In the middle of the Iharana Great forest.

Under the clear light of the full moon.

Thirteen people were present.

Twelve of them were surrounding a single person.

In a fetal position, writhing in agony, was a frame befitting a child.

Blood was gushing profusely from the wound on his ribs and from his severed arm, but he made every effort to get to his feet.

“NAAAAH!” He screamed, his voice racked with rage and pain.

In response to his sudden rising, the twelve people surrounding him sheathed their weapons and pointed them at him.

"What have I done to you! "Tell me what I did to deserve this!"

"You want to kill me!" "You tarnished what I loved," He then turned to face a red-eyed blonde and muscular man. “You! Syrus, he trusted you! He died by their fault, he ... believed in you... , and now you won't even let me avenge him! That was the only thing I had wished for, and you won't even let me have it.

“Shame on you… shame on you all!”

“I will never forgive you! … I will never forgive any of you!” He declared, leering wrathfully at each of them as if to indefinitely imprint their image in his mind.

They were all about to attack him when he pulled out a white stake and stabbed it into his chest.

He stumbled to his knee, blood gushing profusely from his wound.

Each of them was taken aback by his unexpected action when a crimson ripple erupted from him.

“May the wind sow death and misery upon those you care! And Your lives be drowned in absolute darkness!”

“May the Sun and lightning fall down upon your land leaving nothing but ashes!”

“May deluges earthquakes wash over the filth that is the trace you left upon this world”

“May winter bring death upon those you care and love!”

" … But, I, … will be the one to claim to each one of your pathetic life." He cursed.

A second ripple came out.

Nothing remained of the surrounding area the next moment, only raw and utter destruction.

***

Two men were descending a long and wide stairwell.

One had bleached white hair, while the other had blonde hair.

Both were in their sixties yet still had the physic of a man in his prime.

“Oy, Is there anyone here? You hear me?” The white-haired man said this while waving his hand to the blonde, who appeared to be lost in thought.

Snapping back to reality, he finally took notice of his friend.

“Sorry, You said?”

“As I said, I'd be returning to the northern fortress in two days, and I was wondering what you'd suggest I bring as a gift for my family, but when you touched that pendant, you became completely disconnected from reality.”

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When his friend mentioned the pendant, he noticed his hand was glued to it.

“Sorry for that again… “

“It’s nothing… This pendant? is it his? From that night?” He asked recognizing the pendant.

The pendant in question was a necklace with two keys on it.

One of these keys appeared to be a normal key, while the other seemed to be a magical key to one of his family mansion libraries.

Memories of how he obtained those keys flashed through his mind, memories he would give anything to forget.

“Yes. He was wearing it that night, I didn’t know what I could do with it, so I kept it with me.”

He tried to give this pendant to his grandson once, but he was vehemently denied, claiming that he should keep it and never forget what he'd committed.

“You-” The white-haired man started but his words were cut when his eyes stumbled upon a small frame entering the castle entrance.

The blonde man reflexively hid the necklace under his clothes upon noticing the small frame.

"Good morning, Your Graces, Holy Paladins Aubrecht and Freshet." The small person greeted.

Though the greeting did not revert any form of genuine respect, it also contained no speck of respect or insolence.

It was a bland forced yet unforced greeting.

The small frame belonged to a young boy, no more than ten years old, with silver hair and blue eyes, wielding a silver-scabbarded short-sword.

"Mael, good morning."

"I came here to pick Ramia up." The boy stated.

"I see... "How is your grandfather doing?"

"He's fine, thanks to the Holy Paladin's concern." The discussion was cut short by the boy's words.

“Hum… “

She held a scabbarded red sword in her right hand and a scabbarded black sword in her left.

Then a footstep could be heard from the opposite stairwell, the one down which the two were going.

A girl about the same age as the boy was descending the stairwell, and she, too, had red eyes like the blonde man, but unlike him, she had brown-red hair inherited from her mother.

She held two swords, one scabbarded in each hand, a scabbarded red sword in her right and a scabbarded black sword in her left.

She noticed the two men, paused briefly in her descent, but then decided to ignore our presence and proceeded to the boy.

"Let's go, Mael." She said as she walked toward the castle's exit.

The boy bid them farewell with a sign of the head and then left with the girl.

The white-haired man, Gunther Freshet, sighed audibly.

He is a Holy Paladin of the Church, just like the blonde man next to him, Armand Aubrecht.

“You saw that? They absolutely loathe me.”

"I won't put it that way, but I admit they don't seem to love you very much."

"At first, I considered giving it to my grandson, but he advised me to keep it so that I would always remember what I had done," he explained, touching the pendant once more. Then I thought about giving it to them because I'd heard they were good friends with "him," but as you can see, they despise me. I'm afraid if I do that, these two will try to murder me in my sleep."

"As if you were sleeping." The man sighed then continued brushing off the previous topic " Enough of that, what about my present? I considered visiting the Edouard family on behalf of my disciple, but after what these two idiots have done, I don't think it's a good idea. Instead, I'm going to get him some trinkets from his hometown. And I'm sure Mama and Mom would appreciate it if I brought them something from here, so what do you think?"

These two were not only colleagues but also old friends and in a way, one could even say that these two were cousins, they had been through a lot together, which was why they could talk so casually to each other.

Armand was well aware of how highly his friend regarded the gifts for which he sought advice so casually.

"I'm not sure why not... " He cut his words since he had the impression that the world was rumbling.

He looked at his friend to confirm, and he, too, felt. Suddenly it grew stronger, beyond what anyone could ignore, and glancing at the ceiling, they saw the chandelier trembling, ready to fall at any moment. He even heard something breaking all over the castle.

Was it an earthquake? But there was something odd about that earthquake, and they were both aware of it.

They both dashed out the door.

The rumbling continued for two minutes before ceasing.

"Did you notice it?" Gunther wondered of a friend.

“Yes…”

"I think I'll put the shopping plan I had on hold on hold for a while." He joked, but his face betrayed him by displaying his most dreaded expression.

They felt it; it wasn't particularly powerful or destructive, but they knew from where it came that seism was not to be taken lightly.

They both rushed to the southern edge of the human continent, to the barrier that stood between the human continent and the Iharana great forest, hoping that our greatest fear was just that: a fear.