Chapter 276 - os, Sn Icarus, and Helen

  os:

  The two tinued walking through the festival, blending into the crowd that celebrated uhe golden glow of torches. Laughter and music felt distant to me as I watched them, still invisible, following their every step, every gesture. They stopped at a food stall, where he picked up a small piece of bread and offered it to the little girl.

  She accepted it with a shy smile, taking a bite as they kept talking, their voices soft, almost lost in the cheerful chaos of the city.

  Finally, the girl stopped in front of an inn’s door. Her eyes turo him, hesitant.

  "How did you know I was g?" she asked, her delicate voice carrying the weight of quiet fusion.

  He gazed at her for a moment with those a, profound eyes that seemed to see far beyond words.

  "I told you, didn’t I? Out of all the happy people in this city… you were the sed saddest."

  The little girl blinked, fused. "A-and who’s the first?"

  He smiled, but it wasn’t a real smile.

  "An old man… sorrowful… wasting his life away, rotting on a throne."

  And then, as if wanting to lighten the weight of his words, he reached out aly pinched her nose.

  Her ughter rang out like a bell—so pure… so annoyingly pure.

  She opehe inn’s door aated, turning bae st time.

  "Will I see you again at the festival tomorrow, sir?"

  He crossed his arms, tilting his head slightly, as if p the question with a pyful tease.

  "Maybe…"

  She smiled, stepping inside, but then he called out:

  "Wait… you old me your name. What’s your name?"

  For a sed, the girl seemed shy, adjusting her dress before answering:

  "My name is… Helen."

  The world stopped.

  The air around me seemed to strict, suffog, as if time itself had frozen in that exaent.

  That name…

  My throat tightened.

  The forbidden name.

  Helen!

  A million thoughts crashed into my mind. I had beeiculous, obsessive… personally overseeing every birth record in Cyl.

  No one could have that name. No one.

  The most on name in all of Greece, yes, a relic of the old legends of Troy. But I would never allow ao defile this city with that name.

  A…

  There was an exception.

  The festival.

  The one moment when I couldn't trol every detail.

  And now… she was here.

  "M-my Sn…" I tried to speak, my voice trembling as I stepped forward.

  His face was expressionless.

  The silehat fell between us was so dehat even the sounds of the festival felt distant, muffled. His presence, so trolled just moments ago, now pulsed around me like an unbearable weight—suffog.

  But then...

  He smiled.

  And that... broke something inside me.

  "It leasure meeting you, Helen," he said, his voice far too gentle. "My name is... Icarus."

  Theurned.

  A.

  His strides were long, quick—gaining speed as he moved through the crowd, distang himself from the girl... and from me.

  "Sn...!"

  I followed him.

  But he didn’t stop.

  The crowd seemed to part for him, yet close in around me. I shoved past bodies, frustration burning through me as he vanished into the shadows of a narrow alley.

  I ran, my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

  When I reached the end of the alley...

  He was gone.

  ***

  I searched every street of the festival, every alley illuminated by golden nterns, every pza where musid ughter still echoed. But I couldn’t find him.

  My Sn had disappeared.

  Frustration tangled with the ay in my chest, a suffog weight. He never… never did this. And even if he did, I would always find him. Always.

  Except now.

  When the night finally ended, I returo the pace, resuming my role as Lady os. Before the most iial humans, I maintained fwless posure, representing my Sn’s preseh the same unwavering pride as always—even if, deep inside, I was restless.

  At the end of the gathering, Prometheus approached, his expression heavy with .

  "The Sn… what happeo him?"

  I hesitated, my gaze drifting to the grand windows of the hall, where the moon still bathed the sleeping city in silver light.

  "It’s… a long story."

  As I spoke, a servant stepped forward and murmured that the Sn had returned and had secluded himself in his throne room.

  "Just know… the forbidden name oken."

  Prometheus halted mid-step.

  "I see..." That was all he said, but the weight in his expression revealed that he uood exactly what it meant.

  I walked alohrough the silent pace, my footsteps eg—a stark reminder of the gravity of this moment.

  Stopping before the massive golden doors of the throne room, I dismissed the servants with a fliy hand and stood still for a moment. I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply, steadying my expression.

  With a thought, I jured a mirror before me and studied every detail. My face was fwless, sculpted to the perfe I had honed for turies. The most beautiful of all. The most perfect.

  For him.

  I took a slow breath, then finally, I opehe door.

  I was the only one who could do so. No other soul in this world would dare enter unbidden.

  The doors shut behih a solemn, resounding thud.

  My Sn was there… but he was not seated ohrone.

  He was oeps below the throhe once-majestic figure now looking... worn. In his hands, a bottle of liquor—such a mundaure. Even though I knew alcohol had no effe him, he drank anyway.

  I swallowed hard and approached, my posture fwless, my most graceful smile in pce—radiant enough to illumihe hall.

  His body was covered in blood. A lot of blood.

  "The little girl’s father will never raise his hand against her again..." he said, his voice low, but carrying a cold, unshakable resolve. "He will be a good father. And he will never fet what happeo him tonight..."

  Then he fell silent, his eyes fixed otle.

  "D-did you enjoy this year’s festival, my Sn?" I asked, trying to ge the subject.

  He remained silent for a moment, his gaze lost in the amber liquid.

  "I... did."

  That was all he said before taking another sip.

  I stood still, waiting for praise… a word of approval.

  Nothing came.

  The silence was crushing.

  "Um... I... I sculpted my face eveer this year. I made it even more perfect. Did you like it…?"

  My voice sounded hesitant. Pathetically hesitant.

  He lifted his gaze to me, and for a moment, the iy in his eyes made my heart race.

  "os... you are even more beautiful."

  But there was no warmth in his words. Oiness.

  He took another drink.

  No matter how hard I tried... no matter how much I shaped myself for him, no matter how desperately I pursued perfe... nothing seemed capable of reag my Sn’s wounded soul.

  "T-thank you..."

  The room plunged into thick silence.

  I wao ask about that... human.

  About what she had said.

  About her name.

  But I didn’t know how.

  Then, his voice cut through the silence:

  "Do you think… there’s something after true death? A 'paradise' or a ‘hell’...?"

  The bottle remained suspended halfway to his lips. He wasn’t looking at me.

  I knew.

  He wasn’t talking about ordinary death.

  He wao know if there was something... beyond annihition.

  If there ce Helen could have gone.

  I held my breath, uo answer right away. He already khe truth, but maybe he sought some fort.

  But I would never lie to him.

  "When one's existence is erased... they cease to be. There is nothing beyond the other side. Only the void. An unknown, absolute void." My voice was firm, but there was no fort in my words.

  Sileurned.

  I regretted it.

  Regretted saying something that hurt him.

  "Maybe I should try going there myself..." he muttered, a short, bitter ugh esg him before he took another sip.

  I swallowed hard. My heart pounded.

  "My Sn, do not say that. I would be deeply saddened if such a thing happened. Besides... no one could erase your existehere is no one in this world... with the power to do so."

  He slowly turhe bottle in his hand, staring at the liquid as if searg for answers within it.

  "Only me..." he murmured. "I'm the only one who kill myself..."

  The weight of his words struck me like a bde.

  "M-my Sn..." My voice was calm, but den with worry. "I care about you deeply. I... I hope this is just a joke."

  He shrugged, letting out a ugh devoid of any joy. Then, silened the room once more.

  He pced the bottle oep beside him, leaning forward and c his face with his hands.

  I watched him, and what I saw cut through me like a dagger.

  This was not the Sn I onew.

  For years, I had been by his side. It was true that he always carried a sorrow within him, but he was also someone who, despite it all, inspired us. Before every battle, he found the right words, the fire o lead us. He was the bea in the darkness.

  But everything ged...

  After he killed his st enemy.

  After he cimed the title of God Sn.

  Sihat night… he had never been the same.

  I took a deep breath.

  Maybe this was the right moment to ask.

  "My Sn..." I begaantly. "What happehat night? What happened when you ehat room… to kill Athena?"

  He didn’t move.

  "What did she say to you before she died… that left you like this? That even after a hundred years… you still carry this anguish?"

  He lifted his face, and for the first time in so long, I saw something I never expected to find in his eyes.

  Guilt.

  A guilt so deep, so ing, it seemed to devour everything around him.

  "Athena told me a truth..." he finally said, his voice hoarse, carrying a weight that seemed impossible to bear. "A truth I want tet... but I 't."

  A shiver ran down my spine.

  For years, we had all wondered what had happened in that room, what words had been exged between them.

  But he had never answered.

  Never revealed what was said.

  "What truth?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

  He hesitated, his gaze fixed on some distant point, as if reliving that moment.

  When he finally spoke, the air around me seemed to vanish.

  The truth he revealed was an abyss—an unheable wound.

  And that was when I uood.

  I uood that nothing in this world could erase his sorrow.

  Not even me.

  My Sn was doomed to carry that guilt forever.

  As the years passed, I drifted away from him, bitter that he never returned my feelings. I fought with my Sn and chose to distance myself.

  But when I finally returo see him, to apologize…

  He was gone.

  The only man I ever loved had left me.

  And now, it was I who carried a guilt that ed me more with each passing day.