Vicious Darling

[5]

“Yuri…”

Traces of Yuri’s childhood that Chris didn’t know about remained in this space.

Approaching the teddy bear, Chris discovered writing tools and a notepad.

Records written in much rounder handwriting though still somewhat resembling his current style, worn research papers and materials, a globe modified to suit a child’s eye level. A glass jar filled with candy wrappers and tiny slippers that evoked small feet.

Chris looked around, momentarily forgetting to breathe.

Traces of a boy who once dreamed of becoming a scholar were melted into every corner.

Chris’s face contorted. It felt as if he was surrounded by young Yuri’s dreams.

He had never imagined such a thing, even in his dreams.

It felt strange to think that Yuri had a childhood too. It seemed like a bad joke, or a nightmare whose contents couldn’t be remembered upon waking.

Amusingly, Chris didn’t have anything like a childhood. The first thing he remembered was the black sky with snowflakes falling, the cold white ground, and a man touching him.

Yuri approached Chris, who was feverish and losing control of his abilities, and attempted guiding. Despite being too ignorant to distinguish friend from foe, Chris instinctively knew Yuri was on his side.

In Chris’s mind, Yuri was fixed at that moment. Not knowing his own past, he never reflected on others’ pasts either.

Yet here before Chris’s eyes was Yuri’s vaguely known childhood.

‘…This must be what Rosenhauser took away.’

The dreams of a child not yet grown, parents who respected their young child enough to make a study and adjust all the furniture to Yuri’s eye level – all vanished at Rosenhauser’s hands.

Strangely, it made him feel unwell.

‘Now Yuri has become the master of Baekyah.’

The Yuri that Chris knew, his Guide, was someone who could be cruel when necessary.

And at the same time, he despised inefficient violence.

Yuri knew well what he was doing and was competent. He had firmly established his base in the region and gathered young people who had lost their way in the world’s hardships, nurturing them into talents. He was a leader with remarkable insight and excellent tactics in deploying people to the right places.

Baekyah, which Yuri, once merely a fugitive, had tenaciously built for survival, grew day by day. Even to the point of being checked by the Esper Union. If it had been nurtured solely for revenge, Baekyah wouldn’t have developed such meticulous organization.

Just from this, it didn’t seem like Yuri hated himself for becoming a mafia boss. He had never shown any indication of wanting to become a scholar again.

As the one who served him most closely, Chris could be certain of this.

However, imagining Yuri’s past in this faded study made him wonder why Yuri was holding on to his current position, suppressing his true nature.

‘Hasn’t he already taken his revenge?’

Rosenhauser, who had driven Yuri’s life into hell, was dead. At least, that should have been the case.

Having brought down his nemesis, Yuri should be freer, but he doesn’t show even the slightest joy. Chris wondered what had become Yuri’s yoke.

‘Don’t act impulsively, Chris.’

Feeling suffocated by this incredibly cozy space, Chris unbuttoned his shirt.

Last year, Chris had attempted to infiltrate the June Continent to erase Yuri’s enemy from this world after discovering who it was. But things went awry, causing him to lose his memories and nearly become one of Rosenhauser’s pawns. The thought still made him dizzy.

He had tried to protect Yuri but almost ended up tearing him apart. He was lucky once, but if he strayed from his path again, there was no guarantee he’d be lucky a second time.

One mistake was enough.

A dog only needs to follow its master’s orders. Such complex thoughts were unnecessary for Chris.

‘That should be clear, but…’

He couldn’t stop thinking. Just imagining the purple-eyed boy who once sat in this tiny chair was enough to stir up his insides.

The teddy bear, now almost gray with accumulated dust, stared blankly at the blue-eyed man lost in thought.

***

“Thorns Order.”

Yuri muttered, tapping the documents he had finally found. The envelope stamped with an antique hawthorn seal and the name written inside both made him laugh.

Considering when Rosenhauser had stayed in this mansion, he must have come up with the idea of the Thorns Order more than a decade ago.

A knightly order, indeed.

The name of Rosenhauser’s secret organization was truly grandiose. Did he want to become the king of a new world?

It was laughable to think that the entire continent had danced to the tune of an ugly old man’s game of king.

‘It’s a thought befitting that man.’

However, he collapsed before even ascending to his throne. And it was because he was tripped up by a mere ‘Guide’ that Rosenhauser had considered so insignificant.

Rosenhauser was a man whose greatest achievement in life was being born an Esper. In a very clever way, he ranked humans and made Espers grasp privileges while pretending to serve ordinary people.

Yuri deeply loathed him, but he couldn’t deny that Rosenhauser’s methods were terribly cunning and efficient.

‘I should leave.’

The longer he stayed in a place like this, the more Rosenhauser’s thoughts would grow.

“Chris.”

Yuri called for his Esper. But there was no response.

He frowned. Chris was always close by, even before Yuri looked for him. An Esper’s senses are directed towards their Guide. There was a time when he found this suffocating.

It wasn’t because he hated Chris. Yuri was uncomfortable with all Espers. Knowing it was trauma, he once tried to overcome it, but becoming less sensitive was the best he could manage.

“Chris.”

He called again, but his Esper didn’t answer.

Striding across the study, Yuri discovered a bookshelf jutting out to the side. Chris must have pushed it aside.

Before he could even wonder why, Yuri’s steps slowed.

Somehow, he felt he knew what Chris had discovered.

Behind the bookcase that must have been moved by telekinesis, a small door was visible. Yuri looked down at the light spilling through the slightly open gap and pushed the handle with an unreadable expression.

Chris was there.

In the room filled with sunlight, his platinum blonde hair shimmered exceptionally. Waves rippled in his blue eyes.

Chris, not particularly prone to emotions, only showed such turmoil when it involved Yuri.

“Yuri.”

Chris’s lips trembled slightly as he realized Yuri had come looking for him.

Yuri standing in the study he used as a child seemed quite out of place. His face showed no nostalgia or emotion.

“So you were here. I’ve found what I was looking for, let’s leave.”

Yuri waved the documents in his hand.

“…Yes.”

Chris, who had hesitated for a moment, followed Yuri. Before turning to close the door, he stopped abruptly and bit his well-shaped lips.

Yuri, who had been listening to Chris’s footsteps while walking ahead, keenly noticed this and turned around.

Chris, looking more reluctant than the original owner of the study, asked:

“Why don’t you return here?”

Yuri could exercise his rights to this mansion that was originally his. While it might have been impossible during Rosenhauser’s lifetime, he was dead now. Moreover, Anong, the current interim head of the Esper Union, was favorable towards Yuri and a sensible person who would surely return the mansion left by Yuri’s parents.

But Chris knew that Yuri had never once expressed a desire to return to his hometown. Until now, Yuri had never shown any sign of longing.

“What is there for me to reminisce about here?”

Chris forgot to breathe as Yuri reached out towards him. The man who had stepped close grabbed the door handle that Chris hadn’t fully closed.

Even knowing that he wasn’t the target, the tension that had spread through Chris’s body didn’t easily dissipate.

The sound of the door closing, click, was clearly heard behind him.

“Nothing.”

Yuri’s purple eyes sank coldly.

“There’s nothing here, Chris.”

His life was in that winter land. Forcibly rooted in that barren earth, Yuri had lived in that frozen soil.

There was no cozy shelter, no abundant food, no sufficient rest, but Yuri didn’t hate the time he had desperately endured for survival.

On the other hand, his days in this mansion were filled with suffering. From his childhood when he relied on his godfather, not knowing he was the enemy who had killed his parents, to gradually realizing the sense of alienation while being forcibly controlled.

“…Let’s go back.”

The man who didn’t particularly like repeating himself ordered again. Chris felt his steps grow heavy, knowing this was a rare show of leniency from Yuri.

Throughout their return outside the mansion, a heavy silence settled between the two. Despite the suffocating atmosphere, Chris didn’t feel overwhelming pressure. This was how most of the time spent with Yuri was.

Yuri was Chris’s master. He felt no shame in submitting to his Guide. As if doing what he ought to, Chris served his god.

“…Yes.”

However, Chris’s eyes wavered as he answered with his head bowed.

The hidden door kept circling in his mind. The teddy bear and slippers. The small globe and the jar filled with candy wrappers.

‘I want to give it back.’

He wanted to return this mansion to Yuri.

A turbulent storm brewed in Chris’s heart. A wind that, once it starts blowing, doesn’t stop.