112 – Seriously (2)⚝
Kite didn’t say a word until they reached the lake. We sat near a tributary flowing down from a huge tank. In the middle of the day, it is a place where cadets open their lunch boxes and eat, but now it is dark and gloomy.
“Kite, whatever.”
─Just talk. If you really went through something like that, you would go out without covering your front and back.
“Brother. Here…… Come to the waterside.”
“Don’t go in.”
I was afraid. It really happened to Kite, and I wonder if she had any ill feelings. However, she grabbed me and moved closer and closer to the water until she dipped her ankle.
─Why is misfortune repeated?
It wasn’t even that long ago. It was spring, three years ago. There was a soldier hired to guard Kite’s bedchamber. Twenty-three years old. His career was certain, and he met the lord. Personnel (人事) was not my job and I was not interested. But.
“Because that bastard has *snake eyes?”
Rot said that in passing. In my experience, a guy like that will definitely have an accident, so I have to keep an eye on it, so I remembered it. Kite’s interpersonal bodyguards were my responsibility. It was when Snake Eyes worked for about three months. Before dawn, just after midnight to be exact.
“Brother! Brother! Deman brother!! Help me——!!”
Kite let out her scream. Not knowing what was going on, she got out of bed and ran into the hallway. She was so desperate that she was barefoot and unarmed. She tried to open the door, but it was bolted from the inside.
“f*ck! Where did the ax go?”
It was always hung on the wall for firefighting purposes, but I couldn’t see it. Unable to break down the door, I ran right outside and reached the first floor. I saw people who had heard the screams in the distance and came running with torches.
“Kite!”
When I called, she stuck her face out with her spear. She held a silver candlestick in one hand.
“Brother!”
“Tell me what happened!”
Then, unable to answer, he climbed the stairs again. It was a four-story building. There was a faint reflection of a human figure chasing the running kite. Through the dark window, I could see snake eyes. Climbing up to her rooftop before she knew it, she gave her last stand, brandishing a silver candlestick.
“Jump down!”
After repeating her words, Kite threw the silver candlestick at the snake’s eyes and jumped into my arms. She groaned and barely got it. Her elbows and her knee joints were shattering. She continued to scream, “Ouch,” As she held her tight, feeling eyes from the rooftop.
─Bastard.
As soon as I met her eyes, I was able to guess a certain situation. The smell of sweat and blood emanated from Kite’s body, so when I shook it, she was already passed out. She was so beaten that her face was covered in blood. I shouted in anger at those gathered around me.
“Just shoot and kill!”
I cursed at him as a criminal who dared to rape the lord’s daughter, and Sir Ruben arrived later and took care of the situation instead of me.
“Let’s ask quietly and move on.”
The attempted rape case that happened to Kite ended with the party paying compensation. She insisted on a formal trial and punishment. However, even Ivor’s father was strongly opposed to it.
“When a scandal circulates, only the young lady suffers. Even if it’s unreasonable, it’s right to ask like this. Be patient.”
Swallowing Bunru, she blamed both her father and uncle. You, it’s none of your business, you condemned to ignore the pain of someone who has nothing to do with you, just for your own benefit. Wept. Wept bitterly.
Eventually, Snake Eyes was released on bail, on the condition that it remain a secret for the rest of her life. And the day he leaves Nuzhhaven.
…… Father Ivor handed over the mask.
I heard Rot hyung and other bandits are taking over the one-way road leading out of here.
From noble mtl dot com
“I don’t know, so do it yourself. You cruel devil?”
I ran with only light armour. I really beat myself to death. Not only did he have his nose broken, but he also had his molars pulled out. He told me not to come here again, that if I caught sight of him, then he would not be able to save his life.
That was the first time I was convinced that I was Ruben’s son. He’s only 15, but he’s knocked out a veteran of twenty-three or four. No matter how much resentment there was, it couldn’t have happened without talent.
“Demana…… I’m fine now.”
It was the first thing Kite said after two weeks of being able to speak properly.
“Maybe.”
He asked if he had touched your body. He said no, he refused because he confessed his love in the middle of the night. Then he suddenly started punching him in the face with his fist and ran away. He thanked me, saying that if it wasn’t for me, he would have suffered really bad things, so he replied with heavy silence.
With that, I let go of everything in the past. I ended up throwing away all the silver candlesticks in her bedroom and moving my quarters to the next room. Nothing unpleasant happened after that. There were no scandals, so I forgot everything.
“Kite, stop going in.”
─It’s because I’m scared.
She now stood up to her knees and called me. As she came closer, she fell to her knees abruptly. Snap. The water spread out in a circle, creating ripples as big as my heart.
“Boots…… Can I take it off?”
She put her foot out without a word. Kite was her froggy ugly hand, and she took it off and peeled it off one by one. I went to the water and my socks were all wet. She, already half-submerged, groped her in the water and pulled her bar of soap from her breastbone.
“If you find it difficult to talk, you can speak later.”
Tears flow again to say that you will wait.
“Stop crying. It’s really ugly when you cry.”
─Look at how swollen the eyelids are.
“Brother…… You have to stay still. Don’t move and stay like this.”
“Would you like to wash your hands?”
Kite took off my socks without answering. Then, she lifted her foot with one hand and began to lather it slowly. I looked at it anxiously because I knew what this strange ritual meant.
Like a shaman from a kingdom that was destroyed a long time ago, she silently washed her opposite foot. After thoroughly washing her fingers between her toes and washing her hands, Kite murmured quietly as if telling her secret.
“I…… I met the professor.”
“Who?”
“Enboza Menshi…… The introduction to witchcraft professor told me everything.”
─No way?
Kite sniffled, still submerged, clutching my feet in her hands.
“Because of me…… My brother gave up on a good place and came here…… He told me everything.”
The strength in her hand that held my foot went out.
“Because I can’t come…… I really didn’t know brother…… I didn’t even know you were sacrificing so much…… I just recklessly begged my dad. I was afraid to come to the academy alone. No…… I’ll be honest. I am…… I am…… You know Everyone in Nuzhhaven sees us. So…… I thought I could be a bit different from my brother when I came here to Heoden. I…… I…… If I’m not mistaken…… Oppa is also a little like me. So.”
The crying intensified.
“I…… I wanted to try dating my brother.”
“Kite.”
“I know. I know…… Do not say. I really know not that stupid I mean, I’m thinking too. If you’re worried all day…… Because the sun rises until it sets. So really without thinking, you know…… I’m really clueless and stupid. Because my mom did too…… I guess so too There is no other reason for being here. Because I can stay with you longer. Even if our endings can’t be different…… I thought the process might be different. If I had known my brother was making such a huge sacrifice, he would never have come. I’m serious.”
Kite sobbed as she covered her face with her hands. Now it was my turn to answer something.
“That’s what I meant to say.”
—f*ck you, Enboza Menshi. How far have you been talking?
“Training for Mentor or Orgiola was too expensive. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have gone even if I couldn’t pay the tuition.”
“No…… It’s not…… I know it’s not.”
“Instead, I came here without paying a penny. Because the lord gave it all, the tuition fee was waived thanks to you.”
─Damn it, why do I even shed tears.
“Kite, I am fine.”
So she smiled.
She laughed even though she couldn’t stand me collapsing in front of the kite. Pretending like nothing happened, as always. Because I always had to be her brother and guardian. I wanted to remain the closest friend and ally of my childhood friend who was forced to live like cattle.
“Bellaste…… I heard you can go.”
“That is.”
─Professor b*tch, you have to rip your jaw out.
I barely spat out the words, as if regurgitating my dreams.
“For some reason, I will spend this year here.”
“Then…… Next year?”
“I don’t know. I have things to organize, and I wanted to discuss it with you.”
I was thinking of going back to Nuzhaven when the vacation was over and discussing it with everyone, Kite said with a hard laugh.
“Your brother is a really bad person.”
“Me?”
“Like this…… Dedicated to me, how can I love someone else…… He is the best villain on the continent.”
Kite crawled towards me, on her knees, on her mud. A watery smell spread along with the sour smell of sweat.
“How can I live happily when I am married to someone else?”
I had to push it away, but I couldn’t, so I received a kite that tipped over towards me. Her weight pressed against my chest and we were tangled in mud.
Tears flowed along with tears, and the streams that had been divided into tributaries returned to the lake again.
“Because you are attractive.”
To be able to live well by meeting someone better than me, not me.
“I don’t need good-looking people or good-looking people.”
“Kite!”
“I love people who give for me. Brother…… Even a fool knows what kind of person he likes.”
She leaned over me and moved her body. Her groin rubbed, so I unconsciously pressed her butt. When I give her a signal not to move, she keeps whispering here with her chin buried in the stem of my neck.
“Brother…… Mrs. Pepe.”
“Yes.”
“I learned strange things every night because they said I had to know how to satisfy my husband even when I was hungry.”
“You don’t like this kind of talk.”
“By hand…… It’s okay to do it with your mouth. She thought, of course, she should know how to do it. However…… When I brought the copper beads, I was upset and cried all day. It hurts so much, it’s embarrassing, it’s really…… I hated it so much that I cried every day. Dirty and unpleasant…… Really nonsense. Even though I asked how to get in, I was so scared that I kept ordering it until it was night. So…… I didn’t want to, but I’d rather be an older brother…… At least I thought I could bear it, so I often imagined doing it with my brother. Then it was tolerable, so I somehow endured it day by day. Brother…… Is…… Can you imagine me doing that with someone else?”
