Chapter 20: Awareness (2)
Chapter 20: Awareness (2)
“Hey, sis. You’ve got a letter. There’s one for you, too. Come inside.”
A voice suddenly cut through the darkness of her thoughts. Ariel, still caught in the tide of emotions, trembled as she lifted her head. Her vision was blurry, but that didn’t stop her from recognizing him. Even through the haze, his golden hair gleamed brilliantly.
It was Joshua.
He had called her name without a second thought, but upon seeing her tear-filled eyes, he flinched in surprise. Recalling past events, he instinctively averted his gaze. A faint blush crept onto his handsome face.
“Uh, s-sorry. Just come in when you’re feeling better. I’ll hold onto it for you.”
With that, Joshua turned on his heel and hurried away without a second glance. Ariel watched his retreating figure with unfocused eyes.
Dressed in casual fatigues, Joshua’s slender frame was nothing like Aynkel’s, whose body had been sculpted by years of rigorous training. Their faces, however, save for the color, were eerily similar.
She had always known it, but at that moment, the reality that Joshua and Aynkel were two entirely different people struck her with newfound clarity. And then….
A hollow ache swelled in her chest. She missed him, so much it hurt.
Aynkel Elias.
‘My beloved brother…’
A single teardrop, heavy like a bead of glass, slid down her cheek. Wiping it away with the back of her hand, Ariel pushed herself to her feet.
[Are you okay?]
“Even if I’m not, what can I do? It’s not like mourning will bring the dead back to life.”
She already knew it, but saying it aloud made the bitterness of reality even harsher. Swallowing the wave of grief, Ariel took a step forward.
* * *
As soon as she stepped into the barracks, Ariel sensed that something was off. All eyes turned to her. It was natural for people to glance when someone entered, but this was different. Their gazes didn’t just land on her – they clung to her, unrelenting.
Just as she was beginning to wonder why, Joshua approached. His expression was no different from the others’, making Ariel furrow her brows in confusion.
“…What?”
Instead of answering, Joshua handed her a few envelopes. The moment she saw Karma’s name stamped on the topmost one, Ariel stiffened and snatched it up in a hurry.
As soon as she took it, Joshua leaned in slightly. Instinctively, Ariel flinched back. He didn’t move any closer. Instead, he spoke in a hushed, conspiratorial tone.
“Sis, are you… acquainted with Lord Fereshte?”
His expression was oddly serious. Ariel tilted her head, wondering why he was asking something so trivial.
“Karma? She’s a friend. Why?”
The answer came naturally, without much thought. But the moment she affirmed it, Joshua’s face went rigid with shock. A realization struck Ariel like a bolt of lightning.
The greatest witch of Dantella. One of the Five Elders. A mage who could cast spells with mere words, just like Jin Kreutz. A Phema.
She had never thought much of it because Karma was simply a friend. But Karma Fereshte was, in reality, one of Dantella’s most renowned figures, comparable even to Jin Kreutz.
Joshua let out a strangled noise, his voice dropping to an almost inaudible whisper.
“Sis… are you actually a spy or an inspector sent undercover?”
“….”
Ariel decided silence was the best response to nonsense. She let out a quiet sigh and simply stared at him, unblinking. After a long moment, Joshua shrank back, looking sheepish.
“…Sorry.”
“Can I go sit now?”
“Uh… yeah, yeah, of course.”
Leaving him behind, Ariel walked toward the table where the rest of her teammates were gathered.
She had spoken confidently in front of Joshua, but in truth, she still found it difficult to look at his face for too long. Only after putting some distance between them did the tightness in her chest ease.
Ariel took her seat among the burly soldiers she had grown accustomed to during the past two weeks of training. As soon as she did, they all turned to stare at her, as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
Even if she tried to ignore them, their stares were so blatant, so pointed, that it was impossible to do so. Eventually, Ariel paused in the middle of opening her letter and glanced around.
“…Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
“You’re just… kind of amazing.”
“Because I’m from the capital?”
They hadn’t said it outright, but she understood what they meant.
Summoned by Jin Kreutz on her very first day. A personal friend of Karma Fereshte.
To an outsider, it must have looked like she had a downright absurd network of connections.
‘Though… my relationship with Lord Kreutz isn’t what they think it is.’
She was standing out far more than she had intended. It didn’t really matter, but thinking about him always dragged up an unpleasant tangle of thoughts.
Absorbing their gazes without much concern, Ariel finally tore open Karma’s letter. But the excitement and warmth she should have felt were dampened by the unwelcome intrusion of Jin Kreutz into her thoughts.
Half-distracted, she unfolded the letter.
[HEY!!! ARIEL! ARE YOU CRAZY, YOU IDIOT?!]
The moment she laid eyes on the contents, an ear-splitting yell exploded in her head. Ariel jolted violently, nearly dropping the letter. It landed on her ankle, and she took a deep breath to steady herself before picking it back up. Fortunately, the horrifying shriek did not repeat itself.
[Sorry. The person writing this made me do it. Were you surprised?]
The voice that followed sounded unmistakably like Karma’s.
“….”
‘How could I not be surprised? What kind of question is that?’
Ariel let out a quiet sigh of exasperation. Despite her irritation, her hands handled the letter with care, and her expression softened with relief. But as she continued reading, her face steadily darkened.
“…Wow. I’ve never seen so much profanity in a single letter before.”
One of her teammates muttered absentmindedly. Ariel turned to see the youngest marksman in their squad, twenty-year-old Xenon, staring blankly at her letter. Sensing her gaze, he quickly snapped out of it and stammered.
“Ah… sorry! I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but the letters are so…”
“It’s fine.”
Ariel responded lightly and refocused on the letter. The scrawled words, written in furious red ink, practically leapt off the page. It looked more like a cursed manuscript than a letter.
If I were Xenon, I wouldn’t have been able to look away either.
[The entire time I was writing this, I was fuming! What the hell are you thinking, going to war?! What if you get hurt?!]
The letter raged.
‘…I see.’
Karma had certainly put her emotions into this one.
Ariel knew that her friend’s anger stemmed from worry. And yet, she felt no guilt. In fact, she didn’t think she owed Karma an apology at all.
‘As if she never made me worry.’
After all, Karma had done the same thing to her. Yes, Karma had been forced into the military, while Ariel had chosen to enlist. She understood the difference.
But if that were the case, then their feelings should have been weighed differently, too.
Ariel still remembered the crushing despair she had felt when Karma had simply informed her of her enlistment. Even now, just thinking about it blurred Aynkel’s corpse with Karma’s image, dragging her heart into an abyss.
And yet, now…
‘This is how she reacts?’
Ariel clenched her jaw and forced down the surge of resentment. Gritting her teeth, she tore her gaze away from the letter and looked up. Xenon, who had been pretending not to see, glanced at her cautiously.
“Huh…? Why?”
“Can I send a reply to this now?”
“Oh, yeah. You should hurry if you want to send it today. There’s only about two hours of free time left.”
Xenon pointed toward the entrance with a thick finger, calloused from years of training. Ariel followed his gesture with her eyes. There, she spotted a small stand holding stacks of stationery, envelopes, and pens. Next to it stood a green collection box, its perforated surface making its purpose unmistakable. It was meant for gathering letters.
“If you don’t send it today, you might have to wait a few days for the next opportunity.”
“Plenty of time, then.”
Ariel muttered through gritted teeth. Ariel rose to her feet, her eyes dark with determination. She strode toward the entrance with a lethal aura, as if ready to take down an enemy. Watching her go, Xenon audibly gulped.
When she returned, gripping a sheet of stationery and a pen, she glared at the blank page as though it were Karma herself. Her gaze burned with intensity, like flames licking at dry tinder. For a moment, she pondered what to write. What words would strike Karma with the greatest impact?
After a brief pause, she made her decision. Crouching down, she placed the paper against her knee and pressed her pen firmly to the page, inscribing each word with deliberate force. Her message was short.
「I won’t lose to those brainless giants. You know how capable I am.」
It was a direct echo of something she had once heard before, now turned back on its original speaker.
