Chapter 82 – Gap.

Aiolus watched the children playing in the garden through the window today. His daughter has always loved playing in the garden in the backyard. Before and after her death, Medea always stayed in the backyard when the garden was in full bloom. To see flowers blooming in spring in spring, flowers blooming in summer in summer, flowers blooming in autumn in autumn, and flowers blooming in winter in winter. The garden in the backyard always bloomed and faded red.

Even though it was the garden he had created, she was so happy that if she set foot in it, she would be so happy that it would bring up painful memories of her. He just looks at his daughter who always visits the garden like this. In such a place, a boy who came with her top and a girl who looks exactly like her are playing with Medea. She must have been here for the third day now, but she seemed more suited to the garden full of red flowers than anyone else. Then, when he saw the girl turning his head this way, he moved away from the window.

“Why is that?”

Medea asked curiously as she saw her Belka, who had finished knitting herself and her thread, and looked towards her castle.

“I think someone was watching.”
“But there’s no one over there?”

True to her word, no one could be seen by the window Belka looked at. Even so, Mediah looked at the girl who kept looking toward the window, as if she was concerned, and accidentally found another gaze and frowned at her.

“It must have been one of those people spying on us. It’s okay if you don’t mind too much.”

Sometimes they were like that. In addition to her and her father, the family of her retainers also resides in the castle. Their blood is not necessarily connected, and there are cases where they become independent after receiving a territory, so it was not a very large number, but a fair number of children stay in the castle. There are people with a big age difference, and there are children of their age, but Medea was not interested in them. No, she used to be interested.

“Huh.”

Belka, who soon lost interest in her, looked carefully at the thread woven into her Medea’s hand, then reached out for her. It changed shape as the girl wove her thread and held it in her hand. Medea also said that at first she didn’t know anything and she was friendly, but later she pretended to be friendly because they were told by her parents to be friendly. The feeling of betrayal she felt when she found out that she had only been approached after seeing her identity was indescribable. She didn’t know when they were playing casually, but after she knew, they were seen.

The children showed an annoyance in case someone was not forced to hang out with them. To the point where I wonder why I didn’t notice it sooner. What was it like to know that sometimes there were people who took a bad look at her body? But the most shocking thing was that out of all the children she had, none of them really wanted to be friends with her. No one looked straight at Mediah. She was just an uncomfortable existence that could not be treated carelessly by her children.

As she took the thread that had been woven into Belka’s hand and took it back to her own, Medea glanced at the boy sleeping in the garden, under the shade of a tree. He was Usher, who followed them far behind and watched them weave, then fell asleep before he knew it. He waited until the thread-knitting was over, but it was funny and strange to see him fall asleep shortly thereafter. But since I saw them training early in the morning before waking up, I could understand that.

Mediah thought that Belka was also Belka, but Usher was also very unique. She seemed like a boy of the same age as the others, but she had unexpected sides that she showed from time to time. Even when she joked a little bit, she never got angry beyond her thoughts, and there was a feeling that she was considerate of her. It was the same with Belka. After all, even when he forced himself to take her girl, he had nothing to say, but he never separated them.

Like a baby bird chasing after its mother, it follows it and waits for it, but it was really cute. It was fun to tease him as he reacted quickly when he joked around. Then, Medea laughed bitterly. Now, looking back at her own actions, did she not test Usher? Could it be that she was rejected by her children all this time because she was not good enough for herself? Could it be that her father didn’t come close to her?

Then the girl’s troubled voice was heard.

“Hey, what should I do with this…?”

Medea was startled when she looked at her Belka to help, remembering that she had said it was her first thread-knitting experience. Because there was a girl who couldn’t move because she couldn’t get tangled up and her hands were tied with threads drawing geometric shapes. Even so, even as Medea, who had experience in thread-knitting many times, it was the first time she had seen it, so she couldn’t untie the thread, so she had to cut it with scissors.

“He tied his hands with her thread. It’s the first time this has happened.”
“Aww, I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter because I used the leftover thread anyway.

Belka apologized for what she thought was her rebuke, but Medea admired her wholeheartedly. It was the first time she had ever been knitting with someone else. Eventually, unable to use her thread and unable to weave, they sat still and looked at the garden.

“As expected, there’s not much to do in the castle, so it’s boring.”

Thread knitting was a game that a maid had taught her to play, and she had very little to play with in this castle. She might be even more so because she was a body that was too much to run around. She loves to read, but her children don’t understand her. When the children were together, they never stayed still. She was accustomed to playing alone, so it was unfamiliar to her to play with a group of people.

“Whoaam.”

Was it because of the warm sunlight? Medea covered her yawn with her hand as she was driven to sleep. The weather in early summer, which was still close to spring, was warm rather than hot, and she naturally fell asleep under the sunlight. Then Belka took her hand and stood up.

“Why is that?”

As she was about to ask if she had something to do, Medea quickly knew where her girl was headed. Under the shade of a tree not too far away. It was where Usher was sleeping. As she watched her, wondering why she was here, Belka sat leaning against her tree, resting her head on her floor, and placed her sleeping Usher’s head on her lap. At the sight of it, she sees Usher and bites her lip.

He grumbled at her Medea for not giving her a chance to intervene, but do you know that she thinks they don’t see her intervening? It was clear he probably didn’t know. As Mediah watched her, she suddenly saw the girl tapping her opposite knee with her hand. In addition, Medea realized the meaning of her golden light looking at her and opened her eyes wide.

“Can I lie down too?”

Belka silently nodded her head. Medea hesitated, but she continued to lie down on her girl’s lap, unable to resist the golden light that gazed at her. She had been to the garden many times, but it was the first time she had seen her lying on the grass like this. She always knew she was there. She was fascinated by the itchy yet stiff feel of the green grass against her body.

“Turn it off, it’s your waist.”

Usher recalled that either she hadn’t slept well, or that she had been overworking her body since the early hours of the morning. When she opened her eyes, thinking that she had left him alone and gone somewhere, she saw a golden light.

“Did you sleep well?”

And the girl’s sweet voice taught him that his worries were simply groundless. The figure of the tree rising behind her and breaking the stinging sunlight with its leaves reminded her of the zelkova tree and made her feel depressed, but that feeling did not fade even the girl’s loveliness. Even after waking up, I just like being face to face with that golden light, as long as I keep looking at it. Suddenly, a commotion came from the side of the castle.

“What’s going on?”

When I woke up in the chaotic atmosphere, I saw that the knights of this castle, dressed in different armor than the Donnars who had come with Usher, were moving hurriedly. It also disappeared shortly thereafter.

“I think it’s because the smoke is rising.”
“Performance?”

At the girl’s words, if you look up at the top of the castle wall, you can see white smoke billowing up. It didn’t look like the village was coming up on fire. It was more hazy than that, judging by the plume of smoke.

“You mean a beacon? That one.”
“Huh.”

That means the beacon is rising.

“You’re saying that monsters have invaded!”

What comes to mind is a monster that looks like a giant katydid or cricket that attacked them the day they were packing up and trying to leave the village. Usher still remembered. The fear he had when he saw it in front of him, the terrible malice that emanated from him. When Usher tried to get up to grab his weapon just in case, Belka grabbed him and hugged him. His heart, which was about to explode at any moment, slowly subsided as he was held in the girl’s arms.

“It’ll be fine. We have people to protect us now.”

Usher thought of the Donnars at her words. The situation here was different from the village. There were many knights besides them here, and they will protect you. Somehow ashamed of having made a fuss, he buried her face in her girl’s arms. What kind of ugliness is this? It seemed that I was alone in the safest place, not on the outskirts of the village or the manor. Then I realized later that something was missing.

“But what about Mediah?”

At this point, I couldn’t hear the voice of someone who would have just made fun of it. The girl placed her index finger on his lips as if asking for silence. And where her golden light goes.

“…Why is he sleeping here?”

He could see Medea sleeping on the girl’s lap, with her shiny silver hair hanging down as if it were white but not white. She didn’t know that all this time she would be on her girl’s lap with him. Then there was a voice coming from the castle.

“Lady! Lady Mediah!”

Her light-brown haired maid was hurrying this way, calling Medea by name. Then she finds Medea asleep and she lowers her voice.

“We met again. But the lady.”
“I’m just asleep.”
“I see.”

Then, as if relieved, she let out her sigh.

“What’s more than that?”
“Did you hear the news that the monsters were invading? I was told to take you to your room, just in case. You guys, go inside the castle quickly.”

Soon after, she lifted the sleeping Medea into her arms. Usher heard her, though she tried to return to the castle with Belka.

“Oops!”
“Belka?!”

Seeing the girl unable to get up, Usher held her hand, and she averted his gaze.

“Hey, my legs can’t move.”

Usher thought that Belka had been giving her lap to him and her girl while she was asleep, and he picked her up too.

“Let’s go back to our room.”
“Huh.”

Then Usher felt a strange gaze on them.

“…Why?”
“You guys were really dating.”
“Is that weird?”
“Oh, not like that!”

She shook her head hastily, as if to make an excuse, but Usher was already offended. What do you mean? Then, that gaze that seemed to be in trouble or that something was wrong. Doesn’t it sound like he’s saying that he and Belka shouldn’t be dating? For some reason, he seemed to know why Medea treated her coldly. Usher was nervous, but with the girl in his arms, he calmed down and went back to their room. Because of this, he did not think that the gaze peeking at them from the garden in the backyard would follow them there.