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Chapter 2
Hundreds of magical tools poured out from the rear guard.
As time passed, thick beads of sweat multiplied on the forehead of the Valentine family head. No matter how powerful a mage was, one’s mana could not be infinite.
On the other hand, the capital of the ⟨Noble Coalition⟩ steadily grew. This was a clear war of attrition.
The first and second sons, who had evacuated the retainers, pressed against their father’s back.
“Father!” “We’ll take the rear!”
Connected mentally via [Mind Link], the brothers didn’t need any separate communication.
—Crackle…!
The first son summoned vines to bind the enemies’ feet.
—Slash…!
The second son severed their necks with blades of wind.
Perfect synchronization. It was the result of trust forged in blood, something an alliance temporarily formed in the face of profit could never imitate.
Yet, there were still too many enemies.
Excessively so.
—Bang! Boom-kabloom!
The family head shouted as if coughing up blood.
“Liana! Hurry and take Kaian!”
Behind the family head’s back, a pale-faced Liana, the mistress of the house, was casting a body-enhancement magic on her youngest son.
“[Enhance, Full Body.]”
—Fwosh-sh-sh…!
Pure white magical power poured without pause from her into her youngest son, Kaian.
Liana meticulously examined Kaian’s body and face. This would likely be the last time she could gaze upon her child.
She engraved Kaian’s black hair and turquoise eyes—which looked so much like her own—deep into her soul.
‘Tomorrow he turns only eight… Just a little fledgling who hasn’t even learned a single spell yet…’
Liana felt her heart breaking into pieces, but she could not show weakness in front of her child.
She pulled Kaian, who was choking back his sobs, into a tight embrace.
Liana’s body trembled finely. Yet the voice that actually emerged from her was astonishingly calm, brimming with a mystical aura.
“[Kaian, listen well. You have relatives in the Silvaris Federation on the eastern continent. Once you enter the eastern forest, the spirits will guide you to a safe place. Until then, do not look back, and do not stop.]”
“I can’t do this, Mother! Please! I can’t be the only one who runs away!”
—Bang! Crash!
Explosions burst out incessantly outside. The family head shouted once more.
“We must hurry!”
Kaian felt sick to his stomach.
The terror that his family would not go with him. The helplessness that, despite this, he could do nothing.
Right now, it felt like he could easily vomit up even his stomach lining.
Yet Liana’s words of command—the strongest in the empire—seized Kaian’s soul.
“[I beg of you, my child. Survive to the end and live under the bright sun. You must never let them shroud your world in darkness. And… remember that we are always with you.]”
She knew. Why this noble family had to perish tonight.
The crime of standing tall alone while the world compromised with fakes. The price of that was the annihilation of the house.
She did not regret her past choices. But there was no need for her young son, who hadn’t even blossomed his mana, to shoulder that responsibility as well.
‘Magic is a power meant for the weakest.’
That was the conviction of the House of Valentine, and that belief did not waver even in the face of death.
Staring straight into her youngest son’s eyes, Liana said:
“[Kaian Bellore Valentine. You must survive. Therefore, do not look back—run!]”
Compelled by the power of the command, Kaian bolted toward the secret passage in the basement of the Valentine estate.
—Tap-tap-tap-tap…!
As she watched that retreating figure, a sharp, unyielding resolve settled in Liana’s eyes.
Every time an explosion sounded, a piercing anger and resentment welled up.
—Boom-kabloom! Bang!
From close proximity, she could feel the life force of her family members gradually fading away.
Thick bloodshot veins bulged in Liana’s eyes.
“I shall leave upon you wretches… an unforgettable, burning brand.”
Gathering her very last remaining scraps of mana, she began to chant an ancient curse. Terrifyingly pure white mana blazed from her body.
—Whoosh-sh-sh….
She concentrated her mind so as not to miss a single drop of mana from the intruders standing outside the mansion.
“[You who set foot on the border driven by greed, may the wrath of the earth flow through your blood.]”
The mana of her first and second sons could no longer be felt.
“[He who lies in bed with you shall waste away to mere bones plagued by illness; he who shares a cup with you shall have his throat choked by ash and draw his last breath.]”
Blood tears dripped down.
“[Your lifelines shall dry up like the morning dew.]”
Yet there was not a single point of hesitation in Liana’s voice. And finally…
“[May that curse never cease, from generation unto generation.]”
She left behind a curse that no one heard then, but that the entire world would eventually come to know.
“Hah, huff….”
Having run through the basement passage of the estate, the border forest was pitch-black.
Tree branches scratched Kaian’s tender cheeks, and sharp protruding roots snared his ankles. His young body and mind quickly reached their limits.
Kaian pleaded with himself.
‘Stop! Go back to your family, please! You’ll die there, too…!’
Yet every time he thought that, Liana’s command tightened around his soul even more fiercely.
Kaian could not stop.
His lungs felt as though they were tearing, but he ran and ran. Without even knowing how much of the eastern forest was left, he simply ran wherever his body led him.
“Huff, hah….”
Kaian felt that his life was as precarious and insignificant as a candle before the wind.
If not for Liana’s command, he surely would have already died.
Amidst such feeble thoughts, the moment he had parted from his family replayed repeatedly.
Acrid smoke and flashing multicolored magic. His father’s shouts and his brothers’ screams. The terrifying tearing sound of something being crushed. And the end of his family, which he had never been able to confirm…
No matter how far he ran, the horrific imagination was not washed away by the wind. Rather, the more he ran, the more vivid it became.
Cutting through the pitch-black darkness, Kaian asked himself:
‘Why? Why did something like this happen to us?’
Just a few hours ago, everything had been peaceful.
Kaian had begged his mother to read him a hero’s story, and Liana had looked down at her excited youngest son, eagerly awaiting his eighth birthday, with deep affection.
The neighbors were kind, the wind was gentle, and the world shimmering beneath the sunlight was purely beautiful.
Then why had everything suddenly turned into a disaster?
Kaian asked himself again.
‘Is it because I’m weak? Would it have been fine if I were strong enough to protect everyone? But how?’
Like congealed blood repeatedly flowing and drying across his entire body, the guilt that his family had sacrificed themselves to keep him alive clung to his soul, reeking with stench.
Fear and helplessness gnawed at Kaian’s sanity, and the failing tide of his soul grew darker every minute.
“Huff… hah….”
Kaian finally reached a point where he thought of nothing except death.
When he thought of death, a sense of relief even welled up in one corner of his mind.
‘No matter how strong Mother’s command is, it surely can’t raise the soul of the dead.’
Yes. Once dead, everything would become comfortable. He would be together with his family in the benevolent embrace of mana.
Thinking thus, Kaian waited for the physical strength of his flesh to give out.
It was then.
The pursuers, who had caught up at some point, shouted from behind his back.
“Found him! He’s right there!”
“Kill just that brat, and Valentine is finished!”
—Stab!
The moment he heard the family name from the enemy’s mouth, Kaian felt a violent pain in his heart.
‘Finished…? Valentine is?’
His pupils rolled back bizarrely. The death he had craved so desperately was right before his eyes, but this outcome was unacceptable.
Guilt and survival instinct collided, scrambling Kaian’s mind in a frenzy.
—Thump. Thump. Thump.
The more they did, the more a single magma-like emotion boiled up clearly within his veins. It was…
Rage toward those who had trampled upon his world.
‘Don’t make me laugh. Do you think I’m going to die by your hands?’
Kaian gnashed his teeth until they cracked. The command Liana had burned into him by sacrificing her life began to pulse violently.
—[You must survive.]
—[You must never let them shroud your world in darkness.]
Like pouring molten iron into his growingly cold veins, a biting heat was injected into Kaian’s heart.
The sound of his own heartbeat rang abnormally loud in his ears.
—Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
And finally, the levees within Kaian violently collapsed. It was the moment he blossomed his mana.
‘What is this?’
Kaian could now tell how many enemies were behind him without even looking.
He could also tell that they were pulling out [Crimson Bombs] and [Supreme-Grade Scrolls]. No, he could feel it.
Instinct whispered to him.
‘Like this, it’s dangerous.’
Kaian could clearly tell what he needed to do. He focused on the pulse throbbing threateningly at his left wrist.
Soon after, turquoise-tinted mana surged up his left arm and flickered.
—Fwosh-sh-sh-sh….
Instinct whispered again.
‘Now…!’
At that moment, Kaian swung his left arm backward with all his might. And simultaneously, with a throat torn raw, he spat out a message toward the world.
“Burn it all to ash.”
That was far too rough to be an incantation.
And excessively sad to be a curse.
It was Kaian’s first magic.
—Fwoosh-cremate!
The flames, starting from a small gesture, spread across the entire forest in an instant.
Those engulfed in the raging fire let out terrifying screams, but those sounds soon turned to a handful of ash along with their flesh.
Kaian did not witness that sight.
Liana’s command was still urging him to survive.
—[Do not look back—run!]
Tears flowing ceaselessly seeped into the scratches on his cheeks. His left wrist burned as if scorched by fire.
The forest flickered with an orange glow, as if hugging a prematurely risen sun, leading Kaian deeper into the darkness.
Thus, on his eighth birthday.
Kaian lost all of his family.
And he became the youngest mage in the history of the empire.
When Kaian regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was an unfamiliar mana.
‘Someone is here. Who is it?’
Yet that question dissipated before long. Because his five senses were slowly returning.
The smell of old wood and the scent of dried leaves tickled the tip of Kaian’s nose. The bed where he laid his exhausted body was soft like a pile of feathers, and the sunlight pouring through the cracks in the window was leisurely and warm.
That sequence of peace scratched at Kaian’s nerves. The sensations across his entire body sounded alarm bells.
‘Where is this? I clearly…’
His fragmented memories rattled and hunted for their shape.
The burning mansion and his father’s shouts. His mother’s body trembling finely. The flame that burst from his left wrist.
And even the sensation of suddenly plunging into the darkness…
“Hah…!”
Kaian bolted upright from the bed like a spring.
The muscles all over his body screamed, and the area near his ribs throbbed. His startled lungs curled inward as if refusing to breathe.
However, he had no luxury to relish the pain.
Liana’s command remained like a vivid brand on Kaian’s soul, shouting:
‘I must live!’
Instinctively, he scanned his surroundings.
His vision was dizzy. Yet Kaian even succeeded in picking up the heavy brass candlestick resting on the bedside table.
Then, he aimed the candlestick toward the unfamiliar mana he had sensed at first.
It was the posture of a small beast driven to the edge of a cliff, baring its fangs.
“Who is it…?! If you come any closer, I’ll kill you!”
At the place where Kaian aimed the candlestick, a woman sat with her back to the sunlight, turning the pages of a book.
—Rustle.
Kaian could not make out the opponent’s expression. The sunlight pouring through the window was far too bright.
Yet from her silhouette alone, he could easily guess that she was not of human stock.
‘What is this…?’
Silver hair cascading down to her waist. Long, pointed ears protruding between those silver waves. And gracefully winding above her head… goat horns?
‘Huh…? Did I see wrong?’
He might be seeing things since he had just woken up.
Kaian quickly rubbed his eyes and glared at his opponent once more.
“…”
No matter how he looked at it, she was definitely a horned elf.
