Chapter 60 – In which there is always a sun

“Vern?”

He suddenly felt a slight pain in his arm, as someone’s fingers clenched around it.

He blinked, looked up, and was met with the concerned gaze of Crimo.

The next blink, and Crimo was already two steps away.

“Sorry, you spaced out for a few minutes and didn’t reply when I called.”

“No, no, it’s my fault. Sorry for ignoring you… There was just something on my mind, and I forgot myself. My apologies.”

“... Vern, that’s…”

“Young Master…”

Perhaps because Vern’s words were too courteous, Crimo’s face looked as if he was smacked and Sangria was looking at him with sad eyes.

Ah… He made a mistake again.

Crimo did everything in his awkward and clumsy power to become close to Vern, to appear like a good older brother.

But just now, Vern didn’t speak like a younger sibling, but like an acquaintance. Like a subordinate, or close aide.

Too polite, too respectful.

He let that friendly mask he put in front of Crimo slip.

“I’m sorry, I… I’m just too tired.”

He didn’t even realize he was wearing it.

It wasn’t even that he didn’t trust Crimo, or didn’t want to be close with him, it was just that…

It didn’t feel right to let someone other than his siblings into his life…

‘Ah, I'm making the same mistake I made with you, huh…?’

It was only many years after he committed the biggest mistake of his life, when he fully opened up and told his siblings about it.

And they both simply said:

— Ver. You’re an idiot.

And remembering that he is an idiot, Vern sighed, brushed back his messy hair and said:

“Crimo.”

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“No, it’s fine. I shouldn’t expect…”

Crimo wasn’t looking at him.

Vern could guess what was running through his head.

‘I pushed him too far. I coerced him into acting friendly. I'm an utter fool, who didn’t realize that he is uncomfortable around me.’

So Vern called again, with a bit of pressure.

“Crimo.”

Crimo looked at him.

Vern continued, meeting his eyes.

“As I said, I’m very tired. I probably should go to sleep. But if I go to sleep now, I probably won’t wake up until evening. So rather than breakfast, let’s eat supper together today, okay?”

Vern was an idiot, who often unintentionally pushed people away.

But with time, with carefully organizing his mistakes and reasons for them, and many many advises from his more socially adept siblings, Vern learned to recognize when he made a mistake.

And how to make damage control.

“Okay… yes, okay…” Crimo’s voice was very very soft. “Please have a good sleep. In the meantime I… I’ll think about people, who would have enough money to employ so many mages…”

“You mean you will think about Gemma Republic and Sidus Kingdom for the whole day?”

“Lord can also think about our sister states, Purplus and Flavun, Grandmaster Scarlen. So that’s four things to think about. Though, considering how Sidus didn’t make outside contact for the last 200 years, I think it’s safe to assume that they weren’t involved. So three things to think about for the whole day.”

“Master Sangria, why are you limiting Our Lord’s options? Maybe the elusive Sidus Kingdom was pulling the strings all along.”

“Thank you Grandmaster Scarlen for your blessing of imagination. I’m sure Our Lord will be grateful.”

“Of course. You will, My Lord, right?”

Scarlen and Sangria’s strange cooperation brought back a lighter mood to the atmosphere, which became stuffy.

Vern leaned into this atmosphere as he said:

“I see Master Sangria is eager to participate in that discussion, so I’ll leave you to it and find the way to my room on my own. Good luck.”

He picked up the coffee cup with some coffee left and before Sangria could speak up, he addressed Scarlen and Crimo.

“Grandmaster Scarlen, Crimo. Have a good day. Thank you for the conversation.”

And then he tilted the coffee cup and poured the remaining coffee into Crimo’s cup.

After that, he turned around and left without hesitation, chased by three pairs of shocked gazes.

Vern, who didn’t know the plan of the house very well and had no idea how to secretly get from Crimo’s study to his room, opted for returning exactly the same way he came.

Through Sangria’s room.

A few steps into Sangria’s room, when he was about to open the secret passage.

Something caught his eyes and he froze.

White fur sparkled in the light of the rising sun.

The light turned the white into a pale, shining yellow.

Green eyes directly meeting his.

Vern stood still for a few moments and then, he quietly approached the kitten, sitting at the edge of the window, which it somehow climbed up, even with its injured legs.

He stroked it without a word.

After another few moments, he chuckled, as he recalled what he was thinking about before Crimo shook him awake.

‘I’m really an idiot…’

If Vermillian’s mind somehow replaced Vern’s mind, he wouldn’t have Vern’s memories.

It was still unknown what the current ‘Vern’ was, but he surely wasn’t ‘that’.

When Vern finally arrived in his room, he laid down and fell soundly asleep.

*-*-*

Phlox took in the air filled with the smell of flowers and spices.

At recommendation and order of His Excellency, Phlox left the Universe Temple legally, without sneaking around, and headed towards a certain place.

The Temple of Day and Sun Gods.

According to holy siblings from the Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods, one of the old Sun’s holy artifacts was sold to someone in Flavun.

Phlox was to go investigate that.

Or rather, she was to go set up a bait.

As Amara said to her:

— You can’t berate a cat for eating a fish if you put it in front of him.

It was unknown if that trade was made with the knowledge of the head priest, Rasin.

If it wasn’t, Phlox’s investigation would draw his interest into the matter, and may bring results that Amara’s group wasn’t able to.

If it was related, it would waste his energy on covering it up and assure him, he is still in control about what evidence Phlox has.

It would be easy for him to assume that Phlox received a revelation from the Sun gods and moved because of it.

And her investigating outside, rather than in the temple, meant that she couldn’t do anything inside.

That was what the fish, which Phlox was about to put in front of him, was stuffed with.

But even though she came here with an important mission.

Phlox couldn’t help but look up at the gates of the Day and Sun Gods Temple and feel a strange emptiness in her heart.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

And then stepped inside with renewed determination.

*~*~*