799 Episode Nine: The Far End

In the dim room, Ruid's consciousness was hiccupying between nightmares and reality.

I'm not even sure if the sight I'm seeing is a dream or a reality. Ruid's spirit and flesh were badly hurt by Sim's poison.

(When now, where am I... What am I doing in a place like this...?

Together, I'm going to lose sight of who I am.

That's when Ruid had to keep himself diligently while biting so hard that his back teeth seemed to crack.

The sense of time, for example, has been lost.

How many days have passed since I was brought into this dim room? In the meantime I remembered it as if I had been transported many meals, but it was doubtful if that was about reality as well.

Since last year, Ruid has been working as a deputy to the Knights of Ruadra.

Until then, he had wielded extraction as the chief of the thousand lions of the Expeditionary Corps, but he was given the opportunity to take a profound toll in a certain battle.

Protecting the Duke's territory as a member of the Knights, or marching as an expeditionary soldier, is no different to the weight of the job. It is all the more so because with the Knights of the Duke's Land, if the enemy forces are imminent, they will strike out.

After all, however, there will also be different parts of the dogma on their own in the expeditionary regiment marching to the border and in the Knights of the Duke's Land adjacent to the King's capital. At least, as long as I was part of the Expeditionary Corps, I shouldn't have been involved in such a conspiracy play.

(Conspiracy... yes, conspiracy)

On the day of his departure - it was no longer certain how long ago it was, but anyway, on the night of the disaster of the Red Moon, the king of Selva was to return his soul. Every king's palace was enveloped by the flames of doom.

At the same time, the captain of Ruid's superior knighthood disappeared.

Perhaps the king's death involved his captain - that's what the guards who captured Ruid said.

(There's no way that's ridiculous. Lord Commander was a man of martial arts, serious, and not even a man of nobility. There is no way such a person is involved in the assassination of His Majesty the King)

Ruid insisted that way, but the words were never heard.

Moreover, the guards began torture in the name of interrogation by shutting Ruid down without even following due process. At that point, Ruid was so convinced of his superior's innocence.

(These guys do not suspect that Lord Commander is a great sinner in the killing of kings, etc. I'm trying to hold back Lord Commander for another reason)

Otherwise, I saw no reason to torture Ruid without interrogation.

Rather, it was these men who were the great sinners of the king's slaughter, and the captain who found out about it went away feeling in danger for himself - something that should not have seemed like it to Ruid.

Whatever it was, the captain's whereabouts were unknown to Ruid. The day before the king's assassination, the captain left Ruadra territory, saying he had a use for the king's capital, and let it disappear like smoke.

No matter how badly he was interrogated, there was no answer for what he did not know.

Then the spiteful ones brought forth the poisonous grass of Sims, and so forth.

"With this poisonous grass in my mouth, I can't help but answer any questions. However, you will suffer irrevocable wounds to the contents of your head.... If you don't want to enjoy that fate, spit on his whereabouts!

Ruid squeezed all his body power and spit on the man's face to do it.

After that, he was forced to drink Sim's poisonous grass.

Memories since then have been vague.

I also feel like I've exchanged words with someone, but I don't even remember what that was about. Perhaps further interrogations were held against Ruid, who had lost his sanity due to poisonous grass.

So Ruid was slaughtered in prison.

It was in the darkness that the sun did not shine, and it was to continue to be a nightmare.

Ruid doesn't even remember how many days he spent there.

It's just that at no time had Ruid's body been transferred to this dim room to be generously nursed.

"Damn, that was a terrible thing. I hope they're slowly curing you, because I'll make sure they find you."

I also feel like someone said that to me, but I couldn't abandon the possibility that it was even a dream.

Just because the place was moved from a stone prison onto a soft bedding, it didn't change Ruid's condition.

Sometimes it just comes back to me neglectfully. At that time, what I saw in my eyes was the noise of an inorganic bedroom, which was clean and hospital room plated.

Perhaps someone protected Ruid himself.

But what happened to the missing captain? Were the kingslayer able to be captured? Who were the evil men who kept themselves in seclusion? There was no human being who could answer those questions.

(Is my heavenly destiny... so far?)

A servant Ruid was often caught up in such thoughts, threatened by nightmares he didn't know what to do.

Ruid had already spent all his thirty years as part of the King's capital's army. The bloodstream was a bypass to the Duke's house, but both my father and grandfather gave their swords to the kingdom as part of the army, so I went down that path, without any doubt whatsoever. I don't even feel like counting the number of enemies I've slashed down before. The Expeditionary Corps, to which Ruid had long been a member, had been tasked with crossing blades head-on with the armies of Mahydra and Zerad.

(Since his reign as Knight of the King's Capital, he had consolidated his readiness to decay on the battlefield. But no way...... I didn't know you were going to get caught up in such a conspiracy play and decay without even knowing it)

Ruid was also a man of no less accommodation than the commander of the regiment. I don't want to use it as a pill, such as socialism as a nobleman, and besides polishing my sword arms and working out tactics and strategies, I don't remember doing everything in my power. Is it because you are such a person that you have been shrugged by such a conspiracy play?

(Only once did I get caught up in such a conspiracy play... I visited Genos when I was younger, I guess about one at that time)

Between nightmares and reality narrowly, Ruid considered it blurry.

Is this also the effect of poisonous grass, Ruid's mind was often guided by past scenarios.

That was more than twenty years ago - just after Ruid gave the Thousand Lion Length throne. Two squadrons of Ruid's troops were to serve as escorts for the nobles on their way to Genos.

Genos is a peripheral territory, far from the king's capital. It would therefore have been given that role to Ruid's troops, who make the expedition their business, but it was a completely different assignment in the field. They were not only noble escorts, they were tools to intimidate Genos.

"I don't give a shit. Our role would be to slaughter the Mahydra and Zerad people, wouldn't it? We should leave this role to the defense."

A young man named Doug, who was the head of the Hundred Lions at the time, and so on, was abandoned.

Ruid was in the same mood, but the task is the task. As a man who gave his sword to the kingdom, the given role had to be fulfilled in full.

But - could Ruid have played and done his part at all?

Ultimately, Ruid was to accuse the nobility of the King's capital. The conspiracy set up by that nobleman against Genos was so inferior that he could no longer remain silent.

As a result, the person lost his position in the royal palace and was to lose his legs. I guess I don't have to be ashamed of anyone because Ruid, who accused me, was never to blame.

However, Ruid's chest had been left with something like a small lump.

Have I really been able to judge the situation with a fair eye? That's what made me wonder.

(Perhaps I was just impressed by the character of the Genos, and put my shoulders in... no, rather than the Genos... to the people by the woods)

It was an odd clan living in the territory of Genos.

It is a clan of fierce hunters, a people of the kingdom but who live a more exorbitant life than a free-flowing people.

They lived in the woods, making their own codes, etc. He was a people of the west, and he had a man, and he called the woods his mother, and he didn't even pay taxes, and he kept his faith in the four gods to give.

Ruid, too, hated them at first.

Ruid was also of a strict temper, so there was no way he could be allowed to run raw like that.

But when I actually saw them in front of me, such thoughts shook me up.

They weren't just running away, they were so powerful that they didn't think they were the same person's children, and - they were innocent.

Compared to them, the nobles of the King's capital seemed so inferior.

Dreg, one crack in the auditor, was lazy and the other tall on was nasty. The likes of those who gathered such an ugly part of the nobility are trying to take the people of the clean and pure woodland from them with a filthy conspiracy - and Ruid, who felt so, may have been driven by an unexpected outrage.

(For me back then, that was unnecessarily righteous... at a young age just past twenty, there's a way to do that too)

But as he got older, Ruid's mood changed.

I'm starting to think that it wasn't an outrage, but a personal affair.

As such, the people of the woods were people of intense charm.

They knew no dirt, as if they were the first human beings. Now, he was fiercer and more powerful than any human being. It may have been the bravery and cleanliness of the inhabitants of the stone capital as sons of the earth, which they had abandoned hundreds of years ago.

(Moreover, even intelligent human beings existed among the people by the woods when they were teachers. Um, I was escorted as a chief's offering, a deposited man...... what was his name... that man etc felt so intelligent that I wanted to call him a wise man)

And the folks by the woods were welcoming a human being named "Asta" to their compatriots who could not even know who he was.

He added a suspicious human being whose origins were unclear to his lineage simply because he was credible enough.

Of course, I don't think that was easy. If you trusted an unidentified person without thinking, it's just shallow.

But they were different. They quantified and accepted Asta with the rigour they had before them. Asta intervened in life by the woods with courage that seemed barbaric, winning her credibility brilliantly.

(It was considered a very closed clan to the people of the woods, but that was different. They just know human beings by their minds, not by their identity or birth. Whether the opponent is royal or aristocratic or an unidentified unreliable man, if he has the right heart, he trusts and if he has the wrong heart, he sees himself as the enemy. I guess that's the attitude)

Or maybe that was the temperament provided via the presence of Asta.

I found out that the presence of Asta, the inexperienced, was a man of sufficient credibility, so I could bond with people from the outside world as well - maybe that's what happened.

Whatever it was, it was an incredible, fascinating clan of people by the woods.

Therefore, Ruid may have forgotten his position and put his shoulder in.

(Still, I was not to be held guilty at the Inquisition. Does that mean... the correctness of the people by the woods was recognized)

Since then, Ruid has never been involved in diplomacy with Genos.

He returned to his rightful duties as an Expeditionary Corps and never set foot on the land of Genos again.

However, Ruid sometimes remembered events in Genos with strange freshness.

Sweet sweets with melting tongues in the temper of the hunters as if they had solidified the flames, in the giva dishes with their beautiful daughters, Asta of Fa's house - and more than twenty years after that, those sights could never disappear from the ruids.

(Do they still put themselves in the same life... since then I hear that Genos has undergone different transformations too... but still do the people by the woods live proudly without losing their bravery and cleanliness as the people by the woods...)

At that time, I felt like I heard something pounding somewhere.

I realized that was what I wanted to do when the bedroom door was opened.

"Excuse me.... Is that, like, falling asleep?

A little hissed daughter's voice approaches Ruid.

Apparently, a samurai or something brought in a meal.

"Let's go. I'll leave it here, so take your time later."

Catan and the sound of putting a basin on the table sounds.

When Ruid leaned his neck half unconsciously, a small figure jumped up "wow" in the dim room.

"Nah, you're awake.... Oh, or did I wake you up? Then I'm sorry."

A little shadow keeps my head down.

Neither tone nor behavior is appropriate for a samurai working in such a setting. Plus, I felt a lot younger.

"Isn't it painful? If you want some water, I can help you."

"Then... just one mouth, please..."

When Ruid opened his mouth, he uttered a squeamish voice like an old man.

The mysterious daughter approached the bedroom, answering safely, "Yes".

It was a daughter-in-law with a very good eye.

Small, but not as young as a voice or anything. In Wangdu, he has rare dark hair and black eyes, wrapping a casual body in the attire of an undecorated samurai.

It's just - whether it's an addition or subtraction of lighting, you look a lot lighter and darker.

And his bright black eyes felt somewhere familiar.

"Well, hey, excuse me for being on your back. It's hard to drink water while you're asleep."

The girl's luxurious fingertips dive under Ruid's back.

Ruid should have lost a lot of weight, too, but he is still a flesh he has worked out as a samurai. But the girl's hand was surprisingly powerful and helped Ruid wake herself up.

"That's it," he said. Yes, water. "

I'm going to give Ruid the water I poured into the glass of vitreous.

Drinking it down slowly, Ruid was set to stare at the girl's face the whole time.

(I don't recognize such a daughter. But this look... I feel like someone I know...)

I thought so, but Ruid's consciousness still stuck one foot in the nightmare, so I didn't know for sure.

The girl is lowering her eyebrows a lot worryingly as she looks straight back at Ruid's eyes.

"I don't really know what's going on, but you seem a lot annoyed. I'll pull right in, so take a rest."

"Things... don't you know? I've heard that only people who know what's going on can get close..."

A spark of vigilance scattered over Ruid's head.

But when a girl laughs with a grin, those thoughts also get misty.

"Yes. I just came out to King's Capital for the sake of my partner. It sounds like a lot of noise, but I say mean things like sticking my neck in a guy's job, and my partner doesn't tell me anything. It's terrible, isn't it?

"But... that would be a samurai outfit...?

"Uh, I borrowed this to help you with your work."

After saying it that way, the girl punched her hand in the face.

"Yes, yes! So I borrowed some kamado and stuffed it with sweets. We still have time for dinner, and if you like, why don't we eat?

"Confectionery..."

"Yes. I'm good at rubbing sweets!

The girl turned back to the table after turning her chest away all the time.

I'm going to give the white dish I took from there to Ruid with a poking spoon.

"If you like, go ahead! It might be a little heavy for a snack before dinner."

Ruid was caught up in something, an emotion he didn't know what to do.

The sweets that were put on that plate - in the dim darkness, they were as pitch-black as the darkness itself.

I had never seen black confectionery like this in the Wang capital.

It was only once more than twenty years ago that Ruid saw such sweets.

Ruid, with his trembling hand, received the plate of sweets.

Black confectionery is cut into squares. It wasn't a big size, but when I hit the poking key, it conveyed a heavier feeling than I thought.

As you put your strength into it, the poking spoon sinks into the black fabric all the way.

The response suddenly became lighter along the way, so the excessive momentum pounded the spoon and crashed into the plate.

I didn't know because it was dim, but it consisted of two different pieces of fabric of different quality.

And maybe it looks pitch-black because the room is dim. The confectionery that Ruid once saw was infinitely black and brown.

Stab and lift the pounding spoon once more on the small cut fabric.

When I brought it to my mouth - the melting sweetness of my tongue exploded.

(Am I, perhaps... still wandering through my dreams?

The confectionery was sweet by the time it was intense.

In its sweetness, it also contains bitterness. It was the fragrance of Gigi leaves.

The upper part of the dough has a moist texture and stands out for its sweetness and flavor.

The lower part was flippant and light, and Ruid was also familiar with the texture of baked confectionery.

But there, too, the sweetness and flavor are prepared for the mulberry. This black color was a shade of Gigi leaves.

(I know this sweet... this is that sweet I ate in Genos)

Ruid was stunned and set to look back at the girl.

The girl is smiling and grinning at her full face.

"Which is it? It's a sweet treat!

"Ha-ha-ha..."

"Yes! It's one of my pride treats! I haven't had a chance with my master yet."

"You... you, what the hell..."

At that time, the bedroom door was slammed roughly.

Looking at those who emerged from it, Ruid is breathtaking.

"Limia Fa! What are you doing! I told you not to wander around on your own!

"What the heck. If you think you finally showed your face, suddenly you preach?

The girl, called Limia Fa, looked back at you and swept her cheeks.

He is a sharp-faced young man with red hair as flames and blue eyes as the sea. The young man also seemed to have shallow black skin.

I don't recognize him.

If you considered yourself such a vibrant human being, you would never forget it.

But I clearly remembered the luminous vitality that was overflowing from its supple body.

"Fine, come here! This is where the wounded can rest, right?

"Then don't be so noisy. I just made sweets for you!

The girl turned back to Ruid after she gave her tongue to the young man who had the Buddha's top.

"Then take a rest. Now I'm going to prepare the dishes too!

"... so you're telling me not to do unsolicited imitations, do you hear me?

"Hmm. I'm just doing my job as your number."

That's how Ruid's mind was disturbed like a storm, the two of them walked away from the bedroom.

If I try to be a ruid, it is still as comfortable as if I had dreamed of it.

In his hand, however, he was left with a plate of ready to eat sweets.

(So... wasn't it a dream)

Again, Ruid mouthed the sweet.

It is as if the vibrant sweetness clears Ruid's head of obsession.

(The people of the woods were still not doomed... but in twenty years, their clean souls never stared)

I don't know why the people by the woods are in the king's capital.

But if Ruid regained his power, he should also have been able to ask about those circumstances.

(I will rise again too… let me give this strength for the kingdom that has lost its king… because this is also their kingdom)

Ruid felt reborn.

My head is in a stinging pain, and my hands and feet are powerless. But there was an indomitable fighting spirit resurrected in its heart.

And - in a burning corner of my mind, strangely smug emotions had also arisen.

(Limia Fa... that girl was certainly called that... then Fa's house, which had only two families, also managed to leave blood...)

A young man with dark hair and dark eyes with a very gentle face and a hunter with blond hair and blue eyes full of vitality floats up behind his brain.

Ruid decided to offer his heartfelt blessings to both names, who will probably never be seen again for the rest of his life.