episode_0088

“Honey! Where are you, my honey! Don’t leave me behind!”

Jeanne was walking barefoot on the dirt floor, her hair disheveled, as if she had just woken up.

“Honey? Andre! Come back to me, Andre!”

No matter how loudly she screamed, her husband was nowhere to be seen, and her voice gradually became more and more tearful.

“Jeanne… … ? What the hell! What on earth are you doing here like that?”

Andre, who had appeared out of the grass, saw his wife’s appearance and spoke to her in a soothing voice.

“Oh my! I thought you left me behind and went somewhere!”

Jeanne ran to him, hugged him and cried like a baby.

“Oh, you said you were going to go to the meeting place for a bit. You clearly answered, but you must have been sleeping again? I can’t live like this. Get up, Jeanne! What if you collapse on the dirt floor?”

Andre was struggling to get his wife away with an embarrassed expression.

“Sniff. Was that it?”

Jeanne asks, lifting up her tear-stained face.

“Why are you crying? I can’t leave you, you know that.”

Andre sighed softly and tried to comfort her with a warm smile.

“I had a dream. A very unpleasant dream… … .”

A horrible dream where a black-haired woman with a fox-like face was raping Andre, and he had to watch helplessly. Just thinking about the dream again made Jeanne feel sick, so she shut her mouth because she felt like she was going to vomit.

“It looks like the sleeping arrangements have changed. Next time, I’ll ask them to bring me some more feathers to fill the bed.”

Andre said, stroking her as if she were a child.

“Were you able to see them today?”

Andre shakes his head at her words.

“If you wait a little longer, he’ll come. He’s someone who’s been punctual up until now.”

After being told to do so several times, Jeanne finally got up from her seat. Perhaps because he thought she looked very uneasy, Andre walked towards their cabin, holding Jeanne’s hand with a worried expression.

“This time, I must also deliver a letter to Miss Marian. Asking her to reconsider our situation… … .”

“Hee, heeeek…! Never say that name out loud. Never!”

Jeanne’s reaction almost seems like it’s going to start a match.

“Look at this. You need help now. No matter what, you are sisters from the same boat. If he finds out about your situation, he might change his mind a little.”

Andre continues, stroking her arm.

“I, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. You don’t even know. What a cold-hearted person that kid is… …. After hurting my older sister and younger sister, how can she worry about me, the eldest sister, this much?”

Andre just sighs silently at Jeanne’s answer. He pats her on the back as she walks with her eyes on the floor, sweat dripping down her face.

“I miss my youngest child, the child who resembled her father and was cute and charming. As the eldest daughter, I couldn’t help but feel ashamed that I couldn’t even help the poor child when he was kicked out alone. ”

Jeanne suddenly muttered.

“Don’t say that. If there’s anything wrong with you, even the slightest bit, it’s that you have such a kind heart. I loved you because of that. Of course, I still love you now.”

As they moved further and further away from the cabin, their voices became increasingly unintelligible, so this was all anyone could hear from the conversation, hidden in the grass.

Christie quietly and gently walked through the narrow forest path, just as she had when she came, and, brushing away the fallen leaves that clung to her shoulders, she headed toward the place where Chloe was waiting. Not far from where Jeanne and her husband lived, there was a small bonfire burning in a quiet and secluded clearing, so it wasn’t hard to find it.

“Ah, you’re finally coming. I thought you were going to die of hunger.”

Chloe, who was hitting the bull’s-eye, turned her head to greet Christie when she heard a rustling sound behind her.

“Sit down and eat quickly. Look at this, it’s really well cooked.”

Chloe held out a skewer to Christie, pointing to the golden surface of the well-cooked goose leg. Just as Christie reached out to take it, Chloe turned around and took a big bite of the skewer she was holding. Christie stared at Chloe’s bulging cheek for a moment, her hand still awkwardly outstretched.

“Oh, that’s what I was asking you to find out. Why, who is the person who is supporting Jeanne? It wasn’t much of a catch, but I did meet a nice face.”

The above dialogue is a summary of what Chloe said. In reality, it would have been quite difficult to understand, as she spoke with her mouth full of food, and there were also slurping sounds and the sound of blowing hot meat. Of course, it didn’t matter much to Christie, who wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying.

“When we passed through the capital city gate, there was a person standing in line right in front of us, who was pregnant. Who would have thought to see her in a place like this? She asked me anyway, why she was in such a remote place.”

Perhaps because she was upset about being kept silent, Chloe stubbornly pours out what she wants to say, regardless of whether or not the person next to her is listening. Christie decides to sit down by the fire and eat the skewers herself.

“Well, I didn’t have to arouse suspicion by just talking around a little, but the merchants had a hard time. They had to come all the way here to sell their stuff. I guess it’s true that nothing in the world is easy. How’s it going over there?”

Chloe, who had already eaten all the flesh, leaving only the bare bones, asked with a lick of her lips.

“What.”

Christie answers, having just taken a bite.

“That couple. You said you were going to watch them. Do you have any idea what kind of people they are?”

Chloe asked again, picking up the iron kettle she had placed over the campfire.

“I think I know why he was a strong candidate to be the next king.”

Christie answered.

“Really? So that was just an act?”

Chloe said, pouring melted ice water into a small bowl in front of her.

“No, he was just like that, with a certain lack of something. It would be easier to deal with someone like that if we made him a king.”

“Yeah, that’s what it was.”

“I had very little expectations. I am so disappointed. I was foolish to have had expectations based on the name Arsul.”

“In the end, that brilliant red mane is now nothing more than a name. Marian didn’t inherit the red hair and changed her name, but she still came into power.”

“That’s right, Arsul with red hair is no longer a ferocious beast.”

Marian’s sharp challenge to the ostensible legitimacy gave her enormous power, but it also gave other powerful figures who had been holding their breath a sense that they too might have a chance. Christie could vaguely foresee that an unprecedented chaos was about to come to this country, and it was probably around this time that she began to harbor greater ambitions beyond mere survival under her oppressors.

And somewhere else in the same time zone, as if to prove that the optimism of the ambitious was false, another Arsul was revealing his ferocious beastly nature.

“Mi, Milla… . If you keep biting my ear like that, it will hurt… … .”

It was the sound of a poor prey caught by a wild beast.

“Growl… … .”

Instead of answering in human language, she made beastly sounds.

“Hey, ugh… . It’s been several days already… . I understand you’re happy, but shouldn’t you stop living like this now… … .”

Meanwhile, Ray whispered to Mila with a pleading tone, his face growing thinner.

“Kreung… . Still, it’s not enough. This is our time together that we somehow managed to get, and I will never let it be interrupted. Howum… .”

She murmured, breathing hot air into my ear.

“This is not a human life… . From the moment they open their eyes until they fall asleep, only beasts do this… … Ugh… ?!”

Mila, who was now not a beast but a wild beast, a beast itself, greedily licked the inside of Ray’s ear.

“… … Heh.”

Mila, who realized once again that he was ready to eat with her just now, smiled slightly and raised her upper body.

“Okay, wait a minute. Ms. Mila. This is really hard now. Huh? This is just happening against my will… … . Ugh… !”

After some time, Mila got up from the bed, leaving Ray, who had fallen into a deep sleep, behind, and stretched with a refreshed expression before leaving the bedroom.

As she had instructed, today too, a basket containing the day’s meal prepared by the crew was placed right in front of the front door, and Mila took it to the fireplace to fill her stomach, which was different from the one she had just filled.

When she peeked at the cloth covering the basket, she saw a small note placed on top of various foods. When she unfolded it and looked at its contents by the fire in the fireplace, she saw that it only contained boring information about when and where a meeting would be held to discuss the direction the vigilante group should take after the collapse of the bandits. So Mila made a blank expression and threw the note into the fire.