(EP.393)# 4
393 – Friend #4
Time to cool off in the cool wind after running for a long time.
We all sat in the shade and drank water or ate sandwiches we had prepared beforehand. The food that went into the hungry body was quite delicious, probably because it was long past lunch time.
Stella said.
“It reminds me of the past. It’s not easy to calculate how many years ago it was now. I feel like I’m back in those days. What are we going to do next?”
He is the oldest among us and has a lot of social experience, but perhaps because of his free-spirited character, Stella seemed to maintain the childish mind of a child.
However, Mirna leaned her back against the wall and was busy breathing.
“It is something to be envious of to be full of stamina. Isn’t it difficult for everyone? I think a cup of tea would be better than running around.”
Stella clicked his tongue at him.
“Kids these days don’t even know how to run outside. Locked up in the house and just play with books and dolls. Then it’s not good for your health.”
For a while, while everyone was chatting, I looked at Elgar. She also moved quite a bit.
“It’s hot, it’s hot. I thought summer was over.”
It looked like he was stealing sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, so I took a towel from my inventory and held it out to Elgar.
“Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“What a crowd like this. When I was a kid, I didn’t mind running around all day. Rather, the more I did, the clearer my mind became, and my body burned like a bonfire.”
Elgar said that from a young age, because of his sassy personality, he was a great alley leader so that even boys his age could not develop his skills. He said he had beaten up men who were several years older than him.
“But, I am a little tired. I don’t know how I played around without thinking like that when I was a kid. It feels like it would be perfect to take a nap after washing like this.”
Elgar stretches out with a sigh.
Ira, who sat next to her, was looking at the butterfly sitting on her fingertips. I don’t know how she did it, but on her finger, colorful butterflies were sitting like rings.
silkygoat was the goat. cry
Not only that, but also deer and rabbits, who do not know where they appeared, are sitting around them, groaning as if they were taking a nap. It must be… .
“You look like a princess from some fairy tale.”
Did Narmi say that? I also agreed with Narmi.
I felt like I was peeking at what kind of princess Aira had received the attention and expectations of the people of the royal palace in the early days.
silkygoat was the goat. cry
Now my eyes turned to the imp emptying the sack of biscuits I had been carrying. He was eating dry, dry biscuits as if they were the most delicious food in the world.
“delicious. Even if I told you to eat this every day, it seems like you could eat it all!”
It looks pretty happy. I don’t know if it was because of that, but his body was now blurry enough to be closer to a hologram than a person who was vivid in reality.
“… … .”
The legs were not visible from the ankles. Looking at it this way, I could clearly see that he was different from us. Maybe it’s because there are fewer regrets about life.
I asked.
“How are you, did you have a good time?”
“It is! Tomorrow, we’ll get up early in the morning, and we’ll all play together! Time passes quickly, and if you spend every day like this, the owner will return soon… .”
An imp who shuts his mouth while talking. It seemed that he soon remembered that his master, Isaiah Gospel, was not of this world.
Thanks to you, the atmosphere is a little gloomy.
Suddenly, you can see the sunset with birds chirping and chirping. Was it four or five o’clock now?
At that point, I usually cleaned up everything I had been running around and played hard, got all the tickets and cards, and was ready to go home one by one.
The children went home one by one holding the hands of their mothers who stopped by the playground after seeing the market, and I saw those guys with envious eyes somewhere.
The ticket and school class she was holding in her hand had no role or value in the playground after the disappearance of her friends.
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Come to think of it now, are all these memories? However, now the memories and emotions of that time were fading. Then the imp said.
“Well, today was really fun! Tomorrow, tomorrow’s sand, and the next day, it’d be good if every day was like today… !”
The boy looked very happy. At the same time, it also looked lonely. I don’t know if everyone knows that it’s time to disappear one by one under the sunset.
The young girls who had been talking for a while shut their mouths.
They just look into each other’s eyes or look into each other’s eyes. Now, he must have known that the time had come to gradually awaken the imp and destroy the pot.
“Imp Miss.”
Then Mirna opened her mouth.
“Actually, I have a story to tell you today… .”
When she opens her lips to say something. The blurred Imp’s eyes turned to Mirna’s short, pointed ears. does this end
“there.”
I inadvertently opened my mouth.
“Let’s do one more.”
Even when I said that, I was surprised. Maybe it’s a pity that we broke up like this, but I don’t know if my childhood feelings came out inadvertently.
“Because the sun hasn’t set yet. I think I can do one more. Instead, no matter what I do, I will do the tag.”
I looked at the imp.
Imp’s expression was very bright.
“Then let’s play hide and seek! I’m the best at hiding! In this castle, I’ve been hiding for over twenty winters. You did it so well that no one could find it!”
* * *
“Then, I’ll give you five minutes, so everyone hide.”
I became the tag of the last game. After everyone hides one by one for 5 minutes each, I open my eyes and go around looking for them.
It was a simple game.
It was also said that Imps are the most confident game.
“Well.”
“Yes… .”
Everyone has something to say, but they look at each other like they don’t want to. So I just put my head on the pole and count slowly.
“one.”
When counting like this, there is something unique about counting with a long breath. With that feeling, when I counted all the numbers from ten, one hundred, and three hundred.
I slowly turned my head and said.
“Then look for it!”
When I opened my eyes, the training ground was quite desolate. It is as lonely as a playground or playground where everyone went back holding their parents’ hands. Of course, they didn’t go back, they were hidden.
Somewhere in this wide citadel there must be plenty of people I need to find.
I even felt a little thrilled that it all went well with the last play I insisted on my whim.
“Now you will really find it.”
I try to walk slowly.
It’s hard to tell when the footprints stamped here and there were created.
Where have you all been hiding? When I first started, I could feel how difficult it was to find people in this wide place.
“By the way, why didn’t Elgar hide?”
I found Elgar’s blonde hair sticking out behind the pillar I was leaning on. Was he using the tactic of dark under the lamp?
Startle.
Elgar trembled and slowly appeared behind the pillar.
“… The young girl of Lioness does not hide or run away.”
“Being like that, you were good at running away when you were tagging.”
“It’s different from that.”
Elgar shakes her head with excitement. It looked like he was vomiting what had already been discovered. If you had known this would happen, would you have deliberately pretended not to know?
silkygoat was the goat. cry
No, that’s not it.
Elgar wasn’t angry in that sense.
“Elgar-sama, it seems that he wanted me to find him first.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it because I purposely wanted to find you first, rather than other people? Even if I didn’t have to do that. I think I was the first to find Elgar-sama.”
“Hey, what are you saying? If I really hide, you will never find me.”
Saying that, Elgar frowned bitterly. But it feels pretty good. Maybe it’s because I’ve discovered her hidden heart and true intentions.
Anyway, I found one.
silkygoat was the goat. cry
Now there are six left.
At that time, Elgar pointed to a building located near the fortress training ground.
“Hey, Mirna went over there earlier. Don’t say I told you.”
“… … .”
Isn’t it a foul to tell? But, well, it was like Elgar that Mirna could not tolerate things that were going well.
So, when I went to the place Elgar had pointed me and opened the old door, there were old cross-shaped ornaments, broken mosaic windows, and a bunch of chairs underneath.
Is it a chapel?
There must have been a chapel in Gargatha Citadel. Was Solomon a surprisingly faithful person?
“Ugh.”
After coughing on purpose, I entered the chapel. A cloud of dust floats inside the still and quiet interior. The stained glass on the window was shattered as if it had been hit by a stone.
But among them, it is quite beautiful to decorate the floor with a bunch of colorful lights shining in the sunset light coming through the intact window. It’s a nice place. It’s an old place, but it seems to have faith.
If Mirna is hiding in a place like this… .
My eyes stared at the box-like room oddly placed in the corner. Is it like a confessional thread? As you approach it, you hear a rustling sound from inside.
“Miss Mirna, are you here?”
He heard a startling sound from inside.
ㅡ… How did you know?
How do I know, because Elgar told me. But I remembered what Elgar had asked me to keep a secret, so I decided to postpone it.
“I already know where Mirna is going and what she will do.”
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Creak.
The door of the old and abandoned confessional room opened and Mirna appeared.
“Really, Sir Tae-oh can’t stand it. Because you know so much about me… .”
Mirna speaks reluctantly.
“Of course, you must have been the first to find that Mirna, right?”
Her expression looked quite happy. Were neither Elgar nor Mirna glad that I found them so quickly? Wasn’t it a game that would make you feel resentful if you were found by a tag?
Perhaps to them, it is considered something like ‘the game that proves that the sooner you find the half-elf, the more attention and affection you receive’.
I thought that it would be better to find the rest of the women quickly, so I opened my mouth.
“Miss Mirna, do you know where the other girls are?”
“I do not know. But if it’s Narmi… .”
Instead of answering, Mirna looked at the back entrance of the chapel. That alone was enough to explain.
“Then, Ms. Mirna, first go back to the campfire at the training ground. I have to find more of the other girls.”
As I opened the door of the chapel, I was able to find monuments towering all over the place.
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Could it be a cemetery?
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Come to think of it, I had quite a few conversations with Narmi at the graveyard.
I remember what happened back then. I thought Narmi didn’t like the graveyard, but it wasn’t that she didn’t like it very much when she hid in such a place.
So where are you?
I looked at the coffins laid out here and there.
it’s creepy
I know Narmi is hiding somewhere in the old, weathered and rotten coffins that have been neglected for a long time. Since the number was nearly twenty, it seemed that it would take quite a while to open them one by one.
So it was time to approach slowly and try to open that one lid.
“Wow-!”
The lid of the coffin next to me opens and something pops out towards me.
“Hey… !”
Thanks to you, I was startled and screamed. Shaking her body with a startled chest, she turned her head and saw Narmi bowed her head and grabbed her stomach and smiled.
“Tae-oh, are you surprised? I won!”
“… Miss Narmi, this is not a game like that.”
“okay? I thought it was a game to hide and surprise. I used to do it quite often with my uncles who were buried in the cemetery back in the day. Anyway, I won, so grant my wish!”
silkygoat was the goat. cry
Narmi changed the content of the game at will. But the cheerful appearance was pretty cute. Narmi’s uncles must have felt the same way.
“What wish can I grant you?”
“Kiss me.”
silkygoat was the goat. cry
Narmi taps her lips with her finger. I looked around and put my lip slightly to hers to see if anyone could see it.
side.
I did a lot more than this with Narmi, but somehow I felt ashamed.
It’s like going back to when you were a little boy.
Anyway, all that’s left now is Stella, Aira, and the Imp. Where did everyone hide?
It was pretty fun to think about where they might have been hiding and where I would have gone if I were her.
wholesome/10