Apologize

"I'm sorry..."

Alaric repeated those words again as he put more pressure on his hands so much that his fingernails left some scratches and red marks on his skin.

For a moment I was so taken aback that I didn't know what I had to do and how to respond. It took me a few seconds to finally form a question.

"What are you sorry for, young master?"

Alaric responded like clockwork.

"It was my fault. The thing that happened last night... You got hurt because of me... I... I-I'm sorry..."

The whole time he was talking, Alaric didn't look at me and avoided eye contact. His voice was a little bit hoarse and shaky and it cracked a little bit at the end of his words as if he was about to burst into tears.

'What? What should I do now? What is he even apologizing for I don't get it!'

Does he feel guilty that I got injured instead of him? It's not like I'm dead or severally injured... Well, I was severally injured but I'm fine now. Also, even if I was in a bad condition, there is literally no need to apologize to me... Come on I'm not used to being apologized for it's so awkward right now!

"Ah, that's... That's totally okay!"

I chuckled and scratched the back of my head.

"I'm fine now. I will be as healthy as before in a few days."

"..."

"Oh, and you are treating me well so there is nothing to worry about. Haha!"

"..."

Alaric nibbled with his lips and lowered his head once again. His clasped hands didn't loosen even a little bit but instead, his shoulders got even tenser.

"That's not right..." He mumbled in a low voice. "You nearly died... It was my fault... Everyone was put in danger... It's all because of me. It's my fault."

Still standing in my place, I looked around and scratched my head once again, wondering what I should do in this situation. In the end, the conclosion that came to my mind was to be straightforward.

"Look, you've lost your memories so you can't remember it, but this kind of stuff is natural around you. I mean, get used to it. It was not even a big incident."

"..."

Alaric was silent for a few seconds as if thinking about my words before he suddenly shook his head strongly.

"This is not right. This should've happened. It's not right."

He repeated those words a few times before pausing again. After a few seconds, he suddenly took a big step toward me.

"Why is everyone here like this? Why isn't anyone saying anything? No one is blaming me! It was my fault, yet you all seem to be okay with that! Are you fools? Are you stupid?"

"..."

Without letting me say any words, Alaric resumed his barrage of words after taking a deep breath.

"You all act as if it's totally okay to be attacked by bandits! Why aren't you even mad at me? I was the one who caused your injury! If not for me, then the whole incident would've ended much more peacefully!"

"...."

Alaric's voice gradually rose up until he was almost shouting loud enough for the people outside the room to also hear his words. He had gotten close to me so his voice specially made my ears ring a little bit.

Alaric's previous solemn and numb expression was completely gone and he was instead filled with rage. However, his eyes were still bloodshot and some tear droplets were being formed in his eyes.

As it looked, he was venting all of the frustration, fear, and nervousness he had felt last night on me.

"But it's not like you made those bandits attack us or caused their rage. It was rather me who humiliated their leader and made them become inraged..."

Well, if he is venting his anger, so be it. I don't really mind.

"It was!" Alaric raised his voice even more. "Nothing like this ever happened in the plot! It was because of me that things changed! There can be no other reason. It was me who changed it!"

Plot?

What plot is he talking about?

What did he change?

I couldn't help but frown a little bit at the mention of some suspicious and hard-to-understand things. Alaric was not in the right state of the mind right now and one couldn't really take his words seriously, but what he said was still questionable. However, I couldn't for a proper theory about it right now. Meanwhile, Alaric was still going on.

"But... But I didn't do anything. I did nothing that could affect the other things... I really did nothing. I did nothing serious..."

As he repeated those words, his voice sank down little by little until he went completely quiet. He stood in his spot with his head down and his shoulders slumped, staring at his shoes.

'Is he done? Can I leave? Standing up for this long isn't really easy with a deep cut in my side, you know?'

I examined my young master's face, and noticing that there were no hints of anger or nervousness in it anymore, I took one step back. Alaric didn't try to stop me so I turned around and walked to the door again. Before leaving the room, I glanced at the young man said in a voice he could clearly hear.

"You have to get used to this. Such things are not uncommon nowadays, sir."

Without waiting for him to say anything, I opened the door and left the room. In the corridor outside the room, knights and servants, as well as Miss. Doctor and Mr. Black Bastard were lined up, all looking in the direction of Alaric's room. As soon as I entered their sight, their eyes lit up and some of them cautiously approached me to ask questions, but nope! I'm not going to say anything.

Ignoring them all, I pressed my hand on my wound and put on a pained expression, turned my back to them, and slumped to the room that was assigned to me.

I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. The next time I opened my eyes, it was already night and time for dinner.

'I actually did nothing the whole day besides eating and sleeping... Is it my reward for successfully regressing so many times without losing my mind? Did those gods finally bless me or something?'

Whatever it is, it's an enjoyable time. I guess can stop nagging and cursing my life for a while.

"Now... How are we going to continue our trip?"

While eating dinner, Alaric who had been silent ever since the commotion in the noon, asked a question in his normal tone. Ranger was the one who answered him as usual.

"We can write a letter to the county and request them to send us new carriages. That is the safest and most reliable way, but it will take at least a week for the new carriages to arrive, and by now it would be too late. We won't manage to reach the empire in the designed time and will miss the birthday party."

Alaric nodded his head in understanding and picked up his glass of water.

"Then what should we do?"

"We can only keep going like how we came here, by the remaining horses, until finding a city where we can get some more horses or a few carriages from."

By the mention of the horses, Alaric's face distorted a little bit. Back when we were riding the horses he had been stuck to Liam the whole time with a pale face, and he even threw up a few times. It was obvious that he didn't like the idea of keeping horseback riding. Yet Alaric didn't reject the idea.

"Yes. Let's do that."

He nodded his head and resumed eating his food. Nothing was discussed for the rest of the day and the whole group had a proper rest at night.

'I'm not sleepy at all!'

Well, except for me who had slept almost half of the day and couldn't fall asleep anymore.

After getting tired of tossing and turning in my bed, I decided to take a walk outside for a while. It was too hot inside the room and even the occasional breeze couldn't help at all. Thinking that going outside might help me fall asleep again, I carefully sneaked out of the house.

The village we were staying at was a rather small village. Its main source of income was the livestock raised there and the livestock's products. It was located behind a tall mountain in a valley. The main road from the south and southwest areas of Loyatou passed through this valley, so the people of the village earned quite a lot from the travelers.

I enjoyed the scenes of the village and the beautiful night sky as I casually strolled around. It was night so nothing much could be seen but the cool breeze was enough for me to know that I made the right decision when coming out to walk.

Swosh

Swosh

Swosh

While walking along the wooden fence of a house next to the place we stayed, a rather strange noise caught my attention. It sounded like someone was swinging something fast and furiously. Curious, I stopped walking and turned to the source of the noise.

Inside the small yard of the house across from me, a man clad in black clothing was swinging a sword up and down repeatedly.