‘Heean is extremely pragmatic, so he probably wouldn't be overjoyed if I gave him flowers. Though, he did like that stone-skipping grass about five thousand times better.’
However, even if flowers weren't his taste, no one would hate receiving them from someone they like.
Even though he had never actually heard a definitive answer from Heean, Belsus kept his heart light and allowed himself to sink deeply into his current feelings.
He was eager to read Heean's mind and confirm things as soon as possible, but on the other hand… he was afraid to face the truth.
Leaving things as they were, in blissful ignorance, felt best. The desire to delay the confirmation to prolong this state as much as possible was foolish, yet desperately real.
Perhaps Belsus’s heart was simply soothing its own inner anxiety by ‘imagining’ that Heean liked him. If Heean’s feelings were a gift box, Belsus was currently fluttering with excitement just looking at the wrapping.
There were times when a gift box was more thrilling simply sitting there unopened, rather than when its contents were finally laid bare.
‘Should I head back now?’
Turning his steps to open the farm entrance, Belsus stopped short.
At the far end of the dark night street, someone was quietly watching him.
They were completely engulfed in a large hood. The sleeves covered the backs of their hands to prevent even a sliver of bare skin from showing, and buttons fastened the thick fabric tightly right up to the chin.
On top of that, their face was obscured by a featureless, pure white mask. All that was visible were shyly colored lips, a slender and sharp jawline, and a single eye.
At the very least, they didn't look like a threat. Not yet, anyway.
A man with a strangely peculiar aura.
“Nice to meet you. I heard Perius owes you a debt.”
The stranger's voice was incredibly deep. While it echoed as if speaking inside a cave, it was also clear and pure, evoking the image of a cavern lined with jewels. For a man, the pitch was quite high.
Belsus recognized the person as a 'man' the very moment he saw him. He hadn't even consciously debated whether it was a man or a woman; it was just an undeniable fact.
“Thank you so much for protecting him.”
The man clasped his hands together and bowed his head elegantly. Every movement was soft and fluid, exactly like a silver-winged butterfly taking human form. He was a beautiful man who strongly resembled the silver moon in the black sky.
Perius was the name Bard used in his theater troupe. Belsus recalled what he had heard from Heean.
Then who is this guy? Why is he thanking me on Bard's behalf? Are they close?
“I heard you saved Perius by grabbing his waist. I was quite impressed.”
The man hadn't properly shown his face, nor had he introduced himself. Since the beginning, rather than waiting for Belsus's reaction, he had only been saying his own piece.
Contrary to his words of gratitude, the stranger wasn't treating Belsus with much respect. Veins quietly bulged on Belsus's forearm.
“I know everything about Perius.”
The corners of his eyes, as delicate as butterfly wings, crinkled brightly. A pretty pink flush lingered on his eyelids.
When performing a reading, Belsus observed his opponent's gaze and facial muscles. He searched for the exact timing when their eyes shifted, that precise moment when a gleam entered their gaze, the 0.1-second window where they couldn't help but be plotting something in their minds.
Even so, whatever thoughts ended up rolling into his mind ultimately depended on luck. Belsus's ability was a probability-based, unstable trait.
{As a reward… a song just for you.}
Lips as perfect as molded balsam flowers parted. He began to hum a song.
“…!”
Belsus drew his scythe. The menacing blade carved a full circle in the air.
The azure blade whipped up a gust of wind. Strands of silver eyelashes fluttered gently.
Unable to actually sever the man's neck, the scythe halted, trembling. A cautious smile spread across the lips of the man, who had stopped singing.
“You are just as gentle as I've heard.”
The scythe hadn't taken his life, but the man stopped singing right there anyway. …However, Belsus had already heard a single measure.
“That's why your existence is problematic. Because I failed to become gentle…”
He had been spouting nothing but incomprehensible nonsense from the start. Unable to shake off the chills running down his spine, Belsus glared at the beautiful man while keeping his scythe firmly in place.
It was only a single measure, but the melody was bizarre. It was a lyricless hum, much like a simple tune breathed through the nose. Yet, it sounded like a song sung not by a human, but by a strange entity… like a fairy or a demon.
In the brief moment Belsus showed an opening, the man moved a hand inside his thick clothing.
Crash!
A glass bottle filled with a bright crimson liquid was smashed against the ground. Smoke of the same hue billowed upward. The man's silhouette was engulfed in the haze.
Thwack!
Belatedly, the scythe swung, aiming for the man's legs, but it merely sliced through the empty smoke and embedded itself in the wall.
In the now empty street, looking as if no one had been there to begin with, Belsus could do nothing but clench his jaw in frustration and glare into the void.
His delayed reaction was due to the complete lack of bloodlust.
He had definitely been hit by something. But what kind of attack was it, exactly?
That bizarre song kept echoing in his mind. Could a song actually harm a person?
If it could…
No, it couldn't be. That was impossible.
‘The singer named Persephone should be a woman, but that person was a man.’
Long before she was Bard's partner, she was a famous female soprano known by everyone across the continent. There was no way that man could be Persephone.
However, magic that attacks people with song is incredibly rare. Could a third person really exist?
Belsus spent a long time searching the surrounding area but failed to find any clues about the man.
---
Inside a pitch-black room, a green light radiated from a screen, illuminating the space.
I was clicking the mouse cursor over the crops on the monitor.
Although it was only on a screen, the farm was a massive estate. Lush, leafy crops sprawled out to take over the horizon. The fields, hard to capture in a single glance, looked like a miniature forest. Among the sturdy, vibrant stems hung plump, colorful vegetables. tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, and carrots.
[Cancel cabbage cultivation?]
[Yes / No]
I clicked ‘Yes’ to cut down on the excessive amount of cabbage and plant the newly acquired herbs in their place. With a single click of the mouse, a rustling sound effect played as the crops disappeared, instantly replaced by fresh new sprouts.
Amidst the freshly turned mounds of soil, I suddenly noticed something strange. I narrowed my eyes and scrolled down on the mouse to zoom in.
Buried in the dirt was a blue hand.
‘I feel like I've seen this hand somewhere before…’
Right at that moment, the blue hand shot out from the soil.
Filling the entire monitor as it drew closer, the blue hand reached out and wrapped firmly around my throat.
“Ah…!”
I tried to jump out of my seat, but my body wouldn't move properly. A chilling, icy thumb pressed down intensely on my Adam's apple.
“Ugh, hk…”
Groans slipped out easily enough. My throat wasn't completely constricted, so I could still breathe. However, the terrifying sensation that it could crush my windpipe at any second sent shivers down my spine.
A soft voice, impossible to tell if it belonged to a man or a woman, whispered.
‘Is it fun? The power to kill or save everyone with a single finger?’
The hand slowly released my neck and traced my face as if drawing over it, before sliding upwards. Its fingernails were unnaturally long, like a ghost's.
‘You pitiful soul… This is not a game.’
The nails dug into my left eyeball. There was no physical pain, but the sensation of a foreign object shoving its way into my eye was horribly vivid. A scream tore from my lips.
---
I shot up in bed. I was just trying to process what had happened to me when a loud Creeeeak…! echoed from beneath my body.
It was the sound of the bed collapsing.
“Ugh!”
I crashed straight to the floor. As my butt slammed into the ground, another Crack! rang out, sounding like something shattering. I scrambled to my feet with no time to register the pain.
I was dumbstruck; the interior of the house looked completely different from what I remembered.
‘Why is everything so dilapidated?’
It looked exactly like it did in its initial state.
Unable to hide my panic, I gathered myself, rubbing my throbbing side and rear, and got up. When I opened the front door, the view of the farm filled my vision.
The entire world was brown.
Rotten fruits rolled around on the ground. Some had even burst, leaking oozing fluids everywhere. Shrivelled, dried-up plants lay completely wiped out, collapsed on the soil like human corpses. Cruelly enough, only the sky remained pristine and clear.
“Why?”
I was so utterly stunned that I forgot to breathe for a moment, just staring blankly. Was this a dream? Am I still in a nightmare?
The sky was clear. There was no trace of a storm. More than anything, a simple weather event like a typhoon couldn't have caused this kind of devastation.
‘What is this sound…?’
Contorting my face, I covered my ears.
Aaaaaah…! Aaaaaah…. A mix of indistinguishable voices, neither definitively male nor female, rang out. Covering my ears didn't muffle them at all. It didn't seem like an actual, physical sound.
It sounded like a noise only I could hear.
‘…The screams of the plants?’
Ah. I started to remember a little of the dream I just had.
This is not a game… I think I heard something like that.
Trying to get used to the ceaseless screaming by repeatedly covering and uncovering my ears, I suddenly remembered something and spoke aloud.
“Belsus.”
Forgetting everything else, I whipped around and sprinted with all my might toward the annex.
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