The Forgotten Field - Chapter 169

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 169
I could have simply walked away and left her there, but I had already soiled my clothes and waded into the muddy water. I had no intention of letting my effort go to waste.
I walked toward the massive Large Tree, the fine rain pattering against my skin.
All the while, the young girl chattered away with her small lips pouting. Seeing her act haughty while drenched from head to toe struck me as amusing, so I offered a light rebuke. Her face, which had been pale enough to strain the eyes, flushed a deeper shade.
I examined her carefully from beneath the hood I had pulled low over my head.
Was she about Aila’s age? She was roughly the same height, though her frame seemed smaller. Through the wet fabric of her clothes, I could feel bird-like, delicate bones.
Despite her boasting about being the daughter of someone important, it was not difficult to discern that she received no proper care.
‘…This is none of my concern.’
Bewildered by my own displeasure, I bent down to set her on her feet.
At that moment, I heard something like a faint whistle.
I stopped mid-motion, my gaze dropping to her small hands clasped against my chest.
“What are you holding?”
The young girl, who had been looking up at me with hesitant eyes, carefully opened her hands. Between them lay something that looked like a mud-caked bundle of grayish-brown fur.
I furrowed my brow.
“A bird?”
As I muttered with suspicion, the girl’s cheeks flushed an even deeper red.
“It fell into the muddy water. Originally….”
The young girl, who had been protesting with a flushed face, soon fell silent with a dejected expression.
I could not understand why a bird that was dying would sadden her, or why she would clutch it to herself even in the rain.
Yet this unsightly bird, which the young girl could not bring herself to abandon, reminded me of something I had lost long ago.
Steeped in a strange nostalgia, I adjusted my hold on her with one arm and drew her small hands into the interior of my hood.
The skin at the nape of her neck was so cold I doubted blood was circulating through it at all.
“Your fingers are like ice. How long were you standing there?”
As I looked down at her with displeasure, I met her gaze directly—those large eyes staring intently at me.
What was she looking at so fixedly? As I tilted my head in confusion, the girl murmured in a hushed voice, as though she had discovered some rare treasure.
“You know… there’s a silver crown in your eyes.”
I faced her with a speechless expression.
This young girl possessed the most peculiar eyes.
The boundary between pupil and iris was so blurred that her eyes held a deep hue, yet strangely, they did not appear black. Rather, they seemed to shine with an almost frightening transparency.
I suddenly remembered that I had seen this clear light somewhere before.
Long ago, when I raced across the endless Steppe, it was the light that poured down over my head.
The moment I realized this, my vision sharpened as though a curtain had been lifted from my retinas.
The change happened so abruptly that I could not properly comprehend what was occurring.
As I gazed without blinking at the sudden clarity flooding my vision, a cascade of color emanating from her eyes spread outward.
In the next instant, I perceived that her hair shone with a brilliant golden hue, like an autumn field in full light.
Just as I was about to reach toward it without thinking, her head turned sharply away. I had to clench my fist to keep from pulling her small face back toward me.
The girl murmured with an uncomfortable expression.
“I have to go now.”
Her tone was reluctant.
If you do not wish to go, you need not.
I nearly blurted it out before catching myself and closing my mouth.
She was a child I’d only just met. There was no reason to forcibly hold her back if she wished to leave.
He slowly bent down and set her on the ground.
The Young Girl, now standing on her own feet, extended her hand toward him.
“Will you take it with you?”
He stared at the small bird resting in her palm before carefully reaching out. As he cupped the rain-soaked young sparrow in his hand, he felt the rapid flutter of its tiny, racing heart.
He brought the cooling bird to his cheek and pulled his hood forward.
The Young Girl, gazing up at him with an expression tinged with peculiar longing, asked softly.
“Will that bird… survive?”
“…Yes.”
Barcas, aware that his voice lacked conviction, added with emphasis.
“It will survive.”
A faint smile bloomed across the anxious child’s face—one that was somehow both radiant and profoundly sorrowful.
She soon turned and began to run away.
As her receding footsteps carried her onward, colors spread like watercolor paint across the landscape. While watching that scene fade into the distance, Bernadette’s voice echoed through my mind.
“Someday you’ll discover something that makes you want to live.”
As if that were possible.
It had been nothing but a fleeting encounter. My life could not change from a mere brush with a nameless Young Girl.
I let out a hollow laugh and soon turned to walk away.
The bird she had given me released a feeble cry. I opened my collar and pressed the creature against the warm hollow of my neck, then lengthened my stride.
The path I had walked hundreds of times now appeared as an entirely unfamiliar place.
For a moment, something like vertigo washed over me. I gazed up at the thin rays of light filtering through the ashen clouds before closing my eyes.
* * *
Heavy footsteps pierced through my hazy consciousness.
Barcas, who had been catching up on insufficient sleep while seated in a chair, slowly opened his eyes.
From beyond the rain-soaked barracks came murmuring voices, and moments later, a dark-haired youth clad in golden armor pushed through the curtain.
“Is it true you’ve been pushing for peace talks?”
The Crown Prince, who had hurled his orichalcum helmet to the ground, shouted in an angry voice.
He picked up a goblet from the makeshift table and replied in an indifferent tone.
“I merely made a proposal. It was His Imperial Majesty who actually initiated the peace talks.”
“That’s the same thing!”
The Crown Prince, stepping forward with blazing emerald eyes, growled menacingly.
“Negotiating with traitors… Are you out of your mind? All those who have raised their hands against the Imperial Family should be hanged!”
“Do you truly believe it’s realistic to execute all the Northern nobles?”
Barcas moistened his lips with wine and released a heavy sigh.
“If we were to execute all the Balto Nobles as Your Highness wishes, how would you propose to govern those vast Northern territories?”
“I’ll distribute them as spoils to my trusted followers! Or divide them among the Conservative Faction! There are plenty of nobles who would drool at the chance to gain even a single plot of land…”
“The people of Balto would never accept a foreign lord.”
As he replied with some irritation, pressing his fingers to his brow, the Crown Prince’s face turned cold and rigid.
He exercised patience and began explaining methodically.
“The Northern Region is also Imperial territory. If we don’t end this war now, the damage will come back to haunt the Roem Imperial Family. More than that, an excessive response could provoke resentment among the nobles.”
“Including you?”
The Crown Prince’s eyes gleamed with mockery as he sneered.
I said nothing. With weary eyes, I regarded my younger cousin—a man whose mind seemed to grow no sharper with time—before slowly rising to my feet.
As I turned to leave the barracks, Gareth blocked my path.
“You pretend to act in the Roem Imperial Family’s interests, but really you just want to end this war. You think I don’t know why you refused the position of Commander-in-Chief and stay only near the Eastern Border?”
His irritating breath fell unpleasantly against my chin.
Gareth thrust his face close to mine, grinding his teeth as he spoke.
“It’s so you can slip away to Kalmor whenever you get the chance.”
“….”
“You probably think only you understand yourself. But I know you too. I’ve watched you for nearly twenty years.”
The Crown Prince’s green eyes darkened to an almost forest green.
Though our temperaments were nothing alike, when Gareth’s eyes held that particular gleam, he always reminded me of the dead Empress. He spat out his words.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice that your heart is elsewhere entirely? This negotiation—you’ve only been pushing it forward for your own convenience!”

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