The Fire That Lingers
The entire world seemed to hold its breath as a profound silence stretched on for what felt like an eternity.
“……Ah.”
Oh no.
Raven let out a short sigh and raised a hand to cover his face. He could feel his eyelids trembling.
……It seemed he had been quite startled by the first fire he had faced in ten years.
His sightless eyes suddenly stung. His entire body protested in pain.
“If you handle this matter well, I shall grant freedom to both you and your parents.”
“It is not a difficult task. Simply install the portal.”
The voice from the day the Association had crossed the line gnawed at his mind.
“You can do it, can’t you?”
Memories began to flood past the crumbling mental barriers.
The day an ignorant child, raised in isolation from the outside world, first set foot in it for a mission. The explosion that erupted upon its completion. The horrific heat that engulfed his body. The eyes and part of his soul stolen from him. And the tinnitus that still shook his brain.
Beeeeep—
……What a pathetic sight. It was not even an explosion, merely a fire, yet here he was making a fool of himself.
Realizing his own state, Raven lowered his head and let out a hollow laugh.
His hands were trembling.
“──Captain!”
Apparently the tinnitus had been real after all.
A voice pierced through the ringing, faint at first, then growing clearer until a hand grabbed his shoulder.
“Are you all right?”
His consciousness, wandering the boundary between reality and the past, was finally pulled back into the present. Raven blinked blankly for a moment.
The startled mercenary was shaking his shoulder.
“I tried to stay quiet, but your reaction seemed off……”
“……I’m dizzy. Let go.”
“Ah, yes.”
The mercenary quickly withdrew his hand and stepped back at a respectful distance.
Only then did the trembling in Raven’s green eyes subside. The shaking in his hands ceased as well. After checking that he had returned to normal, Raven began to chuckle.
A sharp, self-mocking laugh spilled low across the ground, as if clawing at himself.
“Idiot.”
“……”
Losing one’s eyes and Sculpted Soul while suffering full-body burns and dying alone in a monster den was not a common occurrence, so it was understandable that the memory lingered. Even so.
‘That was before I gained immortality.’
How much time had passed since then, yet he still reacted this way.
The embarrassment was so extreme that only laughter came out.
[Guardian Spirit ??? sends a pitiful gaze.]
……And the Guardian Spirit’s reaction only made it worse.
‘Don’t look at me like that.’
I was able to meet you because of that. What am I supposed to do if you pity me?
It was simply because he had faced fire while off guard after so long. The last thing he had seen before losing his eyes was that crimson glow filled with intense heat. That was all.
Forcing himself to look away from the message, Raven turned to the mercenary. A face filled with bewilderment and concern came into view. Raven deliberately curved his lips into a crooked smile.
“What if you suddenly start a fire while I’m lost in thought? You startled me.”
“Ah…… I’m sorry. Should I put it out now?”
“It’s fine. We still need to eat.”
He held no grudge against fire itself. Now that he recognized it as a campfire, that unsightly reaction would not happen again, so he waved his hand dismissively and sat back down. Of course, the chair was the bandit leader.
‘……Come to think of it, I swore in front of the kid.’
Ancestors said one should not swear in front of children.
After firmly pressing down on the rebellious chair and ruffling Didi’s hair for a while as the boy approached hesitantly, Eckhart, who had been roasting meat, suddenly looked up as if he had just realized the absurdity of the situation.
Forgetting Raven’s earlier behavior, the mercenary’s loud voice pushed aside the heavy atmosphere.
“Captain, don’t you know how to roast meat?! Why am I the only one……!”
“I do know how, but everyone stops me.”
“Ah……”
Somehow, he felt like he understood the reason without needing to hear it.
The mercenary’s face turned awkward. Confirming this, Raven made a show of rising from his seat.
“Shall I roast it?”
“No, it’s fine.”
As if deciding there was no need to taste whether it was dung or soybean paste, Eckhart quickly put on a serious expression.
“I cannot ask the Captain to lend a hand for something so trivial.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I am the one trying to recruit you into the mercenary group. I should be treating you with utmost care, yet it seems I momentarily lost my mind.”
“……You should probably give up on that soon.”
So it was still ongoing. He had clearly said no.
Well, it was only the other man who would suffer. Since it did not inconvenience him, Raven said nothing more and fixed his gaze on the meat that was slowly browning.
Silence returned. Some time passed.
“It’s done!”
The mercenary smiled proudly as he tore off an entire leg and held it out to Raven. Even though it was nearly the size of a whole chicken, he added that Raven should speak up if it was not enough. Raven’s expression twisted oddly.
‘What does he think a human stomach is?’
……Did he think it was some magic pouch that could expand infinitely?
Still, it was not unpleasant to be looked after so attentively. Watching the mercenary offer Didi a chunk of meat roughly the size of the boy’s upper body, Raven accepted the piece handed to him and tossed it high into the sky.
Then came the sound of wind being sliced.
Shwaaaak!
Though it looked ridiculous, a Sculpted Soul was still a Sculpted Soul. In an instant, a crow darted forward and snatched the meat, which was easily twice the size of its body.
Raven watched the scene, then turned his head.
“Ah.”
His eyes met the mercenary’s.
Judging by the widened eyes, the man had seen everything. He had been caught.
“Just now…… what was that……?”
“What do you mean?”
“Captain threw the meat into the sky, and some crow…… No, was that even a crow?! Can a crow carry something like that and fly?!”
“I was just feeding it. Calm down and eat.”
“Ugh!”
Raven snatched the meat from the man’s hand and shoved it into his mouth.
The mercenary fell silent with his mouth stuffed full. Enjoying the brief quiet, Raven sharpened his senses and checked on the recipient through the crow. He could feel busy movements, as if the food was being eaten with gusto.
‘Eating well.’
During the journey toward the imperial capital, their relationship with Dan—through this indirect companionship—had developed to the point where they could share meals.
Of course, it was not shared directly. The food had to be set aside separately and distance maintained, like feeding a wild beast, before Dan would approach and take it. Still, it was progress.
At least until they reached the capital, separating from Dan had become nearly impossible, so it was easier to keep him nearby and watch over him. Moreover, as time passed, the distance required when leaving food grew smaller, so it was not particularly troublesome. Raven added Dan to his mental list of children he needed to look after.
“Haa, fine.”
Meanwhile, the mercenary, having finished chewing the meat in his mouth, sighed and tore off another piece to offer.
“I won’t ask, so just eat the meat. You need strength, don’t you?”
“……”
“That bandit leader keeps staring at it like he wants some. If you keep hesitating like this, I might just give it to him.”
……It would not matter if he just gave it away.
However, the warmth in the playful threat was clear, so Raven looked down at the meat in front of him with a slightly complicated expression before accepting it.
While he held it without eating, the mercenary, who had been glancing over while tearing at his own meat, suddenly spoke.
“By the way, Captain.”
“?”
“Is it true that you killed that assassin candidate’s family?”
“Yeah.”
So there was no reason to recruit someone like him into a mercenary group. The position of captain was out of the question.
Perhaps he had only now realized that fact. He caught on quickly. Watching the mercenary fall silent in thought, Raven looked up at the sky to enjoy the quiet that had returned.
But that lasted only a moment. He had to look at the mercenary again. A persistent gaze pricked at him.
“Stop staring like that and speak if you have something to say.”
“Ugh……”
“……”
“Uuuuugh……”
……Should he hit him?
It was unpleasant, but one hit would not be so bad, would it? Raven tilted his head as he observed the man examining him, then rested his chin on his hand at an angle.
There was no reason not to hit someone who was neither a minor nor a victim of the Gates. He decided to wait a little longer, and if this continued, he would strike once—when a voice finally came.
“It’s just……”
The mercenary lowered the hand holding the meat.
“I wanted to hear your story.”
“……”
For a moment, Raven’s movements stopped.
“I have not watched the Captain for long, but no matter how I look at it, you do not seem like a bad person. There must be some reason you became that child’s enemy……”
A truly bad person would not have spared the child who tried to kill him.
Moreover, Raven had not merely spared Dan—he had defended the boy and even looked after him in subtle ways. That was why Eckhart judged that Raven was at least not evil.
‘Besides, there is something about him that strangely lowers one’s guard.’
When he was present, his existence was vivid, yet at times he felt as if he had never been there at all, so one’s instincts kept deciding there was no value in staying wary.
How to put it—it was as if he were insisting that guarding against something nonexistent was meaningless.
Therefore, Eckhart wanted to know more about him.
“Now that I think about it, I know nothing about the Captain. Trying to recruit you without knowing anything seems foolish.”
“That ‘recruiting’ expression again……”
Raven crossed his arms, the meat still in his hand.
“Well, at least you realized you were being foolish. That is something.”
“Captaaaain……ugh!”
“But there is no reason I have to tell you anything.”
What was the point of talking when it would all be forgotten in time anyway?
After shoving the meat he had been holding into the man’s mouth, Raven dusted off his hands and stood up. Eckhart, who had learned to bite into the meat skillfully after being caught off guard once before, tilted his head and asked.
“Captain? Where are you going?”
“For a walk.”
The young noble Didi was a quiet child, present yet absent, so leaving him for a short while would not be a problem.
Raven walked away with an indifferent expression. From behind, he could hear Eckhart distributing the remaining food to the bandit leader, but he did not turn around.
‘……I did not expect such a fool to still exist.’
To the very end.
Eckhart had not asked about Raven’s startled reaction to the fire, nor had he pointed out that Raven had ultimately avoided eating.
It was a truly kind consideration.
[Erase Raven’s traces and hide them.]
Regardless of worry or complaint, once an order was given, it was followed.
He knew well that the man’s stubbornness was nearly unbreakable, and above all, they were family. If family did not trust and support someone who prioritized family above all else, what would he have to live for?
Thus, the one who had been moving diligently according to the order discovered a problem and turned to Edardo.
“What should we do about the bounty? It was not issued openly, and it was only secretly distributed to inns and shops, so it will be difficult to handle.”
After a brief moment of thought, the head of the information guild Aurell replied.
“……It would be better to distribute the wanted posters openly.”
If they could not eliminate them completely, it was better to spread them widely so that he would notice and hide.
Since he had already told the Association heads that he would search anyway, there was no need to worry about suspicion arising from this action.
‘It must be the result of the Association heads thinking and acting on their own……’
If they had not wanted their efforts to go to waste, they should have given prior notice.
They had done nothing wrong. Edardo smiled shamelessly.
Thus, the wanted posters regarding Raven were mass-copied and scattered everywhere.
It was a situation that would likely make someone clutch the back of their neck.
‘Damn it.’
The young noble Didi…… No, Deciever clutched the back of his neck.
What were they thinking, distributing wanted posters so openly! If Master were to discover this, the trip to the capital would obviously be ruined!
‘It was not Brother or Sister’s doing…… Did another organization intervene?’
Still, they were Father’s disciples in name. They would not have acted so foolishly. Perhaps they had tried to find Master through others and something had gone wrong.
‘This is why moving personally is the most certain method.’
Deciever glared at the recovered wanted posters with an irritated face.
How many had he gathered like this?
The stack of papers, growing thicker the closer he got to the capital, was counted sheet by sheet for a moment before he stopped the meaningless action and let out a deep sigh, gripping them with both hands.
It was fortunate that he had not eliminated all the people he had borrowed, just in case. After joining Father, he had kept some alive in preparation for situations where he could not move freely, but he had not expected to use them like this.
‘……There are indeed fields where having more manpower is convenient, such as recovering wanted posters scattered everywhere.’
Brother and Sister must have seen finding Master as one such field. It was irritating, but he could not say he did not understand.
He did not want to waste energy on spilled milk.
Just as he had throughout the journey, he was about to tear the stack of papers received through animals into small pieces when—
Shwaaaak!
The sound of wind being sliced rang out.
Thwack!
At the same time, a crow snatched the papers from his hand and flew away.
“Ah……”
The ordinary noble young lady, whose Sculpted Soul had been taken, stared with wide eyes at the bundle of papers growing distant. Her gaze briefly met the crow’s glossy black eyes.
“……”
“……”
And the crow could see it.
Despite the innocent-looking face, a deep murderous intent flashed in those round eyes.
‘As expected.’
Feeling the emotions boiling inside him, Deciever thought.
Dan moved his position toward where Raven was, preparing for any unforeseen circumstances, and became certain.
The crow, clutching the bundle of papers tightly, cut through the tension-filled air and flew toward Dan.
‘Should I kill him?’
‘He is not an ordinary noble brat.’