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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Harrison Side Story 1
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Ever since learning my father's secret, I had been tormented by guilt.
Whether eating, closing my eyes, or even breathing.
Everything felt sinful.
* * *
When Harrison was ten years old, he came down with an inexplicable illness.
He collapsed suddenly, and an indescribable pain spread throughout his body.
He suffered from constant nagging pain, and the intermittent bursts of agony were so excruciating that he thought death might be preferable.
It happened in an instant that he could no longer walk on his own.
It wasn't long before he struggled to swallow food.
"We can't identify the cause."
"This is the first illness unresponsive to holy power."
"There's no magical remedy either."
He consulted physicians, priests, and mages alike.
Everyone with medical knowledge examined him, but they all said there was no cure.
"His life won't last much longer. It would be best to let him recuperate in a place with fresh air."
With that final advice, all hope vanished.
Harrison retreated to the estate and spent his days confined to his bed.
The illness worsened at a terrifying speed.
'I don't want to die.'
Harrison felt wronged.
He was still so young.
He had so many things he wanted to do.
He hated this reality of suffering every day.
Yet he couldn't voice his frustration.
Because it would only sadden his father more.
"It doesn't hurt as much today."
He pretended to be fine like this.
It was then, as he awaited the day of his death.
His father, who had gone to the capital and returned in the dead of night, woke him.
"Harrison, get up and take this."
"Father? What is it at this hour..."
"We'll talk later. Just take this. This time, you'll definitely get better."
In a daze, Harrison took the medicine his father offered.
He sensed something odd in his father's demeanor, but Father's expression was so grave that he obeyed without question.
With so little life left.
He wanted to at least ease his father's heart.
But the medicine's effect was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Harrison's illness vanished completely.
"It's a miracle!"
The priest tending to him cried out in astonishment.
'I'm really alive.'
His chest swelled with emotion, tears threatening to spill.
"Father, they say I'm all better."
"Yes, thank goodness. Truly thank goodness."
On the day he received the full recovery diagnosis.
His father hugged him and wept for a long time.
Back then, Harrison thought his father was simply crying from joy.
After all, Harrison himself was so overjoyed that tears flowed freely.
Having endured such severe illness, Harrison felt profound gratitude for life.
He resolved to live more diligently, cherishing every meaningful moment.
But while Harrison felt this way, his father began to waste away.
"Father, are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
"You seem unwell."
"No. I rushed to the capital and back, so I'm just tired. I need some rest."
At first, Harrison believed his father's excuses.
He was someone more worthy of respect and trust than anyone.
But Father grew visibly frailer with each passing day.
He seemed burdened by a heavy weight on his heart, lost in melancholy at every turn.
"Father. What's going on?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. Are you feeling all right? Your body has fully recovered, hasn't it?"
"Yes. Ever since taking the medicine you brought, all my symptoms disappeared. Thank you. Where on earth did you get such a medicine?"
Hoping to cheer him up, Harrison answered brightly.
But Father's face filled with consternation.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them, his expression steeped in anguish.
"Father?"
Before Harrison could react, Father pulled him into a fierce embrace.
"Yes, that's enough. As long as you're better. As long as you live your life in health."
Harrison could do nothing as Father's voice broke with sobs.
He felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
'If I press further, Father might truly break...'
He couldn't bring himself to ask.
Father's condition, which he hoped would improve with time, only deteriorated day by day.
At some point, Father began seeking alcohol.
What started as a drink or two at night to fend off sleeplessness quickly turned into drinking until he passed out.
Harrison woke several times at night to the sound of movement and found Father drinking alone.
"Father, you've had too much. How about cutting back a little?"
"Leave me be. Please, just leave me be."
He suggested reducing the alcohol, but Father wouldn't listen.
Father looked as if he would die from torment without it, so Harrison couldn't insist.
That night too, Harrison woke with a dry throat.
He went out to fetch more water, only to find Father collapsed on the floor.
Harrison rushed to his side.
"Father, are you okay?"
"Urgh..."
Only then did he catch the thick stench of alcohol wafting from Father.
The bottle and glass on the table confirmed it.
'He must have passed out drunk again.'
Frustration welled up.
Harrison tried to help Father to his bedroom.
Father was large for his age, but Harrison managed without strain.
As he laid Father down and turned to leave.
"Sob, forgive me, I'm sorry..."
Father sobbed.
An earnest apology directed at someone.
Who on earth had he wronged to suffer like this?
Harrison's heart ached at the sight.
If he could, he wanted to go in Father's place, apologize, and beg forgiveness.
"Father, it's okay. Everything will be okay."
He added this, hoping for at least this night of peace.
"Sob, I'm sorry, sob..."
Father finally shed tears that streamed down his face.
Before being his father, he was a steadfast, respectable adult.
Seeing such a man broken was a shock to Harrison.
"Father, Father!"
Unable to bear watching Father writhe as if in a nightmare, he shook him awake urgently.
Father's bleary eyes fluttered open.
"What on earth happened? Tell me too."
At Harrison's desperate plea, Father's eyes flashed.
As if suddenly coming to his senses, he shook his head vehemently.
"No, no. You don't need to know!"
Father refused now that he was sober.
"I can't keep watching you suffer like this. Who are you apologizing to?"
Harrison pressed relentlessly.
"If you won't tell me, I'll find out myself."
"How could you possibly—"
"I'll ask around everywhere. Someone will know."
When Harrison declared he would investigate personally, Father squeezed his eyes shut.
"The truth is..."
The greatly weakened Father finally revealed everything.
"I committed a terrible act against Prince Luciano."
"What? Against the prince?"
Only then did Harrison recall his young cousin.
A small boy who had lost his mother early and was isolated amid the emperor's neglect.
'Come to think of it, how has he been?'
The prince had relied heavily on Harrison and his father as blood kin.
Before his illness, they had visited often.
In his pain, Harrison had completely forgotten that fragile little soul.
"What terrible act? What happened to the prince?"
Father hesitated to speak.
'What could it possibly be...'
At this point, Harrison didn't imagine it was anything so grave.
He trusted his father that much.
"Shall I go see the prince and ask?"
At Harrison's question, Father startled and finally confessed the truth.
"I poisoned the prince."
His heart plummeted.
It was also a statement that refused to make sense.
Poison?
To the prince, no less?
Hadn't he doted on his sister's child?
And Father was someone more worthy of respect than anyone.
A man of deep integrity.
Harrison couldn't comprehend how Father could commit such cruelty.
"What do you mean right now..."
"It's exactly as I said. I poisoned the prince."
The burden on his heart too great to bear alone, Father spilled it all.
The unchanging answer left him dizzy.
"Th-then, the prince, wh-what happened to..."
"Fortunately, he survived. Thank goodness, truly thank goodness."
Dazedness was all that came from Father's confession.
"Wh-why would you do such a thing..."
"So don't even think of going to see the prince."
Instead of explaining why, Father issued a warning.
Was this unbelievable statement truly the truth?
'Father did something so inhumane.'
The shock was too great to even ponder why Father had done it.
"How could you..."
Horror and undisguised contempt surfaced on Harrison's face.
Spotting it, Father's expression twisted in despair.
Harrison couldn't understand Father's betrayed look, after what he'd done to the prince.
"Get out! Get out!"
At Father's shout, Harrison turned away.
Father covered his face with his hands and sobbed.
But right now, Harrison lacked the courage to face him.
* * *
That "right now" stretched on for quite a long time.
Even knowing Father's condition worsened daily, Harrison couldn't bring himself to visit.
After committing such a grave sin.
After discarding human decency.
He couldn't comprehend Father playing the victim.
Father had always been the most upright man, intolerant of injustice.
Harrison had been raised on teachings to always choose the righteous path.
The betrayal stung deeper because of that trust.
So he turned away from Father.
Because Father's actions felt like deception.
He thought they should immediately seek the prince's forgiveness, but the matter was so enormous he couldn't muster the resolve.
It was in the midst of such agonizing hesitation.
Father, utterly drunk, came to him in the middle of the night.
"Harrison! Harrison! How could you do this to me!"
Father poured out his emotions, as if Harrison's avoidance pained him deeply.
Harrison's heart ached at Father's vulnerability.
He had respected him so much.
He knew Father had cared for his sick self with utter devotion.
But he could not forgive such inhuman behavior.
Preaching to live rightly.
While harming others himself.
He couldn't accept such double standards.
"Father, you're intoxicated. Let me escort you to your bedroom."
When Harrison replied coolly, Father, as if unable to contain himself, blurted out the secret.
"I had no choice to obtain the medicine that cured your illness!"
Thud!
It felt like a boulder crashed onto his head.
