Beastmen Love-Chapter 212: Discovering The Truth

After ten more days, everything is ready to finally start the journey back to Beastmen Kingdom. Before they leave for the ship, and after saying their good byes to the shrine, Seiryuu comes with the painter and shows Astri the big quantity of painting tools and dyes.

"I hope you can come back before this ends, milady." Seiryuu says.

She smiles and then looks at Shinkou, nodding to him. Shinkou shows the painting she made of the village and the Mizuryuu.

"This is for you, Lord Seiryuu. To thank you for everything you did for me, and it is also a promise. The promise that I will be back when my soul is complete again." She says, and he smiles taking the painting. "And I promise I’ll only get more art supplies here. So that tells a lot." She says and he chuckles.

"Good. I’m glad to know that. I’ll be waiting patiently." He says.

"Once I leave you can tell your father I’ve met you and that I’ll visit you when you less imagine."

He nods. They walk to the ship, they set sails and Astri waves at Seiryuu and the painter.

"May the Spirits of the Ocean keep you safe.." Seiryuu says, watching the ship fading away in the horizon.

Astri imagined that Kenzou and Shinkou would feel nauseous on the first days, and they did. She gives him herbs to bite until they’re used to the sea movement. freewёbnoνel.com

"When will your friend appear?" Kenzou asks, looking at the ocean and then at Hinokishi Village.

"Soon. I can feel something big around. Probably he’s looking for me. Nature will show him the way." She answers, tying her hair up and walking to the front of the ship, standing near the bow.

Astri created a way to keep the helm steady without the need of someone holding it constantly and keep the rudder from changing directions, so Shinkou and Kenzou walks to her.

"Remember the cardinal points?" She asks them.

"Yes." They answer in unison.

"Where are we heading now?" She asks.

"West."

"Exactly. West. You can see now the difference of the sky that has lands and that has only ocean." She says.

They look back and forward some times and noticed the slightly difference of the tones in the sky.

"Nature, and soon Biggie, will show us the way. But it’s good for us to know how to find land in case we need some time in land." She says, and then she sees something dark starting to appear on their front, making her smile. "Look who’s here!" She happily says.

Then Biggie’s head start to come out of the water, making Shinkou and Kenzou naturally shiver and tremble, because Biggie is at least three times bigger than their ship. A big tentacle comes to Astri and grabs her, scaring the soul out of Shinkou and Kenzou.

"I missed you, too, sweetheart. It’s been so long." She chuckles, hugging his tentacle.

The way he holds her is very kind for something so big, and for her to be giggling at that giant creature made them a bit more relaxed.

They only hear deep sounds coming from Biggie. And that’s when Astri remembered she can’t see anyone’s mind again. She explains to Biggie about her soul and that she’s not being capable to listen to him. Astri decides to stop the ship so she can try to talk to Biggie and teach him how to signal things for her.

"Are we closer to the Beast Kingdom or to Aquaterra? Touch this hand if it’s Beast Kingdom or this hand if it’s Aquaterra?" Astri asks, showing her left and right hand.

Slowly Biggie touches the very tip of his tentacle o her right hand, which means Aquaterra.

"All right. We will go to Aquaterra, then. Did Claud ever talk to you about what happened to me? Touch this hand for yes, or this for no." She says, and then shows her left and right hands again.

Biggie answers yes by touching her left hand.

"Did he tell you if he will keep in contact?" She asks.

He answers yes.

"Great! We might not even need to go all the way. When was the last time he talked to you? This hand for seven days and this hand for ten days or more."

He answers ten days or more.

"That’s good. He might come talk to you sooner that we thought. How often is he talking to you? This hand for around thirty days or less. This hand for thirty days or more."

Thirty days or more, he answers.

"All right.. How many times he talked to you until now? This hand for five times or less. This hand for ten times to six times."

He answers six times or more.

These answers are weird. One answer he said that it’s been thirty days or more than Claud talked to him, but he talked to Biggie more than six times. She was living in Shrine for around forty days. If Claud talks to Biggie in thirty days or more, and it’s been ten days or more that he doesn’t talk to Biggie, he should have talked to Biggie only once.

"Let’s to try to find exactly when he last talked to you."

She asks Kenzou and Shinkou to raise their hands to be faster. She points different days on each of their hands. The first group of hands were 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 days. Biggie answers sixty days, and that made her completely confused.

"How is it possible? I appeared here in less than sixty days... I’m sure Biggie knows when a day passes. Are you sure about this, Biggie? This hand for yes and this hand for no." Astri says.

Biggie answers: yes. Her heart freezes for a moment.

"Nature... How long do you know what happened to me?" She asks.

The group of hands are 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 120 days. Biggie doesn’t answer, making her believe it’s even more than that. The next group of hands are 120, 130, 140, 150, 160 and 170. And, again, he doesn’t answer.

"It’s been days or years that you’re looking for me? This hand for days and this hand for years." She asks, showing her left and then right hand.

Her heart felt like stopping when he answers years.

"Years?.... How... I thought I was out for a day or two the most. How many years?"

They make a group of hands that are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 years. Biggie doesn’t answer. Their mouth fell down on their feet when Biggie didn’t answer. They make a new group that are 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 years. Biggie answers seven years.

Astri sits had to sit down because she was feeling her legs weak, and her chest hurting. Panic was consuming her for knowing she has been away from her family for so long. She is suffering so much after almost fifty days away from them. She can’t imagine their pain for being away from her for seven years.

Shinkou and Kenzou sit on her sides, hugging her while she cries on her knees.

"I was...out for seven years?.. Seven years! I didn’t see my children grow. Will they even remember me?! I’m feeling like broke for being this long away from them. How are they handling this for seven years?!" She cries and cries.

She cries so much that it’s breaking Shinkou and Kenzou’s hearts, but they don’t know what to say to her besides just hug her and let her vent her pain on them. Biggie can feel her pain, too, and is sad for her.

Biggie doesn’t know when Claud is going to talk to him again. Since Biggie can’t search on land, Claud only talked to him few times to know if Biggie at least felt her energy somewhere. He can only hope that Claud talks to him while he’s bringing her to Aquaterra.

She took a long time to calm down. She knows that if it Shinkou and Kenzou weren’t there she would go insane. When falls asleep after crying so much, Shinkou brings her to her bedroom and Kenzou sets the ship to follow Biggie.

Shinkou walks to Kenzou and they sigh in silence, looking at the direction they’re heading.

"I thought I was going through backlash all over again.. It was as she was going through backlash. I was scared she would lose her mind." Kenzou softly says.

"Me too... How is it possible for her to be away for so long and in her mind it’s like it passed few time? Is this Biggie really telling the truth?" Shinkou asks.

"I think that if he was lying, Nature would have warned her. Nature reacts to her to tell her things. It’s said that a soul never dies. It stays living around us as it was waiting for the right moment to be born again. Her soul was broken when she fought the Youkai Emperor, maybe her soul needed time to get stronger again and appear at the Spirit Tree Shrine."

"It makes sense... Argh. I hope she will be fine when she wakes up. Seeing her crying is awful. My heart feels like breaking into tiny pieces."

"Be with her when she wakes up. I told you to go slow with her, and I was going to say to you that you didn’t have to go so slow." Kenzou says, and gives a sad smile. "But maybe you need to keep going slow after this."