Follow You To The End - Chapter 3

It was six months ago that Aris came here just to save himself from starving to death.
Aris entered the village as if he had come out of a walk through a forest full of demons. Of course, it was not impossible to get through the demon forest if he wasn’t clever. However, the only weapon he had at that time was a single sword. Aris had nothing ordinary, including his appearance, name, and sword skills.

In the first place, a sober human being could not have crawled into a village where there was nothing. As a result, Aris was initially suspected to be a wanted criminal, who came to the village to hide himself. That’s not exactly wrong, and Aris didn’t say yes or no. Aris, who was almost thrown out by the villagers full of suspicion at first, was able to stay because he caught all the demons wandering around the village. Even so, it was difficult for the residents, who were busy living with their own family, to accept Aris willingly.

However, Aris started living in an abandoned empty house without the help of the villagers and managed to live alone. He even went into the beastly forest and handed out what he hunted, to the villagers. Even though he seems to be a foreigner, he knew the customs of Myryan well enough, and he did not feel awkward to hang out with the villagers. For that reason, Aris has been living in the village so far without any problems.

Meanwhile, Lizelle was unlucky. Before the forest was polluted, Lizelle was sent to Frost sect to look after the shrine there, but got restricted there. It was unreasonable to send personnel to defeat the demons right away.
Instead, if they asked for help from the behalf of the shrine, the villagers could have escaped the village even if it was too much, but the shrine, which was not managed, would have lost its sacred power.

If there is no sacred power to protect the village, the demons will invade the village.

This meant that without Lizelle, the village would be taken by demons.

That was why, Aris and Lizelle, had no choice but to be in this town.
So it’s been half a year since someone came into this place from outside. He had been asking for help from the outside world, but it was the first time the sect has officially accepted it.

“If you all have conscience, you should not abandon the Lady who maintains the sacred power of the village at the expense of herself.”
Aris’ words were buried in the minds of villagers who became noisy after a long time.

“But it’s really surprising that you came from Lashballen’s side. I’ve never heard of them coming before. I got to know today… I found out today. It’s amazing that they came on the same day as the sect members.”
“That’s right.”
“And isn’t it weird that she’s here alone? To be honest, I wonder if Lashballen has a plan.”
As Aris nodded in agreement, Lizelle looked displeased at Mirea. It was different from the way her gentle attitude.
“Lashballen usually doesn’t get involved in this.”
Lashballen Institute of Intelligent Beings, commonly known as Lashballen.

In this country, called Lashballen, several races and ethnic groups live and co-exist together. After decades of war and turmoil, the various races of Lashballen sought a way to coexist and establish the Lashballen Institute of Intelligent Beings. It is a place where people of different cultures and lifestyles are united and bound to reconcile their differences.

Although the Frost Sect cooperates with Lashballen externally, it is difficult to say that their interests are in line. Frostism, which worships Goddess Frost, is a religion that is thoroughly centered on humans. Therefore, in some cases, they had no choice but to be exclusive to other races. The basic view differs from Lashballen, which includes all races. It turned out that they didn’t like each other very much.
That’s why Lizelle’s attitude is like this. From Aris’s point of view, he hated both equally. Concealing that inner feeling, he smiled faintly and affirmed.

“I think so, too.”
Aris watched Mirea talk to the Mayor and walk to the truck she drove. She unlocked the rear door lock of the truck loader. With a thump, the end of the back door fell to the ground, and Mirea dragged down the outermost box. The box was filled with rice, other grains, potatoes, and corn, the staple food of Myryan. Without asking for help, Mirea began to unload the remaining luggage on her own.
“She came alone. Is she really going to do it all by herself?”
Aris laughed in astonishment. He thought he should help her, but then thought it would be an useless intervention because it looked like she didn’t seem to have a hard time.

Come to think of it, though, Mirea also meddled with him. So he thought it would be okay for him to meddle in Mirea’s affairs.
Aris approached Mirrea’s truck and examined the load. Due to the lack of a roof on the loading dock, the luggage was covered with waterproof cloth and secured tightly.

“If you’re trying to help, you can just unload that package.”
Mirea’s voice was heard from the back.
“There are boxes wrapped in a buffer. It’s medicine.”
[T/N: buffer here refers to packaging material.]

Aris jumped onto the truck and lowered the three boxes wrapped in buffer. He could see other boxes behind the ones Mirea had mentioned. He was still looking at the luggage left on the truck, when Mirea gave an explanation that he didn’t ask for.
“That’s my personal bag, so just leave it.”

Mirea did not wait to listen to Aris’ reply, and went to the village mayor to sign a letter confirming that she had taken over the items. The village mayor held Mirea’s hand and shook hands, up and down.

“I was just delivering the supplies. In fact, compared to the Frost Sect, this is nothing much…”
“But you’ll have everything you need.”

The mayor shook his head at Mirea’s words,and spoke in Myryan dialect, “In a situation of need, even a small help is like a rain.”

Then he began to say thank you in a long, very long way. Once the Mayor starts talking, he often falls into side topics here and there, leading to many unnecessary explanations. So he talks for a very long time. Although the conversation happening was largely one-sided, Aris confirmed one thing when she saw Mirea’s face listening to the mayor’s boring words. Now, Mirea didn’t understand about half of what the mayor said.

And as Aris speculated, Mirea listened half-heartedly to the Mayor. Although Mirea knows Myryan language poorly, the Myryan language used by the Mayor had a strong dialect accent.
Honestly, she didn’t know what the mayor was saying, but she knew it meant thank you. She nodded her head, but when she answered the mayor’s question in a positive way, Mirea fell into the hands of the mayor.

Mirea thought, “What should I do?”
Looking at the surroundings, she didn’t think he was going to do any harm to her, and if she was being taken to do something for him, it was troublesome to follow him without knowing what it was. Mirea turned to Aris for help, the only person who could translate mayor’s words in her native language, communicating with him with eye contact.

There’s really no solution. Aris let out a small sigh and followed Mirea, who was being dragged by the mayor.
“I want to eat some rice.”
Mireah asked in a light voice when she said she wasn’t caught up in something strange.
“Alone?”
“You’re with the Frost Sect. I heard that they will treat you at the village community hall.”
Mirea smiled embarrassingly at the words.
“We’re not that close to each other and we’re not close enough to eat together…”
Like Lizelle, Mirea did not seem to want to hang out with the Frost sect members. Until a while ago, her inner thoughts were obvious on her face, but this time, Aris was confused whether Mirea’s words were sincere or fake.
“Are you being bullied for being from Lashballen?”
Mirrea looked back at Aris and suddenly smiled.
“It’s believed that Lashballen and Frost Sect hate each other unconditionally.” Then, she waved his hand.
“I’m rather against it.”
“Are you a believer?”
“I have no religion.”
Mirea kept silent for a short time and continued.
“But now, I don’t want to get close to them.”
Aris didn’t understand what Mirea was saying.
When Mirea and Aris reached the village community hall led by the Mayor, steam was leaking out between the kitchen doors in the hall, perhaps they had just begun to cook. The village mayor smiled and made Mirea sit on the empty matted seat. When she realised that there were not enough seats indoors, Mirea quickly shook her hand to excuse her.

At this point, he thought she didn’t need an interpreter, so Aris didn’t bother. He didn’t want to get involved more because he was too lazy.

The members of the Frost Sect sat together. As Mirea said, they didn’t seem to be close to each other. Lizelle was taking care of them. Aris waited for the food in the pot to be cooked. He first put cooked food in the bowl and placed them on Mirea’s tray and passed it onto her, sitting across from her.
“I don’t know why I’m taking care of you!”
Aris was annoyed by what she had done voluntarily even though no one had asked her to do it. Mirea, who was sitting there alone and suddenly blamed for no reason, arched her eyebrows into a mountain.
“I can eat by myself.”