Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 464 A King’s Mercy - Part 2

The tundra, it was fiercer than any other winter on that godforsaken island. Almost poetic in a way, at least for those who survived the witchʼs hunt. Torn from their chest, their hearts lay beating on the snow–none of what she was looking for until eventually she found the hermits living up a mountain of snow.

”S-sister I-I…” Dragging her brotherʼs burnt body down that very mountain, Choux held her tears while listening to his hissing cries. ”I-it hurts…It burns–ACKK! ST-STOP PLEASE!”

Being dragged along with his pain, his suffering had only gotten worse, and yet his sister kept dragging him towards the lower city. She hoped someone would help her, that someone could nurse her brother to health, but upon reaching that blood-soaked city, the only ones waiting for her and her brother were the crows, the vultures, and the wolves.

”N-Noo…” Eyes quivering and her body shaking at the edge of the forest, Choux stared at the grim sight–unable to get her eyes off the gore. The sound of flesh being torn off the bone, the cawing of crows and the shrieking of vultures, echoed inside her head.

As her brother tried to look up, however, she hastily turned at his slightest movement and covered his eyes at once. In doing so, he deprived him of the only sense that had kept him going, light. With darkness taking over, his consciousness slipped in an instant and the burnt part of his body began rotting the rest of him.

Feeling his weight getting heavier on her shoulders, Choux fell to the side along with her brother. The scavengers and the wolves turned to the sound, and as she tried to hastily get up and check on her brother, the wolves and the rest of the animals started closing in on her.

”Snow! Wake up! NONONO!” At first, she failed to notice their voices–their growls and vehemence, she was far too busy shaking his body and just trying to get some reaction out of his limp self. But as she put her ears to his heart and felt his heart beating, her eyes were turned towards the closing pack of blood-fed wolves which finally made her realize that the already dire situation had gotten worse.

Riding on top of the wolves were the red-beaked crows and the vultures werenʼt far behind in circling the group.

”G-get away!” Forcing herself forward, Choux spread her hands wide to protect Snow from the hungry beasts. However, the wolves still growled and the bird refused to go away.

Glancing to her side at that rifle laying on the ground, she wasted not a second in getting it in her hands and pointing it at the beasts.

”GET AWAY!” She screamed and the wolves stopped advancing.

Their growls continued, but instead of fighting the little girl, the alpha of the pack started circling the two kids. Following him, the rest circled them soon after, and before long the beasts were just laying in wait for both siblings to draw their dying breaths.

A week passed and the beasts had taken turns keeping watch on the only flesh left on the island. Eating even each other, the last of what had remained–a handful, they kept their eyes glued to the siblings as they waited for them to die. The growls had turned to whimpers and the sound of Snowʼs heart had grown so faint that Choux could barely hear it beating inside her brotherʼs chest.

Another week passed and Choux hadnʼt moved an inch, there was no sign of hunger in her eyes and for some reason, her mind remained as sharp as the first day sheʼd started staring down the beasts. Ever so often, her finger on the trigger would quiver, she wanted to fire it but feared it would curse Snow once again.

In their desperation, the once growling beasts lowered their heads to draw her mercy. Seeing how Snow was bound to die, they wished she would let them feast on his body, but the young girl wouldnʼt fret nor move an inch away from her brother. However, eventually, as she grew tired she found herself struggling to keep herself awake. The wolves were dead and so were the birds, and yet carrying her feverish brother in her hands she kept straddling towards the shore hoping someone would find them…and someone did.

”We heard of a witch, but this is…” Aran–the man carrying that title held her in his hands as she fell face forward. Heʼd arrived to defend his island from a rampant witch but it turned out that he was far too late. Even so, holding both Choux and Snow in his hands, he made a promise to the girl–a promise the others wouldʼve loved to hear from him. ”Iʼll keep you safe, both of you.”

He said and having no other choice, Choux believed him, yet the moment she woke up in Aranuvia the first thing that made her regret that decision to this day.

”You brother…” Holding her hand with a gentle touch, a nun looked at her weakened state as she lay tied in bed. ”He didnʼt make the journey here.”

Too weak to yell or cry, she lay in that prison for a whole year blaming herself for sleeping while her brother died on the ship to Aranuvia. At the end of the year, however, she was allowed to visit his grave. And since then she would visit and cry on his grave, even apologize to him again and again for sleeping that day and not holding on for longer to make sure he made it.

But that alone wasnʼt what concerned Raven, still peering into the darkness of Chouxʼs mind, he saw something lurking behind her eyelids. Like the abyss that gazes back, the creature was staring back at him, and before he was forced out of his mind, he heard a name–one every child on Atlaris had heard at least once.

ʼNightsilver…ʼ

And with those words he was pushed away from Choux and went flying across the shipʼs deck. The other hadnʼt a clue what had happened, and their questions had to wait as Raven had fallen unconscious from the force of that existence squeezed his consciousness.

It would be a while before he could wake up, leaving everyone in distress, and in more ways than just genuine concern for his well-being. After all, the Djinn sisters now connected to him through their brains.