I was sitting inside the hole within the tree that served us as a mini-dormitory. It wasn’t particularly spacious, but it was far from feeling cramped either.

Today, for the first time in a very long while, I didn’t go to training and took a day off for myself.

Well, I said I took a day off for myself, but there wasn’t much I could think of to do, except maybe listen to a certain person from above singing a song.

"As the old frozen stream begins to flow,

I look up towards the setting sun.

Whether it be the rain or wind or snow,

I know that you'll come back home.

When the moon's had its run of time borrowed,

And the sky turns a morning blue,

My eyes always find that old dirt road,

For I know that you'll come back home…"

I recognized that song, it was the one hummed that night.

"From whom did you learn this song?"

"What… ah, this song? From Papa. "

Well, that was an answer I was not so surprised to hear about.

"Did he sing it like that? Or …"

"He sang it like this. Why?"

Strangely, Solomon, despite being seen by those adepts of literature as some sort of messiah, at least compared to the other six, doesn’t have a widely spread popularity. He is mostly known for being the loner of the seven and the one who left humanity, apparently for the sake of getting stronger.

In most cases, he was seen as a secluded warlord.

There were pretty much only three kinds of nobles that were baptizing their children under Solomon’s authority:

Those who were working in the artistic field.

Those who have a second son but cannot afford to divide the family's meager inheritance; as a result, the youngest born is baptized under Solomon's Authority and expected to succeed in fields other than the familial business.

The third type is somehow similar to the second, but is more about the said family belief and linked to how Solomon is seen as a warlord hero, and symbol of strength. There were noble families, though there weren’t many of them, generally high-ranking ones, that baptized all their children under his authority because they believed that it would bring their children luck and strength.

"Eh, that’s a surprise, I didn’t expect him to even be something of a singer as well."

"Yes, he did. He even often sang this song to me."

Solomon, the father of modern literature. He did invent countless poems, rhyming stories, most of which were written during the first hundred years of his life, and over the years, served as inspiration for contemporary artists.

"I see… so he wrote it for you and even sang it to you. That’s dedication."

As if having tackled a subject that particularly attracted her attention, she left her spot, went and sat on top of one of her magical bubbles, as if it was some sort of chair, and hovered just at my level.

"Papa didn’t write it for me. In fact, this one, this song, he didn’t write it. "

"Then who did?"

"A "friend," he said. I don’t know much about her; but she was a friend of Papa's when he was still a child. "

"A friend, huh?"

I knew from her that her father hadn't met the other six apostles, or godsent as they were called back then, until he was 15, so if he had someone he called a friend, she most likely was a commoner.

If you think about it thoroughly, the curse of commoners and nobles not being able to have children together, there must’ve been someone who had discovered it, and most likely too late.

Nia’s father spent 123 years on his own, inside the tower that was his, before meeting Nia’s mother, if I had to guess the reason it was most likely "that".

"... Stutter."

"What?"

"He said that she was stuttering, which is why she, to heal that up, was singing in rhyme. It helps a lot, don’t you think? "

"I don’t stutter, so, I’m not sure, but I guess that makes sense."

Suddenly, a question arose for me.

If she couldn't go outside the tower, why not take people inside, I can foresee some reason for not allowing that, but still... it feels a lot, at least to me, like a wasted opportunity.

It’s kinda cheap coming from me but the opportunity to make friends is something that shouldn’t be taken away from someone even …

Even knowing the circumstances she was in, I still think that.

By this, I was personally thinking about children born to Solomon's fellow godsend because most of them must have had a slew of children and even grandchildren by then.

"Nia, your father didn’t have many friends, didn’t he? You really don’t know anything about the others, … you know the apostles?"

"He was friends with Uncle and Aunt, but for the other, … I in fact only knew of them by name, I never saw or met them."

"And your uncle did have children, didn’t he? Have you ever even met any of them? "

Her response was firm and immediate."No."

"Hey, why don’t you sing one too? Don’t you have any songs your mother or father sang to you when you were a child? "

" … No I don’t."

"Not even one?"

"Not even one, sadly."

"I see… Hey, why don’t you ever talk about what you were doing before journeying here? You said that you lived on the human continent, that you were thrown and forced to live here, but never explained why. I always talk about my father, but you never talked about yours or any of your parents. "

I only told her that part of our journey.

"You know about Heon’s and-"

"That’s not what I’m talking about!"

"But I’ve told you a lot about what I know, haven't I?

"You said a lot about people, living there, how the church was calling my Father Solomon, but you never said anything about yourself."

"It’s just that there wasn’t much to be said. There is no story to be told, or song to be sung. It’s just how it is."

"Humph."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Just as she was about to return to her spot, I stopped her.

"Hey, wait, don’t get angry.

"It’s just that I think that your stories are far more interesting than mine, I know, why don’t you tell me one, you know, with dragons in it."

"Humph."

"... Please."

"... If you insist so much, then, I’ll tell you. You know, before what you call "magic" came to be, we people lived inside a giant earth wall…"

Like that, she proceeded to narrate how life was back then.

Due to the circumstances she lived in back then, Nia wasn’t particularly good at describing what exactly the world looked like back then. Her perception of her old world was somewhat limited to only what she heard from her father, but even with just that, I can somewhat imagine what it could’ve looked like back then.

Long before, the arrival of those referred to as the Godsents and now the apostles, before magic was even a thing, it seems that people were protected by a dragon, one of the first beings created on this planet, a creature created by the original goddess, mother of all the primeval life forms on earth.

That dragon went by the name of Rena.

That dragon was for some reason, I ignore, was protecting the frail humanity from monsters and anything that could’ve led them to extinction, soon she became a symbol of worship, under her protection, humans prospered, lived without the fear of being seen as preys by any living being.

This went on for several centuries, until one day, doom befell upon humanity. That doom came in the shape of a two-headed dragon. It was believed to be a creature born along with Rena. For yet another unknown reason, the dragon wanted humanity's extinction.

The two-headed dragon killed the dragon protecting humanity and proceeded to thoroughly wipe out humanity.

It was around that period that this world had its first interaction with magic. The first ones were the Primordial Dragons, eight creatures born from the ripped flesh, blood, and bones of Rena herself.

With their newly acquired magic, they fought and defeated the two-headed dragon, thus saving the last standing humans from total extinction.

To the surviving humanity’s surprise, none of the eight dragons had the intention of taking over Rena’s place. Each dragon went to their own corner of the world, but only one took pity on humans: Geon, the Earth Elemental Primordial Dragon, built a massive wall around the territory inhabited by the relics of humanity before departing.

Now, behind those walls, humanity was weaker than it ever was, left to fend for itself.

But even then, the remnants of the former humanity weren't allowed to breathe one out yet, since monsters had started to develop the ability to use power similar to those of the 8 primordials.

Yes, it was then that the first generation of magical beasts were born.

It was in those moments of despair, when humanity had no other choice but to cower within their walls, praying that a magical beast wouldn’t come and slaughter them, that the six Godsents were born.

Well, to be exact, it would be incorrect to say that they were born the way they were, but rather that they received that power one day out of the blue on their 10th birthday. Nia's father's stories state that the instant they unlocked that power, they were engulfed in a pillar of light that culminated high in the sky. This earned them another appellation. Before the "Godsent" appellation, in the beginning, those children were referred to as the "Children of Light", or "Les Enfants Célèstes" as it is said in Nia’s tongue.

There were six of them, three girls and three boys, each gifted with power varying from unique, such as healing magic, to power similar to that of the dragons.

Naturally, due to how flashy their acquisitions of their powers were, it didn’t take them long to be brought together.

The appellation "Child of Light" stopped being used once the six were referred to after Mon, alias Solomon, joined the six others years later.

That’s right, the appellation "Child of Light" stopped since among the seven apostles there was one that didn’t go through that flashy power acquisition.

The other six apostles' magic were activated at the age of ten. It happened on the same day, and they were all the same age. But Solomon, despite being the same age as the other six, had activated his magic before the other six. It seems that he kept that power for himself for years, and remained low-profile until his 15th year, when he finally joined the others.

This is pretty much how I assume his legend as a loner is sdtarted. While the other six were together for almost five years, Solomon debarked all by himself with no partner whatsoever.

From here, Nia’s story is hard to figure out since she doesn’t know much except that years later; her father, having made himself a name as a Loner Beast slaughterer, settled inside a giant tower, in which, thanks to his magic, he diffused a giant magic that protected the whole human territory.

It was just a guess, but it is most likely because of "that." My guess is that Solomon had a lover, most likely, that "friend" talked about earlier.

He must have been the one to find out about the curse.

I was even more convinced that when Nia began to talk about her mother, she herself didn’t seem to know much about her own mother, but she did know the circumstances of their encounter.

Despite being immortal and living completely reclusively within his tower, Solomon still had people delivering things to him. Things such as inks, papers, and foods which he used to write on were things he had to obtain from outside.

Despite not having set a foot outside for generations, Solomon was still revered as a divinity even among the other seven, thanks to his barrier and massive tower.

To fulfill his supplies, one family, a commoner family from which one of the six apostles, Kiady, came, was assigned exclusively to deliver supplies to his tower; that family has upheld this duty of delivering supplies to the Loner Godsent for generations.

It was from that family that a woman and a commoner came from, that woman, that commoner was Nia’s mother, Raissa.

She was just 17 back then, and was assigned to her familial duty. Generally, that duty doesn’t require meeting Solomon in person, there was a special room within the immense tower in which the supply was to be delivered, so many of those who upheld that duty never saw Solomon at all.

But Nia’s mother, out of curiosity, started wandering within the tower, with the objective of peeking into the legendary Solo Mon, the Loner Godsent.

And she did succeed.

Writing as he always did, for the past 116 years, she found Solomon.

Despite being 136 years old already, Solomon didn’t seem to have aged the slightest since his twenties, so maybe the crush was instantaneous for Nia’s mother;

Of course, their first interaction was far from what one would describe as romantic, as she was literally someone invading his property; she was immediately kicked out by Solomon.

Yet, each time she was to deliver his supplies, she would come and do what she did, no matter how much it irritated Solomon.

This went on for one year straight, and finally, though progressively, Solomon gave in, and started to consider Nia’s mother as a part of the tower furniture, he no longer saw her as a part of the tower.

From there, things evolved really fast between the two, and soon they openly accepted their relationship.

From here, they lived happily, till one day, Nia’s mother fell pregnant.

I won’t go much into detail here since Nia herself doesn’t know much about it, but apparently Nia’s mother ran away from her father.

Why?

The answer was obvious.

For Nia.

Though the circumstances were different, I couldn’t help but find similarities between her mother's story and a certain person's story.

For Nia’s mother, her father left the tower for the first time in more than a century and a half.

He found her, they talked, and in the end, they decided to take the uncertain path that lay ahead of them.

Not long after, Nia was born. Unfortunately, her mother couldn’t handle her birth and died in labour.

Nia was born with no features of a noble, she was neither capable of magic, nor aina-wielding abilities. She was born like a commoner, at least in appearance alone, since she clearly wasn’t.

She still can’t explain what was wrong with her, but she was struck by a strange illness that worsened further and further as she grew older.

It was to cure that illness that her father froze her in time with his magic, and it was also to cure that illness that ultimately led them here.

I'm not sure how her father did it, but it appears that he was able to transfer his magic onto her and thus completely heal her.

It was far from a happy ending, but he ultimately, despite how much of an asshole he was to us, earned my respect, especially after I learned what his last words meant.

"Anyway, this is where it all ends for me. This is finally the end for me.... Isn't it great? Although I would have liked to meet you in other circumstances, however painful our meeting may have been, it was an honour for me, but now that I'm done with my goodbye with her, it is time to say goodbye. "

It seems that while doing what he was doing to save Nia, he had somehow entered a remnant-like state, from which he was freed after I had shoved my sword into him.

To put it simply, after awakening, he needed us to put an end to him, but somehow he also needed time to finally bid his farewell to the daughter in the dream-like state she was in.

It was laughable what purpose we served in the end, but it was all my fault for being curious about the barrier.

"... And that's how the monster was slain."

She was finishing a story that I had absolutely not paid attention to.

"I see, that was an interesting story."

"Yeah, I was there when Papa finished writing this one."

Ironically, stories Solomon wrote during his first 116 years of life, which he spent willingly, all alone within his tower awaiting what I presume was death, ended up being the thing that made his daughter’s time imprisoned within that tower at least more enjoyable.

"Hey, Nia. I have something to ask. "

"Hum?"

"Would you take it? If you had an opportunity to reach the human continent, like, well, let’s say in less than three months, would you take it? "

"What about the thing you-"

"Forget about that. Let’s just say that you would have the opportunity to get back there safely. Would you take it? "

"... I don’t know. What about you? ?"

"We still have something to do here. So I won’t be able to leave this place for some time, maybe one year or two, if not more. To be honest, it depends on what I think I can improve upon. "

"... If it’s to be all alone, then I think I’d rather wait."

All alone, huh?

“Han?”

“Hum?”

“About what we agreed to, one year ago.”

“So we’re going to do it?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure of this? I mean for you?”

“ … I would be lying if I were to say that I am. But that doesn’t change that this is for the best.”