I Became the Keeper of a Suspicious Forest - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21

“Move aside, move.”

Ponia pushed Sionel away with the long ladder and reached her desired spot.

The ladder, slightly longer than the cabin’s ceiling, fit perfectly through the hole in the roof.

“Perfect!”

Sionel couldn’t hide his bewilderment as he spoke.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m fulfilling my dream. Is there a problem?”

Without changing her expression, Ponia boldly climbed up the ladder.

The forest scenery, dyed red by the sunset, came into view at a glance. For a moment, that terrifying forest looked quite beautiful.

Indeed, it was pretty when viewed from afar.

Ponia looked down at Sionel, who stood there blankly below.

“Come up and see. The forest looks different from here.”

“…”

“The wind is blowing, so it’s cool. It really clears your mind.”

Ponia spoke enticingly, her eyes filled with expectation. Sionel quietly received her gaze before turning away.

Ponia clicked her tongue.

‘I knew this would happen.’

If Sionel had obediently listened to her, she would have worried about what was wrong with him.

Ponia came down from the roof. Sionel was waiting for her with his arms crossed.

“Whatever you think about me, you’re mistaken.”

“…”

“Even if you were right, it’s none of your business anyway.”

“…”

“So don’t cause unnecessary trouble.”

Sionel, speaking with his characteristic emotionless expression, truly seemed unaffected.

Ponia stared intently at his back. She could see beads of sweat on the nape of his neck.

‘Even now, while he’s struggling.’

His pride was so strong that he refused to show weakness in front of her.

Did he think she would exploit his vulnerabilities?

Ponia was about to say more to him, but then stopped. She knew that saying more would only make Sionel more defensive.

After a strangely cold dinner time passed, night fell.

“…”

In the quiet cabin, Sionel was awake alone. Though he hadn’t fallen asleep from the beginning.

He used to fall into light sleep, but recently he couldn’t sleep at all.

It had been since the repairman came, but even without that, he sometimes couldn’t breathe properly.

“Hah…”

After tossing and turning in bed continuously, he finally sat up.

His body, unable to sleep for three days, was heavy, and his eyes couldn’t focus properly, giving him a headache.

As he held his dizzy head, a breeze from somewhere gently tousled his hair.

Looking up, he saw wind flowing in and out through the ceiling. It felt like he could breathe a little easier.

“…”

Sionel alternately looked at the clear night sky with visible stars and at Ponia on the bed. Ponia was sleeping soundly with her back turned.

He slowly got up from his spot. He took a step while watching Ponia.

Creeeeak.

Then the wooden floorboard he stepped on made a noise. The unpleasant sound lasted longer than expected.

In response, Ponia turned her body toward where he was.

“Mmm…”

Even so, Ponia showed no signs of waking up.

Only then did Sionel remember that once Ponia fell asleep, she didn’t wake easily, and he relaxed his body.

“Stupid.”

“Uh…”

“I guess you don’t know you’re being insulted?”

Looking absurdly at Ponia, who made sounds and frowned, he suddenly noticed that the blanket covering her body had been thrown aside.

The temperature difference between day and night in the forest was severe, making it easy to catch a cold.

Sionel watched her quietly, then sighed and approached. He began to straighten the crumpled blanket.

“I’m only doing this because I have to.”

Though his listener was asleep, he muttered to himself.

If this forest keeper caught a cold, it would interfere with patrolling the forest, and that would go against their agreement for him to help with her work.

That was the only reason.

Justifying his actions to himself, he gently covered her with the blanket.

‘The wind feels so cool. It really clears your head.’

He remembered Ponia calling to him from the roof with that awkward expression.

Looking at her peacefully sleeping face, he felt inexplicably irritated. Sionel tossed the blanket over Ponia’s head.

“Troublesome.”

What kind of forest keeper was always so clumsy and unreliable that she required constant attention?

Whatever else could be said, that forest keeper had certainly found herself someone good to boss around.

Abandoning his careful steps, he headed toward the ladder with heavy, thumping footsteps.

As he poked his head above the roof, cool wind greeted him. Settling into position on the roof, the stuffiness that had been enveloping him all along receded like a tide.

Just as Ponia had said, the forest scenery looked quite different when viewed from above.

The moon shone brightly in the clear night sky without a single cloud in sight.

Moonlight cascaded down over the forest, and the endlessly stretching trees swayed like waves in the wind. Here and there throughout the forest, fireflies moved about, creating the illusion of small stars floating by.

His anxiously beating heart finally regained its peace. He closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, it seemed like everything would be back in its proper place.

Instead of this vast forest, his room overlooking the beautiful garden.

Instead of the mysterious repairman, the manor servants he knew well.

Instead of the strange forest keeper, the one who had always been by his side…

He slowly opened his eyes.

“Come out.”

“…”

“I know you’re there, so stop sneaking around and watching.”

After a moment, Ponia sheepishly climbed the rest of the way up the ladder.

“I was right, wasn’t I? It’s different when you come up here.”

Ponia settled down beside him. Sionel asked indifferently.

“Usually you won’t get up even when told to.”

“I suddenly couldn’t breathe. When I woke up, the blanket was pulled all the way over my head.”

Ponia stared directly at him.

‘I think I know who the culprit was.’

Despite her persistent gaze, Sionel brazenly looked straight ahead, and Ponia followed his lead in gazing at the forest.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Meaningless thoughts.”

His quiet blue eyes rested on her.

“I was thinking about the time when I had a younger sibling who followed me well and an uncle who was always on my side.”

He continued speaking calmly.

“Everyone was happy, so what would it have been like if I had died without ever knowing anything?”

“…”

“You, who have no connection to me, saved me, but why did my uncle and sibling abandon me?”

It wasn’t really a question. Sionel was simply continuing to dwell on what had already happened.

When Ponia couldn’t find words to say, he spoke in a light voice.

“I told you, they’re meaningless thoughts.”

There was no sadness visible in his eyes.

But the fact that his own family had betrayed him would never be erased from him.

It would be better not to interfere. It wasn’t something a mere forest keeper could presumptuously pretend to understand, and healing his wounds was the female protagonist’s role.

However, Ponia impulsively opened her mouth.

“But you still have the good memories.”

Ponia carved her words into those blue eyes that reflected nothing.

“You don’t need to forget those memories too. You’re alive right now.”

“…”

“Why bother looking for reasons? None of it was your fault. It was… something that happened because of those people’s choices.”

After all, the reason Sionel is here now is because all those situations and memories led him here.

“Who knows? You might make an unforgettable connection in this forest. And leave with unforgettable memories.”

A small expectation could be seen in Ponia’s green eyes as she spoke.

Sionel watched the forest keeper whose emotions showed so transparently, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

In a situation like this, only that forest keeper would make such an expression.

“I don’t really want to do that.”

He looked at her as if evaluating her.

“A connection made in a place like this being just an eccentric forest keeper? That would be too cruel.”

“Look who’s talking.”

‘I didn’t want to shatter my fantasies about my first love in a place like this either.’

Ponia also refused to back down, holding her head high. As they continued their standoff with a staring contest, he casually threw out a comment.

“But you’re not surprised. You must have understood what I just said.”

Ponia blinked.

Come to think of it, Sionel hadn’t properly told her about his circumstances until now.

She had openly heard the ducal house’s shameful secrets, yet her reaction was too calm.

Ponia feigned nonchalance.

“It’s too distant a story for a commoner.”

“Is that so.”

Fortunately, Sionel accepted it easily.

“So that’s why it’s more comfortable.”

He didn’t seem to dream that Ponia might be a noble lady. It was subtly annoying.

He briefly fell into thought, then quickly emerged from it.

“So what are you thinking about?”

“Me? Well…”

Safely completing six months and getting the family debt paid off as a reward.

But with her current identity, she couldn’t tell the truth.

“If I fill out the medicinal herb map, someday all the monsters in this forest will be subjugated too? Something like that?”

“You have absurd thoughts.”

Sionel openly scoffed. Ponia bristled.

“Why not? You never know. Some wonderful person might appear and subjugate all the monsters in this forest.”

“Unless they’re crazy, who would subjugate a forest that even the Imperial Court gave up on.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me?”

“…A crazy person I know came to mind.”

“Stay away from them. If you keep them close, you won’t experience anything good either.”

What if they’re right in front of me?

Ponia naturally took a step back from him. Sionel’s eyebrow twitched.

“Why are you moving away?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

As the atmosphere relaxed after that, they shared meaningless conversation.

Ponia, who felt drowsiness returning, soon left her spot, and just as Sionel, who had stayed a bit longer, was about to move to go down.

Around the cabin where not a single tree grew. Sionel spotted the repairman entering the forest.

* * *

Due to the dawn incident, Ponia thought she had grown a little closer to Sionel.

A morning that began filled with hopeful thoughts that she could get along well with Sionel from now on.

“Ah, seriously XX!”

Ponia cursed at him.

I didn’t know I would be like this either.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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