GDTEA Chapter 120

Secret 

Thanks to Tein’s passionate testimony, the kidnapping incident that occurred at dawn was entirely pinned on Ren and the merchant.

The bear-like Ren the child had described, and the perfectly recalled montage of the merchant that the attendants remembered, were completed.

And so, when the merchant confirmed the wanted posters that had been distributed throughout the county early that morning, he collapsed while clutching the back of his neck.

“Fraud, theft, violence, embezzlement, kidnapping — good grief, how can there be so many charges…!”

The list of crimes attached to Ren and the merchant was nothing short of vicious.

If caught now, there would be no need for prison — it would be an immediate execution right there on the street.

While the merchant trembled and barricaded himself inside the inn room, Sharti was treating Ren’s left hand.

“You can’t use this hand for a while. Understood?”

“And if I don’t use my hand?”

“Hm?”

Sharti, who had been wrapping the bandage, looked up, and Ren, who had been resting his chin in his hand, gave an indifferent gesture with his eyes.

“Won’t there be many inconvenient things if I can’t use my hand?”

“It’s your left hand, though?”

It didn’t seem particularly difficult, yet Ren feigned ignorance and shrugged.

“It’s quite hard to change clothes or wash with just one hand. Same goes for mealtimes.”

“Ah…”

Sharti nodded, having been convinced.

As Ren watched Sharti cast her gaze downward, thinking carefully about a solution, he quietly soothed his frustrated heart.

He still couldn’t see Sharti’s face, her expression, her dark red eyes.

[The magic tool broke… Oh, then should I take mine off too?]

Sharti, who had returned to the inn at dawn and heard the full story from him, seemed disheartened at the news that without wearing the paired silver rings, one couldn’t see the other’s face.

Watching Sharti nervously fidget with her ring, summoning the courage to say she would at least take it off in front of him, Ren felt his heart race.

The fact that it wasn’t only him who felt the loss of not being able to see each other’s face — that made him both thrilled and comforted.

[…No. Don’t take it off.]

But Ren wanted Sharti not to remove her ring.

He had no desire to make her take it off, even for a moment, the ring on the fourth finger of her left hand.

[Oh, are you married?]

Ren liked the misunderstanding that Sharti occasionally received during their travels.

He liked her shyly flushing cheeks, unable to deny or confirm it. He liked receiving the gaze that naturally followed — the one that treated him as her husband.

For such a childish reason, Ren had no wish to touch Sharti’s ring just because he couldn’t see her face right now.

Above all, if she kept taking it off and putting it back on, she might lose it someday.

‘I can’t have her go back to wearing that suffocating hood and robe.’

Ren, his eyes darkened, calculated his current funds.

Right now, he had not a single coin left on him. The emergency money he had raised by selling the sword he’d supposedly owned before losing his memory had to go straight toward travel expenses that were already running short.

[It’s a good thing I paid the inn fees in advance. Honestly, buying the antidote ingredients has left me quite short on money.]

He couldn’t let Sharti, who had cheerfully said she would work hard to earn money, struggle alone.

The immediate travel expenses were sorted, but Ren felt uneasy.

‘How much would it cost to buy a magic tool?’

He needed money to obtain a new face-recognition-blocking magic tool. And since it wasn’t just one but a pair he needed to buy, the worry only deepened.

Who would hire a worker with a broken hand who also had to go around with a covered face?

Just as Ren’s expression was beginning to cloud, Sharti spoke.

“Then, should we ask the merchant uncle for help just until you’ve fully healed?”

“Ask him?”

“Yeah. Since Ren and the merchant uncle ended up sharing a room, wouldn’t it be easier to get help from him?”

Ren’s expression soured.

As it was, he was already sharing a room with the merchant due to the latter’s stubborn insistence that he needed to protect him now that things had gotten out of hand.

Of course, he had to keep an eye on the merchant to make sure he didn’t do anything foolish — but being separated from Sharti just to listen to the merchant’s snoring was absolute torture.

“No.”

The mere thought of receiving all manner of help from the merchant was unpleasant.

Ren quickly worked his mind.

Fortunately, his mind worked exceptionally well in moments like these.

“I have no desire to receive help from someone who curses me out in his sleep.”

“He curses at you? At Ren?”

Sharti asked back, visibly startled.

Ren gave a wry smile and cast his gaze downward.

“It seems he has quite a few grievances against me. Partly because of the trouble I caused, and partly because we kept clashing in opinions when we entered the count’s mansion together. I suppose my manner wasn’t exactly warm either.”

“Ren…”

He could feel Sharti’s pitying gaze on him.

“So rather than receiving help from someone like that, I’d rather just… manage on my own.”

Ren slightly moved his bandaged left hand and let out a small groan.

At the rare sight of Ren — who never flinched at ordinary pain — showing weakness, Sharti urgently grabbed his forearm.

“What are you going to manage on your own?”

“Then what should I do?”

Ren tilted his head.

“Sha, are you going to help me?”

“H-huh? Oh — yes! Yes, I’ll help you.”

“With changing clothes, too? And washing?”

“…Mm…”

At Sharti’s flustered reaction, Ren inwardly smiled a smile of triumph.

Having seized his opportunity, Ren immediately told her he needed to wash his hair and asked for Sharti’s help.

He could feel her gaze, belatedly realizing she’d been outmaneuvered, but Ren didn’t mind in the slightest.

Whoosh — Seated in the chair with his head tilted back, Ren swallowed a satisfied groan at the warm touch moving through his hair.

It was a peace that could only be savored in this moment.

“Grandmother will be coming soon.”

While drying his hair, Sharti shared her plans for what lay ahead.

“I wrote that the purple poisonous herb we saw in Sedipia Village was likely used on the count’s young lady, so I’d imagine she’ll bring a mage along with the herb.”

“You’re thinking of making more antidote to give to the little doctor?”

“Yes. Judging by how the count’s young lady’s symptoms have worsened, she’ll probably need to take it several times before she’s fully cured.”

Sharti pressed a towel firmly against his wet hair to dry it herself.

“So you sent the little doctor to the count’s mansion to serve as the one who receives the medicine and administers it.”

“Mm, something like that.”

The vague answer made Ren tilt his head up and look at Sharti.

Sharti thought of Tein and smiled faintly.

“Children who have to take medicine for a long time tend to become increasingly sensitive. Their appetite gets picky, and they start avoiding medicine. For a young patient like that, a young doctor is just right.”

She trusted that Tein would make sure the little angel took her antidote without fail.

And Tein was a child who lived up to his teacher’s expectations.

****

Thanks to the sacrifice of Ren and the merchant, Tein — who had been left at the count’s mansion without suspicion — was hovering outside Eryl’s room.

The attendants who had always hovered around Eryl as if watching over her were nowhere to be seen.

Tein carefully minded the antidote hidden inside his clothes as he opened the door.

“…I’m not eating. Everyone get out!”

A sharp cry poured out from beneath the blankets on the bed.

Having refused her breakfast entirely and rejecting anyone’s approach, it seemed even the head maid and the other attendants had no choice but to temporarily withdraw.

“Little Angel.”

When Tein called out to Eryl from beside the bed, the lumpy blanket flinched.

“You need to eat.”

“…”

The motionless blanket shifted slightly, and Eryl peeked her head out.

Eryl looked at Tein with anxious eyes, then glanced around the room. And then her large eyes grew watery, and she began to sniffle.

“E-Eryl… is scared…”

When Tein climbed up onto the bed, Eryl buried herself back beneath the blanket.

“Hic, everyone keeps looking at Eryl weird… hic, they keep whispering, and they won’t let Eryl go outside… and Papa, Papa won’t come see Eryl…!”

Eryl had no memories from the moment she had fallen asleep. She only knew that she had woken up from a nightmare.

That alone was frightening enough for the child, and the reactions of the adults around her were unbearably heavy and terrifying.

Especially the look people gave to someone with a mental illness — even to a child who remembered nothing, those eyes left wounds.

“I can only see eyes… and sometimes only mouths. …Has Eryl become strange, and that’s why Papa won’t come see her?”

At some point, whenever Eryl looked up, she would see faces with nothing on them but a lone mouth, or only eyes observing her.

The child, now under intense psychological pressure, had come to live in a nightmare even without sleeping.

Having at least unburdened herself to Tein, Eryl quietly sobbed beneath the blanket.

Tein didn’t know what to do. He earnestly worried about how on earth he was going to calm the frightened little angel and get her to take the antidote.

“Actually, there’s a secret I didn’t tell Little Angel.”

“…A secret?”

“Yesterday, Little Angel and I met the Deer Princess.”

“The Deer Princess…?”

Eryl, her face completely tear-streaked, poked her head out from under the blanket.

Tein glanced around warily and whispered close to Eryl’s ear.

“The Deer Princess used to originally be a deer, but she drank a medicine and became a princess. It’s amazing.”

“…Mm, mm.”

“So I met the Deer Princess and asked her for medicine to make Little Angel stop hurting. And she gave me this.”

“Oh?!”

When Tein pulled the antidote out from inside his clothes, Eryl sat bolt upright in surprise.

Her large eyes blinked repeatedly as she stared wide-eyed at the mysterious dark blue liquid.

“The Deer Princess has to stay in hiding. That’s why it’s a secret.”

“If Eryl drinks this, will Eryl stop hurting…? Then will Papa come see Eryl too?”

“Little Angel has to pray.”

Tein nodded with a resolute expression.

She must pray every day — that she won’t be in pain, that she won’t lose, that she’s not scared at all — Tein explained, looking at Eryl’s reddened eyes.

“Little Angel has to become strong. You have to overcome even the nightmares that come at night.”

“This looks like it’ll taste bad…”

“It’s alright.”

Tein reached into his pocket and pulled out small hard candies onto the blanket.

They were candies he had collected one by one from the attendants after applying their medicine.

Eryl accepted the candies that Tein unwrapped for her. They were cheap candies eaten by commoners, but the sweetness she tasted on an empty stomach was enough to make her tears stop.

“And… the bear Eryl met yesterday — he’s actually the Demon King.”

“The Demon King?!”

As Eryl gasped and covered her mouth, Tein raised his index finger to his lips.

“This is a secret too. The reason the Demon King bear disappeared — now only Little Angel and I know.”

“Mm, mm.”

Shh. Eryl’s eyes sparkled, having been let in on an enormous secret.

And then she suddenly held out her hand to Tein.

“Tein has to pray together with Eryl too.”

Eryl gripped Tein’s hand tightly and opened the antidote vial.

The strange smell coming from the antidote made her little heart pound.

Eryl squeezed her eyes shut and, following Tein’s guidance, took just one small sip.

She wanted to spit it out immediately at the awful taste, but Eryl used all her strength and swallowed it down.

[The Deer Princess never gave up and always overcame hardships and suffering. Seeing that, the Demon King fell for her at first sight.]

Following the magnificent Deer Princess, Eryl too found her courage.

So that Tein, who was holding her hand tightly, might fall for her too.

“Well done. Little Angel is amazing!”

Tein, who had immediately popped a candy into her mouth, grinned broadly.

A small blush spread across Eryl’s cheeks.

“And there’s one more thing the Deer Princess said. We need a mage.”

More precisely, what was needed was a mage who could use healing magic.

Eryl, thinking of the mage from the fairy tale books she had read — the kind who helps the princess — sparkled her eyes.

And that afternoon, the count’s mansion saw a parade of mages rather than doctors.

****

Not long after reluctantly leaving the side of his daughter, who had been weighing on his mind the whole time, Count Chelonar arrived in the capital.

After spending a restless night in the unsettled atmosphere of the capital, Count Chelonar made his way to the imperial palace, his anxiety gnawing at him without cease.

He looked anxiously at the letter he was clutching in his hand.

[My lord, Marquis Bridend has sent a reply.]

It was a letter that Darhan Bridend had finally sent — having ignored without exception every call and request for a meeting that the count had continuously sent before even arriving in the capital.

<I shall see you on the day of the council.>

Today was the day of the noble council that Darhan Bridend had announced — the one convened to decide the fate of the House of Gwendhill.