Episode 86
Translator : Missme
Editor : Aru
Ash’s fingers hardened as he was passing the wine. But the drunk opponent didn’t notice and kept on talking.
“She may look sharp on the outside, but it’s a kind of hiccup charm that’s unexpectedly obnoxious to me. Oh, no, no, if I can tame her with that personality, hiccup. You’re going to pick the right place and hiccup sell her anyway. Give it to me instead. Since the hiccup, we were good friends anyway.”
Friend, the word that the other person put in his mouth was not necessarily wrong as his tongue was twisted because of alcohol.
The partner whom he met at a meeting as a child and had known for nearly a decade was a partner and a sole acquaintance of him.
He was three years older than Ash, but neither of them cared about it. Ash was quite fond of him. More like, Ash thought he was quite useful.
Born to a noble father and a commoner mother, he expressed his inferiority complex about his birth as an illegitimate son by pressing down on his brother.
His efforts and perseverance were quite good, and he did not hesitate to make dirty tricks if necessary, and he could kill his temper and lie down in front of a stronger opponent than him.
Ash liked it. Since he was a useful resource in many ways.
However, the downside was that he was overly exposed and his hand habits against women were not good, but that was something that had nothing to do with Ash.
Until his opponent talks like that on the spot.
Ash put down the wine, which had not even a few sips. And he thought to himself, looking at his drunk opponent in a mess.
‘I have to kill him.’
They’ve seen each other for a long time. Except for some of the family members, he would be the oldest person he hung out with.
He was also excellent as a partner. It would be hard to find a man who is as good at his job as he.
But all that didn’t matter at the moment.
He’ll just have to clean up that garbage right now.
Nothing else came to his mind except that.
“Let’s move and have another drink. How about we continue in my mansion?”
“Huh? Yes, good, good, then, let’s go!”
Ash killed his opponent that day.
There was also an appropriate justification. In the past, in the process of organizing a business, his opponent secretly deducted some of the money.
But Ash took it as an excuse to punish him.
He cut off the opponent’s limb, hoping that he would not do it again, and finally cut his neck.
He could have cut his throat from the start and finished neatly, but Ash didn’t do it on purpose.
After killing his business partner and longtime friend so badly that he couldn’t even understand it, Ash suddenly saw his sister again.
A rich, covetous red hair covering the back. Smooth skin, sparkling amber eyes. His sister remained the same, but somehow different.
He was not the only one who grew up over the years. His sister Lydia had become a woman.
The trash he had cut off his limbs and killed did not even know the subject and dared to covet. And at the moment of recognizing that natural fact, there was a certain disturbance in Ash’s mind.
Ash didn’t know exactly what it was. He couldn’t define it in words. But he knew something had changed. He could only guess that much.
Ash has suffered from occasional thirst since that day.
No, similar to thirst but not strictly thirst. No matter how much water he drinks, it hasn’t been resolved.
It was a strange sensation. He feels like he’s going to burn out, but he hasn’t got any better with water or other drinks.
What is this feeling?
“Ash, your bangs are quite grown.”
“……”
“Well, it wouldn’t be bad to grow it out but I like it better now.”
Feeling unable to move in a moment with only a slight touch of his bangs, Ash looked at his sister.
His sister was much smaller than Ash and is now nearing adulthood.
The round top of her head barely crossed his shoulder at best. When he was young, he was busy looking up at his sister, and from some point on, Lydia had to raise her head to make eye contact.
Her neck was slender as if it would break if it were held wrong, and the shoulders were tender enough to be careful to touch. Her eyelashes were long and voluminous. Her cheeks were lively, her lips were red and pretty in shape, and her forehead was white.
“Ash?”
“…….”
At one night when the moon rises.
Ash stopped taking his hand unconsciously from Lydia’s moonlit face.
His heart throbbed.
A sudden thirst came in. The wild thirst of unknown reasons ran impatiently as if to burn his heart to the ground.
Ash raised his hand in the air that day. Then he squeezed his fist to avoid Lydia’s eyes.
‘Really, what the hell is this?’
In front of a question that he did not know the answer, Ash waited.
If he waits and sees, he’ll always get the answer.
But over time, the identity of the thirst was never revealed. The thirst grew more and more frequent as the days went by without a clear answer.
“That’s……of course I’m worried. We’re family.”
Then one day when his sister said that she was a family.
At that time, in addition to thirst, there was also a cramping pain that seemed to block the inside of him.
The thirst that did not improve caused frustration.
Ash had been deliberately overworked and abused his body for it. Of course, it didn’t work at all.
Later on, this period was entirely in touch with patience. To endure, suppress, swallow, and constantly toil something.
It was a time when he repeated it countless times. Even though he didn’t realize it. It was after some time that Ash realized his patience.
The occasion was sudden. A monster raid occurred in the south, leading the subjugation team to the south.
Ash couldn’t believe the news was delivered with a note of urgency by a member of his dark organization, who even violated his orders.
His sister disappeared.
More precisely, she left the mansion and disappeared.
At the moment, his mind seemed to be emptied without leaving anything behind. The accident came to a shortstop and then turned around again.
Why?
While the body was moving first and turning the horse on the spot, the head continued to raise only one question.
Why?
His sister has left. Missing. Or fled.
At the end of the sentence, there was a question that could not be answered “why.”
Ash had never imagined. It was not allowed even as a passing assumption.
He, without his sister.
It was something he’d never drawn before in his life. Because it didn’t mean anything. Those moments could not exist, and will never exist.
“……noonim.”
Ash couldn’t even remember how he was able to get here.
He ran the horse nonstop, and when he arrived at the village, he forced him to find a wizard and use a mobile magic trick.
He repeated it and it took him more than a day to get to the system. It was only around that time that a piece of news arrived that they had found their sister in the northern forest.
Ash headed straight for the northern forest. Until then he had no memory of taking a break or falling asleep for a moment, but he did not care for such a trivial.
Entering the forest, he threw away the exhausted sorcerer from using his mana and cut down a monster that blocked the way.
Then he saw his sister.
The face that was messed up and stared at him as if looking at an illusion.
“Why…”
As soon as Ash saw her, he wanted to ask. There was a constant stream of questions on the way here.
‘Why you tried to leave.’
Why?
His sister, who he found in the forest, looked like a person who would go a long way and would never come back.
The clothes she’s wearing, the bags she’s holding in her arms.
After confirming with his eyes that the report was not his illusion, he felt like he was going to laugh in vain.
Ash couldn’t complete the question and moved on.
He couldn’t complete it.
The reason doesn’t matter. The reason why she tried to leave him, it didn’t matter.
Because the answer is no. He couldn’t let go of his sister. It was impossible.
Whatever his sister wants and does, that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what she wants.
But all that had to be done by his side.
No matter what happens.
“Noonim, can you stand up?”
Ash tried to take Lydia back to her mansion.
He was going to go back and treat her ankle first, which seemed to be hurt. It was then that Ash’s movements were suddenly bound.
“Oh, don’t worry about someone who’s not your sister, and help me!”
“…that’s right, Ash. It’s true. I was adopted by my family when I was young. Very… very young, yes, even before you were born.”
Ash began to wipe a blurry mirror, listening to her pitifully precarious trembling voice. The mirror was illuminating the memory. The memory was a wonderful old one, but it was clear as a lie when the dust was wiped away.
“…… I’m sorry.”
Ash did not move for a moment, facing a memory that was so intact and clear that he could not believe when he heard it.
Then he acted. He cut down everything he had to cut and lifted Lydia, who couldn’t stand up because of her injured ankle.
“Eh, Ash. I. I’m not your sister.”
In a confused voice, Ash answered silently.
“Yes.”
“Really. Not a drop of blood mixed up. Not a half-sister, completely, a complete stranger.”
“I know.”
Then he whispered sweetly to Lydia in his arms.
“You’re tired, aren’t you? Take a rest.”
The tired body quickly fell asleep. Ash swept Lydia’s hair off the carriage without a word.
Then he kissed the white forehead that was revealed soon.
Like magic, his thirst was gone. Like a rain fell on the dry ground and was refreshed as if the lock had been released.
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