Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
"I am coming!"
Caelen opened the door with haste. The first light of the morning entered through the door.
Outside the door were seven barbarian warriors.
"Ah!" Caelen wore a shocked expression. "How can I help you, sirs?"
"We are here to search the house," the chief said.
"Huh? Is there a problem with my house?"
"Don't worry about it. We will be gone soon." Then, without waiting for an answer, they barged in.
Caelen frowned, but quickly masked it with a neutral look.
The barbarian warriors looked around. Well, not looking, but more like they were tearing through the place.
Caelen didn't have much furniture, but the furniture he owned was upside down now.
The barbarian warriors even checked the little drawers that were impossible to hold a baby.
"Everything is clean, as if you had just cleaned it. Why is that?" the chief asked Caelen.
"Sir, I don't know if you know, but after working the whole day at the farm, it is impossible to find the strength to clean. So I clean in the mornings."
The chief stared at him for a second, then scoffed and turned away. His expression said more than his silence. It looked down on Caelen for being weak.
Caelen didn't mind, of course. He looked at his right hand, which was bandaged, and remembered the day before.
***
"First things first, you need to cover your right hand. If it is seen that you own a Crest of Knowledge, they may think you are a magus.
Or worse if they learn you have a dual crest. Normally, you would just be killed. But I am not sure now.
Even your parents in Elarith didn't kill you. Barbarians might try to enslave you and then use you.
So, hide our right hand until you learn how to conceal it."
It was possible to hide one's crest, but it would take time. Caelen's both crests needed to level up.
Idel continued after Caelen tied a cloth on his right hand.
"I will be sure to be caught as far away as possible. But when they don't find the crystal fragment on me, they will try to trace it back.
You should go after your house is searched. So you can't stay. Leave after they finish searching your house. Move quietly, speak to no one."
"...I need to talk to someone first," Caelen said after a pause. "But I trust him. He won't tell anyone."
"You can't trust barbarians. I know you grew up among them, but I have been fighting them all my life."
Still, Caelen's face showed determination.
"Sigh... If you think you can absolutely trust him, I can't hinder you. But, if you get caught, the war will continue until only barbarians remain."
This was a heavy responsibility Caelen took. Something that could end the war... It was hard.
"Lastly, by morning, I will teach you three spells. Don't worry, you can use them with your first-stage Crest of Knowledge.
But they won't be enough. You will need to find someone to teach you. So, I will choose the path you need to follow before taking on this journey."
***
"Chief, there is nothing here!" one of the barbarian warriors shouted. Then, one by one, the others also said the same.
The chief approached Caelen. "I have my eyes on you!" he said with an angry face.
Of course, he didn't have anything on Caelen. It was something he said to everyone just to see if they would panic.
But Caelen didn't do anything out of the ordinary, so the chief said, "We are leaving."
And they headed toward the next house.
---
Caelen was running through the woods. The road from his house to Illgorn's house was through the forest.
But he couldn't use that road in case he met the barbarian warriors with a bag on his back.
So, he was running through a more patchy path. He needed to see the old man.
When the warriors had left his house, they hadn't bothered cleaning up. They never did. That was the homeowner's job.
But this time, it was a problem. If they returned and saw the place still in chaos, they'd realize Caelen had left in a hurry. It would look suspicious. Obvious, even.
Still, rather than waste the little time he had on cleaning, Caelen gambled they wouldn't come back right away. And used that time to visit Illgorn.
When he reached somewhere close, he left his bag behind a tree and approached the house.
He would tell the old man he would leave in a few days. If he said he would leave now, it would be obvious he was the one hiding the magus.
He knocked on the door slowly.
After a few seconds, the old man opened the door and looked at Caelen.
"You..." he said. "You activated your crest!"
"What? How did you-"
"Sigh... come inside," Illgorn said and went in before Caelen.
They sat in two chairs.
"How did you activate your crest?" Illgorn asked.
Caelen remembered Idel's advice before answering, "I was training yesterday while thinking about what was written in the notebook you gave me.
After that, I got angry and my heart started pounding. Then, it shone, the crest. Three beams!"
"Are you happy about being at the third stage? It would only be good if you were fifteen."
The old man reprimanded him instead of celebrating. But Caelen knew that he was also happy for him.
The old man was thinking about the notebook at the same time. But it didn't seem like Caelen was angry at him. So, he decided not to talk about it for now.
"So what?" Illgorn continued. "Do you want me to train you? Just when I thought I got rid of you-"
"Ah, old man... I am sorry, but I will be leaving soon."
"Leaving? Why? Do you think you can find a better master than me?"
"Actually, we never talked about this, but... I am the son of Ulgaf and Svea. And my master is Taek."
"Hah! Of course, you are leaving. Now it makes sense."
"Ah, no, that is not it. I am not going to find them."
"Then, what are you going to do?" Illgorn was lost for words.
"A barbarian needs to carve his own path. I won't learn from them, at least not yet. I need to get stronger first to be worthy of them. Three beams, as you have said, are not enough."
The old man was about to say he was mocking him when he said that, but he decided not to.
If what Caelen wanted was this, there was no reason to prevent him from doing what he wanted, especially since his dream could be real.
"Then, why did you come here? Do you want to say goodbye? You didn't need to."
"Well, I have a request."
"What kind of request is it?"
Caelen reached into his pocket and pulled out two letters. "My parents might come here soon. Can you give these to them?"
Illgorn scoffed, but took the letters without a word. They were goodbye letters. The kind someone writes before they die. He didn't ask questions.
"Wait here," he said, and went back to the room where he had brought the notebook the day before.
After a few minutes and sounds of things falling, the old man came back, in his hand a sword.
"Take this," Illgorn said, extending it toward Caelen.
"Uhm... What is this?"
"This is a reward. It was my reward. When I won a fight against a certain someone, he gave me this one-handed sword.
Strong fellow. So, I'm guessing the sword's quality is high. But I never used it since it's a one-handed sword."
Caelen reached out and took the sword from Illgorn. The sword was longer than his arm.
Its sheath was white with golden ornaments.
It already looked valuable, but when he drew the blade, his breath caught.
The metal gleamed with a bluish tint even though the hilt was the same white and gold colors.
He stared at it, then looked up at Illgorn. "Old man, thank you. I'll treasure it."
"You idiot. What kind of self-respecting barbarian treasures a sword? You use it. You fight with it. That's the only way to honor a weapon, not by hugging it like it's your child."
He scowled at Caelen, but the warmth behind the words was obvious.
Caelen gave him a small smile. He knew this would be the last time for a long while. He thanked the old man once more and stepped out through the door.
Illgorn stood there, watching him go.
"As if I didn't know what you were up to all week," he muttered with a smile, then turned and went back inside.