Ch.88Reunion (1)

*

The impact of that name, made up of just two words, was immense for Alice.

Confused thoughts and emotions grew larger and larger, then rushed into Alice’s mind like a massive wave crashing down.

The overwhelming destructive force instantly swept away her reason.

Like someone clinging to a sturdy tree to avoid being swept away by waves, Alice stood frozen in place, staring once more at the letters on the tombstone.

Laila Staff.

Good heavens.

Alice drew in a deep breath.

She simply couldn’t believe her eyes.

Or perhaps she just didn’t want to believe.

Seeing that name—which in her memory still belonged to a tiny, toddling baby—carved into a cold tombstone was an equally surreal sight.

But unfortunately, her eyes were working perfectly.

With cruel clarity, her vision was sharp.

Alice reached out slowly toward the tombstone, her expression vacant.

Her hand, which had remained steady even when witnessing that horrific scene in the underground where Balder Staff had been hiding months ago, was now trembling violently just from reaching toward a tombstone.

She grabbed her trembling wrist with her other hand and slowly ran her fingers over the tombstone.

A rough texture.

The stone, chiseled and ground with tools and sharp metal, showed a certain neatness and care, but it was far from professional craftsmanship.

She moved her trembling hand to the side to touch her subordinates’ tombstones.

They had exactly the same texture as Laila’s.

“They were carved by the same person.”

The masked man by the lake.

He had clearly said he found the bodies and buried them.

Then surely he was the one who made these tombstones.

He wouldn’t have pulled up tombstones from elsewhere and reused them.

“Wait, no… no, wait…!”

A truth that could be realized without deep thought.

That simple truth approached like a tsunami, and Alice’s sandcastle of reason crumbled helplessly.

Alice tried to gather the remaining fragments of her reason to organize her thoughts.

There must be no misjudgment.

“The name…”

Her subordinates’ tombstones had no names carved on them.

That was only natural.

How could one know the names of unfamiliar corpses?

It’s not as if one could ask the dead their names.

However, Laila’s tombstone had both her first and last name carved on it.

That meant the person who made this tombstone knew Laila.

Perhaps it was truly a coincidence—someone with the same name—but the surname “Staff” thoroughly denied even that small possibility.

Moreover, the date carved below the name was about 6 to 7 months ago,

Almost exactly matching the day when Ash and Laila fled in a carriage.

“…That man… could it be.”

Alice recalled the man who had been with her for the past few days.

The man who must have made this tombstone.

The man who wrote that Laila was his sister.

The man who must be Laila’s brother.

Alice finally acknowledged that this man was the very person she had been searching for all along.

As if to drive home that thought, she slowly read the inscription carved at the bottom of the tombstone.

A precious daughter and a lovely sister. I will always miss you.

“Ash…”

Laila’s brother, Maria’s younger brother.

Alice’s fiancé.

Ash Staff.

“Maria! Your brother… he was still alive.”

Alice turned around with a swift movement.

It wasn’t too late.

Nothing, absolutely nothing was too late.

Of course, it would have been better to have known sooner, but she could proudly say she was fortunate to know even now.

At least she hadn’t gone to the Demon Lord’s castle without knowing.

“…I didn’t recognize him.”

It’s not my fault.

We haven’t seen each other for a long time.

We haven’t met since he entered the academy…

It’s been almost seven years.

No wonder I didn’t recognize him.

In my memory, Ash was still young.

And you didn’t recognize me either.

No, you didn’t even look at me properly, you jerk.

Stupid Ash.

Why did you cover your face?

I could have recognized you sooner.

You said something about getting sick because of mana?

If I had known you were Ash, I would have healed you, you idiot.

Ash was always like that.

You could have just asked for help, but you always tried to do things alone and ended up doing something strange.

Like when you couldn’t reach a book high up in the library—you could have just asked someone to get it for you, but you always tried to climb up and got crushed under the falling bookshelf.

Of course, I was a bit angry that you threw a lizard at me the next day because I was too busy laughing to help you quickly.

Thanks to that, I still hate lizards.

Did you know that?

Looking back now, they’re all funny memories.

You fool.

If you had told me earlier, we could have spent last night reminiscing about those memories.

No, no.

It’s more than that.

We could have even gone back to our hometown together, hand in hand.

You remember, don’t you?

Those beautiful plains of Goldfield.

They’re not as beautiful as before due to bad harvests, famine, and the tyranny of that bastard lord, but the view from that hill is still wonderful.

Don’t worry.

I’ve driven away both Balder and that bastard lord.

There’s no one left to chase Ash away.

I have to go after the Demon Lord, but you can wait there in peace.

Ah, Ash.

Ash…

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off, you idiot.

Just wait.

I’m going to give you a good knock on the head.

As Alice was muttering incomprehensibly to herself and about to hurry away,

Far away, someone’s figure gradually appeared between the trees.

Alice stopped abruptly and looked at whoever had suddenly revealed themselves.

It was the figure of a person with long, slender limbs.

“…What is it?”

Alice stared intently at the person, wondering if they might be a demon remnant appearing to monitor her.

It was a woman with disheveled, dull blonde hair flying in the wind, wearing bizarre cloth fragments stained red with blood.

No horns.

Not a demon, then?

But it made no sense for an ordinary woman to be wandering in this forest full of mana.

The very reason Alice had come to this forest alone was because even trained priests couldn’t withstand such concentrated mana.

Sensing something ominous, Alice carefully drew her sword.

The unidentified woman in the distance slowly approached Alice.

Amid the flying hair, gleaming red eyes burned like evil flames.

The red glow twisted like a snake in the darkness created by the tree shadows.

Alice’s heart suddenly began to pound violently.

Her entire body felt burning hot.

“Ugh! What is this…!”

Hot holy power gathered in Alice’s eyes and then burst forth.

Holy power gushed from her eyes like hot spring water, as if trying to wash away a foreign substance.

With the sensation of her eyelids burning away, Alice grabbed both eyes, fell to one knee, and groaned.

“What is this! Why is this… happening…!”

In that moment, with the sound of wind being cut, Alice felt her vision roll dramatically.

Her head had been severed and was rolling on the ground.

*

Working all day, I hadn’t noticed the sun was already setting.

I’d spent the entire day on the roof trying to find and fix leaks.

My back ached and my buttocks felt like they were splitting, but the view of the lakeside from this higher vantage point was magnificent enough to somewhat compensate for the pain.

However, there wasn’t a single human shadow to be seen in this beautiful landscape.

A cold wind blew from somewhere.

“Sniff, haa… I’m lonely.”

I said with a sniffle.

This cold and frightening loneliness, so acute I could feel the absence of others, was extremely painful, but the emptiness felt after someone comes and then disappears again seemed to be equally painful.

It was something I realized after bidding farewell to the Inquisitor who had been appearing every night for the past few days.

Of course, our connection hadn’t been extremely close.

She would come late at night after exploring the forest, exchange a few words, and then promptly fall asleep.

But the faint sound of another person’s breathing heard while half-asleep had been an indescribable comfort in this lonely and tedious life in the forest.

It was only a few days, but the impact was tremendous.

If I had left Silvia’s cabin without being cursed, would she have felt these emotions too?

More intensely than me, certainly not less.

“Alone again from today.”

I muttered aloud to comfort the emptiness.

Pia spun around in circles at my feet, then suddenly lit her entire body with flames.

As if saying, “Look at me.”

“Ah, sorry Pia. I’m not alone.”

I picked up the affectionate fox with an awkward smile, and the fox’s flames gathered toward her tail, away from me.

The fox whimpered and tapped my chin with her nose.

I smiled at this heart-melting display of affection, pressing my forehead against Pia’s head.

“I’m so glad to have you at least. Really…”

Winter was approaching, and my thin clothes could hardly keep out the cold of the night after sunset.

Thanks to my hard work all day, about half the roof had been fixed.

With a satisfied look, I placed Pia on my shoulder and slowly climbed down from the roof.

“Whew, it’s cold. Let’s get inside quickly.”

I rushed into the cabin almost at a run.

It was getting colder with each passing day, and Pia alone wasn’t enough to keep me warm, so after the Inquisitor left, I had dug a hole in the middle of the living room and filled it with soil to make a makeshift brazier.

It wasn’t particularly sophisticated—just soil with firewood stuck in it to light a fire—but it provided enough heat to get through the night.

I had made a hole for the smoke to escape when fixing the roof, but since I hadn’t built a proper chimney, I couldn’t make the fire too big.

Otherwise, the whole house would fill with smoke and soot.

“Pia. Light the fire, please.”

Afraid that using magic might cause the fire to spread too much, I asked Pia for help.

Pia gently placed her flaming tail against the firewood, then moved slightly away and curled up beside the flames.

I sat down next to Pia and muttered.

“I should eat something, but there’s nothing much to do.”

Fortunately, I wasn’t very hungry.

Probably because I had been nibbling on small berries throughout my work.

As it got colder, everything became more bothersome, so I decided to skip dinner.

I slowly hugged my knees and sighed.

The self-talk was coming again.

The emptiness in my heart and the emptiness of this cabin without a single piece of furniture were so great that I couldn’t bear it without talking to myself.

“Miss Silvia.”

Ha,

I just said anything, and this is what came out.

I buried my face in my knees and laughed hollowly.

Had Miss Silvia left this forest?

Had something happened to her?

Should I leave the forest and look for her?

But if I were to meet people…

My complicated feelings couldn’t find their bearings, wavering like the burning flames.

Despite the crackling sound of the dry burning firewood, the world felt so quiet.

It felt like all sounds except those made by humans merely brushed past my eardrums uselessly.

The Inquisitor’s breathing while she slept had been more audible.

The rough breathing of Miss Silvia in my memory was clearer than the sound of the wind in reality.

That’s when it happened.

Thump, thump,

Footsteps.

I jerked my head up.

When countless natural sounds merely brushed past my ears, this sound embedded itself deep within my ear canal.

I thought I might have misheard, but seeing Pia perk up her ears and look toward the cabin door, it seemed I hadn’t.

What is it?

“Inquisitor… did she not leave?”

I hurriedly searched for the mask I had thrown inside the cabin and put it on my face.

I grumbled at the uncomfortable feeling of wood pressing against my face.

“What’s this, acting like you’d never come back,”

Though I said that, a smile kept forming on my face.

The footsteps were coming straight toward the cabin.

I slowly lowered my head and opened the door.

“You said you wouldn’t come—”

“Ash.”

…Huh?

“Didn’t you miss me?”

.