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The Barren Lands, Bareth's Plain—Pinewood Forest [ Day / Hazy ].

With the hands of afternoon striking at the clock, the group that had just left the campsite steadily made their way through the dirt paths of the forest.

"...mm," whilst they were silently walking after leaving only but the grounds of the land behind at the campsite area, Nicole couldn't help but ask a question. "...where are we going?"

"Hmm?" With the silence of the group breaking, Lier turned towards Nicole with a smile. "We're going to the kingdom of Fal."

"The kingdom of Fal...?" Nicole mumbled out in confusion. "Why are we going there? Is it where your home is?"

"..." The group kept quiet as they heard Nicole's question.

"Aha... Home?" Lier chuckled. "I guess... You could put it like that. We're going home, or well... To put it bluntly, it's to seek out a new place for us to call home."

"Huh...? What does that mean?"

"...Lier?" Sanke slightly scrunched over to her ear as he whispered. "Aren't you touching on a touchy topic here...? To casually say this is just..."

"It's fine, Sanke," Lier reassured Sanke. "What we're doing now is heading to Fal. That's our main priority. What I'm explaining now is just telling her the location we're heading to. I won't mention anything that would make us... Upset."

"Upset...? That's not what I mean," he shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is... To tell her about something like this... I don't think it's right..."

"Is it?" she tilted her head. "I don't see anything wrong with telling where we're going and why. She is, after all, coming with us for the journey. So leaving her out of this would seem more foreboding, y'know?"

"..." Hearing the reasoning from Lier, Sanke thought to himself. "...right. It does seem foreboding, I guess..." he sighed. "But... Of all people to casually say it as if nothing had happened... It's not as if you're able to hide your sadness," thinking to himself, he soon heard the continuation of the little girl's inquiries.

"So um..." Nicole muttered out. "...what do you mean by finding a new home? What happened to your old one?"

"Ah..." A solemn look appeared on Lier's expression.

"...I knew it," Sanke bit his lips at her expression. "Just mentioning where we're going and why would lead to a conversation like this... Even for a kid..." pondering on the matter, his attention soon turned towards Nicole. "Hey... Nicole, you shouldn't—"

"—Something happened back at the village. Something complicated... So we're running away," As Sanke was about to continue his sentence, Lier quickly interrupted. "That's all you should know really! We're finding a new home because of that."contemporary romance

"Mm... Alright," Nicole nodded her head. "So... It's running away..."

"..." Sanke inwardly sighed. "Complicated yeah... But admitting to the fact that we're running away..."

The situation back in the village of Cruwanski was truthfully complicated by their book. It wasn't a lie to say that they were running away. Perhaps more or so, if one would have seen events that had unfolded, the term 'running away' wouldn't be the right way to describe it.

Then what would have been the correct term?

They were running away from responsibility.

...

"...sigh," Sanke sighed to himself as he solemnly looked towards Lier and Nicole who were conversing with one another together. "They really do look the same, huh? Well... On the note of Nicole almost resembling that of a child version of Lier."

The similarities between the two were prevalent. With nearly the same kind of facial expression under the pretence of being in the same mood, the near-identical hair colour and the fact that somewhat of Nicole's aura reminded him of Lier—He couldn't just brush off Renryth's words when they were now directly facing one another.

"..." his thoughts seemingly went elsewhere as his footsteps stopped abruptly. "...responsibility and care... Would things have been different if... I had been much stronger then?"  pondering on it, his thoughts soon cut short as he heard a sudden man's voice from behind him.

"Hey, Sanke. What are you thinking right now?" The voice, Renryth, spoke out. "You suddenly stopped walking. Are you trying to make them worry about you?"

"Ah...!" Upon realizing he had pondered for too long, he let out a slight cough. "...ahem. Sorry, I got ahead of myself there."

"...hah, just continue walking whilst being in deep thought if you must," Renryth pushed the young man in front of him. "If your pace suddenly slows down, we won't reach Fal any time soon. So if we want to get there within the next two days, hurry it up!"

"Right, right..." Sanke continued to cough out slightly. "To Fal, it is, I guess. But..." Despite being forcibly pushed to the front by Renryth, Sanke's head turned to face the old man with a solemn and sad expression. "...what do we even do at Fal? The village is already..."

"Hah... There's nothing we can do in actuality," Renryth bluntly spoke out. "Nothing can return them from the dead. But, it's not the end of it. We're still alive and surviving in these damned barren lands. So... If you want to see tomorrow again, continue forward. I guess that's what Lier would do... To carry on the Legacy of the Divinity Knight at the chapel."

"...I guess," Sanke slowly broke eye contact with Renryth as he turned away from him. "That's her own goal, I guess. The legacy of the Divinity Knight... Protector swore to watch over the sealed Bareth... I know what troubles she has but..."

"But...?" Renryth raised his brow. "If it's in regards to your own goals, you have one, don't you? You've always been boasting it to me back then."

"Right... My own goals," Sanke muttered out. "A foolish one at that..."

...

A goal that was out of the league for Sanke. It was but a pipe dream.

Even for him to reach out into the distance, he was just a watcher by.

His goal? A foolish one.

To be the best and to surpass strength, was but now a long distant dream for him.

Now... He was just left with the regret of the past.

...

"..." Sanke shook his head as he rid himself of the thought. "Whatever... I guess I'll try to think up a new goal. Hah... What should it be?" he thought to himself as he turned towards Lier, and then to Nicole. "Perhaps..." he considered, however, he sighed. "Bah... I have more than enough time to think about this. Why am I even worrying over this as if everything will end tomorrow?"

Scratching his head in frustration, he took a deep breath as he continued on with his usual pace down the dirt path. Whilst he was in deep thought, Lier and Nicole had conversed about many things.

"Aha..." Lier chuckled. "That's that. I guess his training that time led him to a disaster just waiting to happen. If you were there... You'd probably have snorted at Kaisus's dumbfounded face."

"Hmm... Training..." Nicole tilted her head. "Is it... Really a good thing? Back then... The big bad wolf said something about training... I didn't like it... I never liked it..."

"Huh?" Hearing Nicole's shaky voice, Lier worryingly tilted her head. "Do you remember something?"

"Ah... N-No... It's nothing..." Nicole slightly clenched her hand with her nails slightly digging into her skin. "Mm..."

"Hey... Nicole? Are you alright?" Noticing the child's weird demeanour, Lier turned to look at her actions. In the next moment, her hands moved over towards Nicole's arm in a hurry—soon grabbing onto it and pulling it up to her face. "Your palms are bleeding..."

"Huh?" Hearing the word 'bleeding' from Lier, Sanke hurried towards the two. "What's wrong? Are her wounds acting up again? Let's stop and I can treat—"

"No... Papa, mama..." Nicole mumbled out. "It's alright... I accidentally cut myself with my nail... T-That's all..."

"..." Lier was speechless at her reason. "...I didn't notice you had such long nails earlier... We should cut them. If you keep them long like that, you may end up hurting yourself even more."

"A-Ah...!" Nicole slightly stumbled back. "No... Anything but that... Don't cut it... It helps..."

"N-Nicole...?" Lier's eyes suddenly opened wide in worry as she hurriedly grabbed hold of Lier. "Nicole! Are you alright?!"

"...no..." In the next moment, sudden tears streamed down her face. "Anything but that... I need... It helps... Bring me to peace..."

"Nicole..." Sanke sentimentally looked towards Nicole. "...show me your hands, I'll treat it. If you leave it like that while out in the cold, it'll only get worse."

"Sniff... Y-You won't... Cut it... Right?" Nicole muttered out. "I don't... Want that..."

"...it's your own choice to keep your nails as it is," he nodded his head. "You just have to avoid getting hurt, alright?"

"A-Alright..." she nodded her head meekly.

"Good," with small bandages in his hand and a potion in hand, Sanke slowly bent towards the ground as he slowly poured down green lotion onto her hand. In the next moment, he tightly wrapped the bandage around the palm of the kid.  "There... That should be done. What about your other wounds? Let me check on them."

"My other wounds...?" she mumbled out. "N-No... It's fine..."

"Is something the matter, Nicole?" Sanke tilted his head.

"U-Um..." Nicole bit her lips slightly. "It's all fine now... Don't worry about it..."

"Sigh... Seeing as how we're in for a sudden stop, let's just take a small break here before continuing on, shall we?" Renryth asked.

done.co