“Huff, gasp……”
The pursuit continued relentlessly. To gain his father’s recognition, Ricarkos stopped at nothing, and Abrisius ran more desperately than at any other time across both his lives.
His heart pounded as if it would burst, and his small legs trembled. His tender muscles, exhausted to their limit, screamed in pain, but he couldn’t stop.
Because it wasn’t just the boy and his lackeys chasing Abrisius.
“Grrr…… Woof woof!”
“Bark bark!”
The well-trained hunting dogs were seasoned hunters, unlike their master with his poor shooting skills.
They picked up Abrisius’s scent brilliantly, and no matter how fast he ran, they tracked him by smell alone and alerted their master.
Their teeth were so sharp and their bodies so agile that if he mistepped even slightly, his throat would be torn out and he’d die on the spot.
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!’
Tears streamed down from his eyes. It was so hard, and his body hurt. But he couldn’t stop. If he stopped even for a moment, it would be the end.
How long had he been running like that?
He escaped the forest and arrived before an endlessly sprawling reed field. Without hesitation, Abrisius leaped into the reeds that swayed and rustled with the sound of the wind.
“Grrr……”
The seasoned pursuit party that had been chasing Abrisius arrived right after. The dogs that stopped in front of the reed field jumped into it, following Abrisius.
The breathless chase continued.
The forest had at least had some open spaces, but the densely grown reed field was narrower and more stifling than expected, making it even harder to escape.
What came out from pushing through the reeds was only more reeds. With his vision blocked and his sense of direction lost, Abrisius just kept running.
‘Huff…… gasp…… It’s so hard…….’
This was really the limit now.
It was a natural result—he hadn’t eaten and had run for his life. His vision grew dizzy and his surroundings spun round and round. Just when the things before his eyes started tilting……
“Squee”
‘Ah, it hurts……!’
Abrisius slipped on a puddle pooled beneath the reed field and fell straight to the ground.
Along with the pain he felt in his leg, tears welled up in his eyes. The fact that he had run this far in the body of a young deer was practically a miracle.
‘I, I need to go……’
His body wouldn’t move.
The strength had left his legs, or rather, his body, already pushed to its limit, was crying out to be saved.
“Grrr……”
“Where is it? Over there?”
“Search every nook and cranny!”
From behind, the sounds of dogs and people came through the reed field. There was no more time to delay. The hunting dogs that had caught Abrisius’s scent would find where he was any moment now.
And they would bite his tender throat and kill him, as if they’d been waiting for it.
‘I don’t want that!’
As the horrific scene drew itself in his mind, Abrisius fell into despair.
Rustle, rustle.
To make matters worse, nearby reeds rustled and moved. Was it a hunter? Or a hunting dog? Whatever it was, if they encountered each other, it would be the end.
He didn’t want to die like this. But his body wouldn’t listen.
‘I guess this is the end……’
His whole body trembled. Cursing his disobedient body, Abrisius curled up. Before the crossroads of death, he closed his eyes and thought of a face he longed for.
Seianes.
‘I miss Seianes so much.’
In the suffocating terror of death, Abrisius desperately craved his embrace that had held him warmly.
‘If things were as they should be, I would have woken up in Seianes’s arms by now and played around.’
Seianes’s embrace always smelled of sunshine. Sun-soaked earth. Yes, exactly that smell. A cozy and snug fragrance.
When he rubbed against him in his arms, Seianes would laugh affectionately while saying it tickled.
‘I miss you so much…… I miss you so much.’
But no matter how much he longed, he had come too far.
Through Amina, Abrisius had already learned of his fate. Now that he knew that truth, even if he miraculously returned, he didn’t have the confidence to be with Seianes as before.
That fact was unbearably painful.
And that end came really quickly.
The sound of pushing through thick reed bushes. The sound of stepping on wet mud was getting closer.
Plod, plod.
This is really the end now. The moment he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to meet his end—
“Oh, a deer……?”
What he heard wasn’t the throat-tearing sounds of dogs, nor the shrill voice of a young hunter. It was the voice of a child he’d never heard before.
Small, plodding footsteps stopped in front of Abrisius. He felt a curious gaze, and tension flowed down his spine.
‘Who is it?’
He felt somewhat relieved, but he couldn’t feel completely at ease. In fear that they might grab his throat at any moment, Abrisius grew even more tense and trembled.
“It’s soft.”
However, the child’s touch that reached him wasn’t threatening at all. Each stroke of his hand petting his fur was careful, as if handling fragile glasswork.
At the warm touch, Abrisius’s heart, stiff with tension, began to gradually melt like snow.
‘……Not a bad person?’
At least it was certain this wasn’t someone who would harm Abrisius.
Then who was this child? More than that, he might be able to escape this situation with the boy’s help.
With a glimmer of hope, Abrisius slightly raised his head. And he looked at the mysterious boy before him.
“Squee……”
‘Wow, he’s beautiful.’
As their eyes met, a short gasp escaped.
Eyes deep and blue like a lake held Abrisius in them.
The sunlight entering through the reeds illuminated the boy’s red hair rapturously. Just looking at him was so beautiful that Abrisius unknowingly stared at the boy in a daze.
He had thought the most beautiful thing in the world would be Seianes, but in a different sense, this boy was also beautiful.
“Wow, you’re pretty.”
Conversely, the boy was smiling at Abrisius, calling him pretty.
“Why are you alone? Where’s your mom?”
The boy who asked about Abrisius looked around, scanning the surroundings. It seemed he thought there must be a mother nearby.
“Did you lose your mom?”
“……Squee.”
‘I had a guardian, but not anymore.’
At the newly painful question, his heart sank. The reality that he truly had no guardian or family anymore hit him once more.
“……”
Looking at the dejected Abrisius, the boy was silent for a moment. He probably assumed on his own that this was a baby wandering alone, having lost its mother.
“……Then will you come with me?”
