Chapter 139

* * *

Aтв фfter that, they suffered two more failures. Yurina thought about leaving, but it was too late to return to the villa, so the two decided to go around one more village.

After examining the map carefully, Reynard calculated the coordinates of the next town and then executed the movement magic. IThey stopped counting, and the village, which they don’t know what number it was, was crowded even in the evening.

Yurina glanced at the sky where the sunset started to set and the bustling streets.

“It must be the day the market enters. A lot of people…”

Then, when Yurina found Raynard in tears, she quickly looked around again.

“Here… hey?”

Taking a deep breath, Reynard hugged Yurina tightly and buried his face in her neck. Yurina felt the touch and she patted him on the back.

Reynard’s parents were said to have been run over and killed by a carriage in the middle of the street. It was obvious without saying what kind of scene he would have thought of in this landscape.

There were people who glanced at the two standing in the middle of the road, but Yurina quietly comforted him until he calmed down.

* * *

Reynard’s house, even in a small town, was far from the main street. The two of them moved on, relying on his memory. As soon as they left the main street, a green field with herds of cows came out.

The main streets of the country villages were far more uneven than those of the capital, but the road to Reynard’s house was more difficult than that.

The untidy dirt road, to the point where Yurina wondered if this was really the way people would go, had large and small stones rolling around and the grass grew jagged.

Currently, Yurina was wearing comfortable shoes instead of high heels and a simple one-piece dress that Betsy had saved for her instead of an uncomfortable outing dress. Still, walking on the dirt road was not comfortable.

However, looking at Reynard, who was clearly excited, Yurina couldn’t even show that she was having a hard time. However, Reynard, who was walking fast, stopped, as if he couldn’t completely hide his troubled expression.

“Is it hard for you?”

“No, it’s okay.”

“Let’s rest for a while.”

After wiping the sweat from Yurina’s forehead, he laid a handkerchief on the ground and sat her down. Then he sat down on the grass with nothing.

Yurina rested her head on his shoulder and surveyed the surroundings leisurely.

A wide field with verdant green grass growing. The sky, with white clouds like cotton candy floating around, was so clear that it felt good just looking at it, probably because it was after the rainy season, and the sunlight was warm.

The sight of the cows grazing grass, wagging their tails slowly to ward off flies, seemed quite laid-back, calming Yurina’s impatient mind a little.

A field where young Tom would have played. Maybe that’s why Reynard’s face looked a little excited as he looked around.

Yurina stood up when the pain in her calf subsided.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Walking, walking and walking again.

By the time the sun had set and her feet and calves started to hurt, Raynard pointed his finger at a certain place.

“If I remember right, my house is this way.”

“That’s for sure?”

Yurina made a hand shield and looked in the direction he pointed. All she could still see were fields and cows.

“But I don’t know if our house still exists. Since there would be no one to manage it, it would have become a ruin, but rather than leave the collapsed building as it is, it might have just been demolished. If some form remains, it can be restored with magic, but it will be difficult if it is completely gone.”

Yurina felt the strength building in his hand and snuggled closer to him.

“I wish there was something left.”

“Yeah.”

With a little hope, Yurina walked and walked forward for another ten minutes. When it got darker, several houses appeared in the distance.

Reynard, who had been walking while holding Yurina’s hand, let it go and started running. Yurina also ran after him. Unlike the colorful dresses she usually wears, she wore a light skirt that commoners usually wear, so it was easy to move, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Reynard’s speed.

However, right now, Yurina was running with all her might. Reynard froze in front of a house with an impressive red roof that looked like his eyes.

Tears overflowed and ran down his cheeks. Reynard didn’t say anything, but Yurina recognized at once that this was the house where he lived as a child.

She stood next to him and looked around the house.

The house that Reynard, no, Tom, lived in was a shabby shack. In the meantime, it was a house that she had seen a lot while going from town to town, and she couldn’t find anything special about it.

However, even though it wasn’t anything special, it was the place where Reynard’s memories were kept, so for some reason, everything seemed special to Yurina as well.

“Here.”

He moved closer to home. His hands caressed the brick wall as if caressing a precious treasure.

“This is our house, Yurina.”

Again. joy, longing, and sadness. Tears of emotions that couldn’t be defined by one thing flowed down his cheeks.

Even though the tears that started to flow once flowed incessantly, he didn’t think to wipe his cheeks. He didn’t seem to be aware that he was crying.

Yurina wiped his face with a handkerchief that Betsy gave her.

“You are sure? It could be a similar house.”

“No. Everything is exactly like that.”

Reynard took Yurina’s hand and headed to the corner of the wall. Where he pointed, there was a shapeless drawing. It looked like a cat, and it also looked like a dog.

“I drew it.”

“Cute. What did you draw? Cat?”

“Huh? No, I drew a flower?”

“Hmm?”

Yurina frowned as she looked at the drawing. However, no matter how she looked, it didn’t look like a flower. Did he felt it? Reynard also smiled awkwardly and rubbed the tears left on his cheeks.

It was good because the atmosphere seemed to change thanks to the drawing.

“Anyway, maybe people live there?”

Yurina asked as she looked out the window. This hut was a little strange. It is clear that there were no signs of life in it. However, the house appears to have been managed.

It’s been 8 years since Tom left this place. In that many years, an unmaintained house would have already collapsed.

However, the house in front of her didn’t feel neglected, although there were cracks in the walls and dust sitting on the windowsills and door cracks. There weren’t even weeds around the house.

‘Usually the abandoned house will be overgrown with grass, right?’

While Yurina questioned, Reynard carefully opened the door and peered inside.

It felt very well-maintained for something no one had bought for a long time.

“It doesn’t look like people are living there…”

“Still, something is strange…”

Yurina looked around to see if anyone was coming. At that time, she saw a woman walking with her back to the sunset.

The woman paused for a moment, as if surprised  to find the two people hanging out in front of the house, but then quickly approached.

“Who are you?”

Grey-brown hair, wrinkled eyes, a fleshy waist and thick hands. The woman who showed signs of hard work in the field seemed to be about the same age as Yurina’s mother, Marchioness Carthia.

“Oh, are you the landlord?”

“I used to live here…”

The middle-aged woman’s gaze passed Yurina and turned to Reynard, who was walking behind her. Now, Reynard had changed his eyes to purple to hide his identity.

So even though there was no reason to look at him strangely, the woman couldn’t take her eyes off him even though she looked as if she had seen a ghost.

And when Yurina tried to talk to her, a familiar name came out of the woman’s mouth.

“If only… are you Tom?”

“Aunt Marie?”

It wasn’t an answer to the question, but the woman’s eyes instantly turned red as if she got an answer from Reynard’s call.

Yurina chewed on the unfamiliar yet familiar name in her mouth, then looked back at Reynard. He was shedding tears that had barely stopped.

* * *

A middle-aged woman, met by chance, and her name is ‘Aunt Marie’. At first, that name seemed familiar to Yurina. Although the name Marie was a very common name, there was another reason for that.

‘Why is it familiar?’

After thinking for a while, Yurina remembered what she had heard before as she greeted Reynard by calling him Tom.

Aunt Marie who nursed Tom, who had lost his mother, and took care of him like a son after his parents died.

Reynard, who had lost his mother when he was young, and Aunt Marie, who had been taking care of Tom, made a good impression. Even knowing that you shouldn’t judge people based on their outward appearance, Yurins somehow liked her.

‘Is it because I heard that she took care of Ray?’

Aunt Marie, who was the only one to talk to young Tom, who said that even his father didn’t take good care of him because of his red eyes. Wouldn’t that fact alone be enough to evaluate her?

“You don’t know how surprised I was when you disappeared.”

With moistened eyes, Aunt Marie poured the mashed potatoes onto Reynard’s plate.

Yurina was able to meet her and hear the story that Reynard hadn’t told her before.

Having lost his parents and living on his own, Tom heard a disturbing rumor circulating in the village from Auntie Marie. The rumor was about noblewomen buying young children.

―They’re using these children as toys. It’s the end of the world, the end.

―What is a toy?

To Tom’s innocent question, Auntie Marie deflected, saying he didn’t need to know.

―Don’t go to the busy streets for a while.

―Then what about the harvested vegetables? If we wait too long, they will wilt and won’t sell for a good price.

―Don’t worry, I’ll sell them for you.

With no parents, Auntie Marie was the only adult taking care of Tom. He was a bit puzzled by her instruction not to go to the busy streets, but he stayed home for a while as she suggested.

But then an incident occurred. People swarmed to Tom’s house, having heard some kind of rumor.

A pretty, helpless boy living alone with no parents. He would have been a good prey for anyone.

Tom, who had been sweating and digging vegetables in the backyard, was frightened by the unexpected visitors and froze in fear.

―What are you doing to my boy!

Thanks to Auntie Marie who belatedly rushed to the scene, a misfortune was prevented. Auntie Marie wanted to keep Tom in her house for a while, but now that he had once become prey, she couldn’t be relieved either.

―It might be better to go somewhere else.

But Tom had no relatives. And there was no one willing to take him in easily. It was because of the superstition that his red eyes were ominous. After much consideration, Auntie Marie decided to send Tom to a place even the nobles couldn’t meddle with easily.

So, Tom ended up going to an orphanage run by the temple, a place that follows only the divine command, a place even the Emperor couldn’t meddle with easily.

Until he left, he looked back several times at the field his parents had worked so hard on and the house filled with memories.

‘I wondered how he knew words like ‘toy’. So, this was the reason.’

After the woman, whether a noble or a wealthy person, lost all interest in Tom, Auntie Marie went back to the orphanage to find him. It was a story of a spring day after the very cold winter, when many people froze to death.

But Tom wasn’t in that orphanage. Auntie Marie was not only shocked to hear that Tom had followed some noble, but also extremely worried.

“I naturally thought another strange woman who had set her sights on you had taken you. Even if I wanted to find out where you went, the orphanage only said they didn’t know who the noble who took you was…”