Aaron's Side Story Chapter 28: The First Dream (12)
Aaron leaves the room.
He walked down the hallway toward the kitchen and dining room.
The boy was there.
“You’re here?”
He was sitting on a chair with his feet on the table.
A bad posture.
His eyes held a confident gleam.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“About me.”
The boy lowered his feet.
“I had a hunch. I’ve met your type a few times.”
“My type...?”
“Didn’t you know? Everyone who comes here has a sickness in their heart.”
The boy continued.
“They call this trauma, right? Well, I can’t say I don’t understand. Our heroes don’t die well. There are many who, like you, get sick without knowing it.”
If it were before, he would have dismissed the boy’s words as nonsense.
But now, he knows.
Aaron’s obsession with strength.
It was clearly a sickness of the heart.
“Others think it’s just a lack of mental fortitude, but I don’t think so. Sickness is sickness. You have to treat it.”
“......”
“If you leave it alone, thinking it doesn’t matter, your heart will die.”
Heave!
The boy got up from his chair.
He walked up to Aaron and said,
“Your goal was to return to your sister, right?”
“Yes. I think so.”
“Then can you explain why you came here?”
“Perhaps.”
“Perfect. Tell me.”
For a moment, Aaron hesitated.
It's not easy to pour out your heart to someone else without holding anything back.
‘It’s okay.’
He quickly changed his mind.
The boy is trying to help Aaron.
If he hadn’t wanted to, he wouldn’t have paid any attention from the start.
“......Alright.”
He took a deep breath.
Then Aaron began to talk about his past.
An explanation focused on facts, without personal opinion.
The story ended in less than ten minutes.
“Oh, I see.”
The boy nodded, listening.
“But you still look fine.”
“It’s been a hundred years.”
“That’s true!”
The boy chuckled.
“You’re too old to be sad. You and I both. What a pity.”
“It’s not that special, is it?”
Aaron calmly reported.
After all, the deaths of the two siblings are nothing more than a cheap tragedy.
In a ruined dimension, such things would have happened thousands and tens of thousands of times.
“So, why did you come here?”
“If I returned like this, I wouldn’t be able to see anything good, would I?”
“Hmm?”
“If my brother succeeds, I can return home. I might be able to see my sister.”
“Your sister is dead.”
“I’m dead, too, but I’m still alive.”
The boy burst out laughing at Aaron’s answer.
“What a brilliant answer. So?”
“When I met my sister... I have doubts.”
“What kind of doubts?”
“Will I be able to face Nina properly?”
It’s not over when you meet your sister.
You have to continue living after that.
“......”
Aaron closed his eyes.
He deeply, deeply recalled.
The scenery he had seen in his dream recently.
A winding dirt road.
A small brick house beyond the dirt road.
Smoke was rising from the chimney, and the smell of bread wafted in.
The young man walks along the road.
He had returned home after a long journey.
He walks forward and knocks on the door.
I’m back.
But the door doesn’t open.
The window doesn’t open either.
The young man can never return home.
‘This, the nightmare I had.’
It is the scenery hidden in Aaron’s unconscious.
Now that he has realized this, the Aaron of now can force open that door.
“Open up, please! Please!”
The young man is knocking on the door.
Normally, the dream ends when the door doesn’t open.
Aaron decided to twist the ending.
Thud.
The door opens.
“......!”
The young man collapsed and entered the house.
The door that wouldn’t open no matter what he did just opened.
Yes.
Right before him is the young man's family.
“Nina!”
The young man called out his sister’s name.
The sister who was baking bread turned around.
Her appearance was unmistakably that of a cute girl's face...
<Hee, heee!>
The young man froze upon seeing the girl.
The girl’s face was covered in tears and snot.
“......?!”
No.
Tears of blood were flowing down from her eyes, which seemed to have rolled back into her head.
Mucus flowed constantly from her eyes, revealing the whites.
She was convulsing, unable to bear the extreme pain.
<Brother, it hurts, it hurts, brother, brother, brother...>
“......”
<Save me, it hurts, save me, me, save me, save me...>
“......”
<Help me, I hurt so much, help me, save me, brother, brother...>
Crunch. Crunch crunch.
The sound of something being bitten and crushed.
Unwittingly, the young man looked at the girl’s lower body.
Her skin was splitting.
Spurting blood fountains.
Chunks of flesh were torn away.
Bones shattered into pieces and mixed with the remnants of meat.
The girl was disintegrating while alive.
<Hic, hic, hic...>
The girl cries.
She cried endlessly.
If she had suffered this much pain, she should have died of shock, but such luck was not given to the girl.
This is it.
The ultimate truth that Aaron Delcut’s unconscious had hidden until the end.
The burning city.
The siblings ran away, but they collapsed on the way, exhausted.
But it didn’t end there.
That ‘level’ was not enough to ‘die’.
The group of monsters rampaging through the city discovered two humans, who were more than delectable, in a certain street.
<I told you to save me. Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me?>
“Huff, huff...!”
The young man gasped for breath.
The girl, whose legs had been torn off, crawled on the ground and grabbed the young man’s ankle.
<It hurts so much, I hurt so much... You ran away alone... Why... why...>
With tears of blood.
The girl squeezed the ankle she was holding.
With a grip strong enough to tear off the skin.
“St, stop it.”
The young man’s face turned pale.
This is not family.
This is not Nina.
<Save me, brother, me, save me!>
“Stop it, stop it! Stop it!”
Thwack!
The young man threw off the girl’s hand.
He then turned his back and began to run.
He doesn’t want to die.
He doesn’t want to die like that.
He doesn’t want to die like ‘his sister’.
He wants to live.
Save him.
Save ‘him’ at least!
The burning street.
The first prey the monster group targeted was the girl.
The predation was carried out while she was alive.
During that time.
The young man next to her began to run.
He was running away.
<Brother, brother...>
The young man dismissed the girl’s cries of pain.
He thought he wouldn’t be able to move a single step.
He thought he wouldn’t be able to move at all.
But he thought it wouldn’t be so bad to die here together with his family.
It was just an illusion.
Reality wasn’t that sweet.
The young man, who had learned ‘how his sister died’, was overcome with fear.
The young man abandoned his family and ran alone.
He didn’t know where he got that strength.
He ran relentlessly through the flames and rubble.
“I’m sorry, Nina, I’m sorry, Nina, I’m sorry, Nina...”
He ran while howling.
If he stopped now, he would die.
He would end up like his family.
“Why... why...”
He thought that even though his body was weak, his love for his family was second to none.
But what am I doing here now?
Why am I abandoning my sister and running away alone?
He is weak.
Not only his body but also his heart.
Even while running, the young man was constantly rationalizing.
‘I’m a merchant.’
Merchants must be meticulous in calculating profits and losses.
There’s no more foolish act than sacrificing one's life for a worthless thing.
This is that.
If there had been a couple of monsters, the young man would have fought.
But there were more than ten.
It would be a suicidal attack.
It was better to survive alone.
It couldn’t be helped.
There was no way.
He would just die if he fought.
The young man ran.
He ran away, abandoning his family, who had been the reason for his life.
His heart, stained with fear and despair, could not preserve his love for his family until the end.
He was simply weak.
He was ugly and weak...
“......”
Aaron opened his eyes.
The young man who abandoned his sister did not even manage to escape the city.
An unfinished life that neither shared a final moment with his family nor survived for long.
His soul fell to the very bottom of hell.
“Wow, he ran away, leaving his sister behind?”
The boy muttered to himself in admiration.
It seemed like Aaron’s past explanation was quite impressive.
“Well, that’s how it is.”
“Ah, I get it. How can you even look yourself in the mirror? He ran away, leaving her behind, just to save himself.”
Shameful.
Perhaps it’s the right answer.
“But it’s not your fault, is it?”
“Huh?”
“That little girl, Nina, was weak. Tsk tsk. You should have sent her off peacefully. Why did she beg to be saved until the very end? She made things difficult for people.”
“What... are you saying?”
“Isn’t that doing your best?”
Aaron’s gaze turned cold.
The boy continued nonchalantly.
“Looking at your situation, it seems like your parents died when you were young, and you were in quite a predicament. But you spoon-fed her, the one with a weak body, right? You alone. For over ten years.”
“......”
“To be honest, she was a hindrance, wasn’t she? It would have been much easier if you were alone.”
“What are you saying!”
Aaron grabbed the boy by the collar.
He thought that his emotions had faded after a hundred years.
But it seemed they hadn’t disappeared yet.
“You’re saying Nina was a hindrance in my life?”
“The weight of a life is heavier than gold. You carried that burden from a young age. If you have to look after a child who can’t even do things for themselves, it’s even more so.”
“Don’t insult me! I lived with Nina because I wanted to!”
Aaron's grip tightened.
The boy was smiling, caught by the collar.
“You’re so pathetic, Aaron. You dedicated your life to Nina. Nina clung to you until the end because she wanted to live. As a result, you’re suffering because of her even now.”
“......!”
“Why did she repay your kindness with malice? There are tons of people who abandon their families to save themselves. Our poor Aaron, for the sake of saving his sister, couldn’t even leave for refuge on time and had to travel through a dangerous place.”
“......I think you’re being harsh.”
“Because of her being your sister, you had to bear the weight of another life at a young age. But what did Nina do for you? She just whined about being sick? Knowing you would die together, she used you as a companion, asking you to help?”
“Stop it!”
Aaron pushed the boy, holding him by the collar.
It was a dead end.
The boy’s body vanished and reappeared on the other side.
“Calm down. It’s just saying that there is such a perspective.”
“......”
“I want to point something out. When you abandoned Nina and ran away, did she really say that?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“No, it’s nothing. You said she was whining about her pain and asking for help. I wouldn’t have done that.”
He no longer had the strength to hold on.
Aaron was exhausted.
“People’s memories are easily distorted. Even more so for memories related to trauma. Really, did your sister say that?”
“She probably did. I abandoned Nina. It’s natural for her to resent me.”
“Let’s think about it from the other side. If you were the sacrificial lamb and Nina was by your side, what would you have said?”
“That’s... ”
There’s no need to say it.
Run away.
“You understand? What your sister really said to you back then.”
“......”
“You have a sickness of the heart. That sickness easily twists memories.”
If it were before, he might not have accepted it.
He might have gone wild.
But now, too much time has passed.
“Well, now that I know how you feel, let’s do what you need to do to return to your family.”
“What... is that?”
“Forgiving yourself.”
The boy grinned.