Lieren opened his eyes, slowly and evenly, making absolutely sure that he wouldn't wake up to another pit of darkness.
King's words—the name the man in the void boldly gave himself—lingered at the back of his mind.
The boy looked at his hand. He couldn't see it, but he knew it was there. This power—Magic Resistance—enveloping him, constantly—the most terrifying part of it all.
He closed his eyes, imagining the familiar burst of power that repelled King's spell, and reconstructed it in his mind's eye. For a few long seconds, nothing happened. It was the same as usual, dark and solitary. Nevertheless, his intuition told him that it was there, waiting to be called upon.
A few more long seconds passed, each feeling like an eternity. With a reluctant grasp, Lieren felt for it, imagined grasping that invisible force.
Then, everything disappeared. The power, the radiance, the feeling of an invisible force was gone. The darkness swallowed Lieren once more.
The boy opened his eyes, disappointed. As he did, a thin layer of pure radiance made Lierne's eyes go wide as plates.
"What the….?!" He jumped, startled, expecting some kind of attack.
As the boy jumped to his feet, he noticed belatedly that the radiance—aura was following him, clinging to the scrawny boy's skin like a sticky adhesive.
He waved his arm, trying to unstick the aura.
The radiant aura remained, unperturbed.
The boy huffed. Lieren had never excelled in physical activities, and while he could have improved his physique, he was too focused on reading to have time for such tiring activties.
"Is this…" Suddenly, the boy remembered King's words.
'Magic Resistance!'
He had described the ability as something to be cast by a powerful mage of the sixth level as summoning some kind of field. Most likely to increase its area of effectiveness.
Interested—but still wary—Lieren reached his other hand to inspect the aura.
"…Huh?" The boy gasped as he noticed that his other arm, too, was covered in the same radiant aura.
In fact, everything was. From his fingers to his toes. Even his clothing was covered with the radiant aura, encompassing all that Lieren held.
Lieren blinked as his confused mind raced back to the traumatic Adornment.
"Is…is this…" He thought that, maybe, just maybe…
Maybe he wasn't an Insig after all.
◇◆◇◆◇
The wagon quaked again and again on the rocky path, tossing and turning a small scrawny boy.
"Aggghhh…!!" The boy screamed, holding his book tightly.
A lean man held him by the collar of his shirt.
"Stop shouting." Harita muttered lowly, shrinking under the criticizing gazes of the other passengers.
Even he felt embarrassed.
The boy, however, unaware of the annoyed stares directed his way, kept screaming at the top of his lungs.
Harita having had enough of the screaming boy tried to knock him out with one sift blow, only to stop mid-strike.
"…Right." He lowered his hand and held the boy by his shoulders, pinning him in place.
Lieren still bounced under the constant tossing of the wagon, but was otherwise fine…for now.
A couple of minutes later: the boy's cheeks puffed as his face turned to a sickening grin.
"Ah…crap."
◇◆◇◆◇
A couple of days passed relatively peacefully…until now.
"Lin, Rin, take care of the ones on the left. Klein and Myst, stay here and guard the passengers. Djan, you're with me. The big one seems to be their leader, if we take him out, the others might flee from fear." Brad calmly said to his party, barking out unspecified orders.
Despite this, however, the others only nodded, a nervous smile and trusting glint in their eyes. They spread out at the same time, circling Viscount Bravefeather's lavish carriage.
Lieren watched this all happen in the span if a few seconds as he bit into his bread.
"Mm~, tasty, though little stale and tough. Even the orphanage had better food than this." Lieren muttered as he looked up, the bright rays of sunlight blocked by the interweaving leaves and branches of the tall trees surrounding them.
They were currently in the Karan Forest, west of Hamaha. A wide expanse of lush green and dark brown spread as far as one could see. The flora towered even the tallest man, ranging from five to ten meters in height. The branches intertwined around each other like spider webs, greedily blocking out the scorching sun. Fortunately for travelers, small rays of invisible light still penetrated the forest through small pockets amidst the wide leaves and thick branches, providing enough light to see, but not enough to notice the dangers lurking within.
Other than the gigantic fruits that the Karan Forest bore yearly, dangerous monsters, bigger than and stronger than their regular species lay in waiting for stupidly brave or innocently dense travelers in the darkness.
Lieren was the latter.
Scarlet blood stained the ground by the boy's feet.
"Are you okay?" A familiar voice said beside Lieren.
The boy glanced to his side and took another bite.
Harita's brows rose. "I guess you are."
He spun on his heel with a quick flourish, sweeping his hand like a sword.
The beast let out a final moan of pain as his hand dug deep into it's silver hide and tough flesh, slicing it apart with relative ease. More blood stained the ground, dyeing the lush grass with scarlet blood.
Lieren took a final bite and patted his bulging belly.
Throughout his journey, Lieren had grown more accustomed to the cruel reality and ruthless carnage that the world—the real one—contained and did his best to accustom himself to it suitably. His panic attacks have lessened considerably because of this, an he found the sight of fresh blood and ripped flesh to be...mundane.
This brought another problem. An even worse one.
With his newfound acceptance of the sight of blood and violence, the misty haze guarding the inner sanctums of his young mind adjusted as well, removing it and allowing the dark thought to bitterly leek out.
He thought of Minasaki, her beautiful drenched with her own blood, the wounds and bruises on her body, along with her broken limbs, mangled form, and destroyed body.
Lieren bit his lip hard, distracting himself from the pain. He wiped the blood with Harita's handkerchief.
Even after everything, Lieren still refused to remember that day.
"Its just…its still too much."
He lifted his aching head up and immediately noticed the numerous corpses of fallen Silver Wolves by his aegis' feet, a cold and impassive expression seemingly plastered permanently on his face as he cut the beasts apart with his bare hands. The luster in their hides were visible even within the all-encompassing darkness, silver light reflecting from their beautiful hide.
His mood lightened. " Ah! Are we having meat tonight?"
Harita flinched, glanced at Lieren's lip, and said in an equally eager voice:
"Yes, we are. But before that, help me skin these, will you? Make yourself useful for once." The man's eyes were serious, but the boy knew otherwise.
"Boo~" He complained, ignoring the grunts and screams behind him.
"If you don't, I'm excluding you from supper."
"What are you waiting for? Bring those over here. Quickly!"
Of course, Harita would never actually do that.