Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Translator : Elizabeth
“Don’t you… remember? I, 7 years ago, sla….”
My hand shot out the instant I heard the ‘sla’ in slave. As I hesitated and dawdled about following her, it seemed Haley thought I couldn’t recall her.
“I, I know! I just remembered! C-Calm down for a second.”
I covered Haley’s mouth and stammered to prevent any more shameful past from leaking out of that small mouth. What is she trying to say right here? Despite the touch on her face, Haley just looked up at me blankly with an innocent face, blinking her eyes. There were too many watching eyes nearby to talk about old times right now.
Lowering my posture slightly, I murmured quietly so only Haley could hear.
“For now, my house is over there, you know? Let’s go there and talk.”
Then, nod. At Haley’s short nod, only then did I remove my hand from her mouth, where I could feel her breath.
“What’s going on? Do you know each other?” “Ye… a little bit from a long time ago. It’s nothing special, so everyone can go back to what they were doing.”
After vaguely glossing over the surprised village chief’s question, I pulled her unbudging arm as if escaping and urged us to leave this spot. Although the grabbed wrist still hadn’t been released, Haley’s body, which had been motionless like a rock, began to move.
Curious gazes of the residents felt from behind my back. After walking while trying hard to ignore those gazes, I was able to bring Haley into the house, which was silent as the dead.
A house where a retired man lives alone. Far from snacks to serve, there is only one chair.
“Sit here. Though I don’t have anything to serve.”
After giving up the only chair like that, I stood opposite the chair, crossed my arms, stood crookedly, and spoke. There was truly a mountain of questions I could throw at her about why she came and how she had been doing, but…. Right now, at this moment, the first question that came to mind was just one. How did she know where I was and come here?
“How did you know to come here?”
At the short question, Haley bowed her head and hesitated. If she’s a Ruby-rank adventurer, she must have a lot of information or authority given to her. Don’t tell me, she had someone chase me? What is she trying to do by taking a retired me?
Just as I was holding onto my tension, wondering what words would come out. What flowed from her small mouth was an absurd answer.
“While searching all the cities and villages on the map….” “Whaaaat?”
An answer that made me spit out a dumbfounded sigh unknowingly. Literally, without any clues, she was in the middle of searching through all the cities and villages on the map at random. Should I call this honest, or should I call it foolish…. Thanks to that, the tension I was holding onto completely flew away.
—What are they saying? —I don’t know, I can’t hear well. —Open it slightly.
As the tension lifted, murmuring presence and faint voices could be heard near the house. The villagers were stuck close together like moths gathering around a campfire near the house due to the rare spectacle.
“Haa….”
If you’re going to hold your breath, then at least don’t make your presence known. I flung open the closed window, stuck my head out, and spoke.
“Now, now, hurry and disperse! You’re not letting us talk.” “Eyy, does it hurt to listen together?” “Yes, yes, it’s something that hurts, so please go.”
Whoosh whoosh, at the hand gesture flapping as if annoyed, the residents dispersed while making grumbling sounds like ‘Tch’, ‘Che’. I know it’s a rare spectacle, but even so, there are stories to share and stories that cannot be shared.
“Sigh.”
After sending away the residents overflowing with useless curiosity, I let out a short sigh and faced Haley. Snow-white silver hair like high-quality silk and jewel-like blue eyes. I thought she would grow up to be pretty since she was young, but examining her calmly, she really grew up to be a beauty.
“…You quit being a slave trader, right?”
As I looked down at Haley sitting quietly, Haley, who had been waiting quietly, asked briefly. Stride, I took a step closer and covered that mouth with the back of my hand. Then, I looked around with an anxious gaze.
No presence is felt. Only then did I take my hand off Haley’s mouth. Although blocking it was late, I’ll say it even now.
“Th-For now, don’t bring up the slave trader talk… absolutely.”
—Nod.
At the sincere request, Haley’s face moved up and down. There is a reason for keeping her mouth shut to this extent. Slave trader, which was once legal for the time being even if the perception was bad. In a time when buying and selling people was natural, it ended with just receiving uncomfortable gazes, but…. Arriving at the present, 7 years later, it is treated as a criminal. It was on the same level as thieves, bandits, or monsters. Actually, if one were ‘still’ doing slave trading, it wouldn’t be much different from that perception, though.
Anyway, if the fact that I was a former slave trader becomes known, regardless of how my evaluation has been until now, it will plummet to hell. In the worst case, I could be chased out of the village. I even achieved a rich farming life capable of self-sufficiency with great effort; I couldn’t let that happen.
“…So, why did you come?”
I throw a short question at Haley again. For now, I understood how she came. Because even if it didn’t make sense, it wasn’t impossible. But, what is the reason she found me while going to such lengths? It was far beyond the limit to just call it an effort to find an old acquaintance.
A long silence flowed even after the question ended. Haley, who was staring at me without a word, lifted her butt from the old chair, walked over with big strides, and lightly held my hand. A hardness that cannot be felt from the hands of children this size. The inside of Haley’s hand was full of calluses.
“I, learned a lot from Grandpa about how to become strong.”
Haley stared blankly down at my hand she was holding, then murmured softly as if wishing for an answer. If she says Grandpa, is she talking about old man Gent?
‘What on earth did he teach the kid?’
While recalling old man Gent whom I had completely forgotten, I also recalled the weight of the title attached to Haley.
Ruby-rank. A modifier of glory given to only one adventurer in an era. No matter how much talent she had, there must have inevitably been tremendous effort to reach that position. Having indirectly felt a fragment of that effort from the held hand, I could do nothing but wait for the words that would follow from Haley’s mouth.
“I made a lot of money too, I became incredibly strong, so….”
—Please, don’t leave me behind anymore.
A few words echoing as if breaking from a trembling voice. Although Haley’s hands had grown quite a bit, they were still small enough to hold one of my hands with both of hers. Unconsciously, I reached out with the hand that wasn't held and stroked that snow-white crown as if messing it up.
I thought it was the best choice for me, but did that also become a wound to Haley? That time when I entrusted Haley to old man Gent. Suddenly, the words the old man said while clicking his tongue came to mind.
—Tsk, have you heard the kid’s thoughts?
The gaze of young Haley looking up at me blankly. Was that, perhaps, a signal not to leave her behind? The me of that time had no room to care for others. Because the barrier to jobs in the city was too high, and it was a situation where I had to solve an unclear future with the money in hand. Since it felt like it would become an act close to double suicide if I took on a kid in such a plight, I made the decision to leave for the countryside after entrusting them to those around me, even if it was shameless.
The kids I entrusted would surely be doing better than me. Thinking like that, I made them blurry in my memory. One of such children returned like this. Having become a tycoon called a Ruby-rank adventurer, but with an appearance not much different from 7 years ago.
Haley dropping tears drip drip at the pain of reunion. The sound of intermittent sniffling scratched my ears.
“…For now, it might be uncomfortable, but rest well today.”
Since I couldn’t bear to chase her away in this situation, I decided to keep Haley in the house, wrapping it up with the words ‘for now’. Since she came in a carriage to this distant rural backwater, surely the fatigue of a long journey must have accumulated.
I take down the cleanest cloth among the laundry hung up. While wiping Haley’s face as if it were natural. On the clean face that didn’t match the calluses on her hands, dingy marks remained wherever the cloth passed. I brought it because it was the cleanest cloth. Since I wash and use it dozens of times, it can’t be helped. While chewing on such regret inwardly, I naturally direct the cloth that was wiping tears to Haley’s nose. Soon, the sound of blowing her nose honk is heard. I used to soothe Haley like this in the past too.
The night that settled on the rural village was silent. Only the howling of an unidentified beast could be heard occasionally from beyond the forest. I stop enduring outside and enter the house. The night air is still cold. A situation where Haley, drunk on longing and tears, is borrowing my bed to sleep. Even the figure curled up in the cold looked pitiful somewhere. While lifting the chair so as not to make a sound and placing it next to the bed. The tears welling up on the swollen eyelids caught my eye. Did she cry a little even while sleeping? Even as I tried to wipe the corners of her eyes slightly, I couldn't do it for fear that she would wake up at even that weak stimulation.
“Mister….”
As I withdrew my hand slightly, Haley murmured small in her sleep. What kind of dream are you dreaming right now?