His voice also brought his wandering thoughts back to reality in an instant.

Here, there is no sister who can take care of him. There was only one Yae Sakura who needed his care, an ordinary person who had suffered a series of terrible encounters with him.

He covered the cloak more tightly, soaked it in a cloth belt and wrung it out, and put it on her forehead.

"And then eat, she needs something to eat!" He drew a branch from the fire and stuck it at the water's edge, trying to light the bottom of the water to see if there were any fish to find. He wanted to do more, but he found that there was nothing more he could do.

His sense of urgency was as if he had been drained of motivation all of a sudden, and he realized that there really wasn't much he could do, just a little. All that remains is for him to resign himself to his fate and wait, wait, or wait!

Damn it! He hated the wait to put his hopes in the gods! But he really had nothing to do, and he couldn't even try to do it.

Powerlessness, despair, no way. It's like a dying person who suddenly finds hope to live, but after just cheering for hope, he finds that he has no way to approach it except to continue to approach death and pray that he will have time to save himself. All he could really do was cheer.

He felt like he was just waiting for death, praying for a quick death as he watched the end get closer to him.

The river is still flowing, and the night is still night. Nothing will change because of the boy's difficulties, nothing will change a little because of the despair in his heart. Everything was still the same, the night was still dark, the weather was still cold, the river was still muddy, and the branches that gave him warmth were burning less and less.

The night was dark, there was not even the moon, and he couldn't see it clearly from a short distance away from the fire. As the night gets darker, so does the cold. The water vapor on the surface of the lake gradually invaded the small hole where Xiu was located along with the cold air.

And the first to bear the brunt is this little boy.

He was shivering from the cold, and he only had a long robe of the Mandate of Heaven on his body. If it was usual, this dress would be enough to keep out the cold, but now he is blocked in a place that constantly emits damp and cold air, and this dress cannot completely protect him.

He was frozen and curled into a ball, guarding a small branch of fire that could not feel warmth at all, staring closely at the murky surface of the lake, guarding the passing fish that he didn't know if he could have.

He gritted his teeth and squatted stubbornly at the entrance of the cave, shivering from the clammy and cold air, and from time to time he breathed into his fingers to try to warm up his stiff fingers like oil-starved axles.

But there was no movement in the river.

He didn't know how long he had been waiting. All he knew was that the branch in front of him was burned into a small section, and then a small piece remained, and finally it crumbled as if it was going to burn or fall into the water. The hands and feet became less and less sensational from the beginning of the cold to the terrible pain, and the joints of the body became harder and harder. It wasn't until he suddenly realized that his brain was running out of ideas that he realized he had to go back to the fire to warm up.

He stiffened, moving stiffly like a gate valve without oil, as if the joints of his body were not his own. When he returned to the fire, the warmth he felt in that moment made him want to get into the fire.

If I could, I would have to go into the water to find food.

But I probably won't be able to get up.

If only the net hadn't burned so quickly, it might have stopped something

But if we don't burn it, I won't even be able to raise the fire, and we'll just freeze to death.

Before he could think more, a wave of intense hunger and sleepiness suddenly came over him. This feeling came so suddenly and so turbulently, that he uncomfortably clutched his stomach and fell to the ground, and his body couldn't stand it like a shrimp to complete a ball. He rolled back and forth uncomfortably, trying to make himself feel better, but he was so hungry that he didn't even want to turn over.

When he fell to the ground, he couldn't feel the floor cold, and even felt a little warm.

Can you find a little, as long as a little, everything is good, as long as you can eat, it is good. He can pay whatever it takes

He felt as if something was burning in his stomach, and something was secreting. He felt bubbles rise and burst in his stomach again, making a 'gurgling' sound. It didn't take long for the pain in my stomach to even start to feel more and more intense.

Under such hunger, he didn't know why he suddenly thought of the terrible white-clothed and blue-haired girl who stepped on the snowy cliffs of the Black Forest and stepped on the collapsing snow tide upstream.

He suddenly felt that he could understand why she was so determined, just trying to catch herself for food. Even if he had helped her and her partner.

He could finally truly experience why, after that, when they ate the food, they would show such a feeling of gratitude, even crying.

That's because I've never experienced real hunger, and I never knew that hunger was such a kind of torture that can make people crazy.

They were already in such pain after just over a day without eating, but they were for three, four, or even longer. Do they have a reason not to go crazy?

He laughed at himself quietly, is it a make-up class now? Heh, what a lively class

A question occurred to him. His victory over them at that time may have been full of water. All of them are hungry, they have been hungry for so long and they are still so terrible, what if they are full of food and drink? Do you still have a chance to resist?

He didn't have to think about it at all, he knew it very well.

But, for what reason, they would rather starve than disobey Dimmert's orders in secret?

No, I can't think about it so much. Xiu suddenly found that his concentration was starting to lose a bit. I can't protect myself now, and if I still think about those things that I don't have, I can't even deal with the current situation, and it's meaningless to think about those problems no matter how much I think about them.

He forcibly stopped his brain, which had begun to be cranky. Because now he has to think of a way to solve the problem, he has to think of it.

He is now on his own. Nothing could help him. Without.

The fire had been burning for a day, and there weren't many branches left on that tree that could easily break. But the billowing white smoke failed to attract rescuers, and when the branches that could be broken were used up, Xiu had to burn the main trunk directly. If the trunk still fails to attract it

Xiu shook his head stiffly again, not thinking about it.

There was the sound of something falling into the water at the entrance of the cave behind him. He looked back, and the twig was gone.

It looks like it's almost burned out and then falls. He thought so.

He baked the fire for a while, trying to get up and return to his position to continue crouching. No matter how slim the hope is, if you don't squat and guard yourself, there is absolutely no hope at all.

Suddenly, however, there seemed to be a temptation like a spell trying to keep him here, not wanting him to leave.

The name of this temptation is warmth.

(End of chapter)