Oblivion (12)

“It’s because of you that I have so much stress! The best way to deal with stress is to break things!”

“Huh? Me? What stress did I give you?”

At my words, Rurin squints and glares at me. The unspoken pressure is no joke.

“What’s this? Are you serious? I gave you stress? Me?”

Nodding.

Once again, Rurin firmly nods her head.

“Why?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t want to give stress, then you should say you love me and hug me tight, and then…”

“Right. It does sound like stress. So, break that wall. Stress needs to be relieved, right? Hm.”

“Huh?”

Rurin, who had been happily listing the causes of stress, suddenly went quiet as if she had swallowed honey, and began smashing the wall as if releasing all her anger.

KWA-AAAANG-!

PHEEEEW-!

KWA-KWA-KWAAANG!

Soon, the wall vanished without a trace, and the ground was surrounded by dust.

“It’s quite the commotion.”

“Hehe, it’s fine. I’ve already set up a barrier around you and me. So dust can’t get in, ooooh, atchoo!”

She said dust couldn’t get in, so why is she sneezing?

Certainly, the dust was swirling around, but it felt like watching a 3D movie with no sense of reality.

The dust couldn’t invade the area around Rurin and me.

Rurin only destroyed the wall.

The lord’s castle itself is intact. Of course, the wall collapsed, and there was chaos with screams everywhere.

Servants were rushing out of the lord’s castle.

The soldiers and knights were in a frenzy. So, I began my exploration. The exploration of the lord’s castle.

To take a look at some papers.

The result was somewhat satisfying.

After confirming that the Baron’s words were true, I moved toward the warehouse.

I grabbed a soldier who was wandering aimlessly and got him to reveal where the warehouse was.

The warehouse door was quite large.

All the money extracted from here and the relief supplies that had been siphoned off would probably be stored here.

“Rurin, do you want to break that door? Just the door. Destroy the door artistically.”

“You.”

“Huh?”

“But thinking about it…am I your weapon?”

“Huh? I just told you to because you said you had a lot of stress.”

“Hehehe, I’m your weapon! I am!”

Huh?

Wasn’t she just questioning if she’s my weapon?

“My weapon~ My weapon. Yours, I am yours, so in fact, you are mine, hehehe.”

She suddenly started humming a song, and it was so frightening that I stepped back.

“I’m your weapon! Hehe.”

I thought she was going to say ‘I’m not your weapon!’ but it’s the opposite? What’s going on?

“Oh? Right, is that so? Is it something to smile about so happily…?”

“What? I like being your weapon. I like being yours!”

“…Oh, really? Then, please destroy that first. My weapon.”

“Okay!”

KWA-AAAANG-!

The warehouse door flew off with great force.

The Captain of the Guard, after hearing the truth from El, immediately ran to Greek City.

As a result, Greek learned the truth. Had he known it was a fabricated fact, he might have acted according to Count Lutyian’s intentions.

Of course, such a thing was avoided.

Moreover, the truth was so heartbreaking that Greek had to clutch his chest and take deep breaths for a while.

The core of the issue.

For Greek, the heart of the problem was that, because of that incident, Count Lutyian’s schemes almost got Siena killed.

She had escaped the pursuers and ran into the Greek forest, only to tumble down.

His face turned pale, and the thought of it made him feel like his food would never digest.

‘How scared must she have been, all alone?’

Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine. He had once thought she was dead and had given up, but now it was different.

Now that she appeared before him, he had no intention of giving up.

After hours of trying to calm his heart, which was breaking, Greek finally composed himself and left his study to find Siena.

Naturally, Greek headed to the room where Siena was staying.

Knock knock.

Greek, who had run swiftly, knocked on the door but received no response.

Something felt off, so he turned the handle. The door was open.

Inside the open room, no one was there.

No one.

There was no sign of Siena. For a moment, Greek had to grab his pounding heart.

Immediately, Greek rushed out of the room and down to the first floor, where he found the steward and asked without hesitation.

“Steward! Where’s Siena? Where did she go?!”

“Siena? She’s in the kitchen.”

“In the kitchen? Didn’t I tell you not to make her work? I clearly told you to provide all the support so she could rest!”

“No, well, she said she might remember something if she went to the kitchen, so since her mother worked there, I showed her the way… I’m so sorry!”

“R-really? If that’s the case, then it’s fine… Hmph.”

Greek made an awkward expression at the steward’s words, then immediately moved toward the kitchen.

As the steward had said, Siena was indeed in the kitchen, busily preparing something.

Greek let out a sigh of relief only after seeing Siena’s back.

‘Right, I sent her away when she was weak and distressed, but now it’s different. I will protect her, I will!’

With renewed determination, Greek moved closer to the kitchen.

“Eek? My Lord?”

The other maids, startled by Greek’s approach to the kitchen, gasped, and Siena looked at him with a surprised expression.

“Are you okay? I told you to rest, why did you come to the kitchen?”

“I’m fine. I thought something might come to mind, so I came out.”

“Really? Well, if it helps you regain your memory, then that’s good, but let’s go upstairs for now. I have something I want to say.”

“Huh?”

Greek grabbed Siena by the wrist, and, as if handling fragile glass, he moved carefully as they went upstairs.

Once they reached her room, Greek sat on the bed. Since there was no chair or sofa, the only place to sit was at the edge of the bed.

“Sit down for now.”

“Yes.”

Siena calmly approached and sat down at the edge of the bed, a little away from Greek.

“I thought it might help you remember, so I looked into why you were unconscious in the forest.”

“Oh! Really?”

Siena reacted with surprise. Greek was unsure if he should reveal the whole truth, but he believed that to help her regain her memory, he needed to tell her the truth, so he began explaining what he had heard from the Captain of the Guard.

“Is that true?”

After hearing everything, Siena’s expression became incredibly dark.

“Doesn’t anything come to mind?”

“Huh? That… I think…”

The hope in Greek’s eyes shattered with that one sentence.

“This…”

“Huh? Oh, that?”

“This too… And before I lost my memory, I did some really bold things, didn’t I? For a maid…handing this over to My Lord, and even defying my Lord’s orders in the other city…”

“No, no! Why is that bold? Well, it is bold, but it wasn’t bad. Siena, you just did the right thing. The bad one is that bastard Count Lutyian!”

Seeing Siena’s self-blame, Greek shouted strongly with a red face, filled with anger at Count Lutyian.

“Therefore, you’re fine. You don’t have to worry at all!”

Greek strongly grabbed both of Siena’s shoulders, who had been sitting far from him.

Thud!

Because of that, Siena’s head lightly bumped into the wall at the edge of the bed as she tried to pull away.

She had been sitting at the head of the bed.

“Are you okay?”

At the sound of the thud, Greek pulled away in shock and quickly stood up. Siena immediately smiled and nodded.

“I’m fine.”

“Really? I-I’m sorry… I guess I got worked up because of that Lutyian bastard.”

Greek began apologizing once again, blaming himself.

“But, that…”

“Yes, yes? This?”

Greek pointed to the bronze plaque Siena was holding in her hand.

“Yeah. Can you give it back? It’s my treasure. The only gift you’ve ever given me.”

“This? Why call something so trivial a treasure…”

“Because it’s a treasure.”

Greek answered firmly. His answer was so firm that Siena couldn’t even argue with him.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind treasure.”

“Here.”

Siena handed the bronze plaque to Greek without a word. She hesitated slightly but then spoke again.

“I’ll give it to you… Please continue remembering my name.”

“What are you saying? I’ll never forget your name, even without the plaque. Why are you asking such a basic thing?”

“Is it really obvious?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

“I see… Hehe.”

Siena gave a slight smile. Greek took the bronze plaque, and for a moment, he was caught off guard by her smile.

It was a smile from the person he loved so much.

As the night grew late, Greek left, and Siena stared blankly at his departing figure for a moment.

Soon, tears began to pour from her eyes.

‘Is it really natural for you to remember my name, oppa? Why does it feel so warm? You’ve always been like this, since I was little.’

In fact, when Greek handed her the bronze plaque, part of her memory had already returned.

That plaque held significant memories.

With a heart full of longing, she just wanted him to remember her. But having no money, she engraved her name on the best material she could afford—bronze, not silver or gold.

There was a child like this.

Her only hope was for him to remember those memories.

That was the story behind it. So when Siena saw the bronze plaque, it felt as if she had been struck by a hammer.

After that, memories of the interior of the lord’s castle began to return, and several memories resurfaced.

When she entered the kitchen, the scene of her late mother cooking in that very kitchen also came to mind, though there were still some memories that didn’t return.

But that, too, was cleared up when she remembered everything about the events with Lutyian in the city, which Greek had explained when they went to the room.

When everything came back to her.

No, even when parts of her memory had already started to return, Siena had been desperately holding back her tears.

The person she had wanted to see so badly was right in front of her. But she swallowed those emotions, as if she were biting down on blood.

Pretending to know nothing, she continued to act like she had lost her memory.

-“I’ll give it to you… Please continue remembering my name.”

This one phrase was, in the end, another wish.

She was saying that although she would leave, she selfishly wished for him to always remember her.

But Greek said:

“Why ask something so obvious?”

At that moment, she almost broke down. She almost said everything had come back to her and cried uncontrollably.

But she pinched her thigh and desperately tried to smile.

It was a pitiful smile.

Having forced the smile, it became so pitiful that it sparked a huge fire in Greek’s heart.

Of course, Siena couldn’t know that.

Still, the reason she desperately pretended to have no memory, even though it had returned, was for one simple reason.