154 – Memories
Serena opened her closed eyes. The landscape regained its light, and the sight of a desolate forest filled with colorful leaves was captured. The wind blew through the skeletal tree branches.
And that’s just around here. Serena’s eyes turned to a slightly distant place. There was an endless forest of green greenery.
It was late autumn on one side and midsummer on the other, as if it had been cut with a knife. For those who see this for the first time, it must be an unnerving sight.
Serena made her way through the knee-high pile of fallen leaves on the floor into the woods. Considering Serena’s fairly tall stature, it was a pile of fallen leaves that would never normally exist.
There was not the slightest hint of hesitation in his steps. Every time my leather boots crushed the fallen leaves, the dried leaves crumbled.
Fallen leaves moved among themselves and filled the path. The traces of someone passing by were completely erased. It was a strange sight.
My footsteps stopped. In front of it was a circular space that had been cleaned as if a hole had been punched through it. There were no fallen leaves piled up to the knees, nor dust covering them.
All that was there were traces of a bonfire and a thin sleeping bag.
Serena knew this place. The place where Serena and her lord had their first fateful meeting. It was the place where each other’s destiny began.
A faint smile was formed at the memories of the past that came to mind. Yes, no matter what happened in the past, I met fate in the end, so in a way, things went for the better.
If he had lived an ordinary life, if he had been born in an ordinary family and lived an ordinary life, would he have been able to meet his master?
If the incident had not occurred and he had lived an affluent life, would he have found a bonfire burning in the forest?
probably couldn’t
If coincidences overlap multiple times, is it called destiny? Serena was deeply convinced that she was bound by an inseparable fate to her lord.
All life was only a product of coincidence to meet the master.
Coincidentally, an aristocratic father fell in love with a commoner mother, and coincidentally, the first child born was Serena, and coincidentally, she had enough talent to catch the master’s eye.
Coincidentally, the witch was wasteful, coincidentally, the witch chose an unimaginable extreme way to get money, and coincidentally, the nobleman the witch chose was Serena’s father.
Coincidentally, because the witch had a sadistic personality, she spared Serena and her daughter, and coincidentally kicked them out to an abandoned house on the corner of the forest.
And coincidentally, I couldn’t sleep well that day, and Serena was curious. Of course, Serena liked fairy tales with knights, and the background of fairy tales was a forest.
Serena couldn’t even imagine how many coincidences overlapped.
Destiny came true by breaking through impossible odds, so the relationship between himself and his master was like a relationship that could never be separated no matter what.
It should have been.
“…lord.”
Serena called out to her lord in an anxious voice. But no answer came back. It was natural. Her lord is now being dragged away by that damned bitch who doesn’t know where he came from.
why?
because I can’t protect myself because you’re too weak
What is an article about such a subject? Serena bit her lip. It was embarrassing beyond words to claim to be the master’s knight with only this skill.
I took a step again. Right next to the place where the leaves were cleared in an unnatural circular shape, green greenery was spreading as if a line had been drawn.
As soon as the boundary was crossed, the space changed. This time it was in front of a mansion.
Serena tilted her head. It was different from the order in memory. It’s not going to come over to the mansion right away, but it seems like you went through an abandoned house once in the middle?
How are you? Serena immediately withdrew the question. There was nothing wrong with the middle process being omitted. Rather, it would have been nice if it prevented us from getting too sentimental unnecessarily.
The mansion was enormous. The number of windows the size of a man hanging on one wall was well over dozens. Besides, there were five more floors piled up, so it was worth guessing its size.
It was also a familiar place. It had to be.
Because it was a mansion where the time of endurance that Serena had to endure to meet her master melted. Because it was a place where my childhood, when I was drowning in the dark and struggling, melted intact.
There was no particular reason for coming here. It was to regain her lord, and to keep her word, to come here and completely sever the past when one day you hit your limit.
Serena clenched her right hand as she wrapped her body with mana and used body enhancement. Then the still air began to twist and change in a dizzying manner.
A rough wind blew, and the fallen leaves piled up around it were swept away by the wind, drawing a whirlpool and scattering at regular intervals.
A wind shear appeared in his right hand.
Serena grabbed the wind shear and swung it in a cross pattern. With a sharp explosion sound like glass breaking, the space right in front of me was torn with a cross-shaped slashing blade.
I stepped into the torn space. Then, Serena’s body was in front of the main gate of the mansion.
The mansion, despite its large size, was in a state of being half-collapsed, unable to overcome the years. The exterior was faded, and the walls were riddled with cracks.
Ivy vines grew through the cracks and covered the bricks. One corner had completely collapsed. The glass was covered with dust, making it impossible to see inside.
He reached out and gently pushed the door. The rusty hinges creaked and greeted the human who had opened the door for the first time in a long time.
Dust was blowing from the front door. The floor was clearly imprinted with Serena’s footprints, and the carpet nearby was completely washed away, leaving nothing of its original color.
Cobwebs were everywhere, and the chandelier on the ceiling looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. I had never been here since then, so it was not at all strange that this had happened.
Serena murmured quietly as she aimed her wind shear into the air.
“Come out.”
There was no answer coming back.
“I said definitely come out.”
Even with one more warning, the mansion was still dead-quiet. Serena wasn’t angry. He didn’t get annoyed or complain.
Instead, the wind shear blade was covered with blue mana.
“I’ll count to three. If you don’t come out before then, I’ll blow this whole place up.”
The wind shear took the form of transparent glass.
“one.”
The sword body emitted a blue light.
“two.”
I raised my arms.
“three.”
And just as he was about to strike the wind shear, a hazy gray fog appeared in a distance. Serena lowered her sword. I’ve come to call them, so I’ve achieved my goal.
The fog slowly drew a human figure. A head appeared, arms and legs appeared, and clothes made of cloth and leather covered them.
There were a total of three people, and the appearance was all a mess.
His clothes were covered in blood, and his limbs were missing. Others had their chests pierced or their necks cut in half, bent to the left and dangling like pendulums.
Where the eyes were supposed to be, there were no pupils anywhere, only a hollow black hole.
What’s even more bizarre is that even the legless guy acts as if both legs are still attached. As she approached Serena, there was no limping.
An ordinary person would have foamed at the mouth and pass out just by looking at that appearance, unless he had a strong heart, but Serena wasn’t too surprised to see it.
Instead, he gave the order bluntly.
“Guide me. Right now.”
I was familiar with the inside structure of the mansion, but I didn’t know where the witch was. I didn’t want to go through every room.
The three ghosts in human form looked at Serena with wide eyes, then turned away without saying a word. Serena followed him.
There were four walking, but only one footstep. In case someone wasn’t a ghost, the three guiding Serena didn’t make any footsteps.
The place where the footsteps stopped was in front of a huge door. Serena recalled an old memory. Huge doors and top floors. It was a room used for entertaining guests.
After completing the guidance, the ghosts turned into gray mist and disappeared as if they had accomplished their purpose.
Serena grabbed the door without hesitation and threw it open on both sides. A gloomy aura spread through the crack in the open door.
A voice was heard.
“What is it… why did you come here…”
It was a gloomy voice that was not as gloomy as it was gloomy.
“You put me here like this…”
On the other side of the room, a woman sitting in a worn-out leather chair stood up. The sunken sofa regained its original volume.
“What kind of stranger did you come to this place!!!!!!”
A half-rotted face, a half-rotted torso like him, and clothes that were only rags and worn on the body.
Eyes expressing hatred while looking at Serena, and clenched fists trembling. Even the shapes of the hazy mist gathering nearby.
It was Lila.
