“Haah, this……”


  “She’s at it again.”


  Emptying another glass, the men shook their heads and their faces had displeased expressions. On the other hand, Beryn was confident.

  “I saw it clearly!”


  A sharp voice filled the bar, as her two eyes reflected sorrow and anger.

  “In the hands of those devils, Grace’s heart was……”


  Unable to continue any further, she bit her lower lips but the men gave frowns in response.

  “Beryn. I understand that you were friends with Grace. You won’t understand why her damn father sold her over to the slave merchants. But that doesn’t mean you should spread unbelievable rumours.”


  “Right, just forget about Grace. That kid must be eating and living well somewhere else as well.”


  Cruel words came out.

  Grace was a girl who had yet to turn 10. She was a good girl following Beryn who was living alone with no family like a real sister. As soon as Grace had been sold away to the slave merchants, Beryn had chased after them without a second thought, and being the best hunter of the village, her feet were fast and it wasn’t very difficult.

  But in the first place, their destination was strange.

  “Those guys, despite being slave merchants, went into the Grain Mountain Range instead of the large cities in the east. That’s also why I was able to follow them without getting found out.”


  One of the men clicked his tongue and shook his head.

  “That’s because after the Amaranth Kingdom was founded it became difficult to trade slaves. They must’ve moved their headquarters to the mountain or something.”


  “Right right. It’s different from back then when they could openly trade slaves in big towns.”


  The others followed suit. Beryn made a frustrated expression and shook her head.

  “That’s not it. They’re not slave merchants. They made some strange altar and……”


  When her words had reached that point.

  “Stop!”


  “Right Beryn. Just stop.”


  “I don’t want to hear such ridiculous stories.”


  “Ruining the mood……”


  They shouted while wearing frowns and Beryn stared directly at their faces.

  “Ridiculous? There’ll definitely be a day when you regret.”


  A small but cold voice, and her eyes showed an undisguisable trace of anger.

  “What?”


  The men asked back with expressions that found it absurd and Beryn spoke her words one at a time with emphasis.

  “Don’t cry tears of blood after losing your childs.”


  Straight after that,

  “Wh, what?! This bastard……”


  “Did you actually just say that?!”


  With shouts, the men stood up from their seats but without caring about that, Beryn glared at their faces before leaving the bar. Immediately, the atmosphere of the bar had turned cold.

  “Tch. A damn bitch.”


  “Is it because she has no parents? She has no manners at all!”


  Baseless profanities were spewed out.

  After seeing the situation, Roan moved slowly and carried his luggage while the men matched their wooden cups.

  “Are you going already?”


  “No more drinking?”


  Roan shrugged his shoulders with a bored expression.

  “Don’t feel like it anymore.”


  The men frowned and nodded in response.

  “That’s true.”


  “Damn.”


  “Tch.”


  In the end, they also shared their farewell greetings before leaving the bar. After separating with them, Roan moved over to a corner of the village.

  “Murray.”


  The low voice ripped the shadows as Murray who had stayed behind without following the strange group appeared. He immediately saluted and slightly lowered his head.

  “The woman called Beryn went towards the West.”


  Before Roan even asked, he gave the answer he desired. With a frown, Roan stared towards the west and saw the darkness that had already enveloped the surroundings.

  “Did she go looking for that altar thing……”


  Then.

  “However……”


  Murray continued with a careful expression.

  “According to the reports from the Amaranth Taemusas that were following the group, that strange group had indeed changed their direction from their initial north to the west, towards the Grain Mountain Range.”


  “Hmm.”


  A low mutter escaped from Roan. Judging solely from the situation, there was a high possibility that Beryn’s words were true.

  “First I need to find that lady.”


  With a little smile he nodded his head, and seeing that, Murray once again saluted before hiding himself behind the darkness. As if he was waiting for that, Roan immediately kicked off the ground, and becoming a strand of light, he disappeared into the darkness.

  Pababat!

  Only some time later did the wind react.

  Silence once again filled the village.

  ***

  “This is troubling.”


  “It’s becoming harder and harder.”


  “At this rate, it’ll be difficult.”


  Beautiful young men surrounded a circular table and conversed with serious expressions.

  Their appearances were extremely strange. As if on purpose, their hair, eyebrows and irises had perfectly different colours.

  Gold, silver, blue, red…… Even the clothes they wore had the same colour as their hair, eyebrows and irises. On their faces were signs of exhaust and confusion.

  “Even Rigby has fallen asleep……”


  The golden-haired youth heaved out a short sigh with a restless expression. The red-haired young man nodded and continued with an annoyed voice.

  “No matter how hard we defend the Doors of the Boundary, if the ones in the Middle World ruin it for us, there’s no point at all.”


  Agreeing to that, the white-haired young man nodded his head.

  “Kalian’s right. Although we can’t sense it properly due to having to protect the Doors of the Boundary, there are slight signs of evil and hideous auras coming out from several parts of the continent.”


  “And that aura is weakening the seals blocking the Doors of the Boundary as well. It’s also hindering our strengths from adding up……”


  The red-haired youth, Kalian, made a tight fist. He really wanted to leave the forest and turn the Middle World upside down right now.

  “There’s no other choice.”


  The gold-haired young man gazed at everyone’s faces.

  “Now that it has come to this, one of us should leave.”


  “Hmm.”


  All the youths gave low murmurs as it was not an easy decision. The silver-haired, beautiful young man carefully opened his mouth.

  “Three of our friends have fallen asleep already – no, including Rigby it’s four. To be honest, it’s hard enough with all our powers to seal the Doors of the Boundary right now……”


  He looked straight at the gold youth.

  “Is it okay for one more to leave?”


  In response, they all nodded with worries evident on their face. However, the gold-haired youth smiled a little and made an expression devoid of any worries.

  “I’ll use the Impencia Magic.”


  As soon as his words had ended,

  “Impencia? You’ll use the Impencia Magic?”


  “You’ll sacrifice yourself?”


  The others bellowed with surprised expressions but the gold youth raised his two hands to calm them down.

  “My life’s nearing its end anyway.”


  “But……”


  A lot of them couldn’t find the words to say but then, the white-haired young man opened his mouth with a lonely expression.

  “Europas, who will lead us if you die?”


  The reason why the beautiful young men that had strong personal thoughts were able to stand together was thanks to the gold-haired young man, Europas. He was a great leader and mediator. He turned his head over to the blue-haired young man in response.

  “Leave that to Beru. He’ll be able to pull it off.”


  “Europas……”


  Beru, the blue-haired young man bit his lips with a frustrated expression. As if he found the heavy atmosphere displeasing, Europas made a bright smile.

  “There’s no need to be sad. There’s birth and death to everything. I am lucky in fact to be able to choose the time for return.”


  He turned his head to face Kalian.

  “Kalian. Please represent us and go to the outside world.”


  “Me?”


  Due to his rough and short-tempered personality, Kalian was usually excluded from important tasks. Europas gave a nod.

  “Although you are short-tempered, you are the closest among us with the humans. Please cooperate with the humans and get rid of the people behind the curtains that are messing up with the Middle World.”


  A warm and soft pair of eyes, filled with trust. Kalian gave a nod without any more words. It was a request from none other than Europas – he couldn’t reject it. Besides, he didn’t want to reject it as Europas’ words were true as well. Through several actions in the Middle World, the one closest with the humans was Kalian.

  “And Kalian……”


  Europas called Kalian with a low voice. Unlike before, it was slightly more serious. Kalian made a nervous expression and pointed his ears as Europas continued in a small, secretive voice.

  “When you leave, the one with Astrum’s blessings……”


  His story or rather a request, continued for a little longer. After listening till the end, Kalian nodded his head with a face that told him to not worry.

  “I’ll definitely listen to that wish.”


  “Thanks.”


  With an expression that had one less worry, he heaved a sigh.

  “Then everyone……”


  Looking at his comrades…… his friends that he had stayed with for dozens and hundreds of years, he made a bright smile.

  “I’m leaving the world in your hands.”


  Those were the last words Europas left behind.

  Tatak!

  A small campfire burned bright red. On top of that, a dirty pot was placed carelessly, with an unidentifiable soup or stew bubbling within. A spoon as dirty as the pot whirled around the unidentified food.

  “This should be ready to eat.”


  A sharp voice.

  The person stirring with a spoon was Beryn who had left the bar towards the west. Putting that yellow brownish soup into her mouth, she made a content expression. It was a satisfying flavour, but only to herself.

  It was when she was about to scoop another serve of soup.

  Rustle!

  The grass divided into two and a soft innocent young man appeared. Beryn instinctively raised the bow sitting next to her.

  Within the blink of an eye, an arrow was nocked into the bow as the bow swerved dangerously.

  “Uh, uh, uh! Ple, please wait!”


  The young man that had suddenly appeared lay down on the ground while waving his hands.

  “Uh? You are……”


  Only then did Beryn lower her bow but her expression did not ease.

  “That wandering merchant from the bar?”


  “Yes you’re right. I’m the wandering merchant Roel.”


  The person bowing on the ground with only his head tilting up was Roan. Placing the luggage to the side, he calmed himself down.

  “I thought I was dying by an arrow at a foreign place.”


  Roan overreacted but with the bow in her hands, the doubt in her gaze showed no signs of going away.

  “What are you doing here? Or rather, how did you find this place?”


  Her voice was sharp, evident of her alert.

  ‘Only the hunters know of this hut……’


  It was built at an extremely secretive place to hide from monsters so it was not easy to be found coincidentally. Approaching slowly with his knees on the ground, he shrugged his shoulders.

  “I was lost on the way before following the trail of fire.”


  “Lost on the way?”


  Beryn’s face turned stiff.

  “That’s already suspicious. Why is a wandering merchant searching through the Grain Mountain Range?”


  It was a fairly sharp question but instead of answering, Roan smiled brightly and stared at the pot boiling the yellowish soup.

  “Aigo. Just when I was hungry……”


  He nonchalantly placed a spoon inside the pot and immediately could hear her voice.

  “Answer first.”


  Even a sliver of killing intent was embedded into the voice but Roan did not care and made a big scoop with the spoon.

  “Let’s talk after filling the stomach.”


  He then quickly placed it inside his mouth. In that instant, an extremely yucky smell of game pierced his mouth, nose, heart, lungs, liver, stomach and mana hall.

  ‘Uuk!’


  If not for his patience that had been built through countless years of war and training, he would’ve thrown up. Slowly placing the spoon back down, he stared at Beryn with an awkward smile hanging on his lips.

  “But that won’t be good manners I guess.”


  Gathering his hands together he slightly lowered his head.

  “Let’s talk first.”


  His lips trembled slightly.

  ‘That soup, no, that poison is inedible.’


  A cold chill ran down his spine, but as if on purpose, Beryn scooped a big spoonful and carried it over to her mouth.

  ‘Uuk.’


  Just the mere sight was enough to make him want to vomit. On the other hand, Beryn nonchalantly drank the soup like a person with no sense of taste, nor smell. Wiping her mouth that had a trace of the yellowish soup with the back of her hand, she gestured with a nod.

  “Speak. Why were you lost in the Grain Mountain Range?”


  “That is……”


  Right when he was about to open his mouth, Roan closed it. With his eyes quickly glancing left and right, he shook his head with an awkward smile.

  “It seems that we need to delay the talk a little.”


  Beryn tapped the pot with her spoon in reply.

  “Why? Do you want to eat my special sou……”


  Immediately,

  “No! That is not correct!”


  Roan replied like he was in a seizure and stood up from his seat. Looking around the hut, he answered in a whisper.

  “It seems that there are visitors other than myself.”


  “What?”


  In the middle of asking back with a frown, she instinctively pulled her bowstring back.

  ‘W, what’s this?’


  Her skin felt prickly.

  And a gulp went down unconsciously.

  On the other hand, Roan scanned the surroundings with a calm expression. His eyes and face turned towards the west and,

  Pababababat!

  The grass was divided, with uninvited guests showing up. Staring at them, Roan made a slight smile.

  “Very black.”


  That was the first feeling he received.

  End.