TFOA Chapter 36

After that, nothing floated to mind. He couldn't even remember how he had crawled his way inside.

"Really? That's a shame, remember it. I poured the medicine pot and all, but you wouldn't drink it, so I had quite a time with you."

"What kind of ridiculous nonsense..."

Niksi grabbed Benjamin's collar. And pulled him toward herself.

With that light motion lacking any strength at all, he was helplessly dragged along.

Before long, her lips brushed lightly against his.

The moment their lips touched, "Back then I fed you fever reducer". A faintly whispering voice.

Light water sounds between the gaps. Through her slightly parted lips, Niksi's laughter tangled its way in.

The fleeting moment passed, and Niksi's head fell with a thud onto his shoulder as she pulled her lips away from him.

Benjamin unconsciously caught her as she collapsed.

He quietly furrowed his brow.

'What exactly is she telling me to remember?'

He carefully placed his hand behind her head for support. Niksi seemed to have lost consciousness again, unable to hold her head up properly.

'...What should I do. I can't force her awake to take medicine.'

That day had felt like being submerged in black water.

'Hey, can you hear me? I told you I don't remember. Things like that.'

Her lips, burning with fever, were scalding hot. In contrast, the fingers that had touched his collar were extremely cold.

He laid her down in the place where she had been. Still, being a spot that had been warmed, faint warmth could be felt.

'Water, something like that, had I drunk it?'

It seemed like water had filled up his nose and mouth. He thought it was a dream.

He stretched his hand outside the cave. Rainwater pooled in his cupped palm.

Just what had he done that day to make her suddenly press her lips to him like that? He couldn't even remember. Yet she so nonchalantly... how could she do such a thing...

"...Rather than that sort of thing, just say it with words. I'll listen."

He swept down his face that had suddenly flushed hot.

When water had pooled to some extent drip by drip in his palm, he put the pill in his mouth. And took water into his mouth.

Dissolving a pill that was meant to be swallowed demanded quite deep patience. It was damn bitter, after all.

He gently inserted his fingers into the back of her hair. Her wet hair wrapped stickily around his fingers.

Feeling that her neck cupped in his palm was cold, he pressed his lips to hers.

Gently so her neck wouldn't break. But holding her head up so it wouldn't flow sideways.

He swept up the medicine flowing to the side with his hand while slowly passing the medication through.

The bitter taste still clinging tenaciously to his tongue tip had no thought of falling away.

The red tongue faintly visible between her slightly parted lips.

When the white medicine, dissolved to mush, passed through that gap, Benjamin couldn't remember at all but could infer what she must have done.

'It must have been like this.'

When all the saliva had flowed into her mouth, he swept the front part of her tongue with his to prevent her from instinctively spitting out the medicine.

After that, it was natural. Wet tongues mixed and pressed together.

She, who had cooled cold, unconsciously burrowed into his embrace seeking warmth.

With eyes cast downward, feeling the weight clinging to him, he swept through her hair.

His body that had been running dangerously hot cooled with another person's warmth. Precariously, the balance fell perfectly into place.

Hearing ragged sounds through the slightly parted gap, Benjamin slowly turned his head.

If it had been like this then too.

'Would it be something regrettable not to remember?'

Like walking a tightrope while playing with fire.

That sort, that sort of thing.

He closed his eyes, feeling the characteristic distant haze of the sedative in the medicine. Whether it was from the many things that had happened or the medicine.

His head was spinning.

Fortunately, the rain stopped without falling any more.

The lighter's high-voltage terminal died a glorious death after barely, barely managing to make one small campfire.

Thanks to that, they barely avoided freezing to death.

Once the condition of the two patients excluding himself entered a stable phase, a sigh of relief leaked from the painter's lips.

He deliberately kindled the fire mainly with fallen leaves, hoping this pitch-black smoke would catch the eyes of the Auvers people.

Niksi pushed away the drowsy spell and opened her eyes.

A familiar ceiling and soft blankets.

Looking around, what she saw was a calm room decorated mainly in deep green. A place with the bitter scent of herbs.

It was Village Head Gilbert's room.

With her last memory being in the cave, she shot up from where she lay.

Wondering if it was a dream, she pinched her cheek, but it only stung - the scene before her eyes didn't change.

"Gil! Painter!"

Niksi threw open the door and searched for the two of them.

What if, God forbid, only she had survived?

Having spent most of her life in such situations, she walked down the corridor with heavy, pounding steps.

"Oh my, Niksi. You're awake?"

In the living room were Betty and Raul organizing medicine bottles.

"Is it okay for you to be up already? You had a high fever."

Niksi took a deep breath.

Betty and Raul's expressions showed no sadness as if they had lost someone.

They're alive, both of them.

Niksi's heaving shoulders calmed down.

"...Where are the painter and Gil?"

"They're resting right now."

Raul pointed to the main room. Meaning they were over there.

"They're alive?"

"Of course. Both are perfectly fine."

"All their limbs too?"

"Yes."

"Thank goodness..."

She felt completely drained of strength. Niksi immediately let out a pained sound and collapsed onto the living room sofa.

Right. It wasn't even wartime, just being stranded in this small rural village - dying from that would truly be a dog's death.

But perhaps because she was used to situations where she would lose consciousness and wake up to find herself mostly the sole survivor.

"...I thought I was dead."

"You all nearly died and came back."

Betty clattered the medicine bottle and took out aspirin, pressing it into Niksi's hand.

"Benjamin and Niksi, when you two disappeared like that, Helen was quite shocked."

"Ah..."

After Benjamin and Niksi urgently went to find Gilbert, Helen headed to the village hall.

'Everyone gather in front of the hall! If you don't gather, don't even think about coming near the general store ever again!'

Helen rang the village's emergency bell that she rarely used, summoning the people. The villagers heard the bell and hurriedly gathered in front of the hall.

And she gave a speech that rivaled any eloquent speaker.

'Starting now, we're going to catch one animal bastard and one fly that had the audacity to crawl into our village.'

After making that declaration, Helen looked at the police officer among the crowd. He belonged to the 'crawling fly' category.

Simultaneously, all the villagers' gazes pierced into him. The officer, still not grasping the situation, looked around wondering 'Why me?'

"After that, the officer was dragged away by the elders and confined in the village hall, and we found you, Niksi and the others."

Raul continued the story.

In the village, there were three people who knew deeply about Gilbert's childhood, about the big rough boy in the hunter's hands.

Helen, who had been acquainted with his mother.

Grandmother Charlotte, who had often given Gilbert food.

Jeremiah Grace, who had been kind to all the villagers.

Helen with her injured leg and Grandmother Charlotte with her bad knees couldn't manage climbing the mountainside on a rainy day, so they called three young people from the village.

Raul, Betty, and Greta.

They pointed out the area near where Gilbert's old house had been and told them to check around there.

"While climbing up the mountainside, Greta saw smoke rising from the downstream slope area."

Following the smoke, they found Niksi's group.

The painter was just nodding off, unable to fight off the overwhelming sleepiness.

Raul supported Benjamin.

Carpenter Betty, who could lift a wooden barrel with ease, supported Gilbert.

Greta, who could drag home even runaway cattle by force, supported Niksi, and they each came down to the village.

Everyone was in such terrible condition they couldn't regain consciousness immediately, but Gilbert, who returned with his head split open, was in the worst state.

'How dare they touch our village head?'

Because of this, the villagers were menacing, saying that whoever caused this trouble, if they caught them, they'd tear them limb from limb.

"How did that happen? Do you remember?"

"Uh... well..."

Betty asked with a worried voice.

She wanted to tell lovely Betty all about her troubles and hardships, but this was Gilbert's personal story. It wasn't her place to babble about it.

With tears in her eyes, Niksi chose friendship with the village head over affection and smiled awkwardly.

"Who knows. I fainted in the middle so I don't really know."

Niksi carefully opened the door to the main room. The place where they said Gilbert was laid down.

The blanket on the bed rose and fell evenly.

She cautiously approached and sat on the nightstand beside the bed.

It was the first time seeing his peacefully sleeping face.

They said his head was split, and indeed, his head was wrapped round and round with bandages with rabbit drawings on them.

It was a cute appearance of unknown taste.

She sat by his bedside and carefully examined his sleeping face.

Even she, who had experienced all sorts of things on battlefields, was this tired - how tired must the village head be, for whom such incidents were unfamiliar?

Perhaps because of that. His face, breathing evenly, looked unusually much younger than usual.

As the rain seemed to have stopped, gentle sunlight shone through the window, and what seeped through the window cracks tickled his face.

Niksi blocked the light with the back of her hand so it wouldn't seep into his eyes.

Then Gilbert's hand gently grasped hers.

"Are you conscious?"

"Where is this...?"

"Your house."

He rolled his eyes, finding the room unfamiliar.

Soon Gilbert realized this was the largest room.

"What happened...?"

Niksi told him what had occurred while he settled back against the headboard.

How Gilbert had disappeared and they went looking for him. The strange man they met there.

How they ran from the man and took refuge in a cave, and after that were rescued by Raul, Betty, and Greta.

"What about Benjamin?"

"He's sleeping soundly in the next room. Oh, don't get up yet. They said you need to rest plenty for the time being."

Niksi restrained Gilbert who was trying to force himself up.

"Are you..."

"Hm?"

"Are you okay?"

"There are people worrying about me too. Hehe. I'm fine. I'm tough enough to be okay with anything except serious things."

"I see..."

Gilbert trailed off.

"Sorry. For getting you involved in this mess."

"No. That's how life is. Just because I'm careful doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing. But listen."

Niksi decided to voice something she had been thinking about quite deeply for her.

"Tell me."

"What?"

"Your story."

For Niksi, other people's stories were like opening a book titled 'The Governing Ideology of Ancient Maya Civilization'.

Not particularly interested, difficult, hard to understand. So she didn't even attempt to open such things.

But now she felt she needed to know.

"I'm warning you in advance, I might misunderstand your story after hearing it. But I'll just be listening. And if it's a timing when you need comfort or response, tell me. I have a few reaction collections inputted in my head."

Because it seemed like the person in front of her was no longer a stranger to her.

She still couldn't express it well in words yet!

Probably if she heard all the stories, she would have to understand Gilbert well. Even if it didn't make sense logically, she would have to force it to be inputted.

Her head that judged the world with logic would be confused for a while, but oh well.

"So I am..."

"You want to know about me?"

"Exactly that."

Gilbert just blinked at Niksi's unexpected answer. Then he laughed softly.

"...Last time you said let's just enjoy each other. I was just a mere plaything. Now you want to become closer? That's too much, Niksi."

Niksi hit her forehead at her past foolish words.

"That was then. My heart has changed now!"

"How can your heart change so easily..."

"Let's forget our past and just think about the future! That's better for everyone. And close the door, Raul!"

"If you need alcohol or a lawyer, just say so, Gilbert!"

Niksi, who had become shameless trash in an instant, returned after slamming the door shut with indignant steps.

She came back to his bedside, propped her chin and said.

"Listen, Gil. We shared life and death together until just a moment ago."

"That's right."

"If this were the army, we'd be comrades, and if this were Paris, we'd have become best friends. But this is Auvers, right? So I think we've become... the sort of relationship where we can know each other quite deeply... maybe... possibly."

Gilbert found her uncharacteristically roundabout way of speaking quite amusing. So he smiled slightly.

"Why are you so uncertain?"

"...Should I be confident? Can I just say it directly?"

"Yes."

"Ah then why do you have two fathers! I'm quite curious, let me hear it."

"...Wow."

When he told her to ask confidently, he didn't expect her to charge in like this.

Even Gilbert, who had a grasp of what kind of person she usually was, felt dizzy at this unfilial-but-not-unfilial question about having two fathers.

Then he burst into laughter.

It was funny that the question didn't bother him anymore.

"It's not a particularly interesting story."

"I know that too. I'm prepared for it."

"It might be boring."

"I'll try to learn to like boring things from now on."

Gilbert took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

Recalling a past he didn't want to remember was always difficult.

"Alright, fine."

But now there was nothing he couldn't do.

"Since I only learned to catch rabbits from childhood, I couldn't learn to read."

"I see."

"Once, someone died caught in a trap that man had set. Probably an outsider. They wandered the mountain path and unluckily got caught in a trap meant for wild boar hunting and died."

At the time, the man was extremely agitated. Even to young Gilbert's eyes, he could sense that something had happened.

"So to avoid being caught by anyone, he buried it, but I happened to witness that."

"I see."

"Niksi. Here you should empathize and feel sorry for me."

"What a horrible story! How much trauma young Gil must have suffered!"

Niksi used some of the learned reactions she had prepared.

Satisfied with the response, Gilbert continued his story.

"That's when he started hunting tourists. Because luring one wealthy tourist and burying them made more money than catching one animal."

"That makes sense though."

"Here you should criticize that man."

"That piece of trash! He should rot in prison!"

"Good."

The night he discovered that the man had become a monster who hunted people.

Gilbert learned that the sacks he had been burying all this time weren't animals.

The man who had let his mother die by neglect, killed people, and made him dispose of them - his hatred toward this despicable man exploded that night.

'You're not even human.'

The night his resentment toward that man exploded.

Young Gilbert pushed the man, who could no longer even be called human, off a cliff.

That's how he ran away from what he had done.

Just then, he encountered a police officer who was patrolling the mountain path because tourists kept disappearing from the village.

Gilbert was caught by the suspicious officer, but was saved by Jeremiah Grace, who couldn't just pass by him.

With nowhere to go, he was adopted into the Grace family like that.

"Father said a man's body was found in the lower reaches of the river, so I thought it was that man. But thinking about it now, I think Father deliberately lied. Back then I kept having nightmares about that man coming back alive."

"So what will you do now?"

Niksi stared at Gilbert intently.

"Will you kill him?"

Though there was no object mentioned, it was clear it referred to his biological father.

Niksi's words somehow sounded like 'If you do that, I'll help you.'

Whether he should be pleased about this or horrified that his friend was a sociopath.

Gilbert rolled up the corners of his mouth.

"Gil. I don't really want to suppose this, but that piece of trash could spill everything to the police officer and shift his crimes onto you. Then you could be dragged to prison. You should silence him before that. If it's revenge, I can help."

I'm a specialist in that sort of thing. A prepared talent with 10 years of experience! A veteran elite.

Niksi thumped her chest. She was truly reliable.

"If I do that, I'll be no different from that man."

He thought from the beginning that he was the same as him, so killing that man was his destiny.

Just as it's a hunter's destiny to kill beasts. But.

"I'm different from that person."

"..."

"...Here you should ask how I'm different."

"How are you different?"

He leaned back against the headboard.

Words so obvious he was embarrassed to even say them. But something he had never acknowledged until now, even to himself.

Gilbert smiled broadly.

It was a refreshing smile like a midsummer boy.

"I promised Father. To live like Gilbert Grace."

▶ Gilbert's Harvest

Chicken soup pot, 1L cinnamon mulled wine, 650ml garlic lemon juice, one chicken... 23 brownies, one pot of sole meunière, 3 containers of apple onion pickles, three bowls of potato gratin, one box of grapes.

▶ Overall Assessment

Do the village elders still think I'm in my growing years...? This isn't a sick visit, it's a feast...