CH 70

I panted as I climbed the steep road, a paper bag full of ingredients in my arms. But when I climbed the hill, and the green meadow came to view, I smiled faintly.

I spotted a hut on the meadow far from the village. The colorfully painted fence and small vegetable garden were the spaces where my brother and I touched.

I hurried over the fence. Then, after checking the cucumbers and cherry tomatoes planted in the garden, I arrived at the door and turned to look at the view.

I slightly lowered the paper bag and unlocked the door with the key. The door opened with a creak, and the warm sunlight blew in the hot air.

I went straight to the kitchen, holding the paper bag containing the ingredients, put the paper bag on the table with a thud, and wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.

Haa, I let out a deep sigh and smiled, then inadvertently stared at the vase at the center of the table. My eyes widened when I spotted a single flower on the vase.

“A tulip?”

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Inside the always-empty vase was a fresh tulip. I stared at the flower in awe, then came to my senses and rushed out of the kitchen.

I went through the open gate and climbed over the fence. I looked around the empty field with lush vegetation, but no familiar figure was in sight.

Whenever Oppa, a mercenary, passed by Cedria during his quest, he would surprise people by visiting without prior notice.

He would look inside the house as if inspecting it, check my daily routine, and leave with confidence, but whenever I was away, his nagging would worsen after I returned home. He would usually nag me to stay home and ask why I was away.

“If you come, say hello before you go. You only do things as you like,” I grumbled, then felt something touch my calf.

A cat appeared out of nowhere and rubbed her face on my calf with a pleasant gurgle. The cat with black and white fur had a charming point–its white whiskers looked like it had been dipped in black paint.

Because of its unique appearance, I could tell it was the cat I had been feeding for a while. I put my hand under the cat’s arm, lifted it like a radish, and made eye contact. The cat blinked its golden eyes.

“Hey, cat.”

“Meow–,” the cat meowed in response to my call. 

As the piece of cloth wrapped around the lower half of my face fluttered in the breeze, the cat waved one paw curiously. I held the cat securely in my arms to avoid its touch and stroked its head.

“Oppa must have come and gone without a word,” I pursed my lips, unable to hide my disappointment. “What are you so busy with that you can’t even see me? Right?”

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The cat purred and rubbed its head against my arm. I laughed at the seemingly comforting action.

I took the cat in my arms and tried to enter the house, but I couldn’t let go of the lingering feeling and took a last look around. Then, I closed the door and entered the house.

I put the cat in my arms down. It was hard to believe it was the first time it had been brought into the house because the cat looked accustomed to lying on the chair and stretching as if it were its own. Finally, the cat, purring like a newborn deer, fell asleep.

I smiled at the peaceful sight and headed to the kitchen to prepare my meal. As I tried to remove the ingredients from the paper bag, I found a piece of paper under the vase.

My eyes widened at the note I hadn’t seen before, and I hurriedly picked it up.

「 Don’t take off the petals like the leaves. Take good care of the tulips until I return.

Oh, if you get a letter from Rin, ignore it. It’ll be useless again. -Takan.」

I raised a brow and let out a hollow laugh. “I already got a letter from Rin.”

Fortunately, he didn’t nag, but it was still sad because it would have been nice to see his face.

Rin was my and Oppa’s supporter. Over the past few years, I have traveled here and there like a wanderer at Oppa’s whim, but I hadn’t lost contact with him all this time. Oppa said he was a person who helped us a lot in our desperate moments of life and death.

Besides that, he said Rin was the only person other than me that he thought of as family. Was that why? We had only exchanged letters, and I’d never met him. Yet, I knew he had great affection even if I didn’t know his face. Rin’s affection for my brother seeped through his letters.

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“Oppa acts like he hates it, but it’s obvious he doesn’t.” I shook my head and put down the note. Then, I took off the cloth that covered my face and placed it next to it.

I’ll eat dinner later. I slumped down like a person whose legs were weak and lay face down on the dining table.

I gently closed my eyes and rubbed my cheek to check the scar. Once I felt it, I let out a long sigh.

A few years ago, since I lost my memory, I occasionally touched the scar to calm my anxiety. My brother and my scar were the only ones who remembered what I didn’t

Not all memories were hazy.

If it were, I wouldn’t have yelled at Takan and tried to run away a few years ago when I had just opened my eyes. 

‘W-who are you? Where am I? What am I…!’

‘Calm down, Aelle. I–’

‘…’

‘Your family… That’s what I’ll be.’

At least I clearly remembered that Takan wasn’t my real brother. 

He said we got into an accident, spent a long time there, and were the only survivors.

I lay down like a doll, breathing but never getting up, and he always cared for me.

To be honest, when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe that time had passed. I was wary like a cat, drew a line, and tormented my brother for months.

I was also scared. I was suspicious when he said I should hide my face and live as his sister. What incident was he talking about? There were many days when I could not fall asleep because I was afraid that I might be involved in the case.

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When I went to the city without his knowledge, I heard from a villager that the town of Tigra was being closed down, and that’s when I learned about the incident. Also, the fact that an aristocrat was pursuing an implicated person.

‘Takan, tell me honestly. What have I done? Why should I hide? Maybe I…’

Takan told me, who was constantly making pessimistic analogies that he was neither a criminal nor an involved person, but rather a person who was chased by an aggrieved person who harbored an ill will for reporting on the incident.

The fact that other people remembered the time I didn’t brought fear and anxiety and made people polite.* It was then that I started to let go of my guard against Takan.

Around that time, I looked in the mirror at the scar on my face and decided to admit it–the time I didn’t know had passed like flowing water.

However, even if I acknowledged the time that had passed, I couldn’t understand it. I stood still in the time when I did a sewing job while waiting for my older brother, who had disappeared.

When I couldn’t trust Takan, I tried to retrieve my memories. As I forcibly tried to recall fragments of my memories, a vaguely new man passed through my thoughts, and my head felt like it would split open.

The person said something every time I thought of him, and I was upset and afraid without knowing what it was. But, instinctively, I was reluctant, so calm came when I decided not to go against my physiology anymore.

After that, neither my brother nor I mentioned that incident, and since no one talked about it, I naturally forgot. 

I stopped thinking and slowly opened my eyes. My hand that had been rubbing the scar touched the vase. As it moved sideways, the tulip that had fallen turned and fell to the other side.

“Come quickly, Oppa.”

On a leisurely afternoon after the meal, I arrived at the garden, where Oppa took me with a proud look on his face.

It was around sunset. This place, where sunflowers and gujeolcho[1] were in full bloom as if it were autumn, was a famous tourist destination in Cedria.

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The gujeolcho and sunflowers that bloomed profusely among the buds soaked in the red sunset were so eye-catching. It was truly spectacular.

‘Look, Izenne!’

I covered my mouth and giggled because I remembered Oppa, who brought me to a famous place, his eyes shining as if he had discovered something rare.

It was to the point where I doubted that he was Oppa when I saw him easily get hot and emotional at times. How about taking some gujeolcho and decorating it next to my brother’s tulips?

I thought about my thoughts and smiled faintly before averting my gaze. As I looked away, my eye stopped at a person.

A man stood in the middle of a garden, his head bowed. I couldn’t see his face because his long hair that reached his shoulder was stretched out like a thread, but the man had an atmosphere strange enough to catch my eye.

Did he feel the intense gaze? The man slowly turned to stare at me. For an instant, I forgot how to breathe when I met the man’s eyes.

It was the first time I had ever seen a man cry so pitifully.

[1] 구절초(gujeolcho) is a flower native to South Korea. 

*Not 100% sure about the translation