Chapter 108
Maeve nodded to signify it was alright in response to his apology. Prince Declan kindly poured water into a cup and handed it to him, asking what he had intended to do since he seemed busy since morning.
“Ah, since that fellow the Lord’s Deputy went away and had no intention of coming back, I was going to raid his house with the other guys. Though we found out he had already made a run for it before we could.”
Billy’s face looked bitter as he spoke. Prince Declan looked at him with a face full of compassion.
Billy wore a grateful expression, seemingly gaining some strength from Prince Declan’s comfort and encouragement.
Maeve asked Billy what he planned to do from now on.
“We have to fix the bridge. In this situation, that’s the only thing we can do. I thought about heading down to the east, which the scholars had been coveting for a while, but Kiaran’s mother desperately stopped me.”
Maeve nodded at Billy’s words.
“It’s a wise choice. That place is perhaps much worse than the place where the red water flows. In my opinion, it seems like a land where only people who enter without a purpose can come out alive.”
At Maeve’s words, Prince Declan and Billy turned back to her simultaneously.
Maeve calmly spoke about the three corpses of the Imperial citizens she had seen in the forest called Eloa. It was a story she had hesitated to tell earlier, fearing that the particularly faint-hearted Mrs. Marley might be even more startled.
Billy looked surprised as soon as he heard those words. Prince Declan seemed surprised in a different sense.
“Why on earth didn’t you say anything after seeing something so gruesome?”
Prince Declan questioned her seriously, and Maeve shrugged her shoulders. In fact, what was more terrifying than those three corpses was the monster that made them that way, but Prince Declan still firmly believed that the monster was an ordinary doe.
It did not seem like a simple memory distortion or an illusion. Even though it was a situation that could be clearly distinguished from a close distance, Prince Declan said it was a doe.
Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, it truly looked like an ordinary beast. Then what about Maeve? What was different about her that she saw it in such a form?
“Anyway, if that’s the case, then all the more reason…… we shouldn’t go that way.”
Billy said with a sigh. He then spoke as follows.
“Regardless, we plan to fix the bridge. There are those who want to wait for the water to recede like this and leave for new land, but there are also those who want to return to their hometown. Not all the family members followed when we first migrated, so there are a few friends whose families remain there. They’ve been holding out all this time on the word that if they worked hard, the remaining families and more people would be sent.”
“Even if you return, you won’t be welcomed. Perhaps not even by your families.”
At Maeve’s cynical remark, Prince Declan furrowed his brows and looked back at her.
Billy was not particularly offended by Maeve’s words. It seemed he thought so himself.
“In any case, those friends want to return. Because of that, the meeting went on a bit long. A small argument broke out. Those who want to wait for the water to recede and then leave were of the opinion that we shouldn’t waste our labor and should just leave the bridge as it is.”
“…….”
“Well, I told those friends to stay out of it for now.”
It would have been right to persuade them somehow to join, but Billy simply left it at that. Having endured here for a long time, there must have been some sort of accumulated resentment among them. Both Prince Declan and Maeve understood it that way and did not pry further.
In any case, Billy, who had kindly delivered the story even to Maeve and Prince Declan—who were not villagers but merely staying briefly—stood up to leave.
“It feels like you two have come to know too much despite having been here for only a day.”
Billy said so as if realizing it anew.
“But in any case, you are the last guests to come to this village. Stay as long as you wish before you go.”
With that, Billy opened the door and left the house.
Now, only Prince Declan and Maeve remained at the dining table again.
“It will take quite some time to fix the bridge. Perhaps the water will drain completely in the meantime.”
“You’re right.”
Even without asking, Maeve knew what the Prince wanted to do. The Prince would willingly want to give whatever help he could to those pitiful people.
Maeve did not bother to stop him.
She didn’t even feel like doing so. Not anymore.
Should this be called resignation? She didn’t know.
“Do as your heart leads.”
Maeve said so as she looked at him with her chin blankly propped on her hand. Prince Declan’s eyes grew wide.
“As if you know what I’m going to do.”
Prince Declan said that, but soon became silent again as if lost in thought.
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