episode_0126

That evening, the music of the coming-of-age ceremony played on without cease.

The lights of the general store went out.

Click.

Tia and Fosao opened the back door and stepped out.

The two exchanged glances for a moment in the dim evening twilight, then began to ascend the secret passage together.

Soft footsteps.

It was a path they hadn’t walked for a long time.

Normally, even a brief halt in passage would allow nature’s strong power to erase the path with thickets, but now, in the middle of winter, the secret passage remained exactly as Tia had cleared it.

Fosao looked around, gazing at the desolate path.

“Well, it feels like it’s been a long time.”

“Hmm… doesn’t it? It’s probably been about a month since you, Ajusshi, last walked this path.”

“Has it really been that long?”

“Yes. Before we knew it… a lot of time has passed.”

As winter arrives, the sense of time gradually dulls.

All that could be seen in the cold wind was an expanse of pristine white snow.

Especially in Dragonnez, the snowy scenery was the same everywhere you went, and it was exceptionally quiet as birds, insects, and even beasts were hibernating.

How long must this winter have felt to Tia?

So many things had passed in an instant, like the wind.

Just a month ago, she wouldn’t have even imagined that she would be climbing the secret passage with Fosao to perform the ‘Baptism’.

The two silently ascended the path.

Finally, in the distance, they saw the ‘Big House’… which had once been Tia’s home.

She said in a low voice.

“I’m glad I made this path.”

The first time she cleared this secret passage, it was to secretly rescue Fosao, who was being chased by Deseo’s soldiers.

Like a mother hiding a runaway child in the warm folds of her skirt. Tia hid Fosao in the underground storage and cared for him until the soldiers were gone.

“…Why?”

“Thanks to it… I got to know you, Ajusshi, better.”

However, the existence of this path, which she thought would be a one-time thing, had now become an indispensable and precious connection for Tia.

‘Secret’.

How much must her heart have pounded?

Tia must have been extremely anxious every time she passed this path at night.

She would have trembled with anxiety, wondering if the villagers might discover her.

But every time Tia went to meet Fosao with such a pounding heart… could she have gradually mistaken this rapidly beating heart not as ‘anxiety’ but as a sign of ‘affection’, without even realizing it herself?

Just like secretly meeting a beloved lover.

Conversely, the path Tia took to my house… was literally a suffocating one.

The girl, who had become a sinner, had to ascend to the pharmacy, receiving everyone’s gaze from the villagers.

Therefore, for Tia, this path was nothing short of a lifesaver.

Soft footsteps.

Finally, the two stopped in front of Tia’s house.

A soft whoosh.

It was quiet.

No sound could be heard.

I raised my head and looked towards the center of the village.

There wasn’t a single person in the empty space.

“It’s cold…”

Fosao rubbed his chilly shoulders vigorously at the desolate scenery.

Where had everyone gone?

What happened after they were dragged to Tailden?

Although his expression seemed to hold such questions, Tia soon dismissed her curiosity.

Fosao asked.

“But, um, since the village is empty anyway. Couldn’t we have just taken the main road?”

“I needed to get an outfit from my house.”

“An outfit?”

Tia approached the wooden door and touched the wooden carving.

Click. Click.

February 2nd. As she matched the date to her birthday, the wooden door opened with a clunk.

“Ajusshi, please wait here for a moment. I’ll be right out.”

“Okay.”

Tia went into the house.

Before they knew it, the sun had completely set.

Fosao lit the lantern and waited patiently in place.

And truly, before long, Tia opened the door and came out again.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. But…”

Fosao lifted the lantern.

Seeing Tia illuminated by the light, he gaped.

“That’s…”

“Hehe.”

Tia gently held the hem of her dress with her fingertips.

“It’s the outfit you bought me, Ajusshi. Since I’m going to do the baptism with you… I thought I should wear this.”

Swish.

Even though her bare skin was exposed and it must have been cold, Tia twirled lightly without a care.

The wide-spreading hem of the dress looked like snowflakes gently falling from the sky.

Fosao stared in stunned admiration.

“Ohh…. You’re so beautiful… Tia. Truly…”

“I’m all ready. Where should we go now?”

“F-follow me.”

The two passed through the center of the village.

There were many cottages around, but not a single house had a light on.

It felt as if Tia and Fosao were walking as patrol guards in the dead of night.

At the same time, it was also paradoxical.

A girl exiled from the village, and a middle-aged man abandoned by the village.

The sight of them openly passing through the middle of the village side by side… created an unsettling sense of something being wrong.

Fosao, entering the mountainside, headed towards a rather unfamiliar path.

It was a ridge that ordinary people did not frequent.

Tia knew this path too, but entering it now gave her an odd feeling.

“Is there something over here?”

“Yes. It’s h-hidden.”

Fosao stepped slightly off the path and pushed aside the tall grass with his hand.

Rustle.

Then, a very wide, open clearing appeared before their eyes.

Tia and I… had never seen this space before.

I had thought I’d been everywhere around the village since I was little.

I never knew such a wide clearing existed.

It was truly wondrous.

The wind that had been blowing so fiercely until now stopped as if by magic the moment they entered this place.

As if to prevent the shy love sworn by a young man and woman… from being carried away by the wind.

It felt as if an invisible sacred power was enclosing this space.

Fosao held the lantern high.

“This is w-where we perform the ritual.”

“Wow…”

“And then…”

He approached the trees surrounding the clearing, holding the lantern.

“I lit fires here.”

Upon closer inspection, the insides of the trees were hollowed out like knots, and a single lantern was placed within each.

One such lantern on each tree.

Dozens… even hundreds.

Fosao took embers from the lantern he held and transferred them one by one into the lanterns in the trees.

He couldn’t light all hundreds individually, so he spaced them out, but as about half of them were lit, brilliant halos of light began to illuminate the clearing.

It was breathtakingly mysterious and beautiful.

“……Beautiful.”

Tia turned her head and looked all around.

A hundred lights sparkled in her clear, soft ruby eyes.

It was beautiful no matter where she looked.

Countless lanterns flickering in the dark night sky.

It was a spectacle that looked like countless starlights had fallen, yet also like fireflies dancing in place.

Thud.

Fosao, having lit the last flame, set the lantern down.

The stage for the baptism, for the people of Brisedon, was ready.

“S-sit here, Tia.”

Fosao gestured.

As Tia sat beside him, he opened the bottle of alcohol he had brought and poured a glass.

The swaying glass, holding the indigo-colored sky, was filled with stars.

“Drink it.”

The girl carefully took the glass with both hands and drank it all in one go.

The alcohol seemed quite strong. She furrowed her brow and coughed.

Cough! Cough!

“H-how is it?”

Tia wiped her mouth.

“It tastes bad.”

“Heehee! The al-alcohol used in rituals is usually bitter. But… doesn’t it make y-your body feel a bit warmer?”

“Certainly… it does.”

It felt like a flame was rising from deep within her body.

Her body, which had felt chilly in the dress, quickly warmed up.

Feeling the pleasant warmth of the alcohol, Tia pulled her knees closer.

“Hehe.”

“T-Tia. Your face has turned red.”

“Really? My face shows too much… I guess I can’t hide it.”

“Rina was like that too. It’s the same…”

“Mom?”

“Yeah. During her baptism, she drank alcohol with m-me like this.”

Fosao began to talk about old memories.

“Rina was w-weak to alcohol, so she usually disliked it. So I t-told her she didn’t have to drink it, but… Rina drank for my sake. People were w-whispering even then.”

“Why?”

“Because people d-didn’t u-understand why Rina chose me as her partner for the baptism.”

“……”

“And I learned to dance. Rina t-taught me. Even though I’m… clumsy. Rina taught me well, so I s-still remember how to do it now.”

Before she knew it, in Tia’s eyes, a distant memory… her young mother and Fosao dancing together in this very place, reflected.

The two shared another drink.

Tia, having emptied her glass, kept urging him.

“What happened next?”

“After we d-danced… I asked Rina why she had d-danced with me. And she said…”

Fosao said blankly.

“She said, ‘Isn’t it a shame to s-spend the one and only baptism of your life a-alone?’”

“……”

Those were the words Fosao had said to Tia.

“Rina… p-pitied me. She could have danced with a much m-more wonderful man… but she did it f-for me… She was truly a kind child…”

“So that’s how it was…”

Before long, the alcohol bottle was empty.

He seemed to have brought quite a full one, but only drops fell from the flask.

Tia exhaled a warm breath and looked up at the sky.

“Ajusshi.”

“Hmm?”

“Did you like my mom, Ajusshi?”

“……”

Fosao did not answer.

However, just by looking at his thick neck, which twitched, I could tell.

Judging from the story so far, Helina might have been something more than just a liking for Fosao.

A moment later, Fosao nodded.

“…I l-liked her.”

“Did Mom like you, Ajusshi?”

“…No.”

“Why do you think that? From what I heard, my mom cherished you so much.”

“Because Rina… m-married Albert.”

Albert.

He was referring to Tia’s father.

I had also heard it from Tia herself.

I had heard the story that ‘Albert Anshier’, a wandering adventurer, happened to stay in Brisedon and became close with Helina, even exchanging vows of love.

At the time, I thought Tia’s parents’ story was truly a romantic love story.

But for Fosao, it wasn’t.

Perhaps he had resented Helina his entire life for falling for an outsider, someone who wasn’t even from the same village and merely stayed for a short time.

……And then.

“Ajusshi.”

Tia, knowing that painful feeling better than anyone.

She was an angel who knew how to embrace it with devotion.

“Since I’m ‘Rina’s daughter’… I think I understand. Why Mom taught you how to dance, Ajusshi.”

“……”

“Mom didn’t do it out of pity for you, Ajusshi.”

The girl’s soft hand grasped Fosao’s wrinkled hand.

“After a long time… to leave you, Ajusshi, with a bond: ‘me’…. Mom danced with you.”

“……Tia.”

A smile slightly blurred by intoxication.

Cheeks ripe enough to be tempting, and a nape emitting a wonderfully sweet apple scent.

“Ajusshi…”

Tia raised her head and looked at Fosao.

“Please teach me to dance.”

A tight embrace.

Fosao answered the girl’s earnest request by embracing her tightly.