193 – EP.34 The Forgotten Past -7
After all preparations, we finally came out.
To be honest, I came out with only simple things to the point where it would be ambiguous to call it preparation, but even the smallest preparations were important.
In fact, it was less cold thanks to the raincoat I wore instead of outerwear.
“Master, tell me whenever you feel cold. I’ll hug you tight!”
“Ugh….”
If I didn’t have a raincoat, I would have had to watch Lumadia hug me all the way to the hall.
I think I did a really good job bringing it.
“Come to think of it, I said Lumadia was a divine beast, right?”
“Right! Wasn’t she very surprised when she introduced herself?”
“Huh? Yes… ….”
“Looking at the lukewarm reaction of the owner, it must have been my mistake.”
“It’s embarrassing to say that, but I wanted to ask because I didn’t know what Shinsoo was.”
The other family said they knew about Shinsoo from the age of 5, but I was quite late.
I learned about Shinsoo at the age of 15 when I was hospitalized for a long time due to a sudden traffic accident.
In order to appease the boredom of hospitalized life, I read several books, and among them, I came across a book about Shinsoo by chance.
The ripple power of Shinsoo is obviously strong, but incidents related to Shinsoo are usually at a level that only occurs once in 100 years.
Above all, I had to take care of my own business, so I didn’t have time to pay attention to the word Shinsoo.
That’s why learning was inevitable.
‘It’s so strange that I’m now the companion of divine beasts.’
Anyway, at this time I didn’t know anything about Shinsoo, so it’s only natural to ask Rumadia.
And now I was also curious about what kind of answer Rumadia would give me.
I know Shinsoo as a human point of view, but I was looking forward to it because I didn’t know what it would be like from the point of view of the same Shinsoo.
Because I’ve never asked this kind of question to other divines before.
“Ahang! It was like that! That’s right, Shinsura…….”
Although Rumadia showed a light attitude, she began to think about it quite seriously.
The sight of her repeating her troubles while spitting out a muffled drool even made me nervous.
Through that, the words that finally came out of Rumadia’s mouth were shocking.
“Ahahahaha! I’m sorry, but I don’t know either!”
“Huh? But isn’t Rumadia a divine beast? But does she still not know about Shinsoo?”
“Yes. There are many divine beasts who refer to themselves as untouchable supreme beings or guardians of nature, but I don’t think I am that kind of being.”
“The Supreme Being… ? Nature’s Guardian… ?”
“Were the words a bit difficult? To put it simply, the majority of divine beasts are those who want to protect the ecosystem. We do our best to maintain the harmony of animals and plants living in nature and to prevent and restore nature from damage or destruction.”
“Isn’t it like the old man who shouts to protect the environment every day? I’ve seen a lot of people like that!”
“Hmm, I guess the scale is different, right? Unlike humans, divine beasts use their own special powers to protect Mother Nature.”
“Then, is Rumadia’s ability also the ability to protect nature?”
The tone was full of excitement, it seems that now I am expecting Lumadia’s ability.
But when Ruma Dia heard my question, she erased her bright smile and showed a bitter smile.
As if my words touched her in a bad place.
“No, I would rather the ecosystem…… It is a being that destroys nature.”
“Why? Isn’t Rumadia a divine beast too?”
“That’s why I don’t agree with the statement that all divine beasts are nature’s guardians. Because I am an exceptional divine being.”
“An unusual divine beast? Are you saying that Lumadia is not an ordinary divine beast?”
“…… Do you remember when I introduced myself in front of you the other day?”
“Yes.”
“Then immortal blood flows through my body?”
“I remember.”
The figure of Rumadia who endlessly undermined herself, saying that she was cursed.
As much as that appearance, her impression was strong and I remembered it clearly.
It makes you wonder what the hell her story was about that made her fall into self-loathing.
“Then, from now on, Master will explain each one in an easy-to-understand way. Who I am, what my abilities are, and even the blood that runs through my body.”
On the way to the town hall.
The story that Ruma Dia told me was a lengthy biography of her outcast.
***
“I have been alone since I was born. When I first opened my eyes, my parents were gone and I was alone in a dark cave.”
“Ah… It must have been very difficult.”
“No, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. Shinsoos are born with the intelligence and power to think and judge for themselves. I can’t say for sure, but most Shinsoos will.”
Rumadia is right.
I remember looking into Miho’s past.
Miho, who made a contract with me, who was just born with intelligence and behavior that I couldn’t think of as a newborn baby.
When I thought about that, it was good to say that there was no infancy of divine beasts.
At least, the precedent of a divine beast with an immature infancy is Tia, but according to government agencies and Yata’s opinion, Tia’s hatching will originally happen after several more decades have passed.
However, for some reason, the incubation period was advanced, and Tia, who was born that early, remained in a hatchling state.
In other words, it was said that Tia would have been a Jackie Chan if hatched on time as scheduled, and it was correct to assume that there were no infancy of divine beasts.
“Still, being alone from the beginning is lonely.”
“It wasn’t like that at first. Since I was alone so much, I thought that being alone was a natural world and reason.”
“So, did Lumadia live alone in the cave all this time?”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t completely alone, and sometimes there were wild animals who tried to make my cave their home.”
“What did you do at that time?”
“Most herbivorous animals bought them for a few days and moved elsewhere, and carnivores tried to eat me, who was the owner of the house, or chase me away…… Fufu, I’ll skip this.”
“Why?”
“It’s not good for the master to hear. Still, if you really want to hear it, I’m willing to listen to it, but what do you want to do?”
Rumadia was looking at me with grim eyes and a sinister smile.
In an atmosphere where I instinctively thought I shouldn’t have asked, I refused and remained silent.
If you listen to it, there will only be a lot of gore expressions that hurt your stomach.
“Anyway, as I continued living in the cave, I realized one thing. All living things in the world live alone. All the animals that came to the cave so far were alone, and I, who lived in the cave, was also alone.”
As Lumadia has been living alone for a long time, she has come to take it for granted.
I didn’t even know that was the idea of a frog in a well.
“Then one day, bears came to the cave and made a home, and I was shocked to see them for the first time. Since ancient times, living beings live alone, but at the time I couldn’t understand why they were traveling in pairs.”
Of course. Because at that time, Rumadia was a divine beast that had not yet seen the world.
She is said to have been equipped with a certain level of intelligence since birth, but experience is a different existence.
Miho also admits that she broke the contract with me too early, because she was too ahead of her heart.
She has no regrets, but she said she should have been more careful.
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Like Miho, Lumadia in the past also lacked experience and was immature.
“My head was so confused that I kicked the bear family out of the cave and thought about it for a while in the cave. And I came to a conclusion.”
“What is it?”
“Let’s go out of the cave. I decided to go out and see it with my own two eyes.”
Acknowledging herself as a frog in the well, Rumadia decided to get out of the well.
“So I went out of the cave, and the sight I saw for the first time blinded me.”
“It certainly hurts your eyes when you come out from a dark place to a bright place.”
“No, it wasn’t the blazing sun that blinded me, but the animals behaving in harmonious groups.”
Still remembering the events of the day, Ruma Dia narrowed her brows faintly.
The expression that was created in that way conveyed a bitter taste like dark chocolate.
“The world outside the cave was different from what I had imagined. A pair of squirrels jumping on a tree, a flock of birds flying neatly through the sky, and a loving tiger couple licking each other’s fur. It was only after watching this that I realized that I was the only one who was alone.”
“Have you ever felt lonely since then?”
“Yes, it was to the extent that paired animals looked dazzling to me. Of course, I can’t help but feel envious.”
“So what did Rumadia do after that?”
“I tried to be like them. I couldn’t find a species that was exactly like me, but I made a group of bats that were similar in appearance, but…….”
Rumadia’s expression was still sad.
She seemed to reveal something she didn’t want to recall, so she felt sorry for Ruma Dia for some reason.
“I couldn’t do anything until time passed.”
“Are the bats dead?”
“Yes.”
“However, there are bats of later generations, and aren’t there also new groups of bats?”
“The bats of later generations did not accept me as I continued to live unlike my parents who had passed away. I found out that I and their species are different. A bunch of new bats soon started excluding me.”
The more I listened to the story of Rumadia, the more it didn’t seem like someone else’s business.
I was also friendly with my peers at first, but I was ostracized for not having a pet.
In addition to that, even the people around me who had been kind to me started avoiding me, and I was prone to making a big deal out of it.
Though I endured because I had a family who accepted me, there was no existence to call Rumadia’s family from the beginning.
That’s why I had to press my heart as I listened to the story of Rumadia.
“Then, did the bats make the wounds you were hurt when you met me?”
“No, it happened because of the stupidity I brought upon myself later. I’ll tell you about that too from now on.”
In an instant, Rumadia’s expression changed.
If you were like a wolf soaked in rain before, this time you have a serious expression like a determined warrior.
“Excluded from the group, I wandered around the world, believing that somewhere there was someone who would accept me. A mountain is a mountain, a sea is an ocean, and a meadow is a meadow. To the extent that there are very few places I haven’t been to.”
“So, did you find a group that accepts Lumadia?”
“Unfortunately, there was not a single group. Instead, there was a Shinsoo who introduced himself as the representative of truth.”
“The substitute for truth… ?”
The other day, Eref handed me her marble and said that the girl in her lost memory was her best friend.
So even if Rumadia and Eref knew each other, it wasn’t particularly strange.
Rather, if she said she didn’t know about Eref, she said it was even weirder.
“It was a very unusual Shinsoo. Even though it was my first time meeting him, he told me everything about me, saying he knew me well.”
“Is that possible?”
“Surprisingly possible. At first, I also had a hard time trusting him who seemed stupid. Saying that there are crazy people like this in the world.”
At Rumadia’s words, laughter broke out.
Not exactly in my body, but in my consciousness right now.
[Keuheum!]
‘Is it true that we are best friends?’
[It’s strange. She seems to have gotten along well with her…….]
‘Aren’t you the only one who thought so?’
Thanks to Rumadia’s words, the air defense was switched, and I made fun of him without fail.
As expected, people cannot live without suffering.
“But everything he said was true. Shin-soo, who knew more about me than I did, I had time to get to know him by being with him for a while.”
“Then wouldn’t it be nice to spend time with the representative of the truth?”
“At first, I had that idea too, but it was impossible. He said that he was a being who could not be with anyone, and he tipped off that somewhere in the world there was someone who would greet me more than he did.”
“That’s right.”
As soon as he finished his words, Ruma Dia came closer to me with her own body.
Then he was looking at me with a gaze filled with feelings of love.
The existence Eref mentioned was probably me.
At the moment she was about to become embarrassed by such a fact, Rumadia suddenly clenched her teeth and made a mournful expression.
“I gained hope from his words, and since then I have been constantly traveling around and trying to build various relationships. But the only thing that welcomed me was a cold and cold attitude, and as those days continued, I got more and more tired.”
Rumadia’s pupils were empty.
A chilly energy enveloped the surroundings, and the wind began to blow strongly.
I dismiss it as a coincidence, but I keep feeling anxious.
“I got tired of such a life and ended up committing a taboo that I should never do.”
“Taboo… ?”
“I ended up using the cursed blood, the blood containing the immortal power that should not exist in this world. The blood that never disappears no matter what method is used.”
“Why shouldn’t that power exist in the world?”
“Have you ever heard of a bloodborne infection?”
“No.”
“To put it simply, it means that diseases are transmitted through the blood. You can think of it as the same with my blood.”
“Then is it possible that the blood of Rumadia makes other animals immortal?”
“Half right, half wrong. The property of immortality resides only in my blood itself, so if you suffer a significant loss of blood, you will die without fail. Neither do I.”
“Then there is no problem at all.”
Rumadia shook her head from side to side to express that it was not.
“In exchange, the lifespan of animals that have my blood is greatly increased. Enough to the extent that even after a century passes, they are still alive.”
“Then did Rumadia share her blood with others?”
“Right. I injected my blood into the bats to make them look just like me. I didn’t even know that my actions would have a terrible ending.”
“What ending did you create?”
“Ecosystem collapse. Not only is the immortal blood constantly transmitted to the offspring through heredity, but also the immortal blood is passed on to animals that consume those who have my blood. So the number of bats I shared blood with increased day by day, and so did the animals that prey on bats.”
Now I know what the problem with the blood of Rumadia is.
Due to immortality, the number of bats continues to increase, and the number of higher-level entities that eat bats also continues to increase.
If you put it like this, there may not be any problems.
But what about the creatures that bats prey on?
Of course, due to the increasing number of bats, their numbers will decrease and may even face extinction.
It didn’t end there, but the number of higher-ranking entities that ate bats and other creatures also increased, so the ecosystem naturally had no choice but to be destroyed.
“After the situation broke out, several divine beasts came out to deal with the situation, and under the pretext of stabilizing the ecosystem, they slaughtered all animals that had my blood. Because of that, even animals that have disappeared from history have been created.”
If it is not completely eliminated, the number will continue to increase and one day the ecosystem will collapse again.
So the divine beasts must have decided to pluck out all the buds of the problem.
And among the seeds of the problem to be eliminated, Lumadia must be included.
“The divine beasts who handled the case immediately said that they had to kill me for violating the rules of the divine beast and the culprit of the situation. That’s how I was completely rejected by all creatures, and I ended up being chased by divine beasts.”
“Then, the severe wounds yesterday were also attacked by other divine beasts, so it must be because of that.”
Instead of answering, Ruma Dia nodded her head slightly, then hugged my body and began to apologize.
“Sorry… ! Sorry… ! Sorry… !”
He seems to be apologizing for making a contract with me even though he had such a criminal record.
The fact that Rumadia broke the rules of the divine beast and signed a contract with me meant that she would make me her companion as well.
This was absolutely unforgivable.
How can I not be angry that I am responsible for her sins because of Rumadia’s selfish behavior?
“It’s okay!”
However, in her childhood I forgave her Luma Dia lightly, and her present I also did not particularly resent her.
“Why are you forgiving? I even put my master in danger! You put the master’s life in jeopardy!! But why? Why can Master forgive me so easily… ?”
Since Eref told me in advance that there is another reason for Rumadia to sign a contract with me.
It is said that finding out the reason is after all these flashbacks are over, so it is not too late to resent or get angry at that time.
“Because Lumadia is my pet!”
And above all, it is because she and I are companions who have many similarities.