Sid darted through the crowd of people who made their way up the Bronze Route, proceeding with haste. From time to time he looked over his shoulder, but the man with rusty hair was nowhere to be seen. He could only see people with white hair like his own, typical of those who inhabited the region between central and northern Redguard.
Despite not having run very far, Sid was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. He sat down by the side of the road and hugged his knees close, sighing to himself.
How did it come to this?
Sid was starting to hate himself more and more. Dill and Nue...they had been such nice people. He was especially hurt by the fact that Nue Kirisaki, the red-eyed girl, had come to hate him. Although he probably would never have admitted it, Sid had started to fall for her.
The day that Dill had saved him, Sid had found Nue by a fountain on the road, soaking her bare feet in a stream and looking up at the moon. The sight of her had taken his breath away. He felt that he had stumbled upon something that he shouldn’t have seen, but he couldn’t look away. It was almost like he had encountered one of the Titans of old, the demigods worshipped by the people of the south, deep in some forest.
It was no use reminiscing about that now, though. However long he waited, there was no sign of Dill or Nue coming after him. He had been abandoned, and he deserved it after what he’d done. After standing up and wiping his eyes, Sid began to trudge away again.
Having nothing else to do while he walked, Sid looked at the people around him. Perhaps they had come from another regional branch of the Bronze Route, or maybe from the main source of the refugee exodus—the Empire of Megaros Terea, destroyed by Reincarnators. As if being crushed by a great, unseen hand, all the travelers looked downcast and exhausted.
Like a herd of livestock headed to the slaughterhouse, they seemed only dimly aware of their fate.
Sid’s melancholy thoughts were interrupted by the tap, tap, tap of footsteps frantically bounding toward him.
“Gotcha!”
“Whaaaaaa?!”
Sid found himself tackled to the ground and pinned there. Red eyes gazed at him from point-blank range.
The girl’s chest rose and fell violently with her ragged breathing.
“Wha—what—why?” Sid’s gaze locked with Nue’s, and he saw that her red eyes were blurry and wet. “Why did you...? I said...such awful things.”
Sid blushed, as if the color of Nue’s looming eyes had fallen on his cheeks along with her tears.
“I came to apologize.” The tone of Nue’s voice was uncharacteristically calm and serious. Standing up from Sid and looking away modestly as she spoke, she seemed like a completely different girl.
“I don’t understand what you mean... I’m the one who was wrong.”
“I wanted us to be friends, though,” Nue replied.
“Not even friends should be allowed to insult your family...right?”
“No...”
At this sharp retort, Nue hesitated. If anyone was hurt, though, it was Sid himself.
“I don’t think I deserve to be around the two of you... Goodbye, then.”
As Sid turned to go, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Nue was stronger than he’d realized—he couldn’t shake her off. “What do you want from me...?” Sid asked, bewildered.
Nue let go of his sleeve and clasped her hands in front of her chest as if she was praying.
“You know...Dill isn’t actually my real father.”
“I didn’t think he was. You don’t look anything alike.”
“Really?” Nue looked absolutely shocked. “After my mother died in the war, I was all alone. Dill saved me.”
“You’re trying to say you’re the same as me?”
Nue didn’t respond, but her silence was all the affirmation he needed.
“My case is different. Completely different.”
After all, Sid hated that man. He resented Dill for giving his father, who had become a Reincarnator, a second death.
“I’m grateful I was saved, and that you worried about me. I won’t forget that. But I still can’t give up on my father. I still believe that he could have been saved. He did hit me sometimes, and yell at me, so truthfully I never liked him very much...but he was my father, after all.”
I’m a terrible person, added Sid, silently. Nue just shook her head.
“Well, I’ll be going then,” Sid said.
Do you really have to?
I really do.
Red eyes and blue eyes blinked at each other. Sid turned his back to Nue and made to walk away—but at that moment, he noticed something was amiss. There was a commotion on the road in the direction he had come from. People were swarming over the gently sloping hill in droves, looking panicked. It was as if they were being pursued.
What’s going on?
The wind on his cheeks ceased to blow. In front of him a black hole had opened up, looking as though it had been painted in midair.
And then, something began to slither out of the hole. Legs with muscles like bunches of grapes stomped the earth with hooved feet. Members of a family that happened to be directly in front of the beast were either flung away by the force of the impact or trampled to death. All of this happened in an instant.
The beast was bovine in appearance, but far larger than any livestock. As it crushed anyone in its path beneath its hooves, it turned to look at Sid.
The creature’s face was covered by a perfectly smooth, egg-like iron mask. Live tendons, joints, and muscles were barely visible between the cracks in its skin, which was reinforced with something like armor. It didn’t appear to be breathing—or at least, its throat didn’t move. To compensate, fans embedded in each of its flanks whirred, emitting steam.
Sid had seen something like it before—the straitjacketed apes he had seen the day his village was destroyed had been very similar.
A Sphinx.
This was the mythical name given by the people of Redguard to the biomechanical weapons used by the Reincarnators. A pale-faced man mounted upon the Sphinx’s back looked down impassively at Sid and the other refugees.