Chapter 23 - It Was Very Docile (1/2)

Chapter 23 – It Was Very Docile

She knew she couldn’t hide it forever, but she didn’t expect that he would call her by that name as soon as he saw her face.

“Renna… Renna.”

“…”

Called by her past name, Ashia widened her eyes in surprise and looked down at him. On the other hand, Kaligo wasn’t at all surprised.

‘Even though you really knew… you knew everything but you pretended not to know anything.’

As her eyes narrowed, Kaligo smiled silently and added a word.

“…My wife.”

“……”

Ashia’s eyes, which had narrowed at the sound of his low voice, quickly grew bigger. The deep blue contained in it became a rippling wave. “…Are you crazy? Did you really hurt your head?”

“No way.” Kaligo looked at his embarrassed companion and gave a small smile.

She looked down at him with a puzzled face. “Did you just smile? Are you smiling like that now?”

“Ashia… Ashia.” Kaligo’s laughing voice called out Ashia’s name several times as he supported himself with his elbows and raised his upper body halfway.

“…Are you okay?”

“…”

Kaligo’s face and red eyes were full of vitality to the extent that she thought he wasn’t a person who just came back from almost dying. No, it was bliss rather than vitality. His eyes were filled with joy for some reason.

After looking at Ashia for a moment, he tilted his head and slowly moved his gaze downward, then opened his mouth. “Are you going to keep sitting there?”

“Huh?”

Following his gaze, Ashia’s head also turned downward, and Ashia realized where and on whom exactly she was sitting.

“Ah…”

“It seems that you are in a very bad place to have a conversation.” He smiled. “But it’s fine if we stay this way too,” he muttered.

Contrary to his attitude, she looked down at him with her big eyes and blinked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I will get up now…”

Kwaang!

A roar shook the entire forest. Their heads turned in the direction of the sound.

“Luke!” Astonished, Asha jumped off Kaligo’s body and ran out of the tent.

It was as if a huge explosion had occurred somewhere in the forest, quite far away. She could see Luke flying busily through the puffs of smoke.

‘That guy, what’s making so much noise…?’

She looked at Luke and shook her head slightly.

After a while, Kaligo followed her out of the tent and stood next to her. “It’s divine.”

Ashia looked up at him once more, then turned back to Luke. “…Maybe it is.”

“Maybe?”

“I couldn’t find a divine beast that looked like that no matter how many books I searched. And I never said that it was a divine beast.”

“…”

“It’s just that, based on its actions and abilities, I’m willing to believe that.”

“Is it sealed in the Manastone?”

“It’s not really a seal. I think he was living in it in his own will.”

“…Own will.”

Ashia grabbed her necklace. She continued talking while gently rolling the magic stone that had lost its light in the middle with her thumb. “Just as there are a lot of things I can’t tell Luke, there’s a secret that Luke can’t tell.”

Kaligo’s gaze, looking at her, also turned to Luke. “…You called it Luke.”

“Yes. The name of the god who was sitting on the right shoulder of the god Khan was Luke.”

The god Khan was one of the gods outside the book.

‘Khan’ had a divine beast on his right shoulder, and the name of the bird that sat on his shoulder and looked down at the world was Luke.

The being who had been sleeping in Ashia’s mana stone woke up accidentally, and as soon as she saw it, the name Luke came to mind. And so she gave it a name.

“As you know, the new ‘Khan’ is the guardian deity of the Duchy of Edmund…” Ashia quickly shut her mouth. In this situation, mentioning the family of her ex-husband was practically affirming her identity. Biting her lip, Ashia gently raised her head and looked at him. ‘Ah…’

‘I’m finished…’

His lips were already drawing soft curves. He looked down at her with an expression of immense joy that the memories of Renna that had come out of Ashia’s mouth were about his family.

“Yes, that’s right. As you said, the name of the guardian deity was ‘Khan’.”

“….”

His eyes softened. “You still… remember.”

“…”

At this point, it was close to impossible to deny that she was Renna. She didn’t want to be sloppy, so Ashia turned around with her mouth shut, but Kaligo hurriedly grabbed her hand.

“…Ashia.”

“…”

As his hand grabbed her, she slowly turned towards him again, meeting his emotion-filled eyes.

‘Why…’

She didn’t know why he was looking at her with such a sad face. It was her who was abandoned unfairly, but it was Kaligo who had such an expression.

“Don’t we… have something to talk about?” Kaligo said, holding her hand tighter.