Chapter 60

“Thanks to that woman, you've become a very interesting toy—one that must never be thrown away, no matter what happens to you.”

And then there were the words that had lingered in my mind more than any others.

As I struggled to make sense of his cryptic remark, my body suddenly lifted into the air.

Like someone picking up a kitten, Dolly grabbed me by the back of my neck and let out a faint chuckle as he headed for the door of the bookshop.

"Well, I finally caught you. We kept sending spies after you, and every single one ended up dead. Never thought you'd walk right into my hands on your own. Duke Pose is going to be very pleased."

"...What?"

"You're going back to the Pose family. Those are the duke's orders."

What?

Why all of a sudden?

"Eek! Let me go!"

I grabbed at the enormous hand holding my neck, but it was useless. My tiny fingers could barely wrap around one of the man's thick index fingers.

I was really going back to Duke Pose like this?

Children should play like children.

Calypse's words flashed through my mind.

He had told me that because I was a child, I should spend my time being a child.

He had warned me.

"Let go!"

"...Noisy little thing."

I kicked wildly, flailing my legs with everything I had, but just as Calypse had warned, I was nothing more than a helpless little girl in front of a grown man.

But I couldn't go back.

If I did, Father would be burdened all over again after working so hard to rebuild the north.

I couldn't let that happen.

"...N-No..."

Please.

Let someone hear me.

If anyone was out on the street, let them save a helpless little child.

Please... anyone...

I screamed with every ounce of strength I had.

"No!"

Jingle—

The shop door flew open with the sound of the bell.

At that same instant, something small and unbelievably fast launched itself straight at Dolly's face.

"Mmgh! Wh-what the—"

Startled, Dolly staggered backward. Trying to tear whatever had jumped him off his face, he casually dropped me.

I hit the floor hard.

I hurriedly dug into my bunny backpack for my self-defense poison needle—

"...?"

Covering Dolly's face was a tiny white kitten.

A baby.

"...A... baby?"

No.

A person.

I blinked once.

The little kitten was gone.

In its place stood a small boy.

As he lifted his head from where he'd been pressed against Dolly's neck, silky white hair fell across his face.

Between the strands, a pair of mysterious violet eyes stared straight at Dolly.

There was no light in them.

None of the curiosity they always held whenever they looked at me.

Even after killing someone, they remained utterly emotionless.

Like a beast without reason, driven only by instinct to complete its objective—as though it had done it simply because it had to.

"......"

Finished with what he had come to do, Kyle lightly pushed off Dolly's chest.

Dolly drew a ragged, elderly breath.

Then—

Thud.

He collapsed.

His breathing stopped.

The man who had seemed as immovable as a mountain had fallen so easily.

The kitten I had watched over with such tender affection...

...was Kyle.

And when the boy landed on the ground and roughly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand—

"..."

Instead of cleaning away the blood, he only smeared it across his face, like a predator that had just finished feeding.

The sight was horrifying.

I couldn't move.

Not even an inch.

Then—

The violet eyes of the boy, still wiping at his mouth with both hands, slowly lifted to meet mine.

The moment my trembling [N O V E L I G H T] gaze met his blank one—

"Aisha."

His lifeless violet eyes slowly widened.

Just like mine had.

As though he were the frightened one.

Disbelief spread across his face.

"...Why are you looking at me like that? I was only trying... to save you...."

He froze.

Unable to finish his sentence, he looked down at his bloodstained hands.

He bit down so hard on his lower lip that deep teeth marks appeared.

Then he suddenly turned, shoved the door open, and ran.

"...Kyle?"

Only then did my mind begin working again.

The jingle of the shop bell as he disappeared finally snapped me out of my daze.

"Kyle... why..."

...are you running away?

I tried to stand despite my badly bruised knees.

...Why are you looking at me like that? I was only trying... to save you....

His question lodged in my heart like a thorn.

"...!"

It felt as though a tidal wave had crashed over me.

Every strange thing Kyle had done until now.

What if...

What if it was all because the kitten I had rescued at Ahili's Circus...

...had been Kyle all along?

Why did you save me?

And why did you look at me like that?

What if that fool who had never learned how to apologize...

Who had never learned how to speak to other people...

...had really been a cat that had spent its entire life trapped behind iron bars?

...You're so irresponsible.

I had expectations.

You were the first person who ever looked at me that way.

And what if...

...the first person who had ever looked at him that way—

...had ended up looking at him just like everyone else?

"Kyle!"

Ignoring the pain in my knees, I burst out of the bookshop.

***

When Kyle ran into the back alley, the first thing he found was a crowd of terrified people.

The moment he stepped into the bustling town square, he collided with a little boy happily running across it.

"Ow!"

The child landed on his bottom.

The instant he looked up and saw Kyle—

"M-Mommy!"

He screamed.

Human fear spread through the crowd as quickly and densely as a spider's web.

"H-His face... it's covered in blood..."

The little girl who had been about to help the fallen boy froze the moment she met Kyle's eyes.

"Layla! Max!"

A woman's scream rang out from somewhere in the distance.

Her face had gone deathly pale as she grabbed the two children and fled.

The entire square descended into chaos because of the blood-covered boy.

"Ahhh!"

People enjoying tea leaped to their feet and scattered.

Shopkeepers who had been standing in their doorways stared in confusion until they noticed Kyle, then hurriedly slammed their doors shut.

Children cried.

Someone tried to call for the knights, only to trip over a loose stone and fall flat on the ground.

Amid the panic, Kyle's heart pounded like a drum.

Yet his fingers and toes only grew colder.

I'm not human.

Of all the people he had ever met...

Not a single one had treated him like one.

Not the people in the square.

Not the people at Ahili's Circus.

In the end...

Even Aisha had looked at him with fear.

Tap tap—

Avoiding the terrified crowd, Kyle slipped into the nearby forest and hid behind a tree.

The fear spreading outward from him only made him even more frightened.

It's okay.

If I turn back into a cat... everything will be okay.

Crouching down, he wrapped trembling arms around his knees.

Just then—

"..."

A cat hiding among the trees cautiously peeked its head out.

Did it come here to escape all the screaming too?

Feeling an odd sense of kinship, Kyle hesitated before slowly reaching out a hand.

"Hiss!"

The cat must have caught the scent of blood.

Its entire demeanor changed in an instant.

Flattening its ears, it hissed viciously before bolting into the forest.

"......"

Kyle understood.

I'm not human.

And I'm not a cat, either.

If he wasn't an animal...

And he wasn't a person...

Then what was he?

A monster?

Once the thought took root, it spread like wildfire.

Then where was a monster supposed to go?

If Ahili's Circus wasn't his home...

And Aisha's arms weren't his home either...

"...Then where do I belong?"

His dry, cracked voice disappeared into the empty air.

If neither humans nor beasts would accept him...

There was only one place left.

Kyle slowly rose to his feet.

Beyond the rooftops of Torn, towering over everything else, stood the immense ice barrier.

The end of the world.

The endless white snowfields.

Without another moment's hesitation...

Kyle began walking north.

***

Meanwhile, in Torn's town square—

"Huff... huff..."

I ran without stopping.

No matter how fast I tried to run, it never felt fast enough. The wind caught my hood and the hem of my robe, making them billow behind me like curtains.

At moments like this...

I hated being five years old.

I hated that my clenched fists looked no bigger than tiny pebbles.

I hated that no matter how desperately I ran, everyone else probably saw nothing more than a toddler wobbling along.

"Kyle!"

I was terrified.

Terrified that because of this tiny body...

I would lose him.

The moment I reached the square, I realized the atmosphere had completely changed.

Only moments ago, it had been peaceful.

Now everyone looked deathly pale.

Some people were whispering to one another.

"That boy... his eyes were definitely purple."

Purple eyes.

He came through here.

I immediately ran to the nearest woman.

"Excuse me! Have you seen a boy with purple eyes?"

"What? A boy with purple eyes?"

The woman, who had been comforting a crying child, looked at me in surprise.

"Yes."

"Oh, I did! His eyes were purple—the kind only a monster would have—and his face was covered in blood. The moment he showed up, the whole square erupted into chaos. The knights are searching for him, but they still haven't found him."

Thump—

My heart plummeted.

"W-Where did he go?"

Just then—

"They've spotted a purple-eyed boy near the ice barrier."

"What? What's he doing all the way out there?"

"We're pursuing him, but he's much faster than we expected—"

"Mister Knight!"

Not far away, several knights of the Kreutz family were speaking with grave expressions.

"...Lady Aisha?"

The woman beside me gasped when she heard them address me, but I paid her no attention and ran straight toward the knights.

"Please take me to the ice barrier!"

"...What?"

"Right now! Please take me to the ice barrier!"