Chapter 202

The man’s name was Yulan.

“My name is Yulan?”

He asked with an innocent smile. I shook my head as if I was tired of it.

“Yes, I’ve told you several times.”

“Is that my full name?”

“I’ve told you that several times too, your last name is Etgendorher.”

“Etgendorher! Then I must be Yulan Etgendorher!”

“How many more times do I have to do this……”

The man laughed excitedly, and I kept shaking my head.

Although I couldn’t be sure, Yulan was probably around forty years old.

But his behavior was no different from a child’s. It was because he had no memory.

He was one of the eight hundred rescued from the Underworld.

Considering that the Underworld was teeming with serpents called ‘Name-eaters’ that devoured memories and names, Yulan’s condition was not strange. It was just tiring.

The carriage rattled.

Amethus was acting as the coachman, and in the cabin, it was just Yulan and me.

It was a similar situation to when I was traveling with Obro.

Except Obro Denoebang wasn’t that talkative.

I looked out the window.

“It’s snowing.”

“Oh? Something’s falling from the sky.”

Yulan extended his hand.

A snowflake landed on his palm, and Yulan shivered.

It was unexpectedly cold.

The surprise was brief, and he soon giggled.

“It’s cold!”

He was so innocent, it was hard to believe he was a man close to forty.

“What is this, Mr. Shion?”

“It’s snowing.”

I said.

“In Schmeizen, it always snows for three months of the year.”

“I think I like the snow!”

“It seems so, Yulan.”

Yulan laughed with shrieks of joy.

If he hadn’t been in the carriage, he would have surely run and played in the snow like a puppy.

“What were you called in the Underworld?”

“The Young Lord.”

“You do look the part.”

He had a dignified appearance.

His eyes were large and his nose was straight.

Even though the wrinkles around his eyes asserted his age, his gentle impression made him look like a boy.

He must have been as beautiful as a doll in his youth, especially in his boyhood.

“Is this Schmeizen?”

“We crossed the border yesterday.”

“So if we cross the border, it’s Schmeizen.”

Yulan nodded.

He was in a good mood. More than good, he was utterly thrilled.

His memories were all dark.

This was because, except for his memories of the ever-pitch-black Underworld, no other memories remained in his head.

The Underworld, the domain of the Black Light.

The place where Yulan had been trapped for many years was not the real afterlife, but it was just as terrible.

Although I had never been to the real afterlife, I could be sure of that.

A place that was always pitch black.

A place where you couldn’t call your own name.

A place swarming with snakes and bugs, with only liquor and blood instead of water.

Coming out of that cramped darkness and seeing the white snow falling like this, laughter couldn’t help but burst out.

He couldn’t help but be excited.

“I like Schmeizen. Is Schmeizen perhaps my hometown?”

“Probably. Though likely even further north.”

“I see! To have Schmeizen as a hometown, that’s a very wonderful thing.”

Yulan’s eyes sparkled.

“By the way, Mr. Shion, how do you know so much about me? Did we perhaps know each other before?”

“How old do I look to you?”

“Fifteen?”

“…I’m eighteen.”

I (now 37, a regressor) scratched my cheek.

Whatever my mind felt, my body was definitely 18.

“The ‘Night of Inversion’ was 11 years ago, so I would have been 7 years old then. How could I have known you, Yulan.”

“Then how do you know about me?”

“I heard it from someone who knows you well.”

“Someone who knows me well?”

Yulan smiled brightly.

He was so innocent, he was like a newborn baby.

“That’s a very wonderful thing too. I’d really like to meet them.”

“You will soon.”

In front of that baby-like smile, I felt my heart soften.

A hardened heart tends to loosen up so easily in the face of innocence.

The strange situation of a man close to forty smiling like a baby also suppressed my sense of reality.

“So get plenty of rest. The time in the Underworld must have been hard.”

“But I’m having fun!”

“You have dark circles under your eyes. That’s proof that you’re tired.”

I glanced at the driver’s seat.

My eyes met Amethus’s.

We had been together for 7 years and could communicate with a simple glance.

“He says we’ll be entering a city soon. Let’s have a meal there and sleep for a night.”

“A meal……? Do we have to……?”

Yulan’s face turned dark.

He shook his head as if utterly disgusted. I asked.

“Why do you make that face?”

“Meals are… agonizing.”

The meals in the Underworld had to be terrible.

The only animals to eat were snakes and bugs, the only plants were weeds and moss, the only things to drink were liquor and blood!

Every single one tasted absolutely filthy.

But to live, one had to eat.

Even if it was a disgusting, terrible experience, a person had to repeat the act of eating to survive.

It wasn’t strange for Yulan, who only had memories of the Underworld, to think that eating was an agonizing affair.

“…He has a way of stimulating one’s protective instincts.”

I felt a sense of pity.

“Look forward to it. I’ll treat you to an absolutely killer meal.”

“…Killer? Please don’t, please. I just got out of the Underworld, I just found out my name is Yulan……. Mr. Shion, you’re a good person…….”

“That’s not what I mean by……”

Oh, whatever. I let out a sigh.

“I don’t know anymore.”

***

The carriage arrived in the city, but Yulan refused to get out.

He was caught in the absurd delusion that the killer meal might actually end his life.

He held onto the chair and resisted, but he ended up surrendering to Amethus’s monstrous strength.

However, Amethus, who had to carry a man (almost forty) thrashing about because he didn’t want to eat, on his back to the restaurant, couldn’t help but have complicated feelings.

I felt the same.

“Just try putting it in your mouth, Yulan!”

“Ugh! Ughhh!”

“…This isn’t working. Hold him down, Amethus.”

Amethus, who had suddenly become a nanny, sighed and held Yulan.

Held by the swordsman who could part the sea, Yulan couldn’t move an inch.

Yulan’s mouth opened, and I shoved a spoon in.

“Hehe, mashed potatoes simmered in cream, Yulan. And now, seasoned just right……”

“Ugh!”

“There are also bits of crispy fried bacon studded throughout. They’re cut thick, so the taste will be absolutely amazing!”

I laughed like a villain.

Amethus looked at me with some pity.

The restaurant owner looked at the three men putting on a farce with curiosity but tried his best to ignore them.

“Mmm……!”

Yulan’s struggle stopped as the mashed potatoes entered his mouth.

He received pleasant stimulation.

The mashed potatoes, simmered in cream, filled his mouth with a soft richness.

The perfect seasoning gave a pleasure that could only be felt with the tongue.

Occasionally, when the bacon bits studded here and there were chewed, it felt as if they were saying, ‘It’s me, bacon,’ and pleasure flowed down his throat.

The thickly cut bacon was saturated with fragrant meat fat, which it gently released when chewed.

The released bacon fat seeped harmoniously into the mashed potatoes.

“Mmmmmmmh!”

Yulan unwittingly let out a cry of joy through his nostrils.

The cream, potatoes, and bacon were dancing a very soft and beautiful dance in his mouth.

He eventually started to cry.

“Hic, sob, sob…….”

“…Hey, why are you crying?”

“…Of course, tears are coming out…….”

He said, wiping his eyes.

“To give me something this good……. I was wondering what kind of horrible meal you were going to make me eat…….”

“……Yulan.”

“…Sob…….”

“Yulan!”

“……Hic!”

I gestured with my hand.

It meant there was no need to hold him anymore, and Amethus let go of Yulan.

“This is the meal.”

“……Yes?”

“You ate it. Your hunger has subsided. So if this isn’t a meal, what is it?”

“…But it’s not agonizing.”

“Yulan.”

I said in a gentle voice. I couldn’t help it, as pity welled up.

“Normally, eating isn’t an agonizing thing.”

“…Really?”

“Really.”

Yulan’s face, which was about to smile brightly, hardened.

It was as if his past had grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

“Then, if this is a meal…….”

His lips trembled with resentment, anger, and sadness.

“…What have I been doing all this time……?”

“An extreme choice for nutritional replenishment?”

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about. But I get it…….”

Yulan shook his head.

Seeing him understand an expression made up of roughly attached difficult words, it seemed he was originally a smart man.

Yulan wiped his tears and picked up a spoon and then, he began to redefine the concept of a meal.

Mashed potatoes, well-roasted chicken legs, red stew with short noodles mixed in, crispy-skinned pork……. Yulan shed tears of joy.

“You are an interesting group.”

The restaurant owner finally couldn’t hold back and spoke to us.

The farce of the three men, Shion, Amethus, and Yulan, was excessively amusing.

“Where are you all from? Judging by your accents, you’re not from Schmeizen.”

“We two are from Bururade. This one is from Maesh.”

“I thought so.”

The restaurant owner chuckled heartily.

He thought Yulan was from Maesh.

Yulan had lost his old memories, and since most of the people in the Underworld were from Maesh, he was using a Maesh accent.

“Shall I prepare more food for you?”

“Is there anything else you want to eat, Yulan?”

“Hmm…….”

Yulan fell into serious contemplation.

“What is this, Mr. Shion?”

“That’s a whole roasted pig. The skin is crispy.”

“This one!”

“So he says, owner.”

The restaurant owner shook his head.

“Unfortunately, that will be difficult. It takes a long time to cook.”

“We’ll wait.”

“No, it’s almost time to close…….”

Amethus tilted his head.

The sun was high in the sky.

It wasn’t long past noon, and there was still a long time until sunset.

Besides, this restaurant seemed to double as a pub, yet it was already closing.

Amethus couldn’t overcome his curiosity and opened his mouth.

“To close at this hour.”

“…….”

The restaurant owner quietly looked at Amethus.

It was inorganic, with neither hostility nor favor, which felt somewhat out of place.

The restaurant owner glanced at the sword at Amethus’s waist and his broad shoulders, then quietly asked.

“……Is this your first time in Schmeizen, Sir Knight?”

“It is.”

“Is that so…….”

The owner’s voice is quiet.

“This may be none of my business, but I will tell you one thing…….”

A furrow formed on Amethus’s brow.

He had been chattering cheerfully until just a moment ago, but suddenly his voice had sunk.

It was obvious he was talking about something he didn’t want to talk about.

“When the golden snow falls, you must not be outside…….”

“Golden snow?”

“…Well then, I hope you enjoy your meal…….”

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