Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Village Without Children
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Barshu, Chakan, Hur, Jade, Saf, and Ruby had walked through the night and arrived at the village around dawn.
"I've walked more in these past few days than in my entire life."
Jade was tired and exhausted. Staying up all night was familiar to her, but that was always from reading books—an entirely different kind of fatigue.
Saf glanced back worriedly, but Jade was keeping up without issue. If anything, Saf was the one Jade was concerned about.
Ruby, as always, brimmed with stamina. Yet he was riding leisurely atop the Tyrant. He was even munching on bread and cheese stolen from Akilia Cathedral.
He'd offered midway, "If you're tired, hop on," but no matter how weary she was, Jade had no desire to sit on a demon's back.
The Tyrant hadn't resisted at all during the journey. Every time it breathed heavily in a threatening manner, Ruby would punch it, and now it barely made a sound.
Still, Jade remained uneasy.
No matter how docile it acted, a demon was a demon.
The village they reached was a gathering of about twenty subtribes of Koon nomads. Around a dozen red brick houses stood at the center, surrounded by dozens of conical-roofed tents. Though the tents were their usual dwellings, their arrangement suggested they had been hastily put together recently.
The sun hadn't risen yet, and the moon was tilting low, so Jade could see almost nothing beyond the positions of the tents. No lanterns or torches lit the village. No other movements caught her eye.
She didn't know what a nomad village normally looked like, but this one seemed eerily silent.
"See? I told you. This place has already been destroyed."
The Tyrant spoke with renewed confidence.
"What are you bragging about? It being wrong was the only slim chance you had of surviving."
Ruby's quiet threat silenced the Tyrant once more.
Ruby dismounted and said,
"I agreed we needed to come check the situation, but we might end up giving info to the enemy. It would've been better to head straight to Gotking."
Jade stood silently lost in thought when Barshu approached with a grim face.
"We'll go check the village ourselves, so you three wait here a moment."
"Are you sure? I mean—"
She'd heard that Koon nomads' eyesight was several times better than ordinary people's. Jade still couldn't make out the village's state, but it must be visible to them, she thought, and asked,
"...No monsters?"
"I don't see any monsters in particular. But our tribe never extinguishes the torches while the hunters are away. Even if one dies, we keep them lit for a month. Seeing them out now means the situation is very bad."
Remembering Koon customs, Jade said,
"It's so the hunter's soul, even if he dies on the steppe, won't wander but return to his family, right?"
"Your souls are taken by gods, but ours return to our families' embrace. That's why children are as important to us as your gods."
Barshu spoke bitterly, then nodded.
"I'll go first and send a signal. If we don't return, ride away as is."
Barshu and the other two hunters headed toward the village, weapons in hand.
Darkness swallowed the three hunters' backs.
"Wouldn't it have been better if I went?"
Ruby said.
"What about this guy?"
Jade glared at the Tyrant, but it ignored her. It feared only Ruby.
'If I showed it the Light of Annihilation, would it get scared?'
Jade stared with an angry gaze, then shook her head.
'It's a lesser demon. It might not even know what the light is. And even if it did, it wouldn't fear the light itself—it'd fear the one wielding it. Like how a kid with a knife is scary for the knife, not the kid.'
Jade said,
"Ruby, just in case, keep watching the village."
Ruby replied while staring at the village.
"I'm watching. But it seems safe. No monsters in sight. Still, it looks like the village was attacked."
Saf came to Jade's side and said,
"Their faith is fascinating. Comparing children to our gods."
"The Koon have their own myths."
"What are they?"
Jade considered saving it for later but decided to speak to calm her own anxiety.
"It's a creation myth of sorts. The first gods gave birth to humans one day, but they got scared that they'd birthed humans and fled to the heavens. Trees grew from most of the abandoned infants, bearing fruit. The children ate that fruit and grew, becoming today's humans."
Jade continued while gazing down at the village.
Saf and Ruby listened intently.
"So everyone has their own ancestral fruit tree. When you die, your body and soul nourish it and return. And your children continue tending that tree. The Koon believe everyone in the world is connected to a tree. That's why they never build houses from wood."
"That's odd? Myths usually tie closely to the environment, but the Koon are nomads. There are no trees on these steppes. How did such a myth form?"
Saf asked.
"Probably because trees are scarce, they value them more. They see trees themselves as human souls to protect them. Oh, that's just my guess."
Jade narrowed her eyes, watching the hunters inspect the tents near the village.
"Our beliefs sometimes arise from necessity. Leaving torches lit when hunters leave is like that. The torches were just sentinels protecting the tribe from wild beasts while the men were gone. But they also held hope for the men's return. On these vast steppes, a nighttime torch acts like a lighthouse."
Jade's voice carried softly on the steppe wind.
"That desperate hope likely evolved into the belief that 'torches guide souls back to their families.' No mother could easily accept her husband's death in the hunting grounds, right? The month is probably a mourning period too. It could even be lit for a full year."
Jade glared at the Tyrant again and continued.
"Talking like this, I think I know why Gotking kidnapped only the children instead of massacring the tribe."
The Tyrant turned its head away dismissively, snorting.
"Ah! Fire's up."
Ruby said.
Jade could now see a torch rising from the village.
"Looks okay. Hur's lighting the torch... and Barshu's signaling it's safe beside him."
Ruby mimicked the Koon hunter's hand signal he'd just learned.
"Then let's go."
At Jade's words, Ruby pointed at the Tyrant and said,
"I'll wait here. Taking this thing into the village would scare everyone."
"True. They're already spooked from attacks like this."
"I'll keep watch, and if needed, chop its legs so it can't go anywhere."
At Ruby's words, the Tyrant yelled,
"Isn't that breaking our deal?"
"Like I said, I never promised to leave your limbs intact."
The Tyrant glared wide-eyed with fury but said nothing against Ruby.
The sight filled Jade with both trust and a strange unease.
"Then I'll be back, Ruby. Stay here."
"Got it."
Ruby answered curtly.
Jade headed toward the village, with Saf close behind. Halfway down the hill, Jade glanced back at Ruby.
He watched with an innocent smile.
'Why does it feel unsettling?'
Jade muttered to herself.
"What's wrong?"
Saf noticed and asked.
"Nothing."
Jade continued down the hill. Ruby and the Tyrant stood prominently at the hill's edge, showing no unusual movement.
From afar in the darkness, the village looked like orderly rows of sturdy tents. Up close, most were torn or collapsed with poles pulled out. Nomads' belongings were scattered everywhere.
The two headed to the village center where the three hunters waited with their torch lit.
Villagers emerged one by one from hiding in the ruins of mud houses. All wore exhausted, terrified faces.
A woman stood beside Barshu with dried blood crusted on her face. She startled slightly at Jade and Saf but relaxed when Barshu calmly explained in the Koon tongue.
Soon, tears poured from her eyes.
"This is my wife."
Barshu soothed the crying woman and continued.
"Just as Hur saw, beasts attacked the village at night. Women and elders took up knives but were no match. They couldn't stop the children from being taken. Weak resistance meant no deaths."
Barshu didn't count that as fortunate. Tears welled in his eyes, his voice trembling.
"Both my daughters were taken."
As he spoke, villagers gathered around them.
"The villagers are already prepared to go rescue the children. Let's go together. Fight... together."
Barshu emphasized in awkward Rom tongue.
"I know Ruby's power is great, but Gotking has an army of hundreds of wild beasts. Fighting together increases our chance to save the children."
Barshu trailed off, awaiting Jade's decision. But she shook her head.
"You all shouldn't get involved."
For the first time, Barshu angrily faced Jade.
"You're telling us to sit this out? We can't!"
Excited, Barshu raised his voice at Jade.
"We are a forgiving people. Long ago, when Gran's Koonran Batilan was assassinated by Pharen's assassins and Rom's legions drove us back to nomadism, we forgave the western kingdoms. Because they left our children alone. When Rom marched east to reclaim holy lands, sacrificing our warriors, we forgave. Because they guaranteed our children's future. But touch our children, and we don't forgive."
Some villagers who understood Rom shouted excitedly. But Jade firmly shook her head.
"I know how much the Koon value their children. That's exactly why I can't take you. That's what the Goat King is after."
Jade had been piecing together Gotking's actions and mindset from everything she'd heard.
It was more like the demons of the Red Desert than Jerba's Duorna or Rom's Autis.
Rather than hiding and sowing fear covertly, it revealed itself to inspire terror. It made wild animals its minions, sent scouts like the Tyrant—building its own kingdom.
"It's trying to build an 'Empire of the Steppe.' An army of beasts alone won't suffice. But a Koon army that once terrified the western kingdoms could."
"Why would we join a demon's army?"
Barshu asked.
"Because you'd do anything for your children."
Jade gestured to the villagers and continued.
"On the way here, I kept wondering why Gotking didn't massacre the tribe or slaughter people huddled by the tent walls. The Tyrant just circled Gran, stoking fear. It could have attacked endlessly with its undying body to wipe you out. It plans to manipulate you."
Barshu asked in a trembling voice.
"Then if we go together..."
"It'd hinder Ruby instead."
"So Ruby fights alone?"
"No."
Jade glanced at Saf, then pointed toward Ruby outside the village and said,
"Saf, me, and Ruby—the three of us will do it!"
Only after speaking did she realize Ruby was gone.
Jade narrowed her eyes toward the hill and asked Barshu,
"Uh, Barshu. Can you see Ruby? It's so dark, I can't spot him."
Even that keen-eyed hunter narrowed his eyes.
"Alone, maybe, but that huge horse too?"
Barshu looked to Hur, who also shook his head.
Jade's heart sank.
'No way, this guy?'
Without time to explain, Jade rushed up the hill where Ruby had been. Saf followed naturally, with Barshu and Hur behind.
Reaching the hilltop, Jade let out a sharp gasp.
"My God!"
Where Ruby and the Tyrant should have been, nothing remained but an empty bread sack.