Ruon couldn’t help but grin at the man’s genuine smile.
As someone who had been endlessly wandering without settling down, there weren’t many people who could give him a welcoming feeling.
Ruon put the Holy Sword back into its sheath and spoke.
“Yeah, it’s been a while. Lumberjack.”
At his words, the man, Kyle, gave a mischievous expression, extending his thumb towards the corridor.
“Should we have a drink after such a long time? It seems like there’s a lot to talk about.”
As the sun retreated, the innkeeper began to kindle a fire in the fireplace so that the somber darkness of the city wouldn’t disturb the merriment of the patrons.
A boy who appeared to be his son held candles in both hands, moving busily to transfer the flame from the fireplace to the candles placed in the dim corners that the fireplace’s light couldn’t reach.
The spot where Ruon and Kyle were sitting was one of those places.
The boy cautiously opened his mouth, seemingly worried that the bulky Ruon might knock over the candles while drunk.
“Sir, there are candles burning right next to you, so please be careful.”
“Understood.”
Ruon nodded lightly, and the boy retreated after bowing his head almost to his belly button. Watching this scene intently, Kyle covered his mouth with his palm and whispered.
“Did you see his ears? They’re kind of pointy, I’m guessing he’s half elven… Considering the boy called the owner ‘dad’, it must mean his mother is an elf, right? The inn’s name sounds weird, but it had meaning after all. ‘The Tempting Ox’.”
Ruon lightly shook his head.
“Enough with the nonsense. So, why are you in Bern?”
“···Shouldn’t the first thing you ask be how I’ve been?”
Kyle continued with a slightly hurt expression.
“Do you know how baffled I was at that time? I went to bed fine and woke up to find you had left without a word.”
He wiped his wet lips with the back of his hand after gulping down the beer.
“…Damn it, you’re like a damn ghost, disappearing like that.”
Watching Kyle who was sulking alone, Ruon chuckled.
“That’s how it should be.”
Taking a low sigh, Kyle scratched his head.
He seemed as if he didn’t know where to start the conversation, so Ruon waited patiently for him to begin.
After organizing his thoughts, Kyle spoke.
“First of all, I’ve been in Bern for quite a while. To be precise, it’s been about two weeks since I arrived.”
He pointed a finger at Ruon, who was sipping his beer.
“And during this time, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Me?”
Putting down his glass, Ruon raised an eyebrow.
“How did you know that I was coming to Bern?”
With a faint smile, Kyle replied.
“The image of you passing through Bern’s gate appeared in a vision of the future.”
“A vision of the future?”
Ruon furrowed his brow, and Kyle quickly added, “It’s Master Iredor’s ability. He can glimpse into past actions and numerous possibilities, something about glimpsing the present from the past, yada yada.”
Only then did Ruon nod his head.
He was referring to the ability of the old mage who had shown him glimpses of the future in exchange for safely delivering the shard.
“Did you come all the way here just because you saw one glimpse of the future?”
At his question, Kyle, who hadn’t spoken for a while, cautiously spoke.
“May I ask you something before that?”
Seeing Ruon’s serious attitude, he quickly added, “Is your visit to Bern somehow related to Belducias?”
It was a sensitive question, but there was no reason to hide it from Kyle, so Ruon answered right away.
“Exactly.”
At his words, Kyle tightly closed his eyes.
“I’d hoped Iredor’s guess was wrong…”
Holding back a sigh, Ruon inquired.
“His guess?”
Kyle pulled his chair forward.
“What I’m about to tell you is… a story I heard through the grapevine while I was at the Tower.”
When Ruon responded with a nod, Kyle looked around for a moment before slowly continuing.
His voice was deliberately lowered.
“Polyentus… the king. The reason he’s burning with an insatiable thirst for conquest might actually be because of Belducius, they say.”
‘The king?’
Ruon cocked his head at Kyle’s unexpected mention of the king.
“During the process of studying the power of Belducias contained in the shard, the masters of the Tower realized something. So, um…”
Aware of his lack of precise knowledge, Kyle tried to organize his thoughts as best he could to continue the story.
It went like this.
The masters of the Tower of Magi, who were always thirsty for new knowledge, didn’t just want to eliminate the power of the great demon that corroded the shard. They wanted to understand its origin through research. After all sorts of extraordinary experiments, they discovered a completely unexpected possibility.
That King Polyentus of Ariana had succumbed to the madness of Belducias.
Even Ruon, who was listening to Kyle’s words attentively, unknowingly furrowed his brow as the story progressed in that manner.
“Are you sure?”
After the continued explanation, Kyle, who had been sipping his beer as if he were parched, opened his mouth again.
“I don’t know how the whole idea came to be. But what I do know is that the power within the shard and the countless scenarios Iredor considered all led to that answer… that’s what Amella said.”
‘I hadn’t heard that name in a while.’
Thinking of the blue-eyed mage, Ruon suddenly voiced a question that came to mind.
“So what does the Tower’s discovery have to do with you coming all the way to Bern?”
Kyle heaved a deep sigh, receiving the question.
“Strictly speaking, there’s no direct connection.”
As he spoke, a rueful look crossed his face.
“Ruon, isn’t this a bit much? Even though you heard that the king might have been possessed by a demon, you couldn’t even welcome the person who came running all the way here, hoping to help a friend…?”
‘I have to credit his loyalty.’
Ruon chuckled wryly as he mentally organized Kyle’s rambling narrative.
According to the conclusions reached by the masters of the Tower, there was a high probability that the king had been exposed to Belducias’s power and had gone mad, which was why he was continuously ordering unwarranted wars.
Kyle was aware of this fact, and despite that, when he saw an image of Ruon passing through the Bern gate in a vision of the future, he had come here with the hope that he might be of some assistance.
Even though he didn’t necessarily have to.
Ruon nodded slowly at the unexpectedly valuable information this connection had brought him, then softly murmuring.
“Apparently, there’s a disciple of Belducias in Bern.”
“Really?”
“I didn’t come all the way here for nothing.”
Saying so, Ruon lightly tapped the pommel of his Holy Sword with his fingertip.
“You might remember this sword absorbing the power of Belducias’s disciples when I killed them, and after doing so a few times, it became a compass pointing towards their location.”
Kyle made a sound of understanding and nodded his head.
At that moment, the innkeeper placed two beer glasses on the table.
When Ruon and Kyle looked at the beers they hadn’t ordered, the innkeeper spoke.
“There are many guests, so if you don’t order more, I’ll have to give up your table. What would you like to do?”
Ruon made a V with his fingers and said, “We’ll have two more. And bring some small appetizers too.”
Kyle watched the innkeeper walk away and clicked his tongue.
“It’s the capital, it’s expensive enough just to live here, and then they do stuff like this… they’re a bunch of thieves.”
As he grumbled, he scratched his head and continued speaking.
“So, in the end, it’s certain that there’s something in Bern.”
Ruon nodded his head.
“Based on what you said, that guy might be a formidable figure, capable of manipulating the king. It’s related to the Great Library…”
He trailed off, then added briefly, “We’ll look into it properly starting tomorrow.”
With that statement, Kyle lifted his beer mug.
“In any case, it’s nice to see you again. You’re not going to show me the door, are you?”
“I don’t think you’d go if I told you to.”
Ruon also extended his beer glass forward.
The two glasses clinked, emitting a clear sound.
Without waiting, the two men emptied their glasses in unison. In the moment of mutual silence, they exchanged a few words about the gap in time where they’d been apart.
Kyle shook his head as if he was tired of the fact that Ruon had continued moving from place to place without halt.
Once again, their glasses were empty.
Ruon inquired about Amella’s well-being, to which Kyle responded with a bitter expression.
“Amella suddenly disappeared long before I left. She didn’t leave any notes, so I don’t know anything either.”
During their exchange, the empty glasses on the table gradually multiplied. The innkeeper was discreetly placing new glasses before disappearing.
The fractured moonlight that passed through the stained glass windows caressed the heads of the two men seated across from each other.
Kyle, whose face had grown flushed, looked at a new glass and sighed.
“If I drink this, I’m going to be in real trouble.”
“In that case, go rest upstairs.”
“Before that, I’m gonna have to take a piss.”
As his sentence ended, Kyle abruptly stood up from his seat and disappeared through the inn’s back door.
After downing two mugs of beer in quick succession, he turned to the innkeeper, who approached with a fresh glass.
“No more.”
Ruon found himself gazing intently through the window at the streets of Bern, now blanketed in profound darkness.
The entire road, paved with sturdy cobblestones, showed no sign of even a single rat.
It was a different feeling to see a road intermittently illuminated by torches, compared to the usual dirt roads.
‘What’s this?’
Amidst his slight admiration for this scenery, Ruon suddenly realized that the Holy Sword was emitting a low hum.
He didn’t rush. Instead, he naturally raised his hand to the hilt of the sword and looked out the window.
With his night vision piercing through the darkness, Ruon easily spotted the target of the Holy Sword’s hostility.
The person across the narrow alley from the inn, standing at its entrance, was quietly gazing in his direction. He must have sensed Ruon’s gaze upon him, as he slowly began to raise his arm.
‘A mage?’
Contrary to Ruon’s concern, the reason the man was raising his arm was different.
He curled his finger, as if inviting Ruon to come towards him.
In response to this blatant provocation, Ruon didn’t hesitate. He quickly rose from his seat.
As he was about to grab the door handle to exit, the innkeeper followed him.
“Hey, what about the payment?”
Ruon carelessly handed a few silver coins to the innkeeper and quickly stepped outside the inn.
Fortunately, the man hadn’t fled. He was still standing there, staring intently at Ruon as he walked out onto the street.
“What are you looking at?”
Ruon immediately drew his bow and fired an arrow of light at the man without a word.
