Abandoned by my Childhood Friend, I Became a War Hero chapter 99

99 – Only Light #2

I have nightmares sometimes.

When I was young, I was afraid of the unknown. Things like ghosts under the bed or monsters in the dark woods. Such imaginary fears would appear as nightmares and make me anxious.

After I got a little older, I no longer had those nightmares. Instead, events from the past appeared as nightmares. The terrible experience that left invisible scars deep in my heart vividly reminded me of it and kept me awake at night.

On days when I had such a terrible dream, I would throw myself at the ghosts and monsters I once feared to forget the dream. I was no longer afraid of what was under the bed or in the dark woods.

But there were times in my life when the nightmares disappeared.

That was when Charlotte was by her side.

Charlotte used to calm me down when I had nightmares, and she would put my head on her lap and sing.

The only songs she knew were the chants she learned at her orphanage, but on nights like that, she could sleep peacefully without any nightmares.

Just like now.

“… ….”

When I woke up in the morning, my head was clear and refreshed.

Emotions such as anger, hatred, sadness, and resentment that were deeply embedded in the heart were quietly sinking to the bottom of the deep lake.

They did not disappear, precipitated under the surface of the water in my images. But at the same time, it didn’t even come out on the surface. You could bring them up again if you wanted to, but if you didn’t, they were just sitting deep out of sight.

Where is this anyway?

Looking around, the room was all white. I was lying on the bed, and in the room, only essential items were placed concisely so that there was no trace of the owner.

It was neatly organized, but it felt a bit empty.

Obviously the dark magic ran rampant and I remember the last time I saw Charlotte… Did Charlotte bring me here?

Then I heard footsteps walking into the room. The owner of the footsteps seemed to hesitate for a moment in front of the door, then carefully opened the door and poked his head out slightly to check the room.

Then our eyes met.

It was Charlotte.

“… !”

When Charlotte made eye contact with me, she was startled and she backed away as if she were running away. I spoke first before closing the door and turning around.

“Wait.”

Outside her door, I felt her stranded and stopped in her place.

I let out a short sigh.

I reflexively called him up, but after he called me, I only deepened my thoughts on what to do. However, it was impossible to keep the other person standing outside the door like this, so I finally opened my mouth after a short thought.

“… Come in at once We haven’t talked in a while.”

“… ….”

Through the door, Charlotte cautiously stuck her head out.

***

“… ….”

“… ….”

It’s awkward.

As if I wasn’t alone, Charlotte’s expression as she sat in the chair next to the bed was also awkward.

She couldn’t even make eye contact with me and kept her head down, twiddling her fingers without saying a word. It was a habit she often showed when she felt uncomfortable.

In the end, I was the one who spoke first.

Since we weren’t even close enough to have a friendly conversation, we decided to ask the most curious questions first.

“The dark magic must have run amok. Did you calm me down?”

Charlotte nodded her head slightly.

“As expected.”

I wasn’t too surprised because it was already expected. In order to suppress that amount of black magic, it would require the same amount of divine power.

Since the power of the great warrior is focused only on combat, the only person who can use magic to that extent with her own power is Charlotte, who is called a saint.

I honestly expressed my gratitude.

“Anyway… thanks. Thanks to that, I was able to calm down quickly.”

I don’t know how I came to know about it, but if Charlotte hadn’t appeared there then, I would have spread her dark magic around for a long time. Even if you move to a place where there are no people as much as possible, considerable damage would have occurred in the meantime.

She was helped, she just gave her due thanks, but she quickly blinked her enlarged eyes, like someone who had heard something completely unexpected.

“… ….”

And she smiled faintly. As if she was just doing what she was supposed to do.

Charlotte hesitated for a while, as if thinking deeply about something of hers, then carefully gathered the divine power in her fingertips. She then started writing down in the air so that I could see her.

[I’ve cleaned the area, so don’t worry.]

“Um….”

Charlotte didn’t say a word after starting the conversation, so I finally had to pull out the question that had been bothering me so far.

She said, “I heard she has aphasia… Was it real?”

Charlotte’s complexion darkened instantly.

She gave one tiny nod of her head. It was an obvious affirmation.

Since Charlotte left, news about her came naturally, even if you didn’t want to hear it. That’s because the hero’s party’s actions attracted the attention of many people of the empire.

But the most incomprehensible thing was the news that Charlotte had aphasia. There was no problem until she left me, but at some point, the title of ‘silent priest’ followed Charlotte.

There was a rumor in the world that she offered her voice to the goddess to defeat the demon king and obtained her favor, but in the end, it is not known if this is true.

“Why?”

She shook her head slowly, as if Charlotte couldn’t speak.

Looking at her deep, dark emotions in her downcast eyes, I intuitively knew that she wouldn’t respond no matter what I said.

Eventually, I stopped asking about her aphasia.

I decided to ask another question instead.

“Where is this place? I don’t think it’s the imperial palace.”

[This is my room in the cathedral. I thought I couldn’t leave it alone in the imperial palace. Sorry for moving without permission.]

“I don’t care about that, so it’s okay. But, this is your room… ?”

Leaving aside the fact that Charlotte lived in this bleak room devoid of any personal belongings, she realized that the bed I had been lying on was Charlotte’s.

Charlotte was embarrassed as her face blushed, and she hurriedly wrote down.

[Because this is the only place people don’t come to easily. It’s my room, but it’s a room I’ve hardly used for years. After arriving on the island, I needed a place to stay, so I spent a few days, but the bedding is all new, so you don’t have to worry.]

“Ah, yes… okay.”

If Charlotte didn’t mind, I didn’t mind either. After all, there was a time when sharing the same bed was only natural.

And then an awkward silence filled the room.

I was in the state of asking her Charlotte everything she wanted to ask, and she looked like she was at a loss what to do with the situation in which Charlotte was having this conversation with me from the beginning.

Looking at Charlotte like that, I felt strange.

She once wanted to ask Charlotte why she left me. Every time she thought of her hero who had taken her, her anger welled up, and every time she remembered that she had left me, she felt a pain as though a knife had been ripped through her chest.

But now, in this moment of meeting her after 15 years and having her conversation… My mind was very calm.

It wasn’t because of Myeonggyeongsu’s composure, nor was it because of Charlotte’s magic. It was simply that her love for Charlotte had faded and faded with the passage of time.

Her wounds left her scars, but they eventually healed anyway, and her love for her is now ‘there were times like that’

It has remained as a memory that comes to mind.

Since it has already been burned over the past 15 years, only a pile of cooled ashes remains where the residual fire has been extinguished.

From noble mtl dot com

So I decided to ask another question.

In a casual tone, as if meeting an old acquaintance after a long time.

“How have you been?”

Charlotte gave me a sad face at my question, and she neither affirmed nor denied. She seemed genuinely unsure of how to answer.

“Even after the war, I was always on the border. Wasn’t it difficult?”

[Of course it was something I had to do. Because I had to purify the contaminated land.]

She replied that it was something she had to do, but Charlotte still remained on the Ma continent until now, when many soldiers who had already gone through the war, including the heroes of Continent 7, had returned to their hometowns.

I felt that her actions caused her Charlotte and her own guilt. She said that even with the people she couldn’t protect, she still couldn’t leave her battlefield.

“You don’t have to.”

“…… ?”

“It means you don’t have to sacrifice so far.”

There must be many people Charlotte couldn’t protect.

However, just like her name as the saint of the battlefield, there were also a lot of people she saved.

A party of other warriors, or a Continental 7 hero, or even me, is now trying to get out of her battlefield and live her own life. But only Charlotte was still stuck in the war and she was a little nervous to remain there.

I hoped that he would stop making such a guilty expression.

Because if she could find her own happiness, I felt like her heart would be a little lighter too.

“Forget everything, now live your own life.”

I continued in a calm voice.

“Because I live like that too.”

At my words, Charlotte’s expression instantly turned to stone.

She suddenly jumped up from her seat, and then she turned her back and walked away from me.

“… Shallot?”

Charlotte did not look back at my call.

She left her room and disappeared, leaving only one tear of her own.