Chapter 58
‘Because of that girl, you’ve become an interesting toy that must not be discarded, no matter what.’
And of all the things he had said, that one was particularly ominous.
While I was agonizing over how to interpret his cryptic words, my body was suddenly hoisted into the air.
Dolly, grabbing me by the scruff of my neck as if I were a kitten, gave a sharp smirk and approached the bookstore door.
“Anyway, I finally got you. They’ve been making such a fuss about how every spy they sent ended up dead, but to think you’d walk right into my hands. The Duke of Pose will be very pleased.”
“What?”
“You’re going to the Pose Duchy. It’s the Duke’s order.”
What? Why so suddenly?
“Let—! Let me go!”
I grabbed the massive hand holding my scruff, but it was no use. My hands were only large enough to clutch his thick index finger.
I was going back to the Duke of Pose like this?
‘Children should play like children.’
Calips’s words suddenly flashed through my mind.
He told me to play like a child because I was one. He had clearly warned me.
“Let go! Get away!”
“…Noisy brat.”
I thrashed my legs and struggled as much as I could, but just as Calips had advised, I was nothing more than a helpless child in the face of an adult man.
But I couldn’t go back like this.
If I did, Dad, who worked so hard to restore the North, would be in trouble again.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“…N-no.”
Please, let someone hear me.
If there’s anyone on the street, please save a helpless child. Please, anyone, come to me—I screamed with all my might.
“No!”
Jingle—
The door swung open with the sound of a bell, and at the same time, something small and swift lunged at Dolly’s face.
“Ugh, gack. Th-this… what,”
Startled, Dolly stumbled back and dropped me with a thud to try and grab whatever was covering his face.
Falling straight onto the floor, I hurriedly pulled a poisoned needle out of my rabbit bag, but—
“……?”
The thing covering Dolly’s face was a tiny, white kitten. A baby.
“…A baby?”
No. It was a person.
In the blink of an eye, what had been a small cat was suddenly taking on a human form.
As the boy pulled his head back from the man’s throat, his fine white hair fluttered.
And through the strands, mysterious purple eyes were fixed on Dolly.
There was no light in those eyes.
The curiosity he once showed me was gone.
Even though he had just committed a killing, he looked indifferent.
He looked like a mindless beast driven only by a clear sense of purpose, as if he had done it simply because it had to be done.
“…….”
Having finished his task, Kyle used Dolly’s chest as a springboard and made a small leap away.
Dolly let out a ragged, wheezing breath like an old man before collapsing with a heavy thud.
His breathing stopped.
The realization hit me that Dolly, who had felt like an immovable mountain, could fall so helplessly.
The realization that the kitten I had cared for with maternal affection was Kyle.
And as the boy landed on the floor and roughly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand—
“…….”
Far from being clean, the way the blood was smeared across his face like a predator that had just finished a meal was so terrifying.
I couldn’t move an inch.
And then.
His purple eyes, which had been busy wiping his mouth, suddenly looked up at me.
The moment his flat gaze met my trembling one.
“Aisha.”
The inorganic purple eyes slowly widened. Just like mine, filled with terror.
He opened his mouth with an expression of disbelief.
“…Why are you looking at me like that? I just… I was trying to save you….”
I flinched.
Unable to finish his sentence, he looked down at his blood-stained hands.
He bit his lower lip so hard it dimpled, then suddenly burst through the door and ran out.
“…Kyle?”
Only then did I snap back to my senses. My reason returned only after hearing the jingle of the door he had kicked open.
“Kyle. Why are you…”
Running away?
I tried to stand up on my bruised, blue knees.
‘…Why are you looking at me like that? I just… I was trying to save you….’
The question remained lodged in my mind like a thorn.
“……!”
In an instant, it felt like a tidal wave was crashing over me.
All of Kyle’s mysterious actions until now.
If it was all because the kitten I rescued from Ahili’s Circus was actually Kyle.
‘I asked why you saved me. And why you looked at me with those eyes.’
If the fool who didn’t know how to apologize or communicate was actually a cat who had spent his whole life in a cage.
‘…How irresponsible. I had expectations. You were the first one to ever look at me like that.’
If I, the one who first looked at you that way, was now looking at you just like everyone else.
“Kyle!”
I sprinted out of the bookstore, ignoring the pain in my knees.
What Kyle faced as he ran into the back alleys was a crowd of terrified people.
As soon as he entered the noisy plaza, he collided with a child who was running happily.
“Ouch!”
The child, who fell flat on his bottom, screamed the moment he saw Kyle.
“M-Mommy!”
Human fear spread as quickly and intricately as a spiderweb.
“Look, that boy is covered in blood….”
It was because they were all connected to one another. A little girl who was trying to help the fallen boy up froze when she locked eyes with Kyle.
“Layla! Max!”
An adult woman’s scream echoed from a distance.
With a face pale as a ghost, she grabbed the children named Layla and Max and fled.
The plaza was thrown into chaos by the boy with a blood-smeared face.
“Aaah!”
People drinking tea jumped up and fled, and street vendors inside their shops looked confused before spotting Kyle and hurriedly slamming their doors shut.
The sound of children crying rang in his ears like tinnitus, and someone tripped over a stone while trying to call for the knights.
In the midst of the commotion, Kyle’s heart hammered like a drum.
Conversely, his fingers and toes felt like they were turning to ice.
‘I am not human.’
Of the many people he had seen, not a single one had treated him as a human.
Not the people in the plaza. Not the people at Ahili’s.
Even Aisha had ended up looking at him with a face full of terror.
Step, step—
Kyle fled from the people and disappeared into a nearby forest, hiding behind a tree. He was becoming even more frightened by the fear that was radiating outward from him.
It’s okay.
It’ll be okay if I turn back into a cat.
Crouching down, he wrapped his arms around his knees with trembling fingers.
It was then.
“…….”
A cat hiding in the forest poked its head out.
‘Did that cat come here to escape the screaming too?’
Feeling a sense of kinship, Kyle hesitated before reaching out a hand toward the cat—
“Hiss!”
Perhaps it smelled the blood.
The cat underwent a total transformation, wrinkling its nose and hissing at him before bolting away.
“…….”
Kyle realized.
‘I am not a human, and I am not a cat.’
If I’m not an animal and I’m not a person, then what am I? Am I a monster?
Once started, his thoughts spiraled and spread like wildfire.
Then where does a monster go?
If my home isn’t Ahili’s Circus, and it isn’t Aisha’s arms.
“…Where is my home?”
His dry, brittle voice vanished into the air.
If neither humans nor beasts would accept him, there was only one place left.
Rising to his feet with a wobbling body, Kyle looked toward the Ice Wall rising majestically beyond the rooftops of Torn City.
The End of the World.
The endless white snowfields.
Without hesitation, Kyle began walking toward the North.
At that same time, in the Torn City plaza.
“Hah, hah….”
I ran like a madwoman. I needed to go faster, but as the wind resistance grew, my hood and robe fluttered like curtains.
In moments like this, I hated being five years old.
I hated that my clenched fists looked like tiny pebbles. I hated that to others, my running looked like a clumsy waddle.
“Kyle!”
I was terrified that because of this body, I would lose Kyle.
Entering the plaza, I realized the atmosphere was different from the peaceful one earlier.
Everyone was pale and trembling with fear.
Some were talking amongst themselves, saying, “That boy, his eyes were definitely purple.”
Purple eyes.
‘He definitely passed through here.’
I immediately ran to the nearest woman.
“Excuse me, did you see a boy with purple eyes?”
“What? A boy with purple eyes?”
The woman, who was comforting a crying child, asked back in surprise.
“Yes.”
“Oh, I saw him! He had those purple eyes that only monsters have, and his face was covered in blood. It was chaos the moment he appeared. The knights are searching for him, but they haven’t found him yet.”
Thump—
My heart felt like it was dropping into my stomach.
“Wh-where did he go?”
It was then.
“They say a boy with purple eyes was spotted near the Ice Wall.”
“What? What is he doing at the Ice Wall?”
“We’re pursuing him as best we can, but the boy is harder to catch than expected…”
“Sir Knight!”
Not far away, the knights of the Crost family were having a serious conversation.
“Eh…? My Lady?”
At the mention of ‘Lady,’ the woman I had been talking to stood up in shock, but I didn’t care and ran straight to the knight.
“Please take me to the Ice Wall!”
“Pardon?”
“Right now! Take me to the Ice Wall this instant!”