⟐ Chapter 7

The chilling wind howled as the night sky descended. A small town in the far east of the Yrrariel Empire was scurrying about as their men were saying their final goodbyes.

“Do you really have to go, brother?”

“I’m sorry, Lynn, but it’s the emperor's order and I can’t refuse.” 

“But I heard Auntie Holly said you’ll die out there with uncle!”

“W-what? When did she say that?”

“I heard her while she was talking with uncle.”

The brother rubbed his neck with a weak smile. He knew that he and his relatives weren’t that close, but saying that he’ll die while on duty was heartbreaking, to say the least. He stared at his little sister—Lynn, whom he raised since she was born as their mother died upon birthing her. Being orphans in a small town, they were seen as liabilities, and so no one really adopted them nor even helped them. But even so, he did what he could to provide for his little sister. He basically never rested, as he did multiple jobs to sustain the both of them. For a child, he was exploited and received pay way below the amount for his efforts, but he could only grind his teeth and persevere through. 

This grim conversation happened a little while back, when a carriage came, one hailing from the capital. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and what came out of it was a man in luxurious clothes. The man was greeted by the town Mayor and then commanded everyone to stop what they were doing and call everybody in the town and go to the town square for an important announcement. Then after a few minutes when most of the town people had gathered, the man in luxurious clothes began to speak.

“Hear ye! Hear ye! I am Frince Polvik, messenger of our Great Emperor Rustaviel. Everyone kneel before his majesty's message.”

And as everyone kneeled, those who didn't understand the command were dragged down by their fellow townsmen.

“Kneel, you idiot! Do you wanna get beheaded?!”

“Ah! S-sorry!”

“Everyone, silence! I am about to read our Great Emperor’s message! Ehem! My people, I call upon you in our time of need to serve the empire. A great calamity has descended upon this land and is threatening not just the empire but the whole continent and quite possibly the whole world. That is why my people, I call upon brave men aged fifteen to sixty to come and serve, and as required by law, at least one man per household shall sign up for service to the Great Yrarriel Empire. And of course, all that joins will get compensated ten gold coins prior and two gold coins per week, but failure to adhere to this call as stated by law will be severely punished! Are there any questions?” 

The whole crowd instantly became noisy as the shock of such a message confused everyone. No one had heard of a brewing war, and this call to service hit them like a truck. What could possibly be threatening the empire for it to call up arms this sudden? But everyone knew it could only be something bad. And after the initial shock, a man raised his hands. It was the Mayor.

“You have something to ask, Mayor?”

“Yes, sir Polvik. Could we ask what this is that’s threatening the empire? As far as we know out here on the outskirts of ours, no one has broken the Covenant of Peace.”

“Indeed, you are correct, no one has broken the Covenant of Peace, and this came to us as a sudden too. Though not official yet, it is said the Saint-Priestess received divine revelation that warrants a call to arms.” 

“Thy heavens… Then if the gods say so, then this is a divine call.”

“It is as you say, a divine call. Then Mayor, we are expecting for everyone to be ready by tomorrow at the same time as today.”

“Wh-what! That’s too soon!”

“It isn’t my say, I’m sorry; we were ordered to finish the recruitment as fast as we could.”

“But still.”

“I am sorry, but please get the men ready by tomorrow. Are there any more questions? If that's everything, then may the gods bless us all.” 

…

And so the town grew silent with the night. The young and old men were readying themselves for the next day, and one of these young men is the older brother of Lynn. 

“Hey, don’t worry, Lynn, I won't die like auntie said. I’ll make sure to get into the backlines somehow so I won’t even need to join in the fights if so happens.”

“But, but…”

“It’s alright, Lynn, I’ll come back as soon as possible, and when I do, I’ll have lots of money, and after that, we’ll go to the capital, and we’re going to get you cured.”

“But I don’t want you to go.”

The brother could only meekly smile at his sister; in truth, he doesn’t want to go too, but he knows he can’t refuse. Not only was it required by law to join, but the compensation was too alluring to him. With that much money, he could get his sister checked up and possibly even cured in the capital, and even if worse comes to worse, in the event that he perishes, there was enough compensation for her sister to live off of for a while. Though he wishes it won’t come to that, as a girl as weak as his little sister, he could only think of grim thoughts. All he has to do is survive, and everything is going to be alright. And even though he isn’t quite close with his relatives, he believes that they won’t treat her badly as long as he pays for them each month as per their deal.

 “I don’t want to go too, but I need to do this, alright Lynn? Be a good girl for a bit, okay? And I’ll be home before you even know it.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Lynn suddenly hugged her big brother. Her soft tender arms gripped hard around her sibling trying a final time to not let him go, but she soon gave up after her brother took her off.

“Don’t leave me too alright.”

“Don’t worry I won’t.”

…

And so by the next day, the inhabitants of the small town were filled with wails of wives, mothers, and friends as the men went to their carriages as they began to be transported to the nearest fort to be equipped.

Lynn watched the men of their town disappear from the horizon from a treetop. She saw her brother clasped a piece of cloth between his arms. It was a handkerchief used by their deceased mother whom she hadn't even seen the face of, but even so, listening to rumors and stories told to her by the people of the town, she couldn’t help but blame herself for something she isn’t supposed to. 

Their mother was supposedly a great hunter, one with a bright future ahead of her, and so her mother went and became an adventurer, and one day, her mother met her father, and they had his big brother, but after three years or so while she was six months in her mother’s womb her father lost his life in a quest and that led to the health degradation of her mother and as said, when her mother finally had her, her mother's body couldn’t take the burden of birth and passed away.

She and her brother were forced to live alone in their house after that. And as a child, her brother would always carry her infant self as he worked. Thankfully her brother, unlike her, received a blessed body; her brother couldn’t get tired even after a day of hard work. But unlike him she was weak. It is hard for her to do things without getting easily exhausted, and once every week when the three moons are present she suffers from a terrible fever. No one knows what she has, and even the doctors of their town can’t explain it and out of the lack of knowledge of her condition. The people of the town just began to form a conclusion that she must’ve been cursed and likely got it from the adventuring of their parents. 

But even so, Lynn’s feeble body didn’t stop her from loving exploring. Though she gets easily exhausted, she was still a child of adventurers, and so she has been blessed with good body control allowing her to freely get into places otherwise hard to do. And so, after seeing the last of the carriage disappear she went back to the place she goes to whenever she feels down.

In the forest, where the song of nature echoes throughout is a place where she always feels comfort. She knew the dangers of the place specially when going near the sacrificial site for The Great Kulvian, so she usually avoids getting near it, but from her experience not once has she encountered an aggressive beast. For her, she always had great intuition when evading them, and even when she occasionally does meet one, they aren’t really aggressive to her and just ignores her, though she hasn’t told anyone about this and even to her big brother, it was her sweet little secret. 

Today in particular though, she was feeling especially down. Seeing her brother go off to a dangerous place where he could possibly die was too much for her, and she wanted a place where she can be alone for a bit. And so after wandering around and enjoying the ambiance of the forest, she was so lost in her little moment she had unintentionally reached the sacrificial site for The Great Kulvian.

She was about to return, but then she saw someone unusual wandering the site. A pure white tall man was curiously poking around.