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Episode 105

"Xenia……?"

"I'm really okay, Brother. Just being able to meet you again like this feels like a dream."

"But, but because of me, you……"

"Don't think that way. I've never resented you, and I never will."

At her gentle pats, Richard's sobbing gradually subsided.

"Father will be waiting. Mother must be worried too."

"Would Father and Mother…… worry about me? About me, who lost you?"

"Of course."

She believed his guilt would have faded, but—

It seemed guilt and regret still lingered deep in his heart.

Janet tightened her embrace and spoke again as if to remind him.

"We're family."

Brother and I, Father, and Mother too.

At her small addition, Richard slowly nodded.

"Family."

His dazed murmur gradually gained strength.

---

After Richard came to his senses, the two spoke calmly.

"You saw hallucinations of the time when I was lost?"

"Yes. I was as I am now, but you were a child."

He said the hallucinations had started not long after he killed the boar.

"Does it show the most painful moments of your life……?"

At Janet's murmur, Richard nodded.

In his mind, losing his younger sister was indeed the most painful event of his life.

"But why did you come all the way here?"

"I came to find you."

"What? Me?"

Nod.

Nodding, Janet briefly gripped her left wrist before releasing it.

"It seems something has happened down below."

"Down below, you mean……"

"From the hunting grounds to where the people are resting. Everywhere."

Janet briefly explained the situation that was likely unfolding.

His expression turned serious upon hearing about people who had lost their minds and massive beasts that regenerated even when cut.

"So you came to find me? Because you were worried I'd be in danger?"

Well, to be precise, she'd come before the commotion started.

"Yes. I came because I was worried."

At Janet's answer, Richard looked at her with moved eyes.

Haha. Smiling awkwardly, Janet looked around and asked.

"By the way, have you seen Lord Kendrick?"

"Kendrick? Why him all of a sudden?"

"I'm worried something might have happened to him, like it did to you."

"Kendrick probably wouldn't be in any danger……"

Richard paused mid-sentence.

Hadn't he himself been in danger because he was startled by prey?

If Janet hadn't come, he would have been standing there dazed in a hallucination.

If a mutated beast or human had attacked him then……

"You're right. It could be dangerous."

"Yeah. I think so too. That's why I want to find him and get him out as soon as possible……"

Screams were coming from below, and no one was nearby.

Could she really find Kendrick safely in this vast forest?

'No. I have to make it happen.'

Kendrick was Julietta's brother. If he got seriously hurt, Julietta would be devastated.

"I'll find Kendrick—you go down, Janet."

"No."

"It's dangerous here. If what you said is true, anything could come out……!"

"Who was the one trapped in a hallucination just now?"

"……."

Struck at the heart of the matter, Richard fell silent.

Sighing, Janet looked around again.

"Fortunately, it doesn't seem that dangerous yet."

Since the commotion had only started about ten minutes ago, it meant it wasn't yet highly dangerous.

"Let's split up and search."

"Janet."

"I won't back down on this."

At Janet's firm reply, Richard flinched. In the end, it was Richard who raised his hands.

"Fine. But be careful."

"Yeah, I will."

"Take this too."

Richard rummaged through his pocket and handed her a signal flare.

"Fire it when you find Kendrick. I'll head your way."

"What about yours?"

"I have it."

He pulled out another flare and waved it.

"If I fire mine, don't come toward me—head straight out of the forest."

"Got it. I will."

"……Is it normal for a younger sibling to be this disobedient?"

At Richard's mutter, Janet laughed softly.

"That's what makes us real siblings."

At Janet's joking reply, Richard smiled back.

---

Meanwhile.

"……Sigh. What a mess."

Kendrick, who had fallen down the slope, let out a sigh.

His body was covered in wounds. The worst injury was on his leg.

Blood dripped from his ankle, where the bite marks of a beast were clearly visible.

Gazing at the wound with disbelief, Kendrick sighed deeply.

'What was that thing earlier?'

After registering for the hunting competition, he'd begun hunting in earnest.

To be honest, it was almost boringly easy.

The purpose of the hunting party was to deal with beasts that threatened farms and people.

Even though he'd only hunted beasts that fit that purpose, the pile of game near him had grown into a mountain.

Until then, he'd thought he could easily win first place and claim the Crown of Blessing……

'That was no ordinary deer.'

With a loud snort, a deer larger than a full-grown man appeared and charged at him.

Surprised but only for a moment, he calmly dealt with it.

But no matter how many times he cut it, the deer kept regenerating.

Only after killing it about ten times did the bizarre deer finally collapse and stop moving.

But the problem started afterward.

'Was there hallucinogenic poison mixed in its blood?'

Just as he was about to leave the forest to report the anomaly, strange visions began to unfold before his eyes.

From the time he'd heard harsh words from Julietta as a child.

To the life-threatening situations he'd faced on the battlefield.

The most terrible vision of all was——

"You'll come again tomorrow too, right, Ken?"

"……Yeah. Let's meet again tomorrow."

"Yeah. Promise?"

Leon's face, smiling broadly.

'No wonder the name Ken bothered me so much.'

Wasn't the man who'd come asking Janet for a handkerchief earlier also named Ken?

It must have bothered him even more because Leon had called him 'Ken.'

Of course, he was also annoyed by that bastard's attitude—trying to get a handkerchief from Janet while pretending to be clueless.

Anyway.

'……Leon.'

Recalling his lost friend, he clenched his fist.

In his hallucination, Leon was still the same as he'd been as a child.

Unlike Kendrick, who had grown, that scrawny kid was still thin and small.

"You got into a fight with your sister? What are you, a child?"

"……You're younger than me, you know?"

"What does age matter in a warzone? So, are you not going to be my friend anymore?"

"……Who ever said that?"

"Hehe."

On a battlefield where someone died every day, that child had been one of his few lights.

Selfishly, if someone had to die in the war, he'd prayed it wouldn't be Leon.

But—

"Ken. I think I have to go."

"What? What are you talking about! Why would you go there?"

"……Someone's calling me."

"Calling you? Who?"

Even at Kendrick's urgent questioning, Leon only shook his head with a faint smile.

Leon's gaze, fixed on where magical arrows rained like a downpour, held a hint of resolve.

"Then I'll go with you. I'll come with you."

"You can't."

"Why!"

"You have a family waiting for you."

"……What about you? You're going because you don't have family?"

Wasn't that practically the same as saying he was going to die?

Understanding his meaning, Leon silently extended his pinky.

"Don't worry. I'll come back alive."

"……What are you doing?"

"What else? Making a promise to come back alive."

Kendrick glared at Leon with annoyed eyes.

He considered just grabbing the kid and running.

The enemy was pressing hard, and their allies were retreating as planned.

There were Imperial forces still fighting further upstream, but they were too far to reach.

And yet he insisted on going there.

"You idiot! You fool!"

"……Won't you make the promise?"

Despite the curses, Leon just smiled calmly and wiggled his pinky.

In the end, Kendrick gritted his teeth and linked his pinky with Leon's.

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