Chapter 20: A Lost Night and a Morning Reunion
How long had she been walking?
By the time her legs felt like sticks and exhaustion overtook her, she arrived somewhere familiar.
The great gate.
The place where she had entered the city with Ed.
He had spoken with the guards there.
Maybe… Ed might pass through here again.
Clinging to that faint hope, Rowena curled her small body into the shadows beside the gate.
She had no strength left.
The taut thread of tension inside her finally snapped, and she fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, as the sky began to lighten and the city stirred awake, a young guard stood watch at the gate for the early shift.
While patrolling in the cold air before sunrise, he noticed a small figure curled up in the shadows beside the gate.
“Hey! You can’t sleep here!”
The young guard approached cautiously.
It looked like a child.
When he touched the shoulder to wake her, the child slowly opened her eyes.
The moment he saw her face, he gasped.
“…Huh!? You’re—!”
It was the girl who had tried to enter the city with Ed the other day.
“Where’s Edwin? Aren’t you with him?”
The girl said nothing, only looked up at him.
Her eyes wavered with fatigue and anxiety.
The young guard quickly grasped the situation.
He had heard she was to be placed in the orphanage.
She must have run away.
He couldn’t just leave her here.
“All right, all right. It’s okay. Come with me.”
He gently took her hand and led her to the guard post.
She followed obediently, not resisting.
It seemed she remembered him.
Inside, he let her warm herself and gave her some water.
“Where did Edwin go?”
He tried asking, but she only shook her head.
He remembered she couldn’t speak.
“This is troubling…”
The young guard thought carefully.
He needed to inform the relevant parties that he had taken her into protection.
He should notify the orphanage.
And perhaps Ed was searching for her too.
He had mentioned going to the Golden Scales Inn.
The young guard arranged to send word both to the orphanage and to the Golden Scales Inn that the girl had been found.
At that time, Ed was not in his room at the Golden Scales Inn.
After leaving Rowena at the orphanage, he had been unable to rest.
He had awakened early.
Then a sister from the orphanage came to inform him that Rowena had disappeared during the night.
The blood drained from his face.
Impossible.
He had entrusted her to a safe place.
Yet by leaving her, he might have exposed her to even greater danger.
A fierce sense of urgency flared in his chest.
There was no time to hesitate.
Ed immediately rushed out into the city to search.
Where could Rowena go alone, unable to speak?
Most likely she was lost somewhere in the city.
He searched the main streets, the market, and crowded areas first.
He discreetly asked patrolling guards as well.
Time passed.
As noon approached, he returned once to the Golden Scales Inn.
There, the innkeeper relayed a message from a young guard.
“A guard left word. Says the girl you’re lookin’ for’s been taken into protection at the gate post.”
The moment he heard those words, strength left Ed’s body.
At the same time, relief surged through him.
Thank goodness.
She was safe.
“Thank you!”
Barely managing a word of thanks, Ed bolted from the inn and sprinted toward the gate.
He wove through the crowd, running across the stone pavement.
(Rowena…)
Her name echoed in his heart.
When he reached the guard post, he glimpsed her through the crack in the door.
She sat beside the young guard.
Her face was slightly dirty, but she was unharmed.
Without hesitation, Ed pushed the door open.
The sound of it drew Rowena’s attention.
She lifted her face.
And when she saw him—
“E… e… o…!”
A trembling, voiceless attempt at his name escaped her lips.
Rowena leapt down from the chair and ran straight toward him.
Ed opened his arms to catch her.
Her small body crashed into his chest.
She clung to him and burst into loud sobs.
It was not only sorrow.
It carried relief, joy at their reunion, and a desperate plea never to be separated again.
Ed gently stroked her small back again and again.
“It’s all right. It’s all right.”
He repeated it softly.
Hearing her cry, he understood painfully clearly.
How much she needed him.
How unbearable his decision to leave her at the orphanage had been for her.
He could no longer leave her alone.
Trouble.
Loss of freedom.
None of it mattered anymore.
I will protect her.
I will stay with her.
That was the path he had chosen.
Perhaps the moment he decided to save Rowena in the forest, their road had already become one.
Ed held tightly onto the small, trembling girl in his arms.