CH 89

[It’s a reward for saving my daughter and me.]

Madam Perza…

I thought she wouldn’t notice, but did she do an investigation? Or maybe something was exchanged between her and the empress?

It had been quite a while since I had saved Madam Perza for the first time. Still, I didn’t expect that she would help like this. I was happy with her help too.

The man who appeared to be an escort was called Dean. Dean offered to take me anywhere I wanted to go. I could use the teleportation stone to go outside the imperial palace, but I planned to walk slowly. Still, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get on the carriage.

The weather was strangely cold today. I thought it was just a chill, but it seemed to have gotten really cold. Is it going to rain?

“Thank you.”

And I got into the carriage. In any case, this would be the last time I would receive favor from Kashinev. 

I asked him to be taken to Blake Ariandel’s mansion, where I was staying, then I leaned on the side of the carriage. Something heavy fell behind my feet. When I lowered my hand and checked, there was a wooden box. As I unlocked and opened it, it revealed a large amount of money and jewels inside.

“…”

I closed it again and locked it. Pushing it to one side, I got myself stood up again. I appreciated their care, but those weren’t something for me to take.

It wasn’t long before the carriage quietly departed. I could slowly see that we were leaving the imperial palace through the window. Then I closed my eyes until the carriage stopped.

* * *

“…”

Whether they all fled or were captured, the mansion was empty. Fortunately, it wasn’t messy at all.

I went through the hall, the living room, the hallway, and the stairs. It was a hallway I always passed through, but it was really quiet. Then I headed to my room.

I went to my dressing room and picked out my thickest, darkest dress. The place I wanted to go was much colder than here, so I thought I should prepare in advance. It was unclear if I could go there all at once with the teleportation stone.

I brushed my hair, changed my clothes, and tidied up.

“…”

While wearing a pearl earring that I usually don’t use, I saw a red ruby necklace placed in the middle. I fiddled with the large ruby for a long time, then slowly hung it around my neck. It was a necklace Valery gave me. I thought I could take this one as a memory.

Then, with only one parasol in my hand, I left without regret. It was because I thought it would help a little if the sun was too bright or if it snowed or rained.

This was no longer a place for me to stay. Actually, I didn’t want to stay. I walked outside and felt something cold on my face. When I looked up, one or two things landed on my face.

“Why it’s… snowing? It’s not winter, so why…?”

The weather was exceptionally cold today, and I saw strange things. I hadn’t even left Kashinev yet and hadn’t arrived in the North. It was strange, but I thought I might hallucinate because I was so distracted.

I opened the black parasol to hide the increasingly bright light. Then, after looking at the place where I was staying once, I squeezed the teleport stone.

* * *

After a while, I had completely left Kashinev. The day I left the Ariandel Mansion, I didn’t leave the Empire right away. As I was about to leave, I felt a little overwhelmed. I stopped by the post office, wrote down some unsaid money-worthy information for Juri del Chartero, and sent similar things to Shale and Madame.

Funny enough, I stopped by the places I went with Valery one by one. Clearly, the villa would be heavily guarded, so I went to the beach where he and I went on our first day and the beach where we broke up.

While walking barefoot on the beach alone, I looked at the sea blankly. What’s strange was that I didn’t have any thoughts about something. It was as if my mind was blank. After I stopped by the mansion for the last time and met an unexpected guest, I left the Empire.

At first, I moved a long distance with only one map and used up the teleportation stone Delkian gave me. All the teleportation stones he gave me were broken. After giving one to Ian, which Blake Ariandel gave me, I used all the remaining two teleportation stones and moved to a longer distance.

When I thought I had to move farther, I saw a small village covered with white snow. It was a very small village belonging to Riwendel, the Northern continent. I had planned to go to the northern continent from the beginning, but I still haven’t found the reason why I, who hated the cold, came here on my own.

Fortunately, this place was very similar to Shiseta, where I lived a peaceful life and felt comfortable. There were also downsides. It was just that I couldn’t talk well. While living on another continent for a while, I wrote what I learned a little bit of the common continental language. However, only a few people knew that, so I could only communicate with two people at most.

The other downsides were that they were cold to the stranger. At first, even two people didn’t respond to me properly, so it was difficult for me to find a house. However, since I had used up all the teleportation stones and had no energy to go anywhere else, I barely leaned over and took a break in the inn’s warehouse.

After quite a while, the woman of the two approached first and held out her hand. With the two’s help, I got a small empty cabin, firewood, and some food.

“I can’t believe I’m going to use firewood again.”

I laughed in vain, but my hands were already holding firewood. It had been such a long time since I lit a fire for fun, so there were many days when I lit up the fireplace and spent time in a daze.

What happened to my mother? Did Sir Shubart really use the glass bottle? Would the emperor and empress be all right at this point? Did Ian escape well?

Did Shale do my request? Shale would be surprised that I suddenly disappeared. Still, he must think that the bothersome lump had gone since I brought the most wealth to him.

By this time, Juri should have received the letter on the same day as Shale. If she just followed it as it is, she could expand her business a little more. Still, I thought she might not believe it because my existence would have been revealed by this point.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it.”

The first prince, Delkian, also came to my mind a little. Will Delkian hate me or be surprised? He was a person who was like a big brother to me.

Nina was Shale’s man, so she must have returned to do her old job.

Madame had already made a connection with Shale, so I had nothing to worry about her.

I felt sorry for Lisa, but since she was Sir Shubart’s man, I couldn’t help her anymore.

The crackling firewood could be heard constantly. Outside, the wind blew so that the windows rattled. The cabin, which was so small that it cost only a few silver coins, miraculously protected me from snow, rain, and wind.

When the fireplace was lit, it was warm enough that I didn’t have to wear a coat, even on a typhoon day. In addition, a warm drink, which was a traditional drink of Riwendel, was like the icing on the cake.

And.

And…

I leaned my face against my knees.

“…I miss you.”

I guess I really liked his handsome face. I missed Valery so much. Valery’s face came to my mind as if he had been clearly stamped in my mind.

After coming here, I started having dreams I didn’t often have, but sometimes he came to my dream. It wasn’t a pleasant dream. I dreamed that I was running away and he was slowly following me.

Once, I had a dream where we were standing facing each other, but we were moving farther away. I dismissed it as a process of gradual forgetting. Then, one day, he would surely forget my face.

“(Renia! Are you inside?)”

The sound of knocking on the wooden door and the rugged continental common language were heard.

My name here is Renia. The pronunciation was close to Renoir, but I came across this name after looking for a common name here. Getting used to a fake name was what I did the best. It was the same when I used the name Blake Ariandel. So when someone called me ‘Renia,’ I would unconsciously turn my head.

I got up from my seat and unlocked the lock. And when I opened the door, a man and a woman my age stood there.

“(What’s going on?)”

“(There’s going to be a severe typhoon tonight. No matter how strong this cabin is, too strong winds are dangerous. Come to our house and stay overnight.)”

Kuren and Amaterin. The black-eyed man with short dark blue hair and a large bandit-like body was Kuren. In comparison, the green-eyed woman with gray hair that came down to her knees even though it was braided, less than half of my slender body was Amaterin. These two were a couple who had just gotten married. It meant they were newlyweds who sparked sparks even when their eyes met.

“(I’m fine. I can fix it if it breaks down. The two of you should just work hard to build up love.)”

They were the ones who helped me settle down here, but sometimes they were so kind that I wondered if it was really okay.

As I waved my hand and told them to return, Amaterin frowned.

“(We’re always building it up! Rather than that, today is really dangerous. Do you want to be blown away by the wind?)”