Episode 104 Nostalgic and Missing (4)
Two months have passed since Madame Eight Legs disappeared.
At that time, Bakira became a father.
A peaceful sight of five wolves suckling in their mother’s arms.
Meanwhile.
“…”
Bikir was still watching the female wolf nursing her cubs.
A black ball was stuck between the wriggling wolf cubs.
The egg of Madame Eight Legs. It has the appearance of a large black pearl, but it has a soft and soft feel.
Bikir has been trying to incubate these eggs in wolves for the past two months, just in case.
However, even when the wolves warmly incubated and cared for the eggs, there was no particular change.
However, because the newborn puppies kept biting the soft and soft eggs and smeared them with saliva, it was only Bikir’s hard work to clean them.
Bikir realized that further experiments with Madame’s egg were meaningless and soon prepared to embark on a long journey again.
comeback. to the empire. And to Baskerville.
The Return of the Iron-Blooded Hound.
Now it was time to return to where we came from.
When Bikir announced that he was leaving Balak’s village, not only Balak’s warriors, but all the tribes of neighboring villages sent envoys.
Aquila did not catch Bikir, who announced that he was leaving. I’m not even a slave, so why stop it?
Once you become a family, you will remain a family until the end Even if you are far apart, the family connection gets thicker as it gets thicker and never breaks.
However, Aquila invited the envoys from each tribe who had gathered to bid Bikir farewell and held a grand banquet to decorate the parting with Bikir.
Everyone at the farewell party loved and respected Bikir.
But no one said ‘see you again’ or ‘see you again’ to Bikir.
“There is no such word in Balak’s language.”
Aquila didn’t even say anything to promise the next meeting to Bikir.
The word see again does not exist in Balak’s language.
Their idea is that once established, a relationship never breaks and has solidarity and permanence that transcends time and place.
Even though they were apart, they were together.
So there is no need to promise goodbye.
Aquila spoke to Bikir in a warm, warm voice.
“Anytime, wherever you are. You are Balak’s hunting team. And you are our family. Don’t forget this.”
At those words, Vikir was silent for a moment.
Somehow, it feels like something hot and tickling is filling up in a corner deep in my heart.
For the first time, a ‘sense of belonging’, which he had not felt anywhere before returning, settled in Bikir’s mind.
Leaving the sea and returning to the Baskervilles felt like leaving my hometown and going to a strange place.
Aquila continued.
“You are a proud warrior of Balak and a hero of floods. If you are in trouble, no matter where you are or whoever you are, we will help you as much as we can.”
It wasn’t just Balak’s warriors who responded to Aquila’s words.
The shaman tribe, the Rococo berserker tribe, the Renaissance, and all the native tribes of the Sea of Water cheered Aquila’s words and encouraged Bikir.
“Our hero! Call me anytime! I’ll come to help!”
“Think of us sometimes! I love you!”
“Awesome Bikir! Go back and take over the Empire!”
“May the hero’s future path be filled with only blessings…”
Above all, the young people of Balak, who cried, laughed, and rolled together for the past two years, felt the most regretful about saying goodbye to Bikir.
Ah-hun in particular was the worst. To the point where I was welling up with my own tears.
He shouted, beating his chest like a gorilla.
“Bikir! Come back anytime! We’ll be waiting for you here! And call us whenever you’re in trouble!”
“Vikir oppa. You often tell me the news. You must. You must do so. Otherwise, I…”
Beside him, Aheul, who has been very tall, was looking at Vikir with a moist gaze.
Having grown so tall that she couldn’t believe she was 15 over the past two years, she handed the departing Bikir a lunch box wrapped in leaves.
Inside the lunch box was a rare food, a caterpillar skewer that tasted like cream.
Bikir put a dry smile on his lips.
I didn’t remember laughing that much before and after returning, but I really laughed a lot when I came here to Suhae.
I laughed more in the four months here than I did in the forty years of my previous life.
“Goodbye Bikir! Our hero!”
Balak’s warriors, who do not say ‘see you again’, wave their hands at Bikir with a mixture of joy and regret.
yet.
Bikir left the sea he had been fond of in the midst of everyone’s farewell.
…
……No.
not all of them
Bikir looked around for a face among the crowds of farewells, but couldn’t find it in the end.
Iyen.
For some reason, she hadn’t shown up in town ever since she heard Bikir say he was leaving town.
Then, in the end, he did not attend Bikir’s farewell ceremony.
Everyone was puzzled because she had always followed Bikir wherever she was.
“……It can’t be helped.”
Bikir stood outside the village, glanced around at Ayen’s empty barracks, and paused there for a few seconds.
And soon he turned around and turned his back on Balak’s village, which he had been fond of.
The steps taken in the direction of the border of the floodwaters were weak for the first few steps, but soon began to gain strength again.
Now it’s really time to go home.
* * *
Bikir soon escaped the edge of the flood.
Standing on top of a high rocky peak, I see a familiar fortress ahead.
‘Red Fang’.
It was a mine fort built by mages of the House of Morgue to mine the rubies of Mount Red Awl.
Huge earthen walls, wooden fences, and stone buildings stood up, though crude, majestically.
It seemed to have been built extremely solidly over the past two years to prevent attacks by natives.
An endless land of reddish ruby veins. Dark clouds gathering in a whirlpool above it.
It was still a landscape colored with ominous colors of red and black.
“……Are you still mining rubies?”
Vikir moved slowly towards Morgue’s citadel.
A place to come back after 2 years.
Suddenly, the face of Morgue Camus, who was in charge of that place, came to mind. is she still there?
If she grew up well, she would be a seventeen-year-old mature wife and child, reaching the right age for marriage by now.
However, the situation of Camus, who was born in the family of Morgue, a matrilineal society, was quite different from that of ordinary noble families.
‘Come to think of it, when are you going to enter the academy? let me fit I think I will probably go early for 1-2 years. It would be so much fun if we were in first grade together…’
Suddenly, two years ago, the things she was following and talking about came back into my head.
‘Did I say that I was thinking about early admission to the Colosseo?’
Two years ago, when he was 15 years old, he said he was already thinking about entering the academy early, so he might have already gone to the academy.
‘He must have forgotten things like me.’
If you’re 17, aren’t you a grown adult now?
Eight-year-old puppy love is just a memory to talk about shyly once.
Bikir headed for the wilderness with a dry smile on his face. Follow the wind that blows through the blooming cotton fields.
……just then.
“Hey! Slave!”
There was a voice calling for Bikir from behind.
When he turns his head, he sees a silver-black haired, pointy-eared woman who has just turned 19, looking at Bikir.
Iyen. She stood with her back to the cotton wind, her eyes red with tears.
“let’s go?”
“…”
“Really?”
Ayen asked in a deep voice, and Vikir replied in silence.
Then, Ayen came closer to Vikir.
“……If you’re going, take this with you.”
Iyen stretched out his trembling hand and hugged Bikir. Seeing this, Bikir’s eyes widened.
“!”
That’s a big bow. It was a black bow with a black light all over it.
A huge bow that Adonai used in the past.
Even a bowstring that didn’t exist can be seen.
Bikir noticed that the white, tough string attached to this black bow was made from tanned silk sacs from Madame Eight Legs.
The tough spring that the Madame had made and stored became a string and turned the Black Bow into a complete bow.
‘Anubis’ Balak’s strongest bow in history has finally regained its perfect shape.
‘……Didn’t I see it while making this?’
When Vikir looked down at the Black Palace and thought to herself.
…Clap!
Ayen stuffed something around Vikir’s neck.
A short black necklace.
It is an item made from the tough leather of the Choker Oxbear.
This Oxbear was the first game Iyen and Bikir caught together.
Ayen held Bikir’s throat and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“……Never solve this. Anywhere.”
“i get it.”
Bikir nodded and looked down at Iyen.
Ayen also looked up at Bikir.
“…”
“…”
Their positions have changed a lot in the past two years.
When I first met Iyen, who looked down on Bikir and gave high-handed orders.
But Iyen is the one who can’t even make eye contact with Bikir right now.
She was a head taller then, but now she was a head shorter than him.
In the meantime, the tall Bikir said to Ayen.
“You’ve lost a lot of height.”
It was his own joke to ease the awkward atmosphere, and it was a boring code unique to Bikir.
But Iyen didn’t respond to such trivial jokes.
but.
I thought he walked confidently with quick steps
.
puck!
As it is, it throws a fist and hits Vikir’s stomach.
When Bikir, who was hit in the stomach out of nowhere, stooped down while swallowing a moan.
…Squat!
Iyen grabbed the choker from Vikir’s neck.
Eventually, Bikir, caught by the leash in Iyen’s grasp, was helplessly dragged forward.
and.
“……!”
The moment when Bikir bent at the waist and Iyen standing on tiptoe are perfectly equal in height.
Their lips met at exactly the same height and overlapped.
…
Eternity like a moment A moment like eternity.
how much time has passed
Ayen pushed Bikir’s chest away.
Then, with his back to Bikir, who had stopped breathing, he turned around wetly.
“……see you again.”
It was still an obscure imperial language.
