Side Story 23
‘It won't do any good, though.'
It is a side problem that no single scratch will be made on the necklace.
The most important pledge has already been completed.
Just when Ash hung a necklace around Lydia's neck.
And once it’s completed, no matter what she did, the pledge could never be reversed or cancelled.
Whether the necklace is powdered, melted, or otherwise buried in an endless sea is useless.
That's what the pledge was.
‘That abominable…….'
He put it around her neck and pretended it's nothing but a paging spell.
Lydia, who knows nothing, was slightly pitiful at this point.
‘Of course, there's nothing good for her to find out now.’
That's why Gyerg is going to shut up.
While Gyerg was looking down at Ash, he abandoned Gyerg and raised himself up.
As he moved out of the room, Gyerg quickly caught Ash.
“Wait, let me ask you something.”
“…….”
“Do you remember Alice? ……no, no, forget it.”
But after spitting it out, he thought it was a stupid question, so Gyerg shook his head right away.
“Of course I remember. Yes, I do this because I remember it.”
“…….”
“……..”
“I guess I'm getting used to it now. It's not surprising anymore.”
“Are you done?”
“No, wait a minute. I'll cancel the last one and ask another question. So, what happened to your left arm?”
Gyerg said, pointing to Ash's left arm wound, which is now hidden by clothes, with his eyes.
“Of course I know that you caught a dragon. I mean, what kind of attack did you get? Toenail? Tail? It's nothing special, but I was just curious.….”
“Breath.”
“Ah, it's the dragon's breath. What?”
Gyerg, who answered without thinking, was surprised and asked back.
But then Ash had already left the room after answering Gyerg’s question.
Gyerg stayed in the room where the owner disappeared, so he only blinked his eyes and muttered.
“Crazy……?”
What? How? Breath?
“Wow, Aish.”
Gyerg recalled ‘Breath’, the dragon's famous lethal move that usually melts anything away just by brushing it.
In fact, it was not through books or rumours that Gyerg knew about it as others.
A few decades ago, one of his own kind, who especially likes installing equipment, suddenly decided to catch the dragon.
So he knew it well.
That relative, who recklessly attacked the dragon that day, had to lose one of his horns forever after being beaten by dragon breath.
Gyerg shuddered as he recalled that the horns of his own relative, which were impossible to be firm, were melting without a trace.
“Is his left arm alright? I didn't see it properly because it's dark, but if he takes off the bandage in the bright place, there might be a hole in the inside.”
Of course not.
The Duke couldn't have appeared in front of Lydia like that.
Even if he suffered a similar degree of injury, he would not have returned until he treated it.
At all costs, he would have recovered the affected area, hid it, and showed up.
Like he had never been hurt that much from the beginning.
“What an abominable……..”
The word that he thought of in his head popped out of his mouth this time.
Gyerg looked at the door where the Duke left for a while, then shrugged his shoulders and disappeared from the room.
***
Ash's hand delicately pushed Lydia's hair behind her ear.
This could be proof that she couldn’t sleep well for a few days.
Lydia was so deep asleep.
Ash sat on the bed and silently stood by Lydia.
Ash's expression was very calm, but in his head, he was recalling the past memories carved in vivid nightmares.
‘Your Excellency, madam is not feeling well right now…….’
When he first saw Alice with Lydia's body from afar. Ash definitely sensed something strange.
It was a sense of incompatibility.
Strangely unfamiliar energy that he had never felt before.
However, it was not possible to identify the energy exactly. It was too far away right now, and when he got close, his opponent avoided him.
As the excuse of being sick came out, Ash stepped back.
He was doubtful, but he thought there was nothing urgent.
Anyway, Lydia was within his reach, and he thought it was not too late to wait and check the identity of the sense of incompatibility and move .….. but it was only his illusion.
The most terrible illusion he's ever had.
Lydia was already out of Ash's arms, and Ash knew it when he faced Lydia who broke the terrace door and stormed into the bedroom.
Ash froze.
He knew this terrible sense. It feels like the place where he stands is frozen from his feet, and there is sharp thin ice on his blood vessels.
In that terrible feeling, Ash managed to move and took the “real” Lydia in Alice's body.
And then he realized.
How weak humans are.
It was one thing that made humans weak. Ignorance.
What if he had known that their body could change in this way from the beginning?
As soon as Ash felt a sense of incompatibility, he would have smashed the door without hesitation and faced Alice to blow up where the “real” Lydia really was.
But he couldn't. He didn't know.
He couldn't assume that Lydia’s body had changed, so he left his hand like a fool and stayed still.
For those few hours, maybe, he may have lost Lydia.
“…….”
Ash's right hand, who reminded of that time, naturally put strength into it.
At that moment, Lydia tossed and turned in her sleep. Surprised Ash let go of her hand reflexively.
It wasn't long before he laughed at his own behaviour.
In fact, he can forget about the incident at that time anyway.
Because he will never experience that again.
That day, Ash felt keen that he was a weak human being.
It was inevitable. Gyerg who was always busy complaining about Ash saying whether he was human or not, but this was different from that.
Ash can't be omnipotent. Because he’s not God.
What he does not know will inevitably continue to exist, and no one knows what threat it will pose in the future.
So Ash found a way.
Another way.
The way to protect Lydia, even if he's not omnipotent, even if he's just a weak human being.
There was a miracle. Or God answered. Anyway, Ash found the way.
Ash lowered his head and kissed Lydia's forehead quietly.
Then the dragon's blood engraved on Ash's heart reacted.
The pledge.
Ash caught the dragon, split the heart, drank the blood, and processed a pledge in the heart and hung it around Lydia's neck to complete the pledge.
The completed pledge kept the owner's body as the top priority.
When Lydia’s body was exposed to deadly harm that threatened her life, the damage to other people's bodies.
With Ash's body.
Even if Lydia drinks poison or gets stabbed, she won't die.
Until Ash, who replaced Lydia, ran out of breath first,
Ash closed his eyes listening to Lydia's even breathing. A smile formed around his mouth.
It was a more satisfying smile than anything he had ever built.
***
When the summer receded and the heat subsided.
Gyerg left the Dukedom.
Lydia said to Gyerg, who was ready to leave, “Are you going already?” with a regrettable voice.
Gyerg snorted.
‘When did you tell me to stop scoop up the sherbet and get out of here?'
Of course, Lydia's emotional state was unstable at the time and always at unhappiness, and now she is in complete happiness, happiness, and happiness, so it was not something that he could not understand.
‘You won't need coins anymore.'
Gyerg thought for a moment but turned around easily.
It's not a metaphor, but now the Duke really sacrifices his life to protect Lydia.
If the Duke is at risk that he cannot cope with, Gyerg will be useless even if he comes.
His pride was not hurt. Because it was true.
So Gyerg returned to his residence, and he did not tell Lydia, but again became a victim of heavy labour.
Damn it.
Gyerg thought the wizard, Mayke, was as crazy as the Duke.
They’re just crazy in different directions.
The Duke is crazy about Lydia, and the wizard woman is crazy about building a tower.
‘Why are there so many crazy humans?’
It's his situation.
Gyerg grumbled familiarly and went to bed with a tired body.
And he had a dream that day.
It was a strange dream.
There was a peach tree right in front of Gyerg, and a snake was holding in front of him.
The snake flapped its tongue as threatening as it tried to keep Gyerg from approaching the peach tree.
‘What's this?’
Gyerg felt ridiculous, but he approached the peach tree for now.
Peaches were not his favourite fruit, but somehow he felt like he should.
But there was a problem.
‘Crazy, snake! Why are you so strong?'
The snake was too strong.
He had never seen such a strong snake before. No matter how much it's in his own dreams.
‘Now the snake is crazy too!'
Gyerg eventually won the victory against the snake only after a desperate struggle and his whole body became a rag.
He was embarrassed.
Damn it…….'
It was a relief that there was no one to see him.
Gyerg sighed in his dream and approached the peach tree where the interrupter disappeared anyway.
Then he picked one of the biggest and most coveted light pink peaches in the tree.
‘Huh?'
But as soon as that happened, the peach melted away from Gyerg's hand.
‘My peach!'
It was the moment when Gyerg opened his eyes as he recalled the bloody struggle between life and death with snakes.
Suddenly, the flower rain fell from the sky.
It was a rose leaf. Countless petals fell everywhere as if they were dancing and fell gently on Gyerg’s head and nose
“…..…?”
Gyerg woke up and blinked.
What is it?
He had a strange dream.
The dream was so absurd that he didn't know what to do with it, but it was very vivid.
‘Is it a dream to eat peaches tomorrow?'
Gyerg thought so blankly and soon lay down again.
It was still early to wake up.
He went back to sleep with the feeling of what he knew.
About six weeks after that.
There was an incident in which Lydia, who smelled tart in the backyard of the mansion, turned the mansion upside down by suddenly vomiting.
Gyerg, who was suffering from heavy labour on a faraway land, was unaware of it.
<Side Story : Chapter 1, End>
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