༺ Sun – Claiomh Solais (7) ༻
“…They’re not coming.”
“Like, what is going on…?”
The druids of Findias did not know that the two girls stuck in their illusions were a part of Korin’s group. That was why they had laid them down at one of the city’s halls, thinking that they would wake up sometime soon.
“Korin. Any later than this and there will be no advantage to our previous lead.”
“Sister, but…”
“No, Miss Lunia is right. If we wait any longer than this, our advantage over Scaith’s group will turn meaningless.”
In the end, Korin decided to start climbing the oak tree.
“Let’s go!”
Korin, Alicia, Lunia and Yuel.
The four of them started climbing the enormous oak tree.
Meanwhile, Scaith and Dumnorix were glaring at them with a sharp look in their eyes.
****
Marie silently watched over the two happy people.
Guests congratulated them; the choir sang songs and the priest blessed their future. Everyone in the chapel was happy except for Marie.
1 year went by.
Hua Ran gave birth to a child. Watching the two of them buy baby clothes together, Marie unknowingly bit her lower lips, not knowing that her lips were turning red with blood.
Another year went by.
The child turned 1 year old. Seeing the baby toddle forward reminded her of Korin.
Another year went by.
She saw Korin preparing an event for the wedding anniversary. He didn’t prepare much, but it still allowed her to see just how considerate he was.
If only she was the one instead…
Another year went by.
“…I wish you all the best, Korin.”
She decided to accept it.
Marie decided to wish the best for her loved one. It seemed that they weren’t meant to be – they weren’t lovers, and it was already too late for her to do anything.
That was why she chose to bless them.
For their happiness.
Another year went by.
“Here you go, Hua Ran. A birthday present…!”
She became friends.
Hiding her inner turmoil and as a senior and a friend, she congratulated them on several anniversaries and went out together. However, she couldn’t stop her eyes from going to the husband of her junior.
No, no no.
She had to hope for their happiness.
She had to wish for their best.
Another year went by.
“Korin. Isn’t that… the same clothes as last year?”
“Yeah. Well, they are expensive, right?”
Marie said while glancing at the suit with obsidian buttons. That was the same suit he wore in the wedding ceremony that was being worn again and again.
Although the two of them were happy, they were leading a very poor and impoverished life. Even the baby’s nanny was from a humble background with nothing special.
Even those meals, clothes, houses, and land…
‘If it was me…’ she thought to herself, thinking about all the things she would have done for him.
Another year went by, followed by another year.
Time flew like an arrow.
………
……
…
Marie still couldn’t accept it. Looking at the family, her eyes gleamed with unsightly jealousy and greed.
I liked him first. I met him first.
I can give him more things.
Land, mines, treasures, status, everything.
He doesn’t need to do anything. All he needs to do is wait at my home and smile at me when I’m back.
That was all he needed to do.
As long as he could do that,
If only he did that for me, I would have given my everything…
‘Ah, I see’. That was when she realized it.
She realized that she could never accept this defeat.
Marie admitted the terrible and evil emotion inside her.
That was also when she noticed that her first love hadn’t failed. It was just that it hadn’t succeeded just yet.
In that case, all she had to do was make it succeed.
The world might tell her she was too late; that it was her loss and that she had to acknowledge her defeat but Marie did not care about any of that.
All she needed to do was change it to the reality she wanted it to be.
Defeat was not an option. That was the road she chose.
Tricks, strategies, wealth, and authority.
Marie thought about all the means she had under her belt, but it was destined to turn into a horrible and long battle if she were to use everything she had in her kit.
Would Korin hate it though? Would he start hating me?
That was the only thing she couldn’t allow; his opinion of her was the thing that mattered the most to her.
Her tricks and strategies had to be carried out in secret, and she had to use her power and wealth behind his back.
She considered all of her options and that was when she noticed the wrinkles near Korin’s lips.
“Ah…”
Seeing his grown-up child who was now old enough to enter the Academy, Marie recalled that Korin Lork was just a normal human.
As a vampire, it was possible for her to live forever as long as she had enough blood. Vampires in general could live almost forever except for the fact that they had to be away from sunlight but Marie was at the level of a Vampire Elder who had even overcome sunlight with her innate talents.
Compared to that, Korin was just a normal human who would live 100 years at max. His life was destined to come to an end one day.
Right, that was a good approach. Why didn’t she think about that till now?
100 years.
Korin was a healthy knight so he would probably live 100 years, which was yieldable. It was uncertain how long Hua Ran would live for, but that didn’t stop Korin from having a life limit.
100 years would be a long-enough wait. After that, all she had to do was take him away after Hua Ran had her fill.
She could then make him into hers. It was easy for a higher-status vampire like her to make someone into her familiar.
What would happen after that? Hua Ran might chase after them but it was okay.
Lower vampires were subordinates to higher vampires. Hierarchy was immensely important, especially for direct links like Korin who would turn into a vampire from her own blood.
Korin would have no choice but to listen to her commands. He might be against it at the start but that was okay.
As long as she honestly told him about how she didn’t want him to die, and that she was hoping for him to live forever, he would probably understand her.
Lastly, if she could help him overcome sunlight… Throughout that process which would take centuries for a normal vampire, Korin would be hers and hers alone.
Like that, the traces left behind by that woman would be worn down and weathered away into nothing. He would turn back to his clear and untainted self and live with her forever.
“I… am the only one that can give Korin eternal life.”
100 years? She could yield that much, but he would be hers after 100 years. Those unpleasant decades would be completely erased away by her.
The Vampire Elder girl gave a crooked smile, telling herself that that conclusion would bring happiness to everyone.
………
……
…
There was a time when she saw a beautiful artifact made of glass.
It was a glass doll that her father got for her from a faraway land from his acquaintance when she was lying on her bed, too ill to even move an inch. The doll was so beautiful and pretty, but appeared so fragile that it would break from a single touch.
The days of the boy and the girl were so beautiful and colorful like that glass doll.
‘What are you doing?’
“…Watching them.”
For no reason, she kept watching the two people. It might have been better if the two sisters hadn’t been sharing a body.
Their emotions were being shared, so Hua and Ran were able to feel each other’s displeasure. Because of that, their displeasure was multiplied twofold and their minds led to worse and more vicious thoughts.
They watched the two of them hold each other by their hands. They watched him debone the fish for Marie.
It was the same thing as the thing he had done for both Hua and Ran, but it was clear that his actions now meant a lot more.
It made them feel very unpleasant.
Ran couldn’t take her eyes off of their interlocked fingers.
For a long time, she had no choice but to watch them. Their happiness and their beautiful harmony of emotions were so terribly unpleasant to see that she couldn’t bear it, but even so, she continued looking at them. She just couldn’t take her eyes off of them.
That meant that Hua also had to look at the same thing, as one who shared the vision with her.
‘What do you want to do?’
“…I don’t know. Failure… wasn’t a part of my plan.”
‘Plan?’
“Un. My plan was to love like normal, have a normal relationship, a normal family and children… and call him with every title possible.”
Oppa, honey, love, hubby, darling.
The girl had a very strong desire for the ‘norm’, due to lying on the bed the whole time with the thought that she wouldn’t be able to live for a long time. She had been hoping to share that with her oppa.
‘Why can’t we do that now?’
“Obviously because…”
Ran stopped and didn’t bother explaining it to Hua. Her younger sister, who was barely 3 years old, did not know about the common sense of human society and its rules. Because she tended to solve her immediate wishes whenever possible, she couldn’t help but have a very simple way of thinking.
‘Do you need help?’
“Help? What do you mean by that?”
‘I mean I can help you get what you want, Ran.’
After hearing Hua’s words, Ran tilted her head. Unfortunately, she had no other choice but to rely on her help, even if that meant crushing the perfectly-crafted glass doll.
“Been a while. Have you been fine?”
The boy acted like usual. His kindness tickled her cheeks and made her feel feverish on her face but Hua Ran pretended indifference while gazing at him.
Then, she grabbed onto his hands while locking her fingers with his.
“…Hua Ran?”
“Try to escape.”
Her hands were tiny compared to the large hands of the boy. But when she added power to her locked fingers, the boy cried out in pain.
“Ugh…!”
Then, he tried as hard as he could but could not escape from her grip. The stubborn boy tried to use his own weight by leaning back, but even after falling onto the bed behind him, he still couldn’t escape from her grip.
Hua Ran got on top of him, but still kept her fingers locked in his.
“…Hmm.”
One of her red eyes turned blue.
Seeing that the boy couldn’t escape from her grip no matter what he did despite her loose fingers, Ran realized something.
‘Huh? He is…’
“Look. He’s weaker than you think.”
He was weak. Despite his stubborn attempt, the boy just couldn’t escape from her hands. It was shocking how Korin, who had looked so reliable and enormous in her eyes, was this weak.
“Hmm… You are weak, huh. Hehe, oppa is weak, huh.”
After laying him down on the bed, Ran licked the cold sweat falling down his cheeks. It was salty.
“You are… in the wrong, oppa…
“It’s because you keep on looking at someone else and not me…”
With a rugged breath, she gazed down at the boy beneath her. On his collarbone coming down from his shoulders was a trace left behind by that woman.
“Horrible…”
Recalling those disgusting red eyes of the woman as she openly sucked his blood for her to see made her feel unpleasant again. She must have used oppa’s kind heart and begged for blood, and used that to threaten him into going out with her.
– Kaduk!
Ran bit into the fang marks left behind on his neck. She covered up the other woman’s teeth marks which made her feel a little better.
“Haa…”
Their faces drew closer in, to the point that their breaths were blowing into each other’s face.
Those pretty sunset-colored eyes of his were shaking from a myriad of emotions, but that didn’t stop her. She wouldn’t have even attempted anything if she was going to stop there.
“Oppa…”
Her lips twisted in a bewitching manner. Guilt and hesitation… All of that crumbled into nothing in front of her greed.
“It’s all your fault.”
I took his first.
Just like how he took all of my firsts.
His first is also mine.
………
……
…
The next morning, Hua Ran gave a benevolent smile while looking at the little baby in her arms.
After all, it was common sense that a stork would deliver a baby when a pair of male and female laid down on the bed and spent the night with their fingers locked.
****
By utter coincidence, or perhaps because of a prank of a god, or even fate, the two girls woke up at the same time.
“……”
“……”
Marie and Hua Ran blankly looked at each other on top of the beds placed by the druids. Their cheeks blushed in red as they then realized what they had been doing until now.
“……”
“……”
Everything was so silent that even the crawling noise of a worm would echo inside the room. In the midst of that silence, the two girls silently shared a knowing gaze and nodded at each other.
Let’s forget it.
Let’s forget everything that just happened.
The two of them immediately realized that they had just experienced the most embarrassing moment of their life which only they were aware of.
“…Looks like you woke up.”
However, there was another person in the room.
“You…”
“W, who might you be?”
“I am Uzkias, the guardian of this place, Findias. Uhh… Kuhum!”
He was about to give some advice as an adult that something like that was no good no matter how strong of a conviction they had but… he soon decided to gloss over their embarrassing memories because if the two girls started a rampage out of embarrassment… Findias might be reduced to rubble.
“If you are here to see Korin Lork, you were a little late.”
“What do you… mean?”
“They have already started climbing the tree to reach the sky. That was 3 days ago.”
“…”
“W, we were late, huh.”
Marie was in the middle of wondering whether they would be able to make it in time even if they started chasing after him now, but that was when she tilted her head after noticing something.
“How did you know we were here to see Korin?”
“…”
Uzkias was not inconsiderate enough to tell the two girls that he had taken a glimpse into their illusions and had seen how the cause of their shady, treacherous and extreme decisions had been the same boy.
“… I heard from Korin Lork and was waiting for you to arrive.”
He decided to forget the embarrassing memories of the two girls… or rather the three girls and live on without questioning it.
“Tch tch. What has the world come to. Kuhum…!”
****
Climbing a mountain wasn’t easy, especially when climbing an unfrequented mountain with no roads.
So how hard would climbing a tree be?
How would you climb up the steep slope of a trunk? Normally, the idea of climbing a tree all the way to the sky would sound very ridiculous and impossible.
“Thank you for your kind help, spirits.”
Climbing the tree was actually not as hard as one would expect. Thanks to the help of the spirits guiding the way for Yuel and the oak tree twisting its own body to create a path with its branches, we were able to climb up an endless spiral staircase and reach the pinnacle where we were just below the clouds in just 3 days.
“We are still not there, it seems.”
“But looking at the speed, I think we should be there in another 20 or 30 minutes,” I replied.
“Ugh… It’s very cold.”
We were right beneath the clouds so we were probably about 8 kilometers aboveground, and it was thus very normal for her to be cold. I took off one of the coats I was wearing and threw it over Alicia.
“We’ll be there in a bit. Hold on just a little bit more.”
“Aht… t, thank you.”
“Korin. By the way, do you know what it is that’s on top of the clouds?”
I was in the middle of carving rune letters onto the tree with my spear when Yuel asked a question. Even though she was a druid, she was still young and had been living elsewhere so she didn’t seem very familiar with the secrets of Findias.
“All the tests and trials we went through were for us to reach the sky. It sounds straightforward but ambiguous at the same time.”
‘Reach the sky’.
Then what? Is it really possible to just pick up the Sun with your hands?
That might be the case if we were talking about a mythological story but this was different; we were talking about real life. Considering the distance between the planet and the sun, it was impossible to reach the Sun just by climbing up to the clouds.
“Claiomh Solais is referred to as the Sun of Findias. You know that, right?”
“I heard in fairy tales that it was one of the treasures of the old gods.”
“The 4 great treasures of the Dananns do exist.”
The 4 great treasures that would have all ended up in the hands of Tates Valtazar were as follows:
The Magic of Murias, the Cauldron of Dagda.
Destiny Stone of Falias, Lia Fail.
Spear of Light of Gorias, Areadbhair.
And lastly, the Sword of Light, also known as the Sword of the Sun, Claiomh Solais of Findias.
Back in the original plot of the game when chasing after the final boss, Tates Valtazar, and his subordinates, the player would visit Gorias and Murias where all the treasures had already been taken out of.
But by going through the puzzles and solving the hidden pieces of information, it was possible to figure out where the treasures had been sealed.
The magic cauldron of Murias was sealed deep underground, in a dark and bottomless pit filled with slithering snakes, whereas the Spear of Light was recorded to show itself along with the emission of light that came from the successful analysis of an old mechanical device, hidden deep inside a cave.
Those were just slabs of text that players would normally skim through during the game, but judging based on those points, it was possible to assume that the legends of Claiomh Solais were slightly exaggerated, and that it was within reach.
“Anyway, it’s normal for treasures to hide in secret lands, whether it be underground, aboveground… or even above the clouds.”
Soon, the oak tree soared through the clouds. Following the branches, we walked up to the world above the clouds and…
“Wahh…”
In front of us was a floating island.
This was the true secret land of Findias, hiding in the clouds.
“Attention customers. We are about to reach our final destination, the floating island of Findias. The weather is looking very fine today but unfortunately, the natives of this land will be very hostile to us.”
It was a large rocky island. Jumping off of the oak tree that was touching the island, I continued while giving a deep gentleman bow.
“We do not have any visas, so it is time for us to smuggle inside.”
On the large island of rocks was a castle of giants.
