Bee

"Th-they disappeared?"

Odette was shocked. She groped the void in front of her. Aathreya was standing there just now. How come that man suddenly disappeared? This was Odette's first time seeing a wizard. Everything she saw was truly not fabricated.

She exhaled roughly. Had she not known that she was now in the medieval time, had she not met the chimera and the giant snake earlier, she would have been in deep shock.

She turned to look at Rion and recalled Aathreya's words about Rion having DID. Was it true that Rion had DID? Why did Aathreya give such a condition to her? How did Aathreya know that Odette was a psychiatrist?

Did Aathreya have anything to do with her being suddenly stranded in this age?

"What is DID?" Rion asked which made Odette wake up from her daydream.

She replied weakly, "It's… an identity disorder."

Rion arched an eyebrow. Of course, he didn't understand.

"It's like someone else is taking over your body without you knowing it." Odette tried to explain it to Rion as simply as possible so that Rion didn't get confused, and the man seemed to realize that he was experiencing what Odette said.

For a moment, he closed his eyes.

"Then forget it," said Rion flatly.

"Do you often experience that? Do you often feel like someone else is taking over your body?" Odette couldn't immediately conclude that Rion had DID just because Aathreya said he had. To conclude this, Odette needed to make further observations.

Rion was silent. Odette could see the displeasure on his face.

"If you tell me, maybe I can help you. But if you don't want to tell me, that's fine." For a moment, Odette smiled then sat back down while stroking the bird's head, and Rion looked back.

While stroking the bird's head, Odette kept thinking about Rion. She was very curious whether Rion really had DID. If that was true, what had happened to Rion which made him have identity disorder? She kept thinking until…

"Mommy!"

Odette was wide-eyed. For a moment, she stopped breathing when Rion suddenly hugged her neck from behind saying 'Mommy!' She turned her head stiffly to look at Rion's face and she was flabbergasted when she saw Rion's smiling face was so wide that it showed his row of neat white teeth.

"Y-you?" Odette swallowed, she tried to calm down, then looked at the face of the man who was hugging her at this time.

Her pair of blue eyes carefully studied the face that was currently smiling very widely. His expression was 180 degrees different from his usual flat expression.

"Wh-who are you?" Odette asked somewhat doubtfully.

"Bee… hehe." Rion answered in a childlike tone. Odette gasped again and then remembered Aathreya's words. Was it true that Rion had DID?

"Oh, okay." Odette tried to release Rion's big hand that was wrapped around her neck because it was so suffocating. "Rion, let go. Ugh!"

"Bee." Rion pursed his lips, and for some reason, he looked cute in Odette's eyes.

"Ah, yes, Bee, let me go. I'm having a hard time breathing." Odette said while patting Rion's big arm that was under her chin. She could feel the man's muscles that could easily break her torso.

Rion shook his head and tightened his embrace even more, which made Odette suffocate.

"Bee, l-let go," she pleaded as she breathed hard. But the more he was told to let go, the more Bee hugged and coiled like a python, and the more Odette felt the man would crush her bones.

She had to find another way to persuade Bee to let her go, or else she could die of suffocation. She was not mistaken. Bee did call her 'Mommy'

Odette gulped first.

"Bee, let go, Mommy can't breathe. Mommy is in pain," she stuttered.

"Mommy is in pain?" Bee batted his eyes. Odette nodded her head slowly and Bee immediately let go of the hug.

Haha … Odette was very relieved when she could finally breathe freely. After she finally calmed down, she turned to see Bee, who was staring at her while blinking occasionally. The man's face looked very innocent. He was completely different from his usual self.

"Is Mommy all right?" asked Bee with a worried look on his face.

"Y-yes." Odette smirked.Sh said, "Don't worry."

She was surprised again when Bee hugged her again. However, this time, the hug that Bee gave her was not a deadly hug like before. Bee's hug this time was a warm and comfortable hug.

This made Odette's face turn red. She had never been hugged by a man in her life, so she felt tense and nervous, while her heart was beating really hard.

"Bee loves Mommy. Mommy, don't go," said Bee, which made Odette's facial expression change drastically.

Odette turned and saw Bee's face very close to hers. His face looked sad. She let go of Bee's arms around her neck and turned to face the boy, I mean, the man.

Even though she had some doubts, Odette finally touched Bee's cheek gently. "What is it?"

"Mommy, don't go. Bee wants to hug Mommy."

Odette was a little surprised. Her eyes carefully observing the face in front of her. The face looked sad and his eyes looked at Odette with hope.

'What happened to him?' Odette remembered Anwen's words saying that the late king married Queen Helen after Queen Ahana, Rion's mother died. Many things could cause mental disorders, but one of the most common causes was a traumatic experience.

She wondered if Queen Ahana's death was a traumatic event for Rion that caused Bee's personality to emerge?

While Odette was still deep in thought, Bee hugged her again and Odette let him. She even hugged Bee back.

"Don't go, I'm scared of being alone," Bee said quietly and tightened his embrace, he seemed so afraid of losing and being abandoned.

Odette was silent, but her hand stroked Rion's back gently.

***

A roar echoed in one part of the forbidden forest. The roar came from a creature with the head of a dog and the body of a human who was currently trapped in the nets of the villagers. The black color of the creature really blended with the night.

The creature almost pounced on a villager. Luckily, Trish quickly noticed that. All the Verde villagers, who had gone with Trish to look for King Rion, came to help and they managed to catch the creature in the net.

Trish didn't expect the citizens to be so skilled at catching monsters. One of them said that they got the skills because they hunted a lot.

"Are you okay?" Trish helped the residents who were almost torn down earlier to stand up.

"Well, I got helped, thank you."

"What about you guys?" Trish turned to look at the other residents.

"We're fine," one of them said on behalf of the others, after which he looked at the monster trapped in the iron net. "What do we do with this creature?" he asked.

"We can cut the horns off and sell them. The skin looks good for a coat too," said another, giving Trish a strange expression.

***

Rion was surprised when he opened his eyes in the morning and found himself hugging Odette, who was lying next to him. He immediately let go of his embrace, then hurriedly got up and looked around in confusion.

What happened? That was the question that was on his mind. The last thing he remembered was watching Odette stroking the bird's head. Did he relapse last night?

He lowered his gaze and saw Odette, who was still asleep. It looked like last night nothing happened. He didn't do anything bad to that woman, right?

He exhaled tiredly. His chest felt a bit heavy. After that, he looked at the bonfire that had died out. He looked for the red bird that they helped last night, but the bird was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, Odette started to open her eyes. For a moment, she blinked, then she got up and sat, yawning. It took her some time to gather her consciousness, so she didn't notice that she was being watched by Rion.

After all of her consciousness had gathered, she had a shocked expression as she recalled last night's incident when Rion embraced her as Bee. She then immediately looked for Rion's whereabouts, and within two seconds, she had found the man standing a few steps in front of her, looking at her.

For a few seconds, her face turned red when she saw Rion, and returned to normal when Rion asked, "Did I do something to hurt you last night?"

Odette stared at Rion intently.

"No," she replied, remembering when Bee hugged her, saying 'don't go. I'm afraid to be alone.'

Rion also looked closely at Odette. "Forget whatever you saw and heard last night," he said with a straight face, but Odette could see the sadness that was hidden behind his face.

Odette stood up, patted her clothes which were a little dusty, then focused on looking at Rion.

"I once told you that human memories cannot be stored and erased at will," she said.

Rion was silent. He knew that what Odette said was true. People couldn't keep and erase their memories at will and Rion should understand that better than anyone.

There were so many bad memories that he wanted to forget but he could never do that, and that was why he was suffering until now.

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From the author:

Another personality appeared, a young boy. Rion is a very complicated man.