Sothing seed about to be grasped from the trailing words. But Esperanza decided not to ask. In fact, she wasn't interested. Instead, she took out a large coat from her inventory. Cyrus's eyes widened. The neatly ironed clothes gave off a refreshing scent.
"Annie asked
to pass this along. You lent her clothes?"
"It was nothing."
"Says who. Go on. Let's talk details when Cider wakes up."
With those words, Esperanza turned around without lingering.
Left alone, Cyrus looked down at the clothes for a mont. Even the torn parts had been skillfully sewn up. That maid couldn't have been in the mansion for more than a few hours. He had given the clothes thinking they'd be discarded, never expecting to receive them back in such good condition.
It was a maid whose face he could barely rember now, having only briefly seen her in the urgent situation.
The supply wagon rattling through the debris of the disaster.
It was a scene he discovered imdiately after helping with monster cleanup at the ruined harbor and coming up to land. The sea would be handled by Esperanza, so his job was to deal with the not-so-nurous land monsters and save the many idiots with no dungeon experience.
A supply wagon with people stuck together like sandwich ingredients was struggling toward the harbor. About ten soldiers following on horseback were the entire escort force.
The military command that provided the troops probably didn't think it was okay for the people in the wagon to die. It's just that this was all the personnel they could mobilize. They were simply foolish enough not to know that it would be better to concentrate personnel on those who could be saved rather than provide such ager support.
With luck, they might have managed to kill one and escape, but what they faced were five different monsters. When one swung its large tail, the supply wagon toppled over. The people inside crawled out of the wagon while the soldiers sohow dealt with the monsters.
The monsters' rciless attacks didn't distinguish between soldiers and civilians. People scattered and fled, falling and getting hurt. Dust rose thickly, and desperate gunfire gradually diminished.
That's when Cyrus appeared. Fortunately, at a mont when there were seriously wounded but no deaths. His sword cleanly severed the neck of a piranha-like monster and dripped sticky blood.
People who hadn't gotten far from the wagon just stared blankly at the sight. The blade wrapped in deep blue magic power casually entered its sheath.
Annie was there too. Unable to even adjust her torn clothes from protecting a child that wasn't even hers, she sat holding the crying child.
Cyrus's eyes, which had been indifferently watching the people like still life, stopped on Annie. He easily recalled Annie's face from Avondale mansion.
"Esperanza-nim's maid? Why are you here?"
Unlike Cyrus, Esperanza truly cared for these people as if they were real people. There was no way she wouldn't have looked after her close maid. Rather, he had guessed she would have been extra worried and kept her from going anywhere near the harbor, so he hadn't expected to et Esperanza's close associate here.
Annie stared intently at his red hair as if trying to figure out who he was, then burst out with "Ah!" Cyrus only then realized he had dyed his hair to avoid Daria's eyes.
"We tried to evacuate but got trapped in the dungeon by mistake. Oh, Miss Esperanza went toward the sea, but she doesn't know we're here."
"I see. Where is Avondale?"
"I don't know. Either we missed each other midway, or he couldn't depart at all. I think he might be trapped inside like us."
"I'll look for him. You...... go to the bunker with your group."
Annie, who nodded with difficulty, got up. Limping on her injured leg, she took the child's hand soothingly.
"Co on, let's go to mommy with big sister. Mommy's right over there."
She seed completely unaware that her back was fully exposed from her coat to blouse being torn lengthwise. Cyrus sighed.
These people were definitely not Esperanza or people like him.
However, they resembled them far too much.
He eventually took off his coat and placed it over Annie's shoulders. Not wanting to hear any words of gratitude, he left quickly, but the voice shouting "Thank you!" behind his back seed to wrap around his ankles like a weight. His steps beca heavy as if weighted down.
The clothes given in such an impulsive act of kindness returned to his arms with even the parts that had burst during intense combat neatly sewn up. Not even a few hours had passed.
That maid would never dream what he had done to her world. Perhaps after the ga's release, she might have t an early death in the world they had turned into re entertainnt. The innocent kindness shown by such a person sat uncomfortably like sothing lodged in his stomach. Those eyes filled only with goodwill. Is this how one would feel if a dog raised for food wagged its tail? His stomach churned.
Cyrus looked at the large buildings collapsing beneath his feet, the whale-like ships. He could clearly see the corpses buried under that glory. Such an uncivilized and contemptible world.
Yet it was also a world with eyes like that maid's. That's why he couldn't think of this world rely as a tool like Daria did. Like becoming attached to a story, like understanding the emotions of a toy played with for a long ti, his heart had leaned toward it over 15 years.
If not for that, no matter how impossible it was to persuade Daria, he wouldn't have jumped into ti travel that might not even allow return. Though he had told Esperanza he was like a crazy murderer.......
'That wasn't sincere.'
Gripping his sword properly, he thought. This battle posed no danger to him whatsoever. But it wouldn't be the sa for those fragile clay dolls. There was no reason not to save them. It was a simple story.
Handling the returned coat, Cyrus let out a deep sigh.
So such kindness that clearly showed effort to repay was a bit burdenso. He didn't want to beco more attached to this world. If the day ca when he, like Esperanza, began to regard the people of this world as equals to himself, he wouldn't be able to bear the weight of the past.
Cyrus shook off the uncomfortable thoughts. It was a problem he didn't want to think deeply about. Arriving at the harbor, he gazed at the distant sea, gauging what results this completely failed incident would bring.
Unlike the devastatingly collapsed harbor, the sea was calm as if nothing had happened. His heart looking down at the harbor also eventually beca calm.
??????°??☆????°??????
Esperanza slowly returned to the mansion with muffled footsteps. In the season when the sun set early, the sky at ten at night was pitch black, and today had been an endless day for everyone. The corridor was quiet.
The place where Cider was staying was the second-best room after the count's and Alastair's, and thanks to Alastair giving up Millen's room separately, Esperanza could freely enter and leave Cider's bedroom. Though Alastair Renfrew probably hadn't considered that when giving the room.
She carefully closed the bedroom door connected to the reception room so as not to wake the sleeping Cider as she entered. The mont she leaned her back against the closed door, she doubted her eyes.
"Co closer."
Cider, who was leaning against the bed fastening his cufflinks, didn't seem surprised at all and spoke casually. Rather, Esperanza, who had trespassed into soone else's room, was surprised and lost for words. She hadn't expected him to be awake.
"It's been a long ti."
"......I suppose it's awkward because it's been so long."
When a more blunt answer than expected popped out, Esperanza pressed her lips tightly shut. However, Cider showed no signs of displeasure at the cold response. Well, he was generally like that. Until Esperanza told a really big lie.
She had thought their relationship had been completely twisted since that day, but Cider Claiborne, whom she t today, showed the sa attitude as before. Was this a good sign?
"Couldn't you say you're happy enough to overco the awkwardness?"
Esperanza still didn't move as if nailed to the door. She didn't know what to say. Only her lips moved slightly. Cider, who had been quietly watching, moved as if trying to get up.
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, with a single groan, his head dropped heavily. Golden hair spilled over the blanket. Her spine chilled instantly. Esperanza, who had sprung from the door like a released spring, grabbed Cider's arm.
"Does it still hurt? Wait, painkillers, painkillers...... Should I call a doctor?"
She had no intention of waiting for an answer. She imdiately grabbed the bell cord beside the bed to call a doctor, but a large hand covered hers.
Wait.
"......Are you faking it?"
"If I didn't do this, I felt like you wouldn't co all night. Since you're here anyway, won't you sit?"
Esperanza, who had been glaring at Cider with dissatisfied eyes, sighed and roughly pulled over a chair to sit. Really, there was no winning against him.
"You were very surprised? I'm sorry."
"......Forget it, it's my fault for not recognizing such obvious faking."
Once she actually sat down, she had nothing to say. Cider sat quietly with his eyes downcast. Esperanza's gaze flickered over his cheeks and nape that looked like they were made of sugar. A single drop of sweat flowing down below his nape and his lightly closed lips. Eyes that looked deeper in the shadow of his eyelashes. Everything that made ti feel endlessly fast when looking quietly.
When their eyes t, he smiled gently.
"Let's start with what you want to talk about."
When Esperanza opened her eyes wide and said nothing, Cider tilted his head and asked.
"Don't you have anything you want to say to ?"
"Are your injuries okay?"
"They're fine. As you can see."
'As you can see' indeed. Esperanza exaggeratedly frowned and pointed at the thickly bandaged arm.
"Then what's that?"
"Mm, it's nothing much. Doctors tend to be overly dramatic."
"My unni is also a doctor, but I've never seen a doctor making a fuss over nothing."
There might be such doctors, but it wasn't sothing a person who had a hole in his stomach should say. Even though she had poured an entire bottle of potion, serious injuries were still serious injuries.
"With our potions, most wounds heal instantly, but for people here, the effects seem to appear slowly. Still, the bones should have nded......."
"Is that unni a real sister? Or in the ga?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)