DMHS 117

It would’ve been finished with careful, detailed work if it were an ordinary doll, but now he was making a vessel that would hold the soul inside the bead, so he stopped at this point.

“Get inside.”

The black shadow that rose at Kian’s feet swallowed the clay doll.

Meanwhile the sky grew darker and a light drizzle started. Kian brushed the raindrops from his shoulder and went back to the mansion.

He walked through the open door and stopped.

‘He fell asleep.’

Rowan had fallen asleep while leaning on the sofa. His small chest rose and fell with soft breaths.

Kian found the blanket beside the sofa and covered him. Rowan seemed to feel comfortable, so he pulled the blanket in and curled up on the sofa.

Kian crossed his legs and sat in the chair across from him.

The rain grew heavier and the room filled with darkness.

“……”

Maybe it was because he had talked about the ancient kingdom. Kian saw the innocent Rowan from the past overlap with Rowan’s sleeping face.

Kian bent forward and slowly clenched and opened his hand.

The beginning of the event that now remained only as an old tale had undoubtedly been like this.

Once upon a time, a cruel king lived.

Kian continued the story in his thoughts.

Because of the king’s tyranny, the people suffered every single day.

Then one day, an oracle came down to the temple.

‘The king will die at the hands of a boy who’ll never grow into an adult.’

The king’s temper grew worse. He killed the priest who delivered the oracle and ordered the execution of every boy younger than ten.

The kingdom fell into chaos in an instant. Parents who had children screamed throughout the mountains.

Some parents fled their homes. Rowan’s mother was one of them.

‘I need to hide the child.’

The mother, who’d lost her husband and was raising her child alone, dressed the child as a girl and left. The child was very thin and had a pretty face, and once his hair grew long he looked completely like a girl.

The mother wandered from place to place until she reached a low mountain by the sea.

Thick fog fell day and night without rest. Because people avoided the mountain out of fear, the mother and child could live there alone.

Inside the mountain there was a waterfall where all kinds of birds came to drink. Whenever he had time, the child went to the waterfall and spent time with the birds.

Time passed and the frail mother became sick and eventually died. The child was left alone.

Then one day, the king’s concubine became fascinated by the beauty of a bird. The king ordered people to bring him rare birds.

The hunters who received the king’s order wandered everywhere and finally reached the mysterious mountain.

They went out to catch the birds but the fog mist made it difficult. And somehow, an unknown child always appeared like a ghost and drove the birds away whenever they tried to catch them.

After struggling for days, the hunters managed to capture a few birds.

But the birds they caught soon grew weak and died. Even the hunters who caught them developed high fevers and were forced to leave the mountain.

The hunters who remained became certain.

‘This is a witch’s land.’

They changed their plan. Instead of the birds, they decided to catch the child.

Catching the child was easier than catching the birds. The captured child was tied to an altar built from dry branches following the ritual for killing a witch.

The hunters lit the wood. The child didn’t know what he’d done wrong. He was tightly bound and cried like an animal.

The mountain birds swarmed at the sound, but they had no way to save him. The child burned and died.

The hunters dragged down the charred body. They carried it to the cliff overlooking the sea.

One, two, three.

At the signal, they threw the child’s body into the sea.

What happened next was strange.

The birds that had circled the child gathered in one place. The sky turned black with the flock. The day suddenly darkened and the black mass rushed down toward the falling child.

The birds gathered on the mountain were not real birds. They were spirits that existed as conceptual forms.

The spirits entered the child’s body. Then the child opened his eyes inside the black mass. The body that had burned with a foul smell returned to its original state.

The child looked up from the cliff and saw the terrified hunters frozen in shock.

When the child pointed his index at them with a blank face, the black mass covered them.

—Please, please don’t do this. We only came here to follow the king’s order.

—We had no choice if we wanted to live. Please spare us. Ah, no…

After a moment nothing remained in that place.

The child quietly repeated the words “the king” in his mouth. He knew why his mother and he had come all the way into this distant mountain.

A few days later, new rumors spread around the mountain.

They said the king of spirits had appeared on the mysterious mountain.

People said the Spirit King was the most beautiful woman in the world and had an elegance far beyond the king’s concubine.

The rumor reached the king. He sent his army to bring the Spirit King.

When the army arrived, the Spirit King was already waiting at the foot of the mountain.

Her long black hair fell to her waist and fluttered softly with graceful movements.

People lost their words at her beauty, but only for a moment. The Spirit King followed the army and arrived at the royal castle.

The king welcomed her happily. He tried to please her, giving her good food and a comfortable place to sleep.

Meanwhile strange things started to happen inside the palace after the Spirit King arrived.

The maids and servants began to see things that weren’t there, and eventually even the queen wandered the castle barefoot every night while crying.

Everyone who fell into hallucinations said the same thing.

―I’m sorry. I’m… I’m sorry. I did everything wrong. Please… spare me.

Monster attacks around the castle also became more frequent.

On the day the castle gate finally broke under a massive attack, the Spirit King climbed to the top of the castle. The Spirit King had returned to the form of the boy and laughed madly.

―Ahaha! Hahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!

The burned body of the king lay at the boy’s feet.

The boy pushed the body off the castle. The king’s corpse disappeared completely after the approaching monsters stepped on it.

That was the moment the long history of the Kaltirion Kingdom came to an end.

Kian closed his eyes. The moment his homeland’s royal castle fell into ruin was still clear in his memory.

Back then Kian had stayed in the palace with Lancelot and Betias. The surface world absorbed demonic energy because of people’s negative emotions, so they tried to persuade the king and guide him onto the right path.

But the king didn’t listen. While they were struggling, the kingdom was destroyed.

Lancelot’s reaction had been brief.

―Maybe it’s for the best.

He had left with a snort and brought back a boy who looked too gentle to kill even an insect. That boy was Rowan.

This was how the first hero party, centered around Lancelot, formed. No matter how many times Kian thought about it, the memory left a bitter taste.

‘Maybe it’s because the current kingdom’s situation feels similar to that time.’

Kian crossed his legs. Rowan, who had been lying on the sofa, slowly opened his eyes as he sensed movement.

The child looked back and forth between the blanket covering him and Kian.

“You haven’t changed, Yan.”

“What would I change into now?”

“Betias changed. She left for somewhere we don’t know. She even lost interest in managing the Forest of Creation and the elf graves, so maybe it’s natural.”

Kian swallowed slowly.

“What about you? Do you want to leave this world too?”

Rowan sat up, knees together.

“I have the spirits, so I won’t leave. But I won’t step out to save humans anymore.”

“Because you think you did everything you had to do?”

Rowan shook his head.

“It’s already the fifth time, Yan.”

“……”

“I didn’t join that work without thinking. I hoped this kingdom might be different, that maybe these humans would find a new path. But what’s the result? Humans repeat the same mistakes and the same errors every time. I think it’s good that the Arbiter appeared.”

“So you knew about the Arbiter too?”

“Maybe not as much as you.”

Rowan let out an empty laugh and continued talking.

“I don’t want to involve myself in human affairs anymore. If the world disappears, I want to accept that fate too.”

“……”

“I’m already worn out.”

Kian pressed his lips into a line. His thoughts were entangled and he didn’t know what to say.

To Kian both Betias and Rowan were his only close friends.

They didn’t visit each other often, but when the kingdom faced danger he felt reassured because they were there. He had hoped they could create a new history again.

But Betias had left, and Rowan declared he wouldn’t help humans anymore.

“……”

Suddenly a chill ran through his whole body.

Kian rubbed his forearm and realized it wasn’t because of the cold air.

His trembling body wasn’t reacting to the temperature outside. It reacted to the temperature of his heart.