“We’re going right away?”
Young Ruvlian, who didn’t even worry about his own master caught in magic, asked. His eyes, clear as glass beads, were full of life. To the degree it seemed radiant.
The way he gradually became lively made him look like someone leaving this forest for the first time. He looked to be around eight or nine years old, so I wondered if he’d really never gone out even once, but just in case, I asked.
“First time leaving?”
At my question, young Ruvlian flinched. He arranged his expression as if asking when he’d been excited. Then he parted his small closed lips and spat out a sound.
“Yeah.”
“You’ve only stayed here?”
“……Why. Is it weird?”
As if hiding his anxiety, the child deliberately maintained a sulky face. One eyebrow rose crookedly. Far from scary, he was just tiny and futile.
Since it was still fascinating that ‘Ruvlian’s’ emotions were all revealed on his face, I deliberately stared quietly at his face, and when my answer was delayed, his face gradually darkened. Before more shadow fell, I opened my mouth.
“It’s not weird. You might not have gone out.”
“Really?”
“Why would I bother lying?”
At the monotone voice, the child nodded and accepted it as if that made sense. The child’s face softened as if relieved.
“We’re leaving now, right?”
“Yes. That’s the plan.”
Ruvlian gently rubbed my palm in a round, rolling motion and smiled with his eyes. He was wickedly bewitching. Just as I tried to pull my hand out thinking his sensitivity had subsided, our fingers interlocked. Strength entered the entwined straight fingers. Then he asks shamelessly as if demanding what’s his.
“I want to keep holding. You’ll allow it, right?”
Would he let go if I didn’t allow it? I didn’t know why he bothered asking when he planned to hold on even if I refused in the first place. I was dumbfounded, but since I had a share in Ruvlian reacting more sensitively than usual, I decided to readily offer my hand.
Ruvlian, who noticed the hidden meaning in my silence, played with the hand he held. Kneading, rolling and rubbing, and even pressing down. Since I’d already experienced it several times before, I didn’t feel much emotion.
“Don’t we need to pack?”
“Right? Even if it takes long, it’s two days. If we need something, we can buy it at a nearby downtown area.”
Since it was a past of just over ten years, the area near the temple wouldn’t have changed much. Since Ruvlian who would have already experienced it said so, I decided not to pack young Ruvlian’s belongings.
“Two days? The temple is that close?”
“If we teleport, we’ll be in front of the temple in an instant.”
I answered the child who couldn’t hide his disappointment. He seemed to have thought it would feel like a trip, but the parallel world matter hadn’t been resolved for us to stay here long. Probably Ruvlian also had teleportation in mind when he said at most two days.
“Still, if we go quickly, we can look around the downtown area. Since we’ll enter the temple at night.”
The temple didn’t open at night. It opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. There were cases of staying overnight as a guest, but only if it was the Pope’s invitation.
In other words, Ruvlian was saying he’d sneak in.
“We’re sneaking in?”
“Of course. Rian, think about it. If we do what we’re about to do when the sun is up, won’t there be chaos?”
That was certainly true. It was meeting God face-to-face to receive blessings and protection, but doing that during daytime when there were many people was unreasonable. Though what method would be used to summon God was unknown, I could tell it wouldn’t be ordinary.
Conversation was necessary. After I disappeared, I had to hear about what happened in the parallel world and how he planned to summon God. Also, I had to tell him what I learned in the parallel world. For instance, that that crazy bastard from the parallel world had turned back time.
But I wondered if there’d be time to talk. Since it wasn’t just the two of us, but young Ruvlian who didn’t know the overall situation was also involved.
Chewing over what Ruvlian was saying, after moving near the temple, he seemed to be planning to show the child around the downtown area unlike himself, but if we did that, the sun would quickly set and dark night would come. Since he said we’d enter the temple interior at night, there was absolutely no time to talk.
Wait a minute. Was this why he deliberately said at most two days? Knowing I’d be thinking of having a conversation? It might be an excessive interpretation, but the other party was Ruvlian.
“But are we going to release the old man before we go? Or release him when we come back?”
Just as I was deeply thinking, young Ruvlian pointed at Scalane who was still stiffly opening and closing his mouth. It was a natural pointing gesture as if he’d done it many times.
I released the magic I’d cast with one gesture. The innocent belief that we’d naturally return together would be shattered in a day or two. I was sorry. Though that didn’t mean I’d stay here.
“Far more excellent than expected!”
Scalane’s eyes sparkled. He’d gotten excited after experiencing the difference in power earlier, and he did so again. Getting more excited about researching the more he was beaten, this side too definitely wasn’t in his right mind. Though the probability of there being anyone in their right mind among mages was almost zero.
If I stayed a bit longer, it seemed he’d ask me to give him blood and flesh like before. I wasn’t compassionate, and moreover, that side wasn’t even an important person to me. There was no reason to give a part of my body.
Perceptively, Ruvlian cast magic on Scalane again. His movements stopped. This time, thanks to his face also stiffening, the voice filled with madness didn’t burrow into my ears. That was fortunate.
“Then shall we go?”
“Wait, step aside with the kid for a moment.”
“Do you have something you want to ask?”
When I lightly shook my head, Ruvlian tried to take young Ruvlian from my arms. Then the child shouted and struggled. It was fierce resistance revealing a firm will to absolutely not be held by Ruvlian.
“Ruvlian.”
I called his name, not ‘ya’ or ‘you.’ Then both Ruvlian and the child’s gazes all turned to me.
“Why?”
“Stay with Hyeon for just a moment.”
“……You’ll come back soon?”
As if embarrassed to act spoiled, the child’s face and earlobes were tinged red. How did this pure child end up growing like that? I withdrew my gaze that was about to return to Ruvlian and opened my mouth.
“Yeah. Five minutes will do.”
“Okay.”
The child moved away without even pretending to see Ruvlian. Ruvlian was still next to me. When I looked at him as if asking why aren’t you going, he flicked his hand.
Scalane’s face, which had unfortunately been frozen in a grinning expression, returned to normal. His body remained stiffly frozen.
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Don’t be petulant.”
At my words, Ruvlian, who showed a subtly crooked smile somehow, narrowed the distance. Something light touched my head briefly then fell away. From past experience, I could tell he’d kissed me.
Before I could say anything, Ruvlian turned his back and disappeared in the direction the child had gone, and only Scalane and I remained.
I who had been looking in the direction Ruvlian disappeared used soundproof magic so the conversation wouldn’t enter their ears. Perhaps because Ruvlian had glared at him once before leaving, the life in Scalane’s eyes had decreased. He wasn’t filled with excitement.
“You have business with me, I see?”
“Tell me when and where you met Ruvlian.”
As I finished speaking, his green eyes sharply changed. Scalane scrutinized me thoroughly with eyes measuring something.
“……You don’t know where this is. This is Bellua Mountain.”
It was an air as if I’d naturally know, but I didn’t know Bellua Mountain. If it had great fame but I didn’t know it, there was one case. Before I crossed over to this world, it had been contaminated or destroyed by the Demon King.
“It seems this place doesn’t exist in the future.”
“Yes.”
“This is a place where all kinds of rumors circulate in the world. That people who entered this forest went missing, or that if you set foot in this forest you can’t leave, or even if you leave your mind becomes strange. Because there were only such bad rumors, everyone avoids this place.”
The introduction was over and it was time for the main point.
Now, why is the parallel world Ruvlian’s surname Belitent, but Ruvlian’s is not? Was someone perhaps targeting him? I’d be able to know about that. Though Ruvlian’s appearance would look different to everyone except me’s eyes due to illusion magic, young Ruvlian wasn’t. He could possibly be in danger.
“But one day, a baby’s crying spread through this forest, and since he seemed to have talent in magic, I raised him. That’s all.”
However, Scalane who took a long breath in and out skipped the main point and went to the conclusion. The middle process was entirely omitted.
Still, I could speculate. What else would bring a child into a bad forest? Whether using magic or covering with a robe, I shouldn’t reveal the child’s face.
“I don’t know what you’re aiming for, but I hope you properly cover my disciple’s face.”
At the added words, I stopped my thoughts and stared at Scalane who had a benevolent face. This person seemed to know that Ruvlian was originally of the Belitent family. If he knew, how did he know?
“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know for certain which noble family. Like you, I just speculated the situation.”
“……Don’t play word games.”
He said he didn’t know for ‘certain,’ so he must have ‘expected’ it was Belitent. Since there was no way a commoner would deliberately abandon a child here, if he just investigated missing person cases among noble families at that time, he could roughly grasp the outline. Since it wasn’t a common occurrence, and the child would have inherited the parents’ faces.
Additionally, the name was exactly the same as the parallel world Ruvlian’s. That side was definitely named by the Belitent Duke couple, but seeing it was the same, I wondered if Scalane had also speculated the child was Belitent’s firstborn and named him ‘Ruvlian.’ As if giving certainty to that expectation of mine, Scalane just smiled. Even if I tried to dig deeper, he wouldn’t say more. I destroyed the petrification magic Ruvlian had cast and withdrew the soundproof magic. Then I headed to where Ruvlian and the child were.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
When I picked up the child who had been charging at Ruvlian, I felt mana churning. A familiar sensation covered me. When I closed my eyes once then opened them, the scene reflected in my view had changed. Light flowed in at the end of a slightly dark alley.
“Ruvlian.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to cast some magic on you. Magic that changes your appearance.”
“Whatever.”
I changed the colors I loved into common brown hair and brown eyes, and additionally cast magic that interfered with facial recognition. The child couldn’t take his eyes off the passage where light flowed in. It seemed he was looking forward to it since it would be the downtown area right after leaving the alley.
I moved my steps. As I gradually reached the alley entrance where light came in, the child’s head moved this way and that. His sparkling eyes overflowed with vitality. Exclamations flowed from his gaping small mouth.
That was the moment. The clear, shining eyes that had been taking in the street disappeared under lowered eyelids, and the child went limp.
It was sleep magic. Though I felt the movement of mana, I thought he was fixing the illusion magic. But to suddenly put the kid to sleep.
“What are you doing?”
When I looked at Ruvlian, he closed his eyes smoothly as if to gloss over his arbitrary action. His mouth that drew a smooth arc opened.
“Well, since there isn’t much time? I did say you could look around if we go quickly, but I didn’t say how many minutes that would be.”
The following words were a sight to behold. Though I agreed with the words about not having time, to be spouting such words with that smile that seemed to contain light.
Really an insane bastard……
