novelraw Chapter 280: Engagement Ep - Sleepwalking
Chapter 280: Engagement Ep - Sleepwalking
279. Engagement Ep - Sleepwalking
"Our mom~ walks like this~ going for a night stroll~."
It was a gloomy, desolate clearing with overcast skies, and three children were present. As Ray passed by the tune, he briefly followed the alleyway stained in red before stopping in the middle.
There were two accessory shops.
The {Tracking} pointed to these two shops as places where Ran and Anne might be. Ran had mentioned an older sister, hadn't she? Ray stepped into the shop on the right, which sold accessories mainly made of leather, like bracelets.
“Welcome.”
However, the shop seemed to focus more on crafting than selling, with most of the space occupied by a workshop.
Ray set aside the braid she was working on and directly addressed the dark-haired woman who greeted him.
“Ran Aviker?”
“Yes. Were you referred here?”Ray hesitated for a moment.
This was the process of deciding who he was before telling a lie. If he knew her name despite it being their first meeting and had a reason to seek her out...
Ray gave a polite nod.
“...What is this about?”
“I came to deliver some sad news. You know the merchant Vernon, don't you? He has passed away.”
“What? Mr. Vernon? No way!”
Vernon was a merchant who had come to Avril Castle with the sisters Ran and Anne. He had established his merchant guild with the support of Viscountess Brina, but in return, he had to engage in smuggling at the Viscounty.
Upon arriving at the Viscounty and discovering this, Vernon and his fellow merchants fled, only to be pursued by knights and killed.
No, they were already no longer of this world.
Ray, standing before the cramped workbench, pushed aside the table and pulled out a chair to sit. He asked, as though he had something to confirm.
“I’m sorry, but I need to confirm that you are indeed Ran Aviker. I am Euan, the person in charge of distributing Mr. Vernon's estate. Nice to meet you. Could I see some identification first? You’re a free citizen, correct?”
“Ah... yes. Um... just a moment.”
Ran Aviker went inside the workshop, rustling about, and soon returned with a document. However, it wasn't a standard identification card...
“This is a marriage certificate.”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“You said you were a free citizen. Do you not have a government-issued identification?”
Ray frowned as though this was becoming troublesome. Ran appeared quite flustered.
“Oh, I don’t. I must have lost it.”
“Hmm... Alright. This will do for now.”
Ray emphasized "for now" and glanced at the marriage certificate in his hand. Naturally, it was issued by a church, but Ray’s eyes widened.
“You got married at twelve?”
“Yes, I married a bit early.”
Not just a bit... Ray continued to question her.
“It only lists your name as ‘Ran’ here, Ms. Ran Aviker. Why did you leave out your family name?”
“Well, that’s...”
Ran trailed off, clearly uncomfortable, and then, irritated, she retorted.
“Why do I have to prove my identity to you? Tell me about Mr. Vernon instead.”
- Clatter.
“...I didn’t want to go this far, but I’m not just responsible for distributing Mr. Vernon’s estate. I’m also tasked with investigating those around him. Now, tell me, why did you omit your family name?”
Ray placed a badge with the insignia of Baron Albacete on the table. Although it was just something he had received for access to the Baron’s estate and had no connection to Vernon, it served its purpose well.
Ran flinched and shrank back. After hesitating, she spoke.
“...My tribe was attacked by the Crusaders. The truth is, I’m not a free citizen. I only married a free man.”
“Did you marry so early to conceal your identity?”
“N-no. My mother disappeared when I was young... My sister and I had nowhere to go, so I got married early as a child bride. It wasn’t to hide anything. I omitted my surname just in case there was any trouble.”
“I’d like to hear more. I do know a little about it. You’re from ‘Ice Island,’ correct?”
“Yes.”
“How did you escape? It couldn’t have been easy to slip past the Crusaders’ siege. And I heard boats can’t even set sail from Ice Island...”
“We escaped on foot. We couldn’t launch a boat, but the sea was frozen, so we could cross. My father, who was a great warrior, fought against the Crusaders... My mother took my sister and me and fled.”
Ran glanced at the ax placed in the corner of the workshop. An ax adorned with feathers. Ray had a good idea of whose it was.
“...Then why did your mother, who fled with you, disappear? Did she return to Ice Island?”
“No. She hid us in a village and went back to Ice Island once, but it was to retrieve my father’s ax. She went missing after bringing us to the capital.”
“She must have gone through a lot, taking care of two young children. But pardon me, you said she went missing... Are you sure?”
Ran’s eyes grew sharp.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m wondering if she really went missing. Forgive me for saying this, but didn’t she abandon you and your sister? As an adult now, surely you can understand.”
“No!”
Ran shouted.
“That’s impossible! I have a child, so I know. Parents would do anything, even carve their flesh, to feed their children if they have nothing to eat, and they would rather go cold themselves than leave their children naked. Never, never... that would never happen.”
Ray flinched at Ran’s intense reaction but also found it strange.
What circumstances could cause a woman struggling to raise children on her own to vanish in the capital?
Life Was Hard, and Abandoning Her Children Seemed Likely; Yet It Was Odd for an Adult to Vehemently Deny Such a Possibility.
Ray remained silent until Ran’s emotions calmed. As he noticed the mix of anger and resentment in her bitterness, he became certain of something.
In a low voice, Ray asked, “You know the reason your mother disappeared, don’t you?”
Ran bit her lip and slowly shook her head, though she seemed to have something to say. Seeing her hesitation, Ray spoke politely.
“My apologies. The truth is, I am not here to distribute Mr. Vernon’s estate, nor am I Euan. I am…”
Ray confessed that he was a Swordmaster who had received a divine mission to capture Malpas, an evil god. He believed that he could communicate honestly with this woman.
The scent of burning metal filled the air.
Outside, the sound of light rain tapping turned into a heavy downpour. Ray sat back down, and silence stretched between them. Finally, Ran muttered.
“Malpas...”
Ran stood up and turned her back to him.
She took off her top. As her clothes dropped, her dark, ebony hair cascaded down, covering her pale waist. Only when she gathered her hair did her curvaceous back reveal itself. There, on her skin...
A red crow was tattooed.
Against the backdrop of a battlefield strewn with swords, the red crow perched arrogantly on a greatsword embedded in the ground. Such was the tattoo.
Ran buttoned up her clothes and spoke.
“My mother was a priestess serving Lord Malhas. My sister Anne and I were destined to inherit that role. My mother... didn’t go missing. The day after she made my sister and me followers of Malhas, she left of her own accord... I never understood why, but now I finally do. I overheard my mother’s prayers.”
Ran unraveled her past.
Much later, when thunder struck, and the boy singing in the alley returned soaked to the bone, he asked,
“Mom. I’m back... Mom? Why are you crying?”
By then, Ran was no longer a follower of Malhas. She would no longer be plagued by sleepwalking and wander the South Gate Market, but she realized that her long-awaited mother would never return. She hugged her son tightly.
Ray was next door.
*
Ray was walking back to the mansion in the rain. He could have taken a carriage, but he wasn’t in the mood.
Ran and Anne.
The lives of these two, as he had heard, were tragic. At twelve, when they should have been loved, they lost their parents and had to live with strangers. Their harsh reality dulled their senses, and they became resigned to their fate, thinking, "This is just how life is."
In previous iterations, Ran and Anne had wanted to hunt monstrous beasts.
To experience the life of warriors they never got to live, they joined Vernon’s merchant group. But as they approached Avril Castle, they were attacked by Noguhwa-tiger and killed.
It wasn’t until we hunted down the Noguhwa-tiger that their unfortunate lives took a turn. They safely reached Avril Castle, sought out someone to face the trials of the Great Warrior with, and during the 14th cycle, when neither Ray nor Lena remembered, they met Leo and Lena and hunted the Icehorn Deer.
It’s likely that they were freed from their shackles then. Like Sir Corin, their wish had been fulfilled.
However, unlike Sir Corin, who had disappeared without a trace, Ran and Anne were still bound to Malhas, an evil god.
They had broken free from one chain, only to be tethered by another.
Malpas must have been pleased. The daughters of the priestess he had discarded had suddenly become valuable assets. Baron Arpen Albacete’s reluctance to participate in the war was due to this.
While not intentional, Malpas hadn’t strayed far from the King’s side, fearing that he might lose Ran or Anne to Malhas.
‘It seems the previous cycle was indeed helpful.’
What he witnessed in the previous cycle filled in missing links. Malpas, who had suddenly appeared in Toridome, had taken the body of a warrior from the Aviker tribe, marked by a crow feather tattoo.
Through this, Ray learned that Malpas could possess his followers’ bodies. It wasn’t difficult to connect this to the sleepwalking that plagued Ran and Anne. The real challenge was finding a way to solve it.
Should he kill Ran and Anne to prevent Malpas from using them?
It was an option. But the troublesome "civilian murder" achievement complicated matters.
The more civilians he killed, the more it accumulated, leading to misfortune. If left unchecked, it might cause significant problems later. So, Ray chose to meet with Ran and Anne first.
If necessary, he planned to have someone else kill them. Fortunately, Ran’s suspicions about her mother provided a way out. With her help, he had also finished his conversation with Anne. They would no longer serve Malhas.
‘Does this mean I’ve done my part for them?’
Though he dealt with something that could have been fatal and approached with that intent, Ray didn’t feel satisfied or pleased.
It was all just the path laid out by the gods... Just as he was trying to resurrect his mother, this too was a series of ‘inevitable choices.’
The end was predetermined. No matter what he did or how he tried to twist things, it was all part of a set process.
Suddenly, Ray felt like he understood what a ‘shackle’ truly was. The thin, cold threads that Rev had felt seemed to bind him and the world. The reason he could sense it was likely because of
‘Minseo.’
Only he was not bound to this world. Though he casually called himself a ‘player,’ it was because of him that time repeated and changed.
Ray wondered, ‘Will I ever get the chance to face him and apologize...?’ He entered the Dexter family’s mansion. But when he stepped inside...
‘What’s this?’
Was it because of the persistent rain that the atmosphere felt so heavy? Noel Dexter, Rera Ainar, Dehor, Elson, and Euan were gathered in one place.
“Ray! Come here. Do you know what happened while you were gone? Seriously, I can’t believe it...”
Clearly furious, Rera snorted in exasperation.
“That pig who calls himself Viscountess Brina or whatever just came by.”