Chapter 6

Calyx looked around in a panic for a moment. And, then he found the spy which was his original purpose. A black lump lay beneath Roselyn’s feet as she stood there nonchalantly. The neck was completely twisted.

No matter how skilled you could handle a sword, a weak woman could not break an adult man’s neck to this extent. It was even done without a single scratch on the person holding the weapon.

Boom! Calyx grabbed her and pushed her hard into the wall and pressed his sword against her chin. She looked up at him, with her eyes wide open. When he met her clear pupils, he felt a rising fire in his face.

He had to clench his jaw to prevent his teeth from trembling.

Anger kept burning in his throat, but her face resembling his sister, the moonlit-green eyes, “Calyx.”

Her voice calling him was so clear. Before long, Calyx was shedding tears. It was bubbling out without him realizing it. He was angry, sad, frustrated and distressed.

Calyx grabbed her shoulder a little harder. She didn’t even show any discomfort under the pressure of his terrifying force. From the first day to this moment, her unchanging expression incited him endlessly.

She’s not the one you once knew. He felt as if this was what his entire being was telling him. Tears welled up, streaming down Calyx’s chin.

He chewed out every word.

“You don’t think I’ll be able to cut you off because we share the same blood? Tell me! Or I’ll cut off your neck. For what purpose did you come here! How dare you look like that!”

Calyx pressed down on her, breathing heavily. An unknown feeling pounded his entire body.

“What the hell are you!”

Her hair was further ruffled by his rough hands. Calyx couldn’t take his eyes off the half-covered face underneath the hair.

“Who the hell are you?”

The last question was a scream. From behind, it looked like he was holding her in his arms, but the relationship between him and her was completely severed, as if cut by a knife.

Calyx didn’t move in this state. Time passed. It was a short period of time, when even the beginning of the clock ticking could not be heard. Roselyn, who had been silent since the moment she met him, moved.

Her hand lightly swept over Calyx’s sword. Calyx trembled, but he didn’t pull back. Her eyes, which had been in contact with each other, as if locked in ice, drifted over his sword.

Roselyn’s appearance was reflected on the well-maintained metal. She opened her mouth, after staring for a while.

“I am a shadow.”

Then she laughed. Calyx stared blankly at the sight. Her smile looked so much like someone. It was a very calm smile, with slightly drooping eyebrows, soft eyes, and gently raised corners of the mouth.

“I’m Roselyn’s, shadow.”

* * *

It was sometimes a bird, or a bug, or sometimes in the form of a large beast.

‘It’ has been around for a long time, in ancient forests, which are very deep in the mountains, where people cannot reach. Given the nature of mana, ‘it’ may have to be called a Magical Beast. Red eyes, stronger than predators, and full of aggression.

Another reason why it was defined as Magical, was because there was no one around to call it otherwise. Deer, tiger, monkey, boar, sometimes even insects.

“It” had the capacity to mimic what it had eaten in the past, and many humans may have seen it as they passed by once, but the true appearance of “it” was unknown.

It was like black smoke, or a pool of living sand. The black mass, ‘it’, did not have exact boundaries and seemed to be scattered as if it were broken, but it managed to hold itself together without being fully broken apart.

In the past, some people called it a ghost, while others thought it was the shadow of a tree.

When ‘they’ unwind and reveal their true self, it is usually at the moment when ‘they’ must absorb food. So it had never been discovered. Sometimes ‘it’ does not eat for more than a year.

The only thing ‘it’ eats is dead creatures, it did not do any hunting for itself. This was the reason why ‘it’ had to starve for a long time. No animals nor scavengers, leave its prey on the floor.

Only what fell off the cliff and died is what ‘it’ ate, sometimes while waiting for the prey to die there would be territorial battles to claim the food. When hunger became extreme, they ate grass or fruits, but it was not their favourite food. Some people died and they just had to wait for that good luck.

Although ‘it’ was not low in intelligence, it deserved to be evaluated as somewhat lazy.

The County of Dry Thorn, the Mountains in Vista. Those high, rocky depths.

‘It’ had been starving for a little while. The Count of Dry Thorn, who inherited his title from his father two years ago, was a man of keen interest in the Mountain terrain. As a result of hunters and mercenaries entering the mountains, the population of beasts and animals had plummeted. Therefore, ‘it’ was starved for some time. About three months ago, ‘it’ had found some rotting fruit and ate that. However, it was not enough to satisfy the constant hunger.

‘It’ fell asleep exhausted and had not moved for a long time. It only happened to reawaken because of the danger sharply stabbing its senses.

‘It’ could feel the mountain beasts screaming and disappearing one by one. It went deeper into the forest to eat a blue bird in the past, and that was a very good choice.

Soon, humans pushed into the place where ‘it’ stayed. ‘It’ turned into a ladybug and went deeper and further away. Then ‘it’ saw the brilliant silver armour as it was gleaming in the distance. Humans began to conquer the vast mountain range like lightning.

‘It’ waited for them to disappear, holding it’s breath. Hiding for hours and years was the specialty of ‘it’. After a long wait, the encounter was…

“….”

It was a dying creature. It was a person with black hair. The shattered and torn body buried under the rocky grave at the foot of the cliff. It was caught under the largest rock.

‘It’ who was playing with a white flower, found the woman and approached the rocky grave. The woman had eyes similar to young leaves that had just sprouted in spring. She blinked at the slow approach. The fading eyes brought forth a bewildering look.

‘It’ waited not far away. Eating the living was the only taboo. The rock was gradually soaked with blood from the cuts, broken, twisted and gaping.

‘This person will die soon.’

‘It’ has been watching scenes like this for a long time.

The high cliff had no mercy to kill the human at once and put it out of its misery.  Sometimes an old man, sometimes a healthy young man, sometimes a lost child. They were scared while their ribs were broken, lungs punctured, and blood vomiting out their mouths. The humans were always afraid when they saw a black mass floating in front their eyes. The human beings would try to crawl away. They usually scream and throw stones, attempting to drive it away. Maybe it was a basic fear for the unknown, not necessarily a desire to live, it thought.

But no one has ever looked like this.

It was the first time ‘It’ saw such a gaze. The human’s eyes were very clear, pretty and like glimmering beads. There was nothing like the tears that people would shed in this situation.

She didn’t take her eyes off of “it” as “it” looked at her.

“….you…” the black-haired person called out to ‘it.

The wind carried the whisper in a husky voice. ‘It’ faltered a little, and then moved faster than usual.

And stood a little closer to her. The human being grabbed “it” without fear and “it” was surprised for the first time in its life. She was also surprised. The black smoke that she thought could never be caught had a familiar sensation, like dry sand and dry bark.

The crumbling particles felt as if they were slipping out of her hand, but some were able to be grasped.

“Do, help me…”

‘It’ was difficult. It knew human language. So it could understand what she wanted, but it couldn’t help her. The black figure moved. She thought there was something convulsing in it. ‘It’ soon began to change into the form of a little girl, and the black parts faded away…soon it became the perfect human being.

“It” was a child that had been eaten years ago. She realized that the part she was holding, had also turned into the child’s arm.

Warmth was circulating. Her eyes grew wide. She knew. She was aware of ‘It’s’ existence.

“You. There is a lot of blood. Die. I will. But, I can’t.”

You will die and there was nothing you could do to help yourself. She read the child’s meaning. She closed her eyes tightly and then opened them. The clear eyes sparkled with light. She thought of one last thing, one of her remaining fears, a last fragment, it was blazing in her mind. She was already on a slow descent into losing consciousness from blood loss and poor oxygen intake. She was well aware of her condition and situation.

Death was approaching. She felt that time was running out, but she managed to spit out a few words as her consciousness faded.

“…It’s okay to eat me.”

The child, ‘It’, found this human being very interesting. ‘It’ had never asked anyone for their permission nor had ‘It’ ever been given permission, by the prey, to eat them.  The woman puked blood and laughed.

“Instead, do me a favour, just one.”

The child couldn’t understand why she was laughing. So maybe ‘It’ wanted to know more, how curious it was. The child chatted a few more words with her. Count of Dry Thorn, Vista. Somewhere in the deep woods a taboo contract had been made.