chapter 6
6 – Abduction(3)
I vibrated from all directions. It rained and the flames were extinguished to some extent. Silverin frowned when she saw the ghoul’s severed arm still wriggling on the floor.
Silverin looked around and organized the situation in her head.
The remaining ghouls fled, and it seemed that they would not come for a while. It was fortunate that it was not related to black magic.
Silverin approached the boy who was lying on the floor.
She grabbed the boy by the collar and dragged him to one side. Then he sat with his back against a large meteorite.
The unconscious boy’s neck was bent helplessly downward. She pushed the boy’s chin up with her fingertips and examined his face.
young.
Crunchy hair. The fine skin, as if it had just passed puberty. His features, which have not yet been completed, show the shape of a handsome man. She checked the boy’s forearms and palms. His right arm was moderately muscled, and his palm had calluses.
Did you learn the sword?
At such a young age, the boy wielded a strange sword in the land of the dead, fighting ghouls to the death.
What brought the boy to the land of the dead that no one explores. How did you come to know here?
What kind of sword was he wielding?
Silverin looked at the half-buried meteorite supporting the boy’s back.
It had a deep hole in its center, as if something had been inserted into it.
Seeing this, Silverin’s eyes widened.
Even though Sylverine had gone through a lot before and after childbirth, this situation was extremely confusing even for her.
Silverin retrieved from her memory the legend engraved on the scrolls stored in the Great Library of Enmion, the archive of records for the elves.
who received the revelation. A sword of light embedded in a meteorite. A man loved by God.
And a boy who seemed to have jumped out of that legend was sitting in front of her.
How am I supposed to accept this?
There was something to check first before making any conclusions.
As she removed her hand from her chin, the boy’s head tumbled back down.
Silverin got up from her seat and took a step back from the boy. Then he took out a canteen and lightly splashed it on the boy.
When there was no response, she poured all the water from the canteen onto the boy’s head. Then, after shaking off every drop, he threw the canteen on the boy’s head.
Silverin said with a dull sound.
“wake up.”
Then the boy shook his head.
“Uh, huh?”
The boy, who came to his senses, brushed his hair and raised his head. He looked at Sylverine with his eyes wide open and his mouth open, as if he was still awake.
Silverine put her hand on her waist and looked at the boy.
“What are you?”
“⋯?”
“How did you know this place?”
The boy closed his eyes and opened them. It seemed he couldn’t tell if it was a dream or reality.
He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth hesitantly.
“I saw the stars fall.”
As Silverin glared at the boy without moving, he added a word.
“I have followed that… .”
“You want me to believe that?”
The boy nodded as if it were natural.
It was impossible to accurately locate this place simply by looking at the trail of stars.
“Do you know how to use magic or detect magic?”
“Not at all.”
Silverin was speechless for a moment at the boy’s confidence.
She had previously met tribes who claimed to have received divine revelations. The so-called saints and apostles. They did something reckless without really thinking about it, and they were full of self-confidence that had no basis.
And in this boy, the appearances of the ‘Revelators’ were faintly overlapped.
“Yeah, anyway. Where do you belong?”
“Before I came here, I trained in metalwork in a workshop in Haman.”
“I am not asking that. Where did you learn the sword?”
“I have never learned a sword.”
That’s an odd answer.
I thought I had at least learned swordsmanship, procrastinating on crawling to the ground after death, but metalwork.
“What about the family?”
“…”
The boy’s eyes, which had remained calm the whole time, shook for a moment.
Silverin didn’t miss his subtle reaction.
“Do you have no family?”
The boy nodded wordlessly.
The word family seemed to stimulate his emotional vulnerability.
The messy puzzles in Silverin’s head were put together bit by bit.
If you had someone you love, and someone who truly cares for you and guides you in the direction of your life, you wouldn’t have done the crazy thing of chasing the pieces of the stars to this land of death.
The boy’s recklessness was understandable now.
“How old are you?”
“I am sixteen years old.”
“Well… … . nice.”
The boy tilted his head at Silverin’s ambiguity.
“Can you show me the sword you used?”
“… .”
“Don’t worry, I have no intention of taking it away. No, I don’t know if it’s possible to steal it in the first place.”
“After pulling it out of a meteorite and swinging it, the sword disappeared…”
“Call me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Since you held it and swung it, it was your sword. If I hadn’t seen you as the owner in the first place, it would have been impossible to even hold it in my hands.”
“… … .”
Hearing her words, the boy thought for a moment.
Soon after, the boy raised his hands to shoulder height and closed his eyes. After a while, a sword of pure white light appeared on the boy’s palm.
‘Did he listen to my advice and get his senses right away?’
The more powerful the sword is, the more important it is to handle the sword than the owner’s physical strength.
The corners of Silverin’s mouth went up slightly.
“It’s quick to learn.”
When she put her hand on the sword body, it passed through the sword body without feeling anything. Silverine couldn’t even touch the sword.
“Hmm… .”
He didn’t show it, but it was a fresh shock to Sylveryn. During that time, he had encountered numerous sword masters, and had accompanied someone who had reached the so-called level of swordsman. Among the famous swords they handled that would go down in history, they had never seen a sword of this type before. only heard in legends.
The owner of this absurd sword is a 16-year-old boy.
What’s more, the boy seemed oblivious to the amount of nonsense he had gotten his hands on.
The problem was that there must be a lot of scoundrels from all over the continent aiming for such a famous sword, but this boy seemed to lack the strength to defend himself.
The boy was placed in too good a position to be killed by a dog. For Eternia founder Bern Arnst, this is something to lament.
“I’ve seen enough. You can put it in now.”
As soon as the words were finished, the sword disappeared.
“So the affiliation… Didn’t you?”
The boy nodded with a puzzled expression.
“name is?”
“This is Damian.”
“Where to return?”
“I’m going back to Haman, where the workshop I used to work at is located.”
Silverin evaded the boy’s gaze and responded casually.
“Haman… . Yes, it is a quiet and peaceful place.”
“……?”
A lot of thoughts ran through her head in the blink of an eye. Silverin chewed her lips carefully due to internal conflict.
‘You’re just sending this back home?’
“Your injuries look serious.”
Silverin took out a potion bottle containing a purple liquid from a small leather bag hanging from her waist. Then she held out the potion bottle as if she were giving it to the boy, and after thinking for a while, put it back in her bag.
“What can you give me if I save your life?”
“All I have is a small amount of money I saved while working with that sword.”
“All that remains is the body.”
At the word body, Damian’s body stiffened for a moment.
“… … .”
“Do you like hanging out with people?”
“… … Nope.”
“You’d better get used to it.”
Damian chewed on Sylverine’s meaningful words and opened his dry mouth, perhaps thinking that things were going badly.
He seemed to be mistaken that Silverin expected a high value from him. Things that would be useful if you erased debts, such as status or a strong support.
The opposite was true.
The boy had connections and affiliations, so the fewer things he had to do with things like this, the better for Silverin.
Silverin took a piece of parchment out of his pocket. Opening it wide, he uttered an incantation. Soon after, the parchment was slightly scorched and a letter was engraved.
She handed this parchment to Damian. The contents were written in ancient characters and the boy could not decipher them.
“Sign it.”
Damian accepted the parchment and fell into anguish for a moment.
‘Yes, all the arrogant thoughts in my head will pass.’
Silverin was well aware that Damian had no other choice.
If Silverin had abandoned Damian here, he would have died without a doubt.
As Damian dragged the parchment for a long time, Silverin sighed and said,
“don’t worry. If I had a bad heart, I would have turned you into a puppet without these scraps of paper.”
Strictly speaking, this was not a bill. Rather, it was more like a contract to protect and raise the boy.
“I don’t have ink, so what… .”
Silverin looked at Damian’s bleeding side.
“ah.”
He pressed his index finger firmly against his blood-soaked collar and immediately wrote his name on the bottom of the parchment.
Silverin took the parchment back, and she too bit off the flesh of her index finger. Then he signed it with his own blood.
Silverin whistled. Then an orb flew from the sky in front of her, flapping its wings like a bee.
She slipped the parchment onto the sphere’s feet. Soon after, the sphere flew off somewhere in the blink of an eye.
Only then did Silverin take out the potion from her bag and throw it at Damian.
“Sprinkle on the wound. If you sit there smelling like blood, the ghouls will come again.”
Damian seemed concerned about what was written on the parchment.
“What did I sign?”
“A contract to make a kite.”
“What kite is it?”
“The kite between master and disciple.”
The boy’s eyes widened like rabbits.
He hurriedly poured the potion on his wound and said, as if he was anxious about being taken away.
“Why?”
His demeanor became quite serious.
“It’s not common to see a kid your age who slices up a ghoul like that.”
Damian shook his head.
“That’s not my strength.”
‘Ohh.’
She had seen countless children of Damian’s age. At this age, it was natural to be proud and intoxicated by the power easily obtained through lineage or magic tools.
In a situation like this, it is possible to get drunk with the feeling that he was chosen, but Damian firmly drew the line.
Silverin swallowed a satisfied smile.
It’s unique. The boy knew his limits. Still, following the revelation, I came to this land of death, taking all the risks with my bare body. In the first place, it was rare to see a child with such a spirit. It was different from the roots of children who grew up finely in aristocratic families.
Damian did not easily release his psychological wariness towards her.
“But who are you to take me as your disciple?”
Silverin said as she brushed her long, wind-blown hair over one shoulder and let it hang down on her chest.
“Smooth.”
Silverin thought about what plausible modifiers could be used to describe herself in one word.
There were so many modifiers people gave me, but there was nothing I really liked. There were a lot of things that would be embarrassing to say with your own mouth.
In a way, it was natural for Damian to be wary of himself. There is nothing in the world more suspicious than a person who blindly does a favor.
As expected, there was nothing else in Silverin’s mind. The word that can guarantee ability and trust to everyone.
“Have you heard of Eternia Academy?”
At Silverin’s sudden question, Damian stiffened like a stone statue.