Taro Village was not large. Midir, who had just departed, suddenly felt a surge of magic power like ocean waves. Wind elements condensed from his magic enveloped him, allowing him to scout the entire village at a startling speed.
However, aside from the ill-fated caravan on the main road, he found no other anomalies.
By the time he returned to his starting point, the villagers had already left under the guidance of Saki and Shaq. The remains of the caravan had been moved to the roadside and buried in a large, hastily dug pit.
Only the wagon Midir had shattered with a single punch and the ash scattered across the ground remained as silent witnesses to the dozens of lives that had vanished not long ago... killed by the hand of a Flame Demon.
Midir looked toward the areas he had run through with a hint of confusion. From the moment he gained consciousness until now, he could confirm that his body indeed held a power completely different from that of the villagers.
Yet, he could only use it unconsciously. Whenever he tried to actively trigger it, that power seemed to play hide-and-seek with him, vanishing into the depths of his body.
“Please, my body. Be a bit more reliable. If it's a Flame Demon, I have to be the one to defeat it!”
Midir patted his cheeks and murmured to the sky.
“Well then... I'll check everything carefully one more time.”
It wasn't until evening, after repeatedly searching every nook and cranny without finding anything unusual, that Midir finally returned to the village. Seeing him back safe and sound, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Saki gathered the young, able-bodied villagers in the central square, lighting a massive bonfire. He assigned patrol and night watch duties to those around him while instructing the elderly, women, and children to gather in the houses near the village center to look out for one another.
“Sir Midir, did you find any other clues?” Shaq immediately approached and asked in a low voice as he saw Midir sit down near the bonfire.
Midir scooped a handful of fresh water from a nearby bucket, took a shallow sip, then splashed some on his face before answering.
“No. I've checked the village outskirts thoroughly three times; I've practically left no stone unturned.”
“If the state of the caravan's bodies hadn't been so obvious, I would have thought my judgment was wrong. If that Flame Demon had just happened to pass by and kill the caravan, it wouldn't make sense for it to spare Taro Village, which was right before its eyes, given their nature.”
“Midir, come look at this.”
At that moment, Saki was holding a bundle of parchment, examining it closely by the light of the bonfire, the wrinkles on his old face bunching together.
“What's this? Letters carried by the caravan? What do they say?”
Midir took a sheet and read it by the firelight. As his eyes moved across the page, his expression grew increasingly solemn.
The letter was a special notice from the Human Kingdom. The gist was that ever since a giant meteor had streaked across the sky last month, reports of various monsters appearing had been coming in from all over the continent, and a small number of villages had already been attacked.
The Human Kingdom, which had enjoyed peace for a century, was suddenly on edge. The Royal Capital had already issued a martial law decree for the surrounding areas and begun strict patrols.
Only those distant small villages and towns could not be contacted in time, relying on various merchant caravans and messengers to help deliver this notice.
After reading the letter in his hand, Midir let out a long sigh.
“Chief, perhaps the villagers should temporarily abandon the village. I can escort you to the nearest town. If a Flame Demon is still nearby, it's too dangerous here! The enemy's numbers and level are still unknown; I can't just ignore everyone's safety.”
Saki considered it carefully for a while before finally agreeing. He decided to gather everyone the next morning for a mobilization meeting to temporarily leave Taro Village and seek shelter in the nearest small city.
After their discussion, Midir hurriedly ate a few bites of dinner and sat on the ground leaning against a stone by the bonfire. He watched the silhouettes of the patrolling guards, lost in thought.
Those several hours of high-intensity searching hadn't made Midir feel exhausted. More accurately, it felt as though his body never grew tired.
Unless he deliberately chose to relax and rest, he remained in a near-perfect state most of the time.
What kind of person was he before he lost his memory? He couldn't remember his past, so why did he suddenly recall what a “Flame Demon” was and feel such intense rage upon seeing the slaughtered caravan?
As thoughts swirled in his mind, Midir's consciousness seemed to be drawn into a strange vortex. The sudden rage from that afternoon was like a jar of vibrant paint, splashing complex colors onto his soul, which had been as pure as a blank sheet of paper.
In a daze, Midir found himself in a vast forest.
The scenery was completely different from the Far East Forest where he had first woken up. The entire forest seemed shrouded in a thick mist, with only vague shapes visible nearby.
Although visibility was very low here, it gave Midir a sense of home-like familiarity. After a moment's thought, he tentatively concluded that this forest represented his buried memories.
It was the presence of this thick fog that prevented him from remembering everything. If he could disperse this mist, would he be able to reclaim everything he had lost?
With a shift in his thoughts, a blue light flashed in his hand, and the beautiful Starflame appeared.
“Just as I thought!”
Since this was the world of his consciousness, as long as he willed it, his weapon could also become a physical reality here.
Midir gripped the hilt and swung the blade in a sudden, wide sweep. The broad, powerful movement stirred the thick white fog. The specks of starlight appearing on the azure blade seemed to disperse the surrounding mist, causing the dense white to thin slightly.
As the longsword danced in his hands, Midir noticed that the fog in one particular direction was indeed receding at an extremely slow pace. He then swung his sword toward that direction.
After several attempts, the white fog permeating the forest finally thinned a bit, revealing a winding, narrow path.
Midir looked at the path, which was only wide enough for one person and extended behind the trees. He waved his hand to stow Starflame and began walking slowly along it.
Mist still hung on both sides of the path. He walked alone for an unknown amount of time.
Just as Midir was losing patience and considering turning back, a soft singing voice drifted through the fog.
“I grew up by the blue ice lake, until I left my home once more”
...
“The girl awakened from her dream found fragments of a shooting star, piecing his broken form into the shape she desired”
...
The girl's voice lingered, dispelling the surrounding silence like a graceful nightingale in the woods, mysterious and enchanting.
Doubt coiled in his heart like the mist. Midir couldn't help but quicken his pace, following the winding path toward the source of the sound, every step filled with expectation and unease.
He pushed aside the branches blocking his view, and a small lake appeared at the end of the path. A petite, blue-haired figure was dancing slowly in the center of the lake.
As if sensing Midir's arrival, the singer stopped.
As her blue and white dress swirled like a bellflower, the girl turned around like a lake fairy, revealing an exquisite face. She silently met Midir's gaze with her pale green eyes.
Rate on N.U.
