Chapter 98: 27.63

translator: mii

editors: sleepchaser, ASplashofMusic

After lightly washing and drying ourselves and our dirty clothes, we hear Gouda-san call us for the meal. So we head to the dining room.

The large table, large enough for ten people to sit around it, is filled with dishes. All made from apples.

Even the alcoholic drink they serve is spiked apple cider.

There are also heaps of apples lying on the table.

Gouda-san runs a large apple orchard. He also sets a portion of the apples aside to make alcohol.

He has gifted me some of his alcohol a few times in the past. It goes down the throat nicely and has a refreshing, sour taste. Very delicious.

The villagers who helped in the search are also served food and alcohol. After a while, a young man, already drunk, starts singing and dancing.

That’s a common sight at the town’s bar too. Why do drunken men like to sing and dance after drinking themselves into a stupor? Well, they’re still better than those violent drunks who pour alcohol over people’s heads, though.

Lian remains seated on his chair, watching the man’s funny singing and dancing with interest.

Then the knights and my seniors rise to their feet , probably already under the effects of the alcohol. With a glare, they grab each other’s collars, resulting in a scuffle at the table. I restrain them before the situation turns into a full-on brawl and throw them out of the house.

Don’t fight when other people are eating. You’re being a disturbance. The food and drinks will probably be upturned and go to waste too.

If you want to fight, do it in a place where you won’t disturb other people.

Actually, why can’t they just calmly drink in their seats? The people who like to start fights are the most uncontrollable. The alcohol numbs their sense of pain, so they don’t stop fighting until they are beaten black and blue.

That’s why the only way I’m able to break up fights is to beat them up . If I choose to take the peaceful approach and talk it out with them, they’re not going to stop.

When I return to the dining room after throwing those drunks out, Lian is no longer in his seat. Where did he go?

I turn to Gouda-san, who’s in the middle of a drinking competition with the villagers. According to him, Lian has gone up to the guest room on the second floor after excusing himself from the table, saying that he’s sleepy and wants to rest after the long day we had.

After notifying Gouda-san that I’ll also go upstairs, I leave the extremely chaotic drinking competition to find Lian.

I still feel worried.

He says he’s just tired, but his complexion has been too pale today. He didn’t eat or drink a lot at the table either.

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His smiles also look forced.

Maybe he’s sick.

After all, he’s the type to rarely, if ever, tell anyone if he feels ill.

And he’ll continue to endure it as long as no one asks.

I lightly knock the door, saying, “Lian, it’s me.” Just like whenever I go to his private room in the mansion during the morning.

From inside the room, Lian tells me to enter in his absent-minded, slurred voice he always has every time he’s drunk.

When I open the door, I find the room bathed in near complete darkness.

The only source of light is the dim pale moonlight through the two lattice windows.

With the darkness and the dim light mixing together, just about everything in the room looks… fuzzy.

It’s as though I’m in a dream.

Lian stands by the window, peering out. He doesn’t turn to me.

He’s already removed his jacket and his weapons,now only in a white shirt and light beige pants.

Silver locks appear to reflect the light of the moon, awfully white to the senses.

His skin is just as white.

My heart violently thumps.

Everything about him looks too white underneath the moonlight.

Is he looking at the starry sky?

Or the mountain range?

I observe his eyes from the side. But I can’t tell what he’s looking at because they’re unfocused.

It’s like he’s looking at something else entirely. Not at some visible object in front of him.

A lump forms at the back of my throat, and an indescribable feeling swells from the depths of my heart. Unconsciously, I rush to him and grab his thin wrist.

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I have to catch him.

I feel like if I don’t hold on…

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…he’ll vanish from me.

I can’t erase the anxiety slowly spreading through my heart like a disease. It’s so frustrating.

Just as inerasable with this anxiety are Lian’s words from that one time.

I haven’t forgotten them. Even until now.

Even if I want to, I can’t.

And every time I remember, fear arises in me. Again and again.

My heart will pound loudly.

It was during this early summer, when we left the village to set up the fence for warding off the demons.

After lunch, Lian lay down on the green grass, saying that he was going to take a short nap.

He slept so well, so I decided not to wake him up.

In the afternoon, the work was finally finished, so I went to wake Lian.

Then in the middle of it, he said, “Wait for me, Goddess,” with one hand extended toward the sky.

If that’s the only thing that happened, then I could still think of it as just sleep talking.

But when I touched Lian’s shoulder…

I saw a bright white light. Blinding enough to cover my entire field of sight.

It was too intense for me to dismiss it as a mere illusion.

It lasted only for a second, and Lian woke up immediately after.

I was relieved when the light disappeared. But maybe I still felt too nervous in my subconscious. Because despite my relief, every muscle of my body remained tense. In that moment, my body seemed to be frozen in place.

After I was finally able to move, I grew a little confused.

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Because the workers and villagers resting nearby were acting too normally.

They chatted about casual topics, like tomorrow’s weather. As if nothing strange had happened just then.

It was then that I realized I’m probably the only one who saw that white light.

If they had seen it, they wouldn’t be this relaxed.

At that time, I thought it might just be my exhaustion making me hallucinate. Maybe I pushed myself too much, and I just didn’t notice it.

I had a dizzy spell for a moment too, so that might be the cause.

But now, I feel that it really wasn’t just my imagination—

“…Alfred, it hurts!”

In that instant, I finally snap back to my senses. Then I notice my incredibly tight grip on Lian’s wrist.

Immediately, I release his wrist and raise my hand.

Lian’s wrist has turned red.

“…Sorry, it’s my fault. Let me heal it now,” I say, ready to take out the recovery medicine from my waist pouch.

But Lian touches the back of mine, stopping me. “No, it’s okay. You don’t need to use the medicine. Seriously though, your crazy strength… But setting that aside, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“…No, nothing happened…”

My throat feels very dry. My voice sounds strange too. I’ve made a mistake.

The chaos in my heart still hasn’t disappeared.

“What about you? What were you staring at?”

“Me? Ahh… Nothing in particular really. Just the night sky. I was thinking about how beautiful the stars look.”

I look out the window too. I see many stars scattered amidst the dark night sky.

Then, Lian said, “…Marie-sama told me something about that before.”

“Marie?”

“Yeah. She told me that everyone returns to the sky upon their deaths as a fragment of a star. The Goddess watches over these fragments. And some day after returning to the sky, they will once again be reincarnated in this world. This cycle repeats again and again until they have enough fragments to become a complete star. After that, they’ll ascend to heaven,” says Lian, pointing at the sky.

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