Chapter 25

Talli woke up to the melodious chirping of birds and the faint scent of fresh grass carried by the breeze.

When she opened her eyes, the sky was already painted with the orange hues of a sunset.

She had slept for almost an entire day.

There was no hard stone or mud beneath her, instead, it felt soft. She couldn’t help but move her body, stretching her stiff neck, making a cracking sound.

She froze for a moment.

Only then did she realize she was trapped in the young man’s arms. She was sitting on his lap, leaning against his chest, and it seemed that nearly a whole day had passed like this.

Her mind blanked for a second.

She pinched the palm of her right hand, finding it empty.

Before she could react, the young man, who had been pretending to nap with his face turned to the side and his eyelashes lowered, spoke, his voice as if the breeze had brought it to her ear. “You’re awake?”

He didn’t turn his face, nor did he look at Talli. His hair covered one side of his face, and he extended a hand, his fingers distinct and almost translucent, the nails neatly trimmed. His index finger and thumb pinched a broken arrow, making Talli’s heart feel as if it had fallen into an icy pit.

“Looking for this?”

Talli immediately reached out to grab it, but his hand gently lifted, using the length of his arm to easily raise the arrow out of her reach.

“…Give it back!”

Talli, like a cat, tugged at his sleeve, trying to pull his arm down.

The young man’s hand remained steady, not moving.

“…”

Talli grew tired of pulling. She looked at the young man’s long hair, bit her lip, and after a long pause, spoke in a low voice.

“…You’re not dusk.”

The young man paused for a moment in his actions.

Seizing the opportunity, Talli jumped out of his arms, stretched her hand out, and snatched the arrow from his palm, putting it into her quiver.

She turned around, but before she could move, her collar was yanked up.

The young man behind her seemed to have stood up. He was tall, taller than anyone Talli had ever seen. When the shadow behind him fell over her, it completely covered her small frame, bringing a strong sense of pressure.

He stretched out his long arm and hooked his fingers into her collar, lifting her up as if she were a small animal.

Talli tugged at her collar, her face turning red as her legs dangled in the air. She kicked her legs back. “Let me go!!”

She didn’t expect the young man to actually listen to her. He loosened his grip, and Talli fell, stumbling and sitting down hard on the ground.

“Ugh!”

She held her lower back, wincing in pain. Before she could get angry, the tall figure loomed over her.

Talli stared wide-eyed.

The young man bent down to look at her. His medium-length blue hair covered one of his eyes, while the other eye, like a ruby, curved slightly upward—full of emotions, both affectionate and cold—shining with the proud, sly light of a fox.

“How does it feel?”

As the young man lowered his eyelashes to look at her, his long lashes seemed so close that they almost brushed her skin. His warm breath scattered lightly over her forehead as he spoke.

It was a bit ticklish.

“…What?”

“How does it feel to be lifted by your neck, like being hauled up?”

“…”

Talli turned her face away, refusing to look at him.

“That’s not all.”

Deritz reached out, grabbing her right hand and pulling it toward him, guiding it to his neck.

Talli was startled by his sudden movement. Instinctively, she tried to pull her hand back, but the young man’s cold, strong left hand gripped her tightly, keeping her from moving. He pressed her hand to his neck.

She felt the cool leather under her fingertips, rough and uneven as if engraved with intricate markings, sending sensory signals to her nerves.

Along with it, she felt the cool, delicate skin near his collarbone, slightly raised. Talli couldn’t see it, but she could feel it so clearly that her heart involuntarily began to race.

The young man’s palm suddenly tightened.

Tightly, leaving no space, and Talli’s hand was squeezed, causing a slight pain.

“This is also from you.”

He smiled, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Do you remember?”

“…”

She couldn’t pull away.

Talli lowered her head, clenched her fist tightly, and after a long pause, she looked up, her deep purple eyes meeting his red ones. Raising her voice slightly, she said,

“If you don’t like it, then give it back to me!”

The intimidation of his red eyes was strong, and it made Talli involuntarily remember the blood moon that had risen that night. Just by looking into his eyes, Talli knew that he was not an ordinary beast.

In fact, he might not even be a beast at all.

She let her arms hang at her sides, her clenched fists trembling slightly. Then, she decisively closed her eyes and said to him,

“That was for Dusk! If you don’t like it, if you think it’s humiliating, then just give it back to me!”

The other side suddenly fell silent, with no movement.

After a long while, Deritz slowly spoke:

“…It is indeed humiliating.”

Talli lowered her head, gritting her teeth.

“—But I never said I don’t want it.”

He released his grip, and Talli quickly pulled her hand back, cautiously drawing it close to her chest and stepping back several paces.

“The things you give me, of course, I will cherish them well.”

Deritz looked at the girl’s face, which had turned slightly pale from fear, and couldn’t help but curl the corner of his lips.

“Moreover, it’s engraved with my name. If it’s engraved with my name, then it’s mine. No one can take it from me.”

He saw the girl pause for a moment, her trembling lips parting slightly in disbelief.

“…You… don’t you hate me? Isn’t that right?”

A powerful, mysterious figure, once a dark shadow, ended up severely injured for some unknown reason, sold in the black market, and reduced to being at the mercy of others. Yet, by some twist of fate, a naïve little girl bought him, trained him like a pet, and kept him under her roof. Under “threat,” he was even forced to lower his head in humiliation and wear the shameful collar…

He should hate her, despise her.

But the young man didn’t answer her question.

He crouched in front of her, tilted his head, propped his chin up, and, avoiding the main point, asked, “What about you? Do you hate Dusk?”

Talli turned her head, not looking into his eyes.

“…I don’t hate it.”

“It’s arrogant, bad-tempered, and has even scratched you.”

Talli listened to him criticizing the little fox, her hand instinctively moving, lightly resting on the back of her hand. The three blood marks on her skin had scabbed over, and something seemed to be pulsing under the skin. The healing process made her skin itch.

“Even so,”

Talli tightened her hand, pressing it against the raised scab. She raised her voice slightly.

“I still don’t hate it. It’s the little fox!”

Deritz almost lost his balance, his cheek nearly slipping from his palm. Before he could speak, he heard Talli’s voice lower, becoming soft in the wind of the fading dusk, with a hint of tenderness that seemed almost like an illusion.

“…And, it saved me.”

After she finished speaking, she added seriously:

“Many times.”

“That was me.”

Deritz spoke up right after.

He leaned closer to her, and Talli instinctively leaned back.

“The one who saved you is me.”

“…”

He paused after each word, speaking slowly and seriously.

The girl leaned back slightly, her arms still in a defensive position in front of her, still vigilantly guarding against him.

Guarding against her Dusk.

“…”

She stubbornly refused to speak.

The young man seemed to sigh.

In the blink of an eye,

A white, fluffy rabbit was pinched by its ears and brought in front of her. The rabbit’s three-part mouth was still chewing on a few blades of grass, looking completely confused about what was happening.

“Go cook,”

Deritz said, “We’re having roasted rabbit legs tonight.”

Talli widened her eyes. “Where did this come from?”

She hadn’t seen it earlier, and he hadn’t gone hunting.

“It ran into me.”

Deritz threw the rabbit into her arms, stood up, and walked to one side to sit down.

“…Silly, clueless rabbit.”

Talli placed her hand on her empty stomach, which had been without food all day and was so hungry it almost cramped.

She reached up and grabbed the rabbit, which had finally figured out what was going on and was struggling to run away with its short legs. She walked toward the nearby firewood pile.

By the time she finished preparing the rabbit and got the campfire going, the sun had almost completely dipped below the horizon. The Dusk covered the forest, and the sky began to show scattered stars, twinkling like gems under the deep blue sky.

The fire blazed up.

In the evening Dusk, the crackling flames and wood blended together, releasing the warm scent of burning wood and the fresh aroma of roasted meat.

Talli sat down by the fire, hugging her knees, her chin resting on her knees.

A shadow covered her in the flickering light of the fire.

Talli tilted her head slightly.

The young man also moved closer and sat by the fire with her, folding one leg, quietly waiting for dinner. His profile, outlined by the flickering flames, was clear and distinct, with delicate and beautiful lines, as if no stroke were unnecessary. While she couldn’t see his eyes from this angle, she could still feel his lazy and noble presence. His cheek rested against the back of his hand, his expression languid and completely unguarded.

It all felt strangely familiar.

His aura reminded her of the deity she had seen in a dream. However, one could never truly gaze upon the face of a deity directly. After seeing it, it fades away, and to clearly remember the divine’s appearance would be pure folly. Otherwise, the illustrations in books about arrogant rulers wouldn’t be so simplistic and ambiguous, with their eyes never even dared to be depicted.

…Dusk couldn’t possibly have some connection to the world’s vortex, could it?

Talli thought again of the terrifying creature she had seen the previous night—its dark form like a black goat, covered in swirling black mist, evoking a chilling fear.

“—The Abyss.”

A clear, cold voice suddenly came, as though it were broken by branches, leaking through the gaps like cold moonlight.

“The ancient creatures you saw last night came from the Abyss,”

Deritz said, holding a dry piece of wood in one hand, boredly fiddling with the flames in front of him. The firelight cast his right hand in an elegant, almost translucent jade-like glow, with the protruding joints, shadows in the depressions, and fragile violet veins beneath the thin skin all clearly visible.

“—And I, am the same.”

—

Author’s Note:

Deritz: Listen carefully, I’m about to start making stuff up.

Lily: .