Anthracite gray.
A unique color that could not be found anywhere in the island's fauna and flora.
I had lived everything, witnessed all one could imagine, but it had been many years since I had seen anything like this.
My eyes fell upon his silhouet...
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∞───☠ ･❦･ ☠───∞
･❦･ 𝕆𝕟𝕖 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕣 𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣 ･❦･
∞───☠ ･❦･ ☠───∞
Everyone was aging, even elephants.
Zunesha had never been talkative, but now one wondered if he still had his soul as he wandered perpetually across the seas.
Well, he had brought it upon himself to some extent and had not been enslaved as to act against his will. He fully embraced his actions and the consequences that followed, which was precisely why I still liked him.
I had arrived on Zou just a month ago.
The last time I had come, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi could barely walk, yet they still remembered me after all these years, which delighted and troubled me equally.
It's hard to forget a human face when there have been so few in here," the elder of the Dawn Duchy had whispered to me.
He was right. After a few weeks spent with Inu, I met Neko, who exempted himself from the usual Garuchu, raising his muzzle to the sky to assure me that even though he didn't have eternal life, he still had at least eight lives left and had nothing to be ashamed of when it came to my longevity.
That cat always had an oversized ego, but it never sufficed to make me dislike him.
After that, he invited me to his nightly banquet, and what a surprise it was when a dozen individuals in white coats jumped on me, saying they had missed me so much and the captain was getting wrinkles from frowning too much.
Fortunately, he wasn't among them, and they still had no news, although they all hoped it wouldn't be long.
I wanted to genuinely be happy to see them all again, but their presence felt like a stone in my stomach.
Whether their captain returned or not, they would find out, and given that the crew read the newspapers every day, there was no doubt they would immediately learn if something had happened, which meant I would know too.
So, I couldn't swallow anything, not even the crocodile steak I was looking forward to eat.
The Minks had the gift of tenderizing their meat to the point where even a human could enjoy it without losing a single tooth.
But of course, appetite aside, that wasn't the only thing bothering me. I thought I could stay on Zou for at least a year, but now I found myself having to leave after just a month, simply to escape a man who had barely half a century of life left in the best-case scenario.
