IDIBC Chapter 12

Male God, Ayphnetis

“So when you’re hungry and you see a feast, wouldn’t you naturally crave those foods? I’ve been stuck in this remote corner of the capital territory for a very long time, so I haven’t had the chance to see men—especially such a handsome man.”

“So you’re saying I’m delicious food right now?”

“W-well, for example, yes.”

I pressed down on my pounding heart and looked straight into his eyes.

“So you’re saying you want to eat me?”

“Yes.”

The truth.

“You mean you’d like anyone as long as they’re handsome?”

“That’s right.”

This was also the truth.

Just then, the high-quality carriage lurched with a clatter. It meant we had entered rough terrain.

“You’d want to eat anyone you came to like?”

“Of course.”

The question was strange, but in any case, my answer to this question was also the truth.

To enter Resotia, one must pass by cliffs so tall you have to crane your neck completely back to see the top. The people of Resotia at that time carved hundreds of elaborate temples, tombs, and the faces of gods on the surface of those cliffs.

Those forms were so beautiful that it is said the founding Emperor Wesley Schneider was unable to move from beneath them for quite some time.

Though the content is unknown, the legend that he received a millennial oracle at that time is still believed.

The buildings were mainly carved in relief in the center of the cliffs, and their functional perfection and splendor as architecture continue to greatly influence Dermeier architectural style to this day.

That’s why most of Dermeier’s palaces have dazzling and magnificent facades, delicately carved columns, and correspondingly grand lintels.

I swept aside the curtain that half-covered the carriage window with my hand and said:

“Do you see that?”

At my fingertips was Ayphnetis, the god famous for his beauty. He looked back and forth between the beautiful male god and me, then chuckled.

“So what? Are you saying you like that god now?”

“Yes, that’s right. If that god were human, I would have liked Ayphnetis just as much as I like you, Your Grace.”

This too was undoubtedly the truth.

“Ha!”

He laughed as if absurd and shook his head. Crossing his arms and sinking deep into his seat, he closed his eyes firmly.

“Fine, do as you please. As I said yesterday, no matter what you do, you’re mine anyway.”

“What kind of unreasonable statement is that…”

“Because it’s certain that you’re the facilitator of my manifestation.”

Having ended the conversation with words that put me in a strange mood, he didn’t open his closed eyes until nightfall, as if he had no intention of talking further.

Ricardo with his eyes closed gave off a completely different atmosphere from when his eyes were open.

He was harmless. In many ways.

He didn’t seem to be sleeping, but he showed no signs of opening his eyes, so I openly admired his face. He was a human so devastatingly beautiful that even Ayphnetis, the male god of beauty, would weep.

As he said, I liked him. But it was a limited emotion that I only felt when our eyes met.

This vivid and intense emotion had naturally arisen from the moment I first met him. However, after Ricardo left, I realized something: when he wasn’t visible, I could bear it.

****

I couldn’t close my gaping mouth at the amazing sight I was seeing for the first time.

“Wow.”

So it was true that Dermeier’s buildings were influenced by Resotia’s architectural style.

The carved buildings I had seen on Resotia’s cliffs spread magnificently before my eyes.

The grace of the lines belonged to Resotia, but the scale was tremendous.

The dazzling facade of the mansion formed an overall symmetry due to the delicately carved white columns.

However, not a single detail was the same anywhere. It was massive yet sharp, seemingly curved yet pointed. It felt exactly like Ricardo himself.

Walking through the corridor, I stretched my neck out and looked carefully all the way to the ceiling, as if on a tour.

‘As expected, it’s impressive. Being an imperial ducal house.’

Then I made eye contact with Ricardo, who was staring at me as if looking at some strange creature. I pretended to be nonchalant, stretching my neck this way and that.

After passing through the corridor, a forest appeared again.

‘Ah, this isn’t a forest, it’s a garden.’

Though it was as massive as a forest, the way the trees and flowers harmonized showed the touch of a skilled gardener. The path also extended straight as a promenade. It was a road large and straight enough for carriages to travel on.

“Originally, it’s not a path for walking.”

“Ah…”

“I thought you’d be sick of carriages.”

While we traveled to the Empire together, Ricardo looked after me knowingly and unknowingly. Except for the first day, he didn’t ride in the same carriage as me. I wasn’t unaware that this too was his consideration.

He had become such a courteous and well-mannered noble gentleman that it was hard to recall the sharp and sensitive Ricardo of the past.

Moreover, his words weren’t wrong. I was sick of carriages. Though we stayed at lords’ castles here and there, we had ridden continuously in carriages for who knows how many days.

“The weather is nice too.”

As Ricardo said, the sky was clear. Looking around, there were plenty of beautiful flowers blooming whose names I vaguely couldn’t quite remember. They said it was mild all year round, and I could feel that with my whole body. What was the name of that flower again…

Just then, Ricardo raised both hands and swept back his hair.

With that one motion, the relaxed atmosphere completely changed to something sharp.

“I’ve been thinking.”

My head automatically turned at the sharp voice, different from just moments before.

“Seven years ago, what you said about me coming to save you.”

“Ah…”

Listening to his low voice while looking around the garden, a memory suddenly came back. The name of the flowers that had now dyed the entire field white and red was cyclamen.

“I think it’s possible that I did. Though I don’t remember, the emotions might have remained.”

I left his voice in a distant place and let my gaze rest on the flowers blooming abundantly beside me.

Every flower has a legend. Cyclamen also had a legend as sad as it was beautiful. A flower that feels noble yet somehow lonely—from that flower grave, a subtle fragrance that naturally makes you close your eyes wafted.

“But how long can an emotion without memory last?”

Cyclamen was the most beautiful and good-natured among the spring fairies. The god especially loved such a cyclamen.

“So it’s nothing.”

But the world was cruel to her. Her young lover betrayed Cyclamen and whispered love with the goddess of the stream.

“Don’t attach meaning to that incident either.”

Sending Ricardo’s words not to attach meaning away on the wind, I thought of Cyclamen’s feelings. As if representing her feelings of having her lover stolen by the goddess of the stream, cyclamen’s flower language is jealousy and love that has passed away.

“But Your Grace.”

At my calm address, Ricardo’s steps stopped abruptly. For the first time, I stood facing him of my own will and met his eyes completely.

Thump-thump, I didn’t know what reason had started the emotion that made my heart beat without context every time I met his eyes. But I thought that harboring feelings for someone was never something to be ashamed of.

“Are you certain those words were meant for me?”

“What… do you mean by that?”

“I wondered if they weren’t words you wanted to say to yourself.”

His lips pressed tightly together. His ash-gray eyes, whose emotions were unreadable, rippled for a moment, then his masculine Adam’s apple rose and fell once.

“You’re right, Your Grace. You need not remember that incident, nor is there any reason to attach meaning to it.”

“…”

“As you said, what emotions could dwell in something you don’t even remember?”

Even if cyclamen’s flower language is love that has passed away, the flower is still beautiful. Even if her young lover betrayed her, as long as she doesn’t allow herself to be hurt, no one can hurt her.

“It’s just my memory and my emotion. So you don’t need to worry about the meaning that incident holds for me.”

Ricardo’s tightly closed lips moved slightly, but no answer ultimately came out. I smiled even more cheerfully for no reason.

“Let’s go. People are waiting.”

Quite a lot of them, too.

At the end of the garden path, there were—no exaggeration—what must have been a hundred people who had come out to welcome him.

Only then did the fact that I was about to enter the greatest of the Empire’s three great ducal houses become reality.

For a moment, my heart shrank, wondering if I had spoken too presumptuously to this Empire’s top predator.

Glancing around unnecessarily, I exhaled deeply and straightened my body.

I entered the Fennel house at age five and received no education until age twelve. After that, Fennel fell into ruin and I lived a life like that of a maid.

My very existence would be alien to this house, so my position was clear.

I would fulfill what Ricardo wanted and return to my home as soon as possible.

As my goal became clear, my steps gained strength.

****

It had already been three days since I entered this massive ducal residence.

“Sigh…”

With a frustrated heart, I went out alone for a walk in the rear garden. Whether there was any urgent reason for me to come to the ducal house, after confining me to a luxurious room, Ricardo didn’t look for me.

Fortunately, I could move around the mansion without guards or attendants. That was quite fortunate, but…

Walking through this place that I couldn’t tell if it was a house or a village, I got lost.

I was sure I heard the sound of blacksmiths striking iron…

“Ah, whatever. If I keep walking, I’ll eventually see a familiar path.”