It Is Getting Dark

11 – Germination

In the office where the wind leaks because the walls are perforated and the door is broken, Carl and Cassius both sit down and sigh. Rested

“The office….”

Kassius lamented as he looked at the broken office.

“…”

I, the culprit behind the incident, couldn’t say anything to Cassius.

I was crouching like that, but Cassius opened his mouth to see how much he had managed to control himself.

“First of all, let’s take care of my father’s body. You made me wait too long.”

Our father’s body was delivered to the soldiers led by the princess.

* * *

“Carl, come here. And Katrina…. You also.”

I followed Carl’s words and approached my father’s body.

Katrina looked at her, showing off her uneasy expression.

He’s the main culprit in the accident, but you should at least be aware.

But when I thought about it, it was a story that also applies to swords.

“Katrina, I have a lot of things I want to say to you, but I am holding back. So stop frowning and come over here. It is the way to see my father for the last time and send him away. Don’t frown even if you can’t send it away with a smile so you don’t worry.”

In the end, Katrina also came reluctantly.

Me, Cassius, and Katrina slowly wiped Marquis Schuellichen’s body with water.

His body was not whole as he died in a carriage accident after Marquis Elichen.

Still, it was cleaner than I thought, and it seemed like the princess had paid some attention while dealing with it.

Thinking about it, it was the first time I saw Carl’s father after falling into this world.

A part of Carl’s face was also visible from Marquis Schellichen.

He wasn’t actually my father, but the man who made this body.

He was a person he had never seen before, so he couldn’t have any emotions.

Of course, unlike me, Cassius didn’t shed tears as he carefully wiped the body of the Marquis Elichen, but his eyes were watery.

‘Come to think of it, no one is looking for me after I disappear from the world I used to live in.’

It’s family.

I looked at Katrina with a squint.

Katrina was also biting her lip while wiping the body of the Marquis of Schleichen.

I don’t know how the Marquis of Schelichen treated Katrina, but since she’s the youngest daughter, it’s to be expected.

I must have accumulated a lot in my life.

Well, even I, who lived as an orphan without a family, could have expected that much.

After wiping the corpses like that, we lined up in the order of Cassius, me, and Katrina, as Cassius had taught us.

And Cassius began to speak in his father’s ear.

I didn’t make a sound so that Katrina and I couldn’t hear it.

I could tell roughly what they were saying by the occasional trembling sound.

There were stories about how sad I was to leave without having a last conversation with Hantan, who was worried about the future.

Cassius divided the work as the successor to the Marquis of Shu Elichen from the beginning, and he took over the position of head of the house before leaving for the ecliptic.

Maybe the Marquis expected a riot.

But fortunately, I finished cleaning up and left.

Of course, Katrina overthrew everything in Witch Hunt.

Because it didn’t happen now.

Come to think of it, then didn’t I save the marquis family?

…Or not.

Whatever.

To the Marquis, Cassius must have been an ideal son whom he could trust and rely on.

But I wonder if the first sucked up all his abilities. His younger brother, Carl, was handsome and decent on the outside, but he was incompetent and had accidents behind the scenes, and his younger sister Katrina thought of overturning the family with her father’s death.

Is this a success or a failure in child farming?

After Cassius had finished, he said to me and Katrina, “Tell me what you want to say to your father one last time.”

I moved closer to the Marquis as Cassius said, but honestly I don’t know what to say.

After worrying so much, I just honestly expressed my feelings.

‘Although I took Carl’s body, I didn’t do it because I wanted it, so don’t take it too seriously. Anyway, it seems that Cassius benefited from me. Well, I also benefited from Cassius. I’m not going to covet the marquis family. Let’s get some riches instead.’

After speaking, I calmly walked next to Cassius.

Finally, Katrina approached.

Katrina’s voice trembled a little, too.

Unlike Cassius, his voice was mixed with resentment.

I heard the sound of swearing for quite a long time, and then I wondered how much anger was relieved. It seemed like he was reminiscing about the story he had with Count Schuellichen.

And then Katrina’s expression brightened a little.

Katrina came back to my side, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Following Cassius, the three of them bowed their heads toward the corpse.

“Then let’s send it now.”

Cassius handed her cloth to Katrina to unfold.

In the meantime, Cassius and I lifted my father’s body and carried it over the cloth.

After carefully wrapping a gift in cloth, he put it in the coffin and closed the coffin lid.

“The funeral itself is over after listening to the pastor’s memorial address and burying the distinguished guests from the surrounding estates tomorrow. Still, I have to take care of the guests who stay in mourning clothes for two days, and I have to write a letter to my father’s acquaintances to convey my regards.”

“After the customers leave on the third day, it’s really over. Do you understand what I mean?”

Casius looked back and forth between me and Katrina.

“For three days, no matter what happens, don’t make your face red. All three of us have a lot to say, but hold on for three days.”

Katrina didn’t say anything else, she just said yes and nodded her head.

“Yes, I will live like I am dead for three days.”

“Okay, I hope no one gets into an accident for three days.”

* * *

Crush swung his sword.

Without even knowing it was a dream, I swung it over and over again until his hand was swollen and bleeding as usual.

It was painful and bitter, but ironically not painful.

I was able to persevere as much as I thought it was a price for achievement.

The sword I wielded along with my father and brother.

Her father’s gaze, who only looked at her cutely.

Even the touch of her first brother who stroked her hair.

She remembered everything.

And those memories unfolded before my eyes.

Following the memories, it flowed like watching a movie.

Although he was young, Crusch hated the gaze of him as a child and begged his father to teach him the sword seriously.

He was a father of three sons.

Her son was not without her father, and she did not want her daughter to raise her sword.

Despite his father’s objections, he insisted on learning the sword.

In the end, there are no parents who can beat their children. My father eventually taught me swordsmanship.

It was never easy for her to learn her swordsmanship from her father.

I wonder if he didn’t even start at all. Once he started, her father never wasn’t serious while teaching Crusch.

As a woman, it took a lot of effort for her to catch up with her brothers.

All Crusch had was miasma, and her father also swung her sword surprisingly vigorously.

She wielded her sword so nonstop that one day her father came to visit her.

‘Yes, next my father gave me a sword and acknowledged me as a swordsman.’

As Crusch recalls her memories, it was when she waited for her father to come.

But it was strange.

It was definitely a bright morning that day.

The sky was red and the bloody moon was floating.

Moreover, the approaching father’s gaze was cold.

Still, not unlike her memories, her father approached Crusch.

Crusch thought something was wrong with her, but she was relieved that she was not too different from her memories.

Rather, she said that she might have misremembered.

And the words of the father who came up to me were clear.

“I didn’t mean to make you learn the sword, Crusch.”

“What is that?”

Something is wrong.

My father never told me that.

“You mean you lost to a man without a weapon in front of Her Highness without even swinging your sword properly? You are cylindrical. If I had known it would turn out like this, I would not have made you learn the sword.”

Tears of blood were shedding from his father’s eyes as he spoke.

“Oh, Father. I am….”

“Don’t make excuses. Please don’t disappoint me anymore.”

My heart ached.

It’s hot.

My heart was burning like it was on fire.

Crusch couldn’t even object to her father’s words in her agony and she turned around and ran.

She herself could not tell whether the pain was due to her father’s words or the pain in her chest.

While running like that, Crusch saw her brother who was stroking her hair.

Crush instinctively approached her brother.

“Oh, brother.”

Crush couldn’t even speak properly.

Because what her father said to her was so shocking.

She caught her breath and before she could speak her words.

“I should have stepped in and stopped my father then.”

Crush hoped that her older brother’s words were not what Crusch expected.

“You, Maxvier, have destroyed the honor of swordsmanship.”

No.

Crush’s brother was not the kind of person who would say such a thing to her.

My heart strangely grew warmer whenever I heard painful words.

Crusch grabbed his chest and took a step backwards.

Then she bumped into something.

Crush looked back in surprise.

Then what I saw was the princess.

“Me, Your Highness.”

“Crush. I was expecting it. You are really useless.”

Crush sat down without saying anything more.

The heat in my chest kept growing, but I had no time to pay attention to it.

Crush sat down and shed tears.

Then I heard.

“Crush!”

A sound calling to oneself.

“Whoops!”

Crush woke up from his dream.

“Ha ha ha.”

As he exhaled heavily, he involuntarily burst into tears.

“It was like having a nightmare.”

“Me, Your Highness.”

Crush was relieved.

Yes, it couldn’t have been.

It was all a dream, Crusch was relieved.

That’s why Crusch didn’t notice.

That the pain in my chest that gradually faded away was not a dream.