Two days after they set out, Wolf fell in love with traveling.
“Delicious!”
Even the ingredients were on a different level. Apparently, all the high-grade produce got eaten by the people who lived where it was grown, and only the low-end stuff was shipped out.
“There’s so much to see!”
Wolf was deeply moved by the sight of a shepherd playing a flute out in the field. In the crowded capital, it was something he’d only ever seen in fairy-tale illustrations. And that wasn’t all—grand temples, statues in the plazas, museums, street musicians. The sights went on and on.
After a month of riding in a carriage, they arrived at Murch, the seventh-largest city-state on the Atania Continent. The moment Wolf and the Red Eagle Prince saw the river flowing in front of Murch, their eyes went wide like frogs’.
“This is… a river…? I can’t even see the opposite bank…?”
“Yes, it’s a river. From here on, we travel by boat. One month to the Port of Evahil, then another month. If you don’t die in between, you’ll reach Stol.”
River Rat explained. Wolf nodded, but the part about “if you don’t die” made him uneasy for a moment.
The boat was a two-masted passenger ship. For about a month, the Red Eagle Prince’s party rode it from morning until early evening. In the evening, the ship docked along the riverbank. They’d stay one night at a nearby inn, then board again in the morning.
The trip was a blast, but there was exactly one thing that made it uncomfortable.
River Rat.
River Rat looked dangerous to begin with. A hulking blond giant. A tattoo on the back of the neck that Atanian clothes couldn’t hide. A huge axe hanging at the waist. Anyone could see it—River Rat looked exactly like an <Ill Omen>. Everywhere River Rat passed, the way just… opened up. On the ship, the other passengers clustered as far away as possible.
‘River Rat is a warrior-class man. A member of Mother’s clan—people from the tribe her family has run for generations. Whenever the Stol diplomatic delegation stopped by the Lebanon court as an escort detail, River Rat would deliver Mother’s letters to me.’
For some reason, River Rat hated the Red Eagle Prince. Wolf would sometimes catch River Rat shooting the Red Eagle Prince a sideways look and spitting out curses. Wolf was deaf to the Stol language, but he swore to God those were curses. If someone steps on a dead pigeon while out walking and makes that face, would the words coming out be, Our prince is so adorable? Of course not.
River Rat was also why the Red Eagle Prince had begged Wolf to come along. The Red Eagle Prince said trying to go all the way to Stol alone with River Rat made it hard to breathe.
‘By sheer bad luck, I spotted you outside the carriage window. And the reason I couldn’t explain everything back then was River Rat. I was scared the driver’s seat would hear every word I said.’
The Red Eagle Prince confessed that in their inn room. Wolf lay on the bed next to his, one arm tucked under his head, scowling.
‘Yeah, that tracks. If I’d seen the driver’s face back then, I would’ve turned around and run for my life on the spot. That mug looks like one of those monsters in temple murals. Still, don’t be too scared. That rat bastard doesn’t even have anything in front of the name.’
Unlike Atanians, Stol people had no surnames regardless of class. Instead, if someone killed more than a hundred people, a modifier like “Brave” or “Unforgettable” got tacked onto the front of the name.
‘Maybe the rat’s just some guy who’s good at running away. Our combat instructor says you don’t know what a man can do until you crack him open and look at the core.’
‘Wolf, you’ve got no fear. You think killing a hundred people is easy?’
‘I was trying to encourage you, Your Highness. Besides, thanks to that guy, even common pickpockets won’t come anywhere near us. That’s enough.’
On the twenty-first day aboard the ship, River Rat spoke.
“By tomorrow morning, we’ll reach the Port of Evahil. Tonight, we sleep on the ship. It’s cold, so sleep pressed right up against other people.”
The other passengers seemed to have mistaken the prince and his attendant for River Rat’s children. When the two boys tried to move closer to people to “sleep pressed right up against” them, the looks they got were as hostile as bumping into a tax collector. With no other choice, they went to sleep crammed into a corner of the deck. River Rat didn’t even glance their way, too busy drinking with the sailors.
The ship swayed, and sleep didn’t come easily. On top of that, it was winter. Even with a thick robe on and a wool blanket pulled up, Wolf’s body shook with cold.
“Wolf, isn’t it nice, looking at the stars with the river wind on your face?”
He was freezing to death, and that prince bastard was running his mouth. If it had been Roy, Wolf would’ve flipped him off without a second thought.
“Yes, very romantic. But it’s a little cold, Your Highness.”
“It’s late November. If it’s this cold here, I wonder how brutal the winter is in Stol.”
Why the hell do you wonder that, you little bastard?
Wolf cursed to himself and rolled over hard. The Red Eagle Prince didn’t say anything more. After a while, Wolf’s eyelids started to sink shut.
“Hey, Wolf.”
Right as Wolf was about to fall asleep, the Red Eagle Prince spoke.
“When I said I was going to see Mother… you… did that make you feel bad?”
“…Pardon?”
Wolf flinched and turned his head. The Red Eagle Prince was staring quietly up at the night sky. Wolf frowned, then smoothed his voice before answering.
“It didn’t make me feel bad. I was just startled, because you were suddenly leaving for Stol.”
“That’s a relief. Actually, I thought you…”
The Red Eagle Prince paused.
“I thought you were angry when I said I was going to be there when Mother dies. Your mother cared about me so much.”
Your mother cared about me so much.
That one sentence shoved Wolf straight back into being nine years old. Mother lying in bed. A little boy sobbing with his face buried against her chest. With a bony hand, Mother kept stroking that boy’s shoulder, over and over.
From a distance, Wolf glared at them and thought: Why is Mom only looking at the prince? Why is the prince in my place?
“…Ah. Right. You were very dear to her.”
Wolf chased the memory away and answered like he was playing dumb. The Red Eagle Prince let out a low sigh.
“I wrestled with it a lot. Thinking about how much love my nurse gave me, I kept thinking I shouldn’t go back to Stol. Like… I’d be betraying her. But in the end, your birth mother is different.”
Wolf went blank.
His whole body stiffened, like he’d turned into an iron door slammed shut with a bar thrown across it. Then a cool shock rushed in—like getting hit with spray from a fountain in the middle of a scorching summer day. He’d never even imagined it.
He’d never imagined the Red Eagle Prince would rank a nurse below a birth mother.
Ha. What the hell is this. After all that love between them, this is what it comes to?
Mother, did you hear that? That kid says he loves his birth mother more. A birth mother he couldn’t even see once—he says she comes before you. Before you.
Kids died like it was nothing in this era. Whenever the Red Eagle Prince got sick and took to bed, Wolf’s mother stayed up at his side all night. One summer day, Wolf and the Red Eagle Prince collapsed at the same time. Mother stayed with only one of them, and Wolf stared at the door in a room all by himself.
A week later, when Wolf finally came to, he decided something.
He would never wait for the door to open again. Even if Mother died, he wouldn’t cry.
Two years later, he kept that promise.
“So… so…”
The Red Eagle Prince trailed off and glanced at Wolf. Wolf swallowed down a sneer. A childish brat—was he going to apologize to me instead of the nurse? Does he think it’ll ease his guilt if he does that?
To be fair, Wolf knew it too. In the triangle between Mother, the Red Eagle Prince, and Wolf, the only one who’d done wrong was Mother. The kids had only been trapped, struggling inside a net of favoritism thrown over them by an irresponsible adult.
“Stop thinking about it. If it were my mother, she’d support your decision. She’d be happy, if anything.”
Wolf gave the answer the other person wanted. The Red Eagle Prince looked him straight in the eye.
“You really think so?”
“Yes. I think your decision is right, too. It’s a shame my mother isn’t alive to see this.”
That part wasn’t a lie.
He truly was disappointed he wouldn’t get to watch Mother taste that betrayal.
I thought I was an ordinary guy in every way.
Maybe I’m just a little twisted.
“Hearing you say that makes my heart feel lighter. Thank you.”
Not knowing what Wolf really meant, the Red Eagle Prince thanked him. Wolf gave a smile.
“You’re welcome. Let’s just keep enjoying the trip.”
“Wolf. This is an adventure.”
“It’s a trip. An adventure is dangerous and hard. But you and I haven’t even seen a fire-breathing dragon or an evil sorcerer. Every night we sleep in nice inns, we eat good food morning and night, and in the daytime we look at the scenery or play card games.”
At Wolf’s words, the Red Eagle Prince pouted.
“I meant it as an adventure, in my own way. I know. A brave knight doesn’t sleep in an inn.”
“They build a campfire and sleep outside in a forest where wolves howl. Your Highness, dragons are something back-alley novelists made up to make money. We do have one sorcerer in my neighborhood, but all he does is brag that he can turn shit into gold, and he’s always borrowing money for bread.”
The Red Eagle Prince’s yearning for adventure felt childish. It was exactly what you’d expect from someone who’d lived his whole life with people bowing their heads to him.
Must be nice. I can barely handle friends my own age.
For Wolf, even an ordinary life was an adventure—just in terms of how exhausting it was. Reading people. Finding the right words. If you only ever catered to them, you looked weak, so you had to put your own opinion forward once in a while. Being just funny enough, just trustworthy enough, blending in anywhere and everywhere.
None of it was easy.
And an adventure where you fight dragons and sorcerers?
No thanks. Absolutely not.
Wolf pulled the wool blanket over his head.
“Go to sleep, Your Highness.”
He was getting drowsy. Wolf sank into sleep as deep as a cave.
At the far end of that long cave was a blue sea.