DKFTI 75

Aizen sat at the large desk in the warm office air, quietly staring at the Pope who was busy with his paperwork. Even when he was young, he used to sit like this, staring endlessly at him.

Back then he was not the Holy King but only a High Priest, and Aizen himself was not an Apostle but just a kid.

Aizen sipped warm water and looked at the Pope. He fiddled with the armrest of the sofa that had not changed even after several years.

“It took you a long time to return.”

The Pope finally opened his mouth after a long silence. His eyes were still fixed on the stack of documents. Aizen continued the conversation without looking at him either, as if he was already used to that manner.

“The road there and back was longer than I thought.”

At Aizen’s words, the Pope’s eyes, nailed to the desk, glanced at him. Aizen shrugged. Only then did the Pope let go of the papers in his hand.

“When you left this place, I think you said you would kill the Demon King.”

“I think I also said I would die.”

Aizen looked at the Pope.

“Things in this world never go as planned. That is why I am still alive.”

“……”

“And how could I possibly do something that even the Captain of the Apostles could not.”

At Aizen’s light tone, the Pope straightened his posture. His eyes stayed fixed on the side of Aizen’s face.

“Now stop concerning yourself.”

“With what?”

“You know exactly what I am talking about, yet you ask again.”

The Pope and Aizen knew each other well. Since the day Aizen lost his family and came here holding his hand, the two had lived not as family but in a form close to it, without much talk.

“Hasn’t everything Your Holiness wanted already been fulfilled?”

“What I wanted?”

The Pope’s eyebrows slowly rose.

“My precious life that you valued so much. Isn’t that enough?”

Aizen was shameless. He was not born with this kind of nature. But growing up among people who never revealed their thoughts, he found this way of expressing himself the easiest.

“So let us stop holding on to that place.”

“This is unlike you.”

“Wasn’t it Your Holiness who taught that humans grow and change.”

The Pope stared at Aizen. His eyes looked like they could see through him. Maybe that was why Aizen could never tell lies in front of him.

“It seems your heart has changed.”

Aizen, who hated demons more than anyone and showed destructive tendencies toward them, now looked like someone who might even gain curiosity he never had.

“Not particularly. It still overturns my insides like fire even now.”

Aizen had no thought of lying in front of the Pope. He only spoke exactly what he felt.

“They say recovery takes a long time.”

“That is why you ordered me to be locked up in the fortress.”

“It is a dangerous time, so it is better to be cautious.”

“I don’t know if you mean outside or inside when you say cautious.”

“Aizen.”

The Pope’s voice grew lower.

“Isn’t it true? You send me far away because the danger is inside.”

“There is no such thing.”

“You cry love and peace outwardly, but inside is what rots the most.”

Aizen’s complaints were nothing new to the Pope. Aizen had always felt sick of the Holy Kingdom and had never hidden that in front of him.

“This is a rare chance to rest well and clear your head.”

“…Who said I wanted that?”

What had been joyful for him in the Demon King’s castle now felt like a prison sentence here. Even if confined in the same way, it felt different.

“Now stop with useless thoughts and stay quietly in the fortress.”

“I don’t know what counts as useless thoughts….”

Too many things were stuffed inside his head.

“First, it would be good to start by distinguishing that.”

The Pope picked up the documents on the desk again.

“It is too long a time.”

“That depends on how you take it. Call it recuperation, vacation, whatever you like.”

“This is punishment.”

At Aizen’s answer, a faint smile appeared on the Pope’s lips.

“You have changed.”

In the end, the two ended their talk without substance. It seemed peaceful, but neither got the answer he wanted from the other. Their talk avoided the core and only circled around it, which was not like them. When the High Priest became Holy King, when the little boy became an Apostle, they had no secrets from each other. Unless one of them was suddenly going through a late rebellion, it meant cracks had formed between them.

After that, only hollow words passed between them, and even until Aizen left the room, a thin tension lingered.

***

So Aizen went to the Selenian Fortress and lived there well, passing through two years.

Seeing the Pope and the Apostles grew tiresome, and he hated the politicians wearing cleric masks even more. Even without the Pope’s order, Aizen would surely have escaped to somewhere else.

Every so often he missed someone, he was always lonely as usual, and sometimes there were days when he laughed.

The life in that place that had felt unreal became more and more vivid in his memory, and on this land where he always stayed, his heart oddly felt apart.

He must have been thoroughly brainwashed in that place.

“Your holy power has returned quite a bit. Your health is fine too. For an ordinary patient this would be explained as a complete recovery.”

The only one who came regularly to check Aizen’s condition was Brivan. That was why Aizen could still bear the dull life here. It was enough for him just not to see those noisy faces.

After checking Aizen’s health, Brivan sat down across from him.

“Isn’t it about time you left the fortress?”

“What for. It’s quiet here, I like it.”

Aizen answered like a machine. There was no spirit in his voice.

“How is it these days, old man?”

Aizen asked while adjusting the clothes that had been pushed around for the examination.

“You don’t even care, so why ask.”

“I care a lot.”

“How about wetting your lips before lying.”

Aizen laughed dryly at Brivan’s words.

“But it would be good for you to start caring. Your body has almost recovered now.”

“What use is it if my body recovers?”

“The atmosphere in the Holy Kingdom is not good lately. You must know it too, there is no end to the noise, both inside and outside.”

When the subject he hated most came up, Aizen dug his finger in his ear.

“What does that have to do with us?”

“Don’t you know a good way to silence the noise.”

“They must need a common enemy.”

Aizen’s eyes sank dully. He stared blankly at his toes.

“When you get older, you see things you don’t even want to know.”

“Like what. That someone looks like he’s going senile?”

Brivan chuckled.

“Sometimes people go down strange paths. This time I hear opinions about a strong demon subjugation popping up here and there…. Anyway, I only give you a hint beforehand so you won’t be surprised later, nothing else.”

Aizen rested his chin on his hand and looked out at the distant mountains. The breeze that blew through swayed his hair.

“Were you doing fine without worry and I just made trouble by saying this?”

“Whether you say it or not, the worry is the same.”

“So the thing you worry about is not really the Holy Kingdom, right?”

“Old man, aren’t you busy? Why does your backside never leave when you come here?”

Aizen scolded him with a look.

“I also just want to rest here for years.”

Brivan laughed and looked around at Aizen’s dwelling. His room was deep inside the fortress, a place sealed so tightly that no outside noise could seep in. Brivan thought it looked like he had dug himself into a cave. He still had not decided if this was for safety or for psychological reasons.

“Are you eating well?”

Brivan worried that Aizen looked a little thinner every time he saw him. His body clearly had no problem.

The overheated holy power that had once been an issue was cleared away, and Aizen’s body was storing holy power again.

If he didn’t recklessly stir his power around like before, even if he wasn’t as strong as he once had been, he could still hold his strength steadily like the other Apostles.

With everything stable, the only problem was Aizen’s mind, which could not be diagnosed by appearances alone.

He always acted unchanged, but he was different. He looked like someone who had left a part of his mind somewhere else.

“What is that?”

Brivan asked while looking at Aizen’s hand. His hand was full of paper.

“I fold this and that these days.”

“Origami?”

Small colored paper. It really didn’t suit him.

“They say doing this makes the mind stable.”

“Did it work?”

Aizen’s fingers moved. In an instant a crane was made at his fingertips. Aizen turned the finished crane this way and that, then tossed it on the floor. Piles of folded cranes lay at his feet.

“There’s nothing in it, so don’t bother.”

Aizen suddenly stood up. Then he looked down at Brivan and asked,

“When are you going back. Did you bring a carriage?”

Brivan was impressed to see this impulsive side of Aizen again after a long time. He had lived meekly for years, but that temper hadn’t gone anywhere.

“Suddenly I really miss our Order brothers.”

So on the day that marked exactly three full years, Aizen finished his recovery and left the fortress.