RHRH 3

Chapter 3

Kain rubbed his eyes in confusion after confirming the face of the person before him. He even wondered if he might still be dreaming.

‘I’ve never heard of an elf having horns…’

While he was caught in confusion, the woman closed her book and raised her head. Her cool, gemstone-like blue eyes stared at Kain as if piercing right through him.

“Hmm… That’s a rather crude weapon to point at your savior.”

Kain flinched and stepped back. It was because of the woman’s voice.

Her voice was clear and mystical. It was a beautiful sound unlike anything he had ever heard before. Yet, that sound carried no emotion whatsoever.

The alien, emotionless quality of her voice made Kain raise his guard once more. However, he had no idea what to say first.

“My…”

He first wanted to ask about his family. But the thought struck him that if he spoke that question aloud, he would immediately regret it. Almost without being consciously aware of his own judgment, Kain changed his question.

“…Who are you! Reveal your identity! Where did you bring me!”

He tried to mimic the tone of his father and older brothers as much as possible, but even to his own ears, it sounded somewhat clumsy.

The woman gave a smile that was not quite a smile.

“Who am I, you ask. Quite a difficult question. How about the guest reveals themselves first? Who are you?”

The hand holding the candlestick was trembling slightly.

‘She called me a “guest.” Does that mean she’s not in league with those bastards?’

Taking courage, he glanced around his surroundings. The interior, filled with solid wood furniture, looked like an ordinary home. Kain forced down his confusion and scrambled his brains.

‘Those guys definitely tried to kill me.’

Yet here he was, alive and well. Based on his observations and deductions, Kain threw out a more specific question.

“The guys who were chasing me… where are the attackers?”

The woman sipped the tea resting on her desk. The sound of the teacup being set down was loud within the space filled with taut silence.

“They say humans are creatures of oblivion, but did you forget already?”

Kain thrust the brass candlestick forward threateningly into the air.

“I’m not interested in that kind of riddles! Speak so I can understand!”

“It seems humans have been lacking manners since childhood. Well, it doesn’t matter. At least your vocabulary seems decent, so that’s a relief.”

“What is that supposed to… Answer me already! Where are they!”

“You burned them all to death.”

The woman said casually as she sipped her tea.

“What…?”

“Did you not hear me? I said you burned them all to death.”

Fragmented memories flashed back into Kain’s head. The turquoise-colored mana flickering on his left arm, and himself swinging that arm backward with all his might. The screams of the attackers. And the orange-colored heat that had pushed him deeper into the forest…

“No…”

Kain muttered. His eyes were shaking more than before.

“No. There’s no way those guys would give up so easily! They definitely sent reinforcements…!”

The woman slightly furrowed her brow.

“You’re noisy.”

“Ghk…!”

Kain’s breath caught in his throat. From the woman’s short warning, he felt a massive amount of mana—one that he could not fathom even if he devoted his entire life to it. Like a rabbit placed beneath a giant’s foot, his body cowered. And for the first time, he realized it clearly.

‘I… I have awakened my mana!’

Those who had not awakened their mana could not sense how powerful an opponent’s mana was. But right now, Kain’s body was trembling like prey in front of a predator.

“Did you ask where this place is?”

The woman spoke in that clear voice of hers.

“This place is Eldergrove, my subspace. Wizards wearing crude toys like the ones chasing you wouldn’t even be able to find it. So you can rest easy.”

Kain barely managed to keep breathing. He forced his brain, which was threatening to stop from sheer terror, to move.

‘Rest easy… What a strange thing to say. How am I supposed to rest easy in a situation like this?’

Yet, a tiny spark of hope inevitably bloomed in a corner of his heart. Did “rest easy” mean all the danger was over? If so, could he finally ask about his family?

And so, even while having a premonition that he would regret it, Kain finally opened his mouth.

“Then, my family…”

“They’re dead.”

It was a short, definitive sentence. Just as Kain parted his lips to deny it, the woman’s emotionless voice pierced straight into his lungs like a dagger.

“This time, ask something you don’t already know.”

It was a sharp rebuke, implying: Did you not already know of your family’s death? It was also a condemnation of his foolish hope and escapism. Kain’s body trembled with humiliation and fury. At the same time, the memories he had desperately tried to bury until now spread out across his mind in a flash.

The woman asked bluntly.

“Or would you rather go to your family’s side?”

Kain felt as furious as if his heart were being ripped out. A roar, unable to contain his wrath, burst forth from deep within his belly.

“Uraaaaaagh!”

Right at that moment. Turquoise mana began to fiercely surge from Kain’s left wrist. The thick brass candlestick he was gripping melted away.

Hisssss!

Seeing this, a strange glint appeared in the eyes of the woman, Eldarín.

‘Oh? Turquoise?’

The mana used by wizards was broadly divided into three types: Green for intellect. Blue for creativity. Red for willpower.

Wizards who used just one of these three types accounted for a whopping 95% of all wizards. The proportion of “multi-mana users” who used two or more types of mana was a mere 5%. And the turquoise color shown by the boy before her was a combination of intellect and creativity—meaning it was a combination that made up 3% out of that 5% of multi-mana users.

However, Eldarín could see it. The red mana writhing near Kain’s heart, still uncontrolled.

‘Don’t tell me… is willpower dormant in him too?’

The proportion of wizards who used all three types of mana was a mere 0.5%… Eldarín finally broke into a genuine smile.

‘It has been 700 years since I last witnessed talent of this caliber…’

Ever since the human boy broke through the barrier of Eldergrove and wandered in, she had figured he wouldn’t be ordinary. Yet, the talent of Kain that she witnessed firsthand far exceeded Eldarín’s expectations.

Rumble!

Space vibrated. The high heat spewed from Kain instantly scorched the air inside the room.

Crack!

The teacup on the side table shattered, and the thick oak floor began to char black.

Yet Eldarín remained seated, observing Kain with a look of intrigue. To be precise, she was looking at the flames surging wildly across his mental world.

‘That child—he forced the fury filling his mental world to manifest in reality.’

Magic was about materializing a wizard’s mental world into reality. To do that, a deep understanding of both one’s own mental world and the real world was required. Yet the boy before her seemed not even to be aware of his own mental world yet.

‘He pulled it off unconsciously? Impressive.’

Fwoosh!

Kain’s eyes gradually became bloodshot and soon lost their focus. As the reason he had barely managed to hold onto snapped, all that remained was the instinct of destruction and survival from the moment the forest burned. The melted brass flowed down his hand.

“I’ll kill you… I’ll burn everything down…!”

Swish-bang!

Eldarín casually swiped away the flying debris with a flick of her hand.

‘Dangerous. But…’

A hard-to-read smile hung on the corners of her lips.

‘Overwhelming talent.’

The boy in front of her couldn’t even perceive his mental world, yet he had instantly converted his sorrow and rage into destructive energy. If it’s this fellow, he can sufficiently be cultivated into a hero.

Eldarín finally made up her mind. Then, she raised her index finger and lightly pressed against the empty air.

“[Calm down.]”

As if a giant were pressing down on the entire room with an invisible hand, a fierce pressure washed over Kain.

Thud!

The soaring flames subsided in an instant, and the vibrating space fell quiet as if it had all been a lie. Kain’s knees buckled under the overwhelming disparity in power.

“Ghk!”

The hand propping him up on the floor was trembling violently. As his reason returned, the pain hit him alongside it.

Eldarín stood up from her chair without a sound and approached Kain.

“Anger is certainly a powerful force. But if you cannot control it, it will only end up destroying you.”

She grasped Kain’s burned hand with a hand so pure white it looked as though it might glow at any moment.

“Ugh!”

A wave of chill flowed through their connected skin, cooling the accumulated heat. His feverish head seemed to cool down along with it.

Kain hung his head and panted heavily. Droplets—whether tears or sweat, he couldn’t tell—fell onto the charred floor.

Drip, drip…

Eldarín asked Kain.

“Do you desire power?”

Kain raised his head with a puzzled look. Eldarín’s unfathomable blue eyes were staring straight at him.

‘What… did she just ask? Does she want to know if I want power? Is she not going to kill me…?’

Kain bowed his head again. Then, closing his eyes, he concentrated on reviewing the situation.

‘Cool your head. Think calmly.’

Eldarín reduced her mana aura so that he could ponder sufficiently. Though Kain was too lost in his thoughts to even notice such consideration from Eldarín.

‘…The ones who attacked weren’t just some ordinary noble family; it was the Valentines.’

The Valentin family was, in name and reality, the Emperor’s right arm. Attacking such a family was tantamount to treason. The enemy definitely had no fear of the imperial household.

‘And that staggering scale of forces…’

It was a scale of resources that could not be mustered with ordinary capital. In other words, the enemy could be considered those standing at the very pinnacle of imperial power—having massive capital while fearing no emperor.

Those kinds of people had tried to wipe out the Valentin family, renowned as the pro-emperor faction.

‘For what purpose? Did we become a stumbling block for them? They did all this for just a reason like that?’

However, the most important fact was that they had failed to completely erase Valentin from the world.

‘I survived. Do those guys know that?’

Kain had no intention of politely fading into the background of history as the enemies wished. Valentin was the border and the wall of the empire. It was the symbol of great magic that must never fall.

Deep in his heart, he engraved who the bastards were that needed to vanish from the real world.

‘I will definitely survive. And I will expose their true faces to the entire world.’

However, to execute those standing at the pinnacle of the empire, power beyond common sense was required.

‘I don’t know what the identity of this horned elf is… but it’s certain she’s strong.’

Now that he had awakened his mana, he could tell. The mana she radiated was far more majestic and profound than that of his father or mother, who had been called the greatest wizards in the empire.

‘And here… did she call it Eldergrove? It really does seem safe from the attackers.’

Above all, he felt no intent to kill him from the horned elf. For now, that was enough.

Whether the other person could be trusted or not was a matter for later. First, he needed to hide his body and build his strength.

Having made up his mind, Kain raised his head. The woman was still staring at him with her strangely glowing blue eyes.

However, the look in Kain’s eyes as he stared back at her no longer wavered.

“I want power. I want to become strong. Strong enough to completely turn this world upside down…!”

As if it were the correct answer, Eldarín smiled.