Chapter 157 – Let’s Rest Here for Just One Day.

“What? Where are you going?”

“Meet Ruina.”

Kiella’s eyes widened as she didn’t expect this name to come out of my mouth.

“Ruina? Why?”

“Don’t you want to ask Ruina for her forgiveness? Make sure she’s doing well.”

“She… We don’t know where she went and we don’t know if she was safe in the first place.”

“Ruina is doing well.”

Kiella was surprised once again.

“Really? No, how could you…?”

Although she didn’t show it, I was already worried about how she was doing.

Although I am not a close friend, I was worried when I heard that an elf with a story was living alone in an unhealthy body.

So, after defeating the Demon King and both the Demon King and I had a lot of free time, she secretly investigated her whereabouts.

As I told this story, Kiella put her pen down completely and turned her body to me.

“Is the child safe?”

“Huh.”

“Thank god…”

“So let’s go meet him.”

What was heard after the sigh of relief was a voice full of hesitation.

“…It’s okay. I don’t want to bother visiting a child who is doing well and giving him a hard time.”

“Don’t you want to see with your own eyes that you are doing well? I need to ask for forgiveness even if I couldn’t ask for it.”

“That’s true, but…”

“There is no use in refusing. I will take you by force.”

“…”

—

A few days later.

Kiella and I, who had a week off, went out of the castle together.

After hesitating until the end, she finally surrendered to my persistent urging.

There was no reason why it took several days to leave.
It just took time to send a letter asking if it was okay to visit Ruina and receive a response.

“…”

A nervous look was evident on Kiella’s face as she took her steps.
It’s only natural because you’re on your way to meet someone you once truly loved.

It must have felt like a long way to go, but the place where Ruina lived was far away not only from the kingdom but also from Lake Village, where Kiella was her lord.

Thanks to this, I was able to arrive only after traveling diligently for three days by carriage.

A village close to ruins, with no sign of popularity even in broad daylight.

In the past, elves who had been driven out of the kingdom for some reason or had nowhere to go lived together, but it was a place that had long since become empty after the Demon King threw Elora into chaos.

“Is Ruina really here…?”

“Yes. That’s the house over there.”

“…Is it okay if I come here suddenly like this?”

“It’s okay, don’t worry.”

It may sound reckless, but I had enough confidence.

Because I wanted Kiella to realize the basis of this confidence directly rather than through my own mouth, she did not bother to share it.

“That’s the house. Come back quickly.”

“Me, alone?”

“What am I going to do? It’s really okay, so just trust me and go.”

Kiella can’t easily take her feet off despite my firm words.
But she soon seemed to have made up her mind and headed towards one of her old houses.

—

Smart.

With her trembling hands she knocks on the wooden door of the shabby house.

After a while.
Kiella, who had been waiting anxiously, heard a familiar voice, full of caution, but still familiar.

-… Who are you?

The door then opens and Ruina appears inside.
Kiella thought she would stop breathing for a moment, but surprisingly, the landlord’s reaction was calm.

“…Come in.”

—

Kiella was sitting on a small wooden chair in the living room.
Likewise, on the other side of the small table was Ruina, whom she thought she would never see again.

Although he is dressed in shabbier clothes than the last time I saw him, he appears to be in good health.

When Kiella was unable to say anything because she was thinking too much, Ruina took the first step with her lips.

“When the letter arrived, I had no idea it would really come.”

“… I was just wondering how she was doing. I was worried about her a lot. I was wondering if something might happen to her on her own…”

“Originally, something was going to happen. At that time, I wanted to kill myself after seeing with my own eyes where her sister lived.”

“…”

Ruina’s biological sister was exiled from the elf kingdom for her contact with humans.

Her older sister, living alone in a barren land, took her own life, and Ruina approached Kiella, who passed her sentence to avenge her unjustly exiled older sister.

And after her Dayk appeared, she decided that there was no need for her own revenge and left for the land where her older sister lived.

But why does she, who had planned to die there, live in this empty village?

Kiella’s eyes were shaking with various questions, and Ruina, who noticed this, spoke to her.

“I found her will where her sister lived.”

“…History?”

“He wrote down all the things he couldn’t say to me. He ended his own life, but he wants me to live strong without that happening.”

“…”

“That’s why I came here. There’s no one there, but if you walk a little bit, you come across a village of other elves, and they live there by helping out with work and receiving food and daily necessities.”

“I see. I’m glad…”

Kiella’s expression became complicated as she trailed off her words.

Now is the time to stop talking and ask for the forgiveness you couldn’t ask for before.
But she couldn’t muster up the courage again.

“Thank you… For allowing me to come here.”

“…”

Ruina looked at Kiella silently.
Her expression seems to be telling her that if she has something to say, say it out loud.

Kiella also moved her lips with difficulty, thinking that she should not put it off any longer.

“Actually, there is another reason I came here. To ask for your forgiveness once again…”

“Why are you asking me for forgiveness?”

“Because I kicked out your sister and hurt you…”

Silence falls in the living room again.
The person who broke the silence was Ruina.

“I thanked you for allowing me to come here, right? There’s no need for that. I also had business with you.”

“…For business?”

“It was written in her will. The reason her older sister went to the human country was not to pick up a lost human child, but to really mix with humans.”

Until she discovered her will, Louisa thought her older sister had been unfairly exiled.

She says that Kiella, filled with her loathing for humans, has taken on her sins that her older sister does not have.

But it was clearly written in her will.

The statement that she went to the human country to pick up a lost human child is a lie.
The truth is that she actually had a human male that she fell in love with, and she went to meet him.

“My sister deliberately did not tell me the truth when she was alive. She was afraid that if I found out that she had mixed herself with a human, she would harm me as well.”

“…”

“After reading the will, I felt empty. I had completely believed what my sister said, but it was a lie for me. The reason she died was not because she was wronged or resentful, but because she regretted what she had really done. Besides… “

After a brief pause, Ruina’s subdued voice continued again.

“You were just doing your job honestly as a judge when you made me want to take revenge…”

Kiella lowers her head, unable to face her opponent.

Ruina still did not take her eyes off Kiella.

“So I wanted to ask you. The day I left your house. Why didn’t you tell me the truth until the end? It’s unfair on your part. If Mr. Dike hadn’t come, you might have died by my hands.”

Once again silence surrounds the two.
And soon Kiella’s answer reached Ruina’s ears.

“… Ruina will be hurt once again if she finds out the truth about her sister.”

“I see.”

It was not easy to express Ruina’s expression in her own words.
She seems to have regrets, or feels relieved.

It was clearly a completely opposite feeling, but for some reason, it was all displayed on Louisa’s face.

“You said you owed me forgiveness, but I think it’s me who owes the apology, not Kiella.”

Ruina lowers her head while saying that.
Of course Kiella couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Ruina?”

“… I’m sorry. For misunderstanding Kiella, for her revenge on you, and for the harsh words she said that day.”

“No! You don’t have to apologize to me. You just didn’t know the truth at the time.”

“But that doesn’t mean the things I said to Kiella never happened…”

“I’m really fine. Raise your head, Ruina.”

“…”

Ruina doesn’t even move as she is begging for forgiveness.

Kiella, who saw that, spoke carefully after thinking about it.

“Then, do you all want to pretend it never happened? Neither I nor Ruina have hurt or been hurt by each other…”

“Is that okay? I misunderstood you and even decided to kill you…”

“Yes. Let’s forgive each other and pretend that nothing happened.”

“Thank you… Thank you so much, Kiella.”

Resolving the long-standing conflict did not brighten the stiff atmosphere.

Time continued to pass as the two elves searched for what to say, and Kiella was the first to open up the stalled conversation.

“Hey… Ruina. Isn’t it hard for her to live alone? I’ll give her a place in the kingdom or a nearby territory, so why don’t you come there?”

At Kiella’s recommendation, Ruina smiled lightly for the first time in a long time.

“Hehe, you’re saying the same thing as Mr. Dike?”

“Dake?”

“A few months ago, the man sent me a letter and we exchanged several times. It said the same thing back then as it does now. I will make you a place to live, so why don’t you live in a safer place?”

“Dake said that…”

“I’m grateful to both of you, but I like it here. It’s comfortable to be alone and it’s a place where I can remember her older sister.”

“Okay…”

When Kiella couldn’t offer any more advice and closed her mouth in response to the hesitation, Ruina spoke this time.

“Are you in a relationship with Mr. Dayk?”

“Huh? No… Not really.”

“Really? When I talked to him through letters, he seemed like a pretty nice person. Since we were staying together in the royal castle, I thought our relationship would have become deeper.”

“Because I don’t have that qualification…”

“It seems like there’s a story, but I won’t ask too much. By the way, did you come alone today?”

Kiella shook her head.

“No. Dake is waiting outside.”

“Then you shouldn’t stay too long. I’m fine, so you can just leave.”

“…Huh.”

When Kiella left her house, Ruina followed along to see her off.

“Go back safely. And thank you for forgiving me.”

“…No, Ruina. I am grateful.”

As the two elves were about to exchange their final greetings, they saw Dayk looking at them from afar.

“At first I thought he was a strange person, but he seems like a good person after all.”

Kiella did not necessarily deny Ruina’s words.

“I think so too.”

The two, who had been awkward just a moment ago, were now smiling as if they were friends.

—

Kiella finished talking to Ruina and returned to where I was standing.
The conversation must have gone well, and a look of relief appeared on her face.

“I’m here?”

“Huh…”

“I said it would be okay, right?”

“Did you know what Ruina would say?”

I shrugged my shoulders and answered.

“No? In the reply I received this time, he said he had something to say to Kiella, so I just thought it would be okay.”

“Ah…”

“Anyway, I’m glad it worked out well. We have a long way to go, so let’s go back quickly.”

It took three days to arrive by carriage, so of course it took nearly three days to arrive near the castle.

Now, the long journey to Manjina, the Lake village where Kiella was her lord, is over.

But before I passed the village, I stopped the elf driver who was taking us.

“Wait a minute, drop me off here.”

“What’s wrong, Dake? Do you have any business here?”

“I have one day left on vacation, so I thought I’d rest here and go back tomorrow.”

“If we keep going like this, it will be quick, so what are you doing?”

Kiella’s words were perfectly reasonable, but they didn’t change my mind.

“With your personality, if you go to the capital like this, you will immediately start working again. Let’s take a break here for just one day.”

“…”

Unable to refute, he just looks at me with his big eyes.
In the end, she got out of the carriage and was led by me, and instead of going to the royal castle, she walked to an inn in the village next to her.