Dry Drowning - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 I haven’t seen people coming out of the house and talking peacefully like this in the past two weeks.

As soon as the castle gate opened, a loud cheer broke out.

I didn’t even realise at what point the deafening sound of the trumpet stopped.

It felt like a scene from an old medieval movie.

Despite the heavy wind, Ian reached the balcony to watch the parade. His hands were resting on the railings.

As the crowd got closer to the mansion, a foul smell was brought by the wind.

Even if his sense of smell was very sensitive, the fact that he could smell it from the fourth floor, there was no doubt of what he had been doing.

Swords and spears rattled on their waist and behind their back. Ian was looking at the reflecting sunlight blankly when the crowd arrived at the mansion’s yard, holding tightly onto their reins.

The people who were near stopped cheering and looked pleased for some reason.

As I watched such an atmosphere for the first time, I heard a loud voice coming from somewhere.

“You’re alive!”

At the same time, all attention fell on Ian. For a brief moment of silence, he wondered where the cheerful atmosphere from before got sold off to.

Dozens of faces looked that way, but Ian, who got the real attention, turned his head slightly in the direction of the sound of the voice without even moving his eyebrows.

“……”

What are you looking at?

He wanted to ask that, but unfortunately he couldn’t speak.

As they walked along the street, they relaxed their arms, with a feeling of a passerby who was tied to a dispute, and suddenly the loud voices were heard. As usual, the men who were guarding below raised their heads and shouted, but were moderately ignored by others.

Their expression cannot be seen well because of the distance, but it certainly wasn’t a friendly atmosphere.

I couldn’t even hear a single word.

Sometimes the word “Rox” came back in succession, but I didn’t know what it meant. It’s a strangely familiar word, I’ve heard that word a few times in the mansion. However there was nothing else to watch. I couldn’t find any more reason to watch, so I was about to turn around to go back to my room.

At that moment someone jumped off a black horse in the forefront. It was only a gentle step on the ground, but everything became quiet.

Unlike others in Armor, it was a man in a cloth uniform who looked tall even from a distance. I cannot see his face due to the angle, but it’s clear that everyone’s attention is focused on that one person.

Ian finally realized.

The master Ed talked about, he’s back.

“You’ve had a hard journey, you’ll be able to meet the master sometime tomorrow.”

After a while, Ed came into the room, put the food on the table and gave the news. He was always smiling, though I couldn’t read his feelings at all, I felt he was in a good mood today.

I wonder if it’s that good.

He looked up, perhaps because he felt the obvious gaze. While Ian was locked up for two weeks, he had something similar to a conversation with him. No, don’t know if he could but it was this old butler whom he met the most.

Ian could not speak even if he wanted to know how things were going, so he knew very little information and the butler did not say anything unnecessary.

Until now, I’ve thought everything as a dream and had passed everything lightly, but the moment I saw the man, a sudden feeling of anxiety crawled up to my ankle.

The feeling was so rare that Ian wanted to talk to someone since he woke up. All he did was flick his finger.

The action was almost like a riddle, but Ed, who had a ghostly sense, seemed to understand it at a glance and then asking for a moment, he went out.

He came a little while later with a fountain pen, an ink bottle and some paper and placed onto the tray in his hand.

“You can write it down here.”

I just need a pen and a notebook, it was just an exaggeration.

However I couldn’t complain about it, so I opened the ink bottle which was handed over to me gently and dipped the pen into the ink.

What should I ask first?

The questions are never-ending, but I decided to start with the most important question.

“Umm….”

Ed’s expression was very subtle when he received the paper from Ian with the question about where he was. After several careful observations, Ed opened his mouth to Ian.

“Excuse me, could you write it in Shetier?”

[T/N- Shetier is the language of their land.]

What are you talking about? 

When I turned my head to the words I heard for the first time, he replied that he didn’t know Rox’s language well. When I realised that he couldn’t read English written in cursive on white paper at all, so I tried writing Spanish, but he couldn’t even read that.

As I had to receive requests because of my work, I could at least have a simple conversation in other languages. I rewrote a lot of different things, but none of the words were recognised by Ed.

Just in case, I even wrote Korean at the end but only a troubled groan was heard.

I can interpret his words perfectly so what is all this?

He was unable to express himself properly, but there was nothing more to try. Ed, who seemed to have grasped the situation roughly, spoke after a brief silence.

“We will find a way. You’d better rest and eat first today.”

Edward was linguistically gifted, and as long as he hadn’t mastered a foreign language in just one day, there seemed to be no good solution. However, Ian, who had already given up on the situation itself, nodded blankly and raised his spoon.

It wasn’t until half the seasoned potato soup was emptied, that the spoon was lowered. He shook his head and tapped on the table when he was told to eat a little more.

I meant to eat it after a while, but Ed, who noticed it right away, said that he knew and left the tray there. With such a quick wit, it was clear that he never felt the lack of communication.

It was not until the door was closed and the sound of the distant footsteps started to fade away that Ian pushed his finger into his mouth. He skillfully touched his esophagus a few times and was able to throw up what he had consumed.

After throwing up about a half of the soup into the bowl, he spilled everything onto the floor. When he dropped the bowl as if it was a mistake, he heard a sharp shattering sound.

Surprisingly, the door opened and the maid came in to clean the broken pieces after a while.

Seeing that Ed didn’t come, he seems to have gone to his master.

Ian had to make a sleepy face as the maid was staring at him even after cleaning. After he got back to bed and closed his eyes, he heard the door close.

“……..”

I realized that there is medicine in my meals a long time ago.

It wasn’t a normal physical condition to sleep so little, and the medicines managed to get past the first few days, but that’s it.

Due to his work, Ian often stayed up all night. He slept only four hours at the longest even when he was forced to.

So it didn’t make sense to spend more than half of the day in bed for more than a few days. When he realised that once he fell asleep, it was hard to wake him up, he found Ed checking on his meal.

The reason why I didn’t say anything even though I knew was because I don’t have the power to do anything.

Rather than responding to the footsteps, it’s better to just take the medications like an obedient puppy.

In the past, Ian had never dreamt of doing this, but after he woke up he has been mired in extreme lethargy.

Is this dream or reality?

When I got out of bed, I saw the empty terrace.

I have no choice but to check now.

Confirming that the corridor was empty, Ian slowly approached the terrace without a sound. The darkness outside was as dark as a remote island. Ian, having an expressionless face, opened the door with a click and took a step forward.

“Hi.”

I heard a voice from behind me.

I turned my head slowly and saw a young man smiling neatly.

It was quite unfamiliar to see him stepping carefully on the stone wall by the window, resting his chin and smiling.

“Please say something nice and go back in.”

It was a dark night, but the hair reflected in the moonlight was almost purple. It was a color that was hard to see in reality, but what stood out more than that was the man’s face.

There’s black letters engraved in the skin.

They filled the man’s left cheek and continued under his neck, as if he had been scribbled with sharp objects.

I could not read the words here, but I understood that it was not an elegant sentence like a passage from the Bible.

The corner of the man’s mouth raised as if he knew where Ian’s gaze was.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

Stay safe and healthy along with your loved ones. And have a good day!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Stay tuned for more.

~Dazzel.D~