Chapter 34 (1/2)

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Chapter 34 – It’s Your Turn Again

Kaligo shut his mouth firmly for a moment.

“Drink,” Ashia said as she poured cold water into a cup and pushed it in front of him.

“…Thank you.” Kaligo quietly took the glass of water and drank it in one breath before setting it back down on the table. The tips of his ears that had been tinged red gradually regained their normal color as time went by.

Ashia continued talking as she stared at him. “So… it was an inevitable choice. I see.”

“Yes.”

“So the reason for our unhappy marriage for five years was because of my life?”

He couldn’t look at Ashia properly and fiddled with the glass of water. His unfamiliar expression was somehow refreshing and cute that she almost burst into laughter.

She looked at him, barely suppressing the corners of her mouth. “…Do you have more to say?”

“Isn’t it your turn again?”

“Ah…”

It was Ashia who told Kaligo that it wasn’t only her who should confide.

“Well…” Ashia got up from her chair and reached out to Kaligo. “How about we reconcile first?”

He stared blankly at her outstretched hand and slowly opened his mouth. “Are you forgiving me? This easily?”

“Forgiveness? I am reconciling with you. It was partly my fault for not trying to resolve the misunderstanding.”

This was what time did. It didn’t make someone forget everything entirely, but rather, it didn’t let the resentment and anger one had remain intact. Those unstable and dark emotions were gradually fading away.

Forgiveness and reconciliation – it might have been impossible if it hadn’t been for the time that Renna lived as Ashia. But time passed, and Renna came to love her life as Ashia. For her now, things associated with her life as Renna were nothing but memories.

Kaligo slowly reached out and took her hand as he stood up from his seat. “I caused your death. Are you still going to forgive me?”

“Oh… right. You did, right?” Her eyes were round with realization “I was curious about that too. Why the hell did you revolt…?”

Bang! Bang!

Loud knocking grabbed their attention.

“Ashia! Ashia!!!”

“Vershia?” Ashia quickly ran to the door. “Vershia?! What’s going on!”

“A-Ashia! M-m… Mister Derek, he! Sob. Sob.” she cut off, out of breath. “Black Forest! He went to the Black Forest…”

“What?! I told you not to go there!”

Ashia immediately swept the potion bottles on the shelves of the store and put them in her bag.

“What happened?” Kaligo walked out from the hallway where Ashia’s bedroom was. He saw Vershia sitting on the floor.

“Ah, I’m busy right now so tomorrow, Kaligo… Ah, no. I will be making a potion for a knight and I must find its ingredients first, so you can go back now.”

“Yes?”

“See you again, alright?” Ashia lifted up Vershia and went outside, dragging her out—completely abandoning their conversation.

“…”

Kaligo, who was left alone on the spot, looked at Asha’s disappearing back with a smirk. Then he looked down at his hand, which still felt warm from hers, and recalled the words she had just said.

“You worked hard, Ashia.”

Ashia sighed, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

“He would have needed his arm amputated if I had been late.”

“…Hmm, I’ll tell him to be careful.”

“Tell him never to go in there again.”

“Okay.”

Ashia left Derek’s shop and looked up at the sky. Her shuddering exhale turned into mist.

‘How many times was it…’

It was forbidden to enter the Black Forest, and nobody knew when exactly it was banned. One day, people who entered it out of curiosity disappeared or came back alive having a part of their body cursed or something.

Those people risked their lives to sate their curiosity

She used various means to prevent people from entering the forest, but it wasn’t easy to stop a group of curious people that gathered. However, Ashia couldn’t just stand at the entrance of the Black Forest all day. Although they bravely entered the forest and had her cure the wounds of the returning people, she had no intention of saving the lives of strangers. There were too many other things to do, and she wasn’t generous enough to even care about those who ignored her warnings.

That was how she lived quietly for the past seven years. There were a few accidents in that time frame, but except for that, it did no damage to the original novel as she planned. That was until she met Kaligo.

Everything turned to chaos because of him

Ashia hurried her steps while grumbling, “And so what if he’s the male lead?”

When she returned to the store and finished tidying up, the sun had already set and darkness fell over the street. Watching the night view outside of the store for a while, Ashia ended the day by locking the door. When she entered the bedroom through the hallway, she saw the cup he had drunk from on the table.

– It was to save you.

‘Tch…….’

It felt stupid. There were so many things they could have talked about, but that was about the gist of it. The five years of marriage and death—around it was his effort to save her life. It didn’t mean that he put his effort on the wrong thing. It was also understandable how she couldn’t easily confide in him.

However, it was a clear fact that their misunderstandings were also the effect of not being able to communicate properly.

‘Would something have changed if we had a conversation together?’

Her mind was replaying Kaligo’s words even until she went to bed. It was a day that wasn’t that much different from other days, but it seemed as if something that had been bottled up inside her for many years had escaped.