There was a cave which had been hidden from society since ancient times. Only a few people know about it and fewer people have been there.
Currently in that ancient cave was an old man sitting on a chair, meditating peacefully.
“Sigh”
He sighs as he felt an unimaginable power throughout the whole continent.
The old man knew what this power was, he looked determined towards where the power was released before speaking with a powerful voice which shook the whole cave.
“I was late last time.”
“This time, I will be there first!”
The old man stood up from his chair and vanished.
Aria felt something different from Kali and Laura. She felt, she felt all the emotions Shin had felt previously in his life.
Her eyes became hazy as tears didn’t stop emerging from her eyes, her heart was beating faster and faster, her mind going through all the memories Shin’s emitted from his eyes.
Aria could see a boy alone, wearing a tattered cloak, crouching. Seeing the boy’s unfocused eyes.
Left out in the cold… In the boy’s hand; a small rotten piece of bread…
Seeing children holding their parents’ hands while walking cheerfully…
Feeling all the pain… All the torture… All those harsh words…
All the despair and darkness shrouding the crouching boy…
A weak voice came out from the boy’s mouth, ‘Why did you abandon me, mother?’.
“Why did you abandon me, mother?”
“Why do I have to go through all this?”
“Why… Why is all this happening to me?”
Shin cried out the words.
I was left behind by everyone, an unwanted child, I was alright with that… But, why is there someone who’s wanting me?
Aria widened her eyes. She had never explained it to him, she had never thought that she could underestimate Shin’s feelings in his previous world that much.
“Shin, son.”
Aria mumbled while thinking of the war which happened 11 years ago.
“Son, the moment you were born, something happened.”
Aria stared at Shin, her voice became clearer.
Shin felt the seriousness in her voice and listened to her carefully.
Laura clenched her fists when she thought of what happened back then, her whole body emitted an aura of anger!
Kali who was at that time half a continent away shuddered from the feeling she felt back then.
“When you were born, you, you emitted a power across the whole continent.”
“A power which made everyone dread you.”
Aria stared at Shin and continued speaking.
“I and your father tried to escape at that time when we were hunted by every major family in the whole continent.”
“Your father was strong, he managed to hold them back, but they were way too many, more and more started to attack us.”
Aria’s voice became faster and uneven as she thought of all the people who tried to hunt them down.
“Me, at that time, being weak was protected by my husband. We managed to hide and run away for over a year after you were born. But, stronger and stronger enemies came, they all felt the power you emitted back then, they wanted to eliminate you before you grew up.”
“Your father told me a secret he undiscovered in an ancient ruin after one battle where he lost his arm. The secret to planting a mark on someone, sending them to another world and how to get them back.”
Aria shed a tear when she thought of the day when her husband came back with only one arm.
“He knew he wouldn’t be able to live for much longer, he entrusted me with your future…”
“The next day he went back to battle to buy time for us to get away and let me send you away. I ran for a week holding you in my embrace without sleeping before finding a cabin, I planted the mark on you, infusing it to a stone which turned it to a dark gem and, and sending you away.”
“Your father, he battled with a single hand for 30 days and 30 nights against every major power. He, he wanted to buy us as the most time he could muster and lessen our burden for the future.”
“By the time your father died, 70% of those who arrived died, no one felt your power anymore and thought you were dead, everyone left to heal their own wounds which were dealt after the war.”
“No one thought of me any longer, I lived in the forests all alone. I lived for the only reason to see you again, I have been fighting since then, fighting to become stronger for your sake.”
Aria and Laura shed tears when they reminisced about the past.
Kali closed her eyes while thinking back to the battle she heard across the whole continent. She respected Aria’s husband for his strength and resolve to protect his family.
Shin listened carefully when Aria explained. He closed his eyes.
Ah, so, it was my fault…
Shin smiled self-mockingly, helplessly thinking about the pain he has caused.
Father. Mother. Thank you for loving me this much…
“Hehehe…”
Shin laughed dryly and weakly while his eyes were closed, he felt like his mind opening for the first time. He thought of how idiotic he was acting, he thought of how idiotic he could be for thinking something bad about his parents.
Shin raised both of his hands up, leaning on Aria – his mother’s chest, he hugged her with all his feelings.
“Thank you, mother.”
Aria felt happiness bursting out her body, she embraced Shin harder and harder.
Shin suddenly remembered something, he looked strangely at his mother.
“Mother, how old are you?”
“Ugh.”
Aria groaned slightly while hearing that question, of course, it would seem weird for a child to see his mother only 10 years older than him.
Laura and Kali snickered while making fun of Aria.
Aria glanced coldly at both, making them tremble.
Aria glanced evilly at both before looking at Shin again
“Cough. Uhm. I’m 105 this year.”
“Besides, besides you, Shin, I’m the youngest one in the room, haha.”
Aria laughed coldly while she spoke the last sentence, glancing at Kali and Laura.
Both Laura and Kali felt something bad would happen after seeing Aria’s evil eyes and smile,
She wouldn’t bring up our ages up, right? Right??
Laura and Kali bought had a bad premonition, they both coughed a couple of times, hoping that Aria wouldn’t do so.
105 years?!
Youngest?!
Shin opened his eyes wide at Aria’s words, it was hard to believe something like that.
“In this world, the stronger you become, the longer you can live. Or if you eat pills made by strong alchemists.”
Aria explained briefly before smiling happily, that smile looked like the same of a demoness to Laura and Kali.
“Son, you see, Laura who’s looking younger than me started to train earlier in her life, she should be now 257 years old this year.”
Laura who heard Aria say her age to Shin felt like fainting.
Shin’s mouth opened slightly while looking at Laura, 257 years…
Aria pointed her finger at Kali next, Kali felt her back sweating, she begged Aria not to say it with her puppy eyes.
“Kali, didn’t you recently turn 1094 years old?”
“Uguh!”
Kali’s mind became blank, she felt her strength leaving her and almost knelt on the floor. She wanted to lay down and curl up in a ball and cry.
Shin’s mouth opened widely, looking at the teenage girl, who’s almost 1100 years old!
“Shin, so you don’t have to worry about mother’s age when I birthed you. Even if people look young, doesn’t mean they are young. I don’t know how power and strength worked in the world you were sent in, but seeing your body weak as a child from here, I’m guessing they weren’t strong at all. So, I guess that they shouldn’t have long lives as people from this world.”
Aria still explained calmly, she had guessed that the moment she summoned Shin back to this world. Seeing his strength not becoming stronger in 10 years would usually mean that the world didn’t have any divine energy in the air or the people didn’t have a method to harvest it.
Shin nodded while being absent-minded.
“Average people lived to 80 years or so.”
“““Eh, only 80?”””
Aria, Laura and Kali were all surprised by what Shin said.
“That low?”
“Did they even get stronger?”
“Did they in the first place harvest some sort of divine energy?”
The three mumbled while thinking about what the hell the people did in the world Shin was in.
Kali clearly showed disdain for them, while Laura felt sorry for them.
Shin suddenly felt tired, his whole body lost all his strength.
“Ugh…”
Shin felt a slight pain in both his eyes, letting out a weak cry, he held his head with both of his hands. The pain grew stronger, Shin couldn’t think straight anymore, he fell on the floor and yelled out in pain.
“Gyaaaah!!”
Aria hurriedly pulled Shin from the ground and looked over his whole body with a strong aura emitting from her eyes. She saw no injuries on his body, but she saw a huge amount of energy crashing around in his eyes.
Kali and Laura both swept through his body too like Aria did not a second later and saw the change in his body.
Aria tried to control the aura, making it calmer. But, the harder she tried, the more out of control Shin’s aura became.
“Give him to me!”
Kali yelled in a low voice with a tone which didn’t let anyone refuse.
Aria looked at her briefly before nodding, she lifted Shin up and gave him to Kali.
“Protect the area surrounding here!”
Kali’s eyes suddenly turned golden again, she emitted an aura stronger than before.
If Aria didn’t suppress Kali’s aura in damaging the area, the city would most likely tremble and the earth would crack open.
Kali held Shin’s small body in her left hand while lifting her right hand high up. The ring on her finger emitted a shine before a vial appeared in her hand, she started to chant lowly but the words were said clearly and the tone was strong.
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“…In the name of the creator Col… Heavenly being, accept my existence!… The power of heavens, LEND ME IT!!…”
An unimaginable aura merged within Kali, time seemed to stop moving. Only Kali could see clearly, could see the slow movements from Laura and Aria trying to suppress the aura emitted from her.
Kali focused all her power in Shin again, she saw the dark energy inside of Shin, trying to devour his existence!
She felt anger boil up within her, she landed her hand on his eyes, the vial right above his eyes. She’s trying to draw all the dark energy from his eyes, destroying all of it!
Kali frowned the longer it took, this was a secret art technique she learned which could give her an immense amount of power for a short time. After she uses it, she would be weakened for a period of time, this wasn’t something she could do at any given time, it was a risk she wouldn’t usually take.
If Kali was asked if she would have used that power to save someone a day earlier, she would have shown that person a look of disdain and laugh coldly at him.
But, she did it for Shin. A youth she met not one hour ago… The moment Shin fell from the pain, a voice inside of her told her to save him, at any given cost!
Kali was a person who followed her instincts, therefore she used her strongest ability without considering the outcome.
The dark energy in Shin’s eyes became dimmer the longer Kali held the potion slightly touching his eyes. The clear liquid inside of the vial evaporated slowly, less and less liquid remained in the vial, the same as the dark energy in Shin’s eyes.
The dark energy dissipated, the same with the humongous aura which was emitted by Kali. A line of sweat rolled down from her forehead. She lost her strength and landed down on her knees. But, still holding Shin, making sure he wouldn’t hurt himself in the fall, even if the fall wasn’t one meter high, Kali didn’t want him to suffer anymore.
Aria and Laura quickly stepped closer to Kali and Shin.
Aria was grateful, she didn’t know why Kali would go that far for Shin, but was glad that she did. Because she herself couldn’t save him, she felt depressed because she still wasn’t strong enough to protect him!
“Kali. Tell me, what was all that?”
Aria closely looked at Shin and Kali’s weak face, being paler than usual and sweat running down their faces.
Kali didn’t glance at Aria, she only stared at Shin’s pale face. She faintly smiled while speaking to Aria.
“…Death”
Kali waited for a second before continuing with a voice hinting of dread.
“…His body contains the divine energy of death.”
Aria’s and Laura’s face froze solid after hearing what Kali said. The divine energy of death is special, it gives the one who can control it great power, but the backlash is too terrifying!
Its strength is enough to deal with hundreds of people who have strength close to Laura, but the wielder will suffer with time.
Luckily Kali suppressed a great amount of his backlash this time.
“Kali, answer me honestly, why are you here and why did you save Shin?”
Aria’s voice was getting colder as she wanted to know the truth before thinking about what to do next.
Kali understood Aria to some extent and spoke without any false words.
“I came today because of, his powers. The power which made me tremble out of fear 12 years ago, I wanted to know more about it.”
Kali sighed lightly.
“I never knew it would be, death… Aria, you don’t have to worry, I will not harm your son.”
“And for me protecting him, even I don’t know yet.”
Kali looked up at the ceiling.
“I do at least know, your son, Shin, this isn’t his time to die. His fate has something else planned for him, I will watch him and find out what it is.”
Aria sighed in relief, she really didn’t want to make Kali her enemy. She still was wary of her, but not that much as before.
“I want to take my son to bed, where will you go?”
Aria asked lightly, before staring at Shin again while worrying about his wellbeing.
“Hmm… I think I will stay here. I want to know more about Shin.”
Kali answered while thinking about what she would do here.
Aria nodded before picking up Shin from Kali’s embrace.
“Laura, let Kali rest in the bedroom next to mine.”
Laura bowed before looking at Kali.
Aria held Shin in her embrace, not holding him tightly. She walked out of the throne room and walked towards her bedroom.
Laura and Kali walked behind Aria, no one spoke a single word.
None of the maids or guards was currently in the halls, most of them were in their own courtyards or protecting the front gate, waiting for new orders to follow.
Aria pushed open the doors, she laid Shin on the bed and covered his body with the duvet. She was way too tired to do anything else, she laid beside Shin and closed her eyes.
Laura showed Kali her room before going back to rest too, even Laura who usually sleep less than 4 hours a day, felt like sleeping for half a day.
Everyone in the castle slept peacefully, no one had the strength to do anything at all.
Meanwhile, those in the castle which were resting peacefully, those in the Families which were invited to the banquet had a restless night.
They didn’t know why the Purple Witch would arrive, there might even be a battle. No one dared to let their guards down throughout the entire night, breathing in relief after nothing happened.
While they breathed in relief, Kali woke up after a couple hours of sleep. She yawned while covering her mouth with the back of her right hand.
Kali glanced at the ring on her finger, mentally thinking about the item she wanted. A faint light emitted from the ring, which afterwards a silver robe appeared in her hand.
Kali took off her clothes, showing her petite figure and white skin. Luckily no one was in the room. She wore the silver robe rather slowly, taking her time without any worry.
An aura emitted from Kali, the aura was rather weak but wide enough to cover the whole castle. She wanted to know what was happening, finding nothing interesting, her aura vanished.
Kali went out of her room, seeing Aria’s door open she entered without thinking twice.
She looked at the bed, only Shin sleeping on it with a small frown. Then glancing at the other side of the room, seeing Aria and Laura sitting on the sofa drinking tea.
Kali walked quietly towards them and sat down on the opposite side of Aria.
Laura raised the teapot and filled a black cup up with an aromatic tea before placing the cup gracefully to Kali.
Kali nodded slightly towards Laura to show her thanks, before raising the cup towards her mouth.
No one spoke, they only glanced slightly at each other now and then, after seeing Shin sleep, none of them wanted to wake him up.
“UWAAAAHHH!!!”
“NOOO!!! STOP!! NO NO NO DON’T!!! UWAAAAAAA!!!”
A loud scream echoed throughout the whole room.
The three on the sofa dropped the cup in their hand while hurriedly looking at the bed.
Seeing Shin wreaking havoc on the bed, screaming his lungs out, tears running down his face.
Aria flung her cup away, smashing it on the wall while rushing towards Shin.
She hurriedly held Shin in her embrace.
“UWAAA!!”
“Hush hush, it’s all right Shin, mommy is here, it’s all right”
Aria spoke with her voice which was filled with sadness, she couldn’t hold her tears back.
Shin which was in Aria’s embrace tossed his arms everywhere, screaming as his tears dripping from his face.
Shin couldn’t hear or see anything, but, he felt something.
It felt secure.
It was warm.
It calmed his mind.
Shin’s arms stopped moving as it dropped down, without moving anymore.
He then heard the voice, the calming, but cracking voice.
Ah, it’s mother…
It was the voice of his mother which he heard, the one voice he can’t forget.
On the other hand, Aria which was like a broken radio, saying the same things over and over. It seemed like she wanted to calm herself down in the process, tightly holding Shin in her embrace.
Laura didn’t know what to do, she just firmly clenched her fists. Every time she saw Shin’s fragile body, his tears or just his sad voice, she would feel a grief in her heart.
Laura just wanted to do something for Shin, if, if it could help him just a little, she would go all out just to help him. But, she didn’t know what to do.
Kali who was a little more experienced with life itself would usually look away at these kinds of actions. But, this time, her eyes couldn’t leave the boy who was currently being hugged by his mother.
She absent-mindedly looked at Shin, his body which was weaker than a child. Her face wore an expression of being confused.
This was the first time she felt bonded with another person since a long time ago. Kali closed her eyes, listening to Aria’s voice which was trying to calm down the screaming Shin.
It, it feels just like back then.
Kali put her hand over her heart, opening her eyes and looking at Shin again with warm eyes and a gentle smile on her face.
Shin didn’t know where he was, everything around him was dark, but he could hear voices.
He knew that his mother – Aria was embracing him right now, hearing her voice which was trying to calm him down.
He heard the rough breathings which came behind Aria, he didn’t know who they were, but he could guess Laura should be the one or one of them.
Shin’s screaming calmed down, he stopped after finding out that he was in a safe place. Even if it was a dark place, he felt safe being close to Aria.
“Shin, Shin, Shin”
Aria held Shin in her embrace, not wanting to let go. She called out his name in succession, wanting to confirm that he really was here with her and not leaving her.
“M-Mother, I’m here”
Shin’s hoarse and weak voice, which Aria barely managed to hear, managing to finally calm Aria down.
Aria did finally let Shin out of her embrace after hearing his voice, she managed to let out a dumb smile. She was very happy to hear his voice.
Light penetrated Shin’s eyes as he closed and opened his eyes a lot of times before adapting.
Oh, when did we return to the bedroom?
Shin who finally managed to see where he was, thought of how he could have gotten here. Then, then he remembered that almost everyone he has met recently was really strong.
“Shin, why did you scream? Did you have a nightmare? Please tell mother about it.”
Aria looked at Shin worriedly, she had only heard these kinds of screams from those who had been suffering from despair.
She had even let out a similar scream in the past, she knew if Shin would scream like that meant that he’s suffering from what she can’t see.
After Shin heard Aria wanted to know about his nightmare, his body trembled. Wanting to forget of what he remembered.
Feeling Shin’s trembling body, Aria’s eyes became moist. Her voice became hoarse as she looked at Shin.
“P-Please tell mother about it.”
Shin who had been wanting to put those memories under a rock and forget them over time, couldn’t do so. Aria wanted to know his deepest scars, it wasn’t something that could be known to just anyone. Just remembering it makes Shin tremble in fear.
“Do, do you really want to know?”
“The things which have been forever haunting me.”
“My deepest scars. Do, do you really want to know?”
Shin’s voice became even hoarser, looking at Aria with a gaze which held no emotions.
Shin’s eyes lost its warmth.
Lost its shine.
His eyes were dead, looking at everything like it was the same, showing no emotions.
Aria, Laura and Kali which saw his eyes forgot how to breathe, they didn’t know what could have made a boy’s eyes like that.
“Shin, I, I want to know everything.”
Aria still wanted to know, it was something she would place in her heart forever.
Shin’s eyes turned over to Laura and Kali, looking at them like they were just air, plainly speaking.
“What about you two? Do you still want to be here?”
Laura and Kali which was being looked at like that by Shin, hearing his voice, they gulped as they were somewhat frightened.
But, even so, Laura nodded.
Kali tried to open her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She only nodded after finding out that she couldn’t speak a single word.
Shin left Aria’s embrace, looking at the bed which he was laying on. He pushed himself back putting a pillow behind himself as he looked at the three again before opening his mouth, trying to speak calmly but with a voice filled with sadness.