154 – Taming the Madman (14)
It was a complicated state of mind.
Are you dreaming?
Who the hell is Liza?
Didn’t you say you were an orphan? Are there any missing family members? It was not the man’s name.
She’s a lost sister, maybe she’s a lover.
A man like this maniac lives with someone in his heart.
Damian was struggling as if possessed by a ghost.
Maybe he wasn’t as crazy as the escort because he was already possessed by a ghost.
Bibi left behind the bitterness she didn’t know why and took off Damian’s clothes.
Your body is still as hot as if it was heated by fire.
I carefully wiped the soaked sweat with a towel.
Just a few days ago, Damien was the man who wiped Bibi’s feet, but now Bibi steps in and waits on him.
The structure of the relationship has been completely overturned, but there is no sense of humiliation or defeat.
These two faced a catastrophic tsunami, and it had been a long time since all emotions smaller than the size of the wave were swept away.
The only thing left for Bibi is the will to survive and her faith in this man.
She looked at Damian and thought for a moment. She then slowly leaned over and moved her lips to Damian’s forehead.
She said as she lightly kissed her on the forehead.
“…… Please wake up from your nightmare.”
He was clearly in a life-or-death crisis, but this man had no doubt that it would happen.
***
I woke up in a cabin that was about to collapse. A faint light comes in from the window frame of the collapsed cabin. I couldn’t tell if it was early evening or late morning.
I first looked at the wounds. There are traces of patching the wound with a patch of medicinal material.
I looked around. Traces of someone lighting a fire and preparing decoctions remain intact. It wasn’t a very hygienic environment, but… It shows signs of caring for the circumstances.
And the baboon snores quietly while sleeping next to me.
Both mine and Bibi’s outerwear are hanging on the wall, probably hand-washed and wet.
Her hair was tangled up and parts of her body and face were mottled like a beggar, but her aristocratic, lofty features were still prominent. The heavenly nobility must be right.
When I try to raise her up, I see that Bibi’s right hand is dragged out as well. Again, my hands and ropes were intertwined. You can never miss this one Very diligent too.
Thinking of her hard work, she untied her knot this time without cutting her rope.
My body is heavy, but my condition is gradually returning to normal. It seems Bibi did something, but it seems to have worked. She wasn’t without talent at all. Contrary to her appearance, Bibi is adaptable.
When I went outside, it was dawn. It was as if she had been passed out for half of her entire day.
While she was warming up, Bibi also got up at some point and followed her, rubbing her eyes in a disheveled manner.
She grabbed the end of her untied rope and held it out in front of her.
It seemed that her throat was locked and she couldn’t speak, but she shook her rope as if she was protesting why she had undone it.
“… You can rest more.”
“You… Ha ha… I was asleep all day long, but I barely woke up at dawn while taking care of you.”
“If you’re not looking for breakfast together, take a break.”
“I really can’t stop it. You died last night and came back to life. If you wander alone with an incomplete body and go crazy or fall into a swamp, who will save you? This is our only lifeline. It’s not that I don’t particularly like it.”
Bibi came in front of me and, as if she didn’t bother tying the knot, I wrapped the rope around her wrist and dragged her into the cabin.
“….”
“I prepared all the meals.”
She staggered back to her seat and went back to sleep.
***
After a simple breakfast, Bibi blankly looks at her wood fire. The grim look on her face made it seem like she had a similar problem inside of her as mine.
Then she suddenly lifted her head, stared at me, and threw a bombshell.
“Who the hell is Liza?”
“… ?”
For a moment, I thought my heart would sink. How does she know this girl?
“I heard you muttering while you were wandering between death and near death.”
“….”
“Doesn’t she have a younger sister that she broke up with a long time ago? When you return to the principality, I will use my strength to prepare a place for you.”
“I never said that.”
“No. I listened carefully.”
“You must have heard that wrong.”
“Why deny it? Or are you a lover that you want to hide from others?”
I jumped up and packed my things. Accordingly, Vivi’s right arm connected to me fluttered in the air without a pulse.
“This is no time to procrastinate.”
Vivi’s eyes, which have been staring at her, get bigger and bigger.
“…… That’s right. She was right too. She lives with a lover in a corner of her heart even if she is a selfish person like you. Now that I see it, it’s quite human.”
“Let’s go.”
Even if I pull her rope, the baboon doesn’t move at all. He averted his gaze from me and looked downcast without knowing why.
“Why are you so low on energy?”
“What are you talking about? I am full of energy.”
She had a drooping face like a child complaining about side dishes.
“You look sluggish.”
“You must be mistaken. I am more energetic than ever.”
“….”
Bibi reluctantly gets up and she gets up and packs her clothes. Then she asked me
“Are you already engaged?”
“….”
As I continued to remain silent, Bibi started talking gibberish by herself.
“Yeah, that’s right. I, too, have eleven seats in the principality. They are the children of well-known wealthy people and dukes.”
“I see.”
“I didn’t want to go back to the principality because I was bothered to meet him. I died early, and after that I will rule the principality, who could not covet it… No, of course, I’m not saying I’ll meet anyone, but I’ll carefully select strong and strong seeds…… It will go through years of rigorous screening. It got really annoying….”
“You have a picture in your head of when you died. Fortunately, the.”
It seems that he has found some energy. If he had judged that there was no hope, he would have considered the position of the principality and everything meaningless.
“… Of course. I will return alive with you.”
“By the way, those aristocrats don’t necessarily have positions because they covet power.”
“… What did you mean by that?”
“Isn’t the princess beautiful?”
“… !”
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Bibi’s eyes become round in an instant. She opened her mouth blankly like a goldfish, then immediately regained her composure, and she cut it off.
“You talk empty words well. Don’t say anything weird. If your fiancee knew, I would grab her by the back of the neck and fall.”
She said it lightly to change the atmosphere, but it didn’t have much effect. On the contrary, I feel like I went against her planting.
She turns her back to me and folds her coat. Whether to put on her clothes or just go, she hesitantly stamped her feet and turned around.
“No, that’s right. There is something you should see.”
Then she moves towards the table in the cabin. She dropped the clothes she was holding on to while rummaging through her remaining utensils the day before while preparing the potion, and she picks it up again in amazement alone. The furniture I was rummaging about suddenly fell and made a crackling sound. It feels like her hands are wandering around, unable to find a place to go.
Why do you look so flustered?
“Are you okay?”
“… This damn pot.”
Bibi holds an old notebook of hers and holds it out to me.
I received this and glanced through it, and the alchemy recipe caught my eye.
“Recipe… ?”
“Oh, that’s not it.”
Bibi noisily lifts the furniture again. She then picked up another note and handed it to me.
“This is it.”
“….”
The newly received notebook contained the journals of the residents who settled here.
“I discovered it by accident. There she wrote down how to get to the owner of this land.”
“Where are you?”
“It was written near the last page.”
“Can I read it for a minute?”
“Never mind me.”
Bibi clears her throat, then puts her hands together and sneaks back. I hurriedly flipped through the pages.
In the meantime, Bibi looked at the distant mountains and occasionally glanced at me and brushed her hair with her hand.
Because that figure subtly distracted me, I brought the notebook closer to my eyes.
What Bibi said was not a specific way to go to God.
[Barbisia is a prison of the soul. Life born and raised on this earth cannot leave this earth even if it dies. Even the soul. Even if you take your own life, you cannot break the eternal cycle.]
[The spirits wandering the swamp are jealous and jealous of life on earth, and sometimes appear to us in human form. They thread innocent souls and offer them to the gods of this land. In return, they receive a new body from God. Don’t take a drink from an evil spirit. It sacrificed my family.]
[Don’t sing sad songs in the swamp. Demons recognize a lonely and wounded being.]
[When the gods are angry, the midday sun also falls. If you want to live, you must hide. Avoid the eyes of the gods, kill all the remaining lanterns and lie flat in the dark.]
But it was a helpful enough hint.
“Who is the owner of this notebook?”
“She was the woman who lived next door. She now has only her bones left.”
“Were there any other notes worth noting?”
“Most of them were moldy and unrecognizable, and all that was left were ledgers and diaries that were meaningless.”
“… And that’s it. Does the princess know who we are dealing with?”
“Of course. Aren’t you trying to meet the owner of this land or something?”
“…… It will be very dangerous. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe it would be better for me to leave the princess here and go alone.”
Bibi shook her head.
“I have no intention of untangling you. We are a community of destiny. If you die… I die too That’s all.”
Confirming Vivi’s will, she nodded her head thoughtfully.
“… All right.”
Bibi grinned as she put her hand on my cheek and said.
“I look forward to the day when we will join hands and return to the principality. When that time comes…… I will introduce you to my father myself.”
***
Now we are nearing the end.
It is to directly encounter the phantom beast of Barbisia.
The old woman who used strange magic is now dead, and the crows that watched over us are gone.
And the blue deer that used to guide me doesn’t show up anymore.
As if there were signs of an earthquake that humans cannot detect, not a single rat was seen around the village.
In the village radius, dead and bony black trees and water fog. There was a strangely still silence.
We are ready to depart. The baboon stretched once and looked back at me.
I nod her head and she leads the way. I followed her.
Bibi began to sing lightly in her sweet voice.
“You are sitting in front of my grave today as well.”
“I can no longer hold the bouquet you placed, but I will go to heaven with only the beautiful memories.”
We walked out into the swamp, keeping pace with the sad melody.
And I watched the back of the baboon and occasionally looked up at the sky.
It’s clear without clouds, but it’s dark like early evening, even though it’s the time I just came out of breakfast.
I am no longer swayed by ominous omens. Because I’ve already made up my mind.
Even if you were hanging out in that village, you would have been able to meet the god of Barbisia. Since all the carefully prepared sacrifices were destroyed, it is impossible to leave us alone.
Nevertheless, there was only one reason why we went out first.
I didn’t want to be the prey.
I wanted to become a hunter myself and bite the beast’s neck.