-One week later-
Location: Village of Eas
Φ I believe in true love.
It is something I have always kept in my heart ever since I was a little girl.
It isn't for any complex reason in the slightest, but just because my parents were always happy when next to each other.
Both of them were strong people by themselves who could have lived fruitful lives on their own. Yet they choose to join together, and the reactions that were caused by their union have brought so much happiness that even people who don't know them can partake in it.
The power of love is something that can bind people together; some think of it as a chain, but I think of it as a string. It is delicate and must be maintained because nothing is easier to do than break it.
When I see two people who have made an effort to maintain it, my heart just melts. I want that, I really do.
So, during my younger years, I would spend my day playing with the little pixie wonderbeasts to look like a majestic beauty myself. But for some reason, the pixies kept running away from me with frightened expressions.
According to some people, I had a demonic look on my face, but I was just determined to find love, so it kept showing on my face.
I chased the pixies daily, and they cried in response to my actions. However, it didn't matter because I knew love would appear one day, my perfect partner would fall out of the sky right onto me.
And one day, a ball whacked me directly in the face, sending me to the ground and planting my face in the dirt.
Getting up, I wipe the dirt off my face and start to seethe with rage, but behind me, I hear, "Are you okay?"
Is this finally the time? Is this finally the moment where I find my true partner!?
I turn my head, and behind me, I see a snot-nosed brat who happens to be a fox beastkin stretching out his hand in front of me.
I reel back in disgust and then say, "Get out of here, Ugo, I have better things to do."
Getting up, I passionately return to chasing the pixies. What I need is a mature, handsome man who will spoil and love me, not some brat like that. A herbivore beastkin would be my preferred choice, a near Fanalis as well, and he must be handsome as a prerequisite. If I have all of that, I will be able to fall in love with that person's soul.
"NOW ONWARD!"
I continued my journey for pure love, but the boy who I had rejected returned the next day, and started to throw balls at me and my pixie friends, and soon one hit me in the face knocking me down to the dirt.
Laughing with his friends, he says, "Maybe all of that dirt will allow you to grow into a beauty."
Standing up, I get into a running position and then take off after them, saying, "YOU'RE ALL DEAD!"
I chased them again, and again, then when I got the boys, I would fight them all up until we were all scattered across the ground, exhausted.
Lying beside me, he says, "You evil witch, haven't you ever heard of what it means to be ladylike!?"
"I don't want to hear courtesy from a human!"
"I am not a human, I am a fox, you stupid deer."
I kicked him in the side, and then our fights continued until the sunset.
From that day, the boys kept showing up and bothering me again and again and again. Interfering with the heavenly presence I had built up for myself.
So, I got the rest of the girls together and told them, "Let's execute them."
"But Niamh, won't our parents be upset?"
One of the other girls grabs Saoirse in front of me and says, "Don't defy Niamh, this girl is crazy! You see the demonic look she always has while chasing those pixies, so just help her and run off."
Sometimes the other girls said things like my face looked demonic, but they couldn't understand the beauty I was trying to capture. Though they all have aesthetic anaemia, so what could I expect?
During the next festival, we poisoned all of the boys' food, but all of our food was also poisoned by the boys, making us all sick.
When we recovered, both me and the stupid fox's parents threw us into the fields and said, "All this land is now both of your responsibility to till, and you cannot stop until it is done."
"Daddy, that isn't fair!"
"I don't want to hear it. Now, both of you work!"
Together with the stupid fox, I was forced to work each day, and this went on for so long that I eventually broke and shouted, "WHY DO I HAVE TO DO THIS? IT ISN'T FAIR!"
"Shut up, it isn't like you're the only one working."
"Yeah, but unlike you, I spend my time trying to find true love, and now I cannot do that since I have to be here toiling in dirt with you."
"I am not sorry, you brought this on yourself."
"You started this by throwing your stupid ball at me!"
"I APOLOGISED!"
"Then why did you keep coming back!"
The boy turns shy and shows me his back, then he says, "It is because you looked like a goddess right out of the picture books when chasing the pixies."
I instantly move in front of his face and say, "Finally, someone gets it! Others act like I am crazy, but they just lack the artistic understanding of what I am trying to accomplish!"
"Crazy? I thought you looked amazing, all those people must be crazy. Though I guess dressing your clothes in flowers would make you look even more enchanted.
"But they won't be able to keep up at my speed."
"Yeah, about that, how about you frolic instead of running at full speed?"
After thinking about his words for a moment, I say, "YOU'RE RIGHT, THAT SOUNDS MUCH BETTER!"
Getting close to him, I say, "You have a lot of great ideas. I have now decided you will help me in my journey to be the prettiest princess ever. What's your name?"
"Cian."
"Cian, from now on, it's just me and you."
From that day, Cian and I went everywhere together and tried to make my frolic look as beautiful as possible. We bounced ideas off each other and spent day after day waiting beside each other.
We grew up and grew wiser, and as we did, my head became clearer and clearer about what I wanted.
Then one day beside a waterfall central to our village I stood dressed in a gown that we had spent years designing. I slowly walked around the waterfall with the pixies I had befriended, making light fall down upon me and rainbows appear all around.
In that moment I think I had felt as beautiful as I could be, but more than that I felt the person who this was for had been found, the one right in front of me.
So, as I finished, I pointed at him and said, "Cian, I am done with this, because no one else other than you should ever see this. It seems your little plan worked out."
I was confident yet embarrassed with my words, but in response to my declaration of love, Cian panicked.
Freaking out, he said, "WHY! I HAD THOUGHT WE WOULD KEEP GOING TILL WE FOUND YOUR KING! DID I DO SOMETHING TO STOP THIS PROJECT!?"
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT, DON'T YOU GET WHAT I AM SAYING!"
Freezing momentarily, I say, "Wait, didn't you do all of this so I would fall in love with me?"
He looks confused and responds, "No, I did it because it looked like fun."
"Ehh, so you weren't in love with me, so my declaration of love was rejected?"
"Wait, you're in love with me?"
"We literally have spent the last four years together every day!"
He paused for a moment, and says, "My god we have."
Turning my head away, I say, "Well, I have embarrassed myself enough today."
Cian suddenly grabs me, then lifts me up into the air and starts running while saying, "BROTHER! I HAVE FOUND THE BEST WIFE IN THE EMPIRE!"
His words embarrass men and make me hold my face.
I think it was that day I found love of my own, love which couldn't be taken from me and love that I will forever maintain.
I had fought with that man, cried with that man, laughed with that man, and even created another being with that man. Every aspect of me was amplified when with him, and I will never regret that bond.
Even if you are gone.
-Break-
ΦI was born a twin, and within the beastkin, that is nothing but a bad omen.
It is said that the reason a child is split in two is because their destiny is so great that misfortune will come towards them, so the child had to split in two and send its misfortune onto its other half.
The younger of the two is said to be a scapegoat for the elder to accomplish great things, and the very idea of that being the reason for my existence bothers me repeatedly.
No one in my family expected anything from me, so I tried my best day in and day out. But I was beaten in everything by my brother again and again.
He was praised for his success, and I was treated as a fool for even trying to compete with him.
The way I was treated made me hate my life. Just because I came out second, I was forced into a life of sadness and no love. Just because he came out first, he was expected to be a great man; it was just unfair, so unfair.
So, I plotted to end Cian, to bring an end to his great life. Even if my life would never have weight, at the very least, I could find happiness in the fact that I had robbed him of the world.
I waited for one night when my parents had left, and I pretended to sleep. Then I got out of my bed and, with a spear in hand, I prepared to end his life.
But as I moved from my shack outside to his room, I heard him mumbling something, and soon after that, I heard a smack, which caused me to freeze up for a moment.
"Don't be a fool, Cian, you cannot stop now. Because Ryan never stops, if you want to be his cool big brother, you must match his awesomeness, now keep going."
The words he said when he thought no one was around were his truth; those were how he felt about me. I noticed the hypocrisy within myself and came to a realisation that he wasn't my enemy but my rival.
I fought with him with much more passion than ever before, but when I lost, I said, "I WILL WIN NEXT TIME!" instead of simply running off like I did before.
The adults of my family gave me dirty looks, but he responded and said, "TRY YOUR BEST, LITTLE BROTHER!"
His words and smiles melted my heart and gave me the warmth I never knew I could have.
As he grew older,
He was less bound by our family and spent lots of time with me, and soon we truly became brothers.
To those of my family, I will always be a source of misfortune, but at the very least, to my other half, I am someone who ought to have been alive, and I love him for that.
And I know his son does as well.