Following the footprints of the Obsidian Boar, Kaian eventually found a land covered in ash before him.
It looked similar to a desert.
Except instead of sand, the ground was piled high with ash.
Eldarin had told him that Flame Veil bloomed at the border where three locations met:
the Ash-Covered Land, the Thornbush of Flames, and Ignis Mons.
—The Ash-Covered Land? The Thornbush of Flames? No, I mean. Where exactly are those places?
—You will know when you see them.
—Don’t do that. Give me a map!
—This is a space I created. There is no need for a map.
—No… forget it. Let’s stop talking.
Of course, once he actually arrived, he could immediately tell where everything was, just as Eldarin had said.
The scenery matched the names exactly.
A land covered thickly in ash.
The Ash-Covered Land.
Beside it, a field of burning thorn bushes.
The Thornbush of Flames.
And the volcano standing tall at the end of the land.
Ignis Mons.
It looked like a scene straight out of a nightmare.
‘A herb that grows in a place like this? That thing can’t possibly be a normal plant either.’
Of course, it still was not as strange as Eldarin, who had created a place like this.
‘The important thing is that Eldarin wasn’t lying. Her naming sense is just… not very good….’
Meaning Flame Veil had to be here.
Kaian pulled several thick socks from his backpack and layered them on.
He also changed into the wooden clogs he had brought.
It was all to block the heat as much as possible.
Even so, when the wooden soles sank into the ash, scorching heat rose upward.
—Sink. Sink.
‘Piggy. You really live in a place like this.’
Kaian had heard that Obsidian Boars could run freely across ash-covered ground.
But Kaian could not even walk properly, let alone run.
Every step drained a handful of his stamina.
‘At this rate… if I had rested whenever I wanted and moved afterward, I would have run out of time.’
Besides, the volcanic region was not simply hot.
His lungs felt like they were burning from the inside, his throat was rough and painful, and his skin stung as if tiny sparks were jumping against it.
He carefully applied Cobalt Poultice over his entire body and even coated a handkerchief with it to cover his nose and mouth.
Even so, it could not completely solve the problem.
‘Ugh… I feel like I’m being cooked from the inside.’
—Sink. Sink. Sink.
But he had to keep moving.
On this burning land, stopping to rest was even more dangerous.
Whenever his wooden clogs became too scorched to continue wearing, he had no choice but to stop and change them.
Each time, the violent heat clung fiercely to him.
‘There’s no way I’m going to suffocate here, right?’
While bending his upper body to tie the straps of his wooden clogs, Kaian held his breath.
Otherwise, the inside of his nose might get burned.
He also avoided looking to his left while walking.
Because that direction contained the endlessly burning Thornbush of Flames.
‘…This is a very noisy land.’
When he was drawn by the crackling flames and looked toward the Thornbush of Flames, his heartbeat strangely accelerated.
It was difficult to take his eyes away from the fire.
Letting go of his reason felt like something he should naturally do.
‘This feeling is familiar. Dangerous.’
Kaian had felt a similar sensation when he was being chased by the attackers.
And when he threatened Eldarin with the brass candlestick.
The overflowing fire mana in the volcanic region seemed to be stimulating the flames within his inner world.
‘I have to completely ignore it.’
Kaian avoided taking in the flames as much as possible and silently walked across the ash-gray desert toward Ignis Mons.
***
The pocket watch had stopped around midnight.
Kaian stared blankly at the broken watch.
‘This is bad. I was too careless thinking I could endure the heat.’
After the pocket watch broke, he could no longer tell how much time had passed.
Even if he used the most optimistic assumption and the watch had only just broken, the fact that time was running out did not change.
‘Where did I waste time? When I met Piggy? Or from the ash desert?’
Kaian shook his head and pulled himself together.
There was no use thinking about it now.
He hurried his steps again.
—Sink. Sink.
‘I need to find the herb and return in about eight hours. Maybe six hours. Can I do it within that time?’
Doubt slowly rose with the heat of the ash desert.
‘My condition is worse than I expected.’
First, it was certain that his entire body had suffered mild burns.
His stomach kept twisting, and his head throbbed.
Judging from that, he had not completely blocked the poisonous gases either.
There was perhaps one scoop of Cobalt Poultice left.
And only one pair of wooden clogs remained.
—Step. Sink. Sink.
‘If I collapse here, the best-case scenario is becoming Piggy’s meal.’
Only a few hours ago, Kaian had stabbed a spear into an Obsidian Boar’s belly.
But soon, he might become the one with an Obsidian Boar burying its snout into his flesh.
Kaian was standing in the magnificent cruelty of nature.
‘Ah, the harsh laws of nature.’
He continued filling his mind with pointless thoughts.
The moment he truly recognized that he was going to die, there was a high chance Riana’s Word of Command would activate.
‘My inner world cannot withstand Mother’s Word of Command right now. I’ll definitely collapse like last time.’
Kaian remembered collapsing because he could not endure the pain of the Word of Command in the room with the tree and mirror.
Back then, he had only fallen onto a wooden floor.
But now, he was in an ash desert where he had already burned through four pairs of wooden clogs.
If he fell here, the next step was obvious.
Saying goodbye to this world.
But—
—Sink. Sink.
‘…I’m really at my limit.’
Even determination had a limit.
‘How long do I have to keep walking? Does this ash even end?’
Just as doubt began blooming in one corner of his heart, a singing voice began coming from nearby.
“…!”
Kaian immediately regained focus and hurriedly searched through his bag.
‘It’s a song sung by fire spirits!’
Fire spirits in volcanic regions usually appeared near volcanoes where fire mana was abundant.
Therefore, hearing the song of fire spirits meant he was close to the land where Ignis Mons Volcano was located.
‘Which means! The border where the Ash-Covered Land, Thornbush of Flames, and Ignis Mons meet is right ahead!’
Kaian took cotton from his backpack, stuffed it into his ears, and covered them with earplugs.
He was already sweating heavily and being roasted and steamed alive.
One might wonder why he needed cold-weather equipment.
But—
‘Mr. Grills and the humans of the ordinary civilization era both said that song was the thing to be most careful about.’
The book stated that once someone was captivated by the song of fire spirits, they would commit the madness of jumping into a volcano without hesitation.
And right now, Kaian’s inner world contained flames he could not control.
‘It’ll create the same feeling as when I looked at the Thornbush of Flames. I’ll lose my reason.’
Even if he blocked his ears, there was no way to stop fire spirits from approaching if they noticed the flames inside him first.
In the end, he had to win through speed.
‘Aah! Seriously! I’m not confident about this!’
—Step! Step! Step!
Kaian moved across the ash at a speed somewhere between running and fast walking.
He desperately wanted to see the earth spirits.
***
The Ash-Covered Land.
The Thornbush of Flames.
Ignis Mons.
At the border where the three locations met.
He saw red leaves blooming.
It was a mysterious plant whose veins looked as though magma flowed through them.
Kaian immediately recognized what he had found.
‘Flame Veil…!’
Forgetting all the exhaustion and pain he had endured, Kaian rushed toward Flame Veil.
No.
He walked quickly with the feeling that he was running.
The fire spirits seemed to notice the intruder approaching Flame Veil and began crying out fiercely.
—Quack! Quack!
‘Why do they sound like ducks?’
Kaian pretended not to hear them and continued forward.
‘Yeah, it’s an important herb for you too. I understand. I really do. But listen, you guys, I’m also the precious youngest son of House Valentin…!’
Flame Veil would grow again next year.
But once his inner world was ruined, it would never return.
Then which one was more important?
‘Obviously my inner world is more important! Scream all you want. I’m going my way.’
Kaian took out the herb container Eldarin had given him from his backpack.
Then he carefully dug out Flame Veil with its roots intact and placed it inside.
He did not forget to include some surrounding soil as well.
The fire spirits grabbed Kaian’s hair and kicked his face.
—Quack! Quack!
But Kaian also carried quite a bit of fire within him.
‘You think you can beat me with anger?’
He glared at the spirits with sharp eyes.
‘What, am I taking everything? I’m only taking three roots. Three roots! I don’t want my bag getting heavier either!’
The fire spirits then attacked as if they intended to take the entire backpack away.
One even shoved its head inside the opening.
Kaian hugged the backpack tightly and walked while swinging his shoulders.
He could not even shout because he worried the heat would damage his throat.
“Geureu… geureureut….”
Indeed, like true fire spirits, they were exceptionally talented at irritating others.
Every time their persistence raised his anger, Kaian missed the earth spirits even more.
‘Is this what species hatred feels like? I miss you, Golden Plains. And my yellow friends…!’
That was when.
—Flutter.
—Beep! Beep!
The yellow spirits he had missed so desperately appeared before his eyes.
‘Huh…!’
They were smaller than the ones he saw in the Golden Plains.
But from their gentle and lovable smiles, they were unmistakably earth spirits.
Kaian blinked and shook his head.
‘Am I seeing things because I inhaled too much gas?’
But they were real.
The earth spirits smiled warmly and stood in front of the fire spirits.
Their tiny hands were clenched into little fists.
It looked strangely unreliable, but….
In an instant, a battle broke out between the beeping ones and the quacking ones.
—Beep! Beep!
—Quack! Quack!
Kaian watched the battle unfold in a daze and was secretly impressed.
‘Earth spirits are surprisingly good fighters…?’
But this was the enemy’s home ground.
Even earth spirits could not hold them off forever.
‘We need to move quickly.’
At that moment, several earth spirits grabbed onto Kaian’s clothes and pulled.
‘Are they telling me to follow them…?’
13