Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 93

[Translated By Divinity]

Casey and the man called Luther were busy talking amongst themselves, leaving Damian out of the conversation.

“Is that a good thing? It seems like a bad thing for her to be deprived of the freedom to run around in this vast meadow.”

“It’s still better to be with her owner.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. Dogs are creatures who choose to stick by their owner’s side, even if the environment isn’t great. Wait here, I’ll go get her.”

Luther then went out to the meadow behind the ranch house and whistled. Meanwhile, Damian narrowed his eyes and asked Casey,

“Why a dog all of a sudden?”

“I’ve been raising her for about two years, but I’ve been wandering around alone lately and couldn’t keep her with me, so I left her here for a while. Now that I can take her with me, I came to pick her up.”

“Are we allowed to have dogs in our house?”

“Yes. I got permission from Annette.”

Just as Damian was about to say something, the man returned. Along with the sound of the man’s shoes came the distinct sound of a dog’s cheerful footsteps.

Casey turned to look at the man and shouted with a bright smile,

“Timo!”

As soon as he heard Casey’s voice, a medium-sized dog sprang out from behind the man’s legs and rushed towards Casey.

“Timo?”

Damian mumbled, wondering if he had heard wrong. And as he watched the Spaniel climb on top of Casey, who had fallen backward, and lick his face furiously, he mumbled again without realizing it,

“Timo?”

The light brown fur, slightly curly, was generally short, but the feathering on the tail, ear tips, and leg joints was long. The drooping ears flapped every time the dog shook its head.

The intelligent and lively black eyes seemed to resemble someone he knew. The dog’s appearance was overly familiar to Damian.

Casey, who managed to get Timo off of him and stand up, lifted Timo and held her out to Damian, saying,

“Yes, this is Timo. Say hello.”

Timo looked at Damian, wagging her tail and panting. She struggled in Casey’s arms, as if determined to lick Damian’s face as well, so Casey put Timo down.

Timo immediately placed her front paws on Damian’s legs and spun her tail like a windmill.

Damian felt like he was possessed at the dog’s friendly behavior. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment before finally managing to say,

“Hello, Timo.”

Timo jumped up and down when Damian acknowledged her.

“Hey, stop it. You’re making Damian uncomfortable.”

Casey grabbed Timo and held her in his arms. Despite being a medium-sized dog with a fairly large build, Timo nestled comfortably in Casey’s arms like a baby.

“Lily will be happy to see Timo too. Even though she doesn’t remember, Lily loves dogs!”

Damian felt bewildered at Casey’s words. He was still confused about whether the dog in his memory was the same as this one.

The appearance of Timo in the picture sent by Lady Lintray was that of a typical Spaniel, so there must be hundreds of dogs that looked similar.

Besides, why was that Timo with Casey? Wasn’t it just a coincidence that they had the same name and breed?

While Damian was lost in thought, Casey put a red collar with a name tag on Timo and attached a leash to it. Even the collar looked familiar to Damian.

Casey briefly thanked the ranch owner and then got back on the cart with Damian to go to the tram stop. Throughout the journey, Timo stayed close to Casey’s side, occasionally looking at Damian, panting, and wagging her tail.

The dog behaved well on the tram as well.

Damian kept staring at Timo on the way back home.

But he couldn’t find any difference between Timo and the ‘Timo’ he had seen in the picture. The more he looked, the more he felt they were alike.

What was going on?

***

“Lily! Lily!”

As soon as they entered the house, Casey dashed across the living room with Timo and shouted towards the stairs.

“Where have you been?”

Lilliana, who had come out of her room after crying for a while, was relieved to see them return after being startled by their absence.

But since Casey called out to her urgently, she ran down the stairs.

And seeing the dog running with Casey, she stopped in her tracks. As soon as Timo was unleashed, she ran towards Lilliana like a bullet, just as she had done with Casey, and knocked her over.

“Kyaa! Kyahahaha!”

Lilliana let out a scream-like sound, but it didn’t seem to be because she disliked dogs. She seemed surprised by the sudden attack.

Lilliana flailed her limbs as Timo licked her face.

“Wh-what is this dog! Wait! Wait a minute, hey!”

Lilliana, panting, managed to push Timo away. But Timo, still not satisfied, stretched her neck and pushed her head forward to lick Lilliana.

Lilliana looked at Timo with sparkling eyes and hugged her tightly. Timo wagged her tail excitedly and settled down quietly in Lilliana’s arms.

She scratched Timo’s chin and asked,

“You’re so pretty! What’s your name?”

It was Casey who answered Lilliana’s question.

“Her name is Timo. She really liked you. And she still does.”

“Timo?”

“The dog you used to raise.”

Lilliana’s eyes widened as she looked at Casey.

“I did? I raised a dog?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Why? How?”

“You always wanted to raise a dog, right? So it just happened that you were in an environment where you could raise one, that’s all. What’s so strange about it?”

Lilliana frowned, still hugging Timo.

“What kind of… environment was it?”

Actually, she already knew the answer to some extent. She had said this morning that during the two years she lost her memory, she seemed to have been in an environment surrounded by idyllic scenery.

So it was obvious that it would have been fine to raise a dog. But it was strange that Casey knew about it.

“Well, it was just an ordinary, quiet, and simple countryside village.”

“Why was I there? And how do you know about it?”

Casey scratched his head at Lilliana’s questioning and replied,

“Because we lived together.”

Lilliana narrowed her eyes and asked,

“You know what I was doing during the two years I lost my memory, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Where were we and what were we doing?”

Just then, they heard the sound of the front door opening, and Annette entered. Annette saw Lilliana rolling around with Timo and Casey observing them, and she smiled.

“Casey, you came earlier than I expected.”

“Yes. I brought the dog too, is it really okay?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Oh, hello there?”

Annette greeted Timo, who was about to sprint towards her, but Damian stopped her by grabbing the scruff of her neck. Annette laughed and said playfully to Lilliana,

“Lily, you were surprised, weren’t you?”

“If you were trying to surprise me with Casey… it was a huge success. I was very surprised.”

Lilliana replied with a troubled face. Annette seemed to think it was a harmless and pure surprise gift.

It seemed Casey thought that he and Lilliana weren’t on bad terms.

“Oh, I was surprised too when I got a call from the real estate agent and they said it was your brother. You should have told me you had a brother.”

“Hahaha.”

Lilliana laughed with unfocused eyes.

“Well, since we have a new family member today, let’s all have dinner together. I’ll put some effort into it. We should invite Asher too… That man, he’s probably not coming home again because he’s working all night, so could you call the workshop? You know the number, right?”

At Annette’s request, Damian called Asher, briefly explained the situation, and asked if he would join them. Unfortunately, Asher replied that he had deadlines to meet and would be staying at the workshop.