Chapter 3 Part 11: The Last Sound of Sand

Where does misfortune begin?

Rudan stood blankly in the place of his oldest memories.

Between the crumbling, empty buildings, dust and trash rolled along the ground, and a musty odor permeated the air.

People who didn’t even have a roof over their heads gathered in these empty buildings.

The windows were broken here and there, letting in cold drafts in winter, and when it rained, water dripped from the ceiling.

But even that was only because the owners of this place hadn’t yet decided to tear the buildings down or fix them up.

Meaning they could be kicked out at any moment, depending on someone’s whim.

What fool would invest in a street where even those with a single coin in their pocket were starting to avoid it?

Yet even in such an unstable place, there were those who were marginalized.

‘Monster!’

The shouts of other children pointing fingers still seemed to echo in his ears.

As a child, he would wrap himself in a thin blanket and fall asleep curled up on streets like this.

The blanket wasn’t even a proper one—it was something someone had used until worn out and discarded, so its condition was terrible.

The threadbare cloth was far too thin to provide any warmth.

But even that was better than nothing……

“Did you want to come back?”

Rudan asked himself.

In those days when just surviving the day was everything, he’d never felt such a heartbreaking emotion.

He’d been too preoccupied with not starving to death.

“No, I don’t want to come back.”

Now that survival was no longer a worry, he could reflect on these foolish feelings.

The person who had taken him out of this place.

To the one he owed a lifetime of gratitude, he’d developed inappropriate feelings—and was now despairing because they weren’t returned.

“Rudan.”

Abaddon appeared before Rudan, who stood with a precarious expression.

The face he missed most, yet wanted to see least.

“What are you doing here?”

Rudan wasn’t cold-hearted enough to treat harshly the man who had crossed the world’s gate to find him.

Precisely because he was someone Rudan cared about.

“I was…… thinking.”

At the gentle voice, the man listened.

“About where things started going wrong.”

“You distrust me that much?

I told you I genuinely care for you.”

A lump rose in his throat.

Love comes with irrational anger and resentment, so sometimes even a casual remark from the other person can make you tremble as if stabbed by a knife.

“You genuinely care for me, of course.

Because I can fulfill your long-held wish.”

“…….”

“But what about when I’ve served my purpose?

After you’ve achieved everything you want, will I still be someone you care for, Lord Abaddon?”

The man fell silent, as if struck where it hurt.

The longer the silence stretched, the more disappointment dripped from Rudan’s face.

“I…….”

After a long pause, the man spoke with difficulty.

“You thought I’d abandon you after absorbing Imera and taking control of the Tower?”

“……Even if you don’t abandon me, you won’t seek me out like you do now.”

Abaddon pressed his forehead and stared at the ground with a heavy sigh.

What on earth had I been thinking of you?

His rare stammering and helpless fluster only brought light back to Rudan’s eyes.

This much, at least, might be real.

“I’ll prove it.”

“……Pardon?”

“That you’re essential to me.

That we’ll never grow distant.

I’ll prove it in a visible form.”

Rudan blinked rapidly, staring at Abaddon.

Could a heart truly be turned into something tangible?

“So you promise too.

That you’ll stay by my side forever—and that even if you leave, you’ll always come back to me.”

It was a heavy promise, like a shackle.

But Rudan nodded as if spellbound.

Now, he felt he could place his final hope in him.

***

“Hmm…….”

For three days—no, I couldn’t keep track of the exact number of days since I’d lost all sense of time.

Anyway, the man who had relentlessly tormented me for an impossibly long time, far beyond any normal limit—

“Is this okay now?”

—was sitting me on his lap and giving me a massage.

I was getting shoulder rubs from this bastard that I’d never even received from that white-haired brat who only ever talked about filial piety.

‘I thought I was going to die…….’

When I came to in the bathroom, he was kneading my entire body like dough.

I was startled and asked what he was doing, and he said my body had suddenly stiffened and he thought something was wrong.

In my opinion, I’d probably been on the verge of death, and he’d somehow revived me.

Doing it while I was awake, while I was asleep, without stopping for a single moment—how had I not died from overexertion?

The funny thing was, even with his pale, startled face, the thing pressing against my buttocks from this position showed no signs of cooling down.

I casually slipped off his lap and sat beside him, propping my legs up over his knees.

“Try rubbing my calves instead.”

The guilty man kept his mouth shut and moved his hands.

I half-lounged comfortably, feeling the tension in my muscles release.

‘You should have acted like this from the start.’

If Rudan had been just a little more audacious, it wouldn’t have been so hard to see through this man’s true feelings.

“Um, about the amulet.”

“What about it?”

“Can’t you replace it with another one?”

The deduction process was simple.

Ezekiel had said Abaddon’s amulet was special.

He’d made it sound like he couldn’t receive magical power without intercourse, and true to that, Abaddon had thrown himself at me greedily to fill his depleted magical power.

But throughout that seemingly endless act, he’d never kept his hand on the tattoo for long.

He’d stroked it and kissed it to heighten sensation hundreds of times, but those were brief touches—hardly enough for a magical power transfer.

Besides, unlike other wizards, he wore no accessories.

I’d been able to observe him closely over the past few days, as he’d been only in a robe or naked—there wasn’t a single tattoo on his flawlessly sculpted body.

“Do you want me to change it?”

Abaddon asked with a gloomy face.

“No, I was just a little curious.”

Moreover, Rudan wasn’t the only Absorption-type wizard.

Though Rudan could supply exceptionally large amounts of magical power thanks to Secreta’s blessing, in an emergency, he could have borrowed from other wizards.

“What were you planning to do if I never came back here?”

There must have been a reason he couldn’t.

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“……Hmm, let me rephrase.

What if I died before you?

What were you planning to do then?”

“Do you think I’d let you die?”

“No, it’s just a hypothetical.

Don’t overthink it—just answer.”

Abaddon pressed his lips together and seemed to consider it.

As if he’d never even thought about it before.

“There’s no way around it.

I explained it thoroughly when I implanted the amulet in my body.

In exchange for more freedom in wielding power, I’d become unable to receive magical power from any Absorption-type wizard other than you.”

Right.

I figured it would be something like this.

“An Emission-type wizard who can’t use magic can no longer be called a wizard—they’d just become a very long-lived human.”

“Then what happens to Nieta?”

“Nieta would need a new ruler.”

After answering each question diligently, Abaddon took his hands off my calves and frowned.

“Do you really want to continue this unpleasant conversation that will never happen?”

“No, this is enough.”

I slowly raised my limp, beaten body.

As I prepared to leave in my robe, Abaddon no longer held me back.

“I’ve learned well that some people are more foolish than I ever imagined.”

Whatever the beginning, if Abaddon had felt nothing for Rudan, he wouldn’t have made such a choice.

Either they’d both felt something and failed to notice, or even Abaddon himself still didn’t understand his own feelings.

What kind of person would mortgage their entire life to someone they’d only picked up to use?

“What a headache.”

The ambiguity of their relationship had been nagging at me, but now that I understood, it felt refreshing.

The problem was—

‘How long will he keep thinking I’m Rudan?’

Even Ezekiel, who hadn’t had that much contact with me, had noticed right away.

Shouldn’t this one have figured it out even sooner?

And that wasn’t the only thing bothering me.

“Hmm…….”

My encounters with Gideon hadn’t been long, and Killian had only watched from a distance using tools, so he probably hadn’t examined my body closely.

Though there had been something odd during that “maintenance” he did.

But having had this much skin-to-skin contact for so long—could Abaddon really have failed to notice Rudan’s pregnancy?

‘I’ll have to watch him closely.’

After all, I’d be stuck here for the time being.

If I concluded he was the culprit, that would just mean I’d found who to beat up sooner.

As I walked down the long corridor, organizing my thoughts, I felt a strange emptiness.

‘Maybe it’s because I lost a useful tool.’

Not that I had time to dwell on it.

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