Ending Maker Episode 429
Chapter 14 – First Contact #5
Lena fell into a deep sleep in the boy’s arms.
It was because I was relieved of my tension at the thought that it was all over and that I was alive, and then I suddenly felt tired.
Lena had a dream.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the details, but at least I was sure that it wasn’t a nightmare.
Sweet dreams.
A happy dream, one that feels like it’s been a very long time since I’ve had one.
So when Lena woke up, she wondered if last night’s events had all been a dream, but they weren’t.
The place where Lena opened her eyes was a neighboring town that was half a day away but she had never visited before.
According to the story told by the kind-looking village chief’s wife while giving her oatmeal porridge, the village where Lena originally lived was practically reduced to ashes.
The surviving villagers were scattered to the surrounding villages, and even then, their numbers were so small that it was possible to count them on two hands.
She also heard the shocking news that the village chief who raised Lena had died, but Lena herself was surprisingly unfazed.
I just felt like, “Well, that was just how it was, maybe because of what I experienced in the goblin lair.”
The village chief’s wife looked at Lena, who was just listening blankly, and either misunderstood something or felt sorry that she had reacted this way, so she hugged Lena tightly and shed tears.
The village chief’s wife’s embrace was very warm and soft.
But Lena remembered the boy’s hard and cold embrace.
I wanted to see the boy’s face that resembled the morning sun again.
“Lord Landius has left to save another village.”
Landius.
The moment she heard the boy’s name, Lena’s eyes opened wide.
Even though Lena was an orphan from a rural area, she had heard the story of ‘Landius, who caught a snake at the age of two and a bear at the age of ten.’
According to the village chief’s wife, the boy, Landius, left the sleeping Rena in the village’s care and immediately moved on to save the next village.
“Another village?”
“Yes, they say there were more than one village that was attacked.”
It wasn’t mentioned until later, but just as the village chief’s wife said, the goblin attack was indeed large-scale.
Nearly half of the borderlands of the Paragon Kingdom were under attack, and it seemed that the Goblin King, who had not been born in hundreds of years, was the cause.
“Don’t worry too much. Lord Landius is an invincible hero. Lord Lanford, the commander of the knights, is even stronger.”
The village chief’s wife stroked Lena’s head with a kind smile, told her to rest more, and left the room.
Now alone, Lena lay down on the straw bed, closed her eyes tightly, and tried to picture Landius’ face – his side profile as he watched the sunrise.
* * *
“From then on, Randy was my hero.”
Landius smiled awkwardly, as if he felt a little embarrassed by Lena’s shy confession, while Belkian and Fran smiled warmly.
“Well, okay. That was a pretty strawberry-like story.”
Fran nodded by herself and seemed to be clapping her hands, but then her face turned mischievous and she spoke.
“But Landius, even after all that happened, you don’t remember Lena?”
That would be truly memorable.
It’s not like there was a gender misunderstanding like with Kamael.
At Fran’s comment, Lena looked up at Landius with an equally mischievous expression as if she found it amusing, and Landius scratched his cheek with an awkward expression as he spoke.
“No, that… … After that, I was so busy fighting goblins that I didn’t even notice… … I was too young back then… … Because?”
He wasn’t talking about Landius himself, but about Lena.
At that time, Lena was only six years old.
“Now that I think about it, that’s true. Isn’t there about a ten year age difference between the two of you?”
That’s right.
When Lena was six, Landius was already fifteen.
“It’s been a while since I’ve learned that Landius was a thief.”
A bride with a nine year age gap.
Landius coughed again at Fran’s attack, and Lena laughed heartily.
“But Lena.”
“why?”
“So why did Lena run away?”
“uh?”
“No, you said you ran away when you reunited with Landius.”
I was running so fast that I fell and my skirt flipped upside down.
At Fran’s unexpected attack, Lena flinched and glanced towards Landius, who looked straight at Lena with a truly curious expression on his face.
“That, that.”
“Oh, that’s it.”
“You, are you doing this so suddenly?”
Ever since that day in the goblin lair, Landius has been like a prince from a fairy tale to Rena.
In fact, Lena was an avid Landius fanatic who had collected all the Landius-related goods, even though she had never told anyone about it.
Fran said something about the age difference, but from Lena’s perspective, it was a grand journey of reverse spontaneity.
In any case, since Lena had been in love with Landius even before they met again, she had been having quite a few delusions.
For example, ‘Reunion with the Prince’, which is like a scene from a love story.
“Oh, and he was just wearing work clothes… … .”
Straw hat and dirty overalls.
Muddy hands and sweaty face.
Couldn’t show it.
Because this wasn’t the reunion with Landius that Lena had imagined.
Because it had to be so much cooler, more beautiful, and just plain awesome!
Lena mumbled while wiggling her fingers with a red face, and Landius smiled happily as if he found Lena so lovable.
Fran, who was watching from the side, made an old man-like expression and kept saying ‘Eww’.
“Anyway, in the end, Landius didn’t recognize Lena.”
Could it be an illusion that the smile added to it was like that?
At Kamael’s words, Lena puffed out her cheeks, then glanced at Landius as if she was feeling resentful.
“Do you know how disappointed I am now that you say this?”
“Huh?”
Even if Lena herself doesn’t think of Landius to that extent, I thought Landius would remember her to some extent.
So, I imagined Landius being surprised many times, thinking, “That child grew up to be such a pretty girl!”
“I just now realized that I was the girl who ran away… … Well, I was glad I didn’t remember back then.”
Anyway, what was sad was sad.
As Lena puffed out her cheeks and grumbled, Landius was at a loss again, and Fran began to look around for a way to intervene, her face turning sour.
But surprisingly, it was Belkian who opened his mouth.
“Anyway, what’s important is that we’re together like this now.”
As Fran had emphasized several times, if you look at them one by one, they were actually nothing special first meetings.
But that didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that everyone met and was together, and that we are still together at this moment.
“No, but apart from the inspiration, it seems like they all had pretty special encounters. They all seem to have stories, except for the one where they went to meet a friend and said, ‘I’m Landius,’ and ‘Oh, it’s Belkian.’”
Beside him, Fran was nagging him as usual, but since it was something he was used to, Belkian didn’t get agitated, and so Kamael and Lena also smiled warmly and agreed with Belkian’s words.
Everyone is gathered and everyone is working together.
The fact itself was so thankful and precious.
‘But still… … .’
As expected, Landius was a little more special.
And it wasn’t just Lena who thought this.
When faced with the Paragon Kingdom, which has become a den of demons.
When I had to confront Bardo, who appeared as a lich.
When even the resilient Fran gave up everything in the midst of endless despair.
It was Landius who supported everyone.
What gave me the strength to fight again was his consistent back.
The darker the darkness, the deeper the night, the brighter a single flash of light shines.
The golden sun finally rises and brightens the world.
‘Landius.’
Our sun.
Our hero.
The Paragon heroes each smiled at the sight of Landius smiling kindly with a blushing face as if he was embarrassed.
Without exception, everyone raised their glasses and blessed their heroes.
* * *
“So, Randy, did you end up doing that ‘Beautiful Lady Series’?”
On the way back to our separately booked accommodation.
When Lena asked in passing while looking up at the bright moonlit night sky, Landius flinched and tensed for a moment.
That would be the case, because it was a question that required a proper answer.
But still, in the end, Landius was Landius.
After hesitating for a while, he began to speak in a stammering voice with a shy expression that did not match his size.
“I can’t do all of those… but maybe two or three…?”
Lena stopped walking at the words she said with an awkward smile as if embarrassed.
He asked again, his face smiling but his eyes not smiling.
“With who?”
No, what year?
Lena was both an archangel and an archmage, and of course possessed terrifying magical powers.
If you have a weak stomach, you might wet your pants just looking at Lena’s eyes.
But Landius, the hero of the sun, was not like that.
He still seemed to be slouching a bit, despite his size, and spoke in a voice still full of shyness.
“That… …with you.”
“uh?”
“No, that… … all of it, with you.”
A kiss under the beautiful moonlight, or something else under the moonlight.
Lena reacted to Landius’ confession that wasn’t really a confession in a Lena-like way.
That is, he blushed bright red and didn’t know what to do, but then he smiled.
“Excuse me… … Then can you show me the list?”
What’s left?
Is there anything else you wanted to do but couldn’t?
“I’ll do it all. Okay? Me.”
At Lena’s suggestion, Landius gulped and took out a very old and worn-out notebook. Lena, who opened the notebook with a pounding face, quickly glared.
“Randy pervert.”
“Ah, no. That… … uh, when I was young. Uh, when I was hot-blooded?”
“Hmm, so you don’t like it now? You don’t want to do it?”
Landius hummed for a long time in response to Lena’s provocative but blushing question, which took all his courage to answer, and then whispered softly in Lena’s ear, causing Lena to smile faintly.
“Our Randy, who else would have accepted you if not me? Aren’t you glad you married me?”
If Fran had heard it, she would have claimed it was gaslighting, but Landius didn’t.
The hero of the sun nodded after embracing Lena in his arms like he did when he was young, and Lena burst into laughter.
A reunion with the prince I’ve been dreaming of since I was little.
Lena bit her lips slightly and kissed Landius.
She smiled brightly under the beautiful moonlight.
* * *
Same time, different place.
On a night when the Paragon heroes were lost in old memories, there were two people – no, two angels – sharing the same story of memories.
