/
The moment the sack slipped out of my hands because I couldn’t hold it properly, the thing that came out of the loosened mouth of the sack was a familiar face.
“. . . Trevor, Beryl.”
The corpse of a person that shouldn’t be here was looking at the air with its eyes glaring white.
The stiff limbs made me aware of his death.
I instinctively looked around.
The prince was still losing his consciousness, and the corpse of Trevor Beryl was dumped into this forest.
“What is this.”
This was a series of unknown things.
While I scanned his body that was half out of the sack, I saw his hand was stiffly clenching.
The thing on his clench sparkled and attracted my attention.
A woman’s earring with red ruby sparkled brightly.
The moment I forcefully opened the fingers that hardly moved to take out the earring, there was a beast’s cry from the distance.
I quickly turned my head so that I didn’t meet the glaring eyes of the corpse and moved my shaking feet.
After returning back to the prince, I collected my breath and looked up.
It’s okay.
It would be okay even if this is not okay.
Paradoxical things kept overlapping, which made my mind rather calm.
Now that I returned after seeing the corpse, the faint temperature of the prince that I felt became a comfort.
“Prince, wake up.”
I calmly looked at the direction in which the branches of the trees stretched out.
“At this rate, I might have to really abandon you.”
No matter how precious the life of the boy in front of me was, it couldn’t be more precious than mine.
The reason I didn’t leave him nonetheless was because he was still alive.
At least, it was clear he was a temperature I could lean on inside this forest.
When will he wake up?
I was pondering that I might have to forcefully wake him up.
Suddenly, his finger faintly grabbed my hand.
The unfocused eyes slowly blinked and looked up at me.
“If you’re awake, let’s move.”
“You’re still . . .”
“There must be somewhere we can hide nearby.”
I saw herbivores’ disarray footprints on the wet and thick mud.
Footprints of a young animal were imprinted next to its mother.
It meant that this area was safe enough from wild animals for them to let their kid out.
“Walk on your own. I can’t drag you around.”
The prince staggered to his own feet.
He, who looked pale, stared around with a nervous gaze.
“If we go deeper than this, won’t it make it difficult for people to find us?”
“That is possible.”
I, who was busy checking around the terrain around us, replied absentmindedly and lowered my head.
The prince once again asked faintly.
“Young Lady, are you perhaps . . .”
The hesitating voice continued faintly.
“Thinking that there’s no one who will come to find you?”
I raised my head, which I lowered down to check on the land’s viscosity.
I saw the prince, who was looking at me with his blue lips shivering.
Rather than his words that were mixed with strange expectation and pity, I was more disturbed by the beast’s cry from afar.
I should find a safe zone sooner.
“Of course, we have to wait for people looking for us. However, I won’t wait without moving an inch from here like your idea.”
“. . .”
“There’s not only us in this forest.”
I tapped my ear with a meaning to tell the confused prince to hear the low cry of the beast.
“I’m saying that the unwelcomed predators are also looking for us.”
I lifted up my hair that was irritatingly loosened down, then fixed it by using a branch.
“We should survive here so we can meet the people who are looking for us.”
Orion would surely come.
I believed he would look for me even if he had to turn up every corner of this forest, no matter how long it would take.
I don’t want to burden his mind.
After all, there were a lot of things I got from him.
I didn’t want to instill a sense of guilt that made others unable to breathe properly because they were tormented for being unable to protect me.
No matter who, no matter what.
I spoke softly to the prince as if comforting him.
“It is fine. They will soon come for us.”
“Haven’t I told you before? They wouldn’t-”
“At least, people that I am waiting for will come.”
As I talked while fumbling over the rocks and checking the moss location, the prince asked slowly.
“What are you doing?”
“The moss. I’m checking the direction.”
“By doing that?”
There was no time to add a detailed explanation that the direction of sunrise and setting was involved in the growth of moss.
As I walked while checking the direction, the young prince with his wide eyes followed me.
Looking that he kept missing his step, it seemed like there was an injury in his feet.
When the breathing sound of the second prince began to get rough, I spoke faintly.
“It’s right ahead. We just need to walk a bit more.”
The steps following me began to get a bit faster.
The stamina of the young prince was poor, but at least there was no hint of giving up like before.
The desperate sound of breathing was also comforting for me.
“Ho-how far . . .”
At the voice that sounded out of breath, I stopped and stretched my finger to point forward.
“Here.”
The speculation added with my instinct was not wrong.
A narrow entrance of a cave that was enough for humans to enter was before my eyes.
“Ah!”
Relief colored in the prince’s face but he suddenly flinched.
His eyes that were expressing resignation and despair until a moment ago, were now sparkled lively.
His face that was stained with sweat and dirt, soon looked down at his feet with a complicated expression.
I pretended to not notice him, who was deep in thought.