Even though his cousin was going to die, Ricarkos, steeped in his own inferiority complex, was delighted as if something fortunate had happened.
Cairens, who usually didn’t like him much, found him truly disgusting this time.
However, Cairens didn’t express his anger openly like Ricarkos. Instead, he clenched his fist with force again.
His gaze turned toward his cousin who was casually chattering about his sacrifice and death.
He had thought that someday he could reconcile with him and get along like real brothers. Of course, he only realized now that all of that was wishful thinking—how foolish he had been.
“So you know what? There’s one thing I want to do before I die……”
“What?”
Thwack—!
Cairens’s fist flew toward Ricarkos. Ricarkos, hit by the fast fist without any time to dodge, fell backward.
“This son of a bitch……!”
Cairens, more excited than when he met his mother, climbed on top of Ricarkos without anyone having time to stop him and raised his fist to his face.
Pain so fierce it was merciless was inflicted upon Ricarkos.
“Ahhh! You crazy, get off!”
Ricarkos screamed and resisted, but it was useless. Cairens, who easily overpowered him, repeatedly punched around his mouth area like crazy.
His sharp blue eyes looked ready to rip out his snout right then and there, and Ricarkos, who couldn’t even properly resist such a Cairens, had no choice but to be beaten helplessly.
“Stop, please stop! Both of you, calm down!”
“Cairens-nim, you mustn’t do this. Please……”
The guards surrounding the area rushed over to try to separate Cairens from Ricarkos.
Cairens wouldn’t let go. With all his might, he clung to Ricarkos.
“Argh, stop it! This son of a bitch…… you’re crazy…….argh!”
Because perhaps this beating might be the last time.
In the end, they barely managed to pull Cairens off him just before Ricarkos’s face became a bloody pulp.
“Huff……huff……”
Cairens, held by the guards, let out even breaths. Blood droplets were forming and dripping from his bruised fist, and at his feet, Ricarkos, turned into a bloody pulp, was barely breathing.
There wasn’t a trace of sympathy in the expression looking at Ricarkos, who was panting covered in blood beneath him with empty eyes.
The servants who took care of the unconscious prince looked at the son of god, who would now be offered as a sacrifice, with complicated feelings.
“Why…… to me…… why.”
Like someone who had lost their soul, Cairens muttered blankly.
Just for the one reason of being the son of a god, he had given up normalcy like others and lived an extreme life from birth. He had been terribly lonely, and he had finally just started to become happy.
Suddenly this oracle comes down? If this is the heart that one who bears the destiny of a hero as the son of a god should have…….
“I wish I hadn’t become such a thing in the first place.”
He never asked for it, never asked to be made into it. How did I end up becoming such an existence and why am I struggling so much?
“……Beep.”
A faint voice was heard from behind. When he turned his head, Abrisius stood there with a face full of fear. Just like the day they first met.
Seeing Abrisius approaching him with a face soaked in anxiety, Cairens smiled faintly.
“Right, you were on my side.”
His only ally, full of fear in this place where everyone around was an enemy.
His first and only friend he’d ever made. Could his death save the humans, and this one and only friend, from disaster?
“If I die, will everyone be happy? And will they love me?”
Perhaps through this sacrifice, it might become an opportunity for his mother, who hates him, to not deny his existence. That his death prevents disaster means that gods exist. Then his mother, whether she likes it or not, would have no choice but to acknowledge the son who willingly sacrificed himself to save humanity.
Cairens looked up at the sky. The sun was still visible. On the day he was dying. Cruelly, the sun was shining equally on everyone from its place as always.
Cairens naturally had to repay that faith.
The captain of the guards, who had been quietly listening to his words, sighed and stepped forward.
“Cairens-nim, I understand your feelings a hundred times over. But if you speak with His Majesty again, and with the temple priests……”
“Are you calling that words right now? No one will listen to what I say. When everyone believes that what appeared in the oracle is most accurate.”
A hollow laugh spread through the air.
Seeing how they came to capture him like this, the king probably had no intention of retracting it.
Right, being offered as a sacrifice is also something a hero must do. A hero who saves humans. That wouldn’t be limited to just slaying dragons, saving people in wars, and going on the greatest adventures.
Sacrificing oneself for everyone is also being a hero.
“Right, I’m a hero. Maybe it’s only natural.”
The word hero that he’d heard like he was being brainwashed. He was sick of it now. Perhaps this time, ending his short life, he might finally be freed from that shackle called hero.
‘But if there’s still one lingering attachment left. It would be you right in front of me.’
Even soaked in resignation and lamentation, Cairens’s eyes toward Abrisius were warm.
Cairens, who had never properly shared his heart with anyone in his life. Abrisius was the only one with whom he could open his heart, who appeared to him who didn’t have a single friend, and his last and only precious friend in life.
“……Let me talk to my deer one last time.”
At least he should leave a farewell to such a friend.
The guards nodded as if they understood Cairens’s intention. They gestured with their chins to a maid who was at a loss nearby.
The maid, who had to helplessly watch the situation of the one she served being taken away right before her eyes, hurriedly approached Abrisius, who was standing nearby.
Clop-clop—!
However, Abrisius was one step faster.
Abrisius, who quickly moved his small hooves and ran to Cairens’s side, rubbed his body against him and cried beep-beep.
“Beep—!”
—What kind of nonsense is this? At least try to resist. You can’t be offered as a sacrifice!
Before ruining the original work, this is a terrible thing. Offering a child as a sacrifice—what kind of god in the world would tell them to place a still young thing on the altar and kill them? Could one truly call whoever issued that oracle a god?
“Beeep—! Beeeep—!”
—You have a hero’s destiny with many tasks ahead of you to complete. So don’t give up on life.
Blocking Cairens, Abrisius laid out the future life he knew about him. A hero who defeats a monster with 100 heads, moves boulders, and brings victory in the gods’ war.
He tried to persuade him by reciting Cairens’s epic one by one.
“Beep, beeep, beeeeep!”
But his desperate appeal only sounded like a deer’s cry.
In the humans’ eyes, Abrisius’s efforts were nothing more than a young deer worried about losing its master.
“……It’s okay. Are you worried about me?”
“Beeep—!”
—I’m not worried…… I’m stating an obvious fact!
Cairens gazed sadly at the deer crying and wandering before him. Still, just having someone worry about him like this put his mind at ease.
To think that among the crowd who thought his sacrifice was natural, there was someone who didn’t think his sacrifice was natural.
To others, he might just seem like a slightly special deer, but to Cairens, he was a truly precious friend. He wished they could still play together more, and it was regrettable that they couldn’t.
“I’m going to go now. You have to take care of yourself too. Okay?”
Cairens, who hugged Abrisius tightly one last time, whispered.
A deep spirit of sacrifice that couldn’t be seen as a child’s. This wasn’t being mature or grown-up.
It was merely a bizarre result created by the deep resignation of a child forced by the world to be a hero.
“Take care.”
The warm embrace fell away from Abrisius’s body. A cold air passed between the two.
Like a dam that would burst with a touch, Cairens gave a precarious smile and turned his back to follow the knights.
“Beep!”
—Don’t go!
Abrisius ran to stop Cairens, who was turning his back to follow the guards.
But even that leap was blocked by the nearby maids and knights. Cairens no longer looked this way, as if he had no more lingering attachments.
