Even though he had boldly asked to be taken there, Ren’s heart was pounding at the thought that he might get turned down.

‘Isn’t this way too much? Am I being a complete nuisance?’

Mine’s eyes wavered as if he were considering it. Ren tried to calm himself, telling himself not to be disappointed even if he said no. Right now, Ren was not all that different from the shameless kind of person who gets saved from drowning and then demands the rescuer hand over their bundle too. The man had already bought him a meal, and now here he was pestering him to show him the sea too!

Ren stared at Mine, trying to calm the hard thudding in his chest.

“I’ll take you.”

“Thank you!”

Ren answered in a rush, afraid he might change his mind. Seeing his flushed face lit up with excitement, Mine smiled kindly.

After paying and stepping outside, Mine pulled Ren’s hood back down deeper over his head after the wind had pushed it back. Startled by the hand that came at him so suddenly, Ren faltered and fidgeted with the hood, and Mine tilted his head.

“Is it uncomfortable?”

“N-No.”

“Even if it feels stuffy, I think it’d be better if you keep the hood on.”

“Why?”

“Hmm.”

Ren blinked blankly.

Mine bent at the waist and looked closely at Ren’s face.

“It’d be a problem if you didn’t know.”

“What would...?”

“Never mind. People in a big city like this are touchy. If your eyes meet, it could start a fight. So I think it’d be better if you keep the hood on.”

“Ah! Okay!”

Ren seemed to understand immediately.

Watching Ren accept that so quickly, Mine snickered. Normally, it might have been the kind of laugh Ren would dislike a little, but without realizing it, he smiled too. There was something about the way Mine covered his mouth with one hand and laughed under his breath that reminded him of Luman.

“So, shall we go?”

Mine held out his hand to Ren.

He had eaten his fill, the weather was bright, and the damp wind felt good.

Without any hesitation, Ren took Mine’s hand.

Ever since leaving Tempesto Village, it felt like his luck had somehow been good.

***

...No, he had definitely been on his way to see the sea.

‘Ugh. My head hurts.’

Or had he already seen it? The moment he tried to remember, a sharp ache throbbed through his head. Swallowing down the nausea, Ren snapped back irritably,

“What are you talking about?”

“What an idiot. No hope at all.”

“Hey. Do you know me? Why are you calling me an idiot out of nowhere?”

Now that he had heard idiot twice already, Ren was starting to get annoyed too.

He knew enough to realize the situation was strange.

He had opened his eyes in some unfamiliar place, so wasn’t it natural to ask where the person who had been with him just before had gone?

Ren trembled and put strength into his arms, but it did him no good. He collapsed forward again a second later.

His arms and legs were tied. There was no strength in his body at all, and even the smallest movement was difficult.

When his body would not move the way he wanted, unease crept in.

Had he had another attack? Had he collapsed on the way? Was that why his brother had left him here?

And what was with the ropes...?

His muddled head could not process the information properly. Ren quickly forgot that, like everyone else inside the wagon, his own arms and legs were tied too. Maybe some unconscious part of him was rejecting reality.

“Um... are you okay?”

“There’s no need to help an idiot like him!”

“Kenta! Stop it...”

It seemed the slit-eyed boy who kept calling Ren an idiot was named Kenta. A girl who had been sniffling shook her head and tried to stop him. One younger-looking girl, who had been shuffling over on her knees to help Ren when he couldn’t get up, flinched at Kenta’s words and looked around nervously.

“Are you the boss here?”

“What?”

Ren frowned. His stomach churned, and his body throbbed all over. His thoughts and memories were all tangled together, and the confusion made him feel seasick.

“Why are you yelling, scaring people, and making everyone watch themselves around you?”

“Hah! I’m yelling, scaring people, and making everyone watch themselves around me?”

Kenta sneered openly. He lowered his eyes as if looking down on Ren.

But Ren, sprawled out and squirming on the floor like a bug, did not feel angry under that stare.

Crawling on the ground was something he was used to. There had even been times he had crawled until every fingernail split and broke. More than half of Ren’s life had been spent clinging stubbornly to life while dragging himself along the ground. Something like this did not bother him at all.

Ren looked straight at Kenta, who was looking down on him.

Ren’s eyes were clear, like grass blades beaded with dew—eyes that neither retreated nor feared him, eyes without even anger in them—and Kenta found himself at a loss for words.

And that made him furious. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

This idiot had turned the stomachs of everyone trapped in here upside down with questions so stupid they proved he didn’t even understand the situation he was in. And yet he was looking at him with those innocent eyes, not even aware of what he had done wrong!

His cheek already looked as if he had been beaten before, faint bruises blooming there, and bandages were visible under his loose clothes. He had been hit hard enough to get injured and thrown into a place like this—so what exactly gave him the right to look at people with such calm eyes? A kid too stupid to realize he had been tricked, still calling for “big brother” and the like?

Kenta shook off the hand of the girl, Beta, who was trying to hold him back. Somehow managing to get to his feet with his legs tied inside the jolting cargo wagon, he swung his fist straight at Ren’s face.

Thud!

Of course, since his hands were bound too, he had to go rolling across the floor himself after throwing the punch.

“Ugh.”

Ren took the hit and rolled across the wagon floor. His cheek burned where he had been struck, and he tasted blood in his mouth.

“Aah!”

“Kenta, what are you doing?!”

“Hic... hngh...”

“Waaah...”

The others, who had been frozen stiff with tension, were so startled by the sudden violence that they began trembling and bursting into tears.

The wagon, which had not been traveling for very long, came to a stop because of the commotion.

“What’s all this noise? For God’s... tch. What the hell are you doing?”

It was the same voice Ren had heard earlier. That rough voice that clearly disliked the people locked up in here roared at them.

“Quit making trouble! Who was it? You? You again?”

“...!”

Wham!

The man grabbed Kenta, who had been collapsed in front of Ren, with one hand and drove a fist into his stomach. It was such a natural motion, flowing cleanly, not a trace of hesitation or mercy in it. Kenta’s eyes flew wide, and saliva spilled from his mouth.

After dropping him onto the wagon floor as if throwing him down, the man looked over at Ren, who was still sprawled there. The moment he saw the injury on Ren’s cheek, he stamped his foot in annoyance.

“If there’s one more disturbance, you die. Got it?!”

The man hauled Ren up into a sitting position by force, then pointed at Beta.

After threatening them that he wouldn’t let it go if there was any more trouble, the man pushed aside the dark cloth and climbed back down. Just before the big, thick door shut, Ren caught sight of a familiar face through the gap between the curtain and the door.

“Brother? Big brother! Bro—!”

Ren shouted desperately, as if possessed.

His reason was refusing to judge the situation. All it could do was cry out desperately for someone familiar.

“Shut... up...”

Kenta, who had seemed half unconscious, started trembling and ground his teeth.

But Ren either didn’t hear him or couldn’t. The Ren who had barely been able to move earlier lurched to his feet, fell, then kept flailing with his tied arms and legs and crawling toward the door, screaming.

“Brother! Big brother! Brother!”

“What the—? Ah, so it was you.”

With his ankles tied in a bowline knot, moving his legs could not have been easy, but Ren had grit his teeth and dragged himself over anyway, finally rolling down from the high wagon floor. The man staring at him in disbelief let out a snort when he looked outside and saw who was there.

Look at that bastard. As if stealing the person wasn’t enough, he always had to steal their heart too.

Sometimes there were people like that. Idiots who mistook a little kindness for sincerity and handed over their hearts in an instant.

The boy had a pretty face, but maybe he had never been loved even once. He sure looked like that type, sprawled there on the ground. The man narrowed his eyes, intending to get a better look at the filthy-faced boy, as if someone had rubbed his face with a lump of black dust, but then thought better of it. His looks could be dealt with later—washed clean and looked over at leisure. First, he ought to crush the boy’s hopes nice and early.

The man crooked a finger, and a much younger man came over.

“What is it?”

He was the one who had bought Ren food earlier and fussed over him so attentively.

The warm-looking man who had introduced himself as Mine.

“The kid you brought in is looking for you like crazy over there.”

The man who had called Mine over chuckled like he was having fun and pointed at Ren.

Ren tried to steady his ragged breathing and waited for Mine to turn and look at him.

Following the pointing finger with his gaze, Mine spotted Ren and opened his eyes wide.

“Ren.”

His thin voice called Ren’s name. It was soft, almost sweet like a young boy’s, but there was something strangely languid about it too.

“Brother!”

Ren cried out in delight and broke into a bright smile.

Mine looked troubled.

“Yeah, Ren.”

Apparently unsatisfied just because Mine had come closer, Ren looked up at him from where he had fallen on the floor and held out his bound arms.

Ah, did he want help getting up? Or did he actually expect him to untie him? Mine frowned, staring down at him with a look that practically said, What kind of idiot is this? But maybe that wasn’t it either. The hands stretched up toward him looked as if they wanted to be held. Or maybe as if they wanted to be hugged.

When Mine just stood there, unable to make sense of it, Ren shook his tightly bound arms as if asking what he was waiting for.

Then, as if some kind of premonition hit him, Ren’s face—still not that dark when he had first opened his eyes—suddenly turned shadowed. Feeling a pang of pity, Mine stepped forward and helped Ren up from where he had fallen on the floor. He caught him when his tangled feet made him stumble, dusted all the dirt off ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) his body, and even pulled him into a warm embrace. A hug was hardly difficult, and a beautiful boy like Ren was not the sort to make even another man recoil from a little contact.

Hm, maybe they tied the ropes too loosely. Holding Ren, who seemed to smell faintly sweet, Mine patted him on the back.

“Brother. Where is this?”

Was he seriously asking because he truly didn’t know? Mine was speechless for a moment.

The man watching nearby snickered.

Even with his arms and legs tied, he was still asking something like that. Wasn’t he a complete moron?

“It’s a wagon taking you to a good person.”

“A good person?”

Ren repeated it quietly. His voice made it obvious he didn’t understand.

“Yeah. You’re on your way to a good master.”

Mine smiled as he pulled Ren away from his chest.

“What does that mean?”

“Mm...”

Mine hesitated, trying to choose his words, but the man who had been snickering while he watched suddenly wiped the grin off his face and cut in.

“What’s this? This brat doesn’t know anything?”

“Looks like it. Seems I picked up a genuine rare specimen.”

Heh. Mine let out a low laugh.