# Chapter 53
Before I could even question whether he really intended to attack or not, my body moved reflexively. When I hurriedly applied force to pull my wrist free, Gaebe’s hand came off my wrist more easily than expected.
“Aack!”
With a scream, Gaebe tumbled backward. It wasn’t from my force pushing him. I looked at the source of the hot sensation I felt beside me. Someone with a higher body temperature than others, whose horns emerge from their head when excited more than usual.
“Glad you came. Really.”
Rite.
I hurriedly blocked in front of Rite and pushed his shoulders. Turning around, I could see Gaebe still groaning while sprawled on the ground.
He hadn’t looked this way yet. I needed to hide Rite. Whether Gaebe recognized Rite or not, it wouldn’t matter if horns were sprouting from his head.
“You can’t imagine how much I’ve dreamed of this. Tearing apart that mouth that spouts nonsense and gouging out those eyes so he can’t even see.”
Rite didn’t budge. Out of frustration, I almost called out loudly, but caught myself and closed my mouth. I shouldn’t say his name. Rite’s words were shocking, but this wasn’t the time for discipline. Please, please. I called out desperately in my mind.
“I lost once, and I let it go another time.”
Rite pushed me aside and stepped on Gaebe’s hand as he passed. Gaebe, who was trying to get up, lost his balance and fell again.
“But you came here without any fear.”
“…You…”
Gaebe looked up at Rite. He wrinkled his face at the purple eyes, then turned pale when he saw the horns positioned above them.
It felt like everything was crumbling. I couldn’t think of what to do. I needed to go to Rite, but I felt like I would collapse after just one step, as if I were drunk.
“I won’t let it go this time, even if you die.”
Rite bent one knee and picked up the axe that had fallen to the ground. With his other hand, he firmly gripped Gaebe’s neck, making the man let out a choked groan. Rite’s thumb slowly rubbed Gaebe’s nape.
“Rite!”
At my shout, Rite turned to look at me. Rite’s neck was red. Compared to his neck, which was full of bulging veins, his face was relatively calm. I felt anxious seeing him turn at the call of his name when moments ago he had passed by me as if I were invisible.
“What are you doing? I told you not to come out… No, go inside right now, hurry.”
“Say something that makes sense.”
Rite grimaced and responded irritably. When Gaebe squirmed, Rite, without even looking, pressed down on his back with his knee. Despite Gaebe’s painful screams and struggles, Rite didn’t even look at him.
“You want me to go inside even in this situation?”
Rite laughed as if it were absurd. He still had Gaebe’s nape in his grip. Gaebe was trembling pitifully under Rite’s hand like a fragile herbivore.
“Do you remember what this bastard was trying to do to Arden? Are you too shocked to remember?”
“What did I do wrong!”
In response to Rite’s words, Gaebe spoke up instead of me. It was enough to make an observer nervous that he might bite his tongue, but somehow he continued speaking despite his trembling body.
“It, it’s inevitable that the minority sacrifices for the majority. We have no choice if we want to survive. What’s so difficult about just moving away…”
“Then you should leave.”
Rite spoke while tapping Gaebe’s nape with the back of the axe blade. Startled by the sensation on his neck, Gaebe soon stopped struggling. Even so, he was still visibly trembling, but he seemed to know that the side touching his neck wasn’t the blade.
“How could I, how could I leave this village… It wasn’t always like this. Not like this. My father, my grandfather, were so proud of this blacksmith shop. Now it’s split in half…”
Only then did I recall Gaebe’s occupation. The blacksmith shop next to the general store I had visited with Jack before. A shop that had divided its space with a partition. I was momentarily speechless because I had never thought that my presence would impact someone’s livelihood.
Gaebe’s words were disorganized and his pronunciation unclear, but I could roughly understand. Whether it was his father’s or grandfather’s, it had been a shop they had run for a long time, but it must not be doing well now. Most current Winterishe residents were in similar situations. If it was a blacksmith shop from Winterishe’s flourishing period, the furnace would have been constantly burning. It seemed his obsession with past glory wasn’t just because of his departed wife.
“What’s wrong with me trying to protect my village, my shop!”
“Are you saying Arden is also to blame for your business not doing well? You walk around with something you dare call a head?”
A savage sound of teeth grinding was heard. Rite shoved Gaebe’s face into the ground. Gaebe couldn’t even scream with his face buried in the dirt. He fought back, wildly swinging his arms and legs, but Rite clearly focused only on Gaebe’s neck. As if he would really kill him.
“Rite!”
With each step, there was a sound of boot soles sticking to and peeling from the wet ground. I hurriedly approached Rite’s side and grabbed his arm. A fierce light blazed in his eyes more intensely than ever before. Enough to make even me hesitate.
“Let go.”
“What are you trying to do? Give me that axe right now. It’s dangerous.”
“If you knew it was dangerous, why did you just stay there with your wrist held? Without calling for me?”
“I was trying to resolve it myself. I thought I could…”
“You’re always like this, Arden.”
An emotion different from anger welled up and then disappeared like an illusion in Rite’s eyes. In the dim, dreary gray space, Rite’s purple eyes shone with high purity. Those clear eyes reflected emotions plainly.
“You don’t trust me.”
“I’m your guardian. What kind of guardian calls their child into a dangerous situation?”
Rite muttered curses as if grinding them between his teeth. I was shocked into silence at the fact that Rite had cursed at me. Regardless of my reaction, Rite seemed to have a lot to say.
“This time I’ll prove it properly. That I’m not a child.”
“…”
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have tried to get your attention that way.”
My heart, which had remained calm even when kneeling in court receiving my sentence for my crimes, became unsettled by Rite’s single curse. I had the illusion that I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears.
“It’s okay. I just have to show you now.”
“…Show what?”
“That I’m not a little kid anymore?”
With those words, he pressed down harder on Gaebe’s neck. Gaebe’s face dug into the moistened ground. The crowd of people struggling beneath him had already become soaked in the light drizzle.
“He’ll suffocate and die. Let him go quickly.”
“I’m going to kill him anyway, so what does it matter how he dies?”
“Don’t say such things carelessly. Is this how I raised you?”
“Right. Arden has done nothing wrong. It’s all my fault.”
It was a seemingly affectionate statement. He couldn’t fake his tone, though, as his voice was still highly agitated.
“I’m a monster anyway. Now this bastard knows my identity too.”
“Ugh, uup… up!”
“What’s the point of keeping things like this alive?”
“I clearly told you not to, Rite.”
Rite brushed me off lightly. My hand, which had been clinging to Rite’s arm, came away easily. When I urgently grabbed him again, Rite glared at me fiercely.
“No. No, Rite. Please just listen to me!”
“Why should I tolerate those who hurt Arden, who cause Arden pain, who try to harm Arden?”
“If he really intended to harm me, he wouldn’t have grabbed me and talked. He would have attacked the moment he saw me.”
My words accelerated as my mind raced. I needed to persuade Rite. Engineers basically couldn’t be weak. Assembling and disassembling machines naturally built grip strength. Yet compared to Rite, who wasn’t just a simple human, I felt utterly insignificant. All I could do was persuade.
At the moment the axe came down, I couldn’t know whether Gaebe really intended to damage my wrist or if it was just a simple threat. I felt like a puppet in an old-fashioned play, having to consider and take the side of someone who had raised an axe against me. I felt like a puppet moving for the sake of this story rather than my own emotions.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t even that surprised. I’m not scared of things like this.”
“Then?”
“…”
“Can’t you see my hands trembling?”
Only then did I look closely at Rite’s hands. The hand holding the axe was trembling slightly. I hadn’t noticed because Gaebe was reacting so severely, but Rite was trembling too.
I wasn’t scared even if someone threatened me with my wrist. But Rite seemed different.
“Don’t you think about how I felt seeing you like that? Doesn’t that thought come first?”
What thought did I have first? Thinking back carefully, it was ultimately concern for Rite. Would Rite’s identity be discovered? I need to hide Rite quickly. Those kinds of thoughts.
“I… I really thought something was happening to Arden.”
Finally, Rite gave the answer. Still straddling the man and pinning him to the bare ground. Even as I heard the correct answer, I thought differently. I wish Rite wouldn’t be like this. I wish Rite wouldn’t act violently. It was an almost obsessive thought.
“I was scared.”
“…I’m scared too.”
I’m scared that Rite might give up on being human. I’m scared that Rite might follow his fate. I’m scared that all my determination and efforts so far might become futile. So I was scared that everyone would point fingers at Rite and throw stones.
“I’m scared of you acting like this.”
Rite’s expression changed rapidly. The thorns he had wrapped around himself like armor disappeared, revealing a vulnerable interior. Just for a moment, taking advantage of the gap, Gaebe struggled hard, and Rite hardened his expression again and slammed his head into the ground hard. A sound rang out that was hard to believe came from hitting soft ground. Gaebe’s scream spread through the buried earth.
“Choose, Arden.”
Against the backdrop of that cruel sound, Rite’s voice layered.
“One option is to kill this person and eliminate the witness.”
“…”
“Then you and I can continue to be together like before.”
It was suffocating just to hear the words. Like before. Did Rite really not know? When a person gives up on being human, they can never live the same life as before. No matter how much they repent and reflect afterward, it’s the same. That was a fact I learned from experience, not from books. I still lived with their voices.
“The other option is.”
Rite paused for a moment. His broad chest rose and fell greatly. As if the hypothetical situation was deeply painful for Rite too.
“To let this person go, and for you and me to live apart.”
“…”
“Which… will you choose?”
The answer was already determined. Yet the reason I couldn’t easily give the answer was because I couldn’t see how to resolve it. If we let Gaebe go, rumors about Rite would spread instantly. There was no way he wouldn’t recognize Rite, and above all, the horns on his head couldn’t be explained. I stared at the arm pressing down on Gaebe’s neck. An arm that was not ordinary, covered with something like reptile skin.
“Let this person go.”
“…”
“And somehow the two of us will live.”
From the beginning, I had only one goal. To free Rite from his fate. To raise him as a human being.
“Are you asking me to just watch as blood stains your hands?”
So from the start, I only had one choice I could make.
“You’re not a monster.”
“…”
“I didn’t raise you that way. I know it best.”
I felt like I would cry pathetically in front of Rite. I bowed my head deeply to hide my face, but even to my own ears, my voice was not calm.
Rite would know this. Yet Rite didn’t say anything. Amidst the quiet stillness that flowed through the forest, urgent footsteps were heard. Rite had let Gaebe go. The sound of the man fleeing gradually faded into the distance.
