126 – FAY 126

Aska seemed to calm down, only to burst into tears again or wear a gloomy expression. No matter how much I told him not to worry, it was no use. It seemed there was nothing I could do until he pulled himself together.

“Should I tie it up for you?”

Aska nodded at my question.

I brought a comb to tie up Aska’s messy hair.

Even so, I didn’t feel like just standing still. But he seemed to feel a little better when I did his hair, so I was doing what I could.

I gathered Aska’s hair into a high ponytail and even put a ribbon on it. I noticed it when he came out with pigtails, but Aska didn’t seem to care much about how he looked to others.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t just stand still with such a red King ribbon in his hair.

I even made the pigtails look ridiculous on purpose to tease him if he didn’t like them, but he didn’t react much. Of course, even that looked so good on him that it was a little scary.

Later, I’ll really have to get him proper accessories or jewelry…

“……”

Just then, Aska’s head tilted. Was he worn out from crying? He was dozing off while sitting.

Since his hair was already tied up, I went in front of Aska and settled down. He looked a little better than before, but his eyes were still swollen.

“What are you doing?”

Aska, who had woken up in that short time, said, slightly opening his eyes.

“If you’re sleepy, lie down and sleep.”

“I’m not sleepy.”

If he was sleepy, he could just say he was sleepy, but he was being stubborn in strange ways. I asked Aska, who couldn’t open his eyes properly as if they were stinging and was frowning deeply.

“I heard that you investigated the Ruins when I was in Actan, do you know about it?”

“I know.”

“What did they find back then?”

“A necklace?”

I had a hunch, and it seemed Aska knew about it. Then things would go faster.

“Do you know where it is? They said they need it to investigate in more detail.”

“I used to have it.”

At that, I tilted my head.

“You? Why?”

“It just happened… Anyway, I don’t have it now.”

“Did you lose it?”

Aska thought for a long time before answering, as if he couldn’t remember well or was choosing his words.

“I left it behind.”

“Where? You didn’t lose it, did you?”

“I can find it right away if I want to. Should I bring it?”

It was a somewhat ambiguous statement, but it seemed he wouldn’t give me a clear answer even if I asked.

“It’s near the Rollai Mountains that Zero mentioned earlier. And the strange air currents there are due to the Ruins.”

He must have heard what we were talking about earlier.

“Is that where you were going with Andrew?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit far, so even if we go and come back quickly, it’ll take two days. It’s hard to use teleportation magic because the coordinates aren’t set properly.”

A round trip of about two days wasn’t that far, was it? I wasn’t fully recovered yet, but my health was slowly getting better, so it would be perfect to go on a trip.

“Shall we go together to find the necklace? I’m curious about what the Ruins look like too.”

“You’re going there? You?”

Aska’s eyes widened at my words.

“Why? Is it dangerous?”

“It’s not that…”

Aska hesitated, frowning again as if he was troubled. I stared at his distorted face and rubbed the narrowed space between his eyebrows with my fingertip.

“Well, there’s no reason why we can’t. Just the two of us?”

It would be fine if just the two of us went, but I was concerned about Andrew, who had sold his house to go to the Ruins. Besides, Abyss would definitely try to follow… Zero, who seemed to know a lot, would definitely be helpful if he came along.

Including Aska and me, there were at least five people.

As I folded my fingers one by one, Aska asked gruffly.

“Are we going on a picnic?”

“Something like that.”

He didn’t seem to like the idea of a large group moving. But it was a very modest number for an expedition. If we were to actually form an expedition, at least dozens of people would have to move.

“Have Andrew call you. You can reach him, right?”

Aska nodded and yawned. I thought he would hold out until the end if I left him like this, so I finally got up and led Aska to the bed.

As we lay side by side on the bed and I covered him with the blanket, Aska’s eyes became even more dazed than before.

“How did you discover the Ruins?”

“I was nearby…”

“Nearby where? Did you go there to find me too?”

I untied the King ribbon that seemed uncomfortable for him to sleep in. The long hair that had been loosened scattered on the pillow.

“No, I lived there for about a year.”

I grabbed a little of his loosened hair and braided it as I pleased, then tilted my head.

“A year? In the mountains?”

“……”

“Or a nearby village?”

“……”

Aska was silent, as if he had already fallen asleep. It wasn’t a very important topic, so I didn’t ask any further. I quietly closed my mouth and continued to braid his hair, but Aska, who I thought was asleep, mumbled in a small voice.

“Don’t go anywhere until I wake up. Stay here.”

I was going to meet Abyss and Zero in a little while.

When I didn’t answer, Aska frowned and opened his eyes. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot at the edges, as if blood vessels had burst.

“Okay.”

“Promise.”

Why did he need me to promise… But there was nothing I couldn’t do, so I just did as he told me.

“I promise.”

Only then did Aska seem relieved, and his eyes closed. Before long, his breathing became regular. I waited a little longer until Aska had completely fallen asleep.

Just in case, I quietly got out of bed, but there was no reaction. It seemed he was deeply asleep, so I looked for the wolf. The wolf, who had been closing his eyes in the place where he had been earlier, turned his head towards me as if he had sensed my gaze.

I stared at the wolf for a moment and gestured for him to come over. Then the wolf lumbered towards me.

“Let me try that too.”

Could he understand human words like the others?

“The thing you can see memories.”

What was his name again? I pondered for a moment and said with a smile.

“Can you do it? Please, Pipi.”

I held out the back of my hand as if I were handling a puppy. But the wolf let out a big sigh at my words. The crack in his closed brow opened, and his blood-red eyes glared at me.

“Was it Pupu instead of Pipi? Sorry, I got confused.”

I tried to make excuses, wondering if he was angry, but his eyeballs shook in all directions as if there was an earthquake. Didn’t he get motion sickness doing that? Now they were even spinning around, so honestly, the shape was a bit grotesque and creepy.

“Okay, don’t do it if you don’t want to. Don’t…”

I was trying to calm him down because he seemed to be in a serious state, but suddenly the front of my eyes went dark.

“……”

I just closed my eyes and opened them, and it was as if I had been instantly cut off from the world, and everything was black. I could see my hands and feet, so it wasn’t exactly that there was no light, but it seemed like I had entered a space where everything was black.

“Ah.”

I could hear my voice too? Why was I here all of a sudden?

I calmly looked around, at a phenomenon that was not logically understandable. There wasn’t much to see, but I was looking for anything strange, when suddenly the ground under my feet sank.

It felt like I was falling into water. I frowned as if I was suffocating and opened my mouth. Then, as if I was really in the water, oxygen escaped from my mouth with a bubble.

I quickly raised my hands to cover my mouth and nose. My ears were also ringing, and my vision was gradually becoming blurry. If I continued like this, I might die from not being able to breathe.

It seemed that I had entered Aska’s memory with the wolf’s ability. If so, this was not reality. So, of course, there was no reason for me to drown.

As I kept reminding myself that it wasn’t reality, I was relieved to find that it was gradually becoming easier to breathe. My hearing and vision were also returning to normal.

“……”

The water was full of moss-covered rocks and large and small driftwood. If I looked up, I could also see the light coming down through the surface of the water. It didn’t seem to be very deep.

Squeak.

Just then, I heard an artificial sound in my ear.

But no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t see any other living creatures besides aquatic life. Could the fish living here make sounds?

To examine it in more detail, I went all the way down to the bottom. Even when my feet touched the sand that had sunk, there were no ripples.

What Aska had said came to mind.

‘A way to see like a dream, detached from the body.’

Then was I in a soul state now? More than that, it was amazing that souls really existed… I thought it would be the end when I died, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Then were there gods too?

I shook my head lightly after thinking about other things for a moment and looked around again.

Squeak.

I wandered around for a long time, using the unidentified sound as a signpost, and finally found something foreign. It wasn’t something that would be at the bottom of the water, whether it was the sea or a lake.

It was strange to call it a living thing, and it wasn’t even a solid. But it maintained its shape exactly without scattering or dissolving in the water.

It was like smoke that was densely packed, and it looked like a turbid liquid. Every time the melted mercury-like substance wriggled, there was a sound of metal scraping.

It was a thin and extremely high-pitched noise that sent shivers down my spine. I could instinctively tell what that sound was.

Squeak. Squeak.

It was a painful scream.