Episode 29 – Blood Ties
Even though Nada was overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing his little sister, his mind itself remained clear.
Her complexion didn’t look good as she slept, so he left her in Iris’s care and immediately went to fetch the person he trusted most with medicine—Dan. All while countless thoughts ran through his head.
Luckily, Dan was home.
His house was one of the large brick residences in the district—its red brick stood out as especially beautiful among the others. Since it wasn’t far from Nada’s place, he arrived quickly.
Nada gave Dan a brief explanation of the situation with his sister.
He had no idea what kind of expression he had worn while speaking.
He only knew one thing for certain: he hadn’t been smiling.
Dan agreed to help without hesitation.
And so, the two of them headed back toward Nada’s home.
They weren’t running.
Were they walking fast? No—probably not. Nada’s strides were naturally long, yet his pace was slow enough that even Dan, walking briskly, would get ahead of him. Each time, Dan would call out, “You’re slow,” but Nada still didn’t speed up.
Because he was thinking.
Why had his little sister come to this city—Inferno?
Had she been taken by slave traders?
What had become of the rest of their siblings?
Question after question rose up in his mind.
True, he was essentially a child who had abandoned his family five years ago—and had just as much been abandoned by his parents.
After coming to Inferno, he never had the luxury to think about the past; he’d never once pondered what had become of his family afterward.
He’d been too busy clawing his way through the hell of the dungeon to the point that even his memories of the past had worn thin.
But now, after meeting his sister again and being pulled back into his past, an uncontrollable emotions kept surfacing.
Seeing someone whose face resembled his mother and older sister—someone who also resembled him—made the past he thought he had severed come flooding back.
He didn’t think much about his parents or his eldest brother. But he definitely remembered that he once had a younger brother and a younger sister who adored him.
When he said he was leaving to become an adventurer, not one person opposed it.
His parents were happy to have one less mouth to feed.
His eldest brother, always bothered by how big Nada was even inside the house, probably welcomed the peace.
But what about his younger brother, just one year below him?
What about his sister, two years younger?
Looking back now, they had been far too young to understand what it meant for him to become an adventurer.
When he told them, they celebrated it innocently.
When he left the village, they smiled and waved him off.
But what happened to the house after he left?
A day or two wouldn’t have changed much.
But after a week? A month? A year?
Among his siblings, his younger brother had been especially attached to him.
Their older sister had left to serve in a noble’s household, so she wasn’t around.
Their eldest brother was busy learning various things from their father and doing village work, so he rarely watched over the younger ones.
It had always been Nada—the next oldest—who played with and looked after them.
He ran through the village and mountains with them.
Whenever something happened, his younger siblings relied on him more than anyone else, because he was the closest they had.
Of course, Nada always tried to respond to that trust.
He would give them fruits or fish he caught in the mountains, and if he couldn’t find those, edible wild greens or mushrooms—always letting them eat before he did.
His older brother used to scold them for always playing, but looking back now, Nada wondered if his brother had simply been jealous.
After all, while his brother worked, Nada was out playing with their siblings—and those precious mountain foods had been an important source of nutrition for the three of them, who were always given less at home.
But even that was something he’d have to actually talk to his brother about to know for sure.
Regardless, reuniting with his sister had opened a floodgate of thoughts he had never allowed himself before.
What kind of treatment had his younger brother and younger sister received in the home he left behind?
Was it the same as his? Or worse?
What had become of the village?
Had the crops grown well?
Nada couldn’t even imagine.
Trapped in countless possibilities and fears, he felt as though even his legs refused to move.
And each time that happened, Dan urged him forward.
“Nada, hurry—”
It wasn’t an angry tone.
If anything, it was gentle, steady—like he was nudging him forward.
Dan had once heard a bit about Nada’s past. Maybe that was why. When Nada, wearing a face even he himself couldn’t decipher, asked him to treat his sister, Dan probably understood that emotion better than Nada did.
But for Nada, the thought of facing his sister again felt incredibly heavy.
If he saw her again… what would he feel?
Sadness? Pity? Something else entirely?
He didn’t know.
Right now, Nada realized he was afraid of seeing his sister again. More than fighting some terrifying monster, more than running into countless enemies. It might be the single most frightening thing he’d faced since becoming an adventurer.
So his feet kept stopping.
If someone asked him what he was afraid of, the answer would be simple: he feared hearing about his family—what they were like now, what had happened to them. What had become of his parents? His older brother? His younger siblings? What kind of lives were they living now?
The thought of knowing terrified him.
He could imagine endless worst-case scenarios, and just as easily imagine that maybe they were happier than before. But whichever it was, would he feel relief? Would he be glad if they had suffered?
There was no answer, and the more he thought, the more his feet stalled.
If his family saw how he lived now, how would they react? Would they be happy that he could finally eat every day? Or would they be saddened that he was considered a failure?
Nada couldn’t possibly know.
To him, family was something he had cast away.
When he left home, starving, determined to become an adventurer, he vowed to cut himself off from the past.
He never contacted his siblings back home—not even once since leaving. And truthfully, adventurer life was far too busy to allow such a luxury.
But then… why?
He met his younger sister.
He didn’t even know for sure whether the girl was truly his sister—he only heard her call his name and saw a face carrying the echoes of his siblings.
And yet that alone had dragged out all these emotions, pressing on him with crushing weight.
Was he really this weak?
Nada didn’t know.
Just seeing that girl—just having the time to think—was enough to make him feel so fragile.
“Hey, Nada—”
Dan turned back toward him again.
“What is it—?”
“I don’t know what you’re feeling right now. My relationship with my family is good, after all. I still get support from them.”
“Yeah—”
Nada’s reply was half-hearted. Dan’s words didn’t sink smoothly into him.
“But you know… whatever you’re holding right now won’t be solved unless you meet her. No matter how much you think about it, the moment will still come. And no matter how much you think, reality won’t change. So you’ve got to brace yourself for when it arrives.”
“…I see.”
“Right. And don’t make such a worried face. You’ll have no choice but to accept whatever your sister’s situation is. No matter what happened, no matter how she ended up here. You’re siblings.”
“Yeah… that’s true.”
After hearing Dan, Nada’s walking speed returned to what it usually was.
But it didn’t become fast. He still lacked the resolve for that.
As he walked, one thought surfaced in his mind:
—Blood is thicker than water.
Yes. That was how it was.
No matter how much he tried to scream it away, the truth remained: that girl was his sister. One of the closest people to him in the entire world.
How could he possibly sever a bond like that?
The same was surely true for his father and brothers as well.
No matter how much they found him troublesome, no matter how much he tried to forget them, perhaps that bond was stronger than anything else.
And then Nada arrived home.
Iris was taking diligent care of his sister. After Dan examined her condition, he diagnosed her with severe malnutrition.
There was no special treatment needed—after waking, she simply needed to drink nutritious soup slowly.
Dan and Iris had no urgent business, so the three of them waited for the young girl to wake.
Slowly… the girl opened her eyes.
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