Ch.7373. In Memory (2)

Aryen sat on debris far from the village, staring at the sea. Though the island had shattered, land submerged, and the city vanished, the sea looked peaceful. Small waves splashed against the unintentional breakwater formed by piled debris.

“Move it! Not that one!”

“I think we should just push it all away.”

Voices of people clearing debris occasionally reached him. Aryen glanced at them through narrowed eyes before turning back toward the sea. A slightly larger wave crashed over the debris. The wind wasn’t strong. The sea was gentle like a cradle.

“Come on, gather it all together and move it.”

Aryen watched a worker approaching him. Though autumn had arrived and the wind was growing cool, the worker was still dripping with sweat.

“Sorry brother, but this area is dangerous. The debris might collapse.”

Aryen jumped down from the debris. Though he fell from twice a person’s height and landed without issue, the worker looked at him with surprise.

“You’re quite something, brother. Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Not really.”

The worker stared at Aryen with curiosity. Aryen shrugged once and began walking along the beach. Guilt. Aryen recalled the word as he looked at the debris. Ilroy hadn’t pushed responsibility onto him. She hadn’t tried to poke at others’ guilt. Aryen sighed.

Splash. Splash.

He heard waves crashing against the debris. Dwelling on the past wasn’t something Aryen enjoyed. But his conversation with Ilroy kept making him recall past events he’d rather not remember.

“…Kala.”

That name he didn’t want to remember again. Aryen closed his eyes as he watched the incoming waves.

==

Aryen Elmione was born in a border dispute region of the Kingdom of Kairos. Seeing corpses wasn’t unusual. Enemy soldiers’ corpses. Kingdom soldiers’ corpses. Few died with their eyes closed. Soldiers usually died with their helmets off and eyes wide open. Aryen knew the eyes of the dead. Whitish, gray-stiffened irises and pupils. Crows would fly in to peck at the decaying bodies.

“Hey! Hey! Don’t touch what’s over there.”

Whenever Aryen would blankly stare at corpses, patrol soldiers would come scold him and chase him away. Aryen had seen crows’ beaks pecking at dead eyes. Crows never came alone. When they found a corpse, they’d caw, caw, calling their companions. Hundreds of crows thrived in the fields and forests. Soldiers would bring in and burn the kingdom’s corpses while leaving enemy corpses for crows to devour.

“Children shouldn’t see such things. How many times is this now?”

With an irritated voice, the soldier grabbed Aryen by the scruff and dragged him back to the village. Aryen glanced at the sword clattering at the soldier’s waist and pouted.

“Someday I’ll fight with a sword too. They’re bad guys, aren’t they? Those people.”

“You don’t need to fight. Go help your father with his work.”

Since Aryen was found so frequently, most nearby soldiers knew his face. They called him the crow-like boy. Both he and crows were black-haired, black-eyed creatures found near corpses.

“Work doesn’t go well here anymore. The world’s too noisy.”

“You’ll be in big trouble if you say that in front of others, crow.”

The soldier said this while ruffling Aryen’s hair, then turned to continue his patrol. Aryen’s father was a woodcutter. He was always drunk, but not the type to hit Aryen or his mother. He had black hair similar to Aryen’s and looked like a man who had carelessly shaved his beard.

“You went there again today.”

Aryen’s father said to him. At first, his father had scolded him severely, but now he seemed to have given up. His mother looked at Aryen with a worried expression.

“I’m thinking about leaving this village soon.”

“Moving away?”

His father nodded slowly.

“A woodcutter can live anywhere there are trees.”

I see. Aryen nodded, looking at the old axe leaning against the fireplace. His father looked at Aryen and spoke again.

“If you don’t have anything special you want to do, learn how to handle an axe.”

“I’m going to be a soldier.”

At Aryen’s words, his father’s expression hardened severely. His father’s cup rattled. Aryen expected another scolding, but his father just took another drink.

“Why do you think that?”

At his father’s question, Aryen frowned. He hadn’t thought deeply about it.

“Because I want to defeat our enemies.”

“…I see.”

His father’s voice was weak as he answered. Though Aryen didn’t know why, he was glad his father wasn’t opposing him. His father tapped the table with a thoughtful expression.

“You must think about why you swing a sword.”

That’s what his father said. Young Aryen couldn’t understand his father’s words. He thought he had already explained why he wanted to become a soldier.

And Aryen came to understand his father’s words just a week later.

“Kill them!!”

The day after his conversation with his father, the kingdom launched a major attack. It was an assault mobilizing all the soldiers Aryen knew. The enemy country couldn’t mount proper resistance and was pushed back. The kingdom easily took territory and raised its flag. Aryen watched the returning soldiers with admiring eyes as they celebrated victory.

“Hey, the war will end soon. Once we take that area, we’ll win.”

The soldiers Aryen met after the battle wore triumphant smiles. Aryen looked at the soldiers who had put down their spears and removed their helmets. Blood of unknown origin had dried brown on their cheeks and armor.

“When we win, you won’t have to wander around here nervously anymore. You won’t have to see corpses either.”

The soldiers spoke happily, jabbing the ground with their sword tips.

“I want to be a soldier too.”

The soldiers burst into laughter at Aryen’s words.

“Come on, stop it. This isn’t a good thing. It might look cool to you now, but actually holding a spear is completely different.”

“Otherwise you could become a woodcutter like your father. Not very exciting, though.”

“Woodcutter is a much better job than ours. Better to cut trees than people.”

The soldiers chuckled as they spoke. Aryen shook his head, not quite understanding.

“Well, you still have plenty of time to think about it, crow. It’s probably better to listen to adults than you think.”

And that was Aryen’s last meeting with those soldiers in his memory.

That night, the enemy country launched a counterattack against the Kingdom of Kairos soldiers who had penetrated deep into their territory. Enemy forces that had been lying in ambush near the border surrounded the territory and quickly devoured the isolated kingdom forces. The enemy country pressed their advantage and advanced into kingdom territory.

“That’s right. You’re learning quickly, Aryen.”

And at the point when they began their full-scale advance, Aryen was practicing wood cutting with his father in the forest. Without putting too much strength in his wrists and arms, swing.

Thunk.

The axe embedded in the tree trunk. His father’s old axe had fit well in Aryen’s hand from the beginning, as if it were his own. His father silently watched Aryen strike the base of the tree. The indentation was getting deeper. Just a few more strikes and the tree would fall.

“I won’t stop you from becoming a soldier.”

At his father’s words, Aryen wiped his sweat and turned his head.

“Really?”

“Yes. If that’s truly what you want…”

Boom.

Just then, they heard a sound like something collapsing. The noise didn’t stop with one instance but spread like paint dropped in water, becoming scattered sounds. His father’s face turned ashen. He immediately began running toward the village. Aryen ran after his father, carrying the axe. His father was fast. Aryen gasped for breath, barely stretching his feet forward to keep his father in sight.

“Find the Kairos bastards! Kill them without mercy if they resist!”

The noise struck Aryen’s ears as he emerged from the forest. Aryen stopped at the forest exit. The village was burning. In the midst of it, a scene of carnage was unfolding. It wasn’t just enemy soldiers. Kingdom soldiers and enemy forces were fighting in a tangled mess.

Cries of “die” and “kill them” were everywhere. Aryen forgot to follow his father and stared blankly at the scene. Better to cut trees than people. Aryen witnessed the soldier who had said those words get impaled through the neck by a spear.

“Aryen!! Run to the forest quickly!!”

His father’s shout. Without hearing those words, Aryen moved his feet aimlessly following his father’s voice. Home. Where was home? Next to Aryen came someone’s scream and the sound of falling. With a crash, the door in front of a house collapsed, and his father and a soldier tumbled onto the ground. His father’s eyes met Aryen’s in midair.

“Aryen!! What are you doing?! Run away now!!”

Thunk.

A sword pierced his father’s chest. The blood didn’t spurt but flowed down his chest. Aryen saw his father’s blood soaking the ground. His father flipped over and struck the soldier’s face. The soldier struggled and twisted the sword, and his father coughed up blood. Other soldiers swarmed in and thrust spears into his father’s back. Aryen didn’t want to think about what might have happened to his mother.

“Aryen!!”

In the midst of it all, his father shouted, looking at Aryen. Aryen staggered, then set off running to escape. His chest was heaving at a strange pace. A strange smell lingered in his nostrils. It was probably the stench of burning human flesh.

He ran back the way he had come. Blazing sunlight and pouring blood. Aryen kept running. Into the forest, but where should he go? The only place Aryen could think of was where he had been cutting trees with his father. As Aryen pushed through the undergrowth, a soldier who had removed his helmet stood up from where he was sitting. It wasn’t Kingdom of Kairos armor.

“What? A kid slipped through.”

The soldier didn’t seem in his right mind. Half his face was covered in blood. The soldier staggered toward Aryen.

“You should have stayed put.”

The soldier drew his sword and looked down at Aryen with bloodshot eyes. Aryen slowly backed away. The sword came down. Aryen didn’t retreat but dove forward. The soldier was swinging as if at an adult. The soldier’s sword didn’t reach Aryen. The soldier’s body tilted forward.

“Release the tension.”

Aryen muttered as he gripped the axe with both hands and swung. The axe flew without resistance and split the helmetless soldier’s face.

Crack.

The soldier collapsed on the spot and died. Blood splattered onto Aryen’s face. Aryen dropped the axe and sat down blankly. The blood wetting his legs was warm. Aryen heard rustling in the grass. Footsteps were approaching.

“This bastard…”

A comrade of the soldier? Aryen looked at another soldier wearing the same armor, standing in shock with a blank expression. He was staring wide-eyed, his hands trembling. The soldier raised his sword. Aryen had no strength left to pick up the axe again.

He didn’t even have time to think about dying. Aryen’s eyes followed the falling blade. And then.

Thunk.

Someone’s sword pierced the soldier’s back. The soldier stiffened and turned to look at who had stabbed him.

“You people… why would you…”

The soldier said in a trembling voice, then collapsed sideways and breathed his last. Aryen blinked at the one-eyed woman and men who appeared behind the fallen soldier.

“Is it worth killing a child? Swinging a sword before we can even stop him.”

The woman spoke in a rough voice, kneeling before Aryen. She looked at Aryen, the axe in his hand, and the fallen soldier in turn, then frowned and exhaled with a “hmm.”

“Boys. Nobody saw that just now, right? Let’s get out of here first.”

“…If we’re discovered, they won’t leave us alone, boss.”

“So what? We won’t be discovered in the first place. Our job is done, isn’t it? We’ve already received our advance payment.”

The men shook their heads. The woman smiled sharply and asked Aryen:

“What do you say, little crow? Want to come with us?”

Aryen found himself taking the hand the woman offered. The woman’s smile deepened.