lily about. Enjoy your meal.”
“Ah, umm.”
As Noah left his seat and approached Lily, she sighed and spoke.
“Just have a meal with your brother there and come back. Why did you come here?”
“…Well….”
Noah sighed and wiped his face with his empty hand.
“How do I tell her that I got jealous seeing my younger sister?”
No matter how much they are the same woman, Iris is Ryan’s younger sister. It doesn’t make sense to be jealous. Despite knowing this, Noah let out a small moan of jealousy that shot up unexpectedly. His ears turned red with embarrassment.
