A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

The originally tense and dangerous atmosphere suddenly took a turn, and almost everyone's movements stopped for a moment.

Not to mention the knight captain who was still lying on the ground, even Shulos, who had drawn his bow not far away and was staring at Heimos with all his attention, ready to shoot the arrow at any time, shook his hand.

There seems to be something wrong with this development...?

Almost all the knights who had been prepared that "Heimos would injure Garlan when he lost control, and they would rush forward to save Prince Garlan" were stunned.

Seeing Heimos holding Garlan tightly in his arms and scanning them with sharp and vigilant eyes, why did it look like they, who wanted to save people, had become bad guys?

Even Garlan, who was protected by Heimos, was a little confused.

He had just rushed up and pulled Heimos backward with all his strength. He was already prepared to fight the crazed Heimos and then be beaten to the ground...

Who knew that before he could do anything, Heimos stretched out his right hand and hugged him.

Because he was hugged so tightly, Garlan's whole body was pressed tightly against Heimos's body.

Still a little confused, he just pressed his face against the other person's chest, blinked, and blinked again.

"...Heimos?"

Garlan raised his head and shouted.

Heimos looked down at him and seemed to answer him subconsciously, but his expression still seemed a little absent-minded.

The pupils were also slightly dilated, as if looking into an extremely distant void, unable to focus on one place.

Garlan saw Heimos's eyes. The original golden-red eyes were much richer than usual. The color seemed to be dyed red by something. Storm-like rage surged deep in his eyes, turning the shallow red eyes. The light golden color is pressed down.

The eye sockets were shadowed by the scattered dark hair, and his eyes were slightly sinister.

That look was so terrifying that it made people shudder at the first glance.

Garlan was also frightened for a moment, but it was not because he was frightened by Heimos's eyes at this moment.

He was frightened because the look in Heymos's eyes at this moment was already fifty-six times like the look in his previous lives.

Without having time to think about it, Garlan subconsciously reached out to hold Heimos's cheek, trying to hold the other person's face so that the two of them could look into each other's eyes.

"Heimos."

Holding Heimos's cheeks in his hands, he whispered again.

"Can you recognize me?" He asked softly, "Do you know who I am?"

Heymos' pupils were still a little dilated, but now he was being held by Garlan, their faces were facing each other, and with Garlan's shadow reflected in his pupils, the pupils seemed to shrink a bit.

There was a fire burning in his heart. The fire was burning his internal organs, as if it was really burning his skin, flesh, and even bone and blood. It was so painful that he just wanted to vent it out regardless.

At this moment, when Garlan touched him, the coolness of the fingertips holding his cheek seemed to seep into his skin, causing the redness in his eyes to dissipate a bit.

"……I……"

His mind was still a little confused, so confused that he couldn't even figure out who he was and where he was. He only knew that the guy named Earl in front of him was his hated enemy, and he wanted to kill him crazily.

But just now, when he turned around and saw Garlan being grabbed and pulled out by others, his body moved almost instinctively.

No matter what or who he is, nothing is as important as the boy in his arms.

His body was telling him so.

His thoughts were confused, but his body was warning him not to hurt this boy.

He looked at Garlan in confusion, feeling that his mind was flickering in and out, and countless fragments were stirring inside, giving him a splitting headache.

"Heimos."

He listened to the voice calling his name softly, and his confused brain suddenly exploded, and the fragments disappeared without a trace.

He lowered his head and fell on Garlan, losing consciousness.

Heimos suddenly fell on top of him, and Garlan subconsciously hugged him. Heimos's entire body weight was pressing on him. It was very heavy, and it was impossible to pick him up. However, he helped him. Still supportable.

He turned to look at the knight commander aside. The knight commander had already stood up, but his eyes were still looking at them in astonishment, as if he was a little confused about the situation.

"Did Heimos give you an order before?"

Garlan asked him.

The knight commander finally came to his senses and answered quickly.

"Uh, yes, there is, Your Highness."

"You should follow his previous orders now, and wait for him to wake up later."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The knight commander who woke up bowed his head and saluted Garlan, then turned around and took action quickly.

Earl, the former Lord of Menestre, was pressed to one side by two knights. He would be temporarily detained in his room and was not allowed to go out or meet anyone. The same was true for his son Buck.

The middle-aged general also hurried out after saluting Garlan. He still had many things to do.

Issue King Camos's imperial order and announce the news of Earl's dethronement as city lord in the city. At the same time, unite the forces in the city on your own side to suppress and monitor the forces that are not on your side, put the entire city under martial law to avoid chaos, etc. , he has to deal with all these things.

Earl seemed very calm at the moment, completely gone from the look he had when he was scolding Heimos so excitedly just now. He stood there with an indifferent expression, showing no emotion. But for some unknown reason, before leaving, he suddenly turned his head and took a deep look at Garlan.

Garlan still held the position of holding the unconscious Heimos, and looked at Earl.

He didn't understand the look in Earl's eyes, because there were too many and complicated emotions in Earl's look.

"I said……"

Shulos, who had been dazed for a long time, finally came to his senses.

"What did you call him just now?"

Without waiting for Garlan to answer, he asked and answered his own question.

"What you just shouted was... Heimos?"

As soon as Shulos finished speaking, the knight commander next to him raised his thick eyebrows.

"Presumptuous!" He stared at Shulos coldly, "Who are you? How dare you call His Highness by his name so presumptuously?"

However, Shulos didn't seem to hear his scolding at all, with an expression as if he was sleepwalking.

"Ah...I knew...I should have known..."

"It's that...that His Highness...I should have thought of it earlier, seeing how you get along..."

Shulos muttered in a daze.

"I was stupid enough to think that he was your trusted knight, so...ah, why didn't I think of it earlier? He was actually the 'Black Knight'."

"I'm so stupid, really. I only knew that there was a prince beside me, but I didn't expect..."

Not bothering to care about the bard who was completely trapped in his own world due to excessive shock, Garlan turned his head and said a few words to the knight commander.

The knight commander responded, leaned over and carried Heimos on his back, and sent him to a nearby room.

"Just leave the affairs here in Heimos to me. There should be a lot of things coming next. You can handle them."

Garlan said so.

He didn't know what Heimos' purpose was for coming here. If he made decisions or gave orders without authorization, Heimos might accidentally disrupt Heimos's plan. So he didn't plan to go out and give random orders, and just let Heimos' subordinates go on their own.

The knight commander nodded, saluted, turned and left.

After he and Heimos were the only ones left in the room, Garlan turned to look at Heimos lying on the bed, and then breathed a long sigh of relief.

Finally caught up.

he thinks.

At this moment, his heart, which had been hanging high since he knew Heimos was coming to Menestre City, finally dropped.

After a long journey, he was already thirsty and tired. Gallan moved a wooden chair, poured himself a glass of cold water, sat down by the bed, and drank while looking at the people on the bed. .

Heimos lay there quietly, his eyebrows stretched, his face handsome, his expression calm, and he looked like two different people from the man who was full of anger just now.

The fine black hair was scattered at the corners of his slightly raised eyes and intertwined with the slender eyelashes. Garlan couldn't help but reach out and brush his forehead hair when he saw it.

The black hair is delicate and a little cool.

It feels really good.

Although Nega's hair is thicker and plush and warm, it is a bit rough and not so smooth and smooth, like velvet.

Gallan thought this in his mind, and couldn't help but fiddle with the tuft of hair twice with his fingers.

Sitting here was boring anyway. He was thinking about the reason why Heimos was acting strange just now, while subconsciously stroking Heimos's hair.

But because he had been traveling all night, his body was already exhausted, and it was only because he was thinking about the matter that he was so nervous that he could not fall asleep. Now that the matter was over, his hanging heart dropped, and with this relaxation, the tiredness also came to him. Come up.

In the end, he fell asleep lying on the edge of the bed in a daze, but his fingers were still holding a tuft of Heymos' hair.

And not long after Garlan fell asleep, Heimos opened his eyes.

He stared at the roof in a daze for a while, and then his eyes gradually became clearer.

As soon as he turned his head, he saw Garlan lying next to him, sleeping soundly. His heart suddenly softened. He raised his head and tried to get up, but his hair hurt, as if he had been pulled by something.

Looking again, it turned out that Garlan's right hand was holding a tuft of his forehead hair, and he didn't let go even when he fell asleep.

Heimos was startled for a moment, then suddenly laughed, his eyes becoming softer.

He held Garlan's hand to free his hair, stood up and sat on the edge of the bed.

Garlan was lying on the bed, his long golden hair falling from his shoulders, exposing the back of his neck.

Heimos, who was sitting, lowered his head and saw the boy's white back neck, with a pink trace like a cherry blossom reflected in his eyes.

The memory of his childhood flashed through his mind, and his eyes moved slightly. He stretched out his hand and gently stroked the mark a few times with his fingertips.

However, as if that was not enough, Heimos leaned over and bowed his head deeply.

The slightly cool lips fell on the pink mark, giving an extremely gentle kiss with indescribable affection.

At this moment, Garlan, who was sleeping lightly, suddenly raised his hand.

There was a snap.

Extraordinarily clear in this quiet room.

"Why are there still mosquitoes..."

The young man who was mumbling like this opened his eyes sleepily, and when he looked up, he saw Heimos's dark face, narrowing his eyes and staring at him unkindly.

Garlan's mind turned around and he remembered the itchy feeling on the back of his neck and the snapping sound, and he immediately figured it out.

"Deserved it."

He immediately guessed that he had probably been asleep and accidentally slapped Heimos, but Garlan said that he didn't feel sorry at all.

He stood up, touched the back of his neck that seemed to still have some touch, and looked down at Heimos unhappily.

"You're a guy who takes advantage of others."

Just deserve it.

If Heymos hadn't taken advantage of him when he was sleepy and tired, how could he have slapped him so easily.

Heimos sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at Garlan for a few minutes.

He didn't refute, just pursed his lips and lowered his eyes.

His lips were already thin, but they became sharper when he tightened them.

"I saw a very strange scene just now..."

"What?"

Garlan suddenly remembered what he wanted to ask.

"Speaking of which, what happened to you just now? You suddenly seemed like you were going crazy, and so many people couldn't hold you back?"

Heimos frowned.

"I'm not very sure, but at that time, I seemed to have only one thought in my mind: killing Earl, so..."

"Heimos, I know you hate Earl, but Earl is your biological uncle. Of course, I don't mean that because he is your biological uncle, he can do whatever he wants to you. I just want to say, Since Brother Wang has given the imperial order, he is destined to be useless, why would you ruin your future just to take out your anger on this useless person?"

Garlan said, word for word, and his words were sincere.

"It's not cost-effective to use jade bottles to smash earthen pots, don't you think?"

Amused by the boy's lecturing tone, but fearing that Garlan would be unhappy if he laughed, Heimos could only suppress his smile, and his face looked a little weird.

And Garlan took his weird expression of suppressed laughter as reluctance, and thought of the bad things that Earl had done... Not to mention the abuse of Heimos as a child, he forced Heimos to leave. After entering the city of Menestre, he still refused to let him go. He kept making various small and big moves from childhood to adulthood, trying to put Heimos to death... Garlan also vaguely guessed that the frame-up incident not long ago might be It was also arranged secretly by Earl.

Thinking about it this way, it seems understandable that Heimos was so angry that he wanted to kill Earl...

Looking down again, Heimos was sitting quietly by the bed with his eyes lowered. He looked like a pitiful little boy, so he couldn't help but reach out and touch Heimos' head to comfort him.

"You can take revenge if you want to. It's your right."

he warned.

"But, promise me, you will never do anything to Earl yourself."

In fact, there was no emotion of sadness at all. Heimos, who was simply recalling the scene with his eyes downcast, looked up at Garlan when his head was touched like this.

Garlan quickly retracted his hand.

"At that time, I saw a very strange scene."

He said,

"I saw that time many years ago, you didn't push me away, coals fell on me, and the fire started burning on me."

Garlan's breath paused.

"The feeling was very real, as if it really happened... Most of my body was burned and I almost died. Although I finally survived, my body became like a monster... Even...my future..."

Heimos only said half of the last sentence and then stopped, as if unwilling to continue.

"That scene was like a nightmare, and the nightmare seemed real. I couldn't control my hatred for Earl at all."

He was in a trance, looking down at one of his hands.

His palms had lost their palm prints due to the original burn, but they were still intact. From the back of his hands, they looked just like ordinary people.

But in those flashing images, his entire arm was as ugly and ferocious as a devil's claw. It made him sick to look at it, so he could only keep it wrapped in a bandage.

"That feeling... was very scary."

He murmured, just thinking about that scene, he felt like he was shrouded in darkness. No matter how crazy he struggled, he could not see hope or the future.

The feeling was almost suffocating.

"I don't know, if it really turns out to be like that, what will happen to me... lingering like a monster? Or..."

...Or, from body to heart, has he truly become a monster?

"It won't be like that."

Someone interrupted him.

Heimos raised his eyes and met Garlan's gaze.

"I won't let things become like that. Do you remember? I said at that time that I will take care of you and I will protect you."

Garlan looked at him and said.

"I said it, and I will do it."

The young man's eyes were astonishingly bright as he looked over.

He said, "Trust me, I will protect you."

Looking into those bright golden eyes, the corners of Heymos's lips suddenly rose a little.

Then, he suddenly stretched out his hand.

He just sat on the edge of the bed and stretched out his hands to Garlan.

He looked up at Garlan, his eyes shining slightly, as if stars were twinkling in his eyes.

Garlan was stunned for a moment, looking at Heimos's action, he couldn't help but complain.

"I said, do you think you are still a child? Do you want to give you a kiss and a hug?"

The corners of Heymos' mouth rose even more sharply.

"Um."

He still maintained the posture of stretching out his hands to Garlan.

He said: "Want a hug."

He was obviously a grown man, but he said these three words with confidence and magnanimity.

Garlan: "..."

Is it too late to take back what you just said?