Le Petit Prince (6)

Time slips away mercilessly.

Titan walked without rest.

Even though with each step he took, that day drew closer.

“What a fool.”

Titan saw his younger self.

He saw a coward, standing dumbfounded and confused, unable to do anything while looking at his collapsed parent.

But soon, the young Titan hoisted the fallen Rosaria onto his back.

With his small body, with his little legs. He left the kingdom, carrying his collapsed mother.

He had learned from Rosaria. Letters, life, as if listening to a passage from a fairy tale.

That’s why he had made a misconception.

-It’s okay, Mom!

He had heard that elves are fairies who live among flowers and plants.

And the young Titan took it to heart.

Rosaria was dying, unable to adapt to the Malachite Kingdom.

Yes, she was an elf.

Elves live among flowers and plants. That’s why she couldn’t survive in the Malachite Kingdom, surrounded by swamps and dark forests.

Then wouldn’t it make sense to guide her to the environment where she once lived?

Wouldn’t it make sense to head toward a place abundant with flowers and plants?

Titan was usually a mischievous child who didn’t listen to adults, and a promising warrior candidate.

“What a fool!”

A complacent judgment made with inadequate knowledge. A foolish idiot who gave up learning and only threw tantrums.

This moment, this choice, drove his mother to her death.

The young Titan led Rosaria out of the kingdom.

As usual, being forceful and pushing away those who tried to stop him.

The situation was terribly unfavorable.

Craig and the kingdom’s elite forces, who could have stopped him, had left to welcome guests invited from outside.

The only soldiers currently in the kingdom were low-ranking ones who couldn’t even speak to royalty.

What was he thinking as he pushed them aside? Did he still think he was strong?

Did he think the kingdom’s soldiers were incompetent because they didn’t use force for fear of Rosaria collapsing if they tried to subdue Titan?

Foolish. Truly foolish.

No different from an untamed colt ignorant of the ways of the world.

“Ah…..”

At that moment, Titan’s feet stopped.

Titan, who had been chasing the vision of the past, began to hesitate.

His apparition was frozen far ahead, at the point where he had escaped the kingdom.

Frozen in the vision of the past, in a running posture.

Why would he want to see it?

Why would he want to repeat the tragedy?

If he just stopped here. If that happened, he could at least end while immersed in what was still a happy moment.

Thud.

Titan moved nevertheless.

The hesitation was long, but he didn’t stop moving in the end.

Why? Perhaps if he continued, he could change the past, thinking that his now wiser self could do it. Is that what he’s thinking?

No, that can’t be.

This is just a hallucination and auditory illusion.

There’s nothing to gain here. Then why? Why is he advancing down this path?

Why is he going to witness a tragedy?

“I don’t know.”

He doesn’t know.

That’s why he heads toward it.

To find out.

-Huff… huff…

The young Titan ran through the swamp, gasping for breath. The sticky mud clutched at the boy’s legs, and the tall trees erased his sense of direction.

In the past, the Malachite Kingdom was surrounded by swamps on all sides to protect themselves from natural predators.

The orcs who lived on that barren land had to be resilient.

Moreover, he frequently ventured outside the kingdom.

He was a born warrior and a hunter capable of taking down magical beasts despite his young age.

While going in and out like that, he had discovered a place. A flower garden located outside the kingdom, beyond the swamp.

He told himself it was good that he had trained his physical strength. He thought that strength without knowledge was meaningless.

Foolish and arrogant.

Strength without knowledge is meaningless.

And strength that is merely wielded without the guidance of knowledge is equally meaningless.

The young Titan didn’t know that.

-Ah…

It must have been due to his anxiety.

He must have wanted to save Rosaria as quickly as possible.

That’s why his attention was scattered. He made mistakes he wouldn’t normally make. He didn’t watch his steps carefully, nor did he keep an eye on his surroundings.

And he realized it too late.

The magical beast of Malachite that swims through the marshes and bites the necks of its prey.

The Swampy Wolfigator, resembling both a wolf and an alligator.

-W-when did so many…?

A common magical beast in Malachite.

Prey that even the young Titan had successfully hunted several times before.

But even such magical beasts become a different threat when they form a pack.

It was because he didn’t watch his steps, moving with splashing sounds.

He failed to apply what he had learned, and anxiety ruined everything.

That’s why he ended up attracting so many magical beasts.

The young Titan wielded a sword and slashed in all directions.

Anyone could see he was cornered. Titan just quietly watched his past self.

-Get away! I said get away!

The young Titan was panicking.

He couldn’t even utilize the techniques he had learned, clumsily swinging his sword.

At this rate, they would both die.

For the first time, the young Titan felt fear.

For the first time, he truly sensed death.

“Really…”

Grit!

Titan watching the scene gritted his teeth. He couldn’t bear his own ignorance and foolishness.

“…truly an unbelievably stupid bastard.”

The veins on his folded arms were prominent.

Even though he was just watching, he was exerting all his strength into his hands.

His hidden palms were already torn by his nails, bleeding.

He was just focusing all his mind to control himself.

Thud.

The vision stopped.

The young Titan, frozen while continuously swinging his sword, and the pack of Swampy Wolfigators lunging from the marsh to hunt their prey were visible.

The Swampy Wolfigators jumped out from all directions simultaneously, and some were baring their teeth toward the fallen Rosaria.

“……”

Thud.

Titan slowly took a step forward. Time passed just a little.

The magical beasts’ teeth were directed at Rosaria, and the young Titan, seemingly finally noticing it, was hastily turning his body.

Thud.

Titan took another step. The young Titan, having twisted his body forcibly, lost his weapon and started bleeding as his entire body was bitten.

Nevertheless, he broke through the encirclement.

The young Titan’s eyes had not yet lost hope.

In contrast, the eyes of Titan watching the scene were losing their light.

Meaningless struggles. The place they were heading to wasn’t a place to save Rosaria, but hell.

Thud.

One more step.

The young Titan, having broken through the encirclement, continuously pushed through the swamp.

But the Swampy Wolfigators, who never lose their prey once marked, were in hot pursuit.

Thud.

Another step.

Rosaria opens her eyes. She discovers the young Titan carrying her through the swamp, covered in blood.

A gentle smile forms on her lips.

As if proud, she strokes the head of the young Titan with her frail hand as he strives despite falling into a trap.

-Our prince.

She didn’t blame him.

She merely felt proud of her young child trying to protect her even in such a state.

-Mother, just wait a little longer. I’ll definitely shake off these magical beasts. Then, then…

-The world can’t be lived with strength alone.

Grit!

Titan gritted his teeth, filled with anger.

The scene that would unfold next was already preserved deep in his soul without needing to be shown in the vision. Still, he couldn’t help but move.

-The world can’t be lived with knowledge alone either. Like this. Yes, like this, it’s about learning to help each other.

Golden light rises above Rosaria’s wrist. A pattern like wooden vines appears, and spirits dance.

-You need to learn various knowledge. You need to make good friends and learn to respect others. By learning how to trust and rely on others…

-Mother! I can do it. I’m telling you I can! Do you know how strong I am? In just a bit, such creatures will all…!

The young Titan shouted as if screaming to stop Rosaria.

Yes, he knew. Even a child like him could feel the life fading on his back.

-Our son, will you become a great king? To do that, you must always listen to mother, alright?

-Mother, please! Please… We’re almost there! We’re about to leave the swamp! Just a little, just a little more, and we’ll make it!

Even if they held on, Rosaria was already too late. The young Titan’s knowledge wasn’t enough to save her.

What Rosaria needed wasn’t flowers and grasses.

What she needed was stability.

That could have allowed her to live a little longer.

-Don’t die. You can’t die!

-Mommy won’t die… Mommy is just becoming a spirit… I’ll become a spirit and always watch over our Titan… So.

That’s how it was. That’s how it had been.

-Promise to become a great king?

This is why Titan hadn’t used spirit magic until now.

Because he hadn’t become a great king. Because he knew he had lost his way.

He had lived solely on meaningless stubbornness. He had learned various things, embodying knowledge and experience.

Yet, just one thing.

Just one thing he deliberately refused to learn.

“Mother, you said you would teach me how to read.”

Yes, reading. Just reading.

The letters she had taught him one by one with a bright smile while placing him on her lap, still.

“Then who on earth will teach me to read now? My only teacher is still you, mother.”

Boom!

At that moment, the tree vine pattern glowing on Rosaria’s wrist emitted a brilliant golden light, lifting the earth from beneath the swamp.

Spirit magic that turned an entire section of the swamp into dry, solid ground. The Swampy Wolfigators swimming in the swamp to target them died, swallowed by the earth.

And another, a soul that fell like a flower withering in autumn.

There was no more threat.

All the magical beasts surrounding them were dead and gone.

But so was what he had to protect.

Rain poured down, hitting Titan’s eyes and flowing like tears.

Rosaria, who had been clinging to the young Titan’s back, slumped down.

Though the relaxed body had become heavier, it was also incredibly light.

The magical beasts that had been swarming and the pouring rain were now gone, but it still felt like the rain hadn’t stopped.

-Let’s go, mother.

Nevertheless, the young Titan embraced Rosaria and continued on his way.

What he had wanted to show her after crossing the swamp and the plains.

-I found something before. I think you’ll like it too?

Rolling down slopes, scratching his skin on twigs, tripping over stones, getting his ankles caught in the mud.

The young Titan entered a flower garden filled with colorful flowers.

-You wouldn’t believe how beautiful it was.

He wanted to take the elven Rosaria to the most beautiful place he had discovered. A flower garden beautiful enough to drive away her illness.

The beautiful flower garden he first encountered after leaving the Malachite Kingdom, where flowers were rare, was certainly beautiful.

-But now it doesn’t seem so beautiful anymore. Something is missing.

The young Titan laid Rosaria down on that flower garden. The vibrant flowers seemed to bless her.

-It seems these flowers only regain their meaning when mother is with them.

The young Titan wanted to make a grave. At least, he wanted to let her body rest peacefully in the flower garden his mother had loved for the last time.

But he couldn’t bring himself to bury her.

It felt like Rosaria might open her eyes and embrace him at any moment.

Even knowing it was impossible, he couldn’t bury her.

So instead, the young Titan found a large, flat rock and placed it beside her.

It was a substitute for a gravestone.

-…

The young Titan reached out to that flat rock.

Titan also reached out, overlapping with him, and caressed the rock.

[Rosalia]

-Look, mother.

“Can you see, mother?”

Titan doesn’t know how to read. He deliberately didn’t learn. Because he wanted to avoid it. Because he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Because he wanted to believe Rosaria was still alive.

-Look, I still remember the word that mother taught me.

“Despite forgetting everything else, I never forgot this word.”

At least her name.

At least the name of Rosaria, the first thing she taught him!

-But I won’t learn to read anymore.

“It still wasn’t interesting.”

-But I think it was enjoyable when mother was teaching me.

“So I…”

-I’ll become a great king. Please wait until then. When that time comes…

“Mother, please teach this foolish and immature me how to read again.”

So I will become a king.

I will definitely become a great king and face you who has become a spirit.

“Enough to be proud of.”

Enough to be dignified myself.

“Until that time comes, until I become a great king.”

I won’t act spoiled.

I will overcome any adversity.

“I had vowed not to search for mother until then.”

Because he would definitely become a great king. Because he would face her with the most respectable appearance.

“The current me is neither great nor dignified yet.”

There were no more hallucinations or auditory illusions beyond that.

Titan, having overcome the poison, was standing on a beautiful flower garden.

A scene as if the past landscape had been transported as is.

Beautiful flowers and a crudely carved tombstone in the center.

“But I strive to become so.”

The tombstone of the elf, Rosaria.

“Please help me, Aunt.”

“……”

The Saintess of Earth, Nina met Titan there.

Her naive nephew who had finally overcome the poison and his past.

“You are…”

Nina disliked Titan.

Because her sister died due to his foolishness.

Rosaria could have been saved.

At least if Titan hadn’t pushed her too hard.

That’s why Nina thought Titan had killed Rosaria.

But she tried not to hate him.

Because the one suffering the most was the person directly involved.

There was something she could understand because they shared the same pain.

“The jewel left behind by Rosaria.”

Titan himself must forgive himself first before she could forgive him.

Because her forgiveness would only leave wounds on him.

That’s why, at this moment.

“She must still be watching over you. Seeing how wonderfully you’ve grown.”

“Yes, mother said she became a spirit and is watching over me.”

Nina could finally forgive Titan.

“The most important things are invisible to the eye. But you’ve finally found it. Your rose.”

And so the little prince (Le Petit Prince) who had wandered the world, leaving his country for many years.

Finally, he could return to the rose he loved.