16 years old (5)
‘A world covered by death? The wheels of a clock? The dead?’
Theo’s mind became busy.
They were all difficult words to understand, but one of them particularly caught my ear.
The wheels of a clock.
‘What does this have to do with the <Secret of Time> that came out as a quest reward?’
Quests often connect clues to what’s to come in this way.
‘There are still some quests that haven’t been completed yet.’
Moreover, when you say ‘wheelbarrow’, something immediately comes to mind.
-Tarot cards I saw in my past life.
Why does the first one, ‘Wheel of Death’, suddenly come to mind?
The fact that the quest isn’t over even after securing Cassandra’s new recruits means that there’s clearly something Theo is missing.
I wondered if there was something wrong with her body, but fortunately, there was no trace of the Red and White Mercenaries causing any particular harm to Cassandra.
“I think the kid has a great imagination. Or maybe there’s something really going on… … Well, I guess they’ll take care of it.”
Anyway, the order the group received was to escort Cassandra.
All you had to do was get them to their destination and the rest would be taken care of by their superiors.
“Just in case, stay with the kid and if you find out anything, share it with him separately.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Shelford left Cassandra in Theo’s care, and turned his attention to Aryn and Ray.
“And these guys, they said the contact was supposed to be two hours ago?”
“But the fact that you haven’t even seen the tip of your nose yet means that there was either a mistake or you got the hint.”
Shelford nodded at Arin’s answer.
“Oh. Well then, it would be better to disappear quickly before reinforcements arrive.”
“Okay. I felt uncomfortable staying here anyway.”
This is strictly Troyvan’s territory.
The group had no intention of getting caught by those guys.
Hwaaaaak!
Soon, three dragons flapped their wings powerfully into the sky.
Ray was on the dragon with Arin, and Cassandra was on the dragon with Theo.
The relatively light Shelford took on the role of focusing on the perimeter defense.
The destination is the <Tulip Flower Association>.
A group located at the crossing point from Troyban to Ragnar’s territory, where one of Ragnar’s forces was currently stationed.
“As expected. You were planning to attack us while we were feeling safe.”
Shelford snorted as he watched Troyvan’s inspectors appear late and start screaming as the ground receded into the distance.
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I feel completely relieved.
one side.
‘The fever hasn’t left my body yet.’
Theo was checking Cassandra’s physical condition from time to time.
A blind girl who is so small that she looks like she is barely ten years old.
Even though he was destined to become emperor in the near future, I still felt uneasy about him.
Keeek!
Umbra asked, as if asking what was worrying her.
“No. Nothing.”
Theo smiled bitterly and stroked Umbra’s nape.
First, let’s go to the destination and think about it.
As I was trying to organize my thoughts, Cassandra suddenly started to move.
“mom…….”
Am I dreaming?
“I… … fly… … above the clouds… .”
Theo looked around without realizing it.
The clouds were passing right next to me.
‘Oh, come to think of it, wasn’t there a saying that the Dark Empress’s prophecies were usually given through dreams? Then?’
Precognitive dream?
It was around the time that I started thinking like that.
“Ugh… … !”
“Are you awake?”
Theo asked cautiously, noticing Cassandra’s eyelids fluttering.
“Here… … ?”
Cassandra’s face became terrified again.
It seemed as if he had realized the reality that, unlike when he had been rescued by Theo a little while ago, he was now being led somewhere by strangers once again.
Theo wanted to ease her worries somehow.
“Above the sky.”
“The sky… is it?”
Cassandra’s face changed strangely.
Not a carriage or a train, but the sky?
Come to think of it, the wind was shaking my head, and the smell of the air was somehow very different from what I usually smelled.
‘dream.’
I remembered a dream I once had where I was flying through the sky on the back of a strange monster.
“Yeah. There’s a cloud passing by too. Want to touch it?”
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Theo thought of the ‘cloud’ that Cassandra had been talking about in her sleep and tried to steer the mood in that direction.
Fortunately, Cassandra seemed to be paying attention, like a nine-year-old.
You can touch the clouds?
how?
She knew about clouds too.
It’s like cotton candy floating in the blue sky, right?
Is it because it’s so high up that adults can never reach it no matter how high they jump?
If Mr. Halbert next door had said that, I would have asked if he was making fun of me.
When the person who saved me said that, it somehow felt like it could really be true.
So I mustered up my courage and reached out to the side.
Something caught my hand.
Something moist and ticklish.
“How is it? I touched it a little while ago.”
“Me… … huh?”
I thought it would be soft when I saw it in my ‘dream’.
When I actually touched it, it felt completely different from what I had expected.
It never occurred to me that Theo would lie or play a prank.
There was no reason to do that, and I didn’t think he was the kind of person who would do that.
“Want to touch it one more time?”
Cassandra nodded and reached out her hand in the direction Theo had instructed.
As expected, I had a similar feeling.
However, I felt as if something was suddenly breaking at my fingertips.
Cassandra chewed on that feeling for a long time.
-There is no need to be too troubled by ‘dreams’.
After having a ‘dream’, I always remembered the words my mother said to me when she held me in her arms and cared for me when I was suffering from a fever.
-No matter what you’ve seen, this world is much wider and more vivid than what you’ve seen. Someday, you’ll have a friend who will take you to that world.
There was a world here that was completely different from the one I had glimpsed in my dreams.
‘mom…….’
But now I miss my mother’s embrace, whom I will never see again,
Cassandra couldn’t help but shed tears.
Theo was trying to comfort Cassandra when he suddenly noticed a blue light emanating from her.
Paaaa-
‘What is this?’
The light that appears automatically whenever you guide a quest.
For a moment, my body staggered due to the reversed vision.
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[‘Skill: Hatchling Synchro’ is forcibly activated, allowing a glimpse into the future seen by Prophet Cassandra.]
Hwaaaaak!
‘What is this?’
A vast plain.
There must have been a flower garden, but the floor was covered in mud and dust, and flower petals were strewn about.
Above it, black mist was fluttering.
Tsk tsk tsk-
At the same time, the dead people who had been buried in the ground, chasing the azalea, began to rise one by one.
Like a doll hanging from a thread.
At the center of this ominous sight stood a black figure.
Inyoung, whose shadow made it difficult to tell whether he was a man or a woman, slowly turned her head this way instead of looking straight ahead.
And then, just as I was about to lock eyes with Theo.
Flash!
Inyoung’s two eyes burst into bright light, and her thoughts were shattered at the same time.
‘Who the hell are you?’
The blue tint must mean it was related to Theo, but there was nothing immediately obvious.
Anyone who deals with the dead would probably be a necromancer or a witch doctor, but even after searching through his past life’s memories, there was no one who seemed to have any connection to him.
‘It might also have to do with the quest not being finished yet.’
How on earth do I solve this hint?
The problem is.
‘It looks familiar.’
The thing that made eye contact was that, even though I clearly couldn’t see the face properly, the temperament was very familiar.
It was at that time that I was having troubles that would not go away.
“Did you… see… my dream…?”
Cassandra said with a blank expression.
It feels like I’m looking at Theo even though my eyes are closed.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this with anyone! Wow! This is amazing!”
Cassandra looked somehow happy.
I guess he was happy that he had someone to share the secret he had been suffering with inside.
I don’t know whether to laugh at this or not.
Theo ended up laughing awkwardly.
* * *
The place where Theo and his group left.
A man wearing a wooden mask entered the half-ruined shack with his right arm held behind his back.
With every step he took, his empty left arm flapped like a flag.
His name is ‘Akt’.
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A character meaning the number ‘8’ in ancient language.
He was one of the nine servants that Troyvan boasted of.
“You stupidly missed the target right in front of you?”
“That, that’s… … ! Because they suddenly made a surprise attack… … ! We, we were outnumbered… … !”
Otan, the leader of the Red and White Mercenaries, was lost in thought and somehow managed to come up with an excuse.
Jeokbuk-
“We, we’re just, mere, mercenaries! We, we don’t have the power to take on Ragnar’s, his, his elite, in the first place, right… …!”
Jeokbuk-
“So please, show mercy… …!”
Jeokbuk-
No matter what excuses he made, Akt’s footsteps never stopped.
The more this happened, the more Otan’s thoughts became darker. His voice also began to tremble slightly.
If this continues, I’m really going to die.
With that thought in mind, I let out a final groan.
“Oh, and also! The ‘Cheongakdae’ that was supposed to come at the appointed time didn’t come… …!”
chuck!
Akt was standing in front of Otan.
The eyes shining through the mask were so sharp that Otan’s mind had now become blank like a blank sheet of paper.
“So it’s our fault?”
“It’s, it’s not like that, but, uh, please, give it some consideration!”
“Denglong, you know that you’re a little late because you’re trying to shake off that annoying author who keeps following you around, but you’re still saying that?”
Lantern.
How shocked I was when I learned that he, who was considered one of the most senior men in Ragnar, had left the North.
It was also because of this that his left arm became empty.
More than half of the Cheongakdae are dead.
“That, that!”
“Even if we were late, it was only two or three hours. This isn’t even Ragnar’s territory, it’s the front yard of the main house in the eastern region, and yet you keep making excuses like that?”
“S, save me… …!”
“Moreover, the couple that makes me the most angry is…”
Arkt released his backpack and raised his hand.
“please!”
“The child was taken away by Ragnar, of all people. He was foolishly taken away by someone he was gambling with.”
Squeak!
Phew-
Otan’s head fell to the floor with a pale expression.
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Crunch!
Arct even trampled it down with his foot and blew it up.
“From today onwards, the name Red and White Mercenaries should never again reach my ears.”
“Your name.”
The luggage that had been waiting suddenly disappeared.
With this, the final fate of the Red and White Mercenary Corps, which had dreamed of glory even while changing owners, was decided.
“We have to somehow see the <timeline> to victory. And to do that, we need that child.”
Arkt muttered softly, clutching his back again.
“So, make sure to bring it.”
Cheongakdae.
As their name, the ‘Blue Devils’, suggests, those who reigned as the gods of battle bowed their heads and flew into the sky all at once.
Aktan looked up quietly in the direction where his men had disappeared.
The weather that flowed across the blue sky was changing little by little.
“If things go wrong, why on earth?”
Crack!
The sound of his teeth grinding was the only thing that spoke of his troubled mind.
How the bastard of the Return Sword Family lives
