“What exactly are you?”
“A human! Just an ordinary human!”
Kaniel, who had been standing there blankly with a hazy feeling of not being able to distinguish whether this was a dream or reality, came to his senses with a jolt the moment a sharp blade touched the side of his neck and shouted.
He could feel the cool, chilling sensation shallowly cutting his skin. It was cold and eerie.
Good God. After escaping from crazy kidnappers, he’d nearly been killed by a crazy demonic creature, and now he was about to be killed by a beastkin he was seeing for the first time.
“It’s true! I was kidnapped and fell here. Is this your territory? I had absolutely no intention of trespassing on private property! I was just running away and…”
“Stop.”
Kaniel shut his mouth and looked up.
After calming his confusion and agitation, the face he couldn’t see earlier because he was surprised by the beast-like ears and tail came into view. Surprisingly, the man had quite a handsome face.
The long hair that had seemed black shone like the color of the night sky whenever light falling through the tree leaves touched it, and every time it swayed in the wind, the sharp jawline beneath was revealed.
His lean physique seemed thin at first glance. But his exposed forearms were solid with muscle, and above all, judging by how the foot placed on his chest was so heavy he couldn’t budge, he was clearly muscular.
Most surprising were his golden eyes. A beautiful gold color as if gold had been melted and solidified shone coldly like a beast’s in the darkness.
No, it was still scary after all. Those dangerous eyes looked like they would open their maw and bite his neck at any moment. Kaniel instinctively lowered his eyes.
“Who kidnapped you?”
“The winged tribe… someone I don’t know…”
“What use would a human be?”
Kaniel momentarily felt indignant and glared at the man, then quickly averted his gaze.
Why is that man’s expression so cold?
“They said they… needed a mage…”
“A mage?”
As if hearing something strange, Taeyon frowned.
Kaniel found that reaction puzzling instead. Wasn’t it an obvious fact that all humans were mages?
Then he soon recalled what the man had said earlier. Just as he didn’t know about beastkin with such pointed ears and fluffy tails, the man also didn’t know about humans.
In that case, the man’s reaction was natural.
“All humans are mages. If, if you can’t believe me… I can show you.”
Kaniel summoned his mana, thinking he needed to show this man something to be believed. The mana sleeping inside his body stirred. Kaniel gathered it in the familiar way and collected it in his palm.
The moment a flame the size of his pinky finger poof rose above his palm—
“Heuuk…!”
That intense pain began again.
At the agonizing sensation of his entire body being crushed, Kaniel curled up on his side and gasped. It was difficult to breathe. Kaniel soon realized that what was oppressing him was the mana of the surface. The mana here was incomparably heavier and denser than on the Floating Island.
But being crushed by mana—he’d never even thought of such a thing.
As Kaniel barely endured through the pain, something firmly pressed and turned his body. When he looked up while tears streamed down, the man confirmed his face and stepped back.
Just now, he checked to see if I was acting, right?
What a heartless beastkin.
Are all beastkin like this?
Kaniel suddenly felt wronged and miserable, so he buried his face in his forearm and sobbed for a long while.
As he did so, the man’s footsteps gradually grew distant.
***
The tears stopped after the intense pain disappeared. The pain vanished as suddenly as it had come. Once his throbbing head settled down, he fully realized just how stupid he had been earlier.
The size of this forest he’d seen from the air was truly tremendous. There was no way Kaniel, who had lived his whole life in the Floating Island’s city and had only been to the small eastern forest at the edge of the island, could get out of here alone.
Yet even though the only person who could help him was leaving, he had just been rolling on the ground saying it hurt.
Now all that remained was to be caught and killed by a fierce monster.
Just as tears poured out again and he made a sobbing sound—
“Crying again?”
“…!”
Kaniel sat up abruptly.
The man was sitting leaning against a tree some distance away without making a sound.
I thought he’d abandoned me…
Kaniel, who had been staring blankly at him, suddenly said:
“I’m Kaniel. Kaniel Lattis.”
“…Taeyon.”
“Please, please help me. I need to go home but I don’t know how…”
The Floating Island was in that distant sky, not even visible from here. It wasn’t a place that could be reached with flight magic. It seemed like it would work if he tamed a demonic creature like Lafort, but the problem was whether he could survive safely until then.
From what he’d heard, the surface was a terrifying land teeming with horrible monsters. That alone was a problem, but to make matters worse, Kaniel writhed in pain every time he used mana.
“You can’t move at night. Just rest for now.”
Come to think of it, the sun was already setting. The red sunset seeped through the tree leaves, creating a scene like red flowers blooming on the grass.
He felt an overwhelming nature that couldn’t be seen on the Floating Island.
Kaniel felt dismal about the fact that he had to sleep without even a tent in such scenery. Having to close his eyes and sleep in a place where he didn’t know what beast might jump out at any moment.
“Um, can I come over there?”
“Sure.”
Kaniel carefully crossed through the red sunset flower field and approached him.
Taeyon, who stood up from his spot, reached out his hand as if he’d been waiting. It was strange. He didn’t seem like someone who would hold hands at a time like this.
But Kaniel hesitantly clasped that hand, thinking there might be some unique culture on the surface that he didn’t know about.
The moment Kaniel took his hand, Taeyon pulled him in, lifted him up, and threw him over his shoulder.
“Urk…!”
Before he could protest that it hurt because his stomach was being pressed, Taeyon began climbing a tree. The sight of the ground gradually growing distant threatened to revive the nightmare of when he’d fallen.
Kaniel squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth.
“Wh-what are you doing right now?”
“Shh. Keep your voice down if you don’t want to attract demonic creatures.”
“…I’m good at handling demonic creatures though.”
Pause—Taeyon stopped in the middle of the tree trunk. After a moment of silence, he took a deep breath and said in a low voice:
“Shut your mouth before I regret doing this.”
What’s the problem? While thinking the man was utterly incomprehensible, Kaniel obediently kept his mouth shut. If he was being carried over someone’s shoulder while climbing a tree, it was right to obediently listen to the person carrying him.
The massive tree, which would require five or six people with arms spread wide to wrap around its base, also had tremendously thick branches. Taeyon chose one of those branches and climbed up, then took something out of the backpack he was carrying and hung it underneath. At first he wondered what on earth that was, but when he saw it fully set up, it was a kind of tent. Though it was shaped somewhat like a raincoat.
Kaniel’s face brightened. While fidgeting restlessly, he desperately waited for Taeyon to give him permission to enter it.
Fortunately, Taeyon invited him into the tent. Though it was a bit cramped, perhaps originally meant for one person, both of them could fit inside.
“Wow… This is my first time being in something like this.”
Kaniel, who peeked outside through the tent opening, asked in a hushed voice:
“The rope won’t break or anything, right?”
“If you’re heavy, it might fall.”
The tent swayed slightly in the wind and the rope made a creak sound. Kaniel’s complexion turned white.
However, that sound was soon covered by an eerie growling from outside. Taeyon looked toward where the sound came from through the tent opening and muttered:
“A demonic creature.”
It was a voice filled with hatred and rage.
It seemed Taeyon really hated demonic creatures. But even if they were somewhat rough at first, they became good kids if you tamed them well.
While gauging Taeyon’s mood, Kaniel crawled toward the opening and peered outside through the tent gap. It was because he thought that if it was a child with wings, he might be able to get help when returning home tomorrow.
The child approaching from far away was indeed a demonic creature with wings. However, it was completely different from Kaniel’s thoughts.
The demonic creature that was sauntering along discovered a fox not far away and leaped up, firmly stepping on it with its front paw, then bit it with its mouth and separated the head as is. At the sight of blood dripping profusely, Kaniel covered his mouth with his hand. That wasn’t all. The demonic creature cruelly shook the fox’s body this way and that to play with it, then left it there without taking even one bite and went away.
It was not only violent but utterly cruel.
“Taeyon, please tell me that one’s unusual.”
“What?”
“That one’s especially ferocious, right? Demonic creatures don’t normally go around destroying everything and killing everything, right?”
“What are you talking about? Demonic creatures are originally like that.”
“Ahhh…”
Kaniel felt dizzy.
