Translator: Nox

66 - The Time of the Blind Beast (15+ Revised Edition)

Chapter 66

"It wasn't that I turned my back on you! You hid away in the countryside and cut off contact with us, so how could I possibly explain the family's affairs one by one?"

After a brief rebuttal, the father fell silent for a while. His pale blue eyes, lighter in color than those of his sons, sank heavily.

"...Ezekiel, you must be confident that you are fundamentally very different from Achenaus."

His tone was quite weary.

"Indeed, there are many differences between you two. I believe you are more suited to Valdemara in many ways than Achenaus. However, you two are also alike in some respects. Especially in forcing me into choices where I cannot choose."

Ezekiel closed his mouth and watched his father.

"Perhaps that girl didn't tell you, but I tried to expel you from Valdemara. Not because I was turning my back on you, but because if you were separated from Valdemara, your life would be saved. Wasn't that precisely what Achenaus was wary of regarding you?"

The father's face was complex. But the speed of his words could not keep up with the speed of his thoughts to encompass all his considerations.

"If you give up your status in Valdemara, he won't try to harm you further, especially since you are blind. You had Serva, so I could worry less. The butler who raised you like his own son would gladly act as your protector, and even if he grew old and passed away, he would have made solid arrangements so that your future would be secure..."

The speed of his words gradually slowed.

"Now, Valdemara is in my hands, but I cannot be sure that my wife and I will retain actual power for another twenty or thirty years. I must act while I still can. Moreover, it has been a long time since you and Achenaus, as you've grown older, have not been controllable according to my will."

A long sigh momentarily swallowed the father's voice.

"But he doesn't have someone like Serva to support him wholeheartedly, and his numerous mistresses will abandon Achenaus when their money runs out. Furthermore, you have no intention of forgiving Achenaus."

Ezekiel broke his silence for the first time and replied.

"You have observed accurately. I have no intention of living under the same sky as him."

"...What do you plan to do?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Even if that man has done nothing right, he is of Valdemara. At the very least, we shouldn't let it be known to the world that a son bearing the name Valdemara died an outsider. The family's honor is at stake. Therefore, you must find him and bring him back. Bring him back, strip him of the Valdemara name, and send him to the provinces, but the aftermath must be handled by this family, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guarantee that if he sets foot in this house again, it will cause even greater turmoil."

Watching his son, who wouldn't budge no matter how much he was persuaded, the father wiped his weary face.

"Until now, the world has always been clearly divided for you into right and wrong, things to fight for and things to protect. That studies and physical training must be done with utmost effort, that the nation must be defended with one's life, and that entertainment must be avoided. Therefore, you have no hesitation in making decisions and acting, but..."

Ezekiel remained silent with a cold demeanor.

"The world is not always divided so precisely into black and white. You are still young and have never stood in a position where you must choose something that cannot be easily chosen. Therefore, you cannot understand this feeling of conflict I experience every moment as the head of Valdemara and a father of two sons. But someday, you too will inevitably face a crossroads where you must choose something that cannot be chosen either way, and by then, you will understand what I am saying."

Ezekiel twisted the corner of his mouth.

"Well, I doubt I will ever understand you, Father. To my ears, all these words of yours sound like indecisive sophistry, unwilling to let go of either option."

The father's sentiment that he cannot bear to see either son meet a definitive end because they are both his sons is merely self-satisfaction. In reality, it only serves to make the two sons constantly aware of each other and fuels their animosity.

"It would be better if you simply stated honestly that you cannot bear to see him carelessly die because he resembles Mother so much. Isn't that the only advantage he was born with?"

Even in a family with extremely rare emotional exchanges, there are always subtle currents that can be felt. From Ezekiel's childhood memories, his father had unhesitatingly paid the enormous expenses his mother incurred for her retreats, despite her rarely staying at the main residence.

Ezekiel steered the conversation back.

"Did you think I would readily agree to be expelled from Valdemara as a way to save me? Did you think that because I lost all my authority, he would cease his suspicion of me?"

Achenaus, consumed by inferiority complex, would never do such a thing.

Ezekiel had witnessed many instances of how inferiority complex could make a person so ugly. He had seen his own company dispatched for damage control when officers, fighting over merits, disrupted operations.

It was too obvious an outcome. As long as his father held real power, he might live quietly, but the moment the power of Valdemara fell into his own hands, Achenaus would want to erase Ezekiel, the proof of his misdeeds, from the world.

"And now that the situation has changed, do you think he would readily accept being told to relinquish the name Valdemara and live like a ghost in some rural corner? Do you also believe I would forget him and let him live? If so, you know me less than you know Rose."

The virtues required of a soldier are the impartial and strict enforcement of rewards and punishments based on merit and demerit, not leniency.

"Rose, who conveyed no words at all, was wiser. Even beyond my hearing, Rose saved me. If that news had reached me, I cannot be sure that my treatment and surgery would have concluded as successfully as they have now."

And Rose would have believed, in the end. That he would open his eyes. Bearing all the external anxieties and burdens alone, she had done her best to protect his peace.

"There will never be another woman like this in my life."

At his declaration, the father took a deep breath to control his emotions.

"Ezekiel, why are you going to such lengths? It was always Achenaus who caused trouble with women; you never even showed interest. I never imagined you would go mad for a woman."

"Because if it weren't for Rose, I wouldn't be here today."

She was the woman who walked with him, hand in hand, through an endless darkness. Because of Rose, he could trust people again and rest his weary, troubled heart. At times, he felt joy, excitement, and comfort, and on some days, he even laughed out loud. And Ezekiel was quite surprised to realize that he had gained the leisure to laugh.

All these changes were brought about by Rose.

She was his sanctuary.

"Where is Rose?"

Ezekiel asked urgently.

But this time, the father's answer did not change.

"I don't know. I didn't ask because she didn't strike me as the kind of girl who would linger by your side until the end and cause trouble."

"I don't believe you."

The father looked at his son, who stood resolutely, and ran a hand through his hair with a weary face.

"I don't want to have a tiring argument with my son, whom I've met after so long. The events of today alone are giving me a headache I can barely stand, so if you're curious about that girl, call the errand boy who met her and ask him yourself."

The father waved his hand to summon an employee and spoke a name.

"Bring Merlo."

It didn't take long. Upon hearing that the head of Valdemara was looking for him, the errand boy quickly appeared.

He was a very young man. At first glance, he seemed ordinary, but his moderately smooth and glib demeanor made him appear like someone who could easily win anyone's favor.

Ezekiel let out a short, dry laugh. He was annoyed once that his family had secretly sent an errand boy while his vision was impaired, and again that a man with such an obviously chosen pleasant appearance had been lingering around Rose.

The errand boy, who appeared bewildered, trembled slightly upon seeing Ezekiel. He immediately grasped the reason for being summoned. He wasn't unintelligent. However, as expected of a carefully selected errand boy, Merlo quickly composed himself, suppressing his surprise, and bowed his head.

"You summoned me?"

The moment he heard the errand boy's first words, Ezekiel scanned the man sharply.

The voice was familiar. It was a voice he definitely knew.

When was it? Where was it?

As Ezekiel tried to recall, a fragment suddenly flashed through his mind.