Chapter 5 - What kind of person is he?
What kind of person is he?
Living in the same house as them made me think about the necessary things for the future.
Now that I’m not alone, I have to be more careful and even point out that I should knock before using the bathroom.
The thought of living with someone has only ever happened to me once, so there were many things to think about.
“There are not just two things to think about.”
Sitting on the chair, I was lost in contemplation.
The question of whether I can truly make them happy was always stirring in my mind, but grasping my inner feelings, I muttered with a grin.
“What are you worrying about? It’s not about whether you can make them happy, it’s about having to make them happy.”
I wondered if I had brought them with the intention of making them happy.
Gripped by these thoughts, I went inside my room.
Tomorrow morning. Anticipating the first morning with them.
***
Lying on the soft bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“……”
Today was a day with many thoughts and activities.
The first day of being an old man. We sold our tent to a man.
From gray hair to yellow lenses. We handed the tent to a man with remarkably distinct features.
Not leaving the tent was a joy beyond measure, but we held onto our freedom.
[Chuckle..]
The shawl that hung around our necks once again affirmed that we had become old.
Every movement was accompanied by sounds and cumbersome happenings of the shawl.
Freedom did not exist for us who had become old.
The man gave a tip to the staff and ushered us out of the place.
To be precise, we were not let out but rather taken away, which is what happened.
Thus began our journey walking the streets with the man.
We were still barefoot, and the harsh pebbles pained us as we walked.
However, there was nothing we could say to each other.
For us, opinions were a luxury.
While towing the line and looking at the field, behind us came the voice of a middle-aged man.
As we turned around, we saw a man with a massive build speaking to the man who purchased us.
Contents regarding us being sold to the owner.
The man who was following the conversation looked at us and frowned deeply.
Seeing the man’s demeanor, we had no choice but to keep to ourselves.
The man’s every action instilled fear in us.
I hated having to go approach that man. It seemed as if he wanted to sell us to a man who had bought our lives by deceiving us.
If one were to ask why…
‘It’s the first time meeting him… but he doesn’t seem like a bad person.’
For the man who had purchased us, it seemed that the meaning of sincerity was lost.
The man’s eyes were warm, yet displeasure did not seem to appear.
Something about securing a person seemed to exist for that man.
“I dislike it.”
Fortunately, the man who had purchased us violated the suggestion of an aggressive man and walked down the path.
The shifty man made numerous different proposals, but he rejected all of them.
The man eventually said he would sell us for 20 gold. It was a significantly high amount, over five times our body’s value.
The man even suggested giving us to another deceiver, claiming he would provide us with a beautiful life.
Ultimately, the man rejected this as well.
In the end, the long-suffering man who had finally reached his limit sought strength and tried to erase us after subduing him.
When the sly man uttered a harsh word, a very large man loomed before us, making us feel terrified.
That’s when I despaired.
The man who had purchased us had many vices, but fighting him seemed impossible.
The man looked at us with a confirmed victory expression and when he tried to lay it all out.
A man who was with us spoke.
“If we had just sent you away, none of this would have happened..”
The man ran his hand through his rumpled hair, as if to brush it aside, and with a grin, he spoke in an even louder voice.
“It’s too late for regrets now! You’ll die here.”
Looking ahead, a crowd of rather large men were walking towards us.
The startled Sparrow quickly looked at the face of the man who bought us.
With a worried expression, he
seemed to be regretting not letting us go.
With a sigh, he spoke to the man as quietly as he could.
“Whether you intended it or not, you’re a fool without talent. You know you’re going to die today, don’t you?”
Next to the man who said that, little lights began to sparkle.
‘Thi..this is?!’
Sparrow, who was wearing LouisJean’s body, saw the flickering lights but could not piece together a coherent theory.
He, too, didn’t think that man would use magic so easily.
I don’t know much about magic, but I do know that magic requires a spell of some kind.
The man standing before me now was different.
‘This man…is dangerously clear.’
No matter how you look at it, it seemed like we had run into someone beyond our imagination.
“………..”
The man who subdued two large men with just one magic was now suppressing the man who was left standing.
‘Instead of suppression, isn’t it more like a controlled explosion?’
Of course, although the level of suppression was high, there was no thought of what to say to the man.
‘Hold on…Longer..!’
I rather supported the man.
Instead of pushing away the hopeless man, my insides burned.
After pushing the trembling man away for a while, he turned back to us.
‘Could it be…to us as well?’
When the man approached, I instinctively raised my hand to block his attack, but the man who came to us said.
“Are you okay?”
The man said, looking at us.
At such a man’s words, I glanced at Rita and looked back at the man.
What a strange man.
Will he really ask us such a thing, the strangers?
For a long time, we looked at each other.
After a while, the man who met our eyes suddenly turned his head to look around the surroundings.
Surprised, I also looked around, and the surrounding guards were seeing off the men mingled with us.
The sudden attention of the people.
In their gaze, there was no choice but for our bodies to be tense. The man holding our hands led us out of that position.
‘It’s warm.’
The man held our hand with ease. I innocently had such thoughts.
The man’s hand was thicker than mine.
Although we had fought and had a rough relationship, he had conveyed a warm energy that I had never experienced before on such a narrow path.
I held hands with Rita and walked together with him.
It was my first time seeing him today.
‘I don’t think he’s a bad person…’
I was sure that he wasn’t a bad person.
Maybe I… no, we would never forget the warm energy we felt from him today.
I arrived at the man’s house at the end of the foggy alley.
The man’s house was neatly managed and had no dust.
“It’s so clean…”
Rita said admiringly beside me.
Compared to our old house, this place was very clean.
In our previous house, liquor bottles were everywhere with cockroaches scurrying around.
If I had to speak of the worst experience in that house, it would be when cockroaches crawled across my face while I was sleeping.
I could never forget the horror of cockroaches crawling over my face.
However, that kind of house no longer exists.
The man’s house was spacious, warm, and clean.
Rita looked around the house with wide eyes, but I couldn’t laugh.
Somehow, this place felt like where the man lived, as if our places of living were separate.
‘It must be stuffy and cold after all…’
Thinking that we might live in a place like a sauna, smelling of sweat like an old public bathhouse, made Rita extremely worried.
The places that are dangerous for a weakened Rita are very obvious.
Even if I live in a remote place, it doesn’t matter… At least, I must live in a better place than Rita.
I watched Rita without saying a word.
“Wow…”
I was still looking at the house through a rusty window when a man called out to us.
‘Is it starting now..’
I moved my dangling legs towards where the man was, but there were different things from what I imagined in that place.
‘Food…’
There were more diverse foods than the ones we used to see while living there.
Rita saw the food with rusty eyes, but I looked at the food with gloomy eyes.
Foods made by carefully arranging them.
Scentful fragrances wafting from food scents.
All those inducements nearly drove me crazy, but I firmly accepted reality.
There is no chance for us to get that food.
The man merely showed his class difference to us by eating the food in front of us.
We were just staring blankly at the food.
The man said to us while only looking.
“Sit over here.”
The man told us to sit at the table.
“You must be starving, eat up.”
The man approached us and offered us food.
“Wow…!”
Rita saw the food and felt a deep hunger.
[Grumble…!]
Yet, when another man pointed to the food, her appetite diminished.
Though her mind craved to eat the food immediately, her hands did not move.
That was just how it was.
The man who offered us the food.
The man never touched the food himself.
Whatever the reason… the man showed no signs of having tampered with the food.