chapter 99
99 – (Side story) Unfulfilled wishes and new hopes
After the attack of the corrupted scum, the relationship between Master’s descendant and brother has changed a little.
After visiting the witch’s abode, the brother’s tendency to be uncomfortable with Master’s offspring disappeared, but it was clear that he kept a certain distance. But now it was gone and I could feel the brother approaching me little by little.
She must have felt that too, and she often laughed. I could see the slightest trace of Master in her smile.
I liked it a little, so I was careful not to disturb our time together. However, such efforts soon came to nothing.
At some point, her laughter withered away, and at some point, a fake smile began to appear. At that appearance, she realized that the same curse as her teacher had begun to progress.
I knew that she had such a curse, but when I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t understand why this happened.
A little time passed without understanding it, and the contents of the location of the place that Armis-sama said were interpreted. As soon as it was interpreted, we prepared and set out there.
As we set off and got closer to our destination, the laughter disappeared and darkness began to settle on our faces. Seeing him like that made me feel distressed because I remembered what Master must have been like.
So I left it to my brother without looking at her as much as possible. I continued my journey while avoiding her as much as possible, and arrived at the destination of the journey that felt a bit long.
I arrived at my destination, but nothing was visible, only a wide desert spread out. However, underneath the desert, I felt the energy I had experienced once.
The energy reminded me of the memories I always regretted and tried to erase. The memory of not being able to save Master because of my weakness, the feeling of cutting Master’s flesh in the fantasy of the ordeal, the smell of blood, and Master’s painful screams.
They came to mind again and the feeling of nausea rose. With that feeling of nausea, a conflict arose in his heart. A conflict arose in my heart about whether it was right to lead them through that terrible ordeal, and I pondered for a while.
The conclusion of such troubles was determined by the earnest brother and her gaze. After the conclusion was decided, I performed a simple ritual and summoned the sleeping place of trial.
The ground trembled, a place of trial appeared, and an unforgettable building appeared. The building appeared and I acted like I didn’t know anything.
I’m not sure why. It just did.
So I acted and was stopped by a stone statue. After being stopped, I told them that I had come a long time ago and that I had failed, and I could see the mixed emotions in the brother’s eyes. The most obvious of these was compassion.
remorse. These were the emotions Master expressed when he first looked at me. When I saw it again, I felt complicated, so I acted innocently as usual. Then he gave them advice mixed with acting and sincerity.
“Anyway, be careful, and if you can’t handle it, just give up.”
I wanted them to give up because I knew how painful the ordeal was. At the same time, seeing Master’s painful life, he hoped that they would not give up and overcome it.
I waited for them with such a contradictory mind. After a while, I heard someone approaching from inside.
I waited for the brother, thinking that it was the brother’s voice that was a little heavy, but the master’s descendant came to me with tears in his arms, holding the bloody brother in his arms.
I could tell from that sight that I had passed the ordeal. The purpose of the journey was fulfilled, but in the brother’s near-death condition, that fact did not matter.
I hurriedly awakened the power of the holy object and stopped the brother’s time. After taking first aid measures and looking at Master’s descendants, the condition was devastating. Tears flowed from her eyes, filled with guilt, and she kept muttering, ‘Because of me…’.
I could see my past in her body, but her mind was terribly broken. Looking at her like that, my mouth was dry, and compassion surged.
I started the journey back to the Holy Land by reading her.
The journey was too heavy and painful. The body is not hard, but the mind is so painful. Occasionally, Iris shed tears and muttered guilty words.
While feeling sorry for her, I kept seeing myself in her and wanted to avert my eyes. Even so, I hoped that they would fulfill their unfulfilled wishes, so I comforted her and told her hopeful stories.
As if that helped even a little bit, the moment she shed tears became a little less. Even so, there were still many, so I was worried.
There is no way to solve it by worrying alone, so I tried to speed up as much as possible so that this time would end quickly.
After such a heavy time, we arrived at the Holy Land. When the high priest saw the brother’s condition, he put on a serious expression and muttered,
“It’s the same as before. stupid guy.”
The high priest’s words lingered in my head. The reason the high priest saw the brother was when he visited once in the summer, so there is no reason to say that it was a long time ago.
Those thoughts lingered in my head constantly. That thought was pushed aside by the high priest’s next words.
“It’s not my field, so I haven’t completely cured it, but it will be enough that I won’t die.”
When the high priest who treated Master in the past said that he couldn’t cure it, doubts were pushed aside and worries surged. Feeling that concern, I turned my eyes and looked at her.
Tears flowed from her eyes again. She said she would wait, but the High Priestess resolutely issued a congratulatory order.
I urged Iris to go wash up with her. And again, I hoped that she would gain some strength while acting.
Perhaps aware of my efforts, she forced herself to open her expression. However, the voice still had a gloomy and guilty feeling.
I wanted to help her, constantly feeling pity and pity for her behavior, just like me in the past. Same as me, but I hope she doesn’t fail. I hope she is happy.
If that happened, it would feel like even a little bit of the wish that had been ruined without being fulfilled would come true, so I hoped that way.
Along with that wind, a barrier in my heart was torn down. When the barriers were broken, I could no longer act on her.
I, who cannot act, began to put my heart into every word I said. it’s so unfamiliar
It was like this every time when Master was alive… It was sad that it felt strange now.
While conversing with her with such thoughts, before I knew it, my mouth spat out strange words.
“Then, I will be your first friend.”
Even though I had never made a friend, I was saying something strange that I would be a friend, so I felt like I was crazy and I felt ashamed.
As she felt those things inside, the corner of her mouth went up a little. And an unexpected word came out.
“Yes, please.”
I took my anger out on Iris because of her appearance and behavior, which had nothing to do with Master, and she became wary and uncomfortable with me because of it. that was our relationship.
It felt strange that we were saying things like that.
However, I didn’t hate it.
That’s how I and she became our first friends who were a little awkward with each other.
The day after I became friends with her like that. Brother came to his senses. The brother who came to his senses must have lost all his memory, and he didn’t recognize us and talked nonsense.
I knocked out such a brother and went around with the sister to tell the elder about this, but I couldn’t find the elder.
When it was time for the brother to wake up, and when he went back, he was still fainting. We left such a brother behind and went around looking for the elder again, and came back in vain.
When she came back like that, the brother had disappeared and Iris’ spirit had gone mad again, so she went around looking for the brother, trying to soothe her.
I searched for a while, but could not find the brother. In the midst of such a fuss, the brother came back on his own and spoke about his thoughts along with what he had experienced. At those words, I was overcome with doubt.
“I met an old man while running away.”
Since there are only brothers and sisters in the holy land, there is only the high priest when it comes to the elderly. However, the current brother, who had a misconception about the dark elves, would have run away when he saw the high priest.
As we were talking with such thoughts, I saw a familiar sword at the brother’s waist. Master’s sword was hanging from Brother’s waist.
I asked the brother about it, and he replied that the old man gave it to him. I couldn’t believe it.
Does it make sense that the High Priestess did not allow Master’s sword to me, but gave it to my brother?
As I was thinking about that, the words of the High Priestess yesterday came back to my mind. ‘It’s the same as before. Stupid guy.’ It was the way he said that he had known the brother for a long time. And the attitude of the high priest who was strangely friendly towards the brother.
They got tangled up and strange assumptions passed through my head.
What if the brother is the reincarnation of the master?
According to that strange idea, everything makes sense. I can understand the high priest’s behavior and the unknown longing and familiarity I felt for my brother. But how likely is that? It’s a story that doesn’t make sense.
With that thought in mind, I erased those strange thoughts and set out on a journey to recover the brother’s memory so that Iris and the brother could be happy, so that my friend could fulfill the wish I had not been able to achieve.