“Would you like a tour of the castle?”
One day, Gregos formally made such a suggestion. After all, he was the butler in charge of managing this castle.
“N-no, thank you.”
Anya quietly shook his head. He didn’t want to provide excuses by wandering around here and there. After that refusal, the people here treated the boy even more like a nonentity.
They deliberately imitated his speech pattern. Something welled up deep in his chest, but he didn’t know exactly what it meant. At such times, Anya would climb up onto the windowsill and look outside. In the distance, the ‘Nameless Forest’ was visible. He remembered the strange small hand that had touched his face. Anya carefully placed his hand on his cheek. The warm touch was gone, replaced by rough, dry skin.
“C-can I g-go for a w-walk today?”
Anya hunched his body as he carefully observed Gregos’s reaction. His voice trembled terribly from nervousness. The mistress of Tildyen Castle had no awareness that he was the mistress. The boy lowered himself completely before the butler who served meals at set times, provided clean water for washing, and even put firewood in at the right times.
“That’s up to you, master. If you wish, you may go anywhere within the castle.”
Butler Gregos was a person with a tall, thin frame, long eyes, and thin lips, giving him a strict impression. He never mocked Anya like the other servants, but neither did he stop their malicious gossip. He always evaluated Anya like a test examiner.
“Let’s have lunch first.”
Anya wasn’t hungry but reluctantly picked up his fork and knife.
* * *
Anya stopped at the entrance of the Nameless Forest. The forest was dark despite it being midday. The Nameless Forest had been here for over ten thousand years, but no one knew its name, nor had anyone given it one. The gloomy Tildyen Castle rose high, surrounded by the deep forest on the middle slopes of Beriela.
A chilly wind blew from deep within the forest, touching the hem of his robe. In the garden of his separate palace, there had been short weeds and unnamed wildflowers. It was bright there, and warm breezes blew. Though it was nutrient-poor soil, Anya found comfort in seeing their tenacious vitality.
After being beaten by his brothers, he would always lie in the garden, basking in the fragmenting sunlight. Occasionally, small animals would come and rub against his knees. Anya easily became addicted to that warmth.
《It’s a human, it’s a human.》
That’s why the boy returned to the Nameless Forest. The trees here were tall and very thick. They must have been at least several hundred years old. Above all, the trees had eyes. Where branches had been cut off and grown again, cut off and grown again, marks were formed. This forest must have witnessed everything that had happened in Tildyen throughout eternity.
《Delicious smell.》
The snow-covered dirt floor was damp, and although there were no leaves overhead, thousands of bare branches intertwined to form a dense cover.
The blue light flickered and continued to speak to him. It constantly murmured in a strange voice that was neither a child’s nor an old person’s. It was a voice full of joy, as if it had been waiting.
Having someone welcome him was such a strange thing that it made his heart flutter.
“W-who are you? A-are you human?”
How could a human flicker like a small flame without form? Yet he couldn’t bring himself to ask if it was a magical creature. Anya was considering its circumstances.
《We have no name.》
《No. Humans called us forest gods. Or was it forest spirits?》
The flame seemed to tilt its head. Anya wondered if he was going crazy. Nevertheless, his heart swelled. The boy, tired of long loneliness, took a step forward. His thin cloth shoes became wet with snow, but he was too distracted to feel the cold.
《Ugh, it’s salty. We don’t like the water humans shed.》
The flame circled above Anya’s head. A small hand reached out. The hand increased from one to two, three… The flame grew larger and enveloped the boy. It blazed up as if embracing him.
From that day on, a secret walk was added to the boring daily routine of the mistress of Tildyen Rock.
“W-what’s your name?”
The deeper into the forest he went, the more eyes the trees had. Those eyes seemed to be monitoring Anya’s footsteps. To deliberately ignore this frightening fact, Anya spoke to the small flame hovering around him.
《None. None.》
The flame looked like one, but upon closer inspection, there were two. That’s why it repeated its words. If one listened carefully, the voices overlapped.
“S-should I… g-give you one?”
The flame circling around him felt like a living entity. Perhaps it was a hallucination created by this scary forest. Still, Anya was grateful for this strange being that spoke to him. No one here spoke to him.
《To receive a name, one must make a contract.》
Contract? Anya’s footsteps, which had been pushing through the snow deep into the forest, came to a halt.
When did I come this far? With this belated realization, the boy faced an empty clearing in the middle of the forest. Around him was a dense coniferous forest typical of the North, with snow accumulated on the branches.
《Will you make a contract, human?》
《Too weak, too weak to make a contract.》
The flame seemed larger than before. The two fought each other, then suddenly flew away to stop in front of a tree. The sensitive hazelnut eyes following the flame fixed on one tree. That tree was… a spirit tree.
《In ancient forests live trees inhabited by spirits. A spirit tree.》
The imperial history book he had once read always taught Anya things he had never learned. The way to identify a spirit tree is clear.
Anya cautiously approached the tree. The thick trunk of the spirit tree, which had lived for thousands of years, was covered with damp moss and looked like a giant who had turned into a tree and was kneeling. It wasn’t something someone had deliberately carved or created.
As Anya unconsciously reached out toward the trunk, the flame blocked his path. The flame flared up fiercely, growing in size. Anya cried out from the heat and backed away.
《Touch it and die, die.》
《Reckless human. Humans are always reckless.》
Anya became dejected at the flame’s nagging. Perhaps the flame was disappointed in him, just like the Northerners. Thinking he should go back, he looked around, but the forest was dark. Only then did a chill set in and fear washed over him. The flame stopped in front of Anya’s face. The boy’s thin face was tinged with warm orange light.
《Come again, human.》
《When you’re bigger, you can make a contract.》
The hazelnut pupils, filled with expectation and hope, flickered along with the flame.
* * *
“What are you doing here, boy?”
Anya nearly screamed. Someone was hunched over, sitting on a flat tree stump at the entrance to the forest. Though the tone was polite, there was somehow a mental pressure. The old man looked exactly like a vagabond. His brown, worn robe and unkempt bushy beard made him appear so.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Anya lowered his head sharply, feeling guilty. This forest must be a place one can only enter with the permission of the forest keeper. The old man looked like a slum vagrant, but his eyes were fierce. He was a man with a powerful impression, like a wild beast from folklore. Perhaps he was the forest keeper here.
The old man looked Anya up and down and asked,
“Was there something in the forest? New master of Tildyen Rock.”
Surprisingly, the old man knew Anya’s identity. The boy’s heart began to pound, wondering if this forest keeper had been following him. Anya was anxious that his actions in the forest might make him appear like a mentally ill person or a witch.
If the forest keeper hinted at such things to Evernight, Anya might be sent to a place like the Galley Monastery. Anya glanced at the forest, completely withdrawn like a weak animal lowering its tail and whimpering. The Galley Monastery was said to have solitary cells where they locked up the mentally ill. It was something his brothers had always threatened him with.
‘Dear little brother. If you anger me, I’ll put you in the Galley Monastery and make you live in a solitary cell without a single ray of light for the rest of your life.’
With an ominous premonition, Anya quickly straightened his posture.
“I-I was j-just passing by. I t-took a wrong turn.”
His voice trembled terribly. Anya watched the forest keeper carefully, shaking like an aspen tree due to his own nervousness. He hoped the tough old man would just pass by.
“Ah… I’m late with my introduction. I am Sabelli Nox, the scholar of Tildyen Rock.”
Not a forest keeper… but a scholar?
The old man did not have the appearance one would typically associate with a scholar. His angular jaw, bushy beard, and tall stature reminded one of a powerful warrior, but his hunched posture and shabby appearance made him look like a passing forest keeper. His accent, which was mixed randomly and of unknown origin, also contributed to this impression.
Castle lords all had their own scholars. The rise and fall of their domains could be determined by their advice. All the heroes in history always had not only great knights but also wise scholars with them.
“My, what kind of person did the mistress mistake me for?”
“P-pardon?”
His voice cracked at the sudden question. Anya blushed and lowered his head.
