40 - The Crown I Will Take From You
40
Gillifos also included the location where the two were last seen in the outskirts of the slums.
“Your Highness, shall I go and bring this Teo?”
Medeia shook her head.
Teo had strong resentment towards Baldina even in her previous life. If he knew Neril was affiliated with the royal family, he might run away.
Besides, Medeia had not yet decided on Teo’s fate.
It would be right to eliminate him in advance as he was the center of the rebels, but as an individual, Teo had practically died because of her. So how should she calculate the debt of gratitude and resentment?
“I’ll have to go myself.”
She would have to see him with her own eyes to make a judgment.
Whether to save him or eliminate him.
\ \ \
The Asylum Street that Gillifos mentioned was a representative slum of the royal capital.
“This way…”
“……”
Neril, though from a fallen noble family, had never been driven to the bottom. This was his first time in a slum.
Stepping out of the carriage, Neril unconsciously brought his hand to his nose.
A piercing stench emanated from every corner of the uneven street.
Somewhere in the alley, a scream of pain echoed.
Occasionally, the clamor of people fighting over food could be heard.
“It’s dreadful, Your Highness.”
Neril shook his head.
Medeia replied with a look of pity.
“Yes, it wouldn’t be strange for a civil uprising to break out anytime, anywhere. All the aftermath will be Peleus’s responsibility when he returns.”
The two walked through a street where both people and spaces seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
Even though they were in disguise, their incongruous appearance, unable to blend into the poor slum, drew attention.
Neril kept his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist. He was in a state of high alert, ready to draw his sword at any moment.
“Hey there, young lady, want to get your fortune told?”
So when someone spoke to Medeia from around a corner in the alley, she almost drew her sword.
Neril realized that the person was a small old woman wearing a robe and put his sword back into its sheath.
A small mat with cracked beads and a bowl that seemed to be for begging.
In fact, from the outside, the old woman looked more like a beggar.
“Want to see your future, young lady? I may look like this, but I’m the oldest tree in this country, you won’t regret it.”
The old woman stretched out her hand with a hoarse voice.
“It’s alright. I already know it.”
Medeia, living a second life, had no need for it.
She gestured to Neril to give the old woman a few copper coins and turned away.
“That’s why you should see it even more. It’s a life lived again, so the fortune will be different, won’t it?”
From under the tattered robe sleeve, a wrinkled hand rolled a couple of small crystal balls.
Medeia’s steps stopped. She slowly turned around.
“You’ve made a good choice.”
The old woman chuckled as she looked at Medeia sitting in front of her.
Roll. Roll.
The beads rolled under her wrinkled hand.
“Oh my, oh my, this life won’t be easy either. Chaos is blocking the young lady. It’s still covering the capital and trying to steal the young lady’s light.”
The beads rolled onto the mat in an asymmetrical pattern.
But the old woman smiled wryly, saying there was nothing to worry about.
“There’s a falling Giant Star. A very dark one. That star will cut through the chaos blocking the young lady’s path.”
Medeia interrupted the old woman.
“Whatever it is, I don’t need it.”
Whether it was a Giant Star or whatever, was she going to rely on someone again?
Entrusting her life to someone else’s hands was what Medeia wanted to reject the most in this life.
“Sticky things will grab your ankles again this time. They’ll devour the young lady to fill their bellies.”
“If I get devoured a second time, it means my abilities are only that far. But I’m confident.”
The old woman clicked her tongue.
“Tsk, it’ll be difficult. Why don’t you take it easy this time?”
Medeia simply smiled without a word.
“Have you ever heard of the Morning Dewdrop?”
“Morning… Dewdrop?”
“That mysterious medicine containing the Goddess’s power erases everything in this world. Diseases, memories, even fate. That Dewdrop will save the big star.”
The old woman paused for a moment before resuming.
“Young lady, the heavens cherish you greatly. Enough to fill all the starlight and push out the twelve constellations to bring you back, they’re watching over you.”
At that moment, blood trickled down from the corner of the old woman’s mouth. The small back wearing the robe swayed.
“The blood of the continent’s wisest man and the one who conveys the Goddess’s will flows in the young lady’s body. So under this sky, the young lady is the only one who can find that Dewdrop-”
The old woman smiled as she swallowed the rising lump of blood.
“Oh dear, the heavens are warning this old woman.”
Medeia held the collapsing old woman in her arms.
“It’s best to see a physician. Neril-”
The old woman’s old robe smelled foul, but Medeia didn’t care and wiped away the flowing bloodstains.
“Your heart is as kind as ever, young lady. This old woman still has someone waiting. My fortune-telling ends here, so the young lady should go her way now.”
The old woman stubbornly refused Medeia’s help. And until the end, she held her hand and urged her.
“Don’t dismiss this old woman’s words, young lady.”
Medeia, who had turned around the alley after the bizarre encounter with the old woman, stopped walking.
‘Something’s strange.’
How did that old woman know that she was living a second life?
“Neril, go back to that place and bring that old woman to me.”
She thought she should ask her in more detail.
However, Neril, who had returned to the alley following Medeia’s order, returned empty-handed.
Neril looked bewildered at the traces that had completely disappeared, as if he had dreamed a midsummer night’s dream.
“There was no one in that spot earlier. Whether they left or disappeared, the alley itself was strangely empty.”
\ \ \
Residential area in Asylum Street.
“Saya, are you just coming now?”
Aunt Angela from next door greeted Saya as she swept the yard.
“Yes. I cleaned up the trash and got paid.”
She was on her way home, clutching the black bread she had gotten early in the morning.
“Did you come alone, so dangerously? You should have come with Juni.”
Aunt Angela furrowed her brow and worried.
“These days, human trafficking gangs are rampant. There’s so little to eat that there are even people who take people away and sell them.”
Saya was also well aware of the ominous rumors circulating in the alley.
“I’m okay because Juni’s dad is here, but I’m really worried about you since you live alone. It would have been much better if Teo was here……”
Aunt Angela looked at Saya with worried eyes.
The shabby shack was not a very safe place for a young girl to live.
“I heard that a Soldier Village has been built near the fortress walls. Your father was a retired soldier, wasn’t he? Go there, at least. It’s too dangerous here.”
She talked for a while about how clean and safe the Soldier Village was.
“If you just prove your name and identity, they’ll accept all of your family. Rumor has it that there are even people impersonating them, so you should move there quickly. It’ll be much safer than here, no matter what.”
When Saya hesitated and didn’t answer, Aunt Angela said as if doing her a favor.
“Are you worried that Teo will look for you when he comes back? I can at least tell him that you’ve gone there.”
“Thank you for your concern, but I like it here. I’ll go in first. I have to go out again in a bit.”
Saya quickly greeted her, feeling the aunt’s gaze glancing at the bread in her arms, separate from her warm concern.
Saya, who had returned, sighed.
“Soldier Village……. I want to go if I could, too. But how can I go when Teo hit a government soldier and ran away?”
If Teo’s criminal record was revealed when he returned, he would go straight to jail.
“What am I supposed to do……”
A tear rolled down the small girl’s cheek.
Her mother had passed away giving birth to her and her brother, and her retired father had struggled with injuries and poverty before passing away.
The siblings, left alone in the world, had to somehow survive.
Teo had gone out to find food and got into an argument with someone who was trying to steal it, and was dragged to the guardhouse.
Then, he ended up beating up the captain of the guard, who had tried to punish Teo unfairly after taking a bribe.
That night, Teo disappeared. Leaving only a note.
