Chapter 62: Four Days
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 62: Four Days
Flames were roaring.
The entire small village was burning.
Demons and monsters were feasting on my friends and the adults, while a woman stood languidly in their midst.
Instinctively, I realized she was the source of this tragedy. I picked up a stone the size of my fist and charged.
Without a battle cry, teeth clenched, I ran at her. Seeing me, the woman held her subordinates back with an expression of genuine interest.
“This looks fun. Do you want to live?”
I struck her knee with all my might, but a child’s strength couldn’t inflict any meaningful damage.
“Look at this one. Do you want to play a puzzle game? That’s not enough.”
While I attacked her frantically, the woman tore and twisted something apart.
By the time I was gasping for breath, exhausted, she grabbed me by the hair and threw me into a pile of severed remains.
“Now, put this together. If you do a pretty job of it, I might consider letting you live.”
I lifted my head from the dirt. What I saw before my eyes were the limbs of my mother and father, torn apart joint by joint…
[Don’t forget me, darling.]
A voice echoed not in my ears, but inside my head. A chill ran down my spine, and my eyes snapped open.
* * *
“Bring a physician! Right now!”
The moment they cleared the reed fields, Narupa was finally able to use her bound magic freely.
Thanks to her casting an impossible speed buff on Arasen’s horses, they reached Hus in just half a day.
“Rune, Alto is fine. Yarismal Bichante treated him perfectly.”
“Then why won’t he open his eyes!”
Airune demanded fiercely.
Her eyes were filled with the terror of losing a loved one once again.
A girl who hadn’t even been able to recover the bodies of her father and brother due to the war, she was losing her mind to the horror of seeing her lover dying before her eyes.
“It’s just accumulated fatigue and damage from the battle.”
“You don’t know that! Hurry, the physician…”
“Airune Dakuren!”
Narupa grabbed Airune by the shoulders, her voice sharp with anger.
“You aren’t the only one who loves Alto!”
“Haah… haah…”
“I want him back too…! So calm down. He’s just fallen into a deep sleep from exhaustion. I guarantee it. Just put him on a soft bed until he wakes up, and when he does, feed him plenty of delicious food.”
“…He’ll be okay, right?”
Narupa swallowed hard.
Her mouth and throat felt parched and gritty.
But she had to say this.
“If Alto dies…”
Sweat trickled down Narupa’s forehead.
“The Kingdom and the Duchy are both finished. I will make sure everyone remembers exactly whose daughter Narupa Diberuper is.”
Staring into those calm eyes, Airune slowly began to settle down.
The heir to the Great Lord gave an order to a maid in a cracked voice.
“Bring water and towels. I must wash him myself.”
Him.
A title Narupa longed to use herself.
Her resentment turned toward the sister she had shared twenty years of life with, and the soulmate she had finally found after twenty years.
Hating herself for feeling that way, Narupa yanked the door open.
Creeeeeak.
“Um… excuse me… I, I didn’t mean to just barge in… is Alto okay—”
Slam!
Narupa finally let out the irritation she had been barely suppressing.
“Kick that bitch out of the castle this instant!”
* * *
One day.
Diane spent an entire day huddled in front of the Dakuren Lord’s Castle.
The guards reported her ragged, explosion-charred clothes, but Count Dakuus judged there was no risk of her fleeing and ordered them to leave her be.
However, he warned them not to be kind, as she was someone who had committed a great sin against Alto, who had moved there from Lukart.
Diane stayed awake all night, just in case.
Using the sense of direction and space she had learned even while being kicked out, she identified the window of the room where Alto was staying and stared at it fixedly.
The light in Alto’s room never went out.
Occasionally, she saw Airune’s silhouette moving busily inside.
Just like Diane, Airune did not leave his side.
Sometimes Narupa would enter to check on Alto’s condition as well.
He is being loved.
Thank goodness.
The faint smile that touched her lips soon distorted.
That love was something she and the rest of Mirei’s party should have given him long ago.
Diane, who had lived foolishly following only her instincts, had only begun to look at the world properly after taking on menial chores.
She had filled her lack of common sense with bits and pieces of information she overheard.
What stuck in her mind from that newfound knowledge was the meaning of having a man in a party.
Bringing a man into a party meant that the party members would become his.
When she realized that, Diane had stood frozen in shock for a long time.
Finally, she began to wade into the depths of her own transgressions.
The swamp of her mistakes was far deeper than her own height.
The endless sinking feeling of guilt had yet to reach the bottom.
Diane swallowed a bitter smile.
Two days.
“What are you doing here?”
A girl with short, light-brown hair discovered Diane.
Eris, who was carrying a bundle of grooming tools, asked the girl who was huddled and staring blankly at a single window.
Diane didn’t respond.
“Are you waiting for someone?”
“…”
“You’re not from Hus, are you?”
“…”
“Hmm.”
Eris narrowed her eyes and let out a blunt remark.
“You stink.”
Diane flinched.
“I don’t know who you’re waiting for, but if you look that filthy, they won’t even want to acknowledge you.”
“Do I… smell…?”
“Yes. You smell a bit burnt, too.”
“Ugh…”
As Diane mumbled, not knowing what to do, Eris said indifferently:
“Why don’t you go wash up?”
“But if I do, and I miss Alto…”
Alto.
Eris’s eyebrows twitched at those two syllables.
She hated herself for the inexplicable mix of disapproval and pity she felt.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Not exactly…”
“Then at least pay attention to your appearance.”
With that sharp retort, Eris hurried into the castle.
The gatekeepers let her in after a brief check.
Airune had invited Eris specifically to shave and wash Alto.
Unaware of this, Diane wondered if they would let her in if she were holding those same tools.
Drip.
“Ah.”
It was raining.
Shhhhhhh!
Dark clouds gathered, and the rain began to pour.
It rained all day.
Diane washed her body diligently in that rain.
Rubbing her skin over and over with her hands.
Three days.
The sunlight felt less like warmth and more like it was piercing through her.
Gurgle.
Her stomach growled.
She was thirsty, too.
Luckily, it had rained yesterday, so she could quench her thirst with that.
The girl from yesterday didn’t come today.
She wondered why.
She wasn’t curious, yet she was.
Somehow, she felt like that girl would be the one to bring news of Alto.
Gurgle.
She was hungry.
Alto must be hungry too.
He hadn’t eaten anything for three days.
That’s right.
Alto must be so hungry.
She tried to push herself up from the ground. Her joints screamed with pops and cracks.
She swayed slightly from orthostatic hypotension but managed to steady her posture.
She lowered her waist and scanned the roadside.
No good.
There were only three-leaf clovers.
Still, just in case, Diane diligently observed the green patches around her.
There were grasshoppers and locusts.
Alto probably hates bugs.
The other party members hated bugs too.
Then these wouldn’t do.
What was meant to be a quick look turned into half a day, and half a day turned into a full day.
“Ah.”
She found a four-leaf clover.
Four days.
She had fallen asleep.
After finding the four-leaf clover, she had collapsed as if her strings had been cut.
When she opened her eyes, her body was already covered in dirt.
Splash!
“Pffft! Gack!”
Suddenly doused with water, Diane flailed as she stood up to protest.
“What was that for!”
“I was just throwing out some useless water.”
The brown-haired girl had reappeared.
She answered curtly and continued pouring water, so Diane simply opened her mouth and drank it.
“Don’t drink that, it’s dirty water.”
Liar.
It was so sweet and refreshing.
Gurgle.
“Hmm.”
Hearing the embarrassing sound, the brown-haired girl stared for a moment before gesturing with her chin.
“I think there was some rosemary over there…”
Diane’s ears perked up; she didn’t miss the small mutter.
With that, Eris turned and headed back into the castle.
Click.
She purposely left the castle gate slightly ajar, slung her grooming tools over her shoulder, and leisurely disappeared.
“Rosemary…!”
You couldn’t eat it raw, but it had a deep flavor when brewed into tea.
Diane pushed through the clovers and searched until she found the rosemary.
After scouring the area like a hawk, she finally found it half a day later.
“There’s so much!”
As she picked them, she ended up with an armful of herbs.
Though she had wandered a bit far from the castle, she had been checking for any signs of movement, so for now…
“Alto!”
Airune’s voice could be heard even outside the Lord’s Castle.
Judging by the fact that it wasn’t a cry of sorrow or horror, it was ten to one that Alto had woken up.
“Ah…!”
The timing was perfect.
She ran, clutching the rosemary.
“Hey, halt! Stop right there!”
“Just a second, just a second!”
Intoxicated by the joy that Alto had awakened, Diane evaded the guards in one go, scaled the wall, and leaped over the iron gate.
Then, she pushed through the gap Eris had left open and threw herself inside.
“That crazy bitch!”
“Catch her!”
She ran.
She felt like she could fly.
She wasn’t even hungry anymore.
Even though it had been four days, she remembered the exact location of Alto’s room.
She sprinted up the stairs in one breath and turned at the correct corridor.
The fact that her footsteps made no sound was almost eerie.
“Whoa?!”
As she ran, Diane managed to slip past Narupa, who was just about to open the door.
Bang!
“Alto! You’re awake!”
Alto was holding his forehead, his face contorted in a grimace.
“You bitch! How dare you show your face here!”
Airune stood up in a rage, but Diane didn’t even see her.
She stepped toward Alto and held out the armful of rosemary.
“This! If you brew it into tea, it clears your head and makes you feel better. I picked it myself!”
“…”
She felt the weight of their gazes.
Everyone in the room, including Alto, was staring at her.
To a person, they were glaring at her with nothing but hostility.
Especially Alto’s gaze.
“A-Alto…?”
“Why are you here?”
A cold reaction.
Diane was flustered.
“U-um… I, I…”
“Diane, you shouldn’t be with me.”
“No… what are you saying…”
Alto calmly smoothed his brow.
“If you’re with me, people will definitely mock you for being with someone so ugly, right?”
“Ah…?”
Even with her slow wit, she remembered.
‘If you don’t have plans that day, would you like to go on a date with us?’
‘Eeeh? With Alto? No way! People will definitely mock me for being with someone so ugly!’
The conversation she’d had with Krima the night Alto left Lukart.
“I… I…”
Her eyes darted around.
She had wanted to make him happy.
But she realized that her very presence made him feel miserable.
Diane barely managed to steady her trembling arms as she held out the rosemary again.
“Could you… at least take this…?”
“This bitch is still at it!”
Thwack!
Airune’s fist slammed into Diane’s cheek.
The sheer force sent her body flying.
Narupa, who was equally displeased, saw Diane flying toward her and slammed the door shut.
Slam!
Her face collided with the door.
Drip.
Her nose began to bleed.
Diane hurriedly clutched her nose.
Pointing at the rosemary scattered across the floor, Diane tried to ask:
“I-if you don’t want it, I’ll take it—”
“Diane.”
But Alto cut her off.
“Get out of this castle right now.”
She let go of her nose.
Blood poured out in a rush.
Her eyes stung more than her nose.
“I’m sorry… I’ll go…”
Seized by the guards who had finally caught up, Diane was dragged away and tossed outside the castle gates.
Diane remained there for a long time, collapsed in a pathetic heap.
“See? I told you they’d hate it if you smelled.”
It’s not because of the smell.
“I’m going to the bathhouse today because I sweated a lot. Want to come along?”
Alto hates even looking at me.
Gurgle.
“And we’ll eat, too. My treat.”
Gurgle-gurgle.
“Th-thank you…”
Her nose was blocked with dried blood and tears were streaming from her eyes, so Diane thanked Eris in a mangled voice, breathing through her mouth.
Neither the nosebleed nor the tears would stop.
It was a pitiful sight, but no one there felt any sympathy for her.