Episode 41
Brody explained everything that had happened to Kyle.
Shiloh’s identity, the past between the White Fox and the Red Fox tribes, and the current critical condition of Shiloh’s mother. That’s why Shiloh needed a Clock Rabbit, and that’s why he kidnapped her.
Kyle, who heard the whole story from Brody, summarized it all in one sentence.
“So that **** fox was trying to turn back time by killing you to save his mother?”
“That’s right. You got it right.”
Brody nodded.
“Then killing him is the answer.”
“Right… huh?”
Brody, who had been nodding thoughtlessly, came to her senses belatedly.
She stopped Kyle, who was about to kick Shiloh with both of his front paws after hearing the explanation
“No, Kyle! I already promised him. I’ll save his mother with the medicine I have.”
“What?”
Kyle looked back at Brody with a look that said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Brody then said, “I’m going to help her with red cedar sap.”
She answered while holding up the bottle.
“It’s red pine sap that only grows in the village I live in. If anyone drinks it, they can get better no matter what kind of critical condition they are in. I’m thinking of giving it to his mother.”
The moment she finished speaking, Brody saw Kyle’s eyes rolling in real time.
He shouted after hearing Brody’s words, “Absolutely not.”
“You’re going to use that precious medicine for that fox? Are you crazy?”
Kyle tried to snatch the bottle from Brody with a serious expression.
But Brody immediately hid the bottle behind her back and answered.
“Kyle, calm down. The only way we can get out of this situation without a fight is to save his mother and leave.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why is that the only way? Let’s just kill that ****** and run away.”
He didn’t care who was listening. Brody quickly lowered her voice to a whisper so Shiloh wouldn’t hear.
“Killing the heir of Ennea in the Forest of Ennea is suicide. It’s ridiculous that you don’t know that.”
Before his brother took his place, Kyle had been the heir of the Black Wolf Pack his entire life.
That’s why he couldn’t help but know the vicious and persistent shackles of retaliation that would follow them if he harmed the heir of a clan.
When Brody reminded him of this, Kyle also had a hard time acting only on instinct.
But that didn’t mean that the hot-blooded wolf would back down completely.
“How about we break all four of his legs so that he can’t move until we leave this forest?”
Ah, Brody shook her head, touching his forehead with her forepaw.
“Kyle, we’re in the forest of Ennea right now. There’s a high possibility that the eyes of the White Fox Tribe are watching us from somewhere right now. So, even if you break the fox’s four legs and run away, you’ll be caught right away.
And even if you succeed in escaping, the White Fox Tribe will follow you in revenge. In our situation where our goal is to move quickly, it’s better to avoid making enemies as much as possible.”
That was absolutely right.
However, Kyle’s eyes narrowed as he watched Brody, who was constantly talking rationally, unresponsively.
“So, let’s just think of it as an expensive toll.”
At first glance, Brody seemed to be afraid that their urgent journey would be disrupted, so she had no choice but to save Shiloh’s mother.
But strangely enough, Kyle was overcome with a sense of unease when he saw Brody like that.
“Is that really the reason you want to save that *****mother?”
“Uh…?”
Brody, hearing the question, reacted as if she had a momentary breakdown, and then averted her gaze without realizing it.
Whan Kyle saw Brody like that, he realized why she was trying to help Shiloh.
Brody felt compassion for Shiloh, just as she did for him.
When Kyle realized that, something inside him seemed to boil over.
It was unpleasant that Shiloh was on the receiving end of what she had only shown to himself until now.
It was an irritating feeling.
But as his body temperature started going up despite him being still, Shiloh, who had been silently listening to Kyle talking about whether to kill or spare him, opened his mouth.
“Even if there was another reason, it’s not something you should be angry about, right?”
Unlike when he had pretended to be weak in front of Brody, his voice was full of energy now.
In fact, he was angry at Kyle’s behavior a little while ago when he said that it was a waste of medicine to save his mother, and that’s why he said that.
“Honestly, I don’t understand why you’re treating me like trash. It looks like you knew that Brody was a Clock Rabbit, so can you say that you had no intention of using Brody?”
Shiloh never really felt that Kyle showed affection for Brody as a lover during their trip together.
Because that’s what made Brody feel bad.
Shiloh soon flinched at the sight of Kyle who turned towards him with a sharp look in his eyes. His gaze made Shiloh shoulders hunched involuntarily.
However, now that it had been revealed that he was the successor, Kyle couldn’t kill him anyway.
Shiloh thought of this fact, and threw a fastball even in the tense situation.
“Actually, you’re traveling with Brody as her lover in order to use her. Isn’t that right?”
In the end, they were both trash to Brody, so he meant that Kyle shouldn’t pretend to be angry for Brody.
Kyle answered this with actions, not words.
As soon as he finished speaking, he ran to Shiloh and bit his neck without giving him time to run away.
“Kyle!”
Brody screamed.
The scream pierced Kyle’s ears like a warning as he tried to sink his teeth into the fox’s neck in anger.
That caused his jaw to loosen just before his teeth pierced the skin.
For a split second, Shiloh, who was on the brink of death without even being able to scream, sagged.
Brody saw Shiloh like that and ran over to him. She grabbed Kyle’s leg and stopped him.
“Kyle, stop! Let him go now!”
His jaw shook as he barely suppressed his impulse. It was an action he committed in anger.
And being angry meant that Kyle’s heart was stabbed by Shiloh’s words.
Kyle had become her lover in order to use Brody.
Even so, he thought that he couldn’t be treated like Shiloh, who tried to kill Brody for profit…
In the end, his past words and actions caught up with him.
Before starting this journey, when he decided to become Brody’s lover.
Even after arriving at the continent, he thought that if Brody bothered him, he could just kill her.
Even when Brody collapsed after using her power, he left her alone, whether she died or not.
Kyle also thought of her life as trivial.
He thought he was different, but in the end, he was no different from Shiloh, and so Kyle had no right to kill Shiloh.
To Brody, both Kyle and Shiloh were the same trash.
Kyle, who realized this, threw Shiloh, whom he was biting, to the floor.
“Cough! Cough!”
Shiloh, who was thrown to the floor, gasped for breath and coughed.
When Brody ran over to check on him, there were only fang marks on his neck and no other wounds were visible.
Brody was relieved, but on the other hand, she still had feelings of resentment toward Shiloh, so she muttered in regret.
“Tch, you could have bitten a little harder.”
Fortunately, Shiloh, who had come back from the brink of death, did not hear Brody’s tongue-clicking sound. Brody left her resentment behind and helped him up.
***
Kyle eventually decided to follow Brody’s decision to save Shiloh’s mother.
It wasn’t a choice he made because he wanted to, but because he had no choice.
Shiloh took the two to the land where his clan lived.
In the vast land of Ennea Forest, located in the northeastern part of the Knohen Continent, white foxes lived freely everywhere.
However, the clan’s residence centered around where the leader was located in the deepest part of Ennea Forest.
Because of this, Kyle and Brody had to walk through the snow-covered forest for a long time following Shiloh.
Shiloh, who was in the lead, couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being dragged by them even though it was the other way around.
That was because Brody and Kyle’s sharp gazes were piercing the back of his head.
The deeper they went into the forest, the more alert they became, and the more intense the stinging sensation became.
Of course, he had to endure this level of harassment without complaint. So he walked silently, After a while, Brody came up to him and spoke.
“You, sir.”
She spoke to Shiloh with a face that seemed to be deep in thought.
“You said earlier that you took the Red Fox Clan’s heir hostage to save your mother.”
She was talking about Rubinus’ child. Shiloh’s eyes sank coldly as he understood this.
“That’s right. We took Rubinus’ child.”
“You still have the child? Didn’t you say that child was a newborn?”
Surprised, Brody looked up at him and asked. But Shiloh only answered with a cold expression.
In fact, Brody was thinking about the story Shiloh had told her while following him.
Then, she suddenly became curious about the newborn child that Shiloh had kidnapped while going to Rubinus’ land, so she asked.
Brody scratched her head as Shiloh seemed unwilling to talk about the child anymore.
She originally had no intention of interfering in their affairs.
Shiloh also lost someone he cared about to Rubinus, so it would be only fair for him to take away someone Rubinus cared about.
But… even though she understood all of this, she still felt uneasy thinking about the newborn.
Was it a strange feeling of sympathy?
Brody spoke quietly.
“The baby is innocent. You know that too.”
It wasn’t because Brody had any special affection for the young being.
She believed that she was just concerned about the fact that it was at the age where it should be with its mother.
She, too, had not yet become an adult when she crossed to this world and had been separated from her family.
Of course, things were okay now thanks to the love of May’s family, but she still couldn’t forget the sadness she felt when her family, especially her mother, disappeared from her side.
Because of that memory, Brody ended up meddling in their affairs.
“Shiloh. If I heal your mother, promise me to send the child back.”
Shiloh looked at Brody after hearing that. It was clear from the look on his face that he was trying to say, ‘It’s none of your business.’
But the condition that ‘if I heal your mother’ ultimately moved his heart.
He seemed to think for a moment, then quietly answered Brody.
“Okay.”
Kyle, who had become the witness of this promise, looked at Brody with a dumbfounded expression.
He was already feeling bad about giving precious medicine to someone he didn’t care about, but he was also fed up with the rabbit acting like a squealer to a newborn she had never seen before.
In the end, he gave up and sighed, shaking his head.
