Chapter 109
Side story 2
Edgars Chapter 1: The Forest
Headnote: warning for gore and ntioning of self harm.
Edgar gasped in surprise at the sound of his own voice. The sll of Chippos rotting corpse filled his nose and mouth. It was as if his face was buried in the dead flesh. The stench, which was normal with rotting corpses, suddenly beca unbearable with Chippos carcass.
Edgar backed away and covered his mouth in an attempt to block the sll. But by doing so, he accidentally bumped his back against the corpse lying on the bed behind him. After regaining his balance, Edgar blankly looked around him. His unfocused view was strangely distorted. Only then did his mind, which had been maddened and blinded by his goal the past few days, co back. Edgar tilted his head in thought.
Sowhere in the jungle, Chippo is still roaming on top of an elephant.
He nodded his head as if agreeing with himself.
Thats right, there cant be a Chippo in a place like this. Perhaps by now, Chippo wouldve found another
hanging from a tree while trying to calm an elephant running sowhere. The person will then shout, A fairy?! and Chippo would first carefully observe the creature he has never seen before. He would soon realise that its a creature thats calling for help. The friendly Chippo will then save the other
from a falling tree.
Isnt that right?..
Instead of an answer, a bug crawled out of the dead face. A face which they didnt even bother to close its eyes off. As Edgars focus blurred, he looked across the room. Among the dozens of corpses were multiple children. His first autopsy, the farthest corpse from where he stood, was also a youngster Suddenly, his fingertips, drained of blood, began to tremble. Every Ruwa child has followed him around the village at least once. Every child at so point made fun of him for being ugly, and for doing so, every child was tickled by him as their little punishnt at one ti or another.
Edgar lowered his weeping eyes. In front of him lay the braided-haired child who always clung to his leg and pleaded for a ride on his shoulders. But, after seeing the childs guts and blood gushing out of his wide open abdon, the sound of him whining as he yanked on Edgars pants faded away. Edgar couldnt take the nausea any longer and poured out his disgust. His nose and eyes, stimulated by his gastric juices, beca sour and hot. He collapsed and fell to his knees. He hadnt eaten anything, and yet his body continued to vomit. He could no longer bear it as he hated himself so much. That feeling made him sick to the stomach and he kept spewing out his guts
***
The Retiro residence beca the centre of heated gossip.
The nobility of Sesbron began whispering about a rare opportunity. The latest topic circulated around the grandson of the Marquess, currently staying in the mansion in the capital. The young master was claid to be the heir. The young master, who had initially aid to undertake officer training at Lebrun, unexpectedly joined the Imperial Clairaut and accompanied his grandfathers expeditions.
Nobles who wished to make a fortune by investing in the marquess voyages sent invitations or paid daily visits in the hope to et Edgar. However, they were only welcod by frightening ghost stories. The rumour that the heir was obsessed with cutting open the bellies of various races quickly spread across Sesbron. In fact, servants could be seen moving corpses into and out of the residence, indicating that the harsh treatnt towards the other races didnt stop even after their persecution. In Sesbron was neither the concept of an autopsy nor the study of anatomy, conventional. So, the young Retiro heir, closely associated with the sliced up bodies, including those of uncommon races, was regarded as horrifying and disgusting.
When this news reached Roahn, the Marquess began to worry about his grandsons future. But he couldnt lift a single finger. A doctor with a sick lover was a person who got crazier by the day. The thought that they couldnt cure the person they care about the most, even though they had been able to save so many people with their hands, was maddening. And that was exactly what Edgar was going through. Even as he rotted away because of the guilt and rebuke, he was obsessed with sothing that an ordinary person couldnt understand and imrsed himself in all sorts of research and experints.
Edgar slowly walked into a hell. Its been more than six months since that hell began to chew him up. The Marquess attempted to clear Edgars laboratory from the Retiro estate and locked him out. But when that happened Edgar didnt hesitate to harm himself and the situation was quickly rectified. Edgar was well aware that the Marquess adored him above everything else. But the mont the exhausted Marquess begged, Edgar pleaded back.
{ Why cant you understand , who loves her so much? }
Everyone who knew Edgar saw that he was behaving out of the ordinary. He not only caught animals and collected plants, but he also began travelling up mountains. His insanity towards an unknown cure beca more serious as ti passed. Nonetheless, the Marquess had no choice but to lend his full support. He couldnt help but hope that a dicine would be discovered soon and that this ordeal would end.
anwhile, the remainder of the Ruwa tribe perished. And since the Sesbron residents still believed it to be an epidemic, the Ruwans had to be burned. Their entirely burned carcasses could no longer be autopsied. So Edgar could only hang on to the data gathered in the first few months.
The Ruwans died from cell proliferation of unknown causes. These strange cells, which tastasize regardless of organs, proliferated imnsely even outside of the body.
Therefore, culturing wasnt difficult, and for that reason, even without a body, his research could be continued. Edgar was hopeful.
Murasha can be saved if the cause of the cell transformation is discovered
He groaned and rubbed her sunken cheek.
If I can find that out, youll
Murasha slowly opened her eyes. It was a sunny day. She spoke while bathing in the bright sunlight.
Let
hear the Cembalo*.
She was no longer able to lift the Surihe. And even if she could, her Surihe was left behind on the Western Continent. Still, she wanted to listen to music. She had spent her entire life playing music dedicated to God, so it seed natural that she would seek music even as she withered.
Edgar started tapping on the Cembalo that he had placed by the bed. He was always indifferent to music, but the marquess insisted that he would learn it from an early age, claiming it was a keepsake from his grandmother. Whenever the marquess got the chance, he would sit down and listen to Edgar play the song he wanted. Thanks to the marquess, Edgar knew how to play well enough to give a performance.
Edgar almost bursted out in tears the first ti she asked if there was music here too. It was the only aningful thing he could give her. He endured for the sake of seeing her live again. If he didnt have anything to offer, he might have truly gone insane.
Murasha, who was silently listening to the lody, recited.
I want to see the forest.
Again?
Lately, theyve been visiting the nearby forest. He initially had hopes that Murashas symptoms would improve when she asked to be taken to the woods, but nothing changed. She was still unable to walk and would periodically lose consciousness.
As there was no forest near his residence, they had to go to the nearby hunting ground. Edgar always took Murasha there, even though he was worried that the carriage would be uncomfortable or if it would put too much strain on her body. Still, whenever she got to the forest, she seed happy. Edgar looked down at her as she leaned against him with her feet dipped in the lake. The forest wind blew her tousled hair.
Is it her instinct to find the forest, or is it a feeling of longing for her hotown?
While staring at Murasha, who had her eyes closed, Edgar decided to confirm the hypothesis. An unreliable hypothesis. But that was all he had now. Murasha was the last of the Ruwa tribe. She was the only one who could be studied. Animal experints took longer, and Edgar had a long-held suspicion that Murashas ti was running out.
The oxygen concentrations in the Western and Central Continent are different.
This was a hypothesis he had long tried to prove.
The voyage would be long and hard, but the answer would be the sa no matter how many tis he thought about it.
Murasha is unable to survive on the Central Continent. She can only live in the Westerns jungles. Even within the Central Continent, there are different regions with different oxygen levels in the air. Murasha finds it difficult to breathe here, just as its difficult for soone who lives on flat terrain to breathe when they travel up a mountain.
She may not feel it, but her cells certainly do. Because if cells cant handle oxygen levels that are less than usual, eventually changes will occur in the living body so that they can survive even with that amount of oxygen. Thats why plants and cells that live in places where the air is thin form coils in the bodies of higher organisms.
Edgar headed to the Western Continent with her. Around this ti of year, the route was clear and that was fortunate for them. Perhaps thanks to that, Murasha didnt have a hard ti sailing. No, it was more right to say that she didnt have the spirit to struggle.
Edgar lay always next to her, unable to step out of the bed. He held her cold hand and begged for a sleep that never ca.
At so point, Murasha stopped eating full als, but she never mumbled that she was hungry. So, Edgar naturally stopped feeding her and instead played her the Cembalo he had brought on board
A few months later, they anchored off the coast of the Western Continent.
Edgar entered the jungle with Murasha in his arms. Wild boars and buffaloes road the ruined village. Elephants flapped their ears and roared. Most of the burned buildings were covered with black spots, and vines entwined around the destroyed building acting as their support.
Murasha.
He lowered his gaze to her in his arms. He was t by a pale face that revealed the contour of her skull. He always thought her pink skin was lovely, but today, no matter how hard he looked at her, he couldnt see it because of her grey complexion.
Edgar felt fortunate that he was able to give her a proper Ruwa funeral. Ruwans were cremated. So, he set up a pyre in front of the temple. The process was neither complicated nor difficult. One should sprinkle enough flower petals to cover the body and set it on fire.
As Edgar watched the flas blazing in silence, the resentnt he had endured for a long ti finally bursted out
Footnote:
*Cembalo: Musical instrunt that looks like a piano, but works like a string instrunt. By playing the keyboard one or more strings will be plucked by a small plectrum. So even though it looks like a piano, it sounds more like a guitar or similar string instrunt.
TN:
Chapter 108 and 109 were so hard, so sad and so painful to translate It really hit us in the feels. It becos even more tragic knowing that Ed and Murasha were only 18 and 16 years old, poor kids. We also cant decide if we were robbed from a gem of a scene or if its fortunate we didnt get to read about the exact mont she passed away. TT
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