Chapter 210. The Beyond (2)
When… Where…
…I see.
Riley now… After checking the location and time of this world, he’s just staring straight ahead blankly.
I’ve already… died, huh?
After all the efforts of the warrior, the Demon King fell. To the time where people believed that peace had come to the world lived… Riley was back.
“What is he doing?”
“Is he not a foreigner? It looks like he was standing there blankly.”
“Seeing that he looks at the memorial stone blankly, I think it’s right.”
Pa.s.sers-by were whispering, glancing at Riley, who was standing like a rock.
Riley’s atmosphere, who was standing and looking up at the ‘memorial stone of a certain warrior,’ was so plausible that Sera and Nara were among the people who whispered about him.
“…young master.”
“Here… is the last place where young master fell in his previous life…”
Sera and Nara, who were standing behind Riley and looking at the memorial stone of a certain warrior, looked sad as if their hearts were struck by an unknown emotion.
“What about young master?” Sera pulled her chin and asked Nara in a small voice.
How does he feel? How does it feel to see his own tombstone?
“Oh, it’s not going to be a good feeling.”
“It is… right?” She’s whispering looking at Riley.
She seemed to have no interest in the memorial stone… Sera’s lips opened blankly as she looked at the people pa.s.sing by this place like no big deal.
“…”
Suddenly, Sera began to shed tears with her mouth open.
“Don’t cry, Sera.”
Nara was so sensitive and she thought he would cry like her, but instead, he comforted Sera while looking at the memorial stone with a surprisingly calm expression.
“But, even though he saved the world… there’s no reward, and no one remembers…”
Even though she only heard it in words, she struggled so much. She shed b.l.o.o.d.y tears like that.
“Young master… young master is too…”
No one knew. No one remembered. In honor of the warrior who would have reached the end alone, was only a single, scruffy tombstone that seemed to have not been managed for a long time.
“Huu, ugh…”
It wouldn’t have been that long because of the time difference. It must have been only about a year since the warrior fell to the ground with the Demon King… people seemed to have forgotten it already.
“Huh? Is that person crying?”
“Hey, don’t look there.”
As if there was no warrior from the beginning. Even the name of the tombstone was ‘the memorial stone of a certain warrior’.
“…he has us.”
Nara glanced at the weeping Sera then looked at the memorial stone again and said, We know.
“We’ll know. We’ll remember it.”
If Riley could be satisfied with it, he wouldn’t be there forever even if he died… Nara, who was muttering inside, frowned slightly as he looked at the memorial stone. Hmm?
It was because someone was approaching the memorial stone.
A little girl?
A little girl walked toward the memorial stone and Nara frowned at the bouquet the child was holding in her arms.
I don’t think it’s bad.
The bouquet held diagonally by the child was quite large and colorful and completely covered one side of her thin shoulders, but most of them were flowers that were dusty or in poor condition.
Where… such flowers…
Nara, staring at the bouquet the child was holding blankly, quietly rolled his eyes and began to look around the surrounding scenery.
There was no nature here. All he saw was black or gray, and he didn’t even see green gra.s.s or a single brown tree…
It was colorful, but it was right to say that it was dreary because it was not fresh.
“…mister.” The little child nodded. She bowed and muttered the word ‘Mister’ blankly.
“I’m sorry. It was difficult to find flowers.”
As if she boasted that it was a bouquet made by herself, the child quietly put the bouquet in front of the memorial stone and stepped back.
“…” Riley’s mouth opened as he stared at the child blankly.
This child…
It was that child. ‘Save my friends before Helena’, it was this child who asked him to save the children who had become monsters by Helena’s twist.
Ha, you’ve grown a lot. Riley smiled bitterly, recalling the moment when he couldn’t save them and ended their lives with salvation.
You grew up… a lot. The child was still young, but she was much taller than when Riley met her in his previous life.
“Someone still…” Sera spoke softly while wiping her tears away from her cheeks. “…remembered him.”
Sera and Nara didn’t know the relationship between the child and Riley, who was just standing still with a proud look.
“Ah?!”
Sera and Nara, who were standing still and watching the child, clenched their fists at what happened in a flash.
Rustle. The bouquet made a sound. It fell on the side by the foot of a pa.s.serby pa.s.sing by in front of the memorial stone.
“Hmm? Aishh, what is it? Dirty…”
Maybe he thought the petals on his shoes or his pants were dirty, so the pa.s.serby shook off his leg, trying to take it off…
Tendon popped out on Nara’s forehead as he’s watching the scene.
“How dare you, B*st*rd!”
“M, Mr. Nara! No!”
Sera barely stopped Nara from running toward the memorial stone. She shook her head saying, “Not now.”
“The bouquet…”
The bouquet fell on the ground and became disorganized. The child began to reorganize the bouquet while lying her face down on the ground.
“Tch, are you a beggar?”
One by one, the child picked up the petals that fell on the ground. The pa.s.serby, who had just walked, put his hand into his pocket and took out his wallet.
“There.”
Several bills fell on the back of the child’s hand, who had been collecting petals from the ground.
“Take this and get lost. I don’t have time to deal with you.”
Perhaps he became more brazen after spraying the bills, the pa.s.serby hurried his steps and stepped on the petals that the child hadn’t yet picked up.
“Th, that’s fryer B*st*rd!”
Perhaps picking up flowers that were hard to see here, seeing her dirty hand to make that bouquet… The pa.s.serby seemed to have misunderstood the child as a beggar.
“Sera, don’t stop me! I just want that spoiled b*st*rd!”
Nara, who was trying to tell Sera, who was hugging his arm, looked to the side and noticed that something was missing.
“…Sera?”
Sera wasn’t standing there.
…smack!!
A light sound came into Nara’s ears while he’s trying to search for her.
“Wh, what?!”
The pa.s.serby touched his cheek as if perplexed, looked at Sera who suddenly appeared in front of him, and made an unfair look as if asking why she was doing this.
“What are you, huh!” The pa.s.serby, who changed his look to an angry look, began shouting at Sera.
“What? What’s going on?”
“I guess she slapped him on the cheek.”
“Cheek?”
Someone said that watching a fight was the most fun in the world. People, who were pa.s.sing by near the memorial stone, began to gather one by one at the pa.s.serby’s shout.
“Apologize.”
“…what?”
“To the child, apologize.”
Thanks to Riley’s help, Sera wasn’t wearing a maid or butler’s uniform. Sera, who was wearing a dress that wasn’t very different from the people here, told him to apologize for kicking the child’s bouquet just now.
“What, what are you saying?”
Her words didn’t reach the pa.s.serby. It was because the pa.s.serby didn’t understand her words.
“A foreigner? I’m going crazy, really!”
Sera also didn’t know what the pa.s.serby was saying, but she could guess roughly what the situation was like by the pa.s.serby’s facial expressions, behavior, and atmosphere.
“Who? Is there anyone who can talk to foreigners?”
When the man asked other people who were looking at them, the people quietly avoided their gaze or began to rush their way.
“Oh my G.o.d, it wouldn’t make sense, but all of a sudden… young, young master! What should we do?”
At some point, Sera, who was standing in front of the pa.s.serby, looked at where Riley was standing in a hurry, wondering what she should do with Nara about this, but… Riley wasn’t there.
“…young master?”
The child, who had no idea what to do with the pa.s.serby and Sera’s s...o...b..ll fight, turned and looked blank when she found someone sitting with his knees bent.
“…?”
“…”
Someone in a hoodie, sitting with his knees bent over, was picking up the petals that had just fallen on the ground like the child.
“Excuse me…”
It was Riley. He hid his face with the hoodie on his coat. “…”
“Th, thank you.”
Following Riley, she began picking up the petals. While Sera, who had a s...o...b..ll fight with the pa.s.serby, glanced back and her shoulder shook.
Young master…
At Riley’s appearance, silently picking up the petals that fell on the ground and filling them back into the bouquet, not only Sera but also the pa.s.serby, who was having a s...o...b..ll fight with her, looked dazed.
“…huh?”
Soon after, Riley picked up the bouquet and returned it to the child. The girl’s eyes widened again when she received the bouquet.
“The bouquet…?” The dusty bouquet, kicked by the pa.s.serby and messed up… had changed as pretty as new, as if someone had rewound time.
“What, what on earth?”
The pa.s.serby rolled his eyes in a strange atmosphere. To secretly leave the place, he began to sneak back away with an unknown resentment.
“So unlucky, really…” Then he stiffly turned around and tried to escape from the memorial stone.
As soon as he turned around, he ran into Riley, who was hiding his face by pressing down on his hoodie.
Wh, what? When?
Until just now, he was handing the bouquet to the child in front of the memorial stone. How did he move so quickly? The pa.s.serby swallowed a gulp.
“Are, are you capable? You?”
Riley laughed a little at the pa.s.serby’s question and showed him what he had in his hand.
What Riley showed to the pa.s.serby were several bills that the pa.s.serby had just handed over to the girl.
“You left this behind.”
When a familiar language was heard from Riley, the pa.s.sers-by began to pour out words with a relieved look.
“Ah! It, it makes a little sense! Hey! That girl, she is with you, right? You were staring at the memorial stone together before! Tell me! Why did she slap me on the cheek…”
The pa.s.serby, who appealed by tapping his cheek in unfairness, suddenly looked at Riley in a cold sweat as his mouth hardened like a stone.
“Take what you’ve left behind, and get lost…”
Riley, who was whispering small enough to be heard only by the pa.s.serby, returned the bills in his hand, squeezing it into the pa.s.serby’s chest. The pa.s.serby began to tremble as he stepped back in a reaction.
Wh, what? What!
The pa.s.serby couldn’t see his face inside the hood directly. He, who could only look at the glances beyond it, trembled in fear and ran away hurriedly.
“…”
Sera, who was looking at the fleeing pa.s.serby, threw her gaze at Riley’s back, then approached the child and asked.
“Are you okay? No injuries?”
“…?”
The child couldn’t understand what Sera said. She just stepped back as if wondering what she was talking about.
“Oh, that’s, I mean…”
When Sera realized that she couldn’t communicate and struggled with a troubled look, Riley approached the child and talked to her.
“I’m sorry for making a fuss.”
Facing Riley again, whose face was hard to see because of the shadow, the little girl stared at him and asked.
“You guys, who are you?”
“Ah, we…” To the child’s question, Riley replied a beat late. “… came here traveling for a while.”
“Travel…ing?”
“Yeah.”
Riley sat down again with his knees bent and adjusted his eyes to the level of the child.
“So, by the way, do you happen to know a place like a lodging that could accommodate several people?”
At the same time as the eye level was set, the child, who was staring deeply at Riley’s face, which was shadowed by the hood, answered Riley’s question with a question.
“…mister?”
“…”
“At that time… that’s mister right?”