Chapter 70: The call I never answered.

It was clear they followed me. To meet me somewhere other than the shop. They didn’t seem to have shaken off the Alpha who was their accomplice either.

Leaning deep into the seat so my face wouldn’t be seen through the window was a reflexive action.

I tried to think about what that guy’s intention might be, but my heated head interfered. A headache spread like stabbing pain. I lowered my head to hide my expression.

Then the sound of knocking on the carriage window was heard. I bit the inside of my mouth. Until the taste of blood lingered in my mouth. The greater pain made me forget the headache for a moment.

Being careful so my face couldn’t be seen from outside, I lifted the window slightly upward. A small hand threw a note through the gap and disappeared.

The edge of the note that fell on my lap was stained with jet-black shoe polish. If it’s a child polishing shoes in this area, it must be Sammy’s gang.

I picked up the note slowly. Only after taking several deep breaths did my body stabilize again. I turned the watch alarm back on, which I had turned off. Only then did I unfold the note delivered by the scammer and check the content.

“I was a friend of your father during university. I have also met you when you were young, but it seems you don’t remember, unfortunately. I was very glad to see you grown up well, but I can’t help feeling sorry that you seem to be living without knowing your true identity.

I am also very curious about how my friend, Lux Splend, is doing. It would be good if he is doing well, but it pains my heart that the probability seems very low.

There is so much we need to share with each other, but since we cannot speak freely where there are other ears, isn’t this also a very unfortunate thing? Please know that the story you need to hear is that important.

Please understand that I don’t have much time. I cannot wait very long.”

The story was long-winded, but it was a note without a name or contact information. Looking out the window again, the guy gave me an eye greeting, then turned and entered an alley. As if telling me to follow him right now.

It was exactly the scammer’s method of rushing without giving time to think.

Me in my childhood that I don’t remember, my father’s name I didn’t know either, my true identity. Words a Beta dreaming of a better life couldn’t help but be tempted by.

There were also many incomprehensible secrets in my body. Which cannot be explained just by saying I have talent.

Does that guy really know the reason?

Getting off the carriage standing on the congested road wasn’t difficult at all. But instead of opening the door to go out, I opened the window leading to the coachman’s seat.

“What is the matter?”

The person looking back belongs to the Coachman Association, someone I see often when requesting a carriage, but.

“I know you are someone sent by the Duke.”

It was also true that he was a person protecting me by the King’s Brother’s order. He was the person who inherited the role Ian played in the mansion.

At this moment when I cannot trust my judgment, the only person I can trust eventually was him, Philius.

If I am really not an ordinary Beta, it could become a problem for him too. I realized anew that we are already entangled in many parts. That my resolution not to get closer was nothing more than deceiving myself. That was deception.

The coachman seemed to be saying something, but I couldn’t hear properly. Fever started rising again. Intraocular pressure also increased, causing tears to well up for no reason.

“There is another person, right? In the alley, an Alpha. Dangerous. Catch him, right now.”

My head was dizzy. I was at the point where I didn’t even know if I was speaking properly.

The moment I felt like fainting, crack, the watch on my wrist broke. Blood formed where fragments splashed. Thanks to that, I could hold onto my consciousness even for a moment.

I twisted the unsightly distorted Blue Lake watch face even more. The hidden board was revealed. Instinctively, I brought my hand to the blackened contaminated crystal and diamond.

The person who contaminated these gems is probably me. Maybe. No, definitely.

But the person who engraved the magic circle on the gems was the King’s Brother. His mana, his pheromones were contained in here. Only the thought that I must absorb it, just that I must, rose clearly in my confused mind.

Through my fingertips, his traces entered me. With relief, my vision blurred.

****

Flashy lights were seen. It was a fantasy shown by a dream, which could be called familiar now. Another me in it was emptying glasses consecutively.

“Hey, stop drinking! Can you even go home?”

Someone grabbed my hand lifting the glass. Although I can’t say we are close friends, he was one of the group I hang out with when coming to the club.

“Home? Where do I have a home?”

“Why are you like this? Young master of a rich family.”

“What rich family young master. When was it that all that went to my brother?”

“What, you were broke?”

The guy’s eyes scanning me up and down, dressed only in luxury goods from past seasons, were full of suspicion. Disgust also clearly existed in them. It seemed he thought I was a child from a well-off family but felt deceived. It must have been a moment when he felt the time spent with me was wasted.

There was nothing to blame the guy for. I, who hung out with such a group, was the same after all.

Right, this dream now is also something Han Jay actually experienced in the past.

It seemed the influence of contamination caused by me was greater than the magical power left by the King’s Brother. The dream was showing ‘me,’ not him.

Twenty years old, having come out in the worst way, I was kicked out of the house immediately. Since it was expected and I had prepared somewhat, my life didn’t become impoverished immediately. My brother also gave me the money he had saved. His face quitting graduate school looked quite relieved. Even while saying he was just getting cursed at by our father, the president, right now, he couldn’t hide his joyful mood. I thought it all worked out well enough. Since father wouldn’t live without seeing me forever anyway.

But my brother asked me, ‘Can’t you change?’ He meant everything would be okay if only I changed. In the house obtained with the money my brother gave, I felt humiliation and was angry. I shouted asking how my brother could do this to me. I ran out of that house immediately.

After that, my brother called me occasionally, but I didn’t answer. Even without the house my brother got for me, it was still livable. Although I sometimes became anxious due to the time spent working as an instructor at an art academy, I endured with spite.

That year, I failed to get admission from the school I prepared to study abroad at. Embarrassment came before frustration. Because I failed after talking big. I also used lack of time as an excuse.

I enlisted in the military to find a way to spend time legally, and although not the worst, it was a decision that could be the second worst. For a little less than 2 years, I spent time worrying constantly that my hands might stiffen. Whenever I had a chance, I drew anything anywhere.

In the year I was discharged, I gave up on entrance exams altogether with the excuse that I couldn’t loosen my stiff hands completely, but the real reason was that the portfolio I barely completed on time wasn’t satisfying at all. Because it was obvious I would fail anyway.

Only in the next year did I succeed in holding the admission letter from the university I aimed for. RISD. Although it was a high-ranking school called the Harvard of art, still, I thought I could pass on the first try. The result obtained only after several attempts seemed to tell me the fact that I wasn’t a genius, but still, I was happy. Enough to call my brother first.

‘Uh, right, congratulations. Uh…, see you soon, soon. But are you still, um…, no, never mind. See you later.’

But my brother had a flustered voice, and I was disappointed again. Until the very day before departure, I lived drowning in alcohol every day hanging out with kids as trivial as me.

“Hey, this brother treats today. Drink to your heart’s content!”

At my bluffing words, some clapped and some booed.

“What brother. What nonsense.”

When the guy who tried to stop me retorted sullenly, I giggled and laughed.

“Indeed, what brother.”

“Uh oh, this bastard seems sulky? Hey hey, call him big brother once.”

What was so fun, I just kept laughing without distinguishing mockery properly.

“Right, since it will be hard to see this big brother’s face for a while, call it to your heart’s content today.”

Music booming inside the club, and loud laughter overcoming it. What filled my ears was just enjoyable things. The music designated as the ringtone for family wasn’t like that.

“Hey, Han Jay. How about that one? Isn’t he your type?”

“Well, not bad.”

“I knew it. I called him. Call me or him big brother, you punk.”

No matter how much I shouted to answer the phone right now, otherwise you will regret it for the rest of your life, it didn’t reach Han Jay in the dream.

The phone call that night was to convey the accident of my family. Mother and brother died instantly at the scene, but father survived for a few more hours after that. I had missed even the chance to say a last goodbye to my father.

I learned later that the destination of the family trip was Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The reason they tried to go there, which isn’t particularly a famous tourist spot, was because it’s where the university I would attend is located.

It was a stupid surprise plan of my brother. Planning to go before me and welcome me there. By persuading father who was reluctant.

That night, I heard father repeated only one word. Even while suffering the same pain I probably experienced, the word he repeated was my name.

I had never received upright love from my father. He was always coercive and sometimes violent. He was just stingy in expressing affection. I was always thirsty for affection I couldn’t feel.

I missed the last chance to receive father’s affection while indulging in trivial pleasure.

The moment I heard father left calling only my name, I regretted everything I did. I regretted the greed I harbored. That weight crushed me.

I wanted to turn it back if I could, but I couldn’t. Everything was already over.

Even in the dream, I couldn’t hear my name called by father. Because it’s an irreversible past already gone.

After the constantly ringing phone sound receded, what was perceived by my senses again was the scent of the forest.

A hollow laugh came out. What unfolded before my open eyes was a familiar landscape. I escaped from the dream, but I was still in another dream.

The forest embodying the King’s Brother’s pheromones.

The moment I tried to close my eyes again, wind blew, a very strong wind.

The wind gathered the scattered scents and delivered them to me.

Another harmonious scent created by mixing various scents seemed to speak to me. Not to run away. Not to use the past as an excuse anymore.

That if I let this time flow as is too, only another past to regret will be created.

Not to lose the present fearing loss that will come someday.

It seemed to whisper not to pretend not to know this beautiful forest scent. With his voice, desperately.

Constantly calling my name.

I inhaled deeply. When the forest scent filled my lungs, I took a step forward.

Splash, I fell into deep water.

I swam with all my might toward the surface where sunlight was visible.

It was the moment when the surface, sparkling like scattered gems, was about to touch my fingertips. My body couldn’t move forward as if caught by something.

Looking down, I saw a long chain. It was something already expected. Also the appearance of the person holding the end of it.

Although it was a thick chain impossible to break with bare hands, still I struggled. Until fingertips were skinned and ankles scratched, spreading red blood in the lake. Until all the forest air filling me escaped.

But I couldn’t escape.

When my body, having the surface right in front of my eyes, began to sink again, I eventually closed my eyes.

And.

“Jay.”

I heard the King’s Brother’s voice. I also thought I heard the sound of someone falling into the water.

“Jay.”

It was really him. He appeared in my dream, in front of me again.