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Once was an accident.
Twice was coincidence.
Every single time...
The woodcutter grew suspicious...
Ever since returning from the capital...
Had his younger brother ever actually studied properly?
The woodcutter resisted the urge to push open the door and enter his younger brother's study.
There was nothing to say.
He knew what was behind his younger brother's current state.
His younger brother's behavior kept making him revise just how much he cared about the Black Monster.
He had given his younger brother three months.
For those three months, he wouldn't do anything.
That was what he had promised his younger brother.
Unless things became truly serious, he didn't want to go back on his word.
The woodcutter had originally been quite confident about the three-month deadline...
But now...
The woodcutter wasn't so sure.
Three months from now...
Could his younger brother really keep his promise... and completely let go of everything related to the Black Monster?
What if he couldn't?
What should he do?
What would be best?
The woodcutter felt a headache coming on.
He really didn't understand...
What on earth had caused...
The Black Monster to appear...
And to keep haunting them so relentlessly.
Whatever the Black Monster was...
Leave his younger brother alone...
The woodcutter really couldn't help praying silently.
His younger brother kept going back and forth...
Every time he thought his younger brother was getting better, reality told him: no, he wasn't.
His younger brother was still inexplicably fixated on the Black Monster.
He couldn't understand it.
Everyone had an instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm.
Didn't they?
Knowing full well that the other party was a monster—
Whether or not that monster was real.
At any rate, the Young Scholar believed it was real.
Why would