“Doesn’t something feel suspicious?”
Ren lowered his voice as he spoke. [N O V E L I G H T] The playfulness he had deliberately suppressed glittered in his eyes.
“......Please eat.”
Seeing Ren lower his voice like some kind of detective, the knight suddenly found it ridiculous that he had ever suspected the boy’s identity.
“What do you think, Sir Knight?! And it’s not even time to eat yet?!”
Without answering, the knight silently turned his back. A faint smile briefly passed across his lips.
The Forest of Aked truly did seem special.
A place where outlaws and fugitives hid themselves to erase their identities. A place where killers, forbidden from taking lives yet willing to bear curses, swung their blades without hesitation, endlessly circling through slaughter.
And yet, when he looked at that boy, the forest seemed nothing more than ordinary and beautiful.
“Eat.”
The knight held out a bowl of porridge simmered for a long time.
It was only after arriving in this forest that the boy who had looked as though he would die at any moment regained some vitality.
The knight had never fully believed the secrets surrounding the Forest of Aked, but now his thoughts had changed.
The Forest of Aked definitely possessed some strange power.
“Thank you for the meal!”
He was still thin, but he no longer looked like someone pale enough to cough up blood at any moment.
Blowing gently across the steaming porridge, Ren brought it to his mouth.
***
Whooooosh—.
The weather felt as though warmth had mixed into the wind.
Leaving his long hair fluttering wildly in the gusts, Kirky suddenly lifted his gaze toward the sky.
“Lady Coco-!”
Then he abruptly whipped his head around and shouted.
Coco, who had been walking along the third-floor corridor, turned at the thunderous voice.
The maids opened the windows, and Coco frowned as she turned her head.
“What?”
“Lady Coco! Let’s go for a walk together! The weather’s wonderful!”
Kirky beamed brightly, raising one hand high and waving it enthusiastically side to side. Coco’s maids burst into giggles. Coco stared at Kirky with a dumbfounded expression before jerking her chin. The maids suppressed their laughter and closed the windows.
“Ugh. So I really have to go back.”
Today, he had received a letter from the royal castle. Departure was at dawn tomorrow.
Kirky’s divine power was not particularly useful against Heroes, but to ordinary soldiers he was treated almost like a god. Since Kirky originally loved showing off, he did not hesitate to leave for those dark lands.
“Kirky. Why are you out here fooling around instead of working?”
“Lady Coco!”
Kirky greeted her with a radiant smile. Even when he irritated her, smiling like that made it difficult for Coco to truly hate him. Letting out a deep sigh, Coco gestured for him to follow.
The place Coco headed toward was the garden she often visited.
The maids spread out a mat and raised a parasol for them.
“Oh, Lady Coco wanted to spend some cozy private time with me too—!”
“Stop talking nonsense. Why did you call me?”
“Why else? Because I wanted to see Lady Coco, of course!”
Purple eyes stared directly at Kirky.
Since very little white showed in Coco’s eyes, they sometimes resembled the eyes of a feline beast.
“Oh my, if you stare at me like that, this humble Kirky will get shy!”
Kirky let out a dramatic squeal and covered his cheeks with both hands.
“You’re leaving.”
“Ahahaha. Since when did our young lady become so perceptive? Good grief.”
“Then just say that. Were you planning to leave without telling me?”
Anger filled Coco’s eyes. The emotions swimming inside her unwavering gaze were far from ordinary.
Uh-oh! An angry Coco is impossible to handle!
Kirky quickly grabbed both of Coco’s hands.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Of course I was going to tell you! That’s why I came to see Lady Coco in the first place. Mmhm, besides, I’ll be coming back anyway!”
Kirky grinned broadly. Seeing the kindness reflected in his eyes, Coco tried to calm the sharp emotions rising within her.
“Right. I overreacted.”
Coco apologized easily and frowned.
The boy who had left without a word remained lodged in her chest, slowly gnawing away at her emotions.
“Kirky, am I really that unreliable?”
“Hmmm. You’re definitely loyal, but reliable? Not rea—”
Good heavens!
One of the maids beside them let out a horrified gasp before quickly clamping her mouth shut.
No, sometimes you should say nice things! Did he really need to be that honest?!
Meeting the maid’s reproachful stare, Kirky winked playfully. The maid quietly turned her eyes away, though the corners of her lips twitched upward.
“Kirky, are you seriously flirting with my maid right in front of me?”
“Gah! Ack! L-Lady Coco! It’s not like that! Aaaah! Someone save this priest—!”
Watching the ridiculous scene unfold, Coco raised her hand high and mercilessly smacked Kirky across the back. As Kirky shrieked and bolted upright to flee, Coco immediately chased after him.
“Wahaha! J-Just once, hyaaaah! Please spare meeee!”
After exhausting themselves in a chaotic game of tag, Coco and Kirky shared dinner while talking.
The subject was what was happening in the land of Media.
“Anyway, be careful.”
Coco spoke with an unwilling expression.
“Why not just go back to the temple instead?”
“Ugh! I’d hate that more than anything! You know that land suits me far better than the temple does, Lady Coco!”
Kirky shuddered as though he truly despised the idea. Seeing him react that strongly, Coco could not force the issue.
“Fine.”
Lowering her eyes, Coco answered quietly. The untouched food still sat before her.
“Eat more. I’m going upstairs first.”
“Lady Coco!”
Coco turned back with exhaustion written all over her face. Kirky hurriedly shoved back his chair and stood in front of her.
“What?”
Though her gaze was sharp, Kirky knew very well just how warm and affectionate Coco truly was.
“I’m sad to leave, so please hug me!”
“What?”
“I’ll probably be too busy at dawn to think straight. So hug me now instead!”
“......Are you serious?”
Coco looked utterly appalled. Her face clearly said, Kirky, do you have affection deprivation issues? though she barely managed not to ask aloud. But Kirky continued smiling brightly, and in the end he successfully coaxed Coco into hugging him.
“Lady Coco, don’t be too sad. Relationships that pass always return in one form or another. So there’s no such thing as an eternal farewell, and no such thing as an eternal reunion either.”
Though he looked lean, Kirky’s embrace was unexpectedly broad and warm. Embarrassed at how neatly she fit inside his arms, Coco’s ears reddened. His gentle voice seemed to softly soothe her.
“I know! I know already! All you ever do is nag like an old man. And I’m not depressed because of Ren! I’m just... just disgusted with myself, that’s all!”
Snapping angrily, Coco shoved against Kirky’s shoulder and stormed away.
Watching the fluttering hem of Coco’s dress, Kirky smiled softly.
Longing lingered in his eyes.
***
The forest at night carried a sinister air.
On a dark night where even the moonlight was hidden, the damp earth swallowed every footstep whole, while the sounds of insects and night owls scattered human breathing into the darkness.
On a night where hiding oneself made even the faintest presence impossible to detect, a man moved through the forest.
Dressed entirely in black, his face covered, even the hilt of the sword at his waist wrapped in black cloth, he was not someone easily discovered even by the eyes of beasts.
Stepping silently across the earth, he followed a trail.
In one hand he held a sword.
In the other was a transparent silver sphere. Inside it, black and gold liquids swayed together without mixing.
Each time the man changed direction, the liquid alternated between brightening and dimming. At first glance it resembled magic.
But this was no trivial magic.
Veins bulged across the hand gripping the sphere. Without stepping on so much as a single branch by mistake, suppressing every sound completely, the man finally spotted something.
He recognized it instantly.
That flickering thing beyond the distance.
As though hidden behind a curtain, sparks crackled and danced—night firelight that could never truly be concealed, no matter how one tried to erase it.
The man immediately rushed toward the faint light.
Or rather, he tried to.
“......!”
Sssst.
The man halted soundlessly.
The hair all over his body stood on end.
The air felt wrong, as though every living thing upon the earth had fallen silent. And the man himself had gone equally still.
Where he turned his gaze, there stood a man.
In a space where moments ago there had been nothing at all.
Without the slightest trace of presence or warning.
He could neither move carelessly nor dare make a sound.
The man could feel it.
An invisible force baring sharp teeth at him.
If he moved even an inch, his throat, arms, legs, spine, and ankles would all be devoured whole.
It was not murderous intent.
It resembled the hunger of a grotesque predator.
Would he see it if the darkness lifted?
The monstrous thing surrounding him......
Perhaps the curtain-like darkness was protecting the man instead.
The back of his neck and spine dampened with sweat. The man did not even blink. The man blocking his path also seemed to have no intention of speaking.
From the direction where the man stood blocking the way, light slowly began to rise.
As though clouds were parting, moonlight that had not shown even a single ray softly illuminated the earth like a sunshower.
Past the damp ground, the humid air, the ancient trees stained deep with age—
At last, the moonlight revealed the man.
“......!”
The man stopped breathing.
Beautiful.
There stood a beautiful human who did not seem as though he belonged to this world.
Beautiful enough to make one forget even instinctive fear for a moment.
Everything upon the earth seemed to hold its breath in worship of him, as though even the air itself had frozen.
He possessed a beauty arrogant enough to force others to kneel at his feet of their own accord.
Skin pale as blank paper, shining whiter than moonlight itself.
Pitch-black hair, as though cut from the deepest part of the night.
Another race?
He radiated an atmosphere no human could possibly possess.
The indescribable man stared at him.
Black eyes tinged faintly with blue flashed dimly.
And in that instant—
The man collapsed like an insect crushed beneath fingertips.
“......!!”
Only then did the man realize it.
His mouth would not open, as though frozen shut, and his body no longer moved according to his will.
And that the man before him had done all of it without lifting even a single finger.
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