Unnamed Memory

"Sheride"

With his voice triggered, he returns to reality. I woke up reflexively and looked around.

Not too big, rooms with little stuff.

The only thing you can see is two desks and one bookshelf, not even out the window at night.

A familiar sight. Everything that comes into sight is routine for him.

Sitting in his chair in the office of Willidis Castle, Ruth watched one thing at a time in his eyes.

When he finds the paperwork about to be processed on his desk, he searches through his memories. Consciousness came and went with dreams and reality, their vague boundaries.

"Sheryde.................. rig......?

There is no one to respond with his name in his mouth.

The name I whined about myself. But one of them brought bitter blunt pain to him. Loss comes back before evoking memory.

Pain and emptiness grasping the throat. Ruth shrugged stunned remembering why.

"Rig, is, isn't there. - He's dead."

A few nights ago, the rig died protecting him from the hands of the poisonous princess.

Definitely. He buried the remains next to Fiona's grave with his own hands.

So no more rigs. You can't be here. I can't even turn into a woman, no.

Then I wonder what she was all the time next to him.

Was it all an illusion that shameful showed?

Ruth holds a confusing head and holds his temples.

That's when the office door was knocked, and Ill came in. He presents two reports to his husband with bitter faces such as surprise awakening.

"Your Highness, there's actually a rather troublesome problem going in there"

"What?"

"One is a suspicious line that has crossed the border more than the Noydia side, and it seems that the people around us rubbed it, and we have captured the opponent. We're pulling it out in the hall now."

"Noydia's..."

"The other is not yet definitive information… that the King has sent a messenger to move His Highness from this castle to the north"

Ruth lost his word to reports of his men endangering the unreality of his dreams.

Two pieces of information that would have been unexpected for a man at Willidis Castle.

But Ruth knows what lies ahead. I dreamed about it. It's as if you predicted what was going to happen.

- It could be a coincidence. But is it really a coincidence?

That was so realistic, I didn't think it was just a dream. Everything, including the vivid presence she was entangled in.

Ruth gets up from the chair with a trembling hand.

"Your Highness?"

"I'm going to see Noydia's human. Everything starts with that."

That wasn't real.

This is how I came back to reality. Now I know. This one is true... but that one was very similar to reality.

If so, what was it?

Ruth heads to the hall early. Progressively faster strides were likely to run out at the end.

When the doors of both openings were opened rampantly, the gaze of all the men who were in the hall gathered to him. Only one of them is stuck staring at the floor.

Ruth squatted and ran over in front of the girl like a shell, slapping her on the shoulder.

"Where's Sherida?"

I didn't believe that I would get the answer I wanted back to that question.

There would have been a chance they would have laughed at you about who you were talking about. Instead, it should have been.

But when the girl shook her body, she distorted her unusual face by the way. The man next door muttered, "How did you get that name..."

Ruth kneels on the floor and peeks into the girl.

"You know Sheryde, don't you? Where is he now? It must be Dia, right? Do you have any idea where we're going?

"... not here"

"Don't lie to me! I know him!

"No! Don't make me say it again and again! Alta Ditiata is dead!

It is a word that cannot be swallowed.

The girl cried out as if the thread had been cut. The man who was next to that body holds it down.

Ruth froze on the spot before the Willidis Castle humans, who had no idea what was going on.

Unconnected fragments.

Deny reality, deny dreams.

When he took the form of an unorganized question, he finally put it on the edge of his mouth.

"Something... you're mistaken. What I'm asking is not about his father. It's about him. Sheride... my..."

It was the man with the crying girl who received the interrupted words and looked up at Ruth.

In his dreams he named Tautos, returning to Ruth with an eye that made up confusion and sorrow.

"I don't know how you know that guy's name. I don't know, but her father, her predecessor Alta Ditiata, has already died ten years ago. Sherida inherited her father's role when she was five years old, and she was in Alta Ditiata until today, ten years later."

She has always been Alta Ditiata.

It wasn't a rig. Rig is already dead.

There is no one beside him. Ruth listens back with a voiced voice.

"Until today? What is it?"

"He died a while ago. Ena felt it."

Connections that are incomprehensible to humans in other countries. But the man must have thought that Ruth's saying "Dia" would make sense.

In fact, Ruth understood the word. But I didn't understand the facts.

He looks around the Noydia humans in turn with a look of oblivion.

"What... that's a rather uninteresting story. Didn't you guys run away from Luxa's soldiers?

- Why would you do that?

"Be honest. Where's Sheryde? I'm not gonna hurt him."

"Alta Ditiata is..."

The man was obviously confused by Ruth's questioning, but said the answer.

"That one was demolished by sorcery to get us away. And he stayed on the spot... his body had been eroded by poison arrows for days"

I don't see falsehood in a man's eyes.

Ruth knew about it, and was silent.

There was always one shadow beside him.

Leopards I've been with since I was a young child. Rig, though, was invaded by poison and died protecting him.

The leopard who appeared afterwards - had dark eyes. When she turned into a woman, she leaned next to him.

Sheride knew about the rig's death and I guess that's how he replaced it. In her dreams she was visiting the courtyard tomb with white flowers in both hands.

One on your right and one on your left. Fiona and the rig.

It was all her dreams she showed. Alta Ditiata that she had the power to pull out even in history. That dream she made with magic.

Dia did say she could also mediate witchcraft.

And from the moment Ena entered Willidis Castle, Sheride would have dreamed of Ruth for a long time in between. Die yourself, until that moment.

"Why did you do this..."

A woman I've never met or seen. No, the real girlfriend was just a girl. An unreliable girl just turned fifteen.

Why did she choose Ruth to dream like that? He clutches the trunk of the terrace to his chest for an unfortunate loss.

"Sheride! Why!

A cry that disappears in the dark of night.

But I'm sure I know the answer. He's listening to it.

'... so please, be king. Save my people. "

She was showing a delightful face that seemed drenched.

She was sparing no effort to give Ruth information about her country and begged for its liberation.

I guess that was the last wish she made when she died.

Understanding that much, but Ruth hasn't swallowed any of it. Mad passion keeps burning my spirit.

- I loved a woman for the first time.

But it was already over from the beginning. He couldn't even see what she really was. Taking that hand, too. I'll protect you.

Ruth remembers her smile as she smiled naively beside him.

"Sheryde... you're an idiot... why didn't you come this far"

Would he have done something that way?

Or could she not finally reach this castle?

"Ruth, I'm so happy. When I'm with you, I feel happy."

Leaving behind the warmth of illusions and many words, she vanished.

There is no shadow to lean against.

Only the moonlight is still pouring down beside him.

Tautos, who has hoped to meet the next day, has offered Ruth a single seal when he visits the office.

A seal with a familiar mark on it. Ruth sees Noydia's power of attorney untouched.

"Why are you giving me this?

"This is the will of Alta Ditiata. It was originally delegated to him by His Majesty… he wrote it further. Please open it."

In her dreams, Ruth remembered a little surprise when she was told not to "open it in a detour" and finally to open a seal that did not open.

When he takes the knife without hesitation, he puts it on the edge of the paper.

Three names were written on the paper that came out of it, accompanied by formal texts.

One is to delegate power from the king to Alta Ditiata and Shelaide.

And the other was in the name of Sheride- the transfer of power to Ruth was noted.

Ruth complains for a few moments about its unexpected content.

Ruth looked up at Tautos as he finally got out of his grumpy state some time later.

"Why? I'm from another country."

"Alta Ditiata said she would leave it to the most assured person.... It will be a problem for me to reveal these things... Master Sheride has been listening to and admiring you for so long. Alta Ditiata is not allowed to leave the country, but she often said she would like to see you one day."

Sewing between busy clergy duties, Sheride said he sometimes drove horses to the hills near the border.

When I stumbled upon him that way, I stood like just a girl.

It was forbidden to say such words to her, the prophet of God, but I guess Sheride was in love with Ruth.

I let my girly longing be recruited into my chest, and I came beside him until I died.

In the fictional world she reflected herself, she finally realized the love that kept her secret.

Ruth stares silently at her name and her name, which are arranged.

Beautiful handwriting that looks familiar. Folding his power of attorney with his sigh, he tried to undo it, but realized that there was still a small piece of paper inside.

When I pull it out, it says only one word there in Sheride's letter. - "I'm sorry," he said.

Ruth looked at it and was captured by the illusion as if she was bowing her head in front of her. Squeeze the little paper into your hands with care.

"You're an idiot... you'll have something else to say at times like this"

She's gone. Only the wish and the words remain.

He smiled bitterly as he mouthed the small piece of paper.

"I love you"

In a large court, but with little extra ornament.

That would also be the reason why the emperor, the Lord, is not very interested in such things, but the greater reason was that this palace itself had just been created.

Recai, Noydia, Lambardo - The castle, built on the border where the old three countries were crossed, offers a spectacular glimpse under the blue sky.

From the windows facing east you can see the castle of Willidis, where the emperor once lived, and the greenery spreading from its hem added a bright color to the wilderness.

As many people work busily to set up his new castle, the person of the day looks out onto the streets stretching out of the terrace.

The head of the caravan, who had not visited the court for the first time in a year, spoke softly to him as he was so blurred.

"Your Majesty, may I?"

"Oh, it's you. Long time no see. Now what did you bring?

"It's a lot. Let us not do business again."

Ruth smiles bitterly at the head who makes him laugh softly.

Since the recapture of King Noydia's capital, this man has made a lot of aid Ruth, but I can tell you that it was fully taken.

Nine years after he got the back shield of Noydia and sat on the throne of Recai, Ruth, who had become the lord of an empire with no less vast national territory, had given a foresighted head as much in return as he deserved his talent.

When he chooses some of the products he can verbally convey, he tells him to buy it out.

When the chief acknowledged, Ruth hit her hand lightly remembering something else.

"Oh, yeah. I want to introduce you to my brother, so just wait a minute."

"Your Majesty's brother, are you there?

"That's right. You're the third brother and the fourth brother when you count them, including the dead. Not right now, but eventually the third brother will rule this empire. You should say hello while you're at it."

"Oh, that's..."

The length was stunned by the weight of the contents gently put out in his mouth.

An empire created in just ten years. That's only because of Ruth's talent.

Having liberated King Noydia's capital, he returned to Willidis Castle, definitely wanted by the king, and withdrew the king, with Noydia's support, who had sent forth troops to send him out. On top of that, when he returned to the rugged capital of the King of Rhinoceros to control the battle for the throne, he made Rhinoceros and Noidia one nation.

He became king with a mother of slaves, and even then the invasion from Lambardo and other ordeals seized him, but he survived all his predicament. Otherwise, it is also Ruth's feat to have lowered his neighbour in the north of Lisai and to have stuck to mediation.

so finally gained a new empire and peace, but Ruth said he would give it to his brother.

It is true that the two older brothers who remain in him are both known for their honest character and competence, but that would be a thoughtful decision.

Ruth laughed when she saw the length of her mouth pounding open.

"Don't be surprised. I've been thinking about it for a long time. Trying to embark on a journey when it's all over."

"Ha, are you on a journey?

"It's not a lanoma, but I'll leave the country for a while and go around the continent. - Actually, there's a woman I've been looking for."

He will be thirty-seven years old this year, but he has not yet received his queen.

Various rumors had been whispered in the alley about the cause, but the chief had never heard the truth.

Now he finds himself curious, feeling that he might be making that truth his present.

"It is...... who are you? I'm going around, too, so I might be seeing you somewhere."

"Hmm. You know the last Alta Ditiata?

Alta Ditiata - the title of a priest who was in the former Noydia.

I heard its presence, which is now gone, and the chief sighed in his heart.

Of all the rumors that are spreading among people, the most popular story - it's a love story between Ruth and the girl who was the last Alta Ditiata.

The two, who secretly loved each other across the border, however, greet the tragedy of a girl dying as a result of Noydia's coup d 'état.

The story is that Ruth, left behind, fulfilled her wishes and freed Noydia, but still hasn't forgotten about her.

The chief hid his surprise knowing that the rumors were true.

"I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I've never met him."

"Right. Well, I guess so."

"Because Your Majesty is looking for that one?

Rumor has it her body hasn't been found.

Is Ruth following her whereabouts with a glimmer of hope there?

The emperor laughed bitterly at the chief who asked softly.

"That's right, the scholars will preach to you. People never die and are reborn."

"Bye."

"Never mind. I'm insane. Come on, brother, wait till your body's empty."

When Ruth broke off the conversation, the man bowed his head deeply and quit the spot.

Ruth looks nostalgic into the dry wind as the silence returns to the terrace again.

"Also, someday, somewhere"

Those are the words she whispered to Ruth at the moment her dreams woke up. Words that smile off goodbyes between bundles. Ruth knows what that means.

So I guess he'll take her word for it and keep looking for the continent from now on. I don't know when that journey will end now.

Ruth laughed toward the spreading world as she raised her hair disturbed by the wind.

"We'll make it next time. I'll pick you up anywhere. Wouldn't you? ――――

No exact record is given in any book of what happened to the first emperor who created an empire known as Adirillance after that.

But the people, and the bards, continue to marvel at their fate.

After touring vast continents, crossing nations, and finally to the western continent, he reunites there with the girl he once fell in love with.

The two people who were so finally tied up are talking about leaning in forever and living happily ever after.

[Void-End-]