Chapter 37
- The Boy and Girl Who Shared the Same Wind
“More than that, it’s amazing you held it in.”
“……Pardon?”
Now that he noticed, the girl’s tone was as gruff as a middle-aged knight, and her way of speaking was unusual for a girl her age.
But more than that, the casual content of her words made his heart sink.
‘……Could she know about the incident that day?’
Leon trembled with a creeping fear.
None of his family members, not even one, had spoken to him about that unforgettable day for six years.
Not the servants, not the tutors, not even his father. That was why young Leon’s fear had only grown.
He tried to remember every single day, but he couldn’t recall what the terrible incident was on that day when his mother, who had always loved and cared for him, had suddenly changed.
Just how angry and disappointed must she have been?
The rude ignorance, the nuisance, the violence that his mother hated… perhaps even the brutal murder he had read about in books.
The dark self-reproach that a young boy who had lost his mother in an instant could imagine was running wild without end.
“Those ladies and the people gathered, their bad breath… it was around me the whole time.”
“……Pardon?”
“That must be why I felt sick. I guess mint leaves are essential for parties. Will you have some?”
Young Lucia took a step closer.
And on the girl’s hand, which she held out with a glass of water, lay a sprig of green mint leaves.
Perhaps the refreshing feeling he had felt since this girl approached was thanks to these strong, refreshing mint leaves.
As she sprinkled mint leaves into the glass of water, he burst out laughing at her strange way of speaking, muttering complaints with an indifferent face.
As young Leon’s shoulders shook, the girl blinked as if wondering what was so funny.
“I’m sorry. I think I needed you to say it like it was nothing.”
“……Well, I said it like it was a big deal.”
The young girl Lucia, who had been staring strangely at the boy who was laughing so hard he was about to fall over, soon shook her head and disappeared.
.
.
.
Looking back now, he might have fallen for that indifferent yet kind girl the day he first met her.
But was that short time with the girl just an illusion? Or is it still hidden somewhere inside her?
The reason why he had never seen it until now, even though she was right in front of him.
It was because in less than an hour, there was only the strong and empty woman who had arrived at the party and shouted to the Emperor that she would go to war and sever ties with the Count family.
“Stand up straight.”
Lucia, weighed down by Leon, stepped back mercilessly.
The pitying gazes of the women gathered around them poured down, but he had no time to pay attention to such things.
He simply missed the girl who might be somewhere inside her, so wary.
“……Ah, I’m sorry. You grabbed me so suddenly.”
He smiled bitterly at the fact that he could only make such a poor excuse again.
Just then,
-Thud!
In the midst of the wistful atmosphere, someone suddenly rushed into the inn in a hurry.
The middle-aged man ran to the innkeeper without even taking a breath and grabbed her shoulders urgently.
“Huh? Tom, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“Hah, hah. Marge! Listen carefully! It’s a big problem! Ren and Pin haven’t returned from the forest!”
At his words, the innkeeper’s legs seemed to give way, and she collapsed in an instant.
Then, she said they had to go find them, and she flailed her arms wildly, breathing heavily in shock.
“Oh dear! They must have gone in to pick up stones again! What are we going to do!”
The innkeeper’s friends sighed.
Apparently, the sparkling stones, a local specialty, were sold at a high price, and the children who went in to pick them up had not returned.
The tavern was instantly filled with sighs of despair and exclamations of worry at the commotion.
It was past evening now.
At this time, Monsters would be waking up and roaming the forest in search of prey, so it was a very serious matter.
“Excuse me, can you tell me any places they might be right now?”
“Yes? We should be calling mercenaries right now, what……!”
Leon quickly raised his hand and showed a blue light.
It seemed that he was activating a magic to extract the remembered place from the middle-aged man.
“Oh, my! A, a magician! I understand! Is this okay?”
As he closed his eyes, Leon brought the light to him.
And when the memory storage was finished, the blue light turned white and flew out through the open window.
“You can follow that. Let’s go.”
Lucia, who had been waiting, nodded at his determined words.
*
The two, who had entered the dark forest path, stopped at a fork in the road.
The light containing the man’s memory had split into two, as if there were two possible places.
“Sir Leon, then let’s split up and look for them.”
“Yes. Please, be careful.”
Lucia followed the light quickly and without hesitation.
Throughout her run, the forest, illuminated by the moonlight, was like black charcoal, dried up as if it had reached the end of pollution, and the rotten ground was muddy like a swamp.
The small Monsters that rushed at her in this lifeless place were as weak as gnats.
Since there was no prey to be found, even the Monsters were starving and had no strength to fight properly.
But from experience, such places are all the more dangerous.
The stronger the Monsters, the more they can eat the same Monsters, so the Monsters in this area are either really strong or really weak.
As higher-level Monsters gradually appeared and Lucia raised her red Sword Aura and swung her sword as she ran,
“Le, let me go!! Please!”
A child’s desperate and sharp cry was heard from nearby.
Lucia quickly ran to the place and hid herself in a situation that was different from what she had imagined.
Among the corpses of Monsters that had been torn to pieces, she saw children being held by people wearing black robes who appeared to be human.
It was understandable that Ren, who was still full of energy, was being held by his limbs, but Pin, who was smaller than Nia, was wailing pitifully at their feet, as if they didn’t feel the need to hold him.
‘Be careful. It seems that we are not the only ones looking for that decision.’
Commander-in-Chief Helbert’s words came to mind.
So the suspicious people surrounding the dirt mound where that decision was located seemed to be the ones Helbert had warned her to be careful of.
Let’s watch a little longer, a person wearing a pure white robe from head to toe among the people wearing black robes carefully dug up the dirt mound.
And finally, something sparkled in the moonlight.
An ore that shone smoothly like obsidian containing poison.
It was a black crystal much larger than the one contained in the holy water.
But did they not know that it would turn into a gas if it was not contained in holy water?
The person in the white robe was about to touch the crystal without hesitation.
‘If this goes on, the mission will fail.’
In order to obtain the crystal, she mercilessly created a small red Sword Aura and plunged it down towards the white robe.
She intended to only disable his hand to find out his identity.
Then,
“Ugh!”
The person in the white robe groaned, and the people in the black robes urgently put up a defensive barrier.
They seemed to be magicians.
However, when the defensive barrier was broken by another Sword Aura, they seemed to be the ones who were rather embarrassed.
“Let, let go! Pin! Come here!”
“Hwaaang! Hyung……!!!”
Ren, who had shaken off their hands in a panic, recognized Lucia and started running with his younger brother in his arms.
Lucia also stood behind the children, protecting them.
As she, who had been hiding, stood in front of the children, her face was revealed in the moonlight.
“……Lucia?”
The white robe, who had been muttering her name, began to cover his face urgently.
And the black magicians also began to unfold layers of defensive barriers as if they were fully prepared.
‘They’re putting up defensive barriers again?’
As they hurriedly set up a defensive formation, the person in the white robe brought his hand near the crystal and seemed to be absorbing the gas.
“……!”
What on earth is going on?
If that aura of death is absorbed into a person’s body, they might become black charcoal like the trees around them now.
But the person in the white robe was accepting the power even while enduring the pain, his hand dyed black with the aura of death.
Who is that person, and why is he doing such a thing?
Lucia, judging that she had to break through the defensive formation first, floated dozens of Sword Auras and began to plunge them down mercilessly.
The sight was like an angry sky punishing them, and it began to put pressure on the defensive formation with a tremendous roar.
“No, no way! This is Sir Inua’s power, how……!”
Although his face could not be seen, the person in the white robe was heard shouting in horror, and as he said, the solid defensive formation soon began to crack.
It was then.
“Si, sister! Help me! Pin is!!”
“Hwaaaang!! Hyung!!!!!”
The three-year-old child, startled by the roar, tried to run away, but was caught by the Monsters that had followed Lucia.
“……!”
I have to save the child.
She knew it in her head, but Lucia did not stop destroying the defensive barrier.
A knight’s duty comes first.
If she had thought of the children first, she would have saved them without hesitation.
But she didn’t do that as a matter of course.
Just as she had participated in the Saintess’s sacrifice, which she would have felt suspicious of if she had looked into it a little more, she was about to make the same regret again as a habit.
The mechanical loyalty that had been terribly engraved on her body from a long war and life as a knight.
If she attacked the defensive formation a little more, she could stop him before he absorbed it, and she could find out the black crystal, which was her mission, and his identity.
Then, she would complete all her missions, and as a glorious knight of the Empire, her work would be done, and it was not easy to overcome that thought even after decades.
However,
“Mommyyy!!!”
-Swish! Thud.
The red Sword Aura that had been raining down disappeared, and the arm and neck of the black Monster that had been trying to twist the child were cut off and rolled on the floor.
Pin, who had already lost consciousness, was in Lucia’s arms.
The word miracle blew away her hesitation in one fell swoop.
But, as expected, if you have something, you also lose something.
The crystal had been almost completely absorbed by the person in the white robe.
Lucia soon handed the unconscious Pin over to Ren and raised her red aura again to break through the defensive barrier.
However, it was not easy to attack the Monsters rushing towards the children and the defensive formation at the same time.
Just then,
“Lady Lucia! Don’t worry about this side!”
It was Leon who had run over at the roar.
As he floated dozens of small fireballs and attacked the Monsters, Lucia finally entrusted the children to them without hesitation and ran to them.
The power of the Grand Sword Master was great.
Since there was no one to protect, the black magicians were being brutally cut down in just a few seconds.
But, strangely, there were no screams.
Even though she had clearly only made small wounds to find out their identities, not even a small groan was heard.
As Lucia looked around at the situation, she saw a sight where all the black robes had fallen to the ground and only ashes were scattering.
“……What is this…….”
While she was flustered by the sight she had never seen before, a light flashed and the person in the white robe disappeared.
Thanks to this, the unabsorbed crystal remained and the mission was completed, but she felt empty because she had not been able to find out his identity.
Leon, who had approached her, examined the floor.
“This is……, Black magic.”
“Black magic is…….”
“Yes. It is a magic that disappeared a thousand years ago and has not been found since. But these people are definitely Lich. Cursed magicians.”
Magicians who touched Black magic to live forever and become immortal, but thanks to that, they forgot themselves.
A night when unique black ashes flew.
The two were silent, each thinking different thoughts, and headed back to the inn with the children.
