Ritt could feel the lingering worry rising like bile in his throat, and so he quickly decided to change the topic and ask a question that stuck out to him, hoping that it might help to dislodge the murky feeling.
“If the Fae are such important trade partners, then why was a gate set up to keep them out?”
“...Because the Fae are dangerous, boy. We may trade with them, but as a rule they cannot be trusted. Should the day come when they show their clever facade and turn on us, the capital shall be our only safe haven, as it once was in the past, long before.”
“Ah…”
The grave look on the Duke’s face as he spoke was enough to seal Ritt’s lips, his attempt to alleviate the slight discomfort he was feeling quickly failing. Sien, who’d been covertly peeking at him from time to time, easily noticed how quiet and rigid Ritt had become, although he had no understanding as to why.
“Ritt?”
He uncrossed his arms, dropping all pretense of his annoyance in the face of his worry for Ritt, and leaned over to gently turn Ritt’s face towards him.
“Ritt, what’s wrong?”
“Mmm, it’s nothing Sien, I’m fine…”
“You know you don’t look very convincing right now, right?”
“No really, it’s nothing to be worried about-”
“Yup, still unconvincing! Why don’t you just tell it to me already and get it over with, Ritt?”
“Ah, but-”
He’d seen it multiple times already when he’d previously visited Sien’s residence, but the btant close dispys and flirting between the two men was still quite perturbing for the Duke to watch. Although trying to sit still and be tolerant for the sake of his nephew’s happiness, the Duke couldn’t help but eventually chime in and break up the canoodling in front of him, speaking once more in a loud voice, so as to attract attention.
“And then there is, of course, the topic of food, as I’d previously mentioned. Just as the Fae dislike the unnaturalness of fire meddling with the form of metals, they too dislike the taste of meat that has been altered by fire as well.”
Sien quickly pulled a face, displeased by the continuation of the talk about his kind, while Ritt seemed to immediately perk up, having heard the answer to a question that had bothered him for quite a while.
“Ah, so that’s why Sien dislikes the meat dishes so much then?”
“Yes, that would be the reason. The Fae seem to find the taste akin to garbage, although they’re perfectly able to eat raw, untreated meat; The kind that would cause an ordinary human to become sick.”
“Ooh…”
Ritt’s twinkling gaze turned to Sien, immensely pleased that he was finally getting answers to some of the questions that had been bugging him.
“Is it also the reason that Sien eats so little, too? If I got him some tasty raw meat, would he eat more, then?”
Sien pulled away slightly, a blush coloring his youthful visage. He’d never seen Ritt look at him in this way before, let alone anyone else, and Sien was vastly unsure how to react to such a forceful and sparkling gaze. He didn’t dislike it, but he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable somehow.
The Duke looked between the two once again, a small sigh escaping from between his lips unbidden. It would seem that once again he would have to stop their flirting.
“Ahem.”
Ritt immediately turned his head towards the Duke, having heard him clear his throat, expectantly waiting to hear the elder gentleman’s answer. The Duke wasn’t prepared for such an overly expressive look from the young man whose face he’d only seen make light expressions so far, so he had to gather himself for a moment before he could continue speaking.
“Ah yes, well… The… The Fae are usually known for their small appetites, except… Ahem, except for the more malicious ones.”
“Oh?”
Ritt turned to look at Sien once more, wondering if he could count as a ‘malicious’ Fae. From what he’d seen, Sien was quite quick to violence, and from the scene of him gleefully sughtering Brisillica’s entire army as if pying a child’s game, Ritt could certainly accept that sort of bel for him.
Seeing Ritt’s contemptive gaze, Sien’s flushing face quickly frowned, figuring out what he must have been thinking.
“...He means the man-eating Fae, you jerk, not me!”
“Oh… Oh yes, you’re right.”
Ritt’s mouth squirmed, realizing his mistake as he looked at Sien’s pouting face. His mind scrambled for a moment in the awkwardness of his wrongdoing, before pulling another question forward, hoping it might be distracting enough to erase his previous transgression.
“Ah, but Sien eats plenty of things that have been cooked though, doesn’t he? They might just be fruits and vegetables, but I’ve seen him eat plenty of them that have been toasted by a fme!”
The Duke lightly smiled, having witnessed Ritt’s panic and his nephew’s cute pouting.
“Yes, what you speak of is true. No one, not even the d’s mother, was ever able to understand why he enjoyed such a thing like an ordinary human would. Logic dictates that he should dislike it just like the meat. Most Fae dislike the mere existence of fire, after all, let alone in their food.”
Ritt nodded along to the Duke’s words at first, but soon his brow wrinkled slightly, realizing that such a thought was actually quite silly. Hadn’t his death proven that Sien was completely fine with fire? Perhaps Ritt had been a bit distracted at the time mourning the loss of every one of the troops under his command, and perhaps he hadn’t been able to see it very well, but it was absolutely unmistakable that Sien had killed him with magical fire. The way his body burned to a crisp left absolutely no doubt inside of him of how he’d died. Yes, with the amount and intensity of fire that had been unleashed upon him, enough to even begin melting away his bones, saying that Sien disliked fire seemed like a complete lie; If anything, he’d seemed to revel in it instead.
The memory of Ritts final moments began to py themselves over and over, like a broken record, skipping again and again to the way his charred body broke away and deteriorated inside of the tomb of his slightly melted armor.
Sien made a small grunting noise as he rolled his eyes, seeming like he was tired of hearing the Duke speak of such things.
“I’ve already told you, raw pnts just don’t taste like they’re finished is all.”
“I do remember d, although you saying that still doesn’t help figure out a single thing.”
“What does it even matter? It’s not like it’s something we have to figure out in the first pce!”
“...I suppose you’re right. But Sesia always seemed to think that it was because of your father’s blood that you-”
“Aaaah, shut up already about that! Why do you have to bring the two of them up all the time?!”
Ritt wanted to pay attention to the exchange between the two, feeling like he was missing out on something important, but as if he were in a trance, he was somehow unable to properly focus. His body felt like it was tightening uncomfortably, and even the sound of the two’s conversation seemed muffled. His eyes had blurred and become unfocused, still stuck on the image of his memories. He wasn’t sure, but perhaps he could feel his body beginning to shiver.
“...Ritt? Ritt, what’s up?”
He could hear a familiar voice calling to him, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Surely such a concerned voice wasn’t coming from the monster that he could still see kicking at his steaming armor.
“Hey Ritt! Are you okay? …What’s going on?! Ritt, answer me!”
Ritt could vaguely feel himself getting shaken, and he forced himself to blink multiple times, willing the haunting fog of his memories away as he tried to focus on the man in front of him.
“...Sien?”
“It’s me, Ritt! What’s wrong?! What’s going on?!”
“I’m… Erg…”
Ritt winced, all of a sudden realizing that he was out of breath. His lungs burned in protest, as if trying to punish him for the ck of air.
This kind of thing had never happened to him before. He’d remembered his death plenty of times since coming back in time, but it had never once brought him as much distress as it just had. He looked to his favorite person, Sien, for comfort in his confusion. And yet, for some reason, the image of the fmes still lingered when he saw his face.
