Volume 1 Chapter 5 Part4 (1/2)

Message fro, who did you think this title was referring to both before and after reading the chapter?

Edit: I don't knohat happened with the posting of this chapter Sorry, if you clicked on the link on NU yesterday and was met with an error The chapter is up properly now

Volume 1, 5-4: Coward

Fin was inside the darkness

Why was he here? Where was he heading? He didn't really know

――Then

Plop A pair of blue lights lit up Tiny like fireflies

He stared at them in a daze, and before he realized it, they had swelled into the size of a walnut

It was cold Fin shi+vered and was abruptly brought back to his senses

The blue light became a bit thinner There was no voice, but the center of the darkness conveyed sohter

(You are…)

Was it the wolf froht before he entered Winea, it appeared before hi before it left—that Wolf of Darkness

(What the hell? Why is it here? So)

He heard a sound si up to the surface The o frole hat he had heard Fin instantly understood what it was trying to say and gasped

(Stop)

He unconsciously shook his head But the blue light blinked; when it lit up again, it stared at Fin and becahter fro out from it

――Truly a…fool……

The voice echoed froh it did say, “Fool,” there was neither disdain nor scorn in the echo; rather, a sense of love could be sensed hanging in the air

The lights quietly receded Fin desperately extended his hand

(Don't! You can't!!!)

The lightshrunk anddis app eared ――

“——!!”

Fin lurched forhen he woke up He held his head, his breathing rough His body shi+vered, and it couldn't be stopped by pure willpower

“Phineas?”

A worried voice asked, “What's wrong?” When he turned around, Oandus' and Fauna's questioning faces appeared in the unreliable light from the square lantern Inside this abandoned woodcutter hut, Fernaine lay in deep slurass placed on the ground She was probably tired fro

The square lantern was soht with the and was nothing ht Still, just a little bit of darkness rese to a corner of the hut

Fin slowly looked around, and when he remembered what kind of situation he was placed in, he used his hand, whose fingers had been drained of their blood, to rub his face as he stood up

“Leena”

As soon as he called her, a girl clad in a white light softly appeared He looked into her golden eyes as he said

“We have to help theer”

“Why?” Leena tilted her head, confused Fin was unable to understand the ht away and frowned Shortly afterwards, Leena's feelings ca into his heart, and Fin was shocked

Her question of ‘Why?' wasn't asking for a reason Instead, her question was more like, ‘Why do we have to save them?'

“Why…it's them The Beasts of Darkness found the captain and everyone else That's e have to go save theain in baffleht here?”

These words spoken so s blow to him He recoiled from the attack and held down his chest Even his parents' worried voices didn't reach his ears

That was right The ones Fin wanted to protect were his family; no one else

And the reason why they were able to sleep without having anyone stay up to keep watch even with thisthe Followers of Darkness at bay If Fin did leave to rescue Varte and the others, he would be leaving his parents and Fernaine behind…possibly killing them There was no way he could desert thee appeared in his head—the ie of the man to whom he swore to protect Fernaine, even if he had to abandon everyone else In the end, this man lost his life when he showed mercy to others

Fin couldn't make the same mistake as him As there was no one else in whoh He slowly sat back down and covered his face with both of his hands

Soht have to abandon soht came to him

Why he had fallen into such a situation could be blaement

No, other humans besides hi about this, that, and every little thing—the heavy sigh spilled out

〈I got it, Leena I won't…go save the froently touched it For a e to shake her off But he forced hi er As a result, Fin reluctantly destroyed and threay the dark ereed with Leena Even that guilt faded soon after

“…Sorry, Uncle, Aunt For waking you up”

When Fin apologized in a low voice, he weakly so back sleep if they could

Even though they were uneasy, his parents once again lay on their side But the one who told thebirds chirped and a chicken fro people and quietly exited the hut He looked at the ground and was startled A beast's footprints Rather than a wolf, they were ale as a bear's On top of that, there were unidentifiable claw round, erasing the prints, and after surveying the white an to walk Even though it was su air was cold Fin stifled a yawn and rubbed his arrove of trees, and a thin road appeared before him This was the cross street that connected the road that headed north to Tetna from Winea with the road that headed southeast to the Calsum Pass

If you were to continue to travel all the way left, aka heading south, you would reach the intersection with the road leading to Calsuether with the one continuing to Comillis After Fin had stared in that direction, he turned to his right and gazed northwards His pursuers should be showing themselves from there That was, if they had realized Fin's destination But ht

Fin let out a deep sigh, squatted beside the stream on the side of the road, and washed his face At that tiradually faded up and the world steadily cleared up

Fin wiped his face with his sleeve and looked at the north again His pursuers didn't come Fin stood still for just a moment in that spot, but he turned on his heel and returned back to the hut, resolute If he lingered around here, he would no longer be able to meet up with Nellis and the others

After a short while, Fin and his group had a si the sullen-faced Fernaine as dragging her feet, the group heard the sounds of horse hooves co theazed at the direction of the road with a hopeful look

Fin quietly squinted his eyes then whispered

“It's Captain Varte”

The group neither ran nor hid The pursuers' footsteps also weren't the fast steps of the ar—it was like Fin and the others before they caures cah to be able to identify theeted nervously and hid behind Oandus

That was expected The group of soldiers lead by Varte, as on horseback in front, were dirty with blood, covered in wounds, could be mistaken as bandits with that appearance

When Varte was right in front of Fin, it looked like he fell off as he dismounted He took a breath

“Our expectations were off”

Hebehind him