Right now, I was seeing a scene where a seemingly endless field of wheat spread across a field.

At the center of the field, I saw Mary, who was 14 years old, harvesting wheat together with her father.

The two of them wore smiles as they continued to reap.

From time to time people would pass by and say hello or help them with the harvest.

I could feel that this was her most precious memory.

Suddenly the scene changed into a sea of flames.

Houses were burning, her neighbors and scrambled as armed men chased after them.

From the distance, I could see three men chasing after Mary.

They wore smiles as they licked their lips.

Mary screamed as the men caught up with her.

Then they ripped her clothes apart and raped her.

When they were done with her, she was bounded in ropes and was caged along with her friends.

I could see that they had lost their will to live from their eyes.

Mary wasn’t an exception to this, when the armed men threw the last female villager into the cage.

The carriage that carried their cages started moving.

Sadness, despair, and hopelessness was the feelings that were transmitted to me. They continued to watch the ruins of their village until they couldn't see it anymore.

The scene changed again to a dark dreary room where the only source of light was a small window that was barred with iron.

Mary had grown up since then; I felt that 5 years had passed since then.

Her once beautiful hair became dirty, her skin had many scars and her arms were chained.

What’s more, Mary didn’t wear a shred of clothes and her stomach had become larger.

I could tell that she was now pregnant.

Bang*

A man entered the room and he carried a woman with a long blond hair.

She continued resisting as she was dropped on the floor in front of Mary.

The man made a smile as he unsheathed his dagger and stabbed Mary in the chest.

The last thing Mary had heard before she died was the sound of a girl getting raped.

# # #

I opened my eyes and saw Keith staring at me with a worried face.

“Hmmm?”

“Eulalia! You’ve finally woken up!”

I moved my heavy body and sat on top of the bed.

“Is something wrong?”

“Something wrong? You’ve been asleep for two days, Eulalia! No matter what I did your eyes never opened. I had thought that you had died!”

Tears started falling from his eyes as he held my right hand and said, ‘Thank god’, over and over again.

I moved my left hand and patted him.

“I’m sorry if I worried you.”

“Were you sick or something, Eulalia?”

I shook my head.

“I wasn’t, I was just tired.”

Keith stared at my eyes for a while before he sighed in relief.

“You must be hungry, you haven’t eaten for two days.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m quite famished.”

I stood up from the bed and when I tried to move a step, I suddenly felt my body float for a moment.

“Oi!”

Keith quickly ran and caught me before I fell.

He then carried me and placed me on top of the bed.

“Don’t move from here. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I think that it’s best if you rest here for a while.”

I puffed my cheeks in defiance to his statement.

He ignored my pouting and left the room.

When I couldn’t hear his foots steps, I started talking to myself as I stared at the ceiling.

“I could’ve refused Keichi back then… but why didn’t I? Is it because I was formerly him? Or because of something else?”

I continued pondering for a while, but I decided to stop since it has already happened.

No matter how long I thought about it, the fact that I inherited Mary’s memories won’t change.

“Mary huh…”

Uttering that name with my mouth, I could feel my will to live in this world fade.

Thoughts of committing suicide popped up in my mind.

Knock* Knock*

“Excuse me.”

Keith appeared from the doorway while carrying a bowl of oatmeal.

Seeing his worried face as he closed the door, that thought of killing myself was blown away.

“That’s right. This isn’t the bandit’s dungeon.”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing… by the way, why did you say, ‘Excuse me’, even though this is also your room?”

Keith stood frozen as his eyes continued to dart around the room.

“But still…. Ummm…. It’s cause….”

Keith started mumbling as he stiffly placed the bowl on my bedside.

He then sat on the stool.

“Bon Appétit.”

I frowned when I discovered that he had no intention of helping me eat.

“Feed me.”

“Eh!?”

“You said I needed to rest. So feed me. Besides, I still can’t move my body properly.”

He suddenly blushed and shakily grabbed the wooden spoon and bowl.

As he scooped a spoonful of oatmeal and blew on it, I continued to worry cause it looked like it was gonna spill.

Keith blew on the spoon and carried it to my mouth.

“A—ahn…”

I opened my mouth and ate the oatmeal.

Keith’s face was really red as he fed me another spoonful of oatmeal.

“Phew~”

Though it took a while, I had finished eating the all the food in the bowl.

“I think you should sleep, Eulalia.”

“Hehe…”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when he said that.

“?”

“You said that I have been asleep for two days and now you want me to sleep again? You don’t want me to wake up?”

“Ahh! N-no! T-t… that wasn’t my intention… ahh…. I mean I think yo--- I think it’s better for you to rest.”

My laughter became louder as he panicked.

Knock* Knock*

“I’m coming in!”

From behind the door, Max’s voice could be heard and without waiting for a reply, he arbitrarily opened the door.

“Why are you suddenly coming in!? Can’t you see that this is a girls room?”

“So you're saying you’re a girl, Keith?”

“Pfft… Hahahahaah!”

“Hehe…”

“Ahh! I didn’t mean it like that!”

Keith’s face was flushed red as he did his best to stop Max’s laughter.

We continued to laugh for a while and when we were done, I apologized to Keith.

I thought that he would’ve been angry because I continued to tease him, it turns out that he wasn’t.

“So are you okay now?”

Max took out a stool from under the bed and sat on it as he questioned me.

I made a wry smile as I nodded to his question.

“But that was really something, Eulalia. Keith suddenly screamed in the middle of the night So I ran towards the room and found him crying over your body. He kept saying, ‘Don’t die’, no matter how I consoled him. He just wouldn’t stop crying.”

“Is that so?”

I glanced towards Keith and he shook his hand as he punched Max but was skillfully caught by him.

“That’s not what happened. Don’t listen to him!”

“Then, what really happened?”

“Uhh… ahh… I wa—“

“You’re eyes are swimming.”

“Shut up!”

Keith tried kicking Max but was again caught by him.

While holding his leg, he made a savage smile and whispered something on his ear.

In less than a second, Keith’s face became red, and then became white before finally becoming blue.

Sweat poured down from his face like a waterfall as he nodded his head.

“You sure are a chicken! Hahahaha!”

Keith bit his lower lip as he clenched his fist while Max continued to pat his shoulder.

I tilted my head to the side as I tried to understand their irrational behaviors.

“Oh yeah, Umm, Max.”

“Nn?”

“Is there a plot of land that I can cultivate?”

“You’re planning to grow some plants?”

“Yes.”

“Sure, you can have a quarter of mine. Though no plants will ever grow there again cause we’ve lost the earth’s blessing, is that okay?”

“Yes.”

Keith’s eyes opened wide and started shouting from my side.

“You can’t! You need to rest!”

“Relax, Keith it won’t be me who’ll plow the land.”

“Then who will?”

I pointed my hand at him.

He also pointed at himself then moved his gaze between me and my finger.

“Me?”

“You’re the only one who I can rely on.”

Max laughed again before he asked me a question.

“What are you planning to do with the land?”

“I’m gonna show you a miracle. I’ll recover the earth’s blessing”

““How?””

The two of them floated question marks and asked me in sync.

I couldn’t answer their question, cause it’d take a long time to explain it to them and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t believe me if I told them.

So I only answered them with a smile.

# # #

By the next day, Keith helped me walk as Max guided us to his fields.

When we had arrived, I performed an ocular survey and checked the fertility of the earth.

“Hmm… it’s still salvageable.”

“Just hurry up and tell me what your planning, Eulalia.”

“Even if I did, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t understand what I’m saying.”

“Haa”

Max raised his arms to the sky and made an expression that he had given up on asking me.

He told us that that he was gonna mark the place where the place I could cultivate ended before he left us.

Keith stood beside me with a complicated expression.

“What are we gonna do here?”

“First, get a shovel and dig a hole.”

“Unn.”

Keith stared at me.

I stared back at him.

We stared at each other.

After a while, he suddenly ran away and came back with a shovel.

He then started digging a hole.

I told him to stop when it was about a meter deep and a 3 meter wide.

“Gather some leaves and animal wastes and place there.”

“What good will that do?”

“You’ll know when the time comes.”

He then started searching for droppings and leaves and placed them in the hole just like what I had instructed.

I then told him to cover it with dirt and mark it with a wooden plank.

Although he continued to ask me what it was for, I also continued to tell him that he’ll now after 2 weeks.

When he was done, I grabbed the basket I carried with me.

Inside this basket were the sandwiches I made earlier.

Though he protested that I should rest, I ignored his warning and made sandwiches.

“Now, aren’t you glad that I made these?”

“… I still think that you should’ve let me prepare these.”

“Hmm… so you're saying that you can make these?”

Keith quickly swallowed what he was chewing and hurriedly denied me.

“Then are you saying you don’t want to eat my sandwiches then?”

“No! I only wanted to let you rest!”

“Hehe, I know.”

“….”

“I’m sorry, here.”

I served Keith another sandwiched and gave him a canteen which was full of water.

He heartily drank the water with a ‘Puha’ and then asked me what he should do.

“Hmmm, the next thing you do should be obvious.”

“?”

“Go plow the field.”

“… right…”

Keith sighed a bit and then stood up.

He walked towards Max’s tool shed a bit further from where we ate.

Heading towards the edge of the field, he raised the hoe he carried and drove it into the ground.

“Be careful of heatstroke!”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t push yourself too hard!”

“Okay!”

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I've been busy in real life, haa~

It's the harvest season.