Chapter 43
Chapter 43. The Touching Scars (3)
At eighteen, he organized a guild of street children, and while running that guild, he supported Merilyn and Anna.
Those days had been enough—until the day knights set up camp in front of the house.
“We greet His Highness, Prince Sionne Feitan. By royal command, we have come to escort the first heir to the throne.”
He wanted, with all his heart, to refuse.
Though he had grown up uneducated, there was one thing he knew with certainty. His father and mother had died because of that wretched throne.
But it wasn’t a position where he could simply say what he wanted or refuse what he didn’t.
“Find Ariel.”
The very first order Sionne gave upon becoming prince was a secret command.
[A 19-year-old woman with black hair and light-blue eyes.
She may have memories of losing her family in the seaside village of Rance at the age of six.
She is likely in possession of an emerald necklace.]
But the information was severely limited.
By the time he had met nearly fifty black-haired women, the hope that Ariel might still be alive had begun to fade.
Just as his hope was dimming—
“They say they’ve found someone believed to be Lady Ariel.”
“I see. When can I meet her?”
“Well… it would be best if Your Highness went there directly.”
The place they led him to was the poorest of the poor districts.
A place avoided even by common folk, for it was where those afflicted with leprosy gathered.
“This place…”
He turned his head toward the sound of commotion. At the village entrance, two people were fighting over the corpse of a rat.
“…Let’s go in.”
The narrow, winding paths of the village were lined with stagnant pools of water. The black, rotting liquid reeked like decaying corpses.
Even Sionne, who had once lived on the streets, nearly retched at the stench.
“….”
But more disturbing than the smell were the people’s eyes. Faces without eyebrows or noses stared fixedly at his party.
His heart felt heavy.
“How much farther must we go?”
“We are nearly there.”
Sionne urged them on until they reached a hut that looked ready to collapse. From inside came groans so agonized that even hearing them made his hair stand on end.
“This is where Lady Ariel resides.”
The knight who had guided him said so. Which meant the pained cries belonged to Ariel.
“Ah, but… from what I know, they say lepers lose all sense of feeling…”
Sionne stammered out what little knowledge he had.
From what he had heard, lepers lost all sensation. Then why was she screaming in such pain?
It made no sense.
He wanted to deny all of it.
“When sensory abnormalities manifest, some feel nothing at all, while others feel everything in excess. It appears Lady Ariel is the latter.”
Sionne wanted to silence the physician who had accompanied him.
Just then, a woman stepped out from the frail hut. Her face was disfigured, though not as badly as the others.
“…How did you come to find us?”
She was the one caring for Ariel. Even in a place where all were sick, they seemed to look after one another.
“I heard my sister was here, so I came for her.”
“Ah, please, come inside.”
As though she had been told beforehand, the woman opened the door and stepped aside.
Through the open door, he saw her—a woman with black hair lying inside.
Her eye socket was ruined, leaving only one eye. But that single eye was unmistakably light-blue.
Though faded, it was the same autumn-sky color his mother had adored.
“El…”
He needed to confirm it was her, yet he felt an overwhelming certainty.
“….”
The woman wheezed, struggling even to answer.
“Ariel, is that you? I’m Sionne Feitan—do you remember me?”
“Why…”
“Pardon?”
Her voice sounded like wind seeping through a crack. Sionne leaned closer to hear.
His knight and physician tried to stop him, but he ignored them.
“Why… only now…”
“….”
“I counted to ninety-nine… over and over again…!”
She was his sister. She was Ariel.
“Ariel.”
He didn’t need to cross-check memories or ask about the color of the jewel in their mother’s necklace.
“Brother…”
As children, whenever Ariel grew anxious, Sionne always told her to count to ninety-nine.
No one else in the world knew that—no one but him and Ariel.
“Where were you all this time? Do you know how long, how desperately I searched…”
Sionne reached out to touch her face.
“No, don’t! Don’t touch me!”
Ariel turned her head, rejecting his hand. Her voice, ragged from panting, split into sharp screams.
“Your Highness, it’s dangerous.”
The physician behind him also tried to stop him.
“El, do you remember? Mother used to say your eyes were the color of the autumn sky.”
But Sionne did not withdraw his hand. He gently caressed the corner of Ariel’s eye.
“Amazing. They’re just the same as when you were little.”
Hot tears streamed down his face, falling onto hers.
“I lost you back then… I’m so sorry.”
“Hhhhuuuh.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.”
Over her changed face, he saw the face of the little girl who used to cry as a child.
“Come with me now, El.”
“Come with you? Where…?”
Ariel sniffled as she asked.
“I’ve prepared a mansion for you.”
If he had his way, he would have taken his sister to the royal palace immediately. But he couldn’t bring Ariel, a leper, into the palace.
So he had arranged a separate mansion for her.
“No.”
“What?”
Her reply was something Sionne had never anticipated.
“No, I won’t.”
“Why not? There you’ll have good meals, good treatment. I’ve prepared everything.”
“…I’m not going.”
“El, tell me. What exactly don’t you like about it?”
“Look, brother. In the outside world, I can’t be accepted anywhere.”
Ariel lifted her left arm. The skin was pale and peeling all over.
“No, that’s not true. I’ll train the servants thoroughly. They won’t dare look at you that way.”
“But if I’m only going to be locked inside the mansion, then how is that any different from here?”
“….”
Sionne was at a loss for words. Not once had he imagined Ariel would refuse to go.
She was no longer the six-year-old child he remembered. In the time they had been apart, she had grown into someone who could think for herself and stand firm in her decisions.
“I just want to stay here… and die beside my friends.”
“What…? What are you saying?”
Startled, Sionne denied her words.
“El, we’ve only just—finally—met again. You have to give me the chance to make up for everything I couldn’t do for you.”
“We’ll see.”
But Ariel’s darkened eyes held no trace of hope for the future.
“My illness can’t be cured, and the kind of pain that makes me wish I were dead… it happens every day.”
Her face, at nineteen, already showed exhaustion beyond her years. She looked like someone living under a sentence, as though life itself were punishment.
“When I wake up, it feels like someone has set fire to my face and my left arm.”
“….”
“If I could, I’d cut it off. But Nadia never lets me touch anything sharp, so I fail every time.”
Nadia was the only friend who had taken care of Ariel after she drifted into the slums. Ariel had introduced her earlier as the one who had stepped out.
The more calmly Ariel spoke, the more Sionne’s heart felt like it was tearing apart.
What kind of pain had Ariel borne? Facing it felt like staring into an endless abyss.
“….”
In the end, that day, Sionne could not bring his sister back with him.
But he could not give her up after finally finding her. Whenever he had time, he began visiting the slums.
He tried appealing to her with childhood memories.
He tried explaining, logically, why she should come with him.
He even tried to force her onto a stretcher.
And he threatened to cut off the food and clean cloth he provided to the slum if she refused to go with him.
But Ariel only shook her head every time.
“Stop coming here!”
And eventually, she no longer welcomed him at all.
“Do you want to catch the disease? Or should I prepare a spot here for you too, brother?”
“…El. How can I possibly leave you alone?”
“Get out! Please!”
On days when the pain became unbearable, Ariel screamed at Sionne.
“You always talk like you can do something for me, brother.”
“….”
“There isn’t. There’s nothing you can do for me at all!”
