That day, the boy ran nonstop.

For the first time, he tasted suffocating bitterness. When he heard Irene tell him to leave, he felt as if his life had lost its meaning. He ran blindly, wanting to escape to the ends of the earth, to the edge of the world, to a place where he could forget this despair.

He plunged into the forest, leaping off rocky cliffs and onto the ancient, winding branches of the forest trees.

The speed of his sprint created a whirlwind, tearing off a few leaves.

The leaves fluttered down, landing on the moss, covering a fresh paw print.

In the forest, a young black panther tried to leap over a small river but slipped and fell into the water. It floundered for a bit, eventually climbing back onto the bank.

It lay motionless by the riverbank.

After a long while, it rolled over and transformed back into the form of a boy.

He lay flat on the riverbank, his arm across his face, covering his eyes. His entire body was soaked, the river water mingling with his tears, indistinguishable from each other.

Only the passing breeze could hear the name he softly called out.

"Irene... Irene... Irene..."

***

Night fell.

In the forest, two figures were searching.

"Aoshi, are you sure Shinya is around here?" A middle-aged man, holding a crystal lamp-turned flashlight, parted the underbrush and asked a deep red blazing-stripe leopard beside him.

"Can't be wrong," the blazing-stripe leopard called Aoshi lowered its head, sniffing carefully, then led the way forward. "This way."

"Alright, I'll trust your sense of smell then." The middle-aged man, Tsuruga, had no choice but to follow.

"You'd better put out that light, Tsuruga," the blazing-stripe leopard complained, turning its head. "Even if it doesn't attract any beasts, it's blinding my eyes."

"First, I no longer go by Tsuruga. Call me Atsu," the middle-aged man who called himself Atsu explained tirelessly. "Second, I don't have night vision as powerful as yours anymore. If I don't use the light, do you want me to fall into a ditch and then have you rescue me?"

The blazing-stripe leopard only refuted the first point. "To me, you will always be Tsuruga."

"If Her Majesty the Queen thought the same as you, I wouldn't be in this state," Tsuruga adjusted the lamp's brightness, dimming the light, and carefully followed the blazing-stripe leopard.

He wasn't unfamiliar with this forest, but the nighttime forest was far more dangerous than the daytime one. Since he lost his night vision, he hadn't ventured into the forest at night.

After all, now he was hardly even half a werewolf.

Aoshi deliberately slowed his pace, occasionally looking back to see if Tsuruga was keeping up.

The two of them crossed through the underbrush, climbed a low hill, and finally found a boy on the riverbank.

"Shinya!" The blazing-stripe leopard quickly rushed over.

Tsuruga couldn't keep up and was left behind. "Slow down!"

A swirl of white mist dissipated, and the blazing-stripe leopard transformed into a tall, burly man beside the boy. He wore rugged leather armor, adorned with dark red magical patterns that pulsed like veins in the darkness. His long ponytail was neatly tied at the back of his head, adding a touch of gentleness to his stern, icy face.

Aoshi lifted the boy, pressing his forehead against the boy's. "His temperature is very low, and he's very weak."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Tsuruga finally caught up, raising the flashlight to get a better look at the boy's face.

The boy's face was deathly pale, his eyes tightly shut in pain, and his lips moved as if he were muttering something.

"What happened to Shinya? The young of the Bloodwolf usually aren't this weak," Tsuruga said anxiously, taking a piece of clothing from his backpack and handing it to Aoshi. "Wrap him up quickly."

Aoshi wrapped the coat around Shinya and picked him up again.

"Yes, a young one with the blessing of the Shadow Wolf usually wouldn't be like this. Even if injured, they would recover quickly. Unless he has given up the will to live."

***

At midnight, the boy woke up in his bed.

This surprised him. He had thought he would die in the forest. The cold had sapped his body heat, and in his heartbreak, he hadn't even wanted to open his eyes again.

He sat up and discovered that someone had changed his clothes while he was unconscious.

"Father?"

This was the first name that came to his mind.

Besides his father, Aoshi, no one could have found him so quickly in the complex forest.

"You went to Acorn Town again?"

A stern voice came from the dark corner of the room, and Shinya finally noticed that his father had been in the room all along.

Shinya remained silent, implicitly confirming.

"To see her?"

Still silent.

"How many times have I told you not to get too close to humans?" Aoshi's patience was at its limit.

"This has nothing to do with you!" Shinya seemed unafraid of his father's anger. "My business is none of your concern!"

This statement enraged Aoshi. He shouted, "Akane Shinya, don't forget your identity!"

Shinya said nothing, but his fists clenched in anger.

"As a member of the Bloodwolf, where is your pride? You, who have been blessed by the Shadow Wolf, dared to abandon the will to survive? This is a great disgrace, do you understand?"

His father's words only made Shinya more furious. He sharply retorted, "Bloodwolf? Pride? If this bloodline is so worth being proud of, if this identity is so noble and grand, why did you take me and flee from Togekaze like we were running for our lives? And now you want to talk to me about how noble this bloodline is? I don't care! I grew up without companions or friends like me. When they found out I was different, they started to reject me. Only Irene..."

Mentioning her name, Shinya's eyes filled with bitterness. His voice choked, unable to continue.

Aoshi knew all too well the pain a lone wolf would endure. He knew he hadn't given his child a happy childhood, and he couldn't argue against that. But no matter what, he had to stop Shinya from going further down the wrong path, even if it meant using less acceptable methods.

"I can tell you're infatuated with that human woman. What did she do to you to make you so obsessed? This has gone beyond my definition of 'interaction.' From now on, you are not to go to Acorn Town without my accompaniment. And you definitely can't go to Northsail. Do you understand?"

"Leave me alone!" Shinya shouted back at his father, then jumped out of bed, opened the door, and rushed out.

But before he could take more than two steps out the door, a strong hand grabbed his shoulder, easily pulling him back and throwing him heavily onto the bed.

"Listen carefully, Akane Shinya," Aoshi said, pinning Shinya face-down on the bed with a forceful grip. "You are not yet an adult; you have a long road ahead. That woman is just a passing figure in your long life. In a few years, you won't even remember her. Your infatuation with her is only temporary. Do you understand?"

"No matter how many years pass, I will only love Irene," the boy's voice, strained under the weight, carried a hint of sobbing. "Aren't you the same? You only love my mother."

"That's different!" Aoshi was even angrier. "Your mother was a werewolf! And Irene is human!"

"So what? I don't care that Irene is different from me!"

"But what about her? Can she be as indifferent to the difference as you?"

These words hit Shinya like a thunderbolt.

Does she care?

Yes, she cares. She cares deeply.

Irene's cold expression resurfaced in Shinya's mind.

He saw her telling him, "Get lost. Disappear from my world. I don't want to see you again."

Each word from her mouth was like a sharp blade, cutting deep into his heart, leaving it bleeding.

Seeing Shinya's silence, Aoshi seemed to guess what had happened. "Oh? It looks like she rejected you? At least she has some sense."

Aoshi released his grip and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"In a few days, someone from Togekaze will come."

"What does that have to do with me?" Shinya replied coldly.

Aoshi didn't mind his son's coldness. He realized that after being rejected, Shinya seemed to have calmed down, and his anger had mostly dissipated.

Now, he was more concerned about Shinya's future path.

"Suzuran will come to take you back, but I can't go with you to Togekaze. Until you come of age, Suzuran will arrange everything for you. She will take good care of you. You can trust her."

"Trust her? I don't even know her."

"She is the Anshu who helped with your birth. She even named you. You were too young to remember many things, which is understandable."

Although Shinya didn't remember who Suzuran was, he still knew what an "Anshu" was. In the Bloodwolf, women who specialized in caring for and raising the young were called "Anshu." An Anshu was akin to a wet nurse, nanny, and teacher in the human world. In the werewolf kingdom of Togekaze, it was a highly respected profession. They accompanied werewolf young until they reached adulthood.

"Whatever."

Having lost Irene, Shinya no longer cared where he went. Whether his father went back to the homeland with him or not didn't matter to him anymore.

Without Irene, what difference did it make where he went?

Seeing that Shinya had calmed down, Aoshi reminded him, "Go downstairs and get something to eat. Tsuruga has left you some dinner."

The boy got up and walked towards the door, like a puppet without a soul.