Chapter 134 – Master of Reunion (4)
Dana and I stood next to each other and walked down the street.
“Sargadis is quiet.”
Dana looked ahead and said. To Dana, who is familiar with Einhir, it must be because the streets of Sargadis are quiet at night.
“Compared to a trading city, it is. I like this place better when taking a walk at night.”
This was common in cities with low floating population. At my words, Dana only nodded her head. I followed Dana to the place where the research center was and matched my stride.
‘As expected, I didn’t find an inn.’
I don’t know if anyone is overly self-conscious, but Dana didn’t even get to the inn because she used the pretext of field trips to meet me early.
‘… Roughly 30 days since I left college.’
From the time I finish my thesis here, until it arrives at Einhir, where Carmine University is located, it will take roughly 20 days.
That being said Dana has fallen out with me and she puts in her application for transfer to the head of the lab in 2-3 weeks, which makes sense.
Excluding the time she waited for her doctorate degree——in just a few days.
When the time without words became a little less awkward, Dana said.
“Do you remember the day we first met?”
“How can I forget? It was the first time I saw women’s underwear other than my mother’s.”
“Pu-huh.”
Dana laughed like she was having fun. At that time, her face turned into a tomato and she tried to die, but as time passed, she could use it as a joke.
“I thought you came to get your professor’s underwear. How could you imagine that a young person would put lace panties in the laundry shared by slaves?”
“It’s a good thing I noticed it before it got caught on the clothesline. One pair of panties was empty in the underwear drawer. I was going to forget it, but didn’t the slave I met then suddenly appear in the lab wearing a researcher’s clothes? Am I not caring about you?”
“That’s what you do for yourself. I did that to secretly poison you and kill you.”
“Really? Shit, come to think of it, you were in charge of picking up the car. Was that the reason?”
“You ask something obvious. Didn’t I strain the tea leaves through a sieve for the first month? What do you think you rode?”
“Crazy. How do you put it in the tea we all eat together?”
Dana only raised the corners of her mouth. The gap was felt in her, and the way she dressed in a different way blended with her usual smile, so it melted into her personality.
“Ah. Was that why we made eye contact a lot? Look around, look around, look around like a wild horse grazing in the meadow. You’ve been very busy.”
“In my hometown, there is a general who valued a famous horse higher than a beautiful woman. By the same reason, why don’t you think that I, a wild horse, are worth more than a handsome man?”
“Haha. Yes. It. Talk about your hometown, I miss that too. When I was in college, there were times when I went to work just to enjoy listening to it.”
Dana let out her breath as if trying to breathe on her.
─Whoa.
The autumn weather wasn’t that cold, so Dana’s breath turned into a sigh. No, maybe she was a deep sigh from the beginning.
“Hey. Did I tell you about my hometown?”
“No, not even once. She even asked, and it got chewed up.”
“I’m sorry about that. I’ve never told anyone other than you at the university.”
Dana fidgeted with her own hand and pressed it against her shoulder. The white nape of her neck burned red.
“I am just like you.”
“What?”
“Thesis system. That earned her a master’s degree.”
“… Were you a foreigner?”
I was a foreigner, let alone a foreigner, but I couldn’t help but be surprised. She sucks. I thought she was born in Britannia. The accent is also completely this way.
“I came to Britannia when I was 12 years old. When she was young, in her hometown, she was of the priestly class ── the Druids, if you have to insist.”
“Druid? Of Ulster?”
“Yes. It’s a collateral, so it’s quite different from Ulster.”
Those words made me see Dana’s purple hair again.
A distinctive feature of Ulsterians is their red hair. Purple is a combination of red in hue, so Dana’s hair color might have originated from that.
“I mean, I was rumored to be a genius even in my hometown? I finished what took 10 years to learn in 3 years. Although I left her hometown before I learned the other half.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Just? Back home, asking ‘why?’ Is not allowed.”
Dana looked up at the constellations in the night sky.
“They say knowledge should be passed on word by word, not written down. When I asked why, he gave up his soul. Other than that, whenever I felt curious about something else, all I said was don’t doubt and learn.”
“Even if it is a collateral, Ulster is Ulster. Oh, I don’t mean it badly.”
“It’s okay to curse at me because you think I’m bad. If I thought it was good, I would have stayed there and predicted the weather before dying of old age.”
Those words made me look up at the sky. Because reading the weather in a primitive society has that much meaning.
“I found it funny after going abroad and learning a language I didn’t know. Druids are called priests of Ulster, but I haven’t learned what god they worship. Nobody knew about it back home.”
“It was only through words, so it has to be.”
I answered. In fact, Ulster is not alone. Here in Britannia, there were few local gods that were worshiped.
As can be seen from the fact that the followers of Romania or Germania established a church, there was no country of ancient civilization—presumed to be one—Britania did not have a main deity from the age of mythology.
Or did it exist and then disappear? Dana looked at me and said.
“There is this fable in my hometown. A raccoon buried in the ground is said to have one of two endings. They say it becomes a tree root or a mole.”
“Extreme.”
“Right? If I had remained in my hometown without satisfying my curiosity, I would have become a root and nailed it. I spent a childhood where no one answered my curiosity, but when I first learned how to solve a question, I couldn’t help but become a scholar.”
After talking and walking, I began to see the Archaeological Institute.
The carpenters seemed to have scattered to the bar, and the building among the abandoned construction looked like an abandoned abandoned house.
“So every time I talked to you, it was fun.”
Dana and the back of her hand grazed. But we couldn’t catch or avoid it. I just waited for an answer, feeling the touch of my hand in time with the rhythm of my walk.
“Isn’t it? What you said was something no one knew. Isn’t it like this in my hometown, while exchanging strange expressions with foreign words?
He has the ability to do that, he has a fun personality, and he has a good social life.
Did I inadvertently say something I learned from you in a place where you weren’t there, and then I got a bit of an asshole? It really seemed like something was contaminated with you.”
“I am a man with an impact.”
“You’re very nice.”
Dana grinned and sprinted to her feet. As she stepped forward, she turned to me and she shouted.
“Yeah fuck! That’s why! Your empty seat is so big! If the other research students leave one by one in the lab room without you, there won’t be anyone who will fit in with what I’ve heard and learned from you!”
─Buck buck buck! Dana ran one hand through her neatly arranged hair.
“If you curse without thinking and do stupid things, they tease you as an idiot, and if you annoy you at a drinking party, throw beans at them, there is no one like that! Someone else is sitting at the desk you used to sit at!
You said you were throwing away the scribbles you scribbled while you were working, so you took them and hid them in my diary! Your inkwell, which you used to use neatly, is covered with ink, and I hate picking it up!
No matter how much tea I drink, I can’t taste you! You didn’t even teach me the tea leaf blending ratio you used to make!!”
Angrily, Dana squeezed her breasts. Her tears did not shed, but her throat sank as if blocked.
“You know what pisses me off the most?! Even after being with you for 3 years, I didn’t even know that I liked you this much until yesterday!! I didn’t know that alcohol I didn’t drink with you was so tasteless!!”
“… Dana.”
“Shut up. Shut up and listen.”
As I approached, Dana punched me in the chest indignantly. There was no power in her at all.
“I feel like I’m going to get sucked into the hole you left in the same lab room as a month ago and disappear, but I don’t even know why. I found Sargadis on the transfer list and her heart raced, but I didn’t even think about why…”
─Tuk, tok. Dana lowered her hand and rested her forehead on my chest.
“If it hadn’t been like this, I wouldn’t have been able to speak for the rest of my life. Fuck, fuck… I’m 3 years, but the kid you like is only 30 days. Does this make sense?
If I hadn’t done something stupid, I could have confessed to you a long time ago. In the past 3 years, I have lost all opportunities, so who can I blame for that?
I said it was because I was an idiot, but who would I blame and who would I hate…”
I patted Dana’s back in her arms. Dana held her clothes in her hand and sniffed at her.
“I’m angry and pathetic… If you were by my side, I wouldn’t have noticed that I liked you even after 30 years, let alone 3 years.”
I couldn’t say sorry for not noticing.
It wouldn’t have been of any use if I had noticed Dana’s feelings first.
So, all I can say is the obvious.
“… It was hard. I could have done better.”
“Quit. I don’t even deserve to be comforted by you. Guess what you did wrong It’s all my fault. What kind of scholar is this bitch who doesn’t even know how to feel?”
“Don’t self-torture. It’s not even your fault.”
“Then what… ? Are you saying you weren’t lucky? I hate that. I’d rather make mistakes because I’m an idiot.”
─Sigh. Dana, who wiped her nose with her sleeve, turned away from me as if trying to hide her messed up face. She then took out her keys.
“Sorry, I got angry. That’s ugly. I’m really sorry for the blurry look. All I want to say is this Now go back and stay with her wife. I have nothing more to say.”
“Wait.”
─Tup! I grabbed Dana’s shoulder as she tried to turn around. Dana hastily covers her surprised eyes. I forcibly removed my hand. In terms of strength, it might not be as good as mine, but Dana’s hand went down helplessly.
I said, carefully wiping Dana’s tears.
“If you have something to say, it’s left to me.”
No, the word “Left” Is absurd.
A conversation is not something that one person pours out and ends.
Our candid conversation was just the beginning.
***
“——Come in.”
Dana put me in a room where her stuff wasn’t even unpacked.
It was a simple space with only a bed and a bag. Wouldn’t it be worse than staying at an inn to eat and sleep here?
However, the room was pretty clean. There was also a sweet smell. It was the smell of the aroma mixed with the woman’s body odor. I rolled my eyes and saw a burnt scented candle on the table.
“… So, what are you talking about?”
Dana sniffled and asked after washing her face with the water she had provided. After squeezing her bloodshot eyes with a towel, she sat down on the bed.
I drank the water Dana gave me. He quenched his thirst in the dry air and spoke.
“Dana. Do you remember what I said about my dreams?
“Dream? Oh, yes.”
“I wasn’t lying, but I cleverly hid the real reason. It was a story that others heard was either absurd or misused.”
“… If you intend to tell me, don’t.”
Dana bit her lip and averted her eyes.
“Only talk to someone you trust, idiot. I can’t even stay by your side all the time, so what do you do with that?”
“I won’t tell you. Unless you wish.”
“… I?”
She walked towards Dana, who didn’t understand what she meant. Dana opened her eyes wide.
“My dreams are foolish. Everyone would say that if you know the truth, you’d better give up and find out how to live well here. So I tried not to see you as a member of the opposite sex.
I was less prepared to do that because if I picked and searched, I would leave my family who loved me ‘in either world’.”
“Hey, hey! Wait a minute! Face! Close face!”
Dana pressed against her wall and pushed my chest in despair. Seriously, it was a lot stronger than I thought. ─Kuuuuuk!! I endured until I raised my mana.
He grabbed Dana’s shoulder tightly.
“I have never loved you, but I have never not liked you. You weren’t the only one who had fun when we were together.”
“Oh… !!”
“By the way, are you going to finish this and go back? The next time we meet again, avoiding our eyes and talking awkwardly with you, leaving only regrets in our hearts for the rest of our lives?”
This is my selfishness
It was literally ON in a different world.
A fire blazed in my eyes. Fucking here, ‘Oh, that’s right. Goodbye,” The kid who goes back thinks it’s okay to remove the pepper and live. Nine out of ten, you’ll never have anything to write about in your life.
‘Yes. Fuck, come to think of it, I was an asshole.’
Why did you think in terms of the 21st century while trying to organize a harem!
Did he intend to take her second and third wives, leaving that cute Franc without any intention of swearing at her?
Was what I wanted the praise of people with a sense of ethics?
No!! Not like that!!
After hearing this, if I trudged back like an idiot, I, Fran and Dana would have to end it with a disgusting and depressing aftertaste!!
Then even if I become a fucking romper, I have to act as a forager here!!!
What a forager in another world!!
Because you are a forager following the laws of another world!!!!
“Dana. I made up my mind. Now it’s up to you to choose.”
“Uh, huh?”
Dana, who grabbed his hands, wrung his neck, receiving my gaze. I spoke as if declaring without asking Dana whether or not she had one.
“──If you don’t like it, avoid it.”
I put my lips on Dana’s lips.
Dana did not escape.
