“Well, well. Not even going to answer?”

The sturdy man gave a short laugh and shifted his body threateningly, as if he might climb in. The sound of his footsteps echoed all the way through the iron compartment, and the captives shrank back, trembling.

In the darkness, his large frame looked like the shadow of a beast.

The man hitched one leg up onto the wagon as though he were about to climb aboard.

“I-I’ll eat! I’ll eat it, thank you!”

Beta cried out tearfully. When Kenta glared and started to open his mouth, Beta’s little hand desperately stopped him.

“You should’ve done that from the start. I’m only letting it slide this once.”

A flicker of indecision crossed the man’s face. Beta struggled forward on her knees toward the bowls.

Bang—!

The iron door slammed shut again.

“Spit it out! What are you doing, Beta?!”

“Kenta... I’m so scared. You getting hit, those men yelling at us...”

“So you’re saying we should just give in like this?”

“Then what are we supposed to do?! We’re tied up like this! We’re weak—!”

Kenta had caused trouble the whole time, both while he was being taken and after he’d been brought here, and dark bruises were blooming across his face. Seeing there wasn’t a single uninjured spot on him, Beta let out a shrill cry.

“D-don’t cry! Fine, I get it, so stop crying!”

Waaah—. The crying of the little girl and the boy’s clumsy attempts to soothe her rang noisily through the compartment.

Thud, thud!

At the sound of someone kicking the side of the wagon as if telling them to shut up, Beta clapped her bound hands over her own mouth, and Kenta, unable to hold himself back, shouted,

“I said shut up.”

The brown-skinned boy glared at Kenta. Beta clutched tightly at Kenta’s clothes even as she cried. Kenta kept breathing hard through his nose, but closed his mouth.

Once things quieted down a little, the ones who had been huddled in the corners with their heads ducked low crawled over and began eating the food with their hands. They were hungry after having cried and fought when they were first taken, and after going all day without food. Even while feeling humiliated, they had no choice but to eat.

Kenta’s face twisted hard. A curse rose to his lips—did they really want to eat something filthy that looked like dog food?—but when he saw Beta still clutching his clothes, he swallowed the words.

The ones who had been stuffing it down greedily started to cry as their stomachs filled, their faces twisting.

One person sitting all the way in the farthest corner, who had not moved even a finger, turned his head toward the crying. But then he lowered it again. Judging by the long frame wrapped in a hood, he didn’t seem to be a minor.

The boy who had earlier shut Kenta up when he started picking a fight opened his mouth.

The person he addressed was Ren.

What had happened to the boldness he had shown earlier, shouting “Brother!” and “Big brother!” and throwing himself out of the wagon, stumbling on bound arms and legs just to escape this cargo compartment?

After being hurled back inside, he had curled up and said nothing.

“Hey.”

“......”

“Hey. You.”

“......”

He wasn’t sleeping, and he wasn’t crying either.

Guess he’s still that shocked.

Most of the children there had either been caught after running from poverty or had followed someone naïvely because they were told they’d be bought a meal.

All of them had been tricked into coming, and that boy was no different.

It wasn’t as if the boy felt some great sympathy for Ren. To begin with, he wasn’t the meddling type. But Ren’s voice, shouting “Brother!” and “Big brother!” had lodged itself in his ears and kept bothering him for no reason.

The boy patted Ren on the shoulder, then let out an irritated sigh. He got no response whether he called to him or touched him.

How had an idiot who trusted people this easily ended up being brought here? No, that wasn’t it. He got tricked into coming because he was an idiot.

With the filthy state he was in and the hood pulled low over his face, it was hard to see him clearly, but just from the glimpse of blond hair and the features half-hidden under soot, it was obvious he had to be remarkably good-looking.

Looking at Ren, still giving no response, the boy pushed his lips out in distaste.

Nine times out of ten, boys like this got sold as playthings. At a time when he ought to be thinking about how to survive, he was sitting here like his soul had already left him.

The boy turned his head away. His own situation was absurd enough—who was he to worry about someone else?

Only after everyone trapped with him had fallen asleep did Ren, who had been lying there like a doll, finally begin to think. Someone let out faint moans, as if caught in a nightmare, but the steady sound of breathing made it clear they were in a deep sleep.

The wagon was still moving.

Was it night now, or day? Since everyone had fallen asleep from exhaustion, maybe it was night.

Ren looked at Kenta and Beta sleeping, leaning against each other, then turned his head.

The red-haired boy beside him was asleep too, resting against the wagon wall. Even the one in the corner who had his hood pulled so low his face was completely hidden seemed asleep, his body swaying along with the motion of the wagon.

It seemed Ren was the only one awake inside.

As the mind that had gone rigid from shock slowly began to return, misery wrapped itself around his body all at once.

“......”

He didn’t know what he was supposed to think.

So first... he had to admit he’d been tricked.

By that kind face and gentle voice. Pathetically.

Maybe it had been the words about how Ren reminded him of his “younger brother,” and the fond look in his eyes, that made Ren ignore the faint sense of unease.

Had he wanted a kind older brother that badly?

Was trusting someone’s goodwill the mistake?

And yet, saying that didn’t feel right, because Mine really had been so, so kind.

It felt like something inside him had quietly caved in.

“Being stupid is the real problem.”

Ren muttered bitterly to himself. In that calm voice there was sorrow he couldn’t hide.

He had thought it was a lucky day. He had thought that after leaving the village alone, he had met a good person.

Just like always, the moment I let my guard down, God takes away the very thing I wanted. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

In the darkness, Ren blinked blankly. His eyelashes brushed against his palm. He repeated it over and over again.

It would have been nice if he had just been a good person.

Or at least he shouldn’t have pretended to be kind.

Mine’s words were still circling in Ren’s chest.

“I don’t think you absolutely need to have a destination.”

Those words had caught hold of Ren’s heart in an instant, a heart that had nowhere to go.

“Life is always flowing somewhere, like water. You meet somewhere, then meet and part. And then you meet again in the sea. There’s no such thing as a life that stays still.”

They had told him that meeting and parting were only natural.

“So what matters is that you’re flowing somewhere. Not where you’re going.”

When Ren had asked if it was all right not to have a destination,

“First of all, isn’t being alive what matters?”

Those gentle words had answered him.

The words that had given him courage had now, pitifully, lost all their power.

Maybe he should have realized it the moment he left the inn and couldn’t get far before collapsing under that tree.

That the farthest he could go was the land around the village.

That alone, he was an idiot who could do nothing and couldn’t even leave properly.

That all he ever did was cling to his brother and stand in his way.

He never should have gotten on that wagon. He should have realized what he was, gone back, asked to be taken to the village again, cleaned up the shack, and quietly waited for death.

That would have been the right ending for Ren’s life.

Not expecting the kindness of others he didn’t even believe in!

Not asking to see some sea he had never once dreamed of seeing in his whole life!

He should have stayed the way he always had, lived the way he always had, been treated the way he always had.

If he had, something like this would never have happened. He would never have been tricked by someone else like this. He never would have been kidnapped in such a pathetic, stupid way!

Damn it, damn it, damn it...!

“There’s no cure for stupid.”

But no matter how much he berated himself, no matter how many ugly things he said to himself, he didn’t feel any better.

“Ren, take my hand. You don’t want to get lost.”

Back when they were walking through Delfona,

“Ren, if it’s meant to be, maybe we’ll meet again someday. I hope you’ll be happy.”

Mine’s voice now and Mine’s voice then had been just as warm. Only Ren’s circumstances were unbearably different.

It was only after muttering “idiot” to himself about a hundred times that Ren finally calmed down.

What a joke. A person who believed no one could be trusted had been fooled by a stranger at first sight and ended up with his arms and legs tied. Even a passing dog would laugh.

Since there was no dog there, Ren decided to laugh himself.

“Hahaha!”

Tears streamed down his face.

He wished it had all been a lie.

And then, most horribly of all—

He missed his brother. He missed Temar.

He missed Temar, his brother, who had never once granted any of Ren’s desperate pleas. The feelings he had thought he had left behind in that inn room clung to him like regret.

“Brother...”

The moment he forced it out aloud, a miserable sob came with it. Ren choked it down even as he hiccuped with crying.

Once Temar came to mind, Luman and Jepeto followed.

I should’ve just asked Luman to take me with him.

Luman’s fiancée must be happy. What does she look like? She’s probably as handsome and pretty as Luman.

As he held back tears and let his thoughts wander, a faint bluish light seeped in through a crack in the wagon.

My body was going to die anyway. I can’t even go far on my own. Maybe this is better.

The wagon lurched to a stop.

It seemed they were only pausing briefly, and before long it started moving again.

Hey! Hurry up and switch out already—!

A man’s voice barked out.

It sounded like the voice of the man who had thrown Ren back into the wagon.

Creak.

The moment he heard that voice, Ren ground his teeth.

The heart that had sunk into resignation suddenly began to blaze again. Ren’s eyes snapped wide open.

“For whose benefit...?!”

Ren scrubbed hard at his face with his bound hands. He forced back the despair trying to drag him under. To die like this...

Ren didn’t want to die right now. He had always wanted to live. But now, now that he was being taken who knew where, far away, somewhere he had never chosen, a mix of his own will and someone else’s—now he couldn’t remember why he wanted to live. There were faces he wanted to see, but that was only a feeling. The feelings he had left at the inn were still just regrets. The kind of regrets that would simply burn away to ash unless something set them alight.

Then a fluffy white face rose in his mind. Someone he had never managed to see in person after all.

“Lante...! Lante!”

Ren finally came up with one reason.

Right. I never got to say goodbye to them. That’s right. Before I die, I’m going to leave letters for every person I liked.

Inside his head, he started counting on his fingers. There were more people he wanted to leave letters for than he had expected. His brother and the old apothecary, Luman and Jepeto, Lady Coco and Hugh, Seton, and... Shawn, whom he had never met, already become a star.

He was going to write Mine a letter too, telling him not to live like that, and then beat the hell out of him.

Thinking that way made him feel much better.

You messed with the wrong person!

Ren’s green eyes flickered quietly.

I’m the kind of person who pays back exactly what he gets!

With the villagers, it had only ever gone as far as throwing himself at them and trading punches, but he was never going to let these people off. His brother wasn’t here to stop him. And these bastards weren’t his neighbors.

“I’ll definitely...”

Pay them back.

And with that, he made a fresh vow.

To live the way he always had.

This had happened because, unlike himself, he’d tried to change.

Other people’s kindness?

They could feed that to the dogs!

Other people’s affection?

That could go to the dogs too!

Grinding his teeth, Ren swore it.

For a moment, Luman and Jepeto flashed through his mind, but Ren quickly shook his head and threw the thought away.

Life is something you face alone!

If he was going to do that, he had to get a grip.

He had to make himself pay for the price of being stupid enough to get fooled!

Even now, in this state, he was already paying the price for that stupidity.

But in Ren’s opinion, it still wasn’t enough.

A vicious light rose in his eyes.

Ren drew in a deep breath.

His eyes shone like lanterns.

Throwing his head sharply up—

He slammed his forehead straight into his own knee.

Thud!

Stars... one, two...

Ugh...

Overcome with nausea and dizziness, Ren passed out on the spot.

***

Geloman lightly pulled his greatsword free with one hand from where he had driven it deep into the ground, then gathered in his strength.

There was nothing here to hold him back.

He looked up at the pitch-black night sky.

“By now...”

Estimating the time, Geloman slid the greatsword back into its sheath and gathered power into his legs.

By now, Temar would have climbed about halfway up Mount Geroa. If Geloman left now, he could catch up to him just before Temar cleared the mountain completely.

Without hesitation, Geloman awakened his body.

When it came to movement, the one second only to Luman was Geloman. He wasn’t as fast as Luman, but his endurance was better. He couldn’t cross an immense distance in a single instant, but he could move faster than others for much longer.

Standing on the ground at the edge of the village, Geloman vanished in an instant.

His strengthened legs drove off the earth, and only a faint trace of smoke was left where he had burst forward like an explosion.

As though the ground itself were folding over beneath his feet, Geloman moved at a speed ordinary people couldn’t even imagine. It was almost as if the land were shoving his feet farther ahead.

The scenery Geloman passed blurred together and twisted, looking only like green mixed into darkness. That was the view he always saw when he moved like this. The roads rushing past him all clumped together and sometimes looked like monsters. If someone with this ability had been a coward, he probably would never have been able to use it.

But Geloman did not dislike the scenery he passed through. He liked things that were gathered together in large masses. Geloman did not discriminate based on the shape of food or the shape of people.

There was only one thing Geloman judged.

Was it righteous?

To Geloman, righteousness meant only one thing: protecting the king.

Giselle’s words were what drove him onward.

“There is a traitor among us.”

Geloman did not believe those words.

But he intended to confirm it for himself.

If anyone had truly betrayed them, Geloman’s greatsword would not forgive it.

Anyone who threatened the safety of the king and the kingdom—no matter who they were—could not be left alive.

Geloman’s vivid blue eyes sharpened like blades.