Chapter 20 – Cult (5)
Everything in the world is an inevitability disguised as a coincidence.
If you dig into it, each person has a connection.
So, you can dismiss my sister’s death as inevitable.
I understood in my head.
My heart just can’t accept it.
Why did the kind and tender-hearted older sister have to die?
Of all those many people, did it have to be her older sister?
It would have been better if I had died.
It was a thought I had countless times at the time.
It was a futile idea, but I still wanted my sister to live rather than me.
It was a sweet life.
Days when it was difficult to even eat a meal.
The days when I had to throw myself into the dirt to survive.
The days we endured in the intense cold, feeling each other’s body temperature.
Why did you endure all that?
Were you able to persevere and persevere?
In the distant future, I had such a difficult time with you.
Still, aren’t we happy now?
It was because I believed and believed more earnestly than anyone else that a sunny day would come when we could talk to each other with a smile.
Amelia.
Proud older sister.
Kind sister.
Stupid sister.
And my older sister, whom I can’t see anymore.
I see Arya who resembles her and her name and her face.
Arya stared at me silently as she stopped talking.
He didn’t notice or press.
The posture of listening to my words reminded me of a pious believer.
No, since she is a saint, she must be a devout believer.
I uttered the following words slowly.
“So I went out, out of town.”
I was prepared to die and left.
It was a step she took at the risk of her life.
“… It must have been dangerous.”
“I wasn’t crazy at the time. Well, no. If I had been sane, I would have gone looking for it.”
Because she was my older sister who was everything to me.
With that said, Arya lowered her head from my arms.
He seemed to suppress his emotions.
“… Did you find it?”
A painful voice, anyone who sees it will know it’s something you’ve been through.
Still, it didn’t make the eyes look cold.
Rather, I was grateful.
To show such a reaction to my story.
“I did find it.”
After many difficulties, I was able to find Amelia.
No, should I really call it a discovery?
There was only her arm.
Sister’s body.
“… Arms?”
“Yes, only her arm was loose. In fact, she was forgiving what was left of it.”
Arya’s black irises shook without a doubt.
As if to think of the shock I must have felt then.
“How did you know it was Ms. Amelia’s arm?”
“She was holding on to the ruby ring. I was convinced when I saw that.”
Ruby ring.
Amelia had managed to find the item the boy had asked for as a joke.
I laughed bitterly.
“It was hard to even open her fingers from how tightly she gripped her ring.”
It seems that even at the moment when his body was eaten by the monster, he did not lose hold of the ring and held it tightly.
Who is her desperate action for?
Asking that was nothing more than a rumor.
“… Whoops.”
Feeling overwhelmed, Arya burrowed into my arms.
Like a child who couldn’t stand the bitter cold looking for warmth.
She’s like a sensitive saintess.
I stroked her little hair.
“Are you crying?”
Looking at Aria’s eyes, they are quite moist.
It was a dangerous expression to the point that I wondered if I was going to cry if I said something a little more sinpa.
It was not a good feeling to see Arya with such an ugly expression.
It’s just that I’m getting depressed all this way.
“Why, why are you so calm?”
Arya’s question was full of water.
I pondered over her question.
Why are you so calm?
“Because it’s in the past.”
Yes.
It was all in the past anyway.
My heart stopped hurting like it did back then.
She didn’t feel as if there was a steel bar in her chest like she did back then.
It’s just that I can’t stand it.
It was the current reality of telling someone that you died in such a calm way.
My story continued.
* * *
Einstein arrived at the place the boy had pointed out.
It is a luxurious mansion.
At the entrance of the mansion, the knights I had seen before were firmly guarding it.
Their frosty gazes were fixed on Einstein.
“… I brought you what you promised.”
The knights checked the ring Einstein was carrying and brought it inside the mansion.
Einstein followed their guide and arrived at the guest room.
He waited patiently for the boy.
After a while, a boy opened the door and came in.
The boy stretched out and let out a protracted yawn.
Good to sell
I endured the distortion of my face.
Anyway, this guy didn’t kill his sister himself.
Arguing against him is nothing more than a strict venting of anger.
Einstein said in a hushed voice.
“I found it. Ring.”
He showed me a ruby ring stained with his sister’s blood.
The boy’s eyes sparkled as he confirmed this.
“Oh, are you really here?”
It was as if he didn’t know he was coming.
It was unpleasant, but Einstein persevered.
“But where did the woman go?”
Einstein could not answer that question.
If he answered, he would barely hold back and he himself would fall apart.
“…”
Not knowing what Einstein was thinking, the boy continued talking.
“Ah-ha, I see. Are you dead? Well, there are a lot of monsters at this time, so there’s no help.”
As if there was no trace of guilt, the boy nodded his head.
Einstein didn’t want to talk to this psychotic any more.
So, he moved on to the main topic.
“Give me as promised, gold coins.”
The boy frowned at Einstein’s attitude for a moment, but he smiled as if he had never done that before and took out a gold coin from his trouser pocket.
“Oh yeah. Now here.”
He snapped his thumb and threw a gold coin.
Degur.
Gold coins rolling down the floor.
Einstein stared blankly at the gold coin.
My sister died because of that one coin.
Just one coin.
That was the price of the life of the only flesh and blood in this world.
“You don’t pick it up? I take it back.”
“… I will pick it up.”
It was the moment Einstein bent down to pick up the gold coin.
Ting, ting, ting.
I heard something rolling again.
However, this time it wasn’t a gentle sound like a coin.
“Ah mistake.”
The boy dropped something.
Ting, ting, ting.
Dropped again
Ting, ting, ting.
Dropped continuously.
Things piled up on the floor.
It was a ruby ring that the boy had originally asked the Einstein siblings to bring.
“… What.”
“Oh, this? What is a ring?”
Einstein clenched his fists and shuddered.
“… If you have so many, why did you ask us?”
The boy’s gaze lingered on the ceiling for a moment.
“Is that because it’s fun?”
Fun?
What?
Is it funny that your sister died?
Where on earth can you find the fun?
His head buzzed.
The world turns gray
Ah, why was I born into such an unreasonable world?
Why do I have to go through such an absurd situation?
Why did you have to die
Einstein couldn’t stand it anymore.
Ran to the boy
Were you foreseeing this?
Knights of unknown origin appeared, knocked Astein down, and suppressed his arm.
Einstein looked up and saw the boy, even as he fell to the floor.
The hatred engraved deep in his heart is directed at the boy.
“You bastard!”
The boy plugged his ears and shrugged his shoulders.
“Why are you so hot like that? It’s good for each other. I can enjoy cheap entertainment for a gold coin, and you can get through the winter for a gold coin. It’s a pity that your sister died, but what can I do?”
You have to rip that snout off.
Tear them into pieces and serve them as fish food.
Astein, suppressed by the knight, struggled vigorously.
I know he didn’t budge, but he couldn’t give up.
Who would be mad for his own sister if he, his younger brother, gave up here.
Who will confess her injustice?
Who can express her pain?
Einstein glared at the boy with her bloodshot eyes.
If she could kill a person by glaring at her, she had a gaze full of vengeance, enough to kill a hundred times more.
“I will kill you, I will definitely kill you!”
“Oh wow, noisy. Please give me a proper hand and throw me. Sir Taylor.”
The boy shook her hand as she watched Einstein being dragged away by the knights.
Today is a happy day, the boy thought.
Unfortunately, there was one fact that this aristocratic boy had overlooked.
That is, Einstein was marked as a hero.
And that the warrior was awakened on this day.
* * *
“You said you awakened the power of a hero there?”
Arya stopped questioning the words that did not fit the situation.
“How come?”
“… So how did it go?”
“Tell me what to do.”
He pretended to slit his throat.
That alone gave an idea of what happened afterwards.
“No matter how much he awakened to the power of a hero, he must have just awakened. Wasn’t it dangerous to deal with the knights?”
“It was dangerous. I almost died. Well, if I had died there, I wouldn’t have been talking to you like this.”
“… Don’t talk like that.”
Einstein pokes Aria’s cheek and laughs.
“Anyway, that’s it. My obsession with hunting monsters.”
It was a complex reason.
And, it was also the reason why you shouldn’t ask in the name of curiosity.
Arya said she hated herself for her past.
She resented herself for asking questions that insensitively probed her scars.
“Sorry for asking.”
Would she have noticed such self-reproach.
Einstein smiled softly.
“Um, no. I wanted to tell you.”
“…”
Arya looked up at Einstein.
Eyes filled with remorse.
A bittersweet corner of the mouth somewhere.
Was Mr. Einstein such a sad-looking person?
Where did the fluttering emotions go, and all that was left was anguish as heavy as a rock.
He said it quietly.
“Are you pitying me?”
“Isn’t it okay?”
“You are free to do or not.”
Arya sniffed her nose and ran the back of her hand over her eyes.
Einstein waited for her to calm down before continuing her words.
“I have a belief that has been in my heart ever since.”
“Conviction?”
“It’s not too grand.”
“What is it?”
“Even if I die, I will protect my people.”
Arya felt her heart choke.
That horse was his yoke, a lump, a fetter, and a stigma.
At the same time, it was a promise and a vow to the helpless one who lost his older sister.
“So I want to ask. What you’ve been through here.”
His eyes turned to Arya with infinitely caring light.
Because the words were sudden, Arya couldn’t say anything.
