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It Really Doesn’t Matters Now
He would have known that this wouldn’t change anything. Even knowing that, it was really Nathaniel-like to see all the parts that she seemed to like.
Flickering her chilly fingers, Kyrie slowly walked through the graveyard. She soon found a name she was familiar with.
Aaron Fitz.  And Melonie Butts.
Kyrie stood for a long time in front of Aaron’s tomb. She waited to see if she had Aaron’s hallucinations, but none of that happened. Aaron appeared as a symbol of her guilt, responsibility, and trauma she had, so it was natural in a way.
Kyrie took a few steps and she stood in front of Meloni’s tombstone. Meloni’s kind words flowed into her mind.
‘Miss. Life isn’t that tough. It’s not the young lady’s fault, and the people who live will eventually have to live, right?’
Meloni clearly said so. Kyrie had forgotten that it was she herself who focused only on the voice that harmed her.  She no longer had to.  Because she decided to only hear her own voice.
“Thank you, Meloni.”
Kyrie knelt down on her knees, and slowly set the bouquet down in front of the two tombstones.  It was her last mourning.
***
Cesar Buchanan’s funeral was modest.  It was a good day for a good person to return to heaven. It wouldn’t be Cesar Buchanan though. It was a quiet funeral, except for the commotion of the bugs crawling between the lips of the dead Cesar.
It was after the memorial service held in the small temple was over, and before the coffin was transported. Kyrie slowly got up and approached Gray who was serving people.
“Gray.”
“Yes. Kyrie……!  Is there anything you don’t like?”
Gray smiled at her confidently and with submissiveness. People avoided the place, Kyrie smiled.
“Coming to think of it, I don’t think I’ll ever see you again.”
“Huh. If you say so, it’s like that! What can I do?”
Gray smiled with a face mixed with half regret for not being able to use her as the Lord Protector, and half with regret that she never wanted to see him again. Kyrie nodded her head.
“Right. I feel a bit sad.”
“Huh…, Huh?”
“It will hurt a little. Go away, Neve.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
The clever servant Neveah quickly left Gray’s chair.
“W, wait…!”
Kyrie moved her finger.  Six spells were drawn in the air.  Soon after, the strongly compressed air hit Gray at the solar plexus.
(T/N: Solar Plexus- a complex of ganglia and radiating nerves of the sympathetic system at the pit of the stomach.)
“Hik!”
Gray was hit by six magic spells and flew to the coffin where Cesar was lying. There was the sound of something breaking.
It’s none of my business.
On top of it, Kyrie returned what Gray once said after hitting her on the Red Route.
“You really can’t use your legs. If it had been before, you would have been noisy right away.  I won’t say sorry.  I just did it to check.”
People looked surprised, but no one blamed Kyrie. They  just stared at Gray.
“The Duke of Buchanan, Gray, must have done something wrong.”
“It’s a funeral, but……There must have been something understandable, right?  It’s the Lord Protector.”
“She can blow people up with just one finger, but he should be grateful for being treated like that.”
“I just pretended that I didn’t know but if there is another dangerous situation like this later, I need to help…….”
(T/N: this person is saying, right now he pretended he didn’t know Kyrie was hurting Gray but in future if something like this happens he will jump out and protect Kyrie. Lol they are thinking Gray tried to harm Kyrie and that’s why Kyrie hurted him)
It was so funny that she thought she was going to laugh. Did Nathaniel feel the same way?  The change in attitude like flipping the palm of your hand and the seemingly obvious desire to be ridiculous were just funny. Kyrie realized that she no longer had to hold back her laughter, and laughed out loud and left the funeral. Leaving the past Kyrie Buchanan in her father’s coffin.
As she was walking through the forest to the exit, Kyrie found a small shadow and she stood tall.
The owner of the shadow was not in her usual maid clothes. She wore a dark green cape on her one-piece outfit, a leather trunk bag in her hand, and a long spear that she borrowed from across the continent on her back.
MarryAnne laughed softly.
“Miss. Will you hug me one last time?”
“MarryAnne…..”
Kyrie quietly approached MarryAnne and hugged her. MarryAnne patted Kyrie on the back with her remaining hand, while giving strength to her hand holding the trunk.
After a while, Kyrie pulled her body away and kept her smile on her face.
“Anne. You have grown tall”
“Really? I guess I’m going to be an adult too!”
“Yeah. You will soon be taller than me.”
MarryAnne laughed.
“But no matter how tall I get, I can no longer say that I am protecting you!”
Kyrie smiled quietly.
“Are you sad?”
“No! Now I am relieved that no one can harm you.”
“Aren’t I unfamiliar?”
“For me, my lady is my lady.”
There was a man’s face that passed through her mind at MarryAnne’s answer. Kyrie let it flow naturally.
The two held hands and started walking down the path through the trees.
“MarryAnne. Were you okay that day?”
MarryAnne took a deep breath.
“Nothing happened to me.”
Contrary to her heavy breathing, her voice was calm.
“But, I have something to apologize to you.”
“It was because of my father’s death.”
MarryAnne nodded her head.
How Cesar Buchanan died was also briefly told to Kyrie. But MarryAnne did escort Cesar, and similar things happened everywhere that day.  To put it bluntly, it was only the evil nature of people that caused this problem.
“It’s not your fault, MarryAnne.”
“I should have stopped him. The master said he would go to a dangerous place to find the lady, he was so worried about you that I couldn’t stop him…..”
(T/N: MarryAnne is lying to Kyrie and Anne killed few more bad people like Cesar with insects so that it isn’t suspicious)
“Did my father worry about me?”
“Yes.”
MarryAnne pulled her hand and made Kyrie stop.  And as she looked into her eyes, she spoke again and again.
“He didn’t even listen. I didn’t like the Head that much, but I have to say that in the end he cared about you.”
Kyrie couldn’t reply, and stood still.  MarryAnne then bowed her head.
“But I looked away and the bad people were looking at you……. I’m sorry, miss…….”
(T/N: first she is blaming herself for looking away when Cesar “went to find Kyrie” then she is blaming herself for looking away when people were mocking Kyrie and bad-mouthing her.)
Seeing MarryAnne blaming herself, Kyrie felt a very strange feeling. It was as if she had heard the obituary of someone she did not know.  Kyrie was so unfamiliar with herself, she patted MarryAnne’s shoulder without any reaction.
(T/N: Kyrie was actually seeing herself in MarryAnne who was blaming herself, even Kyrie used to blame herself for everything that happened)
“More than that, didn’t my father leave anything like a will?”
(T/N: his last words)
MarryAnne stopped and nodded her head.
“I heard it.  I didn’t tell anyone because I wasn’t going to tell anyone else.”
“Really? Like nothing about what I should do with my family?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“About wealth?”
“No.”
MarryAnne shook her head.
“The Lord was worried about the young lady until the end.”
Kyrie asked for a moment, not understanding what she had heard.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Father?”
“Yes.”
MarryAnne looked at Kyrie with her unwavering eyes.
“And he asked me to tell you that he was sorry.”
Kyrie did not answer for a long time.  The wind blew between them.
Is it a lie?
But MarryAnne, who couldn’t meet her gaze when she lied, was now staring straight at her.
“Really.”
MarryAnne spoke firmly and sternly.  Her black eyes were clear.  She seemed desperate for something.
Suddenly, she realized that it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or not. Kyrie slowly reached out her arm and gently embraced MarryAnne’s body.
“Thank you for protecting my father from the deathbed.”
“…….”
“You worked hard, Anne.”
MarryAnne held her breath. Only MarryAnne herself knows whether it is breathing or crying. MarryAnne hesitated as she stood in her place, and Kyrie smiled slowly.
“Aren’t you going to hug me?”
At those words, she dropped her trunk bag that MarryAnne was holding. And hugged Kyrie’s back with her small hand and cradled it into her arms.
“Miss……! MarryAnne, MarryAnne……!”
Kyrie repeatedly stroked MarryAnne’s hair.  The front of her clothes got wet, but she didn’t care. MarryAnne cried even louder. Kyrie didn’t ask what was so sad.  It seemed like she should not ask.
MarryAnne walked away after a while, rubbing her one red-stained eyes.
“……Miss.”
“Yes.”
MarryAnne lifted her chest and smiled faintly.
“I am leaving now.”
At MarryAnne’s words, Kyrie looked down at the little maid with long blonde hair.  Surprisingly she didn’t have much of a shock.  Deep in her heart, she had a premonition that it was going to be like this.
“I have to return the veil and the spear.  Instead of renting it out, I decided to return it and move there too. That’s why he lent this precious thing to me, who doesn’t even know my face.”
“What if it’s a dangerous place?”
“It’s okay! I think I will do well! Because, human and elf mixed blood is not a big deal in the first place. It’s very, very unusual, so they’ll treat me like a princess in a fairy tale!”
MarryAnne laughed. Kyrie looked at MarryAnne and asked calmly.
“You can’t help but go, right?”
MarryAnne’s smile changed slightly.  It was a very mature smile. She looked as homeless as a human being who really lived the human years.
“Yes. It’s time for me to grow up. I can’t help but lean on your kindness and become an adult forever.”
She is a mixed-race girl who was a slave in the arena, left alone in the world.  She needed a place to put her mind, and Kyrie also took care of MarryAnne and indirectly comforted her inside. But now MarryAnne is an adult, and Kyrie is no longer bound by her past self.
“Originally, when the lady’s lifespan was over, I decided to move on. As you know, elves live longer than humans…….”
MarryAnne murmured as she looked across the road from her. At the same time, the zelkova tree made a rustling sound in the wind and spread like music with MarryAnne’s voice.
“You……”
MarryAnne turned her head to her Kyrie.
“……I am fine now.”
(T/N: this is a turning point of MarryAnne’s life, she really turned into an adult, if y’all noticed from the start of this scene, she isn’t referring as 3rd person)
MarryAnne lifted her trunk bag.  Both began to walk down the trail. The back of the girl, who no longer referred to herself as a third person, was firm and strong. MarryAnne is really okay now.
Just before MarryAnne’s figure was obscured by the forest, Kyrie said it like throwing.
“Can we meet again?”
MarryAnne turned her back, smiled broadly, and waved her hand.  She had the most radiant smile.
“Of course!”
***
T/rant: whooo…..what an emotional scene between Kyrie and MarryAnne. I loved it. MarryAnne really became an adult because now she was able to lie to Kyrie easily and didn’t refer to herself as a third person.
Now MarryAnne will go to the Northern continent and there a new story will unfold and this is the name of that novel!