Silent Echoes

Kas, standing by the window, nodded with extreme difficulty, understanding the meaning behind the Ancestor's words.

The totem of the Zagwell Clan is a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer.

Legend has it that it was precisely because he was nourished by the life-force-filled milk of a doe that their forefather, Voon, possessed a sturdy body capable of grinding granite into powder.

Totems are an incredibly complex concept in Reshman; clans choose them for worship based on their habitats, history, and legends.

However, this worship is not an act of idolatry like that of gods, but rather the belief that they share some mysterious connection with the symbol of their totem.

Clans that make their living by fishing choose the sturgeon as their totem, hoping to catch more fish every day—this is a prayer for a bountiful harvest.

Clans famous for bear hunting revere and tame bears, yet they also use bear hunting to prove their mettle.

Totems come with various taboos; the Zagwell Clan believes that since Voon was raised by a doe, all deer are a form of kin, and fratricide is a sin that neither man nor god can tolerate.

In the eyes of Morse, the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer that Nosa is riding is his own blood kin, and it is so rare that one could likely not find another like it in the entire Sorrow Mountains.

Amidst Nosa's incessant roaring, Morse slammed his head against the wall, muttering in complaint:

"Damn it, this isn't normal. Even that woman Dagmar never succeeded in taming a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer. Could a wild girl from the woods actually pull it off?

No, no, that's impossible. I've only heard of one legend where someone became an ally to a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer..."

He pondered incessantly, the fire in his eyes flickering violently, before suddenly springing up and bumping into the back of Kas's head, his tone extremely agitated:

"I've got it! This is all Hadi's plan. He knew there was a Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer here and hoped you could free it from the Beast Speaker's control.

Yes, yes, that must be it! We have to save it from Little Red Riding Hood's hands!"

The Ancestor was busy proving his own logic, but Kas thought it was complete nonsense. The state of that Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer was entirely different from other beasts; its demeanor was elegant and integrated with nature, showing absolutely no signs of being manipulated.

He shrugged his shoulders: "Well, now even the possibility of taking action has been stripped away. Later, use that incessant mouth of yours to talk her into letting us go."

"Let's see what she wants first." Morse's eyes flashed with a scorching light before his voice gradually faded:

"I'm still here, kid..."

With the Ancestor's assurance, Kas walked toward the main gate, only to be grabbed by the arm by a furry hand.

Seneya shook her head gently, her soft, pink pupils filled with worry.

He raised his hand to stroke Seneya's slender cheek; that woman who resembled moonlight seemed to overlap with the werewolf before him.

Kas, oh Kas, have you eaten too many mushrooms? How could that woman, who looks as cold and clear as the moon, possibly be the silly Miss Aowu in front of you?

"Seneya, if the situation changes later, you must leave immediately... You finally escaped the Forgotten Grassland; you cannot be thrown back into a cage."

Kas patted the werewolf's cheek to wake her from her reddening eyes and took a piece of dried deer antler from his tool bag, forcibly stuffing it into her hand:

"If I die, take this antler to Her Tribe. The Old Shaman will help you break the curse...

Remember, you were born free."

"Awoo~" Tears welled up in the werewolf lady's eyes, as if asking, if I leave, what will happen to you?

"Me? Heh, don't worry too much. Perhaps death is the very path that leads me home."

Kas was referring to the possibility that his experiences over the past few days were merely a dream, and that the death of this body might return him to the familiar, mundane world to continue being an ordinary corporate slave.

But Seneya clearly could not guess the true meaning of these words; her eyes trembled, and her rounded nose gently touched Kas's lips.

"Awoo~"

Kas pushed Seneya away, raised his hands in a mock surrender, and stepped out of the house, facing hundreds of terrifying beasts.

He watched as the steel bristles on the backs of the man-sized Iron-Bristle Pigs stood on end, saw the Frost Wolves exhale cold air capable of freezing steel into shards, noticed the Saber-Toothed Tigers baring their fangs in the woods, and heard the Blood Vultures circling in the sky, emitting shrill cries.

Yet, in that dense, oppressive atmosphere, he said to Nosa, who sat atop the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer, with a flippant demeanor:

"Looks like the little pig heard the call."

"What did you do to my family, Kas!"

Nosa's face, behind the crown-like antlers of the giant deer, was twisted with ferocity. She drew her bow to its limit, and an arrow pierced the silent night sky, striking Kas precisely in the shoulder.

This time, in the physical world of reality, Kas failed to deflect this arrow fueled by rage.

His body jolted, but he treated the arrow embedded in his shoulder as if it were nothing, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face:

"Let me think... I burned your father's spirit and smashed his remains with an axe... Yes, that's right, he still wanted to kill me even before he was annihilated.

And your mother—I must express my apologies regarding this matter. I found the umbilical cord of you and your brother in her remains. Without a doubt, the voice you heard came from the call of blood."

Kas took out the shriveled umbilical cord from his tool bag. The passage of time had made this connection, which symbolized selfless love, fragile, and after the kneading just now, it looked like a twisted, wrinkled sausage casing.

"You're saying that call came from my mother?"

Nosa's surprised expression suggested she had not expected this result at all. Her gaze darted back and forth, hoping to find a trace of her mother in the cabin she had built with her own hands.

She drew her bow again, and another arrow pierced Kas's left shoulder:

"Lies!"

Kas's body jolted again. If he continued like this, he might turn into a hedgehog...

His thumb pinched the end of the umbilical cord, and his fingernail picked at the greasy wrinkles, causing a half-centimeter piece of the broken cord to fall onto the dusty ground.

"You..." Nosa had just begun to speak when a violent pain surged from her abdomen, a sensation so intense it felt as if it were spreading from her core to her entire body.

She tore open her soft linen undergarment, and a strange, dull blood seeped out from her navel.

Wiping it with her hand, she found no trace of blood on her skin, yet the blood flowing from her navel down her body shimmered with the brilliance of gold.

Low whispers echoed in her ears, a gentle voice she had never heard before, the voice of the woman who had only ever appeared in her memories...

"Mother..." Nosa released her grip on the bow and clutched her stomach tightly, her face hidden beneath her red velvet hat as she let out a low, whimpering sob.

Kas had tossed this umbilical cord, entrusted to him by Angeli, to Nosa; that kind mother had never appeared, yet she had always watched over her daughter as she grew.

Unlike her husband's twisted love born of the vanity of prophecy, Angeli had always held only one simple thought—to accompany her.

Even when mocked by fate and turned into a sacrifice for shamanic prophecies and witch's curses, she remained her mother...

This umbilical cord was the only way a mother could discipline a child who had strayed onto a lost path.

And Kas had chosen to place this lethal tether, for Nosa, back into her own hands.