"Wha..."

There are moments when your first impression of someone suddenly comes back to you.

Like right now.

That cold face, like every trace of emotion had been stripped out of it.

The kind of face that looked like it could pass judgment based on some set standard and wipe someone out for it, the kind that could smile while driving a blade straight into another person’s chest.

Just because Luman had shown me a little kindness didn’t mean that was who he really was. This—right now—was probably closer to the real Luman.

The same way the real me was a coward.

Luman had always been a stranger to begin with, so this side of him didn’t feel all that much stranger.

I stopped looking at him and lowered my eyes to the ground.

"I don’t want to care."

"Hm."

"It’s easier to forget."

"Is it?"

"Yeah."

If people got killed over something like that, would there be any people left in this world?

Seriously. There were too many wrongs like that to count. If you killed everyone just to vent your anger, humanity would go extinct.

"Then I did well."

"Did what?"

"I almost killed him, but I didn’t."

Heh.

Luman let out a low laugh.

He was joking, right?

I looked up at him.

"When’s Brother coming back?"

Ugh. Night really falls fast in the mountains.

The place where Brother had disappeared was already swallowed by darkness.

"He’ll be back soon."

Then silence.

Mountain nights were cold. The warmth from those lights made it bearable, but little by little, it felt like my arms and legs were stiffening up.

I tensed my cheeks so it wouldn’t show and let my thoughts drift.

Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to settle down in the capital, find a place to live, and bring the old apothecary to stay with us. It didn’t seem like he was all that attached to the village either, did it? He took good care of the villagers and gathered herbs and made medicine for them, sure, but somehow, it never really looked like affection to me.

It felt more like the only person the old herb man cared about was me.

That’s not me being arrogant, okay! Ahem.

Should I really send him a letter asking him to come live with us?!

Still, this was supposed to be a journey. It’d be nice if it felt a little more exciting.

It might’ve been even better if it were just Brother and me....

I snuck a glance at Luman. What the hell. He was still looking at me.

"What?"

Even though I was just asking, it came out sullen.

Ah.

I hadn’t meant to use that tone. I bit my cheek.

It was just a habit. Nobody ever called for me because of anything good, and I never really had any reason to call for anyone either, so my tone had turned into this. It wasn’t all bad, exactly, but... now I was going to be meeting Brother’s friends. Would it be better if I fixed it?

No. I probably couldn’t.

"Ren. I’ve never seen a kid as nasty as you."

That old line flashed through my head. It wasn’t wrong, either.

Still. Whatever. As long as I didn’t become a burden, that was enough, right? I decided not to make a big deal out of it.

"So what did you do with your life?"

"...?"

What did I do with my life??

What kind of question is that out of nowhere?

When I just sat there blinking like an idiot, Luman muttered, "No, that’s not it?"

"Hm. Should I ask how you’ve been living instead? You were born in that village, right?"

When he said that village, I thought I saw a faint sneer flicker over his face.

"Well. I guess so."

As far back as I could remember, I’d always been in that village.

"You don’t seem very attached to it. Ah. Except for that old man."

"Well."

At my half-assed answer, Luman closed his mouth.

I looked at him from the side, then lightly patted his shoulder.

"You don’t have to force yourself to talk to me, you know."

"...?"

"Did Brother ask you to? You don’t have to. I’m not uncomfortable just sitting here without talking. If you have to force questions and make awkward conversation, that’s worse, so don’t bother. Honestly, it’s not like you’re really curious about me anyway."

"Why do you think that?"

Luman tilted his head.

"Huh?"

"Why do you think I wouldn’t be curious about you?"

"Well, that’s...."

Because I can tell you’re the kind of person who doesn’t care about anything that isn’t useful to you?!

Even with my mouth, it’d be hard to say that out loud! I still had to preserve his dignity a little. He was Brother’s companion!

"Because you seem like someone who’s good at weighing things rationally?"

"..."

"I mean... anyway, it’s not like we’re going to know each other for long.... If we’re just going to part ways soon, isn’t it better not to know too much about each other?"

That last part, at least, I meant.

If you got to know someone, all that did was make it hurt more when they left.

The memory of travelers who’d stayed in the village once in a while and taken care of me only ended up hurting the younger me more.

Ugh. I hate that. It’s better not to know affection or care at all. In that sense, the old man really was amazing. He never left me... and he’d tamed me back when I was at my wildest. Ah. Wait. Saying he tamed me makes me sound like some kind of animal.

"Luman?"

"Right."

Luman nodded slowly. He looked like he was thinking about something.

"Huh? Brother! Temar!!"

I sprang to my feet and started waving.

Ooohhh! It looked like he had something in his hand—like he’d caught something! Brother heard me shouting and was in front of us in an instant.

"Mmph. Whaffa—"

But then, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) all of a sudden, Luman clapped a hand over my mouth.

Brother Temar’s eyes turned sharp.

"Luman. What are you doing."

Brother strode up and grabbed Luman’s arm, twisting it as he spoke.

The muscles in his arm shifted under his clothes.

"You came back looking serious, so I did. You found something, didn’t you?"

"Yeah."

Luman turned back to me and smiled.

What is that. A shut-up smile?

"Ren. You need to be quiet. Understand?"

Ugh. Ptui, ptui, ptui!

That still didn’t mean he had to go around covering my mouth with his hand. Even as I glared at him, I nodded. I’m the one who doesn’t want to deal with disobedient little kids, thanks! So you don’t need to talk to me that nicely either, okay?

"Good boy."

"..."

Luman reached out and carefully touched the back of my head.

I was going to dodge the second he moved his hand, but...!!

Because of what he’d just said, I couldn’t move.

Good boy? Me? Me, Ren, being called a good boy?! That was literally the first time in my life anyone had ever said that to me....

"Ren. Come here."

Brother’s low voice snapped me back to my senses.

"Huh? O-Okay...."

I stood there blankly for a second, then hurriedly came to myself, rubbed the back of my head all over, and whipped my head around to glare at Luman.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Who said you could just touch my head whenever you felt like it?! I wanted to snap at him, but I held it in.

It’s not like hearing you call me a good boy made me happy or anything. It’s just that you’d just told me to be quiet, so count yourself lucky, okay...!

"Brother."

He told me to come over, so I did, but Brother wasn’t paying attention to me at all. He was already stripping the hide off the beast with quick strokes of his knife.

"Whoa...! Brother, that’s amazing! Is that what you just caught? Whoaa! Where’d you catch it? What did you use? Did you catch it with your sword?"

"...Yeah."

Tch. What kind of answer is that?!

Only then did I realize what kind of beast Brother had hunted.

It was a herbivore called a tol, and its meat was tender and delicious. It was fast too, so it couldn’t have been easy to catch!

Hm. Wasn’t there anything I could do?

I looked around, and Luman seemed to be gathering firewood like he was about to start a fire.

So I just had to bring dry branches or something, right?

Ah-choo.

A slicing gust of wind blew through. My hair whipped all over the place, and I hunched my shoulders. Swallowing back a cough, I bent over and started picking up branches.

Evening in the mountains was way darker and colder.

The damp earth swallowed up all sound of footsteps, and dry branches were hard to find.

I was looking around, about to head farther in, when someone suddenly grabbed my arm.

"Eek!"

"...Hah."

It was Luman.

Where the hell did my heart go?! Did it just fall out somewhere? I turned toward him, trembling all over. Luman stared at me hard, his eyes glinting in the dark like an animal’s.

"Why...?"

"..."

"...Uh...."

What is it?!

I was about to ask again, but swallowed the words.

Because Luman looked like he was holding back his temper.

Only after a few more seconds passed did he sigh and let go of my arm. As I rubbed at the spot where it had gone numb, his eyes lingered on it for a moment before returning to my face.

"Stay still. The outside world is more dangerous than you think."

Luman’s face was smiling as he said it, but the sharpness in his eyes made it clear he wasn’t joking.

"Hold on."

"I’ll follow you."

"I don’t trust children with a history."

What? I said I can follow just fine!

But Luman insisted on taking my hand and led me back to where we’d left the carriage.

Ah. Had I really walked this far?

At some point a fire had already been lit, and I could see flames in the distance, farther away than I’d thought from where we were.

The moment I glanced back, the pitch-black dark behind us rolled like it might swallow anything whole.

Eek! That’s scary!

"Wow! That smells amazing...!"

I’d been trembling, but the second I saw meat roasting on a skewer, I burst out in admiration!

Of course, one look from Luman made me lower my voice, but... the second I let go of his hand and walked toward Brother, he gave me a frightening look.

"Ren."

"Yeah."

"Don’t wander around recklessly."

"Okay. Sorry."

"Right."

"I brought some branch...es."

Brother’s attention was already on Luman.

Of course. I’m no help to Brother after all. I suddenly felt embarrassed about the hand I’d held out. I was about to hide it behind my back when Luman grabbed me again.

What! Is he about to laugh at me for doing something useless?! Just try it. I’ll stab you with these branches.

"You picked out the dry ones pretty well."

"..."

What is with him all of a sudden....

After saying that, Luman frowned.

Like he didn’t even understand why he’d said it himself.

No, what am I supposed to do with that face after you say something like that? And it’s not like I’m grateful just because you said it either!

When I sat down on the cloak spread over the ground, I could feel the cold seeping right through it.

Oh, shit. It’s cold! My ass is gonna freeze.... But I can take it! Hah. I’ve spent whole nights outside before. This is nothing.

I tried my best to straighten out my curled-up body.

Brother, who was rummaging through the kindling, said in a casual tone,

"There was a corpse."

"A corpse?! Holy shi— I mean, my deepest condolences... what kind of corpse?? Brother, is there treasure hidden around here or something? Is that what this is?!"