14 Dandelion of Scarlet Flowers 8 - Randall Credge

 

'What are you going to do?'

Hearing that question, Yue Mei was startled.

Silently with a natural movement, she turned her head towards the direction where Dandelion Horgan was.

She saw Dandelion staring at herself with a calm gaze. There is no worry, pain, sadness, or other negative emotions.

Even though until now she has been given the opportunity to be able to see again the people she knew before. Although it all comes from past recordings.

She looked at the repeated situation with the attitude of an ordinary spectator.

In her mind, Yue Mei opened the settings section then pressed the pause button and made the world stop for a moment. Instantly the entire movement of several people other than Yue Mei, Dandelion Horgan, Lazy Grave Keeper, and Little Snow.

Lazy Grave Keeper and Little Snow came to a halt.

The two of them stopped doing what they were working on after realizing something and looked toward Yue Mei and Dandelion Horgan.

[Mind Chat Room]

Yue Mei: What do you think?

Dandelion Horgan didn't answer right away but looked closely at Randall Credge who had stopped at his previous position and movement without any change at all.

Dandelion Horgan: my choice at the time was to ignore him. And if I were given a second chance, I would still choose that option.

Yes, according to the memories that Yue Mei had in mind, Dandelion Horgan back then, although she had started to suspect him, because of the feelings and trust that she had built up with him since they were little, thus making Dandelion Horgan have illusory hopes and ignore the clues that should have been clearly visible in front of her.

Randall Credge has been growing up with her and Lily since Dandelion was 8 years old.

The first time Dandelion met him was when she, Lily, and her brother Scott Horgan secretly went out of the manor to take part in a festival in the city.

Randall was found being beaten up by a group of people. He was caught stealing food because he was very hungry. Looking at the face younger than her young face, but appeared more gloomy and empty. Make Little Dandelion feel sorry for him.

She begged her brother to help him and made him a servant in the Horgan's House. Scott Horgan, who has always been pro to his only sister, certainly obeyed her request.

From that moment along with Lily and her brother Scott, the four of them grew up together until in the current timeline where Dandelion just turned 18 years old. They knew each other like siblings. At least about ten years have passed.

'The current Timeline is the time when Dandelion should be able to clearly see the real face of Randall Credge...'

Although the memory of that time looks blurry, she can still hear it clearly. Dandelion may remember it vaguely or even forget it because of her semi-conscious condition.

But not with outsiders like Yue Mei, she was like reading or looking at her memories from the perspective of the person who was watching the movie.

Yue Mei could clearly hear the words Randall Credge said to Dandelion Horgan as she fell unconscious after an incident like yesterday happened.

Randall Credge who appeared next to her bed, the one who was lying down and in a semi-conscious state due to severe injuries was much different from Randall Credge who she remembered in Dandelion's memories in their childhood or until a few days before the incident occurred.

'... Dandelion Horgan, you are the second most useless and extremely stupid person I have met so far, you have the potential and ability to become the strongest. But in the end, you choose a calm and peaceful way of life with no struggle at all, and then rely on all your security in the hands of others...'

Those were the words he said to Dandelion who was lying weakly on the mattress that he thought had no consciousness, Yue Mei could judge with certainty that it was the real Randall Credge.

Not at all timid, nervous, quiet, or appear weak.

But cold, emotionless, arrogant, and always looking down on weak people like Dandelion Horgan who always need protection from others.

Moreover, from that emotionless voice he uttered, there was a hint of envy appearing in it.

It was the expression and character that Yue Mei judged after observing the true nature of Randall Credge. Yue Mei found and came to that conclusion after several times rotating the memory images that were in her mind.

Because in addition to understanding the plot, she also learns all the expressions, behaviors, and decisions made by the characters who have the potential to change the life of Dandelion Horgan.

Then there were some other suspicions that made Yue Mei take up a hypothesis that Randall Credge was serving a 'master'.

'...Why are you still alive? Why do you have to fight? Your race is evil. You and your family shouldn't have been born in this world.'

With a ferocious and cruel face, Randall attacked Dandelion insistently without giving her a chance to catch her breath.

At that time, Dandelion has been promoted to Temporary General in Abris Division.

Randall Credge and the Horgan's House have been separated for some time, or rather, Randall Credge suddenly disappeared from the Horgan's House.

Dandelion and Head Butler Marvin have tried to find him but lose track of him, so they don't know why he left Horgan's house without saying a word.

'What 'Master' said that your race was the reason this Empire was going to be destroyed is a fact. You should have died voluntarily for the Empire, isn't your family loyal to the people of this Empire? Why are you fighting back?'

Yue Mei inwardly sneered, 'To die voluntarily for the sake of the Empire? Bulls*t!'

Yue Mei had a view that every individual had the right to live according to the path they chose themselves. Others do not have the right to force them to walk in the direction those individuals do not want.

Yue Mei was a free person. If one day she was asked to die to protect the world, she wouldn't mind being a villain and aiming the edge of her sword against the rest of the world.

People who thought with their self-righteousness, whose words were considered true and it was all for the sake of the majority and sacrificing some minorities was a natural thing, Yue Mei hated them very much.

Such people actually had slogans similar to her sworn enemy, the White Moon Revolutionary Army.

Because they had also done the same thing to Yue Mei's mother.

Therefore...

Yue Mei: You want to persuade me?

Dandelion Horgan shook her head: No, I just want to hear your choice.

Dandelion Horgan knew that her choice was wrong. But she still wanted to hear the explanation directly from Yue Mei. She could see Yue Mei was a person who moved according to logic and reality, but sometimes also unreasonable.

She rarely puts out her emotions when she acts.

Like when she's under siege, if only it wasn't for some reason that was somehow true like smelling poison that she recognized or some other reason that attracted her.

She would probably continue pretending to be 'Dandelion Horgan' in accordance with the data and information that had been given to her by the system and let Lily and the others die so that the tragedy at that time repeated itself, and it was all in order to analyze clues in more detail.

Yue Mei: My choice is to make Randall Credge a suspect, I still need some clues and other evidence. Maybe with that, I can pull out the real culprit.

After hearing that Dandelion Horgan fell silent.

Seeing no more questions, Yue Mei again opened her settings and pressed the play button.

Immediately the world that space and time stopped running back to normal.

"I want to go see older brother."

Without asking for approval from the surrounding people, Yue Mei walked out of the manor leading to the courtyard where Scott Horgan and the others were.

Head Maid Lily and Servant Randall went to follow her from behind.

....

"Dandelion?" Asked Scott, who was sitting on the ground holding a towel attached to his forehead.

"Yes, Young Master!"

"Oh? Little Sister Dandelion is awake?" Whispered Verne Oshea who was standing nearby.

The veins that were on Scott Horgan's forehead protrude.

The male servants and guards around positioned themselves back, secretly they were sweating.

Verne Oshea without regard to Scott Horgan walked towards the manor. There was a bold girl in her all-white training outfit walking toward him.

With the training clothes she was wearing, she really appeared like a valiant and brave heroine, her soft and innocent face could not cover her sharp and agile eyes that were analyzing her opponent naturally.

She appear like the Goddess of War, it looked very beautiful and charming in front of many people.

Her beautiful blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, swinging along with her movements as she walked while following the direction of the wind. Her blue eyes looked as clear as the glow of the blue sky.

Verne Oshea for the first time assessed the girl in front of him with a serious look.

He no longer looked at her with condescending or dismissive eyes.

This girl had hidden her sword, in contrast to the girl he had seen one year ago.

Although Yue Mei tried with all her might to play the role of Dandelion Horgan, her efforts were successful if she was in the presence of others. It's just that somehow her efforts were useless in the presence of Verne Oshea. The unique Aura that only Yue Mei possessed, Verne Oshea instantly recognized her with a single glance.

However Yue Mei herself still didn't know about that fact, maybe the second person to know about it was Lazy Grave Keeper, it was just that he couldn't possibly tell Yue Mei because it would mess up the drama before him.

Verne Oshea was not entirely condescending to the weak. At least he admits there were two types of weak people.

First, the weak people who just don't give up to fight hard with their abilities, even though the results sometimes pay off or end in failure but they still don't give up.

Next, the type of weak people who subconsciously think that they were the ones who need to be protected. There was no need or care to make an effort, as long as their life was calm and happy, it was enough for them.

The last type was the one he most despises.

Especially if they were already weak but enjoy pretending to be superior because of the brand's status and background they had, such a type was the one he hates the most.

He didn't blame them, because it was all their choice, nothing was wrong.

But this time he made an exception... The girl in front of him caught his attention.

Verne Oshea inwardly nodded in praise of her.

But that wasn't enough to impress and amaze him.

The definition of a weak person, how does he assess it? Verne Oshea felt that he could find the answer in Dandelion Horgan.

Because he always thought that Dandelion was in the category of the second type. But in reality, she was in the first type.

Then something that intrigued him was still hiding inside Dandelion Horgan that was in front of him, he would not give up easily and would continue to look for the answer.

'Even with the cost of getting beaten up by that muscle-brained old man, I think it's worth it.'

Before Yue Mei called Scott Horgan, a strange male with black hair and blue eyes suddenly appeared before her and extended his hand to Yue Mei.

"Little Sister Dandelion, nice to meet you. The rumors aren't wrong, you look so beautiful and heroic like a brave goddess, ah, right, you can call me 'Gray', greetings." Verne Oshea smiled cordially at Yue Mei.

Yue Mei,"...??"

'Who is this? Moreover... Little Sister...?'