CHAPTER 3: RENEWED AFTERMATH

3.0

“Let’s go Miril, we should hurry before they wake up.”

Miros, a man in his thirties extended his hand to his son who was behind him and hoisted him up the massive boulder. The two of them were the only people this deep in the woods.

“If we can pick another few echo laces we will be able to make it to your mother’s next treatment without selling anymore of the farm.”

“But...hah...dad...hah...we are already thirty trees deep...hah...within Reperane Woods. We would be killed by her before we can sell them. She is already mad at us for picking up rare herbs.”

“Nonsense. After this haul, we won’t ever need to come back until next year.”

“Next year? We are doing this every winter we have?”

Miril hung his head backwards. His father must be out of his mind, the village adventurers who entered this cursed place while looking to make profit often lost their limbs to the dark beasts whenever they returned, if they returned at all.

Not to mention that the grounds of Reperane Woods are cursed with dark magic such that the climate only got more extreme the deeper one entered.

Miril stared at his father, the man wore only two pieces of decent clothing in this freezing place while he himself was covered with a thick coat a size too big for his frame.

“To be exact, I, won’t ever need to come back until next year. You would be too busy becoming a pharmacist.”

“Me? Pharmacist? Dad, don’t joke around, we don’t have that kind of money for me. Didn’t I agree to take up the farm for you starting next spring?”

Miril dismissed his father’s antics and focused himself on uncovering nearby snow piles for echo laces.

“Even if it’s warmer today, with the dark beasts…we should head back before we enter too deep.”

“Listen up, son. The nobles are demanding a bigger portion of our harvest this year, your sisters will succeed the family farm. You have talent for applying and using herbs, you should—” Miros stopped his sentence when he saw his son’s discovery. “Ah! You found two on your first try! Great job, Miril! It was the right decision to come this deep.”

“I only learned how to mix herbs for mom’s illness there was no talent involved. Even if we have the money, there’s no one who’d want me as their apprentice.”

“That was not what Olbaz said.”

“Mr. Olbaz? You mean the merchant who buys our harvest?” Miril said while he diligently picked the echo laces that he found into his pouch. “That man is no pharmacist, and I doubt he’d be kind enough to introduce me without a large fee.”

“No, the other Olbaz, Aron Olbaz, his brother. The old guy that came by our place two weeks ago,” Miros said calmly, his bare hands ceaselessly dug at the spot in front of him.

“That old geezer!? How is he going to help us? He barged in my room and drank all the potions that I was testing to cure mom! Then claimed that he was no longer hungry. Hungry? Hungry? I would have beat him if he wasn’t related to Mr. Olbaz… Not that I think it would have worked, but I am getting close to the real potions they sell in the empire.”

“Oh! I found one!” Miros’ eyes sparkled as he raised the purple plant proudly into the air.

“Dad!”

“Right!” Miros returned from his daze. “It turns out that Aron Olbaz was a retired pharmacist. He said your skill in potion making was one that he could use. So he decided to take you in as an apprentice.”

“Was a retired pharmacist? What the hell, he drinks unknown substances and calls himself a pharmacist.”

Miros shrugged his shoulders. “He decided to return to the field once more because of you. At least, that was what he told me.”

“And the fees?”

“There would be no fees for your apprenticeship, in fact he would gladly provide for you while you are under him. The only condition was that you must be ‘tight lipped’ while you do work under him.”

“That’s…”

Being a pharmacist meant that Miril would be able to earn enough on his own to provide for his family. Due to pharmacists and their eccentric personalities, most of those who are skilled rarely passed their teachings without great compensation.

If he’d accepted this offer, gone are the days where his father would have to scramble around for the sake of his ill mother. He alone would be enough to support his parents along with his two younger sisters while having extra gold to spare.

“You don’t have to decide it this instant, there’s time until spring starts.” Miros smiled fondly at his son.

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“T-this is so sudden… Let me think about this… I-I...” Miril said as he walk away from his father and moved to another area. “I need to think.”

“Sure thing, just try to not stray too far while you laze around, haha.”

Miril moved to a nearby cliff and stood at its edge, he stared at the rising sun illuminating the great walls of the empire in the distance, even with the great distance between Reperane Woods, Miril could only make out two of its eight great walls.

“Being a pharmacist huh? Doesn’t that mean I’ll be able to work with people from the empire?”

A smile found it’s way onto Miril’s face. If he actually became a pharmacist and played his cards right…

“I could bring them to live inside the walls, Meli and Mera will be able to live proper lives. Mom and Dad can stop worrying about finding them suitable marriage partners, I will be able to provide for all of them! Hahaha! This is amazing, wonderful, fantastic, I can—”

“Miril! Where are you!? I need your help, now!” Miros shouted with great anxiety.

“Dad!?”

Miril halted his fantasizing and ran back to where his father had been gathering echo laces.

Miril found his father crouching behind a tall tree.

Miros was surrounded by patches of bloody snow. And from where he stood, Miril could distinctly make out the herbs, unlike the ones that Miril and his father had picked, the echo laces that sprout around the crimson ground were painted with a mesmerizing shade of magenta instead of the usual purple around them.

“These are the highest grade! Dad, with these you don’t—”

A few of the echo laces were squashed under Miros’ feet, the man was unconcerned with his surroundings. Right in front of him laid a young man with short black hair, various parts of his body were in blue patches and covered with frost.

“Hey! Can you hear me? Young man! Can you hear me?” Miros tapped the young man’s face. “Are you hurt? What happened to you?”

Covered only by a thin layer of clothes the young man was shaking weakly with shallow breaths.

“[Hea—]” with the unfinished word, the young man had stopped shivering entirely.

“W-what is going on!? Why is there a person here?”

“Miril, give me your coat. I need you grab as many of the echo laces while you can still stand the cold. I will carry him back to our house before he freezes to death.”

“R-right,” Miril mumbled as he took off his over-sized coat.

Miros quickly wrapped the freezing young man with the coat and plopped him on his back.

“Will he be alright? His fingers…they looked like they are gone.”

“…”

Without wasting another moment, Miros pushed his boots as hard as he could and sprinted back home, for any second longer in this frozen place could cause imminent death for the young man.

Miril worked his hands fastidiously at echo laces on the bountiful crimson ground. “The frostbites aside… that person didn’t have any wounds. Was he a mage companion of some fallen adventurer?”

Miril shook his head.

“No, no, no, I should hurry up before I freeze to death. echo laces of this color are worth gold pieces,” he criticized himself for wasting his breath as he picked the last of the echo laces into his bag.

John was falling from the sky.

No, to be exact, he was like a cannonball that was sent across it, his descent had him almost bursting into flames.

He was traveling at remarkable speeds that the wind themselves threatened to peel his skin away from his body.

Is this my punishment? For saving Raina?

No matter how much of his skin were ripped and burnt by the air, John kept his eye and mouth shut and curled his body, it was the only way that he could minimize the damage so that he would still be alive to cast his healing magic.

I can’t use [Heal] now, mana reserves are low… I should only use it the moment I fall. Yes…that should keep me alive from the gravity.

The dragon that spoke to him earlier... John was still unconvinced.

I am not a demon. I am a true blooded human! Queen Veissa frequently did tests with my blood, that’s why I am not one, but…

John clenched his fists, the Elven Queen did not bother to conduct a blood test while he was being trialed in front all of A’vetheas. It was the way that they have appraised whether he could use other magic than his [Heal] and it also verified his race.

Tears appeared at the corner of his eyes and were quickly dried away with the rapid winds.

And then his altitude started dropping from thousands of meters in the air and decent into Reperane Woods.

His body slammed into a tree, then another, and another. With each snap that the trees made, his bones became turned into smaller and smaller shards, until they no longer held a shape. He gritted his teeth while blood flooded his mouth as he crashed into more and more trees, breaking all of them with the residue strength of the dragon.

The trees may have slowed his momentum but he tubled in great speed as his body made contact with the ground.

Despite all that, John was still huddled up into a ball, protecting his chest region from all damage. He persisted in that position of his, knowing that he would have to endure the pain a little bit more.

For once, he was thankful for the cold, they numbed a good amount pain that he would otherwise feel. Either that or his nerves were damaged that he no longer felt pain.

The rolling finally stopped with one last slam towards a tree.

“[Heal], ack...ack…” he declared as loudly as he coughed out the steaming liquid from his organs.

The faint blue light was the only visible thing his bloody eyes could register.

His body, which was equivalent to paste, slowly took shape, mending John from the devastating damage.

Minutes passed.

Only his skeleton was completely formed. His deep-sky-blue aura was still faintly pulsing over his body mending his organs with a snail like pace.

Why…why isn’t it healing quickly? I am certain that I have left enough mana for one last [Heal]… And why am I…

“Agh…” an agonizing sound came from his mouth.

...still feeling pain? [Heal] is supposed to negate all pain while it runs through your body. I…I used this all the time during training b-but...

Snowflakes landed on him, each addition of the snowflakes took his warmth away from him as John laid on the snowy ground helplessly.

No longer pondering on why [Heal] was not functioning as it would and gave himself a vague reason that his mana reserves were empty, his mind began to drift as exhaustion took over him.

I’m tired, I am very tired… I want to sleep.

His breathing slowed, frost crystallized on his glowing body but John neither felt them nor paid any attention to them.

So cold... Raina… It’s so cold…

It was not long until John Sarvod was no longer awake when the healing aura dissipated.