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chapter 01
“It’s okay, Lottie. Look at me.”
I slowly stroked the small, dark-haired child’s head.
Her teary face clearly showed that she didn’t fully understand what was happening. The earplugs probably helped, but this little girl could only grasp one thing—that both of us were in danger.
“That’s right.”
I gently removed the small plugs I had fitted into Lottie’s ears.
Even amid the deafening roar that shook the world around us, she didn’t cry.
What an extraordinary child.
Good girl.
Suppressing my pain, I met Lottie’s eyes.
“This is just a game of hide-and-seek. You know the rules of hide-and-seek, right?”
Holding her tiny body close against my chest, I struggled for breath.
I wanted to speak gently, as though nothing was wrong, but I didn’t have much time left.
Blood from the wound at the back of my shattered head had long since soaked my neck, and the shard of metal lodged in my abdomen was steadily eating away at what remained of my life.
I was going to die.
The words I could choose from were becoming fewer and fewer.
No.
Everything in my head was a mess.
My lungs were running out of oxygen, and my blood-starved brain could no longer issue proper commands.
No.
Not yet.
I shook my head to force myself awake.
Wiping away a few drops of blood that had splattered onto Lottie’s forehead, I somehow managed to smile.
“Lottie, sing the song. Keep calling for the Tiger Prince in your heart. When I start singing along, that’s when you come out. You mustn’t come out before then. Understand? Do you understand, Lottie?”
No matter how well she understood my words, I didn’t know how much she could truly comprehend.
Still, I forced the instructions out.
The blood I had desperately been holding back was already climbing my throat, ready to burst forth at any moment.
I can’t let Lottie see this.
I couldn’t let such a tiny child be drenched in bright red blood.
She had already endured far too much.
“Hide!”
I practically tossed her down and covered her with the apron I was wearing.
“Cough! Ugh…!”
A single cough sent blood surging up my throat.
I wiped away what dripped down my chin.
I needed a weapon.
Even a broken tree branch would do.
If I had something—anything—I might survive until help arrived.
Desperately, I groped across the ground.
I have to find something.
Then, in that choking cloud of dust where I could barely see a foot ahead of me, I suddenly turned around.
“Ghk—!”
In that fleeting instant, a blade fell from above and pierced straight through my back without a moment’s hesitation.
You bastards…!
The blood I had barely managed to swallow exploded outward.
Even then, I looked back toward Lottie.
I could see droplets of blood splattering onto the apron covering her.
“Ggh… hhk…”
Raw, unfiltered agony shot through my entire body.
It felt as though my insides had been butchered to pieces.
Blood poured from my mouth like water from a broken dam.
The horrifying sensation of my body being split in two surged all the way to the tips of my hair.
Lottie… don’t come out…
Staring at the apron wriggling before my eyes, I reached out a hand.
But that was all.
My body, with a gaping hole through its chest, staggered a few more steps before finally collapsing.
Tears flowed down my cheeks, mixing with blood.
Whether they came from the pain or from worrying about the little girl who would be left behind, I couldn’t tell.
Please… come back to life soon…
Praying desperately to a god I didn’t even believe in,
I finally closed my eyes.
