Ruon opened his eyes in the cozy feeling of his skin touching. He quietly raised his upper body and stroked the reindeer fur on the floor a few times. From afar, he heard the sound of a dog barking.
Suddenly, he turned his head and saw the charcoal burning faintly in the large fireplace. The redness between the cracks in the charcoal looked like a wound filled with blood.
As he stared at it, someone lifted the tent and came in.
“Ah.”
The woman who was holding a bucket of warm steam and a dry towel dropped them on the floor and ran out as soon as she met his eyes.
What?
Ruon, who had covered his body belatedly, realized that he was not wearing a single straw and chuckled.
Then the tent was lifted again. The person who came in this time was a familiar figure to him. Except for the missing right arm.
“Don’t ask me if I’m okay. If I hear it one more time, I’ll get a scab in my ear.”
The chief of the Rock Tribe, Hengel, said that and sat down on the floor. The wind blew up small sparks in the charcoal fire, but neither he nor Ruon cared.
“Here.”
Ruon took the leather bag that Hengel handed him and pulled out the wooden cork. The strong scent of alcohol stung his nose.
Hengel, who also pulled out the cork with his teeth and spat it on the floor, drank the alcohol by himself without a toast.
He wiped the alcohol that soaked his chin with the back of his hand and said.
“The god tree is dead. It was twisted so badly that it was pitiful. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.”
Is it different in reality?
Ruon, who remembered the appearance of the corrupted god tree by Kyle’s ax, realized that what happened in the borderland had a different impact on the real world and nodded silently.
“And you guys were lying in front of it. I heard what happened to Colin, who was the only one who was okay, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I just thought that the chief’s ax was in your hands and his ambition was broken.”
Hearing that, Ruon took a sip of alcohol. As expected, it was a stupid drink that made his eyes spin in a moment. He snorted and said.
“But you won the battle anyway. You couldn’t have gotten to the god tree otherwise.”
Hengel shook his head with a subtle expression.
“···The chief’s army annihilated itself. They suddenly stabbed each other with swords. Hebert said it looked like the result of losing control after the being that corrupted them disappeared. Whatever it was, it was a good thing. If we had kept fighting, the alliance would have been wiped out.”
He put the empty leather bag in his arms after saying that. The chief, who had been scratching his head and sparing his words for a while, slowly opened his mouth.
“Thanks to you, the north remained the north. Many people are grieving over the fact that we lost the god tree, but we can’t be attached to it forever.”
He reached out his hand and added.
“···Thank you. Star of prophecy. I wanted to greet you face to face.”
“It would have been much better if you had left out the last part.”
Ruon shook his hand and replied with a faint smile. Then Hengel left the tent with a brief word telling him to rest more.
Suddenly, Ruon remembered that he hadn’t asked anything about himself and his party. No, how many days have passed?
Just then.
The tent was lifted again, and this time, the blue-eyed mage rushed in. She shouted at the warrior who was staring at her blankly.
“Ruon!”
***
“Tsk, tsk, you should knock. Knock.”
Amela’s face turned red as if it had been burned by the fire at Colin’s nagging. She muttered in a low voice.
“···Who’s the idiot who knocks on a tent.”
“Uh-huh. So what happened? You only got a good look at Ruon’s naked body-ack”
Colin, who was hit in the nose by a fist without mercy, stretched out his palm and defended himself. Ruon, who had changed into the spare clothes he had received from Sijong (although they were a bit small), said.
“How’s your body?”
At that question, Colin, who was being laughed at by Kyle, answered.
“My bones feel like they’re going to break, but···I’m fine. I heard that putting two divine powers in your body is no different from suicide. I guess I’m lucky.”
Colin quickly changed the subject, thinking it was a good opportunity.
“By the way, how did you get over here, bro? Amela only escaped and the space closed, so I was scared, but a little later, you suddenly appeared in front of me.”
Then everyone’s attention was focused on Ruon’s face. They looked very curious. Ruon didn’t want to drag it out and annoy them, so he answered without delay.
“I think I got help from Ganakus.”
Amela narrowed her eyes as if the intuitive answer sounded suspicious.
“Is that a metaphor?”
Yeah. You wouldn’t understand if I said that.
Ruon explained to his party, who couldn’t grasp the clue, what had happened to him.
The bloodshed with the abyssal beings, the collapsed borderland, the sea of oblivion, and Ganakus.
When a period was put on the series of stories that lasted for a while, Kyle muttered quietly.
“So Ganakus has been living in the god tree all this time?”
“···I don’t know much about theology, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think you have to be able to exercise your influence to be alive as a god.”
Amela said that and swept up her front hair. The hair that slipped out of her fingers settled neatly.
“I think the one who pulled Ruon out of the borderland was Ganakus’s residual will. Beolrun said something similar, and more importantly, Aslan and the knights lost their divine power again.”
She sighed at her words.
“Everyone must be heartbroken.”
Colin shook his head.
“Not really. I talked to them for a while, and they seemed rather happy to burn their last moments in the true grace. They thought it was a blessing that their broken bodies were restored.”
“Well, that’s good.”
With that, the party closed their mouths for a moment. It was Amela who broke the silence that followed.
“So, to sum up, the god who fell to the earth thousands of years ago was Ganak. Judging by the rise of his church, someone must have taken his place. That makes the transcendent acts of the Revelator more understandable. He must have used the faith that he accumulated for thousands of years to contact the abyss. Maybe this whole thing is part of his plan that he devised for centuries.”
Colin, who was listening quietly, frowned and poked the hot charcoal with a stick.
“What were the other gods doing for thousands of years? They were gobbling up the faith of their worshipers, but they let the world become like this. Damn it.”
That’s what I’m saying.
Ruon took a leather bag to his mouth and shook his head.
He drank the alcohol nervously, and Kyle and Colin lost their appetite at the sight of him. Just then, the tent opened and Sijong brought in food and drinks.
The boiled pork was so tender that it looked like boiled pork, and Ruon was satisfied with the food in front of him and took the meat to his mouth.
Everyone took a bite, but Amela seemed to have no thoughts and rinsed her mouth with water. Kyle asked her, seeing her complicated expression.
“Are you upset that Quintuanus is gone?”
Amela didn’t deny it.
“I thought it was a chance to end our bitter feud… but I’m sorry.”
But she soon realized that her words were inappropriate and changed them.
“No, no. If we had been attacked by him right after we dealt with the archdemon, we would have been swept away without any resistance. Even Ruon was unconscious. Maybe it was a good thing.”
Amela quickly reached for the meat, not wanting to dampen the mood because of her.
Then Colin, who had sucked the oil from his fingertips, said.
“Have you all made plans for the future?”
“I’m going to follow Quint. He probably went back to Dumpres.”
She finished her sentence and naturally looked at the rest of the party.
“What about you?”
Ruon stroked his stubbly chin.
He had felt the same way before he came to the north, but now he felt that it was urgent to raid Ganak’s church, which was the most suspicious. But in reality, that was impossible.
He had already been worshiping another being for over a thousand years, and there was nothing more stupid than going in and smashing it up, saying that he knew everything.
It was not him who should confront them, but the other churches. Wasn’t that why Igor, Strabo, and Tarwen left the party for a while?
The target he had to attack was not the church, but the Revelator. His intuition told him that finding him was the first priority. He had to crush the bastard who was running around the continent and setting fire to the line of destruction.
He finished sorting out his thoughts and said.
“Let’s move together for now. Anyway, that fairy was on the same side as the Revelator, so we’ll find something if we shake him down.”
Kyle nodded and added.
“Did that kid put gold on his face? He should have shown up angry or something, but there’s no news.”
Then Colin coughed.
“Ahem, I think this is it for me.”
“What?”
Everyone stared at him, and he felt uncomfortable and coughed dryly. He took a breath and said.
“I’d love to stay with you. How long have we fought together? But the thing is, I’ve been thinking about the last few days, and I think it’s a miracle that I survived this time. It’s not that I’m glad I’m alive, it’s that I wasn’t helpful.”
Amela frowned.
“What are you talking about? You did so much-”
She opened her mouth angrily, but Colin gently shook his head. He looked like an older brother who was comforting his younger sister.
“I’m not backing out because I’m afraid of the great guys we’re going to fight. It’s just that I think I’ll be more of a burden than a help. You know, your personality is such that you’ll run to save me even if I pretend I’m fine. Right?”
He smiled slyly and looked at him, and Ruon didn’t say anything.
It was a cruelly cold self-assessment, but there was nothing wrong with it. He had barely survived in a party that was not even ordinary, with only the merit of being tough on the battlefield.
“What do you think, then? What are you going to do?”
Ruon asked, and Colin smiled brightly and answered.
“I’m going to stay with Aslan. They seem to be fighting for their own courage and faith… Why are you looking at me like that? Did you think I was going to stick to the countryside and kill time?”
Then Kyle hugged Colin hard. Colin screamed in surprise.
“Bro, I like girls! You bastard!”
Kyle let go of his arm and scowled.
“Did you catch it from Strabo? You damn dog…”
Ruon read the sincerity in his voice and laughed without knowing it, and Amela, who didn’t know who Strabo was, laughed along.
Finally, Kyle laughed out loud, and Colin looked at them with a dumbfounded expression.
“Really, you guys are crazy…”
Everyone’s laughter filled the tent.
“Can we join you?”
Aslan and the knights smiled awkwardly and stuck their faces into the tent, drawn by the laughter.
“Of course! Come on in. It’s cold outside!”
The tent was crowded in an instant with Kyle’s hospitality. Ruon felt a tickle in his chest as he saw the space where he had been lying alone become lively.
Yeah. This isn’t bad either.
Ruon knew from his experience that the sudden encounter would suddenly leave, and he remembered that the farewell was not the end, but the beginning of another reunion.
Instead of being sad about tomorrow’s farewell, the party toasted to the moment they were together. The conversation went on from one tail to another, from silly jokes to deep stories. The sincere stories that they couldn’t share because of the harsh reality floated in the air.
The night deepened in the peaceful atmosphere. From afar, the sound of a dog barking was heard.
