Chapter ss-34: Side Story 34
SS34
Under the moonlight pouring, gray-brown hair softly crumbled.
I slowly opened my mouth when I saw the face of the man who had given me his hand.
Am I dreaming with my eyes open? I doubted it inwardly, but it didn’t seem any real in my eyes.
He, who died five years ago, was now reaching out to me.
“…Eclise.”
I squirted my lips for a long time and muttered like a shrill scream.
“You… you, were you alive?”
Callisto had been searching the Empire for quite some time because he could not find his body.
It was to find all the rebels and execute them so as not to leave any regrets behind.
I overheard a report of the search for the rebels with a nervous heart.
But in the end, Eclise’s body was never found.
Now, five years later, it was believed that the dragon had disappeared without leaving even the belly of the breath. (?)
Actually, there were quite a few people whose bodies couldn’t be found for that reason.
However, I couldn’t even imagine in my dream that I would face such an unexpected situation in an unexpected place.
“……how….what happened?”
I sat up and leaned over.
And asked, looking at him with confused eyes.
“Where the hell have you been? It couldn’t have been easy to be chased for years….”
It was then.
As he stared at me like a doll without saying a word, he suddenly opened his mouth.
“Is my original name Eclise?”
“…what?”
I looked up at him blankly as if I didn’t hear anything.
Then he slowly crouched in front of me to match our eye level.
“I don’t remember five years ago.”
“That… that’s not….”
“One of the mercenaries picked up the bleeding me from a back alley. They called me Hamilton. It was the name of the back alley where I was lying…”
“…….”
“Do you happen to know?”
He asked me quietly, keeping a close eye on me.
Like wax, I was reflected in the grayish brown pupil.
I felt it was very unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.
Because Eclise would always stare at me with this face, just like this, without any particular agitation.
So it was hard to believe his words about losing his memory.
“……don’t lie.”
I glared at him, who looked as if he was asking me to refer to him as Hamilton.
“You were this close, but you weren’t found? You were about to die because you had a hole in your stomach.”
“………”
“It took us quite a long time to prepare those rewards, I don’t think any of the mercenaries would ever try to hide you….”
“Seeing that there was a restraint harness on the neck, a Mercenary leader tried to make me angry.”
Cutting off my suspicious words, he spoke calmly.
I opened my eyes wide to the words of Eclise.
Despite my appalling reaction, he continued.
“When I came to my senses, I had killed them all…. I couldn’t stay in the capital any longer. I don’t want to be caught and executed as a criminal.”
“……..”
“So as soon as I was able to pull myself together, I immediately stole the potion and left the capital.”
“……..”
“After that, I just wandered around the country working as a mercenary without a name.”
“Ha….”
I got dizzy by his words.
The sudden outpouring of information made my head spin.
It was hard to believe that Eclise was still alive in front of me, and had lost his memory.
There was no reason to explain such a specific lie to me.
Having barely accepted it, I took my hand off my forehead and looked at him again.
“You said you had no memory. How did you know I was here. Why are you following me?”
The confusion calmed down faster than I thought. I asked in a calm voice.
There were more than one or two questions.
I was vaguely aware that he had been after me many times because of what had happened.
But he has lost his memory, so there was no reason for him to stick to me.
“You know who I am?”
Eclise, who silently waited for my question to end, nodded slowly.
“…..the one and only princess of the Eckart family, the emperor’s fiancée. Penelope Eckart, an honorary professor of the Royal Academy of Archaeology.”
He answered slowly.
My external posts were easy to know without any background checks.
Nevertheless, I stared at him with a little nervousness.
At the end, I thought there would be another modifier, something like ‘My one and only master’
But he kept his mouth shut, overshadowing my doubts.
And after a little break, he whispered.
“……three years ago, when I was asked to catch a demon, I went to a village and saw you.”
“……..”
“At that time, I was in the midst of confrontation with the demon, just like you today.”
As if he recalled that time, he added with a faint smile.
“When I saw you struggling… the only thing I could think of was helping you.”
“……..”
“I’ve always been watching from afar, but this is the first time I’m seeing it closely.”
He leaned over me with a curious look on his face.
I stepped back from him in surprise and distanced myself.
“So since then….. have you been following me since three years ago?”
“………”
“Every time a demon shows up, someone kills it and then disappears, was that you?”
When asked in a vigilant voice, he replied, straightening his body.
“…..unless you’ve hired another escort or mercenary.”
“Why?”
I asked him as soon as his words came to an end. I could hardly understand him.
“You said you lost your memory. You said you don’t remember anything. But what do you know about me that made you follow me for three years?”
“……..”
“You said you lost your memory. You barely survived. Then just live your life, why are you chasing me again!”
My chest was stuffy.
I was just going to ask, but by the time I realized it I was shouting at him.
‘Why is he still not getting out of the game?’
I was reminded of the game that I had completely forgotten.
Five years is enough time to get rid of the brainwashing effects of Leila.
I still vividly remembered him, who was dying on behalf of me.
I scoured his face with shaking eyes.
The words ‘lost memory’ did not seem to be false.
No, actually I don’t know. Eclise was originally a man whose facial expressions were so rare that you couldn’t read his mind easily.
It was important to survive in that hell anyway.
Why? If so, then you must find your own life, why are you still tied to me?
I didn’t know what to do with my frustration, so I bit my lower lip.
It was then.
“Seeing how your body reacted before your mind… I had a hunch that you might be closely related to my past.”
“…….”
“Fortunately, my intuition wasn’t wrong. You know me better than I thought.”
He burst out laughing with a pretty pleased face.
I looked back at him, forgetting what I was about to say in that smiley face.
Eclise has never laughed that way in front of me.
The feeling of looking at someone completely different instantly made me feel strange.
As I glorified his face, only his eyes and hair color were the same as before.
The reason why I thought he hadn’t changed a bit was because of his unique color and shabby armor.
But in five years he had changed quite a bit.
As the features became clearer, the jawline and eyes became thicker.
The fluffy hair, which had reached the neck due to poor trimming, was neatly arranged with its forehead exposed, and his height and size were much bigger than before.
With his etched face gone, he had grown up to be a complete, strange man.
“Did you observe everything?”
While I was looking at him as if he were unfamiliar, he suddenly asked.
The atmosphere has also changed. Now, I no longer smelled a dangerous smell from him as if I would soon die.
A young voice made me laugh, only then I got excited. (?)
‘….you really forgot everything.’
The half-crazy him, who said he loved me, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Now, can you really liquidate all your relationships with him?’
However, despite my selfish feelings of relief, there were still uncomfortable and strange feelings that hovered between us.
“……why didn’t you show up in front of me for three years to ask me? You said I seemed like someone who knew your past.”
“At first, I started chasing you out of my curiosity about the past… but I’m not so sure about this.”
“What.”
“Is it so important to know the past?”
I opened my eyes wide for a moment to his reply. I felt like I was falling into an unknown bog.
“Then what do you want to keep chasing behind me?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“I just want to do it.”
“Ha….”
In the past, Eclise wasn’t a good communicator either. And this Eclise, who lost his memory, remained the same as the wall window he was.
After a deep sigh, I calmed down and asked.
“You said you’re a mercenary. Is that the kind of philanthropic service you want?”
“……..”
“Without pay, you want to help people who kill demons and have no connection? Or is it the archaeology that I do?”
If you kept pretending you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know.
He showed himself in front of me, and I thought I’d help him as long as I could.
There’s something he wants, that’s why he keeps wandering around.
“Or money? Do you need money?”
“I don’t need any of that.”
But absurdly, he flatly denied it.
“Just… I want to see you keep doing what you’re doing safely.”
“But, why would you?”
“……..”
“Even if we’ve known each other in the past, we’ve never met before. Is it because you want to know the past? I’m sorry, but I have nothing to say to you. As you already know, you were a slave in the past, and that’s it.”
“I didn’t approach because I wanted to ask.”
As I poured out like a shotgun, Eclis shrugged and answered lightly.
It really looked like someone else.
“Then there’s no reason for you to guard me, and to hover around me.”
I drew a hard line.
We were poisonous to each other throughout the game.
A venomous relationship that was hidden, deceived, and used.
The thought of repeating it again chilled my spine.
It was time to say goodbye. I thought I was too furious, so I tried to speak calmly.
“….Thank you for saving me today, but you don’t have to do that anymore, so go back to your life.”
“Ah. If you feel uncomfortable, I’ll keep on doing it without being seen. I was forced to show up today, you know….” (I might be wrong on this part. I don’t know if he said he’ll keep doing it without being seen, or he’ll just give up.)
“…….”
“I won’t mind from now on.”
“You must be mistaken.”
I couldn’t stand the suffocating feeling and finally gave a cold-hearted scolding.
“Since my face is a bit familiar, you feel like I’m the one who knows your past, so do you think I can become some sort of lifesaver for you?”
In my aggressive tone, Eclise’s brown eyes grew slightly wide.
But if we don’t cut it off now, we’re going to have an endless war of words.
And Eclipse continues to hover around me without knowing why, and may gradually regain its memory.
Sadly, I didn’t want him to find any memory.
One catastrophe was enough.
“Yes… maybe a benefactor. Because I bought you at an auction as a slave.”
“………”
“But that’s it. Know it now, that I was like your enemy in the past. You hated and resented me all the time.”
“……why?”
Eclis asked me back with a strange face.
I hesitated, then answered him coolly.
“Because I ruined your life by taking advantage of you.” (She knows…)