"Ahjussi why are you suddenly being talkative? Previously you wouldn't even spare me a word. Not even a nod." Cryzanne complained.
The man looked at her then after a while, "Just forget about that. I didn't reply to you previously because I saw no reason to. I figured you would lose your memory after entering the door and we we'll not see each other again."
"What about the battle? What are we supposed to do?" she asked.
"There won't be any battle." He answered. "Relax. Come closer."
He waved his hand and formed some sort of a hand sign. After a short while, a wisp of light the size of a tennis ball came out of his hands and floated to the top of her head then easily merged with her soul. Hundreds of information flooded her mind but just she was about to brace herself, it was all gone.
"What was that? What did you do?" she begged for him to explain.
"I'm tired. I've already lived for several hundreds of years, reached the top, and did it all. There's nothing left for me to do but rest and contribute to Gaia." He morphed back to being a ball of light while explaining. "I gave you a tiny bit of my knowledge but not my memories and experiences so that you would not end up confused or lost. I hope it will help you wherever you are going. Who knows? Maybe we might see each other again once a part of me becomes a new soul. But I doubt I will remember you then." He started floating upwards.
Her eyes were getting moist from everything that's happened. "Ahjussi, what's your name?" She was also starting to morph into a wisp of light.
"It's already been thousands of years since I've forgotten my current name. But I still remember my very first name when I used to be a mortal. It's Ju Hwan of the Song clan. I also originated from Earth, specifically in Korea. I may be several hundred thousand of years old already but seeing you for the first time wearing a hospital dress, I can guess we are from the same world and from the same era. We might even be of the same age and..." and he's gone before he can even finish talking.
"That ahjussi really likes to talk. I thought he was the silent type. Maybe he was a loner in his past life or maybe…" and she lost consciousness before she can even finish talking.
Several years later in a small country far far away… no, this ain't some fairy tale or some war concerning the stars, but we're now in a planet which is yet to be named because no one were still able to fully explore it (or so we thought). Most people of the human civilization even believe that the world they were living in is flat.
"Kahlia? Khalia!? Where did this child go again?" a royally-dressed, mature but equally beautiful woman is seen walking fast through the hall of a big castle.
This castle, where the royal family resides, is located at the heart of the capital city, Neo Rimo.
"Do you know where the princess has gone off to?" she asked a maid nearby.
"Forgive me your highness." The maid bowed.
"It's not your fault. Can you go tell Dario to come and look for me?" the woman immediately waved her hand and went back to the study hall.
"Yes, your highness." The maid took a bow again and went off.
The 10-year-old girl who caused the ruckus is found on the soldiers' training grounds engaging in a sword fight with another kid.
Twakk!
A wooden sword flew from the hands of the kid while he stepped back before falling on his butt.
"Pick up your sword. Come on let's do it again." Kahlia commanded.
"Princess, please let me off. You've already won a million times!" the kid cried.
"Quit lying! That's not how a warrior is supposed to say. Don't give up and try harder!" she picked up the wooden sword from the ground and threw it back to the kid.
"Princess, let him rest." A knight came walking to them.
"Sir Dario! Please save me. I don't want to be a warrior anymore." The kid begged.
"Don't be in a hurry to quit kiddo. You're not half bad. You're just not a match for the princess. Even my soldiers are no match for her." The knight sighed while looking pitifully at the battered kid. "Go on. Clean yourself up."
The kid scurried off. "Yes sir. Thank you, sir."
Princess Kahlia didn't mind all these and looked at the knight. "Sir Dario, why are you on a full armor? Are we going to war or something?"
"Her Highness Queen Shezbeth tasked me to send a letter to your father, King Wulfhart."
Fwiiiiiii!
Sir Dario blew a whistle after explaining to the princess. Not even five seconds later, a gallant mount that looks like a tall and slender goat is seen galloping over. "Hurry now and go back. Her highness is looking for you."
"But…" Kahlia hesitated before she started to walk back to the castle. 'Sigh, why do I get no more new insights from ahjussi's memories?' When she was four years old, the moment she accidentally touched a sword, various information suddenly appeared in her mind. From then on, she became familiar with swords as if it was a part of her. As she grew up, she frequently visited the soldiers' training grounds on the back of the castle and asked Sir Dario to teach her how to fight with swords. The more she gets adept with the sword, the more information suddenly pops up in her mind. But lately, no matter how hard she practices with the sword, no more information came out.
"Maybe that's all the ahjussi gave me." She concluded. "That old man sure is stingy. He lived for over a hundred thousand years but this is all he gave me."
"Never mind. I'm still grateful for this gift. It certainly helped me a lot. I can teach myself from here on." Her positive attitude geared up. "It's time I discover something for myself. There's a limit to being spoon-fed."
"There you are child." A familiar voice called her over. "Were you giving trouble to the soldiers again? Must you learn sword fighting? Why can't you be a proper lady and learn knitting or something?"
"Mother, please don't nag. It will give you wrinkles." Kahlia muttered aloud. "How's father?"
The Queen replied with a weary look evident on her face. "Sigh… it's not going well. I don't understand why our neighboring country is hell-bent on conquering us. Your father is having a hard time defending the south border."
This also why her queen mother doesn't mind her learning how to wield the sword. From early childhood, wisdom and maturity are already some of her traits so they also treated her as an adult despite her age. That's why her mother didn't hide any information from her. The more she knows, the more she can survive.
She lives in a castle of a very small country surrounded by the impassable mountains to the south, an immense and dense forest where mighty beasts are said to dwell surrounds their country from the north extending to the west, and the sea to the east. Her father is the ruler of this small country and he is always at the vanguard whenever conflicts appear.
"Mother, why don't you go help father? I know you're stronger than him." Kahlia asked.
"How can you say that? Your mother is just a weak woman." The queen defended.
"Lies. I saw you broke the ceramic table with a slap when you got mad at father."
"What? How did you know that? You weren't even two years old when that happened." Suddenly the queen noticed something was off. "I mean, you must have seen things wrongly. You were very young at that time…" She abruptly stopped explaining, afraid that more faults will appear.
Kahlia was certain of what she saw because even if she was just barely two years old, she was reincarnated with her past memories intact. But she no longer continued discussing about it. She figured that it must be her mother's secret. Come to think of it, every time she asked her mother about what's her life like before she married the king, nothing matches up. Previously she didn't mind it, but as she thought more of it, her mother is definitely not a common person.
Just as they were about to go inside the castle, a soldier hurriedly ran towards them. He was riddled with wounds all over. He immediately dropped on his knees and said. "Your highness! We lost the border." Then he flopped down as soon as he reached.
The queen kept silent. She closed her eyes for a minute, then walked closer to Kahlia. Every step she made seemed to take forever.
"My child, I can no longer be with you. The natural laws of this place will not permit me to stay." With tears forming in her eyes. "You will understand someday."
The queen raised her hand and touched Kahlia's forehead and a sudden surge of information flooded her head again. This time, her head felt like it was splitting from too much pain. As she was about to lose consciousness, she witnessed her mother the queen step back and suddenly disappears into thin air.