Chapter 185 – The Boy

000

“Cain!”

Near Orpheans, a small village under the imperial territories, there was a small forest that was not often visited by people due to rumors of ghosts haunting it.

The shadows of the dark trees, the leaves thick enough to block out all the light of the sun.

The soil is discolored from brown to black, and cold air rises from the floor when touched.

No matter how you look at it, it was a place where life and plants did not seem to be able to grow well, and yet the trees grew this big.

Cain had heard children say that the ghosts had grown trees to hide themselves.

Cain is a 12-year-old boy. She was her orphan who lost her parents her in a famine and came to Orpheans.

Black hair, black eyes. And white skin.

He was one of a minority called the `Clan of the Dark Horse`, and since he was born, he has the power to handle black magic. He was also a magic swordsman who had a special sword called the ‘Demon Sword’.

Although he was still in the process of growing up, he started to build up his muscles little by little by repeating the practice every day.

At the sound of a voice calling him, Cain turned his head and crawled out of the hole he had been digging.

It was the bookworm girl, ‘T-ara’.

Cain raised one eyebrow at her as she saw her leaping on herself in her simple clothes, with her blue hair tied in two pigtails.

“Tia. Why are you here? I told you not to come here because it’s dangerous.”

“That’s what I’m talking about… Were you digging holes here again?”

Tiara looked at Cain in disgust as she gazed at the large hole in his back her.

Tiara’s concerns about Cain’s eccentricity have been growing more and more recently.

As if it were part of his daily routine of her, he even felt a kind of obsession with Cain, who came to the forest to dig a hole without the teacher’s knowledge.

I even thought about whether the darkness in my heart had spread to my head, which might be a little rude, but Cain’s attitude toward others had not changed at all.

“Well, that’s right.”

“It’s not ‘Well, that’… Phew, the teacher was looking for Cain.”

Cain followed Tiara’s words, stretched her, and twisted her waist from side to side.

“Okay. Let’s go back to town.”

Cain nodded her head energetically and led the way to the exit of the forest with the tiara.

Tiara lets out a sigh, but she often follows Cain with her steps her.

“I need to learn the magic of ‘telepathy’ as soon as possible because of Cain… “

“Haha. You’ll learn soon. Tia has a talent for magic.”

As the two move along the road, get out of the woods. If you walk a little further along the road again, you will enter the entrance of the village, which is small and old, but has a sense of life.

The orphaned town of Orpheans.

Most of the residents are children.

As many died in the recent famine, all the children who lost their parents were sent to this village.

Originally, it would not have been possible to live with children alone providing food, clothing and shelter.

The purpose of those who kicked the orphans out of the village was such a selfish desire to die quietly, out of reach of their own eyes.

“Cain. Tiara. You’re back. Did Cain go to the forest again?”

When Cain nodded her head, the man with a wry smile was an old man who was already over 60.

The only adult of this Orpheans.

The man called ‘teacher’ by the orphans was originally a professor or a scholar somewhere.

Without him, he comes to become the teacher of Orpheans, who would have become a trash can for young lives, and teaches them to write and teach them basic things so that they can live on their own.

If he had talent, he was taught martial arts and magic, and all the children in the village respected and followed him.

Even those who were forcibly exiled by adults and had distrust towards them were exceptions to `teacher`.

“Cain is already strong enough to fight nearby monsters alone. But, please don’t be too vigilant. There might be something in that forest that I don’t know about.”

“Yes, teacher.”

Cain nodded and smiled at her teacher’s words her.

And naturally, Cain’s gaze her turns to the little boy hiding behind her teacher her.

The boy with blond hair and sloppy hair was dressed in simple clothes, but he had a sense of noble dignity.

Is it the same age as Cain or slightly younger? He gave the impression of hesitantly, but he was wearing a small sword that didn’t suit his waist.

“Teacher. Who is that child?”

“This is ‘Abel’ who has joined our family from today. I have said goodbye to all the other children. Cain, please take good care of him.”
?
Cain nodded her head, approached the boy named Abel, and held out her hand.

“Your name is Abel! I’m ‘Cain’. Please take good care of me. If you have any questions, ask me.”

“Uh, yes… Please take good care of me, Cain.”

Carefully, though, Abel’s hand her, which held Cain’s hand her, felt soft and warm, even compared to the hands of children her age her.

Nobody knew at the time that this would be an encounter that would drastically change the fate of the continent.

001

Abel was slowly accepted as a member of the village after that.

Abel himself was a bit indecisive, but she tried to be proactive when it came to interacting with people.

Besides, this is a village of orphans. Centered on the teacher, all the other children were like family.

Cain and her peers her, Abel, were well-informed, and she found her place by teaching her children things like herbs and edible grasses.

“Cain. How much do I have to dig for this?”

“Eh- well… I think I’ll dig a little more.”

When Cain leaves the village, Abel follows him and helps a boy dig a hole in the Forest of Ghosts.

Although Abel is more knowledgeable than Cain, her stamina her was lacking, so she quickly got tired and climbed up the hole.

To be honest, it was difficult for Abel to understand Cain’s actions as he continued to dig a hole that was already deeper than their height.

Abel sighed and looked outside of her pit. She looked at Cain’s sword, which was a bit large for a one-handed sword leaning against a tree.

Sensing her magical response to her, she unconsciously reached out her hand and took a look at it. Her black blade her felt beautiful.

“This of Cain… Is it called a ‘magic sword’? It’s amazing. She looks like she is alive.”

“Yes. That’s right. I still don’t have enough power to handle magic, so I can’t use it properly.”

Cain answered Abel’s words to her without stopping her digging the hole.

“And. Speaking of miraculous, the same goes for your sword. It’s a ‘sacred sword’, right? That’s it.”

“Uh, uh… How did you know?”

Abel nodded her head in embarrassment at Cain’s point, and Cain smiled and continued her story.

“It’s just. It’s similar to my sword, but I feel something opposite to it. My teacher once told me that there are ‘magic swordsmen’ like me and ‘heroes’ who use holy swords in the world.”

“Warrior…”

Upon hearing those words, Abel clenched his fists and lowered her head.

“A hero… Can’t be just anyone. A coward like me and a poor person…”

“What are you talking about? You’re not a coward and you’re not poor.”

Cain stops her shoveling at Abel’s words and turns her gaze outside her pit her.

“I’m a coward. I betrayed the people who believed in me and ran away all the way here.”

The next moment, when Cain jumped out of her hole and landed in front of Abel, Abel was started and she flinched and reacted involuntarily.

“Are you talking about the people from your hometown? Are you from the kingdom’s nobility? You.”

“…”

At Cain’s words her, Abel blinked her eyes.

“It’s because she’s blonde, but T-ara secretly told me before. She knows a lot. Well, no matter where she came from, the reason she came here is that she was betrayed by adults. “

Abel listened to Cain, and she shut her mouth for a moment, then she answered in a trembling voice.

“Albert Chaldearis.”

“Ok?”

Watching the boy spit out her first string of words, Cain let out a strange voice.

“Albert. That’s my original name. Chaldearis is the surname… I am the royal family of the kingdom.”

“Royal family! …Somehow, he doesn’t seem like an ordinary young boy. Then, did he live in the royal palace? Are you saying he’s a prince?”

Cain grabbed Abel by the shoulder her, her eyes shining.

“That, yes. That’s right. I’m not the only prince, there’s one more up there… But there’s an older brother.”

“Sure. That guy is the next ‘king’ of the kingdom…? But why did a guy who became royalty come all the way here?”

Abel avoided Cain’s gaze at Cain’s question without hesitation, and she muttered a reply.

“Most of the vassals in the royal castle wanted to make my older brother the king… So the fact that there was another human like me who had the right to succeed to the throne must have been a thorn in their eyes.”

“… Why? Your older brother would be the king if he stayed.”

Abel calmly returned her answer to Cain’s question.

“If there is a force that wants to make me king. I will have to fight that side too. I don’t really intend to become king.”

“Hmm… I don’t know.”

“Uh, anyway… I came here hiding my identity so that I could get help from the people who helped me, and run away from the people on ‘Brother’ side.”

After hearing Abel’s explanation, Cain nodded as if he understood.

“So. His real name is Albert, but as for calling him Abel, are you saying?”

“Uh- uh, yes. Yes, but… Is that all?”

“That’s all I can say from what I’ve just heard.”

Cain’s reaction to her was a little different from what Abel expected, she asks with a surprised expression.

“But… I’m not an imperial person, I’m a kingdom person… I’m not an orphan.”

“It doesn’t matter. You came here avoiding the adults. Whether it’s your own will or not. Bookworm Tiara, Yuni who wants to be a nun, and Lisa who likes to hunt are no different. They’re my family as well .”

At Cain’s words his, Abel raised his head and looked him in the eyes.

In his black eyes, there was a light that no one else could lose.

“Cain… Thank you.”

“Why are you thankful? I just said the obvious. Now, let’s keep digging holes.”

Saying so, Cain jumped into the pit again.

Abel also wiped her face with the back of his hand her, and cautiously walked under it.

002

Even after that, Cain and Abel went to the back of the forest almost every day to dig a hole.

When her pit is finally three times as deep as Cain’s height, Abel wearily knocks her on the buttocks.

“Cain. Why are you digging this pit?”

“Yeah- I thought there might be treasure… I think I heard a voice calling me.”

When Cain answered that, Yuni, who was preparing a ladder outside the pit, raised her voice as she stuck her head into her pit.

“What!? I haven’t heard of it!? Isn’t that a revelation from ‘God’? I’m envious~!”

“I told you before. You were the one who laughed and said, ‘What is that?'”

“Is that so?”

A lively girl with a bright impression scratching her bright pink hair smiles and says ‘ehehe’.

Uni was a year younger than Cain, but she was the eldest of the girls.

Thus, she was the eldest sister of the children, and the eldest sister, just like Cain among men.

She later dreamed of becoming a nun there, establishing a monastery where she could take care of her orphans like her teacher her.

Unlike Yuni, who reacts like that, Abel shuts her mouth for a moment before she talks.

“I heard that when men enter puberty, they sometimes have strange fantasies… Are you okay?”

“Isn’t it a delusion unique to puberty…? More than that, it’s even more amazing that she hasn’t asked me for a year.”

When Abel shrugged her shoulders at Cain’s words, the corpse of a huge crow pierced with arrows suddenly fell from the sky and fell into her pit. It fell right in front of Cain and Abel.

It was not an ordinary crow, but a type of monster.

“Whoa!?”

“What, what!?”

When Cain and Abel raise their voices at the same time, outside the pit. A silver-haired girl, up in a tree, looks at the two people inside the pit with her cold eyes.

“…I saw Skull Crow. I didn’t know.”

“Lee, Lisa… Leave it to your instincts and don’t shoot monsters…”

“I thought my heart was falling.”

At first glance, she is Lisa with a doll-like expression that lacks emotion, but she is a girl who is just clumsy in expressing emotions.

As a half-harpy, she had special hair growing on her head, through which she showed her emotions of her, and you could tell she was apologetic by the hair that drooped down her back of her.

“First, let’s take this body out of the pit.”

“Yes. That’s right. We should bury it somewhere else.”

When Cain listened to Abel’s words and tried to grab the monster’s corpse, he saw something like a black hand coming out of the ground and grabbing the monster.

“Wow!?”

“Cain!? That black hand…”

The hand wriggling like a shadow pulled the monster’s corpse with strong force, and soon began to absorb the remaining bones, flesh, and blood like nutrients.

“Cain! Let go of the monster!”

As Abel cried out, she pulled out her own holy sword and swung it, her black hands being easily cut off.

When Cain listens to Abel’s words and drops the monster’s corpse to the ground, she gets more hands out and devours the monster’s corpse.

“Ugh… Disgusting…”

Yuni, who had been looking into her pit after hearing her commotion her, looked at her and frowned at her.

“…Cain. There really seems to be something down there… But no matter how much I think about it, I don’t think it’s a treasure.”

“…I think so. Shit~ I’ve dug this far…”

Cain nodded to Abel’s words, but the important thing was the safety of her children.

Therefore, the moment she put her thoughts aside and tried to ask Yuni to step down her ladder-

I heard the sound of the ground shaking.

“Eh, an earthquake!?”

“Cain! Come up quickly!”

Yuni raised her voice like a scream, and Lisa also jumped from the tree and helped her hold on to her ladder.

“Abel! Go up first!”

Cain said so and she let Abel climb up her ladder first, and the moment she herself tried to grab her ladder that Uni had given her down-

The ground turns off with a sensation of staggering of the body.

A mound of dirt slides down like a slide, and Cain is caught in her gravity her, losing her balance and reaching for her ladder.

“Cain!”

Abel reaches out and tries to grab his hand her, but-

On the verge, her hand brushed against her and Cain fell backwards.

“Cain!!!”

Hearing her voice her calling her own name her in her clouding mind, Cain faded away into her darkness.

003

“Kuh… It hurts…!”

Cain, who came to her senses her on her mound of dirt, raised her body as she stumbled.

Fortunately for her, the dirt acted as a cushion, and thanks to her riding down the current, she didn’t seem to have broken anything, though she might have been shocked.

Looking around, mechanical steel walls, floors and ceilings catch your eye. The light was illuminated by subtle magical powers.

Looking up above her, she could see that a mound of dirt had blocked the hole through which Cain himself had flowed into this space.

“Really… What is this place? An underground dungeon… ?”

When he tried to move his body her with his aching body her, he suddenly checked what he was holding in his hand her and lowered his head her, wondering if he had followed him there.

The black magic sword ‘Pandora’ was with them.

“You… You must have been outside the pit. Did you follow me?”

Cain let out a sigh of relief at his partner his, who seemed to be responding with a faint black light.

“Anyway. I have to find an exit. I don’t want to starve to death here…!”

When Cain stepped forward with her will to do so, she heard a tinnitus ringing in her ears her and something, a voice.

[──…]

“…That voice… I heard it from the outside… Is it in here?”

It was not a wise decision to move blindly in a situation where you don’t know what’s ahead, what’s behind you, and what’s up and down.

Cain slowly moved his body her in the direction the voice led.

While walking down the street, I was worried that monsters might come out if this was a dungeon, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

However, the chill was strangely strong, and I couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of white breath coming out every time I breathed.

“After starving to death, should we worry about freezing to death…!?”

However, as she moved forward, the voice her calling her became clearer, and when Cain opened the door to her her last room her-

It seems that this is where the cold air that covered the entire facility came from.

The ceiling and floor were frozen, forming icicles, and in the center of the room, a girl could be seen sleeping with her eyes closed in a huge translucent coffin.

It was a fairly old facility, but there was nothing abnormal about the body of the girl inside, and what caught Cain’s attention most of all was the girl’s appearance of her.

Dark hair, pale skin. She did n’t open her eyes, so I could n’t see her pupils her.

“…Are you- Lilim…? I, for some reason, know your name…”

Unbeknownst to her, she calls her name her and approaches her coffin and places her hand on it.

When a chill so sharp as to sting hit her hand her, she involuntarily backed away from her.

“…”

Then, Pandora, hanging behind her own back her, reacted by emitting her powerful magic power her.

“…Yes. A coffin like this, if only you and I could!”

As the boy draws out the magic sword, her ferocious mana her is enveloped in the sword. It took the form of a black beast and was showing the highest output in Cain’s short life his.

“Eat it! Pandora!”

The powerful blow of the demonic sword, the blade penetrating through the cold air, shattered the glass that surrounded the girl.

At the same time, the powerful dark magic that was entangled within it spewed out and swallowed the cold air that had spread around it.

After that, Cain himself was almost blown back by the storm, but he somehow managed to survive by stepping on her hard.

It was to take a step in front of her and offer the body of the girl who fell in front of her.

“…Uh, uh…”

The girl-lilim slowly lets her voice out of her mouth and opens her eyes.

As expected, beautiful black eyes.

“… Ah…”

And, after meeting her eyes with Cain, she was wrapped in his arms.

“Now, wait…”

Cain blushed in resentment. However, the girl does n’t care and buries her face her.

“Finally… I finally met you. My mate… My other half… What is your current name?”

“My, my name? It’s Cain, but… I, leave me for now.”

Saying so, Cain managed to let go of the clinging girl.

“…Kain-sama. Thank you for saving Lilim…”

To Lilim, who wet her eyes and said so, Cain scratched her cheek, even though she was at a loss as to how to react.

004

After that, Lilim said that she herself was a clan of black horses sealed in the past, and that she and Cain had a ‘companion’ relationship that transcended the ages.

Did the wheel of fate start to move?

After saying something that was difficult for Cain to understand, she escaped to the surface using the transmission device in the facility.

The passage connecting the above and below ground was a disk inside an abandoned shrine in the village.

“It’s amazing… It’s an ancient technology. This.”

“… Is this where Cain-nim lives?”

“That’s right. The sun has already set, so the teacher will be worried. Let’s go. I have to introduce you too.”

After Cain said that, she took Lilim’s hand her and headed for her teacher’s house her.

If you think that the children’s cries are getting closer, you can see the teacher with a serious expression.

“Teacher!”

When Cain’s voice rang, Abel and her friends ran to Cain.

Each child calls Cain by name and bursts into her weeping her.

Then the teacher jumps in between them and hugs his body her.

“Cain! You’re safe…! Thank goodness…! Stop digging now!”

Cain felt guilty even though she thought it was the first time she’d seen a teacher look so disheveled.

“Mi-sorry. More than that, there’s someone I can introduce you to!”

At Cain’s words her, the sensei dropped her body her and made eye contact with the girl standing next to her.

“Is this child another member of the dark horse clan?”

“Yes. It’s called ‘Lilim’. It was in the ruins under the forest.”

“Underground Ruins? That’s… No, I see.”

Sensei leans over her and meets her eyes with Lilim. Lilim, who shows little interest in humans other than Cain, watches her teacher peering into her.

‘…Extremely cold eyes. A child with a different feeling than Lisa, lacking in emotions.`

Sensei thinks so, but then she smiles and raises her body her.

“Lilim. You seem to want to be with Cain.”

When Lilim nods her head without opening her mouth, Sensei also looks around her and speaks to her children her.

“From today, Lilim is also her family in our village. Everyone, please be nice to her too.”

Thus, she thought, Cain’s little adventure had ended with welcoming a new family to the village.

005

Two years had passed since Lilim came to the village, and three years had passed since Abel came.

On a dark night, only the moonlight quietly illuminates the village of orphans.

When a person hiding in the shadows stepped on the outskirts of the village, riding the wind that moved with the bleak energy of death.

Sensei immediately opened her eyes and ran to the quarters where her children were her.

“Teacher…?”

Cain, who opens her eyes in her drowsy state, hears her teacher hold her arm her and tell her story her.

“Listen, Cain. Take the children and go to the facility where you found Lilim. If you are there, others will not be able to find you easily.”

“Teacher…?”

When Cain asked such a question, the teacher shut her mouth for a moment, then she smiled reassuringly at Cain and she stroked his hair on her.

“… I’ll buy you all the time to get there. Don’t worry. After all, I’m a body that worked at the academy. I won’t be attacked by assassins.”

Cain met her eyes her with the teacher who told her to believe in herself, grabbed her by the arm her, she nodded her head and led her children to the village’s old shrine.

“Teacher… Are you okay?”

When Yuni speaks in a worried voice, Tia holds her hand her.

“Sensei was a co-professor of the swordsmanship department and the magic department, which are the three departments of the academy. To put it simply, she is a very strong person.”

“Lilim. Teleportation magic.”

“Yes. Cain.”

Moments after Lilim moves her mana her to activate the magic circle, Abel moves away from her children and moves outside of her platform.

“Abel!?”

“What are you doing! Come back!”

“…Sorry Cain.”

Saying that, Abel peered at Cain through the wall created by the teleportation magic.

“The ring of divine protection I received when I left the palace is trembling… They are definitely the people of the kingdom who came to look for me… So, if they find me, they won’t mind this village anymore and will return.”

“What are you talking about!?”

Cain cries out, but Abel turns her away.

“…Goodbye. Cain… It was fun being able to live with you as brothers.”

“Abel!!”

In the next moment, Cain’s vision turned white.

When she came back to her senses her, she could see herself moving into the room where she first met Lilim.

“Kuh…! Lilim please! Bring me to the ground once again!”

“… The teleportation magic formation that moved a large number of people needs to be charged with magical power. At least… 30 minutes.”

“30 minutes…Then Abel…!”

Children’s cries, Cain looks up at her ceiling with a look she doesn’t know what to do.

“…Is there any way to check the situation on the ground here?”

At Tiara’s words her, Lilim inspected the machines around her, and then an illusion magic unfolded in front of everyone.

It illuminated Orpheans, the town above.

“Sen, Saeng-nim…! That’s…!”

Cain’s desperate voice her and the screams of her children. Some lose their minds and collapse.

There, the teacher collapsed on the floor with one of her arms her cut off. And, men in black clothes surrounded him.

It seemed that the teacher’s body had already cooled down.

“Even the great professor of the academy couldn’t help the force of the years… The dance, and the magic. It was wonderful. You are an enemy, but it was an honor to fight you.”

After saying that, the human who appears to be the leader in black gives an order to his subordinates.

“According to Lucius-sama’s order, find Prince Albert.”

“You don’t have to.”

Then, a voice interrupted the man’s words.

“Abel…!”

As Cain called his name his, there was Abel-Albert confronting a man in black with a holy sword in his hand.

“…Prince Albert. This man gave his own life to protect you. And yet, appearing in front of us… Isn’t it foolish?”

“As long as I’m alive, older brother will come to this place again and again… He’ll target me. I can’t do anything that puts my family in danger so that I can live.”

Answering the man’s words, Albert pointed the holy sword at the man as he spoke.

The man shut his mouth for a moment, perhaps surprised by Albert’s words his, then straightened his weapon.

“As expected. Is it a responsibility as a person standing on top?”

“It’s wrong… It’s family.”

“…Excellent. But that doesn’t change the foolishness.”

The next moment, the black man’s body disappeared leaving behind an afterimage.

Then, his figure appeared right behind Albert.

“…”

Albert was still alive at that point.

No, he was mistaken that he was alive.

He barely realized his death as he fell forward, blood spewing from his throat.

As the pouring blood splatters on the Holy Sword, the Holy Sword tries to run wild, but-

“It’s fortunate that you prepared the core of the holy sword.”

The core the man was holding in his hand stopped the rampage of the holy sword, and the holy sword was broken into pieces.

“…Ah, Bell-“

Black magic power rushed into Cain’s eyes as he watched.

Despair.

The deep despair of having someone like his family-brother helplessly murdered right in front of his eyes, anger covers his body his and awakens his magical sword, `Pandora`, from a deep slumber.

“…! Everyone, stay away from Cain.”

“What is going to happen!?”

“No way… This is the awakening of the demonic sword in the book…!?”

“Cain…!”

`Brother Cain!` `Brother Cain!`

The fact that the family’s voice called his name his, but the brother’s voice was not heard in the meantime, plunged Cain deeper into despair.

`I… Because I’m weak…! Teacher too…! Abel too… !`

[Okay… This is because of your weakness. Stupid Cain.]

As if affirming Cain’s thoughts, a woman’s voice was heard.

It’s like hearing it for the first time, but it’s a fascinating voice that I’ve heard somewhere before.

In the fading vision, ‘it’ stood there.

With light brown skin and blue-green hair that reached her waist her.

Unlike her nature, she is a woman with eyes full of benevolence.

The color of her eyes is a beautiful bright violet.

Inside the pupil was engraved the crest of the black six-pointed star, which symbolizes perfection.

Dressed like a noblewoman’s daughter who was not exposed while wearing a gorgeous dress all over her body.

The being that appeared suddenly came closer and pointed his index finger at Cain’s forehead.

“Pan, Dora…”

“When you are angry and despairing, when the vessel of your soul is filled with black turbidity. I grant you strength.”

“If you were strong, you wouldn’t have to run away.”

“If you were strong, your benefactor wouldn’t have died.”

“If you were strong, your brother wouldn’t have died.”

“Cain. Your fate lies on the path of defeat… Now is the time, accept my power.”

“If you do that… You will be able to protect everything you tried to protect…!”

The amount of black magic covering Cain’s body increased with each letter of the woman’s voice.

“Lilim! What do you do!”

“…No. This is what it is. Cain-sama needs strength.”

When Lilim replied to Yuni’s words, the others shut her mouth.

“───!!!”

The boy’s angry cry reverberates through the basement.

It was the moment when the black beast that would devour the continent was born.