#11 Knights (4)
About a week had passed since I visited old Herman’s forge.
The repulsive feelings and vague memories I felt that day had become blunted and pushed to a corner of my mind.
Time is also the answer.
It was later that afternoon that Elric, who was relieved, realized that this was not the case.
“Armor delivery is here!”
Veron came to the mansion.
Elric didn’t know why the inside of him was so tender the moment he saw the child’s face.
“Brother Elric! How you doing?!”
Discomfort, once recognized, seldom hides itself.
I began to bring the memories I didn’t want to recall to the surface of the water and scatter my breath.
I tried to respond with a smile, but it didn’t work out.
It shouldn’t be like this, but it was Tyria who replaced Elric.
“Can I see the condition of the armor?”
“Ah yes!”
she folded her hands
A softly wrapped hand shakes off the dullness.
Elric’s gaze turned to Tyria.
do you know something No, I had no clue.
Surely it is.
“How is it. Is the head of the household satisfied?”
Are they holding hands in every difficult moment, as if looking into their innermost thoughts?
Elric felt sick to his stomach for no reason.
“… Great. Old Man Herman’s skill is unparalleled.”
“Hehehe, my grandfather was very excited. It’s been a while since I made a full plate.”
“Did you?”
“yes! Oh, and… .”
Veron hesitated and spat out his words.
“… Well, maybe there is. Really, just in case.”
It was a voice of desperation and anticipation.
“If you recruit a knight’s seed, I definitely want to try it!”
Scarlet eyes burn with dreams.
You will hold Tyria’s hand even stronger.
Then she said
“It is not yet time to think about it. The direction of operation of the knights has not been properly decided.”
“iced coffee… Yes? Excuse me too much… .”
“But if you ever need to do that, I will remember your words. Go today.”
She bit Veron with her distinctive clear and quiet voice.
It was a voice that evoked a strange sense of trust, so Veron returned full of dreams.
So Baron left.
“Let’s go into the office first.”
Elric was taken by Tyria’s hand and moved to the office.
*
During the move, Tyria didn’t ask anything.
It was the same when I arrived at the office.
She passed on the embarrassment of the moment instead, but as if she wasn’t curious about the reason, she immediately started doing her own work.
Elric looked at her blankly.
Shall we call it indifference? Elric, stung for nothing by her casual appearance, asked a question.
“Why don’t you ask?”
“What do you mean?”
“… I mean the day before. No, I should start by saying thank you for taking care of my work instead.”
“It is natural. It’s Yeongji’s business.”
She looked through the papers and said.
“Furthermore, I don’t want to question the head of the household that I didn’t tell you first.”
“Even if I don’t tell you for the rest of my life?”
What kind of answer do you want to hear?
Suddenly, I was in the middle of such a question to myself.
Tyria’s head lifted.
Since she was sitting with her back to the window, her expression was hidden in the shadows.
“Do you have any bad memories with that child?”
“… That’s not it.”
“Then is there anything wrong with that child?”
“Neither that.”
“Then it would be something else. With my shallow guessing ability, it occurred to me that perhaps another child of his age had a bad relationship with the family head.”
It was the correct answer.
It wasn’t what she intended.
Elric narrowed his eyes to see her expression more clearly, but it was far from it.
All Elric could still see was her figure wrapped in a halo of light pouring through the window, and the end of her lips.
the lips said
“I don’t know what the years of the family’s life were like.”
quietly,
“Whether those years were pain or joy for the family head, I don’t know.”
Also, bluntly,
“So I won’t be quick to ask. If it’s sadness, it will be something I’m going to do with the wounds that I couldn’t shake off. I can only hope that if the head of the household brushes it off, he won’t tell me that something like that happened to me.”
Her words gave me a strange confidence.
Elric knew.
The tone I just created couldn’t give me that kind of trust.
There was sincerity in Tyria’s words.
Come to think of it, she always showed sincerity no matter who she dealt with.
That fact touches me.
Above the skin and in the heart.
Why aren’t you happy even though you’re grateful?
Come to think of it, it was funny because it suddenly occurred to me that her kindness was not unique to him.
Even in the middle of this, seeing that such things are bothering me, it seems that my condition has deteriorated very badly.
One thing is for sure, her words were comforting.
Maybe that’s what he wanted to hear.
Was it a weak heart that wanted to pour out the past years to someone?
Or is it because he wants to reveal the past he was hiding from her?
… No, he might have wanted to ask if it would be okay for him to be here, having lived by feeding on the blood of others.
Elric’s lips parted.
In the end, I couldn’t say anything.
The only thing he managed to do was spit it out.
“… I once met a child of the exact same age.”
“Is that so?”
“I only remember the face vaguely, but the distorted expression is as clear as it is.”
“What kind of child were you?”
“It was when I was in the West. He was a child soldier.”
“It is rare. I heard that child soldiers were not conscripted in the Western War.”
“… You can stand on the battlefield if you want. It’s not a battlefield full of humanity enough to stop it.”
“Then the child must have entered the limb himself.”
“I guess he went to avenge his father.”
“Are you dead?”
“exactly. where I can see it.”
“Is that expression bothering the family head?”
“It seems so. That’s why it’s hard to see Veron.”
“If that’s the case, I understand.”
Tyria suddenly stood up from her seat.
He approached with an unhurried step and wrapped his arms around Elric’s shoulders.
“The battlefield is scary. I don’t know because I haven’t experienced it, but I know for sure that the family head knows the horrors. I also understand that it hurts.”
She had a scent different from the earthy smell of this wheat-only neighborhood.
“No matter what kind of consolation I offer, the consolation I give won’t have much meaning. So, let me promise you instead.”
“What if it’s a promise?”
“Until the head of the household feels nothing wrong with that child, I will not make a deal with that child. If there is a case where I have to deal with it, I will do it for you.”
I wondered what kind of nonsense this was, so I laughed out loud.
At the same time, I felt a sense of stability.
Because she seemed really inclined to do so.
From noble mtl dot com
I really don’t know what to look at this kind of weak person and give me comfort like this.
At the same time, I thought that I did not want to disappoint her by relying on this kindness.
“… Thank you. But you don’t have to.”
“Are you all right?”
“I can’t live just doing good things. There was one thing I felt while wandering the continent.”
“What is?”
“If you face anything, it will become dull someday.”
Elric pushed Tyria away.
I saw her face now.
It’s a subtle change, but it’s definitely felt.
that all her nerves were focused on him.
She listened honestly to everything she had to say.
even if you don’t know anything about it.
“The more you try to run away from fear, the bigger it gets. That’s what my friend said.”
“You have good friends.”
“You’re too much of a friend. So, even if I see that friend, I will face that child myself.”
It’s easy once you say it.
No, it might have been easier because it was in front of Tyria.
Even if it was a shallow desire to look good for her, there was nothing to refute.
“It would be nice to bring in a seed article. It would be nice to proceed with the swearing-in ceremony.”
In Wibin, she was not the battlefield ghost Kasha.
Elric wanted to make it clear.
At least here, he was a crippled young boy who ran away from home without any hesitation.
He was an idiot who was barely comforted by the width of his wife’s skirt, who could not even call each other by name.
The element of a ghost that gives nightmares on the battlefield did not fit.
It must be brushed off.
“I’m sorry for saying something embarrassing.”
Let’s say it with determination.
“If you have a problem, it is only natural to share it.”
The answer came back.
Tyria added a word to him.
“Aren’t we a couple?”
The moment I spit out the word couple, I had the illusion that Tyria’s plain tone was slightly crushed.
It tickled me quite a bit, and it was fun.