Chapter 109 – Episode 108. Way Back (2)
No eggs
She turned off the stove, glad she didn’t pour her soup into her pot.
Still, I can’t eat ramen without eggs.
Nutritionally, ramen must contain eggs.
There is no scientific basis for her, but for her it is.
Anyway, if that’s the case.
So she turned off her light and went back to her room and grabbed her purse.
Even if you just go to the mart in front of your house, they sell eggs, so you just need to buy eggs quickly and come in.
Not difficult.
Still, it’s not easy for her.
As soon as I stepped out the door, the bright sunlight came in.
Her own room was a place where there was not much sunlight because of the ring, so she doesn’t have much trouble staying there, but the story is a little different when she goes out like this.
The sun was quite stinging, probably because the season had already entered summer, and I could feel the heat little by little through the sweatpants I was wearing.
There is a convenience store right in front of the house.
After staring at the convenience store for a while, she put her mouth shut and passed hers.
There is a mart within a short walk.
If you buy eggs at a mart, they’re quite cheap, but if you buy them at a convenience store, you have to pay quite a bit more for a few eggs instead of just one.
As her circumstances were not so generous, she had no choice.
Even though she was wearing her hat down, she could feel people’s attention because of this silver hair flowing through it.
To be honest, I might get used to it now, but it wasn’t easy.
People’s gazes that seem to touch your skin are stinging.
“Gye, calculation.”
As soon as she entered the mart, she picked up a plate of eggs.
I handed over the crumpled 5,000 won bill from her pocket, and received her change.
This series of actions itself is so awkward and difficult.
She is the one who has difficulty dealing with people.
Carrying the eggs she bought like that, she left the mart.
She walks carefully down the stairs of the mart, teases her to step back, and now she goes home.
The broad daylight when her bright sunlight shines on her.
The hardest time for her.
– Asti!
‘Huh… ?’
A loud voice came from somewhere.
‘Asti, Asti?’
Looking around her, no one seemed to care.
Only she was looking around her.
– Asti, wake up!
‘Again, again… ?’
It was clearly audible this time.
A clear and clear voice, if you dare to compare it, like spring water without any noise.
Even though the voice came through clearly and very clearly, no one around me cared.
Rather, people who look around her and watch her as if it’s more strange.
She flinched at the sight of those people and pulled her hat down deeply.
Her face flushed with embarrassment.
I don’t know, but it’s sure to be red hot.
Since her skin is pure white, it shows off too much when she blushes.
Speaking of which, when I was in school, my nickname was Strawberry Bingsu… No no.
‘A useless thought… ‘
She shook her head vigorously.
Holding dearly the egg she had bought for a fortune, she hurriedly moved her steps towards her house.
– Asti! Asti!
The voice came again, but she decided not to mind.
*
“Asti, Asti!”
Leopold, half-mad, violently shook Astrid, who had been lying long in the coach cabin.
“Your Highness, fix it. You can’t shake the wounded like this.”
“Geez, Sir Zigmund. What the hell is this all about?!”
Even if he asked such a question, even Sigmund would not know.
Now, if you go a little further, it is said that it is the residence of Grand Duke Mitterien.
Leopold, who had a hearty smile on his lips as he imagined Astrid surprised as soon as he met him, saying that he had finally arrived, asked the attendant, puzzled by the carriage that suddenly stopped slowly.
“What is it?”
“It says that someone has collapsed in front of you. Now the escorts have gone to check, so if you can wait… “
The servant’s words were not yet finished.
It was because the carriage door slammed open with a violent slam, and Zigmund, with a puzzled face, pushed Leopold halfway into the carriage.
“Your Highness, it looks like you should come over here!”
“What is it?”
Leopold is also not comfortable with planting.
I have to go quickly.
I want to see Astrid’s startled face, but to not only waste time in a place like this, but also come here.
What a waste of time indeed—
“If I remember correctly, the one lying down is Lady Mitterien… !”
At those words, Leopold’s face hardened.
It was actually Astrid.
Leopold watched that scene and saw that it hurt even if he pinched his cheek, so this was unmistakably reality.
“Oh, Asti. What the heck is this… “
It was none other than Astrid who had collapsed on the way to the Archduke Mitterien, where Leopold was heading.
I don’t know what happened, but Astrid is lying unconscious with her bare hands and even with the combat uniform of the Grand Duchess of Mitterien seriously damaged, with her beloved sword gone somewhere, as if a fierce battle had taken place.
As soon as he had taken care of her, Leopold emptied the seat in her carriage where I was sitting and laid Astrid there.
Even though she was tall for a woman, there was enough space for a woman to lie down in the audience.
“Asti, Asti! Wake up! Asti!”
“Your Highness, calm down!”
“Leave this! Have you calmed down now?!”
Leopold didn’t care at all, even though his radiant blonde hair was messed up.
Even more than that head, Astrid, who was now collapsing in front of her eyes, was much more serious.
Astrid’s pure white face remains the same, but she is unable to come to her senses and closes her eyes tightly, unable to regain consciousness.
“Quickly, go to the residence of Grand Duke Mitterien. Hurry!”
Judging that Leopold was not in command, Sigmund hurriedly gave instructions to his attendant, and soon the carriage made a rattling noise and started off.
Astrid, who had been lying on her seat in the wind, lost her balance and was about to slide down and fall under her, and Leopold quickly took her into her arms.
Light.
It was light.
Was it that light?
It’s not like I’ve never held him in his arms before, but I didn’t know it would be so light.
“Asti… !”
Leopold screamed as he held her, holding her face in her arms.
Cried without sound.
He ran so fast, but I don’t know what the hell happened.
He should have come sooner.
He didn’t even need to ask for permission, he should have come with Astrid when he said he was going.
At least, if that was the case, her beloved Astrid wouldn’t have been down like that.
Regretting that it was already too late, Leopold cried out in silence.
On that day, Archduke Mitterien was turned upside down.
There was a notice, but the appearance of the crown prince, and Astrid who appeared with the crown prince.
And the fact that Astrid appeared unconscious in the arms of the crown prince made the Archduke Mitterien suddenly turn over.
“I don’t know what the hell this is about, Your Highness.”
Since it was a gathering of several ministers, including Bai Zick, Wolfgang could not treat Leopold as his nephew.
“Tell me in detail, Grand Duke. What the hell happened.”
A drawing room with a wood-burning fireplace in between.
Refreshments and tea were placed on the splendid table, but it had already cooled down a long time ago.
No one even touched the teacup.
In the first place, the car wasn’t even important.
“—So, Asti disappeared. And while we continue our search, we’ve also instructed our family’s converted shaman to investigate the talisman fragment.”
“Are the results out? And, why was Asti, who disappeared there, found on the way to the palace of the Grand Duke?”
“I don’t know that, Your Highness. It was something we couldn’t even imagine.”
“Ha… “
When I close my eyes, Asti’s closed eyes come to mind.
When she sighs, you can feel Asti’s even breathing.
When she opens her mouth, it seems that only Asti’s name will be called.
“I am… We should have followed together. If I had been with her, she would be so helpless… “
“Don’t talk like that, Your Highness. Even if Your Highness had come, it would not have been possible to stop it.”
“Aren’t you the grand duke’s daughter? It’s not easy to talk about Asti’s work… “
Leopold stopped talking.
His eyes are on Wolfgang’s fist.
Undefeated beyond countless battlefields, a veteran veteran who never suffered a single defeat.
Wolfgang von Mitterien’s scarred fists were clenched tightly, his shivering.
Leopold chewed up the words that followed and swallowed them.
For him, it is the work of his fiancee and the woman he loves, but for Wolfgang, it is the work of his own daughter.
Wolfgang must have been more upset and frustrated than Leopold.
There is no need to criticize him like this.
I couldn’t even do that.
Leopold shut his mouth.
I could feel the fishy smell of blood between my tightly bitten lips.
‘Asti… !’
*
“No, what the hell… Who is Asti… “
While looking at the cracked screen of her smartphone, she burst into irritation at the voice of a man named Asti, whom she could hear whenever she could forget it.
At least in this self-made room, she is also at ease with her emotions.
Because it’s her own space, where no one else is.
‘… It’s a name that sounds familiar, though… It’s strange.’
Asti, Asti.
It was a familiar name that, no matter how many times I mumbled it, subtly stuck to my lips.
