Chapter 238
“Reverend. Reverend Dun.”
He heard someone calling him. Dun realized he had fallen asleep while sitting. He opened his eyes and saw Borwen, who worked at the mansion, entering.
“I’m sorry. If you were sleeping, I cane backter.”
“N-No… It’s fine.”
Borwen used to be a butcher. Compared to the number of animals he had butchered, it was only very asionally that he butchered people as well.
His mother still had to take Dun’s medicine to stay alive. Borwen tried to correct his behavior as much as possible, but even while quietly running errands for Dun, he sometimes used coarsenguage. It was not wise to show any disarray in front of him.
Dun stood up and looked at Borwen.
“Miss Carynne has sent a letter. She says she is currently in the capital with Miss Ise Evans. His Lordship would like to have tea with you. Will you join him?”
“…Yes.”“Yes, very well. I will let him know you will be joining shortly. And before you go, it would be best to change your clothes. New clothes are in the wardrobe.”
“A-Alright.”
Dun rubbed his rough, dry cheeks to clear his mind. It had been two days since he arrived at the estate, yet he still felt disoriented. He opened his eyes and looked in the mirror. A gaunt, stooped young man stared back at him.
There stood a patient, captivated by eternity.
.
.
There was only one thing he wondered.
“Of all people… Why me?”
* * *
“I heard there was a fire at the abbey. Are you alright?”
“I’m f-fine, Your Lordship.”
Dun looked down at the tea before him, then raised his head to answer the fief lord. Even if Carynne rejected Dun, it didn’t change the fact that he was to be the next lord of thisnd. His return had only been slightly dyed.
But in the meantime, various things had happened to him. From small incidents like objects disappearing and reappearing, to suddenly feeling sleepy, and almost causing a fire by falling over.
“It’s all over now.”
Dun no longer had business at the abbey. He sipped his tea as he listened to the fief lord talk about Carynne’s departure to the capital.
The fief lord cautiously spoke as he watched out for Dun’s reaction.
“I’m told that there’s a man she will be introducing to me soon.”
“I-I-Is that so.”
“Yes… It may not be to your liking, but I hope you will still give your congrattions.”
Dun understood why the fief lord was speaking so cautiously. Was he worried that Dun might think he was losing Carynne? Dun bitterlyughed to himself. The fief lord and Catherine were gravely mistaken.
They were the ones who proposed the deal, so why were they afraid to carry it out? They found it hard to ept the process. They couldn’t treat Carynnefortably and assumed Dun harbored ulterior motives. Even now, the fief lord was watching him so warily just because Carynne had chosen some other man.
But why would he be angry about that?
“Of course.”
It was something to celebrate.
Whether Carynne met someone or not, it was a blessing.
Because what he had to do remained unchanged.
Because what he <i>had been doing</i> remained unchanged.
“So, how about we pretend the conversations with Catherine never happened?”
“I don’t quite understand what you mean.”
“I mean, stop tampering with her memory… Catherine, she…”
The fief lord’s face reddened slightly. His purpose in calling Dun was to discuss this matter.
“I lost my wife, but I’ve also lost my daughter over the years. I don’t want to lose the only family I have left.”
Dun rested his chin on his hand and pondered.
The fief lord’s words were meant to persuade Dun, but they only served to strengthen his resolve. Carynne herself had said she would live again. She told this to her father.
.
.
Dun tossed a gold coin into the air and caught it again. <i>Clink. Clink.</i> The coin repeatedly rose and fell in the air. Dun thought. He had to think.
Will Carynne live again? Dun believed she would. But the fact that she had regained her memory and yet held nothing in her hand confused him. Carynne should have been holding something. Hadn’t Catherine mentioned it?
“To be sure I will live again, firstes memory, then I can return with a mark.”
Catherine had once told Dun.
“Whenever I die, I can start with what I held in my hand in the previous life. Something small enough to fit tightly in your palm… In my case, at first, it was a finger.”
A finger? Dun looked at Catherine’s white, slender fingers. She lifted her hand and bent one finger. <i>My finger. I cut it off and brought it back. It’s decayed now, so I discarded it.</i>
“Do you know? Human fingers have patterns.”
Was she talking about the ridges on the skin of the fingertips? Dun looked at his fingertips, but they were smooth from all the medicine he’d concocted. Later, he learned, just as Catherine had said, that everyone has unique patterns that can be used to identify individuals.
“Is it because pregnancy is the answer? If you hold a part of your body, youe back. If it’s not part of your body, the most distinct thing that remains is this.”
Catherine picked up a gold coin.
“This stays without much resistance. Other things tend to cause problems.”
“I see.”
“So,ter, to check if Carynne has lived and died again, you just need to see if she’s holding something like this.”
“What if she dies without holding anything?”
Catherine poked Dun.
“Then you can ce it in her hand.”
“……”
“Even right after she dies. As long as someone puts a gold coin in her hand after she dies….”
* * *
<i>That is why you must be a priest.</i>
<i>You must be the guide to her death.</i>
* * *
Carynne wasn’t holding anything.
Could it be because this was her first life?
At first, Dun thought so. But the fief lord’s request to leave Carynne alone made Dun suspicious.
Carynne herself had persuaded the fief lord to let her leave the manor. And in the process, she mentioned she had lived several times.
So, why wasn’t she holding anything?
Dun couldn’t understand why he hadn’t ced a gold coin in her hand in the past. If Carynne had died, she would surely have been holding a coin. But this time, there was nothing in her hand.
Dun felt a growing itch in his mind. He wanted to take his brain out and organize it.
Carynne imed to remember. Yet, there was no coin.
<i>The coin.</i>
Dun thought about the object he had repeatedly considered.
Carynne was no longer at the mansion.
Could someone who had spent their entire life at the mansion, with unreliable memories, really exhibit such decisiveness? She hadn’t been gone long.
Nancy, who had been taking care of her, had reportedly run away with the money. There should have been a strong bond between Carynne and Nancy. At the very least, Carynne should have been influenced by Nancy, having taken the medicine and been cared for by her. Yet, Carynne did not return home even after Nancy fled.
Strange. So strange.
Could a person really act that way? Was Carynne indeed living again? And she’s already dating a man who she’s ready to introduce to her father?
Dun clenched the coin tightly.
Carynne’s actions were not those of someone who had lived only one life. She did not seem like someone who had been virtually imprisoned in the mansion her entire life. Her decisiveness and resourcefulness were clear.
Dun twisted his lips into a smile.
He also realized why his final days at the abbey had been dangerous. He now understood why things had gone missing. Carynne had ordered someone to do it. She had undoubtedly been trying to find something out from him.
This was not Carynne’s first life.
She had likely extracted some truth from him to some extent.
The past versions of himself had seeded.
But no matter how much Carynne struggled, he had no intention of letting her go.
Dun could feel the past versions of himself whispering from beside him.
<i>Eternity.</i>
Trying to escape?
From eternity to death? To eternal rest?
But she would not seed.
No matter who it was that she chose.
Dun stood up and began to shove items into his bag. It didn’t matter who the man was, what kind of person he was, or anything else. It didn’t matter.
Dun’s actions would remain unchanged.
<b>〈 End of Volume 5 〉</b>