Chapter 114 – Along the Alley.
When he returned to his store after drinking early in the morning, he heard children’s voices coming from inside. He went inside, thinking that the children who had accidentally discovered this place might be playing in a strange way. An old, corner store where no one comes anyway. This often happened because the door was not locked. I didn’t even have to kick him out. As long as I showed him his figure, the children would startle and run away.
However, when he faced the children, he was astonished. He rubbed his eyes with trembling hands. Since his eyesight had not been very good ever since he was born, and since he had been pouring himself cheap liquor in broad daylight, he thought the sight was an illusion. Otherwise, there was no way his daughter, who had been dead for over 10 years, would appear in front of him. Just like when you were a kid. All he could do, like an idiot, was call his daughter by name.
“Sasha, Sasha… Nya?”
“I am not her.”
He thought it was just a resemblance to the girl shaking her head at his question and the golden color that was different from his daughter, whom he soon encountered. It’s a moment to regret that fact. He found the same amethyst eyes as his daughter’s and took a breath. It was as if two children appeared sharing the image of his daughter. And when the child opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.
“Do you know your mother?”
He lived drunk and remembered the years he had forgotten.
“Oh, the smell. I don’t know why they live in the city when they’re digging in the ground.”
Even though it was just passing by, insulting words were heard. Stabbing eyes. It wouldn’t be strange to fight, but Devalin was a green dwarf. A lowly race that was not even blessed to be born into the world. The place where his memory began is in a dark cave, not unlike any green dwarf. He didn’t at first wonder why he lived there. He just lived by digging the ground as he had been taught by the green dwarfs he lived with, and eating the wheat grains brought by the adults, the bland potatoes that tasted nothing, and the worms.
He dug with the others that day too. He had to dig to live in a wider place, and he had to dig hard to get more food. During the days of digging, he could suddenly feel the ground weakening. It was a very strange thing for him, who always dug out the hard ground with stones. It just found edible roots from above and dug more holes to eat them. He saw the light for the first time. He saw the blue sky.
Even the wads of cotton floating in the sky and the appearance of Yeongji, which was magnificent at that time, seen far away. A world where everything is new. If I hadn’t known it my whole life, I couldn’t help but yearn for the world I had tasted once. Despite many obstacles and hardships, he was able to approach the territory he had seen from afar. Because I just wanted to know what this place was doing. He continued to be driven out, but only after finding and trading with them for something valuable, he was able to enter the manor.
“Fuck it! Where is the green dwarf going to dine here!”
Life in the territory he barely entered was harder than he thought. Everyone hated him Because his skin is green. Because of his short stature. Because he is powerless. For feeling bad. Hearing all kinds of contempt and insults, the place he naturally found was an alley where no one was looking. He just wanted to live by looking at the sky and seeing the light. Even in this splendid city, the only place he was allowed was a cramped alley where the sky was ripped apart by buildings.
Still, he lived and worked in search of work. If he hadn’t found an old bookstore abandoned in this narrow alley, he would have been wandering the streets. In the old bookstore, all the books were taken away and only empty bookshelves were gathered. Then, what he found was his magic book. All the other books were taken, but that one book remained. The dusty book looked like him, so he made it a habit to pick up discarded magic books and bring them back.
That day was also the day he picked up discarded magic books like himself. When I tried to go back with my already small body bent even more in the chaotic atmosphere that day. He found the woman collapsed in her alley. If you approach her with curiosity at the red hair you see for the first time. He met her and her eyes. She was a very beautiful woman even in his eyes, who did not face many people. She was barely breathing as if she had run and ran and reached the limit.
“Please, please. The child…!”
Her words made him realize that there was still a lump of blood in her arms that hadn’t cooled down yet. And the sound of the boots of the knights rushing from somewhere. He could see that the manor house, which was cluttered today, was because of this woman. Did she run away? If you lead him to the place where he is staying, the knights might not be able to find it because it was so inconspicuous. But he is a dwarf and powerless dwarf.
There was no way to take the exhausted woman and hide before the knights found this place. Still, she was able to lift as much as the baby in her arms. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she smiled as he accepted her baby. The footsteps of the knights were getting closer and closer. He couldn’t delay any longer, so he took the baby and hid in an old bookstore. And at the presence of the knights passing in front of the door, he carefully opened the door and looked at the place where the woman was.
“Finally got it. You bitch!”
The fallen woman was forcibly lifted up by the knights and dragged away. Even though she was the same human being, it was rough and inconsiderate behavior as if she were treating her things. She disappeared out of the alley with her knights, leaving her tears like bloodstains. That was the last woman he had seen.
“Dad, why can’t I go outside?”
The baby he picked up that day grew up and was walking around the bookstore briskly before he knew it. There were many days when I couldn’t eat properly because it was hard to find a menial job, but I still took care of her every meal as much as the child. Thanks to his poor pockets, her baby’s breast meat was peeping out.
“It’s because there are scary iron monsters out there who take pretty kids like Sasha.”
It wasn’t a lie. As her day grew differently, she was already trying to make that beauty bloom. The more he did, the harder it was for her child to go outside. This is because the lord of the knights who captured the woman at that time often picked beautiful women and took them as his concubines or slaves. Even children who had just become adults were not covered.
She never knew what became of her after that day, but she would never have gone through anything good. He couldn’t let this child of hers go through the same thing she was asking from her. Although the child sometimes complained, she listened to him with dignity. Even if she went out, she put on her robe and didn’t take it off, and she lived inside as much as possible. Then one day he realized that there was a nameplate he had never seen before hanging on the door of an old bookstore.
“Dvalin’s Magic Bookstore?”
On the nameplate he had never seen before, his name was engraved, which he hadn’t even written. And it’s a magic bookstore. He did not specifically use this place as a bookstore. It was just to fill the empty bookshelf with discarded magic books.
“Hee hee, how is it? Dad, do you like it?”
Just as expected. It was her daughter’s work.
“I like it. Really, really.”
A shabby bookstore abandoned in the back of this alley finally became his home. The child liked magic books. Even though it is safe to say that the book is the same with only slightly different writers, the child always enjoyed reading, comparing and playing with the books. Sometimes he made strange movements or scribbled things that he couldn’t understand, but even that was a fun life that made him laugh.
“Dad take this!”
Then, I was horrified by the things my daughter brought. Even if that wasn’t enough, they brought shoes that boasted a price close to their three months’ living expenses. However, it seems that it was stolen from someone, so the shoes fit his feet perfectly.
“Hey, where did you buy this from?”
“It’s the grandfather who makes shoes over there.”
He could tell from her daughter’s words that he had sold the shoes for a ridiculously low price. As a result, I made friends to drink with from time to time. All of this was made by his daughter. But the happiness didn’t last long.
“No! Not as much as that child! Kill me!”
The lord noticed her daughter. She said the child hadn’t made a mistake. Since she was little, the smart kid knew why he had to be careful. But the people around her were the problem. A child, unable to hold back his curiosity at seeing her daughter always wearing a robe, took off her hood. In the end, he was beaten while catching the knights dragging her daughter away.
It hurt as if his small body was being crushed by hard boots, but what hurt more was the hand that couldn’t hold the child. At the end of the day he took her daughter away. No one despised him as a green dwarf back then, crying in the middle of the road. It was truly miserable.
“…Your father did that?”
Devalin shook his head at Mediah’s questioning in a trembling voice.
“No, the lord was not your father.”
After he met the children, he sat them down at a chair and desk he had prepared, albeit shabbily, and was talking. It was for her granddaughter, who lost her mother when she was too young and is following the traces of her mother, whose memory is fuzzy. After all, only a handful of eccentrics visit this place, so it didn’t matter if we talked leisurely.
“Did Medea go out to play with her children?”
“Yes, as usual, the guards are on their way, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Aeolus looked out his window, being debriefed by Heath. I couldn’t see the outside of the inner sanctuary well from here, but I could see at least a part of the wide territory. He was thinking of her as his eyes searched for her children somewhere in her. The first place he saw her was at the back of her castle, where now her Medea was her favorite. When he just went out to get some fresh air while studying the things he needed to run the estate. Out of her window, she found her crying in the back of her castle.
At first she thought it was just that her maid was sad and she was crying. There were times when the maids of the castle where he lived were sometimes found secretly crying like this. So, it was nothing special. But among them, her red hair was the first. Her head was lowered, so she couldn’t see it from above, but her red hair swaying with sadness was clear. The first day ended with that. The next day he went out for a walk.
He originally had no interest in moving his body, but he developed a habit of going for walks. She was always crying in a place where no one would see because it was so secluded. That would have been all, but he wanted to talk to her about her.
“Hey, what are you so sad about crying here every day?”
Surprised by her own words that went out more sharply than she thought, she asked her dumbfoundedly. Did you hear his voice? She turned to him When she finally met her eyes. His heart thumped. It felt like everything about her was engraved in her own eyes, with her tear-soaked purple eyes shimmering. For a moment she was at a loss for words because of her.
“Hey, hi! I want to go home, but I can’t.”
“I can’t go home. Isn’t it natural to work here?”
“Huh, I’ve never wanted to work in a place like this.”
Then he was offended by her words. This was his house. She doesn’t like her own house, which makes her feel good.
“No, how many people want to work here? And if you want to go home, why don’t you take a vacation?”
It was a very simple idea that she was able to do because she did not know her circumstances.
“Vacation?”
He was glad that she had stopped crying for a moment without knowing that.
“Yes, a vacation. If you work hard, you’ll get it once in a while.”
She had no idea then how cruel her own words would be.
