episode_0148

Soft steps. Soft steps.

Tia walked up the hill.

It was a very familiar path. A stone wall, built by unknown hands at an unknown time, stretched along the path, and wherever a fence appeared, there stood a house.

A beautiful sight, visible only in Breezedown.

It truly felt like a long time since I had seen it.

And Tia’s back, within that nostalgic scenery…

…was undoubtedly the Tia I knew.

…

Ah…

She had run to my apothecary in that very way.

I still remember.

No, I can’t forget. Not for a lifetime.

Her cheerful face and strong voice, bursting through the apothecary door early in the morning as if to break it, asking for a bandage.

The chair that never made a sound no matter how carelessly she plopped down on it. Her small, pretty lips, chattering away.

And her curious red eyes, delivering news of what had happened in the village overnight, and asking what I had done that day.

The everyday life between Tia and me, which I had thought nothing of…

…was, in fact, the most precious thing in this world.

Something that would never return, that could not be obtained again, even by offering all the gold beneath the earth…

…our most brilliant days.

Soft steps.

Tia, standing alone on the path, clad in a worn cloak, carried a distinctly different aura.

How should I put it?

The innocent and unadorned expressions and smiles of a young girl were gone.

Instead, the face of a woman, similar to Aunt Merid or Aunt Olivia, remained.

She seemed to have grown up in a flash.

Tia, who was two years younger than me…

…now felt like she had completely surpassed me and gone far ahead.

“……”

Tia’s eyes, blankly gazing up the hill, were deeper than Behemorus Falls, making it impossible to know what she was thinking.

That depth was like the Village Chief’s dark gaze. It seemed as though she was seeing things I dared not even imagine.

Was the difference this great?

Had Tia already grown this much?

No. Was it inevitable?

I had slept for a very long time. I had spent nearly half a year in bed.

But even if I had fallen into a deep sleep, the world continued to turn without stopping.

Only I had remained frozen, like a bear in hibernation.

In the end, neither my body nor my mind had grown.

During that half-year.

Compared to Tia, who had experienced countless events that would amount to tens of thousands of characters if written down…

…I was still a child throwing tantrums and indulging in childish jealousy.

Her cloak flapped, swept by the winter wind.

“Tia.”

Fosao appeared behind her slightly stooped back.

He continuously furrowed his brows, as if uncomfortable with the desolate atmosphere lingering in Breezedown.

“Sh-shall we look here too?”

“Yes.”

It was clear he wanted to be done with finding food and firewood and return quickly.

“It’s very cold, isn’t it?”

“A little co-cold, yes. Hehe.”

Tia, perhaps feeling sorry for having forced Fosao to come out, approached him and gently took his hand.

Then, pointing to the houses, she asked in a slightly lighter voice.

“Uncle, where did you live before?”

“Hmm?”

“You said you lived in our village. There must have been a house you lived in, right?”

“Ah. My o-old house?”

Suddenly, Fosao turned his head towards a certain direction.

As if to show that was where his old home used to be.

Tia’s gaze also followed to where Fosao was looking.

And seeing the ‘house’ standing there, her eyes widened.

“Over there…?”

Tia, as if disbelieving, alternately looked at the ‘house’ and Fosao.

It was natural.

That place was… the smallest and darkest house in Breezedown.

But it was also where the person most respected and feared by the villagers lived.

It was ‘the Village Chief’s house’.

“Uncle, you lived in the Village Chief’s house?”

“Uh-huh. Ju-just for a little while.”

“My goodness.”

Tia covered her mouth with one hand.

“…I didn’t know that.”

I didn’t either.

Why… had I never questioned it until now?

Fosao’s general store was built after he was driven out of our village. I heard he lived here until he was twenty.

If so, he must have lived ‘somewhere’.

But the elders and aunts hardly spoke about Fosao.

Furthermore, they never mentioned if Fosao had a family, or if he didn’t, how he came to our village.

As if they had deliberately erased memories or records. No, it was as if Fosao had never lived in Breezedown at all; everyone was silent on that point.

Why?

For someone everyone disliked, Fosao was living quite well, having set up a general store close to Breezedown.

If they truly detested him, wouldn’t they have all gone down to the general store, set it on fire, and tried to drive that pig far away?

But why did everyone only express disgust and dislike, yet allow that pig to live so close to the village, ignoring him as if they had no interest?

It was… a ‘privilege’.

Tia and I, knowing nothing, had vaguely thought Fosao was in a pitiful state, abandoned by everyone.

But looking back at what that pig had done to us, and to the village…

…wasn’t he enjoying a kind of privilege, free from anyone’s restraint, no matter what he did?

“Living in the Village Chief’s house, does that mean your parents, Uncle…”

“Ah, uh-huh. My m-mother wasn’t there from b-birth. Only my f-father was there.”

“Ah…”

“I lived in that house, and th-then, after a while, I moved. Over there.”

Fosao immediately pointed somewhere else.

Tia looked at that place with a nostalgic expression.

That house was… the house where Ruyef and Marie had lived together.

Perhaps after Fosao was driven out of the village, the Village Chief had given that empty house to Ruyef and Marie.

“I’m sorry for asking unnecessary things.”

“N-no! It’s f-fine. I d-don’t even re-remember it anymore.”

Tia clutched the hem of her cloak tightly and lowered her head.

“…It’s similar.”

“Huh?”

Her bright red hair swayed as she shook her head.

“…It’s nothing.”

I didn’t know what she meant by ‘similar’.

Did she mean that Fosao and I, who lived in the Village Chief’s house because we had no parents, were similar?

Or did she mean that Tia, who had no father, and Fosao, who had no mother, were similar?

Tia pointed to Ruyef’s house and asked.

“Then, Uncle, did you live in that house with your father?”

“N-no. I lived th-there alone.”

“What? You just said you had a father.”

“Uh-huh. We li-lived together over there.”

And then he pointed to the Village Chief’s house again.

For a moment, I didn’t understand.

But if I reconsidered Fosao’s words… it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was saying.

No. That can’t be.

The Village Chief… no, my father…

He didn’t just hide this strange ability from me?

I strongly denied it, unable to believe it.

But soon, a single fact that brushed my memory forced me to accept it.

That’s right. That’s what it was.

That’s why Fosao could see memories, just like me.

Because we were of the same bloodline.

“…A lie.”

Tia, realizing the meaning, staggered back a step in shock.

“Uncle… you’re the Village Chief’s son?”

“Yes.”

Was it because there was no one left to object if he spoke of that shocking truth now?

Fosao readily admitted it.

“I… heard the Village Chief had no children… and so I thought Ritsu was the only one…”

“Surprised, aren’t you? Hihik.”

It wasn’t something to be proud of, yet he said it proudly.

“Father n-never called me s-son.”

“…Why?”

“B-because he h-hated me.”

“Did you do something wrong to the Village Chief?”

“N-no. I d-didn’t do anything wrong. He just h-hated me because I st-stutter.”

Tia blinked.

Hearing one surprising story after another, she still seemed dumbfounded.

“The Village Chief didn’t acknowledge you as his son just because of that?”

“Yes.”

“That can’t be. The Village Chief would never be like that…”

I agreed.

My father didn’t ignore or hate anyone for such trivial reasons.

Even when he was at odds with Uncle Joseph over opening the village.

No matter how harsh the remarks he heard from Uncle, or how many letters full of disrespectful insults he received.

He merely didn’t compromise his will, but he was a person who respected all of Uncle’s opinions.

Because he was calmer and more rational than anyone else.

That’s why we had been able to live safely in Breezedown until now, upholding the Village Chief’s will.

Such a considerate and benevolent person… hated his own son because he ‘stuttered’?

I couldn’t believe it.

Never.

“He w-was that kind of person.”

But Fosao said it was so.

With a face and voice full of hatred.

Tia said nothing.

It was probably because the ‘Village Chief’ she remembered and the ‘father’ Fosao spoke of were too different.

Perhaps, like me, she didn’t want to believe his words.

But there was no one who could accurately say whether Fosao’s testimony was true or false right now.

It seemed Tia thought there never would be.

In any case, she had no choice but to believe his words.

“I didn’t know… I’m sorry.”

“N-no! It’s f-fine! Li-like I said, I’m okay. It’s all in the p-past anyway. I d-don’t care at all.”

Saying so, Fosao chuckled lightly.

Contrary to his words about not caring at all, he seemed to be trying to quickly gloss over the topic.

He gave Tia’s shoulder a gentle push and pointed up the hill.

“C’mon, let’s g-go see if Tia can f-find anything.”

“Yes.”

The two of them walked up the hill.

First, they visited Ruyef’s house.

It was empty.

Ruyef didn’t have much to begin with. He preferred to make things for others rather than accumulate possessions for himself.

Next, they searched the house of Marvin and his wife. There, too, almost nothing remained. Only traces of a hurried departure were left.

“Haa… There’s nothing.”

Tia rummaged around with a troubled expression.

For firewood, anything flammable could be broken up and put in, but the problem was food.

If they couldn’t find anything to eat no matter how much they searched the village, they would have no choice but to go down to the dangerous Tailden.

“Tia.”

To Tia, who was sitting disheartened after several fruitless searches, Fosao made a suggestion.

“P-perhaps there might be something left in the apothecary?”

“！”

Tia’s shoulders stiffened. Then she shook her head with a hesitant gaze.

“No.”

In truth, when they were searching this area, Fosao seemed to want to go to the apothecary first.

But Tia deliberately grabbed Fosao’s arm and pulled him, making them search other houses first.

“Wh-why not? Even if there’s n-no food in the apothecary, you c-can still eat h-herbs, right?”

“…That’s not the problem.”

“Then?”

Tia gazed wistfully at the apothecary on the hill.

“I want to leave that place… just as it is.”