GDTEA Chapter 139

I Can Handle It

From the day she confided to Ren the secret she had carefully kept hidden for five years, Sharti no longer bothered to conceal her face.

She threaded the silver ring onto a string and wore it as a necklace.

Ren gazed at the silver ring dangling from the string with a somewhat complicated feeling, but didn’t object.

He seemed glad to be able to see her face, yet conflicted over the emptiness of her left hand’s fourth finger.

“I’ll put it back on when we go somewhere crowded.”

“That would be wise.”

Ren’s demeanor hadn’t changed much.

He didn’t particularly pry any deeper into her past.

Since Ren himself couldn’t remember his own past, he likely had no more curiosity about hers either.

And so Sharti was able to quickly shake off the lingering sense of grievance that had spread through her heart.

‘……Someday, maybe I’ll get to hear about Ren’s past too?’

Ren seemed to carry no small amount of pain himself, no less than she did.

Just as Ren had done for her this time, Sharti wanted to be able to accept his past with composure whenever she came to learn of it someday.

‘Because I like Ren as he is now, not as he was in the past.’

Sharti smiled softly as her eyes met Ren’s, who was now naturally interlacing his fingers with hers.

At that, Ren casually leaned in and briefly pressed his lips to her cheek.

“Wh-, why?”

At Sharti’s flustered reaction, Ren raised one eyebrow.

“Wasn’t that a signal?”

“A signal?”

Sharti reflected on her own actions.

What on earth kind of signal had she supposedly given that warranted a kiss?

“……I didn’t do anything.”

Having no idea what he could mean, she asked honestly, and Ren looked at her with a composed expression.

“You smiled so prettily, I thought you were asking for one.”

“……!”

Her face burning at his shameless words delivered with an almost expressionless face, Sharti flushed crimson.

At that, the corners of Ren’s lips curved upward.

“……Do you find it fun to tease me?”

She shot him a resentful glare, but Ren was utterly unfazed.

“That I’m not sure of, but Sharti, I do know that you’re beautiful.”

“Ren!”

“Ah, you’re pretty when you’re angry too.”

“Ugh……!”

Sharti’s face flushed red, as if about to burst, at Ren’s increasingly insufferable shamelessness.

But embarrassed as she was, she never once let go of his hand.

Carrying on their silly conversation, now brazen, now embarrassed, and then simply walking in silence for a long while — all of it was wonderful.

And watching the whole scene from a distance, Jed’s eyes hardened to a cold stillness.

****

[Commander found.]

[Problem.]

[Needs checking.]

Jed, who had received the unfriendly note with not a single word of explanation, pushed back all the work piling up and stormed out.

Through all the schemes, pressure, and conspiracies closing in from every direction, Jed had never once believed in the death of “Leodelt Gwendhill.”

The same was true of Hiro and Ben, close aides to Grand Duke Gwendhill.

Jed had entrusted all the searching to Hiro and Ben, while he himself remained at the ducal manor to protect the House of Gwendhill — all the while preparing to launch a civil war the moment “Leodelt Gwendhill” returned safely.

And at last, word had come from Ben.

Since it was a call for help rather than confirmation of survival, Jed truly did not sleep and rode like a madman.

Changing horses multiple times along the way, the place he finally arrived at had only Ben waiting.

[Ben, where is the Master?]

[……He’s not here.]

Every word Ben rambled out with a dazed look on his face was a shock.

No — it was nonsensical gibberish.

[It’s true, Jed. The commander abandoned the ducal house and chose love.]

[Say something that makes sense. Is it even conceivable that the Master turned his back on all of us for the sake of a mere woman?]

Jed didn’t feel it was worth engaging with.

But when Ben insisted, saying he had been ordered never to appear before the Master again, Jed didn’t hold back and threw a punch.

[Ben, come to your senses. We take the Master back to Gwendhill. Think of nothing else.]

[But the commander……!]

[If the Master does not return, everyone in the duchy dies.]

Either way, death was the same.

Jed chose to die by the hand of his master, Grand Duke Gwendhill.

Ben couldn’t stop him either.

“……”

But when Jed finally found “Leodelt Gwendhill” — the one he had searched for, wandered after, and waited for so desperately — he felt the world crumbling beneath him.

A man laying bare his emotions and riddled with openings over a mere woman was not the master he had known, not the master he had served.

The figure grinning vacantly with all his muscles slack was nothing more than an ordinary man.

‘That is not the Master.’

Jed denied it.

And he became certain.

From the behavior Ben had witnessed and experienced, and from the chain of events, there was only one conclusion.

‘Amnesia.’

The very fact that the woman said to be at “Leodelt Gwendhill’s” side happened to be a doctor made it plain enough.

The patient had lost his memories, so she must have taken him in.

Jed felt his mind growing cold.

“So, what are you going to do? Are you going to meet the commander?”

“Why even ask the obvious?”

Desperate as the situation was, he still believed it wasn’t the worst — because the Master was at least alive.

Amnesiac or not, “Leodelt Gwendhill” had to be brought back to the ducal manor.

He would recover his memories fastest in the safest place, the most familiar place.

‘I cannot leave the Master like this.’

Everything was for the Master’s sake.

So if necessary, he would drag him back by force.

His resolve made, Jed waited until nightfall.

“Come out.”

“……”

As if having vaguely sensed Jed’s presence, teal eyes sent a gaze sharp with killing intent.

And Jed was disappointed once more.

Letting himself be read so openly, exposing his inner state so plainly.

“—Master.”

“Ha.”

“Leodelt Gwendhill” reflexively let out a cold laugh.

“Commander, and now Master. It seems there is not a single one among them who respects me.”

Jed faced “Leodelt Gwendhill” with a consistently cold gaze throughout.

At Jed’s cool composure — so different from Ben’s — the expression on “Leodelt Gwendhill’s” face gradually darkened.

“If I refuse to go, will you drag me away by force?”

“I will kill the woman.”

“……!”

In that instant, Jed dodged the sword that flew toward the back of his neck.

A rough hand immediately reached out as if to seize Jed by the collar, but didn’t even graze him.

How much more disappointment was he meant to endure?

Cold fury seeped into Jed’s face.

Watching his once-revered master making such pathetic movements and being played for a fool, Jed didn’t hold back — he drew his sword and brought it down across his shoulder.

“……!”

Crack — with the sound of bone breaking, “Leodelt Gwendhill” clutched his shoulder and crumpled to the ground.

Since he had struck with the flat of the blade, the muscles must have torn.

And before he could react, Jed struck the back of his neck with the pommel.

Thud—!

When “Leodelt Gwendhill” fell unconscious, Ben, who had been hiding, emerged.

Ben stared at Jed with conflicted eyes.

“Right. And after taking the commander to Gwendhill like this, where exactly are you planning to keep him tied up?”

“What?”

As Jed glared, Ben let out a long sigh.

“What do you think the commander will do when he wakes up? He’ll cause a scene trying to escape — can you handle it?”

“We bring the woman along.”

“Ah, as a hostage?”

Ben, who had caught Jed’s meaning exactly, shook his head side to side.

“The commander said it. That ‘Grand Duke Gwendhill’ wronged his lover.”

“Wronged?”

“He said she’s no different from an enemy — you think she’ll just sit still?”

Jed’s face creased into a frown, but Ben paid it no mind.

“And when does his memory come back? He’s already making such a fuss about not wanting to recover it — will dragging him there by force actually bring it back?”

“Shut up.”

“What if news of the commander’s condition gets out before then? What will you do?”

“Leodelt Gwendhill,” afflicted with amnesia, was no longer a Sword Master.

If word leaked to either side, the House of Gwendhill would be finished on the spot.

Having somehow survived and returned, “Leodelt Gwendhill” could be dragged to the execution stand before his memories even returned.

“Just get to the point, Ben.”

“Commander — leave him as he is.”

“……”

A cutting wind blew.

The tingling in the fingertips was from the killing intent riding on the wind from Jed.

“I’ll keep watch. And when the commander gets his memory back, we bring him home then.”

“Ha.”

Ben stepped into Jed’s path, clear that Jed had no intention of listening further.

“Do you think the enemies — do you think Darhan Bridend — will wait that long?”

“At the very least, let us wait for him.”

“Think rationally, Ben.”

At Jed’s calm yet cutting reprimand, Ben bit his lip.

“……The commander said he’s happy.”

“……”

“The commander, who was sent to the battlefield the moment he came of age, says he’s happy right now.”

“……”

“He’s become a bit of a fool, but still — the commander looks at ease.”

Jed’s face grew harder and harder, cold as ice.

It wasn’t even Hiro, but Ben spouting such vacant nonsense — that was why they had failed to find the Master all this time.

“I’m the one who thought rationally, just like Jed said.”

Seeing that Jed showed no sign of listening, Ben looked at him with sunken eyes.

“What if we take the commander back right now, and he destroys himself?”

“……!”

“The commander leapt into a blazing inferno to save one woman. If something like that happens again — Jed, can you handle it?”

For the first time, Jed was left speechless.

****

Sharti was bewildered.

“Re-, Ren? What’s this on your shoulder? What happened? Who hit you?”

“……I was swinging my sword at night and missed my footing and hit a tree.”

“Say something that makes sense!”

It seemed Ren had tried to hide it, but Sharti was not someone who would fail to notice swollen shoulder muscles.

Forcing off his clothes to check for herself, Sharti clenched her fist.

“Who did this to you! What were you doing when this happened?!”

At the severely livid bruising, Sharti’s anger surged.

“It’s nothing. I ran into some thugs briefly, and I won.”

“Are you going to keep saying things that don’t make sense?”

“……”

When Sharti pulled a long needle from her bag, Ren fell silent.

But no matter how much she pressed, Ren would not reveal what had happened the previous night.

‘Could it be……’

Sharti quickly pulled the silver ring off from around her neck.

“……Sha?”

Ren watched in a daze as Sharti abruptly slipped the ring onto his finger.

The silver ring was now on his left ring finger as well.

The corner of Ren’s mouth twitched.

That night, Ren drank the sleeping draught Sharti had mixed in and fell asleep early.

Whooosh—. In the darkness filled with only the sound of the wind, Sharti quietly rummaged through her bag.

Then she flung small pouches one after another into the darkness.

Faintly, the sound of something slicing through the wind could be heard.

Sharti swallowed a dry lump in her throat.

“You’re the one who hurt Ren, aren’t you?”

“……”

“Were you trying to kill him? Or take him away?”

There was no blood on Ren’s sword.

It meant they were targeting him, but not with the intent to kill.

“Ren said he doesn’t want to go, so why……”

“That’s quite something to say — from someone who picked up a man who’s lost his memory.”

“……!”

What emerged from the darkness was a young man with a pale face.

The slender, grey-haired man was staring at Sharti from the darkness with no expression.

At the sharp hostility piercing into her, Sharti gripped the pouches in her bag tightly.

“Don’t you think it’s presumptuous for a doctor who can’t even treat a patient with amnesia?”

“I—”

“Or perhaps you know how to treat him and are deliberately hiding it? How dare you.”

“……!”

As Sharti faltered for just a moment, the man’s hostility sharpened further.

But Sharti didn’t back down either.

“He said he doesn’t want to.”

“……”

“Ren says he doesn’t want to recover his memories — he seems to have more painful memories than good ones — so why should I? How could I force that on him?”

Sharti gripped Ren’s sleeping hand tightly and glared at the man.

“Isn’t that the truly presumptuous thing?”

“……”

Sharti said everything she needed to say, trembling all the while.

The man who had stood in the darkness for a long while with only the wind for company disappeared at some point.

But the hostility left lingering in the darkness like a remnant kept Sharti’s chest cold throughout the night.

Still, whether by fortune or misfortune, no one came looking for Ren after that.

The restless winter passed in peace.

And at last, in the sweltering summer when the season had changed, Ren and Sharti’s long journey came to an end.