Chapter 43.2

Chapter 43.2

Despite her protest, what came back was a counter-punch to the attack she had previously delivered to Seok-kyung.

Ara stared at Seok-kyung for a long time with a defeated expression, then let her round shoulders droop with a large sigh.

“Fine. I surrender.”

Like raising a white flag on a hopeless battlefield, she lifted her hands with palms facing out and declared her defeat.

“It’s nothing. I was just… curious about how you would feel.”

“…My feelings?”

“Yes. I saw you conducting goblin trials in the office.”

Just so you know, I didn’t ask to see it first.

Ara added a feeble excuse and clasped her now-empty hands together.

“Baek-mok said that if no one can replace the king, then since becoming king, you’ve been in charge of all the trials.”

“So? Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s not that a problem exists…”

Ara trailed off and sighed again. Her expression clearly suggested this wasn’t a pleasant topic, which made Seok-kyung’s brow furrow even more sharply.

Oh, whatever. Am I going to be killed for being a bit nosy?

Having rationalized her actions once more, Ara gathered her courage and spoke.

“Isn’t it difficult? Deciding everything alone and directly taking the lives of goblins.”

“……”

“I wouldn’t have been able to endure it for so long. You might have been able to deceive me briefly, but in reality, you must have been so lonely and suffering.”

Concern overflowed in Ara’s voice and gaze.

Seok-kyung maintained eye contact without saying a word. His face turned subtly cold as he stared at her for a while, then turned his body and lightly snapped his fingers.

Swoosh, the door at the end of the corridor opened.

“Seok-kyung? Are you angry?”

Seok-kyung began walking towards the door. Ara, confused by his suddenly cold attitude, followed behind like a duckling, but he was in no mood to pay attention to her.

‘…in reality, you must have been so lonely and suffering.’

Like a racehorse with blinders, Seok-kyung walked forward, replaying her words. Unconsciously, his hand clenched so tightly that his knuckles tensed.

This is excessive meddling and arrogant sympathy. A presumptuous intervention from a fragile, foolish mortal who won’t even live to see a hundred years.

And…

No one, not a single person, had ever dared to ask or doubt this shadow before.

The honor and responsibility of a king are like light and shadow. Just as a double-edged sword must have two blades to demonstrate its ability, the occasional difficult moments were a fitting price for the glory he had enjoyed.

But Ara was an uninvited guest who had invaded Seok-kyung’s world.

In the human world, not the goblin kingdom, she who had lived merely twenty-seven years could never truly understand his life, lived as an immortal being for hundreds of years.

Therefore, she couldn’t comprehend how important the tasks and glory reserved only for the throne’s master were, or how natural it was to obey one’s destined fate and protect the given world.

More than anything, was this even something that needed to be understood by humans?

Instead, he should strictly reprimand her and draw a line, telling her not to recklessly speak about things beyond her comprehension.

“The trials of the law palace are a privilege and duty of the king. Such weak emotions have no place here.”

Yet Seok-kyung could only say:

“Yes. Sometimes… it does get tiresome. But that’s all.”

As if convincing himself. As if he’d accidentally exposed a secret even he hadn’t realized.

“I’m glad then.”

Ara spoke to Seok-kyung, who had stopped in front of the door. Her kind eyes offered an awkward but gentle smile, as if truly relieved by this fact.

“You’re not a guilty goblin, Seok-kyung. I just hoped you weren’t suffering because of it.”

Her voice, conveyed her sincerity.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped.”

Her slightly trembling voice, her anxious, wavering eyes, the pale knuckles of her hand, tightly clenched out of nervousness…

Seok-kyung felt every life signal from Ara pouring over him like sunlight.

A warm, harsh sunlight that strips away a traveler’s clothes instead of savage winds, leaving nothing hidden.

She made him feel vulnerable.

“I’ll go in first. I need to start preparing dinner. Take your time coming.”

Ara crossed the door’s threshold with an awkward excuse. Simultaneously, the jeweled necklace around her neck scattered like sand grains, returning to Seok-kyung’s hand.

Seok-kyung alternately stared at the sparkling spiritual energy in his palm and Ara’s retreating back.

‘If you were worried, just say you were worried.’

‘If you like something, just say you like it.’

Seol-do and Ara’s voices rang in his ears like a hallucination.

“Damn it, that’s not so easy…”

A ridiculously pathetic excuse fell at his feet, unable to cross the door’s threshold. Seok-kyung crossed the world’s boundary with a sigh deep enough to swallow the earth.

He hadn’t eaten anything, yet his appetite was completely gone.