Chapter 55 : Misunderstanding

Things in life never went as planned.

The creature, having revealed its identity at its own whim, looked somewhat anxious.

At the same time, it also looked like it was trying to calmly accept the approaching future.

It was a busy creature even in its squirrel form, but its human face changed color moment by moment, making it look busy even when it was standing still.

“So, what is it that you want to do?”

“Obviously, to destroy the Imperial family.”

I stared at the creature’s long, flowing platinum blond hair.

“You mean you want to get rid of your own Imperial family?”

“Yes, I have waited a very long time for that.”

A very long time.

My counterpart had been emphasizing that since the wolf incident last time.

The original work said that the Imperial family lives to be about 200 years old.

But if it was long enough to be called 'long ages'…….

“How old are you?”

The creature, its expression slightly scrunched, thought for a moment then spat out.

“I’ve forgotten how to count. I must be over 1000 years old.”

Unbelievably old.

“Unbelievably old.”

“Have you ever seen such an insolent fellow?”

The creature's eyebrows shot up to the sky at my honest impression, which had slipped out without my knowledge.

Its temper seems similar to when it was in squirrel form.

I ignored the huffing creature and sank into thought.

1000 years.

If it's 1000 years, isn't that the time when the legendary Sierra Abalan lived?

“Are you a similar age to Sierra Abalan?”

The expression of the creature, which had been sitting quietly, changed subtly.

“……I am a little younger than him, child. Still, you get how old I am, right? Thanks to that, I also know a great many things.”

“Right, let’s just say that’s that.”

My counterpart's brow furrowed slightly, but I had no kindness to spare to care about that.

I didn't have enough trust to obediently accept what the creature was saying yet.

I also didn't understand why a member of the Imperial family would want the death of the Imperial family.

“I get that what you want is the destruction of the Imperial family. But what does that have to do with me? Why on earth have you been waiting for me?”

The creature looked at me and took a rough, deep breath.

“Child, do not be too surprised.”

It seemed better for it to worry about itself rather than worrying about me being surprised.

“It may take time to accept one's destiny. But in the end, you must submit to it. There are just some things in the world that must be so. Do you understand?”

My counterpart's expression, preparing to tell a big secret, was endlessly solemn.

So much so that I hardened my expression along with it.

“There is another god in the world. Also called Amica.”

Huh?

Something was unsettling.

Destiny and Amica.

It was a suspiciously familiar combination.

“It may be a little baffling.”

It seemed to be said to reassure me, but instead, my anxiety spiked.

“A long, long time ago, there was a prophecy.”

Good grief.

The word 'prophecy' finally came out of the creature's mouth.

I had to sigh and clutch my head.

The creature, perhaps misinterpreting that reaction, began to continue, as if placating me.

“The content is, a black-haired……”

“When the black-haired outsider returns to the world, the black night sky will swallow the moon.”

My counterpart's eyes filled with shock.

“How do you know that?!”

How do I know?

I know because it's the prophecy that points to Ratel in [Dark Header].

“How did you come to know that, who taught you? Or, as expected, is the child who will save the world different from others?”

I had to clench my teeth as I watched the creature stand up from its seat and jump up and down.

You mistook the person, you idiot.

***

[She, who had gone blind, laughed, her whole body trembling as if she had lost her mind. “Laugh, people. The age of Abalan is passing. The black-haired outsider will return to the world.” The gaze of the one watching her final moments was cold. His heartless mouth opened. “Strike.” The woman's laughter did not stop, even though there was no way she hadn't heard his words. “The black night sky will swallow the……” Her final voice scattered vainly, riding from her already severed neck.]

This is the scene where the prophecy first appears.

The situation was so absurd that that tragic scene lost its seriousness.

The creature stared blankly at the desk, its mouth shut like a mute who’d been fed honey.

“To summarize.”

When I spoke first, the vacant, golden eyes followed me.

“You thought I was the one who would save the world, meaning, the outsider in the prophecy, so you followed me from the forest, is that it?”

Nod.

The creature, perhaps having no energy to speak, only moved its head, then buried its face deeply, and soon returned to being a squirrel, not a person.

“There's the part that says ‘returns.’ I don't fit that.”

Besides that, there are many reasons why I am not the protagonist.

“In the first place, if you just guessed that I was from another world, you're really……”

“No! That’s not it. ……I recognized it when I saw you using your ability.”

The creature hurriedly opened its mouth, as if it didn't want to be misunderstood as being that dopey.

“My ability?”

“The ability to change into an animal. That is an ability that disappeared from the world a long time ago. Right now, I am the only one left who can use it.”

The 1000-year-old squirrel, dejected, answered, hitting the desk with its tail.

I knew that Ratel's ability was one that had disappeared from the world long ago, but was this ambiguous ability also one of them?

El's plea sounded plausible at a glance, but it was far from enough to cover his dopiness.

No matter what, there's no way I could save the world with an ability like this.

I was speechless at the pitifulness.

This creature, the reason it couldn't appear in the original work, was it because it foolishly followed someone else and failed to meet the protagonist?

I felt my wariness and suspicion fade at its weak, drooping appearance.

Well, if it was going to interfere, it already had several chances.

Even while being close to me, the creature had never once intentionally ruined things.

It might be a good thing.

I tossed the creature an acorn, which it usually loved.

Perhaps because it had spent a long time as an animal, the creature instinctively caught it and hurriedly stuffed it into its cheek pouch.

No matter how I looked at it, it was a sight that felt devoid of intellect or wisdom.

“How do you know that prophecy?”

The small creature asked crookedly, its curiosity arising even in its moment of disappointment.

Why is it that as soon as it learned I wasn't the protagonist, its attitude seems to have gotten subtly crooked?

“I, too, know a great many things.”

“Look at this arrogant fellow. Daring to act all-knowing in front of this body.”

Seeing it pick a fight again, it seemed to have strength left to recover.

The squirrel I was trying to sort out before leaving seemed to have more complicated circumstances than I thought, but fortunately, the solution was very simple.

It was just a matter of handing it over to the protagonist.

……If it was stupid enough to harm the protagonist and the flow of the original story, that was a problem to think about again.

***

Pale scanned the line stretched out in front of the half-built building with sharp eyes.

People in shabby attire stood staring only forward with tired expressions.

“Hey, kid! If you leave the line once, you have to go to the back! Don't shamelessly try to get back in!”

But as long as the weak and the strong existed, conflict was bound to exist everywhere.

Hearing the voice looking for a kid just in time, Pale moved his steps, motioning for the few knights who had followed him to stay back.

A skinny man was in an altercation with a boy who was even skinnier than him.

“Ah, you p-pushed me, mister. I was standing here the whole time, too……”

As the child dithered instead of leaving obediently, people began to whisper.

Although no one stepped up to help.

The people at the front of the line didn't want to get involved in a commotion because of one dirty child, and the people at the back had nothing to lose from one less person.

The man, as if gaining courage from that once more, raised his hand high.

“When did I push you?! Stop making excuses and get to the back, quickly!”

The hand, about to shove the small back once more, was blocked by Pale.

“What are you?!”

The man, who had roughly shaken off the hand, glared at Pale.

Though he was intimidated by the refined face that didn't match the old clothes and quickly lowered his eyes.

“Thanks for holding my place in line. You've worked hard.”

“What?”

The man's eyebrows furrowed at Pale's smooth nonsense.

“What kind of nonsense are you saying right……”

“You promised to hold my place until I came. This is the payment.”

When Pale dropped a silver coin at the man's feet, he hurriedly knelt and picked up the money, as if someone else would grab it.

“Th-that's right. I did.”

“Yes, you've worked hard, so you can go now. I'll stand in line for the rest.”

The man slinked away from Pale's somewhat intimidating attitude, but he couldn't take his eyes off the line, which had little left.

It was something only Pale and the knights knew that he, who had moved on with such regret, had the silver coin taken right back by two knights who were waiting around the building, not long after.

***

Pale slowly followed the people entering the half-built building.

It was fortunate he had met a child who looked to be about the same age as the Little Duke.

As Tollin had said, there were no children of that age.

Normally, the children for the Tinas ritual were missing.

What did that have to do with this?

Thud.

Someone, who was organizing the line of people, blocked Pale, who was following the child while organizing his thoughts.

“……What is it?”

“You go that way.”

Pale glanced behind him.

The child who had been in front of him was being guided behind a pillar by someone else's direction.

“Why is that child going that way?”

At Pale's question, the man's face crumpled, as if wondering why he'd ask such a thing.

“If I tell you to go that way, you should just go. Why are you talking so much? If you don't want to receive food, then get lost!”

This is how they divert attention.

Pale recalled the people who had been standing in the long line, looking exhausted.

No one would want to wait for a long time and go empty-handed, so if he yelled at them this much, everyone probably wouldn't want to care, as long as it wasn't their problem.

However, Pale was a person who had too much to be swayed by a threat made on the pretext of food.

“Huh? Hey! Where are you going?! Agh!!!”

The man, who tried to grab the arm of Pale who was ignoring him and passing by, was subdued by the men who were behind Pale.

When Pale rounded the pillar, a room with a closed door appeared.

He threw the door open without hesitation.

“What?!”

A man, his expression clearly flustered, was holding a thick sack.

It was a size that looked suitable for one child to fit inside.

Pale's eyes scanned it, which looked heavy, and he opened his mouth.

“What were you doing in here?”

“Can't you tell by looking? I'm organizing the food. Who are you to suddenly come in and cause a scene?”

The man, who tried to push past Pale, was thrown to the floor by a knight in a robe who had followed Pale inside.

“Whether this is food or not is something I can check for myself.”

The man, who had been looking back and forth between Pale and his party who had suddenly rushed in, seemed to realize the gravity of the situation and opened his mouth, his face filled with fear.

“D-don't spill it. It's full of valuable food.”

When Pale gave a look, one of the men beside him untied the knot of the sack and opened it.

Until this moment, Pale did not doubt his expectation that an unconscious child would come out from inside.

“……Pale, it's really just a grain sack. There's nothing inside.”

“What? That can't be.”

The flustered Pale snatched the sack and turned it upside down, and the man, who was being subdued under another knight, screamed.

“What are you doing! We have to sweep all that up again!”

But there was nothing.

No child, not even a trace of a child.

He immediately ran to the window.

His escort, who was observing the situation from below, looked up as if to ask what was wrong to Pale, who had hurriedly leaned out the window.

He had been tricked right before his eyes.

And in such a short amount of time.

“Fingers, toes, break them one by one, slowly. Don't stop until he opens his mouth.”

Pale gave the cold command, thinking that at this rate, he couldn't possibly reprimand Jack.