Chapter 109 – Chapter 4: Disappearance – 2
As Ruyev warned, no questions were asked that day.
The funny thing is, even though I slept for three months, I still felt drowsy.
As soon as his body was laid down, he lost consciousness.
I couldn’t remember the dream properly.
However, when I woke up, the nostalgic feeling of seeing Tia remained.
There was no breakfast.
As soon as Luev got up, he got ready to go out, and his Marie also put on a hood and wrapped a cloak around her shoulders.
I also received a pair of shabby clothes. He said that it was clothes he brought from the village below in case he woke up one day.
I came out wearing clothes that didn’t fit well and worn-out boots.
The scenery hasn’t changed much. Even the trees in the forest look familiar…
This place really seemed to be some hidden place in Dragonez.
“Follow me.”
Ruyev took the lead, followed by Marie, and finally I followed.
Walking through a pathless forest.
None of us spoke.
Thanks to this, I was able to hear all the sounds coming from the forest.
I already knew that Ruyev is a man of few words.
Marie is quite talkative, but today she was walking quietly with her head down.
“…”
As I was looking at the two blondes walking ahead, I suddenly realized something.
I’ve never gone for a walk with this brother and sister.
Of course, I have never walked side by side with Ruyev at such a close distance.
Marie was so weak that she couldn’t imagine walking outside the house together.
However, there were very rare times when the four of us, ‘Me, Tia, Ruev, and Marie’, went to the lower village to play together.
Even at that time, Ruyev and I didn’t get along well.
I think we instinctively realized from a young age that we were difficult to get along with.
Marie was too young to babble.
The thing that brightened up this awkward atmosphere was…
It was Tia.
Tia was always happy and led her from place to place.
I dealt with these quiet and boring boys.
At the same time, he put Marie, who was whining, on his back and sang her a lullaby.
We couldn’t imagine ourselves without Tia.
Maybe we didn’t talk properly, and I should say it’s a relief if we don’t suddenly start fighting.
That much… Tia was an indispensable being.
Maybe that’s why this moment without Tia felt so empty and awkward.
I think he would appear right next to me right now and smile brightly, saying, ‘Shall I tell you an interesting story?’
Then, we would have watched and listened, saying, ‘I’ll see where I can hear it.’
But what you can hear is the sound of stepping on newly sprouted grass and the chirping of birds.
It is the innocent cry of insects sitting in the dew.
The empty sound of nature pierces my heart.
“Ruyev.”
Ruyev, who was walking ahead, looked back.
Marie also opened her round eyes and looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
Suddenly he couldn’t figure out why he said that.
I just thought that if I didn’t do it now, I wouldn’t have been able to do it in the future.
In the end, this is what happened…
Because I realized that it was all because of me.
That was the best apology I could give to Ruev.
Luyev, who was looking at me, turned his head forward again.
“… Yes.”
Just leaving those words behind.
Walking on the road again.
As if he had forgiven everyone with his apology just now.
Or as if you never wanted an apology from me in the first place.
It just went on without incident.
A familiar path gradually appeared.
When I raised my head, I saw a familiar sign.
I stretched out my hand and felt it.
Although some time had passed, and it had healed, the large knife mark on the tree trunk was undoubtedly the mark left by Tia.
I looked around.
It was there when I was walking through the deep forest with Tia.
I saw a rock.
I remember.
I sat there and Tia asked me to take charge of her medicine shop when I become the village chief.
Then Tia giggled and replied that ‘our baby’ would take care of her pharmacy.
[Hey, what, what, what! What… !]
[Kuhuh. Ah, haha-!]
In fact, it was visible.
The illusion of memory fluttering on the rock.
The illusion of me being embarrassed and Tia laughing and holding her stomach was there.
“…”
I looked away.
And then we passed the rock with our images overlapping it.
Pussyuk-.
Let’s go further down the road that is finally starting to become visible.
A wide hill appeared clearly below.
I pondered the name of the village.
Where the wind stays.
Brisden.
It is my hometown.
There are scattered huts on a quiet hill.
Amidst the bright blue sky.
There is a light layer of fog on the fields cut like stairs.
A village surrounded by steep cliffs.
I should have seen the village like that.
The scene unfolding before me now… It looked completely different.
“Uh… ?”
It’s definitely Brisden. If I recall, even the ridge of the hill and the sharpness of the cliff matched perfectly.
But Aunt Sherry’s house, which was at the highest point of the hill, disappeared.
The stone walls where we could occasionally sit and rest were all torn down, making it impossible to see anything.
What’s more terrible than anything… The fields had all turned pitch black.
I could only look down blankly, not having any idea what had happened.
… Maybe I’m dreaming.
Even those doubts were shattered by Ruyev’s silent voice.
“Let’s go.”
Follow them and go down.
As we started to get closer, we could see the terrible devastation even more clearly.
In the end, I couldn’t bear it anymore and had no choice but to ask Ruev.
“What happened… ?”
“A big fire broke out in the village.”
Houses completely charred and destroyed.
I don’t know where the fire started, but the fire must have been carried by the wind, so there was nothing left at the top of the hill.
“It’s a shame because a snowstorm happened to hit like a miracle. “This entire Dragonez almost burned down.”
“…”
Another fact was revealed in the desolate scene.
In the village… There was no one.
It was as if people had suddenly left, leaving behind only land and houses.
The people standing in Brisden are Ruev, me, and Marie. There were only these three.
Less and less.
Ruyev walked over the collapsed ashes.
Then he squatted down and picked something up from the rubble.
When he blew out the ashes, burned clothes came out.
It was women’s clothing.
And there was only one person wearing that unique iris color.
Marie asked.
“Are these Aunt Ollie’s clothes?”
“Okay.”
Luev laid his clothes back on the ashes.
“… “What happened to everyone?”
“Everyone went somewhere else. “I don’t know where it went.”
“You abandoned this place?”
Brisden was abandoned.
I couldn’t believe it and looked back at the village.
… It was a dead village.
Although it was a bit burnt and tanned. Still, it’s my hometown where nothing has changed.
Since I couldn’t see anyone, I suddenly felt like a bitch.
“I don’t understand.”
“I guess so. Because so many things have happened in the meantime.”
Ruyev looked down at the village with a hollow voice.
“I don’t know exactly what happened either. Only… I heard that the village where you disappeared was out of its mind. In the meantime, a fire broke out for unknown reasons. They also say that for some reason there was a fight and the people were scattered.”
“No way…”
“I don’t know if it’s true or not because I heard everything. “I’m just guessing.”
“…”
It’s confusing.
There was no news more shocking than hearing that my hometown had disappeared in an instant.
It wasn’t just me.
Ruev and Marie also had equally stiff faces.
The two of them may have already known for a long time, but it still didn’t seem easy to tell them this to me.
The next place we moved to was the warehouse.
To be exact… It was ‘a place that used to be a warehouse.’
Ruyev spoke in front of a miserable pile of rubble.
“The fire appears to have started here.”
“In the warehouse?”
“The fire that started here burned down my house and spread to the fields.”
I followed my finger and saw the path.
From the fields back to the hills.
At the end was Aunt Sherry’s house.
“…”
Warehouse management was Tia’s role.
I don’t know if he continued to manage the warehouse after I fell.
I thought that the fact that the fire started here might have something to do with Tia.
I went into the wreckage.
The last time I saw it, a lot of things had been neatly organized, but now everything had burned down and there was nothing left.
“The reason Tia was exiled… Is it related to the fire?”
“I don’t know that. Was it before or after that? We have not yet been able to specify the date when Tia was expelled.”
He didn’t know much either.
Probably because I lived in hiding in the mountains and only heard news occasionally.
Ruyev said as he moved to another place.
“I will look down and come back. “You stay here with Marie.”
I rummaged through the ashes with my feet.
There was no clue.
“…”
I don’t know.
I had no idea what happened while I was gone.
What happened to Tia?
I knew through memory reading that the villagers hated Tia…
Isn’t that a reason for her to be deported?
It was the moment she moved her feet to get out of the warehouse wreckage.
Tuk.
Something caught on her toes.
When I looked closely, there was a particularly shiny object in the ashes.
… And that too in faded gold.
She quickly bent down and picked it up.
It was a gold coin.
As soon as I put it between her fingers and stroked it, I realized it.
This… It was ‘Tia’s gold coin’ that I had cherished.
Haaaaah don’t I not?
“Ugh!”
Her head hurts.
“Oppa Ritz?”
Marie ran straight over and grabbed her arm.
I can hear it.
A sharp voice is heard.
[… No!]
It is visible.
Red hair looking up at a huge flame.
That… Tia?
“Oppa!”
“Huh… ! Ugh!”
Marie’s cry woke me up.
“Where does it hurt?”
“Oh, no. … “I feel tired.”
Could it be that what I just saw was an illusion of memory?
It seemed like that.
Because ominous memories were pouring out of the gold coin I was holding in my palm.
Here was the answer.
It contained everything that had happened in Brisden in the meantime.
Then…
“Marie.”
“Yes?”
“Wait for a sec… “Let me rest for a moment.”
With Mari’s weak support, they moved to a remote place.
She leaned against the fence that had not yet fallen and clutched her gold coins tightly.
At the same time, her memories started pouring out.
* * *
Hwaaaaah-!!
Day and night return dozens of times.
She closed her eyes for a moment out of dizziness and then opened them.
“Oh my god…”
“Unbelievable…”
One day, evening in Brisden.
The sound of crying was heard along with sighing.
The villagers gathered in a circle and were looking at something on the floor.
I got up from the fence and approached there.
Then I squeezed between people’s shoulders and looked down.
“… !”
That… It was ‘me’ covered in blood.
