Overpowered Reincarnation Perks! - Chapter 20 - An Old Memory

It was a very old memory.

The walls surrounding the castle were not originally so tall. At first, they were low walls about waist-high for an adult male, allowing one to easily look outside the castle.

Dienes slowly walked along the stone walls of the castle.

With a slightly more youthful appearance than now, fair skin, and sweet blonde hair. The young man with eyes still as fresh green as early summer preferred walking along the quiet castle walls rather than the bustling banquet halls or busy streets.

He would occasionally stop and look beyond the walls.

Unlike now, people seemed to live outside the castle, and children could be seen playing in the vast meadow.

Children who were rolling and running in the meadow picked armfuls of wildflowers and ran off somewhere. Dienes’ gaze naturally followed the direction the children were running.

There stood a woman.

The woman received the flowers the children had picked and, delighted, kissed their cheeks. The sound of children laughing and chattering filled the wide field.

It’s a peaceful scene from the past that’s hard to see now with monsters rampant. Dienes stood still, watching the woman sit down and play with the children.

The woman’s stories were difficult to understand. Sometimes she would tell incomprehensible tales. Yet the children were so delighted, asking various questions and snuggling up to her.

Noticing Dienes’ presence as he had been watching the scene, one child pointed at him and whispered to the woman. The woman raised her head and looked at Dienes.

Their eyes met.

He was just noticeable, just watching from afar. Even though he wasn’t hiding or doing anything wrong, Dienes felt a twinge in his chest when their eyes met, as if he had been caught doing something wrong.

Unable to think of running away and standing stiffly in place, the woman waved at Dienes. It was a light greeting.

However, Dienes couldn’t return the greeting.

He just stood still, staring at her intently like someone who had forgotten how to react. The woman, seeming a bit embarrassed, lowered her hand and then stood up, holding a child in her lap. The rest of the children got up and followed her.

After she had disappeared, becoming as small as a dot in the distance, Dienes slowly raised his hand. He couldn’t move earlier, but now his body moved.

He wondered if perhaps the woman had cast a spell on him. A strange, nonsensical thought occurred to him.

The next day, and the day after that, Dienes headed to the castle walls. Beyond the faded gray brick walls, the woman was still there on the green meadow. She sang with the children, danced, and played as if the wide meadow was her front yard.

For a grown woman to play in the dirt like children, ignoring decorum. It was ridiculous.

Yet, it was hard to take his eyes off her.

Walking along the castle walls and contemplating had been his hobby, but Dienes stood still like a nail, unable to walk or think.

Occasionally, when their eyes met, she would smile and wave again. Dienes didn’t wave back.

Even though his statue-like staring must have looked strange, she didn’t mind and turned her head to focus on the children’s stories.

When the sun set, the woman would disappear beyond the field with the children. Dienes looked at the empty field that had turned the color of the night sky. He liked quiet and peaceful places, but strangely, he couldn’t like the empty field.

It was the first time he didn’t welcome the night that allowed him to immerse himself in contemplation. Dienes wished the morning sun would rise soon and illuminate the field green.

***

The greenery grew lush, and the leaves turned color. Snow fell, and the year changed.

The children who had followed the woman like ducklings following their mother had grown considerably. Some had even grown into young men tall enough to surpass her height.

Yet, she still treated them like young children, hugging and comforting them.

Dienes didn’t like that.

It’s a male’s instinct to seek a mating partner when secondary s****l characteristics start to appear. The woman, being the closest female, would inevitably be the primary target. Even if they didn’t forcibly violate her, wouldn’t they m********e while thinking of her?

The thought made him feel dirty.

Imagining males looking at her with the eyes of men, not children, Dienes suddenly felt pain in his palm and looked down. He had clenched his fist so tightly that his nails had dug into his palm. He shifted his gaze from his bleeding palm back to the field. His eyes met the woman’s.

This time, she didn’t wave. She didn’t smile either. She was seen tilting her head with her eyes wide open. It was an expression as if asking what was wrong with Dienes.

Unable to control his strength, he clenched his fist with all his might, leaving a wound on his palm. It was a rookie mistake that even a novice soldier wouldn’t make. Dienes quickly lowered his arm and stood straight.

As always, neat and tidy, with an expression as if nothing could find a gap in him.

He wished that he always appeared neat and gallant in her eyes.

Not realizing at all that from the point of view of coming out to the castle walls every day for years and staring at the field for hours, he looked nothing short of a stalker.

***

A late rainy season arrived. The sky turned ashen, and the field was soaked in mud color. Dienes walked under the awning along the castle wall, looking beyond the wall. Today, with the rain, there would be no one in the field. Even knowing he couldn’t see the woman, he found himself here out of habit.

It seems a strange habit had formed in the meantime. Dienes stood still, looking down at the field soaked by the monsoon rain.

He had always thought the summer monsoon was something that came and went quickly, but this year’s rainy season felt excruciatingly long. He wondered if rain could really fall for such a long time.

Dienes touched his lips with a complicated feeling. Strangely, he felt thirsty. He had finished his meal and had enough water, but he couldn’t understand why his mouth was dry.

Dienes suddenly thought he wanted to climb up on the castle wall and drink the rainwater. He had the absurd thought that if he drank all the rain falling from the sky, maybe this rainy season would end.

Feeling his throat burn more and more, Dienes was about to turn back to get some water.

At that moment, he saw something moving in the field.

The woman was alone in the field. She was out in the field in her usual attire, without an umbrella or raincoat. The moment their eyes met, Dienes made an impulsive action for the first time in his life.

He tore down the awning that was shielding him from the rain.

He took out the sword he was wearing to cut the awning, carved the poles, and stuck them outside the castle wall like stakes. He tied the cloth to the poles to make a wide roof. He quickly made a tent outside the castle wall to shelter from the rain.

He had never thought his handiwork was poor, but Dienes thought the makeshift tent he made looked too shoddy.

Dienes looked at the woman in the field. Without speaking or gesturing, when their eyes met, the woman seemed to read his thoughts and ran under the tent.

Dienes inside the castle, the woman outside.

As the wall of the castle was not high, Dienes could see the woman’s figure up close.

Her rain-soaked hair clung to her cheeks, and her wet clothes weighed heavily on her shoulders, but under the tent, she would no longer be rained on.

Dienes was secretly pleased that the shoddy tent he made was unexpectedly serving its purpose well.

As he looked down at her with satisfaction, her expression became subtle. She brushed back her wet bangs, looked around, and then gestured to Dienes.

It seemed she was telling him to take shelter from the rain.

As he had cut out the cloth from where he was standing to make the tent, Dienes had become soaked in the rain while making it.

His hair and clothes were a mess. He could feel water starting to fill his military boots.

But Dienes had no intention of taking shelter from the rain.

He could avoid the rain by moving to the tent next to him, but it would be impossible to see the woman’s face up close. It was the first time he had seen her up close. He didn’t want to be far away again.

Dienes stood straight with his chest out.

The reason the lord made him commander was not just because he was an adopted son. Dienes was stronger, more gallant, and more beautiful than any soldier in the castle.

He was not so weak as to catch a cold even if he was exposed to the monsoon rain for a long time.

Unlike the composed Dienes, the woman’s expression grew increasingly anxious.

She waved her hands here and there with a troubled look, and finally gestured as if telling him to come to her side.

The stone wall of the castle was not high. Dienes could easily climb over that wall.

But he didn’t move. He just stood there, looking into the eyes of the woman taking shelter under the tent outside the castle wall.

It was a strange feeling. Even though the rain hitting his body was so cold, Dienes felt his body getting drier and drier inside.

It was suffocatingly hot inside. Feeling like hot steam would come out if he opened his mouth, Dienes kept his lips tightly sealed in a straight line and stared at the woman as if he would devour her with his eyes.

She flinched and took a step back.

A troubled expression.

It wasn’t the same smile she gave to the children, but he didn’t dislike that it was an expression she made while looking only at him. The heat rising in his throat intensified. Dienes held his breath for a moment to avoid disrupting his breathing. He hated showing even a slightly undignified appearance in front of her.

Even when watching from afar, he had stood still like a statue, so he had to do the same up close. He had no intention of narrowing the distance any further. He just wanted to show her the same consistent appearance.

The woman, looking apologetic, clutched her wet skirt and glanced at Dienes, then finally bowed her head slightly and turned around. She ran across the rain-soaked field after leaving the tent. The merciless rain veiled her retreating figure as she disappeared to the other side.

Dienes didn’t stop the woman. He only raised his head to look up at the sky after she had disappeared.

He opened his mouth to catch and swallow the rainwater.

The thirst didn’t subside at all.