Chapter 526 – You Who Remember the Sea.

-Cheolgruuk Cheolgruuk

As Usher walked through the night, following the sound of the armor of the knight guiding him, he felt his doubts growing. He had no problem moving through dark or narrow passages.

It was simply because the path he led seemed somehow familiar. Just in case, the further you go, the more familiar the road becomes. Just as I was pondering whether our paths might have coincidentally overlapped.

“This is the place.”

The destination they eventually arrived at revealed that Usher’s thoughts were not mistaken.

“Here is…”

The place the knight guided me to was the inn where he stayed with Pirika. Usher pondered for a moment about the relationship between Elain and this inn, but the unknown driver left without a word as if he was done with taking him there, so there was no other option.

“You.”

As I opened the door and entered the inn, I was met with the surprised eyes of the hostess. From her point of view, there is nothing strange about the fact that the person who had been staying at the accommodation for a while has reappeared after not being seen for a while.

He quickly realized that he was different from that.

“Your name was Lisa.”

He didn’t know it when he only heard about her, but when he saw her again, he could see that her appearance was similar to the Liza that Erein had described, but not all of it, but a lot of it.

In the story, she seemed like an immature tomboy. She is mature, but looking at the worn-out appearance of a woman, it is as if time passes by.

What is even more surprising is that the place where he happened to stay was a very meaningful place to his parents.

“Then, are you really Elain and his…”

It was only after Usher heard her answer that he realized that he had inadvertently admitted to recognizing her, and he silenced her. Because he hasn’t yet acknowledged them as his parents.

“Where is Pirika now?”

What was even more important was Pirika. Even though she only fell for a moment, she turned her head to find the white light she had missed.

“I will guide you through that.”

The person who answered his question was a knight who had been silent in the inn’s hall.

“You, then?”
“I recognized it right away. If it’s been a while, it’s been a while.”

He had a somewhat depressed mood and a bitter voice rang out from inside his helmet. He was a knight I had encountered once before at this inn.

‘I recognized the hat Donard gave me.’

At the time, he was so preoccupied with meeting Lydica and looking for Pirika that he didn’t care, but when he thought about it, he was most likely Donar’s colleague or acquaintance.

Ironically, he was unable to recognize the people right next to him who were related to him in some way.

“What is her condition?”

Usher asked that question before he even thought about it. Since becoming a knight, he has not only punished monsters but also various criminals, including those involved in drug distribution. How far such drugs can ruin a person.

Another problem is that Pirika ran away, but it is highly likely that she was forcibly drugged. He was even more worried because he would not have been able to control his dosage on his own.

“…I guess you’ve heard some news. If it’s the situation, it would be better to check it in person.”

Even as he pauses, as if he is having trouble speaking with his mouth, my anxiety is increasing rather than decreasing. Finally, she followed him and arrived in front of a room.

“She better be careful before she goes in. She can hardly be considered sane right now.”

It was the moment when I couldn’t hold back my anxiety due to the driver’s warning attitude just before I grabbed the door handle and opened it and was about to ask what happened.

-Clap.
“Aaaaa!!!!!”

As soon as he opened the doorknob, a sharp scream came through the crack.

“Pirika?!”

It was somehow more delicate, but it was clearly her voice from her Pirika, so she thought that someone might be harming her, so she pushed past her knight and hurriedly opened her door and entered her room. What actually welcomes him is not the image of Pirika, but the bulging blanket.

“Heep! Hyeup, Eup!”

I could tell it wasn’t her illusion because I could hear her voice coming from beyond the blanket, but the problem was that the voice was filled with her tears and her whimpering fear.

As if a small animal was hiding in its safe haven from the movement of natural enemies, desperately holding its breath and trying to conceal her presence. However, her blanket, which was just a piece of cloth, was too poor to protect her.

Usher’s anger boiled for a moment, but there was something more important than being angry right now, so she held it down and carefully walked towards the blanket where Pirika was hiding.

“Pirika.”
“…!”

When I sat in front of the bed and called her name in a calm voice, the blanket shook as if I was startled. I wanted to get rid of it right away, but I continued speaking leisurely.

“It’s me, Usher.”
“!”

Pirika seemed to lift the blanket soon.

“Hyung! No!!”

Before I could even lift the blanket, I was filled with fear and wrapped myself in the blanket as if I was screaming. In fact, for a moment, I was suspicious of the figure hiding under the blanket, looking even more flawless than when I first saw it.

What caught his eye was a candle on a candlestick that barely lit up a room and swayed as if walking on a tightrope, and a window that was closed tightly as if he was concerned about someone’s gaze.

Above all, a faint but somewhat fishy and unpleasant smell lingers at the tip of my nose, hidden by the smell of burning candles. Usher could guess why Pirica was so terrified when she heard her own voice.

-Rock!
“Sobbing…!”

A small breathing sound that replaces the air in fear at the slightest sound of opening the window. After checking the faint moonlight shining through my feet, I return to Pirika’s side and call her name.

“Pirika.”
“No!”

Still, she tried to deny him.

“The moon is very bright today. Let’s come out and look at it for a moment.”

My Belka.

“…?”

Pirika lifted the blanket as if she had only just realized that something was different. She still seemed to be frightened, and the floating blanket was trembling and slow, which was frustrating, but he waited until she saw him so as not to startle him.

“Uh, sha?”

Soon he encounters a clear white light that shows its presence even in the darkness of the blanket. A faint sound of breathing, as if it were about to collapse like a small animal, is being sucked in.

Pirika looked at him with white light from under the dark blanket and stretched out her hand. The hand exposed to the moonlight became thinner than he remembered and small, like a girl’s, but there was no room for doubt.

The sight of a rainbow shining faintly on his arms as white as porcelain, in the soft moonlight, was like the girl who had always been by his side.

“…”

She just waited in silence as his hand slowly approached her. Eventually, after waiting, her arm came completely out of the blanket and touched his face.

“…!”

From the bridge of her nose, I went up to her forehead, gently rubbing her eyelids, cheeks, lips, and the tip of her chin. Only after the girl traced his outline with her trembling hands did she become convinced that it was Usher, when a circle of white light appeared.

“Really… Usher, ah?”

My Belka.

A soft and delicate voice that is slurred as if drunk, yet retains its clarity.

“Sorry, it took a little long.”

Although my heart ached at the desperate struggle that permeated even that small word, he answered by carefully holding the small hand that touched his face.

“…Okay, okay!”

Pirika finally let out the sadness she had been suppressing, and as a result, the darkness that had been barely concealed on her head flowed out.

What finally appeared was pure white silver hair that was as fluffy as clouds floating next to the moon in the night sky, and undulating over the bed.

“Hyung! Hwah!”

The same white eyes made her blush, droplets of clear glass flowed out, and her swollen lips, as if they had forcibly peeled off the skin of a fresh fruit, bit her sorrowful heart.

Don’t let the sadness turn into crying and escape. Although I was relieved to see him, I was still holding on to the doubts I had about myself that I could not let go of.

Pirika, who was already small, had become even smaller and thinner without him seeing her, so delicate that she should be called a girl.

Just like when I was a child when I first met Belka.

“It’s just us here now.”

The driver who guided him also saw them, closed the door, and left.

“Ugh, wow! Usher! Usher! I’m scared, I’m scared!”

Pirika also seemed relieved by that fact, letting go of her doubts that had been holding on to her until the end and embracing him. She let out all the sadness she had been holding in.

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

Just as she once buried her face in his arms, now he is in her own arms and hugs her pitifully shaking shoulders, and Pirika tightens his clothes with her small hands as if responding. It was.

“Uuuh, huh!”

Usher silently accepted the girl’s tears into his heart and pondered the anger that was burning more intensely inside her rather than lessening.

My Belka.

I will definitely not forgive those who have troubled you.