“Hugh, Hugrey.”

“Mmm……”

Hugrey frowned and barely opened his eyes.

“Get up quickly. We need to leave with mother now.”

Again. How many times had he left the house at dawn, led by his mother’s hand?

He had been anxious since yesterday when his father said he would be away. Whenever father was away, mother would leave the house as if she had been waiting. Sometimes she left alone, sometimes she took Hugrey with her. This time it seemed she was going to take Hugrey. Why every time, when they would return in a few days anyway…

No matter where mother hid, father always found her and brought her back home. It took as little as one day, or as long as two weeks. How many days would it be this time before they returned home?

Father brought mother home carefully, as if touching her might break her, as if holding her might shatter her, but while he treated mother preciously, he never let her leave his side forever.

“Do we really have to go?”

Mother tried to take off Hugrey’s pajamas without answering his question. Outdoor clothes were already prepared on the bedside table.

“I’ll do it myself, mother.”

Hugrey removed his mother’s hands and took off his pajamas to put on the outdoor clothes. He was used to dressing himself since he was young. It was because he disliked anyone but his mother touching him, but since mother was always sick and bedridden, even her touch had become awkward.

“Where are we going this time?”

“This time…… well, where should we go?”

He only hoped they wouldn’t go too far, wherever it was. Going far meant having to come back that long distance again. No, more than that, if they ran too far, father might not be able to find mother.

Father was in so much pain when mother wasn’t by his side. Sadly, mother was in pain when she was with father.

So he couldn’t refuse every time mother asked him to come along. He could only hope father would come find them quickly, before he got sick.

“We’ll get off somewhere nice along the way.”

Mother told the coachman she had called in advance to go ‘west’.

“Where in the west, madam?”

“How far west can you take us?”

Mother asked, handing the coachman a pouch that looked quite heavy even to Hugrey.

“Oh my! This much! How far should we go? Since I need to return today… Um, would it be alright to take you to Bjørgen?”

The coachman answered with a grin after peeking into the pouch.

“I suppose.”

Bjørgen. Where was that? It should be somewhere father could find quickly.

Hugrey, who had fully woken up from breathing in the cold dawn air, fell back asleep about four hours after they departed.

“Hugh, wake up, we need to get off. Hugrey.”

When he woke up, the sun had already started to set in the west. As they got off the carriage, an open square came into view. The square looked lively with many people out, and it felt unusually warm for early spring, perhaps due to the heat accumulated throughout the day.

Mother turned around in place, looking around the square. As Hugrey followed her gaze around the square, his eyes fixed on the fountain in the center. More precisely, on the four children running around the fountain.

The children looked three or four years younger than Hugrey, but two blonde children especially caught his eye. The two children, who looked both similar and dissimilar, ran for a while and then burst out laughing at something funny. Hugrey’s eyes, which had been alternating between the two children, soon fixed on the girl.

“Clyne! I’m over here! Here, here! Can’t catch me? Are you a turtle?”

The small, thin girl with a cute forehead, round eyes, and a pert nose teased the boy while laughing, and for some reason, Hugrey couldn’t take his eyes off the girl’s mischievous face. The sunlight falling on the girl’s laughing face seemed to turn into sparkling dust circling around her, and her long, voluminous golden hair looked warm as if it had absorbed the sunlight.

“Hugh? Hugrey?”

“Ah! Mother……”

“Aren’t you hungry? Shall we eat something first?”

Hugrey looked around the square at his mother’s words and stopped his gaze at a bakery. He glanced at the fountain and then back at the bakery.

“Can we eat at that bakery?”

It seemed like the fountain would be visible from that bakery. And the face of that pretty girl running in front of it would be visible too.

“Bread?”

Mother tilted her head as if surprised.

After ordering bread, mother asked if she could order soup as well, and then ordered tea too. Hugrey was about to say it was too much but closed his mouth. The more food there was, the longer it would take to eat it all, and then he could watch the square, no, that girl, for a longer time.

‘Ah……”

Just then, the girl who had been circling around the fountain fell down. Hugrey, who was about to drink his juice, put down his cup and frowned without realizing it.

As the girl looked down at her knee with a grimace, the blonde boy approached her, squatting down.

“Does it hurt? Let me see.”

Hugrey had already awakened his senses and was listening carefully to their conversation.

“I fell because you suddenly chased me so fast.”

“You fell because you were looking back! Let me see. Should I bl… it?”

“You should bl… it since it’s your fault!”

The girl boldly blamed her brother.

“Bl… bl… Is it better now?”

“Hmm…… it’s okay. Now give me your hand. Help me up.”

Even as the girl got up holding her brother’s hand, Hugrey’s eyes were fixed on her scraped knee.

“Now I’m it, so you run away, brother!”

Hugrey’s face crumpled at the girl’s words.

What if she falls again? She can’t even run properly.

However, the game of tag continued until someone scolded them to stop. But just as Hugrey was about to drink his juice with satisfaction, thinking they were finally going to stop running, his face froze again.

“Let’s play hide-and-seek!”

The girl shouted excitedly and started running again, looking for a place to hide.

Hugrey was mentally scolding the girl who kept running tirelessly even though she wasn’t fast. But the girl, who couldn’t possibly hear his scolding, disappeared into an alley, her long hair fluttering.

“Hugrey? Are you done eating? It doesn’t look like you ate much?”

Hugrey shook his head at his mother’s words.

“I’m full now.”

Now that the girl was out of sight, he didn’t feel like sitting in front of the bakery eating bread anymore.

“Really? Well, mommy is a bit tired too. Let’s find a place to stay and rest a bit.”

Mother, as she always did, started walking towards the largest lodging in sight. Hugrey, who had glanced at the alley where the girl had disappeared several times while crossing the wide square, looked at the alley one last time just before entering the lodge entrance following his mother.

“……”

He heard a strange sound. It was the sound of something collapsing. He must have heard it because he had unconsciously focused all his senses on the alley where the girl had disappeared. Ignoring his mother calling him from behind, Hugrey ran like the wind towards the alley next to the vegetable shop where the girl had disappeared.

“Hey!”

Having reached the alley, he shouted in surprise at the sight of the small girl trapped under a box. How on earth did this child end up under this box? She wasn’t moving at all, her eyes closed as if unconscious.

“Chloe! Chloe, come out now, where are you? Mom’s here.”

The voice of the blonde boy came from the direction of the fountain. So this girl’s name is Chloe.

Hugrey frowned at the sight of the girl with injuries on her face after removing all the boxes.

“Chloe!”, “Hugrey!”

He could hear the voice of an adult looking for this child, and his mother’s voice looking for him, but Hugrey paid no attention as he finished clearing away the boxes and lifted the girl. At eleven years old, Hugrey was already freely wielding the power of the wolf, so he could easily lift such a light girl.

“……”

Hugrey stopped abruptly as he was about to head to the square. How could a person smell this good?

“Chloe, Chloe!”

He wanted to keep holding her, but the voice calling for the girl grew louder. Finally, he left the alley and headed towards the fountain. A woman saw him and the girl and ran quickly. Hugrey held out the girl to the woman.

The woman frowned for a moment, and Hugrey also grimaced and held his breath. The woman smelled foul.

Did that woman smell something unpleasant from him too?

“Who are you?”

The woman asked with cold eyes.

“Hugrey! Why are you here?”

His mother, who had just run up to Hugrey, put her arm around his shoulders and examined his face.

“This child was collapsed over there, in that alley. She was trapped under a box. It seemed like you were looking for the child, so I just brought her.”

Hugrey quickly explained the situation to avoid any further misunderstanding.

“……I see, thank you.”

The woman briefly thanked him and slightly bowed her head to his mother as well. His mother also nodded slightly to the woman and then pulled on Hugrey’s arm.

“Why did you suddenly run off alone? You scared me.”

Hugrey apologized in response to his mother’s scolding and glanced back at the girl. The child still had her eyes closed. Suddenly, looking at her tightly closed eyes, he realized he hadn’t properly seen her eyes. Regrettably…

Hugrey, who had been coming to the square every day hoping the girl would appear again, thought for the first time since leaving home with his mother that he hoped his father would come late. But until his father came to find his mother and him three days later, as always, the girl did not appear.

After that day, his mother never left the house again. She had become too weak to travel long distances. Whenever the silence and sadness of the house weighed down on him, Hugrey recalled the sweet fruit smell and warm sunlight smell of the child he had seen in the square. Until the responsibility he had to shoulder too early after his mother and then his father passed away buried those memories so deep he couldn’t dig them out.