novelraw Chapter 86 – Where Two Broken Roads Become One
Chapter 86 – Where Two Broken Roads Become One
After filling our stomachs with Selena’s delicious stew, I thought I could quietly return to my training. But…
“Help me dismantle this drake,” Selena said casually—as if asking me to fold laundry, not carve up a twenty-meter monster.
“Huh? Is that okay?” I blinked in surprise. “I've never dismantled a monster before. Isn’t it valuable? What if I mess up the materials?”
“It’s fine.” She shrugged easily. “I don’t particularly need money. And if I did, I could just sell a few basic magic bags. Besides, dismantling monsters is an important skill for adventurers. You’ll need it eventually.”
“If you say so…” I replied nervously. “Please teach me.”
Somehow, this felt very wrong.
Wasn’t there supposed to be a sequence to this?
First, slay a weak monster.
Then practice dismantling it.
Instead, I was skipping straight to carving up an A-Rank monster—without even slaying it first.
Still, excitement welled up inside me.
Finally!
This was something straight out of the fantasy novels I used to read—the brave hero slicing up monsters for materials!
...or so I thought.
The moment I made the first cut into the drake’s black scales—
I sprinted inside the house and barely made it to the sink before emptying my guts.
Selena followed after me, concern etched across her face. “Freed? Are you okay?”
I wiped my mouth, my face pale. “Y-Yeah… I’m fine… Let’s… Let’s try again.”
“You sure?” she asked gently.
“Yes.” I nodded weakly. “I don't want to give up just because I failed once.”
Besides... if I couldn’t even do this much, what right did I have to stay here?
So far, I just ate, trained, and freeloaded like a useless cat.
I needed to do something. Anything.
Determination burned anew in my heart.
I would not give up!
Or so I thought.
“BLEEEGGHHH…!!”
I clutched the sink again like it was my last lifeline.
When I staggered outside again, Selena had already continued dismantling the drake by herself, humming a little tune as if gutting a twenty-meter monster was the most natural thing in the world.
She glanced over her shoulder at me with a patient smile.
“Freed, that's enough. You've vomited ten times already. If you keep this up, you'll turn into a skeleton.”
“Ugh… but…” I tried to protest weakly.
Deep down, though, I knew she was right.
This wasn’t just 'hard.'
It was brutal.
For a boy who had grown up in a clean, modern city—and spent most of his time indoors gaming or reading—trying to dismantle a real, bloody monster was another kind of hell entirely.
I slumped against the doorframe, feeling utterly defeated.
Selena did everything.
She trained me, cooked for me, hunted monsters, washed our clothes and the house with Clean magic… heck, she even shared her bed without a second thought.
Meanwhile, what did I do?
I just stood there.
After seeing me hesitate, Selena paused her work, glancing up from the drake’s body.
A soft, almost teasing smile crossed her lips.
“You feel guilty… because you’re staying in this house without being able to help, don’t you?”
“H-Huh? How did you…”
I stiffened, caught completely off guard.
She chuckled quietly, her silver hair shifting with the gentle breeze.
“Didn’t I tell you? You’re a kind person, Freed. It's normal for someone like you to feel that way.”
“Uhh..”
“That’s okay, really.”
She turned back toward the drake, continuing her careful dismantling.
“Honestly, your presence alone…” her voice was calm but carrying a strange weight. “has already helped me more than you realize.”
“Huh?”
Without looking at me, she kept working, speaking almost casually—yet each word seemed heavier than the last.
“To be honest… it’s been over a hundred years since I had someone to talk to. After my master died, the only things I ever received were gratitude from slaves… or resentment from nobles.”
The knife in her hand sliced neatly through the tough hide, but I could tell her mind was elsewhere.
“I always sent the slaves I rescued back to their countries. Adults would take the children. If not, I’d place them in orphanages.”
She paused, staring at the drake’s body for a long moment before continuing.
“I couldn't bring anyone to live here with me. This forest is too dangerous. And… I didn’t know when this curse would kill me. If I died, they'd be trapped here too.”
Her voice softened even more, almost like a confession.
“I couldn't leave either. This house… it holds too many memories of my master. I couldn't abandon it.”
A small, self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips.
"At first... I thought it would be enough," Selena said quietly, her fingers tightening around the blade she held.
"Saving slaves. Fulfilling my master’s dream. I thought... if I just kept moving, kept saving people... the loneliness wouldn’t catch up to me.”
She paused, her voice trembling slightly, barely above a whisper.
"But after a while..."
She set the knife down gently beside her, as if even its weight had grown too heavy.
"Living alone in this house... day after day... year after year..."
Her golden eyes stared blankly at the ground.
"It ate away at me. Wore me down.”
She drew a shaky breath.
"I realized... I wasn’t saving them because I was noble, or brave. I wasn’t carrying on my master’s dream the way she deserved.”
Her hand gripped her sleeve tightly.
"I was just... desperate.”
A soft, hollow laugh escaped her lips—one that didn’t reach her eyes.
"Saving slaves… became nothing more than an excuse. An excuse not to hear only my own silence. A way to hear someone's voice. Even if it was only for a moment... even if they were strangers I'd never see again…”
She smiled bitterly, and in that moment, she looked so fragile, as if she could shatter at a single touch.
“And somehow... I convinced myself that was enough.”
I swallowed hard, my chest tightening.
I knew that feeling.
In my past life, I'd had plenty of people around me—friends, classmates, coworkers.
But no one I could talk to.
No one who really listened.
No one who stayed.
It had gnawed at me silently for years.
And yet, compared to her…
Living utterly alone for a century…
Her loneliness was a thousand times heavier.
“I thought...” Selena murmured, her hands still, “I thought I would die here. Alone. Forgotten.”
Her voice soft, almost lost to the wind. She drew her knees closer to her chest, hugging herself lightly, as if trying to hold her heart together.
"But then... I met you."
She lifted her gaze to me — and for the first time, I saw something raw in her golden eyes.
Not strength. Not resilience.
But loneliness.
"I used your existence as an otherworlder as an excuse," she whispered. "To bring you here. To keep you close.”
She smiled — small, trembling at the edges.
"At first, I told myself it was just for a few days. That I'd send you home after you got some rest."
Her voice wavered.
"But then you… you found a way to analyze my curse. Something I had long given up on.”
She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers as if feeling the weight of guilt there.
"I should have been happy just for that. Just for the hope. But…”
She pressed her hand over her heart.
"More than lifting the curse... what made me happiest was finding another excuse to make you stay longer."
Her shoulders trembled slightly.
"Three years... it sounded like a lifetime’s worth of happiness to someone like me.”
A silence stretched between us — heavy, fragile.
Then, in a voice barely more than a breath, she added,
"Even if I fail to remove the curse... even if I die before it's over... it’s fine. Because for the first time in so long... I could remember what it felt like to not be alone."
She turned to face me fully then—still sitting there on the ground—her expression open, vulnerable.
"I’m a terrible person, aren’t I?" she said with a bitter smile.
"Using your kindness to keep you here.
If you hate me for it... I understand.
If you want to leave... I’ll send you back tomorrow."
She bowed her head.
“Thank you... for the past month. It was short... but I was truly happy.”
As I listened to her voice tremble out that final ‘thank you,’ something inside me twisted painfully.
She really meant it.
She was truly ready to send me away—to go back to her endless, aching loneliness—just so I wouldn't feel trapped.
Even though she was the one who had been alone for over a hundred years.
Even though she was the one abandoned by time itself.
Even though she was the one who was suffering the most.
How could she still put my freedom above her own happiness?
And at that moment, I finally understood.
The real reason she insisted so desperately, so stubbornly, on becoming my wife…
It wasn’t about payment. Her endless magic stones were far more than enough as the fee of saving her life.
It wasn’t about romance.
It wasn’t because she wanted a husband.
But it was loneliness.
What she was really asking for was something far simpler, and yet so much harder to find.
She just wanted someone to talk to.
Someone to sit with.
Someone who would listen to her stories, her burdens, her laughter, her sadness.
What she needs… are friends.
But she was afraid.
Afraid to be alone again one day.
Friends could leave her side.
Friends could live far away from her.
That’s why… she asked to be someone’s wife.
Someone who would be there, every day—someone who wouldn’t disappear the way friends sometimes did.
I clenched my fists.
I couldn't just stand there.
I stepped forward, my shadow falling over her small, hunched figure that was still sitting on the ground and bowed at me.
She flinched slightly—maybe expecting rejection, maybe preparing herself for the goodbye she thought was inevitable.
Slowly, I raised my hand—and with a light, almost playful chop to her head, I broke the heavy tension.
“Ouch...” she muttered, rubbing the spot while looking up at me, her golden eyes wide and confused.
I smiled gently.
“Such a melancholic attitude doesn't suit you at all, Selena,” I said quietly.
“B-But I’m really using y—”
She opened her mouth to protest—maybe to insist she was right, that she had been selfish—but I didn't let her.
Instead, I pulled her into an embrace, pressing her head gently against my chest.
Her body stiffened in shock at first—then slowly, hesitantly, she relaxed into my arms.
“That's fine,” I whispered. “If you feel guilty about it... then don't you dare die.”
I tightened my arms around her slightly, as if to anchor her here, with me.
“Repay me by living,” I said. “Repay me by staying by my side.”
She didn't say anything—just listened, her breath warm against my chest.
I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the promise I was about to make.
“You asked me once... what path I would choose for my life,” I said softly, my hand gently stroking her silver hair.
I smiled, even though she couldn’t see it from where she rested against me.
“I've decided.”
I let the words fall slowly, carefully — as if laying down stones for a road we would walk together.
“After we lift your curse…” I whispered, my voice steady against the quiet air between us, “come with me.”
I felt her breathing hitch, the faintest catch against my chest.
“Let's become adventurers together,” I continued, threading each word like stitching new hope into the torn fabric of her heart. “Let's journey across the world. Let's save slaves—but not the way you used to.”
I gently rested my chin atop her head, feeling her soft silver hair brush against my skin.
"Not alone anymore."
I felt her body stir faintly, like a leaf caught in a breeze—fragile, uncertain, and aching for something to hold onto.
“We'll invite them to walk with us,” I said, speaking quietly into the space only the two of us shared. “We'll laugh together. Eat together. Cry together if we have to.”
“And whenever you miss your master... we'll come back here, to this house. But we won't return empty-handed.”
My arms tightened just a little, protective and sure.
“We'll bring our friends with us. We'll fill this place with stories. With voices. With life.”
At those words, I felt it—a tremor running through her small frame. Her slender fingers, almost shy, clutched the fabric of my shirt. Trembling. Grasping.
As if clinging not just to me—but to the future I was promising her.
Slowly, hesitantly, she pulled back just enough to look up at me.
For the first time—clear and undeniable—a delicate flush bloomed across her cheeks.
Selena, the woman who smiled fearlessly at monsters, who joked about life and death without flinching…
was blushing.
It was only a tiny change.
Barely there.
“That's unfair,” she whispered, her voice shaking with a laugh. “If you say something like that... if you offer dreams like that... even if it's just a lie…”
She smiled—that small, fragile smile that made her look like the girl she must have once been, before the loneliness hardened her.
“I might really fall for you.”
I chuckled, brushing a stray silver hair from her face.
“Then live,” I said. “Stay alive... and see for yourself whether it’s a lie or not.”
“Hmph,” she pouted playfully, resting her forehead lightly against my chest again. “That still doesn't sound convincing coming from a child.”
“Then how about I say it again six years from now?” I teased.
“Are you seriously planning to woo me?” she asked, half-exasperated, half-laughing.
I opened my mouth instinctively to throw a playful answer back—but the words caught in my throat.
A shadow passed through my heart.
I thought about it—about all the people who once said they cared for me. About how easily sweet promises turned into cold goodbyes.
About how I had trusted before, only to be left behind, again and again, wondering what I lacked.
Could I really believe someone wouldn't do the same?
Could I really hope... that if I reached out, they would stay?
My fingers curled slightly as I patted her hair.
Even if she was different—even if Selena was kind—
Somewhere deep inside, the fear still lingered like a scar that refused to fade.
So I didn’t agree with her question right away.
Instead, I choose my words carefully.
“I won't accept a wife who only loves me half-heartedly.”
Because this time, I wouldn't pretend trust was easy.
Because if I chose to believe again—
I needed it to be real.
All the way.
Or not at all.
She snorted. "So now it’s the princess who has to capture the prince's heart?”
“Of course. Because…” I grinned mischievously, “I'll be busy choosing my other wives carefully. You'll need some good sisters.”
Her head snapped up.
“You're ruining the mood!” she huffed—but there was no real anger in it, just exasperated affection. “Still... having lots of little sisters doesn't sound bad. I'll take a thousand.”
I laughed. “Why not just adopt every girl in the world while we're at it?”
She shrugged, grinning. “That sounds great. But I’ll feel bad for the poor guys left with no one.”
We exchanged playful banter under the dappled sunlight, wrapped in an embrace that neither of us seemed willing to break.
Joking, laughing, dreaming about a future that, for the first time in a long while, didn't feel impossible.
“Thank you, Freed.”
“You can talk to me whenever you have worries, Selena,” I said, smiling softly. “I’ll always listen.”
She blinked for a moment, then gave a small, almost shy smile.
“I'll gladly take you up on that offer.”
We finally let go of each other, though a lingering warmth stayed between us.
I glanced down and noticed my shirt was stained with spots of drake blood from our earlier embrace.
Without a word, Selena lifted her hand and cast a simple spell.
“Clean.”
A soft light brushed over me, and the stains vanished as if they were never there.
“Thanks,” I said with a grin.
She smiled back, then our eyes naturally shifted toward the enormous drake corpse lying nearby.
“So…” I started, scratching my cheek awkwardly, "about the drake…”
“You don’t seem bothered watching me dismantle it,” she noted teasingly. “You just can’t bring yourself to do it yourself.”
I chuckled weakly. “Yeah... I guess so. But if I want to be an adventurer, I should at least be able to do this, right?”
Selena gave a light shrug as she continued working, her movements smooth and practiced.
“Didn't we just make a promise?” she said, her voice gentle. “We’ll travel together, remember? You don’t have to do everything alone. I can handle the dismantling. Or we can ask our friends to help.”
“Besides,” she added with a wink, “you can always sell the whole corpse to a guild. They'll dismantle it for you... for a small fee.”
I blinked, processing her words.
I wasn't used to it—this feeling of not having to shoulder everything myself.
Of trusting someone else to help.
“I see…” I muttered, a little overwhelmed—but strangely happy. “Yeah. Thank you, Selena.”
Then she flashed me a teasing grin. “But you better train harder, Freed. You’ll need to get stronger if you want to protect your wives later.”
I rolled my eyes and smirked. “As you wish, princess.”
She laughed—a clear, musical sound that filled the clearing with life.
And with that playful exchange lingering warmly between us, I turned back to my training, while Selena—with her usual easy grace—continued dismantling the mighty drake beside me.
Beneath the quiet embrace of the sun, two broken souls, once adrift, began to mend each other’s loneliness—stitching their wounds together with laughter, with warmth, with the simple, stubborn miracle… of walking the same path.