Shadow Forest
Spriggan led Lawrence to the lake.
A black lake, as though it held the darkness of the night sky itself.
In a lake that suited the Shadow Forest perfectly, something was there.
A spirit wrapped from head to toe in dark red cloth.
Its red eyes gave off an ominous presence even from atop the horse.
As soon as Spriggan made sure of what he was seeing, he scattered and ran for his life.
The horse that had been wandering along the lakeshore stopped before the visitor.
“Well now. I’ve got a rare guest.”
A voice like something creeping through damp earth.
The red eyes were there, silent as a snake slithering out of the darkness.
“You’ve grown quite a bit, beloved child.”
“It’s been a very long time.”
What should he say first?
The greeting he had agonized over came out so plainly that all his worries seemed foolish in hindsight.
“Have you come drifting in this time, or have you come looking for me?”
“There’s something I wanted to say first.”
Before anything else, there was something he had to say.
“Because of the kindness you showed me then, I survived. Thank you.”
Lawrence bowed his head, sincerely.
“If a child is beloved, then do not ask why the love you received was given. This body showed you kindness that day, nothing more and nothing less.”
“Even if there was some reason behind it, the fact remains that you helped me.”
There was no falsehood in that sentiment.
Back then, he still had no proper attack magic to speak of.
If not for Shadow Spear, he would have begun his life as a mercenary with only Fire and Shadow—the most basic of magics.
“At last, I can give you my name. You may call me Lawrence.”
It had always bothered him.
Now that the boy had finally said it, he went on, “I’ve been calling you Red Eyes.”
“Names hold no meaning for us. A neighbor of the Spirit World is only that—a neighbor. This body is merely the nameless spirit of the Shadow Forest.”
“Understood, Red Eyes.”
Five red eyes appeared beneath the cloth.
It wasn’t a threat.
If his feeling was right, Red Eyes seemed a little displeased.
“So you have mastered all five Cognitive Concepts. To think the child from then would grow so quickly…”
“What do you mean?”
There was confusion in Lawrence’s voice.
He had all five Cognitive Concepts?
No, that wasn’t right.
He still had not obtained the Smelling Nose or the Speaking Mouth.
“You are unaware of it? How immature, beloved child. Still, perhaps that very immaturity is what makes humans human.”
Red Eyes had no reason to lie.
Then perhaps Lawrence really did not know.
Had he already obtained all five Cognitive Concepts?
Looking back, there were signs, if not outright proof.
After leaving Dragon Valley, the boy had met countless neighbors.
The witch. The penitent of silence. The gravekeeper of the temple.
Even when he gained the Hearing Ear, communication with the neighbors had remained important.
And when he thought about all the understanding he had exchanged while wandering the world afterward… perhaps the effort he had spent searching the seams of the Spirit World had not been meaningless.
Then what had been the trigger?
The day Veles set out on his journey.
Lawrence had sung with the neighbors.
At the time, he had not understood the true meaning hidden within it.
But some part of his mind had grasped that it was the Speaking Mouth.
That much was true. There was no argument there.
Still, if he had to name the trigger, that experience might well have been the decisive one.
There was always an enormous difference between stepping through a door once and never having crossed it at all.
There was only one possible trigger for the Smelling Nose.
Arwen’s incense witchcraft. The scent appearing in shimmering clouds must have had something to do with the Smelling Nose as well.
Lawrence felt dazed.
This was not like a spell whose effects could be confirmed immediately.
There was no easy way to verify Cognitive Concepts unless one went through a neighbor of the Spirit World.
No. That wasn’t entirely true, was it?
Lawrence recalled Acheron’s words.
“To draw forth the true meaning of ancient magic, one must possess all five Cognitive Concepts.”
Had the insight he gained in the Witch’s Forest been proof that he had already awakened the five of them?
It felt as though the fog in his mind had finally cleared.
The five Cognitive Concepts.
At last, he had acquired the minimum qualification to call himself a mage.
Then perhaps hoping for something greater was not greed.
Once he had sorted through his thoughts, Lawrence looked back at Red Eyes.
“I came here because I wanted your teaching.”
“One must follow the path of shadows by walking in shadow. Beloved child, do you wish to hear the whisper of the Void?”
Red Eyes spoke as though he had expected it.
“The Void is already observing you. Even if you had not come looking for this body, it was already prepared to accept you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Remember this well. If you stare into the Void for too long, then the Void is staring into you as well.”
An empty sleeve rose.
A fragment in Lawrence’s arms floated upward.
“Still, the effort you made to seek me out is commendable. I shall answer that sincerity by giving you the stone of the Spirit World you brought with you.”
The fragment he had brought from the playground was sucked into the sleeve.
“Look.”
The air changed.
The temperature plunged in an instant.
A chill shuddered through his entire body.
An unbearable cold seeped through his robe.
The change began on the surface of the lake.
The shadows cast over the water rose like heat haze.
His vision warped strangely.
The haze twisted and swirled like a vortex, then slowly took shape and began to tremble.
“And understand.”
It was a mass of shadow?
No. That wasn’t it.
It was as though someone had built a prison out of shadow.
Whatever had been formed over the lake was violently churning within its narrow confines.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes. It looks as if you’ve trapped the shadows themselves.”
“If you have come to understanding, then take the Void as your own power. The Void is a force that devours all things and yet embraces all things. Its nature is the beginning and the end of all.”
There was no gesture.
And yet, without warning, a shadow spear appeared.
Two spears of burning shadow shot toward the prison.
CRAAASH!
The prison pierced by the shadow spears exploded.
The torrent of fire sent vast ripples across the lake.
“...!”
The thunderous blast left his ears ringing.
White spots burned across his vision.
The explosion resembled Shadow Spear.
And yet the spectacle before him possessed a power Lawrence had never witnessed before.
The scale was the same. The shadow blades that had carved up the lake scattered sparks again and again.
Something snapped inside his head.
All strength drained from his body in an instant.
When he came back to himself, the ground was right in front of his face.
A gap in his awareness.
He realized he had lost consciousness for a moment.
Drip.
A drop of blood fell onto the back of his hand.
He did not need to check where it had come from.
The white spots had turned red.
Lawrence wiped away the blood running from his eyes.
He understood now.
The casting words that surfaced in his mind were grasping the mystery Red Eyes had just shown him.
Shadow Trap.
The name of the new Void magic was Shadow Trap.
“Can you hear the whisper of the Void?”
He still did not seem to be in perfect condition.
Red Eyes’ voice sounded as though it were coming from far away.
Now he understood what had happened.
The ringing in his mind.
The red-tinted vision warning him that something was wrong with his body.
All of it was the price of accepting a mystery too great for him.
A warning not to seek what he was not yet ready to reach.
As Acheron had said, mysteries one could not bear would drive a person mad.
The Void magic Red Eyes had shown him aligned perfectly with that teaching.
“The cracks are watching you, beloved child. If you wish it, I can show you another mystery of the Void here and now.”
It was a sweet whisper.
One more.
Could he learn another Void spell?
The boy nearly nodded reflexively, but he summoned superhuman patience instead.
“I’m fin—... I’m fine.”
The words barely came out.
He hurt so badly that he could taste sweetness in his mouth.
This was nothing like when he had learned Shadow Spear.
He had not even used the magic himself, only looked and understood it, and yet his body was wracked with pain as though it were falling apart inside and out.
“A gift beyond one’s station always carries a price. But remember this well: do not imagine that one who refuses to shoulder greater danger than others can ever accomplish a great feat.”
His vision was collapsing.
It was nothing like being eaten by insects.
The white spots were no longer merely red—they were painting the whole world over.
“Now return to your own world, beloved child. When we meet again, I hope you will have grown a little more.”
Red.
Only red.
Nothing but red drove Lawrence out into a world dyed crimson.
* * *
Lawrence woke from a long, long dream.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a ceiling stained red.
A red ceiling?
No. When he blinked, it was a brown ceiling instead.
The headache racing through his head had not gone away yet.
A groan escaped him under the weight of the pain.
“You’re awake!?”
Someone was beside him.
Through the blur of his vision, he made out a girl with sky-blue hair.
“Luca?”
“Yes. It’s me, Lawrence.”
For some reason, Luca’s voice was hoarse.
Lawrence sat up and looked around.
The familiar sight of a guest room.
The inn they were staying at in Frang Village.
A basin of water and a clean towel.
Luca looked utterly exhausted and on the verge of tears.
His confused mind quickly found its answer.
“How many days was I out?”
“A week.”
A week.
The number was far beyond what he had expected, and Lawrence fell silent.
Had so much time really passed?
This had never happened before after one of his Spirit World dreams.
Was the burden of meeting Red Eyes really that great?
More precisely, it was because of the Void magic.
The mystery Red Eyes had shown him this time was something unimaginably distant.
If Shadow was the first step, and Shadow Spear was the fifth, then Shadow Trap felt less like a step and more like an entire floor.
He had been greedy enough to try learning it all at once, so it was only natural that the price would be this steep.
He hoped he would grow more.
A wry smile touched the corner of his mouth.
Cognitive Concepts, too, could grow through training.
Even after obtaining all five of them, it seemed he still had a long way to go.
“Are you sure you’re all right? You’re not hurt or unable to move or anything like that, are you?”
“I’m fine, Luca.”
“You’re not fine!”
Her voice was almost a scream.
Startled, Lawrence looked at her.
But if anything, Luca herself seemed the most shocked of all.
Realizing her mistake, she gripped the towel and bent forward at the waist.
“I-I’m sorry. What on earth was I doing…?”
Lawrence struggled to come back from the shock.
He had never expected this child of all people to shout.
But then he looked at Luca, trembling like a young sapling in the wind, and understood.
He had forgotten because she always seemed so composed.
No matter how strong or confident she tried to look in front of others, Luca was a child who had lost her younger brother just a few months ago.
She had watched a blood relative die right before her eyes.
That must have left a wound in her heart beyond description.
And then Lawrence himself had gone unconscious for several days on top of that, so it was only natural that she was close to losing her mind.
Whether he was going to die after all.
Whether she was going to be left alone again.
As those thoughts settled in him, the words that came out of his mouth softened.
“I’m not angry, so stand up.”
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
“Stand up.”
“......”
When his voice gained some force, Luca hesitantly straightened.
“It’s all right. Sometimes this happens when you’re practicing magic.”
“...Are you really okay?”
“Don’t worry. Have I ever lied to you?”
“Never.”
Lawrence ignored the headache and gave a small smile.
Only then, apparently reassured, did the girl move the towel into the basin.
How many times had she soaked and wrung it out?
The bucket by the door was full of wet towels.
Pretending not to notice, Lawrence asked Luca, “While I was asleep, nothing happened, did it?”
“Well… a sister came to visit.”
There was only one sister in this village.
“Did she happen to say her name was Catherine?”
“Yes. That was her name.”
Luca nodded.
He had not expected her to leave the monastery and come here in person.
“She asked if you were all right, Lawrence-sama. She gave me this and told me to feed it to you if you didn’t come around, but…”
There was a small bottle by the bedside that he had not noticed before.
A bottle of liquid, like a potion.
Inside was water with a faint blue tint.
“I was worried, so I left it alone for now.”
“......”
Lawrence studied the contents of the bottle in silence.
How should he put it?
It was not a potion. Potions usually had a red hue, but the liquid left in the bottle was the opposite—a blue tint.
He was not completely without a guess.
There were only two kinds of water the Church dealt with.
One was holy oil consecrated for the Goddess.
The other was the more commonly known holy water.
But Lawrence quickly dismissed the possibility.
It was absurd to think that holy oil kept in a sanctified vessel would be sitting here, and holy water was just as unlikely.
Holy water was extremely precious.
He had heard it could only be made by a priest or a saint.
Even if she belonged to the Holy See, there was no way an ordinary sister would have something that valuable, much less holy oil….
Lawrence asked Luca to put the bottle in his bag.
“The dwarf uncle sent word that the item has been finished.”
“I’m sorry for causing such trouble. He must have been waiting anxiously. It sounds like I’ll need to buy him some equipment too, not just alcohol.”
A small smile returned to Luca’s face.
She seemed glad that he had recovered enough to joke around.
“Anything else happen?”
“Nothing except that the village festival is getting closer… oh, and I think it would be better if you heard about Miss Elvira directly.”
He did not need to ask what had happened.
Just then the door opened, and Elvira came into the room.
“Lawrence?”
The water bucket hit the floor.
She hurried over and threw her arms around him.
“I’m so relieved. You’ve come back to your senses.”
“That hurts, Elvira.”
Not a lie—he was really in pain.
Having been unconscious for days, everything hurt.
“Ah, sorry.”
Elvira stepped back carefully.
Perched on the edge of the bed, her face was a little red.
Luca started to make room for her, but Elvira waved her off.
“So you’re all right now?”
“I’ll be stuck in bed for a while, but yes, I’m fine.”
“That’s such a relief. But why did this suddenly happen?”
“When you’re learning magic, sometimes things like this happen.”
Elvira’s questions did not end there.
She asked about his condition several more times.
Was anything hurting? Was there anything he couldn’t move?
No matter how many times he told her not to worry, she simply wouldn’t listen.
At this rate, they were going to talk about nothing but his condition.
Lawrence forced the conversation in another direction.
“Luca mentioned that something happened. While I was asleep, did you run into some trouble?”
“Trouble, I suppose. No children came to see the performance at all these past few days.”
“Not a single one? That can’t be right.”
Gypsies and troupes were more popular than a solemn bard.
Even in a quiet village like Hilton, all the children would gather the moment a bard showed up. There was no need to look farther than Cedric and the gypsy performance in Rombamel, which had been packed so tightly there wasn’t a seat to spare.
“Honestly, your performances are first-rate, aren’t they? By now the rumors should be all over the place. I’d think it would be strange if there weren’t lines to see you.”
“Thank you for the compliment. So I looked into it for the past few days, and it seems the adults have been keeping the children from interacting with outsiders. Because of that, the only people who ever come to the performances are the mercenaries who always show up.”
Elvira said it with a hardened expression.