162. Time to let go (2)
The sound of empty footsteps echoed in the hallway.
At the other end of the door stood a displeased Ms. Lichtenburg with her arms crossed.
She made a light eye contact and grabbed her doorknob as soon as her lady’s hand grabbed my wrist.
“Wait a minute.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll leave you two alone as per the condition, but you’ll still hear the sound through the wall. You’d better not think about using superficial tricks like desensitization.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t know what to do with her precious daughter, so this was the natural course of action for her.
She didn’t even have to hide what she was talking about now that she had already told Erica completely.
“And… Is there any process that requires physical contact?”
“No. Don’t worry. I won’t put a finger on your daughter’s body.”
“·······.”
Isn’t it over now?
However, the woman’s hand was still holding her wrist.
Her hands were shaking.
In case Erica might be listening, I spread a thin barrier around her all around and covered her hand.
“Things I’m concerned about don’t happen. Are you still alive and doubting me after trying for my life twice?”
“It’s not like that… Keuh.”
The lady gritted her teeth and pulled her hand out.
Then she turned around and gave me a curt glance.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“·······.”
From noble mtl dot com.
The door opened with a squeal.
I took a step into the bright pouring light.
This is…
Is it a flower garden?
The role of the magic ceremony installed here and there is to control the temperature and humidity.
It was a greenhouse surrounded by glass and well lit.
But it was so wide that if you didn’t look up at the ceiling, you would mistakenly think you were outside for a second.
A narrow road between colorful flower fields on both sides.
Walking along the road, I soon found a small table.
“Oh, are you here?”
“·······.”
“Sir Schluss Heinkel. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“·······.”
A grinning guy.
No Yulia.
Sitting in a regular chair, not a wheelchair, she looked like a slender girl with no problems at all.
Except for the fact that her body is too thin for her age.
“Nice to meet you again.”
I took a deep breath and went to the other side to pull a chair and sit down.
It felt like my heart sank at the fresh smile he made while looking at me.
Because he often acted like other people, I wondered if his soul was still taking the initiative, but it didn’t seem to be the case now.
“I hear you have a cure for my illness?”
“It wasn’t an illness. It was an accident caused by my mistake.”
“Oops. I heard you’re coming to check the status, but it looks like you’ve already brought a solution.”
Yulia covered her mouth and laughed.
Then, as her bangs slipped down and covered her eyes, she swept them up again.
“I’m sorry I hid it until now. It was purely my greed.”
“But is Schluss-sama always so stern?”
“You don’t like it.”
“It’s not necessarily like that. It’s just that it’s strange that she uses plain language for her sister and uses honorific language for me.”
“I don’t use honorifics to people who don’t deserve respect.”
“It’s poignant. If your sister was listening, you’d have her fists clenched.”
“·······.”
Would you just clench your fist?
You must be tearing out your hair too.
She decided that one day she would give me a hand.
“But wouldn’t it be more comfortable to use plain language?”
“······Do that.”
It bothered me a little.
Yulia is a reincarnated person who has lived hundreds of years.
Still, I was the only one who knew about it, so I couldn’t show it.
Yulia seems to be gritting her teeth and pretending not to know Schluse.
I decided that it was necessary to adjust the rhythm a little.
“The introduction was too long. I’m sorry. Let’s get right to the main topic.”
“Whoops. It’s okay if it’s a bit longer.”
“Your sister and mother won’t be okay.”
“I guess that’s right… You both worry too much.”
“I have a confession to make. The nightmares you have are not the result of someone else’s soul being transferred. It’s the soul I called from the underworld. Actually, I could always send it back, but I want to have a last conversation with that person. It dragged on until now.”
“·······.”
Yulia’s mouth opened for a moment, then she closed it again.
She then smiled again.
I wonder if she was shocked.
She seemed so shocked that she couldn’t find a way to answer.
“So… Is it okay if I call the person who is sleeping inside me?”
“If you put it bluntly, it will.”
“How can I get him?”
“Just lose consciousness.”
Jumping!
Then she heard the door swinging behind her.
Damn it. You said it wrong.
“Of course, it can also be done by falling asleep.”
It was only after I corrected my words that the slightly opened door closed again.
Fortunately, they seemed to have given up on the intrusion.
From now on, I guess I should be a little more conscious that Mrs. Erika is listening.
“Am I not sleepy right now?”
“You don’t have to worry. I can put you to sleep with magic.”
Thump!
Once again, the sound came from the door.
What else is this time?
She said no physical contact, not magic.
“Then, would you lie down on the table so that you don’t hurt your head? If you put it to sleep, that spirit will wake up right away. We’ll talk for a while and then send you back to the underworld-“
“I don’t like it.”
“What?”
“I don’t want to go to sleep yet. I want to talk to Schluse-nim some more.”
“Conversation can be held at any time. First, solve the problem-“
“You can’t do it anytime. I know how busy Schluse-nim is. I know how busy Schluse-nim is. When will I meet Schluse-nim again other than today, as I don’t have good legs? Talk a little more leisurely. Are you going to force yourself to sleep?”
“·······.”
I didn’t expect this.
I thought you’d ask for a solution as soon as possible.
Anyway, I didn’t know what the hell we were talking about.
Yulia and Schluss would hardly have any contact.
No, strictly speaking, she had a connection with her previous life, but Yulia would definitely not want to reveal that fact.
The last time we met, he was blatantly ignoring me and Schluss.
“I don’t know what to say. Suddenly in a place like this…”
“Any story is fine. Whether it’s the meal you ate this morning, the place you went yesterday, or the story of the world, anything is fine. I just want to know more about Mr. Schluse.”
“You sound very interested in me.”
“That’s right. A lot of interest.”
While laughing, I kept thinking that this is not the case.
I came to see Han Ah-reum, not Yulia.
Yulia’s appearance The first few times I saw her, it was painful because I kept thinking of her, but not anymore.
Because I know the contents are distinctly different.
But maybe it was because there was a soul inside it, and it seemed that Yulia’s personality could be seen little by little.
It must have been an illusion.
There is probably no one whose personalities don’t overlap at all.
It was clear that only the overlapping parts kept coming to my eyes.
“So… Hmm. Shall we start by looking for common interests? Have you read any novels recently?”
“Yes.”
“I really like fantasy novels. What about Mr. Schluss?”
“I like novels about a girl who has been reincarnated over hundreds of years.”
“·······?”
Yulia tilted her head.
She still grins.
Got it, you bastard.
“Han Ah-reum. You didn’t read my novel properly.”
“Huh…?”
Yulia, no, her face was stained with bewilderment.
In fact, from the beginning, it was Han Ah-reum, not Yulia, who held the initiative.
I had my doubts, but I wasn’t sure.
I just got that confidence.
First of all, even though I mentioned ‘a girl who has been reincarnated for hundreds of years’, he didn’t waver at all.
Proof that you didn’t read my novel properly.
This means that he did not know that the body he possessed was a reincarnated person.
Of course, this was not conclusive evidence.
It could have been that Yulia’s acting was so good that she perfectly pretended not to know.
“Yulia likes romance novels.”
“Ah…”
But the genre of her favorite novel, introduced by Yulia, convinced me.
Anyway, books from the original world flowed into Yulia’s room as well, but it seemed that he interpreted the genre of the book as fantasy.
That’s not wrong.
From the point of view of this world, the original world is a fantasy world.
But the problem was that the word fantasy didn’t exist in this world.
It was a setting I decided while answering a reader’s question in a comment in the past.
The term ‘fantasy’ is, of course, a worldview that the concept itself does not exist.
“Ah… Ahahahaha… I got caught properly. Was it a judo interrogation?”
“What is the guided interrogation? You said you walked on your own and fell in.”
Yulia, or Han Ah-reum, held her stomach and laughed out loud without even covering her mouth.
As soon as she saw it, her body trembled.
With that body, that tone, and that kind of laughter.
Areum Han was right.
It was definitely the one I remembered.
‘Calm down.’
But I also had to be careful.
Yes. I will admit that the reader who created this world is quite omnipotent.
However, it was still debatable whether it was the real Han Ah-reum’s soul that dwelled in Yulia’s body.
Only the words are the soul, and there was a good chance that it was a fake copy of Han Ah-reum’s behavior pattern during her lifetime.
A fake that is indistinguishable from the real thing…
No, then it’s not fake?
I don’t know.
“Areum Han.”
“Yes.”
“Let me ask you something. I’m a bit suspicious.”
“You know. My brother has a suspicious disease.”
“Did you hear the last thing I said…?”
I asked, shaking my hands.
That day. That puppet dawn.
I rushed to the hospital, but you were already dead.
When the nurse said that the brain was still alive, I repeated the same thing in your ear.
If you’re really Han Ah-reum, you’ll remember.
If it is a real soul.
Unless it’s a fake that just imitates Han Ah-reum.
“That… I don’t really want to think about it.”
“Tell me.”
“Oh, bro. Do we have to come back and talk about that again?”
“Tell me. If you don’t tell me, it will be considered fake.”
“Haa… He said he would never meet another woman. He said he would live with me buried in his heart forever. Is it over now? You’re such an idiot… I wrote in my will that I should definitely meet someone nice But, I don’t even listen, really.”
“·······.”
My throat is choked.
It was real.
Really Han Ah-reum.
That face that smiles faintly while looking at me as if it were pitiful.
It was the face of a guy who was no one else.
I kept having to put up with something trying to come up from the inside.
From noble mtl dot com.
Miracle Ring······.
It wasn’t in vain.
“I think I’m done now. This is enough.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’m afraid that if we talk about it any more, I won’t be able to let you go.”
“Yeah. That’s a big deal.”
“It’s a big deal. You’re giving the little girl nightmares.”
I couldn’t make eye contact with him.
If I do that, I really feel like tears will flow.
This was enough.
Rather, this was too much.
I had to send it back before I changed my mind, before I got greedy.
Because I made that promise with Erica.
I went against nature’s order for a moment, but the dead were not supposed to be here.
“One last word. I love you.”
“No. Wrong. I loved you. Say it this way.”
“I still love you, how can you say that?”
“Loving the dead, that. It’s a disease. Have you ever heard of necrophilia?”
“Puh… It’s not like that. It’s not like that… hehehehe.”
I kept laughing.
Are you kidding me in this situation?
Suddenly, my laughter turned into sobs.
“Uhhhhh. Yes. It’s your will. I’ll meet a good person. As you wish.”
“That’s right. Do you listen to me after I die?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t listen-“
“Don’t be sorry! Don’t say such a thing at the end…. Even if you say nice things, it won’t be enough.”
“Okay… Thank you. I loved you. I was happy to be with you.”
“Yes. Me too, oppa. Me too… I was really, really happy. I love you.”
“Why did you love me?”
“That’s because I’m already dead.”
“It’s shameful…”
He touched the miracle ring with a bitter smile.
It was time to let go.
I’m going to kill myself