* * *
There was one more reason to return to Oblyad Castle quickly. Kaniel and Taeyon hurriedly picked up their packed luggage and set out on their journey.
The two walking through the forest were each lost in thought and couldn’t hold a proper conversation. Because what had just happened was so shocking.
Taeyon in particular felt like basic common sense on the level of 1 plus 1 equals 2 was crumbling. He had grown up receiving knight lessons since childhood, being indoctrinated with the premise that monsters and demonic beasts were monsters and enemies that must be defeated—but now he was hearing that might not be the case.
He was troubled about how to convey this story to the castle lord. Being a dignified person, he would calmly listen to the story itself, but there was a high possibility he’d treat it as nonsense.
Thinking about it from that perspective, the fact that the subject who had transformed from beastkin to demonic beast was Jeinote was positive. If it was a story about someone who had once been a knight belonging to the castle, it would give him a bit more room to think carefully.
“Taeyon.”
“Yeah. You called?”
Seeing Taeyon, calm as usual, Kaniel realized he hadn’t yet reached the same thought he had.
This was too sensitive an issue. He hesitated over whether he should bring up such a story to Taeyon.
“Um, Taeyon…”
“Yeah. Speak.”
“……”
“Kaniel, I should have told you before. You can do whatever you want.”
The word ‘whatever’ truly meant absolutely anything was okay. But Kaniel just thought it was words of encouragement because he was hesitating, and smiled bashfully.
“Then I’ll say it. This is something that maybe, just maybe could be the case…”
“Yeah.”
“You said your hyung’s body wasn’t found.”
Having gotten that far in the story, Taeyon also caught on to what Kaniel was trying to say and his eyes widened.
“Hyung… might have become a demonic beast?”
“Maybe.”
Taeyon’s hyung Libellon was a giant white wolf. When he transformed into his animal form, he became so huge that the expression ‘as big as a house’ was fitting, and he was just as strong.
He’d always thought it strange that not only was such a hyung’s body not found, but no proper battle scene that hyung would have left behind was discovered either. That might have been why it was even harder to accept his hyung’s death.
But if, as Kaniel said, he had become a demonic beast due to some incident along the way, the situation made sense.
“If it’s really true…”
His hyung’s survival after becoming a demonic beast.
Taeyon was confused whether he should feel joy or sorrow at that fact. The code of chivalry he’d learned until now insisted he should feel sorrow. But soon, real emotion that couldn’t be measured by reason surged up.
“I have to find hyung.”
Taeyon muttered as if possessed. The image of his kind hyung came to mind. When young Taeyon, stubborn and prideful, was being punished after being scolded by their parents, the hand that would come and stroke his head, the voice that would tell him it was okay.
If he was alive, he might be wandering the forest with beast-like intelligence like Jenya. Or he might be attacking villages.
“Kaniel, can we really transform demonic beasts back into beastkin?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. But if they became demonic beasts due to some factor, couldn’t they also become beastkin again due to another factor? If we uncover that factor, then it might somehow be possible. I’m a mage, after all.”
Even if transforming him back into a beastkin proved impossible, he couldn’t let his hyung live like a beast in the forest and die. At the very least, he had to protect him…
Having thought that far, Taeyon laughed like a sigh, thinking he understood how Effolin had ended up living in such a deep forest.
Fortunately, unlike Effolin, he had Kaniel. Kaniel, who was both a mage and a monster tamer, would surely be able to help his hyung.
“I’m sorry for making an unreasonable request. But…”
“Not at all. You’re my life’s savior, Taeyon. You can ask me for anything.”
“Thank you, Kaniel.”
Being relied upon by Taeyon was a joyful thing.
Honestly speaking, it was a bleak matter. They didn’t even know why beastkin became demonic beasts in the first place. They needed to know that to find a way to reverse it.
But he wanted to willingly participate in such bleak research. Because Taeyon had asked him.
“I’ll definitely help you, Taeyon.”
Kaniel resolved that he would absolutely live up to this expectation.
* * *
Effolin sat in front of the fireplace with a blanket pulled over her head. In that state, she just stared blankly at the light of the fireplace.
Because today’s events didn’t feel real.
Jenya had almost been killed by the Young Master of Oblyad Castle, so she confessed Jenya’s identity, and was told they would research a way to turn demonic beasts back into beastkin.
It was unbelievable.
Something far better than the best future she had imagined in her situation had occurred.
“Jenya…”
At that fragile voice, Jenya, who had been playing near the fireplace batting at flames with his paw, approached her. His round eyes sparkled like stars. Just like Jenya’s eyes had originally been.
“You… might be able to come back to me.”
Jenya tilted his head and meowed, then climbed onto Effolin’s lap. Though the tears had stopped, the act of licking her reddened skin to comfort her was also exactly what Jenya used to do.
Jenya had lost his original form and become a winged cat, but his behavior was exactly like the original Jenya. His tastes were the same too. The cat demonic beast Jenya liked what the original Jenya had liked, and disliked what the original Jenya had disliked.
Each time she discovered such similarities, Effolin gained a little more strength to endure this time.
But that couldn’t continue forever.
Effolin grew more exhausted day by day, and became lonelier the more she loved Jenya.
“I did well to take the gamble.”
Finding Taeyon was a coincidence.
But deciding to bring him home was a life-or-death gamble. Because if the truth was discovered, she might be subjugated.
“Right?”
But the gamble had succeeded.
She didn’t know what would happen from now on, but wouldn’t it at least be better than when she endured this unbearable truth alone? As long as Jenya’s life remained, she was prepared to endure any hardship.
**EP 5. Secret of the Basement**
The journey didn’t last long.
Because Kaniel, who had been perfectly fine in the cold places, caught a cold the moment they came down south and reached a place where late autumn-like winds blew. His fever suddenly rose, and not even a few hours had passed before he coughed incessantly every time he breathed in the cold wind.
As soon as Kaniel’s condition worsened, Taeyon found a small cave in the trunk of a large tree.
Two days passed like that, with him transforming into a wolf and holding Kaniel in his arms, waiting for the cold to pass. But when Kaniel’s cold seemed to be getting worse and worse, Taeyon finally thought of the possibility that humans might be too weak to overcome a cold on their own.
“Kaniel, we have to go to a nearby village to buy medicine. Can you hold on?”
“…Yes… I’m, fine. Taeyon.”
His sluggish voice was severely hoarse.
“I should have gone to the village from the start. I’m sorry, Kaniel.”
“No… I’m sorry…”
Kaniel, who answered in a cracking voice, started coughing with a hacking sound. The reason he covered his mouth and swallowed his coughs was because his throat hurt from coughing too much. Every time he coughed, he felt pain as if his throat was being torn.
When was the last time he’d suffered from a cold this severely?
It seemed to be around the time before he graduated from school. Because no one nursed him, Kaniel had searched for and taken medicine himself, fetched water to drink, and suffered for days unable to even wipe his sweat-soaked body. He didn’t have the strength to go to the hospital, so he couldn’t even take medicine.
Compared to that time, now was much better. Though his mind was hazy from the fever, now Taeyon was by his side.
“I’m causing too much, trouble…”
“Don’t say that, Kaniel.”
Taeyon rarely frowned at Kaniel.
“You’ve never once been a burden.”
“Liar…”
“It’s true.”
“When we first, met…?”
“If I’d thought you were a burden, I wouldn’t have taken you in.”
Kaniel giggled with his feverish face. Thinking about it, Taeyon was that kind of man. On the first day, he saved him from among the monsters, and even when he brought him, who was just crying because his future was bleak not knowing what to do, to sleep in the tent, he didn’t particularly complain.
So maybe that’s why his desire to be acknowledged by him was deeper. Because if he didn’t do anything, he felt like he would just pass through as one of his ordinary daily routines. Because he wanted to become someone meaningful to this man.
“I’ll move as quickly as possible, so just hold on a little.”
“Yes…”
Taeyon, who had been looking at Kaniel answering weakly with pity, began to move.
After gathering the luggage and putting it on his back, he wrapped Kaniel in blankets and a cloak, bundling him up so he wouldn’t be cold, and ran through the forest carrying him in that state.
