It is the year 1623 in the God's Age calendar. A calendar that started after the gods had begun the mysterious phenomena of bestowing their powers to earthlings who were compatible with their elements and affinities. The earthlings now perform prayers for blessings from gods who have all the freedom in choosing who to bestow their blessings to. Certain gods are generous and bless whoever they see as worthy to receive their blessings, whereas some gods favour lineage. In the year 1450, the Great War took place which saw the humans and demons declare war on each other and other races in order to expand their territories. The war had lasted for over a hundred years before the Universal Peace Treaty was signed between the representatives of all the existing races in the year 1595. In the present, humans, demons, and the other races coexist with each other.
Currently in the forest of Kurgat, a certain young man was sitting on top of a dead beast attempting to read an old map. The person in question was none other than Kei, who had just killed an aggressive one-eyed beast, a cyclops. The forest of Kurgat lies south of the Kingdom of Babel, a peaceful but powerful kingdom consisting of humans and demons coexisting with each other for many centuries. Even during the Great War, Babel had refrained from getting involved with the war and instead fortified their defences to protect their people. It is also protected by a mythical forest that lay south of the kingdom due to the mythical beasts that live there.
"Hmm… It seems like another three-day journey to Babel… Not to mention having to cross the Great River of Uranus…"
As the kingdom was strategically built on the edge of the continent, invaders would have had to attack by sea which would have been difficult since the kingdom had the ground advantage. The only other way was to cross the Kurgat forest and the Great River of Uranus, a river with fast and deadly currents along with countless aquatic monsters in it. The river splits into half every five days to allow travellers to go into the city unless there was a special exception granted by the king.
"Well, if I move out tomorrow… Getting to the city shouldn't be a problem… haah…"
As he was finished reading the old map, Kei proceeded to put it in a small pouch on his waist that was clearly not a fit in size for the map. The pouch was a magic pouch capable of storing more than what it looks like it can store. Depending on the storage size, the price of those pouches would vary. As Kei had finished planning on when to move out, he let out a small sigh. Looking up at the night sky, he suddenly thought about the past once again.
'Hmm… I guess this would make it the fifth time I visit this place… Wonder what's changed this time…" Kei thought as he proceeded to pull the small dagger lodged in the dead cyclops' eye before proceeding to travel further into the forest.
When night time came, Kei had found refuge inside a large hollow tree, covering the opening of the tree with a tarp he had stored inside his magic pouch. He lit a small campfire within the large area within the tree to keep warmth. As he leaned on the body of the tree, he decided to take out the last gift Mika had prepared for him. As he opened the book, the area inside the tree flashed brightly for a brief moment, catching Kei slightly by surprise.
When his eyes adjusted to the surroundings again, his eyes widened in shock as the figure of a younger Mika appeared in front of him. He had surmised that this was probably a recording that Mika had taken many years ago.
"Hi hi! Did you miss me? Bet you didn't expect me of all people to come flying out of a book, did you? I never was one to read books after all."
As the recording in front of him spoke, Kei let out a small giggle as he thought about all the times in the past where he would urge Mika to at least pick up a book to read.
"Well, all jokes aside, if you're seeing this, then I'm probably dead, aren't I? Heheh… Well, having lived for 50 years, you would think that I'd be prepared for the end, but the truth is… I'm scared beyond scared! What do I do?!"
As the calm speech of Mika started turning into a voice of panic,Kei started to look annoyed watching his old friend panicking while recording a supposed important message. As he watches on, he is suddenly reminded of her ditzy attitude causing their adventuring party lots of trouble. He lets out a slight giggle.
"Ehem… Anyways, I'm recording this because… I'm dying… eheh… Remember when we fought that man with the Hecate blessing? Looks like the curse he quietly put on me before he died finally caught up to me."
Hecate, the goddess of magic which reigns over the domain of curses as well. A person's blessing creates a weapon which reflects according to the will and persona of the person. The person they fought in the past was a particularly powerful enemy who had Hecate's blessing of curses. When Mika landed the finishing strike, a death curse had been applied on her.
"And I know you would probably blame yourself for the rest of my life if I were to have told you, and so I kept it to myself… I didn't want to spend the rest of my life watching my best friend chasing after a hopeless dream. After all, I figured I would be at a really old age before the curse would catch up to me anyway."
"…So that's why… I always… found it strange I couldn't cure your sickness no matter how much I tried…" Kei muttered as he finally realised.
"Well, not that it matters anyway, since you would never find out until I'm gone anyway. But… the more I thought about it the more I realised… once I'm gone, you would be the only one left… Pavard and Lilith did leave us without saying anything after all…"
In the past, Kei had travelled with 3 other companions on his adventures. Mika was one of them, and the other two were Pavard and Lilith whom Mika's recording had just mentioned.
"Anyways, since this will be the last you hear from me, I guess I shouldn't make it too gloomy."
"…"
"Kei… Through our entire adventure together, you've never really shown that much of your emotions, and that has always irked Pavard and Lilith. But I of all people know how kind you actually are… You're the one who saved me after all. I know you've never really told us all your secrets, but I respect that. After all, what's life without secrets? I just hope you will one day meet someone you can finally open up completely to. Everyone deserves to be happy, after all. I've lived such a great life… adventuring with you guys, laughing, crying…"
After a brief pause, Mika's voice begins to tremble, as if she was about to cry.
"I guess… the only regret… *hic*… I have… was that I couldn't be that person… you could open up to…" Mika's recording says as tears start to flow down her cheeks.
"So much for not making it too gloomy…" Kei muttered quietly.
"Well, I guess that's about it for me… Listen, Kei, don't worry about me even after I'm gone, that's a part of life. Honestly, I'm more worried about you. Take care of yourself, my best friend in the whole world. Bye-bye! Eheh."
As Mika's recording reached its conclusion, it had finished with Mika giving Kei a bright smile, one he had not seen in a long time. When the recording was finished, the light in the hollow tree returned to normal, as only the light from the campfire lit up the small area. As Kei closed the book up, he put it along with the letter he had yet to read back into his magic pouch. As he did that, he now had a lot on his mind as he leaned on the wall of the tree whilst looking up.
"…Haah…That's… just unfair…" Kei said whilst he started to tremble.
As the tears flowed down his cheeks, it was the first in a very long time that Kei had cried. He had thought that he no longer had the ability of having any feelings at all. However, Mika was able to bring out his emotions one last time as Kei slowly fell asleep with tears in his eyes.
—-NEXT DAY—-
'-p me…'
"Ngh…"
'-lp me…"
"Hngh…"
As the sun started rising at dawn, Kei was having a rare dream in his sleep. In it, he dreamed of when he first met Mika. When he was travelling through a forest, he came across a young girl being chased by a pack of wolves. The forest he was travelling in had a somewhat horrible reputation for having many deadly beasts living in it. It was the first time in a long while that he was caught surprised as he never would have expected to find a young girl in the forest. He could still remember the incident clearly to this day from the way she yelled.
"HELP ME!!!"
As he had reached the most familiar part of his dream, Kei awoke from his dream to a loud shout from someone outside the tree where Kei had taken refuge. As Kei pulled down the tarp he set up to close off the entrance, he walked outside the tree to find a young girl backed up to the wall of the tree he was staying in. In front of her stood a frost wolf, a magical beast known for its extremely cold body and freezing breath. It seemed as though the wolf had chased the young girl deep into the forest until she had run out of energy to run as she reached the hollow tree. Just as she was about to resign herself to her fate, she noticed a person had just come out from a hole in the tree.
"Please run! Save yourself!" The girl yelled at Kei who had just exited the tree to see what the commotion was about.
"…" Kei said nothing as he stood there expressionless.
"Why won't you…?"
Before she could finish her sentence, the frost wolf took a deep breath as if it was charging up. As the girl's life flashed before her eyes, she closed her eyes, as if accepting her time had come. Suddenly, everything became silent again. Just as the girl opened her eyes thinking she had already died, her eyes widened in shock to see that there was now a dagger lodged inside the wolf's neck.
"I-… Uh… huh?!" The girl's brain couldn't fully process what was happening in front of her.
When she looked at the direction which the dagger was thrown from, she saw the hand of the person who had just exited the hollow tree extended, as if he had just thrown something. In truth, when she closed her eyes, Kei took out one of the daggers on his waist and threw it straight at the frost wolf, piercing the carotid artery and instantly killing it.
"Umm… Thank… you…" As the girl began to thank her, she fell to the ground as she lost consciousness.
"...This invites trouble…" Kei was now standing in the middle of the forest with an unconscious girl in front of her.