Chapter 4
“They say you die if you get too hungry.”
The black hand that had taken all the thugs’ lives stroked the boy’s head. It was a clumsy, awkward touch, as if he’d never caressed anyone’s head before.
After withdrawing his hand, the young man picked up his sack and stood.
It was the first time he’d encountered a human immune to his ability—fascinating, but that was all. The black hand that used life force as “nourishment” didn’t work on him, and the boy wanted to live. That being the case, unless the boy posed a threat, there was no real reason to kill him.
Without any lingering attachment, the young man turned and walked past the thugs’ corpses, heading deeper into the black forest.
Quite some time later—
Rustle—
Small footprints appeared in the fallen leaves where the young man had walked, as if tracing his path.
Deep in the black forest stood a small tent made of animal hide and shabby cloth. Through the wide-open entrance, you could glimpse a bit of the interior—nothing more than some clothes, miscellaneous items, and a blanket. The space was so cramped the sleeping area seemed just large enough for one adult to lie down.
The boy, Ion, hid behind a black thorny tree some distance away, staring at the tent before shifting his gaze to the young man lighting a campfire in front of it.
‘What kind of person is he?’
To Ion, the young man was deeply suspicious.
A young man living alone in a gloomy forest devoid of any life except thorny trees, even building himself a shelter here. From his appearance and lifestyle, he seemed to be hiding in this forest—but for someone who might be on the run, he appeared incredibly carefree, almost bored.
‘And that strange ability…’
Ion narrowed his eyes, focusing on the young man’s right hand. Though it was now completely covered by a leather glove extending past the elbow, what lay beneath wasn’t something that belonged to an ordinary person.
Recalling how the thugs had collapsed the instant the young man’s black hand touched them, Ion shuddered.
Honestly, considering the thugs had done terrible things to many people, and he himself might have been cruelly killed by their hands, maybe it was for the best. Until he’d been taken by slave traders, he’d believed being kind was most important—but now he’d learned to be somewhat selfish and cold-hearted.
He didn’t want to assign any special meaning to the dead thugs. They deserved to die. That was all.
But that didn’t mean he could fully appreciate the person who’d killed those thugs so effortlessly without even blinking. Just thinking about that hand being placed on his head made his heart pound heavily even now.
“Why aren’t you dying?”
“There’s no reason you shouldn’t die…”
Earlier, he’d been too distraught to do anything but burst out in anger and cry—but now that he’d regained some composure, he could fully understand what the young man had been muttering.
The young man had tried to kill him twice with that black hand. Normally, he should have collapsed and breathed his last the moment that hand touched him.
Ion swallowed hard as he looked down at his own left hand. On his childlike, white, soft palm was an unusual golden pattern. Though clearly different from the young man’s pattern in both design and color, Ion believed this was the connection between them—the reason the ability was nullified.
“Go to the Black Forest. The ‘Black Hand’ there will be able to protect you.”
That had been his mother’s final request, her last words as she sacrificed herself to help her son escape after they’d been captured by slave traders.
‘Perhaps…’
Recalling his mother’s words and the young man’s black hand, Ion quickly shook his head in denial.
‘This is someone who tried to kill me twice with his strange ability. It can’t be.’
With a bitter expression, Ion sat down with his back against a smooth part of a thorny tree and curled up, shivering from the cold rising from the ground. As he did, a dried scab from a cut by the thorny tree caught on his fingertip and fell off weakly. Despite having been quite a deep cut, what appeared where the scab had fallen was clean skin without a single scar.
Ion scanned his injury-covered body with his eyes.
‘With injuries this severe… it should take about half a day.’
Perhaps due to the influence of the ability residing in his left hand, his self-healing power had been incomparably greater than ordinary humans’ since birth. Even his stomach, which had been struck earlier, had healed so quickly that not even a small bruise remained.
Growl—
Maybe that’s why the clamor of hunger in his stomach wouldn’t stop, as if trying to fill that empty space.
Quietly looking down at his stomach, Ion pulled out a fist-sized potato he’d kept in the pocket of his tattered clothes. The dirt-covered potato was visibly shriveled and dried.
Ion frowned as he dusted the dirt from it.
Honestly, no matter how hungry he was, he didn’t want to eat such a thing. If he could at least wash it with water, that would be different—but would there even be a pond in this barren thorny forest?
‘Even if there were, the water would probably be undrinkable.’
It was a harsh forest where only thorny trees survived. But that didn’t mean the ground was dry. Due to the thorny trees blocking out almost all sunlight, the forest remained in shade year-round, yet moisture—presumably dew—clung to the curved surfaces of the trees. The soil beneath the countless fallen leaves was even damp.
In such a forest, there should definitely be plants that could grow vigorously even without sunlight. The same would be true for insects.
However, since entering the forest, Ion hadn’t seen anything alive—neither plants nor insects. At this point, these black thorny trees were simply remarkable.
‘The presence of fallen leaves means there were proper trees here at some point. Did someone poison the water?’
Looking at the state of the forest, that seemed like a reasonable assumption.
Ion sighed briefly as he looked around the forest, which was already dark despite the sun still being high.
He wiped the potato—from which he’d roughly removed the dirt—with a relatively clean part of his clothing. Glaring at the still blackened, dirty potato, he soon brought it to his mouth.
“Ugh…”
Not only was the texture dry and mealy, but it truly tasted awful. It was hard to tell whether he was eating a potato or chewing on a stone because of the dirt that still clung to it.
Still, he endured and ate it. For Ion, who hadn’t eaten properly while running away, the thought that he needed to eat even this to survive was strong.
Even with the intense taste of soil filling his mouth and the sound of sand grinding between his teeth, he just kept chewing and swallowing. It was still much better than the unidentifiable gruel the slave traders had thrown at him like dog food.
He finished the fist-sized potato very quickly. Partly due to hunger, but mostly to avoid tasting it any longer, he devoured it like someone possessed.
After finishing, he felt even hungrier. Though described as fist-sized, it was only about the size of young Ion’s fist. Having been too busy running away to properly fill his stomach, there was no way such a small potato could satisfy him. Moreover, the potato contained so little moisture it only intensified his thirst.
He thumped his chest with his fist, uncomfortable from hastily eating the potato.
“Want another one?”
“Ahhh!”
Startled by the sudden voice from behind, Ion scrambled on the ground in panic. Calming his pounding heart, he turned to see the young man standing by the thorny tree, staring down at him, having approached without making a single sound.
Looking up at those black eyes that matched the forest so well, Ion’s breath caught.
How could he move without making the slightest sound, even with fallen leaves scattered everywhere?
While Ion sat frozen, unable to speak properly, the young man offered him a potato.
“I heard that if you get too hungry, you die.”
He spoke as if he didn’t know such things himself but had merely heard about it from others.
The desire to eat more that Ion had felt just moments ago completely vanished. His mind had stopped working and his startled heart refused to calm down because of the young man.
Ion clutched his chest with one hand and barely managed to breathe while quickly trying to gather his thoughts.
‘He doesn’t seem hostile… And above all, his ability doesn’t seem to work on me…’
He alternated his gaze between the young man’s expressionless face and the potato he was offering.
Judging by his physical condition, the potato he’d eaten earlier didn’t seem to contain any poison. Even if it had been poisoned with a lethal dose, he would only suffer agonizingly for a few minutes before dying—but it couldn’t actually kill him. The unpleasantly tasteless and mealy potato was simply dry, nothing more.
As Ion studied the young man, he noticed a dagger hanging at his right waist. Judging by its position, it appeared to be a weapon for the left hand.
Realizing that the young man could have easily killed him earlier with that dagger if he’d wanted to, Ion felt somewhat reassured.
