A small shadow dashed across the darkness-covered Prima Forest.
‘Why, why?’
Tori Mook, the squirrel beastman.
He was deeply confused.
‘That human child. Why did she save me?’
The events from just moments ago kept replaying in his mind.
The heavy millstone spinning in front of him was a very threatening weapon to the squirrel beastman.
‘If it hits me directly, I’ll die instantly.’
A tiny human girl suddenly stood in front of him, blocking the millstone with all her might.
“Wait, Nyowa.”
Her pronunciation was awkward, but her voice was full of resolve.
“Just let it go.”
“What? No, Luna. If the adults find a small animal in the house, the carnivorous beastmen might smell it and come after us.”
“If we don’t harm them, they won’t attack us.”
In the end, the small white girl stopped the millstone from spinning.
As Tori left the orphanage, the image of the blue-eyed girl who had followed him until then lingered in his mind.
‘There might be some hidden agenda behind this.’
Trying to shake off the stray thoughts, Tori finally reached the heart of the forest.
Beneath a large evergreen tree illuminated by moonlight, Eden Lionheart, leaning against it, saw Tori running toward him and stood up.
“Your Excellency!”
“Why did you come here in person to report the situation?”
Tori, panting, replied, “I… I had something urgent to tell you…”
Leaving behind his magic tools, rushing here himself?
Eden narrowed his eyes.
It was rare for Eden and Tori to meet face-to-face. They usually communicated through magic tools shaped like acorns to avoid drawing attention.
‘But if he’s come running like this…’
Could something unexpected have happened?
Eden’s expression hardened.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s…”
Tori hesitated, his lips heavy. Perhaps it was because of the voice of that child, echoing in his mind.
‘If we don’t harm them, they won’t attack us.’
The more Tori thought about the human child, the more his thoughts became tangled.
‘How should I put this?’
As Tori hesitated, struggling to organize his thoughts into words, a loud explosion sounded from afar.
“!”
The two men turned their heads instinctively, both thinking the same thing.
‘That direction…’
It was the direction Tori had just come from—the Nid Orphanage.
Eden, almost hypnotized, took out his pocket watch. The hands of the clock had passed twelve.
That child’s words were true.
How long had he been unconscious?
“Ugh…”
Tori struggled to rise from the ground and surveyed his surroundings.
Just as in the original story, a fire had broken out.
‘I thought I reduced the number of fireworks, so the damage wouldn’t be too much.’
The power of the explosion was greater than expected. The body of a child was weaker than he had anticipated.
“Luna! Are you okay?”
“Mm.”
“Hold on to me. I’ll help you.”
Noah, stumbling, helped Tori up the stairs.
When they finally reached the first floor, the fire from the underground storage had spread to the wooden stairs.
“If we leave it like this, it’ll spread into a bigger fire.”
“Don’t worry, Luna. The adults will come soon and put it out.”
Noah’s voice was kind, but there was something unsettling about it.
‘Something feels off.’
Soon, the source of his unease became clear.
‘With an explosion that loud, even the people who were asleep should have woken up and come to put the fire out.’
The surrounding area was strangely quiet.
As if there was no one around at all…
Suddenly, a passage from the novel came to mind.
‘Mysterious fire at the orphanage. The mastermind behind it had the goal of killing everyone except the protagonist. Through this event, he aimed to instill a deep trauma in Noah, resorting to any means necessary, even if it was inhumane.’
The faces of the orphanage staff appeared in Tori’s mind.
“I think Sister and the others are still on the second floor.”
“Don’t be silly.”
Noah’s face was gradually filled with anxiety.
He too must have sensed the oddity—there was no one coming to put out the fire or even alert others about it.
“Do you remember the first aid methods I told you about?”
“Yeah. I’ll get Sister and the children out. You go outside, Luna.”
Without hesitation, Noah ran up to the second floor.
‘I also need to do my part.’
Tori, dragging his aching body, made his way to the backyard. He needed to stop the fire from reaching the second-floor stairs before Noah got everyone out.
Squeak, squeak, screech.
Tori grabbed a bucket filled with water and struggled to move it.
“Ugh!”
It would have been nice if he could carry it in one go, but carrying a bucket full of water with a child’s body was no easy feat.
But he couldn’t give up now.
‘Everyone’s life is at stake.’
He dragged the bucket half the way across, stumbling with every step.
Then…
Whoosh!
Something flew from the darkness.
“!”
Instinctively, Tori ducked, and just as he did,
Bam!
A sharp double-headed axe embedded itself in the grass, narrowly missing him.
‘If I had been a second slower, my ankle would’ve been gone.’
Tori glanced in the direction the axe came from. A figure stood in the pitch-black darkness.
“Annoying.”
Then, a rough male voice muttered from the shadows.
The weight of fear pressed down on his shoulders.
“Anyway, those Konomiya merchants can’t be trusted. If a snot-nosed kid is walking around like this, tch.”
A tall man wearing a mask emerged from the thick bushes.
Tori instantly realized.
This man was here to kill him and the orphanage staff.
‘So they were even prepared for an assassin.’
It was something he had overlooked.
In the original story, a bigger explosion and fire had occurred, and there was no need for an assassin to appear since all the extras were killed in the blast.
‘But since I reduced the explosion…’
The assassin had been sent to deal with the surviving extras.
“Stop thinking foolishly and stand still. I’ll kill you without making it painful.”
The man slowly walked toward the axe stuck in the ground.
‘I have to run.’
There was no time for anything else. Tori fled, running blindly toward the forest to survive.
The forest swallowed him up, the darkness like a double-edged sword.
While he could hide for a moment from the assassin’s eyes, the rugged terrain meant he couldn’t escape far. It was a sword with two sides, especially for a child like him.
“I know you’re hiding here somewhere.”
The assassin was close, his voice unsettling as if he was enjoying the hunt.
‘What should I do?’
Then, he heard the assassin pass directly above him.
Tori crouched, holding his breath.
‘If only I had divine powers, a special ability, or even a secret about my birth.’
He felt bitter that, just because he wasn’t the protagonist, he had to die like this.
‘I don’t want to die so futilely.’
All he could do was pray to the gods. Though it seemed ridiculous, he had no choice but to put everything into that “only” chance.
‘Please, pity me, and give me a chance.’
But his desperate prayer seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“Little rat of a girl!”
“Ahhh!”
Tori’s body was lifted into the air by a massive hand.
“Found you hiding here.”
“Let me go, let me go!”
He struggled with all his might, but the assassin only tightened his grip on Tori’s neck.
“Ugh…”
Tori’s vision blurred as his air was cut off.
“Nice try thinking, but it’s all too obvious.”
The assassin pointed to the flattened grass beneath them.
“Thanks to that, things got complicated, so I guess you’ll have to pay the price, right?”
What the assassin said became harder to understand as Tori’s sight dimmed.
‘Am I really going to die like this?’
Tori felt a chill of terror as the end of his life approached.
‘I only wanted to grow up in a loving family, as an adopted child.’
Was this the price for dreaming beyond his station?
He felt an overwhelming sense of sadness.
A ridiculous thought occurred to him.
‘…I wish someone would come save me, like a miracle. Maybe even that squirrel beastman from earlier.’
Of course, such a thing would never happen.
He closed his eyes, resigned, preparing for the axe that would fall on his neck.
But then…
Crack!
A strange sound rang out, almost like the sound of a bone snapping.
Suddenly,
Thud.
Tori’s body dropped to the ground.
He couldn’t understand what had just happened. All he could do was catch his breath.
“Huff! Huff! Hah…”
When he finally regained his composure, a low, grating voice echoed in his ear.
“…You’re a filthy little bug.”
Hearing the murderous tone, Tori’s heart began to heat up.
‘No way.’
He slowly raised his head.
The glint of polished shoes and long legs led up to a pair of bright amber eyes.
‘Eden Lionheart!’
With an indifferent face, Eden approached, tossing his coat over Tori’s head. The scent of blood mixed with Eden’s scent, and Tori’s vision went dark.
