Dear Eddert - Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Translator: effe
As Cedric briefly responded to Walter’s question, his face had become even sharper. While Ayla was lying down, he had barely taken a sip of water while not eating anything.
“…I’m perfectly fine.”
Cedric muttered to himself. His expression was the most complex one Hyemi had ever seen. Overwhelmed by the thought that if only she had quickly remembered that Peter was the culprit, she could have prevented Ayla from getting hurt, Hyemi suddenly found him frightening.
“Well, well then we should be going…”
Although Cedric wouldn’t swing his sword again, his remark seemed sharp like the edge of a blade. As Hyemi tried to subtly move away, pulling at Walter’s clothes, Cedric looked up.
“Eden.”
It had come. As he faced her, she swallowed dryly.
“Ayla is looking for you.”
“M, me? Why… would she?”
Hyemi blinked and cautiously asked. Cedric frowned slightly at her, who was still using a strange tone.
He had heard about how, in the chaos of focusing on the fallen Ayla, she had killed the traitorous Peter and dealt with dozens of Kaplan’s assassins. But that seemed like a thing of the past. She was once again as withered as a squashed pumpkin.
Cedric let out a low sigh and furrowed his eyebrows. Pointing his index finger and pressing it against the wall, he spoke sharply to the huddled Hyemi.
“Listen to me well. Ayla doesn’t yet know that you have gone crazy. It’s been less than two hours since she woke up. It’s best not to confuse her…”
“Go in, Eden.”
Walter cut off Cedric’s lengthy speech and opened the wooden door. Hyemi swallowed dryly as she watched. Walter nodded as if to reassure her. Summoning her courage, she stepped into the space where Ayla lay.
Cedric’s room wasn’t large, but it was impeccably tidy as befitting his personality. Ayla, lying on the small bed, parted her lips as she saw Hyemi.
“….Eden.”
Hyemi clenched her fists for a moment before approaching her. An oddly toppled chair sat next to the bed. Hyemi picked up the backless stool and carefully took a seat.
“Are you… feeling a bit better?”
Recalling Cedric’s concern, Hyemi spoke to Ayla as naturally as possible.
Three days ago, seeing Ayla fall under Peter’s blade, Hyemi’s blood had boiled. A sense of this isn’t right had caused her head to ache as if it would burst and her heart to tremble with anger. While some fragments of past events had indeed resurfaced, they were merely fleeting moments. The only knowledge she had about Ayla came from what Walter had told her.
She wondered where to start talking to this person that she was actually meeting for the first time. Ayla spoke first, addressing the hesitant Hyemi.
“I’m sorry.”
“…..Huh?”
Hyemi looked with a puzzled face at Ayla, who suddenly apologized. Ayla continued in a small voice.
“I’m sorry to everyone, but… I felt I had to apologize to Eden specifically.”
“What for…?”
“Just everything. I felt bad that I couldn’t be honest with you. Eden has always been honest with me.”
“It’s okay. Really, it’s okay, Ayla.”
Hyemi shook her head vigorously, strongly denying it. The beautiful girl with blue eyes bit her lip slightly.
“I’m sorry for living….and not dying.”
“Where did that come from?”
Hyemi furrowed her brow, but Ayla didn’t stop.
“Three years ago, that night, for not protecting Eden… I’m sorry. The traitor isn’t just Peter, but also me who cowardly escapes.”
“Ayla…”
Ayla dropped her gaze and continued to speak frankly.
“I know I don’t have the right to say such things, as I wasn’t even originally from Sernotti… I must have been delusional while spending five years with everyone.”
“….”
“Like a duck raised among birds… I was foolish enough to think that I could fly in the sky too.”
Her blurry self-reproach pained Hyemi’s heart as if it were being squeezed. After hesitating for a moment, Hyemi cautiously asked her.
“…..Can you tell me what happened?”
Ayla looked up at Hyemi. Her long golden eyelashes blinked slowly.
“Were you… always from Kaplan?”
Was her arrival in Sernotti deliberate? What exactly was the story that Ayla had been unable to reveal for such a long time?
“The reason I, who was a slave in Kaplan, was forced to work as an assassin …”
At the end of the long silence, Hyemi could not have imagined the story that would come out of her mouth.
“It was right after I killed a commander who was about to commit atrocities.”
Hyemi held her breath for a moment. Ayla’s blue eyes seemed to blur as if looking into the distance. The crackling sound of the fireplace resonated even louder in the quiet space.
“For a woman of slave origin, having your body forcibly taken away was a daily occurrence. My mother was a slave, my sister was a slave… I heard that my mother’s mother was also a slave.”
The life of a slave with noticeable features was tough. She was summoned to the chambers of Helmut Kaplan, the head of Kaplan, and his five brothers almost every day.
“Their eyes, naked and gleaming as they awaited their turn, were no different from that of a beast. No, I thought it would be better to have my throat torn out by an animal.”
Hyemi’s eyebrows furrowed. Her forehead grew hot , and her breathing became rough.
“They called it ‘solidarity’ among themselves. Jointly having one slave while being intoxicated with alcohol and drugs.”
Nonsense. It’s madness.
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