Now and Future, Choose One

Kas disdained using a mother's love for her child to turn the tide of a life-or-death struggle; if Angeli wanted to take Nosa away, or indulge her daughter's continued transgressions, that was a mother's choice to make.

This was the final dignity of the departed, and he chose to respect it.

Kas, oh Kas, have you truly begun to believe that "spirits" can guide the path of the living...

The only correct course of action would have been to use this umbilical cord as bait, draw Nosa into close range, destroy the cord to strip her of her mobility, and finish her off physically.

But... never mind, I suppose I did the right thing.

He watched in silence as Nosa removed the umbilical cord from the crown of the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer, placed it over her navel, and felt the ethereal love of her mother.

He ignored the beasts circling and snarling, waiting quietly for the dying to finish their final words as their presence faded away.

Long after, the moon arrived silently at the center of the sky, its cold, clear light illuminating the forest cabin.

The beasts slowly retreated, and the shrill, mournful cries of the Blood Vultures seemed to be mourning the vanished dead, leaving only the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer carrying the weeping girl.

Nosa gripped the cold umbilical cord, hugged the deer's slender neck, and slid to the ground; her eyes were filled with infinite sorrow, the initial expression of rage gone.

She whispered a few words into the ear of the bowing deer; the deer's ears twitched slightly, and it shook its head as if disapproving of her decision.

"Be obedient, Angeli..."

The Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer raised its head, gazed at Kas in front of the cabin with its amber eyes for a long moment, then slowly turned and strolled away into the woods.

Just as it had arrived, the flowers and bushes parted for it, its pure white fur rippling in the breeze.

"I must apologize to you, Kas... just as Mother said, you are a good man."

Nosa nodded slightly, having lost the liveliness and manic rage she possessed when they first met, appearing like a girl who had calmly accepted everything.

"But you cannot understand my experiences, my fate, or my pain. You despise me for being with the beasts, and you think it is a sin that I let the beasts attack people.

Have you ever considered, other than my mother, who has ever treated me like a human?"

The girl narrated calmly, as if telling the story of a stranger.

After learning of Nosa's past, a flicker of sorrow truly rose in Kas's heart.

"I can view you as a... leader chosen by the beasts; I don't want to discuss the boring ethics between humans and beasts.

But there is one piece of concrete evidence: you knew full well that this was the most taboo act in the Sorrow Mountains.

This wasn't aimed at me—you wanted to kill me—this was aimed at Seneya, because you wanted to make her just like you!"

Nosa nodded calmly, having no intention of defending her actions. She raised a hand to invite Seneya, who was hiding in the cabin, to come out.

Facing Seneya, Nosa's expression finally changed, her trembling voice laced with sorrow:

"Sister Seneya, you and I are the same—both cast aside by fate. I know you fantasize about breaking the curse, getting to know him again, becoming familiar, and then forming a complete family like all happy people.

But he is a lucky man; he has never experienced true loneliness, that darkness that can swallow the entire soul.

He has no unbearable past, no pain that stabs his heart every time he remembers it, and certainly no eternal curse lingering on his soul, constantly reminding you that you are different from everyone else."

Little Red Riding Hood walked up to the Big Bad Wolf, once again trying to take those sharp claws into her small hands, her flowing amber eyes meeting the trembling pink ones.

"Stay. We share a similar fate. Can he understand the heart of an outcast? If you follow him back to the human tribe, you will only spend the rest of your life in contempt and hatred; no one will go near a terrifying, cursed monster.

Even if you break the curse, they will still remember that you were once a werewolf."

Seneya was wavering. Up until now, Nosa was the only one who could communicate with her, and she could see the undisguised love in Nosa's eyes.

But that love was more like the pity of meeting one of her own kind, like wolves licking each other's wounds.

Kas suddenly interrupted the exchange between Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf:

"You are a human, Seneya. Perhaps you and she both have agonizing memories, but it is precisely because humans can recall the sensation of pain in their memories, and mark the brand of still being able to feel pain today, that they can be called human.

I don't know why you agreed to the old man's absurd words, but if you accept her invitation, there is no difference between you and being a beast in the Forgotten Grassland, living meaninglessly by obeying the predatory instincts of your body, just like her...

The reason she considers herself a beast is nothing more than an excuse to satisfy the desire for revenge in her heart."

He stepped forward, grabbed Seneya's arm, and pulled her away from Nosa's grasp, his tone firm and unwavering:

"The old man's words might be a bit ridiculous, but he is my nagging Ancestor, after all. Seneya is my wife in name, and even stealing someone else's woman requires picking the right time.

After we return to the tribe, whoever dares to slander her is insulting me, and I'll crack their skull open with an axe."

The werewolf's gaze wandered between Kas and Nosa; her left eye was occupied by a frantic crimson, while her right eye remained as sorrowful as snow.

She had to make a decision: stay in the forest and endure the torture of the curse with Nosa, or search for a way to break the curse with Kas amidst suspicion and doubt.

The present and the future—one had to be chosen...

She chose Kas.

Seneya lowered her head and let out a soft growl at Nosa, the sound filled with both apology and vigilance.

Nosa smiled; the moonlight shone on her cheeks through her red velvet hood, making her smile look desolate.

"But I did not agree to let you go. I am the proxy for the will of the forest. You have taken a part of the forest, so I should rightfully take a part of you. That is only fair..."

"Heh."

Kas retorted with a sneer, stating calmly: "You? You're just a little girl toyed with by a witch. Don't go adding groundless meaning to your own miserable life."

"Kas, she is merely a child whose fate was toyed with by a witch... we should be gentler." Morse leaped out from the window, his eyes fixed on Nosa, where a faint violet glow symbolizing sorrow flickered within her sockets.

"Don't speak such foolishness. I don't deny that the death of her family was linked to the witch, but what of everything that followed? The red velvet hood she wears, the human flesh she deliberately mixed into the pot—those were all her own choices!

The witch gave her a chance to choose! If I am gentle with her, who will be gentle with the girl who died in the jaws of a hyena? Who will answer for the innocents who perished unjustly in the forest?!"

As his near-roaring declaration ended, a thick, calloused hand clamped around Nosa's slender neck without warning, Kas's ice-blue eyes filled with killing intent:

"Nosa, Angeli did not take you away, but I cannot tolerate your continued existence. Mercy toward you is an insult to all the departed."

Nosa's petite body was hoisted into the air, the wind whipping back her red velvet hood to reveal her golden-silk hair swaying in a desolate dance.

She smiled, her eyes shifting to glance at Seneya: "Sister Seneya, have you found warmth in him?"

"Aowu~" Seneya nodded with absolute certainty.

Nosa lowered her gaze, whispering softly:

"That is good..."

"I have one request, Kas."

"Speak."

Nosa opened her tightly clenched left hand, revealing a shriveled umbilical cord:

"Use the umbilical cord my mother left behind to kill me."