Darkness pooled in the corridor as a man walked through it. At first glance, he appeared to be a human in neat attire, but his true identity was that of a hybrid creature—a being with beast blood mixed in, human yet not human.

This man walked through the quiet corridor toward his dormitory. Much time had passed. Just a little further and he would reach the room he shared with his brother, where his brother would be sitting quietly inside. The mere thought of this calmed his mind and made him feel dreamily elated.

Without realizing it, his footsteps quickened, when a familiar scent entered his nostrils. Alesia. It was his sister’s scent. He couldn’t understand why her smell would be here at this hour.

“Sister?”

Alesia stood with her head bowed in the corridor where moonlight rippled, seemingly waiting for someone. She slowly raised her head. Her face, illuminated by the cold moonlight, looked solemn and stern—not her usual bright and cheerful self. From that face, Cyrus could instinctively sense that something was wrong.

“Where’s brother?”

When he instinctively asked about his whereabouts first, Alesia burst into laughter. It sounded ominously sharp, yet somehow mournful, as if harboring some wound. Alesia rubbed her face tiredly and looked up.

“You look for him first?”

“Where is he?”

“Who knows.”

“Answer me.”

“He probably went where he should be.”

At those words, Cyrus roughly opened the door to their room. The unlit room was coldly neat and tidy, without the slightest hint of anyone’s presence. Cyrus tossed his book down and searched the room. Alesia stood still, watching him act like a madman as he opened the wardrobe door and overturned the neatly arranged bedding.

“Where is he?”

“…”

“Where is he!”

“I believed you two wouldn’t go that far.”

A quiet voice cut across the room. It was a voice consumed by pain. A voice like cutting one’s own flesh and bleeding. Confessing knowledge of incest between siblings who shared the same blood was that painful. Alesia’s voice began to tremble.

“Even when I smelled our fathers’ scent on you two, I thought it was my imagination. But thinking about it, I smelled it when we were children too.”

“…”

“What have you two been doing all this time?”

“…”

“Say something, please!”

Alesia finally cried out almost like a scream. Cyrus stood quietly in the moonlit room. Tears that had welled up in Alesia’s eyes slowly fell as she looked at his back.

“Would it help if you told me?”

“…”

“Would I even understand if you explained?”

“…”

“Why did you do it?”

“Because you two were doing something insane. I had a duty to stop it.”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“By what right?”

Cyrus sat down heavily on the bed with a snicker. The bedding still carried their scent. Though she already knew, Alesia must have realized it more clearly after entering this room. That their relationship was far from ordinary. The scent permeating this room proved it.

“So you sent him away?”

“Yes. I threatened him. I told him I’d tell our fathers if he didn’t leave! Is that wrong?!”

“Why did you do that, why!”

“Because neither of you showed any intention of stopping!”

Alesia finally shouted, covering her face and collapsing where she stood. A quiet stillness wedged between the two. Cyrus stared blankly out the window. Where could he have gone? That was the only thought in his mind.

Once again, what was his had been taken away. No, what was his had fled again. To a world without him. Cecil’s love was this shallow. Yet why couldn’t he stop? What exactly was Cecil to him?

“…No one can understand what you two are doing.”

“I don’t care. I never asked for understanding.”

“What about Cecil?”

“…”

“Let’s say you can endure it. But Cecil? He can’t handle it like that.”

“So you threatened him with such words? Knowing he couldn’t bear it?”

“Yes! Because neither of you would stop otherwise!”

“You don’t understand what’s between us. You have no right to interfere. Just tell me where you sent him. Otherwise…”

“…”

“I don’t know what I might do to you.”

Without Cecil, Cyrus was little more than half a human. Cyrus was certain of this. Since Cecil was the one who awakened him from his desired sleep, his humanity was clearly rooted in Cecil. He was now like a human who had lost his roots. Humans cannot endure without their foundation.

“What if I tell you? So you can chase after him?”

“Sister. I don’t have the luxury of this nonsense right now. Where is he?”

“He left of his own accord. Whether I threatened him or whatever! He left you on his own! So you need to come to your senses too, please… This isn’t right, you two. This isn’t right, okay?”

“That’s for me to decide.”

It was a confrontation where neither side would yield an inch. One who needed to find, one who needed to hide. Cyrus felt like laughing at this farce. But no laughter escaped him, and he couldn’t even rise from the bed due to the overwhelming sense of powerlessness he felt. Only the thought that he had been abandoned again occupied his mind.

Blue water seemed to ripple through the room. The two looked silently at the floor and out the window, and the room was quiet. After some time had passed like this, Alesia, who had been sitting on the floor, slowly opened her lips.

“Why… Why did you do it?”

Her tone suggested she simply couldn’t understand. Or perhaps it sounded like she was trying to understand. Cyrus didn’t care either way. The thought crossed his mind that such questions were useless now, but he gazed blankly at his sister.

“I loved him.”

“…”

“That’s why.”

That was all. He loved the being who had awakened him. Without even knowing what kind of person he was, he had cherished him and given meaning to his voice. As they grew, he loved how those small limbs caressed him, how that young voice called his name, how he embraced him warmly with a body temperature cooler than ordinary humans.

Whether human or beast, such things were completely irrelevant. Only love existed there, and so he came to love him. Like a river flowing from high to low, like the moon waxing and then waning—it was a natural love. There had never been a day when he harbored any doubt.

“Do you know what it’s like to fall in love before you’re even born?”

“…”

“That’s what happened to me.”

“…”

“It wasn’t something I could resist.”

With those words, Cyrus closed his lips. Time passed quietly. By the time the moon had risen to its highest position in the sky, Alesia was gone from the room. She too probably needed time to collect herself after such an enormous shock. Understanding came before anger.

Cyrus laughed, “Ha,” and lay down on the bed. He had desperately clung to the belief that he wouldn’t be abandoned again, but he had been discarded so easily. Moments from the past flashed through his mind. Things from when he was very young.

He was often hurt and sick.

He had to be.

Because that was the only way he could capture Cecil’s attention even one more time.

*

That winter was bitterly cold with strong winds. Cyrus was walking alone in the forest when he discovered a small pond. He stared at it for a long while before gently placing his foot on the ice. At first, he walked only along the edge, then moved closer toward the center. He was looking for something.

The young boy carefully walked on the slippery ice until he found what he wanted. Then, with a slight smile, he returned home.

“Brother, there’s a pond in the forest that’s frozen solid.”

“Really?”

“Yes, let’s go see it.”

Having lured Cecil to the forest with innocent words, he ran across the frozen pond, hopping along. At the edge, timid Cecil was making a worried face, telling him not to go too far. Even that expression was cute, but what he wanted was something else. So he went to the spot he had checked the day before and pretended to play around, scraping his foot on the ice.

“Brother, it’s solid here!”

The moment he shouted that, there was an ominous cracking sound. Instantly, cracks spread across the ice, and the ground beneath his feet gave way.

“Cyrus!”

With that single cry, he plunged into the ice-cold water. It felt like his entire body was being stabbed by tens of thousands of needles.

What happened afterward? Cecil burst into tears, called the adults, and Cyrus was rescued, but having fallen into a frozen pond in the dead of winter, he had to suffer from high fever for days.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Cyrus. I’m sorry.”

Cecil said this while staying by Cyrus’s side for days, nursing and watching over him. He seemed to believe the accident happened because he hadn’t properly warned Cyrus.

Instead of correcting this innocent misunderstanding, Cyrus shook his head saying it was fine. And with his fever-ridden mind, he smiled when no one was looking, relieved that he had correctly found the thin spot in the ice.

If the ice had been thicker than expected, he wouldn’t have seen Cecil crying and staying by his side like this. He secretly rejoiced, justifying his actions with just that outcome.

He wanted Cecil to be happy only for him and to shed tears only for him.