Chapter Sixty-One: The Sudden Departure
“Buying this earthen building was really… to serve as a hideout… though saying ‘hideout’ might be an exaggeration, but hey, you need a place to crash, right?”
“I grew up in this barren land, and after becoming an adult, I never came back… My father and mother died early during some bandit raids, and the only memories I have of the town I lived in as a kid are the Red River flowing in front of it and the roof that has a hole big enough for a bird to get in…”
“After the bandit raids, the town disappeared, and the earthen building collapsed; really, there’s not much to miss from that place anymore… It’s just that the smell of this yellow earth still brings back some of that innocent, carefree fun from my childhood.”
Clank, clank, clank—
The night wind tapped on the window, carrying a wailing sound to my ears, like a mournful cry.
In a matter of moments, Carlos had downed half the bottle. His face was getting redder, and his words started slurring: “I wasn’t planning to go back… for now…”
“I just want to stay here and sort things out… figure everything out… I’m a bit lost… I don’t know where to go next… so Leah bought this place as a… temporary stop. But… I haven’t really thought about how long I’ll stay…”
“Teacher… Apheir, they’re going to make some big moves soon, related to that crystal soul thing… I don’t want to know what it is… I just don’t want to deal with that right now… But I have to imagine, once this is over, the Church might take some action against me and Leah for choosing to follow me…”
“I’m fine with that; if things really come to a head, it’s just ‘k*ll them all’ and be done with it. But Leah… I might drag her into this mess… She really doesn’t know everything that’s going on… and yet she’s just… foolishly following me…”
The firelight in his eyes dimmed, and on the stairs leading to the second floor of the earthen building, I could just make out the silhouette of a pair of black leather boots, feminine in style, peeking around the corner.
“…Little Shay.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Honestly, I know everything you’re not asking me about. You probably know about these things before I do… maybe even better… It’s fine if you don’t want to talk; I just want to ask you one thing… what’s your next move?”
“……”
I stared at Carlos’s drunken face, lost in silence.
What was I planning to do?
Well, that would be—
Sigh…
To be honest, I’m just a bit confused myself.
There’s so much I haven’t sorted out…
But after hearing Carlos’s story, my urgent priority became sending Betty back to Meiser Town first, and then having Old Man Robert find someone to take me to that sand valley where the relics are, to see if that woman is really dead…
Maybe I’d finally figure out where that crystal soul ends up.
Despite what the man might say, I have a huge hunch that Ailna isn’t so easy to k*ll…
Even though I can’t stand her.
I still have questions I want to ask her.
At the very least, I need to figure out what state my body is in now and find a way to restore my powers to their former glory…
After that…
I’ll be ready, all prepped to venture west all alone.
Just waiting for my strength to return…
Once that happens…
I’ll think about what to do next, and no one will be able to stop me…
No one at all…
…………
Before long, the oil lamp on the table burned out. The woman named Lapria came down to replace the wick, and it was around that time that my conversation with Carlos came to an end.
I still didn’t tell him anything.
Not because I didn’t trust him.
In fact, as the conversation went on, I had almost completely dismissed any doubts I had about him. I think… I do understand Carlos’s character well; even if he wanted to scam me, he wouldn’t come off looking so disheveled and weak, pretending to be all tough to con me.
Everything he said was true and aligned perfectly with the reality.
Carlos was clueless about many things… he had a grasp on some, but not too much, yet it was enough to shatter the determination he used to have.
Carlos is a guy full of righteous intentions; he once said he wants to be a swordmaster like his teacher, dedicated to the people. But now, he’s lost that confidence he had when he told me that.
A lot of things can’t be masked.
At the very least, I believe Carlos can’t mask that.
In our last talk, the man was nearly sloshed, with his words all tangled up. I asked him about the situation in the Western Continent, and he vaguely told me that things were pretty complicated at the Church; internal disputes were flaring up, and it was all out in the open. Plus, rumors of human experimentation were making the rounds, and Pope Angel was losing his mind over it, but he couldn’t explain just how messy things were.
Having been in the Eastern Continent for nearly a year, Carlos had been running around so much that he probably only had a rough idea about these matters, without time or energy to think it through. When you’re busy day and night, you don’t have the luxury of worrying over the nitty-gritty.
And the war in the Valen Empire is still going on. Carlos kept tabs on that; he said his father seemed to begin an advance on the southern borders right after the snow stopped at the beginning of the year. Although progress has been slow, nothing terrible has come back to us so far.
Even though he was drunk, I believed everything he said.
Yet, I still didn’t tell him anything.
The reason is quite simple.
When I asked him, “If I were standing against your teacher, Sword Saint Ryan, which side would you choose?” Carlos fell silent for a long time before simply gulping down another drink, saying nothing at all.
We both knew…
This might be the choice he’s going to have to face in the not-too-distant future.
I have a hunch about that.
That moment…
Might not be far off.
But right now, the man couldn’t make such a choice.
So…
What else was there to say?
I didn’t touch the pastries on the table, completely untouched. When our conversation ended, I called for Betty to come in and eat. I was planning to leave right then, but Carlos called me from the door.
“Where are you going…?”
“Leaving here.”
“Where can you go at this hour?”
“……”
“You’re not familiar with this place. Why not rest here overnight, and deal with tomorrow when it comes?”
And so, I stayed.
There were empty rooms on the second floor of the earthen building; the red-haired girl helped us tidy one up. Betty and I squeezed into a single bed, and in the dead of night, I heard footsteps at the door a few times, knowing it was Carlos, wanting to come in and say something, but he never actually did.
I couldn’t sleep a wink that night.
I managed to catch some fuzzy shuteye only when dawn broke.
When I left the next day, I didn’t wait for him to see me off.
And it seemed Carlos didn’t plan to see me off either.
I just slung my bag over my shoulder, pulled Betty along, and at that moment, I couldn’t help but turn back to look at the earthen building where I had spent the night. I caught a glimpse of someone standing by the round window on the second floor, peering out at us—faint and vague.
