The young king slightly raised his brows. He waited for Shunche to go over and lead the girl back out of the building before he spoke up. "It did not seem as if she told you anything of value either."
Susha Unhuor came out of his thoughts and went back over to the table, sitting down next to him. "I’m afraid you might be right. Are there any other people that would be worth talking to?"
"The other men of the military. Although I doubt that they would have any further information. My uncle was always … very focused on the thing he was doing at a specific moment. When at the military, he focused on his task there. When at home, he would never discuss his job and only take care of his family. And being with friends, I heard that while he might talk about his job or family for a short time, he was most dedicated to listening to them and giving advice or just having fun with them. That was why he was so well-liked everywhere."
Susha Unhuor nodded slowly, feeling that this echoed exactly what everyone else had told him today. "An all-around great person."
"Which is why him being the victim of the demon is something that took me by surprise. It is not a secret that the first victim of the demon will either be the target or the one who summoned it. As king and as someone who wasn’t accepted easily in that role, I should have expected that there might be some people with ulterior motives. My uncle though … I never would have thought of him."
He lowered his gaze, a trace of confusion in there. "There were some people …" He stopped and shook his head. "I guess this situation allows me to see who is on my side and who isn’t. Some did not believe what the high priest and I said about my uncle wanting to rescue me. There have been some rumors that since it is impossible for such a good person to summon a demon, he might be the target instead. I guess this was done deliberately."
Susha Unhuor nodded slightly. This kind of thing was actually plausible but he trusted in Jusha Lale’s deduction that it might have been done deliberately. He paused for a moment before he leaned slightly closer to Jusha Lale. "Can we go somewhere to have a conversation without any disturbances?"
Jusha Lale raised his brows and then turned to Shunche with a questioning look.
Shunche straightened up, feeling accused. "I had General Zhayai choose this building. It shouldn’t have any problems. As long as we don’t ask to see anyone, nobody will come to disturb you. You can also stay here until the demon has been taken care of. Not even the general knows that you are here. He believes only the zhireng will come here."
Jusha Lale nodded slowly. "Very well. In that case, it seems we don’t need to worry." He turned back to Susha Unhuor but then stopped himself just before he said something and turned back to Shunche. "Shunche, you’ve also worked hard these days. Why don’t you go and take a rest? Also, you can send somebody to go and get Chomong. It should be safe to have him come here as well now."
Shunche looked hurt when he realized that he still wasn’t allowed to stay around but he still nodded. "I will." He took a last look at his king and the warrior and then backed out of the room, conscientiously closing the door behind him.
Susha Unhuor watched him with a pensive expression.
Jusha Lale kept quiet for a moment before he turned to the zhireng. "What’s the matter? You wouldn’t think that one of my guards did this, would you?"
Susha Unhuor pulled himself out of his thoughts and then turned to the king again. "Let’s not talk about this for the moment. Give me your honest thoughts: How likely do you think it is that your uncle was the target instead of you?"
Jusha Lale was still confused but answered honestly. "I would say that it is fairly unlikely that this was the case. Originally, I might have believed that. But at that time, the only two people in the hall were me and the high priest. All the other people were outside, waiting for us to finish the ritual and then take part in the ceremony themselves.
"So why would my uncle have gone there? Sure, maybe he was fleeing from the demon and lost his head for a moment. But there were a million other places he could’ve gone. It makes no sense. Rather than that, I would say that at this moment, the demon was controlling him to go to the temple and finish whatever task it was that my uncle wanted to be accomplished."
Susha Unhuor tapped the table. "What you say makes sense. The one summoning them will often be manipulated by the demons to actually take part in the task. It is a way to make sure that even if they accomplish what they want, they will have a much guiltier conscience than they would if somebody else did it. After all, they can still tell themselves that they summoning the demon didn’t mean anything. That the other person’s misfortune wasn’t a direct consequence of their summoning. The human mind is quite capricious in that regard."
"I heard of that as well. So … I think it would’ve been much more likely for him to summon the demon and then lose control. Truth be told … deep down, I have some trouble believing it. I think I just don’t want to imagine that somebody who was so close to me would do something like that. My relationship with my uncle … while it wasn’t very close, he was still there for me. Especially after both of my parents had died. For a certain time, I relied on him the most."
At that, Susha Unhuor actually perked up. The dan was talking in past tense. That meant that something had changed. Somehow, after having a pretty good relationship, they had drifted apart. There could be a clue in that. "Then what changed? What was the reason that your relationship wasn’t like that anymore later?"
Jusha Lale shook his head and then got up to open the cabinet at the side, rifling through the contents as if searching for something. "I would not be able to tell you. To be honest, it was my uncle who pulled back. I was a little lost at that. He … he actually gave me quite a bit of strength at that time. It might not be so obvious now, but a few years ago, the whole situation really had me scared." He stopped what he was doing and just stared ahead into space as if thinking back.
Susha Unhuor didn’t want to disturb him but also didn’t dare to probe further. While he felt that it was alright to ask anything about his uncle, the king’s life itself … that was a bit of a different matter. To his surprise, Jusha Lale still picked back up where he had left off.
"I really wasn’t that old. To have lost my mother was one thing but to also lose my father … it left me reeling. I had been prepared to become king but I’d always thought of it as the sort of … thing that would happen one day. Not any day now but one day in the far future. I actually think I imagined myself to be what you thought a dan would be like." He pushed the door of the cabinet shut again and went back to the table, sitting down next to Susha Unhuor again. "I thought that when I was middle-aged and had learned whatever I could from my father, that by then, maybe he would give the reins to me and have me accede to the throne so he would be able to focus on something else. I didn’t think that even before I reached twenty years of age, I would have to bother with something like this. I was not prepared for that.
"Having to deal with this new situation and with his loss, it really wasn’t anything I ever expected to deal with. It was hard. Maybe I would’ve been able to stomach it if it had only been one of those things but with things like this …" He shook his head. "My uncle’s care helped me a lot in that time.
"I felt that with a bit of time, I could become almost as close to him as I was with my father before. It reminded me that even though my parents were gone, I still had a family. There were my uncle and aunt, my maternal and paternal grandparents, so I was not alone.
"But then suddenly, one day, he just pulled back. He did not come over as regularly anymore. I thought he might be busy but even when he came, he would always have an excuse to return back home soon. I’m not quite sure what triggered the change. It came unexpectedly for me."
Susha Unhuor also had no idea what it might be. "There was nothing that happened before that you think might have been the cause?"
"I wish it was easy to say. But no, I can’t see any reason. It was … completely random. And, well, it’s not like I could ask him. If I had to guess, maybe he heard something that shouldn’t have been said. There were some people that felt that I was not the right one to sit on the throne after all. I could imagine that some of them were fearing that he was trying to control me, make me into his marionette.
"If my uncle heard something like that, then maybe to help me, he actually pulled back. Considering how close we were at that time, it would make sense. I think that he did love me. Compared to his own wife and children, I probably already came in second place. We were family after all. At least that was what I believed."
Susha Unhuor gave a hum. "I think it would fit with everything others have said about him. If family was important to him, then you naturally were as well. So maybe there is some kind of other explanation for this."
"Then as a zhireng, what kind of reason do you see?"
"That is the problem. Currently, I can’t see any. I think that friend of his, this Agur Suhi, does have some kind of hunch at least though. But he doesn’t want to say it. I don’t know why but … there’s something there. I’m sure of that much at least."
"Then do you think he would speak if I was to ask him?"
"That would entirely depend on what reason he actually suspects. Maybe you asking him would make things even more difficult. We can’t say for sure at the moment."
The two of them fell quiet for a moment. Susha Unhuor was wondering if maybe he should finally bring up the question he had had since before going to question that maid but at that moment, the dan already spoke up again.
"If you are unable to find out, will you still go and vanquish the demon?"
The zhireng gave a faint smile in return. "It is my duty, isn’t it?"
Jusha Lale lowered his gaze. "As a zhireng, it is. But then again, even before I came to the Sundang temple, I knew that you had already retired several years ago. I was not sure you would agree. And so far, I was under the impression that you wanted to have a look first."
Susha Unhuor turned to look at the window, giving a deep sigh. "Believe me, I would’ve preferred to stay in the temple and just go about my life there. Being a zhireng … it is not something that I enjoy. But what can I do? If nobody else was willing …" He shook his head. "Did you really ask all of them?" He turned back to look at Jusha Lale, slightly raising his brows. This was the second thing he was slightly dubious about. The zhireng were rare but not rare to that degree. There should’ve been more than the two he had mentioned. Had none of these been available?
Jusha Lale’s expression was a little bland. "I did. That’s why it took me so long to go to where you were. It is just that not all of them are willing to do something like this."
"From what I heard, it was hardly their fault. What we do … it is hard. Dying or being injured is common. Not being able to pick up our weapon anymore and go to fight is something that we have to live with. You might say it is inevitable. Either that or maybe you’ll become too old one day." He smiled faintly, actually feeling that him saying this was a little amusing. Most zhireng died young. At his age, with more than thirty years, he had already lived quite a long time.
Jusha Lale’s expression was still just the same as before. "Those friends of yours certainly were not at fault. It pains me to hear that they were in this kind of situation. I definitely don’t blame them for anything. It is just that some of the others were … not quite as willing to help. And not quite what I would have expected of the zhireng."
There was something in his gaze that gave Susha Unhuor pause. "What did they do? Normally, without a valid reason, a zhireng should not refuse to help. Asking you to go to somebody else first might still be valid but other than that, I can’t see a reason why they should do something like this."
Jusha Lale gave a breezy smile. "It seems that not everybody is as honorable as you then. Well, never mind. You are already here. And since you’ve promised, I think that you will do it. The two of us should probably go and rest for a bit now. If you need me to have anything else prepared for you, just tell me." He rose to his feet and then stepped out of the room, leaving a confused Susha Unhuor behind.
This dan … somehow, he couldn’t help but feel that he had just poked a hornet’s nest. Just what had the other zhireng done that he was behaving like this? He rubbed his neck. He couldn’t think of anything so in the end, he got up and went over to the bed, lying down to sleep.
Anyway, he would indeed need his full strength to confront the demon. And maybe after a few hours of sleep, his mind would be clearer and let him see what he could do to find out more about the situation with Shaun Reng.
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