39 - Astilbe (6)

The twilight sky slowly faded to be replaced by the dark night, a sharp look went down to where a man lay unconscious with wounds all over his body and with that pent-up anger he stomped on the man's head. 

Slowly, the boy's cold gaze returned to the women.

The woman stared at him with a pale and frightened face. It should have been this woman who stared at the child with a look of contempt.

But it was the greed in her that turned everything around.

The woman was wrapped around the sharp, thorny stems of the roses, her flesh pierced all over and red blood dripping from between the stems. 

Eros opened his mouth, "I have been warning you from the beginning.

Before that, let's go back to where it all began.

Tragic deaths of 12 children and a mother who miscarried. 

Before the death of these poor children, they were mercenaries called to serve a marquis on his journey. A marquis named Albert found this village once, so they placed someone in it to find this place again.

Yes, those soldiers were us, with an oath of wealth we followed his orders.

The rumors that circulated about this village were not just one or two, but almost the entire continent of Nilfar said that this village was the most mysterious village, many people tried to find it, but none of them succeeded.

The story of this village came from a book about a kingdom that was washed away by the sea, a story written by a native of that kingdom.

Everyone said it was a story that was the writer's imagination until they all set foot here.

We realized that if we left this village, we would never be able to return, so we tried to blend in with the villagers.

Our fear made us all dream the same thing: a tree with strange writings around it.

Someone whispered in our dreams that one of these people could make us free to go in and out of the village. So we agreed to recruit the one who was the easiest to take advantage of and the most ignorant of the surroundings.

The 14-year-old boy's name was Lei. 

The boy's father was very fond of titles and names, so we manipulated the election of the village chief and made a deal with him that allowed us to come and go as we pleased.

Believing in ourselves, we left the village until the appointed day. Our next visit ended with a rumor about the favorite son of the God of Hope.

Everything was like a dream. We felt that we had the power. 

We believed in ourselves so much that we forgot about the god of this village.

We didn't even believe the story of the child that the gods sent down to protect the village.

Since the boy's name was quite famous, we used him as a scapegoat and incited the boys to propose to him. It all started there, if only they had listened to the Lei's advice.

Eros kicked the man's head and walked over to the woman, "Didn't I send you a letter?"

"Even the contents of that letter were just like your plan."

"One, kidnap me."

"Two, take me to the king and send me as his 'present.'"

"Third, spread a false rumor that the king has kidnapped me and wants me to be his concubine. Because everyone likes pretty things, they will have pity on me and want to save me."

"And fourth,"

"- quietly take over this village completely."

The woman's pupils dilated with obvious fear, "You think I don't know about those stupid plans of yours, just because I have a very pretty face doesn't mean I'm stupid, and even if a god likes me doesn't mean I can't kill that god."

"Who you trying to cross?"

Swish.

The dove flew over Eros' shoulder, the bird's sharp gaze staring at her, the woman even felt that the white bird's gaze was more terrifying than the gaze of other beasts.

After the rumors of the death of 12 children and the miscarriage of a mother, he noticed something strange, although he was not the type of person who cared about his surroundings like Eriu, he was very quick to notice something.

An ordinary sentence sometimes contains information.

At first, the rumors didn't affect him, and he went to the fields to help the old farmers as usual, but strangely, the old farmers who were kind to him and ignored the bad rumors about him, threw mud at him and shouted that he was unholy and polluted.

Ramiel herself felt guilty and wanted to try to solve this problem, but before that, Ramiel asked him to do something, to keep an eye on the village chief and his family members, she didn't explain things in detail, but with just one sentence he realized something.

[... Someone is trying to find me through their prayers and I think this family is hiding something.]

That's right, the sentence of someone trying to find me, and before he was expelled by the farmers, he had heard that the eldest son of the village chief got a job with a very high salary.

It wasn't strange that he felt that the two sentences were related, so in the evening while he was watching Eriu, he also checked the state of the river.

The fields were rarely irrigated, so the well was very close to the fields themselves, and the most important thing was that the water in the well came from a river deep in the forest.

But no one dared to go near the river because of its existence, no need to explain why.

That is why the source of water in the well was more often used by the farmers, or you could say monopolized by them. Because of this, the villagers could not reach this well water and made them look for other alternatives by taking water from the lake for their daily life.

You could say that this is the reason why he is still safe even though he moves freely, especially when he goes to the fields.

As expected, the well was poisoned. That's why all the crops had died and why all the children had died.

Since they all came from farming families, it was normal for them to accompany their families, let alone drink the polluted water.

They all became victims just because someone didn't care about them.

"I... I'm innocent! It was all their plan!" The woman shouted shakily, even though she knew that she would not be forgiven, her voice came out trying to find the last help for herself.

It was very strange, yes, everything should have gone smoothly.

Eros crouched down and looked into the woman's eyes.

He had gone through the day as usual, a normal day, a normal tragedy and a normal cry. He was not like 'that person' who did not care about people who were not his friends, a person who only cared about his people. He was different from 'that person', he cared about every little detail, even a story.

A white world with no one, crawling to find the smallest crack of the white color that surrounded him.

Accused by the fear of death, the despair that always blamed him, the injustice that always carried his name, the happiness that only said temporary.

Even if the peasants chased him away, he would still visit them and try to solve his problems, even if he was insulted or stoned and covered in mud, it didn't matter because he knew himself better than anyone else. 

There was only one choice.

The stupid everyday things he often did made those petty people unaware of him and immediately made him a scapegoat. 

At that moment, he deliberately mocked the little boy in front of everyone and used Ramiel's power to subdue the father. To make people look at him even worse and think that he was just a proud, stupid child with a pretty face.

"Your tricks are quite clever."

He suspected the butterfly at first, so he deliberately threatened it and made Eriu leave the village temporarily at any cost. But the butterfly was just a scout from the beginning, she didn't care about anything else but "him", the clock slave.

When time stopped, the spirits of the tree surrounded the forest and prevented him from reaching Eriu first. 

It was then that he realized something, that there were two groups that used each other, but did not know each other.

A small flaw that had never been seen was slowly revealed.

Before his arrival, the tree had deliberately drawn someone to this village and used those people as a bridge to freedom. There was no denying that these people were trying to use the power of the banyan tree.

Eros was sure that they were targeting the tree to hide from something or to try to hide something.

Slowly, the pink eyes turned dark purple, while the dove still stared at him. 

This is that person's business. Without any resistance, the pure power took over the child's body expert.

"Slaughter of the happy family and capture of the mother and the beautiful child." Eros smiled mischievously, "Is that what the shameless merchant wanted?"

"As I recall, his name is Albert, ah, are you under Axel's command now?"

"!!!" The woman's eyes widened. Not caring about the frightened woman, the little boy continued to press her with reality, "You wanted to rebel against your king from the beginning, but why should those who are innocent be dragged into this?"

The woman trembled and with the remaining strength she tried to cover her ears again, "No..."

"This family has a happy life, just like you have a happy life with your loved ones, right?"

"No..."

"Why do you have to destroy it?"

"..."

"That mother had to lose her son along with the baby she was carrying, and those poor children who wanted to create memories of their togetherness to encourage their friend who was leaving the village, but because of you, they all had to be under the eyes of judgment."

"And also the child named 'Eros' has just found his home, why are you trying to destroy it?"

"What is his fault? Do you realize that he's just a child, but because of your petty minds, you're trying to make him a scapegoat?"

Bang!

Deep purple-black clouds slowly approached and the sound of thunder was heard, "No one deserves to die like this, no one deserves to be humiliated like this, and no one will ever deserve to be kicked by you."

The boy stood up to stare at the frozen woman, and with a cold voice he gave her a 'verdict', "Article 13, Paragraph 17, absolute death for those who commit heinous acts, act with a plan, kill innocent citizens, defame someone, and conspire with outsiders to achieve goals." Along with the sound of the article, the sharp thorns continued to pierce his flesh, along with the stems wrapped around him, leaving red liquid dripping from the roses growing from the stems.

"Satisfied?" Eros' eyes returned to their original color and he turned to the dove, who nodded at him.

Eros smiled and returned to his former self, the harmless innocent boy, with that done he only needed to return to his home and before that could happen Eros felt the pure mana of the book.

"!" Eros quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out the book, causing the dove standing on his shoulder to fly away, surprised by Eros' sudden action.

"Eri!" A pink color appeared on his cheeks. In a hurry, Eros opened the first page of the book. With his magic power, a white feather immediately appeared in his empty right hand with black ink wetting the tip, seeing that Eros didn't care about his surroundings, the dove could only surrender.

Eros was thoughtful as he read Eriu's writings one by one. 

Axel's first encounter with the two people changed all his plans, while he was being chased and had to keep running from their catch, he was suddenly transported to a forest, which made Axel very confused at that time.

It wasn't something that happened often, but at that moment, when he was at the entrance of the village, two people who were on their way home made a strange thing happen, making the guardians let the stranger in.

The dove tapped Eros on the shoulder and made him turn his head towards it, a beautiful white feather slowly fell.

He was given a farewell and a prayer.

Perhaps Axel wanted to adopt Eriu Grith so that his sins would be forgiven.

So that these two people would forgive him for taking advantage of their kindness.

If the boy hadn't told him anything from the beginning, he might not have noticed this little thing, but he should be thankful that the messages he sent always contained information.

Eros turned back to the book in his hand.

[You got bullied by them again, huh?] 

Eros blinked and noticed the blood dripping on the book, slowly his eyes oozed red liquid again. Without anything happening, Eros rubbed his eyes and responded to the writing, using magic to move it close to Grith's house.

Eriu, who was waiting for his answer, continued to stare at the page, of course this is blood, this smell is the smell of blood and this red color, this is the color of blood!

"...Don't tell me he was bullied again and didn't want to tell anyone, so he hid in the forest?" This fear makes him make a lot of wild theories.

The protagonist also has this trait, although he experiences scary things, he never tells anyone to keep all his sadness to himself, or sometimes goes to his friend's grave just to contemplate.

....

[Yes, but a cool big sister came to my rescue!]

[And now I'm fine!]

[She's so cool that she looks like a hero]. 

Eriu, who read it, was confused. 

Who?

[Who is this sister?] Eriu asked, already dying of curiosity. 

[Judith, the sister's name. She told me that she used to protect her friends and now she protects their entire family, that's what she said].

[Eri,]

[If I do something like the hero, will you give me a reward?]

"?"

[Like granting my request?]

Eriu certainly didn't know what Eros meant, but as long as he wasn't asked to skydive or go to school in this game, everything was fine.

But one day, Eriu would be very regretful for not thinking about the consequences of his actions.

[Of course, I will definitely grant it.]

"As long as I already have money or suddenly become a noble child, I can definitely buy whatever he wants."

"I can even point from left to right!"

Knock-knock.

The sound of knocking was heard, for some reason his instinct told him that it was neither Noah nor Amiley who was knocking.After giving an answer to Eros' request, he quickly closed the book before seeing Eros' reply. Eros, on the other hand, was standing in front of Grith's house with a book in his hand.

[I'll grant it.]

[Aunt Amiley is calling me, see you next time!]

Louise, who was usually in front of the house, was certainly aware of Eros' presence as he walked over, Eros smiled broadly, his sweet, cheerful voice sounded, "Eri sent me a message!"

"Really?" Louise, still feeling uneasy, turned his head.

Axel never gave them any news from Eros, even Axel's orbital eye didn't work.

That was what made them both nervous and determined to find Eriu.

"Um, yup!"

Louise patted Eros on the shoulder, picked up the stick next to him and got up from the bench, "Let's go inside and tell Mom the news, she must be very worried."

"Hu-mh!" Eros nodded happily. 

The incident earlier had prevented him from visiting Grith's house for fear that the villagers would kidnap him and burn him, but it would all be over soon.

Everything would be fine.

"Mama!" Eros, seeing Ariadne, immediately ran to her and hugged her. "Eros?" Ariadne came closer and checked on Eros, "Why didn't you come with Grandma? It's dangerous to walk here alone, you know!"

"If Eri knew, he wouldn't like it either!"

Eros gasped with tears in his eyes as he defended himself, "Uhh, grandma is in the clinic..." Louise stopped Ariande immediately, maybe because he usually forgave Eriu's strange behavior, he had gotten used to these things.

"Shh, dear, let Eros speak first."

"...?"

If only Ramiel had seen this, she would have immediately closed her eyes and pretended that this incident had never happened. 

Eros looked at Ariadne with his big eyes that seemed to say don't get mad at me. Eros showed the book in his hand from earlier, "This book was a gift from the person who saved me from the hunters..."

"Before she left, she gave me some books..."

Finished with her work in the other world, the tired woman decided to go to a café. Soft music was playing, and while sipping her coffee, the woman looked for an empty bench near the window.

With the name Judith written on the center ring, the woman ignored her surroundings and focused only on her laptop. The sound of typing after typing could be heard, everyone looked at the woman and everyone had the same opinion that she was like a cool woman who would make men embarrassed to tell how much money was in their accounts.

One of the customers there looked at her as if he was experiencing his first love, and in his hand was a cell phone screen that lit up with a message.

[Breaking news: There has been another rebellion and war, what is the fate of the world now?]

Ariadne looked at the first page of the book and could not help but be surprised. She read on to make sure the handwriting was similar to her son's. Wordlessly, Ariadne immediately hugged Eros.

"...Thank you, really... Huuu..." Ariadne's crying did not stop. Eros, seeing her, also cried.

.

.

Do you know what makes gods so cool?

Well, let me tell you their secret.

The secret is, they can't control themselves.

There was a story once about a thunder god who was so crazy about women that he turned himself into an animal to get close to them.

And as long as he was in animal form, his thoughts and behavior were animal-like!

Aren't you amazed! 

Aw, don't make that face.

Someday you'll feel it.

Back to your old you.

A happy, proud child.