“……Then I’ll stay in prison, so please let Kale go.”

“What?”

“You’re saying I need to pay an equal value to compensate for the stolen linthes flower. So I’m saying I’ll stay here and pay that price, so please send the child back.”

Olivia answered calmly with a face that seemed rather more at ease than before. The beast frowned at the incomprehensible answer and lowered his head to narrow the distance between their eyes. As the beast’s face suddenly came closer, Olivia tensed up, holding her breath with a “hup.”

“Why should you do that? Are you family with that one? Even if you are family, there’s no need for you to pay for someone else’s mistake.”

At the beast’s words, Olivia shook her head. Of course, there were several reasons for her decision.

Even though it wasn’t intentional, hadn’t she provided the administrator with an excuse to torment Ricky, causing that poor bird to fall ill? Besides taking responsibility for the original cause that led Kale to steal, unlike herself who lived alone, Kale had his mother and Ricky waiting for him at home. Though she could list many reasons if she wanted to explain in detail, Olivia summed up all her reasons in one sentence.

“I’m an adult, and Kale is still a child.”

“……”

Children, women, the elderly. She had learned from her mother that the vulnerable should be cared for first in a proper world, so it was a natural choice that preceded any other reason.

The fact that she, abandoned as an orphan, had met her mother and grown up this much was due to the love and acceptance her mother had naturally bestowed, so Olivia had always thought it was her duty to continue protecting what her mother had sought to protect. That’s also why she had taken over her work and become a healer.

The beast, who had been staring at Olivia’s face as if to confirm her true intentions, snorted with derision. A faint light of contempt appeared on his face, which had been full of irritation and annoyance.

“So you’re saying you’ll die instead of that child? You’re quick to give up your life.”

“I haven’t given up yet, have I? Probably?”

Despite cautiously reading the situation, Olivia still hesitantly spoke her mind, to which the beast cynically retorted.

“What?”

“I just need to pay a price equivalent to the linthes flower. That doesn’t necessarily have to be paid with a life. Of course, if ‘the Duke’ absolutely must take a life, then there’s no choice, but maybe I can pay the debt with something other than my life. They say I’m quite capable, you know.”

Olivia’s expression was quite serious as she spoke, not joking or teasing. Seeing that her eyes were not clouded with despair or resignation but still sparkled, the beast raised one corner of his mouth crookedly. How long could she maintain such a disgusting, hypocritical attitude? In many ways, she was exactly the type of human he hated.

When the beast stepped back and howled briefly, the bars caging Kale slowly began to rise to the ceiling.

‘No wonder I couldn’t see a door.’

So it was a method of imprisonment that moved the bars themselves up and down without doors or keys. This way, there was no way to escape except by breaking the prison itself. How meticulous. As the bars that had been blocking them disappeared, Olivia quickly approached Kale to check his condition. Though he had fainted from extreme fear while in a weakened state, there didn’t seem to be any other symptoms that would endanger his life.

“Wake him up and send him away before I change my mind. It’s better not to drag this out too long. You can only accompany him as far as the thorn bushes. Remember, if you take too long, the child you’re sending back might die wandering the human forest all night.”

Since it would soon be dark, the beast’s words made sense. Especially since Kale hadn’t lived in the village for long, he might not know the forest paths at night well. Eventually, the beast disappeared from the top of the tower. Olivia watched in surprise as the massive beast’s body instantly dissolved into shadow and vanished, then hurriedly began to wake Kale.

‘Huh? But he might be kinder than expected?’

He seemed to be concerned about Kale making it back to the village, just now?

Feeling puzzled, Olivia stared blankly at the empty space where the beast had disappeared, then quickly turned to Kale when she felt a faint strength grasping her hand.

“Kale! Are you conscious?”

“Oli… ve? It wasn’t a dream?”

Having been imprisoned for days and shocked by the beast’s appearance just now, Kale mumbled in a small voice, calling for Olivia, as if he couldn’t distinguish between fantasy and reality. Supporting Kale, Olivia nodded repeatedly and quickly explained the situation.

“I talked it out, and it looks like you can return to the village. I have some, well, tasks I’ve been asked to do. I need to stay a bit longer to resolve them, but can you make it to the village alone?”

“Wait, wait. I’m going alone?”

After briefly showing a happy face at Olivia who had come to find him, Kale’s face filled with shock at her words that she would stay. Though she was an adult compared to him, Olivia was still just an ordinary human. Troubled by the thought of leaving her alone, Kale desperately grabbed Olivia’s hand that was supporting him.

“Together, together……”

“As I said earlier, you’ve been missing for days, and your mother is worried at home. Besides, your condition isn’t good, so you need to go to the village first. Can you do that?”

“But……”

“I checked on Ricky before coming to find you, and I treated him well. He’s healthy now. Shouldn’t you hurry back and see how he’s recovered?”

Gently persuading Kale, Olivia left the Duke’s mansion and retraced the path she had come. All the way to the thorn bushes, where the beast had permitted them to go, animals appeared in the distance, watching the two as if curious and following them with small steps.

— How did that human child escape alive?

— Strange. Strange.

The small birds’ puzzled chirping could be heard clearly, but Olivia pretended not to hear and smiled as she guided Kale.

“I’m a healer, you know. Once I finish the tasks I’ve been asked to do, I’ll follow right after, so don’t worry too much. He promised not to harm me since he needs my help and asked me to stay.”

Olivia hurried her steps, telling white lies to comfort Kale. When the two finally reached the edge of the dead forest, the thorn bushes where Olivia had entered, the gap she had struggled to create earlier widened smoothly as if a door had opened. As though the bushes were alive, they opened the space themselves, urging them to leave quickly.

“Don’t be scared! Once you cross the bushes, go straight to the village, okay?”

“Olive.”

“The villagers might worry, so please keep our forest story a secret. I won’t be able to run the clinic for a while, which concerns me, but……”

Still, there were no urgent patients, so Olivia thought it wasn’t the worst situation and lightly patted Kale’s shoulder encouragingly. To Kale, who looked at Olivia with an anxious and apologetic expression, unable to leave readily, Olivia smiled reassuringly.

“Isn’t it much more beautiful and nicer here than it looked from outside? I’ll also study materials I haven’t seen before, so it won’t be bad. Come on, hurry.”

At Olivia’s repeated explanations, Kale glanced around. Although the thorn bushes were still intimidating, just as she said, unlike the dead forest seen from outside, the forest she encountered inside was as beautiful and pretty as paradise. As though the only terrible space inside was the prison at the top of the tower where he had been confined.

“You’ll come back soon?”

“Of course.”

Finally, Kale linked fingers with Olivia before carefully turning to follow the opened path through the thorn bushes. With each step forward, he felt the bushes closing behind him and passed through the thorn bushes like he’s being chased, unable to look back.

“Huff, huff.”

Kale, who finally fell and rolled on the ground at the very end, could only slowly turn around after completely escaping the thorn bushes. As if the beautiful forest he had been in just moments ago had been an illusion, beyond the thorn bushes viewed from outside was the same desolate, dead appearance as before, with a thick gray sky.

“Olive……”

Kale couldn’t leave easily and stared at the thorn bushes for a long time before dragging his heavy body, crawling toward the direction of the village.

* * *

“When did I ask you for a favor, and when did I promise not to harm you?”

Goodness! Startled by the sudden voice, Olivia’s shoulders hunched up as she slowly turned around to find the beast with its massive body staring at her with cold eyes, having appeared without warning. The eye level of the four-legged beast was roughly the same as Olivia’s standing height, making the beast’s enormous size newly apparent without even having to measure.