By Zephyria 
In Actan, there were places where even the wealthy commoner could not enter. These included streets, squares, restaurants, temples, and inns.
On the other hand, in Calderia, it seemed that anyone with money could go anywhere without restrictions. There were many interesting things, as they didn’t seem to care much about the hierarchy based on status.
It felt like the nobles were less bound by formalities. Seeing nobles and commoners eating in the same space was shockingly strange.
Of course, we had to hide our identities, so we disguised ourselves as commoners belonging to a merchant group. And we booked rooms in one of the best inns in the capital.
It would take Mahir a few days to arrive, so Aska and I decided to visit the cemetery and see the capital in the meantime. Abyss said we needed at least one guard, but Aska scared him into changing his mind by threatening to punch the wall.
It was understandable, considering that one punch had almost collapsed an entire mansion before. I was also surprised, so I asked Aska,
“From now on, when you want to show off your strength, hit a chair or a table instead of a wall.”
It would be much better to have furniture broken than a building collapsing. Aska nodded obediently at my words.
I went out to the street with Aska and walked leisurely. It was a bit far to walk to where my grandmother used to live, but I didn’t have anything else to do, so it didn’t matter. If we looked around and bought delicious things along the way, we would arrive soon.
Abyss had repeatedly told us to wear robes and hoods, so Aska and I both wore long robes and pulled our hoods down low. But it was stuffy and blocked my vision, so I took it off as soon as we got away from the inn.
“Why are you taking it off?”
Aska, who was walking next to me, asked as he put the hood back on my head. I dodged Aska’s hand and stepped three paces away before taking the hood off again.
“It’s stuffy. How can you wear this all the time?”
Aska answered casually to my thoughtless question.
“I’m used to it, so it’s okay.”
“……”
Hearing that, I suddenly felt guilty. When I thought about it, Aska used to hate it when he was young, saying it was stuffy and hot. It was all my fault that he endured the process and eventually got used to this discomfort. I had threatened him that he couldn’t go outside without wearing a hood.
I felt so sorry that I put the hood back on and stroked Aska’s lower back and butt. At that moment, someone passing by gave me a strange look. They probably thought I was a pervert, but I didn’t care.
“Do you want to go to the Information Guild later?”
“The place you used to work? You quit, right?”
“Yeah, but they told me I could come back anytime.”
I wasn’t going to get a job again, so why was he asking me to go? I said I understood, but I didn’t really.
After that, Aska chattered non-stop in a more excited voice than usual. He seemed to want to show me around because he thought I had come to visit his neighborhood.
We went to famous tourist spots, ate what was popular these days, and looked at clothes, but nothing was better than Aska’s excited voice.
It was one of the happiest and most enjoyable times of my life. It was a little sad that I couldn’t see Aska’s face because he was wearing a hood.
We walked for a long time through the crowded downtown area and onto a road leading to the outskirts. Unlike the center of the city, the buildings were old and the clothes of the people were starting to change. After passing through a sparsely populated area, we went deeper and deeper into the forest without a path.
There was no path, but the ground was flat and easy to walk on, as if many people had been coming and going. And after walking a little further, we suddenly saw a shabby little cabin.
It stood alone like an oasis in the desert, not blending in with the surrounding scenery at all. It didn’t seem like a very good place to live.
“Is this it?”
I asked, looking around, and Aska nodded.
“Did your grandmother have any family?”
I asked with a puzzled expression, seeing traces of human hands everywhere. Aska took off his hood and said,
“No.”
“It looks like someone lives here?”
“Before I left, I asked someone to check on the house regularly. To clean it and cut the grass and trees around it sometimes.”
I was a little surprised at that. I knew he missed her, but I didn’t expect him to go to such lengths. I had never seen Aska show affection to anyone in this way, so I felt a little strange.
I admired the idyllic scenery and followed Aska into the house. When I opened the door of the cabin, which had no foundation, I could see the simple interior at a glance. The house was small, and there was no separate room.
But it was clean and tidy, so it didn’t feel old.
Aska went inside faster than me and took off his robe. Then he laid his clothes on the creaking chair like a cushion and gestured for me to come over.
“Sit here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get some water. It’s right in front.”
I thought I had seen a well before we came in. I was going to follow him, but I just sat down obediently as he told me to.
After Aska left, I scanned the quiet interior. I could clearly see the dust floating on the rays of sunlight coming through the cracks in the door.
“……”
I was absentmindedly looking around, fiddling with the earrings Aska had bought me, when I suddenly heard a strange sound in my ear. It was a very quiet place, so I could faintly hear Aska rustling outside, but this was completely different.
I got up and looked around, trying to find the source of the annoying sound. The interior wasn’t very big, so I quickly found the place where the sound was coming from.
On the dust-free bookshelf were various trinkets that looked like decorations, an empty basket, and about six books.
Among them, I saw a book at the very bottom, and next to it was a gnat that looked similar to the one I had seen in the carriage. It was staring at me with eyes like black obsidian, with no distinction between the whites and the pupils.
“……”
I suddenly felt a chill down my spine. Except for the strange eyes, the wings on its back, and the small size, it looked just like a person. That’s why I felt a strange sense of dread.
―…….
Then I heard the sound again in my ear. Judging by the way it was moving its small mouth, the sound seemed to be the voice of the gnat. Of course, I couldn’t understand what it was saying.
Was I now able to not only see them but also hear them?
The gnat flapped its wings and chattered for a long time in a voice that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Then it hit the book next to it with its small hand. The book fell to the floor as if it had been pushed by something.
When I opened my eyes, the gnat had disappeared without a trace, and I picked up the book as if I were possessed.
“The History of Sewing?”
I read the title written in neat letters on the thick, cream-colored cover.
Was it a medical book? I thought as I turned the page. And as soon as I read the beginning, I realized that it was not a medical book, but a book related to sewing.
There was no table of contents or author’s name, but it was written quite professionally about how to sew. I quickly skimmed through the text with hand-drawn pictures of basting and backstitching, and then flipped through the pages.
How to make a large piece of fabric small. How to make a small piece of fabric large. How to mend a hole. How to pull and sew when there is not enough fabric. What can be used to replace thread when there is not enough. The minimum amount of cotton needed for quilting.
“……?”
But as I went further back, the content became more and more difficult to understand. It seemed to be related to sewing, but there were strange sentences mixed in.
[When unraveling fabric to make thread, care must be taken. It takes a lot of sacrifice to return an unraveled fabric to its original state. First, you need a needle made by refining ivory in a black glass filled halfway with seven kinds of salt water, and things that wear out in the process cannot be restored. Unless you are a skilled seamstress.]
What was that supposed to mean? Was it some kind of code? The gnat had dropped it in front of me on purpose, so it probably wasn’t an ordinary book. I turned the page again and read a few more pages.
[A skilled seamstress does not need thread or needles. But even a skilled seamstress cannot resew the rags that wander around the perimeter of the boundary.]
I realized at this point that the writing style was slightly different, as if there were several authors. As a result, the atmosphere and content of the writing changed drastically without any connection.
I turned a few more pages.
[Leaving the names of the rags recorded as obstructors of the mission, vile people who do not keep their promises, etc.]
After that, it seemed to be all someone’s name, but from here on, it was written in unreadable characters. It was a shape I had never seen before, whether it was a character or a picture. I quickly turned the pages, following the endless rows of names with my eyes.
Then, for a moment, my index finger was cut by the paper. Even though it was an old book, the corner was excessively stiff and sharp.
The long line at the tip of my index finger soon began to turn red. But the wound quickly disappeared, leaving only a small drop of blood on my skin.
Then I heard footsteps. Had it smelled the blood? When I turned my head, I saw Aska coming with some firewood, leaves, and a small wooden bucket filled with water.
I thought he would nag me for getting hurt again, but Aska changed the subject.
“My grandmother used to tell me that if you soak this in hot water, it’s good for muscle pain. Let’s drink it together since we walked a lot today.”
“……”
Aska lit a fire in the fireplace and transferred water to a small kettle. I stared blankly at Aska, who was moving busily, and then looked down. There was still a drop of blood on my index finger that I hadn’t wiped off.