Young Bosha ran through the back streets of Kaldura. In his hands, he clutched moldy bits of bread and maggot-infested bones. Chasing after him were the merchants of Kaldura.

“I'm going to kill you tonight, you miserable redhead!”

Bosha was puzzled. He hadn't stolen anything, he just rummaged through the trash. Why were they after her? After repeatedly searching through garbage piles and evading capture, he came to a conclusion. They were enemies. He was born the enemy of all humans. They cannot tolerate him being alive. To live, he must fight them. He must hurt them.

“No.” Ygraine always said.” You must forgive. You must love. Only then will the world change for Captain Bosha.”

It was difficult to understand, even after hearing it a thousand times. Some things never change. Some things are unforgivable. Just looking at that scenario.. all Aruru did was rummage through a trash can, and he killed him like it was a joke!

At that moment, Edulis's magick flared up like a bonfire. The magic stones attached to his mold tried to pull it in, but Edulis's magick could not be drawn. At the center of the burning magic was something like a candle wick.

It was Ygraine's magick. A small, slender magick, like a thread. It was the only part of Ygraine's magick that Edulis could move freely.

Perhaps because it was the goddess's magick, but to Edulis, that thin stem felt as unyielding as an iron pillar. It didn't waver against magic stones and didn't melt in Edulis's burning magic. It was as if Ygraine's magic itself was Ygraine herself.

The fiery magic swirled around Edulis' body. The nails that pierced his hands and feet fell limply to the floor.

Edulis picked up a random branch from the ground. His magick wrapped around the branch, and its energy became as sharp as a whetted sword.

“Love your enemies, embrace your enemies. Captain Bosha is a man who can do that.”

Ygraine's voice echoed in Edulis's head but Edulis shook his head.

"Die."

Edulis lunged for Yug.

----------------------------------------

Raghad was puzzled.

"I didn't see it at all…”

Raghad thought something was off, looking at Edulis's expression as he faced Yug. It resembled the expression of a wolf who had lost its cub and attacked recklessly, without caring about the consequences. While he was having that thought, Yug's arm rolled on the ground. It seemed as if a single scene with Edulis cutting Yug's arm cleanly and falling away..

"This... this...!"

Yug fumbled for the hammer on his back. Normally, Yug used a hammer as long as he was tall as a weapon. But now that he had lost his right arm, he couldn't even reach the hammer on his back.

The sight of Edulis glaring at him with a vicious glare made his mind race. Yug swung his left arm behind his back, but then he lost his balance and fell flat on his face.

"Tsk! Brother Raghad! Sister Zina! Get him...!"

Yug was on the ground, flailing about for help, looking like a dragonfly with one wing clipped off or an upturned scarab. t was a sight unbefitting of a member of the Fey family.

As Edulis swung a branch at Yug's throat, Raghad stepped forward. He drew his sword from his waistband and parried Edulis' attack.

No matter how unworthy Yug might be, he shared the same bloodline. Raghad couldn't let a member of the Fey family be killed.

"Step aside, witch-born, and do not harm my blood."

"Step aside."

Then Edulis's twig clashed with Raghad's sword, and...

Lagarde was dumbfounded. A twig. Even if it is enchanted, it does not change the fact that it is a branch. If it struck a sword enchanted with the same level of magic, it would break. If it's the same level of magick...

Lagarde's sword was enveloped in a reddish aura. Lagarde's magick was often compared to a searing flame or an erupting volcano. When he swung his sword with enough magick and concentration, the earth within ten paces of him would be set ablaze.

Yet the branch holding Edulis was intact by Lagarde's sword. No, not just intact. It was Lagarde who was pushed back. There was not a scratch on the finger-thick branch, and his arm tingled as he parried Edulis' attack.

At that moment, he realized. If Edulis had been wielding an intact sword, this would have been the end of the fight.

"What are you? How did you get out of the magic stone?"

Lagarde asked as they locked swords. Truth be told, he'd been suspicious of Edulis since he'd first laid eyes on him. The descendants of the witch are not allowed to learn about magick until the end of the Sainting, but this one broke down the gate. It shattered into tiny pieces and scattered in the air. Only someone with sharp and refined magick could have done this.

And to break the binding of a magic stone... Even an adult with years of magical training could not escape the bindings of a magic stone. That's why they're used in prisons to hold felons.

"Are you... an incarnation of the witch?"

"Shut up."

Edulis held the branch at an angle with both hands, the tip pointing toward the ground. Then he took a large step forward with one leg. The thud of his footsteps echoed in the deserted square.

It was a move not found in the swordsmanship of the Fey family. Lagarde was puzzled. When fighting with a sword, it was important not to let your opponent predict your next move. However, Edulis's stance made it easy to predict his next move.

He's holding the branch out to his right side, with the tip pointing down. The only action that can follow from this is a large upward slash from the bottom right to the top left.

If someone else had taken this stance, he would have thought they were a novice swordsman. But Raghad felt it. He sensed a mastery in Edulis’s skill. It was as if he had practiced that stance tens of thousands of times.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Perhaps this child had been trained to specialize in the slashing motion, he thought. Instinctively sensing danger, he shouted.

"Zina, take Yug and run!"

Then the branch holding Edulis sliced through the air. Who would have thought that was the sound of a branch swinging? It sounded like Fenrir swinging its claws.

Rahad blocked Edulis's sword, but it was no use. A readable sword technique? No, it was a sword technique that even knowing the trajectory couldn't be blocked.

Clang!

Lagarde's sword made a shattering sound as it broke into pieces. The pathetic severed blade twirled across the ground.

Edulis immediately kicked him in the chest. Raghad fell to the ground without resistance. A young boy wielding a branch had overwhelmed him, and he fell, unable to withstand even three strikes. B. But it was no time to wallow in shame.

"Zina!"

Kurzina had just pulled Yug to his feet and was starting to walk away. Yug's hammer lay haphazardly on the ground.

"Hic! Hic!" Yug took off running, leaving Kurzina behind. Kurzina blocked Edulis' path and pointed his staff at Yug.

"No! Don't kill Yug!"

A blue, transparent wall appeared between Kurzina and Edulis. It was a barrier that Kurzina had created with her magic. It looked like transparent glass, but it was impenetrable, even against the strongest arrows. A barrier of flame appeared in front of it. Ragad had summoned the last of his magic.

With the two barriers in front of him, Edulis gathered his magick at his feet.

"Do not interfere,"

Edulis muttered lowly, then stomped his foot hard against the floor. With a thud, the ground shook.

It was Bosha's specialty. It was a magical technique that the Bosha used to deal with multiple opponents. Its effect was to keep them off balance for a moment, but it was especially effective against mages. This is because it temporarily disables sustained magic that requires concentration.

The moment the magical barrier disappeared, Edulis leaped over the wall of fire and kicked Kurzina in the back. Kurzina fell to the ground with a thud. It was only a matter of moments before Edulis was on his way to Yug.

"Heh... heh! I'm sorry, help!"

Yug's crotch was soaking wet. In his terror, Yug could barely look Edulis in the eye.

"You seek mercy only in times like these.”."

Edulis tried to swing his viciously magic-laden branch at Yug's throat. Then Kurzina shouted.

"Where is the man who told me of miracles, who told me of forgiveness? Was it all a lie to deceive me?"

Hearing those words, Edulis hesitated for a moment, but he did let go of the branch. Aruru's bloodied body lay there. Aruru's body, crying out for his mother's innocence.

"No!"

Edulis finally swung the branch. The next moment, the branch broke with a snap.

----------------------------------------

There was a scent. The scent she had smelled that night, the scent that Kurzina had thought was the smell of the Deluan flower.

"This... this is...."

Sniffing, Kurzina slowly opened her tightly closed eyes, expecting to see Yug's head roll across the floor, but what she saw was something else entirely.

"Zina, what's going on? Is he... is he... is he... ...."

Raghad was just as surprised. Even watching a dragon jump rope wouldn't have shocked him this much. It was only natural. What was happening in front of Raghad and Kurzina, negated everything they had ever known.

Edulis was enveloped in white light.

His magick hadn't been this color just a moment ago. How could a human use two types of magic?

Besides, white is the color of the goddess Lutea. White Magick is not meant to be wielded by humans, and only the monks of the Holy Order can train them. But even among them, there is not a single one who wears such a pure magick.

There is only one person who can wear such a magick...

“Nonsense! It can't be!"

Raghad shook his head and exclaimed. The color of the magick wasn't the only thing that struck him; what Edulis did next, Lagarde and Kurzina couldn't believe.

Enveloped in light, Edulis picked up Yug's arm from the floor, then walked over to him and spoke.

"You, who have lost yourself in solitude, are also a child of Uriah."

A moment ago, Edulis had spoken in a voice akin to a wolf's growl. But now he sounded like a loving father.

Then the light from Edulis's body enveloped Yug's body. The blood stopped flowing, and his severed arm was attached to his shoulder.

Yug flailed his right arm in confusion. It moved as if nothing had happened.

Edulis patted Yug's head a couple of times, then spoke.

"Treat others with love, for that is how you find yourself."

Yug stared at Edulis, eyes wide and mouth agape, but that wasn't the end of it. Edulis walked over to Aruru, covered in blood, and wrapped his hands around his body.

A white light enveloped Aruru's body. The blood that covered Aruru flowed back into his body. His wounds healed, his body temperature returned, and he finally opened his eyes. As soon as he did, he screamed.

"You! Fey Family's little brat! I'm going to be a ghost, and I'm going to make sure you don't.... Huh? Where am I?!"

"One with a burning heart. One colored by the heart of Altheon."

"What are you saying?! Scion of the Witch! Do you have something...."

Edulis' hand stroked Aruru's head.

"Remember. You, too, are a child of Uriah's, and I give you my light, so that you may defeat the black armies."

"Spawn of a witch...?!"

Edulis' eyes closed. His head nodded like a sleepy person, and then the white light withdrew from his body. Edulis's expression changed.

He felt as if he had taken a sleeping pill. Just as he was about to slit Yug's throat, his entire body went limp and the white magick twitched violently, and he lost all memory of it.

When he woke up, he realized that the Yug’s arm was reattached, and Aruru was hovering over his hand.

"What the hell...."

Yug, Raghad, Kurzina, and Aruru all had the same expression on their faces. They all stared at Edulis, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and dumbfounded. As Edulis froze, unsure of what was happening, Kurzina stepped in front of her.

"What is it?"

Kurzina knelt down in front of Edulis. He grabbed Edulis's hand with both of hers. Kurzina sobbed.

"You... you are... you are...!"