Chapter 132
The higher they climbed, the thicker the snow became.
Gilly pushed the snow, which reached up to her waist, to the sides and found tree roots and rocks that were good to step on. That’s how she made a path, so the others following behind could walk more comfortably.
Linda, watching her, smiled gently.
“You can really tell that Gilly grew up in the mountains. She seems used to such rough, snowy paths.”
“…Well, I did grow up here, but I wasn’t born here.”
“Oh? So you moved here from somewhere else?”
“No…”
Gilly stopped walking, opened the lid of the wooden water container hanging around her neck, and took a sip. The icy water ran down all the way to her stomach.
Looking back, she saw Bill carrying Rafaella, following at a distance.
Once they crossed this mountain, she would become part of Linda and Bill’s family. Maybe it was okay to talk about it now. After all, in today’s world, being an orphan might not be such a big deal.
Gilly finally spoke.
“Actually, I don’t know where I was born. When I was a baby, I was abandoned, and my father brought me here and raised me.”
“Oh my…”
“But it’s okay. He raised me so well that I never once doubted he was really my father.”
“I see… He must have been a good man.”
“…Yes.”
“Did your father also die in a landslide?”
“No.”
Linda saw a spark flare up in Gilly’s eyes for a moment. A burning anger emanated from the young boy who always seemed calm and composed.
Linda thought that maybe this boy held the same desire for revenge that she did.
“If it’s alright, can you tell me what happened?”
“My father… was murdered.”
“What?”
“He once helped a man with a wounded leg, but it turned out he was part of the enemy’s vanguard.”
“Y-You don’t mean… then…”
“Yes. That man asked my father about the mountain path and then mercilessly stabbed him. My father was killed by the very person he saved.”
“….”
This time, a spark flared in Linda’s eyes. So that’s it. It was you. The ones who made the army that destroyed the village able to pass through this treacherous mountain so easily.
Linda vividly recalled the faces of her dead child and husband. Beneath the rubble caused by indiscriminate bombing, her husband and child had died, clutching each other tightly. The scratch marks on the surrounding walls suggested that her husband had struggled to save the child until the very end. How desperate must he have been to have all his fingernails worn away while digging?
This was why Linda, once an ordinary housewife, had joined the liberation army. Revenge. For a purpose that could not be avoided.
The boy in front of her might be innocent. But his father had sinned. She believed that the children must repay their parents’ sins, just as she was taking revenge on behalf of her own child.
Driven purely by the desire to crush the enemy, Linda had already lost her objective reasoning, leaving only blind resentment.
Gilly, watching Rafaella climb the mountain from a distance, didn’t notice that Linda’s eyes, with tiny veins bursting red, were filled with vengeance and resentment.
Gilly slowly spoke as she watched the sun sink completely below the horizon.
“Ella once asked me why God doesn’t help good people. I couldn’t answer her back then, but I think either God doesn’t exist, or if He does, He’s abandoned us.”
“…I see. At least in that, we’re the same.”
“You feel resentful too, don’t you? About those beings up in the sky.”
Gilly felt glad that Linda shared the same sentiment, but Linda quickly turned her head away.
“The sun has set. Let’s find a place to rest for a while. We should also give Ella something to eat.”
“Yes.”
Gilly tilted her head in curiosity but obediently went ahead.
The four of them had a simple dinner of soup and bread in a small cave. After a short rest, they continued climbing the mountain.
Gilly remembered the path her father used to take perfectly. She didn’t get lost and could quickly cross the peaks. This time, a long, steep descent followed.
After over twenty hours of hiking, everyone was too exhausted to speak. Linda wrapped her blistered feet in bandages. Even strong Bill’s knees wobbled, but he continued carrying the deeply sleeping Rafaella without waking her.
Gilly, tired herself, suggested taking a break, but Linda insisted on moving despite her bloody feet. Forced by Linda’s urging, Gilly had no choice but to keep descending.
After an entire day, they finally saw the enemy village. Though still far, the buildings looked like toys from a distance, and the utterly exhausted party felt like discovering an oasis in the middle of a desert.
A couple more hours of walking brought them to the border post and the village entrance.
Linda’s face twisted in a strange mix of joy and sorrow. Bill’s eyes were deep and sunken.
Linda deliberately lifted the corners of her mouth and hugged Gilly gently.
“We made it safely because of you, Gilly. Thank you so much.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
Unused to compliments, Gilly’s cheeks turned red.
Linda held Gilly’s shoulders and looked her in the eye.
“But Gilly, the path you mentioned yesterday… the one your father said he revealed to the vanguard… is it the path we just took?”
“Huh? Why do you ask…?”
“Oh, just in case. It would be troublesome if someone followed us, wouldn’t it?”
“If that’s the case, don’t worry. The path the army used was the fourth peak. I could hear the march from that side, so I’m sure.”
“Really? That’s a relief. But…”
Gilly felt something odd as Linda’s grip on her shoulders tightened, but Linda pressed on without pause.
“How long does it take to cross that fourth-peak path?”
“Uh… I think it takes about forty hours. I haven’t traveled it often, so it’s not exact.”
“Why haven’t you gone often?”
“There are a lot of snakes there. Even though it’s easier than the path we took today, there are more rocks and snake dens. When a large army passes, the snakes would hide from the noise, but usually, it was just me and my father going alone.”
“I see. But your father must have lived in the mountains longer than you. Why would he tell the vanguard to take that path?”
Perhaps because of the sunset, Linda’s eyes looked unusually red. Gilly felt a shiver run down her neck.
“Ah… ma’am. Why are you asking that…?”
“Oh dear. When an adult asks, you should answer first. How rude of you.”
SMACK!
Gilly didn’t understand what had happened. Her vision flashed, and when she regained her senses, her head was turned and a sharp pain spread across her cheek.
“Ah… ma’am…?”
“Answer me. Why that path? Even though there’s a shorter way, why did your father show them that one?”
“…I-I don’t know.”
SMACK!
This time, her head was twisted the other way. She tasted blood in her mouth, salty and metallic.
“Answer me now!!!”
Gilly trembled all over. The face leaning close to hers was no longer the warm and kind Linda she had known for the past month.
Her eyes, gleaming with hostility and resentment, were the same as the people in the lower village who had once attacked Gilly.
“L-Linda… ma’am, why…?”
Gilly tried to move her trembling body, but her arms and legs wouldn’t obey. She looked at Bill, who had been standing at a distance, hoping he could stop Linda’s inexplicable outburst.
“……”
But Bill avoided Gilly’s gaze.
Gilly’s heart sank. Something was wrong, but it had happened so suddenly that she couldn’t figure out exactly what.
Her mind, turning blank, recalled her dead father’s words.
“Gilly. Don’t trust people too much. There are ten times more bad people in the world than good. And if you’re unlucky enough to meet a bad one…”
Bite and run for your life. Don’t fight—just escape. Her frozen body loosened at the echo of those words in her mind. Gilly bit down with all her strength on Linda’s arm holding her shoulder.
“Argh!”
Linda cried out in pain and stepped back.
Gilly took the chance to dash forward, but only managed a few steps before stopping with a jolt.
‘Ella…!’
