episode_0020

After that, he and the girl were being led by a wolf, ordered by the old wolf, to a cave that seemed to be their den. Where they arrived, following the wolf, animal skins were spread out, and the gray wolf lay down on its belly in the corner.

“I guess, we’re going to sleep here?”

Usher seemed to know what that action meant, but not entirely sure, he looked at Belka. Seeing her nod, he finally felt relieved and lay down on the skins that the wolves seemed to have laid out. The skins of unknown beasts had a slightly musty smell, as if they hadn’t been processed much. It was thinner than the cotton quilt he usually slept under and couldn’t cover his whole body, but it was warm and soft.

The leather alone couldn’t cover all the hardness of the cave floor, but it was long past the time he should have been asleep, so his eyelids felt like they would close at any moment. However, even that long-lasting sleepiness retreated for a moment at the rustling sound of her coming to lie down next to him. In the moonlight that faintly streamed into the cave, gold shimmered.

“Belka.”

“Yes.”

As soon as he called the girl’s name, he heard an answer. Her usual plain voice echoed in the cave, sounding like a soft song. Still, all those things didn’t just become a dream in one night. Sleep was flooding in, and his eyelids were so heavy, but he faced the gold.

“Belka, are you really okay?”

The answer didn’t come for a while, but her gold was definitely looking at him, so he stared intently. Along with a warm touch that enveloped him, the girl pulled him into her arms.

“What kind of answer does Usher want?”

Usher’s face flushed red at the soft sensation on his face and the sweet scent of camellias tickling his nose. He wondered if Belka would notice his reddened face. As if acting spoiled, he burrowed deeper into her arms. Even though the inside of the cave wasn’t so bright even with the moonlight streaming in, so there was no way they could see each other’s faces.

“That’s unfair. You can’t answer like that.”

But Usher knew. If Belka had poured out words of resentment about Mac, he would have gone back to kill Mac right away. But instead of pouring out words of resentment about him, she intertwined her delicate fingers between his and whispered words full of affection.

“I don’t like anyone but Usher. But I hate it even more when Usher is having a hard time.”

At the girl’s touch patting his back, Usher finally couldn’t resist the drowsiness and closed his eyes. His consciousness soon melted into the coziness.

“Is that Eras so precious? Owner of the forest.”

As Usher fell asleep, a woman’s voice echoed in the cave, as if she had been waiting for it. As if she had been watching them until the end, the voice was filled with anxiety.

“I’m no longer the owner of this forest.”

It was the girl’s voice that answered that.

“However, the chieftain has ordered us to treat you accordingly.”

“I’m not staying long. It’s too much.”

She exchanged words naturally, as if she had known about someone’s voice from the beginning.

“You’re planning to leave this forest with that Eras, then.”

“Yes.”

Even though she should have been curious about who she was talking to in the dark, the girl didn’t look at anyone and only looked at Usher, who was asleep in her arms.

“Eras and you are different.”

“I know.”

“You will definitely get hurt.”

“Probably.”

The voice that kept asking and asking, as if trying to persuade her, fell silent as if at a loss for words at the girl who kept answering without hesitation. Soon, she opened her mouth again, sounding worried.

“You who know everything, what is the reason for making such a choice?”

Then Belka’s gaze, which had been directed at him, finally turned to someone beyond the darkness. Even in this darkness, her gold was accurately capturing that someone.

“Well. Isn’t it because that’s our destiny?”

“…Destiny?”

“You don’t have to try to understand. Because you are different from us too.”

The girl hid her gold that seemed to shine even in the darkness, as if she had no intention of talking anymore. Someone also seemed to realize that, and no more voices were heard. The cave, where only a little moonlight leaked in, was soon filled with only soft breathing sounds. It wasn’t long after they fell asleep that light dawned on the dark sky. It was early dawn when the sun was late, but diligent birds chirped in their own voices at the slight light that had come. Had that sound reached the inside of the cave where the girl and boy were sleeping?

The ears of the gray wolf, who was lying down as if asleep near them, perked up and then opened its eyes. Then, the revealed green eyes slyly looked at the girl and boy, and after confirming that they showed no signs of waking up, the wolf slowly got up. Carefully coming out of the cave so as not to disturb their sweet sleep, the gray wolf first stretched its front paws, supported itself with its hind paws, and then pulled its front paws in the opposite direction to support its body and stretched its hind paws as far back as possible.

It was just an act of stretching for the wolf, but the sight of the wolf drawing a flexible curve with its large size was something to be called a marvel in itself. After briefly looking at the sky where the sun was barely showing signs of rising, the wolf hunched down as much as possible and then disappeared from that spot. Only the appearance of the morning dew gathered on the lush grass popping up like a flock of startled birds and belatedly falling to the ground only made it possible to guess that the wolf had not disappeared but had run away.

The place where the disappeared wolf reappeared was the place where the girls and wolves had met last night. Now, all those many wolves were nowhere to be seen, and only one wolf was sitting in the highest seat, quietly closing its eyes. It was the old wolf.

“What happened? Hillis.”

He asked, slighlt turning his incomplete ear that had some torn traces left. Then the gray wolf opened its mouth. The voice that flowed out of the wolf’s mouth was the voice of a woman who had talked with the girl in the cave last night.

“I tried to talk to her, but I failed before I could even properly persuade her.”

“I see.”

She seemed worried that she would be scolded, but he just answered as if he had heard something he already knew and sighed. As if he had asked just in case.

“You knew that I wouldn’t be able to persuade her.”

At the sight of the old wolf, the gray wolf felt a sense of disappointment at the same time as she wondered if he didn’t trust her that much. He quickly noticed her mood even though he was lost in thought and soothed her in a kind tone.

“It’s not the kind of thing that I don’t trust you or anything.”

It was a word that could be thought of as lip service, but she didn’t doubt that his words were sincere.

“Then?”

“She is just such an existence from the start.”

The answer that came back to her question was an ambiguous answer. But the wisest one does not lie. No matter how absurd the words, she believes and follows. It was the wolves’ trust based on respect for the experienced chief and the rules for their survival. Furthermore, she, who had been assisting him in his physical discomfort, knew him well. He was the wolf who had lived the most years in this forest and had the most experience and wisdom. He was old, but he was by no means infirm, so he was the chief.

“An existence that is like that from the start…?”

“That’s right.”

She thought of the girl named Belka. That girl looked like an Eras to anyone, but she was definitely not Eras. It was like an instinct that could be recognized at the moment of seeing it. Since she had Eras right next to her, it felt more certain as she compared them. Even though both of them looked like the young Eras.

“You called her Agafia.”

He called the girl Agafia instead of Eras. The gray wolf recalled the gold from the girl she faced in the cave. A harmless gold that made it impossible to feel even a sense of wariness towards something unfamiliar. It seemed to have transcended reason with that alone.

“What is so special about that Eras that she is loved by such a person?”

Because of that, she couldn’t understand that fact at all. All that returned to her question was silence. He was just looking at the distant sky with cloudy eyes.

“The air is humid. Go back and protect her before it gets too late.”

Even at the end, the wisest one did not answer the question.

Usher dimly felt his consciousness rising and belatedly realized that he had been asleep, and was immersed in a warm and cozy feeling, thinking that he wanted to lie down like this a little longer. If he closed his eyes a little more and leaned on this feeling, he felt like he would fall asleep again. If it weren’t for a small hand stroking and caressing his head. A tenderness that was so soft and warm that he unconsciously wanted to act spoiled. To the careful prodding that seemed to be calling him, saying that he shouldn’t be woken up but that he had to wake up, he slowly opened his eyes. And he met the gold.

“Usher.”

Even though she woke him up so kindly, Usher laughed weakly at the sight of the girl calling him with her eyes filled with a small sense of guilt, as if she had forcibly woken him up. Just looking at her made the lovely emotions that flooded in pop out, so he just hugged her. Then the soft texture touched his body.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes.”

He was still sleepy, but he answered Belka’s words while going back and forth between the waters of unconsciousness and consciousness. For a while, he burrowed into her arms.

“Yesterday, that wasn’t a dream.”

“…Yes.”

Usher was happy that the fact that he and Belka were together now felt like a dream, but he couldn’t just be happy because all the events of yesterday came to mind. The friendly village uncle, Mac ruthlessly raping Belka who couldn’t resist, and even the reality of the village that was peaceful on the surface. He wished that everything was a nightmare of one night, but the girl, who couldn’t even lie that those things were all false or a dream, bitterly avoided his gaze and slowly got up.

“Okay, now you have to get up.”

Usher, who got up without a word and followed her, soon heard the wolf’s howl coming from behind.

-Woof!

Surprised, he turned around and saw the gray wolf that had been sleeping near them yesterday looking at him. He thought it was a big wolf yesterday, but it looks even bigger when he looks at it like this.

“What’s wrong?”

His ears rang because he shouted in the cave, and he looked at it unhappily, and the wolf snorted! Was it just barking for no reason? And then, the way it walked out of the cave looked quite hateful.

“You don’t have to worry. He just told you to wait.”

The girl said as he recalled the sight of the wolves growling and threatening him yesterday, even if it was only for a moment, and wondered if he was being hated. And as if to prove that those words were not wrong, the gray wolf appeared carrying something wrapped in a large leaf. The wolf put it down between them as it sat up and naturally released the leaves by nudging with its nose. Then, a sweet smell wafted through the fresh leaves. A strong fragrance different from the subtle floral fragrance coming from Belka.

“Fruits?”

What came out of the leaves were colorful fruits with pretty colors that the wolves would never seem to eat. As expected, the fruits that the wolf had brought wrapped in large leaves were brought for them. The sweet scent tickling his nose even though he hadn’t peeled off something like the skin said that these fruits would definitely be delicious. But he hesitated to eat at the sight of the unfamiliar fruit that looked like small grains gathered together.

Each grain was so small that he wondered if there would be anything to eat if he peeled off the skin. When Usher was having a staring contest with the fruits for a long time, a small hand intervened in his sight and picked one up.

“Ah.”

“?”

Surprised by that, he followed the hand and saw the girl looking at him and tilting her head. She was already in the state of putting the fruit in her mouth, so she was covering her mouth with her hand and chewing on her cheek. In a way, she had a pure appearance as if she didn’t know what the problem was. In that state, she was seriously worried about the appearance of a possibly poisonous fruit. Watching Belka eat like that, he was certain that he could eat it.

“Is it, delicious?”

“Maybe.”

Usher decided to change his question to the girl’s answer, which couldn’t make a definite statement to his words.

“Is it sweet?”

“Yes. But it’s a little sour too.”

“It’s not hard, is it?”

“If you take out the seeds.”

Belka knew a lot and taught him that much. Thanks to that, Usher could be confident that he knew more than most people. However, there were quite a few cases where the girl didn’t know the parts that were extremely natural to him. So asking like this was a way of asking that he had learned in his own way while spending time with her.

“Looking at the way it looks, it looks like it has poison.”

The appearance of the fruit that gave a physiological aversion was not something that could be easily overcome no matter how much he told her that it was okay to eat. All the small grains that made up the fruit had small thorns, so it was even more so. It looked somewhat grotesque.

“Looks and poison don’t have a relationship. Because they live in different ways.”

Belka didn’t seem to understand after all. Because he was just looking at the fruit, his stomach rumbled, and he closed his eyes, thinking that he couldn’t help it, and put the fruit in his mouth. He hesitated to chew it, but when he carefully chewed one grain, a very sweet scent filled his mouth along with a popping texture.

“It’s more edible than I thought?”

He had already expected the fruit to be sweet, but it was a sweet taste that couldn’t be imagined from its ominous appearance. He had already forgotten the past when he was wary of unfamiliar fruits. That’s because the fruits that the wolf brought were sweeter than any fruits that Usher had ever eaten. To the point where he regretted momentarily hesitating to eat it. In the end, the fruits that the wolf brought all disappeared from the leaf before long. He smacked his lips with a regretful feeling and looked at the leaf where the fruit had been placed.

“Is it not enough?”

“Uh, the amount is not enough to fill my stomach.”

He nodded to the girl’s words, who had been quietly watching him since who knows when. The fruit was definitely delicious, but the fruit was small and the amount wasn’t that much to fill his stomach. In particular, there was no feeling of fullness at all like when eating bread or potatoes.

“Shall I take out some bread to eat?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

There were various items needed for the journey in the bag he had carried yesterday, and among them was bread to use as food. When he took out the bread from the bag that had been leaning against the wall of the cave, he felt a gaze from somewhere.

“Do you want to eat this?”

-Grrr.

The owner of that gaze was the gray wolf who was lying down in the corner as if he had no interest in them after bringing them the fruit. Just in case, when he stretched out the hand holding the bread towards the wolf, the wolf also seemed to be moved and got up and walked slowly. The size of the wolf was not normal, so it seemed like he would be overwhelmed just by walking towards him, but the way he focused his gaze on the bread in his hand strangely overlapped with the puppy he had raised in the village, so he was not really scared.

The gray wolf, who had come right in front of him, put its nose on the bread he was holding and sniffed. That action seemed to be more about satisfying his curiosity about something new than smelling the food. So Usher didn’t expect what the wolf would do next.

“Wait a minute!”

-Yelp!

The wolf opened its mouth and bit the bread at once. But the wolf’s sharp teeth couldn’t bite through the bread. That’s because bread that is even a little old is very hard and cannot be eaten as it is. In particular, this bread is made intentionally hard and dry so that it can be stored for a long time. Of course, it was not something that could be eaten as it was, but there was no way the wolf would know such common sense. Nevertheless, he had a disgusted expression on his face at the surface of the bread with the wolf’s tooth marks clearly left on it. Looking at those marks engraved on the bread that barely broke even when hit hard with a stone, it seemed like he wouldn’t even be able to find his bones if he was bitten by the wolves.

“This can only be eaten if it’s soaked in water or milk so it becomes soft.”

After explaining to the wolf who was groaning as if in pain, he was wondering how he could eat this bread in this place where there was no milk or even water.

“It’s raining outside. Wouldn’t it be okay to soak it in the rain?”

Belka also didn’t know that the bread was hard. She couldn’t chew the other bread that he handed to her and was just holding it in her mouth. Then she put it on the leaf where the fruit had been placed and said. So everyone arrived at the entrance of the cave together, and it was really raining. He could smell water, but he thought it was simply because the cave was humid. He brought the breads that were placed on the leaves to the entrance dividing the boundary of the cave so that they would be rained on. The entrance of the cave was wet from the rain, but there were small and large rocks gathered in a way that was good to sit on, so they decided to watch the rain falling there until the bread was soaked in the water and softened.