174 - - overlapping memory

Bending down, Thor puts his hands on his feet and shifts his gaze forward.

In his darkened eyes, the deserted ground and the orderly cobblestone pavement seem to overlap.

Thor shifted his focus a little and asked the girl next to him.

"Is this a fairly new place?"

"No, this street was built in the early days, so it was quite old."

"Then let's make it look a little peeled off."

Focusing his attention on the ground again, Thor picks out a road where the paving stones are chipped or cracked in places.

He increases his magical power and...

The first thing Dadan asks him to do is to repair the outer wall, but he only manages to restore the area he touched with his hands.

But the stone bridge pillars that line the red river, more than half collapsed, can be restored.

And in the windswept wilderness, he was able to restore a pile of stones that had completely disappeared.

The amount of magic power itself may have increased.

But more than that, Thor strongly felt that the magic technique was becoming more familiar to him.

Before, it was impossible, but before he knew it, he was able to do it.

He had experienced this before with the use of the sword and his bodywork.

However, the that he had used over hundreds of times was growing into a realm beyond Thor's imagination.

Rummella sighed deeply at the sight of the boulevard that had returned to a state where everything within sight had been paved over in an instant.

No matter how many times I see this sight, my legs naturally shake.

"How about something like this?"

"Yeah, yeah. ......"

The girl opened her mouth to reply, but what came out instead were strings of tears running down her cheeks.

Memories of the scenery that had been mixed up in Rummelera came in waves, chipping away at the pile of sand that had buried her emotions.

This place was once a path that the girl had walked countless times.

"...... need to rest a little."

Without asking the reason for the tears, Thor put the stone steps of the building behind him back in place.

He urged her to sit down and sat down next to her silently.

It would have been more appropriate if he could have offered her a handkerchief, but unfortunately Thor did not have such a fancy one with him.

There are a few scattered clouds floating in the clear blue sky.

The breeze was warm against his cheeks, reminding him of the approaching summer.

Without talking, the two of us just continued to gaze at the deserted cityscape.

Most of the ants had already been exterminated, and the eyesore of a watchtower had disappeared.

The ants that had occupied the hole-ridden outer walls had been driven out, and the damaged areas had been neatly sealed up.

However, it is not exactly the same as before, and the crumbling of the upper part is still there.

The border town, which had been completely reduced to a pile of rubble, was being restored to a level where people could live within a few days if they had human hands on it.　

After a while, perhaps regaining her composure, Ram Merulla slowly stood up and looked at the building behind her.

It was a decaying, but still magnificent structure.

The walls, which barely remained, were at least three stories high.

However, the interior had completely collapsed and was in a terrible state.

Rummella looks into the cavity where the gateway might have been and bites her lower lip so hard that it loses its color.

Perhaps noticing Thor's questioning gaze, the girl spoke in a few words.

"What you saw here was a temple for healing.

"I see."

Continuing their conversation, the two stepped into the dilapidated building.

Rummella tried to force a sense of nostalgia, but the sight of the interior, where everything had disappeared, made her smile weakly.

The girl's movement to look back at Thor stops unexpectedly as if she had been hit by a nail.

She looked at the dried blood stains and fresh nail marks on the wall.

All the bodies had been taken away by the ants, not a single bone was left behind.

The traces seemed to be the only reverberating screams of the dead in this place.

"Three hundred and eighteen, sir."

Staring at the wall, the girl formed a tight fist.

Then she began to speak brokenly.

"Me and my sister were here that day because it was a rest day. We were chatting with the others and suddenly there was a lot of shouting in the street. ....... The rest happened so fast. The ants filled everything and we were helplessly holed up in here. Outside they were asking for help, for the door to open....... Eventually a window on the second floor was broken and the ants came in. This building has a passage in the basement in case of emergencies. Only my sister and I were pushed into it. The temple director told us to buy time because they would catch up with us if we didn't. ....... But there were a lot of ants in the hole, and my sister managed to put me to sleep, but then I got burned ......."

Inhaling thinly, Rummella continued.

"The only reason my sister and I survived is because we had a little more branches on our skill tree than others. That's all. I remember all the faces of the people who were here at that time. I don't think I'll ever forget them."

I've almost forgotten about it."

The girl raised her eyebrows in surprise at Thor's response.

Nodding lightly, Thor reached out his hand and touched the wall.

"My village was attacked by an outbreak. I threw everything away and ran away. ...... the faces of my parents and my brothers and sisters."

The next moment, the claw marks were gone from the wall in front of me.

At the same time, the entire building regains its former appearance.

"I'm not saying you should force yourself to forget, but you don't have to force yourself to remember either. It's okay to remember from time to time, just from time to time.

Thor gently held out his hand to the girl as she sat up.

The girl wiped her face and clung tightly to his hand.

The middle-aged adventurer suddenly burst out laughing as he pulled Rammera to her feet.

"What's wrong?"

"No, I thought this had happened before. You know, when we were getting off the dragon boat.

The girl's face instantly turned bright red, as if she remembered the act of stepping on Thor's foot that was offered to her.

"Oh, that was... that was... that was... I'm sorry!

"Don't worry about it. Forget it, forget it."

Saying this, Thor used again.

Immediately the tightness in the girl's arms disappeared.

Shifting her gloves, Rummella checked to see that the burn marks on her arms were clean.

"Let's go. There's still a few things left to put back!

"............ Yes, Master Thor."

Two days later, after returning the city to its original state, Thor and his men returned to the border town of Dadaan.