Chapter: The Silent Truth
Two days had passed since then, and now, on the evening of the third day, the young man woke up.
He opened his eyes and slowly sat up in his bed, looking around. As usual, he was in Hans's inn, in his customary room.
He sighed: "Ah, I feel like this room is a respawn point in a video game."
He rose from the bed slowly, then looked at his hands, remembering what had happened.
He asked himself: What was that place? Why do I feel like I've been there before? And more importantly... what are Stories?
As usual, new questions invaded his mind. Then, he went downstairs to the ground floor.
The same usual atmosphere, the same faces that always frequented the tavern; nothing was strange.
At the counter, Hans was standing as usual, and Borin sat before him, but the atmosphere was not normal. There was a kind of "extinguished light" on Borin's face, and Hans's expression was heavy and extremely serious.
Jin sat quietly on the chair beside Borin: "Hey Jimmy, bring me a cup of coffee."
Silence fell for a while, then Borin asked him: "Are you still angry because of that day?"
Jin went silent for a moment: "Perhaps it shook my confidence, but I deserve this. How could I be stupid enough not to notice the history or anything for years?" he said with a cold, mocking tone.
The boy hesitated a bit before continuing: "I don't know if you two knew what happened that day, but... during the fight, I felt a strange being in that place. I don't know how to describe it... a presence powerful enough to kill a man with its breath, yet... strangely calm and peaceful. I didn't get the chance to look at it."
They fell silent. Then Hans spoke: "That... is not someone we can talk about right now. I don't think you'll be qualified to know him for... maybe ten years from now." Hans said this with a serious tone and a hollow face. Despite all past events, Jin sensed the truth in this specific matter.
Jimmy arrived with the cup of coffee and looked at them with wonder: "What's going on?"
They all looked at him for moments, but no one answered. The boy felt a bit embarrassed: "Ah, sorry," and went back inside.
Jin spoke coldly, looking at the cup in his hand: "Both of you know a lot about me. Why are you hiding this from me despite knowing the state I've reached?"
Borin: "I told you before, this is for your own good," he said, feeling distressed.
The boy smiled with mockery and sadness: "My own good? That's funny. What is my 'good' in all this? Is my increase in power my benefit? Or living a peaceful, normal life?"
Again, they didn't answer him.
The boy narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the cup between his hands: "You both know my father. Consequently, you know the continent I came from. So, why didn't you tell me this?"
Borin finally spoke! "Your continent? ... It seems you must know in the end."
The boy tilted his head; this was what he had wanted to hear for years. The old man continued:
"Your continent is in the West. But don't even think about trying to go there now."
Rage surged in Jin's chest, and veins appeared on his face and neck. He asked in a heavy voice: "And why is that?"
The old man sighed: "Why? Because there is no means of travel you can even access. The distance between Western Asterion before the ocean, and the distance across the body of water to get there... is 7,000 kilometers in a straight line."
The old man continued: "Don't think about it. No sea ships go there, no flying ships, and no teleportation gates are powerful enough for you to reach. You won't even be able to reach Western Asterion in the first place; the distance through the wilderness is double that number."
The anger increased in the boy's chest, and he asked with sadness this time: "Why is all this even happening?"
Hans looked away, hesitating, but Borin continued: "Thirty years ago... something happened that shook the foundations of the planet. Back then, they began to isolate that continent from the rest. They stopped trade completely, and then they started hiding books and historical events that directly mentioned the continent's name."
Jin: "If I search, I might find names or characters that help me find the truth."
Borin: "No, don't do that. It's likely the continents will be reconnected soon. Your search for answers will only exhaust you and gain you absolutely nothing."
Jin: "Why all of this in the first place? I'm tired of all this nonsense," the boy said, truly oppressed.
He asked: "Why doesn't the Tower reach there?"
Borin hesitated for moments: "The Tower was already there. But exactly 17 years ago... the transport towers disappeared from that continent, and no one from that continent has entered the Tower since."
The boy's eyes widened. He remembered a fragment of his past; he had asked his mother in the past about the gates. In that conversation, she had mentioned the Tower once, but he had forgotten that as well.
He began to cry immediately upon remembering this and asked them: "Why do I forget all the important things? Why do I become stupid at the clearest matters? Why do things happen that shake the planet, and I'm the one who suffers? Why me specifically? What sin have I committed?"
Hans was looking the other way. In that moment... Hans bit his lips until blood flowed. He was trembling, grief and regret visible on his face; he couldn't even turn to look at the boy.
Borin: "Sometimes... it's better to stop asking and treat everything as if it were trivial. That's the only way your mind can rest."
They were silent for a long time after that. No one spoke, no one did anything. More than ten minutes passed in silence.
Borin asked: "Don't you want to ask about your father's identity?"
Jin looked out of the corner of his eye, his face still frozen in that suffocating state of grief.
"Ask? A person with talent surpassing humans, powerful enough for the Sword Throne Blacksmith himself to forge swords for him... yet, this is the state of his son. What will I gain if I ask about his identity now? And besides... you won't tell me who he is, so why do you even ask?"
Borin smiled—a smile that carried weight and self-mockery: "Yes, you are right."
After a while, the boy spoke again: "In the past, I always heard a name echoing everywhere I went. I knew nothing about this person except his name and talk of his terrifying abilities."
Jin looked at them and asked calmly: "Is the last Sword Throne... Valerion Vermillion?"
They looked at him in shock. This time... his guess was correct!
Borin sighed, despite his shock at the situation, and answered: "Yes, that is the fourth Sword Throne."
At that moment, some questions flashed through the boy's mind, but he stopped them: Stop this stupidity. What are you even thinking?
The boy laughed mockingly: "Planet Earth, this planet, the Tower, the Demon Realm, rifts from which monsters emerge, Sword Thrones and Magic Thrones, and leaders moving the world in secret. Minor planets."
He laughed loudly with intense mockery: "To hell with all this! What is this absurdity? The only thing left is for you to tell me there's a world of Cultivators above the Murim as well."
Hans went silent for a bit, looking at the boy who was laughing with painful mockery.
Hans: "This world is wider than you imagine. Do not rule out anything."
Jin stopped laughing and looked at him. This was surprising. The boy asked calmly: "To what extent... do secrets exist in this world and this Tower?"
Borin replied: "Do not ask a question that opens an endless door of questions."