Chapter 122 – Chapter 4: Two Steps
What Posao brought was a stew full of pork.
It was a poor dish. There are no spices in it, so it has a foul smell and white oil chunks are floating around. It was raw, as if only pork had been boiled in water.
Tia took the stew bowl and looked down.
An expressionless face was reflected on the oil drop.
“… Uncle.”
“Huh?”
An empty voice rang out.
“What should I have done?”
“…”
“How should… Everyone is… “Would it have been possible to come back?”
It was a vague question.
Who can answer?
If Tia hadn’t taken me to the deep forest, wouldn’t it have ended up like this?
She wouldn’t have met Po Sao if she hadn’t gone with the tribute. We would have been able to avoid a surprise attack by bandits…
Would the results have been different?
I don’t know.
I swear no one will know.
Maybe if there were gods watching over us, they might have answered like this.
‘Tia should have done better.’
Don’t do things out of a sense of needless adventure, be constantly suspicious of Posao, give all your devotion to me, listen to Ruyev’s words, and drive out Posao… I may have said something close to the correct answer.
Even I, who knew the truth, would have answered that way.
Tia. You were wrong.
Unless you know who the culprit is, nothing is of any use.
But…
Posao’s answer was different.
“T, Tia! I am… “I think Tia did her best!”
The guy stutters his answer.
“My, I saw it! Really Tia… She did her best. Ji… Sincerely.”
“…”
“So, T-Tia’s fault… “No.”
Posao spoke profusely to Tia, who lifted her glazed eyes.
“Lina… Lord, you told me before you died. Long time… Live long. After hearing Lina’s will… Oh, I decided to live a long, long life. So… Tia too! “I hope you stay strong and live for a long time.”
“…”
The red eyes shook.
The girl lowered her head.
“… It’s the same.”
“What?”
“Us.” Same… You’re in a bad situation. A situation abandoned by the world.”
“Oh, no!”
Posao waved his hand excitedly.
“Well, you’ve been abandoned! “I don’t know, but it’s not Tia!”
Boom.
A thick fist confidently hit her chest.
“Because I didn’t abandon Tia! T-Tia wasn’t abandoned!”
“…”
I didn’t throw it away.
At those words, the eyes that were shining red like rubies gradually began to blur.
Her eyes became moist as if she was about to cry, but for some reason, a faint smile appeared on her lips.
I could see what that expression meant.
When he is very happy… Because when I was so happy that I couldn’t express it in words, I showed those sad eyes and smile.
Tia wiped her eyes.
“… I feel stupid.”
“Naaah-. I’m sorry… Before I knew it, I got excited…”
“No.”
I see.
Anyone could say, ‘It’s your fault.’
Tia struggled hard to somehow escape her heavy guilt.
But now Tia is exhausted both physically and mentally… She needed someone to stop her.
I didn’t want to hear Tia berated while listing her sins one by one.
‘I did my best, let’s stop now’…
I wanted to hear that one word of comfort.
In the end, Tia is just an innocent girl from a mountain village.
No matter how intelligent and stubborn she may be. This means that he is not a hero who can lead everyone to a ‘happy ending’ with superhuman intelligence and strength.
In front of a man who was lazy, fat, and even stuttered, and was no different from my father.
She was just a helpless girl who burst into tears after hearing what she had longed to hear.
Dalgak.
Her trembling fingers lifted her spoon.
She put her fat floating stew into her mouth and swallowed it.
Gulp.
Because Tia is a picky eater. I thought I would spit out such a tasteless stew.
But.
Rattling. Rattling.
It seems that the tongue, which had been starving for a long time, was in no position to mask the taste.
He hurriedly scoops up a spoon and digs into a chunk of her meat. She buried her head and emptied at a rapid pace.
I feel so guilty. Because I hate myself so much.
She was Tia who refused to eat.
However, just as it proves that people need to eat to live…
Tia filled her life and her heart that had been drying up.
Chin.
She put down the empty bowl.
Tia wiped her mouth with her sleeve.
Her face looked much more lively than before.
“… Uncle.”
“Huh?”
“I want to walk a little.”
Tia got off the bed with Posao’s support.
His skinny legs seemed difficult to take even a single step.
I walk little by little.
As she walked little by little, supporting Po Sao’s heavy and huge body, she was still able to move forward.
Finally, the two reached the stairs.
Posao held out his hand.
“Now, let’s catch it… ? You might fall… Let’s see.”
It felt somewhat familiar.
I wondered why that was like that. She soon came to mind
It was the slope during a storm in the Charrak Mountains.
At that time, Posao also asked the same question and held out his hand to Tia.
The answer at the time was, of course, ‘no.’
But.
… As a long time has passed, the answer has changed.
“Yes.”
Tak.
Hold Posao’s hand.
I walked down the stairs, one step at a time, holding on tightly in case I fell.
The moment I carefully went down. I lost strength in my legs.
“Oh!”
“-Oh my!”
Immediately pulling Tia’s arm, Posao supported his buttocks.
“Dog, Ganchana?”
“… Yes. Thanks to you.”
“Do it again, let’s do it again.”
Tia got up from her knees and went down the stairs, almost in a hug.
When the thin and pretty toes reach the first floor.
Tia smiled brightly.
“… “I came down.”
“Hihi! Sue, good job. Tia.”
Posao said, stroking the back of the girl’s pale hand that was held in his hand.
“Yes, it reminds me of the old days. Learning noble etiquette… “Tia taught me how to walk.”
“… “It was like that.”
“But now it’s the opposite, right? Ugh.”
My ears turned red.
Tia nodded her head shyly.
“I see…”
“Shall we go a little further?”
“Yes.”
The two started walking around the general store, matching their steps again.
The steps continued for a long time.
* * *
“Oh, it’s cold!”
It was about time to fall asleep.
Posao, who was on the first floor, opened the door to the second floor, trembling.
Tia, who had been lying quietly, got up from her seat.
“… Uncle?”
“I guess it snowed too much earlier…” .”
Posao stammered and explained the situation.
It is said that the chimney of the first floor furnace was clogged due to the heavy snow that fell the day before yesterday.
Normally, when hot smoke rises, the snow should melt, but as Tia made the medicine, the soot became sticky, so the smoke flowed back, and it became impossible to put out the fire.
In order to clean the chimney, we need to bring in a technician from the village below, but now it is too late to go down.
“Okay, I’ll just warm up for a moment and then go down. Sorry…”
“No.”
Tia pointed to her side.
“And then I catch a cold. He also sleeps next to the furnace.”
“Neaa? Me, really? Is that okay?”
“It’s my fault too. And this is originally your room…”
“Heehee! Well, then…”
So it was decided that we would sleep on the second floor together.
Posao took out a sleeping bag from the storage room and came up.
Then he laid it out next to the bed and lay down.
“Hehe. So again… Yes, it reminds me of the old days. “How about Tia?”
Tia said with her eyes closed.
“You and I always slept like this.”
“Yeah, right?”
“So I don’t have any thoughts… Rather, I couldn’t understand why he was so stubborn about sleeping on the first floor.”
Posao’s eyes widened.
“That means… Wife, are you saying it’s okay to sleep next to Tia from the beginning?”
“Yes.”
“Naaah-! Well, but… Tia was always uncomfortable. Me… The sound of my snoring is loud…”
“It’s been a long time since I got used to it.”
Tia sighed and spoke softly.
“If I still couldn’t sleep because of the sound of your snoring, I would have already died of insomnia.”
“Naaah-!”
“I’ve been having a hard time sleeping these days.”
Tia’s pure white cheeks were briefly reflected in the crackling fire.
“In the old days, rabbits were sensitive enough to wake up from the slightest sound of stepping on leaves. “I can’t hear anything now.”
“Because of me?”
“Should I say ‘because’… I think it’s ‘thanks’.”
“Thanks?”
“Yes. “I was able to sleep soundly without any worries.”
Tia looked at the window and said blankly.
“… Now, no one comes to see me in the middle of the night.”
“…”
“Instead, the night might get a little dangerous. “You won’t even hear the animal coming.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Posao said in a serious voice.
“Me… The snoring sound is similar to that of a bear. “No beast has ever come.”
“Ah… “It definitely seems like that.”
Hehe!”
“Then it’ll be okay now, but… “What about when I’m alone?”
“It’s okay if you’re not alone!”
“Yes?”
“I’ll keep going, let’s stay together!”
Tia’s eyes blinked in the darkness.
“… Mister. “You know I’m saying something stupid again, right?”
“Wow, what an idiot. Ji… I’m serious!”
“What if I go far?”
“I’ll follow you!”
“Even if I go really far?”
“Yes! Ta, I’ll follow you!”
“Very far… Even if I go to the land of flowers, will you still come?”
“… Oh, the land of flowers? I don’t know where it is… Anyway, I’ll go!”
“Ahaha!”
Tia giggled under the blanket.
After laughing for a while, she stuck her head out and spoke.
“It’s just something I tried. Anyway… “Now I have nowhere to go.”
“Yes…”
“I can’t believe we’ll continue to be together. It’s really stupid, but… But what… It’s not bad…”
The conversation ended there.
This was because Tia, who had been sleepy, had suddenly fallen into a deep sleep.
It’s easy.
Is she having a good dream for the first time in a long time?
The guy was smiling.
