Now or the Future, She Had to Choose One

Kas disdained using a mother's love for her child to turn around a deadly predicament. If Angeli wanted to take Nosa away, or let her daughter keep making mistakes, that was a mother's choice.

It was the final dignity of the dead, and he chose to respect it.

Kas, oh, Kas... had you really begun to believe that spirits could guide the living forward...

The only right thing to do was use this umbilical cord as bait, get close to Nosa, then destroy it to leave her unable to move and finish her off by force.

But... never mind. I figured I hadn't done anything wrong.

He gazed silently as Nosa took the umbilical cord from the crown of the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer King and placed it at her navel, feeling the nebulous love of her mother.

Ignoring the beasts that roared as they looked around, he waited quietly for the dying to finish their final words before they faded away.

Long afterward, the moon quietly reached the center of the sky, its cold light illuminating the little house in the forest.

The beasts slowly retreated. The Blood Vultures' mournful cries seemed to grieve for the vanished dead. Only the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer carrying the weeping girl remained.

Nosa gripped the cold umbilical cord and slid to the ground, holding the giant deer's long neck. Her eyes were filled with boundless sorrow, and the anger on her face was gone.

She whispered a few words into the bowed head of the giant deer. Its ears twitched slightly, and it tossed its head as if disagreeing with her decision.

"Be good, Angeli..."

The Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer raised her head and gazed at Kas before the house for a long while with her amber eyes, then slowly turned and walked away into the forest.

Just as when she had come, the flowers, grass, and bushes parted for her, while her pure white mane swayed in the breeze.

"I have to apologize to you, Kas... Just like Mother said, you're a good person."

Nosa gave a slight nod. Gone was the liveliness and furious frenzy she'd shown when they first met. She looked like a girl who had calmly accepted everything.

"But you can't understand what I've been through—my fate and my pain. You look down on me for consorting with beasts, and think that having them attack people is a sin.

Have you ever wondered who, besides my mother, ever treated the old me like a person?"

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

After learning about Nosa's past, Kas did feel a pang of sorrow.

"I can see you as a leader chosen by the beasts... I don't want to discuss the tedious moral questions between humans and beasts.

But one thing is certain: you knew full well that what you did was the greatest taboo in the Sorrow Mountains.

This wasn't about me. You wanted to kill me, but your real target was Seneya, because you wanted to make her like you!"

Nosa nodded calmly, making no attempt to defend what she had done. She gestured for Seneya to come out of the house.

At the sight of Seneya, Nosa's expression finally changed. Her voice trembled with sorrow.

"Big Sister Seneya, you and I are both people abandoned by fate. I know you dream of escaping the curse and getting to know him again, becoming close, then starting a happy family like everyone else who's found happiness.

But he's a lucky man. He's never known true loneliness, the kind of darkness that can swallow your entire soul.

He has no unbearable past, no pain that stabs him in the heart every time he remembers it, and no eternal curse haunting his soul, constantly reminding him that he's different from everyone else."

Little Red Riding Hood walked up to the Big Bad Wolf and tried once more to take her sharp paw in her small hand. Their eyes met: one pair flowing with amber, the other trembling and pink.

"Stay. Our fates are alike. Can he understand what it's like to be abandoned? If you go back to the human tribe with him, you'll spend the rest of your life surrounded by scorn and hatred. No one will go near a terrifying, cursed monster.

Even if you break the curse, they'll still remember that you used to be a werewolf."

Seneya wavered. So far, Nosa was the only person she could talk to, and she could see the undisguised affection in Nosa's eyes.

But that affection came more from the pity one felt for someone of their own kind, like two wolves licking each other's wounds.

Kas suddenly cut off Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

"You're a person, Seneya. Maybe you have painful memories like hers, but being able to recall the pain in your memories and remember that the scars still hurt—that's what makes you a person.

I don't know why you agreed to that old geezer's ridiculous words, but if you accept her invitation, you'll be no different from a beast on the Forgotten Grassland: living meaninglessly, ruled by the instinct to hunt, just like her...

Claiming you're a beast is nothing but an excuse to satisfy your desire for revenge."

He stepped forward, grabbed Seneya by the arm, and pulled her free of Nosa's grasp. His voice was firm and unwavering.

"The old geezer's words might be a little ridiculous, but he's still my nagging Ancestor. Seneya is my wife in name, so even if someone wants to steal her away, they should at least pick the right moment.

Back at the tribe, anyone who slanders her is insulting me. I'll split his skull with my axe."

The werewolf's gaze moved between Kas and Nosa. Her left eye was consumed by a mad crimson, while her right remained as sorrowful as snow.

She had to make a choice: stay in the forest with Nosa and endure the torment of the curse, or search for a way to break it with Kas amid suspicion and mistrust.

Now or the future, she had to choose one...

She chose Kas.

Seneya lowered her head and gave Nosa a soft growl, apologetic yet wary.

Nosa smiled. Moonlight shone on her cheek through her red velvet hood, making her smile seem desolate.

"But I never agreed to let you leave. I'm the proxy of the forest's will. You took a part of the forest, so I should take a part of you. That's only fair..."

"Heh."

Kas responded with scorn and said calmly, "You? You're just a little girl toyed with by a witch. Don't invent some pointless meaning to add to your miserable life."

"Kas, she's just a child whose fate was toyed with by a witch... We should be gentler with her." Morse jumped out of the window. In his eyes, a pale purple glow shimmered, a sign of sorrow, as he looked at Nosa.

"Don't say stupid things. I'm not denying that the witch was involved in her family's deaths, but what about everything afterward? The red velvet hood she wears, the human flesh she deliberately mixed into the pot—they were all her own choices!

The witch gave her a chance to choose! If I'm gentle with her, then who'll be gentle with the girl who died in the jaws of hyenas? Who will answer for the innocent people who died unjustly in the forest?!"

As his near-shouted words ended, a thick hand suddenly closed around Nosa's slender neck. Kas's icy blue eyes brimmed with murderous intent.

"Nosa, Angeli didn't take you away, but I can't let you live. Showing you mercy would be disrespectful to all the dead."

Nosa's petite body was lifted into the air. The wind swept back her red velvet hood, and her golden hair whipped wildly.

She smiled and glanced at Seneya. "Big Sister Seneya, did you find warmth in him?"

"Aowu~" Seneya nodded emphatically.

Nosa lowered her eyes and murmured softly.

"That's good..."

"I have one request, Kas."

"Say it."

Nosa's tightly clenched left hand revealed the withered umbilical cord.

"Kill me with the umbilical cord Mother left behind."