Chapter 5
I felt the strength drain from my father’s shoulders.
He briefly sighed in relief, then smiled and took my hand.
“Look, Ella. See? Nothing happened. Let’s sell the wolf first.”
There was not a trace of fear on the villagers’ faces.
Everyone was merely talking about the coming festival or the harvest season.
No one mentioned the bandits or insects I had heard about outside the walls.
Everything was far too peaceful.
Yet I could see things that were anything but ordinary.
Behind the laughing, chattering people, I saw things that did not belong.
Soldiers brushed through the crowd, their eyes darting this way and that.
They neither smiled nor spoke.
They simply kept checking everyone’s faces.
Behind the fountain in the center of the square, where children were splashing about, stood a bulletin board.
‘A festival will be held to commemorate the thirtieth birthday of Viscount Albert.’
‘Executioner wanted. Tax exemption and lodging provided. Applicants should report to the church.’
‘Notice regarding autumn tax payments.’
Among the ordinary notices was a large warning.
‘Anyone who spreads unnecessary rumors will be severely punished.’
Unlike the other notices, whose papers had clearly been there for quite some time, the ink was dark, as though it had just been written and posted that morning.
It felt as though a colossal curtain had been drawn over the people’s eyes, with a peaceful play being staged only within it.
“Look at this leather, sir. The shine is still there. You expect me to sell something like this for that price? Do you take me for a fool?”
“Now, hold on. I’d be taking a loss if I paid any more.”
“Then I won’t sell it here. Give it here.”
“Whoa, why the rush? I’ll give you a little more. Come here, let’s see.”
As I looked around the village with wary eyes, I saw that my father had already finished negotiating and was wearing a bright smile.
“Ella, come here! We got this much for it. I think we’ll be able to buy Alex plenty of delicious food. Now let’s go buy some herbs.”
Father gestured toward the herbalist’s shop.
Unlike the worried expression he had worn before we reached the town, he was smiling with genuine happiness.
He seemed filled with hope that he could save his sick son,
and with joy at being able to show his daughter this new city.
I forced the corners of my mouth upward into a smile.
But the instinct that had kept me alive as a soldier was screaming.
The laughter began to grate on my ears.
That laughter was utterly hollow.
I felt as though I could not breathe.
This was not peace.
It was merely a well-staged performance.
Armor flashed behind the fountain’s spray.
The soldiers passed through the crowd with expressionless faces, scanning everyone’s features.
In the middle of the bulletin board, the words ‘Severe punishment for spreading rumors’ gleamed wetly.
Whenever the wind shifted, I thought I could smell incense brushing against the tip of my nose from the direction of the city gate.
“Shopkeeper, do you have any herbs that are good for a cough?”
The instant the word cough left my father’s mouth, the fragments in my head clicked into place.
Cough.
Alex, coughing violently.
What if this wasn’t merely a cold?
What if the village had requested the church’s help against an unstoppable plague?
What if the church had dispatched an inquisitor as a result?
As the gaps between the fragments filled, thoughts began to surface one after another.
The tip of my tongue went dry.
The thought that the peaceful life I had dreamed of was falling apart seemed to drain all the color from my face.
My violently trembling eyes made everything in my vision shake uncontrollably.
“Ella! Ella! What’s wrong? Snap out of it!”
Noticing my strange symptoms, Father grabbed my shoulders and shook me frantically.
“A... Alex... Alex! The village! The purification!”
I couldn’t breathe.
My throat was parched.
My vision blurred.
I could not string the words together normally.
Father caught hold of me.
His hand was trembling.
Yet even from that brief string of words, Father seemed to realize that something was wrong.
“I’ll buy those herbs right now. Give them here!”
When the flustered herbalist held out the herbs, he snatched them, tucked them against his chest, and wrapped me in his embrace.
He ran to the city gate, where the carriage drivers gathered, abandoning even the cart.
“Here’s every coin I have! I’ll even give you my cart! Please, please get us to Liam Village as quickly as possible! There’s something I need to confirm! Please!”
At Father’s desperate plea, someone stepped forward.
“I’ll take you there. I’ve visited Liam Village a few times, so I know the way. Follow me.”
The wheels rattled noisily as they raced along the rough road.
Even as the carriage raced forward recklessly, everything felt unbearably slow.
“Daughter... Everything will be all right. So just hold on a little longer, Ella.”
Father held me tightly while watching the road outside the carriage.
His voice sounded calm on the surface, but was brimming with anxiety.
The fear of loss, something I had never experienced even in my previous life, tormented me.
As we crossed over a hill, the scent carried by the wind changed.
A foul smell of something burning.
An all-too-familiar smell I could never forget.
The sky was red, and a black line rose endlessly above it.
Black smoke tore across the red sky, like a seal dragging the things I had imagined down into reality.
The startled driver pulled on the reins.
The moment he saw it, Father pulled me close and leapt from the carriage.
“Father… Stop. Please”
I did not have the courage to face the inevitable.
“What are you talking about? Our village is just a little farther...”
“Please...”
At my plea, Father finally stopped, but it was too late.
Hell had already reached us.
“Ah... Ah...! Mar! Alex!”
Hoofprints were scattered wildly from the entrance of the village onward.
Something black lay sprawled on the ground.
Father’s legs gave out beneath him.
I had never seen him kneel before.
“Mar... Mar... Mar...”
Father rose again and began taking one step after another as though his soul had left his body.
Once we entered the village, it was silent save for the sound of crows flying overhead.
Every road in the village was covered in black ash.
The timber that had once formed the houses lay collapsed, blocking the roads here and there.
Charred, blackened forms lay scattered between them.
It was a horrifying sight.
Yet revoltingly, it was all too familiar to me.
A sight I had seen every day on the battlefield.
I knew they were our neighbors, but the eyes of a seasoned soldier coldly analyzed the condition of the bodies.
Those who had curled up had burned to death; those lying face down had died while trying to escape.
I hated myself for thinking that way, so I could not keep looking and eventually turned my gaze away.
Even so, Father went from one to the next, checking each one.
With terror on his face, he would barely examine each one, then quickly bury his relief beneath guilt.
He repeated the same action again and again.
Then, at last, we arrived at our house.
The house had completely collapsed, leaving behind nothing but rubble.
“Ella... There’s... no one in the house.”
It was a restrained shout, meant only to keep his anxiety in check.
Father slowly walked into the center of where the house had stood.
A half-burned wooden carving remained there.
He slowly lifted it with both hands.
Perhaps because it had already burned so badly,
the ash crumbled beneath his fingertips.
I saw Father quietly staring at the remains as they crumbled in his hands.
The piece of wood that had once held Alex’s laughter, and that he had painstakingly carved and polished for him, was now scattering across his palm without the slightest trace of warmth.
It seemed as though every sound, including the crows’ intermittent cries, had vanished.
In the end, I could not bear to keep watching him and turned my gaze toward the outside of the village.
Then something flashed in my vision.
I saw something glinting on the outskirts of the village.
Two corpses.
One of them had a familiar iron ring on it.
“Ah”
A single cry escaped me.
My body went rigid.
Sensing that something was wrong with me in his arms, Father turned his head in the direction I was looking.
Something hot brushed across my face.
Unable to bring myself to look up, I buried my face in Father’s embrace.
I closed my eyes.
If this was a dream, I wanted to wake up as quickly as possible; if it was reality, I never wanted to breathe again.
_______
The journey had begun simply for Alex’s sake.
Although his daughter’s strange composure and deft hands had bothered him, it had been a fairly enjoyable journey.
But the moment they entered the village, everything became strange.
The checkpoint looked different from usual.
And so did his daughter’s reaction, which bordered on a seizure.
Only then did the fear that something might have happened in the village fill his mind.
Although he had abandoned everything to rush to the village, it was already too late.
Now all he could see was Alex, who no longer moved, and his wife, clutching him tightly.
‘If only we had all gone to the city together.’
‘If only we had stayed home instead of going to the city.’
He could not stop thinking that, if only they had chosen differently, the outcome might have been different.
He wanted to give up on everything.
Then he felt his chest grow damp.
Warmth and his daughter’s breath still lingered against his chest.
The heavy weight of his daughter remained in his arms.
His gaze moved downward and stopped on his daughter, who was sobbing silently.
‘I still can’t give up on everything. I still have my daughter.’
He pulled his daughter close as though clutching the remaining flames.
Flames flared once more in his hollow eyes.