A refreshing breeze fluttered gently. The blonde hair, the spitting image of the color I love, swayed, and shadows and light mingled on the boy beneath the tree leaves with gaps here and there.
My heartbeat intensified. It was as if my instincts were whispering.
That this child is young Ruvlian.
“I asked who you are. Not going to answer?”
My sentimentality shattered completely. ……So that personality had been carried over from childhood. Young Ruvlian, whose baby fat hadn’t disappeared, gave off a rough atmosphere while frowning deeply. That smiling face of his was nowhere to be seen. Everything showed on his face.
They say if you frown from childhood you get wrinkles, but Ruvlian must have been an exception. I didn’t know for what reason, but recalling Ruvlian who had sent me to the past, I found myself nodding without realizing it.
But would he be okay? Even though it was clear he deliberately didn’t come with me, even though his strength had increased so he wouldn’t die, I was worried. Even knowing he hadn’t fought with all his strength because of those around him, I felt that way. Parallel World Ruvlian was that powerful.
“I told you to answer, so why are you nodding?”
What a strange person. Young Ruvlian muttered.
Having escaped from thoughts of Ruvlian, I couldn’t refute. Even I would probably step back ten paces if someone suddenly nodded without giving an answer to a question.
“Then what’s your name?”
Young Ruvlian, tilting his head as he asked, looked like a Western doll. His fresh-looking eyes with large pupils, his long eyelashes fluttering like wings, his pale and clear face. Not a single thing was lacking. I even felt like measuring his face would yield the golden ratio.
“I know my face is good-looking too, so snap out of it.”
It was a tone as if stating the obvious. Then young Ruvlian poked my cheek with his index finger. My gaze naturally turned.
Small. Much smaller than the Ruvlian’s hand I know. Looking at his cute little fingers brought me to my senses. I caught sight of his face that had become a bit sullen since I hadn’t given him a single answer. I belatedly opened my mouth.
“……Uh.”
“Say it again.”
Light flashed in his clear eyes. The child standing in a place where light came through sparsely, with tree leaves swaying in the wind creating shadows, was no different from when fully bathed in light. He sparkled the same way and looked like an angel. Though his personality still seemed the same.
……But why did he send me here? It was nice to see Ruvlian’s childhood. However, given the situation when I was transported, I couldn’t help but worry about what Ruvlian’s intentions were.
“I told you to speak?”
Without even having time to think deeply about the situation at the time, young Ruvlian urged again. His personality really is the same. Ah, he might even be a bit more self-centered.
“……What.”
“You really do have a nice voice.”
Young Ruvlian was honest and confident. Except for the fact that he didn’t have that way of speaking where he endearingly drew out his words, and that his behavior wasn’t aristocratic, he was exactly like the Ruvlian I knew well.
“Your name?”
Young Ruvlian suddenly stuck his face close again. He seemed to be very curious. Seeing how he persistently kept asking questions.
But was it okay to answer Baek Sihyeon here? I didn’t know if this was the Ascal Continent, but as long as it wasn’t the Hillston Continent at the edge, it would be full of names like Ruvlian Celton, not names like Baek Sihyeon.
In other words, the situation was a bit awkward to say my real name. Then as expected…….
“You don’t have a name?”
As my answer was delayed because I was pondering, young Ruvlian tilted his head. With eyes full of doubt as if to say that couldn’t be.
“Are you going to make one up for me if I don’t have one?”
When I asked in return, Ruvlian’s eyes widened before he became absorbed in thought. Eventually the child nodded and readily answered, “Sure.”
“Since I’m Ruvlian, how about Rian, taking from the end of my name?”
Young Ruvlian’s small lips curved roundly. Thanks to his eye smile, his fresh-looking eyes became exceedingly gentle. It was a smile oozing with confidence that there was no way I wouldn’t like it.
……So that’s why. When I became a Hero and first encountered Ruvlian, I now understood why he called me ‘Rian’ and approached me first. The reason he said I would know in time when I asked about his childhood was the same. It was because we’d already met in the past.
Wait a minute. Come to think of it, this guy is Ruvlian too. Hearing the name reminded me that the curse hadn’t been lifted yet. Ruvlian had offset it by casting a curse on himself, but not this one. He was a child who knew nothing.
As long as the target was Ruvlian, young Ruvlian would also be having his life force gradually stolen by me. I couldn’t stay like this. Without giving any proper answer, I immediately attempted to flee.
And young Ruvlian followed me with a somewhat dissatisfied expression. Thus began an untimely game of catch me if you can. No, why.
“Why are you following me!”
Whether it was quite deep in the forest, nothing else seemed to think of appearing except trees and grass. The scent of grass and flowers spread as if to paralyze my nose.
“Because you’re running away!”
To explain that a curse was cast would require telling him that I’d come to the past by traversing spacetime. I could predict how he’d react if I said I knew the future. Since revealing the future might twist something, it was best to avoid it. I spread detection magic widely and expanded my senses. Then I immediately looked for a place to hide or a good location to evade.
A cabin over there, and this way…… a training ground? Seeing that there was only one cabin in this wide forest, there was a high probability that was young Ruvlian’s hideout. The training ground with various equipment seemed to be the same, but this side was better for evading.
I changed direction toward where the training ground was. From behind, I could still hear the sound of running on grass. It seemed he had no intention of giving up.
“Stop right there!”
“I won’t stop!”
It had been really long since I raised my voice like this. Receiving the sunlight coming intermittently through the tree leaves, I arrived at what was probably the training ground. My legs didn’t stop and still moved with wide strides.
There were logs that seemed to be for cutting practice and lots of logs in different shapes reminiscent of the training room from Kung Fu Panda. Was this the training ground of someone learning swordsmanship or someone learning magic?
Thinking that and using magic to quickly escape from the complicated area, my expanded senses and detection magic caught movements skillfully navigating through the intricately mixed logs. In an instant, I recalled Ruvlian, who as a mage would always cast magic on his staff and mercilessly swing it to smash heads. ……Training in a place like this, no wonder the staff comes first. It was a moment when the actions he’d shown made sense.
“Stop!”
Ignoring the words to stop and going further inside the training ground, there were traps hidden in the forest. Traps were laid with magic and were quite intricate. One thing was certain. This was the work of an archmage.
I tried to use the installed traps and lured him as much as possible to where magic circles were laid, but young Ruvlian, having probably rolled around here quite a bit, dodged them all well. At this rate, we’d be in this chase all night long, so I had to think.
“Stop.”
“You stop!”
It was so loud I wondered if my throat would give out. I doubted whether young Ruvlian would actually stop if I stopped. However, running around all night wasn’t good in many ways. Even if I was fine, young Ruvlian would catch a cold. I stopped running and stood still, then turned around.
“You stop too. Let’s talk from there.”
But would he be Ruvlian if he listened well? Young Ruvlian didn’t stop his busily moving legs.
I had to create distance. I couldn’t let his life force be worn down. In that short moment of less than 5 seconds, having found a countermeasure, I used magic. My body floated up in the air. I should have done this from the start. Or use Teleportation. Distracted by young Ruvlian, I was busy fleeing and didn’t even think of it.
Young Ruvlian stretched his hand upward and jumped up and down a few times, then started getting angry when he couldn’t catch anything.
“Huh? When talking to a person, you don’t do it from this far away!”
“I do. Won’t you talk with me?”
“……I will.”
His eyebrows furrowed deeply. It was a face that said his pride was hurt. It was fascinating that all his thoughts showed on that face. It was a purity that couldn’t be seen in grown-up Ruvlian.
“Why did you chase after me?”
“You ran off as soon as you heard the name. Don’t you like it?”
The sulky tone seemed to be interpreted as quickly saying I liked it. As if that was indeed the correct answer, when I shook my head and said the name was good, his face relaxed considerably.
“Then why did you run away?”
“Something urgent suddenly came up.”
“The bathroom?”
For an urgent matter to be converted into the bathroom. Young Ruvlian was strangely odd and trivial. Of course, he was also picky and had no manners. Like a completely self-centered, moody cat.
“Not that.”
“Hmm. You don’t have to be embarrassed. You can run away that urgently because you want to go to the bathroom.”
Even though he figured out it wasn’t that, he raised his plump lips smugly. His cheek fat moved upward with them. Cute, but what a bad personality.
That’s when it happened. I detected large Mana near young Ruvlian. Throwing aside the need to maintain distance because of the curse, I unconsciously snatched up young Ruvlian.
“Wh-what!”
“……Who is it?”
Right next to where young Ruvlian had been, a person appeared wearing a robe pulled so far down I wondered if they could see ahead. A languid, low voice flowed into my ears.
“It’s okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. It’s my teacher.”
I shifted my gaze from looking down to look at young Ruvlian. For some reason, unlike the languid voice, his cheeks were fully flushed. His reddened cheeks looked like they’d burst if I poked them.
Unlike his pretending-not-to-care attitude, I wondered if he liked his teacher. I know Ruvlian isn’t that kind of person, I know it too well, but when he was young, couldn’t he have been a bit different?
“You like your teacher?”
When I threw out the question with that thought, the answer immediately came back.
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
Along with eyes that had turned coldly frigid. It was a futile hope.
