Chapter 115: Bob

  "I lost everything five years ago," Bob began, his voice low and heavy, sinking into the quiet of the clearing like a stone dropped into a deep well.

  Raito and Yukari knelt beside him, listening intently, the silence of the forest pressing in around them. The usual cheer that defined Bob—the booming laughter, the expansive gestures—was gone, replaced by a raw, naked vulnerability they had never seen before.

  "I still have my money," Bob continued, staring at the names carved into the stone. "My business is thriving. And this city, Kah-Kamun... it still stands. Yet... I feel like the pieces of my soul were torn apart and scattered to the wind."

  He clenched his fists, knuckles white against the dark earth. "Kaden... when I looked at him in that cell, I felt like I was seeing a corrupted version of myself. Another grieving father. Another man broken by loss."

  Bob shook his head slowly. "Yet we took different paths. He gave in to his darkness. He started killing people, sold his soul for a sliver of hope to reunite with his daughter. Tragic. Horrific."

  He looked at Raito, his eyes dark with unshed tears. "Yet, I can't blame him fully. I pity him. Because I know... if given the chance, if someone had offered me that same deal in my darkest moment... I would have taken it."

  Yukari reached out, resting her hand gently on his arm. Bob took a shaky breath.

  "You two know by now that I am part of the royal family," he said, shifting slightly. "My father was the previous King, before Ahmed. So let's just say... my childhood came from a place of privilege."

  He smiled faintly, a ghost of a memory. "Ahmed and I... we were raised with the best of the best. The finest education possible, the best circumstances, the most luxurious comforts. There was nothing we couldn't get. Our father made sure of it."

  "We are twins," Bob continued. "We look similar. We act similarly. Yet deep inside, we are different. And we both knew that since we were kids."

  He chuckled softly. "Ahmed... he has always been the more studious one. The one who listened, who weighed his words. So it was no wonder he ended up taking politics and the throne itself. Fine by me, though. Being tied down like that... sitting on a throne all day... it doesn't suit me. So I was glad when my father chose Ahmed instead of me."

  His expression darkened again. "Our childhood was perfect. Or so we thought. So you could probably imagine my shock when Kaden revealed that... our kind, warm father chose to bribe someone to hide a kid's death."

  Bob hung his head. "Still couldn't believe it myself. That the man who taught me generosity... could be capable of such callousness."

  He sighed, a long, weary sound that seemed to carry the weight of the entire world.

  "I just hope Ahmed can solve this conspiracy," Bob whispered. "Because the weight of everything... has been too much for him recently. And for me."

  Bob paused, staring at the central headstone, his eyes tracing the name Meri. He took a breath, letting the past wash over him.

  "Back to my family," he said softly, his voice regaining a bit of warmth. "My wife and I met about twenty-five years ago."

  He looked up at the canopy, filtering the sunlight. "At the time, I was in a part of my life where I genuinely didn't know what I wanted to do. Ahmed was already preparing to be the next in line, busy with tutors and state affairs. But me? I was just... lost. Walking around Kah-Kamun willy-nilly."

  He gestured vaguely with his hand. "No motivation. No goal. Just an empty husk in fine silk. I had riches from my father—'initial investment,' he called it—but I had no idea what to do with it. Until one day..."

  A genuine smile touched his lips. "My directionless walk took me to her. Meri. She was selling grilled lizard sticks at the market."

  He chuckled. "I wonder what made me walk towards her at the time? Was it the smell of grilled meat? Or the beauty of her lavender hair, shining in the sun? Either way, I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame."

  "Our conversation was simple," Bob recalled. "I asked how much the stick was. She told me it was ten Cal. Cheap. Fulfilling. And... I just left."

  He shook his head at his younger self. "I didn't know her, so I couldn't just keep talking to her without it being awkward. I was shy, believe it or not."

  Raito raised an eyebrow, surprised.

  "But every day from then on, I would go to the market," Bob continued. "I kept buying her grilled sticks, becoming her returning buyer. Looking back at it... it was an awful and creepy move from me. Just standing there, eating lizard, staring."

  He laughed, a small 'hohoho'. "I guess it would be correct to say it was love at first sight. And I fell first."

  "One sunny day, I finally worked up the courage to ask her name," Bob said, his eyes distant. "My hands were shaking. But before I could even open my mouth, she introduced herself."

  "'My name is Meri,' she said. Just like that. She told me she knew I had been fidgeting to work up the courage to ask her name for weeks. She had always been the perceptive one."

  Bob grinned. "Not only that... she said she knew who I was. 'The Prince,' she said. 'Boban.'"

  "Imagine my embarrassment at the time!" Bob covered his face with his hands for a moment. "Caught red-handed by a street vendor. But something else got me. I asked her... how did she know I wasn't Ahmed? We were identical, after all."

  He lowered his hands, looking at Raito and Yukari with a profound tenderness.

  "She said, 'Based on my assessment, Boban has always been the free-spirited one. You don't walk like a King. You walk like a man looking for something.'"

  Bob wiped a stray tear. "I fell more and more in love with her in that moment."

  "She sounds like an amazing woman," Yukari said softly, her eyes misty.

  "She is," Bob agreed, his voice thick with emotion. "She is smart, beautiful, kind, and very resourceful. Which was odd that someone like her would end up working at a simple food stall."

  He leaned back on his heels, crossing his massive arms. "On our first date, I asked her that exact question. She told me she always dreamed of being a scholar. But she couldn't pursue it because she had to take care of her sickly elderly parents. Every Cal she earned went to their medicine and care."

  Bob winced, the memory clearly painful. "I remember that moment perfectly. Because that was the biggest mistake I made back then. The fact that she ended up marrying me after what I did... was a miracle to me."

  "What did you do, Bob?" Raito asked, leaning forward, intrigued by the confession.

  "Just a gesture someone so privileged can only do," Bob said with a bitter laugh. "A gesture so rude that it came from someone who has never experienced being at the bottom."

  He sighed. "I went to her house the next day. Uninvited. Trailing a caravan of servants. I brought gifts. Expensive medicines, luxurious furniture, rare books. I even hired other scholars to tutor her personally. I did anything and everything I could think of to alleviate her burden. I threw money at her problems because that was the only solution I knew."

  Bob touched his cheek, as if remembering a phantom pain. "She slapped me."

  Raito winced. "Ouch."

  "It was a serious wake-up call," Bob nodded solemnity. "Money don't buy love, nor life. She was grateful for the gifts, she said, but... she couldn't help but feel like I was treating her as someone lower. Someone who needed pity from a royal. A charity case."

  He looked at his hands, calloused now from years of real work, but remembering how soft they used to be. "Obviously, I didn't mean that. But since I grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth, using money was all I knew. I thought her current condition was her weakness. Something to be fixed."

  Bob looked up, his eyes shining with admiration. "But to her... it was strength. She had a goal: cure her parents and become a scholar. She was positive, and she was resolute. My interference robbed her of her own agency."

  "After that event," Bob continued, his voice softer, "I avoided her for a while. I was ashamed. But I watched her. She worked very hard every day, yet I could only watch her from a distance, respecting the boundary she had drawn."

  He smiled, a wide, genuine expression of pride. "Until she did it. She managed to raise enough money herself to help cure her parents. Something that even I thought was impossible with just a food stall income. She was brilliant."

  "I applauded her from a distance," Bob murmured. "And thought to myself that someone like me—someone who didn't understand the value of struggle—did not deserve her."

  He chuckled. "Until... she tapped my shoulder from behind."

  Bob jumped slightly, mimicking his reaction from years ago. "I was startled! I spun around, and there she was. Smiling."

  "She told me, 'Why are you just watching from a distance? Come and talk to me.'"

  Bob shook his head in disbelief. "I asked her... is she not mad? After what I did?"

  "She said she is mad," Bob recalled fondly. "But she told me, 'There is no reason to keep being mad forever. Life is too short.'"

  He grinned at Raito and Yukari. "She said, 'All you need to do to fix it... is treat me to dinner.'"

  "I truly did not deserve her," Bob whispered, his gaze returning to the center gravestone, tracing the elegant script of her name.

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  "After that, we grew closer. She started her journey to become a scholar, studying late into the night under flickering lamplight. And I... I started my own journey taking over her stall."

  "You?" Yukari blinked, trying to picture the giant prince selling lizard skewers.

  "She first thought it was odd that a prince like me wanted to work there," Bob admitted with a chuckle, though his eyes remained misty. "But I told her I had to. In order to rediscover myself, and see the world from a more realistic vision. I needed to understand the value of a single Cal."

  He flexed his massive hands, staring at the lines etched into his palms. "This happened for a few years. My soft, baby-like hands started to develop calluses. I learned the smell of charcoal and spice, the rhythm of the haggling, the sweat of honest work. I discovered the joy of rewarding myself with money I had earned, not been given. My gold."

  He grinned mischievously, a flicker of his old self. "I remember my father's shocked face when he found out. He nearly fainted! But Ahmed... he was very happy for me. He saw the change in my eyes."

  "Meri would visit me after every lecture she had," Bob continued, his voice warming like embers in a hearth. "And we would go to dinner together. Simple meals, paid for with coin I had earned that day. It tasted better than any royal banquet."

  He sighed happily. "Before long, we got married. Getting blessings from both my father and Meri's parents. She was the most beautiful woman I knew. That fateful day... I still remember the silk dress she wore. It shimmered like the desert at sunset."

  Bob looked up at the sky, watching the clouds drift by. "Then, on a whim, we said... how nice would it be to see the world? Meet more people? Then an idea started forming in our heads."

  He pointed to his head, then to his bicep. "Using her administrative excellence and my newfound strength... why not be a traveling merchant? Making our own money and seeing the world. Two birds with one stone."

  "So we quickly started working," Bob said, his enthusiasm building as he relived the memory. "Buying our first wagon and a horse to pull it. Our first merchandise was only cheap pottery. It was embarrassing, honestly, selling clay pots while being a Prince. But we didn't care. It was ours."

  "And before anyone could say no, we already went on our journey."

  "It was fun. It was perilous. It was tiring," Bob admitted. "There were times we wanted to quit. We got scammed by swindlers, chased by beasts. We had to camp in the wilderness with nothing but a thin tent between us and the howling wind. But the reward... was so fulfilling."

  "As we moved, our experience grew," Bob said. "I became more like the current me—making deals like it's my second nature. And Meri... she was always there beside me, writing every encounter and talk we had in her ledger, her handwriting neat and precise."

  He spread his arms wide. "Soon, our group grew. We hired more people. We got more merchandise. We had more wagons. And people started to know us more. 'The Merchant Prince,' they called me."

  Bob's face softened further, a painful tenderness washing over him. "But our business is not the only thing that grew. My wife was pregnant. And on the road, amidst the dust and the travel... I welcomed my first child. My son, Rami."

  He pointed to the left gravestone. "And two years after that, my daughter Layla."

  He shook his head, chuckling through a wet sheen in his eyes. "Raising kids on the road was hell. Diapers, tantrums, motion sickness... but the world became their teacher. Them, and my men... they were my family. We were happy. It was chaotic, but it was our chaos."

  Bob’s expression turned serious, the shadows in the forest seeming to deepen. "But as everything grew bigger, so did the threat. We soon found ourselves becoming a nuisance for other traveling merchants. Competition breeds enemies. We were forced to increase the number of our guards."

  "I conducted an interview," Bob explained. "Searching for mercenaries and adventurers kind and strong enough to be our escort. Our guard. In that interview... I met a teenager holding a sword bigger than her own body, with scars crisscrossing her skin like a roadmap of pain."

  Bob looked at them, his eyes twinkling dimly. "Can you two guess who that was?"

  "It was obviously Mila," Yukari answered immediately.

  "Correct," Bob chuckled. "That teen girl was Mila. At that point, it was about fifteen years ago. She was wild, untamed."

  He shook his head. "I obviously denied her. She was a child! But she threatened me. Forced me to let her join so that she could have money to eat. My son, Rami, who wanted to be a caravan guard himself, rose in my defense. He fought her."

  Bob laughed, a deep belly sound. "And got his butt kicked. Hard. Hohoho! Even back then, Mila was strong."

  "I had no choice but to accept her," Bob admitted. "Not because I wanted her to fight. But because my wife forced me to. Meri said she felt like if we rejected her, Mila would have gone down a much darker path. Looking back at it... she was correct."

  "Before I knew it, a few more years went by," Bob said, stroking his beard. "My beard started to grow white, hohoho. My wife... her eyesight deteriorated. She wore glasses, but she was still the same fierce and resolute woman I fell in love with."

  "My son, now a strong man, had become the Vice-Captain of the caravan guard," Bob said proudly. "Though he was still messy. I don't know where he got it from."

  "My daughter Layla... she got the same lavender hair as her mother," Bob smiled wistfully. "She told me she wanted to inherit my business to become a great merchant. And she was clearly talented in that field. Much more than my son ever was. She could sell sand in a desert."

  "This was also the time my daughter got a new pet," Bob recalled. "A young yak named Tama. Back then, she was only the size of a small puppy."

  Raito and Yukari thought about the current, massive Tama, wondering what on earth Bob fed her to make her grow into a furry tank.

  "Don't worry, she eats normal hay bales," Bob said, sensing their imagination. "She just grew fast."

  "And Mila," Bob continued. "Obviously became the Captain of my guards. But still calling herself a mercenary. Her hard head still hasn't changed."

  He chuckled softly. "My son and Mila would spar every day, honing their skills to their limits. And add in a bit of awkward romance here and there."

  Bob leaned in conspiratorially. "With Mila surprisingly having a soft side and a crush on my son. But... he was way too dense to notice! Me, my wife, and my daughter all sighed at how dense he was that we had to practically shove him in the right direction."

  "Their bond grew closer," Bob said, his voice thickening with the weight of what was to come. "And my son even proposed to Mila. It was five years ago."

  The smile slowly slid from Bob's face, replaced by a mask of raw, unfiltered pain. The wind in the trees seemed to stop, the forest holding its breath.

  "Every day was fun. Every journey was exciting. Everything was perfect," he whispered, his voice cracking. "Until that all came crashing down."

  Bob stared at the ground, reliving the nightmare.

  "We had gone to a mountainous area on our way home. The road was small, tight, winding along a cliff edge with a sheer drop into a ravine below. And worst of all, it was raining heavily. A deluge that turned the world gray and cold."

  He took a shaky breath, his hands trembling. "I decided to go ahead and scout the road before my crew. My family and Mila were there with me in the lead wagon. But we were ambushed."

  His hands clenched into fists, shaking violently. "Bandits. Hired by a rival merchant to attack us. Since my main crew was left behind, I had to help Mila and my son fight them off. The mud was slick, the rain blinding."

  "It was a desperate fight," Bob recounted, his voice trembling. "The rain grew heavier, turning the road to a river. Then... a blinding crack of stray lightning hit a nearby branch. It split the sky and the earth."

  He closed his eyes tight, tears leaking out. "It startled the horse that was pulling the main wagon. Where my wife and daughter were hiding."

  "The horse... panicked. It reared. And ran off the cliff..."

  Bob started to cry again, the tears burning paths through the dust on his cheeks. "I can still hear the sound of the wheels leaving the earth. The silence before the crash."

  "My son... who got distracted by the scream... turned his back. He got stabbed through the chest. Killing him instantly."

  "Only I and Mila were left," Bob sobbed, his voice breaking like a dry twig. "I thought we were done for. Until I woke up in an infirmary of a nearby village. Apparently, my crew heard the commotion and ran to save us."

  "But..." Bob’s voice was a whisper of agony. "Only me and Mila were saved."

  He looked at the gravestones, his grief a physical weight crushing him into the dirt.

  "My family... my son, died from his injury. My daughter and my wife... died from the impact of the fall."

  "I lost everything that day..."

  The tears grew heavier, his massive shoulders shaking with the force of his sorrow.

  "I lost my family... and Mila lost her fiancée... all in the same day..."

  He looked at Raito and Yukari, his eyes filled with bottomless guilt.

  "It was all my fault..." he choked out. "If only I had gone with my crew... If only I hadn't scouted ahead... this wouldn't have happened..."

  "It was all my fault..."

  Bob broke down crying, collapsing forward until his forehead touched the dirt. Raito and Yukari moved closer, wrapping their arms around the giant man, offering the only thing they could—their presence, and their silent, shared sorrow.

  "My money, my business, my connections... all of those did not matter if I lost the people I wanted to share it with," Bob murmured into the damp earth, his voice muffled. "My family..."

  He sat back on his heels, wiping his face with a trembling hand that still shook from the memory of the rain and the blood.

  "I threw myself at alcohol to null the pain. I created my own recipes as an act of defiance against the harsh reality... I was broken. I didn't hit the road again for a few years after that. I locked myself in my room. I lost the will to live."

  A faint smile touched his lips, sad but fond, like the sun trying to break through storm clouds. "Do you know who pulled me back onto the road?"

  Both Raito and Yukari shook their heads slowly, not daring to interrupt.

  "It was Tama," Bob nodded, his eyes misting over. "The memento my daughter left behind. She had grown strong enough to pull a carriage by then. She ran and rammed into my room door, broke it down, and nudged me until I moved. Her big wet nose, her grunts... I guess she could tell that if I kept being like this... my daughter would be mad at me from beyond."

  He sighed, a long exhale that seemed to release years of pent-up breath. "So I forced myself to stand. I rounded up my crew once again. And obviously, Mila."

  He looked toward where Mila had disappeared into the shadows. "This was the time she began calling me 'Master.' She didn't want herself—being my son's fiancée—to remind me of our loss every time I looked at her. She buried her own grief deep down to protect mine."

  "We forced ourselves to move on," Bob said, his voice gaining a hint of strength. "To keep moving forward. And we did. We were hollow, but we remembered the faces and words of my family. 'This is what they would have wanted,' I convinced myself."

  "And that is when I found myself in Ruhong," Bob said, turning to look at them directly, his gaze intense. "And in that journey, I met two very odd and very injured—almost dead, actually—people."

  "Us," Raito said softly.

  Bob nodded. "Blinded by sorrow, as I moved closer... I thought those two people were the reincarnation of my children. So I helped them."

  He looked down at his hands, calloused and scarred. "But, even after helping them, the emptiness in my soul did not heal. And I realized... these two kids were not my children. But my selfishness forced me to keep being with them."

  He looked up, shame burning in his eyes. "I thought if I spent more time with them, they could replace what I lost. They could fill my empty soul. It was an awful thought. I am ashamed of myself."

  "That is why I had to let you guys go," Bob confessed, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Leaving you two in Hanyuun. It was a last act to force myself not to be corrupted by my own grief. It was not a kind gesture. It was just my selfishness."

  "A year passed," Bob continued. "And I started to hear about the change that came to Hanyuun. How two saviors made it possible. I was curious, so I quickly moved back there. To my surprise... the saviors were you two."

  He smiled, a genuine warmth returning to his eyes, chasing away the shadows. "I felt conflicted. I was scared. I thought you two would fight, get injured, and die like my family. But I was also proud. Proud that the two injured people I found managed to rise despite everything."

  "It gave me hope," Bob said, his voice ringing with conviction. "Being selfish once again, I invited you two to come with me. And you two agreed."

  He laughed softly, a sound like a gentle breeze. "What struck me first... was how loud and fun the journey became again. Mila would never admit this, but we share the same consensus. Your presence has given our life colors again."

  He looked at them, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "Thank you. And sorry for my selfishness. And I am truly sorry for never revealing this until now."

  Raito and Yukari didn't say anything. Words felt inadequate. Instead, they moved as one, wrapping their arms around Bob in a tight embrace, sandwiching the giant man between them.

  Bob didn't say anything either. He just hugged them back. But this time, it wasn't his usual back-breaking squeeze. It was a kind, warm hug, full of gratitude and love, a silent promise of protection.

  "You do not need to say sorry," Raito said, his voice muffled against Bob's chest, thick with emotion. "We are just mortals. We make mistakes. We have hidden agendas."

  "We don't care, Bob," Yukari added, squeezing him tighter, feeling the steady beat of his heart. "We love you."

  "We are not your children," Raito said, pulling back slightly to look him in the eye, his gaze unwavering.

  "We cannot replace them," Yukari finished, smiling through her tears. "But we promise... we will be here for you."

  "You two..." Bob cried again, pulling them back in, his tears soaking their shoulders.

  As the three shared an intimate moment, a found family forged in their shared journey and shared pain, the wind blew through the clearing. The leaves rustled softly, like a whisper, and for a moment, it felt as if the spirits of Bob's family were smiling in happiness, giving their loved one a gentle push forward, finally finding life once again.