Chapter 181 – Stopped Footsteps.
“To become a wizard. Do you have to be that way…?”
Helena tried to hide her trembling voice somehow, but she couldn’t. That’s because the scene Krikaliev showed us was heterogeneous and grotesque.
“Not necessarily. You heard that, too? That I’m the fourth.”
With a squeak and an unbelievable sound that came from a human body, he wrapped himself again in the old cloth that had been partially undone. Certainly from their conversation, Helena knew that Krikaliev had become an exceptional wizard. The fourth would have meant that.
“But even in this situation, I can’t become a perfect wizard.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s literally. The power I can exert as a wizard is to get rid of the same wizard’s magic. That’s the only one.”
At his words, Helena felt like she had been beaten in the head.
“On that subject, it has all the disadvantages that a wizard has to bear.
Krikaliev spoke as if it was troubling her, but she couldn’t hear it properly as she still hit her head.
“Anyway, I have no reason or reason to act like that son of a bitch.”
He stretched as if he had just finished his hard work.
“Uh, now let’s take that little girl and go get something to eat. We’ll have to ask Nausicaa for some meat.”
Helena was speechless at the sight of Krikaliev’s back, who soon turned around and walked towards the dugout as if nothing had happened.
“There are many dangerous things around here, so hurry up and follow me.”
Since she couldn’t bear to follow her, Helena couldn’t say anything at the sight of him calling her casually. As they entered the dugout, Jeremiah, who was leaning against the wall grinding something with a pestle in a bowl, and Belka, who was sitting next to Usher and washing him, turned to look at them.
“Are you back already?”
“Today’s business went very well, so I earned a little bit of money.”
Helena sat beside Belka while Jeremiah and Krikaliev chatted lightly.
“How is Usher?”
“I think I’ll have to wait to get up.”
“Okay.”
She could see that the black dots that had appeared on Usher’s bare skin from the girl’s washing had disappeared. It was only now realizing that she had cured her illness that had made them despair. As they are watching him, Krikaliev, who has left the pots outside for a while, calls them.
“Hey, let’s really go get some food now. I couldn’t even move.”
At his words, Helena first turned to her girl. And how did the bright golden light he encountered receive her gaze?
“It will be fine.”
Helena laughed bitterly at the sound of her Belka voice comforting her. It must be her that worries her the most. Belka put her mask on and rose from her seat only after carefully kissing Usher’s forehead, now asleep with her even breath. So when they return to the inn.
“Here’s another Gusak roast!”
“Yes! Please wait 10 more minutes!”
“Only two servings of lasagna here!”
“Yeah~ yeah~”
I could see Nausicaa busily running between the customers filling the restaurant on the first floor. The food or drink in her hand swayed dangerously, but the way she skillfully maintained her balance and ran vigorously so that her feathers fluttered drew attention.
“There are many guests.”
“I told you it’s a nice place. If nothing else, the kids’ cooking is amazing.”
“I can hear everything!!”
In the midst of the bustle and tumult, Nausicaa shouted how she heard Krikaliev’s voice, and the attention of the guests was drawn to them.
“Oh, Krikaliev? Right?”
“That’s right, because Nausicaa said it.”
Belka, who flinched at those gazes and held her hand, thought that Helena had found the wrong place to stay for her, but when she thought of Jude, there was no place as safe as this place. Her muttering grew louder as she held her girl’s hand and struggled to hold back her burden.
“Hey, that’s enough with Krikaliev, look back.”
“Huh? Why… Wow.”
As for the guests, there were occasional women, but most of the group were men, which made Helena even more uncomfortable with their gaze. Even knowing it wasn’t their fault, I couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“Oh! Yoff. When did you have such a pretty wife and daughter?”
Then her man, who had wrapped her body in an old cloth like Krikaliev, jumped out of the crowd and came up to him and asked: However, unlike Krikaliev, it is different that her face is exposed.
“These are the clients. What is this guy who knows everything talking about?”
“It’s because I’m envious. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the middle of a long time, and there are rumors?”
Krikaliev looked very annoying, but he seemed quite accustomed to talking, probably because he was a business partner. Helena was waiting for their conversation to end, not wanting to interrupt or interrupt their conversation, but he seemed interested in them.
“Ladies! If you’re going to eat now, how about eating together?”
He had come to talk, sticking his head out beside Krikaliev.
“Do you really want to attract outsiders to the gathering?”
“Hey! Let’s hold hands with women too!”
When Krikaliev, disgusted, held his head out of sight of them and pretended to put it back in, an unsympathetic cry erupted from the crowd wrapped in old cloth.
“You guys, if you want to date a woman, you shouldn’t have become a mortician. What do you do if you make good money? We can’t.”
“You bastard! You’re saying it because the ladies look like strangers!”
“Some of us get married every once in a while!”
Indeed, Krikaliev seemed to be laughing at them, pretending to dig their ears or not.
“Are you talking about the bastards who quit all of that?”
“Sparrow.”
As they pretend to cry as a group, the customers watching around them laugh.
“Enough! Just introduce yourself!”
“Give me a chance to talk to the ladies!”
“Ladies! We’ll buy the rice!”
Helena keeps her mouth shut as they ask for them in a half pleading manner. Thud! A loud noise reverberated and the bustling restaurant became quiet. Nausicaa forcefully set down a plate of roasted gusak on their table.
“My uncles. It looks like you have a lot of work. Then, since you ordered a whole roasted gusak, would you like to eat Mr. Yoff’s cooking to cheer up?”
“Draw? Is it time to show off your skills after a long time?”
Krikaliev grumbled at her words with a sullen laugh and tried to enter the kitchen, but they quickly got up and grabbed him.
“Okay! We’re enough with Nausicaa’s cooking!”
“Women are great! Let’s live first!”
“Ah, don’t hesitate. I’ll give it to you for free as a special service♪”
“Eat it quickly! Go before it’s done cooking!”
And then I could see them going back to their places and eating the food in a hurry. I was so desperate that I couldn’t find the time I had been filled with just a moment ago. Nausicaa, who had silenced them, shot at them.
“Are you okay? Those guys aren’t bad. My eyes go round when I see pretty girls.”
“That much doesn’t matter.”
Rather, I wondered what Krikaliev’s cooking was and why they freaked out so much, but I quit because I felt it was better not to know.
“My baby rabbit? He seems to be very scared.”
“…Are you okay.”
“Anyway, wait a minute! The customers are all leaving soon. Let’s eat together!”
At Nausicaa’s recommendation, Helena and Belka sat at an empty table in the restaurant and asked Krikaliev.
“What does the undertaker mean?”
Apparently, the five or so people seemed to be referring to those who took care of those suffering from the black throat, but I wondered if that meant something.
“It’s just that there’s nothing to call it. How did a nickname become a job name?”
From the inside of Parz, they take the sick with a gloomy appearance and make sure they never see them again. Therefore, the image of most of the people inside Parz was not very good because they thought that they were buying morgues or their lives with money.
“That’s not too wrong. Sometimes people die because they miss the timing, and in that case, we pay for the funeral.”
After that conversation, how long did you have to hold back the gaze of the guests? Soon, Nausicaa approached with a tired face along with the empty restaurant. In her hands was a large bowl of gusak and a salad plate that looked like Belka’s.
“Turn it off. It’s hard alone. I’m asking you to help me when you have time.”
“Most of the customers here come to see you, and they’ll be happy to serve you. I’d rather cook…”
“Just rest. I’m afraid to even talk about it now.”
She sighed and put the two roasted gusaks in front of Krikaliev, the other between Helena and the salad in front of Belka.
“We never did anything like this.”
“Ah. I’ll get it cheap. Just tell me. You know!”
Seeing that, Helena originally wondered if the people here were so friendly even to people she hadn’t gotten to know for a while, but after thinking of Jude and a certain harpy she didn’t even know the name of, she decided to consider Nausicaa and Krikallev special.
“Rather than that, our baby rabbit!”
“…?”
“You were supposed to tell me more about the dwarves.”
Their meal was accompanied by the quiet sounds of girls and chatter. After the meal, Helena was looking at the surface of the water in the teacup that Nausicaa had given her. She was swayed by the atmosphere of the inn and forgot about it, but it was because she remembered the words she had said to Krikaliev.
“You fought.”
What Helena heard was Belka’s voice. She wanted to say it wasn’t like that, but when she was faced with the golden light of the girl who took off her mask before she knew it, she became ashamed of herself and shut her mouth. Now Krikaliev was not here. He was tearing up tree trunks from a table a short distance away to make a trap for Dvyaka.
“Did you know he was a wizard?”
“Yes, people like him are rare.”
Perhaps Helena’s guarding against him was pointless. Before coming here, he had seen people dressed like Krikaliev, but Belka, who was reluctant to strangers, had chosen him among them.
“He said nasty things to him. He thought he was a mage like him and assumed he was the same. What should I do…”
I don’t even know what he thinks or what kind of heart he lives. In fact, he was looking straight at her who had said such harsh things to her.
“At that time, Helena knows without even asking me.”
Belka reached out to her and ran her hand through her hair.
“The bigger a person is, the harder it is to apologize. It’s scary to look weak, and it’s harder to admit that you’re wrong.”
Still, she thinks Helena did something wrong with her, right? Her girlish soft voice seemed to caress her.
“At that time, it’s better to just apologize. Even if you’re a little scared, it won’t hurt as much as passing someone you want to be close to.”
Helena could barely make up her mind. It wasn’t until after hearing Belka’s words that she had the courage to apologize that she felt sorry for herself, but she still went to Krikaliev. I wouldn’t want him to forgive. It’s all up to him If you approach him with that in mind.
“What I want to say to you…”
“It’s just fine. When it’s time, help Nausicana. The kid will collapse like that.”
“Ugh! Help Helena! Uncle Yoff can’t control his strength, so he breaks and eats all the dishes!”
When she came to her senses, she was Helena, who found herself washing her dishes with Nausicaa.
“Thank you.”
“Well. I seem to have only memories of working for money.”
The conversation between Krikaliev and the girl never reached Helena’s ears, drowned out by the chatter.
