GDTEA Chapter 83

Pledge

Sharti ran. She rushed to the lodgings first, but when Ren wasn’t there, she ran again.

She was out of breath, and her right leg hurt from running after so long, but she kept running.

[Ah……. Go on.]

From when they finished their early morning meal until Sharti left the lodgings, Ren’s demeanor seemed somehow dazed.

If it were before, he would have followed her with his gaze on every step and gesture Sharti made, but today was different. He seemed lost in thought, his mind elsewhere.

[I’ll be back.]

Sharti tried not to care too much.

Though it had been artificial respiration, it was her first time experiencing such stimulating contact, and she tried not to show her unsettled feelings about the fact that the other person was Ren.

She felt no shame in showing disappointment after expecting something different from his reaction and being let down. So Sharti composed her feelings about leaving Ren behind and going outside as she normally would.

‘I shouldn’t have done that!’

She should have asked why he was like that, if he had any worries.

At the very least, she should have asked what conversation he had with the Tower Master.

‘A conversation conducted using soundproofing magic couldn’t have been ordinary.’

However, Sharti was too preoccupied with her unexpected seizure to properly observe Ren, and instead made him worry and feel anxious.

Regret poured over her for not considering Ren’s complicated feelings.

“……Tower Master.”

Sharti slowly slowed her steps.

[Young lady, you could become unhappy~ No, you will become unhappy~]

Sharti stared at the end of the path she had been running toward.

Was the destination of this journey unhappiness?

‘Am I now walking toward unhappiness on my own?’

She didn’t know.

But thinking about it differently, the answer came easily.

‘Is Ren unhappiness to me?’

No. Ren was not something like unhappiness.

Since meeting Ren, Sharti had never once felt unhappy. There had been visitors and incidents that came like unhappiness, but they never made her unhappy.

Because Ren had protected her.

‘Happiness. Happiness…….’

In her subconscious, Sharti tried not to think of Ren as happiness. Just because she feared the unhappiness that might come someday, she had held back and refused to acknowledge her feelings toward him.

‘If I’m going to be unhappy anyway-.’

Things might flow as the fortune teller said.

Sharti found the fortune teller’s curse-laden certainty rather refreshing.

If the ending was unhappiness, then every step toward that ending would be happiness.

‘If there’s happiness to savor in unhappiness…… I can endure it.’

Sharti was running before she knew it. Her hood was disheveled in the wind and her long hair streamed out and scattered.

Even though she was running, the wind wasn’t particularly refreshing. It was burdensome.

That’s how fast Sharti was running.

“……!”

And finally, she saw Ren’s figure.

Wearing his blindfold and standing among the Krofl Mercenary Group members, Ren stood out distinctly. More precisely, Sharti’s eyes could only see Ren.

Along with her rapidly beating heart, all kinds of words and sentences mixed jumbled in her head.

‘What I was going to say to Ren, what I want to say to Ren……!’

With resolute determination, exhaling rough breaths, just as Sharti was about to put strength in her throat—

“Ah, there you are.”

“You’ve arrived, Doctor. We were just about to come get you.”

“……?”

Ashu’s grandfather, the white-haired old man, and the village chief approached Sharti.

With her path blocked, Sharti glanced at Ren beyond them with confused eyes.

“…….”

But Ren was surrounded by Krofl Mercenary Group members and didn’t turn his gaze once, as if he hadn’t seen Sharti.

In this oddly deflating situation, Sharti just moved her lips and let out a deep sigh.

“Doctor, do you have a moment?”

“Ah, yes.”

Without even the presence of mind to take out a note, Sharti reflexively answered.

Fortunately, the white-haired old man and village chief didn’t react anew to Sharti’s voice.

‘What could they be talking about?’

Following the village chief’s guidance, Sharti kept looking back at Ren as she left.

It was a distance at which Ren normally would have noticed Sharti’s presence and more. Sharti moved her steps while arranging her hair, feeling somewhat gloomy.

“Oh, we finally meet and can greet you properly.”

“……!”

The place Sharti arrived at following the village chief already had Karun, the Krofl Mercenary Group captain, and the Deputy Tower Master waiting.

Sharti quickly avoided the Deputy Tower Master’s gaze and carefully fastened her hood first.

“You don’t need to be so on guard.”

Karun stood up politely first and offered a handshake.

“On behalf of the Krofl Mercenary Group, I’ve been waiting to greet the Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“Because you’re the one who built a bridge for us to form a connection with this village.”

The Deputy Tower Master also approached and bowed to Sharti.

Sharti awkwardly greeted them back and shook hands with Karun.

“I did mention it to my sister first—did you receive word?”

The only person Karun would call sister was Vireta.

When Sharti blinked, suddenly recalling what Vireta had said, the village chief stood before her and bowed at the waist.

“To repay you, Doctor, our village’s benefactor, I shamelessly asked these two for help.”

“Yes?”

Sharti, who never expected the word ‘repayment’ to come from the village chief’s mouth first, quickly shook her head.

“It’s fine.”

Receiving the embarrassing title of benefactor after forcibly putting her hands on food supplies through radical methods was burdensome.

‘If things hadn’t gone according to plan even a little, the village would have suffered all the damage.’

Sharti waved her hands energetically with a troubled expression.

Then Karun and the Deputy Tower Master exchanged glances and smiled kindly.

“We’re not trying to give you something excessive.”

Karun and the Deputy Tower Master each took out a scroll from their pockets and held them out to Sharti. The village chief did the same.

“We won’t withdraw our hands until you accept them.”

As she just stared blankly at the three scrolls, the white-haired old man urged her briefly.

Because all three nodded in unison, Sharti accepted them awkwardly.

“These are magic pledges.”

“Pledges?”

Unlike magic contracts that required fair agreements and compensation, the purpose of pledges was to document vows in writing.

Sharti looked at the scrolls called pledges with puzzled eyes and examined them.

{The Krofl Mercenary Group vows never to speak of the existence of the doctor called ‘Sha,’ and even if they learn new information about the doctor called ‘Sha,’ they will not divulge that information to anyone other than themselves.}

{The Magic Tower will turn a blind eye to the existence of the doctor called ‘Sha,’ and if the existence of the doctor called ‘Sha’ is in danger, once and only once, the Magic Tower vows to do its utmost to rescue ‘Sha’ safely.}

{All residents of Sedipia Village vow to keep silent until death about all information learned about the doctor called ‘Sha,’ and will only engrave in their hearts the help and existence received from the doctor called ‘Sha,’ vowing not to record it anywhere.}

“…….”

While reading the pledges word by word, Sharti felt an indescribable surge of emotion.

“Ah, our village has a name now.”

The village chief said, puffing out his chest.

“‘Sedipia’—it means a village full of courage.”

“……That’s wonderful.”

Though the end of her terrible voice cracked and trembled, no one paid it any mind.

Sharti read and reread the pledges.

They were vows too heavy to receive as repayment.

“And this is a pledge written together by everyone.”

The white-haired old man took out one more pledge.

{All vows of the Krofl Mercenary Group, the Magic Tower, and Sedipia Village are in repayment for ‘Sha’s’ grace, and if broken, may they burn away to nothing.}

“……!”

Sharti startled at the terrible final sentence and raised her head. But before Sharti could add any opinion, the Deputy Tower Master lightly waved his staff.

“This pledge was created with the agreement of everyone currently in this village.”

Flash—. As a magic circle appeared, light gathered on the pledge and it decomposed into light particles.

The light particles gathered into a single sphere and soon settled on Sharti’s wrist.

“If anyone in this village breaks their vow, the pledge will appear before you again, Doctor.”

When someone broke the pledge enough to reveal the secret, it would herald crisis for both sides. In other words, it meant to run away without looking back.

“…….”

Sharti couldn’t refuse.

Their pledge was a gift that would allow Sharti, who was soon to leave Sedipia Village, to calm her anxiety and leave with peace of mind. Moreover, they had each staked their precious village, their barely obtained foundation, their abundant resources on this vow.

She couldn’t help but understand that it contained the meaning of understanding and respecting Sharti’s secret of living in hiding, her circumstances that couldn’t be revealed to the world.

“Thank, thank you…….”

Since hearing about ‘repayment’ from Vireta, Sharti had been thinking about it implicitly. If possible, she had planned to request something similar to the pledge contents they handed her.

‘I was going to ask them to just keep my secret.’

At minimum, she had wanted to seal the mouths of the village chief, Ashu’s grandfather, and the village officials.

But she never imagined that everyone staying in the village would agree to the pledge.

[When you intervene in someone’s life, you must receive repayment equal to the weight you prepared for.]

The weight that even Sharti herself couldn’t measure, everyone except Sharti recognized and gave repayment equal to the value of that weight.

“We’re truly grateful, and we’re sorry for everything until now.”

When the village chief bowed deeply, the white-haired old man followed suit. Karun and the Deputy Tower Master also bowed their heads together.

“…….”

Sharti bowed her head deeply together, lowering her watery gaze.

Not all memories in Ashu’s village were good ones. Even considering the hidden village’s characteristics and atmosphere, the hostility-filled rejection had hurt and frightened her.

Memories don’t disappear. But it was possible to overlay them.

Covering past unhappiness with happiness, what remained was relief.

“I’m the one who should be truly…… grateful that you believed in me.”

The result of courage gathered after overcoming vain hope and hesitating dozens of times was unexpected recognition and trust.

A person recognized by someone and furthermore trusted. That might have been the modest dream Sharti wished for.

And at the foundation of that was Sharti’s ability. The knowledge she had built up step by step and the experience she had gained without giving up shone brightly.

[Sha-.]

Following the overwhelming emotion surging up, Ren’s voice naturally came to mind.

She still wanted to see him.

“Then I’ll be going……!”

Just as Sharti bowed and was about to turn around, someone appeared before her.

Remembering when she had bumped into Ashu before, Sharti reflexively pulled her body back.

“Ah~ Did the conversation already end?”

The Tower Master, dressed in extremely splendid clothes, stood before Sharti with a slippery smile.

Sharti’s shoulders stiffened at the Tower Master’s sudden appearance.

The Tower Master’s eyes curved like crescent moons as he looked at Sharti.

“Then now the Doctor needs to talk with me.”