Just then, a soft knock came at the door—two gentle taps, then a pause, as though whoever stood outside was summoning every ounce of courage they had.
Lucian lifted his eyes toward the kitchen, where Granny Maggie was bent over the stove, busy with her work.
He rose to his feet and pulled open the wooden door.
Standing outside was Baru, with Toby and a few of the young men right behind him, and further back, a crowd of villagers craning their necks to see.
Some had their hands on their companions’ shoulders, others hid behind trees with only half their faces peeking out, and every one of them carried something in their hands, be it large or small.
The most eye-catching of all was the wooden bucket in Baru’s grip, heavy and brimming with sea urchins, their purplish-black shells still glistening with damp sea sand.
Toby cradled a basket in his arms, fresh fruit spilling over its rim in a cheerful, abundant display.
“Haha, Lucian, it’s you!
Look at this!” Baru, seeing that it was Lucian who had opened the door, let out an awkward laugh and thrust the bucket of sea urchins toward him, seawater dripping from the bottom seams and forming a small damp patch on the ground.
“We spent the whole afternoon gathering these.
Toby and the others dove down to the deepest reef and picked out only the biggest, fattest ones!”
Toby hurriedly pushed his basket forward as well, the backs of his hands still dotted with tiny red marks from sea urchin spines.
He scratched his head, his voice a little tight as he spoke.
“Y-Yeah, it’s all thanks to you saving us today…
Oh, and those pirate bodies—we’ve already buried them quietly.
No one will find them.”
Baru nodded along, and the smile on his face grew more natural.
Suddenly, he straightened his back and bowed deeply before Lucian.
The villagers behind him, as though receiving a signal, bent forward in unison.
Someone’s clay pot shifted unsteadily and let out a soft clink, but no one dared lift their head.
They only spoke in muffled unison, “Thank you, Lucian!”
Lucian stood frozen in the doorway, his hand still resting on the handle, yet as he watched the scene before him, the unease in his heart was at last swept away.
He stared at the sea of bowed backs before him, the pulsing veins on the villagers’ napes clearly visible in the fading twilight.
Those vivid signs of life, which had once made his throat tighten, now stirred no craving within him.
“Lucian, what’s going on outside?”
Granny Maggie came hobbling out of the kitchen, wiping her hands, her apron dusted with flour.
When she took in the sight at the door, the smile in her eyes suddenly froze.
“Baru?
You all…”
“Granny!” Baru straightened up, his bronze face flushing red.
“We’ve come to…
to say thank you.” As he spoke, he suddenly grabbed hold of Lucian’s ice-cold hand and forcibly pressed the sea urchin bucket into it.
“Take it!
Freshly caught, every one of them—we know these are your favorite!”
The briny, sweet scent of sea urchin rushed up to meet him.
Lucian looked down at the purplish-black creatures in the bucket and reached in, wanting to scoop one out.
“A-And this too!” Before he could fish out a single sea urchin, a villager who had been hiding at the back suddenly stepped forward, set a clay pot down right in front of him, and shrank back into the crowd.
A rich, meaty aroma wafted from the mouth of the pot, where tender stewed beef bones peeked through an amber-hued broth.
More gifts piled up before the door: smoked dried fish, all kinds of fish, even a new coarse cloth tunic.
Toby quietly placed his basket of fruit right on top.
“Everyone…” The old woman’s voice caught in her throat.
She tugged at Lucian’s sleeve.
“Lucian, say thank you.”
Lucian’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
He clumsily opened his mouth, but only a puff of air came out.
“…Thank you.” The pronunciation was odd, yet still understandable.
At this, the villagers suddenly burst into laughter.
Balu roared with laughter and clapped him on the shoulder with enough force to make an ordinary person stumble:
“No need for thanks, Lucian.
This morning, we were in the wrong.
You were the one who saved us, and yet that was how we treated you.” His voice was full of apology.
The villagers joined in, all talking over each other to offer their own apologies.
It was the first time Lucian had ever seen so many people speaking at once, and he could only stare back at them with a blank expression.
By now, the villagers had come to understand that this was simply how he was, and they did not mind.
They just exchanged a few casual words with Granny Maggie at the door before taking their leave.
As Baru headed off, he thumped his chest and declared that if there was ever any trouble, Lucian should come find him without hesitation.
“This is for you.” Toby, meanwhile, secretly pressed a strangely shaped fruit into Lucian’s hand before dashing off to catch up with Baru.
“Wonderful…” Granny Maggie looked out over the yard full of gifts and dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her apron.
Lucian held the odd fruit in his hand and tilted his head.
He did not quite understand, only felt that the villagers’ laughter no longer sounded as strained as it had before.
The two of them carried everything inside together.
The bucket of sea urchins was so heavy that Lucian lifted it with a single hand, while Granny Maggie followed behind, arms full of the other presents.
She tidied them away, murmuring to herself, “Toby’s mother has the best cooking,” and “The old fisherman really knows how to dry his herbs properly.”
Dinner was steamed egg with sea urchin, served alongside corn cakes.
Lucian ate with extraordinary relish, and Granny Maggie, watching him wolf everything down, could not keep the corners of her mouth from curving upward.
Late at night, the thatched hut sank into silence, broken only by the occasional sweep of the sea breeze past the window lattice.
Lucian sat on the edge of his bed, holding the fruit Toby had slipped him.
It was about the size of a fist and looked much like the apples he had eaten before, but this “apple” was covered in eerie purple swirls.
‘This apple looks really strange.’ Lucian stared at the bizarre purple patterns for a long while, until his mind drifted back to the apple that little girl had once handed him.
His throat moved, and he brought the fruit to his lips and bit down.
“(￣～￣) What is this taste?” He swallowed a mouthful, feeling as though something was surging up from his throat.
Unsure, he took another bite and chewed it slowly, only to spit it out with a “pfft.”
‘This apple has gone bad.’ Lucian was now certain.
He dashed out the door, downed a cup of water in one gulp, then returned to his room and hurled the rest of the fruit out the window.
It tumbled end over end, rolling all the way to the beach, where the lapping tide carried it off until it gradually vanished from sight.
Watching the “bad apple” disappear beyond the window, Lucian gave a satisfied nod and settled back onto his bed.
But then, he sensed something was not right.
It felt as though a stream of gas was flowing inside his body, remarkably similar to the sensation he experienced whenever he injected something into another person through his bite.
He spread open his palm, and a fine wisp of gray wind was slowly swirling across it.
He glanced around the room for a moment until his gaze landed on a cockroach in the corner.
The gray mist in his hand drifted silently toward it.
The cockroach, utterly oblivious, continued crawling back and forth.
But the instant the gray mist drew near, it suddenly froze in place.
Curious, Lucian walked over to the corner, crouched down, and prodded it with a finger.
The cockroach, with shocking ferocity, bit down hard on his finger and began tearing at it viciously.
Lucian flung the cockroach away with a snap of his wrist and pulled the gray mist back out of its body.
The cockroach went still at once—this time, truly dead.
The next morning, Granny Maggie noticed the dark circles that had bloomed under Lucian’s eyes and assumed he had not slept well, fussing over him and insisting he eat two extra corn cakes.
Lucian said nothing, and simply ate his meal in silence.
After finishing his food, he quietly slipped away to the edge of the forest.
He tried touching the gray mist to a large tree, but nothing happened at all.
Lucian crouched down and fixed his gaze on the tree before him, watching it intently for an entire hour.
Only when Granny Maggie’s voice called out to him from the distance did he finally turn around and head back.