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Chapter 10
“…What?”
I walked closer to the confused old man and said this.
“Don’t reveal our identities to anyone else.”
After saying that, I turned around and looked at Tashik’s gray eyes for a moment.
This was to protect Tashik.
‘You never know.’
We didn’t know how our actions might spread to others.
Even if this place was far from the pursuit of the southern Fevision Duke’s family.
‘It’s better if rumors don’t spread about a boy who hunts demonic beasts like crazy.’
I sincerely hoped he would safely become the heir of Fevision like in the original story, become the Duke, and end up with the heroine.
I turned back to the old man and shrugged.
“Or we’ll just go to another herbal shop in another village.”
“W-Wait!”
The old man quickly reached out his hand.
Then he sighed as if he couldn’t deal with us anymore.
“Fine, fine! We’ll do that! Honestly, what kind of identity are you trying to hide? Haa… alright, alright!”
“Yes!”
I smiled brightly.
The old man soon took out a money pouch from inside the desk and handed it to us.
I personally counted the coins to confirm it was 250 Krone.
‘Just in case. He might try to trick us.’
I didn’t want to let my guard down against unfamiliar adults.
Besides, thanks to information briefly mentioned in the original novel, I already knew how to distinguish fake coins from real ones.
Fortunately, they were all real coins.
The old herbal shop owner looked at me for a moment with a thoughtful expression, then sighed deeply and added as if warning us:
“You kids, make sure to come to my shop again next time. Understood?”
“Yes!”
Holding the money pouch, I smiled brightly and left the shop with Tashik.
The moment I left the herbal shop…
My legs began shaking violently.
Thud.
In the end, I sat down on the ground.
Tashik quickly rushed toward me in shock.
“Hey, you!”
“I’m fine.”
The wolves who had been waiting in the alley also noticed me and were about to bark, but I quietly put my finger to my lips.
“Shh!”
Kiiing…
The wolves lowered their presence and slowly came closer.
I stood up energetically and brushed the dirt off my knees.
I was in a good mood.
Because there was a money pouch in my arms.
‘Wow! I earned money!’
250 Krone!
We had already established a connection with a herbal shop, so if we kept hunting demonic beasts, we could keep making money.
‘If I have money… I can do anything.’
Thump, thump.
My heart was pounding.
I held the money pouch tightly and looked toward the general store across the alley.
Then I remembered the cave.
It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but…
‘…Still, I should buy some necessary things.’
I smiled happily.
From that day on, we lived in the cave, hunting demonic beasts and freezing their materials to sell at the herbal shop.
We split the money we earned equally between Tashik and me.
The cave, which originally had only a campfire and fallen leaves, gradually changed.
A stove replaced the campfire, a somewhat rough but thick travel blanket was added, along with an oil lamp and a large water container.
All of it was bought one by one from the general store.
Even in the same camping life, having money made everything easier.
Then one night…
After Tashik fell asleep, I quietly left the cave.
When I looked up, the black sky was filled with countless tiny stars.
‘The sky.’
It was something I had never seen while living in the underground laboratory.
The night sky, as if stars were about to pour down, was something even in my previous life I had never seen so grand.
Strangely, looking at the sky made me feel like I would fall into it.
After staring at it for a while, I found a tree stump bathed in moonlight and sat down quietly.
‘Let’s try making an ice sculpture today.’
I stretched my hands forward.
My hands glowed white under the moonlight.
Then I just… stared blankly.
‘What should I make?’
Now that I tried to actually create something, my mind went completely blank.
It felt like wandering through a vast sky without direction.
‘But I have memories from my past life.’
I closed my eyes and recalled my first sculpture class.
— “You don’t need a grand idea. Just think of everyday things. What did you eat this morning? What did you see on your way to school?”
‘Right. I should start from everyday life.’
I opened my eyes and thought about today.
‘Today, I saw Tashik’s wolves hunting a deer.’
It was too brutal to watch properly, but something I saw before that came to mind.
Before the wolves found the deer…
‘A small rabbit passed in front of them.’
I closed my eyes again and imagined it.
A pure white baby rabbit.
It had been hopping through the snowy forest, trembling in fear when it met the growling wolves.
Its small eyes were filled with terror.
But the wolves did not hunt it.
They simply looked at it, then tilted their heads as if telling it to go away.
The frightened rabbit immediately ran into the forest.
The wolves smirked slightly and then turned their attention to a huge deer instead.
I opened my eyes.
‘That small rabbit…’
The frightened rabbit.
The rabbit that ran away safely thanks to the wolves’ mercy.
Something about it struck my heart deeply.
It felt like I had become that rabbit.
At that moment, the crystal engine beneath my heart began to tremble.
Vmmmm…!
I widened my eyes.
‘Now!’
I stretched out my hands and released the energy from the crystal engine through my fingertips.
Swish…
White mist like starlight rose from my hands.
Inside it, transparent ice began to bloom like a flower.
The ice emerging from within me started to take shape based on my memory.
It spun slowly in the mist, like clay on a pottery wheel.
How much time passed?
“Phew.”
I stopped the crystal engine.
The small sculpture floating above my hands gently fell into my palms.
It was a small, transparent ice rabbit.
I turned it around carefully.
‘A curled-up round body… it kind of looks like a rice cake.’
Feeling a strange sense of accomplishment, I gently stroked the ice rabbit.
I just wanted to touch it for some reason.
Then I heard rustling behind me.
I quickly turned around.
Tashik was standing at the entrance of the cave.
His gray eyes were wide as he stared at me without moving.
‘How long has he been there?’
“Um?”
I tilted my head and asked slowly.
“Did you… see all of this?”
“Ah…”
Only then did Tashik seem to come back to his senses. He opened his mouth blankly, then turned red and turned away.
“S-Sorry for watching.”
“Tashik.”
I quickly stood up and grabbed his hand.
“Why are you embarrassed?”
“….”
“There’s no need to be.”
I held out the ice rabbit in front of him.
“This is for you.”
“…A gift?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
Honestly, I was happy that Tashik had watched me create it.
‘So if he accepts my first sculpture as a gift…’
I think I’ll be really happy.
I smiled softly.
Tashik’s face turned even redder, like the fading sunset over the snowy mountains.
Tashik had recently started feeling a strange pain in his chest.
It hadn’t been like this when he only hunted demonic beasts with the wolves.
But ever since he started traveling with Genuere, she kept occupying his thoughts.
When she slipped on the demonic beast’s corpse and fell into his arms, her body felt so small and fragile that it seemed like she would break at any moment.
Yet with that same body, she casually stepped on the monster’s corpse and got covered in filthy liquid.
She even used those frozen claws to earn money by negotiating with the herbal shop owner.
Genuere was clearly strong.
But at the same time, she seemed dangerously fragile.
Sometimes she looked like she was afraid of something, but Tashik couldn’t tell what it was.
That was why his chest kept hurting.
It was an unfamiliar pain.
And tonight…
When he saw her making a sculpture under the moonlight…
For the first time since meeting Genuere, she did not look fragile.
So he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
But when she noticed him, he felt embarrassed, like he had been caught secretly watching.
And then—
“Is my sculpture… not good?”
Her bright voice snapped him back to reality.
Genuere stood there holding a sparkling ice rabbit, looking up at him with shining eyes.
(To be continued)
