Sidekick Prince: Chapter 242

< Translated at Blessed Empyrean wordpress. >

“……Pardon?”

“I’m, really sorry, Renato.”

Khalid spoke intermittently as if suppressing something. He hadn’t used his throat at all for days, so his pronunciation was muffled and mixed with hoarseness. Despite that, Renato could clearly hear what Khalid was saying. He could also tell the desperate and melancholy emotions buried in the cracked voice.

“Why all of a sudden……”

Khalid’s apology as soon as he woke up puzzled Renato. If one of them had to apologize, it would be him and not Khalid. Because the man was seriously injured while fighting the enemies alone to protect everyone.

“I’m the one who should be sorry. You were hurt because……”

“No, not that.”

Khalid slightly shook his head and tightened his embrace around Renato. It felt as though he was reaffirming that Renato was in his arms.

“Khalid?”

Is he perhaps crying? Feeling the subtle tremors transmitted to him from Khalid, Renato rolled his eyes, at a loss for what to do. It must be because of the mood, but the irregular breaths tickling his hair and nape felt like sobs.

“Uhm……”

After pondering a bit, Renato hesitantly opened his mouth. Khalid’s mood was so strange that he felt he should say something. However, Khalid’s apology made him close his mouth again.

“I’m sorry for being so late. I’m really sorry.”

“Late? What do you……”

“I’m too ashamed to face you, and I dare not ask for forgiveness…… so this is all I can say. I’m sorry, Renato……”

Khalid only repeated saying words of apology just like a broken wind-up doll. The sentiments contained in the cracked voice resembling a barren land were intense sadness and bottomless regret.

Could it be?

Renato’s body stiffened as a thought briefly flashed through his mind. It was impossible and had no chance of happening, but a ‘certain possibility’ came to his mind.

“Can, can it be that……”

Renato couldn’t say the words that had risen to his throat. He bit his quivering lips and contorted his eyes. He felt an ambivalence of both wanting to ask Khalid if the man had remembered everything and not wanting to at the same time.

In his previous life, Renato had imagined many times what Khalid would say first when he came to pick him up. What came to his mind every time was the man’s apology for coming to pick him up late. He thought the affectionate Khalid would feel sorry for him rather than proud of fulfilling the promise.

In fact, in the future that the Fairy King showed, which would have become reality had Renato not regressed, Khalid visited his grave with a face stained with grieving guilt and apologized. Yes, just like now.

“You guessed right. I have…… remembered everything.”

Knowing the question Renato couldn’t bear to ask, Khalid answered. While unconscious, he had a very long dream. The dream was extremely happy and also terribly sad.

‘Your Imperial Highness, will you grant me the honor to dance with you, the descendant of the noble blood?’

‘If you need my help, I will help you as much as I can.’

‘I will try my best to make you happier than at this place, so…… Would you like to come with me?’

‘I will definitely come back. Even if I can’t come back, I’ll keep my promise somehow…… So please hold on a little longer.’

In the dream, Khalid shared things he had never experienced with Renato, but they were somehow familiar. He talked to Renato first, mustered up his courage to ask for a dance, went up to Renato and reached out his hand as he cried and hid in a corner of the garden, met Renato while avoiding people’s eyes, and promised to come and pick him up while facing an inevitable parting……

At first, he thought it was a dream as always. He also had a similar dream several times before, so he thought it was the same this time.

However, something was subtly different from a simple dream. The sensations and emotions felt in the dream were all truly vivid and clear.

Maybe because of that, Khalid soon realized that the dream was not fantasy but reality. The scenes unfolding in front of his eyes were something he had actually experienced someday in the past, but they were now disappeared times and forgotten memories.

The moment he realized it, all his memories came back like scattered pieces of a puzzle being put together. Then, the déjà vu he often felt when with Renato, Renato’s behavior that seemed to know the future, and the delusion-like stories he heard while helping Renato with his trauma treatment finally made sense.

He couldn’t figure out exactly how it happened, but Khalid realized that time had been turned back once. This situation could not be explained otherwise.

After recognizing that the dream he was having was an erased memory just like the turned back time, Khalid watched in its entirety the moments he and Renato were together in the past, as well as the agony and humiliation Renato suffered while being left alone in the Empire after he left. And in the end, he found out that he could not protect Renato in the previous life.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up. I couldn’t keep my promise, I left you alone……”

Renato suppressed his breath as he heard the words from Khalid’s mouth. His violet-colored eyes swayed violently as if fluttering in the winds.

“I don’t know how to apologize to you, I……”

“W, wait, wait a moment.”

Engulfed in extreme confusion, Renato interrupted Khalid. His heart was thumping wildly and tinnitus was ringing loudly in his ears.

“C, can you, show me your face? Let’s talk face to face.”

In a hurry, Renato struggled to get out of Khalid’s arms. He wanted to see the man’s face, not hear his voice. Only then could he fully accept this situation. In response to Renato’s request, the arms holding him gradually relaxed.

“Huu……”

Khalid took a small, deep breath to control the emotions welling up. Perhaps his face right now was not something he could show to Renato. He could not face Renato like this.

Khalid barely managed to fix his expression and sat up with Renato in his embrace. Then, he straightened his back and slowly raised his face from his shoulders.

Ah.

When their eyes met, an exclamation burst out from Renato’s lips. In the man’s clear, wet eyes, there was guilt that Khalid in his current life could not possibly have.

“You really……”

Renato raised his trembling hand and touched Khalid’s eyes. The longing buried deep in his heart arose as he faced the gazer darker than before and the pupils filled with heavy emotions.

“You really have found your memories.”

“Yes, everything.”

Khalid replied with a wry smile. Then, unable to look directly at Renato, he cast down his gaze.

“I was too late…… I’m sorry.”

I’m so sorry. Khalid apologized again and lowered his head. That was the only thing he could say after being both late in picking up Renato and remembering him again after their reunion.

“It’s, it’s fine. It was inevitable at the time. Maximo, I mean, the young Duke also interfered……”

Renato was restless because of the constant apologies. He always decided not to reveal his regression to Khalid whenever he pondered whether to say it, since he didn’t want to see the man blaming himself like this.

“So don’t be sorry, alright?”

It would be a lie to say that he, worn out from waiting for the man without hope of reunion, never resented Khalid in his previous life. And he was often seized with irrational sorrow as Khalid in the present life could not remember anything.

But ultimately, he was more grateful and apologetic. After he met the Fairy King and learned the truth, even the remnants of grudge in his heart also completely disappeared.

“I’m really all right…… nngh.”

About to say he was all right, Renato bit his lower lip before he could finish his sentence. An indescribable emotion surged inside him, blurring his sight. The suppressed sobs faintly leaked out through his tightly clenched teeth.

“Renato……”

Khalid’s face also contorted when he saw Renato trying to hold back the weeping that reached his throat. Thinking of the tormenting time and the wounds in his heart that Renato had endured alone made his heart seem to break into pieces.

“No, this, this isn’t because I’m upset with you, it’s because I’m glad, I’m happy…… hic.”

Renato waved his hand and let out a short sob. He did not want to cry in front of Khalid, but this was his limit. The relief that he was no longer the only one who remembered that time, that he was no longer alone, turned into tears and flowed down.

Seeing so, Khalid tightly hugged Renato, his eyes reddened with tears. His heart felt numb and his nose was tinging with pity when sensing the body shaking like an aspen tree.

“Hiic……”

It was not long before the faint sobs turned into sorrowful cries. Renato shed tears like a child in Khalid’s arms. He pretended not to, but he was honestly very lonely. Having had a secret that he could not tell anyone, he never had a day at ease.

As though to tell him that some things would not change even if time was turned back and memories were erased, Khalid would occasionally speak and behave similarly to the man of his previous life, giving rise to an inevitable longing. On those days, the secret he had to keep alone became too much to bear, and he would regret the memories only he remembered.

Although he loved Khalid of his present life, although he knew the man was the same person, he sometimes missed the man of his past life. When that happened, he felt guilty toward the current Khalid again.

But he did not have to do so anymore. There was no need to be nervous and anxious about making a slip of the tongue to Khalid, no need to be afraid of losing the man due to his lack of ability, and no need to be sad that the memories of his past life were fading as time passed. Because now, there was someone who would remember with him.

“Khalid, hic, Khalidd……”

“Yes, Renato.”

I’m here. Khalid answered Renato, who was calling his name through the tears, and kissed the tear-soaked eyes. Then, he held Renato firmly as if never to let go again.

Renato also clung to Khalid and burrowed into his embrace as if never to part away. Their lips met at the same time.

The two yearned for each other as though they were one from the beginning, sharing breaths and warmth for a long time. It was the moment when their long-held promise to meet again someday was finally fulfilled.

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