Chapter 334: Like a Dream

“Good morning… Aeg.”

The boy’s voice broke the hazy dream of early morning. The sound of water dripping in the prison cell, which was normally ignored, now felt annoying.

The young man pulled down his hood, letting the black cloth cover his face before the rare sunlight could shine on it.

“Morning,” he replied politely, giving a short greeting to the boy in the next cell.

“Are you off duty today?”

The little boy carefully walked up to him. Whether it was his footsteps or his voice, everything about him was cautious, so careful that it seemed a bit too humble, like he was afraid of the young man.

“On standby,” the young man answered softly, only saying those two words. Then he sat there completely still again, as if only certain things could truly wake him up.

“You look really tired… You need to rest,” the boy said with concern.

But because of the iron bars between them, he couldn’t reach the young man who was only an arm’s length away, he was simply too small.

The young man didn’t reply. He was always like that, barely spoke since the first day they met.

The boy who lived next to him was very afraid of him. He was scared of this man who was always dressed in black, because he looked just like a nightmare from a fairy tale, maybe even the kind that eats children.

The young man, of course, didn’t care what others thought. Ever since people found him, he had always worn this cloak. People said it was a special cloak that could hide his presence. It was a reward from the Second Queen because of his skills. Many people had tried to take advantage of him, but most of them ended up dumped in some corner, either disabled or dead. Their bodies would be left to rot and stink until someone came to clean them up.

The boy was afraid of him, but also liked him, kind of like a friend.

The boy often heard the saying “a distant relative is not as helpful as a nearby neighbor.” He felt that this shadowy young man was like a neighbor, so he wanted to be his friend.

And to be fair, he had helped him before.

Even though most people no longer dared to mess with the young man because of how strong he was, the scrawny boy next door was an easy target. People often bullied him, from taking his food to pinning him against a wall and beating him up. He would often come back to his cage black and blue, looking like a stray dog.

But strangely enough, the boy had a tough life, despite all the beatings, he never had anything too serious happen.

One day, some people saw the boy too scared to even step out of his cage. So they came right into his cell to “blow off some steam.” His screams of pain ended up disturbing his “neighbor.” With a loud bang, the young man in black armor punched one of the attackers so hard he was sent flying.

The young man didn’t say a single word the whole time. But from that day on, the boy’s cage became his “safe zone.” As long as the young man was nearby, no one dared to mess with him there.

Of course, that only worked inside the cage. Outside, the young man, who didn’t care about anything, wouldn’t step in.

He looked like a cold person, but he would sing lullabies to the crying boy on cold nights. He sounded like a gentle person, but he allowed the boy to be bullied. Until the day the boy fought back, killed a fat guy with his own hands, and brought back a “trophy” to give him.

Maybe… he was just trying to teach the boy how to survive.

Because he himself lived like a walking corpse, he didn’t want others to only learn how to obey.

That boy was the beginning of his rebellion, and the heavy burden of responsibility.

He had always been the Second Queen’s loyal dog, always living in her shadow.

You could say he didn’t care about anything around him. What he could see, what he could hear, none of it mattered. All that mattered was the voice of the Second Queen.

If she told him to do something, he would do it. No matter who he had to kill, or what he had to take by force, he would do it.

Because ever since he entered the House of Nightingales, he felt that nothing else in the world had any meaning anymore.

No matter what he did, things would continue to move forward. His own small power couldn’t change anything or fight back against anyone. So why not just go with the flow?

Whoever died, whoever lost something, it didn’t matter. What the future held, what would come next, it didn’t matter. As long as he obeyed, that was enough.

It’s not that he couldn’t think for himself without orders. It’s just that if there were no orders, he wouldn’t bother to think at all.

That young man lived like that, completely and utterly lazy about life. Anyone could use him however they wanted. Because no matter what, the future was already set and wouldn’t change.

That was… until that boy appeared.

Until that boy began to change.

Until that boy told him—“I want to live.”

Even though their personalities didn’t seem to match at all, they still became friends. Just because of one sentence said through tears in the middle of the night, “I want to live.” That was enough for the young man to reach out and take the boy’s hand.

—He looked so much like the way he used to be.

Back then, he was the same. No one to talk to, no one to cry to, no way to say he wanted to keep living. Everyone around him was gone.

Some didn’t pass the tests. Some weren’t strong enough. Some were too emotional. Some couldn’t be controlled. In the end, only he was left.

Only he remained, and he became the loyal dog of the Second Queen.

His obedience came from his despair.

If you asked him whether he thought his current life was pathetic, he would definitely nod.

He wasn’t someone who could be fully controlled. Deep down, he still held on to the pride of a knight, something passed down from his father and mother.

So, just before he truly broke down, in the depths of his despair, he reached out his hand to that boy.

He wanted to save the boy, and he wanted to save himself.

“I’ll get you out of here.”

One day, the young man made that promise to the boy.

“Believe me, I’ll take you out.”

At the time, the boy was already exhausted. The light in his eyes had faded.

But maybe because of the tears, in that moment, a faint sparkle returned to his gaze.

“Okay.”

His voice was still young, but the hand he reached out was covered in scars. It was no longer the soft hand of a child.

The boy gripped the young man’s hand tightly. As if, in that moment, they were holding on to hope together.

—Heh.

In the end, wasn’t it all just a dream?