Adopt 172

Episode 172

Regrettably—or perhaps fortunately—Cesare never saw the expression on Belinda’s face as she looked at him.

“You really are… hopeless, Sir.”

Her words were a whisper, laced with a touch of laughter.

“Why would you say something like that at a time like this? It’s just so…”

Like a death flag.

Belinda bit back the words. At some point, she realized Cesare was now lying with his eyes closed, exhaling faint, shallow breaths.

The hand she held in her own was inexplicably cold.

“Cherry Knight.”

“…Yes.”

“Cherry Knight, are you asleep?”

“I’m just… a bit tired.”

Cesare tilted his head slowly toward her, and with difficulty, moved his stiff arm to bring their joined hands to his chest.

Through the thin fabric, she could feel the firm muscles of his chest and the slow, steady beat of his heart beneath her fingertips.

“My lady, please… do not forget that I am here with you.”

He spoke no more after that.

Belinda, too, called to him no further—she simply focused on the heartbeat pulsing in her palm.

A slow, ponderous beat, like that of a great creature gliding through deep water.

Amidst the terrifying cold stillness of the forest, Belinda pressed her forehead to Cesare’s shoulder, still clutching his heartbeat in her hand.

The longest night of her life had begun.

---

Cherry Knight was right: holding his hand truly did help me.

I endured the suffocating, chilling silence of the forest—so intense it made me question if I were still alive—by holding fast to his hand.

Occasionally, when I felt I could bear it no longer, I buried my face against his chest and listened to the heartbeat pounding like the surf, soothing my anxiety.

‘I’m all right.’

Half a day in the forest feels like four days. At most, a single day here would be eight days outside.

Not even a day has passed here—there’s still time.

Trying to reassure myself, sometimes I couldn’t help but think of his fate in , especially whenever the chill of his poison-numbed skin touched mine.

In , Belinda refused the duke’s offer of a marriage alliance.

So the Harrington Mine remained in the Blanche family’s hands, and Cherry Knight, having sealed the mines, was likely haunted by memories of Theodore.

And then?

What happened afterward?

Did Theodore never break free from the mines?

Perhaps, after Belinda’s death, the Blanche family might have sought to reclaim the mining rights at Harrington.

If Theodore was alive until then, would Cherry Knight be forced again to kill him?

No, perhaps there would have been an avalanche like this time as well.

The string of ‘what ifs’ seemed endless, threatening to drive me mad.

Anxiety continually pressed at my back, and the silence that might have deafened me continued unbroken.

Nevertheless, time passed, and soon the faintest sliver of moon gave way to deeper night.

It was so dark that I could no longer make out Cesare’s features.

Then, somewhere far off, a pale light glimmered faintly between the trees.

At first, I thought it was dawn breaking.

But at that moment, my ears—long surrendered to darkness—were pierced by a sudden, sharp noise.

Crack.

Instinctively, I gripped Cesare’s hand tighter.

Crack, crack.

Something in the darkness was drawing closer, breaking through the crusted frost that covered the ground.

Like cracks spreading in the ice of a frozen lake, the sound grew nearer.

I checked my magical vessel.

Whether time actually moved slower here or not, it seemed less than a day had passed, yet my empty vessel was now brimming, nearly overflowing with magic.

I prepared to summon Kao at any moment, never taking my eyes from the source of the sound.

As I blinked, tension holding me rigid, the faint white light—like a distant flicker—shot toward me like a falling star.

“…!”

I held my breath, about to summon Kao instantly.

But the beam was far too small and slender to be the coming of dawn.

It was a white weasel, no larger than an adult’s finger.

It halted, just a step away, gazing up at me.

“Leo…?”

Was I dreaming? Perhaps the forest was showing me a hallucination.

If so, this was a cruel joke.

I watched, unable to believe, as Leo appeared out of the darkness, led by the messenger-beast’s light.

In the forest’s illusion, Leo wore an unmistakably sullen face.

Yet, despite knowing I shouldn’t trust such illusions, I found myself asking inanely,

“Leo, are you angry with me?”

In the vision, Leo didn’t answer right away, as he usually would. Instead, he held the white weasel in his hands.

Then, with an unreadable expression—caught between anger and tears—he spoke.

“I don’t know.”

Leo slowly drew closer, mumbling petulantly.

“You always… always lie to me, Belinda. You always say it’s nothing, that you’ll be right back…”

Then, quite suddenly, the messenger-beast in his hand vanished, snuffed like a candle flame, and Leo’s face was swallowed by darkness.

He must have run out of magic, unable even to maintain a single messenger-beast.

And then, from behind came the faint sound of Sir Fenadel saying something.

Even if this was just another forest-born vision, I didn’t care.

I addressed the darkness where Leo had just stood.

“Leo, it’s too dark—I can’t see your face. So…”

I had meant to ask him to come closer.

Fortunately, a white spark reappeared at Leo’s fingertips.

But this was not the light of the messenger-beast.

No matter how hard I looked, the glow did not blind like a firefly’s flare, nor did it radiate any magical power.

Fenadel, who had been approaching us, stopped in his tracks.

A system window hovered above Leo’s head, but my eyes remained fixed on the rapturous glow blossoming at the child’s fingertip.

Even without checking the system, I knew at once what it was.

But Leo himself seemed unaware of what he’d done.

“I hate you, Belinda.”

He stood just a single step away from me, lips pressed tight, eyes meeting mine.

It was impossible not to see, beneath his words of hate, the depths of longing and worry they contained.

Aura—a power said to manifest only when one’s very life is at stake.

Leo’s hand now shone with that aura.

Not to protect himself, but driven by a desperate need simply to push back the darkness—Leo had awakened aura.

For a long while, I could not speak.

Only now, by the light of aura, did I truly see him.

It was a chill night, but Leo was drenched in sweat, and his shoes were a mess of crushed grass and mud.

Finally, it dawned on me.

The Leo before me was no hallucination conjured by the forest.

“Leo, I’m sorry.”

“…I don’t know.”

“It was my fault. I’ll never leave you alone and disappear again.”

As if at last he’d reached his limit, Leo threw his arms around me.

[The ‘Hero’s Star’ has awakened the Aura of Light.
Some conditions have been unlocked, and linked quests are updated.]

While the petal-pink system window sparkled above Leo, I clung to the solid warmth in my arms for a very long time, holding him tight with every ounce of strength I had.

---

Thanks to Sir Fenadel and Leo, who had scoured the forest for us time and time again, Cherry Knight and I were rescued and returned safely to the castle.

We’d spent barely a day in the woods, but outside, a full week had passed.

As soon as we arrived at the castle, I did nothing but eat and sleep, sleep and eat, never leaving my bed, concentrating solely on recovering my vitality and health.

It was Cherry Knight who had nearly died of poisoning, but—irksomely—he was back on his feet in just three days, possessed of monstrous resilience.

He was busy managing the aftermath of Theodore’s rampage every morning, but every afternoon he and Leo visited me together, both wearing grave expressions as they checked my health and looked after me personally.

And so, on the fifteenth day after our escape from the forest—

Fully recovered, I sat Cherry Knight and Sir Fenadel before me and was confronted with a most serious reality.

“So you’re saying that Leo seems to have realized something.”

“Yes, my lady. When I explained why we needed the young master’s help to find you and my lord, he seemed to dimly sense something.”

Finding someone missing in the Enchanted Forest is never easy—but not impossible.

This time, there was the pressing ten-day time limit.

Thanks to Cherry Knight’s suspicions and the head maid’s hint that I was searching for the Harper couple, Sir Fenadel had come to his own conviction that Leo must be Endymion.

I could not suppress a sigh.

After seeing Leo move so deftly through the Enchanted Forest, it was clear he was of Valuashuten blood—that he was Endymion.

The problem now was that Leo, too, seemed to have learned as much.

Of course, still unaware of the tragedies woven around the Valuashutens, Leo probably thought himself just a distant relation.

I still wasn’t sure whether to tell the boy about his parents.

‘He’ll be devastated if he finds out his father became a beast.’

I glanced sidelong at Cherry Knight.

He too looked deeply troubled, lost in thought.

Then, as if somehow aware that the adults were gathering for a secret conference, Leo peeked into the room and entered.

“Belinda, are you very busy?”

Leo hovered in the doorway, hesitantly eyeing Cherry Knight and Sir Fenadel.

“Um… I have something I want to say to Belinda alone. Just her…”

The adults’ gazes met in the air.

I understood at once, instinctively.

Whatever Leo wanted to say, it was about his origins.

“I’ll wait outside until you’re finished. Call me if you need anything.”

Cherry Knight, looking braced for anything, left the room with Sir Fenadel.

After a moment’s anxious hesitation, Leo spoke.

“Belinda, I think I’ve discovered a tremendous secret.”

“…Yes. So you finally figured it out.”

Leo’s eyes widened in surprise, and then he nodded.

“So you knew all along.”

He dropped his voice to a whisper, leaning in as if to share the utmost confidence.

“I… I’m descended from the First King, aren’t I?”

“…?”

Wait, what? That’s not it at all.