By Zephyria 
I opened the lid, urging Aska to try some, but he remained unmoved.
“Just a tiny taste?”
“No.”
“Why? Does it make you uncomfortable? You wanted it so badly back then. And you said you weren’t full even after eating so much, right? Maybe it’s related to this, so come on.”
I wanted to force his mouth open and pour it in, but I figured that wouldn’t end with just a slap on the cheek, so I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“Does his taste change when he’s sane versus when he’s not?”
I watched Aska stubbornly refuse, sighed, and muttered to myself. Aska frowned and opened his mouth.
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to eat that.”
“Why not?”
“It smells weird.”
“Smells? What does it smell like?”
Is it because it’s animal blood? Can he only drink human blood? Ah, I should have brought a bottle of human blood too. I regretted it belatedly, and Aska grumbled.
“Aside from the smell, who even wants to drink blood in the first place?”
“You’re not even human.”
“I am human! You damn bastard!”
Aska shouted again. My ears rang, and I hunched my shoulders, reluctantly closing the bottle. Then, I told him the truth.
“Actually, this is pig blood.”
“What?!”
“And this is chicken blood. Anyway, I’ll bring human blood next time, so at least try a little of that.”
“Ugh, no! You eat it!”
Ugh, that temper… I fed him so much rice, but I don’t know why he’s just yelling. Then, it suddenly occurred to me that it was a little strange that Aska immediately noticed it wasn’t my blood.
I tilted my head and asked Aska, who was still huffing and puffing.
“Can you distinguish the smell of my blood?”
“What?”
“Otherwise, how do you know if this is my blood or not?”
“……”
At my question, Aska’s eyes widened as if he’d been caught red-handed. He looked so surprised he forgot to breathe. I watched him for a moment, wondering, and asked.
“Does each blood have a different taste and smell?”
“……”
“Then what about mine?”
“……”
I asked several times with curious eyes, but Aska didn’t open his mouth once. But his eyes, which had been like those of a startled rabbit, were now fixed on my neck.
As I slowly began to untie the bandage, Aska narrowed his eyes with a displeased expression.
“Does my blood not smell weird?”
“……”
Aska didn’t answer, but I clearly saw his Adam’s apple move. He couldn’t take his eyes off my unbandaged neck, like someone who hadn’t eaten in three days.
Could he have been holding back all this time?
I watched Aska, whose Adam’s apple was moving as if he were about to pounce on my neck at any moment, just like he had in the secret underground passage, and lightly stroked the wound with my finger.
Then, I held out my hand, smeared with the slippery medicine and a little blood.
“Eat.”
“……”
At my short words, the color of Aska’s eyes deepened like blood.
If he started crying now, he would be just like when he was out of his mind. Does he change like that just from seeing blood? I was a little amazed by the distinctly different eye color when Aska planted his hands on the floor like a beast and began to crawl on his knees.
“……”
Aska, who had come closer while staring only at the blood on my fingertip, paused for a moment and then slightly lowered his head. It was close enough that he could reach it with just a flick of his tongue.
I even saw his trembling lips part slightly, but for some reason, when I blinked, Aska was glaring at me with an angry face.
“……?”
As I tilted my head at the sudden change in situation, Aska jumped up and slapped my hand fiercely with a spiteful expression.
“Ah!”
It hurt quite a bit, and I cried out without realizing it, but Aska raised his hand again and punched my shoulder this time. I covered the hit shoulder with my other hand and could only wear a bewildered expression.
Not because it hurt, but because it was absurd.
“Why did you hit me?”
Did I do something to deserve it? No, even if I did do something to deserve it, why are you hitting me? Shouldn’t you not do that?
I was speechless at the incomprehensible situation, but tears began to well up in Aska’s ghostly eyes as he huffed and puffed.
“……?”
I couldn’t help but be embarrassed again.
“Why are you crying, all of a sudden?”
But Aska didn’t answer my question, roughly rubbed his eyes with his arms, pulled back the curtains, and threw open the window. Until then, I couldn’t understand why Aska was doing this, why he suddenly pulled back the curtains and opened the window.
But the moment his foot stepped on the windowsill, my body automatically lunged forward. There was no time to shout anything. I quickly reached out and barely grabbed the hem of Aska’s clothes as he fell out the window.
“Crazy…”
Aska, dangling from his clothes, looked up at me and began to struggle. I pulled Aska up, straining my arms with a pale face.
“Hold still, please…!”
But before I could finish speaking, the clothes that had been covering Aska’s body separated as if a butterfly were shedding its skin. Watching the pure white naked body fall down, I could only widen my eyes and clutch the hem of the clothes in my hand.
It wasn’t that high, but it was still high enough to get hurt if you fell without any preparation. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be hurt. Aska, who had landed on the ground, stood proudly naked and looked up at me for a moment before running along the road.
“……”
I blankly watched his disappearing back, sighed, grabbed a gown, and went out the door. Then, I said to the guard standing in front of it.
“Seal off the north… garden…”
“Yes?”
“Ha… I can’t believe this.”
The absurdity was growing.
Is he out of his mind right now? What did I do to make him run away by jumping out the window like that? Naked, too. Isn’t he crazy? What if someone else sees him? He doesn’t even know the situation he’s in!
“Someone is running around naked… no… my expenses… no, just… just seal it off. Don’t let anyone in or out…”
“Understood.”
The guard, noticing that I wasn’t in good condition, bowed with a tense expression and disappeared like an arrow. I stood in front of the door, took a moment to catch my breath, and then moved to catch the runaway colt.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Even though the garden was sealed off, I couldn’t rest assured. There was a high probability that Aska had already left the garden in the meantime. Still, the fact that I hadn’t heard any reports of a crazy person running around naked meant he was hiding well.
“Aska.”
I walked around the garden, where not even an ant could be seen, calling Aska’s name.
“Come out quickly. I don’t know why you suddenly did that, but come out first. Then we can talk.”
I remembered him saying he hid under the bed, so I checked under the chairs, searched every corner of the gazebo, and even looked inside the fountain, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.
I picked up an annoying twig and swung it through the air, making a whooshing sound.
“You’re not even wearing clothes. It’ll be a big problem if you get caught like this, you know?”
“……”
“Come out quickly.”
“……”
“Aska.”
“……”
“If you really keep doing this, I’m just going to tie you up later, okay?”
“……”
“A, ska!”
“……”
“Okay, I won’t get angry, so come out quickly. Let’s just put on some clothes. Put on clothes and go back.”
I coaxed and pleaded, calling his name several times, but the garden remained silent.
“Ha…”
I don’t know what I’m even doing. I already have a mountain of things to think about, but I have to play hide-and-seek.
I stood in place and threw away the twig I was holding. I was starting to get annoyed when I suddenly saw something on the ground.
I followed the sparse marks that looked like blood as if possessed, and reached the dense bushes in the corner. And I heard a small sobbing sound in my ear.
“……”
I watched the slightly shaking bushes and reached out to clear away the grass leaves. Then I saw a small, white lump.
“Ha.”
As soon as I saw it, a sigh escaped my lips. I didn’t know if it was a sigh of relief or a sigh of absurdity.
Aska was curled up in a ball, his face buried in his knees, sobbing. Whether it was true that he hadn’t eaten in a while, his bent back was so thin that I could see all the vertebrae of his spine.
He was even trembling as he cried, so I couldn’t bring myself to get angry. I covered him with the gown I had brought and asked.
“Why are you crying?”
“What!”
“Ah, you scared me.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Aska screamed with his face still buried. Then, he kept crying and shouting in a nasal voice.
“Get away from me!”
“No, why are you crying?”
“Get away!”
“I need to know why you’re crying so I can do something. Why are you crying, anyway?”
After waiting silently for a while, Aska began to mumble.
“I’m human…”
“What?”
“I’m human… But blood keeps… My grandma and, Dad and… Sister, if I do that… sob…”
I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say at all. Maybe he was getting more upset as he spoke, but Aska’s crying was getting louder and louder. I had a feeling it would be a long battle, so I sat down on the dirt floor and decided to say things one by one.
“You’re human?”
“……”
“So? But why is that?”
“But blood keeps… Because of blood… I’m… I’m human…”
As expected, when I don’t know what’s going on, it’s a good idea to solve things one by one. I quickly asked, because I thought I knew what Aska was trying to say now.
“You’re human, so it’s weird that you want to drink blood, right?”
At my question, Aska’s small head moved a few times. I watched him nod and asked again.
“But why grandma, Dad, and sister?”
“If I’m not human, I’m not family either…”
“……”
What does it mean that they’re not family? I’m sure I said that there was something non-human mixed in among the ancestors of the Calderia King, right?
I tilted my head and said, looking at the back of Aska’s head.
“They’re all probably similar to you, right? Same bloodline.”
“Similar?”
Aska finally peeked out and looked at me. His face was covered in tears and his eyes were all red from crying so much.
“They might not have to drink blood directly like you, but anyway, among your ancestors…”
“Then it’s different!”
“No, it’s the same bloodline, okay? But you just inherited a lot of that blood more than others. Don’t you understand?”
At my words, Aska sniffled and looked at me, asking in a nasal voice.
“Then you don’t think it’s weird that I drink blood?”
“……I don’t think so?”
“……”
“……”
I was speechless as I watched water pour out of Aska’s eyes like a waterfall. I was realizing for the first time that a person could cry like that.