"Husband."
The woman looked confused. "You..."
"Don't be angry."
No matter how angry he was, he shouldn't hit anyone.
"Your younger brother was under the monster's influence, too..."
"I'm not angry—"
No.
The woodcutter shook his head.
Seeing his younger brother like this, of course he was angry.
But not in the way the woman thought.
"I was just trying to make him calm down."
From the way the Young Scholar had been acting just now, the woodcutter felt that if he hadn't interrupted him, the Young Scholar would have driven himself mad...
Though the woodcutter wasn't so sure anymore...
Had the Young Scholar...
gone mad?
Probably not.
But it felt like he was very, very close.
If the Young Scholar still refused to let go of his obsession with the Black Monster.
"Damn it!"
The woodcutter cursed viciously.
The Black Monster could have appeared at any time, but it had to show up now.
Things had been going so smoothly, too.
His younger brother had told them he was giving up.
He'd said he was ready to let go.
They'd all been so happy.
They'd thought this was the answer they'd been waiting for.
Who could have known...
They hadn't even had much time to savor their happiness...
before everything took a sharp turn for the worse.
Everything...
seemed to have gone back to the worst-case scenario.
The woman shook her head slightly.
"Let's get your younger brother inside first."
Her heart felt heavy.
What would happen next...?
She didn't know...
When the Young Scholar woke, the sky outside had turned dusky yellow.
Vast swathes of sunset clouds filled the sky.
They had dyed nearly half the world red.
The Young Scholar felt dazed.
He didn't know what day or time it was...