Chapter 60
<62화>
Kyle’s footprints were like the breadcrumbs dropped by Hansel and Gretel.
Deep, blue-tinted paw prints pressed into the white snow.
Holding my dad’s hand, I began to walk across the vast snowy field, using Kyle’s tracks as my guide.
But then.
“Oh…?”
Far off on the horizon, a boy with white hair came into view.
It was definitely Kyle.
“There’s Kyle! I’ll go ahead!”
“Aisha, it’s dangerous to go alone—”
“Kyle!”
I could hear Calips calling out in worry, but I was already beyond listening.
Patter, patter.
My shoe prints overlapped with the shape of Kyle’s tracks.
‘I thought he’d gone far, but thankfully he hasn’t gotten very far at all.’
Then again, it made sense.
No matter how unusual Kyle’s constitution was, being able to transform into an animal, he was still just a child compared to monsters.
And this was a lawless land.
A place where monsters settled—monsters that even knights formally trained by noble families struggled to handle.
I thought that no matter how much it was Kyle, he couldn’t have gone too deep inside,
Or so I thought.
“Kyle…?”
Just a little more. If I went just a little further from here, I could call out to him.
But my legs, which had been running at full speed, came to a dead halt.
Something was wrong.
It was because Kyle wasn’t alone.
‘…What are those?’
I couldn’t see them clearly until just a moment ago. As I got closer to Kyle, the black shapes around him gradually began to take form.
And those were.
‘…Monsters.’
Thud.
The poisoned needle I had been holding just in case fell and buried itself deep in the snow.
“…Gasp.”
I covered my mouth with a trembling hand.
It was to keep myself from screaming.
A strange, terrifying sight I had never seen in my past life or this one.
One with a single eye. One that stood three meters tall. One that walked on four legs. One with long claws. One that was dripping saliva.
Monsters of all different kinds were gathered together, circling Kyle and bowing their heads.
As if they were serving their one and only god.
Indifferent violet eyes were revealed through the white hair fluttering in the wind.
Kyle looked calm. As if it were only natural for the monsters to bow to him.
If so, what should I do?
Should I run away? Should I call for Kyle?
Or should I save Kyle and then run away?
“……?”
A hollow laugh escaped me at the thought that arose subconsciously.
I’m going to save Kyle?
Who do I think I am?
I was so terrified I even dropped the poisoned needle I was holding—what could I possibly do?
Thinking that way, I felt as if the memories I had cherished were being ripped away.
Kyle disappeared from our shared memories.
The small child standing before my eyes was no longer the Kyle I knew.
Whoosh—
Just then, a gust of wind made him squint, and he suddenly turned his head.
Our eyes met by pure chance.
“…Aisha?”
His empty violet eyes slowly widened.
“Aisha.”
Suddenly, someone covered my mouth and hid me behind a rock.
Looking up in surprise, I saw it was Calips.
“It’s okay. Dad is here, so just don’t scream. Keep breathing.”
“…….”
Only after being pulled into my father’s warm embrace did I realize I had been holding my breath.
It was Calips.
My dad, who used the Ice Ability, who was strong, and who seemed like he would protect me forever.
Heave. Heave.
Perhaps because the tension had suddenly snapped, my breathing grew ragged, and hot tears began to well up in my eyes.
“Aisha?”
Then, Kyle called my name.
Trickle. Hearing that voice, the tears I had been holding back finally spilled over onto the back of Calips’s hand, which was still covering my mouth.
“…Aisha, where are you?”
Like a child who had lost his mother, he called for me once more.
Even without looking, I could imagine him looking around.
Because Kyle was that kind of child.
A child who seemed a bit eccentric but listened to me well.
A child who always opened my bedroom window like a cat to come see me.
The purest person I had ever met.
“Aisha. Listen carefully.”
But the voice searching for me so desperately was drowned out by Calips’s low warning.
“There are beings in this world called Majin.”
Majin?
I flinched at the sudden word.
“…Ha, damn it.”
Calips closed his eyes and sighed.
I didn’t know why, but he seemed to regret his past actions.
“A Majin is a creature that can communicate with both humans and monsters.”
Communicate with monsters?
“And Kyle is one of them.”
Kyle is one of them?
Suddenly, I remembered the original novel. The reason why the Frozen Kingdom and the Doctia Kingdom stopped their war.
The reason why Calips came to be hailed as a hero of the Frozen Kingdom. No, the reason why humanity built the Ice Wall in the North in the first place.
It was because of the god of the monsters.
「The humans finally found it.
The small god that grants language to monsters.
They have come to eradicate it at the root before the young and weak thing can grow.」
The moment I recalled the text from the original work, my eyes went wide.
Kyle. The character who died early in the novel and had no real presence, yet was the very reason the story of 『The Sword of Judgment』 began.
Because of the small god who tried to bring civilization to the monsters, humanity trembled in fear and built the Ice Wall to block them.
Considering the scene before my eyes and Calips’s words, that was Kyle.
So that means I…
I saved the small god.
“…….”
It was then.
“Aisha? Aisha, are you here?”
Following my father’s explanation, I heard Kyle’s voice again.
Judging by the sound of footsteps treading on snow, he seemed to be looking for me.
One minute felt like an hour.
Did he finally give up on finding me? His footsteps stopped.
“I’m sure she was here.”
His voice became unstable.
“She ran away because I’m a monster.”
It was strange.
“Because I’m a monster, she was scared and ran away. Even at the bookstore, she froze when she saw me.”
The heart that had been terrified until just a moment ago…
“…I am a monster.”
Why did it feel so restless?
“People told me I was ominous.”
Kyle. No.
Crying out internally, I hurriedly clutched my chest.
Hearing Kyle’s voice made my heart churn.
It felt like a caterpillar inside my body was throwing a tantrum, wanting to burst out.
And that caterpillar…
“I just have to live here. Even if I want to go back to Aisha, I’m a monster—”
“You’re not!”
It grew and grew until it suddenly burst out of my body.
It happened before I even realized it.
Hah. Gasp.
When I regained my senses, panting for breath, I realized I had broken away from Calips’s embrace.
And not far away.
“…Aisha?”
Kyle was staring at me with a startled expression.
‘Uh oh.’
By the time I realized I had messed up, my dad, who had been crouched behind the rock, had stood up and drawn his sword.
I knew it was a dangerous situation.
“…….”
When Kyle’s gaze turned toward me, the gazes of the monsters worshiping him turned toward me as well.
But.
“If you don’t want to live here, then don’t!”
I had to say this much.
“If you don’t want to be a monster, then live as a human!”
As soon as I opened my eyes in this world, I was a spy.
“If someone mocks you for being ominous, tell them their mouth is even more ominous!”
I had struggled to escape the life of a spy, but nothing came easily.
I had to endure countless hardships and strive to be recognized by others.
“Tell people that you’re not a monster!”
There were times I had screamed out of frustration.
‘Even if I was born a spy, if I don’t want to be a spy, I don’t have to be one!’
I remembered bursting into tears because of the way someone looked at me.
That was why I knew that even my terrified expression earlier would be a wound to Kyle.
‘Ah.’
Only then did I realize.
The reason I had shouted at Kyle so incoherently.
The reason my heart had felt so restless all this time.
The reason my stomach had felt so uncomfortable, as if a caterpillar were about to burst out.
“Kyle.”
An apology.
“…I’m sorry for looking at you like that.”
I wanted to apologize to him.