Kassel was riding on Rai’s back. With each flap of Rai’s large wings, his body swayed, and the wind blowing from the high altitude was cold despite it being summer. Although he had ridden a dragon before and climbed Arok’s Tower, he was still afraid of heights.
Shortly after parting with Tanya, the two had passed Anbaldi and by evening were already nearing Leofio. Kassel was amazed anew at how fast flying was. The problem was that Rai kept drifting in a different direction.
“Why do you keep trying to go east? It’s south.”
Kassel patted Rai’s shoulder. Each time, Rai corrected course abruptly, and Kassel quickly wrapped his arms around Rai’s neck to avoid falling off.
“Kassel, scared. Other Ugeh, enjoyed.”
At Rai’s words, Kassel burst out laughing.
“Only Dunmel could enjoy this height. That Ugeh probably…”
Kassel stopped speaking.
“Speak.”
“What?”
“What you were about to say.”
“It’s nothing. More importantly, Rai, how long do you think it will take you to fly through the Sky Mountains? I mean, roughly from the southern mountains of Leofio to Hapu.”
“One day.”
“Including rest times?”
“No need to rest.”
“You’re going to fly all night?”
“Fly.”
“You’re amazing. Why am I more tired when I’m just riding?”
As they headed south along Leofio, there was a fluttering sound from behind. Kassel instinctively looked back.
Occasionally, Rai would catch up to passing birds. Sometimes scattering a flock of migrating geese, or a curious eagle would follow thinking they were prey, only to flee in surprise at their size. So it wouldn’t be strange for a large bird to overtake Rai from behind.
This wingbeat was different from a bird’s. The sound was very loud, and the size was very large. Above all, it wasn’t a bird’s wing.
When Kassel was about to say something in surprise, Rai had already noticed and was increasing speed. Kassel couldn’t quite confirm what was chasing them and lay flat on Rai’s back.
“Hold, tight.”
Rai said.
Kassel gripped his left arm wrapped around Rai’s neck tightly with his right hand. Then Rai folded his wings and dropped straight down. Kassel squeezed his eyes shut. His front hair whipped against his forehead, and his facial muscles were severely stretched. He felt a hollow sensation as if all his internal organs had disappeared downward at once.
Rai glided at an incredible speed Kassel had never experienced before, but the heavy flapping sound grew closer. Rai looked back to measure the distance from the pursuing enemy. Kassel wanted to look back too, but the speed was too fast to even open his eyes, let alone look back.
‘Rai, what is it? What’s chasing us?’
Kassel wanted to ask but couldn’t even open his mouth. Rai flew so low he almost touched the ground. Trees and grass brushed right past his face, and slightly overgrown grass blades were torn by Rai’s wingbeats and blown away in the wind. There was a loud noise of trees breaking or ground being dug up, as if whatever was chasing them was also flying at low altitude.
Rai’s body shook greatly as he climbed up again. The vibration in the air followed behind. Kassel gripped his arms even tighter to maintain his position as his body was being dragged downward. His hands were gradually losing strength. Kassel clenched his jaw so hard his teeth might break. He endured with the single thought that he must not let go.
Only in that dangerous moment did Kassel open his eyes and discover the huge animal chasing right below them. With a body as large as a house, its wings spread left and right seemed to span tens of meters. It was the black dragon Kaguanil.
Rai kept flapping his wings to climb higher and higher, and Guanil kept following. Guanil’s mouth opened wide.
‘His mouth? What is he trying to do…?’
A scene flashed through Kassel’s mind. He shouted.
“Rai, dodge!”
Responding to Kassel’s voice, Rai suddenly changed direction. The turn was so sharp that Kassel lost his grip. Black flames burst from Guanil’s mouth, shooting straight up into the sky. However, Rai had already flown in a different direction, and Kassel was falling.
Falling from the sky with nothing to grab onto wasn’t just accompanied by the simple fear of falling. The pain of skin being torn by the wind and the needle-like air entering his open mouth made it impossible to breathe.
He couldn’t hear anything except the terrifying wind sound like hundreds of bees buzzing. His fluttering clothes mercilessly beat against his skin.
‘I’m not going to die from falling, but from being torn apart by the wind.’
Rai flew towards Kassel’s front and grabbed his back. But instead of slowing the falling speed, Rai used that momentum to fall even faster.
The dragon with its mouth wide open passed through where the two had been. If they had been slightly slower, both would have been sucked into Guanil’s mouth.
Rai staggered momentarily in the wind caused by the enormous black wings. But he quickly regained balance and climbed higher than before. Though the ascending speed couldn’t be called fast compared to the falling speed, Kassel couldn’t open his eyes due to dizziness. Relying on being held from behind was no different from falling with nothing to hold onto.
The terror of being thrown into an immeasurable height…
Kassel found it even more difficult to breathe. It was freezing cold despite being midsummer.
“Slowly… exhale. Inhale slowly, and exhale slowly.”
Rai quietly spoke into Kassel’s ear, calming the trembling Kassel. Now the wind sound was gone. Only the occasional flapping of Rai’s wings could be heard.
“Eyes, can, open.”
Kassel opened his eyes as Rai said. At that moment, he unknowingly let out a cry at the sight before him.
“Ah!”
Where green prairies should have spread out, the majestic peaks of the Sky Mountains were visible. The snow-capped mountain peaks were on the same level as Kassel’s line of sight. Clouds with flat bottoms and billowing tops existed at the same height as Kassel.
The villages of Leofio looked as small as toy villages, and neighboring villages that would take two hours to walk to were all visible at once. The horizons of the prairie and the mountain range overlapped. The boundary between the Sky Mountains and Acrand, indistinguishable from below, was clearly divided and stretched endlessly from east to west.
It was like a fortress marking the boundary of the continent.
“H-how high have we come?”
Kassel asked.
“Never, measured. But above us, still, clouds, and below us, also, clouds.”
Kassel spoke while slowly inhaling the cold air.
“The horizon… is slightly curved.”
“Higher up, looks, round.”
“Round?”
Kassel asked, turning back. Rai nodded.
“Like, big ball.”
Kassel couldn’t understand that.
“That’s amazing.”
“Sight, Ugeh and Lemif, never seen. Young Lemifs, can’t climb this high. Adult Lemif, can’t fly. So only I, have seen. Except one Ugeh.”
“Did ‘that person’ you mentioned see this too?”
Rai nodded expressionlessly. How precious that person must have been to Rai, and thus how great the sense of betrayal… Although it was said when a sword was at his throat, Kassel had promised Rai he would never betray him. Between himself who opened his mouth before a sword and Rai who believed that promise, which one showed more courage?
Kassel recalled his father’s words.
‘Son, sit down. Today I’ll tell you a strange story your grandfather experienced.’
If Rai truly cherished that person, then he shouldn’t hide ‘this story’. Although it was an urgent situation where they didn’t know where Guanil had flown off to or where he might fly back from, it was precisely because of this moment that he needed to speak.
“Rai. This is a story my father told me about what my grandfather experienced. I always grew up hearing this story…”
Kassel moistened his dry lips. Even while speaking, he kept looking around for Guanil’s position. Rai was also scanning the surroundings. Despite having climbed so high, the dragon was nowhere to be seen in this wide field of view.
“When my grandfather was young, he went to a big city to sell wheat, and in that tavern, he saw a fairy from the Sky Mountains. A circus ringmaster tried to capture that fairy, saying, ‘Your master has sold you, so now work under me.’ That fairy killed the ringmaster and all his henchmen right there. My grandfather saw it all because he was too scared to move.”
Kassel was no longer afraid of being up so high. He wanted to stay here forever, gazing at the distant horizon, and even climb to the higher place where the horizon supposedly looks round like a ball.
“The fairy had a sad face and waited for someone until the next day. My grandfather sat with the fairy, watching over them. But the person they were waiting for didn’t return, and the fairy eventually flew into the sky. My grandfather just watched.”
Rai listened silently. Kassel continued his story.
“Rai. There’s a sequel to that story. The person the fairy waited for until the next day… was actually abandoned in the sewer right behind that tavern. There was a knife stuck in his stomach. He was barely hanging on with a body that should have died long ago. Grandfather found him and called a doctor to treat him, but he had already lost too much blood to be helped. The man barely regained consciousness just before dying, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he asked grandfather where the Sky Mountain fairy had gone. Grandfather told him the truth.”
Kassel didn’t realize that Rai was listening without even breathing. All this time, Kassel had nurtured fantasies about distant continents while hearing this fairy tale-like story many times. His father had done the same listening to his father, and so had Kassel.
“The man cried and told grandfather the whole story. That circus ringmaster…, the one ‘the fairy grandfather saw’ killed, had lied. The ringmaster had offered to buy the fairy from that man, saying he’d give him enough money to live on for a lifetime. Rai, do you understand the concept of money? It must have been a huge temptation. Still, he refused. But that circus ringmaster wasn’t the type to easily give up on such things. He threatened to kill him if he didn’t sell, and when he kept refusing, he ended up getting stabbed. The man crawled to the tavern with the knife in him, shouting at the fairy to run away. But they prevented even that by shoving him into the sewer.”
Kassel’s body trembled finely as he continued speaking.
It felt like his body was freezing beyond just being cold, but Kassel kept talking.
“Rai, can’t you remember that traveler’s name? ‘That Ugeh’ died apologizing to the fairy he left at the tavern until the end, asking grandfather to convey his apologies if he ever got the chance. Grandfather used the money from selling wheat to give that person a funeral and then immediately set off on a journey.”
Kassel unknowingly shed tears. His vision blurred, making it hard to look for where Guanil might be.
“And after many adventures, he returned, married and had a child. That child’s name was Emil, and Emil, wanting to have the same adventures as his father, also set out on a journey. On that journey, Emil, my father, met a woman named Dalia and married her, and I’m the child born between them. Father said he named me after his favorite adventurer.”
Kassel had trouble continuing his words.
“Rai…, the name of the person grandfather met was ‘Kassel’.”
Rai said nothing.
Kassel didn’t have the courage to turn and look at Rai’s face now.
“You were at the beginning of everything. You made grandfather go on adventures, and made father go on adventures too. And me as well! Do you understand, Rai? You’re the reason I’m here.”
Kassel finally turned back.
Rai was smiling. Rai, who had never shown emotion before, was now showing the most beautiful smile Kassel had ever seen.
“Thank you, Kassel.”
Kassel couldn’t tell which Kassel Rai was saying those words to. At that moment, a huge black shadow appeared behind Rai’s back, that is, from higher in the sky.
Guanil was not below Rai, but above.
“Above!”
Kassel cried out in surprise.
Rai immediately folded his wings and dropped his head forward, gliding rapidly. Guanil’s front paw barely grazed Rai’s wing as it passed. Rai changed direction in mid-air while hugging Kassel and flew towards the Sky Mountains.
“Kassel, don’t trust, direction sense, trust, your senses. Don’t go to forest, find, rocky mountain. Walk snowy path, cross three mountains, it’s Hapu. Nuraifdem of snowy mountain, is ghost of Sky Mountains. Remember, Nurai, seen in Nontil’s cave. And, be careful.”
Rai said.
“What does all that mean?”
Kassel opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Rai set Kassel down on a sharply protruding ridge of a rocky mountain past the boundary of the Sky Mountains.
“Go.”
Rai was about to spread his wings to fly off again.
“No. We have to go together.”
Kassel grabbed Rai’s wing. But he gently shook off Kassel’s hand.
“My gider, ends here. Kassel, you follow, your gider.”
“Rai. It’s an order. Come back!”
Rai spread his white wings and took a step back. At that resolute action, Kassel froze with his hand outstretched, unable to chase after him. And Rai showed a clear smile like a child, as if one wouldn’t believe he could make such an expression.
Rai awkwardly imitated a human gesture, placing his hand on his chest.
“I refuse, Kassel.”
And he slowly bowed his head in farewell.
“My Captain.”
Before Kassel could say anything else, Rai turned and charged towards Guanil who was flying this way. Kassel had no choice but to flee behind the rocky mountain to avoid being seen by Guanil.
“Don’t die, Rai. Don’t die!”
The last glimpse Kassel caught of Rai showed him colliding head-on with Guanil and falling to the ground.
☆ ☆ ☆
Just before crashing to the ground, Rai spread his wings and landed feet first. Dark red blood flowing from his torn shoulder soaked his side. Though breathing heavily, the sword he raised did not waver. The blade was slightly stained with Guanil’s blood.
Kaguanil flew behind Rai and spoke in the Lemif language while hovering in the air.
“Did you think you could block me alone and break away? I tried to ignore you and go, but you’re not letting me, you impudent Lemif.”
Blood was spreading from Guanil’s cheek where a few scales had been torn off.
“My gider is in fighting.”
‘Your gider is in fighting.’
That was the prophecy Knadil had told him. When he said those words, Knadil had a slightly sad face. To think that was his gider! Rai was happy, but that expression of Knadil’s bothered him for a long time.
After that, Rai traveled Acrand. He met a traveler he named Ugeh, and after being betrayed by him, returned to the Sky Mountains. Returning to Larden, Rai doubted his gider for the first time.
‘In the end, what was the adventure for?’
After committing murder in the name of a duel, Rai was imprisoned. And he thought, staring into the darkness.
‘What was the fight for?’
Now he could understand. What Knadil’s sad eyes meant…
“If my last opponent in fighting is a dragon, that’s not bad.”
Rai said.
Guanil spoke in a growling voice.
“Just because you can flap your wings a bit, do you think you can take a dragon’s life? I am the god of you Lemifs.”
“If there’s a weapon that can kill a god, there’s nothing we can’t fight.”
Guanil let out a frivolous laugh unfitting for his size.
“So do you have such a weapon? With that small sword, you’d have to cut me a hundred times to kill me.”
“So I just need to cut a hundred times?”
Rai spread his wings and flew back.
Guanil glared and inhaled. The black flames he spewed burned all the flat ground in sight. The flames kept chasing the direction Rai flew to avoid them, turning the blue sky black for a moment.
Rai climbed high and then glided towards Guanil. His sword struck Guanil’s neck as he passed. Turning around again, Rai struck Guanil’s wing. The wing membrane tore.
Rai seemed to be pushed back momentarily by the wind Guanil’s wings created, but soon he slid on it like riding a sled on snow. Rai’s widely spread wings dug into the hot air Guanil had stirred up, and Rai cut Guanil’s other cheek.
Then Rai flew high into the sky, adjusted his grip on the sword, and looked down at Guanil below with narrowed eyes. Guanil was humiliated by the mere fact that he was below. Blood flowed from where the sword had cut, running down his scales to the ground.
“Very well, I’ll show you my true power right here.”
An invisible force began to rise from Guanil’s entire body.
At that moment, a rough voice burst out from Rai’s right shoulder.
“Stop, Guanil. Didn’t I say that power I gave you is only allowed when killing dragons?”
Guanil heard that voice and shrank his neck. Guanil slowly folded his wings and landed on the ground, hiding the power he was about to show.
“Lemif, I’ve understood your power well. Your gider is in fighting? Then I’ll faithfully respond to that gider.”
The man hovering in front of Rai with a fluttering gray robe like a ghost extended his gloved hand. At that moment, Rai threw his sword. The sword thrown without body recoil or preparatory motion stuck in the man’s robe. His body was pushed back slightly, but there was no other reaction. Rather, he seemed impressed that Rai had hit him.
“Excellent. Fighting is relative. You might really have killed Guanil.”
He pulled out the sword stuck in his stomach and threw it to the ground.
“Quite a good sword. To remain intact even after piercing my body.”
Pointing at the sword that fell next to Guanil, he said to Rai.
“Won’t you pick it up?”
Rai stared expressionlessly at the sorcerer, then slowly landed and picked up the sword. Meanwhile, Guanil kept glaring with hateful eyes, but did not attack.
The gray-robed sorcerer also landed silently beside him.
“Why did Captain Wolf go to the Sky Mountains? If he was responding to the future I showed, he should have gone east.”
Rai replied in Lemif language.
“Kassel is a sorcerer from the Sky Mountains. It’s natural he went to the Sky Mountains. And that’s a place evil beings like you can’t go.”
The sorcerer responded in Lemif as well.
“The standard of evil is based on the premise that Nadiuren is good. And wouldn’t going that way be worse? It’s not like only good beings exist in the Sky Mountains, and isn’t there a being as old as me and who ‘hates Worg’ as much as I do?”
The sorcerer spread one arm. Behind the loose sleeve of his robe appeared a human who hadn’t been there before.
Rai tilted his head as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Next to the sorcerer stood a man holding a sword. Rai instinctively felt wary of the man’s power.
“To me, that one seems to be the strongest among the Lemifs. For someone who hates fighting to boast that his gider is fighting! Grandol, you, the strongest among humans, kill that one, the strongest among Lemifs. It will have quite a symbolic meaning.”
Guanil laughed quietly, and the gray-robed sorcerer’s shoulders shook with laughter. Grandol walked steadily towards Rai.
Rai stared silently at the swordsman with unfocused eyes, then suddenly blocked an attack aimed at his neck. However, Rai couldn’t push that attack outward.
Rai, who had fought Guanil with one hand, now had to use both hands to fend off this attack. Grandol swung the deflected sword towards Rai’s side. Barely blocking that and retreating, the next attack followed immediately.
To Rai’s eyes, Grandol seemed to have about eight hands. He was mixing countless feints that were barely noticeable between lethal attacks. Constantly focusing on blocking these, Rai quickly lost concentration, and Grandol seized those moments to turn some of what seemed like feints into real thrusts.
‘This is a real Ugeh swordsman…’
Rai felt good.
The moment he first met Kassel in Larden overlapped with the moment he met ‘the previous Kassel’. Both were surprised to see Rai. But they weren’t afraid. No, they were afraid but tried to get close.
“Are you a fairy from the Sky Mountains?”
Rai looked up, staring at that strange creature.
“My name is Kassel. What’s your name?”
He asked. Rai couldn’t understand that language. He could only respond in Lemif language.
“Lemif.”
“What, Lemif? Is your name Lemif?”
Rai pointed at him with his finger and continued speaking in Lemif language.
“Ugeh.”
“What, Ugeh? My name is Kassel.”
“Ugeh.”
“I said it’s Kassel!”
“Ugeh.”
“Fine, damn it. Call me Ugeh. I’ll call you whatever I want too. Lemi… okay. From now on, I’ll call you Lemi. But are those wings real? Can you fly?”
He said, grabbing Rai’s wings curiously.
“Will you give me a ride? Then I’ll show you around Acrand. Hey, don’t look at me with those strange eyes. Can’t you understand human language?”
Kassel folded his arms and smiled broadly.
“Alright, remember just this one thing! If you don’t abandon me, I’ll never abandon you either. Got it, Lemi? Follow me. I’ll show you around Acrand.”
Grandol’s sword and Rai’s sword crossed. And simultaneously, they stabbed each other in the stomach. The final attack of the two with equal strength and speed ended like that. However, while Rai lost strength the moment the opponent’s sword pierced his stomach, Grandol did not. With Rai’s sword still in his stomach, he slashed the sword that had stabbed Rai sideways.
Dark red blood poured out, and Rai fell to his knees.
The gray-robed sorcerer approached from behind Rai. He grabbed Rai by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up.
“Why did Kassel go to the Sky Mountains? Why did he take the long way around instead of the shorter path?”
Rai didn’t answer. So he tore off one of Rai’s wings. As if an explosion had occurred, feathers burst out as Rai’s wing was ripped away.
“You don’t have to answer. This wing will probably be very useful in scaring your friends.”
“My wings…”
Rai trembled in pain but never showed a pained expression. He just looked satisfied, staring at Grandol’s stomach where his sword was stuck.
‘It was a great fight. I have no regrets.’
Rai continued in Lemif language.
“Humans are not weak enough to be scared by my wings.”
“Then die. I’ll give peace to your gider that’s only about fighting.”
Saying that, the sorcerer tore off the other wing as well. Even flesh came off at the end of the wing. Rai didn’t scream once, only reflexively throwing his head back. Dark red blood soaked the sorcerer’s gray robe, but the robe completely absorbed that blood.
“My death… is, is something I decided…”
Rai struggled to continue speaking.
The first Kassel had embroidered friendship into a life that was only about fighting, and the second Kassel had accepted the gider that was only about fighting as it was. They were different Ugehs, but to Rai, they were the same beings.
“My gider was…”
Rai slowly bowed his head.
“To, to fight… for, for them…”
And he never raised his head again.
☆ ☆ ☆
The sorcerer dropped the wingless Lemif to the ground. White feathers stained with red blood rolled across the dry ground a few times.
Guanil approached, making the ground shake.
“I can quickly catch up to the one who fled to the Sky Mountains,” Guanil said.
The sorcerer replied, looking towards the Sky Mountains.
“Leave him be. Nurai will take care of it. The moment Sanadiel designates such a worthless being as his successor, it’s as good as losing to me. He’ll only realize how useless his actions are when he sees the results of that foolishness.”
The sorcerer turned and walked north. His figure hazily disappeared with each step, then appeared far away, and with another step, appeared even further away. Guanil spread his wings and flew into the sky.
Only Rai’s corpse remained there. His blood-stained wings, too, only one remained.
☆ ☆ ☆
Both in Acrand where he wandered alone, and in the Sky Mountains he returned to, Rai waited for Kassel.
Even when he was imprisoned in Larden while continually searching for strong Lemifs, Rai waited.
When he was trapped behind bars, ruminating on the same loneliness he experienced in Acrand, the first to appear was a small young man with blonde hair.
“With this sword, enemies I have to fight even if I want to avoid them are drawn to me. I need a warrior to fight those battles for me. Stand by my side.”
He introduced himself as Kassel and said he was the Captain of the Wolves. But Rai didn’t care about that name or position. He too was saying to come along, just like the Ugeh he first met.
“If you keep your promise, I’ll keep mine too.”
And he made the same promise as the Ugeh.
Rai felt a pang in his chest from an inexplicable loneliness.
Kassel said as he unfastened Rai’s chains,
“Thank you for coming to me, Rai.”
And he kept his promise.
If he could go back to that time in Larden’s prison, Rai wanted to say the words he had prepared for 50 years,
“You’ve come back, Kassel.”
–TL Notes–
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