Chapter 11
On my way home after telling Noah what to do.
The bustling town within the walls had now fallen into a tense silence.
Only the heavy footsteps of soldiers patrolling with lanterns could be heard.
How much could those walls truly protect us?
We had to finish the hideout as quickly as possible.
When I arrived home, Father was sharpening his ax as usual.
But his clothing was different from usual.
The smell of oil had masked Father's usual scent.
It was armor I'd never seen before, not his everyday clothes or the black garments he wore for work.
“Ella. I'm going to fight. The church is drafting people to guard the walls. I'll definitely save you.”
“Dad. We said we'd run away together. Please.”
His voice trembled uncontrollably.
His hurried embrace felt different from usual.
The warmth and pleasant firmness of his embrace had vanished, leaving behind only a cold, deeply unpleasant hardness.
“I won't just stand by and surrender what I have in my hands anymore. I can't just stand by and lose you.”
Unlike usual, Father, who had always spoken only in short sentences, did not stop talking.
His tone was dry, but his words trembled faintly.
“Then I'm coming too. I'll fight with you.”
My struggles to break free were easily stopped by his arm wrapped around my waist.
“Hide somewhere safe. This is a shameless request from a father who can't do anything for you.”
“Dad… Dad… Please… Without you, I can't… not even for a day.”
My burning tears could no longer soak into his embrace.
They simply ran down uselessly.
“I'll definitely come back, so wait just a little while.”
…”
Could it have been because of the thick leather gloves?
After the last touch of his hand on my head, its usual softness gone, Father disappeared before me.
My legs gave out.
I wanted to grab the sword hidden beneath the bed and follow Father right away.
Yet it was the first request he'd made of me since that day.
I had a mountain of things to do, but none of them seemed to have any meaning anymore.
“We're all going to die here anyway… What meaning could any of this have…”
In a field of vision drained of all color, I saw the wooden doll lying on the table.
That block of wood I kept abandoning before finishing, only to start carving a new one and abandon that, too.
But the wooden doll was different.
The faces of all four of us had been carved into it.
I crawled across the floor, my legs no longer able to muster any strength.
“Mom… Alex, what should I do?”
With Father no longer by my side, I hugged the wooden doll in his place.
The hazy faces of Mother and Alex flashed before my eyes.
“I don't know what to do anymore…”
“Ella! Ella!”
The doorframe rattled, and sawdust fluttered through the gap in the door.
The house had been swallowed by darkness.
“Are you all right?! Your father left after entrusting you to me-”
It was too loud.
I covered my ears with both hands, not wanting to hear anything.
The wooden doll slipped from my arms and slid to the floor with a soft sound.
The door, which had not been bolted, opened easily.
Noah kept saying something, but I did not want to hear it.
As he reached down to lift me, the hands covering my ears were pulled away.
“-Let's go to the ossuary. If you stay here like this, what will your father's efforts amount to!”
His anger felt unfamiliar.
Holding the wooden doll in one hand, I followed him without putting up any resistance.
When the heavy stone door closed, only a dim oil lamp cast light inside the ossuary.
Noah led me to the deepest corner of the ossuary.
“Ella… Just sit here first.”
He spread his worn outer garment over the stone floor and carefully sat me down on it.
I leaned against the cold wall of the ossuary and stared blankly into space, as though nothing but a shell remained of me.
How much time had passed? Noah approached me with a leather pouch in his hands.
“Ella… Drink at least a little water… Please.”
But the stream of water that touched my lips simply ran weakly down my chin.
Outside, the dull sound of a catapult striking the wall echoed faintly.
At first, it sounded only once in a while, but now dozens of them overlapped, shaking the ground without pause.
The distinction between day and night was faint in the darkness, and Noah was scratching lines into the stone wall with a small knife.
How many days had passed like this?
“Ella. You have to eat at least this much… Your father entrusted you to me. He told me you had to survive…”
His voice was full of pleading as he held tiny pieces of torn bread to my mouth.
His usual timid self was nowhere to be seen; only a desperate sense of responsibility remained.
Thud!
At that moment, a tremendous tremor swept through the ossuary.
The entire ossuary shook, and dirt and stones rained down from the ceiling.
An unpleasant smell laced with iron.
A faint smell of blood reached my nose.
Noah was lying on the floor, blood flowing from his head.
While I lay helpless, yet another person who had helped me was hurt because of me.
The image of Mother lying in the ashes and Father slowly falling apart overlapped with Noah's bloodied face.
Ash clung to the roof of my mouth, and a metallic taste lingered on the tip of my tongue.
“A fool who keeps repeating the same thing without learning.”
The first words to escape my mouth in days came out hoarse.
I set the wooden doll I had been holding down on the floor and staggered to my feet.
A stone seemed to have grazed his head, leaving a shallow cut.
“… Ella?”
“Be quiet.”
I laid his head on my lap, tore a strip from my clothes, and began wrapping it around his head.
Unfortunately, there were no medicinal herbs inside the ossuary.
Once I'd mechanically finished treating him, Noah stared at me with bewildered eyes.
If we stayed like this, both Noah and Father would die.
Regardless of Father's request, I couldn't keep sitting by and watching.
Even now, I wanted to grab the sword and run to the wall where Father was.
But Noah, who had been injured because of me, was beside me.
And even if I ran there now, Father and I would only die in vain.
We needed a stronghold where we could hold out for the days ahead.
I had to reinforce the hideout, then find a way to get to Father's side.
When I opened the heavy door and went outside, a large stone was embedded near the ossuary.
It must have been a catapult stone that had gone astray and flown this far.
“Noah. Help me. We have to reinforce this place.”
Relief flickered in Noah's eyes.
“Yeah!”
“Let's replace the broken jars first. There are some left at your house, aren't there?”
“There should be some. My parents are probably helping the soldiers now, so they won't be in the house.”
“Then bring them here. I'll hide the ossuary for now.”
My body, which had lived on nothing but a few drops of water for days, screamed at the sudden labor.
But finishing the work came first.
I had wasted far too much time on pointless emotions.
Before resting, I had to finish at least the essential tasks.
The work proceeded quickly.
I picked herbs from the mountain, scattered them around the ossuary, and gathered medicinal plants in case we needed them.
As planned, I stuffed oil-soaked cloth into the gaps around the door and piled fallen leaves around it to make the place less visible from outside.
Just as I was wedging branches I'd gathered nearby between the ceiling and floor to guard against a possible collapse,
I heard footsteps outside.
Judging by the sound, there was only one person.
An enemy? Or a looter?
“Noah. Give me the dagger. You hide in the corner.”
I took the dagger Noah handed me and stood behind the door.
My heart pounded.
“Ella? Are you there?”
The unwelcome visitor stood in front of the door and knocked.
The moment I heard that voice, the tension throughout my body vanished as if by magic.
A familiar voice.
It was Father.
When I opened the door, Father stood there—the first time I'd seen him in a long while.
Fatigue weighed on his face, but resolve shone through it.
His armor was dented.
His ax was bloodstained and neglected.
Even so, he was still my father.
“Dad! How did you get here?!”
I rushed straight into his arms.
“When I left you in Noah's care, he told me that you'd built a hideout here.”
He stroked my head with his rough hand.
“The northern wall will collapse soon.”
“Then we can take advantage of the coming chaos and escape-”
He cut me off and placed something in my hand.
It was Mother's ring.
The old metal was lukewarm from how long he'd held it.
“No. We can't do that. Keep this. Your mother will protect you.”
“What are you talking about?! Please, let's leave together! I can't let you die!”
Father hugged me tightly, as though it were our final embrace.
“I'm sorry, Ella, for being a useless father.”
Then, along with the feel of his gloved hand, a powerful blow struck the back of my neck.
My consciousness cut out with his final words.