Chapter 8
It was a familiar voice.
As I hurried to open the door, I saw a tired-looking middle-aged man.
He was shorter than me and wore clerical robes.
“Neil, what nerve do you have crawling back here? Is there anything left for you to burn?”
Inquisitor Captain Neil.
The man responsible for burning our village.
Sharp words escaped me as I faced a man toward whom I could never feel anything but hostility.
“… I’ve only come to deliver a new mission that was handed down.”
“The great Captain himself came all the way here just to deliver a scrap of paper? Something smells fishy.”
Neil covered the faint burn scars on his hands with his sleeves.
Though he never directly apologized, once he learned that we were survivors of Liam Village, he always approached us deferentially.
His eyes, which might once have shone with fanaticism, were now hollow.
A man who had burned out completely, running on inertia with not even proper faith left.
That was him.
“I also came by because I had something to give you.”
His voice, too, was dry as half-burned firewood.
I said no more and stepped aside.
“Ethan. A new execution has been scheduled for next week. Read this document for details. And this is… the thing… you asked for. It was confiscated property slated for disposal, but I left it out of the records.”
When he said the last sentence, Neil glanced around outside the door and lowered his voice.
Father accepted the thing wrapped in cloth that he held out, without a word or change of expression.
Neil was nearly the only person in the church who was kind to Father and me.
Perhaps that was why Father sought him out whenever he needed to ask a favor.
“Then I’ll be going. Have a good evening.”
He bowed briefly to us and quietly disappeared into the darkness.
“I’ll go prepare dinner. Please wait just a little!”
I headed to the kitchen, leaving Father standing there as he examined the item Neil had delivered.
The basket Noah’s mother had given us today contained a meat pie, so no elaborate preparation was necessary.
“Don’t take it outside.”
After we finished eating, Father held something out to me.
Judging by its elongated shape, it seemed to be the thing Neil had delivered.
A sword.
I remembered telling Father once that I wanted a sword to protect myself.
It had been an offhand remark, so I never imagined he would actually get one for me.
Much less by asking Neil to do it.
“Th... Thank you, Dad.”
Holding back tears brought on by emotion, I accepted it with both hands and pressed it close to my chest as though it were the most precious thing in the world.
As the weight of the cold steel touched my chest, memories of my previous life flashed through my mind.
I felt Father’s rough hand stroking my head.
The familiar sensation of having bloodied my hands countless times.
I had never wanted to feel it again, yet now it gave me a strange sense of relief alongside Father’s warmth.
With this, I could protect Father, too.
Even when I went to sleep beside Father, I never let go of the sword.
After eating an early lunch, Father sat on the edge of the bed and worked on his ax.
Though no one had reason to visit, a knock came from the door.
“Who is it?”
Yet despite my question, the unwelcome visitor simply kept knocking at a steady pace without answering.
At this untimely intrusion, I quietly picked up the sword.
Tension filled the house.
Was it because the villagers treated us poorly?
We were surrounded by nothing but bad relationships.
“Stay behind me.”
Then Father slowly rose, gripping the ax he had been working on.
After the heavy footsteps reverberated through the small house, Father flung the door open.
“…Uh…um… hello, sir.”
His voice sounded flustered.
His eyes trembled uncontrollably.
The unwelcome visitor was Noah.
Had he come again after being driven out so harshly yesterday?
It was an uncharacteristic display of courage.
His knocking without a word was probably his clumsy stubbornness: even if he could not bring himself to ask us to open the door, he could not give up.
One of Father’s eyebrows rose.
“Noah, I told you never to come back. Do you want me to hammer that into your ears right now?”
But Noah ignored Father’s warning and continued speaking.
“Th... it’s about time the ingredients started running low. And for some reason, food prices have been going up every other day lately… So I was thinking of going to the market with Ella…”
Apparently nervous beneath Father’s downward gaze, Noah tightly gripped one trembling arm with the other.
He was gripping it so tightly that the skin was gradually turning white.
Then Father pointed at Noah with the tip of his chin and said to me,
“You two go.”
“…What?”
Even though the outcome had been decided the moment Father saw him, I could not help being flustered.
Father’s gaze was resolute.
Was it because he was the only man who approached me despite my hostility toward everyone—and because he was the gravedigger’s son, in the same situation as us?
Perhaps Father believed that this excessively good-natured gravedigger’s son could make a suitable match.
I could not refuse Father’s words.
In the end, I went outside with Noah, just the two of us.
“Why do you keep ignoring what I say? Do you think someone like you can boss me around now?”
“…No… But I don’t want to give up on anything anymore.”
“Ha… Do you really think I’m that easy to deal with?”
But unlike usual, Noah ignored me and ran ahead.
“Hey! Hey!”
I hurried to catch up, but we could not have a proper conversation.
When I finally gave up, only the sound of our footsteps echoed around us.
“Hey, look over there. Look at those corpse-clinging freaks, going around together.”
“She’s pretty good-looking for an executioner’s daughter. No wonder there’s a rumor some noble lord has his eye on her. Lucky for lowlifes like them, huh.”
Filthy words all too familiar to me bored into my ears.
“Y-you! Apologize right now—”
“Ha, you fucking idiot who can’t even speak properly—how dare you grab me!”
I saw one of the men slap Noah across the face as he charged at them.
Noah, who always avoided the scene whenever he heard cruel words, had resisted for the first time.
My surprise at this new side of him lasted only a moment.
“Hey, have you two said your piece? You mangy little colts!”
Before I could even think, my body lunged forward.
The men’s sneers had yet to fade.
My right foot, carrying the weight of my whole body, sprang off the ground and shot forward.
The tip of my foot struck dead center in his face.
Along with the dull impact, the sound of his nose breaking reached my ears.
Before his falling body had even fully hit the ground, I withdrew my foot and drove it down into another man’s groin.
Unlike before, it felt quite refreshing.
The two men collapsed without even managing a proper dying cry.
Standing amid the two fallen men, Noah was staring at me with startled eyes.
“Hey, idiot, what are you staring at? Why did you get involved? Whatever—just get up already.”
I watched him rise hurriedly at my scolding.
“Th... Are these people going to be okay if we just leave them like this?”
“Why should I care? They’ll figure it out themselves. Just follow me.”
His cheek was gradually swelling.
Thinking that we should treat it first, I grabbed his arm and led him along.
Perhaps because I knew where many wild herbs grew nearby,
I soon found the herb I wanted.
As I crushed an herb effective against swelling and applied it to his cheek, a voice I did not want to hear reached me.
“Being like this… brings back old memories.”
“Shut up. It’s hard to apply this while you’re talking, so keep your mouth closed. What if it festers?”
“Look what acting like an idiot got you. We need to get back before sunset, so hurry up. And don’t cause any more trouble.”
“Uh… yeah.”
Even at the market we finally reached, the disdainful looks directed at us remained.
Perhaps because I had repeatedly warned Noah before we arrived, he only flinched.
The guard’s gaze fell on the blood on the tip of my shoe.
He stared at us for a long time, then turned away.
“H-how much is th-this apple?”
At Noah’s feeble question, the man setting up his stall ignored him.
After thinking for a moment, Noah set down two copper coins and spoke without stammering.
“I don’t need change.”
But the man looked at the blood on my foot and said,
“Two coins each.”
“What do you mea—”
“I don’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble over that foot.”
His words left me speechless.
Perhaps it was because my body had moved before I could think of the consequences.
Trouble had erupted somewhere I never expected it to.
I had no choice but to silently put down two more copper coins.
My fingertips trembled with anger.
This foot, which had just knocked down two men, could do nothing in the face of a mere few copper coins.
But for Father’s sake, I could not cause trouble in public where others could see.
I could only swallow my humiliation.
Just as we had bought everything we needed and were about to head home, a voice came from behind us.
“Hey, buddy, did you hear? The neighboring country invaded.”
“Ah, I heard. It was Lumidia, wasn’t it?”
Lumidia.
It matched the name I knew down to the last syllable.
A name I could never forget.
Those navy-blue eyes drunk with pleasure.
The sword stroke that split my world in half.
The kingdom to which the holy knight who led me to my death belonged.
It was definitely that Lumidia.
The wind stopped.