But it still felt like there was some distance between them.

Egru bowed his head, muffling the sound of his footsteps.

Thump thump.

Now even his heartbeat sounded too loud. Loud enough to make him anxious that the other might hear it.

“Come out! Huh? Come out here!”

Egru’s guess was right. Gilbert hadn’t discovered him yet.

“If you come out now, I’ll let you off! Really!”

Gilbert seemed like someone who wasn’t good at lying. His boiling emotions were still clearly evident.

“I’m telling you it’s true!”

Bang, the sound of a wall being smashed in a fit of rage echoed.

Egru squeezed his eyes shut. He clasped his trembling hands together in fear.

‘L-let’s think. What should I do?’

What should I do if this giant of a man comes chasing after me with murderous intent?

‘I-I don’t know…’

Egru held back his tears and organized his thoughts. Gilbert had clearly mentioned the Hero several times.

‘A-according to the status window, I’m supposed to be the Hero…’

Gilbert was not in Egru’s memories.

Could he be talking about another Hero active in the same era?

He felt like he might faint, facing a life-threatening situation on top of his already overwhelming confusion.

“Shall we play a game?”

A shout rang out, closer than before.

Egru lowered his head even more.

“You’re it. You should come catch me quickly. If not, I’ll run away?”

“…”

“If you hide without consideration like that, I might never find you. Is that really what you want?”

Tiptoe, tiptoe.

Egru moved forward with duck-like steps.

His steps, fleeing away from Gilbert’s calls, suddenly stopped.

It was because the thumping footsteps seemed to be getting closer.

Egru covered his mouth with his palm.

“I’ll give you three seconds, okay?”

Gilbert’s voice had already become desperate. He seemed to be a person lacking in patience.

“If you don’t come out this time, I’ll peel off your face and throw it up into the trees. You don’t want to live without a face for the rest of your life, right?”

Egru curled up into as small a ball as he could. Even though it was just air touching him, his skin tingled with tension. The status window still showed no reaction.

“Three.”

Egru pretended not to hear and sang a song in his mind.

“Two.”

Egru covered his ears tightly with both hands.

“One.”

“R-really? Do you really mean it?”

Egru finally surrendered, tears streaming down his face. His sniffling, congested voice echoed through the space.

“Will you really let me go? I-if you just let me out of here, I’ll do anything you say…”

Egru hesitated. He saw a bright red light. It wasn’t from the status window, but from the mana stone Gilbert was holding.

Swish.

Gilbert turned to look at Egru. The thing standing straight up below, excited, turned with him. Its very tip was glistening with moisture.

“…Time’s up.”

Through his tangled hair, Gilbert seemed to be grinning somehow. He held an axe in one hand and a hammer in the other.

‘Ah…’

The blunt metal tools, not sharpened in a long time, were dyed red by the light of the mana stone.

‘W-why am I so stupid?’

After a moment of self-reproach, Egru swallowed his tears and ran. Tears would blur his vision if they welled up.

“?”

But something was strange.

He couldn’t feel any signs of pursuit. Even the bright red light had long disappeared from his sight.

Still, he didn’t stop his running feet. It was when he was straining his inexperienced senses in the complete darkness.

CRASH―!

At first, he only heard a deafening noise that made his ears ring.

‘He was on the opposite side of the wall…!’

Somehow knowing his route, the side wall shattered into pieces. A bright red light spread through the dust cloud. He had struck and broken the thick wooden wall from the opposite side.

Before Egru could even take a surprised breath, Gilbert appeared.

His hair, dyed red, fluttered amidst the falling debris.

Without time to be paralyzed by fear, Egru ran.

‘No, no…!’

Knowing he shouldn’t look, he reflexively glanced back for a moment.

He was terrified to see Gilbert pursuing him like a beast, using the walls and ground for support.

The walls and ground he touched with his sharp nails crumbled and left scars.

“Hypocrite! Claiming innocence while running away!”

“Y-you keep chasing me…!”

“You invaded my territory first!”

“I-I’ll leave! If you just show me the exit, I’ll immediately…”

“Why do you keep tormenting me! I’ve been good!”

Gilbert tore off pieces of wall within reach and threw them at Egru. The tools he had been holding in both hands seemed to have broken during the process of smashing the wooden wall earlier.

Egru ducked while running.

A heavy chunk of wood with a rough surface whizzed past over his head.

Bang.

Dust billowed up from where the wood chunk had embedded itself.

<system>

Optimal escape route found.

The status window finally appeared.

<system>

Go backwards.

‘Now? H-how?’

But before he could follow the instruction, Egru dashed into the darkness.

“Y-you said you’d let me go! I came out within three seconds…!”

“I changed my mind! So come here right now!”

It seemed like a conversation that would only end with one of them dead.

The chase continued for a long time. In the passage filled with bright red light, the shadow of the large figure closely pursued his nape.

<system>

User has deviated from the ‘optimal escape route’. Recalculating route.

<system>

Turn left.

Turn left?

‘T-that seems doable…’

Egru took in a breath that filled him to the chin and changed direction.

<system>

Simplifying direction instructions for user convenience.

Left, right, left, left, right, straight ahead, then turn right.

For a while, he frantically followed the status window’s directions to find his way.

‘C-can I really…’

Survive like this?

Egru forcibly suppressed the doubts that kept arising.

Thinking of his only brother, he was desperately moving his stiffening feet when.

‘Huh?’

Light was coming in. Not from a mana stone or status window, but a gentle radiance shining from outside.

He saw the chunk of wood that Gilbert had thrown earlier.

It seemed that when it hit the wooden wall, it had created a path leading outside.

‘F-finally…!’

But before he could step into the sunlight.

“Ack.”

Something wrapped tightly around his neck.

Yarn? Rope? String?

Something smooth wriggled as if it had its own will. Like the devil’s tail from scripture.

“Tag… is not really my specialty after all.”

The black tail was connected to the darkness.

He caught a glimpse of an imposing silhouette.

‘A t-tail…’

A demon? If it’s a species with a tail, a beast-person?

He had no idea the man had a tail. It must have been hidden by his hair all along, or perhaps intentionally concealed.

‘To reverse the situation like this…’

The thick tail tightened strongly around Egru’s neck. Egru flailed in mid-air. He frantically scratched at his neck, trying to loosen the tightly coiled tail.

“Do you know how I deal with intruders?”

Egru shook his head, choking, in response to Gilbert’s question. Unfortunately, the tail didn’t loosen at all.

“Now that you’ve seen, you should know.”

Gilbert stepped outside, carrying Egru along. It was an unexpected action, but his true intentions became clear quickly.

His already scarce breath stopped completely.

Outside was a vast flower garden. A spectacular view of diverse flowers in full bloom spread out widely.

His pumpkin-colored eyes looked up. However, there was a tall barrier. It was a crude fortress with no visible exit.

‘Ah, ah…’

But there was an even bigger problem.

“You’re not the only fool who’s come in here all this time.”

In a corner of the flower garden. There was a pile of bones.

Were they magical beast bones? Wild animal bones?

‘Surely not h-human bones?’

Egru’s fingertips trembled. It seemed the answer was likely among the three options.

‘Fruit? Tree fruit?’

There were also piles of robes embroidered with specific symbols.

Given that they all had the same fruit pattern, they seemed to be uniforms of the same group.

Just as instinctive fear was creeping up his spine.

“Still, I’ll let you go specially. Seeing how you keep babbling about wanting to leave. I’ll consider it a good deed for once.”

The black tail threw Egru to the ground. The impact made Egru’s body bounce.

“Cough…!”

The strong shock made it hard to breathe. Before he could catch his breath again, his chestnut-brown hair was grabbed and he was dragged inside.

“In exchange, you can’t leave alive. A hero must be fair to everyone. The Hero always said that…”

“He-ro!”

Gilbert looked down at Egru, who had barely squeezed out the word.

“Y-you seem to know the Hero. You might not believe it, but I’m, I’m a hero too! Probably!”

“…”

“Is there perhaps a-another Hero here with you? If you let me meet them, I can explain everything…!”

“Hero?”

As he looked up, struggling, their eyes met through the hair. They were strangely vivid red eyes.

“There’s only one Hero in the world.”

“Th-that’s right! But…!”

Gilbert said, raising one foot.

“And that’s not you.”

The massive foot came down heavily. On the cream-colored wrist.

With a cracking sound, Egru let out a scream.

“Ah… aah…”

“See? A weakling like you can’t be a hero.”

Gilbert muttered as he dragged Egru along by his chestnut-brown hair.

“You need to be punished a bit. Until you die. You must pay for the sin of carelessly mentioning that person.”

Egru cradled his mangled wrist. The vivid pain shot up to his elbow.

‘I n-need to get out of here…’

No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t escape the strong grip. Even when he finally bit Gilbert’s ankle, there was no reaction.

“Hic…”

The black tail waved ominously before his eyes.

‘Am I going to die like this…’

No, I can’t.

Egru unconsciously wiped his teary eyes. It was too early to give up.

He scraped together what little strength he had left.

‘At least this…!’

The moment he reached out with his trembling hand and grabbed the tail, flinch.

Gilbert, who hadn’t moved at all until now, stopped.