The Walk of Daewon

 

 

 

 I'm currently writting this series. So it will always be updated and some lines might often be changed until it's completion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                       By David Maze

 

 

There’s a path that leads to a small hill around a freshly green forest. The gentle wind rustles my hair and some of it gets into my eye.

“Ouch.” Quickly I raise my hand and brush out the hair from the eye with my fingers.

When I finished, I was already standing on top of the hill. From up here, I could see in every direction. Anywhere from a few hundred meters to a few kilometers depending on the side, I was facing.

But straight ahead where the path leads, I can see a village. It has quite a few houses and cultivated farms that were right next to almost every house.

“It seems to be a well-off farming village," I muttered my first impressions of it.

In around the middle of the village, I can see a house that’s relatively bigger than everyone else’s when compared.

I started thinking: “It must be the village leaders' house. I’ll have to go and visit him. Just to get to know this place a little better. My food supply is running low as well so, I’ll need to stock up.”

I looked around a little bit, scratched my head, and started walking down the path to the village.

“I do hope they have some bagels to sell though. Can’t seem to get enough of those, hehe.” I walked, chuckling to myself.

                                                         Agata

 

 

 

 

 

“Brother!” A little girl with short, dark brown hair and green eyes yelled out.

“Hmm? What is it, Agata? Got something?” A boy, also with short, dark brown hair and green eyes was jogging towards her.

“Yes, but it’s really strong. It’s pulling me in! Quick help, ahh!”

“Agata!” The boy dashed towards her sister who was leaning closer and closer towards the river by the second. He grabbed the fishing rod that she was holding.

“Okay, got it.” The boy got behind her and was widening his stance.

“Lean back Agata and spread your legs wide, that’ll help. Get a strong grip and don’t let go! You got that?”

“Yes, Bain!” The sister, listening to his brother’s advice gripped the rod with all her might and leaned back further from the river. The river itself was wide, not deep at the beginning and the current was slow. So, there would be no problems if Agata fell into it. She just didn’t want to get wet. Bain knew that if she got wet, she would be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. 

“Great! I’m not gonna let you take a dip in that river. It’s for my safety as well you know.” He gave a slight smile while saying that. The sister made a sour-looking face because of his remark. None of them could see each other’s faces at the moment though.

“Sis, we need to slowly pull back together one step at a time while holding the rod as strong as possible and keeping our stance wide. I’ll say “one” and we’ll move our left foot first. Then I’ll say “two” and we’ll move our right foot. We will repeat that until we pull that fish out, okay?”

“Umm… where’s left again Bain?” The girl was mildly confused.

“Ahh, it’s the hand you wipe your butt with.”

“BAIN!” Her cheeks blushed.

“Haha, joking sis. You eat soup with your left hand, that’s left.”

“Ah, okay wait a bit.” Agata took a few seconds to remember with which hand she eats soup.

“I’m ready!” She said it with a determined voice.

“Okay then, and a ONE... TWO… ONE… TWO… C’mon sis! You’re not giving it your all, are you?”

“Nghh, of course, I am! You’re the ones who’s not giving it his all, aghh.”

“Haha, okay, okay. Let’s continue. And a ONE… TWO…”

Agata was pulling with all her strength. Her palms were getting sweaty and the rod started to get slippery for her. So, she had to make readjustments. She was making strange faces while pulling the rod as well.

Her brother, on the other hand, actually wasn’t trying that hard. He had a smile on his face and was in control.

The wire of the fishing rod was quite sturdy. It held throughout the whole struggle without breaking.

And so, slowly, step by step the both of them working together managed to pull the fish out of the river. 

“Wow, Bain look! That fish’s huge!”

“Yeah, wow it looks like a carp and it’s huge! Let me take a look.” Bain took the hook out of the carp’s mouth but then suddenly-

“Woahh, it’s got a lot of fight left in him. Help me pull it further away from the river Agata!”

“Sure!” The carp flapped, trying to jump back into the river. But its attempts failed when the brother and sister pulled it back further from the river. He would never touch water ever again.

After pulling the carp, they both sat down on a broken-off log right next to it. The carp was still flapping around, but it was pretty much flapping in the same place now. Clearly, it wasn’t going to get far.

“Let’s wait a bit until it calms down and weakens. We’ll just pull it back in if it flaps too close to the river again.”

“Okay, but that was amazing Bain! You came to my rescue like a hero!” She said so while looking up at the brother who was scratching the top of his head and blushing after he heard those words come out of his sister.

“Ah haha, well you know a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do for his little sister.” He continued to brush even more.

“How did you know what to do in that situation? And you were also making jokes like that! Which reminds me… hyah!” The sister yells out and hits Bain straight on the top of his head with a nice and precise chop. His skull makes a sound that sounds something like a solid wood block.

“Ouch, ouch. Why the hell did you do that! Where did my praise go?!”

“That’s for saying a rude and an impolite thing to a lady, hm.” Agata crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks while saying that.

“Jeez, always so sensitive.” Bain was gently touching the place where his sister chopped him.

“Apologize to me.” She said it still in the same stance. But now she was facing away from him, looking up and closing her eyes.

“Apologize? You hit me in the head! I think we’re even if you ask me.”

“…” Agata didn’t say anything. She just kept the same position.

“… Oh, why you, here take this!” Bain lunged towards his sister and started tickling her.

“No, Bain. Stop… wa ha ha ha.”

“You can’t resist my master tickling techniques, Agata! Muahaha!” He didn’t tickle her for long. But by doing so, he managed to get away without having to apologize.

“There you go. Tickling session complete! Now, as I remember you asked me how did I exactly know what to do in that situation right?”

“Yes. It was stupendous!” It seemed like what just happened between the two of them, didn’t even happen.

“Well, he, he.” Bain looked at the blue sky with a few clouds drifting away.

“It’s all thanks to dad’s teachings.” A slight gust of wind breezed through between the two of them.

When Agata heard him, she made a slight smile, looked down, and said: “Yeah, how did I not realize that.”

“Didn’t have too much time to think, did you? I know it takes a while for you to realize things so it’s fine.” Bain stuck his tongue out halfway and sideways out of his mouth.

“Bain…” She said his name slowly, grinning her teeth and looking at him menacingly.

“Haha, don’t be so sensitive sis. It’s not a good trait to have.” Now he as well was looking down at the ground.

Both of them stayed quiet for a slight moment until Bain broke that silence.

“All those fishing trips I had with dad are really helping us in getting free food now. We don’t need to go to buy stuff too often. Sucks that you didn’t join him when he was here though. He’s a better teacher than me you know. You could have learned a few more tricks from him. Probably you wouldn’t have even needed my help then.”

“No, you taught me what to do in these situations well. I just got scared at that moment and forgot everything. So, it’s my fault for that. But in the first place Bain, I don’t like fishing too much. It’s not a job for a lady to do such things.” Agata was swaying her feet back and forth while sitting on the log.

“Right, your job is to prepare the fish with mom yeah?” He gave a shady look at her with a wide smile.

“Yes, that is more ladylike thank you, hm” It seemed like she didn’t want to go further on that subject.

Bain got the message, turned away from her, and said: “I wonder when he’ll come back from the war.”

“I don’t know. Since we live far out it’s much harder to get any news on the war in general.” She put the palms of her hands on her cheeks and pondered.

“The latest news we’ve got was that our side actually lost some big battle but that’s about it. He’s been out there for what now? Almost two years or something yeah?”

“Mmm, I think so.” Agata took a big sigh.

“Hmm…” Now Bain as well put the palms of his hands on his cheeks and just looked straight at nowhere.

“The Emperor of Ainolybab isn’t some pushover as well. I’ve heard that his power is out of this world. He’s got some crazy magical energy behind him or something like that. There’s probably no region in the world that hasn’t heard of his name. But they say that he doesn’t fight in most of the battles for some reason. So that’s a good thing at least. Our country might end this war with some deals with the empire or something similar to that.”

Agata thought for a while, crossed her eyes, and said: “I don’t know much how wars work, nor do I want to. But I just hope that dad returns home safely.”

Bain looked at Agata with eyes of fondness.

“I hope so too Agata.” He said it gently, almost in a whispering tone.

“It hasn’t been easy, but when he gets back, we’ll show him how much more independent we’ve got and how much we’ve grown, literally and mentally. Right sis?” He was looking at her with a big smile on his face.

“Ha, of course! But I don’t know what you mean when you imply that you’ve become more mentally grown since he left. Your childish behavior hasn’t changed at all.” She was putting her fingers over her lips and was looking with sly eyes at his brother.

“Hey now, a man has to have a good sense of humor for his whole life. That’s not childish.”

Agata didn’t reply to his remark so Bain thought to himself: “Heh, no comeback from that one. I won that round then.”

“The fish stopped moving.” Agata pointed that out.

“Yeah, it’s definitely still alive but it won't struggle as much now.” Bain got up from the log, stretched his arms out, rubbed his butt, and walked towards the fish.

He grabbed it, picked it up, and lifted it up and down trying to measure its weight.

“Woah, this is something like a… I don’t know 13-14 kilo carp. That’s rare! We definitely won’t need to go and catch any more fish for a while with all this meat.” He put the fish back down on the ground.

“Yay! You see Bain, I’m like a good luck charm, aren’t I?” Agata stood up, threw a victory pose, and walked towards him.

“Yes, you are. You sure you don’t want to come to more fishing trips with me more often?”

“No, no, I don’t want my luck to be wasted on catching fish.” She waved her hand while saying it to further show her uninterest.

“I mean, this is what keeps us alive but okay,” Bain said quietly.

“Did you say something Bain?”

“Nope. Now c’mon we have to get it back home.” He lifted the carp halfway up by its head and pointed at the tail to Agata.

“Okay, okay.” She picked up the other half of the carp and they both started walking towards home.

The day was great. Warm winds blew past the trees. The two of them walked, carrying the carp while having some of their usual brother and sister squabbles.

“Hm?” Bain looked back over his shoulder.

“What is it?” She asked curiously.

He looked back at her and said: “Did you hear something?”

“No. What was it?”

“I don’t know. It was a weird sounding sound.” He again turned his head and looked back for a bit.

“Well, what did it sound like? Maybe it’s an animal I know.”

Bain turned back at her.

“Mmm” He thought for a short moment and said: “I think it was something like a “haaf” sound. Ring any bells?”

Agata’s expression slightly shifted to a more uncomfortable look.

“Doesn’t that just sound like some creepy breathing?”

Bain raised his left eye eyebrow. “Umm, maybe that wasn’t the right sound effect I made.” He was slightly contemplating about that sound.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to make that sound. It was probably nothing either way.”

“You’re not trying to scare me on purpose or anything like that, are you?” She was showing clear signs of annoyance and slight uncomfortability.

“No, no. Forget about it, it’s nothing.” All of those words came out less enthusiastic than how he was speaking a short while ago.

“Mm, okay. Whatever you say Bain.” She still has an annoyed look on her face but decided not to bother Bain about it.

The relaxed atmosphere clearly changed to a sour and somewhat tense one.

Because of that, it was quiet. They could hear the wind blowing through the leaves, the birds chirping, the cicadas were playing a melody. And they were continuing to bring the fish back home to mother.

But that quietness between the both of them is what allowed them to hear that sound again.

“Hyaff.” It came from what sounded behind them.

“!!!” Both of them turned their bodies around at the same time.   

They switched their hand positioning to hold the fish better.

“Did you hear this one Agata?” He didn’t look back at her face after he said that sentence. Rather, he continued to look around the trees and bushes from the direction where the sound came from. Trying to locate the source of the sound.

If he had looked back at her, nothing would have changed either way.

“Yes… I sure did.” Her voice was shaking. But she continued to speak.

“I think that sounded kinda like a Mag-” A swooshing sound cut through the air and also cut through Agata's sentence.

“Ahh!!!” She yelled.

“What the-” Before, Bain could look back and see what was happening he first felt the weight of the carp getting heavier and that it started to swing towards him. It meant that she wasn’t holding the fish anymore.

He turned his head, looked in the direction of his sister, and instantly froze.

“Wh-wha…” The carp hit the ground. He dropped it because he didn’t have the strength to hold it after seeing “it”.

What was in front of him is something that he heard about and knew the existence of. Everybody knows about them. But he never saw one close in person.

“A Magical Beast… a… demon.” He said it almost whispering to himself.

There, right next to him stood what looked like a 2-meter tall demon. It had a humanoid look to it. That is, it had legs, hands, fingers, a head, and a torso. What wasn’t human about it was that it had deep dark red skin and wings which weren’t feathers. They were more like bat wings. But they came out of its back, the arms themselves weren’t wings. And they were also a deep dark red color. It had long red nails and no human reproductive organs. The face was the scariest looking part of it though. Two red horns were sticking out of its head. Its eyes looked pure blood red and the long red teeth were poking out of its mouth. It was secreting a lot of white, foamy saliva from its mouth and the breathing of the demon was the weird sound they heard before. The red color of the Magical Beasts' horns, eyes, and nails was different from the dark red color of his skin.

That was what grabbed Agata and was standing a few meters away from Bain.

“Bain! Help me please, heeelp!!!” The beast was holding her with its left arm and looking straight at Bain.

Agata was flailing her legs around rapidly and trying to break the beast's hold through its fingers that were clenching her. But its hold was much too powerful for a child to break. 

Bain, looking upon the demon couldn’t do anything but feel an intense amount of fear. He also started feeling a strong amount of fatigue. His legs started giving out on him and he fell on the ground looking upon the demon from down below. Fear completely overtook his body.

“Bain! Please!” Bain did hear Agata's screams. But her screaming started to sound muffled to him.

“Wha- Aga- Agata?” His head started spinning, he felt lightheaded. The world seemed like it was moving all over the place and reality started to not feel real to him.

Now he was fully laying down on the ground, almost unconscious. He still managed to face his head towards the demon to see his sister. But there was nothing he could do. He was completely frozen in place.

The Magical Beast itself kept looking at Bain but it wasn’t doing anything to him. Then, after a short moment, the beast spread its deep red wings on both sides.

“Uhh ahh! Help me, please!” Agata kept on asking, yelling, pleading for help. She was asking for help not only from her brother but from anyone who might hear them. Even God himself.

“Maybe the villagers will hear me and come to see what’s happening if I keep shouting.” She thought to herself. Agata was in a pure life and death situation. The amount of adrenaline in her body skyrocketed. Because of that, she managed to keep a better composure than Bain.

They both were experiencing completely different reactions to this encounter.

The beast started to move its wings back and forth. Slowly, it lifted off the ground and started hovering in the air.

“Ahhh, Mom please help meee!!!” Agata released one last roar throughout the woods.

And then, while Bain was looking at the events unfolding right in front of him. The beast flew off with his sister west.

“Agata…” What went through his head at that moment was, almost nothing.

Because of this extreme, quick, and out of nowhere situation Bain’s head felt an immense amount of pressure and fear. This was what lead him to almost fainting, losing all of his strength in his body and his thoughts to mostly seize.

He did slightly managed to perceive what transpired but it wasn’t enough for him to be able to do anything. Agata was taken away.

About a minute passed and Bain started to come back to his senses. His strength was coming back to him and his heartbeat started to stabilize.

“That demon…” Bain was slowly getting back up from the ground. He rolled on his stomach and pushed himself up with his arms. Then, placing his left knee in front of him he stood up.

He started looking around. Looking left, right, up. He observed his surroundings in all 360 degrees with a pained look on his face.

“It really did flew her away…” There was nothing here anymore but just him, the fish, and the chirping cicadas.

“Maybe it wasn’t real.” He thought that to himself for a moment but the reality was telling him otherwise.

“No… It-it took my sister away…” His teeth were grinding against each other and he was clenching his fists while looking down at the ground.

“Ahh… I couldn’t do anything…” After a short moment of standing in place, a quick realization struck him.

“W-wait…”  He looked at the path leading to the village.

“I have to go back home and tell everything that happened!” Bain started dashing towards his village leaving the fish behind.

“I still don’t feel too good... My head is spinning but who gives a damn! Nghh, Agata…” The boy started to think more about his sister while running.

He wasn’t thinking about any particular moment of her. Agata's image, her smiling and standing right in front of him just stood out in Bain's eyes.

*Sniff sniff* Tears started to form in his eyes. He was doing his best in trying to control them and not letting any of them fall out.

“I can’t cry… I have to focus!” He was thinking that to himself while scrubbing his eyes with his forearm.

“Hm?” While running Bain saw a figure coming down the road from the direction of his village.

“Bain! What the hell was that screaming?” It was an average-sized middle-aged man wearing plain farming clothes and a hat made of straws.

Bain, seeing a familiar face dashed towards him feeling a slight sense of hope.

“H-help! My sister got taken away by a Magical Beast, a demon!” He reached the villager and grabbed his shirt begging for help.

“Hold on son, calm down.” The villager was trying to calm Bain down so that he could understand what was happening.

“Did you say a Magical Beast? Are you sure? We never had one appear anywhere near this village since the day I was born. In general, I’ve never seen one at all.”

“I’ve never seen one appear as well! But it was huge! It had wings and was all red! He had horns and his face was just horrible... He grabbed my sister and… flew her away…” Bain looked down and started to sob.

*Sniff* “Please we need to go save her...” *Sniff* He couldn’t hold back his tears anymore and started letting it all go.

The villager was at a loss for words. But he knows that he needs to do something.

“Yeah, that sounds like a Magical Beast Bain. I don’t know much about them but it definitely doesn’t sound like it’s a normal animal. I just can’t believe that one actually appeared here but by your description of it, it seems like it really is one.” He put his hand on Bain's head and started to stroke it in an effort to calm him down.

“Did you see in which direction it flew her away?” He didn’t want to sound rude or make him feel more pain by remembering that scene but it had to be asked.

“Yeah, do you see that carp laying on the path all the way there?” Bain let go of his shirt and pointed back towards the fish.

“Yes, I do. That’s a huge carp as well.” The villager was impressed by that.

“Well from the carp it flew her away that way.” He pointed with his finger.

The villager looked in the direction that Bain pointed at and was thinking about something.

“Hmm… So west from here, okay.” He looked back down at Bain.

“Do you maybe remember anything else that could help us in finding Agata better? Or did something else happen? Basically, anything helps.”

Bain thought for a moment but there was nothing.

“No, nothing else really happened. It just took her and flew away west.” He pointed his head down.

The villager rubbed his head again in an effort to comfort him at least a little and said:

“We need to head back to the village and tell them what happened. Bain, you go to your mom and tell her the news. I’ll go and inform the village’s head about this incident. Wait in your house with your mom until we bring you some info about what to do. Do you understand?” He grabbed both of Bain’s shoulders and was looking directly into his eyes while telling him that.

Bain thought to himself: “No way, you definitely won’t let me join the group to go and get my sister back, are you?” But he didn’t say that out loud because he didn’t want to waste time arguing with him.

“Okay…” Bain rubbed off the last remaining tears in his eyes and showed a face of confidence to the villager.

“Good, now c’mon! We can’t waste time talking!”

“Yeah!” They dashed back to the village.

The village that Bain And Agata live in is an average-sized farming village. The houses were splattered all over the flatlands and the land here is great for agriculture, so there’s a lot of farming fields near the houses. The whole area is encompassed by a forest that spreads in every direction.

Bain was a little faster than the villager so he got ahead of him. He dashed through his neighbors' houses and got home to his mother before the villager got to the head of the village.

“Mom!” Bain yells out slamming the door wide open.

“Don’t slam the door like that! You’ll break it!” The mother put her knitting needles down and got off her chair. She is slightly taller than an average woman with long dark brown hair reaching towards her middle back. Her green eyes are the same just like her kids. She is wearing a casual tunic and looks to be in her early 30’s.

“Mom, listen! Agata’s been taken away!” He closed the door more gently and went up towards his mother.

She showed a face of confusion to him mixed with fear.

“What do you mean Bain?!” She crouched down to his height.

Bain continued explaining the whole situation to her. From the beast appearing and grabbing his sister to the villager telling them to wait for someone to come over.

“I’m not gonna wait for someone to come! It’s my daughter they’re talking about there. Does he really think that I’ll just idly wait around for someone to come!” The mother yelled out and stood up.

“You said he went to inform Aeneas, right Bain?!” She looked back at him with a fiery face. Bain nodded to her. Aeneas was the name of the head of the village.

“I’m going to see him then! You wait here Bain.” She started walking towards the door.

“I want to go to mom!” He yelled pleadingly to her. 

Bain’s mother looked back at him and thought for a short moment. Then she said: “Well okay… You can come along with me then. But just hang on a minute I need to put on my shoes first.” She leaned down and started putting on her leather shoes.

Bain smiled and walked up closer to her. When she finished putting on her shoes, she opened the door and went through it together with Bain.

While walking, they passed by other villagers who had no idea what was happening at this time. Nor of course could Bain and his mother waste time, telling them what happened. Currently, their destination was the village’s head, Aeneas house.

His house was bigger than everyone else’s and it looked fancier compared to the rest of them, inside and outside. Nevertheless, he was a respected man in the village. He treated everyone kindly and the villagers showed the same type of kindness to him as well. Plus, they had the same type of mutual hate towards the kingdom's tax collectors.

Bain’s mother and Bain himself walked towards the door of Aeneas’ residence. She knocked on the door and opened it at the same time. The main entrance of the house instantly led to a corridor that branched off into 3 different directions: straight, left, and right. The corridor that is just straight from the door leads to the kitchen. When Bain’s mother opened the door, she could see right into the kitchen and there she saw Aeneas himself sitting on a chair. The villager that met up with Bain, he was standing left of Aeneas. And there was another stranger she did not recognize. He was also standing but on the right side of the village’s head.

Seeing them there she started making her way through the corridor into the kitchen. Bain followed along behind her.

“Hello everyone.” She stepped into the kitchen.

The villager looked at her and said: “Guess you couldn’t wait.” He wasn’t surprised about that.

“Of course, I couldn’t!” That sentence from him just made her angrier.

“What did you expect Anderson?! That I’d just wait and sit around for someone to come over when you’re discussing things about my daughter?” She came up directly to him.

Anderson put up both of his hands in the air at his chest height in an attempt to create space between them. And that she wouldn’t hit him out of anywhere.

“Now, now, calm down Callie. We would have brought every single piece of information to you back at your house either way-”

“Well, then you shouldn’t have told my son for us to wait back home! You should have told him to bring me here directly.”

Anderson started to sweat a little.

“Even if I told your son for you to come here…” He slightly paused and then continued.

“I’m sorry Callie but you would have gotten a little bit in the way.” Callie’s eyes instantly exploded with rage. He continued to speak while sweating though.

“Because I know how tempered you are. So, the discussion would of went much slower with Aeneas if you were here.” She stared Anderson down like an endless abyss of fiery rage.

“How even dare you say such a thing! If you would have told my son to do the right thing I at least slightly wouldn’t be in this bad of a mood!”

“Sorry, but I doubt it…” He looked down and stopped making eye contact with her.

“Why you-”  She started raising her arm and tried to connect her palm with his face, but:

“Stop it! Both of you now!” Callie paused mid-air, looked back, contemplated for an instant, and put her hand down.

It was the village’s head, Aeneas who shouted at the both of them.

“Quarrelling between each other while your daughter’s chances of survival keep dropping every second…” He looked at both of them with disdain in his eyes.

“Anderson is proving his point to you.” She stared at Aeneas but didn’t say anything to him.

“And you Anderson. Just let it go and don’t spout out any smirky retorts back at her in a situation like this.”

Anderson looked at him and responded with a “Yes sir.”

Aeneas still looked at both of them with a scornful look.

“Good. We can get back to our discussion.” Aeneas himself was a short man with a long white beard. His stomach size was something that an everyday working peasant wouldn’t be able to have. He was bald and was in his late 60’s.

Aeneas continued talking:

“It might sound a bit foul but the timing of your daughter being taken away is quite incredible.” Every word that comes out of Aeneas has a sense of “power” in it. His pronunciation is strong and well laid out. As the leader of a village and from all the years of experience, he knows how to make you listen when he speaks.

“What do you mean the timing is incredible Aeneas?” Callie spoke out.

Aeneas looked at her for a moment and then turned his face towards the man that was standing there, listening to all that’s being said. Then everyone’s gaze turned towards the white-haired person.

He is an average height man with a white shirt and white short hair. His hair was a little longer at the front and since it was brushed to the left from his face it seemed like his left eye is blocked by the hair. He has deep dark blue eyes and an overall athletic build. By his appearance, he looks to be in his late 20’s. His leggings were brown and he wore leather shoes.

Anyone could tell that someone wearing these types of clothes has money to spare.

Since everyone was staring at him, he decided to say something:

“Hello there, mam. My name is Daewon.” He gave a nod with his head to her while saying it.

“Hello, my name is Callie. You don’t seem like anyone I recognize, are you from another village?”

“No, I come from pretty far away mam.” He chuckled while replying to her.

“I lived in the capital for a very long time… You see I used to be a marshal for the Spárti imperial army. An expert in fire magic. Leading the men into battle and so on.” While saying those lines, he turned his face away from everyone looking at him.

All the people in the room besides Daewon and Aeneas froze in place. A moment of silence encompassed the room. Their eyes popped from hearing what he just said.

Bain thought to himself: “Holy crap! He’s an expert in fire magic and was a big shot in the imperial army!”

Then he yelled out to Daewon. “Please save my sister! You can definitely do that, can’t you mister?!”

Everyone briefly turned to look at Bain and then they slowly turned back to Daewon wanting to hear his response.

“M-my goodness sir please!” Callie lunged towards Daewon and got on her knees.

“As my son said you can save my daughter, then can’t you!? If it’s money you shall request from this quest then I’ll see what I can do but please you must rescue her!” She pleaded to him.

Daewon looked at her with a staring gaze, he closed his eyes took a deep breath, and then opened them.

“Please stand up mam. There’s no need for you to kneel and plead before me.”

His voice was calm and sweet. You wouldn’t expect an ex-marshal to sound like that.

“Yes sir.” She stood up in front of him.

“Just call me Daewon mam.” He gave her a gentle look. But then his face became a bit more serious as he continued speaking.

“Now back to the matter at hand. By the description, I heard I can assume that your daughter was taken away by a magical beast called “Pokulis”.”

“Pokulis?” She looked at him quizzically.

“Yes, it’s pretty much a flying demonic magical beast. That’s all.” Daewon moved away from Callie and walked towards a window that was just right from him.

“They tend to be loners and you rarely see them socializing with each other. You’ll basically only see them together on incredibly rare occasions or when a parent is raising their child. Most of them choose to live out their whole lives as loners.” He talked looking somewhere through the window.

“Another feature about them is that they live in caves.” He turned back to face the mother.

“Do you know of any caves that might be west from here? Any of you?” Now he was looking at everyone hoping for an answer.

There was a slight pause in the air but Anderson quickly spoke out.

“Yeah, I know that there are some caves about 5 kilometers west from here. They’re actually slightly northwest from this house.”

“That is true. There are some big rock formations there, so you shouldn’t miss them going slightly northeast from here.”

Aeneas joined in the conversation.

Daewon gave a nod to both of the men.

Anderson had an idea come to his head. He wavered on whether he should say it out loud. But there can’t be any hesitations now and he perfectly knew that.

“We don’t really have a map to show precisely where the caves are but I can travel together with you and show you where they are,” Anderson told Daewon.

There was a slight pause in the air. A hint of surprise one could say.

Daewon then answered him.

“That would be helpful. But if you’re coming along then you’ll have to promise me right here that you will listen to all of my orders without question. Do you understand?” He still spoke calmly but now he had an intensity in his voice that will make anyone listen.

A cold sweat broke out for Anderson but he firmly replied: “Yes sir, I will listen to everything you say.” He looked directly at Daewon’s eyes while swearing his trust to him.

Daewon himself looked into Anderson’s eyes for a moment and then the intensity from his face disappeared.

“Alright, I trust you in leading me, Anderson.” He smiled at him.

Anderson then also smiled back at him and said: “Yes sir… I won’t let you down.”

Aeneas was looking at Anderson with pride, but he didn’t vocalize it. And Callie was just incredibly pleased that someone would lead Daewon directly to the correct spot.

Thus, she just simply said, “Thank you.” In a warm, whispering voice.

“No problem. Anything for a friend, right? Haha.” He gave an awkward smile to her.

“Ahh, Khrista… I feel like I’m a soldier now or something… But I have to do what I must for my fellow friends.” Anderson thought to himself.

“There’s one more thing I want to ask you.” Daewon again looked around at everyone.

“When Anderson was explaining the situation to us, he said that he never saw a magical beast around these parts. In general, he never saw a magical beast his whole life. He has only heard of them from other people’s stories.”

“That’s right. I’ve never seen one in person.” Anderson replies.

Daewon then turned around to face Aeneas.

“When he said that, you agreed with his statement Aeneas. You also said that you as well haven’t seen any magical beasts in your life.” He then gave a slight pause during which, Aeneas nodded to him in agreement.

“So, it means that this village has been magical beast-free for many years, yes?” He raised his left eye eyebrow.

“Indeed” Aeneas replied.

“The most current record I have of a magical beast being spotted near our village was before I was even born.” Aeneas was making direct eye contact with Daewon.

“My father talked about that, when he was young the farmers working in the fields saw a flying magical beast fly by. But it didn’t snatch anyone and just flew by without harming anyone. And by its description, that beast from all those years ago does match the looks of this one.”

Anderson quickly spoke out: “Yeah, that’s pretty much the only magical beast tale we have from our village. All the other one’s come from stories told by people from other villages or cities.”

Daewon put his hand over his mouth and spoke.

“Hmm… I see. Well, I can tell you that it’s certainly not the same beast that the farmers saw all those years ago.”

Everyone looked at Daewon intensely, listening to every single word coming out of him.

“Don’t misunderstand me though. The beast that the farmers saw all those years ago was indeed a Pokulis if its description was the same as this one. But their lifespan is only around 20 to 25 years. So, it certainly wasn’t the same one.”

No one had anything to say and respond to him about that so, they continued listening to him.

“Back to the point, since you know about those caves then logically you’ve never seen any magical beasts there.”

 “Yes. We’ve never seen anything that would indicate anything of the sort.” Aeneas answered him.

Daewon moved his hand away from his face by letting it back into a free hang.

“Asking when was the last time someone’s been near those caves or inside them doesn’t really matter. So, all in all, I can tell that this place rarely sees any magical beast activity. The knights have been doing an excellent job in exterminating them throughout the hundreds of years.” He gave a slight smile.

“Furthermore, after I finish the job. I would request Mr. Aeneas to get some young tough people to go and destroy those caves there. I would do so myself on the spot if I could but my fire magic isn’t good at destroying rocky terrain.”

Aeneas answered him: “Very well, it shall be done.” Then he proceeded to speak.

“You’re saying that these Pokulis tend to fancy our caves from time to time and it would be best to get rid of them so that we never have an incident like this again.”

Daewon gave a quick shrug with both of his eyebrows and just answered: “Correct.” While nodding to him.

Aeneas did not end his speech yet though.

“I would like to request you Daewon, that after the rescue of Agata you would join the men that will go and destroy the caves as their bodyguard. Just in case. We will pay you for that as well, of course.”

Daewon nodded at him and then looked back at Callie who seemed to get impatient listening to them continuously speak and responded:

“I never answered the mother about the monetary issue here. But I can tell you all in advance that I won’t be taking any money from anyone here.”

Everyone was slightly surprised hearing him say that. It’s only natural that on such a risky quest one would request compensation.

Aeneas started talking: “Are you sure you don’t need it?”

He didn’t ask him whether he has any money left because Daewon was an ex-marshal. Obviously, he has money but that wasn’t the point here.

Daewon turned to him with a smile and closed eyes. Raised both of his hands midway his torso and made small waving motions saying:

“No, no, I don’t need any monetary compensation for this quest.”

He then opened his eyes and stopped the waving motions.

“The only thing you could provide me with after the quest is some food. If that is fine with you of course.”

“Certainly, if that is what you request. We’ll let you pick what types of food and amount you want.” Replied Aeneas almost giving out a chuckle from his request.

“Excuse me, Daewon… I know you’re discussing everything in advance but I would appreciate it if you could hurry up and leave all the talking for later.” Callie said out, slightly grinding her teeth while saying it.

She also wanted to add that Aeneas was a hypocrite for scolding her about wasting time. But if she did that it would just cause a paradox so, she bit her lip on that.

Daewon looked at her and firmly agreed.

“You’re very right mam. There’s nothing left to discuss here.”

He walked up towards her and raised his hand to put it on her shoulder.

“We’ll be heading out to save your daughter right away mam.”

Callie froze a bit. Then she put up both of her hands holding them near her chest and asked Daewon.

“Do… do you think that she’ll be alive?” She didn’t want to ask him that but something caused her to just blurt out those words very quietly. Callie herself could feel her strength drain by just verbalizing those words. The fear and horror of thinking about that are immeasurable.

Everyone in the room heard her say that though. Anderson looked down at the ground concerned, while Aeneas stared intensely at Daewon to see what he will respond with.

Daewon himself looked strongly at Callie and declared:

“Yes, there’s a high probability that she is still alive.” He pulled his hand away from her shoulder and walked past her towards the exit. But he stopped midway through the corridor and turned back to face everyone in the kitchen.

You couldn’t visibly see it, but there was a slight relief in the air after Daewon said those words.

“They only tend to kill and eat their victims during nightfall or at night. Not really an animalistic trait.” Currently, it was still early midday.

“That’s good then…” Callie said, whimpering.

“Yes, but either way we need to head out now.” He turned towards Anderson.

“Let’s go, Anderson. There are no other preparations I need to do.”

“Right!” He answered like a soldier jogging towards Daewon.

Just as the two of them were to head outside they were stopped by a voice.

“Hold on a minute! Take me with you. I want to save Agata!”

It was Bain. He ran up to them and stood, looking up to Daewon. His eyes and voice weren’t that of a scared child. It was pure courage and dedication driving him to speak up at the last moment.

“Bain don’t you even dare to go with them! I will never allow that!”

Callie shouted at him whilst coming towards him.

Bain looked back at her and voiced himself further.

“Mom you don’t understand! I was there! I was there! But then… I just lost all sense of myself and stumbled…” His voice slowly went from a child trying to sound strong, to him grinding his teeth attempting not to show any emotion.

“I don’t care if you stumbled Bain. None of it is your fault!”

His mother leaned towards him and embraced him with a hug.

 “I won’t let you go anywhere you hear me? We have people that will help us so you won’t be going anywhere.” She started to tear up.

Bain couldn’t keep his emotion in check after the hug and started to shed tears as well.

Meanwhile, Daewon looked at them and responded: “I know that you want to make things right by saving your sister and being there for her. But trust me, you’re much more needed here. Being right next to your mother while this is happening.”

He leaned in closer towards Bain who was looking down on him, not wanting to show his tears to others.

Daewon patted his head.

“You’re already brave enough though if you’re showing a willingness to fight for your family. You’re still young, but I can see you will grow up to be a fine man.” He smiled at him. Bain didn’t need to look to know that he was smiling though. You could hear it from his voice.

He pulled his hand away and turned around.

“We’ll get your sister back don’t worry about that. In the mean-time, be sure to look after your crying mommy. She needs you right here.” Daewon didn’t look back at him saying that and just walked on forward. Anderson was following him from behind.

Daewon’s words weren’t what Bain wanted to hear but he managed to calm him down.

He wiped his tears away and looked up to see Daewon’s figure from the back. Bain stretched out a smile and responded to him:

“Fine! I’ll look after mom! But you better come back with my sister or else!” He rose his fist up.

Daewon didn’t look back at him but just put his arm up and waved back at Bain while chuckling a little.

Right next to the exit door there was a wooden backpack. It was more like a wooden box that had straps, to be more exact. At the top, it didn’t have a handle but you could see that that’s where the wooden backpack opens.

Daewon picked up and put it on his back.

“This yours?” Anderson guessed.

“Yup.”

“Oh, ok.” He pondered for a moment what was in there.

“Probably food and other necessities for a traveler to survive.” He thought to himself as they were leaving Aeneas' house.

When they left the house Daewon quickly stopped and turned back to face Anderson.

“Also, when we will be near the caves tell me ok? Obviously, I don’t want to just rush in there so, when we’ll be about 50 meters from the caves tell me.”

“Umm yes, sure.” He replied, acknowledging his request.

“Will you be able to tell if we’re near the cave? Or would you prefer me to slow down somewhere further back, where you could recognize the surroundings better if we’re close?” Daewon wasn’t too trusting of Andersons' weak response so, he wanted to make sure if he said the truth.

“Yes, yes. I’ll know if it’s the place from about 50 meters. I was just imagining the location of the area right now.”

Daewon looked at him with sharp eyes.

“I see. Good, then we can leave this village and go save the little girl.”

He let out a sign and approached Anderson closer.

“Well, Anderson come here I’ll carry you.” Daewon lifted his hands up. Indicating that he wants to carry him in a wife’s carry position.

“Excuse me? Huh?” Anderson raised his eyebrow and was a bit puzzled by Daewon’s proposition.

But Daewon himself looked serious and continued.

“We don’t have the time so just hop on and I’ll explain things along the way.”

He started swaying his hands.

“Okay, okay.” Anderson came closer towards Daewon and then he started to pick him up.

As soon as Anderson was lifted from the ground and his body's full weight was on Daewon’s hands, he dashed at an incredible speed for someone carrying a fully grown man. He ran northwest through the paths around the houses leading out of the village as Aeneas had said.

“Woah, Khrista! What speed and power!” Anderson was absolutely stunned.

Before he was still feeling a sense of fright going out to save Agata. Even if it was with an ex-marshal, he couldn’t help but feel nervous. But now, after witnessing such power from Daewon in such a quick burst, testosterone started to rush throughout his whole body. And his fears had become far less worrying.

The people onlooking from the sides were completely flabbergasted. Never have they seen anyone run so fast and it’s a stranger as well. Furthermore, they were even more confused seeing a familiar face being carried by the white-haired man.

“How do you even get so strong?” Anderson couldn’t help but be curious even more about him now.

“Well… talent for the most part. I don’t know if you know but there’s not a lot of people who can use magic. So, it comes down to the talent of who can use magecraft and who can’t. You have to be born for it. Hard work comes second in my opinion.”

They were already in the woods while Daewon was talking.

“Am I heading the right way?”

“Umm…” Anderson was getting his sense of direction.

“Yeah, but you can run a little more to the right.”

“Ok, got it.” Daewon ever so slightly turned right.

“Well, I guess I didn’t really answer your question there.” He continued with the previous subject.

“This physical strength that I possess doesn’t actually come from any type of magic practice. I achieved it only through physical training. But at the end of the day, it’s still all thanks to magic that I’m able to do this. I know it sounds complex and trust me, it definitely is. I won’t be able to explain anything to you right now, sorry.”

“Ok, no problem. Most of that stuff would just fly over my head either way. Especially now.” Anderson replied worryingly.

The reason for that was because the closer they approached the cave the more frightened Anderson got.

“Yeah, I’ll stop talking now until we’re near the caves. I have to focus on dodging all these branches and watch my footing. And I need to think of a few other things as well. Of course, tell me whenever I need to change my direction.”

“Yes, please do so. And yes, I will tell you if you’re going slightly off. Right now, you’re heading the right way.” Anderson agreed and looked forwards into the woods while Daewon continued to dash through the trees and branches deep in the forest.

Daewon went into deep thought and started to think to himself: “Dammit, I lied about the cave destruction part to them. I can destroy it with my magic if wanted to. I would need to unleash one of my most powerful blasts for that but I could still do it very quickly by myself. It’s just that, such a huge mana output really tires me out, leaves me exhausted and I don’t like that. So, I had to lie because of that. But now I’ll have to pretend that I can’t actually destroy it quickly when I’ll go to the caves again with the village’s men. Ah, man… Lying isn’t good.”

Daewon was acting extremely calm throughout this whole situation. It may even seem like he doesn’t care much about saving the girl.

But that is false. The reason for his calmness is that Daewon has fought and killed Pokulis in the past. For him, it is pretty much fodder. And by knowing their behavior he knew that Agata has to be still alive. Let’s not forget his overall experience as a marshal as well.

And thus, is the reason for his calmness.

But suddenly something struck Daewon. A thought, a possibility that he didn’t account for.

He started thinking: “Wait a minute… That Pokulis… Bain said that Agata tried to break free from its grasp, and it just took her away.” His face started to get a bit wrinkly as he continued thinking.

“She resisted, but it just took her away…” For a moment, his thoughts grew quiet. But then…

“Oh no… I need to hurry up.” He slightly sped up trying to preserve some energy before his fight with the demon.

***

Callie and Bain remained at Aeneas' house after Daewon and Anderson left.

Aeneas was now brewing mint tea for the three of them in the hopes of calming their nerves ever so slightly.

They mostly stayed quiet, just sitting on the chairs not saying much. Until Callie tried to make some chit-chat from her observations.

“That man, Daewon. He seemed to be very young for a marshal. An ex-marshal no less. He seemed to be at least my age or slightly younger even. How long was he a marshal for? In the first place, why would he quit being a marshal while being so young? The money you make there has to be incredible. Personally, it slightly doesn’t make sense to me.” As more time passed and she became calmer Callie did notice a few things about the white-haired man that seemed strange for her.

“I do not know why he quit being a marshal,” Aeneas responded.

“There could be many reasons why he did so. Maybe becoming a marshal at such a young age was not a blessing but a curse for him.” He poured the tea into their cups.

“What do you mean?” Callie asked while the stream of hot tea hit the bottom of their cups.

“Well, I would expect the environment you’re in holding such a position isn’t quite healthy. Especially if you’re young. There would be plenty of people there who would be jealous of him attaining such a position years before they even had a chance to do so. Some of those people may even try to sabotage him to get him out of the military. And some would quickly try to usurp his position.” After he finished pouring the tea, he put the kettle on top of a stone oven and sat on his chair next to Callie and Bain.

“Those things are foreign to me. I’m just a farm woman, no one would ever be jealous about my position and try to sabotage my life.” Callie mumbled while gently blowing air on her tea that was placed on the table to make it cooler.

“But if what you say is true then it would definitely be a hard way to live. Not physically but mentally.” She added.

“Having said that, I do not know if what I spoke is true. It’s just a guess of mine. I only know that people up in a high position of power tend to be pricks.” Aeneas stated.

Callie stretched a small smile at him.

“Speaking from experience, right Aeneas? Just like you hate the noble who sends the tax collectors here. Well, all of us do.”

“Aye! Their taxes are already high enough. I swear if they raise them any higher, I’ll have to make an official visit to him. I wouldn’t let him get away with any more price raises.” He clenched his fist out of anger imagining the noble who oversees their village.

Then he started stroking his white beard and continued speaking.

“But about Daewon. Yes, he was a legitimate marshal once. He showed me a type of coat of arms that specifically indicates his marshal status. Well, for him it used to indicate that. But they let them keep those after service.”

“I see. If you trust him Aeneas then I’ll take your word for it.” Callie slowly relaxed while speaking to him.

But then a dreary silence fell upon the room. No one had anything to say or add to this awful situation that fell upon them.

Bain, after hearing Daewon’s words became calmer. However, some time has now passed since Daewon’s departure. Thus, he started to feel anxious and angry once more.

“I feel like I can’t just sit around here…” He began to think to himself.

“But it’s too late for me to go now. And it’s true what he said. If I would of went with them then my mom would have been even more worried.” Bain took a deep breath pondering about this whole mess of a situation and exhaled slowly.

“I just hope they’ll bring her back… They must do that. And then we can wait for dad to come back.” After he finished thinking to himself, he proceeded to gaze at his mother who seemed to be not as uneasy as she was not too long ago. But he could still see that she was very much fretful of these whole circumstances.

Callie noticed that her son was looking at her. So, she looked back at him and smiled. Her smile wasn’t that beautiful. It was a smile that had fear in it. But she did the best she could to hide it from Bain who didn’t notice it.

She reached out her hand to him and started caressing his head. And in response, he leaned on her and embraced her caress. The both of them didn’t exchange a single word to each other.

Aeneas, who was the observer didn’t say anything and let them have their peace in silence. They were just waiting for their family member to be brought back home while the tea on the table continued to cool and let out steam.

***

“We’re not too far from the caves.” Anderson tapped twice on Daewon’s chest and leaned into his ear to tell him that.

Hearing it, Daewon came to a quick stop.

“We’re close?” He placed Anderson on his feet while speaking in a soft and silent voice.

“Yeah. It’s a bit difficult to see from here but just up ahead you can see a bit stone poking out from the trees.” Anderson responded to Daewon in a silent voice as well realizing that they need to be quiet while pointing towards where he could see the stone poking out.

Daewon looked towards the area where he was pointing and saw it for himself.

“Affirmative. There’s not too much greenery on top. No trees and no bushes growing, only grass. Distance from here is about 80 meters or so.”

The trees around them and in the close vicinity weren’t that tall. Only about 15 meters, some were less than that. So, the top of the cave could be seen from such a distance.

For a moment, Daewon assessed his surroundings by looking around at the area they were in. Then he walked towards the closest bush and started to take off his wooden backpack.

“Thank you for leading me to the cave Anderson.” He said while taking the backpack off.

“No problem mate. Happy to help in any way I can.” Anderson, while nervous and worried about Agata was also stunned at how quickly they covered these 5 kilometers.

“It was only probably just over 8 minutes or something…” He reflected.

“But now I want you to stay away from any potential danger that can happen. This here is the safe zone.” Daewon said while pointing his palms at the ground around him.

“No matter what you see or hear, don’t go any further past this point. Do you understand?”

“Yes, fully.” He nodded and continued to add additional important information to Daewon.

“Oh, just so you don’t get confused, there are two different entrances to two different caves right next to each other. They’re not that long. Only about twenty meters or so. You might be able to see most of what's inside both of the caves without having to go in them blindly.”

Daewon took that information in and responded. “That would be pleasant if it would be the case. I’ll have to make sure to enter the correct cave first.”

Anderson nodded and quietly said “yeah” to Daewon in acknowledgment.

“Good. Also, in this backpack here I have some first aid necessities. So, if Agata got injured in any way we can treat her on the spot.”

Daewon looked at the nodding Anderson for a few seconds and then turned his back to him after reassuring him that everything has been said.

“Okay. I’m going.” And so, the ex-marshal proceeded to walk closer towards the cave slightly crouched.

“Be safe and get his ass for all of us ya hear.”

The man with the white hair didn’t respond or looked back at him. Instead, he rose his fist with triumph to him which made Anderson smile.

“I need to first confirm in which cave the Pokulis is staying at right now. If I could spot it from further away that would be the best. And if not, I might still be able to tell the difference from the footprints or any other indications it might have left behind. Then, after pinpointing its location I’ll quickly rush into the cave and melt his face off.” Daewon began to rehearse the way he plans to kill the Pokulis in his mind while steadily increasing his pace towards the caves.

“I definitely need to acquire a sword after this. It would have made this situation a bit easier.”

Now Daewon was only about 13 meters away from the entrance of the caves. He stopped to look at the surrounding area and reassess the situation.

“This is as far as I can hide behind the trees.” There was nothing but even ground near both caves in a 10 or so meter radius.

The cave itself isn’t that big. Its height is around 20 meters and it has a width of 30 meters. There were two entrances to the caves. The larger mouth is about 3 meters tall and 5 meters wide. While the smaller entrance was around 2 meters tall and 3 and a half meters wide. They were separated by about only 2 meters from each other. No greenery besides grass could be seen on the top of the cave.

“I can already tell that it’s in the larger cave. I can see a few footprints right next to it. And judging from the size of those feet, it’s a fully grown one. The smaller opening is a bit too tight for an adult Pokulis. Plus, there are no signs of activity to be seen from the smaller entrance.”

Indeed, he could see a few imprints on the ground left behind by the beast landing after it finished its flight. By the size and shape of the print, Daewon can instantly identify that it belongs to an adult Pokulis.

“I can’t exactly see where it is…” While Daewon can see quite a sizeable amount of the interior of the caves, the overall visibility isn’t great. In total, he can see about 10 meters inside the caves. Only half of what Anderson had said. Beyond that point is pitch black darkness added with complete silence.

“I need to get a better angle.” He went alongside the tress stealthily to get a better view of the larger cave.

His movements were precise and didn’t make a sound louder than the wind blowing along the branches of the trees.

“This angle doesn’t help much as well… Looks like it’ll be a blind rush then. I’ll need to do it as fast as I can to not let Agata get hurt.”

From his new viewpoint of the caves, the visibility didn’t increase that much. Only about an extra meter.

“It’s quiet. I can’t hear anything from the cave. Is it sleeping? If so, that would make it easier. Agata is most definitely knocked out as well.”

While running and carrying Anderson to this location, Daewon remembered something. A small detail that has left him feeling uneasy ever since he remembered it.

“A Pokulis will knock out its victim so that it wouldn’t resist. They only eat their food at nightfall or during the night. So, throughout the day they keep their live food incapacitated and wait for night to fall to feast.”

It’s a strange way to live but that’s how their existence continues in this world.

But it’s also the reason why Daewon felt a bit anxious about this situation.

“After taking Agata all it did was flew off with her. Whereas it should have knocked her out on the spot. That is how they hunt. But this one was different. It just took her and flew back to its home.”

Daewon stood still, analyzing the events that had transpired before. Trying to find some answers before rushing in. But if one’s mind has forgotten something, it is hard to bring all of those memories back.

“If it had done that, I’m sure Bain would have told Anderson that it hit her, and then he would have relayed that piece of information to me. But he didn’t mention anything like that. So, I’m sure Bain didn’t see anything like that happen to Agata.

I could have asked Anderson about that when I realized it. But I didn’t want to worry him with questions like that. So, that just leaves the question of why it didn’t knock her out there and then as all of them do?”

And thus, his mind pondered. Daewon is a very analytical person and he prefers to think everything through before doing anything. But the time for analyzing has come to an end. And there was only one thing left to do now.

He shook his head to break away from this rapid chain of thoughts and made his final decisions.

“I can’t keep my mind stuck on that now… I don’t know why it did it what it did. But now, it doesn’t matter.”

The white-haired man clenched both of his fists and puffed his chest out taking a strong stance.

“Fire protection, on.” He said, quietly.

Visually nothing happened. Daewon didn’t change, he didn’t start glowing or anything like that. But what he said, did indeed became the case.

Then, in his mind he visualized his fists burning in the hottest flame he can conjure. All he did was imagine his fists and the flame coming out from it. And it happened.

Suddenly, his hands ignited into a flame. The flame was burning but it wasn’t burning anything at all.

Daewon’s hands and clothes were fine and unaffected by the flames that he has created.

Without wanting to waste any mana, Daewon leaned himself forward, pointing his body to the entrance of the larger cave. His leg muscles tensed up as he began to dash full speed directly into the cave. While rushing into it, Daewon wasn’t making too much noise. The feet hitting the ground and leaving imprints of his shoes behind. While being powerful and pushing his body forwards he still controlled his running to make it less noisy.

In an instant, he was already inside the cave. As he entered, the area moderately lit up due to the flame that shone from his fists. The visibility increased quite a bit.

And Daewon was able to confirm his target.

“There! At the very back!” He shouted in his mind.

He could see a dark red figure laying on the ground at the very back of the cave. The beast was laying away from him facing the wall. It was a perfect situation for Daewon. If he can get the beast while it’s down on the ground that’ll be the easiest way to deal with it.

As he ran forward towards the Pokulis, Daewon couldn’t spot Agata. Even though the cave was lit up, it still wasn’t as bring in there as being out in the broad daylight.

And all of this was happening in the span of a few seconds. It’s just too difficult to process all this information in such a short amount of time. Or even having a fast enough reaction time to look around more intensely on everything that’s happening around.

So, Daewon’s eyes and mind focused on the one target that he saw before him. He didn’t slow down or hesitated at anything.

He leaped into the air and cocked backed his right fist preparing to end it with a single strike. But just as he was landing the beast started to move.

“!!!” Daewon quickly noticed it.

The Pokulis spread his right-wing towards Daewon to strike down its attacker.

While being still mid-air he couldn’t move out of the way but, he didn’t need to.

“I’ll just grab onto this.” He proclaimed while latching both of his hands onto the beasts’ wing.

When grabbed, steam instantly started to come out from the snatched area. The heat that Daewon’s hands produced was too hot for its wing.

“HYAFF!!!” The beast let out a scorching scream from the pain it felt on its wing.

It swung its wing as fast and strong as it could to get Daewon off it.

But he let go of its wing himself and landed on the ground on purpose to avoid being swung at the walls of the cave.

“Did it heard me come in and reacted that fast? If so, it has some pretty quick senses. Or maybe it knew I was watching it in advance? Can’t tell and it doesn’t matter now.”

The beast quickly stood up on its feet and started to eye up Daewon. White, foamy saliva started to pour from its mouth.

“We can’t fight here. I need to get it out of the cave so that Agata wouldn’t get hurt by accident.”

With a single powerful backward leap, Daewon jumped out of the cave.

“Hyaf!” It didn’t take long for the creature to follow the human that attacked it.

The Pokulis ran out from the cave in pursuit.

As soon as the beast left the cave Daewon jumped diagonally so that his right side would face the outside wall of the cave.

“Now! Fireblast!” After landing on the ground, he pushed out the open palms of both of his hands towards the beast.

From his fiery fists, more fire was created and released. Now heading right for the beast.

The flame didn’t have any problems traveling and reached the Pokulis causing it to become enveloped in the flames of Daewon.

“HYAFF!!!” Fully ablaze, the beast started to let out pain once again.

“Stay!” While yelling out commands, Daewon closed his open palms into fists and visualized the flames from both of his hands disappearing and the flame that wrapped the burning creature staying.

And so, it happened. The flame that was on his hands disappeared and the beast continued to burn in his flames.

“HYAFF!”

Burning alive, the Pokulis couldn’t do anything against the man with white hair. It was completely outmatched.

As a last-ditch effort, realizing it can’t do anything, the beast lifted itself off from the ground and attempted to fly away and escape.

Daewon assumed a casual, non-fighting basic stance and proclaimed his victory.

“It’s already over for you. You’re already dead. You can use the void element and your wings for assistance to fly and try to get away. But you won’t stop burning.”

The heat of the flame was intense. It wasn’t large, only enveloped the whole body of the Pokulis but nothing extra.

As it flew up trying to get away, its eyes were already melted from the heat. Reaching about 60 meters in the sky it stopped and hovering in the air for a brief moment in time.

And then, it plummeted. Gravity was pushing the beast that was clinging to its lasts grasp of life down to the ground.

On its way down, it hit a few branches of the trees that were above it. They didn’t catch fire though, because there simply wasn’t enough time for the branches to ignite from the speed of the falling beast.

Slamming onto the ground in between the trees, the beast let out one final whimpering scream it could muster up.

“Hyaff…”

The Pokulis was still slightly moving while burning on the ground. Just convulsing while its raw red flesh was transforming into charcoal.

“Begone,” Daewon said, silently.

Somewhere about half of the flame that was engulfing the beast at this very moment disappeared. The flame that was created from mana was gone. But the natural flame that was caused by the magical fire, remained. And so, the beasts now lifeless body continued to burn and darken from a basic flame.

The battle was truly over.

Daewon, in his mind, uttered: “Fire protection off.”

Exactly in the same manner as turning the protection from the flames on, nothing happened visually.

Letting out a deep breath Daewon relaxed his body but not his mind. Even though the Pokulis was dead his mission wasn’t over. There were still plenty of things to focus on and keep the mind sharp.

“I don’t expect another one of them to be anywhere close. It’s not the way they live their lives. And if it had a child or another Pokulis inside the cave I would have seen it.” He moved his head to look at the smaller cave.

“And if it had a child in the smaller cave where one would be able to fit, I’m sure it would have run out by now. But I’ll have to check it out later just in case. Plus, we’ll have to block the entrances for both of these caves and any other ones if there are any nearby. So that nothing like this happens around here again.”

And that was where it clicked him.

“Huh?!” He put his right hand over his mouth.

“Wait a minute…” Daewon finally remembered what was bothering him. That one thing that he couldn’t remember.

“A child… A child of a Pokulis. And I even mentioned it to them before…”

Daewon looked up at the burning corpse of the beast as a cold sweat starting to break out from him.

The flame was still going. Not nearly as powerful as before but it was still proceeding.

“You were pregnant, weren’t you… That’s why you didn’t knock her out.” His voice began to shiver as he ground his teeth.

“All you did was take her, flown her back here and you ate her on the damn spot!!!” Daewon yelled out at the Pokulis that was deceased for a while now.

Fully knowing that there’s no point in yelling at the dead beast, he turned his head to look at the caves’ mouth.

The darkness that encompassed the cave further in was now much more chilling to him than when he rushed in to fight the beast.

“Oh, Khrista…” Daewon broke out in more cold sweat.

But just after a few seconds, he quickly collected and composed himself, so that he wouldn’t let his emotions run free. It was not the first time he has witnessed similar sights.

“Well… There’s only one thing left to do.” Taking a deep breath in and exhaling he began to march into the cave.

“Fire protection on.” He stuck out his right hand after stepping into the cave.

“Fire.” A small flame, just enough to light up the area around him was created in the palm of his hand.

The flame wasn’t bright or large enough to light up the whole cave. Daewon could have done so if he wanted to. But he chose not to do so.

As he was walking through the cave, he already knew what sight will befall his eyes. The eyes that have already seen plenty of awful things. Daewon also knew and dreaded an even bigger factor that he will have to do.

And that’s that he will be the one to bring the bad news back home, to Agata’s family.

Finally, Daewon reached the end of the short cave. And there it was…

“I’m sorry… I failed you, your family, and the whole village.”

He stood there, looking down on what was nothing but a horrid and depressing site.

On the ground, there were no body parts scattered around or anything like that. The matter of fact was that there was no body remaining at all. All that remained was a pool of dried-up blood and a single sandal right next to it.

A life that was still so young. A life that no one wanted to see be taken away was gone, forever.

“It must have come off when she was being eaten…” He crouched down and reached out his hand to grasp the sandal. The only thing that remained of her.

Daewon grabbed the sandal with his left hand and stood right back up looking at it with a sorrowful expression.

After observing it for a brief moment he began to contemplate to himself.

“DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!!!” He clenched the sandal harder as he couldn’t keep his feelings at bay any longer.

“How the hell I am supposed to bring them back just this! What? A sandal?! What a JOKE!” Daewon leaned forwards facing down at the pool of blood that belonged to the person he tried to rescue while grasping his face with his left hand.

“I told them that I would bring you back! I was so confident in front of them! I showed up and made them feel as if everything will be okay… But I FAILED!” He began to slowly move away from the horrible site walking backward. Until just a few meters later, he stumbled down to his knees. The flame that burned in his right hand evaporated into the dark and dreary cave.

“How the hell could someone like me have failed as hard as I did today… An ex-marshal? Heh, I’m nothing but a joke, am I? Much too soft for this world…” Daewon’s voice appeared to have calmed down a bit. But he was certainly far from being calm.

“How am I supposed to return to them now?... How do I even dare to show my face to them? What do I even say to them…”

While attempting to cope with the situation, Daewon started to quickly feel light-headed, and just after that, a sudden rush of pain began to hit his forehead.

“Arrgh! My head!” Letting go of Agata’s sandal he grabbed his head with both of his arms.

Suddenly, an abrupt vision started overtaking his consciousness. Taking him on a road he doesn’t want to be in. A road he doesn’t want to remember.

“NOO! At least spare my daughter!”

A young woman with her crying daughter in her arms was laying on a muddy road in a village. Nothing but burning houses surrounded them. The smoke and ashes from the burning wooden buildings have enveloped the entire area creating a foggy smoke mist all around. Splatters of blood and the screams of people were as common in this scene as children happily playing, running around in the middle of the day.

Before the mother and the daughter, stood a man that had white short hair. He didn’t wear any armor but only had a white shirt, brown leggings, and short brown leather boots on. In his left hand, he clenched a bloody steel blade.

The man was looking down with a painful, depressing look at the woman who was begging to at least have her offspring spared.

“Please, sir! Please, at least let her go free!” The mother crawled on the ground towards the white-haired man grasping his leg and continuing to beg for his kindness further. She did so, whilst carrying and dragging her child that was around 10 years old in her left hand.

For a moment, the man didn’t say anything to the mother and it seemed like he was frozen in time. Frozen in this bloody hellscape that few would find pleasure in. Frozen in a scenario he had never thought or even imagined that he would end up in.

The mother was now crying, tears rolling down her face while looking up at the man who did not have the power to decide her and her daughters’ fate.

The marshal bit down on his lip to try and calm himself down and proceeded to respond to her.

“I’m sorry… I can’t let her or you live.” His voice was dead, lifeless. Only focused on accomplishing what he and his men were sent out to do.

Before the man could even continue to speak further the mothers crying screams overshadowed his voice.

“NOO! Please Khrista noo, protect us! PROTECT US!” She was weeping as hard as she could sinking even deeper into the ground with her crying daughter.

But the man continued to speak in a monotone voice.

“At least, the last thing I can give you is a more humane way to go out into the afterlife…” Just after uttering those lines, the white-haired man got cut off by a man's voice coming from behind him.

“Yo! Lord Daewon! I’ve seen you’ve been taking your time with these two.”

Behind him was a young lad with very short brown hair and freckles on his face. He appeared to be in his mid-20’s. Unlike Daewon, the man was enclothed in steel armor. All the way down from the feet to all the way up to his chest. In his left hand, he held his steel helmet. And in the other, his blade, that was also bloody.

His leader, the marshal didn’t respond to his subordinates' words and remained silent after being cut off by him.

The young man did not mind that he received no response from his superior and proceeded to walk closer towards the two people that were laying on the ground. As he approached them, the man squatted down to get a better look at their faces.

“Well, well, well… She looks cute. I haven’t picked one out yet for myself. I didn’t even strip off my armor so, if she’s not to your liking my lord, I would gladly take her.” He said, referring to the mother.

“I’m not into kids though. We’ll have Faas deal with her. Fuckin’ creep. I saw him do one of the young kids just a while ago.” The young knight stood back up and continued talking nonchalantly while looking back at Daewon.

“Can you believe that shit my lord?! Haha, the dudes' crazy. But that is the mission after all. It’s a good thing we have people like him in the squad to do some of the shitty work that’s not quite pleasing for us normal folk.” The freckle-faced man chuckled to himself.

Daewon, throughout all of this, stood still and listened to everything his underling had to say. Those types of lines were new to him. He couldn’t fully cope with all the emotions that were boiling deep down inside him. And so, he proceeded.

After quickly switching his blade from the left hand to the right one he swung it at phenomenal speeds. The sword's trajectory traveled in an upwards diagonal motion. Its travel line went through the crying child and the laying mother who hoped that at least her daughter would make it out of it alive.

In a fraction of a second, Daewon stood with his blade raised pointing into the sky. It was all over just like that. Life, taken away like nothing.

The child was cut right through the head. The blade went straight through her skull and brain. While the mother was skewered across her ribs, heart and, head as well.

The swing of the sword was powerful enough to cut through past two people like they weren’t even there. A piece of steel traveling at such power and speed that the skin, muscle, and bone of ordinary people are no match for it.

Cries that were coming from the daughter were heard no more. But the sounds of terror could still be heard coming from all directions further away.

“Hhhh…” A very rough, final exhale was released by the mother, who then slowly succumbed to the ground head first along with her daughter that she held in her left hand.

Their lives ended in terror.

The actions of Daewon surprised the young knight. In fact, he even flinched at Daewon swinging his sword simply because it was something he did not expect.

“My lord!? What is this? We were supposed to violate them first before killing them.” He gently swung both of his hands upwards that held his helmet and blade in confusion.

“I’m really in no position to preach to someone like you lord Daewon. But if I’m not wrong, this can potentially be counted as treason.” Moments ago, when he showed up to Daewon his voice was playful, joyful. But after seeing and registering in his mind what his leader did. The tone and intonation of his voice got more serious.

The knight waited for some type of response from his superior who still stood there with his sword pointing towards the sky.

But Daewon did not respond right ahead. Instead, he looked directly at his underling making eye contact with him.

The stare that Daewon gave to the young man. He has never witnessed his higher-up looking like this.

It felt like an absolute beast, a monster was looking directly at his soul. It felt like Daewon’s stare penetrated right through him. Frankly, it confused him.

The brown-haired knight started to think to himself, “What the hell’s wrong with him all of a sudden?! Is he mad at me? Why are you looking at me like that?”

After a few seconds had passed, Daewon’s face changed once again. This time he closed his eyes and calmly exhaled. When he opened them, Daewon proceeded to speak while lowering his blade down.

“Why Gael…”

“Hm? My lord?” Gael didn’t quite catch what his superior uttered. But he wanted to add a few words of his own.

“I apologize if I said something to anger you, my lord.” He lowered his head down before him.

“I can assure you that I will not report anything of what happened here to the grandmaster my lord.”

But Daewon did not care about what Gael said. His mind was on a completely different wavelength than the knights.

“Why must we be like this Gael… This whole mission from the very instant we’ve been ordered to do it. I knew it would be nothing but hell.” He spoke silently, making it seem like he had very little energy left inside of his body. Not physically but mentally.

“You know I would have been fully fine with it if this operation involved only in taking the lives of all these villagers. I really would of. I was once immature, didn’t knew exactly how the world works… But now I know better. I know that taking the lives of others for the sake of the country is of incredible importance. I’m fully aware of that and that’s why I’m fine with it. I’m doing it for our country…”

While Daewon was ranting about what was weighing his heart down. Gael was listening and taking in every word that he had to say. Because for Gael, he was seeing a different side of Daewon. A side of him he had never seen before. Usually, his superior was always calm, collected, composed and professional. But this whole situation was very different. Gael could clearly see that Daewon was having a breakdown. That is something he has never witnessed happen to him ever before. And as such, he continued to remain silent and keep listening to everything Daewon had to say until he finished. He didn’t think much, just listened.

“But is this really necessary? Violating all the women no matter the age and then taking their lives away? I must excuse myself for this Gael but that is something that I just cannot do for my country…”

Daewon faced down and glanced on the ground to gaze at the two corpses that were lying before him. He looked at them for a brief moment and then, without saying anything he looked back up and turned his whole body facing away from Gael.

Seeming as if he was about to walk away, the stunned Gael spoke out to stop him from doing so.

“My lord! So, were you always nothing but a coward!?” He shouted out.

Daewon, before he could even walk away but indeed wanted to, decided not to do so and just turned his head back to face Gael.

What he saw was his underling with a demented look on his face. As one could describe it, he wore a creepy smile.

“Gael…” This stunned Daewon a bit. But not much because he has already seen plenty today.

“Hehe. So, so, so… It seems that our mighty strong leader was actually weak-hearted. Who knew? Certainly not me.” While commenting about Daewon he swung his blade on his shoulder and relaxed his whole body. Taking on a more leisurely, relaxed pose. All the tension he felt from before seems to have dissipated from him and confidence took over.

Instead of becoming enraged because of his underlings' poor remarks, Daewon was not angry. He was feeling a sense of melancholy. His mind just wasn’t in the mood to argue. Thus, he agreed with Gaels' statements while facing away from him.

“You’re not wrong there… I guess I was never cut out for this line of work… No, I knew I wasn’t cut out for this… It was not like I had much of a choice in it anyway…” As he finished concurring with Gael, Daewon began to slowly walk away from him.

However, the knight wasn’t finished talking to him.

“So, what will you do from now on my lord!? Will you walk away from this? Or will you stay and try to persuade your heart to be able to do this?”

Daewon didn’t stop walking nor looked back and just slowly continued to move away. In response, or rather no response, Gael lowered his blade down from his shoulder and started to follow Daewon from behind whilst continuing to speak somewhat truthfully about what was on his mind.

“Frankly speaking my lord, not only you will have to persuade your heart if you wish to continue doing this. But you will also have to restore mine and all of your men’s loyalty sir! What has just taken place here has certainly diminished my respect for you. I feel awful to say this but that is the truth, my lord.”

While it was true that Gael has lost a great deal of respect from his superior. In reality, he did not feel awful at all in saying that. Indeed he was feeling ecstatic in having the chance to foul mouth someone that ranks higher than him.

“And this is also something that I cannot keep quiet about. Even though I was planning on staying silent. This is something that I will have to tell the grandmaster and the other men about. Since speaking in the long term may greatly affect your leadership and our guidance sir.”

After finishing his speech, he looked on with great interest to see how Daewon will respond to him. And what will he choose?

He didn’t have to wait long for Daewon to start talking as he came to a halt after hearing everything Gael had to say.

“You have quite the disobedient tongue on you today Gael.” He said, calmly but strictly whilst turning his head to face him once more.

“Do I need to remind you who you are talking to?”

Hearing this, Gael got slightly tense and angry at the same time. But he did indeed fully understood his position in this matter.

“My lord!” He lowered his head before him, continuing.

“I agree that I overstepped my boundaries in talking to you so disrespectfully. I wholeheartedly apologize and I am deeply remorseful for that!”

Of course, he wasn’t remorseful at all. Daewon thought along the same lines as well.

But Gael still wasn’t finished.

“Still, you must understand where I’m coming from my lord. This is a mission we’ve been ordered to do. Failure would mean insubordination. And with what you’ve done and told me, sir…” He swallowed a big gulp of saliva before proceeding.

“I just simply cannot not report this to the upper branch, my lord!”

As the fires continued to burn and ashes spread everywhere with the agony of the people all around them, they stood.

Daewon didn’t look back at him but just said:

“No… I understand what you mean. I do not care if you tell everyone about what happened here. I wouldn’t even care if you told this to my family.”

Gael wasn’t sure how to respond properly and decided to wait a little longer. Hoping he would continue talking and state his choice.

While watching from the back, Gael could hear a few silent chuckles coming from Daewon before they quickly stopped.

“He, he… Gael, I have to tell you that this will be the last mission we’ll ever do together. This will be the last mission I do with my men in general.” Uttered Daewon, frigidly.

“So, he is leaving…” Confirming his seniors’ statement in his mind and grasping the scope of what he had said, Gael proceeded to speak in a rude tone of voice.

“Hmm… So, you are leaving my lord?”

“Yes, I am. I quit being a marshal…” He said, almost reluctantly.

This made Geal raise his left eyebrow as he began to walk in front of Daewon to face him head-on.

“Well, well, well. It would seem that this will be indeed the final time I and all of your men will have the pleasure of working with you, my lord.” Now he was standing in front of his senior but he was not blocking his path.

Daewon lowered his head so that he would not make eye contact with Gael.

“Yes. This is the final time.”

Even though previously Gael was acting cocky, hearing Daewon clearly state that he will quit being a marshal made him sincerely enraged inside.

“You know, I haven’t known you for long my lord. It has probably been just over a year now since you were appointed as my superior. And I must say that I really did have respect for you, truthfully. Not only that but I also admired you. You seemed professional, calm, collected. It seemed like you were a perfect fit for your position. Unlike some other, more than reputable people that tend to have a high-ranking status.”

Daewon didn’t say a word while his current underling was aspersing him. To a degree, he wasn’t even fully listening to what Gael was even talking about at this point.

His mind, in all of this, started to drift elsewhere…

“But now, after I saw you disobey orders and not only just that. Instead of trying to make things right and proceeding with the mission like nothing even happened… You decide to quit. You decided to quit a job that many of us including myself would kill for. You had it, but now you’re just quitting like that title is nothing but a toy! If you would have just continued with the mission, I wouldn’t have lost the respect I had built up for you…”

Daewon was thinking to himself. “It would be so nice if I could just drift back home right now to bed… I’m tired… With all of this…”

“You lost my faith in you, my lord! But it’s not like it’ll matter at all because you’re leaving. The only thing I can hope for is that your replacement will be a far more competent soldier than you!”

But the scream of a woman from somewhere being abused by his men snapped Daewon back to reality. And this time, it made him feel a fury inside of himself.

“GAEL!” He roared.

The shout of Daewon made the emotional Gael quickly step a few steps back away from him.

“My lord!” Trying to seem strong, Gael shouted back at him. Although not as loudly or furiously.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them until began to Daewon speak.

“You talk too much…” It was as simple as that.

His yell made Gael shake back to his own senses as well. He didn’t know whether to be angry or ashamed for going in so hard and emotional on his current leader. But he didn’t have much time to ponder on such things though.

“Actually, even though I’m telling you to be quiet, I cannot help myself but agree with everything you said.” Daewon looked up to face Gael.

“I used to think that I was a great knight once as well… But now I know that I’m clearly not the future of all this, you are. People like you are much stronger than me mentally. So, it’ll be you that will make it high in all of this. It’ll be people like that will reach the top one day.”

After agreeing with Gael's reasoning Daewon began walking once again. But this time faster. As he walked past his junior, he uttered this:

“All I can say now is, good luck to you Gael, and good luck in all your future endeavors.”

And with that, he was leaving, getting away from this terrible site.

As he was walking through, Gael truly realized that Daewon wasn’t joking in anything he had said in the slightest. Even though he already knew this, his mind still thought that maybe what he said isn’t the truth. Maybe somewhere deep down, he still believed that Daewon wouldn’t leave. But watching him actually walk away from all of this made it harshly clear that none of it was a joke. Indeed, all of it was nothing but the absolute truth.

Thus, he was enraged once more.

“Fine! Leave then if you truly wish! Good luck with all your future endeavors as well! Wherever that’ll be!”

Even though Gael was expecting some type of a retort, he did not receive one.

Daewon continued walking away to the area where they have tied their horses up without saying anything back to him. Of course, they will still have to see each other for a while on their journey back home. But for now, he was taking his final walk through this fiery village of pain.

“Mmm… Shit. I need to find someone.” Said Gael, as he began to walk in a different direction in search of a victim.

As Daewon was going back to his horse, his mind couldn’t help but take in the moments and scenery that were happening all around him.

The corpses of men, boys, and children laying around. Some of them were his own victims. The ash and smoke in the air. Fires that were reducing the houses to charcoal. His eyes couldn’t help but wander around seeing his men that he trained for the past year doing unspeakable things to the women of this village.

Though, he didn’t know whether to be disappointed in them or himself. Since this was their mission. And his men were accomplishing that mission. He was the only one that couldn’t do it.

“I don’t truly know If I’m the one in the wrong.” Seeing this, he began to wonder whether his mind was actually that wrong. Moments ago, he blamed himself for being weak-hearted.

“Maybe it’s them…” But now he began to think that maybe his men and the people that gave the orders to do this are the ones in the wrong. That their hearts are the ones that are rotten.

“I just don’t know… My feelings are just a mess now…” Alas, it was a tough day for him. He didn’t want to ponder his mind on anything else that day anymore.

And so, he continued walking past all of the sights that he couldn’t unhear and couldn’t unsee. All of these actions before him became unforgettable memories that he couldn’t get rid of even if he tried. Everything he saw that day became like a curse. A curse that seems to be unremovable with the passage of time.

“AHHH!” When he came back too, not much time had passed. Even though the visions were long in his mind. Only tens of seconds had passed in the real world.

Opening his eyes, he saw the exact same site as before. Agata's sandal was on the ground, laying in the same spot where he dropped it before. Further down the cave in the darkness was the same blood spot.

“My head… Why did I have to remember that now?” Still feeling a sharp pain in his head, Daewon tried to resurge back to his senses.

“Those memories of the past… I don’t want to remember them. Forget them…”

At the corner of his left eye, he spotted Agatas' final remaining clothing.

“The sandal…” Without much thought, he grabbed it and tried to stand back up on his feet.

“Nghh…” It was not easy. Not that he felt physical pain throughout his body no, he was feeling very disorientated. His head started spinning while he was getting up and the world around him started to move. Added with the pain of the headache it was nothing short of an awful experience.

“Ahh… I need to get back to Anderson…”

After standing still for some tens of seconds the spinning and disorientation in his head slowly stopped. But the sharp pain remained at the same level.

“Fire protection off.” Feeling that his mana was being drained incredibly slowly, he remembered that he still had a spell cast on himself. And so, he turned it off.

After doing so, he began to walk away from this dreary, sad cave towards the sunlight that shone outside. Although it was a nice day, the events that happened on this sunny bright day, were nothing but the complete opposite.

***

Anderson was sitting on the warm grass that was heated up by the sun throughout the day.

“It’s been quiet for quite a while now… Is everything good?”

Sometime after Daewon left he decided to lay down on the grass and wait until he comes back with Agata, rescued. While waiting, he did feel nervous but at the same time having been reassured by Daewon that everything will be okay. And witnessing a slice of his powers he believed that everything will turn out fine and that walking around like a madman would do him no good. That’s why he decided to sit down and stay like that, waiting for their return.

But later on, Anderson heard a faint sound coming from the direction of the cave. It was the scream of the beast.

“Hyaff…” From all the way where Anderson was, the scream was faint. But certainly hearable.

“What the…” He quickly stood back up on his feet and waited to listen if he can hear anything else.

“That surely was that god-forsaken beast!” Anderson thought while waiting for anything else to happen.

A few moments later he heard the same scream again, but this time it was louder.

“Hyaff!”

“Again! But it sounded like it was closer?” He thought to himself.

But before he could think of anything else further, another scream could be heard once again.

“Hyaff!”

“And again! Is Daewon doing it? Khrista… Come on Daewon you can kill that monster!”

Never did the thought of going to take a closer look made it to Andersons’ head. So, he waited to see if he can make out anything that’s happening there from the same spot he was standing in.

Sadly to him, he was not able to see anything until…

“Woah!!!” He couldn’t help but yell out.

What Anderson saw was the beast itself flying higher into the sky. It was visible from beyond the tops of the trees. But at the same time, he didn’t only saw the Pokulis rise up into the sky normally. No, the beast was on fire.

“Holy cow! It’s burning alive!” The man couldn’t help but keep his excitement at bay.

A thought quickly arose in his mind. “I remember Daewon said that he can use fire magic.”

“Go on Daewon… You can do it!” With that, he clenched both of his fists and hoped for the best possible outcome.

Without barely any time passing by, Anderson saw the beast falling down from the sky.

“It’s going down! Is it dead?” He pondered.

After it fell from the sky, Anderson could make out the sound of it crashing to the ground and hitting the branches of the trees.

“It fell down! I heard it!”

But after that, he wasn’t able to make out any other sound. The blowing wind dissipated anything that he might have heard.

“Man… this is intense… But I need to just wait.” Knowing he can do nothing to help and listening to Daewons orders, he stayed put and continued to wait for their return.

He continued to wait for some time still not seeing anyone return.

Time was moving very slow for Anderson. Every single passing second felt like a minute. Not knowing what happened after the sight he had witnessed was weighing heavily on him. The intensity and adrenaline throughout all of his body rushed wildly.

“C’mon where are they… It’s been sometime now.” Staying put and waiting felt like hell but he managed to do his part perfectly.

“!”

And not too long after thinking to himself where are they he finally could make out something else.

“Daewon.” He didn’t yell out his name but rather said it quietly. Daewon himself didn’t even hear Anderson calling out his name.

The reason why he did so, was that he didn't know what was the status of the beast. Hence, he did not want to yell for no reason and create any potential unnecessary problems. Even though he had already yelled out before after seeing the beast enveloped in the inferno.

“Wait… Why is he coming back alone?” Quickly he realized it.

Even though he can see Daewon coming back safe and sound without any battle scars. The same could not be said about Agata. She was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is she?” The hopeful man was now becoming nervous.

Daewon was walking towards him slowly with an unhappy look on his face. Therefore, he could not hear Andersons quietly spoken words.

Well, his hearing was good enough to make out what Anderson was saying from that distance which was now about 20 meters. But his mind was in a different place and so, he did not focus on that nor he has yet looked at Anderson even once. He was avoiding eye contact with him.

“Eh, he’s taking too long.” While thinking that, he began to jog towards Daewon.

“Hm? What’s that?” As he was jogging towards him, he spotted something in his right arm.

At first, Anderson couldn’t discern what it was. But as he was approaching Daewon closer he was able to make out what it was.

“No… Hold on.” Once he realized what he was holding, Anderson came to a quick stop.

He wasn’t far from Daewon now, only about 5 meters. A conversational distance.

Daewon himself stopped as well. Then he looked up to face the gaze of Anderson. When he met it, he saw a nervous and shocked Anderson before him.

Before Daewon could start speaking and explaining to him what had happened, Anderson quickly spoke out first without long hesitation.

“Where’s Agata Daewon? Why do you have a small sandal in your hand?...” Frightened, that’s the only way Anderson asked these questions to the ex-marshal.

For what he was about to say, Daewon made sure to get a good look at Andersons’ face. And he also made sure to look him dead in the eyes the most composed as possible. It was not the first time that Daewon had to bring the sad news to someone. He had some experience with it.

“Anderson… I want you to know even though I have slain the beast. I was not able to save Agata.” Pure seriousness and cold eyes. That’s the look he gave to Anderson so that he would quickly realize the truthfulness of his words.

“What do you mean exactly by you weren’t able to save her?” He asked startled and already knowing what he meant by those words. But Anderson wanted to hear Daewon utter them so that he could truly realize and register that it did happen.

Daewon inhaled and exhaled quickly to gather the strength he needed to for the purpose of saying those words.

“Agata was eaten by the Pokulis when I got there. There was nothing I could have done to save her…”

A silence fell upon between the two of them. Only the branches and leaves shaking from the blowing wind could be heard.

That is until Anderson broke that silence shortly after.

“I see… Khrista, god damn shit…” Anderson felt a weakness in his legs after hearing Daewon say that.

“Wuhh…” As he strongly exhaled, Anderson began to feel lightheaded. Because of that, he grabbed his head with his right hand and started rubbing it.

Not wanting to keep quiet, Daewon continued to speak with him.

“I greatly overlooked something. Therefore, I am fully responsible and accountable for everything that has taken place here.” He spoke those words sincerely and with great weight.

Not knowing what to make of the whole situation yet, Anderson didn’t know how to respond to Daewon exactly. But he did have one thing to say to him.

“No Daewon, no… You did your best and at least killed that beast…” Even though he was shocked, Anderson managed to say that quite calmly.

This came as a bit of a surprise for Daewon. He thought that Anderson would most likely flip over on him in a furry for failing in his mission. The last thing he expected from him was hearing a “You did your best.”

“Thank you… Really.” But hearing these warm words come from him made Daewon feel quite emotional in a positive way. Before, he was stressed to the level of having a breakdown. Now though, hearing someone tell him that he did at least a good job at something made him feel like he wanted to let a few tears roll down from his eyes. Still, he managed to hold them in tightly.

However, all of this was far from over. Very far…

“Fuu, I don’t know If I even want to hear any details right now…” Spoke Anderson, blowing out air from his mouth in nervousness.

“We’ll head back to Aeneas and somehow bring the news there, I guess... Unless there’s something you need to do here more?” Anderson wasn’t even sure how to proceed with all of this. But trying to come up with something, he offered the best thing they can do for now.

“Right… At the moment there’s nothing left to do here. Later, I will return here. To cover up the caves so that no other Pokulis would get in there…”

“Sure.”

Nothing much could be said. Because they knew that all the talking will happen once they return back to the village.

“Okay.” In confirming Andersons’ confirmation, Daewon walked to get his wooden backpack on his back and prepare to leave this beautiful yet stained place for the time being.

He quickly slipped both of his arms in the straps of the backpack and put it on. Then, walked towards Anderson that was standing still and hasn’t moved from the same spot after stopping to talk to Daewon.

“Even though he’s trying not to show it too much, he’s heavily shocked by this.” Uttered Daewon in his mind, knowing the psychological situation of Anderson simply from his facial expressions, mannerisms, and logic.

“But I am simply almost no different from him in this situation.” Thinking more about it, Daewon realized it.

“Here, let’s go…” Just like when they took off to save her. Daewon raised both of his arms in front of him after getting close enough and waited until Anderson would approach him so that he could lift him up and leave.

But this time, both of their spirits were in a completely different mood. A full one-eighty, literally and metaphorically.

“Sure.” Fully compliant, Anderson approached Daewon and let himself be picked up by him.

“Grab ahold of me strongly. I’ll dash back to the village at the same speed as I did before.”

“Yeah, gotcha.” As by his request, Anderson reached around Daewon’s head with his left arm and clasped both of his hands together. Locking himself tightly around him.

“Right…” With that word, Daewon began dashing back to the village where, just like Anderson from before, the people there are hoping for the good news to arrive. Alas, they will also be met with the negative and opposite of what they believe and hope had happened at this moment in time.

***

Around 8 minutes have passed and now the two men after emerging from the woods were facing Aeneas house doorstep.

While dashing back here, the two of them have not exchanged a single word between each other and just kept their silence. They knew that all of the information will be provided and told once they made their way back.

That is why Anderson didn’t want to ask him anything, nor Daewon wanted to say everything to Anderson while there were just the two of them. If Daewon did so, then he would need to repeat all of it once again later and remember all the terrible events he saw twice today in great detail.

“Here.” Daewon placed Anderson gently back on his feet.

“Thanks.” As he got off, the two of them without saying anything else and without any hesitation began to walk towards the door of the village’s head.

It’s not that they weren’t nervous, no. Both of them felt immense pressure, Daewon even more so. But they both knew that standing and stalling for time would be utterly wasteful and disrespectful.

They understood all of this between each other, without saying a word about it. It seemed like at least in these awful moments the two of them had some type of chemistry between one another. They were able to understand each other's actions to some degree without any verbal interaction.

But without much time passing, they now faced the door. Behind it was a mother and a child that are waiting desperately and hopeful for the return of their daughter.

Looking back to face Anderson, Daewon just glanced at him and asked for his readiness. “You’re ready?”

“Yeah…” Without much confidence in his voice and full of dread of what will happen, Anderson responded affirming him.

With that, Daewon turned his head back to face the door.

Knowing the weight of this, he did not wait anymore at the door nor did he hesitate. He clasped the door handle and simultaneously while opening the door he exhaled deeply and prepared for what’s about to come.

*creek* It was quiet outside and inside of the building. So, the opening creaking door could be easily heard by both parties.

As the door opened up halfway, Daewon could see all the way straight down the corridor reaching the kitchen.

His eyes quickly caught all three of them that were sitting down. Soon, their eyes and faces began to move and fixate in the direction from where they have heard the creaking, opening door sound coming from.

As they faced on, what they saw was the white-haired man coming inside the house as Anderson was following right behind him walking through the corridor.

“Agata!” Seeing the two men come back alive, Callie’s mind quickly perceived that the mission was successful without even confirming if Agata was with them. Her mind didn’t even want to perceive that something might have gone wrong and so she instantaneously thought that Agata was brought back safely here by Daewon.

While yelling out her name, she stood up and quickly jogged towards the ex-marshal whereas Bain stood up as well but didn’t run. Rather, he looked on at his running mother and didn’t really knew what to do but just watch and listen to what will the men say. Aeneas sat in his seat unmoving, waiting to hear what news they will bring.

Daewon seeing the mother approaching him stopped in his tracks and waited for her to come closer towards him.

As Callie ran up to him, she began to realize it. After not even thinking about any other scenario at this point, logic chased and caught her.

She came to a halt right in front of Daewon’s face and at first, looked him directly in the eyes. What she saw was a pained expression mixed with sadness and regret on his face.

“What…” Callie could barely murmur out a single word from her saturated lips as she began to realize that she didn’t see or hear a certain someone as she was running towards him.

As she leaned her body to the right to look past Daewon she could only see Anderson standing behind him. He, just like Daewon had a sad, gloomy look on his face.

But to Callie that wasn’t important. The importance lay in the fact that she still couldn’t see her. Neither behind Daewon nor Anderson.

She was nowhere to be seen.

Now truly grasping and taking in the fact that she is not here Callie stepped back left to face down Daewon once again.

“Callie-” Not wanting to stay silent and just stand there for a long time, Daewon wanted to tell her the news as quickly as he could. But just after saying her name, he got cut off by her.

“W-where’s Agata?!” Her voice was cracking and shaking but using her strength she still managed to wail her words out.

Trying to take and keep control of the situation Daewon grabbed both of her shoulders with his arms. Then he made sure to look directly straight into her eyes. His stare was so intense that you could say he even pierced through her eyes with his focus. The gloomy and grim facial expression he had before was gone and only a focused face on a single task to accomplish remained.

“Listen to me Callie, okay?” Even though he asked her a question he wasn’t looking for a reply and proceeded further.

“Agata…” Daewon paused slightly wincing at himself but continued almost casually with his sentence.

“…is gone.”

“…”

Silence. It may have been silent in the room but the three people that didn’t yet know of this news felt an immense and intense amount of weight pushing down on them. Especially from Bain and Callie. It felt like gravity was about to push their whole bodies to the ground.

Seeing their reaction Daewon wanted to continue and tell everything to them in detail. But as he was just about to make a sound he was interrupted by Callie once again.

“Hang on… ohh… ohh… Khrista…” She knocked both of Daewon’s hands away from her shoulders and then stepped away from him walking backward. As she walked back, Callie hugged her both arms together as a way of trying to reject the information she has heard from him.

“What… what…” She breathed heavily. Every quick, deep inhale and exhale could be easily heard by everyone in the house.

Bain, hearing the news as well just stood there frozen in place. He, just like his mother was plainly in shock. But Bain didn’t express the same type of shock-like his mother did. After hearing Daewon finish his sentence, the boy didn’t move a muscle. To him, it felt like he couldn’t move. Feeling weak in every part of his physical and mental body Bain didn’t yet truly believe that Agata is gone. It was much too quick and much too sudden for him to embrace Daewon’s words and discern them from fiction and reality. Thus, he wanted to hear him speak more and hear the man say that it was just a really bad joke or something like that. Already he has suffered plenty in a single day, so hearing words that bring even more suffering felt more unreal to him. Simply, he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. 

Aeneas didn’t get out of his seat but even he was shaken up by this development. Though, he tried his best not to show it to anyone even when no one was looking at him. He had his own reputation to uphold.

Daewon at first wanted to grab ahold of Callie once again so that she would listen in and focus better on his words. But deciding not to do so, he began speaking without grasping her.

“I know it’s difficult to believe this… but it is the truth. She is gone…” After repeating the statement once again to solidify its truthfulness he didn’t receive any reply. Only the rapid and frantic breathing of Callie could be heard.

Daewon knew that everyone was listening to him intensely though. And so, he continued.

“I know that I brought everyone's hopes up when I said that I can bring Agata back home to you. And I want you to know that I was not lying to any of you about that. I truly believed that I WOULD bring her back to you.”

“But it was all for naught… It was my omission and forgetfulness of something incredibly important that raised your expectations to believe that she would come back home…”