Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: #7 Memories (2)
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One would normally picture the sun setting as the world draped in darkness, silent and still.
But that day was different.
“Young Lady!”
“Young Master!”
The servants from both families had turned the whole neighborhood upside down searching for Elric and Tiria, who hadn’t returned home.
For Tiria, it was a heart-stopping, nerve-wracking ordeal.
But Elric, seemingly used to it, just smiled brightly as he led her along.
“Let’s go! I’ll show you my secret hideout!”
The place he took her to was under a stone bridge at the edge of the village.
A tent hung cozily there, and even in the shaded spot, it didn’t feel damp.
Once inside the completely sealed-off tent, Elric lit a lantern.
In the flickering light, his cheeky face showed not a trace of worry.
Tiria found it fascinating and asked.
“Aren’t you scared?”
“Of what?”
“If we get caught... we’ll be in so much trouble....”
It wouldn’t just be a scolding.
There would surely be punishments far worse than anything before, and maybe she’d be confined so strictly she could never go outside again.
When she asked if that didn’t frighten him, his answer was the same as before.
“It’s fine! Dad doesn’t care about me anyway!”
He said it proudly, but the shadow lurking somewhere in his words was easy to spot.
Seeing this sullen side on a boy she’d thought was all bravado was entirely new to Tiria.
That must have been why her curiosity about Elric deepened.
Feelings of kinship and sympathy layered over the way she looked at him.
She wanted to ask.
What’s your family like? Why are things bad between you and them? How do you endure it when they make life hard?
But before she could voice her questions, Elric spoke first.
“I’m the kid who ate my mom to be born.”
Tiria’s fingertips twitched.
Elric stared blankly at the lantern flame and continued.
“They say I was too big, so it was hard for Mom to give birth to me. They even called in doctors from the capital, but in the end, she couldn’t hold on.”
“...”
“They say Dad bawled his eyes out that day. I can’t really imagine it. My dad’s always stone-faced.”
Crackle, crackle.
The lantern flame danced wildly.
The wavering light rippled across Elric’s face too.
Was it his words, or the mood?
It seemed to paint sorrow across his features.
“I hardly ever talk to Dad. He doesn’t talk to me much.”
Elric was holding a stick.
He swung it through the air, staring at the tip, then finally spoke.
He grinned as he did.
“So I’m gonna become a knight.”
“...Out of nowhere?”
“What do you mean, out of nowhere? Don’t you get it?!”
“...?”
Tiria couldn’t understand.
Her common sense was too solid to connect a bad relationship with his father to becoming a knight.
Elric sighed.
Then he shook his head emphatically and explained.
“If I become a knight, I’ll outrank Dad. Plus, it’s cool. He won’t be able to look down on me anymore, right?”
Elric crossed his arms smugly.
Tiria blinked a few times, then nodded.
“...Yeah.”
It was a half-hearted agreement since she had nothing to argue.
Elric exploded, “This is why you can’t talk to girls!”
Tiria apologized out of habit.
“Sorry.”
“Huh? Why are you sorry?”
“Just...”
“Don’t apologize without a reason, you dummy. You’ll just look weak.”
It was still baffling logic.
But unlike his dream of becoming a knight, this one sank right into her heart.
The idea that she didn’t have to apologize was utterly foreign to Tiria back then.
Feeling a strange tickle inside, she bowed her head.
Then, her face heating up, she replied in a trembling voice.
“...Okay, then I won’t be sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah. If someone asks what you did wrong, chuck a rock at their face! They won’t say it again!”
“Pfft...”
She laughed.
Tiria laughed so hard she wondered if she’d ever laughed like that before.
That was when she learned that laughing out loud meant joy.
She liked the boy who taught her that a little more.
Of course, it wasn’t love yet.
Up to then, Elric was just a strange, fascinating peer to her—a fun kid to hang out with.
That was how she saw their bond.
Hilariously, it was that very night when her view changed.
It was late, sleep weighing heavily on her eyelids, and Elric was already nodding off with his head lolling.
Winter was approaching, so the night air was bitterly cold.
Unable to fight the drowsiness any longer, Elric pulled out a blanket and said.
“Come here. Time to sleep.”
There was only one blanket, but it was big enough for two kids.
Elric hugged Tiria close and wrapped the blanket around them before lying down.
Tiria stiffened.
Elric patted her back soothingly.
“Doing this helps you fall asleep. My nursemaid does it sometimes.”
Tiria had never heard of that.
But sure enough, his patting relaxed her body.
As the tension melted away, so did her mind.
Only then did she recall the previous day’s events.
Tears suddenly welled up.
“Uuugh....”
It was probably the extreme temperature difference.
The brutal swing of her father’s hand as he yelled was worlds apart from Elric’s gentle patting and soft voice.
“Huuuugh....”
She hadn’t known a person’s body heat could feel this warm.
Her parents had never held her.
Every night, Tiria fretted about tomorrow as she drifted off.
Whether she could follow tomorrow’s lessons, or if she’d get hit again.
So this was the first time.
Tiria wasn’t afraid of tomorrow, for the first time.
“Kuugh....”
“What’s wrong?”
“Huuu....”
“You’re crying again. You’re really gonna be the king of crybabies.”
Tears just kept flowing endlessly.
Elric grumbled but didn’t stop patting her back.
Tiria was so grateful.
Burying her face in his chest deepened the warmth.
It felt warmer than her cozy mansion room—the boy’s body heat under the bridge tent heated her from the inside out.
That must have been why.
Tiria fell asleep that night without nightmares.
Instead, she dreamed of basking in the sun on a gentle hill.
Even in the dream, the warmth felt so real—until she realized why the next morning.
She’d clung to Elric all night, sharing his warmth right up to waking.
When morning light finally broke and she opened her eyes, still seeing him there, Tiria realized.
‘I’m not scared.’
With Elric, falling asleep and waking up held no fear.
He made it that way.
This boy could be a mighty shield, fearless against anything in the world.
It was a child’s innocent heart, but precious all the same.
It made her own heart flutter.
She didn’t want to let go, wanted to stay close forever.
Such childish notions took eternity for granted—and that was the essence of first love.
Even though she’d lived without him until then, now she felt she couldn’t live without him.
Giggling, Tiria fidgeted with her hands.
That woke Elric.
“Ugh... stuffy.”
He cracked his eyes open, frowning.
Wrapped tightly in the blanket, their faces were so close their noses nearly touched.
Tiria’s heart pounded.
Even sleepy, his eyes were clear, like a fairy-tale prince.
“Eugh, ugly.”
...If only he kept his mouth shut.
“Move your face. It’s scary.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No. And I’m not sorry.”
That day, Tiria finally found a dream.
Not one for sleep, but a real aspiration.
She wanted to fall asleep and wake up with Elric every day.
And she knew how to make it happen.
“I want to marry you.”
Her father and teacher always said marriage meant living together every day.
A girl who’d lived by others’ desires until awakening her own spoke boldly and bluntly.
But there was one thing Tiria didn’t know then.
“No way? You’re ugly.”
Marriage was, by nature, mutual consent.
“And I’m gonna marry a peerless beauty. Aldio says knights live with beauties.”
That day’s Elric was an infuriating six-year-old, too immature for his own good.