Special Chapter. Looking back on the road we walked on the road to walk (1)
The next day, Ludwig immediately packed up and prepared to depart for Astepor.
The party consists of four people, including the Ipretz family and Paula.
It was because Paula, who would not have followed normally, announced that he would accompany him in preparation for an unexpected accident this time.
“Dad, can this be my luggage?”
After asking Paula to help pack Anis, Ludwig was packing alone in his room.
He stood in a daze for a while, his eyes wide open at the action of his daughter who suddenly burst into the room without a message.
It was the first time she had gone camping with such simple luggage, not in the same place as another family or city, so Anis seemed to have high expectations.
As if to prove this, her eyes when she came to inspect Jim were shining brightly.
After being absent-minded for a moment, he came to his senses and looked after his daughter’s luggage.
There are things that I don’t really need, and I thought that maybe I put too much.
I told Paula to help, but it seems that Anise’s stubbornness raised both hands.
“I’m going to visit for a while anyway, so I won’t have to pack anything grandiose. It would be fine to leave this and this out.”
“Okay, then I’ll take it as it is.”
In the meantime, Anis listened carefully to Ludwig’s words and took out several items according to his instructions.
The luggage bag, which had been quite heavy just a moment ago, had become considerably lighter.
At this rate, I wondered if I could carry it alone without needing Paula’s help.
As she was about to leave the room after taking the luggage she had taken out, she stopped her steps when she saw Paula appearing through the open door.
“My lady, you are here.”
“yes. Were you looking for me?”
“That’s right, if you tell me to prepare tea and disappear, I have no choice but to worry.”
I’m leaving soon, but I wonder if I wanted to drink tea in the meantime.
Ludwig smiled bitterly at his daughter’s love for tea, which was as great as his wife’s.
Then, pointing to the luggage in Anise’s hand, he handed over a request to Paula.
“Paula, I don’t think you’ll need that, so you can put it aside.”
“All right. Apparently, these are the things I said I didn’t need to take care of.”
“… It was like that.”
Paula follows Ludwig around, so her eyesight is quite good.
There’s no way she can’t distinguish between things she needs to take care of and things she doesn’t need to take care of.
As expected, it seems that Anise shoved it into the luggage bag at will, despite Paula’s advice.
“Ehehehe… … .”
When Anise laughed awkwardly when he heard this, Ludwig was completely in the mood to scold him.
Still, I heard that there are many cases in which children in other households remain oblivious to what they have done wrong, but in the case of his daughter, even if she did something wrong, she seemed to be aware of her shame about it.
If you were aware of your mistakes better than anyone else, there was no need to bring them out and point them out.
That was also Ludwig’s educational policy.
bean.
“Huh!?”
But that doesn’t mean there is no corporal punishment, so I tried to wake up the spirit by feeding light chestnuts.
Emilia was proud of the spiciness to the extent that she would scream in pain for a moment when hit, and sure enough, Anise let out a brief scream and cried.
“This time, do what Paula said, pack up and go to the carriage first. Dad is going to visit your maternal grandfather.”
“yes… … .”
Anis, rubbing her tingling forehead, approached Paula, handed over her luggage, and held her in her arms.
A bitter smile formed on Paula’s lips as she acted as if she was becoming more and more like a child.
Is it an illusion that I feel like I was more mature when I was younger?
Ludwig, who had been watching for a while as the two left the room, handed over his packed luggage to a servant standing outside the door and quietly moved on.
* * * * * * *
Stefan, who had been sitting alone in the study for a while, prepared a seat for the unexpected guest with a smile.
“Didn’t it start?”
“Shouldn’t you say hello to your father-in-law before you go?”
“hehehe, the person who will be back the day after tomorrow greets you. Anyway, thank you. It just happened to be the enemy.”
Stefan had always been very curious about this man.
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Just like his daughter said, a man who shows up quietly and shows off his presence when the situation is always necessary.
However, it was also truly unique that its presence was faint, as if it were present in normal times.
“I’ll be leaving soon, so I can’t recommend alcohol.”
“A drink or two would be fine. Besides, your father-in-law doesn’t like tea very much, doesn’t it?”
“right. Amman tried to imitate his wife, but it was difficult. I guess I won’t have anything to enjoy until the day I die.”
His wife, Yulia, and daughter, Emilia, enjoy tea together, but Stefan just couldn’t taste the tea.
The bitterness of alcohol and the bitterness of tea are different.
Even though he couldn’t express it clearly, anyway, the unique aftertaste didn’t suit him at all.
His wife would sometimes drink with him to soothe his loneliness, but he was rather weak to alcohol and would often go to bed right away.
Maybe that’s why I was happy when I had someone to drink with like this sometimes.
Lately, his son, Raymon, had grown up strong and had someone to fill in for him, so he was better off, but it was only regrettable that he was weak in alcohol, perhaps because he had inherited his mother’s blood.
Ludwig, on the other hand, didn’t like to drink, but he wasn’t easily drunk.
Above all, a man named Ludwig was good at listening to others.
Given Stefan’s personality, who would naturally let go of his heavy mouth when he drank alcohol, it was safe to say that this was the perfect qualification for a drinking companion.
“Thanks to you, I feel sorry for my wife. I’ve never been able to do anything properly.”
“Your mother-in-law will know that. Even if you are a couple in the first place, there is no rule that says you have to do everything together.”
Ludwig, who had only experienced at most half of the married life that Stefan had been through, could affirm this one thing.
He also clearly had differences from Emilia in terms of hobbies and preferences, and he did not dare to match them all.
I was so happy that I didn’t feel the need to do that in the first place. Just the fact that your lover is by your side.
“That’s right. After all, you seem to have realized something after getting married.”
“That’s right. Oh, a little drink is fine.”
“I think so. I’ll have to give you a drink, so you’ll hear bitter voices from both sides of your wife and daughter… Great.”
At least Emilia is in a better situation.
In Yulia’s case, back in the days when her love for her son-in-law was at its peak——even now, it’s still at a level she can’t quite say——when Stefan gave Ludwig a little too much to drink, he would immediately say something.
I want to chat with my son-in-law even a little more, but he says he will make me go to bed soon or something.
After that, Stefan did not recommend alcohol too much to Ludwig, if possible within the scope of Yulia’s gaze.
Even if you’re the head of the Bayemurn family, you can’t beat a pillow-headed lawsuit.
“It’s such a strange feeling. I don’t think it’s been long since I shared a drink with you here.”
“It was hard for me to even notice the passing of time. If I hadn’t watched the anise grow, I wouldn’t have known.”
“I agree. I felt the same way watching my daughter grow up.”
Originally, the flow of time tends to become dull as we get older.
However, when you start a family and have a child, you look at the child who will succeed you and realize that time has passed.
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Just like Stefan did in the past, and Ludwig does now.
“How is it? What a home is.”
“It was fun. Even if it doesn’t change my daily life too much, I’ve learned to value it.”
“It’s the law to value things that don’t change… What a wonderful word. It is a feeling that I want to leave as a line of poetry.”
As Stefan smiled satisfactorily and tipped his glass, Ludwig’s eyes filled with doubt.
“Did your father-in-law learn poetry recently?”
“Um, would you like to see me later? I heard from my wife that you recite a lot of poetry too.”
“I’m not at the level of teaching others… Still, I really like it, so I want to see it at least once.”
“The pants you wanted. I always wanted to show you my heart, but this is quite embarrassing.”
Ludwig somehow seemed to be able to fathom that feeling.
It’s not that it’s not, it’s because when he first wrote poetry and drew a picture, he always hid it behind his back because he was embarrassed to show it to others.
Looking back now, I don’t think I was ashamed to show off my lack of skills.
Since poems and paintings tend to contain one’s feelings, I wonder if he hesitated for some reason because he felt like he was revealing his true feelings to others.
“Anyway, it’s new, but I have a lot to be thankful for. Saving that child, and even more, saving our family.”
“no. Rather, I think I received more from Emilia.”
At least that day, if Emilia hadn’t come to visit her family, there wouldn’t have been a relationship like this.
And he, too, may have spent his lonely life alone in the mansion, tending flowers.
He wouldn’t have been walking around the street holding his daughter’s hand on one side and his wife’s arms on the other, like now.
“I am where I am today because my wife reached out to me first and gave me courage. If it wasn’t for that, I’d just be stuck in the corner of my room and spend all my years on my penny’s worth.”
“How wonderful. I can’t believe you would.”
“hahahaha, on the contrary, I can’t believe the current situation.”
It’s probably a fact that I can’t tell anyone.
The last secret that he will bury in his heart until the moment he dies later.
The man who should have died at her hands became a lover, married her, and gave birth to a child.
Even if I told Emilia about this, she wouldn’t easily believe it.
‘You don’t know the affairs of the world.’
Ludwig gently closed his eyes, enjoyed the scent of wine, and fell into contemplation for a while.
The young boy who was afraid of her existence still lingers on the other side of the memory.
A stupid and foolish boy who had not yet understood his own heart, even though he had given her flowers as a gift.
If you think about it now, the two men and women must have already fallen in love at the time they were standing in the moonlit garden and talking together.
It’s just that I’m a little late in realizing it. But in the end, we were able to reach the end.
“Come to think of it, I never told my father-in-law how I first met Emilia.”
“Oh, can you tell me?”
“I will go and tell you. It would be better if your mother-in-law would also be with you.”
“My wife will be delighted. It’s something I’ve been curious about for a long time.”
Stefan laughed contentedly and told Ludwig, who had finished drinking, to get ready to go.
You won’t be able to catch the steps of a busy person in an aging situation.
So he left a greeting and left the study.
Stefan was left alone, but happily tilted his glass while staring at the spot where he was.
The emptiness I had felt a moment ago had disappeared without a trace.