Chapter 337 : Side Story (7)

“Mr. Cheshih.”

Ferbias Caseptus was holding a bowl of porridge in his hands.

Cheshih greeted him while sitting on the bed.

He did not offer a friendly greeting, but he could not glare at him as he did at first either.

“How are you feeling?”

“…I do not wish to speak.”

Cheshih was still uncomfortable with the man named Ferbias.

Even if hatred did not burn as fiercely as before, whenever there was a chance, his heart felt pressed down, making him want to spit out sharp words.

Because deep-seated resentment does not disappear so easily.

Ferbias, the bearded village chief, put the bowl of porridge down next to Cheshih as if he expected that.

It was potato porridge.

“Do you have a place to go?”

“…….”

Cheshih shook his head quietly.

“If it is alright, would you please stay here?”

Ferbias asked very kindly, yet carefully.

“The children like you very much. And as I said, you seem to have very many things to teach the children. Especially Mano wants to learn arithmetic.”

“…Not all Horm people are good at arithmetic. That is a prejudice.”

“Ah. Are you bad at arithmetic?”

“…I am good at it. It is my specialty.”

“That is fortunate.”

Cheshih spat out abruptly.

“…I never said I would teach her.”

“If it is uncomfortable, I will leave.”

“…I….”

Cheshih was silent for a long time.

For a long time, a very long time.

“…….”

The steaming potato porridge cooled down quickly.

Cheshih looked out the window with very sharp eyes.

He did so throughout all the time he fell into silence.

Ferbias waited for such a Cheshih.

“I….”

He slowly showed the inside of his bosom.

“…Still have one dagger left.”

At first, he came harboring three daggers.

However, now there is only one left.

His hatred had worn down that much.

“I will slit your throat at any time.”

“Then it means you will stay, doesn’t it?”

Ferbias smiled.

He still looked like he was enduring something.

It was a face suppressing pain with effort.

Yet it was clearly a smile.

“I should tell Mano. When shall we start the lessons?”

“…You….”

Cheshih glared at Ferbias.

Tears flowed from the glaring eyes.

The eyes that were like a bird of prey eventually softened.

“…No, you….”

He eventually became unable to hate Ferbias anymore.

Cheshih grasped the last dagger in his bosom and threw it to the floor.

He ended up throwing away all the daggers.

It meant all three daggers of hatred had disappeared.

“…Until the end, really….”

Ah, the sun is bright.

Saying it was always there, that there was never a time it wasn’t, revealing sunlight with a glad heart asking if its light has finally reached him now.

“…….”

Where did the dark clouds go?

What about that terrible heavy rain and torrent?

Where, just where did the outcries that tried to swallow him whole up to the top of his head and melt him down go?

That dazzling sun is truly heartless, and also like Ji-oteu, yet he feels just so grateful that he can do nothing but smile now….

“I lost.”

***

“Quite a touching story.”

Obro Denoebang dismissed Cheshih’s long story with a single phrase.

“But that is your story, Mr. Cheshih.”

“……That is correct.”

They are in the field.

Obro Denoebang has drawn ‘Grayish-white Nobility’ and Ferbias Caseptus has his eyes closed like a person waiting for a verdict.

Cheshih defended Ferbias passionately, but Obro Denoebang’s anger remained unchanged.

“I will kill that guy. I have the right to do so.”

Obro Denoebang’s words were correct.

He went through a very terrible time, lost many things, and Ferbias Caseptus was largely to blame for that.

Because of that, Cheshih nodded.

“You have the right to do so.”

“Then why are you still blocking my way? Without stepping aside quickly.”

“Only, I.”

Cheshih spoke.

He looked straight at Obro Denoebang.

He looked so straight that Obro unknowingly stepped back slightly.

“I just hope you reconcile too.”

“Reconcile? With whom?”

Obro Denoebang snorted.

He recalled hearing similar words from Emperor Shion, but tried to pretend he didn’t know.

“With that Ferbias? I have no intention of doing that.”

“No. Reconcile with the God who allowed loss in your life.”

“Ha!”

The White Lord shouted loudly.

“Did you say God?”

“I said God.”

He asked back.

“Do you still believe in God even after going through all that, Mr. Cheshih?”

“How can I not believe when I am still alive even after going through all that, Mr. Obro.”

Obro and Cheshih looked at each other.

They noticed that they resembled each other.

In the point that they came to this mountain valley to kill Ferbias.

However, Cheshih reconciled and Obro did not want to reconcile.

Because of that, Obro Denoebang became even angrier.

It was because he felt as if the whole world was urging him to reconcile.

In his heart, the scars left by life are vivid, and these scars still ache, so speaking of reconciliation inevitably makes him angry.

“Truly like a Horm person. Seeking God in everything.”

“You are also truly like a Westerner. Trying to confine God only inside a building.”

Obro Denoebang is the White Lord.

A man who topples even Ancient Gods with the Ars ‘Grayish-white Nobility’.

Now that the Hotus Eight Gods are gone, there was no one as strong as him under the sky.

Cheshih is a born civil official.

Although his talent for rolling a pen was excellent, he had no talent for using a sword.

Cheshih in front of Obro is just shabby like an ant.

In fact, Obro could kill Cheshih as if stepping on an ant.

However, Cheshih did not back down even a little.

Ferbias Caseptus still hasn’t opened his eyes.

Squeezing his two eyes shut, enduring various sufferings, he is waiting for the verdict.

His survival and death depended entirely on Obro Denoebang’s choice.

“…Fine.”

Obro did not like the whole series of situations.

Ferbias offers his neck as if telling him to kill him, Cheshih persuading him but not forcing him, and even his own self hesitating in front of revenge.

“It’s worth the price of hearing a touching story.”

He sheathed his sword.

As ‘Grayish-white Nobility’ hid its form, the demonic energy suppressing Cheshih and Ferbias disappeared together.

Only then did they catch their breath.

“I will watch you, Ferbias.”

“…….”

“But keep in mind.”

Obro huffed.

The smell of alcohol came from his mouth.

It was the smell of suffering aged too long.

“Because my sword won’t be like Mr. Cheshih’s dagger.”

***

Obro stayed in Peniteo Village.

It was to watch Ferbias.

The village chief of Peniteo, Ferbias Caseptus, lived his daily life silently.

Even knowing Obro was watching, he was not conscious of it at all.

No, at least he tried not to be conscious.

Even while his daily life was being disassembled in detail, he was just silent.

Ferbias cared for the children and cultivated the land.

Caring for eight children had to be arduous.

He had to prepare every meal, wash bedding and clothes, and soothe whining children.

While doing so, he even grabbed a plow and sweated.

He did so every single day without fail.

As if that day were the last day, as if he didn’t know about tomorrow’s affairs, he just lived through each day with all his might.

There was not a day he didn’t break a sweat.

His sun-tanned skin and callous-thickened hands made one feel awkwardness from the fact that he was once an Emperor.

The current Ferbias looked like nothing but a mountain village chief, and a farmer raising children.

Obro did not help even a little.

He didn’t cook food for him at first or anything.

Instead, he crossed his arms and watched Ferbias from afar all along.

Whether he got hurt during field work or not, whether he was about to collapse from hard labor or not, he just watched.

In the middle of the night, sobbing and stifled sounds came from Ferbias’s room sometimes.

Actually, it wasn’t sometimes.

He cried sobbing without missing a single day.

Ferbias cried, blocking his mouth with a blanket lest someone hear.

So no one had heard until now, but Obro Denoebang, being Obro Denoebang, ended up hearing even that small sound.

Obro tried to ignore that sound.

But he knew that sound better than anyone.

It was the sound of regretting his past life.

It was the sound of suffering gut-wrenching pain while chewing over and hacking at his own life.

If asked how he knows, he could only answer that he had experienced it more painfully than anyone.

11 years.

Obro Denoebang lost 11 years.

A time too terrible to simply say lost, also too painful and agonizing, a time when he realized the meaning of misery.

Thinking that someone was going through such a time made him feel pity.

But the opponent was Ferbias.

The man who had very great responsibility for his 11 years.

Therefore, Obro Denoebang tried to ignore it.

Even while hearing Ferbias’s sobbing every day, he blocked his ears and drank alcohol.

***

Ferbias sobbed in suffocation every day.

Because even his sobbing felt sinful, he hid tightly so no one could hear and cried secretly.

Obro heard that sobbing every day.

Even if he didn’t want to hear, it was heard.

However, he pretended not to know.

In front of Ferbias’s painful secret, he just drank alcohol.

Several weeks passed like that.

***

Cheshih was a devout man.

Even coming to a distant foreign land, he did not forget the God he served in his hometown.

Whether he was in the middle of field work or caring for children, three times a day, when the set time came, he looked up at the sky and clasped his hands.

He prayed to God like that.

Very politely, kneeling and clasping his hands.

Above all, he smiled brightly.

As if asking how You are while I am living well.

As if it is all thanks to You.

He offered gratitude to God as if asking after the well-being of close family.

He was a man who lost much.

He lost two sons, a wife, a homeland, and countless things.

He was also living in the same village for about 3 years with the man who took those away.

Therefore, he learned to be grateful for life.

Ferbias used to steal glances at such a Cheshih.

He used to stare intently at the man looking up at the sky smiling brightly, and clasping hands to express gratitude and entrust the day.

He tried to clasp his hands or look up at the sky several times as if imitating Cheshih.

However, he couldn’t.

He tried to ask for forgiveness somewhere, and tried to be grateful.

However, he only realized that he absolutely dared not do so.

Because his sins were too deep.

Ferbias couldn’t even shamelessly try praying to the unseen God.

It meant he couldn’t permit himself even a little comfort at all.

What he permitted himself was only hard labor, suffering, and regret.

That was Ferbias’s misery.

Obro Denoebang ended up seeing even this.

However, it was still just detestable.

***

It was around the time 5 weeks had passed since Obro Denoebang stayed in Peniteo.

“Mr. Obro!”

Cheshih’s shout rang through the whole village.

“Mr. Obro!”

“Why do you call like that, Mr. Cheshih?”

“Quickly, please come quickly!”

“Just why is it?”

“Mano!”

The Horm person’s dark skin was covered entirely in sweat.

Obro smelled blood from him.

“Mano was run over by a carriage!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep