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Bareth's Plain, Pinewood Forest—Campsite [ Morning / Hazy ].

"...yawn," waking up from his tent the night after the group had dinner, the young man, Sanke slowly made his way out of the tent in a tired manner. "...another day, I live through to see a new blue sky... Huh?"

Still, with drowsy eyes, Sanke solemnly turned to look at the hazy skies of the plains.

"Well... Not exactly blue skies since it's been snow and snow... But the point is still there I guess," muttering out to himself, he subconsciously rubbed his eyes whilst attempting to rid away from  "Ahem... Whatever. I guess I should start packing up ahead of the others to be on the move again..."

Quietly making through the morning snow that filled the grounds of the campsite, his eyes turned towards the area where they had dinner last night and, with his steps suddenly stopping, he was reminded of the events that had occurred the day before.

"..."

...

Bareth's Plain, Pinewood Forest—Campsite [ Evening / Previous Day ].

"Nicole, huh?" Hearing the reply from the child, Lier slowly moved her hands over to the kid. With a smile, she gently patted her head. "That's nice~! Nicole's a beautiful name compared to something like 'Lier', who even thought about that? I could have used something like Armanda, or Catherine! Cooler sounding names!"

"What?" Renryth glared at Lier. "How could you not like something like Lier? 'Leer' sounds nice!"

"People could think that Lier could be pronounced Liar!" Lier pouted. "That kind of misunderstanding... It hurts! Not a cool name!"

"Mm..." Nicole seemingly pouted. "Mama Lier... It's a nice name!"

"Huh?" Lier turned over towards Nicole in a dumbfounded manner. "N-Nice?"

"Yeah! Very nice! Sounds cool!" she excitedly stated.

"Well... I think Lier's a beautiful and cool name too," Sanke mumbled out with his hand tightly blocking his mouth.

"Huh? What was that?" Renryth slightly smirked. "Could you repeat yourself, Sanke?"

"A-Ahem... Enough of that! Why did the topic suddenly turn to that of Lier's name?!" Sanke grumbled. "Wearn't we talking about Nicole??"

"Mama Lier and Papa Sanke!" Nicole jumped over towards the two staggered people in front of her and hugged them.

"C-Cough... That's out of the blue to say..." Sanke averted his gaze away in awkwardness. "Wearn't we like having dinner or something?"

"Meh, you said the food was burnt, so would you have even eaten all of it?" Lier glared at Sanke. "You might as well regain all your energy with this precious hug!"

"...sigh," Sanke uttered out with a sigh. "Well... I guess the hug is pretty nice..."

"Ahem... I hate to parade down on your get-together, but..." Renryth sighed. "...leaving things on this note may rather be albeit more difficult for us in the long term? We don't know the girl enough to trust her."

"Mm..." Nicole's grip on the two tightened as she heard Renryth. "I-If... I-If I answer your questions... I-I won't be abandoned, right...?"

"Nicole...?" Lier tilted her head as she confusingly looked at the child, who appeared to have tears in her eyes.

"I-I'll try to answer..." Nicole mumbled out. "B-But... I don't think I can answer much... My memory is all fuzzy..."

"Hey, hey..." Renryth coughed. "I didn't mean to make you cry..."

"But you did, Renryth," Lier glared at the old man.

"Hah..." The old man scratched the back of his head in helplessness. "Let's just take it easy and ask questions that you can answer, alright? If you can't answer, then you just say you don't remember."

"M-Mm... Alright," the girl nodded her head obediently.

...

"Hah..." Returning back to the current point of time, Sanke helplessly shook his head. "To think that the child couldn't answer anything..."

With the number of questions that the party had asked the little girl, not one was answered in a proper manner. Nitpickity questions regarding her situation led to the remembrance of a hazy void in her memory. Questions of her past led to that of a shaking child as if wanting to run away from everything.

The only thing she could've truly answered was her name.

"..." As if deep in thought of the manner, he calmly closed his eyes whilst recollecting on the little information he had gotten about her. "Found in a forest surrounded by monsters... Wounds that hinted of abuse... A fear of abandonment... It's all rather too easy to decipher... Huh?"

By natural assumption, one would be able to think that way. The girl ran away and was suddenly surrounded by monsters within a forest. If the group had been mere travellers on an expedition to explore unknown lands, they might've believed such a case.

However, that was not the case. For Sanke and the rest, they were locals of the land of Fal, or to be precise—the land of Bareth. They knew very well that the only human civilization on the land was from the village of Cruwanski. For them not being able to recognize a person from such an enclosed community, meant that she wasn't from there and neither were the perpetrators of her suffering.

"...where could she had come from?" he didn't know how to answer such a question if even the person questioned could not answer. "Hah... Perhaps Renryth was right in that regard..."

"Perhaps I was right to what?" A male's voice protruded out from behind Sanke.

"A-Ah?" Caught by surprise by the old man's voice, Sanke turned his head over to Renryth with a slight cough. "When did you get here, Renryth?"

"I just woke up and saw that you were in deep thought," he shrugged. "Did you think I'd have let up the opportunity to bother you?"

"Seriously?" Sanke helplessly questioned. "Well, you came just at the right time I guess. What do you think about last night? Nicole, I mean."

"Ah, Nicole?" Renryth thought to himself. "Well... First of all, for me... She's quite suspicious. I'm not sure about you two seeing as how you've grown attached to her in such a short period of time—but, for her to not be able to remember anything and to be found in the middle of the plains like this... That just calls for bad omens by my book," he explained. "Though in that regard... I'm surprised you've grown awfully attached to a kid like her actually. Is it because of Lier? You don't usually open yourself up like that to be others."

"True... But I'm not too sure on that," he shook his head. "She just... Seems like someone who I can open up to. In a sense of having a feeling to protect, I guess?" he tilted his head in unsureness. "But... Whatever. I'm suspicious of her too, or perhaps I should say curious? Though that doesn't matter. It's more on her origins than her motives anyway."

"Hmm... I see," Renryth nodded his head. "Perhaps the way you're so open to her could be because Nicole herself reminds you as if that was a child version of Lier."

"W-What...?" Sanke raised his brow in confusion. "No... That isn't the reason..."

"For Lier's reason, it could be plausible," Renryth chuckled. "But... Anyway, don't think too much in that regard. You should just pack up everything on the campsite so we can immediately continue on with our journey to Fal when Lier and Nicole wake up. It's still a long way to go, but we can decide on what to do with Nicole when we get there."

"Right... I shouldn't think too much on it," he shook his head, ridding of the thought. "I'll get to it then."

"Good," Renryth nodded his head. "I'll see if I can find some berries around for on the go."

"..." Upon noting that Renryth had gone away, Sanke solemnly looked back towards the tent. "...was it really something she couldn't remember?" Whilst having the conversation with Renryth, a sudden thought came to his mind. "A big bad wolf... A child that hates everything and a cold witch... Why does it seem like she knows this all too well?"

He had initially brushed it off as some imagination in which was caused by her abuse. But Sanke was being wishful at that point. The words from Nicole that described the three aforementioned beings, might have something to do with Nicole's reason for appearing in the forest.

However, Sanke didn't have any concrete evidence for the belief. Thus, he was stuck in a loop.

"Hah..." Shaking his head once again to rid of the thought, Sanke's body soon stretched as he let out a yawn in the next moment. "...well, I'll think about this later. I shouldn't waste time since I've got work to do. Delaying it would make things much worse."

With a firm nod, he began making his way over to the group's luggage to begin packing up.contemporary romance

...

"..." From the distance of Sanke, a small figure appeared behind the tree. With lifeless eyes and a tired look on his face, he eyed the campsite, especially the tent where Lier and the kid was sleeping in. "...target lock. Child of ice... Mom wants you back this instant so we can play."

Muttering out in a lifeless voice, he soon disappeared into the deep forest.

done.co