Chapter 118 – Along the Alley.
Around the time Usher didn’t even have the strength to walk after playing with the girls. He came looking for them and found Aiolos and Donars, and he was puzzled, but he was glad that they had come to pick them up.
“So how did you guys get here?”
“No matter how you came. Did you just follow the tunnel?”
Donnar asked, but Usher couldn’t understand what Donnar was saying. Because they just went through a tunnel.
“Is that so?”
Seeing Donard’s subtle expression, Usher felt something was off, but now he was more concerned with something else.
“Mister, do you have something to cover?”
“There is, but I only have Hildis Beanie in a hurry, so I only have this right now.”
What he held out to Usher was the cloth he wore over his armor as he pulled the wagon in the wilderness. He had washed it just in case, but the cloth was still a reddish-sand color from long wanderings in the wilderness.
“That’s enough. Come on, Belka.”
“Yeah, thank you.”
Usher took the cloth from him and put it over the girl hiding behind him. Then, feeling the eyes that had been subtly looking at her, she could understand why Donnar had asked for such a thing.
“You guys.”
“Kuhm.”
When he looked at his comrades as if he was bewildered, embarrassing coughing noises were heard from here and there. They wondered if they wanted to do that to a girl younger than themselves, but it was impossible to control every single thing that caught their eye. Ludmilla came over to them as he was putting Belka and Usher on the Hildisbini before he got on.
“Can you take me for a ride with you?”
“Why? Can’t you ask Mediah’s dad?”
She asked Donnar, but Usher answered first.
“Are you serious about that?”
“…Sorry.”
Usher couldn’t help but nod his head at Lyudmilla’s words, thinking about what kind of person Aiolos was. Even if he was the father of a friend, that was enough to scare him. In the end, Donnar had to ride three children in front of him. Thanks to Hildisbini’s size, it was fortunate that there were plenty of seats.
“…”
Medea was nice when she was playing, but she didn’t like the feeling of her wet clothes and hair sticking to her body, but she was unfamiliar with the fact that she was riding home in a Hill Dis beanie with her father, so she didn’t like that. I didn’t care until now. Her father thought that she was not the one to pick her up when she was late. She hadn’t been through a situation like this, but she assumed it would be. He actually came to pick me up like this.
She was when, in her awkward mind, she couldn’t lean comfortably in his arms and, on her own, she was holding her center on the Hill Dis beanie.
“Etch!”
It was still a summer day, but it was quite cold at night when summer had left. So, along with her shivering body, Medea sneezed at her. Then she opened her eyes wide at the feeling of her touch on her own shoulder. It was because it was her father’s overcoat. Even though it was made of her own fabric, the coat that was tailored to her adult felt heavy to Mediah, but the clothes that remained in his body heat were definitely conveying warmth to her.
When Medea cautiously raised her head and looked up at him, he was still driving the Hill Dis beanie, looking only in front of her with a cold face. He covered her with his own cloak, as if to pretend to be sweet. But she realized it was because he wasn’t honest. In the past, she might have been a little scared, thinking that he really had no feelings for him. But she knew now.
That he doesn’t have feelings for him, that he’s just scared. Medea closed her eyes for a moment and recalled the story her grandfather had told her in her dark bookstore. He was a fool to hear her story and not know how much he loved her mother. There are times when she can’t stand her lonely heart in that empty seat, even if she can’t remember her well, but she couldn’t even imagine how painful he must be to remember her vividly. She decided to be a little more courageous.
As Medea stopped balancing herself on the Hilldis beanie and she leaned into his arms, she felt his body tremble for a moment, as if her cold had been contagious. But he didn’t try to push or pull her away. The body, which had been cold in the night energy, was quickly stained with warmth. So they slowly headed home.
“Media.”
On the way back, Aeolus laid Medea, who had fallen asleep in his arms, on the bed in her room and tried to recite her name. She had already asked her maid to change her clothes, as she could catch a cold if she fell asleep in wet clothes. He still couldn’t believe that she had fallen asleep in his arms. She always tried to figure it out on her own and rarely depended on him. She was my daughter. Why.
“…Those kids.”
Then what came to mind was a girl who looked so much like Sasha and Usher. There was no guarantee that this would happen, but all these changes had taken place since they came to this estate. He was still in the past, and his daughter was now trying to move forward. It was when Aeolus was stroking Mediah with a bitter heart. The hand that stretched out from his side touched Medea’s forehead. It was the hand of a woman who had never held a sword.
But who the hell is in her daughter’s room? The moment he raised his head vigilantly. His boundaries melted into nothingness and disappeared. Maybe it was a natural story. How can I forget Red hair with a unique color and a delicate body that I always wanted to hug in case it would blow away even in the wind. Even the eyes like amethyst like his daughter’s. Because she was his wife, who left him long before anyone else.
“Sasha.”
When he called her name, she smiled sadly. He reached out to her with her trembling hands. She was definitely a fantasy. The fantasy was clear. Otherwise, the dead could not come back. But how is her figure reflected in the moonlight so vivid and delicate? At last, the feeling of his hand touching her cheek knew that she was real and not her fantasy. It was unbelievable. His wife was already dead.
It couldn’t have been. The dead cannot come back. But why is she standing in front of him? Even thinking that this might be her dream, he was already hugging her. Her hands didn’t hesitate to hug him either. It was a familiar and nostalgic scent. It wasn’t like fantasy. It wasn’t even that someone in her imitated her. It was a night when the moon stood in the middle of the sky where the sun stood and looked down at the ground without a single cloud interfering.
The girl was sitting by the window in the hallway and looking up at the sky. Then, as someone approached behind her, the girl stopped looking at the sky without saying a word, and looked at her teeth as she approached her. The two of them were very similar. If it weren’t for the eyes of each other being different, it would be safe to say that they were the same person, just different ages. She was a more mature woman who spoke first.
“Thank you. For letting me see him again… Really.”
As she put her thanks into her mouth, her girl stared at her, then turned her head to look at her sky again.
“You don’t have to thank me. It was he who wanted it, not me.”
“Surely, he really did make a deal with you. Even if he got to know someone like you, he told me not to make a deal.”
“Maybe he missed that much.”
At her girl’s words, she closed her mouth with a sad expression. The sky was getting brighter and brighter.
“It’s time to go back.”
“Please don’t hate him too much.”
Eventually, when the sun rose, she was left with only the girl. The girl looked for a moment where she was.
“…Yeah, but I don’t think I could ever like him.”
In the place where even the girl had left, only small dust particles floated up with the morning sunlight.
“A dream, was it?”
Aiolos woke up and looked up at the familiar ceiling. It was his room where everything was normal. But the reason why even such a ceiling feels unfamiliar is because the burning thirst that has not gone away no matter how much water you drink has disappeared. He looked to his side. His body was uncomfortable and heavy with dried sweat, but nothing remained there, including the warmth and scent, the weight and touch.
Even as he reflected on her loneliness, he thought he couldn’t help it and remembered his deal with the girl she was infinitely like. The words he said while holding the same red pendant as hers.
“I want to make a deal.”
His wife used to talk all the time. She can make a wish come true with a single sacrifice to a special witch, but she will be hated by her witch and will meet a miserable end. But Aeolus still couldn’t stand her longing for her. Especially since there was a girl who looked just like her right in front of her. So he made a wish in the name of a trade.
“Sasha, let me see Alexandra again.”
He wanted to meet his dead wife just once. I knew how absurd this was. But he wanted to see her once more, the truest of her, more than the fantasy of seeing her through her teeth, like her resemblance to her. Even if it was a witch’s magic, even if it was doubtful that it would be possible. Because she said Even if she is hated, a special witch will grant her wish even if it is because of the magic shackles or for the sacrificed life.
“Do you really care about that?”
It was good with it. At best, even if he hugged a girl who looked like her, because her girl was not Sasha. In the end, the girl accepted the bird in the cage he offered in exchange for the deal. The bird was one of the few remaining ancient species and was traded at a high price, but the girl accepted the little bird’s jokes for a while and did not catch the bird flying out of the window. In the end, the girl granted his wish.
“Aiolos, it’s time to cough.”
He heard the maid’s voice knocking on the door outside, but he went back to bed and covered himself with the blanket. Today I just wanted to sleep more. It seemed as if he heard a faint laugh in his ears as he fell into a dream.
