Chapter 10 – Boundary (5)

Eventually, tears burst out. She was so sad about her situation now. She’s sick and tired. But it was Barca who came all the way here that made Iz even more sad.

‘Why?’

Why is he looking for her? He can just think of her as dead in the desert, why? Still, what he said to Taz lingered in Iz’s ear.

Trash. 

‘Then can’t you just throw me away?’

He hates her so much, he despises her so much. If that’s why he’s looking for trash again…

The king failed to punish her. He was supposed to show the dignity of the king in front of everyone and punish those who sinned, but he failed.

‘So… to catch and punish me?’

The flames of the royal incinerator passed through her head. Barca seems to be catching her and putting her in there.

Iz crawled along the desert floor. Fortunately, the path she chose was a valley between the sand hills, where her feet did not sink like the sand hills next to her, except that stones were everywhere.

Then, with a flash of light in the distance, a thunderstorm came as some time passed.

‘Is it raining?’

But it seemed like a long way from here. The light was far and the sound was far. There were no raindrops either. However, she felt the wind cooled down with more moisture. Iz continued to walk towards the flashing light. If she wanders in the desert, she’d rather have water.

“Ugh!”

At that moment, her stomach started to hurt very much. It wasn’t the usual pain. Iz could instinctively see what this pain meant.

“Why…”

She calculated that it’s been about eight months since she had a baby. Isn’t a child usually born after 10 months? She thought her stomach swelled exceptionally quickly, but it was not yet time to be born.

“No, not now…”

Why do they want to be born at such a time? Iz continued to walk, crying. Barca is nearby. If she has a baby here, there is a high possibility that he will find out. She can’t do that. She had to go far and give birth somehow. Barca should not have known the existence of the child.

The child was still unfamiliar, fearful, and burdensome to Iz. But that doesn’t mean she wants the child to die now. 

She is guilty of deceiving him, but the child is innocent. But if he was only born, and she felt sorry for him to die at the hands of his father as soon as he was born. So Iz wanted to spare the child.

“Iz!”

Then, a voice called for her came in the distance. It was a voice that almost made her turn and answer without realizing it.

‘Barca!’

She didn’t know he’d come after her already. Iz ran through the desert. It must be very pathetic and ugly to see her running to live with a waddle. When he saw her like this, he was sure to laugh at her because it was pathetic.

Iz resented him. Would he follow her to the end of the desert and laugh at her? Isn’t he going to give her the mercy to die quietly?

“Iz! Come back! It’s dangerous!”

What is the danger? Is there anyone in the world who is more dangerous to her than he is now? Iz, who ran ignoring Barca’s voice, heard a strange sound at that time.

Krrrrr. 

At first, she thought it was the sound of an animal like Yulcara. But it wasn’t like that. And most of all, it was the sound felt on the ground. The sound was approaching with the vibration.

“Iz! Please, stop! The water is coming! It’s a Wadi there, so you’ll get swept away!”

Iz wondered at Barca’s voice that came back.

Water? And Wadi? What is it? The rain was falling in the distance. How does water get here? Before she knew it, the vibration and sound of the ground were getting louder. Only then did Iz think that the sound she heard was similar to the sound of a river flowing violently. The sound of sweeping everything down.

Meanwhile, Barca had come closer.

Kuggguu. 

She could hear clearly whether it was really close. Iz looked up. It was a terrible sight, but she could see dimly that something was approaching in front of her. Eventually, Iz stopped running away.

A huge one was fast approaching. That seemed to be the Wadi Barka was shouting for. It was already too late to run away. Now that water will soon sweep her away. Upon realizing that, all of her actions became meaningless, and Iz blankly looked at the approaching water.

Suddenly, she remembered a long-forgotten dream. It was a dream that she had been dreaming of since before she went to Akram, that is, from the day when the news of Delane’s conflict with Akram came out. A dream in which she is drowning in cold, deep water. 

The dream was clearly showing today.

‘It will be like this in the end…’

She didn’t know why she had endured living so far away. If she knew she was destined to die like this from the beginning, she would just live as if she was dead. Why did I live so hard to enjoy?

“Iz!”

She heard Barca shouting as he ran down the dunes. However, his voice was soon drowned out by the sound of approaching water. When even Barca’s voice was not heard, Iz turned to face the approaching water.

‘Sorry.’

Iz embraced her stomach. A child who she doesn’t know, who will die of trash alone. She felt sorry for the innocent child.

Then, water touched Iz’s ankle. The moment she thought it was cold, the incoming water swallowed Iz.

“Iz!”

Barca let out a scream and jumped down. The moment he looked at the figure running into the desert, he was sure that the dark-haired woman running away was Iz. Everything was different. Her hair, the color of her eyes, even though it was hard to see from a distance, and the shape of her body. That woman was Iz.

He gave up on the Yulcara, who didn’t budge, and ran through the desert. His maddening speed was not far behind it. Thanks to this, Barca was able to quickly approach Iz.

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