Chapter 75
“Ban, you understand what I’m saying, right?”
“W-w-what! Ban? Who’s that supposed to be?”
Already exposed! If Sienna finds out, I’m doomed!
Flustered, Ban tried desperately to make up an excuse.
“T-this one’s name is… H-Hoya!”
He ended up blurting out the true name of the doll Sienna once called him.
But since Ban’s true form was Sienna’s cherished doll, there was no way Noah wouldn’t recognize that name.
As expected, the moment Noah heard it, he smirked.
“Hoya? That’s the name of Sienna’s favorite doll.”
“Uh…”
“Ban, if you wanted to hide your identity, you should’ve come up with a convincing name, not just change your appearance.”
After all, a doll moving around was nonsense to begin with.
Realizing that far too late, cold sweat trickled down Ban’s back.
“So, if you’re here, then Sienna must be here too. The people with you must be Heraith and Lina.”
“No! None of them came!”
“You just said you’re not Ban. Then how do you know Sienna, Heraith, and Lina?”
Noah’s sharp question froze Ban stiff.
‘I-I’m doomed…!’
What was even the point of turning into a rabbit doll if it ended like this?
As Ban’s pupils trembled like an earthquake, Noah chuckled and pressed forward, step by step, closing in.
“How do you know?”
“U-ugh…”
“Answer me.”
“……Siennnaaaaaa!”
Unable to withstand the pressure, Ban bolted, wings flapping furiously.
Noah watched his fleeing figure, then leisurely set off in pursuit.
Like a hunter after prey.
“By now, he should’ve been back…”
I sighed deeply, staring in the direction Ban had disappeared after our meal.
‘I went too far. He must’ve been starving, searching for Father all this time…’
Now that my nerves had calmed and reason returned, guilt welled up in me.
No choice. I’ll go look for him.
I had just risen to search when—
“Siennaaaaaa!”
Ban burst through the mist, face covered in tears, and threw himself into my arms.
“Sienna! It’s bad! Noah—!”
“What about my brother?”
Ban opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, then looked past me, his eyes going wide before he dove deeper into my embrace.
Footsteps approached.
“This is bad.”
“….”
Heraith muttered quietly, averting his gaze.
Lina, pale as a ghost, fumbled to pull up her hood.
A heavy presence loomed behind me, and cold sweat broke out.
‘Please… no. Please don’t let it be him.’
But heaven turned its back on me.
“Sienna. What are you doing here?”
“You must be mistaken, sir…”
I yanked my hood down low and lowered my voice, pretending not to know Noah.
“W-we’re busy, so we’ll just be going—”
“Oh, pardon me. I thought you were my sister. I almost brought up an embarrassing story about when she once refused to take her medicine, ran off in her underwear, tripped, and bawled.”
Why bring that up now…? I had a very bad feeling.
“And let’s not forget the time she stuck her head through a dog hole because she wanted to go outside and got stuck. A passing knight found her like that, too—”
“Are you insane?! I told you never to bring that up again!”
I snapped at Noah for digging up my buried black history.
And then our eyes met.
The crescent curve of his red eyes told me I’d been caught.
“Sienna. I told you to stay home. And yet, here you are.”
Noah strode up and pulled back my hood.
“You even changed your hair and eye color. You were determined, weren’t you?”
“H-how did you know…? Was it because of Ban?”
The doll in my arms flinched.
Ban rolled his eyes, then slipped out of my hold and flew over to Lina.
“I-I didn’t do anything wrong… Noah’s just too sharp!”
“True, Ban isn’t the problem. You think just changing appearances would fool me? You stood out the moment I saw you.”
I looked away, feigning innocence. Noah sighed, rubbing his forehead.
I edged closer to Heraith, ready to bolt if necessary.
Heraith leaned toward me and whispered.
“Told you. He’d recognize you instantly.”
“Then you should’ve told me to change gender too.”
“Wouldn’t have worked either way.”
As I muttered back, Noah’s voice cut in.
“Sienna. Why did you follow me?”
“…If I’d just waited obediently, and something happened to you, what then?”
Father was already missing. If I lost Noah too…
The thought alone terrified me.
No matter the danger, I wanted to be by his side.
‘I don’t want to be alone.’
I’d only just recovered from my illness—what was the point if Father and Noah weren’t there?
As I stepped back, Noah advanced, and I grabbed Heraith’s arm.
“Even if you send me back, I won’t go. Heren knows where I am now. I’ll use magic to come back again and again!”
I spoke boldly, daring him to try.
But Noah’s reaction wasn’t what I expected.
“You’ve come this far. I can’t exactly send you back. What if something happened to you on the way?”
“…So I can stay?”
“As long as you don’t act alone. Stay by me.”
“Yes!”
I beamed at his reluctant permission. Noah chuckled, defeated by my quick switch in attitude.
“But Noah, have you learned anything?”
“It’s certain Father came here. But no one will say a word. They’re hiding something.”
“You felt that too? The way they’re wary of us—it doesn’t feel right.”
As we exchanged notes—
“Captain! Captain, where are you?!”
Igus’s voice rang out from the distance.
“Here!”
At Noah’s call, Igus quickly reached the clearing, chest heaving with urgency.
“Captain!”
“What is it?”
“Look at this.”
He held out a mud-caked pocket watch.
I recognized it instantly.
Snatching it from his hand, I gasped.
“I gave this as a gift. It’s Father’s watch.”
I’d saved my allowance at twelve to buy it for him.
And now it turned up in a dying forest?
My heart plummeted.
‘He always carried it, saying it was the first gift I ever gave him…’
That could only mean something had happened to him.
“Noah…”
My trembling eyes met his. Urgently, he pressed Igus.
“Where did you find this?”
“This way.”
We retraced our steps.
Out of the clearing, through the forest, back toward the tainted lake.
I thought I glimpsed Ethan by the lake, but I had no time to dwell on it.
All my thoughts were on Father.
Past the lake, into the opposite woods.
“You’re here!”
Knights scouring the area spotted Noah and hurried over.
“How goes it?”
“No signs yet.”
At their useless report, Noah barked an order.
“Search every inch.”
“Yes, sir!”
As the knights bustled off, I turned to Ban.
“Can you sense any life?”
“There’s too much… I can’t tell.”
He shook his head, pointing at the knights.
Not here, then.
“Noah, we need to go deeper.”
“Let’s go.”
We pressed farther into the woods.
But the deeper we went, the more Ban frowned.
“Why are there still so many? Even from this far…”
“How many?”
“Fifteen? Sixteen? Maybe more…”
Could it be…? I met Noah’s gaze.
“Could they be the knights who went with Father?”
“Must be. That’s about the number who left with him.”
“Ban, which way?”
He pointed.
“To the side.”
“The side?”
Following his direction, I saw a figure emerge from the mist.
“Ethan? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same…”
We stared at each other, equally confused.
And the strangeness didn’t end there.
“Huh? Young lord?”
Priests began pouring in.
The fifteen or so presences Ban sensed weren’t knights—they were priests.
Leaving the murmuring crowd behind, I asked Ethan,
“Did you finish cleansing the lake?”
“No. The weather turned bad, so we were heading back.”
I looked up. The already hazy sky was now covered with dark storm clouds.
We needed to get back to the village before the rain fell.
Which made it all the more baffling.
“Then why are you here…?”
“This is the exit, isn’t it?” Ethan said, as if it were obvious.
I blinked.
“…What are you talking about? This is deep in the forest.”
“In the forest? Impossible. We came back the same way we came in.”
Noah cut in firmly.
“Ethan. This is the forest interior. We haven’t left since entering.”
“What? But…”
Ethan’s face hardened. Mine and Noah’s weren’t much different.
That was when we realized something was terribly wrong.
