Episode 23
* * *
I moved.
As the name suggests, this rocky mountain was a barren place.
The entrance to the mountain was the same as a typical mountain landscape, but as you go further in, the trees disappear and the grass disappears.
This ridiculous mountain, which literally consists of only rocks, is Rock Mountain.
I’m no environmental expert, but I can say this for sure.
This mountain is said to be unusual in many ways.
Of course, because of the unusual terrain, there are no landowners or slash-and-burn farmers around here.
I stood there for a moment, catching my breath.
If you think about it, this ‘coincidence’ is truly ironic.
A moment of coincidence and a series of coincidences.
And now, it is a coincidence that is being created by force.
It’s different, but not by much.
I climbed the rock mountain without hesitation as if this was my home.
At some point I ran, and at other times I ran while drawing up mana.
I think I did that for at least three or four hours.
At that point, as I neared the top of the mountain, my body felt damp as if I had been bathed in sweat.
I stopped in my tracks.
A vast rocky mountain.
Beyond that, the horizon is visible, and several fiefdoms look like dots on a piece of paper.
It’s definitely high up here.
I just looked around.
This place, with all the holes in it, would be creepy enough to make someone with trypophobia shiver, but not me.
I entered one of the countless holes that didn’t seem to have anything special about it.
I kicked the seat and stepped on the stepping stones to go down.
Soon I see a stone wall blocking my view.
I put my palm against the wall.
This was definitely the right place.
If you go over this wall, you can enter the ‘community’ where the teacher is.
Just one step.
I just need to take one step, but hesitation holds me back.
In the past, it was really just a coincidence that I found out about this place.
I want to escape from my family.
If I keep living like this, I feel like I’m going to suffocate to death.
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It’s so hard.
I was full of such thoughts.
So I ran away.
The first time I ever had courage was probably when I ran out of the house of my own free will, not against anyone else’s will.
After avoiding his pursuers and going and going again, he arrived at this very place: Mt. Bawi.
On this rocky mountain, Ron died protecting me.
What I did back then was nothing special.
I just ran away and hid like I always did.
Because there was nothing else I could do.
Well, it’s something I’ve been doing for over 10 years since I was young.
So I arrived at this place and cried quietly here.
I was sobbing so hard that I felt like all the water in my body was leaving me.
At that moment, when my tears completely soaked one wall of the cave and my tears soaked the wall and overlapped with my blood, a miracle happened.
I closed my eyes for a moment, opened them again, and wet the wall with the water bottle I had taken out earlier.
Then he pulled out his sword and lightly cut my wrist.
The flesh split open and the blood spurted out, wetting the wall once again.
As some time passed like that.
Kookung-!
There is a small noise and a friction sound.
It wasn’t the end.
Kukugugu-!!
The walls vibrate and slowly push inward.
A space was created where one adult could pass through, and I slowly walked inside.
Thud thud-
My footsteps echo through the small passage.
At the end of the passage, there was another wall.
And there are stairs built underneath that wall.
Should we call it a spiral staircase structure?
Of course, it is a structure that goes down, not up.
I started walking again.
As I went down the stairs one by one, I calmed my nervous mind.
Seriously, I don’t know when it’s been so long since I’ve felt this nervous.
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I think it’s been almost a dozen years.
This time, as expected, I walked for a long time.
Seriously, it took a long time.
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I don’t know how many hours have passed.
But time passed and my feet did not stop, so of course the end was in sight.
As the spiral structure ends, the narrow cavity gradually widens.
A wide, open space.
A large space appeared, almost several hundred pyeong in area.
I only looked straight ahead.
To be exact, I looked at the huge stone wall rising in the middle of the common area.
A small doll bound tightly with black chains.
What should I call that doll, which is twice the size of my head?
Should I call it a ball-jointed doll?
The overly realistically beautiful doll looks at me.
I, too, looked at the doll.
Our gazes become entangled in the void.
The doll’s eyes seemed emotionless, but I knew.
Those eyes right now are filled with quite a bit of confusion.
I approached the doll without hesitation.
What should I call you?
The words ‘great hero’ and ‘unlucky hero’ whose name is not engraved in history are also appropriate.
But it’s a little bit lacking.
So what about a being that has a curse carved into their body that allows them to revert to their original form only once a month?
Again, this is not it either.
There are many other words you can call it.
But none of these words are the ones I want to sing or can sing.
I knelt down on both knees in front of the doll looking up at me.
Even though there is no wind, the doll’s hair flutters gently.
I bowed my head towards the doll.
I really wanted to say this.
“It’s been a while, Master.”
* * *
Debate is a very meaningful thing for all scholars, regardless of empire or kingdom.
Of course, there are countless topics of discussion, and since there are so many of them, there are some that are quite random.
Of all the topics of discussion, there was one that received a great response from everyone, regardless of whether they were nobles, scholars, or commoners.
Indeed, can living beings become immortal?
This topic of discussion has generated a greater response than expected.
In fact, in some ways it was natural.
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Those who have power, and those who have influence, want to live long.
It’s a desire that anyone, regardless of race, would have.
Naturally, research into immortality began and numerous experiments were conducted.
But all experiments failed.
The reason is simple.
Because they could not overcome the enormous law called ‘time’.
In fact, it was an expected result.
Even the ‘warlocks’, who are synonymous with unclean existences, the dragons, who are the strongest life forms on earth, and the orcs and harpies, who are the guardians of the forest of evil, will eventually die someday.
It is a causal result of the inevitable and absolute laws of time.
The same goes for the teacher in front of you.
The Master, who is a being from the past, has lived for at least 400 years.
How could a human who lives for 100 years live for 400 years?
Was immortality a success?
You might think so, but that’s not true.
The master simply used a shortcut.
The magic of separating the soul and body, but maintaining the bond.
I cannot go into detail, but this is a promise made by the Master with the essence of his soul at stake.
Certainly, it could have been written as a shortcut.
The problem is that this shortcut is almost over.
In your previous life, you lived for about 10 years after meeting me, but now is not that time.
I met my teacher three whole years early.
In other words, there are ‘as many as’ 13 years left to spend with the Master.
[… … Master?]
How I wanted to hear that voice.
Clear but heavy.
Simple yet beautiful.
It’s such a good sound that it makes my heart flutter just by hearing the voice.
The teacher asks me again.
[Who are you?]
“Would you like to guess?”
The teacher’s brow furrows.
The sight was so impressive that I couldn’t help but laugh.
[Is this situation funny?]
To be honest, it’s crazy fun.
No, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say “better”?
[I won’t ask you twice. Who are you?]
Oh, really.
“Our teacher has really lost his temper.”
If it were the old days, the bread would have gone flying away right away.
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As I spoke with a smile, the teacher’s brow furrowed once more.
You seem a little upset.
I guess the prank should end here.
“I’ve missed you for a long time.”
[me?]
“Yes, Master.”
The Master’s eyebrows furrow once more.
[My disciple whom I do not even know… … This situation is truly interesting. Do you even know who I am?]
“Yes, I know.”
I know more about my teacher than I thought.
Well, it’s strange that you don’t know each other even though we’ve been together for 10 years.
As I looked at the teacher now, a past moment was drawn in my mind like a picture.
Exactly when the master passed away.
My teacher extended his life through illegal means, but that reached its limit, and he eventually died before my eyes.
At that time, the teacher showed me tears for the first time.
I remember the last words too.
‘It’s very tiring.’
That one word.
That short, short statement contained more than I thought.
In this dark place where not a single ray of light shines, the Master spent his time alone, without any distinction between day and night.
1 year. 10 years. 100 years.
That’s how it was for 400 years.
For those 400 years, the Master was alone and had no one to talk to.
Before I met Master, Master had endured those 400 years alone.
I felt sorry for myself, but not more so than the Master.
The Master needed more love and more care than I did.
I have received so much from such a teacher, and now it is time to repay him.
[What’s with those eyes? Is it pity? You, me?]
ah.
“I apologize. And I will answer your question. Do you know who the Master is? Yes. I know. The great hero who ended the ‘Age of Glory’ and opened the ‘Age of Man.’ Valentine Milos. I am your disciple.”
[… … .]
I forgot to mention this.
“From the future.”
[Huh… …future?]
