The Duty of an Adult
As if he had fully anticipated that Raven would dodge it without difficulty, the moment Raven tilted his head to avoid the blow, Dan charged straight at him and shoved with all his strength.
But there was no chance such a cheap trick would work on a man who had spent roughly a hundred and fifty years on the front lines.
Raven simply twisted his torso where he stood and took a single small step, sending Dan sprawling. He looked down at the boy with indifferent eyes.
“Sorry.”
……The dry apology was unspeakably cruel.
Hadn’t he been nothing more than a frail shaman who relied on a single guardian spirit? The image of him coughing up blood so precariously was nowhere to be seen. Ignoring Dan as the boy scrambled to cling to him once more, Raven moved his hand.
─Thud.
A sound more horrifying than any before it rang out.
“……─.”
Silence descended.
As though time itself had frozen, Dan staggered to his feet and lurched toward the woman. Unable to walk properly on two legs, he crawled closer, gathered her limp corpse into his arms, and moved his lips. The arms that held what had once been his sister trembled violently.
Dan could not comprehend the situation.
‘……Why.’
He slowly stroked her cheek, but instead of any response her head lolled sideways. He held a hand beneath her nose, yet there was no sign of breath, no trace of life.
‘Why?’
How had things come to this?
He had promised to help her. He had even swallowed his desperate impatience and waited quietly for the conversation with the guardian spirit to end.
The unacceptable reality left his mouth hanging open in stunned silence.
“…──.”
Yet all that emerged was a faint sigh no one could hear.
……Why had he fought so desperately? Wasn’t it to save her?
Even when his throat had been torn apart and his vocal cords destroyed, even when he had faced monsters with a tongue cut from his mouth, the reason he had screamed and endured was because of the last of his blood kin.
His black eyes lost focus and stared blankly into empty space. Then the weight in his arms drew his gaze back down to her.
‘……This isn’t a dream.’
Yes. This was reality. It was no dream.
It would have been better if it were. The dead weight of her limp body forced him to accept the truth.
His tightly shut mouth opened again, releasing a silent scream. The eyes that had been sunken in emptiness shook, pouring out despair.
“───!”
This throat that could not produce sound, that could not even weep, filled him with resentment. The self who had chosen the wrong person and begged for help was so hateful he thought he would go mad. He was furious with resentment, yet the target of that rage was himself.
With a trembling hand he reached for his own neck.
Sharpened nails began to scrape viciously at the scarred flesh. Bits of skin caught under his nails and tore away; blood welled up, yet he did not stop.
The emotion was so overwhelming that even his sense of pain had gone numb. He felt nothing.
Drip. Drop.
He kept clawing until the blood that had beaded on his fingertips ran down his arm, gathered at his elbow, and finally fell to the ground. At that moment an incongruous voice cut in.
“Trying to die?”
“…….”
A perfectly clean voice utterly devoid of emotion.
Heavy, sunken eyes turned toward Raven. Unbothered by the murderous glare, the man standing at a slight angle dismissed the weapon that harvested souls and continued in a careless tone.
“As for me, it doesn’t matter whether you live or die, but……”
“…….”
“You still have too many regrets to die just yet.”
……Now that he thought about it, yes. There was this man.
From breaking his promise to personally driving a blade into his sister, here was a being with clear reasons to be hated. The seething murderous intent changed direction.
At that blatant hostility Raven gave a crooked smile.
‘Yes, I suppose I must have regrets.’
Whether it was himself, who had killed her with his own hands, or the slave traders who were the more fundamental cause, dying now would be too unfair.
‘I originally planned to ignore it, but……’
His emotions had been worn down until his reason had grown dry; it saw no need to save someone who was neither dying at a monster’s hands nor truly attempting suicide. Had the other party been an adult, he probably would have walked away without a second glance.
But.
‘The other party is a minor.’
That was where the hesitation arose.
Long ago, after realizing he had stepped outside the bounds of ‘human,’ Raven had drawn a minimum line for himself in order to remain human. That line now asked him a question.
Was pretending not to see the death of a child truly the correct behavior for an ‘adult’?
Every adult had once been a child. Whether the influence was positive or negative, every child grew safely into another adult because of countless adults around them.
Unless one had become an adult alone in a remote mountain valley without encountering any other adults—or even if that were the case—showing consideration for a child who represented one’s own past and another’s future was the proper duty of a true adult.
Therefore Raven, who had defined himself as an ‘adult’ and chosen ‘attitude toward children’ among the many standards of humanity as the measure of his own, pondered the question and soon reached an answer.
‘……I have to stop him.’
Losing the chance to become an adult would be far too sad.
A child who would spend his whole life merely imitating adulthood, whose body had grown but whose heart had not, quietly lowered his vivid green eyes and consciously lifted the corners of his mouth in a crooked smile.
“Above all, it’s not something you should do in front of the last person who cared about you, is it?”
“…….”
The one who had killed that very person was now speaking with a living mouth. Dan ground his teeth and clenched his fists tightly.
Raven tilted his head at the sight. Between his grinning lips came words that were clearly mocking.
“That’s a murderous look. What, are you going to kill me?”
“…….”
“Don’t waste your stamina on useless things. Relax your eyes. You can’t kill me anyway.”
Dan’s patience ended there.
It was a miracle he had listened to the man’s nonsense this long.
I will definitely kill that bastard and lay him as an offering before my sister’s grave! Dan bared his teeth savagely and lunged at Raven─.
“I told you.”
─And was subdued in an instant.
A man who wandered alone hunting monsters and closing Gates was hardly going to be unable to overpower a single unarmed minor. Raven easily blocked Dan, pinned him down, rested his chin on his hand, and chuckled.
“You can’t kill me.”
“──!!”
I’ll kill you!!
“Well, that’s not the only reason.”
A weightless hand pressed firmly on the back of the struggling boy’s head. In complete contrast to his upturned lips, Raven’s eyes were dry and held not a trace of laughter as they gazed at the sky.
“Your sister asked me to look after you.”
“……!”
“Ignoring a request because I have no intention of granting it, and you killing me so that I become unable to grant it, are two completely different things. I doubt you’re cruel enough to trample on your sister’s last wish just because your emotions got the better of you.”
……He really wanted to kill him.
He wanted to shut that shameless, sophistic mouth somehow, but…….
“More importantly, shouldn’t a funeral come first? You don’t intend to let someone precious rot away in a place like this, do you?”
“…….”
Even when he had clung to him with all his sincerity to stop his actions, it had no effect at all. And now, in the face of being subdued so easily, Dan could feel the clear gap in power between them.
Dan quietly lowered his eyes.
The grave that should have taken a long time due to lack of manpower was completed faster than expected thanks to Dan’s ferocious tenacity.
This would be the end of their connection. While Dan tended to the corpse, Raven had passed the time a short distance away by torturing the pursuers he had captured. The moment the grave was finished, he bid farewell and left without regret…….
……And that was how a stalker was born.
Or perhaps he should call him an assassin.
Are you all right, child?
“Of course I’m fine. It’s not like this is the first or second time.”
Shiiing─!
When he twisted his body slightly, a bird shot past his chest at terrifying speed, missing by a hair’s breadth. Judging by the ominous sound and velocity, a direct hit would feel like being struck by a brick dropped from the fifth floor.
‘If I let my guard down my ribs will shatter.’
Even if he wouldn’t kill him outright, he would at least vent this much malice. Was that it?
‘Of all things, his sculpted soul had to be a crow.’
It made him flinch every time he saw it, but since he had brought it on himself, he could only endure.
Raven flicked a glance at the crow circling overhead, waiting for an opening, and at Dan who followed at a distance. With an unruffled expression he continued down the path he had to take.
A calm murmur followed.
“How much resentment and cursing have I received until now? Adding one more from a kid isn’t going to change anything.”
What will you do about the request she left before she died?
“What is there to do? It was a one-sided request and promise on her part. I clearly never answered. There’s no reason I have to follow through.”
But…….
He glanced back at Dan, who was visibly exhausted from the relentless travel. After digging the grave without rest and then immediately setting out again, the boy must have reached his physical limit.
“……The Fairy King hates humans, so it would be best to leave him behind before we get there.”
The place he was heading was the territory of the fairy race.
He did not particularly care whether Dan followed or not, but he also did not want to watch the boy die before his eyes. A village was visible just ahead; if he left him there, he would not need to worry too much.
It was not as if he were abandoning him in the wilderness. Leaving him in a village was the last bit of conscience he could muster. Raven strode into the village without hesitation, heading for an inn while keeping his senses on the presence trailing behind him.
‘……He’ll need money to survive from now on.’
Before entering the inn, he naturally let his coin pouch slip from his fingers. He felt the crow that had been circling overhead snatch it away, but pretended not to notice and placed his hand on the door.
You are too kind. It worries me.
“Kind? The people who died by my hand would laugh at that.”
If he set his mind to it he could earn as much as he wanted and had substitutes, but the boy did not.
Ding─
With a small murmur Raven opened the door and smiled gently at the innkeeper. The green eyes that some people found unsettling disappeared behind lowered lids.
“Do you have a room? I’d like to stay just one night……”
“……Oh, come in, young man! We have plenty of rooms!”
“Would you accept mana stones instead of money?”
‘……He dropped it on purpose.’
If he had at least pretended to pat his waist and search for the pouch, it might have been believable. To immediately begin speaking on the premise that he had no money—what was that about?
A person sensitive enough to pinpoint his exact location and stare at him even while blind could not possibly have missed the sensation of a pouch’s weight disappearing or the sound of something falling.
Dan watched the man’s back as he received the room key in exchange for mana stones without taking change, then glanced down at the coin pouch that had ended up in his own grasp.
‘It feels unpleasant, but……’
There was no other choice.
Gripping the pouch tightly, Dan stepped into the inn.
‘If I want to follow him, I have no choice.’
He had thought about it the entire time he was handling his sister’s body and building her grave.
What should he do now?
He could not kill Raven.
The man’s words had been hateful, but they were not wrong. Raven ignoring his sister’s request and himself killing Raven to cut off even the slightest possibility were different matters. Besides, he did not think he could kill him right now anyway.
‘I don’t know the details… but it’s clear he’s far stronger than I am.’
Unless he became stronger, he could not kill him. Especially since even a surprise attack would not work.
Yet he could not simply let him go. Dan had only postponed his revenge; he had not given it up. Raven was obviously a wanderer, the kind of person one might never see again once parted. He could not afford to lose track of him.
“Listen carefully. Sculpted Soul Masters and Awakeners are respected simply for existing because of the roles they played in the first Gate incident. The nuance is slightly different, but if I must compare it, it’s similar to how imperial family members are respected merely for being who they are.”
“…….”
“The fact that someone tried to enslave such a person—and not even a citizen of a defeated nation but an imperial citizen—is far more serious than you think. Sculpted Soul Masters in particular are becoming rarer with each passing day and are treated as even more precious, so if you step forward and ask for help, the Empire itself will move. You will be treated well, and naturally you will be able to take revenge on the slave traders.”
Dan had stared at Raven as though engraving the final advice the man gave while assuming their farewell into his memory.
“Of course, stepping halfway into the world of nobles may be exhausting. Your origin as a slave might hold you back. But since you escaped before being sold, it’s somewhat inaccurate to call you a complete slave, so it won’t be the worst situation. Being a ‘slave’ and ‘almost having become a slave’ are different, after all.”
Who said they were parting ways?