Raga of the Dry Branch - Chapter 3

3: I thought it was a dream (3)

For me, it was only my family, but they weren’t the kind of people who come out of their mansions or estate without any reason, so they wouldn’t come here.

I narrowed my eyes as I accepted the steaming cake and wine from the woman’s hand.

By any chance did someone at home know what I did and were trying to poison me?

All I had to do was go down and check, but the task seemed too cumbersome for me. I am supposed to die anyway, so why go down with some kind of interest and waste my time?

I decided to ignore it.

“No. I will receive this. Then.”

The woman put the tray in her hand on the table in the room, and as she was about to leave I closed the door, when she suddenly decided to turn.

“H-Hold on a moment.”

“…?”

“Wh-when will you come down?”

The woman seemed desperate to know the answer and was on the verge of bursting into tears for some reason.

It was then that I realized that this woman was in a strange situation. I thought she was nervous and scared because she overruled a customer’s request, but something else seems to have happened. It was as if she was threatened.

Ah, what do I do! Should I just ignore it or should I go down? This situation bothered me more than dying, and if I ignored this, I knew that I would be able to go back to sleep.

“Phew.”

Right. Let’s just finish the matter downstairs and then come back and lock my door and go back to sleep. The woman looked so vulnerable that I felt sorry for her.

If only there was one dangerous animal which walked out of the forest, if only there was a chance of my dying from starvation due to death, then nuisance wouldn’t have happened…

Suddenly, I felt like it would be better to write down a will and donate all my money and valuables here and proceed with my plan.

If I still don’t die from the above plans, I can just jump from a high place, or go deep into the forest and inject myself with something.

I don’t know if it’ll work because I am quite resistant to drugs, but it might work out if I took too many of them. At least, that is better than slitting my wrists.

…life is difficult, and suicide wasn’t easy. People are sad.

No one in my family knew, but I was a little peculiar from the moment I was born. The nanny who looked after me said that it was the influence of my grandmother, but as strange as it was, any wound on my body healed very quickly.

The first time I realized that was when I was 13. The first day I met a robber in the backstreet who stabbed me with a knife. Both the robber and myself were shocked at what happened.

Eventually, the bewildered robber fled away and I had to torture myself by forcefully pulling out the knife he lodged in me.

Now that I think about it, it was a sad memory.

“I was asked to know when you were going to come down.”

After she asked that, I didn’t hesitate anymore, I just wanted this to be done.

“I’m coming now.”

The woman’s face brightened in relief.

… If I thought about it again, I should have just ignored it and jumped off the highest floor of the inn not caring what they say. If I could do that, there would have been no need for me to go meet those people and my wish would be fulfilled.

The sunlight from the out was coming through the windows as it illuminated the lobby of the inn.

The fragrant aroma of the tea calmed my body and mind with the sound of movements – it was all so peaceful.

This was not a suicide spot. No, rather, did people come here because this place was so peaceful?

I found the booklet for the Inn as I was casually reading something, and the name kept going on in my mind. I didn’t know at that time, but I knew now. Ever since I read about the Inn, I longed for an ‘end’.

My life was not much fun, but I do know that there are people who look at my life with envy. However, I lacked the passion, affection, meaning and purpose.

Every little joy which I managed to find in life soon turned out to have no meaning and I got tired of it.

For me, life was nothing much.

“Why do I have to come here?”

I asked in a tired voice to the five people who seemed to have just come out of the movie.

The moment I saw people that the employee had shown me saying they were the ones who handed the cake and wine, I turned stiff like a stone.

It was the moment when the boundary between dream and reality had disappeared for me.

How could I not be shocked when I am seeing characters in my dream in front of me?

The employee disappeared at some point with a smile saying we should talk. It was clear that she just wanted to escape from the situation!

As soon as she disappeared, I heard all sorts of things. I was startled at the one-sided talks with no one explaining to me what happened.

“Tch. This is very tiring. Why isn’t it a child but someone old?”

“…”

A child with dazzling pink hair tied into two high ponytails on the side spoke while flicking her index finger. The way she was moving her hand it was as if she wanted to break something.

I am tired.

As I took a deep breath, this time the silver-haired woman who was next to me whispered in a small voice with a sullen face.

“So, darling, are you a man or a woman?”

“What does being a man or a woman have to do with this situation?”

We are strangers and it isn’t like we would meet each other again.

“But, why are you living in such a shabby place? Do you want to move into my mansion?”

“I too wrote down my resignation letter, so I think that I can spend my time leisurely here.”

“Aren’t you the one who answered my summons?”

…I could feel my expression contorting with each of their questions.

The moment I saw them, I thought it was a dream. Because I saw these people in the dreams, they were gathered here in another dream. I felt relieved for some reason. Ah! I haven’t woken up yet, I am still dead asleep!

But this couldn’t be a dream. Everything around was too real and clear to be a dream.

What I hoped to be a dream was actually a reality, and the moment I saw them, they saw me. What was this absurd situation?

And they were forcing me to ‘declare’ something quickly. What the hell was I supposed to ‘declare’?

“Could you please explain it to me? I am not sure what is happening.”

“… by any chance, are you dumb?”

Then what about you? Do you have proper communication skills? Why isn’t a single one of you explaining it?

I really wanted to hit the guy in the black robe on his head.

According to them, an unbreakable stone was embedded into my stepmother’s ring, and is the ‘key’ symbolizing ‘Oath’ and I am the ‘Sign of Oath’ who broke the stone.

And that they weren’t human, but were of a different race called ‘Vina’. And are lower than the ‘Incarnations/ Avatars’ power holders, but are known to be higher race than others, but it was my first time hearing about them.

It was said that the people of Vina were kind of constrained because of the abilities they possessed and their abilities were the problem.

So God placed a constraint on their lifespan, and only those would break the ‘Sign of Oath’.

It is said that unless a living ‘sign’ does a ‘declaration’, these Vina can’t live till the end of their lifespan, which is close to being eternal, and they would disappear into dust after 300 years.

For me 300 years is like a nightmare, but for them it must have been different. I don’t want to lie longer and these people are tormenting me right now.

If that was the case, if all they had to get was a declaration, then does it have to be me? I asked, thinking their reasons were suspicious, and the answer I got back was shocking.

Originally, they had no intention of going through with this, however, after a thought, they thought that doing something like felt alright to them.

In fact, from the first moment they found out that I was in this inn, they thought ‘This isn’t quite right.’

And from then, the reasons on why I shouldn’t go after death began to come out. If I didn’t declare, then they would only live for another 300 years and die.

So, these people were practically saving my life. When I asked if they couldn’t just live the 300 years freely any way they wanted, the response I got was intense… well, I was almost hit by a kidm.

Arranging my thoughts, I asked again.

“In a nutshell, this is because I broke the ring.”

“Well, let’s just say that is right for now.”

The pink-haired girl answered.

“Then…”

I was about to say the truth and the five had their eyes on me.

“It was actually my stepmother’s, so go see her.”

“Oh my, and you want to go and die?”

“Does that mean that you are dumping us right now?”

How could you? Was what I was asked by them. And before I could even answer anything I heard voices whimpering and crying. The assassin and the child were using their appearances to their advantage! Only to give me a headache.

“The ring isn’t what is important. What is important is who broke it.”

Stroking his white beard, Mahoren said.

“I understand that it must be hard to believe us. But the way to get the Sign is to open the door by turning the key, and the key is what matters, not the owner of the object. When the door opens, the ‘Vina’ with the right wavelength to it responds.”

“Wavelength?”

“We all felt you when the key was opened. Although we are a race with many restrictions, this continent has around 30 of us. And the fact that five of us were tied to you is probably because our wavelength matched with yours.”

“… if someone other than me had broken that ring, then someone other than you people would have found them.”

“That is right. So, let’s have a talk now since we will be seeing each other a lot in the future.”

Saying all that with a gentle smile, only made the situation more frightening. It was like me and them were inseparable.

So give up now. And let everything pass comfortably~.

Was what I should say. But this was the worst!

“Wouldn’t it be better to just put me into eternal sleep and place me in some safe place?”

“Are you really saying that?!?”

Eventually, the pink-haired kid exploded and threw her bear shaped bag at me which flew in at an invisible speed and hit me.

And with that severe impact, my vision turned black.

She definitely seemed like a magician, so how could she have so much power in her? She wasn’t human. I could feel tears squeeze out of my eyes in pain as I lost consciousness. I came all the way here to die, but just what new hell was this?

Ah, I never had anything, no dream or no hope.