Chapter 334
Translator: yun
Was this anger? Or was this sorrow? Or was this the saturated feeling of despondence?I tried to understand the feelings I could not consider anger or sadness. It was indescribable.
After seeing the way Castor acted around the woman he called his nanny, I was captured by a sense of loss.
Why was I here at this time? What was I here to find? I could feel the stones I used to build the wall around my heart falling off one by one. No, the wall had actually been crumbling for a long time now, it wasn’t just a sudden phenomenon.
If this was what Castor was trying to make me feel by dropping me into this space, he was succeeding. Exhausted, I raised my head.
It had been two days since the nanny appeared. Ever since she arrived, all I did was stay in the room, lost in my thoughts.
“Will you be skipping your meals again today?”
Castor would approach me every mealtime to ask me to eat, as though he had died and became a starving ghost.
“There’s no point anyway.”
“Why wouldn’t there be a point? Letting a guest under my patronage starve would harm my prestige.”
For some reason, I felt alright even though I had not been eating or sleeping. It might be because of the peculiarity of this space, or the overwhelming amount of divinity that was supporting my body.
‘Amor once told me that templars could last a long time without eating.’
Thinking about how my divinity could act like vitality, I was reminded of Amor and his smile. Which only made me sink deeper into sorrow.
“Just treat me as though I don’t exist.”
Just as I thought, just because he was a child now and had no memories of me, I couldn’t see him differently. I said as I ignored the steam rising from the meal he brought me.
“You don’t have to force yourself to pay attention to me.”
“Huh?”
“You’re only doing this because of this chain anyway, right?”
I shook the chain tied around our wrists.
“Wouldn’t it be good for you if I end up starving myself?”
I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was being serious. Because I knew I wasn’t the only one uncomfortable because of this chain. Perhaps he was thinking the same thing because he twisted his expression.
“Why would you say that!”
However, the words that burst out of him were not ones I expected.
“I-I’m just trying to help you in any way I can... Were you planning on killing yourself?”
“.....”
“T-That’s why you’re not eating... Ha.”
Soon, I noticed him gritting his teeth.
“You are such a vile woman!”
As he tried to process the situation, some misunderstandings seemed to have popped up but I didn’t bother to try and correct them. The young Castor rubbed his face vigorously before leaving in a huff.
‘Look at him go.’
I peeled my eyes off the door before leaning my head against the wall.
‘To hear that from him of all people.’
I closed my eyes.
As my thoughts turned tumultuous. But at the same time, my mind was as clear as death.
Alright, I should just wait for this to be over on its own. Who knows if Castor was going to take me out of this space himself one day?
Perhaps this resignation was what Castor wanted from me but my heart kept wavering.
“Hello.”
Looking up, I found a middle-aged woman whose presence I hadn’t noticed till now. No, I knew she had entered but I decided to leave her alone.
“We met two days ago, apologies for only introducing myself to you today.”
As though she had come in the midst of cleaning, she was carrying an old rag in one hand and a long cane in the other.
‘Does the nanny also do chores?’
I looked away from Castor’s nanny.
“I didn’t manage to catch how I may address you, dear guest. Could I address you as a lady?”
“You make it sound like I’ve been hurt.”
“Because wounds don’t just appear on your body.”
I wondered why. But for a moment, I saw Auresia in the woman. I didn’t need to wash my eyes out to know that they were different people. Before I knew it, the woman was holding my hand and sweeping the back of it.
“Being doubtful is not a bad thing. But..”
The warmth from her hands stung my heart.
“My lady, you look like a child that was forced to grow up too quickly.”
***
That very night.
Just as I did the previous night, I stared at the sky instead of sleeping.
Every night I spend the time wondering what to do with this chain and escape this timeline but there didn’t seem to be any progress.
‘“Do I have no choice but to wait?”
I swept my hair up roughly.
“... I wish I could just talk to my diary.”
The diary and I were connected through our souls but for our communication to be cut off, Castor must have made a powerful move. I stopped calling for the diary in my head before sighing.
“Sigh. I knew this wouldn’t work.”
When I stared at my wrist, I felt a slight vibration. Castor must be tossing and turning in his bed now. The chain was useful in telling me how he was moving. If he were to suddenly move vigorously, the chain would shake around my wrist with similar vigour.
‘Just like this... huh?’
I stared at my wrist again. The chain was shaking so wildly even my wrists were forced to move. There was no way he could be moving like this unless he was holding the chain and dancing.
‘What’s going on?’
With this unpleasant sense of foreboding, I opened the door to a group of people sprinting down the hallway. They were knights. Moreover, I spotted a stranger wearing a hood lying motionlessly on the ground. Then, a scream of a woman who must be a maid could be heard from afar.
A coup? Could there really be a coup? But judging by the scale of alarm, it didn’t seem to be the case. Furthermore, since the knights were skilled, the invaders were quickly subdued.
“The door to the Crown Prince’s room is locked!”
“It seems to be divinity! Someone bring in a Templar of Snow!”
However, the chain around my wrist continued shaking. I weaved through the crowds to avoid bumping into people before heading into the room next to Castor’s instead.
I sprinted towards the balcony before jumping into the adjacent one. It wasn’t a difficult manoeuvre given my divinity.
As soon as I opened the window, I was greeted by a bone-chilling sight. Holding a sword, Castor, who had been panting, glanced at me. His eyes widened.
“How did you get here?”
Not only was he shocked but so were the men going against him.
“Kill that wretch!”
“Yes!”
Though they had just been commanded to do so, some men still exchanged glances before running towards me. Seeing the blade flashing in front of me, I was not frightened at all. Soon after tying their wrists and ankles tightly, they fell to the floor.
Clang. Their swords that fell a few seconds later accompanied them on the ground.
As their heads collided with the floor, roots burrowed out of the ground before winding around their torsos. When I looked up again, I spotted Castor fending his attackers off hurriedly.
“Urgh!”
He might be panting but he was fighting well. Even though he was only a child, he managed to win by, surprisingly, blocking a swing from an adult.
It was only then that I was reminded that Castor was one of the male leads in the timeline I thought was a novel and was well-versed in swordsmanship. I hadn’t thought about it because he had always used his divinity or his monstrous powers.
No, the day he killed my people and I, he also used a sword. Though it did not take skill to kill people who couldn’t resist.
“Ha, ha.”
Finally, Castor had won against the two men who were subduing him. In front of him were men who were mortally wounded and groaning in pain. Panting like a young beast, he suddenly turned to look at me.
“I knew you were a templar but... what the hell was that power!”
“Behind you.”
Castor quickly turned his head around. But it seemed like it was too late to dodge the blade. Just then a purple butterfly circled around the sword before a vine swapped the sword out of his hand. The man, who was already fatally wounded, could not stand any longer and collapsed back onto the ground.
Thud. The butterfly dropped a dagger into my hand.
“Plants and butterflies...”
“Why is your life being threatened?”