2. Rachel Cardia – (12)
***
Clap.
As time passed, the size of the embers in the bonfire gradually decreased, and soon a small haze was lit and only the sound of branches burning occasionally soothed the silence of the space.
Rachel stared blankly at her bonfire, which continued to burn, and sighed lightly, stroking her hand.
How did you come up with such a thing?
She wondered if she should have said such a thing. The more she thought about it, the more she felt heat rise in her face.
In my heart, I just wanted to leave this place right now.
But if you leave this place or if you stop talking…. So, there was no point in bringing up the past and talking about it.
Rachel, who had been fiddling with her own red hair, slowly opened her mouth to see if she was not easily falling off.
She said, “I don’t know how many times she has been betrayed by someone she trusted. There were many people who approached me simply because of my appearance, or people who were greedy for the items I had. At least there were people who tried to monopolize the reward right before completing the request and hit the back of the head.”
“… ….”
“So. The words I asked you to believe in people….”
Rachel, who stopped her words as if to catch her breath, opened her mouth as if to carefully confess.
“That just means… It’s because I’ve been betrayed too many times in the past.”
As she brings out her words, she takes a glance at the guy. She had such a calm expression, she didn’t say anything even while listening to her own words.
Then, perhaps conscious of the embers of the bonfire, she sometimes threw nearby tree branches into the bonfire.
I couldn’t think of anything else besides that he looked so calm.
I don’t even want to think of myself… Except for the moment when he spat out those words, he always stayed that way the whole time he was listening to him.
No answer, no question about any part, none of the things she had expected from him when she said it.
That’s why I was more anxious.
“What happened after…. That’s why I acted like I was trying to attack you even for a moment. Because you treat me so easily So it was.”
To be honest, I didn’t understand why he acted to such an extent.
From noble mtl dot com.
It was as if he was possessed by something.
I was so emotional at that moment.
But even if I thought about all of that, there was no reason to tell him about the past, which I didn’t want to think about, just to make him understand.
Because he can’t rebel against himself even if he just flirts and moves on.
Because you are the one with the power, and he is clearly the weak one.
I sure did….
The reason why he opened his mouth now was because he wanted the guy to understand his thoughts.
Or at least, if his actions were left as a terrible memory to him, he felt like he was committing a very big sin, so he couldn’t bear to gloss over it.
“I was thinking that I wouldn’t do it until the end.”
Rachel met Ed’s gaze at the sudden voice.
Even the person who said it casually looked so calm that I doubted whether it was the same person who blushed and panicked just before.
And while she was staring at herself, it was as if she was asking if she had anything more to say.
And for some reason, it was as if she had something in mind that made her act like that. She seemed to be willing to listen to her excuses.
The figure of the guy looking at himself with an unconcerned face attracted his own attention.
It looked so strange.
I couldn’t understand it at all.
My head was confused.
As I stared blankly at the guy like that, I just spit out the words that were swirling in my head without realizing it.
“So. What I’m trying to say is, don’t trust people too easily. Even if I saved you, the truth is that I was the one who tried to kill you. Like now… Don’t look at me and act casually, I can kill you anytime. And whenever it hits you… Yeah, that’s not weird either. Don’t be so defenseless.”
Even though it was his own words, he didn’t think he would understand what he was saying. In fact, he clearly sensed that even he, who had brought the words out, was talking gibberish.
That’s how much his words were messed up.
So I bit my lip and unknowingly let out a deep sigh.
‘What are you talking about stupidly?’
Clap.
As if a brief silence reappeared, only the sound of a bonfire burning could be heard in each other’s ears.
***
Arriving near the outskirts of the city where the last traces of Ed’s disappearance were found, Ashera slowly stopped her steps.
At the same time, the knights who followed Ashera disappeared as if they were permeating the darkness, guarding all directions.
“A place like this… Hard to find.”
The place where Ed’s traces are said to have been cut off was a place where people’s footsteps were especially rare among the outskirts of the city. Glia was the first place she had ever seen even herself, having been born and raised in the city.
A lot of flimsy buildings like ruins were standing there as if they were abandoned, and there were few signs that people were living there.
Even within the city of Glia, it was like a thoroughly abandoned place.
Buck and go.
Asera moved her steps carefully examining her surroundings, she was soon able to discover a place that was different from her surroundings.
Traces of the ground being dug up.
Even the footprints of common people did not remain properly.
How careful do you have to be to do something like this?
Even if Ed’s skill was limited to that of a high-ranking knight, he was definitely someone who had mastered the Glead family’s swordsmanship.
Unlike rubbish like Bledian Glad, he would have resisted.
Asera looked carefully at the deeply dug holes in the ground and found bloodstains everywhere and took a deep breath.
Ashera’s hand holding her sword trembled.
“Blue Wave….”
Because he knew the swordsmanship of the Gleard family, he was the only trace that could be distinguished.
Ed defended the opponent’s blow with a blue wave, but Ed rolled as if bouncing off the ground.
The first ground dug up. The proof was that there were countless auras engraved on it.
Judging from the direction it bounced from, there are no more traces of the aura on the ground. The blue wave simply meant that it was broken intact by the opponent’s first blow.
‘He’s a pretty talented person.’
Even though he was a high-ranking knight, he understood how high Ed’s proficiency with the older brother of the blue waves was. If he simply insisted on defense, it would be impossible to defeat Ed in one blow, even if he was a top-notch knight.
However, the opponent broke Ed’s blue wave with a single blow. That soon meant that his skill had surpassed that of a minimum knight of the highest rank.
“Please….”
Ashera closed her eyes tightly and let out a small breath.
Her ever-trembling hand continued to grip her own sword as if she were leaning on something.
The fact that Ed is still alive…. The thought faded and it seemed that her hope was fading away.
Even though she kept trying to erase that anxiety, it continued to capture her as if it were filling her heart, and her heart sank over and over again.
As the atmosphere shook around Ashera, a faint blue haze continued to rise.
Ashera, who calmed her mind for a moment as if she was slowly catching her breath, opened her eyes.
‘Suck!’
Several knights who watched her situation closely, as if escorting her from a distance, breathed in vain.
Asera Glaade Her eyes were fiercely shining like the deepest blue flames. Even in the thick darkness that gripped the outskirts, it was shining quietly.
Even the high-level knights who had reached the highest level hurriedly averted their gaze because they could not face the momentary momentum.
‘The status is different.’
Glenn, who volunteered to escort Ashera as her highest-ranking knight, had no choice but to come up with such an idea.
Ashera, expressing her silent anger, felt a force that fiercely oppressed her space despite the distance.
Who escorts whom?
Of most of the knights here right now, none has reached the level of her Asera Glaade.
It was as if I was facing the momentum that Eisen Glade displays when she seizes her seat.
“… ….”
Unlike the knights who held her breath, Ashera opened her eyes and slowly followed the bloodstain to examine her ground once more.
She had to find the trail somehow.
She couldn’t give up.
No, how can I give up?
She couldn’t give up until she saw him with her own eyes.
She could not extinguish with her own hands the spark of hope if even the slightest spark remained.
The ground with the most traces.
Among those traces, I arrived at a place engraved as if a small groove had been dug.
A strange groove as if a sword had been pressed down.
Taking her own sword and fitting it there, it felt similarly going into the groove.
“Ed… you are.”
Ed must have felt the overwhelming gap he faced.
Even so, it seemed to remind me of the image of him supporting himself with a sword without giving up.
“No one can deny… I am a knight of the Glaad family.”
With her words finished, Ashera began to focus all her consciousness on it as she slowly dispersed her own mana in the air.