“Squaaawk—!”
Abrisius’s sadly crying voice spread through the air.
He tried to shake off the people holding him, but a mere young deer couldn’t overcome the large-bodied humans.
‘No!’
This was ruining the original story. They couldn’t treat the still-young Cairens like this. But all Abrisius could do was watch Cairens being taken away. The remaining people disappeared while supporting the fallen Ricarkos.
In the end, Abrisius was left all alone in that spot.
‘What is this? This shouldn’t be happening.’
Cairens’s gaze as he took him in with his eyes at that last moment still felt unfamiliar.
Rather than fearing death, it was a lonely gaze, close to resignation.
‘……’
The past days spent together with Cairens passed through Abrisius’s mind like a panorama.
Though it had been a short time, Cairens had been very kind to him.
They had eaten meals together, ran around playing and spent enjoyable times. Even while bickering, it was natural for the two to be together—his one and only friend.
And that friend now faced a horrible end before his eyes.
The fact that he could only watch made his heart ache even more.
‘Is there anything I can do? But what could I do?’
With this deer’s body, all he could do was eat and sleep. As he recognized that fact once again, self-loathing and doubt washed over him like waves.
You even saved my life, but I can’t do anything for you in return.
“Squawk……”
Abrisius’s futile cry echoed around the palace like an echo.
The harmonious place where he had laughed and chatted with Cairens now held only emptiness, as if a hole had been pierced through one side of his heart.
“Caw, caaw.”
—What? Are you okay?
Was she still here? Lily cried while circling around Abrisius, who stood in bewilderment alone.
—I just… I just feel sorry.
Sorry that I can’t do anything. Sorry that I can’t even repay the kindness I received. That pricked his conscience too much.
—But what can you do? Will you die in that child’s place?
But he couldn’t refute Lyriet’s sharply piercing words at all.
—If you’re not going to die in his place, then live long, long enough for that child’s share too.
“……You’re right.”
It wasn’t wrong. Even if he wanted to say something, she was pointing out the facts. Since he wasn’t going to die for him, nothing would change by staying here like this.
And Cairens was the protagonist. Not the protagonist of a tragic sad ending, but the protagonist of a story who lived happily ever after. It was the destiny decided by the gods of this world, and according to that flow of fate, he had to become a hero.
‘Surely, he’ll be able to live. It’s Cairens, after all?’
The protagonist of this story. And though the protagonist may face adversity, he doesn’t die.
Even if Abrisius agonized over it, nothing would change. He had neither the power nor the ability to go save him. He had no choice but to let go like this and pray for his return.
Though he rationalized it to himself like that, one corner of his heart kept feeling uncomfortably blocked. As if someone was sneering, asking if he really thought this world would create such a miracle like a novel.
His complicated mind couldn’t be organized and felt dizzy. While agonizing with guilt, from far away, the sound of someone arguing could be heard loudly from beyond the fence.
“So you’re saying you’ll offer that child as a sacrifice now?”
At the familiar voice, Abrisius’s gaze turned beyond the fence. Though he couldn’t see clearly because of the high wall, he could tell just from the voice. That she was arguing. And even who her opponent was.
“There is no other way, is there?”
“Even so, to put that child forward as a sacrifice candidate. He’s my son!”
A desperate voice mixed with sobbing echoed.
“When did you treat him so preciously saying he was the son of a god, and now… Are you saying that child has become a tool for your safety!?”
“I’m not comfortable doing this either, child, but the precious life possessed by the son of a god… Yes, that might be referring to that child’s life.”
“How can you say such…!”
The princess gasped at the absurd sophistry. Glaring at her father as if she would pour out curses at any moment, she raised her voice once more.
“Do you really think if we offer that child, we’ll all get better? Henelion will be furious!”
“……It’s quite amusing that you say such things. Aren’t you the one who hates him most in this land?”
At the words hitting the mark, the princess closed her mouth.
She detested the god. She hated him who had seduced her with words of love, implanted a child within her, and fled.
When she saw the child, he came to mind, so she couldn’t bear to bring the child close and kept him at a distance.
But she had never once wished for that child to die.
Though as a mother she had never once given him warm words, she believed without doubt that the child would one day live as a hero as his father had said.
But that destiny was this? If so, then why had he implanted a child in her of all people?
Why on earth, for whose benefit. To watch her child die—did he send this trial for that reason? What had she done wrong?
Was this the ‘hero’ he had spoken of? Being offered as a sacrifice on the altar while bearing the wishes of many people—was this the hero’s life he had spoken of so much?
‘Ah, Henelion, you give me nothing but despair until the very end.’
Without the strength to maintain her sanity, her legs gave out on their own. Not content with deceiving her to the end, he was now trying to take away even the child she had carried for ten months.
“But that child is still my child!”
At her cruel father’s words, she cried out loudly as if in a final struggle.
“……”
At her words, the King didn’t answer her to the very end. A forced sacrifice accompanied by silence. It was directed at her child. The helplessness of being unable to protect her child as a mother, the wretchedness she felt at the sight of her father, the temple, and the masses seemingly wishing for her own child’s death.
If she had known it would be like this, she should have spoken warmly to him at least.
Recalling the last conversation they had shared, the princess collapsed and wept.
It would have been good to call his name affectionately even once. The cold conversation they had shared last still hadn’t been forgotten.
“Sob… waaaaaah……”
The cry of a mother who lost her young. She knew well that it was already too late, that it was ridiculous to regret it now. But she couldn’t control her emotions.
She just wanted to cry out and weep like this. Even if it was foolish, that’s what it meant to be human.
If only she could see that child one more time.
Please, if there was a god in this place, she wished they would listen to her earnest plea.
“Please save my child.”
While seeking the god she had usually denied so much, she murmured desperately.
Was it because of that desperation? Her wish happened to reach the young god just beyond the wall.
“Chirp.”
At the cry that made one’s heart heavy just from hearing it, Abrisius quietly whimpered.
Cairens was the protagonist of this story. The future hero. The great hero who would help humans and gods. And before that, he was the son of a god. He couldn’t die carelessly, nor would he die.
But they were going to carelessly put that Cairens forward as a sacrifice? Even though it was obvious they would incur Henelion’s wrath?
He couldn’t understand at all what that King had heard to act like that.
Since the protagonist couldn’t be like that, even to himself it was an absurd thought, but if by any chance that child really died like that.
‘Then what happens to this story? If the original story changes like this.’
The demigod hero Cairens would also disappear, and the hero who would help Henelion fight the underworld gods would vanish. Then, would the ending of this world change too?
Not Cairens winning as in the original content, but an ending where Ircadeon wins.
‘It might even be better… If Cairens dies like this, it’s good for me, isn’t it?’
The original would change so he wouldn’t have to see the unseemly sight of his future self being connected with Seianes, and the future where he might be ruined or die because of that would also disappear.
Yes, it all worked out.
While rationalizing himself, Abrisius laughed. He didn’t have to hide it anymore. So he might be able to live with Seianes as Abrisius again.
Within that hope, the red eyes that had turned black wavered again. Red and black light swirled as Abrisius’s heart also pounded, mixed with guilt and strange hope.
But.
‘Still, I’m glad you at least had me.’
Why did that child keep coming to mind? His first friend who had treated him like a friend.
The warm gaze of that child he had seen until the last moment wouldn’t leave his mind.
