Chapter 49

“I’m sorry.”

Then Aisha stepped closer and lightly patted his shoulder.

Tap, tap.

“Feeling less sad now?”

Sad?

It seemed similar to loneliness.

Come to think of it, ever since Aisha had tied his hair back with the hair tie, he hadn’t felt sad anymore.

The boy shrugged.

“Yeah. I’m not sad anymore. You’re actually pretty good at apologizing.”

“Hmph. Of course I am.”

The corners of Aisha’s lips curled up proudly.

Meanwhile, the boy was already completely absorbed in the hair tie.

“I’ll apologize to you someday too. Anyway... so this is what a hair tie is.”

“Yep.”

When you tied your hair with a hair tie, you could see clearly.

Good.

Whenever his hair fell over his eyes, his vision was blocked.

But with the hair tie, he could see perfectly.

“...Very useful.”

“You even know words like that?”

“Yeah. I learned by listening to humans talk. I can speak human language too.”

The cat answered primly, his lips curling into a little �-shape.

“Humans? Why do you describe people like that?”

It sounded like Aisha muttered something under her breath, but she didn’t bother explaining.

Either way, the hair tie was useful.

Like humanity discovering fire for the first time, he carefully touched the hair tie fastened across his forehead.

Then—

Snap—

“Huh?!”

Without warning, Aisha broke the hair tie and tossed it away somewhere.

“What are you doing?!”

The boy exploded in outrage.

If he had ears and a tail right now, the fur would probably have been standing straight up.

“What are you going to do now?”

Instead, Aisha lifted her chin proudly, crossing her arms and puffing out her chest.

“The hair tie died, huh?”

“The hair tie didn’t die!”

“But by your logic, didn’t it disappear? Doesn’t that mean it died?”

The cat fell speechless.

Because the hair tie hadn’t died.

It had only disappeared.

It’s mine, so I can find it again.

Eyes blazing, he whipped his head around frantically.

Thankfully, the hair tie had landed nearby.

“I found it!”

Pat pat pat—

He dashed over and snatched it up.

The moment he did—

Clap clap clap.

Aisha applauded and gave him a thumbs-up.

“That’s called losing something.”

“Huh?”

“You lost it, and then found it again. It didn’t die.”

“...Whoa.”

You lose something.

Then you find it again.

If you can find it again, it didn’t die.

The boy stared thoughtfully at the hair tie clenched in his hand.

Then that meant—

“Then you can find your memories again too?”

“Right. Anyway, when I get my memories back, I’ll tell you why I saved you. And why I looked at you like that.”

“Oh.”

S-So cool.

The boy stared at Aisha with sparkling eyes.

Meanwhile, Aisha brushed the dirt off her knees and looked around.

“Hm. Anyway, I think I should head back soon.”

Back?

Did that mean returning to the warm blankets where Aisha stayed?

“Then where’s your home?”

As Aisha started walking, she asked the question casually.

The boy hurried after her at once.

“Home? Inside blankets.”

“Hm? Whose blankets?”

“Your blankets.”

“?”

“Your blankets. They’re warm.”

Gulp—

Blinking innocent, unconcerned eyes, he drank from the water bottle he had found after killing the man earlier.

Aisha stared at him blankly for a moment as though her brain had short-circuited.

Then suddenly she exploded.

“Stop joking around! Tell me where you were born!”

Ah.

Where he was born.

Why hadn’t she said that from the start?

The boy shrugged and gave another answer.

“The north.”

“The north?”

“Yeah. A cold snowy field.”

He didn’t remember clearly, but the ground had been white and the sky blue.

“Ghk. I live in the north too. Then you can wait and come with me.”

“Sure.”

Truthfully, the boy had nowhere to go.

He hadn’t particularly cared about living either.

But Aisha had brought him into her blankets.

Just then—

“Over here! We found a dead body— no, bloodstains! It looks like the murderer passed through here!”

The voices of adult men echoed through the distance.

“Huh? Mister knight?”

Aisha turned toward the sound with obvious delight, raising her hand to wave.

But—

“There’s blood on that boy’s mouth and hands...! I think that boy killed the man!”

The knight shoved through the bushes first and shouted the moment he saw the boy.

Startled by the knight’s violent reaction, Aisha turned toward him.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“That mister knight says you killed someone. Is that true?”

“Yeah.”

He hit you, so I killed him.

And while I was at it, I drank some blood so I could become human.

Gulp—

Swallowing the words because of the water bottle, he tossed the empty bottle aside.

The expression on that man’s face when he called me the murderer... it looks a little like the expressions the staff at Ahili’s Circus used to make.

He had a bad feeling.

For now, it felt like they needed to run.

***

Meanwhile—

It had already been two hours since they started searching for Aisha.

“We’ve found the young lady!”

“...Thank heavens.”

At the report from the knight sprinting toward him in the distance, Knox nearly lost strength in his legs.

What a relief.

He hadn’t believed she would actually leave the enormous royal palace grounds, but Lady Aisha causing trouble was hardly a rare event.

Removing his monocle, Knox walked toward the knight.

“Where is the young lady?”

But then—

“W-Well, she ran off too quickly... we’re currently chasing after her...”

Ran off?

Why would Aisha run?

Knox’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“Why would the young lady run away?”

“Well... a man believed to be a servant of the Pose family was found dead. And she’s fleeing together with the boy who killed him.”

“...Excuse me?”

Knox stood frozen, looking as though he had just been struck in the back of the head.

As expected of a former spy young lady.

She was causing trouble again.

Right then—

“The young lady is over there!”

A commotion erupted beyond the corner of the castle.

Knox immediately ran toward the source of the shouting.

In front of a gigantic blue portal, knights were gathered in panic.

“Young Lady! Don’t move!”

“Please come down immediately!”

No.

No way.

Knox shoved past the knights and rushed toward the portal entrance.

The portals inside the royal palace were dangerous.

The moment someone entered the palace, their identity was guaranteed.

That meant the portal activated automatically without any additional device.

Please. Please.

Knox no longer cared about all the times Aisha had worried him.

He could forgive everything.

He only prayed the portal had not activated and created the worst possible outcome.

Please.

Please let the young lady return safely into his hands.

Just as he pushed past the knights and reached the portal entrance—

“Young Lady!”

“...K-Knox?”

The childish voice he had been longing to hear finally reached him.

But—

—Portal activation confirmed.

The instant he arrived, the two children vanished into blue light beyond the portal’s cold announcement.

***

This was bad.

Now things had truly escalated.

“......”

Knox stared blankly into the empty portal.

Then slowly covered his face with one hand.

And then—

“...Where does this portal lead?”

“Th-The north... near the end of the world.”

“Damn it. Of all places, it had to be somewhere that dangerous.”

Cursing under his breath, Knox hurried into the portal himself.

***

Let me say this again.

This was not my fault.

I didn’t even know I had stepped onto a portal!

I had just been awkwardly running away with the boy who shyly admitted he was a murderer.

And it just so happened that the only place the knights couldn’t approach was a patch of glowing blue ground.

How was I supposed to know the portal activated automatically without any special device?!

“Waaah!”

A wave of dizziness hit me, and the world darkened around us.

Then something cold brushed against the tip of my nose.

Huh.

Snow.

“Where are we...?”

When I opened my eyes, snowflakes were drifting down from a pale sky.

Conifer forests stretched in the distance.

The dirt road beneath us was darkened with wet snow.

This place couldn’t possibly— 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Don’t tell me the portal destination is— mmph.”

The moment I tried to speak—

Whooosh—

The brutal northern wind slammed into me.

“Wah!”

The short-sleeved dress Mai had dressed me in flapped like a curtain.

Knife-like cold seeped into my entire body.

“Ugh. I’m going to catch a cold.”

Shivering violently, I wrapped my arms tightly around myself.

“Cold?”

Right then.

A familiar, beautiful voice spoke beside me.