The same day, in the middle of the night.
In the sky above, in a certain place with the Milky Way of the night sky as a backdrop—neither in the realm of the surface gods nor in the deep underground—goddesses were gathered together playing.
They were all Amina’s sisters whom he had brought forth, and in charge of various emotions, reason, and desires, they enjoyed telling their stories.
In the middle of their long conversation, Tittiena spoke about Amina, who hadn’t come no matter how long they waited.
“Why the hell isn’t he coming?”
“I don’t know. He must have found something fun again, like that time.”
Zigride responded to Tittiena’s words.
“Like that time, you mean like with Ircadeon?”
At the tactless Heulin’s words, the goddesses’ conversation stopped. Some of their expressions hardened.
Even though it had been quite a while since the contract was properly made, nothing had been properly accomplished yet.
Ircadeon’s greatest desire was to become the king of the world of gods. And Amina, along with his sisters, held a grudge against Henelion, Ircadeon’s brother.
Using that, Amina gave him the power to grant the deep desire within Ircadeon.
So that he could somehow become the king of this world.
However, contrary to expectations, Ircadeon was defeated and met an ending where he fell to the underground.
That said, it wasn’t as if Ircadeon had completely died or lost his power forever, so their contract remained in effect without anything being properly accomplished.
“I wonder what price he received this time?”
“No, don’t you know he has to receive a price for anything? He must have received a promise like with Ircadeon. On the condition of getting Vivian back.”
The voices of the whispering goddesses quietly echoed.
The power of desire, which may have received its price, was wriggling and creating a new future without their knowledge.
* * *
“…Yaawn.”
How long had he been asleep?
Late afternoon. Abrisius opened his eyes in a dim forest.
A lush forest full of vegetation spread out before Abrisius’s eyes. Looking around at the large trees he had never seen in either his past life or this life, Abrisius blinked.
“Why… do they feel so much bigger than the trees in the greenhouse garden?”
Was it because they were trees in the forest? But even so, those trees looked unusually larger. Moreover, the feeling of the ground touching the soles of his feet was different from before.
If before it was the feeling of two feet touching the ground, this time even his palms were touching the ground…
‘Huh?’
A chilling sensation flowed down his spine.
Unless he was crawling on all fours, an impossible sensation was transmitted through his legs and hands.
Abrisius slowly looked down.
And…
‘Aaaahhh!’
“Squeeeak!”
He screamed in shock at the split hooves attached instead of feet.
‘Wh-what is this?’
“Squeak, squee, squeeal!”
Each time the startled Abrisius screamed, instead of human words, the cries of a deer burst from his mouth.
‘What on earth is this…’
He couldn’t maintain his sanity in this utterly incomprehensible situation. Wondering if he might be dreaming right now, he ran to the water’s edge and looked at his reflection.
‘This is impossible.’
The moment Abrisius saw himself in the form of a deer with black fur, he nearly fainted on the spot.
‘This is impossible. Did I just turn into a deer? What on earth… is this? Could I have been cursed?’
His mind spun in confusion as he looked at his suddenly transformed appearance.
Where exactly did things go wrong? After repeatedly turning his deer head to think several times, Abrisius recalled what had happened yesterday.
‘Could it be because I received that power that grants desires? But there’s no way turning into a deer is my desire…’
He hadn’t even made a wish to be turned into a deer, so why had he suddenly turned into one?
Not knowing that the power of desire received from Amina had reacted to his words ‘I want to hide my appearance,’ Abrisius could only stamp his feet anxiously.
‘Then do I have to live my whole life as a deer like this? If Seianes sees me, he’ll worry a lot…’
Abrisius, who had naturally thought of Seianes for a moment, flinched and shook his head.
He could never see Seianes again now. Yesterday’s events had become a complete trauma for Abrisius. Unless he lost his memory, Abrisius could no longer become Seianes’s lovable child as before.
‘Should I just live as a deer like this?’
Thinking carefully about it, living as a deer like this might not be bad.
Besides violating Seianes, in the original work, Abrisius’s very existence was a disaster for the surface gods. And Seianes was also one of them.
If his existence was only harm to Seianes, it might actually be fortunate that he had turned into a deer.
Perhaps that’s why Amina’s power, which was supposed to grant his desired wish, had worked this way.
‘If I become a deer and hide forever like this, Seianes will be okay. He’ll look for me right away, but that will only be for a moment.’
As an immortal god, the time with Abrisius would have been just a fleeting moment for him. He might search at first, but with time, he would shake off the memory and return to his own life.
Just as the parents of his previous life had abandoned him and become happier after finding their own lives.
It was the same with Seianes. Rather than tarnishing his honor later, parting ways now might be better for both of them.
‘It’s better to just live as a deer like this.’
The moment he silently accepted life as a deer.
‘Whoosh—!’
A sharp arrow cutting through the air grazed Abrisius’s cheek and pierced through a tree beside him.
“Squeak?”
Abrisius’s body froze like ice at the incident that occurred in an instant.
His whole body chilled at the thought that if he had been slightly careless, that arrow would have pierced not the tree, but his neck.
“Too bad.”
Soon after, a young boy revealed himself from between the bushes. The boy, holding a bow in one hand, glared at Abrisius.
“How annoying, I could have caught it in one shot when it let its guard down… This is all because you guys were unnecessarily hovering around!”
And he began throwing a tantrum while kicking the attendant behind him.
Despite the severe tyranny, the attendants accepted his temper without complaint. Even after venting his anger, the boy, who still seemed unable to shake off his irritation while huffing, pulled out an arrow from behind his back.
‘S-Seianes, help me!’
“Squeee… squee.”
The terrified Abrisius unconsciously called for Seianes.
But even at his desperate call, Seianes did not appear. Only then did the fact that he had left Seianes sink in.
“I have to win this hunting competition. Do you know how humiliated I was last time when I was pushed aside by that bastard Cairens? This time, I’ll flatten that bastard’s nose for sure!”
Thwack!
An arrow grazed past the waist of Abrisius, who had quickly dodged from that spot. It was fortunate that the boy’s shooting skills were poor; otherwise, he would have been hit by an arrow and died.
There was no one to help. Realizing that he had to overcome this situation with his own strength alone, Abrisius ran with all his might.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Each time the boy shot arrows, Abrisius dodged with flexible movements. Only after dodging like that could he finally put distance between himself and the boy.
“Damn it.”
The boy made a voice filled with resentment as he watched the deer grow distant.
Having lived as a prince and seen all kinds of rare animals, this was the first time he’d seen a deer with such beautiful black fur.
‘If I catch that deer and present it to Father, he’ll be pleased. Even that unlucky bastard Cairens won’t be able to ignore me, right?’
Thinking that, he couldn’t give up even more, and ran in the direction where the deer had disappeared.
‘Through this opportunity, I’ll prove my skills to Father too.’
It was an opportunity to reveal himself to his father, who always paid attention only to that damned demigod.
Recalling the past days when he had been ignored while overshadowed by Cairens’s light, his inferiority complex boiled over.
Through this opportunity, he would prove that he was better than Cairens.
If he caught and presented a precious deer that even Cairens had never caught, wouldn’t his father’s gaze toward him change?
With the single-minded determination to somehow present the deer, Prince Ricarkos fiercely chased after Abrisius.
