Chapter XVIII: The Raven's Ami De Cour

The psithurism of leaves can be seen floating in the air, dancing through the melody of the breeze, while the sky is painted tar-black, making the wind icy and withering with a leaden sky from above that is followed by a sound of pitter-patter tears of the sky tapping through the roofs.

"Bwahahahaha!"

The mellifluous laughter of Lillibet could be heard as she ran around, chasing after Dal with such eumoiriety carved on her angelic face as they watched the beads of water make a hole of puddles on the ground plinking as the rainfall became heavier, followed by a flashing lightning of light.

The laughter turns into a deafening silence as soon as the stomping sound of her little footsteps stops, which makes Dal with such serendipity and beauty stare at her while she stands towards the window, watching the falling tears from the sky.

"Boo~ Aren't you afraid that a ghost might show up?"

He blurted out in a spooky tone of voice while posing like a ghost on a hunt, making her giggle.

"Pft-hahahaha!"

"Father said that a ghost isn't that scary because it can't kill you."

Lillibet stated wrapping her arms around her stomach.

"Hmm…right."

He nodded his head as he sat on the floor beside her.

All of a sudden.....the luciform smile on his face turned dreary when Lillibet spoke a word in her mouth that left him with a solemn expression on his face.

"Why papa isn't coming out of that room? Everyone was there, but why are we the only people here?"

Her expression turns somber like a starless sky from above, but Dal just forms a fake smile, patting her head.

"Eh~ Are you tired of playing with me?" 

Dal teased as he rubbed her on her head, which caused the atmosphere to become lighter, yet there was unease in his heart, feeling a thorn piercing his chest while watching her laugh with such purity and innocence in the tone of her sweet dulcet voice.

On the other hand, the room on the other side of the hall was covered in a hymn of silence.

A passel of people could be seen sitting on the wooden chairs with their arms and legs crossed, while the other was left standing in front of the door and near the window, staring at the man with a big, built body standing right in front of them with such an aghast expression on his face while his shallow breath ruled the room.

"First, I apologize for keeping this to everyone."

He apologetically stated, with his head facing the floor as if he couldn't seem to look at the man sitting in front of him in the distance with a hint of halara on his expressionless face as if nothing had happened.

"We're all ears, Garion."

Khalid stated, which made the man who was quivering earlier get courage and face them right straight in the eyes.

"I didn't want to keep this from everyone; it's okay if you put all of your hatred towards me because I'm a-

He clenched his fists as he took a deep breath before he continued to speak. 

"I am a Corypheus." 

After what Garion had spoken, he already prepared himself to face all the acidic words that they might throw at him. 

He just stood there in silence, but he didn't hear a single thing from them, and when he lifted his head to see their reaction, his eyes widened as he felt a pang of immense guilt running through his veins that made his heart stop beating.

All their faces turned blue, which he didn't expect to see. 

"It-it's not go-good to joke like that, Garion!"

Reinhardt's voice trembled while he stood beside the door wearing a simple-design tunic that made his muscles more visible to the eyes.

"Well, I wish I could." 

"Ha.Ha.Ha"

He left them all unspoken, that it was too difficult for them to just accept.

"I don't know when I will continue steeping my foot on this ground."

"Because...because my life keeps decreasing."

*Sigh*

"I don't know when I will last. That's why I'm so happy that I've found my companion, my life companion."

He was calm, but behind those deep venetus colors on his eyes that were like sparkling oceans from afar was a deep feeling of dejection.

It left the others to hold their heads down while all their faces had become downcast, except for the small-looking kid who was sitting quietly on his chair, frowning from a distance, looking beside the window while his chin rested on his palm.

"Don't you feel betrayed?" 

He asked while standing in front of murklins, along with a little boy with long silvery-ash hair that twinkled in the dark.

"Why would I?" 

He bluntly responds while Garion rubs his head, which causes his hair to become messy.

"Then I'm relieved."

Garion replied with the munificence tone of his voice, followed by his oath that he had recited on the little boy, standing still in a little distance.

"Don't worry, milord, I would keep my promise to keep you all in parastin like how you saved me and my child that day."

He had committed while his flesh continued to let out a billow of smoke that sizzled on his body.

He then suddenly froze before continuing to speak when his following words made Khalid's eyes widen in shock as if he were thunderstruck by a bolt of destructive lightning.

"L-lee..Lee Hyun." 

Garion called, which made his expression turn bleak as he jumped towards him, holding him in the collar of his hauberk, making him go ballistic.

"How?! How did you know?!" 

Khalid had forewarned as if a deep whelve he had buried deep into the ocean had been dug and taken straight towards the shore.

Garion was left dumbfounded while making a confused expression on his face.

"I didn't know a thing, but... the monster inside me knows everything; he was the one who called you Lee Hyun." 

His words have shaken his eyeballs in disbelief.

"Then asked that monster inside of you to tell him why I am stuck in this body!... I am dead!...well, I'm supposed to be dead!"

Khalid screamed while he let go of Garion as if he had become weak from his own words.

His action made his face turn somber, but he didn't hesitate to hold him gently on his wrist as he continued to apologize.

"I'm sorry for not telling this to you from the start..."

Garion said while a memory of meeting him in the past flashed through his eyes, saying that what he could see all along was a muscular-looking man with a tall figure with the body of a Greek god standing in front of him with a scar on his right eye that was paired with a starless charcoal color of his eyes and hair that was styled in a messy thin curtain. 

Garion then smiled as he continued to speak.

"It's alright to let your soul cicatrize from the past; I know that you've done nothing wrong..." 

He calmly stated while patting Khalid's back as if he could feel such amity in his comfort.

"How can you be so sure?" 

"You know nothing about me."

Khalid slapped his hands, but there was no hint of hostility in his action, which made Garion smile as if he were relieved to see Khalid acting like a considerate human being for the first time.

"If someone had sinned, then there was a reason behind it. You are a good friend to me, Hyun, and I didn't regret having met you." 

His words had left him unspoken. 

"Remember that rebirth is the time to start a new beginning; don't focus on things that affect your soul, but instead."

He stopped.

"Live a life like a dove, free and pure." 

Garion added while explaining things thoroughly.

"Well, even though rebirth and possessing someone else's body are different, haha." 

He then added with a burst of awkward laughter.

*Sigh~*

The atmosphere becomes solemn when Garion puts his hands on his shoulder as he states such words while looking straight into his expressionless eyes. 

"Milord, please do me a favor. P-please, look at @gtdr nehfye chgfeyf." 

He pleased in an earnest tone, but Khalid's mind just went blank, and didn't understand the word that he had stated.

Khalid, who was peeking through the windows in a state of reverie from the pridian day, suddenly looked at the big-built man when a rough, sonorous voice came calling his name. When he turned his head, he saw Garion, who was standing near him with a smile carved on his lips.

'He was always smiling...'

"Milord, are you alright?" 

He asked in worry, but it just made him sneer and walk out at the scene, leaving him and the others dumbfounded by his action.

"Tssk! Damn it!" 

He mumbled and walked straight towards the door, completely ignoring Reinhardt, who was left with a bedlam expression on his face as he looked at Garion to find him in a state of distress.

'Why would I even act this way? Idiot! '

He cursed while he continuously walked towards the living room. 

'It's okay, Khalid; I feel nothing for no one.' 

He added, biting his lowered lip without noticing that he had already walked past Dal, who had been calling his name since he stepped foot on the hall.

'Milord….' 

He called, seeing Khalid's lethargic face while holding the hands of Lillibet, watching how Khalid went straight outside the old wooden inn where they were staying.

"Lillibet!" 

Calls by the man that caught the two's attention. 

"Papa! What took you so long? Hmph!" 

Lily whines in complaint as he carries him gently in his arms. He was ecstatically happy, but not until he felt Dal's gaze looking at him, frowning as he shook his head in a hint of disappointment.

"Dal?!, since when are you eavesdropping?" 

Garion got alarmed when he found a tall figure of a silhouette leaning behind the wall.

"Since you started transforming?" 

He contemptuously affirmed, which made Khalid form a mocking smile on his lips that even made Garion laugh robotically, but suddenly disappeared as soon as Dal let out a word that seemed like he was trying to avoid.

"Try to stay with us for a long time, Garion. If Lillibet has found out about it, just think how your daughter will feel." 

Dal stated, leaving him speechless.

'If you didn't, she would feel alone too.' 

He added to his mind, but Garion was not too dense not to read it from the expression written on his face.

Dal sighed as he looked at him and smiled before leaving the scene to follow Khalid from outside.

The trees shimmered in the heat of the midday sun as it gave off an orange tinge from above, peeking through the clouds and sweeping away the dim sky.

A boy with a weary look can be seen running as he passes through the trees with a bugbear expression painted on his face. His clothes are ragged and thorny, and his body is covered in bruises and wounds that a thick red liquid-like paint keeps on streaming down his arms and legs, making him look like a butcher, while his blaring scream can be heard as he seeks help with his parched, shaky tone of voice in the middle of the mountain. 

The little boy ran endlessly, panting as he caught his breath. No one could hear his scream until his body began to give up, leaving him to stumble on the ground, where he landed on a dried fallen leaf.

"H-help.!!!!PLEASE! HELP ME-*COUGHED!*" 

He tried to scream as he was choked with tears, that dripped down the ground. He was shaken in terror when he heard the voice of a terrifying monster walking towards him with a long neck while his head was in a supine position, and her body was covered in many tiny holes like bee hives right straight through her face that made her eyes indivisible as if she didn't have any in the beginning, while her long arms with sharp black claws covered her shoulder, wearing a petrifying look on her lips, making her acidic saliva sizzle on the grassy field as she sniffled the blood that dripped on the little boy's body.

"No more running, kid~" 

She playfully stated as she continued to walk near him, covering his mouth with his hands and trying not to let out any noise when he accidentally crawled on a broken branch of the tree, making the verendus form a wide smile on her face. 

*Snap!*

He suddenly feels a chill crawling into his body, leaving him frozen like a statue.

"N-no... stay away from me!" 

He cries and begs, but no hint of mercy can be seen on her face.

When she stretches her hands and is about to eat the boy, a knife swiftly runs in her direction and cuts her arms directly straight to her head, leaving them rolling on the ground. Surprisingly, no blood comes out, which makes the little boy with silvery-ash hair that sways in the air flinch in shock.

"UH~your making my job difficult..." 

Khalid had forewarned as he was so sure that he cut the verendus body in pieces in a right kyros movement, but then he was left in shock while gritting his fist when he noticed how the verendus regenerated quickly and swiftly stabbed him like wind without noticing her arms that had already pierced through his chest, sipping his blood endlessly using the holes that covered her body like a straw, draining him while the little boy was left unconscious on the ground, making the verendus laugh as she covered her mouth in triumph.

Her dense action just made Khalid form a nefarious smirk on his lips with his unblinking eyes that were like hawks in the hunt, grinning like a psychopath as he watched the verendus quiver in front of him as if the door in hell was about to break loose as soon as Khalid let out a fiery reddish aura that was tainted in despair and darkness, an overflowing madness that was enough to destroy the entire mountain of the Lusdouv kingdom