Dear My Knight

3. Ashera Glaad, Her Memory – (2)

***

For several months after that.

Ed’s morning practice continued as always.

And it became Ashera’s morning to look at Ed’s appearance through her window every day.

It seems that even the birds have adapted. When Ed puts down her sword, she creeps around him before Ed can pick up her feeder.

Looks like baby birds waiting for their mother to feed them.

Seeing even grown-up birds behave like that seemed like a mystery to him.

Ashera, who was watching her carefully, fiddled with her feeder placed outside her window.

She herself also tried to find food that the birds would like and acted like that. Strangely, she said, the birds did not come close to her.

Cheer!

Ed laughed as a bird chirped on his shoulder.

It was as if the birds were flying low and low around him, showing off their charms.

She probably has a bright smile that no one in the Gleard family has ever seen except for herself.

Even the vigilant blue-spotted bird that lives only in the mountains of the north is eating naturally right next to Ed like that.

She wonders why even the birds that are common to her do not approach her easily.

“… ….”

Ashera, who continued to fidget with the feeder in her hand and gazed at the sight as if bewitched, immediately put her feeder down.

*

Asera was strolling inside her mansion for no apparent reason, Ed caught her eye.

“I told you not to do this. Whew.”

“… I will be careful.”

Even though he was listed as an intermediate level article, the servants’ attitude toward him was still the same.

And lately, he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that had gotten worse.

It must have lasted for several years, and it must have been just like a normal daily life, but somehow her heart felt stuffy.

The insignificant servants seem to look down on Ed casually.

Why do you feel frustrated? I couldn’t find the reason, but Ashera didn’t like the situation.

“What’s up?”

Ashera moved her steps towards Ed and spoke to her.

“Ah, Lady Asherah? Oh, it’s nothing.”

A servant answering in surprise.

“Yes. It’s no big deal.”

Ed answers with a stiff expression as if nothing is wrong.

Seeing both the servant and Ed answering quickly as if they had been put together, Ashera turned her head toward the servant.

“If it’s really nothing, why are you making such a stern face?”

“Did I, did I? We will be careful from now on!”

She seemed to want to leave as the servant responded in a hurry, so Ashera let her go.

After all, it was Ed, not the servant, who she had business with.

“Then, I’m done too.”

As Ed tried to leave, being polite, Ashera stopped Ed with a hasty remark.

“Wait.”

She looks at Ed, who is looking at her, and opens her mouth as if she has no business.

“Why are you still standing still?”

“Being still… Word.”

“Why are you being ignored even by those servants?

Ed calmed her breath as if thinking for a moment at Ashera’s direct words, then slowly opened her mouth.

“Because even if you do that, nothing will change.”

“Doesn’t anything change?”

“There are direct descendants of the Glaad family behind them.”

“He’s talking about Gorana and the others.”

Even in addressing her eldest son, Gora, Asherah never used a word of honor or brotherhood.

“Yes.”

Recognizing Ashera’s appearance, Ed simply answered calmly.

“The family… Since your immediate family treats you that way, it means that even the servants won’t change their attitude after all.”

“I don’t know what Lady Asherah meant when she suddenly spoke to me. I want you to just move on.”

Please pass.

Ed’s words sounded like he was telling him not to pay attention to himself. It felt that way to Ashera.

She usually has a relationship with herself and Ed that can’t be said to be good or bad. To be precise, they were indifferent to each other.

Because it was extremely rare for us to approach each other or even have a conversation.

Although they are the only disciples of my grandfather, they were really only close to each other.

So the suddenness of herself extending her hand to him was sure to make her look strange.

Because he won’t know that he looks at him every morning.

“About the situation with you… Didn’t you ever think that if I said anything, I’d listen?”

The tone and expression of Ashera who speaks slowly is like. She took the nuance of saying that she would listen if she said it now.

A word like a request. It wasn’t something I wanted to do to myself.

If you just say you’re having a hard time right now. No, the attitude you are receiving right now is unfair. Even if it was just that much, if she told herself, she had the idea to alleviate the unreasonable situation in the family to some extent.

Looking at Ed and the servant’s attitude today, it was just an impromptu thought, but he could do anything he couldn’t do.

Surely, that level of power was present in me.

“It’s okay.”

However, Ed immediately rejected Ashera’s words.

Disbelief in glaed deep in the bone.

Memories of the time spanning 5 years after settling in Glaade. The most painful time I’ve been through. I am just enduring those resentments and swallowing them inside.

Becoming a knight of a higher rank, he himself leaves Glaad.

Ed kept repeating his words over and over again countless times when he was a child.

Ed didn’t trust the people of Glead at all because he couldn’t reveal his true feelings just by talking to him.

The Aizen Glade that brought you. Even he doesn’t listen to himself properly, but he couldn’t even think of anyone listening to him.

“…… Okay.”

Ashera, who stared intently at Ed at that answer, passed by Ed after saying that.

*

‘… Why.’

Why did he reject his words?

Looking out of her window, Ashera frowned.

Ed was rolling on the floor again.

‘Scene of One-sided Violence’

The sight he saw in his field of vision was exactly what he said.

At the end of the afternoon, another unilateral assault was taking place in the name of sparring at the gymnasium inside the mansion.

Gora looked at Ed who rolled on her floor mockingly and continued to nod his own sword.

Goa, who was called the family’s equipment just a few years ago, is in a terrible state, to the point where his talent is not colorless.

Asera learned the swordsmanship of Glead and couldn’t understand how her personality could collapse like that.

An inferiority complex about not being able to keep up with oneself.

My grandfather’s continued neglect.

Becoming a disciple of Edgar grandfather, who would have felt insignificant from that point of view.

If you think about it, there were many, many reasons.

Even though that was the case, just looking at Gora’s appearance with all of those things overlapped made me feel disgusted.

I no longer practice swords, and I do not hesitate to use violence against someone.

To the extent that his notoriety spread outside, he has already become an existence that does not fit the name Glaad.

An existence that will tarnish Glaad’s name just by living thereafter.

And even to such a person. Ed is doing poorly.

That continued to dislike Ashera.

“It’s frustrating.”

Ed continues to swing his sword at Gora, who is only at the upper level, but he does not compete with the sword several times, so Ed rolls on the floor again.

I definitely deserve to give up.

It wouldn’t be more painful if I just lay down like that.

Nevertheless, they keep getting up again and competing with swords.

And then he collapses again.

Keep rolling on the floor.

A scene that continues over and over again.

Then suddenly. A few of Goa’s retainers come in talking as if they were laughing at Ed.

‘… Garbage.’

I wanted to go to the training ground right away and dry them off.

If you have the name Glaade, act accordingly. What is the point of bullying those who have no skills?

But every time like that, Ed’s words kept coming to my mind.

ㅡ It’s okay.

It’s okay, but what the hell is okay?

“Like an idiot….”

Ashera bit her lip and couldn’t let go of Ed’s gaze as he continued to roll on the floor.

*

Another year has passed.

Ed.

Give him the castle of Glaad.

A fact that seemed simple at first glance soon spread throughout the northern part.

Even the vassals who usually followed Grandpa’s words as if they were dying, this time everyone spoke out.

Excluding myself and my grandfather, everyone in the family really raised their voices against it.

It seemed that great confusion had come once again within the Glaad family.

Even the vassals, who normally didn’t pay much attention to Ed and didn’t take any action, raised their hands and raised their voices in opposition.

ㅡThat person has no talent.

—-Does it make sense that a knight of only intermediate rank is given the castle of Glead?

—-It’s like putting Glaad’s name to shame!

There were many reasons, all of which made sense.

No matter what reason you hear, it’s hard to deny those words because all of them were true.

But it didn’t matter anyway.

After much deliberation, the decision was made to talk to his grandfather and formally accept Ed into the Gleard family.

I couldn’t see any other way to save Ed.

So that’s what I ended up doing.

Even though I had visited and talked to Ed several times before, Ed was unsteady, unlike a boy his age.

Saying that it was okay or that it had nothing to do with him, he just repeated those words.

After his repeated words, he even seemed to be wary of himself, so he couldn’t even bear to go looking for him anymore.

I even thought about ignoring Ed’s words once and speaking out. Soon he gave up on that idea.

Even if he helped Ed like that, would Ed really like it? He had no idea that the child, not for his age, would like it.

Wouldn’t it be that you have a backlash against yourself? I couldn’t bear to put that thought into action.

That’s why he borrowed his grandfather’s hand.

If it was Grandpa’s words, not anyone else’s, he was Ed who would follow his own path, so I thought I would accept this.

***

Ashera, who was staring at Ed lying unconscious, caressed Ed’s hand again.

Could Rachel be lying when she said she killed her Ed?

Ed was alive.

At first, it was a reality that even he couldn’t believe, but the person in front of him was definitely a reality without a single lie.

No, those things seemed irrelevant now.

That he came back to me.

That he is alive.

Because that fact alone made me overjoyed.

The feeling of facing a ray of light that suddenly shines brilliantly in the darkness where not a single light existed.

I couldn’t remember the image of my grandfather who raised his voice loudly, blaming himself for his complacency.

Just.

That he is right in front of you.

That fact alone made her feel saved.

“…… Wake up. Ed.”

Asera’s tone calmly subdued, as if sadness and joy coexist.

The people of the family, who tried to send Ashera back several times to get her to rest, had no choice but to turn their steps after seeing her continued appearance.

As they turned their steps, their hearts were filled with the hope that Ed would wake up as soon as possible and that Ashera would find her peace for a while.