Dancing in the Legendary Sea - Chapter 9 Part 2

Lokira hesitated. Orion narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“You want to rot in this place?”

“Then what should I do? I have no parents, and I don’t know anything about the outside world….”

In fact, the man was right, but Lokira was forced to deny it and became violent without her knowledge. There was a flash of reality running through her head, Lokira cried out with strong confidence:

“There is also Roxias here. He’s my twin brother. How can I live without him?!“

She consciously heard Rox’s whispering voice, and remembered his tender kiss on her cheek.

[Kira, you stay safe. Don’t do anything wrong.]

“Don’t do anything wrong?” Orion responded. “The guy who claims to be Apollo is your brother? You two don’t even look like siblings.”

“For phoenix and dragon twins, this sort of thing is possible! So, no need to get annoyed pointlessly…!

Lokira hadn’t expressed her feelings like this before, her head felt like a whirlwind. She stepped back and laid down on the bed. Her body was shaking while taking in a big breath. Orion said nothing. She wasn’t sure what expression he madem but his tone that followed was heavy.

“Okay. Yeah, it’s not something I should judge afterall, I’ve only known you for ten days. It was ungrateful of me to say to a lifesaver that you’ll die if you get involved with me.”

Orion seemed to have already walked away. His speech was heard at a distance.

“Go.” Lokira spoke. “Put back the window and go.”

Instead of the sound of a response, a noise rang. When Lokira sat up, Orion had already returned the window to its original state. Evening light permeated through the gap of the iron lattice. Every place where the light hit the dark room seemed to be burning.

Her face became hot again with frustration at the man who only knew how to be mean. Without knowing anything, how could she follow him? She knew well it wouldn’t work, these horns of hers would stand out wherever she went. And quite unfortunately, these horns have pain receptors. A firm grip on them would be very excruciating. So it wouldn’t cross her mind even for a second to imagine how it would feel if they were hacked off with an axe.

Lokira had an exceptionally lonely dinner that day. Had the man already left? No matter how bright the day was, did he not want to sail? After everything calmed down again, her passion gradually dissipated. Suddenly she remembered what she had forgotten.

‘Oh, that’s right! I forgot to tell him the news.’

Lokira wanted to tell the man that Roxias was leaving for Chios to find the criminal’s whereabouts at the request of King Chios. And Roxias’s power could see people from afar. She could somehow see the scene of Orion crossing the Aegean Sea straight into King Chios’s trap.

‘Oh, I should have said it in advance.  It would have been nice if I had warned him about it!’

The man behaved wildly and blamed himself, but the fact remained that he wasn’t actually a murderer! With this conviction, the thought that it would be the last time she could help him instilled boldness in Lokira. She snuck out the window that night as well. However, she did not realize that the priest who brought her dinner had put chalk powder on the windowsill.

She got a white stain on her clothes without noticing and busily descended the stone steps. But Orion was not seen. Even the boat wasn’t in sight.

“He’s already gone…”

Lokira thought it was the worst goodbye. The night breeze that permeated through her clothes hit her heart. She climbed the stone steps again, feeling lonely. The temple was quiet as if it was a dead rat, so she laid down on her bed, reassured that she wasn’t caught today. However, after a while, a group of priests smashed through the door. She couldn’t remember well after that. It was just the slapping, screaming, and beating that went on endlessly. The timing was strangely bad. If Roxias was here, he would have stopped this.

The priests dragged her to the main hall without concerning anyone, and the high priest was waiting for her with his eyes wide open. The interrogation brought conviction to the charges, and the conviction led to mass madness. Lokira felt ironic, somehow she remembered the man’s ridicule earlier. Indeed, he was right, she didn’t have to count in how many years she would die. Suddenly, in front of her who was dying at that moment, the man appeared. He single-handedly defeated all the priests.

“I’ve changed my mind a little. Let’s get out like this island.”

“…Are you sane?”

“Why? You look crazy enough to jump off the cliff. Even if I die, I can’t see you die.”

Things changed so quickly in an instant that she couldn’t process everything that happened next. Mount Kintos in Delos, the sanctuary where Apollo and Artemis were born, was dark at midnight. She wondered if she had escaped Thanatos the reaper’s grasp. Only fragments remained in her memory. Orion came down the stone steps of the main entrance of the temple while holding her in his arms. It seemed they had passed through a residence below the mountain that Lokira had never seen properly while living here all her life.

Residents, afraid of the uproar, covered their windows and did not look outside. His boat was seen along the coast at the main port in front of the island. It was only half the size of the fishing boats in the sanctuary, but it was good enough for two people to ride. When Eos of Dawn walked on the collar of the Nyx of the night and scattered purple in the sky (E/N: first light, between darkness and dawn), Orion finally set sail with an oar. (T/L: Eos Goddess of Dawn. Nyx Goddess of the night).

Lokira didn’t have any energy left. She seemed to have forgotten how to speak. Only fatigue dominated her mind. The places where she was beaten were painful and sore. Was it okay as it was?  What would happen in the future? What was Orion thinking? Identifying phenomena and predicting the future were advanced level skills that were far beyond her abilities right now.  Eventually, at some point, she closed her eyes and curled up on the floor in front of the boat. Orion took off his cloak and put it on her.  Above her body, a short jacket covering only her upper body was a blanket for her. She felt warm and slept for a long time. When she woke up, she was already in the middle of the Aegean Sea.