Horn trumpets sounded from various places on Tildyen’s castle walls.
“Sir Evernight has returned!”
The guards of Tildyen in the watchtower shouted in unison. Soon the heavy castle gate opened and a throng of people on horseback poured in. They arrived at Tildyen Rock at noon when the sun was floating in the middle of the sky.
Tildyen Rock, made of massive gray rock, looked as gloomy as when they’d left, but Anya’s impression of this castle had changed sufficiently. This place, which had felt like someone else’s home before leaving, had already transformed into a new foundation where Anya had to live.
“Your Grace. Did you return safely? Will you head straight to the dining room?”
Gregos and the servants ran out and greeted their party with their hands neatly folded. When the horses stopped, snowflakes flew up. A black shadow cast briefly over the white snowfield.
“I’m fine. I’ll receive the reports that have piled up.”
“I’ll prepare immediately and visit you in the study.”
Evernight’s wound steadily improved during their return to Tildyen. But it still wasn’t perfectly healed. Anya looked with a worried expression at Evernight, who headed straight to the study without even resting upon their return.
“Commander, you should rest. You need more treatment.”
Fortunately, Anya wasn’t the only one who thought so. Riario tried to dissuade him, but he didn’t even pretend to listen. Of course not. Riario, who let out a short sigh, quickly gave up. Ah, Gregos. I’m thinking of bathing first. When Gregos sent a glance to a maid beside him, several immediately disappeared inside.
“I’ll order the servants to heat water. By the way, was Your Grace… injured?”
Gregos’s meticulous expression became even more solemn.
“It’s nothing.”
Nothing indeed. Because of that nothing, His Highness was like that….
Riario grumbled without realizing it, then shut his mouth after receiving Evernight’s glare.
“How… were you injured?”
“I… I…!”
“Did you look into the merchant guild that supplies provisions?”
Evernight casually cut off Anya’s words. He looked at Anya quietly. It meant shut up. Anya had no choice but to close his mouth at his husband’s silent command. Gregos tactfully didn’t ask any more. The master couple seemed to have become close enough to share secrets that required exchanging glances while no one was watching. For him, maintaining their relationship was more important than extracting information by prying persistently.
“Is everyone already eating?”
Karen changed the subject to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
“Sir Sisou is eating alone. Sir Lorea led the patrol and went out to scout the outskirts briefly.”
Gregos laid out his answer calmly while glancing at the pale Anya.
“Right. That guy wouldn’t miss mealtime. I’ll go to the dining hall.”
I’ll go ahead. After Karen gave his greeting, he followed the servant who was guiding him.
“What are you going to do?”
Anya fell into contemplation. Strangely, he had no appetite. Because they hadn’t encountered monsters or beasts on the way back, they could eat meals without them being inadequate. It would be nice to go to the dining hall and meet Sisou for the first time in a while, but… more than that, Anya wanted to do something else.
“Um… where is Ma-Master Sabelli?”
Anya fidgeted with his thread bracelet. He planned to rush to him right away and propose that since he could now gather magic power, he wanted to receive the next training.
“Scholar Sabelli is in the underground research lab.”
“…Ma-may I go?”
Anya looked up at Evernight timidly and sought permission. Since they returned from the cave beyond the Wall, a strange current flowed between the two. They weren’t as awkward as before, but they weren’t particularly close compared to other noble couples who had political marriages.
“Do as you please.”
Th-thank you. After Anya bowed to Evernight, he soon followed the servant into the main hall. Then Evernight also strode into the castle without delay. Riario, left alone, let out a hollow laugh toward Gregos.
“It seems all the people of Tildyen Rock are fated to die young. Gregos, what do you think?”
The servant passed through the main hall of the main castle and guided Anya between the pillars. Anya followed silently, completely forgetting all the fatigue of the journey.
“You can go down these stairs.”
The stone stairs leading to the basement weren’t very dark. Torches stuck in the walls were burning brightly. Soon Anya’s footsteps echoed along the cold stone walls and reverberated off the low ceiling. Anya trembled finely at the cold energy rising from the floor.
“Ma-Master Sabelli…?”
*Cough*. Anya coughed as soon as he opened the rusty door of the basement. It was a cozy and spacious space dyed in warm orange light, but without a single window, it was completely filled with acrid smoke. Anya rubbed his stinging eyes and covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve to prevent coughs from escaping again.
“Hmm? Boy?”
Sabelli, who had been leaning back languidly in his chair puffing on tobacco leaves, asked in surprise.
“Yes, it’s me, me.”
Anya tried to fan away the smoke with his hand once, but it was futile. Sabelli burst into hearty laughter. The old man soon rolled up his sleeves and muttered a certain incantation lowly. Then a small whirlwind that looked just like a snowstorm formed above his palm. The smoke in the air was sucked into it in an instant.
“Mm. Tobacco is too much for a child still. Yes, that’s right. Indeed it is.”
After he threw the blackened whirlwind on the floor, he stamped it out with his pointy-toed shoe. When the smoke cleared, the basement scenery finally came into view. Medicine bottles and unknown leaves were scattered carelessly on the shelves, and parchments engraved with strange letters were messily laid on the floor. Then if you threw your gaze to the opposite side, large and small skull fragments hung in the air with their mouths gaping wide open.
“Ah, I’m so-sorry.”
Anya only then realized he was stepping on several pieces of parchment. Sabelli swept all the parchments placed on one side of the desk down with one arm, telling him not to worry, then poured wine into a glass, glug glug.
Sabelli approached closer and smiled at Anya. Have a drink. In the time they hadn’t seen each other, he had aged and become more haggard. Seeing the old man’s face, all the things he’d experienced rushed in like a storm. Anya hugged him tightly. Sabelli’s laughter transmitted through Anya’s body.
“By the way, you’ve grown a bit taller.”
“Me, me?”
Anya scratched his cheek awkwardly and accepted the glass. The rim of the cup was chipped, so Anya turned it to the other side and sipped the wine.
“It’s quite an excellent taste, isn’t it?”
“Yes…. I, I think so.”
Anya wasn’t knowledgeable enough to distinguish what characteristics each regional wine had, but he had no objection that the wine Sabelli offered was quite good. It was smooth going down and had a rich aroma.
“I went down to the village to treat a child and received it as payment. It was the liquor that child’s father cherished most.”
Hearing those words, the small cup suddenly felt heavy. Anya confessed to Sabelli about what had happened in Northernmost. Not everything. What happened with Evernight in the cave was a secret to the grave.
“The boy has finally become able to gather magic power.”
Sabelli circled around Anya in circles. You’ve grown taller, and something seems different. After gauging for a long time, he finally couldn’t get an answer and returned to his spot. Anya relaxed his tense body.
“Ma-Master Sabelli.”
Sabelli habitually put his pipe in his mouth again but barely suppressed his smoking urge at Anya’s call. I keep forgetting it’s in front of a child. Tsk tsk. He clicked his tongue lowly.
“By the way, why did the boy come looking for me?”
“I wa-want to meet Dragcals. I want to make the con-contract you mentioned before.”
He still stuttered frustratingly, but there wasn’t the slightest hesitation in Anya’s answer. For a moment, all sides became quiet. Strength entered Sabelli’s hand, which had been handling an old book covered with completely decayed leather binding. The old leather crumbled into small pieces with a rustle and fell to the floor.
“Something in Northernmost has changed the boy.”
Sabelli couldn’t resist and put tobacco leaves in his pipe again and lit them. It was always destined to be like this, but it was much faster than expected. A small tremor arose. Once young, he had believed without doubt that if he could only see that existence, this shabby life would no longer have any meaning.
“But the boy is still weak.”
Sabelli patted Anya’s thin shoulder. In his aged eyes, the orange lamplight glistened. It looked just like flames burning.
“They are known to make contracts only with those they acknowledge.”
Sabelli passed by Anya and stroked the giant bone fragments hanging on the wall once. Their massive teeth that could pierce steel were melted by skilled dwarves in fires over 1000 degrees to make weapons, and their shells were woven one by one to become shields that could block anything. All of them were once existences that had dominated this world.
“Ac-acknowledgment? How can I receive their acknowledgment? Pl-please help me.”
Anya begged earnestly. All the way back from Northernmost to Tildyen Rock, Anya was buried in only one thought. He wanted to find meaning in life, and to fulfill that meaning, he absolutely had to become strong.
‘If you’re weak, you can’t protect anyone.’
Sabelli turned to look at Anya. He narrowed his eyes thinly and gauged the boy.
“I said you must become one who is nothing. Right now, I see earnestness in the boy. Earnestness is also ‘being something.'”
He stopped talking and kicked away the wooden boxes that were tangled here and there, and began rummaging through the chaotic bookshelf. Hmm, not this one. Not this one either. Leather bindings and yellowed parchments that had aged and completely decayed for hundreds of years dropped to the floor with thuds. Finally, he pulled out a leather binding that was still vividly green compared to the others.
“But earnestness for others. That is sometimes greater than one who is nothing.”
Sabelli tapped the leather binding with his finger. White dust floated above the lamp’s light. Anya approached closer and read the book’s title quietly.
<Training Manual for Blind Knights: On the Method of Raising the Senses to Their Limits>
“This will help. It’s very old but useful.”
“I… I want to le-learn magic though.”
Swordsmanship was certainly cool, but it took a very long time. Of course, he wouldn’t neglect training. But since he’d learned that monsters became powerless before magic power, making a contract with spirits was a more efficient method for now. Moreover, the book’s title was very unnerving. Blind… they went blind?
