Hiro laughed awkwardly. “Right. Of course. Um...I’m Hiro. Hiro Oguro.” He couldn’t stand there like a statue forever. He might as well give her his name.
The girl tilted her head and stared pensively up into space. “Hi-ro...Oh-guro?” The name sounded foreign in her mouth.
“Just Hiro is fine, if the whole thing’s too much.”
“Very well. Hiro it is. So? What are you doing here?”
Hiro gave a self-deprecating smile. “Trying to find a way out.”
“Hmm...” She furrowed her brow as she looked him up and down, seeming to evaluate him. If she was, it only took her a second. “Well, you seem the honest type. If you want to leave the forest, it’s this way.”
The crimson-haired girl set off, gesturing for Hiro to follow. He hurriedly fell into line behind her. The wolf slipped in between them, like a bodyguard protecting its charge.
Hiro couldn’t say how long he trudged on, watching the wolf’s white tail sweep from side to side, but eventually he looked up to find shafts of light streaming through the thinning trees ahead. They’d reached the forest’s edge. After spending so long searching in vain for an escape, he couldn’t help but wonder if the woods had played some trick on him. It couldn’t have been that easy the whole time, he protested to himself as he stepped between the trees and out into the light.
The sight that greeted him took his breath away, leaving him blinking in astonishment. Overhead, a blazing sun sat enthroned in a cloudless azure sky, lord of all it surveyed. Its abundant rays showered the land below, where an endless expanse of grassy plains shimmered in the breeze.
As Hiro gazed out across the vista in wonder, he noticed a strange company approaching from the corner of his eye. They rode up on warhorses, all abreast—soldiers clad in heavy armor, with carefully polished spears in hand and swords at their belts. Their haughty eyes burned with hostility. Hiro quailed under their glares.
One rider urged his horse forward from the group. He wore a great scar on his cheek, and his formidable bearing marked him as a seasoned warrior. He shot Hiro a single hawkish glance before turning his attention to the crimson-haired girl.
“Another of your bathing trips, my lady?”
“What can I say?” Her tone was defiant. “I needed it after practice.”
His eyes narrowed. “You were foolish to go unguarded.”
“I was very well guarded, I’ll have you know. Wasn’t I, Cerberus?” She petted the white wolf’s head, prompting a cheerful bark.
The armored man seemed to struggle for words for a moment, then shook his head in exasperation. He might have been an older brother trying to handle a willful younger sister.
“Well?” He jerked his thumb at Hiro. “Who’s this brat tagging along with you?”
“Me? Err...I got lost in the forest. I’m nobody important, so...um...I’ll just be going.” Hiro forced his mouth into what he hoped was an innocent smile.
“You dare mock me, boy?”
Judging from the vein throbbing on the man’s forehead, Hiro hadn’t been very convincing.
“His name’s Hiro,” the girl chimed in, laying a hand on Hiro’s shoulder. “We only just met, but we’re practically best friends already! Isn’t that right?”
She spun around in front of him to gaze directly into his eyes. Hiro promptly flushed bright scarlet. He wasn’t used to any girl getting so close to him, let alone one so unusually pretty.
“Y-Yeah, I guess,” he stammered, desperate to say something to mask his embarrassment. “I-I mean, what is a friend, really, when you think about it?”
Cerberus gave a ruff of what sounded like agreement.
Unsurprisingly, the scar-faced man was not so easily convinced. “Your friend? This ruffian? You must think me born yesterday, my lady.” He looked Hiro over with naked suspicion. “What are those strange garments of his? Such garb was made nowhere in the empire.”
It was true that Hiro was the odd one out in his modern-day school uniform, although from his perspective, it was the others, with their armor and swords, who were dressed strangely.
“I’ve never seen an imperial citizen with a face like his, nor his hair besides. Where did you come from, boy?”
Only now did it click in Hiro’s mind that none of the faces looking down on him were remotely Japanese. Their hair was exclusively blond or brown, with not a hint of Hiro’s black coloring. Looking closer, their features were more pronounced than his own, their noses longer, their chests broader. Every one of the men could have been twice his size.
As his eyes widened in shock, the girl, who had now returned to his side, tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to find her gorgeous face inches from his nose.
“See how gentle his face is? And he’s got such big, round eyes. He’s just like Cerberus when she was a puppy.”
If someone had nudged either of them from behind, their lips might have touched. A sweet scent tickled Hiro’s nostrils. Oblivious to his distress, the girl broke into a radiant smile.
“I think he looks lovely!” she declared.
“I...uh... Thanks,” Hiro managed, too flustered to muster a proper response.
“Cat got your tongue, boy? A guilty conscience, no doubt. I take it you realize where you’ve strayed.”
“Oh, Dios, there’s no need to be so threatening. He’s only a child. Look, you’re scaring him!”
“Child or not, my lady, he is not to be trusted.”
Hiro’s ears pricked up at that. It was one thing for this man—Dios, the girl had said—to call him a child, but for a girl clearly his junior to do the same? He began to suspect a grave misunderstanding at play.
“Why not? He’s so adorable!”
“It is not whether he is adorable that I question—”
Hiro raised his hand, cutting Dios off. “Erm...excuse me...”
“What is it?” The girl turned around, flashing him a motherly smile, though her compassion only stung, knowing it was intended for a child.
“I know I don’t look it,” he said, “but I’m sixteen. I’ll be seventeen this year.”
“No way! You mean...you’re older than me?”
The girl looked so betrayed, Hiro had to remind himself he’d done nothing wrong. At her side, Dios’s jaw hung open in astonishment.
The girl rounded on Hiro in disbelief. “Sixteen? Are you sure? I thought you were ten!”
“Very sure. And I’m definitely not ten.”
It wasn’t uncommon to hear that Japanese people looked younger than they really were. In addition, Hiro only stood at five foot five, short for a second-year and barely taller than the crimson-haired girl. With his youthful face and features on top of that, it was little wonder his words rang hollow. As he racked his brain for a way to convince them of the truth, Dios looked him over with a piercing gaze.
“Could he be some manner of spirit?” the man wondered aloud.
“Oh, right! That would explain what he was doing in the forest! But no, hold on. How would a spirit get lost?”
For a moment, the girl had looked satisfied with Dios’s explanation, but then she cocked her head and struck a thoughtful pose. Her face was remarkably expressive. It was rather entertaining to watch, but Hiro didn’t have long to enjoy it before Dios urged his horse forward, heightening the tension once more.
“The boy must come with us,” Dios announced.
The girl looked scandalized. “What? He can’t! His parents must be searching for him as we speak. We have to get him home.”
“He is sixteen years of age, is he not? That is old enough to be held responsible for his actions. He has trespassed upon the royal family’s private land. We must take him back to the fort for questioning.”
“Can’t we just let him go?” she protested. “It’s not like he can do us any harm.”
“He may be a spy dispatched by your enemies.”
“Do you really think that’s likely?”
“I think we cannot take the risk.” Dios’s tone made it clear he would brook no further argument.
“Fine, but he gets to ride in my carriage. You won’t object to that, I hope.”
The girl clearly wasn’t going to give any more ground. Dios must have sensed that as well, because he furrowed his brow and sighed. “As you wish, my lady. Let us return to the fort.” He turned his horse about and rode back to his men.