Ashes and Kingdoms

Oandus' legs stopped as he walked down a rubble-filled street. Fauna, who was leaning in, also stands silently. Nellis, who came after me later, leaked his voice, oh.

"Here, Mr. Kunado...?

This is the house I was looking after until just before I left Nanais. I feel as if it was a long time ago when I sneaked a melon seed into the garden.

Nellis went over some of the remaining walls and tried to find where it was the garden. but stopped by the inexplicable air drifting between her parents, staring at them in confusion.

Slightly, Fauna shrugged.

It's a strange thing.

One, two steps. Place your hands on the columns that have reached a height to your hips, approaching each other.

"If that hadn't happened, I'd be under that..."

Eyes on the broken roof, as Fauna says to herself, Oandus also lines up beside him and arms himself with a difficult face.

"Right. I must have evacuated to the city and stayed put... which means no one was standing here by now."

I wonder what that means. Nellis didn't know what her parents were talking about, and the wall was just too high to just interrupt and ask, just standing up.

And, Fauna accidentally, she looked back at her daughter and smiled.

"Mother, I was actually supposed to marry Mr. Kunad."

Going down from the windmill shed to the city and replenishing food and supplies was the job of my only son. Oandus pulls Loba's reins and slowly goes around the green fruit shops and grocery stores. The shopping was always decided and everything else was just a view.

It was every time I stopped by the inn after shopping the whole way. A childhood tame Kunad and I have had a constant friendship even after we are only old enough to attend school and sometimes meet.

"Hey, you're here. Up you go."

Knuck him on the shoulder intimately, and Kunad passes Oandus inside. Apparently, today, there's something more than just standing talkin '. Oandus connected Roba and walked to the building where his family lived, beckoning his servant.

Kunad's house has been a lodging house for three generations, small but also traded. It is not noticeable in politics, but in terms of wealth, in Nanais it is a household located above the inside. Oandus, on the other hand, is a powderhouse from his grandfather's generation, which can't be described as wealthy, but lays a fairly stable foundation for life. Inside, you mean.

We were both about twenty years old and more and more parts of the family business were being left to us one by one. That's why.

"Actually, I've decided to get engaged."

Nor did Kunad mention it, to his surprise.

"Oh, really? I also feel a little early...... congrats. Who's the other guy?

Oandus says, I wonder what a celebration would be like, early on. Kunad replied in a good mood.

"I'll introduce you. I thought you'd be here today, so I called you. My father is a fisherman, but not among his peers, he seems to be like a face player. My dad wanted to get along with a trader, but, well, if we make the connection with the fisherman thicker, it's a sign that we can accommodate all sorts of dishes served at the inn."

"So it was the general who put the story together?"

"My father doesn't want to admit it, but I guess he does. I don't mind either, unless it's a loss to our management."

"Are you beautiful?

Oandus asked as he did. If you're not dissatisfied, I guess so.

The advice, Kunad distracted and blurred, rubbing his nose and deceiving his expression.

"Hey, well, I don't know. Not bad. Yeah, you'll see."

Look, and I invite you into my room. Oandus, who entered the room after Kunad, became a bar the moment he saw his daughter waiting inside.

Loose, vortex-wrapped blonde hair, plump, soft, rounded cheeks, tight hazelnut eyes. I have a little sunburn on the worker's evidence and a splash on my face. A flaw for your wife, but as soon as her daughter laughed at her, even it became a loving charm and beat Oandus.

(sucks)

Dizzy, Oandus puts his face down, distracted by a bow.

(Isn't that the shortest ever record of heartbreak the moment we met)

While I was in the mood to cry, I managed to fix my expression and say hello to my first meeting.

Oandus is by no means frivolous in terms of appearance alone, but unfortunately, there is a considerable lack of love and care. I'm not rich, nor can I have a spilled conversation. I've raised the fever on my city daughter a few times before, but she's been shaking all over me.

If the story comes to marriage, Oandus will find someone else in any case. It is customary for parents to weigh the interests of each house, even if they do not have a lover. But Oandus was still too young to give up.

"Heh, I was. How'd it go with your mother? Did you regret falling in love at first sight and getting your fiancée wrong?

"No."

Fauna giggles and throws a playful glance at her husband. Oandus shook his head with a bitter laugh.

"For a while after we met, it felt like you didn't have anything in mind about me. As a friend of the Marriage Forgiver, I thought you didn't really remember your name just because you said" hello "and" conversation. "

"I remember your name on the boulder. But now I'm telling you, to be honest, at first I was wondering why Kunad was friends with this guy."

"You're a poor, boring man who can't be bluffed out, huh?

"Right."

I thought I would deny it, and Fauna laughed and affirmed. And I gently slapped Oandus' arm with a wounded face, out of the way.

"That's all I didn't have eyes for. He was young."

Sometimes, from the engagement to the actual marriage, the two of us were still young, and the steps went very slowly.

In the meantime, Oandus and Fauna remained as close to each other as ever to the extent of 'acquaintances', although they also became somewhat intimate.

- But.

The situation changed when six months had passed since the engagement.

As soon as Fauna's father left for the fishery, he was launched to the beach a few days later, looking unharmed.

The last fishery was all I could get out to just offshore by myself, so I can only assume it was a simple accident, not talk about my buddies killing me or being hit by pirates. Nonetheless, the presence of the body was terrible.

Divine punishment.

It wasn't impossible for someone to whine in fear, either. Because even my family couldn't face it.

But the shallow word instantly spread throughout Nanaith as a result of the wildfire. Neither could a decent funeral be given, and Fauna and her mother secretly buried him, blindfolded. It is the mountain of Sekiyama that sneaks watching from afar without joining even those who have been cared for in their lifetime.

Bad things overlapped, and soon thereafter his mother lay ill. All over my body, it's ugly and swollen, and I can't feel my hands and feet free. Neighbors who should have reached out for salvation also moved away from their mothers and daughters so that the tide would draw, and even the temple refused to care because infectious diseases could be considered.

In that case, it was natural for the engagement to be broken.

"I don't think you're being mean, but let me get this straight, I'm disappointed."

Knowing the rumors later than the city's inhabitants, Oandus pushed angrily into Kunad's house and slammed the words without even saying hello at his doorstep.

I am familiar with the fact that Kunad is basically a gentle and kind person because of his childhood. So no matter what my family and relatives said, I expected them to protect Fauna.

To unilateral accusations, Kunad did not argue with his lips bitten off. Oandus is also silent for a while, thinking about whether to say it or not, and then slowly and quietly leaks an unabashedly thoughtless voice.

"I can't even imagine the circumstances of the house, but I thought you were in the mood to protect the woman you liked."

"Even me" Kunad quickly blocked it. "I'd love to if I could. What do you know?"

A fixed, throwaway bowl of selling words. Oandus doesn't buy it, he just stares back at the other guy. It was, of course, Kunad who glanced at me first.

After a long and heavy silence, Oandus said.

"... I'll take care of Fauna. Don't you have any complaints?

"On your own. It has nothing to do with us anymore."

Kunad answered as if grinding between his back teeth, turning back his curly heel. When you leave, slap the wall with your fists.

Fauna and her mother, who were struggling in the city because of unfounded rumors, accepted Oandus' offer and moved to the windmill shed with little or no day.

In the months leading up to the rumors subsided, they even endured.

Sheltering Fauna also discredited the miller's reputation, but Oandus did not. Whether he was slapped in the pussy or eaten up front by his customers, he didn't get rough or angry, and anyway, he kept working honestly as before.

In doing so, Fauna's mother's medical condition recovered a little, and the rumors became quieter.

When, as if nothing had happened, Kunad married the dealer's daughter.

Residents of the city also reconsider the inconvenience of not asking the windmill to grind the powder after all.

- Everything slowly loosened up and flowed away like a snowmelt.

"There's been a lot going on since then."

Fauna said with a distant eye. The mother, who needed nursing care, died in a few years without the disease being completely cured. In the same season, Oandus' father also died from injuries. In addition, 'a lovely, lovely cousin', who told Farnayne, was expelled from the house after her husband cheated on her and depressed her with a severe STD via her mistress, leaving the world for as long as possible, although she had come relying on Fauna.

"But by then, I knew I'd be okay with this guy."

Looking up at her husband for a favor, Fauna grinned. Oandus looks illuminated and turns to the day after tomorrow without any answer.

Nellis is caught trying to cool off, pretending to be unfamiliar, and clutching a broken wall.

"Yeah, so I only had one grandmother. But something... unexpected. Mr. Kunad, you didn't look like that."

"Oh, Kunad's a really good guy, too"

Oandus said. I guess it's not in the past form because I still can't feel that death. Unconsciously, he continued.

"Back then, I was young too, and if only I had the belief that I was right, it would be in the interest of kinship smugness because I thought it didn't matter... you did something wrong. In fact, he ignored us for a while, but after your grandfather died, he started asking me for work again."

"Right," Fauna nodded nostalgically, too. "I didn't get to apologize in words, but I kind of figured out that you're feeling a burden on us.... I think I should have told him properly."

"I don't know."

Oandus' voice, in response to the ambiguity, slightly faded and rocked.

I don't know anymore. Even if I wanted to tell you, I wouldn't get a voice. I'm just praying.

Fauna gently wrapped her hands around Oandus, who stood silently. A missing hand of the finger grips it back hard.

Without even realizing that Nellis had left softly, the two stood quietly for a long time.

(Final)