Don’t Concern Yourself With That Book

Boom.

The sound of fireworks bursting echoed from a distance. As the burst of colour lit up the sky, the young beast clung onto the bars.

“Today’s the Founding Festival.”

‘What’s the Founding Festival?’ The young beast innocently wondered to himself as he blinked his eyes.

The fireworks adorning the sky were so large and beautiful they could be seen even in the City of Beasts. But it wasn’t just the fireworks in the sky that had mesmerised him.

“Once you grow up a little more, we can go to the capital to see the princess perform a beautiful dance.”

It was then, a strange image appeared before his eyes. A spring that was lovelier and more beautiful than the bright fireworks he was currently spectating bloomed in the basement.

[Companion].

Hernan finally started to realise what everyone was referring to as their flower, their stars, their sky and their world all at once. Someone had seeped into his heart. The sensation tickled his entire body and what eventually wrapped around him was warm and electrifying.

That night, his world turned upside down.

It was the day his heart nearly thumped out of his chest at the mere thought of his Companion. He had a vague image of who his Companion was in his head. Perhaps it was his divinity trying to give him a hint about his Companion. As a cluster of purple orbs of light took over his vision, the young beast turned human.

‘A woman? A huge house and…’

He muttered at the mirage before him. He spotted the dimming fireworks through the window in the cellar. Every beat of his heart was pointing towards the city where the fireworks were coming from. The capital.

The young beast looked up. His heartbeats were clear.

‘Ah!’

That was where his Companion had been born.

***

The successor’s [Companion] had been born. The news that Hernan’s [Companion] had arrived in this world reached the duke which spurred his immediate action. He had been planning on visiting his son despite his busy schedule so that he could give his son a stable life, so that he could take over him as his successor.

“You can travel freely now.”

When Hernan’s Companion appeared, Yusnan had decided that now that the situation had changed, Hernan should get his freedom. While Yusnan helped to search for Hernan’s [Companion], Hernan travelled freely around his city and his temple.

The City of Beasts may be huge but there were also many empty plots of land as much of its vast area was taken up by wasteland. Hernan spent his days learning how to use his powers from the other Templars of Beasts as well as swordsmanship and various weaponry. There were also some templars who had yet to meet their [Companion] and hence had no children. So, most of the Templars of Beasts cared for him like their own child.

‘What room is this?’

Though Yusnan allowed Hernan to roam freely, there was one place that was off-limits. It was a room that was located even further below the basement where he was trapped. He did find it strange but he willingly obeyed his father. The severe punishments he received as a child made him a more obedient child.

“Cough. Please s-save me…”

He ignored the voices that his sensitive hearing would pick up from time to time. Those were also the words he threw up as his father beat him to near-death but he recalled how his father would always tell him off for it. Because he was a beast and the violence towards him was natural.

Hence, Hernan pretended not to know about the countless women that had the qualities to become a templar bound beneath his feet. No, it was more like he had no idea what his father was going to do to the women trapped there. Even if sometimes some of the women tried to escape, they would always end up caught by one of the Templars of Beasts and return to their chains glowering.

“Mother, where are those women going?”

“Well… I don’t want you to know but at the same time, I want to tell you. If I hadn’t met your father, I might have ended up like that too.”

It was a horrifying affair. Chrisha spoke through gritted teeth. Hernan only vaguely understood the terrors of the matter through his mother’s attempt at nonchalance when she spoke. Sometimes, his mother would weep sadly.

“Child, I really did pray that you wouldn’t be a templar. This Empire is truly horrible.”

The words his mother uttered as she wept remained in the child’s mind and his heart for a long time.

***

“That’s your problem, sister.”

“Watch your tone.”

Then one day, news that a carriage carrying a valuable guest from the Imperial Palace had arrived in their city spread through the populace. Hernan, who had been walking around the temple at that time, came across two people. It was a young boy and an older woman. The woman spotted Hernan much earlier but it was the boy who spoke to him first.

“Sister, that child, he’s the duke’s child, is he not?”

“… I guess so. Doesn’t he look exactly like him?”

The boy who suddenly approached Hernan then lifted him up.

“Woah, he’s so light.”

Instead of having sharp features, the boy, who had lifted Hernan up, looked like a grown child. He was very tall and had hair as blue as a lake.

“Hello? I’m the 3rd Prince, Abel Claude Kaltanias.”

“Abel.”

“The beautiful woman over there is my older sister, Eris Neve Nemesis Kaltanias. She’s the 2nd Princess.”

A princess? A prince? Hernan’s head was spinning. Obviously, the valuable guests that came from the capital must refer to them.

“Abel, for your information, that child is only two years younger than you.”

“Seriously?’

When the woman turned her head to the side arrogantly, Hernan spotted another woman trailing behind the blue-haired one. Just then, boom. A loud noise rang in his ears.

Boom.

‘… Ah.’

As a thorny sensation pricked his skin, his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest. Why? He grabbed his heart that was thumping for some reason. He thought it had been because of the other woman but that didn’t seem to be the case. To be exact, it was c-closer to… Then, he reached out for the child that the woman was holding. Just then, the princess called for the woman.

“Auresia.”

“Eris.”

The woman smiled gently. Her fine silver hair with a purplish sheen fluttered in the sky. She was a very beautiful woman but she was not the one Hernan was entranced by. It was the child the woman was carrying. The woman was surprised by how entranced Hernan was by the child and squatted in front of him,

“Hello? Young Templar of Beasts.”

“Ah.”

“Will you bless my child?”

His gut was telling him. The one responsible for squeezing his heart like this was her.

“She’s the 3rd Princess of the Empire. Her name is Ashley Rosé Kaltanias.”

His instincts were yelling at him. Telling him that this was his [Companion].

***

The City of Beasts was filled with various historical sites. So, many thought that the first-time visitors from the Imperial Palace came to tour these sites and that they would stay for a while. However, the guests went beyond their expectations. The 8th Queen, the 3rd Prince and the 2nd Princess stayed longer than they expected.

And their purpose for visiting went against their expectations as well.

It was funny. How could a female have the ‘Power of the Lords’? And what did they mean when they said that there was a need to seal it? Eris, the 2nd Princess, could only laugh at the situation. The curtains were swaying like her emotions as the tablecloth fluttered against the wind as well.

Next to her was her brother, the Templar of the Winds and also the 3rd Prince. He was glaring at his much older sister as if she had caused trouble.

“Auresia, if this continues, your daughter will walk the same path my sister is on. When she turns 16, she’ll be trapped in the crystal and become a living sacrifice that’ll continue to feed the crystal for the rest of her life.”

“Then, it’ll be fine if she doesn’t turn 16.”

“What?”

Auresia smiled brightly. Just then, her gaze met with Hernan’s and she curled her eyes before grinning.

‘What are they talking about?’

Hernan visited Auresia everyday but he went to see her daughter and not Auresia herself. In spite of this, Auresia welcomed the boy without any protest. His [Companion], whom he never got tired of seeing again and again, was sitting drowsily next to him as he watched her. Hernan didn’t notice but there had been a strange glint in Auresia’s eyes as she watched him.

“Do you like my child?”

“Huh? Ah… She looks a lot like you.”

“She looks more like her father.”

After learning that he was the successor to the temple, Auresia began addressing Hernan more respectfully compared to when she first met him. Hernan quickly looked away from her. Because the only one who could capture his attention for more than a few seconds was that small child.

The more he saw her, the stranger his feelings got. Whenever he sat next to her, the world became as silent as a grave and his instincts died down. It always felt as if there were only the two of them left in this world. He carefully touched her heart.

‘Her heart…’

It clearly felt different but it felt as if their hearts were beating together.

“The only reason why I’m staying here is because my child is weak.”

“What do you mean weak?”

It was like any other day. Hernan had visited the baby as per usual before Auresia spoke to him. As she told him a shocking tale, her face looked as fragile as a falling flower and so devastated that she looked like she could shed tears at any given moment.

“My daughter was born weak. She’s not as strong as I am. The child who doesn’t resemble me at all had sadly inherited her father’s powers. Apparently, the immense power she had inherited from her father is affecting her poorly.”

“… Does it… hurt her a lot?’

“I’m not sure. But they did say the more potent her powers, the more torturous it’ll be. There is one way to address it…”

“And what’s that?”

“By giving her my powers.’

Auresia slowly parted her lips before pointing to her chest.

“My family’s divinity is passed on from mother to daughter. But this child didn’t manage to inherit any of my divinity. It is unfortunate… but if I could give her some of my powers, I was told that she could live for a long time.”

Her voice was small and soft but had the ability to move his heart.

The child might be sleeping peacefully next to him now but the sorrowful way her mother was speaking made it sound very real to Hernan. The naive young beast, who was oblivious to human behaviour, believed her words without hesitation.

The woman gave a bright smile. It looked tragic yet beautiful.

“So, could you help me?”

Unable to see what the woman was plotting and scheming behind her facade, the young beast nodded.

“Will you let my daughter be your [Companion]? If it’s you, I think you can transfer her some of my divinity. If it were any other templar, it would burden her too much but you are both bound by fate.”

On that day, magic and spells were casted and a great deal of divinity was used up. But other than the people in the room, no one knew what happened inside. The divinity that Auresia brought out through a beautiful song was of a very beautiful purple colour and through Hernan, the light entered the child.

“This will keep my child healthy for a long time.”

The expression Auresia had on her face as she watched her child was something no mother should be wearing when looking at their daughter. She might have looked beautiful but her expression was as crafted as a sculpture’s. She looked more relieved than anything. As if she had been released from her burdens.

It was only later did Hernan realise that the divinity he had instilled in the child on Auresia’s behalf was not divinity at all but a curse. The powers that were passed on in her family from mother to daughter was not a power at all but a [curse].

“Her face… There’s a scar on her face…!”

“Ah. Did I not mention this before?”

It was a [curse]. A [curse] that prevented her from growing.

“There would be small side effects.”

Auresia smiled like a blooming flower.

“This would make my child happy though it means you’ll have to stay away from her.”

“… What do you mean by stay away?”

“My daughter is the princess. You can’t possibly think that she’s going to be staying in this barren land, do you? I want my daughter to grow up happy by only looking at pretty things.”

Little Hernan widened his eyes. That was something he had never thought about. However, what he did know was his father’s violence and his mother’s tears.

He recalled one of the templars commenting that the city where the stench of blood never receded did not suit this young child.

“You can come see her.”

If the happiness Auresia is referring to can only occur when he was not around…

“No, I will not come see her. Ever.”

And young Hernan meant it.