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Join the ServerIf parents truly cared about their child, they would never abandon them in a place infested with wolves. The so-called promise of “waiting,” when viewed with cold detachment, was nothing more than a heartless and unkind lie. His parents had simply grown tired of an inconvenient “burden.” Unable to directly cast him out, they chose the cruelest way to bid him farewell. From a child’s perspective, it was impossible to doubt words spoken by their own parents. This very innocence made the situation all the more tragic.
The girl, unable to bear watching the naive boy any longer, decided to tell him the truth.
“Don’t wait any longer,” she said. “Your parents aren’t coming back.”
The boy remained silent, for he simply did not believe her.
More than the words of a stranger, a child’s instinct was always to trust their parents. In this world, a “pleasant lie” would always be more readily accepted than a “harsh truth.”
A single warning was sufficient, but the boy refused to listen. The girl found herself helpless.
“If you don’t believe me, so be it,” she stated. “I’m leaving now!”
Such a minor interlude could not weigh heavily on the girl’s mind.
Her retreating figure seemed devoid of empathy, yet she had made the most logical choice.
The boy’s task was to continue standing, while the girl’s was to find food.
At that moment, their paths did not converge; instead, they drifted further apart.
After walking some distance, the boy’s small figure suddenly resurfaced in the girl’s mind.
Perhaps tormented by her conscience, the girl found herself unable to stop thinking about the child.
‘He’ll die… he’ll definitely die.’
Even an adult choosing to remain here alone would inevitably become a beast’s meal.
‘But what does that have to do with me? I’m nothing to that child; there’s no reason for me to meddle in his affairs.’
Though she tried to comfort herself with these thoughts, as the girl continued to walk, her own state deteriorated further.
[Big Sister.]
Listen, non-existent voices echoed in her ears.
Even knowing how foolish it was, the girl still turned to look.
The outcome was predictable; she saw nothing.
“I need to pull myself together!”
The girl slapped both sides of her cheeks, then vigorously shook her head, hoping to rid herself of the auditory hallucinations.
[Big Sister.]
“There it is again… why does it sound like I killed you?”
Her tone sounded pleading. At that moment, the girl only wished that even if the boy died miserably and became a ghost, he shouldn’t come looking for trouble with her.
She was innocent.
Truly!
As she thought this, she warned herself internally:
‘Stop thinking such nonsense! I haven’t done anything wrong; no one, living or dead, should come bothering me!’
Warning complete. Now, to continue forward.
[Save me…]
“Argh, this is so troublesome!”
In the end, the girl succumbed to her own conscience.
There was no other choice; she had to go back the way she came.
When the girl returned to where the boy had been, she found the little one collapsed on the ground, with a wild beast approaching him, preparing to enjoy a meal.
“Tch.”
Hating herself inwardly, the girl’s movements, however, showed no signs of slowing.
With a silver longsword gripped in her hand, she swiftly closed in on the beast.
****
Deep in the night, as a cool breeze swept through, the boy awoke somewhere unfamiliar.
Drops of moisture clung to the boy’s face. As he slowly regained consciousness and slightly tilted his head, large, crystalline tears fell.
The boy’s head throbbed intensely, as if countless steel needles were piercing randomly inside his skull.
He groaned in pain, raising a hand to vigorously rub his forehead.
Only when his body adapted to the reality of waking and gradually returned to a normal state did he feel a slight measure of comfort.
His eyes, receiving the light, slowly widened, beginning to take in his surroundings. The more he looked, the wider his eyes grew.
“You’re awake?”
The girl, propping her head with a single wing, noticed the boy had woken as she looked down. She lifted her drowsy eyelids slightly and tilted her head to gaze at him.
“Why am I here?”
As the girl had expected, this was the first question he would ask upon waking.
There was no need for careful words. The girl simply used the most concise language to state the truth closest to reality.
“While waiting for your parents to return, you collapsed by the roadside for some unknown reason. I suspect you were probably hungry.”
The girl had witnessed famine more than once. She understood that in such terrible disasters, parents with children typically fed themselves first, only then considering their children’s well-being.
Since the boy’s parents had abandoned him, it was easy to imagine the circumstances. In the period before they made the decision to formally cast him aside, they most likely hadn’t given him anything to eat.
Recalling her decision to save him, the girl, though finding it troublesome, felt no regret.
She never considered herself kind, nor could she be called evil. When the value of a life clashed with her aversion to trouble, she could only choose to be the “good person” she disliked.
When facing the child, the girl deliberately avoided mentioning the beast, feeling it was unnecessary. You collapsed on the ground, and I picked you up!
The girl’s words were simply meant to make the boy understand this much.
Seeing the little one she had saved gradually regain consciousness, the girl felt it was time to ask:
“I made something. Do you want to eat?”
She watched the boy lying on her lap, mentally prepared to forcefully put food into his mouth if he resisted. In other words, ‘Though I’m asking you, the choice isn’t yours.’
“White!”
However, the boy’s reaction was anything but normal. He blurted out a nonsensical remark, his eyes fixed upwards.
Following his strangely directed gaze, the girl’s eyes landed on what he was staring at, and her heart gave a sudden lurch. At that very moment, the boy added another half-sentence:
“Big Sister’s underwear is white!”
Within the room, devoid of any other sound, an eerie atmosphere slowly enveloped them, reaching a level of dead silence where one could truly hear a pin drop.
The girl found it not difficult to understand.
To make the boy more comfortable, she hadn’t let him lie on a hard bed; instead, she had offered her soft lap as a pillow.
And a “lap pillow,” as was widely known, was an excellent position to observe a girl’s undergarments from below, offering an impeccable and perfect view!
The boy hadn’t said it intentionally.
In fact, at his age, clothes and underwear were all the same—mere pieces of cloth that were troublesome to wear.
The girl naturally knew this, yet she couldn’t help but raise one of her wings…
*Thwack!*
…and tapped the boy on the head.
The excitement doesn't stop here! If you enjoyed this, you’ll adore Crow's Golden Fragment. Start reading now!
Read : Crow's Golden Fragment
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