Chapter 57 – Orphaned Baby Bird (2)
I wasn’t sure yet. In hindsight, it was just a hasty conclusion. There was, however, a remote possibility that she might be Lena’s hidden sister.
But if my conclusions are correct, there are quite a few questions to be answered. Why are they pulling large wagons in this day and age? Why did he visit Erica, whose face was known to the outside world, and only talk to me?
Why were you so kind to us?
In addition, looking back, they pretended to ask about the whereabouts of their children and subtly asked questions to figure out Roseria’s well-being. If she is Roseria’s older sister, the purpose of this series of processes is clear.
She must be aiming for the elf’s mark that Roselia might have brought.
Since Duke Anbert left with his son, the rest of his children would have been put in the same situation as Rogeria. They are given two options. Either die quietly, or struggle somehow. According to my guess, that woman must be one of Roseria’s sisters who tainted the latter.
…
If that’s really the case, I think we know who Rozeria looks like.
No. Is it accurate to say that it is family history?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
As she was lost in her thoughts, she asked in a sharp voice. I shrugged her shoulders and answered calmly.
“It’s just. I’m tired. Anyway, what are you going to do now? We don’t know Lena’s whereabouts either.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Are you coming with us?”
“Then what am I going to do here alone?”
Even the sharp tone felt very similar to Roseria’s. The doubt, once raised, continued to bite her tail. As I was spinning thoughts in her head, I suddenly pointed to her bandage and asked.
“Did you get hit by a dragon?”
“You’re being rude.”
“Sorry, but I was curious.”
“Should I bring up the nightmare I had just a while ago?”
“…It must have been a while ago. Yes.”
I nodded her head meaningfully and she made a grunting noise.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“No. Nothing.”
“It’s nothing…”
She glared at me, reacting extraordinarily sensitively to her bandages. He was almost ready to chew and spit out curses. But before she could raise her voice again, the door opened behind her and Rebecca walked out.
“You were already awake.”
“Miss Rebecca.”
“Looks like they were having a conversation. Good morning. That…Was Lena’s older sister. I don’t know her name yet. May I ask?”
“…”
At Mr. Rebecca’s polite request, she turned her head and walked away from her. It was a cold reaction, but Rebecca only looked at her back with a nonchalant expression.
“You’re a cold person.”
“Iknow, right.”
“Rather than that, it’s a pretty good day to move. The temperature is warmer than I thought. It’s normal for the ground to be frozen around this time of year, but the soil is very soft.”
“Is it the dragon’s influence?”
“It looks like geothermal heat is rising. It’s definitely not normal weather.”
I watched Rebecca poking the ground with her shoe and thought of her. Then he slowly called her name.
“Miss Rebecca.”
“Why.”
“Do you know how to drive a carriage?”
“Uh…You’re going to pull the wagon over there?”
“Because I’m sorry if I get help anyway. You said you’d have to use two wagons anyway. I’ll let you drive one.”
“But… It’s not easy to handle horses.”
“I have a lot of experience. There’s not much you can do when you’re a veteran. I worked as a coachman for a while before being recommended as a security guard.”
“That…”
At our sudden proposal, Miya’s aunt looked at her husband with her puzzled eyes. But he shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing.
“Well, it doesn’t matter if you can do it there. Father Aaron. Isn’t it rather good for you?”
“…I have no reason to object to reducing my work.”
“It’s decided. Then you can take the kids and ride in the carriage. Isn’t that right, honey?”
“That’s…Yes. Do the others agree? Camilla’s mother?”
“…”
Different reactions came out in the sudden situation. Some are embarrassed, some are ignored. Someone just shrugged. In the meantime, only the Amon horses were throwing ominous glances at them while fighting. He couldn’t have understood our story, but he seemed to sense something sinister.
However, it was a proposal with no apparent reason to oppose it. So, in the end, signs of agreement poured in.
“Everyone does it if they’re comfortable with it. It doesn’t matter too much.”
“I didn’t know my way home would be so noisy. Follow me.”
“If you have any complaints, go alone. After all, you don’t even need to follow him, but campaigning.”
“What now?”
“Stop it. Stop it, honey. When it’s decided, let’s each get into the carriage.”
“Yes. Then…”
“…But the student president wants you to ride this carriage. I still have a lot to ask you. Is that okay?”
“Yes?”
Just as he was about to get on the carriage after the situation was over, another proposal popped up out of the blue. Erica was very flustered and shook her head gently.
“Uh… I…”
“I know it’s good to be with peers, but there are so many things I want to hear. There’s nothing to do while I’m gone anyway, right?”
“So…Then… Is that so…?”
Erica turned her head to look at me, but she was already holding her arm by her side. I thought about it for a bit, then nodded her head.
“I see. There must be a lot of things you want to hear.”
“Thank you. For understanding.”
“But if that happens, it seems that the number of people there will increase somewhat. Then, Lena-sister, please get in our carriage. I know the story about Lena better.”
“Yes? That’s…”
“…Yes. I think so.”
This time, her backlash was about to come out, but she was scratched out first before she could. She shot her sharp eyes at me through the bandages.
“I have a lot of things I want to hear too.”
“…”
“Okay…Then it’s decided. Let’s go that way.”
“Yes it is.”
We nodded and looked into each other’s eyes. Everyone except Haru’s eyes were intertwined and struggled to uncover the other person’s hidden strategy. However, it was close to impossible to understand someone’s thoughts with only their eyes.
In the end, no further proposals came out, and we started getting into our separate wagons. Miss Rebecca. Day. Buy And the mysterious bandage woman. After confirming that they were riding in turn, I raised my feet.
But then someone came up behind me. When I turned my head, the man who was said to be Miya’s uncle was frowning.
“…My wife keeps telling me to ride here. Rebecca over there… Help her out.”
“I don’t need any help.”
“Little boy. It’s the same for me as a nuisance. It’s my wife who wants to help you, not me. But what should I do when they ask me to do that? I have to be a good husband even right before I perish.”
“…”
“Damn, why am I telling you this? I’ll go to the front then.”
He grumbled and walked towards Mr. Rebecca’s coachman’s cab. His thoughts were complicated by another unexpected situation, but he was not taken aback. Anyway, what we were going to do was decided.
After making their choices, the wagon slowly moved forward. And soon, with a spur, he began to run as hard as he could toward the world that was about to be destroyed.
However, the run was a little more awkward than yesterday. As if it wasn’t just my mood, I heard a low conversation from the driver’s seat.
“…The horses are getting nervous. That’s not a good sign.”
“Okay.”
“Looking at it earlier, the ground was a bit too soft. It’s like it was placed on a pot and heated.”
“It might be the influence of that dragon at that time.”
“…Shit.”
At the word dragon, he flinched lightly and spat out swear words. And it was the same with the bandaged woman. As if the word was embedded in some kind of trauma, I couldn’t hide my anxiety and touched my collar.
I looked at him and calmed down my voice. And he spoke her insinuatingly to her.
“She said Lynn. That’s a pretty name.”
“…”
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand why Lena never talked about her sister. Did they get along so badly?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“I was just curious. You didn’t ask anything about Lena either.”
“Because you’ll only hear bad things anyway. I don’t like that anymore.”
“Is that so.”
The uneasy conversation was mercilessly cut off by her sharp attitude. But then she yawned for the rest of the day, then spoke in her characteristic playful voice.
“Hmm. This is Lena-san’s older sister. It’s her face, I don’t know, and her voice doesn’t resemble her at all. Is it her older sister?”
“She’s that’s because her neck is burned. Is she kidding me now?”
“Ah what. Comrades. Nice to meet you. I also have a lot to say about burns.”
Haru grinned and slightly lowered the blindfold that was covering his eyes. Small burn marks were noticeable today.
“I know very well how it feels. It must have been very painful. Of all the pains a person can feel, burning pain is the worst.”
“Okay. Okay, would you like to stop? I don’t want to hear it.”
“…So I know how painful it can be to talk when you get a burn on your neck. You talk really well for that. Strangely enough.”
“…”
“To be honest, it sounds like a made-up voice. I know it because I’ve used it a lot to my mother. I even scratched her voice and begged her to stop, and then she put her iron down.”
At her sharp point, she shut her mouth. Her hostile gaze turned toward Haru this time.
“Her sisters may not have alike voices, but I wonder why she would go so far as to hide her voice by scratching her throat.”
“…”
“Are you someone we know? Who are you?
“…”
“Are you not going to answer me?”
“…That’s you.”
Only then did she open her mouth. However, the gaze was directed towards me, not Haru.
“Your name isn’t Roman either.”
“…”
“It is not so?”
Then, suddenly, her carriage jolted and shook violently. It seemed that they were passing through a rough dirt floor. I glanced out the window and answered calmly.
“Yes. No. Just as your name is not Rinne.”
“Then why are you trying to hide your identity?”
“What do you think?”
“Well. If you tell me your secret first, then I’ll tell you too. It’ll be good for you…Ugh…!”
Again, the carriage rocked violently, shaking the scenery outside the window. A sound came from the driver’s seat, but she ignored it and opened her mouth again.
“You’ve admitted that she’s not Lena’s sister anyway, right?”
“So what does that have to do with you?”
“You should know what people in the same wagon know.”
“You’re kidding. She’s hiding her name. Besides, who’s that girl? She’s wearing a hood and a gas mask covering her face. She didn’t say a word at the dinner table yesterday. What the hell is that girl?”
“That…”
“Hey!”
Just as he was about to answer, the carriage shook again and at the same time a harsh voice erupted from the driver’s seat. I kept my mouth shut this time and listened.
“It’s not this way! You just have to follow the front wagon, but where are you going!”
“It’s okay. It’s going by itself, so don’t worry about it.”
“How can I not care…”
“Don’t move. The prosthetic arm isn’t in form.”
“What is this…!”
It was only then that she looked out the window, perhaps sensing her strangeness in the conversation. Suddenly, the wagon the others were riding in disappeared out of sight.
“What are you doing? What are you guys doing!”
“Why are you so surprised? You have no reason to follow the carriage over there anyway.”
“That…That’s true…!”
“I’ll be able to follow you right away. These two wagons are the only ones running around here.”
I calmly shrugged my shoulders and looked around again. We were the only ones still running through this desolate landscape. The people over there are also holding Erica hostage, and they couldn’t have imagined that we would act like this.
Looking outside her, I turned her head toward her again. Then he pointed to the bandage that had come off the tip of her chin.
“By the way, that bandage. Shouldn’t it be changed? It’s not a good idea to cover the wound with an old cloth.”
“Is it time to care about that? What are you guys…”
“We also became experts in burns because we took care of Haru’s wounds. We can even change bandages for you. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“…!”
She froze as she raised her hand, as if taken aback by Saya’s sudden voice. Meanwhile, the bandage was coming off again. It was a disprove that it wasn’t a tightly wound thing in the first place.
Now is the time to uncover the secrets hidden within. I reached out her hand to her without further hesitation.
“Then take off that bandage now. Or else I’ll do it over here.”
