Chapter Text
“Wake up!”
He heard his voice shouting with an urgency that bordered on desperation.
Yoichi had always thought that Michael Kaiser was a profoundly egocentric man.
He had probably left empathy behind in his mother’s womb from the very moment he was born. He always presented himself as someone who needed to stand above everyone else. So confident, so cold, that he seemed to face any situation with an irritating calm, as if he already knew the solution even before the problem existed.
He wouldn’t lie, Kaiser was extraordinarily competent. Too perfect at everything he did. A true warrior, the owner of overwhelming strength and an acuity difficult to match.
Of course, he was the best on the battlefield. Even so, a little humility would not have hurt him.
He despised his brazen attitude, his constant arrogance, and above all, his absolute lack of interest in even trying to be kind to him, his own husband.
And yet….
“Damn it. Wake up already, Yoichi! We don’t have time to waste.”
Something was terribly wrong today.
“What…?”
Yoichi opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Kaiser.
Not the usual Kaiser with his elegant smile and impeccable posture, but an unrecognizable version of him. His expression was tense, far too agitated to be characteristic of him. Veins stood out along his neck, his brow was furrowed, and those blue eyes were fixed on him with an almost feral intensity.
Goosebumps rose along his skin.
He was soaked in sweat, breathing heavily, as if he had just fought the fiercest of beasts to reach the place where Yoichi lay.
Still trapped in the drowsiness of just having woken up, Yoichi could not fully understand the situation but one thing was clear even to his foggy mind.
Something was very wrong.
“Put this on.”
Kaiser said, throwing him a set of rather simple clothes; even for Yoichi, who favored plain attire despite being a noble.
“Why—?”
His voice was cut off by the shouts of several men echoing from outside, spreading through the place like a violent reverberation.
Yoichi watched his husband click his tongue in evident irritation before fixing his gaze back on him and roughly dragging him out of bed.
“Come with me. Now.”
Yoichi did not resist. His attention, however, was inevitably drawn to the tattoo on Kaiser’s hand. He knew it was not the right moment, he was fully aware of that, yet he had never had the opportunity to observe it closely, as his husband rarely came near him.
Much less did they spend time together.
The light streaming through the window fell upon the blond man’s skin, outlining his figure. Yoichi softened his gaze as he noticed the pronounced veins and the healed scars that traced Kaiser’s body, all intertwined with the rose tattoo. He could not see the roses in their entirety, as they extended up Kaiser’s neck. However, he could make out the stem descending along his arm until it reached his wrist, where it ended in a crown engraved into his skin.
Even thinking about it now, Kaiser’s hands were far larger than his own.
“Hand over Yoichi Isagi’s head!”
“We demand the traitor’s head!”
Yoichi gasped. The slander hurled at his name, rising from outside the window, abruptly cut off his train of thought.
Traitor?
Him?
Why were they calling him by his family name?
“Hey, Kaiser.”
He noticed his own voice trembling.
“What’s going on here?”
Kaiser looked him straight in the eyes with an emotion impossible to decipher.
At times, Yoichi was afraid to look at him directly. His eyes were his favorite color, yet they made him feel as though he were nothing more than a prey who was allowed to keep living on a mere whim.
From the very first day he had set foot in that castle, Kaiser had made him feel uneasy.
‘It’s been three years since I married him,’ he thought.
Yoichi still remembered the first time he had seen him. Kaiser had been so tall that he had had to tilt his neck just to look him in the face. It was not that his family was short. In fact, Yoichi had always considered his height to be above average.
But Kaiser…
Kaiser was even taller than him.
“As if telling you what’s happening now would help anything.”
At those words, Yoichi clenched his teeth in anger.
Kaiser was always like this.
He would never have married that unbearable man if it had not been by Noa’s order.
In those lands, strength was everything. Those who possessed strength survived and held power. That was why the emperor was none other than 《Noe Noa 》.
His word was absolute law.
And the only one who dared challenge him was his apprentice, the knight of the blue rose:《Michael Kaiser 》.
Not all nobles were content with Kaiser’s presence due to his uncertain origins, despite the fact that the emperor himself had granted him a noble title for his countless victories in battle. Thus, in order to silence them, Noa bound him in marriage to a family of respected lineage, Isagi’s house.
It had not been a happy marriage. At least, not for Yoichi. He had hoped for a minimal shred of kindness from his husband, even knowing how naïve it was to wish for peace in a union born of a political arrangement.
【Now you are my husband, you may mark me】
He had said it on their first wedding night, beneath the flickering candlelight, gathering every bit of courage he had left.
【As if I’d want to mark you】
Kaiser had looked at his figure on the bed with a frown and left.
Yoichi had been so mortified and ashamed that he never mentioned the subject again.
Kaiser might have been an exceptional warrior and an imposing figure, but as a husband, he was heartless.
For three years, they lived together as a married couple without sharing a single night.
“Ah…”
Kaiser’s sigh pulled him from his thoughts. Yoichi startled when he felt the blond man’s hand wrap around his neck. Before he could react, Kaiser pulled him forcefully toward himself and kissed him on the lips.
Yoichi could not process it, because Kaiser began to speak.
“Hey, Yoichi.”
He lifted his gaze toward his husband.
“Don’t you dare die.”
Yoichi blinked several times, confused. He desperately tried to focus on those overwhelming blue eyes watching him with a strange feeling.
One he could not identify.
The words sounded odd, out of place. And yet, he could have sworn they felt almost kind coming from his husband.
For once in all those years of marriage, in those damned three years, Kaiser seemed genuinely worried about him.
“It’s time to go, Isagi.”
Yoichi turned his head in surprise.
He recognized that voice. Still, he had not expected its owner to be there, much less to call him by his previous surname.
“Chigiri…?”
The man looked at him with an expression just as worried as Kaiser’s.
Was everyone aware of what was happening except him?
“What are you doing here, Chigiri?”
He murmured, aware that he was unlikely to receive a clear answer.
“He’ll get you out of here before Noa comes for your head.”
Yoichi looked at Kaiser, who answered his unspoken question while quickly covering him with a cloak.
Noa…?
Were those the imperial knights demanding his head?
And they had called him a traitor just moments ago, hadn’t they?
Suddenly, the pieces began to fall into place—though he preferred to ask for the full explanation once they were safe.
“And you…? Who will you escape with?”
He realized he was asking Kaiser an absurd question. Absentmindedly, he thought that he would surely stay with his right-hand man, Ness, or someone similar.
He even expected Lorenzo to appear to assist his friend.
But contrary to what he expected, Kaiser replied,
“I’ll stay in the castle.”
Yoichi’s eyes widened.
“I’ll buy time so you can escape.”
He did not look at him.
His attention was fixed on the knot he had just tightened on Yoichi’s garment before he exchanged a quick glance with Chigiri.
“Move, Isagi.”
A chill ran through Yoichi’s body.
He did not answer.
He did not move.
Buy time?
For what?
Saving him was already unthinkable.
But facing the imperial guard for him?
He was completely insane.
The logical choice would have been to hand him over. To give his head to Noa.
His master.
“We have to go, Isagi.”
Chigiri’s voice pulled him from his thoughts as he grabbed his arm and began to drag him away.
But Yoichi did not care. He desperately turned his face toward his husband, who was already turning his back on him.
“Kaiser!”
He called out, hoping he would turn around.
He did not.
He assumed he was ignoring him on purpose.
Again.
“Wait, Kaiser!”
He shouted once more, struggling against Chigiri’s grip, stretching his hand toward Kaiser’s figure as it slowly faded from his sight.
And for the first time since he had known him, Yoichi felt a different kind of fear.
Not for his own life.
But for Kaiser’s.
…
“Are you serious?”
“Of course I am! I have no reason to lie about something like that.”
“Kaiser? Wasn’t he the greatest warrior in the kingdom? What the hell is going on here?”
“He’s a traitor.”
A man holding a bottle of beer abruptly inserted himself into the conversation.
“A traitor?”
The buzz of the tavern slowly began to fade. And in the farthest corner of the establishment, the shadow of a human figure wrapped in a dark red cloak silently watched in the direction of what had once been his home.
“Yes! That’s why all the roads leading to Kaiser’s castle are now blocked. All the food we were supposed to trade is rotting away. A damn miserable situation for those of us who work!”
He spat a glob of saliva onto the floor.
“That’s not all.”
The bartender set another mug on the table. He glanced around cautiously, as if unsure whether he should say what came next, then lowered his voice.
“Today I ran into merchants coming from the north. They said Emperor Noa hung an arm on a post.”
“An arm?”
“Whose arm is that?”
“Who does it belong to?”
A heavy silence took hold of the place.
To break it, the waitress spoke with unsettling calm.
“Michael Kaiser’s.”
A crash echoed throughout the room.
Everyone turned toward the table where a wooden chair had fallen to the floor.
The figure in the red cloak staggered forward to the counter and grabbed the young woman’s arm tightly.
“Is that true?”
“Eh…?”
“Say it again.”
“Say what…?”
“Tell me if what you just said is true!”
The man with jet-black hair shouted.
The strength of his grip made the waitress stammer without realizing it.
“I-it’s true… I heard it this morning from a merchant.”
“Where is it?”
“Huh?”
“That post! Where did they see it?”
“Beyond the cedar hill…”
Yoichi faltered and took a few steps back. He could barely stay standing; darkness clouded his vision.
“They say the count fought until the very end,” someone continued.
“That he killed more than a hundred soldiers by himself.”
“…”
Noticing his breathing grow increasingly erratic, the waitress added,
“They say the king severed all his limbs without hesitation while he was still alive. Even though he was his apprentice.”
“Ah…”
“The right arm is in the north, the left in the south… And the legs in the east…”
Yoichi clenched his teeth.
‘That can’t be true,’ he thought.
Kaiser was the count of the nation.
His origins were peculiar, yes, but he was still the hero of a country, the direct disciple of Emperor Noa. Even if he had protected Yoichi, the logical course would have been a trial among nobles.
Not this.
Yoichi ran out toward the inn’s stables and violently yanked on his horse’s reins.
……
His heart was beating so fast his ears ached. He bit down on his lower lip until it bled.
‘It’s a lie.’
“It can’t be real.”
He muttered those words over and over as he rode without stopping.
The post the waitress had spoken of appeared before his eyes after half a day of relentless riding.
With slow, unsteady steps, he approached it.
“Kaiser…”
His voice trembled.
“It can’t be…”
There it was.
The unmistakable arm of Kaiser. The same one he had noticed before fleeing the castle: the scars, the tattoo, its unmistakable pattern. But now the fingers were bluish, mutilated, with deep cuts where chunks of flesh were missing. Around it, a flock of crows cawed as they devoured the remains.
“Get away!”
He dismounted and ran until he stood beneath the post.
The stench of rotting flesh hit his face, making him nauseous. Even so, he did not step back.
‘It’s been under the sun for too long,’ he thought, knowing the flesh would decay faster that way.
Yoichi grabbed the cloak covering his body and shook it violently, driving the crows away.
“Get out! Go away!”
The birds tried to return, but Yoichi chased them off again and again.
……
When they finally left, he was able to look at the arm clearly. The decomposition was severe; parts of the bone were exposed from the birds’ feast.
He wanted to believe it was not his.
But he couldn’t.
There were the rose stems…
And the crown.
That symbol belonged to only one person.
The symbol of the warrior of the blue rose.
“Don’t you dare die.”
The last words he had heard from Kaiser echoed inside his mind.
“Don’t be so pathetic!”
Yoichi screamed, broken, with a pain that pierced his entire body.
‘Why did you protect me? Why did you kiss me…?’
Yoichi’s own questions overwhelmed his thoughts.
‘Why now? Why did you sacrifice yourself?’
Tears poured uncontrollably until his breathing became erratic, as if the air no longer wished to enter his lungs.
‘Why does it hurt so much?’
“Ugh… No! No!”
He remembered his own eyes, filled with anxiety every time he looked at Kaiser. Every time Yoichi sighed in relief once they were no longer in the same room, he realized that he had never felt comfortable at his side.
“Hey, Yoichi.”
Yoichi fell to his knees before the post, his heart completely shattered.
“Don’t you dare die.”
Kaiser’s words echoed again, cruel in his memory.
From the day he fled the castle, he had remained in a safe area where he had to hide from everyone else. Although at first Chigiri and other subordinates of Kaiser had stayed with him, his friend had to return so as not to raise suspicion with Noa, and the knights who had followed them were sacrificed one by one to escape the empire.
Yoichi dreamed every night of Kaiser’s lifeless eyes, of that blue gaze that had lost its light.
It was always the same dream.
It always ended the same way.
He didn’t want to continue south to escape Noa.
He wanted to go back.
He wanted to return home and leave everything behind.
And yet, every morning he opened his eyes. Drank a little water. Ate some hard bread. And whether he wanted to or not, he kept living.
It wasn’t willpower.
It was guilt.
Because for Yoichi to keep breathing, other lives had been willingly given.
And he had no right to be so ungrateful toward them.
“Aaargh…”
He let himself collapse onto the ground. He had no strength left to hold his own body upright. Pain struck him like a massive wave, mercilessly dragging him under and drowning him in his own sobs.
Tears slid down into his palms and, in a burst of helplessness, he tore at the dry grass with his bare hands.
“Ugh…! Kaiser!”
It felt as though someone were striking his chest and back with a blunt object again and again. His sobs escaped his throat distorted, his voice already destroyed by grief.
‘I did nothing good for you… And yet you were killed because of me.’
As Yoichi remained trapped in his pain, a figure began to emerge from the shadows.
“I have never seen a human like you before.”
The voice was deep, ominous, as if it did not belong to this world. Suddenly, the surroundings darkened completely, like a room whose lights had been abruptly turned off. The only things that seemed to illuminate it were the pupils of large eyes fixed intently on him. Then, the metallic sound of chains dragging began to echo.
“So many emotions existing within a single person: hatred, resentment, thirst for revenge…” the voice murmured, “mixed with a nobility that should not be there.”
Before Yoichi appeared a strange existence made of light. It was not warm nor celestial; on the contrary, that radiance made his skin crawl, filling him with a profound sense of unease.
In an instant, the figure began to grow.
Now it had a smile.
More chains emerged from nowhere, intertwining in the air. The figure took on a more humanoid shape, though its body remained entirely blue, unnatural.
“You know? I can grant you a wish.”
The entity leaned slightly toward him.
“I am Ego. An extremely powerful demon. You may ask for anything you desire, only…”
It stopped right in front of Yoichi.
“Make a contract with me.”
Those words inspired no trust.
“All I want in return is—”
Before the demon could continue, Yoichi interrupted him.
“I agree.”
The answer left his lips before he had even thought it through.
Even though he didn’t trust that demon, even though every part of his body screamed that this was dangerous, Yoichi was willing to give anything if it meant changing things.
“I don’t care what you want from me.”
Maybe it was naive.
Probably reckless.
But never in his life had he been so certain about saying yes to something.
For better or worse, he would make the necessary sacrifices to take revenge on Noa, clear his family’s name, and…
Bring Kaiser back.
“Take my life.”
An intense light began to shine. The pain already burning inside Yoichi intensified, as if his body were being consumed from within.
“Take my soul, if you want to.”
Luminous fragments appeared around him, like pieces of a puzzle. And a pattern of those same pieces slowly began to trace itself across his skin.
“Just…”
Parts of his body began to break away, decomposing into blue puzzle pieces that were carried off by the wind, rising upward.
“Send me back to the past.”
The instant he finished speaking those words, the light that had begun to shine before became blinding and enveloped him completely.
He remembered nothing else.
Only blue puzzle pieces.
…
“Hey, Yoichi.”
It was like waking from a dream that had lasted far too long.
Yoichi blinked several times and lowered his gaze to his hands. The ceiling above him was familiar.
A chill ran down his spine.
He slowly lifted his head.
A familiar man stood before him.
“What…?”
The word came out like an empty question, as if he hadn’t understood what he had just heard.
“There’s no need for introductions, is there? After all, you’ve surely heard of me.”
Indisputably, that was Kaiser’s voice.
Yoichi couldn’t believe it, even with him standing right in front of him.
He was alive.
Talking.
With that same arrogant, confident tone as always.
“What…?”
He repeated it without realizing what he was saying.
“Yoichi?”
Kaiser frowned.
“Are you listening to me?”
His memories struck him mercilessly.
He remembered the cold ground beneath his knees, the post, his arms wrapped around that severed limb.
He remembered the nauseating stench that still seemed to cling to his nose.
That same arm that weighed barely half of what it should have.
And yet…
Kaiser was there.
Right in front of him.
Yoichi’s eyes filled with tears before he could stop them.
“Hey, Kaiser.”
There was no doubt about it.
He had returned to the past.
“Don’t you dare die.”