Episode 68: The House On The Plateau Where Time Stood Still (1)
“Fen…”
The lack of traces of him drove her mad.
She’d seen Fen disappear into flames, but Muriel couldn’t believe what she’d seen. If it had died, leaving evidence of its demise, or escaped unharmed, leaving evidence of its survival, Muriel would have accepted either if there was something left behind. But with nothing remaining, Muriel was on the verge of losing her mind.
Muriel desperately searched for Fen, even as the triaead monster rapidly flew towards her.
If she searched carefully, she felt like she might find the poor creature lying somewhere.
“Muriel!!”
When she raised her head in response to the urgent voice calling her, she finally saw the approaching flames.
But Muriel couldn’t avoid them.
However, Muriel couldn’t avoid them.
It wasn’t that her legs froze in fear. It was the sense of loss of reality.
It felt similar to the unfamiliarity she experienced when she woke up on the Day of Rest. She felt like she was the only one detached and separated from reality. The sensation of being trapped alone in a vacuum, completely disconnected from the rest of the world. With such a sensation weighing her down, no sense of crisis could be mustered, and her body, unaware of the danger, was overcome with lethargy instead of releasing adrenaline, rendering her unable to move or react.
Thud!
The familiar smell came first. Then, the familiar arms and grip.
Muriel, pulled into Kaiton’s embrace, watched him deal with the tripedal beast with a numb expression on her face.
There was only one strike needed.
Not a strike with full force, but a hasty and sloppy attack to get Muriel out of harm’s way. The tripedal beast, unable to escape the black tendrils that tightened around its body from Kaiton’s hastily thrown Aether attack, turned into black ashes and died.
Just one strike would have been enough, but Muriel couldn’t do it, so Fen had to jump into the fire himself.
“What are you doing? Wake up! You almost died!”
“Ah…”
“If you want to die so badly, then die by my hand! I’ll gladly kill you!”
Kaiton shook Muriel’s shoulders and shouted angrily.
Only now, when she saw his agitated eyes, shocked face, their racing hearts, and disheveled hair, could she truly realize how urgent the situation had been just now.
It felt as if Kaiton was shaking her shoulders hard enough to break to wake her up.
‘Get up, snap out of it, get to reality!’ It felt like he was pulling her back into reality. So Muriel had no choice but to acknowledge something that didn’t feel real at all.
“Fen got hit by fire… It disappeared.”
“…”
“It’s alive, right? It didn’t… die, did it?”
“If it escaped to the Spirit Realm, it will come back alive. But if it couldn’t, then it’s dead.”
“It’ll be fine… How long does it take to come back?”
“Don’t wait. It’ll probably be dead.”
“Why… say something!”
Muriel grabbed Kaiton by the collar.
She wanted to grab him by the collar and yell ‘Why would you say something like that!’ But she couldn’t. Suddenly, as if a dam had burst, a strong current of sadness rushed in to a newly formed place to hold. Tears were needed to pour out so the overwhelming sadness could be calmed down… but Muriel’s eyes remained dry. As a result, Muriel’s heart, filled with sadness she couldn’t get out, grew more and more agitated, and her stomach churned.
“It’s… suffocating. My stomach… Ah… It’s strange. Why can’t I cry? It’s so, so suffocating… It feels like everything would be better if I could just cry… scream, get angry, tear everything apart, break things… maybe then I would feel better… It’s strange. Why… why can’t I cry…! It’s driving me crazy!!”
As Kaiton seemed to be about to let go of Muriel’s hand, Muriel tightly wrapped her arms around his neck as if she would never let go. She clung desperately and mournfully, afraid that she would be swept away by the strong current and die if she did not do so.
“I can’t tell the difference between reality and dreams… My dreams are too realistic, and my reality is too unreal… I keep getting confused. Please tell me. Is this not a dream?”
From the moment Muriel embraced his neck, Kaiton’s hand, which had nervously wandering elsewhere, cautiously met Muriel.
“It’s not a dream, so remember Fen well. I’ll be upset if you forget again.”
“Yes… I will, I promise.”
Muriel dug deeper into Kaiton’s neck.
The heartbeat felt over the soft skin was vivid. Only the pounding of Kaiton’s heart, resonating through the blood vessels and echoing through Muriel’s skin, reminded her that this place was real and not to be forgotten.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Before entering the plateau, she broke down the hero’s statue, and a little bird emerged from it. Kaiton said it was probably used to stimulate and lure monsters. There was a reason why the monster suddenly appeared near the plateau.
Sharan used to promote the idea that monsters too were under the command of the Demon King. It was funny to see him using a dirty trick like that to connect Ur’s image with monsters. It was terrible and boring.
Muriel stood beside Kaiton and watched the dreadful statue disappear into ashes. Kaiton’s parents, who had been lying under Sharan’s feet with painful expressions, also turned into ashes along with the debris of the statue. But this would not be the end. Sharan’s statue, which deceives the lives and causes suffering of other people, would most likely be rebuilt again. Muriel vowed She would never give up. Again and again, she would break Sharan’s deceitful lies.
She couldn’t go where she wanted because it started snowing heavily on the plateau.
Even so, she went up to the plateau with optimism, but they were completely isolated because of the blizzard.
Even if she tried to go down again, it was impossible; she’d lost her sense of direction because of the snow that filled her vision.
“…I didn’t want to go there.”
Tsk, after clicking his tongue, Kaiton took Muriel somewhere. Despite the heavy snowstorm and strong winds that made no way to see the front, he moved as if he knew the exact destination without any obstacles.
“A house…?”
She’d never thought he’d find a home. On top of that, warm light leaked out of the windows, indicating that someone was perhaps living here.
“Come on in. It looks like you’re really about to freeze to death this time.”
Kaiton swiftly passed by Muriel, who was staring blankly at the house, and entered without the owner’s permission. Startled, Muriel followed him inside, but only Kaiton was inside the house.
“An empty house…? Are they temporarily out?”
“There’s no one here. It’s just us.”
“But the lights are on…”
“Who would go out when you can’t see anything due to the blizzard? There’s no one. Come and sit. You need to warm up your body.”
After saying that, Kaiton started putting the stacked firewood piled up on one side of the living room into the fireplace.
“You’re putting in…firewood?”
“So?”
After giving a sharp glare at Muriel, Kaiton again diligently carried the firewood and lit the fireplace again. He seemed very skillful, like he’d done it often before. He was a natural wizard, so she assumed he’d solve things like fire in the fireplace with magic. Was she being prejudiced?
‘“I think it’s my first time seeing it. You doing something yourself instead of using magic…”
“If you want, I can use a lot of pacio and you can freeze to death. Is that what you want?”
…Was he being considerate?
Was he not using magic for Muriel who was cold?
“Don’t just stand there so stupidly, go and sit over there. There’s a carpet, so it doesn’t matter if you sit on the floor.”
Kaiton pointed to the area in front of the fireplace. He then walked briskly to the kitchen to prepare tea. Seeing him preparing it so familiarly, Muriel realized why he could find this place in a situation where one couldn’t see a step ahead.
“This…It’s Kaiton’s house, right?”
Instead of answering, Kaiton pulled Muriel, who was standing dumbfounded, and made her sit in front of the fireplace. He placed a blanket on her shoulders and handed her a warm cup of tea. It was a rough and blunt gesture, but she could feel his consideration enough.
Was he not resentful…? He lost an old friend because of Muriel…
“If Fen… had been with Kaiton, such a thing wouldn’t have happened. I couldn’t save Fen… because I’m useless. I’m sorry.”
“I put Fen on you to protect you. Don’t talk nonsense.”
“…”
“…Sigh, You’re a saint to begin with. How can you be good at magic when you have other talents?! That’s arrogant. Don’t beat yourself up for nothing. It was unavoidable.”
“Yes…”
“…I’m not trying to be angry at you!”
“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just… I want to see Fen.”
Muriel forced a smile while looking at the fireplace. Kaiton frowned as he looked at her. He had intended to comfort her, but he kept stumbling. He was annoyed by his own pathetic self, which hadn’t changed at all from before.
“Fen… was a frost spirit, right? It was a frost spirit that liked fire and always sat in front of the fireplace…”
“…I could give you a better familiar. A powerful creature that can get rid of things like that monster in one-go.”
“That’s alright. I don’t need another one.”
“Why? I can give you a stronger one…”
“Because it’s not Fen..”
In a situation identical to twelve years ago, Kaiton felt confused by the conversation that continued in the same manner.
It felt like the return of the Muriel from back then.
That’s why he didn’t want Muriel to come to this house…
He kept imagining.
If he hadn’t used black magic like Muriel said back then… If he hadn’t touched the fragment of Ur no matter…
Would Muriel still be his Muriel?
Would they still have the relationship to sit in front of the fireplace, sharing body temperature through each other’s backs?
“…Wait here. I’ll warm up the room.”
While Kaiton quickly got up and left, a small snowman came into Muriel’s eyes as she looked around the house.
“It’s going to melt…”
The snowman was by the window, but the room was getting warmer, so it seemed only a matter of time before it melted. Since it seemed like a precious object with childhood memories, Muriel quickly got up and went out after picking up the snowman. She searched for a suitable place to place the snowman. As she looked around in search of a small chair or something, she noticed two gravestones standing side by side.
Two headstones in the backyard of Kaiton’s house. They were empty tombstones with no names written on them, but she couldn’t help but guess who was buried here.
Thanks! When they repeated the conversatiom from years past, i was like “wow, deja vu!”