Just The Two Of Us In This Vast World Chapter 1 Part7

Chapter 1 — The boundary line, the marriage between a girl and a wolf. Part 7

"Shiro, can you go a little slower?" I whispered into his ears as I clung closer to his body, leaning forward.

"Are you not feeling well?"

"No. I just want to talk for a bit."

"Then it can wait until we are outside the forest."

"No, it has to be here."

He nodded and reduced his speed. The sound of the wind diminished proportionally.

"What do you expect from me as your wife?"

"To just be a normal, regular wife."

"I don't know what being normal means. That's something I have no memory of."

"I don't know either, but, hmm…"

He ceased talking to think, only letting out small growls from time to time.

"Do not betray me. Trust, love, and be loved."

Those were sad words. A pitiable wish for something I had never experienced.

They were almost like a mirage.

"That's hard to do."

"Yeah, it's really hard."

"I'll have to do my best."

He smiled bitterly, his silver fur brushing against my cheek.

"Then I guess I'll have to start with an apology. For a moment back there, I thought that you had perhaps only found and married me simply out of hate for your father, and that when you were done with this, you'd abandon me. I'm sorry."

Although in a roundabout way, I spoke about what had been bothering me.

After a moment of silence, he apologetically told me.

"In part, you are not wrong."

"And for the rest?"

"Intuition. The moment I saw you, I felt it—that I belonged with you."

"Love at first sight," I pa.s.sionately mumbled. "That's what we humans call that intuition."

I buried my face in that warm silver fur, felt his pulsing muscles and the flow of his blood.

"I bid the forest farewell."

Shiro suddenly changed the topic.

"I guess I'm an enemy of the forest now," he proclaimed. Words spoken for me, but also for someone else on behalf of me.

A declaration to the forest.

No comprehensible answer came. Only the sense that the rustling of the leaves and the wind had become stronger.

"And I," I murmured softly, "will stand by your side." Inaudible words for the silver wolf as well as for the forest.

I will not betray him, and I will trust, love, and be loved.

Those words entangled us like chains.

How ridiculous, for someone who doesn't even know love, to want to be loved.

If the two of us were the only ones left in this world, everything would be so much better. If only there was nothing else.

Wishes sweet as honey, thinking of them brought a broad smile to my lips.

"It reeks of destruction, of decayed souls," Shiro murmured while the premonition of a battle came upon the part of me that behaved like a beast.

And from far away, the howl of a wolf could be heard.