Chapter 47
“I am…”
It was then, after a brief silence, that Cain slowly opened his mouth.
“Grrrr…!”
A sharp cry shattered the stillness from somewhere unseen. Turning her head reflexively toward the source of the sound, a beast revealed itself from beyond the darkness.
A wolf with eyes gleaming in the dark, the monster of the winter mountain, was drawing closer to the two of them.
Its coiled muscles and heavy, excited breathing were the kind you could recognize at a glance, even from a distance.
While Tina could not even think of moving due to instinctive terror, Cain reflexively pulled her to hide behind his back, and the surrounding air froze entirely solid.
“Ha-ha. This is… this is incredible[2].”
The moment Tina felt the beast’s gaze land on her, its mouth opened, and from it poured words that were unmistakably human.
“I-I told you not to come out alone… See, the leader doesn’t get it. Because I came out… I f-found you right here.”
Stuttering words tumbled from the upturned corners of the beast’s maw, tangling with its excited panting.
“Get lost.”
Cain hadn’t moved an inch from his stance, one hand was shielding Tina. She glanced down to see the veins along his arm stood taut. He was clearly tense.
“Don’t you order me around!”
A shriek tore through the air like a blade. The ground shook with the beast’s sheer mass, and the surrounding trees shed their loads of snow in cascades. The sound was sharp enough to pierce the heart.
“Y-you’re not even our leader anymore…”
The beast snarled and closed the distance. Coarse breath billowed from its nostrils, and behind its parted jaws, enormous, razor-sharp fangs were bared.
“A-a creature tainted with filthy… human blood mixed in was supposed to be our leader? Ridiculous.”
Facing the thing as it drew ever nearer, Tina felt the very air evaporating around her. She couldn’t breathe properly.
“If I rip your eyes out and offer them up, maybe the new leader will finally acknowledge me.”
The beast’s snickering carried through the air, raising goosebumps along her skin.
“……”
But even then, Cain didn’t so much as flinch. He simply stood firm, one arm shielding her from the creature.
“What?”
Then, when the beast was nearly on top of them, and when sharp claws burst from Cain’s fingertips…
“Red eyes?”
The beast froze mid-stride, staring straight at Tina. Its eyes went impossibly wide, its head tilting to one side in disbelief.
“You… don’t tell me you shared your power with her?”
The words that followed were the kind Tina couldn’t begin to understand. But the killing intent had drained from the beast’s voice, replaced by thick layers of confusion and bewilderment.
“No. No, no, no! This… you can’t do this! To a filthy human, of all things, you… you’ve broken the law!” [3]
The beast roared, and in less than a second, it lunged straight at Tina with narrowed eyes.
In that instant, Tina lost consciousness. But at the same time, she saw it clearly:
Cain, in the form of Rus, shielding her.
* * *
“Hah, hah…”
Sometime later, Tina jerked awake with a gasp. It might have been a terrible dream, or it might have been reality, chillingly close.
She turned her head to find Cain beside her, quietly tending to her injuries. His touch was warm and painstaking, as though every horrific scene in her memory had been nothing but a nightmare, and only this moment, right now, was real.
But even so…
The instant the monster of the winter mountain had lunged at her. The air, thick with the scent of blood. The something within that air, whose breath had slowly faded. These were not the kind of afterimages that vanished easily.
Worse still, Tina was fully aware that all of it had originated from Cain, taking on the form of Rus.
Knowing all of this, how could she possibly be all right?
“You… who are you, really?”
Tina pulled away from the hand that had been gently stroking her and shrank back. Her spine met the damp wall of a cave, but even that coldness meant nothing right now.
“Tell me the truth. Please…”
When no answer came for a long while, a tremor crept steadily into Tina’s voice.
“Cain, please…”
In the end, unable to swallow her tears any longer, Tina begged. She hadn’t wanted to plead like this. But everything that had just happened was so bewildering, so terrifying.
“…My lady.”
After a pause, Cain’s lips finally moved. He approached with care, as though trying not to startle her, and raised one hand to cradle her cheek.
His palm, wiping the dampness from her eyes, radiated a gentle warmth. And this time, just this once, Tina didn’t pull away from that familiar heat.
“I’m sorry.”
After a long silence, those were the only words Cain offered. But within that single, brief utterance, Tina could feel everything he’d tried to hide, everything she’d wanted to know.
“You… are you really Rus?”
Translation Notes
[1] ↩
[2] ↩
[3] ↩
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