Hundreds of magical artifacts poured out from the rear line.
As time passed, thicker beads of sweat formed on the forehead of the Valentin family head. No matter how powerful a mage was, their mana could never be infinite.
Meanwhile, the capital of the ⟨Noble Alliance⟩ only continued to grow. This was an unmistakable war of attrition.
The first and second sons, who had evacuated the family members, moved behind their father.
“Father!”
“We’ll handle the rear!”
The brothers, whose minds were connected through [Mind Link], did not need any additional communication.
—CRUNCH…!
When the first son summoned vines to bind the enemies’ feet.
—SHING…!
The second son severed their necks with blades of wind.
Perfect coordination.
It was the result of trust forged through blood, something that a temporary alliance formed for the sake of profit could never imitate.
However, there were still too many enemies.
Far too many.
—BOOM! KABOOM—!
The family head shouted as if vomiting blood.
“Riana! Hurry and take Kaian!”
Behind the family head, the pale-faced lady of the house, Riana, was casting a body enhancement spell on her youngest son.
“[Enhance, Full Body.]”
—Fwoooooosh…!
Pure white mana continuously flowed from her into her youngest son, Kaian.
Riana carefully examined Kaian’s body and face.
Perhaps this was the last time she would be able to take in the sight of her child.
She engraved Kaian’s black hair and blue-green eyes, which resembled her own, deep into her soul.
‘Tomorrow, he’ll only be eight years old… He’s still just a child who hasn’t even learned a single spell yet….’
Riana felt her heart collapse, but she could not show weakness in front of her child.
She tightly embraced Kaian, who was choking back his sobs.
Riana’s body trembled faintly. Yet the voice that came from her was astonishingly calm, filled with a mysterious force.
“[Kaian, listen carefully. You have relatives in the Silvaris Federation on the eastern continent. Once you enter the eastern forest, the spirits will guide you to a safe place. Until then, do not look back, and do not stop.]”
“No, Mother! Please! I can’t be the only one who runs away!”
—BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions continued to erupt outside without pause. The family head shouted again.
“We need to hurry!”
Kaian’s stomach churned.
The fear that his family would not go with him.
The helplessness of knowing that he could do nothing despite that.
Right now, he felt as though he could easily vomit up even his own insides.
However, Riana’s Word of Command, said to be the strongest in the empire, held onto Kaian’s soul.
“[Please, my child. Survive until the end and live beneath the bright sun. Never allow them to cover your world in darkness. And remember… that we will always be with you.]”
She knew.
She knew why this noble family had to fall tonight.
The sin of standing alone with their heads held high when the world compromised with falsehood.
The price for that was the destruction of their entire house.
She did not regret the choices they had made.
But her young son, who had not even awakened his mana yet, did not need to bear that responsibility.
‘Magic is a power meant for the weakest among us.’
That was the belief of House Valentin.
And even in the face of death, that belief did not waver.
Riana looked straight into her youngest son’s eyes and spoke.
“[Kaian Veloer Valentin. You must survive. So do not look back, and run!]”
Dragged forward by the power of the Word of Command, Kaian ran into the secret passage beneath the Valentin estate.
—TATATATATAT…!
A fierce determination appeared in Riana’s eyes as she watched his retreating figure.
Every explosion brought with it a deepening hatred and resentment.
—KABOOM! BOOM!
She could feel the life force of her family members slowly fading away nearby.
Thick veins of blood appeared in Riana’s eyes.
“You will never… ever forget the mark of fire I leave upon you.”
She gathered the last of her remaining mana and began reciting an ancient curse.
Terrifyingly pure white mana rose from her body.
—Ssssssss….
She focused her mind, ensuring she would not miss even a single trace of the intruders’ mana outside the estate.
“[Those who stepped across the border, driven by greed. May the wrath of the earth flow through your blood.]”
She could no longer sense the mana of her first and second sons.
“[Those who lie in bed with you shall suffer from illness until only bones remain. Those who share a cup with you shall have their throats filled with ash and meet their end.]”
Blood tears dripped down her face.
“[Your lifespans shall dry away like morning dew.]”
Yet not a single tremor entered Riana’s voice.
And finally….
“[That curse shall never be severed, generation after generation.]”
No one heard it.
But in the end, it was a curse that the entire world would come to know.
“Haah, haah….”
The forest at the border, where Kaian arrived after running through the estate’s underground passage, was as dark as a bottomless pit.
Branches scratched his soft cheeks, and sharp stones caught his ankles.
His young body and mind quickly reached their limits.
Kaian begged himself.
‘Stop! Go back to your family, please! You should die there too…!’
But every time he thought that, Riana’s Word of Command tightened its hold over his soul even more.
Kaian could not stop.
His lungs felt as though they would tear apart, yet he ran and ran.
He did not know how far the eastern forest was.
He simply ran wherever his body led him.
“Haah, huff….”
Kaian felt that his life was as fragile and insignificant as a candle flickering before the wind.
Without Riana’s Word of Command, he would have already died.
And amidst those weak thoughts, the moment he had been separated from his family repeatedly surfaced in his mind.
The acrid smoke and flashes of multicolored mana.
His father’s shouts and his brothers’ screams.
The horrifying sounds of something being crushed.
And the fate of his family that he had never been able to confirm….
No matter how much he ran, those terrible images were not washed away by the wind.
Instead, the faster he ran, the clearer they became.
Cutting through the pitch-black darkness, Kaian questioned himself.
‘Why? Why did this happen to us?’
Only a few hours ago, everything had been peaceful.
Kaian had begged his mother to read him stories about heroes, and Riana had looked lovingly at her youngest son, who was excited for his eighth birthday.
The neighbors had been kind.
The wind had been gentle.
The world glittering beneath the sunlight had been wholly beautiful.
Then why had everything suddenly turned into a disaster?
Kaian questioned himself again.
‘Was it because I was weak? If I had been strong enough to protect everyone, would things have been different? But how?’
Like blood that had flowed and dried repeatedly, clinging thickly to his entire body, the guilt that his family had sacrificed themselves to save him carried a foul stench and clung to his soul.
Fear and helplessness gnawed away at Kaian’s mind, and his soul’s defeat grew darker with every passing minute and second.
“Haah… haah….”
Kaian eventually reached the point where he could think of nothing except death.
When he thought of dying, even a sense of relief began to bloom somewhere in his heart.
‘No matter how strong Mother’s Word of Command is, it can’t raise the souls of the dead.’
That was right.
If he died, everything would become peaceful.
He would be with his family in the merciful embrace of Mana.
With that thought, Kaian waited for his body’s strength to run out.
Then it happened.
The pursuers who had followed him without him noticing shouted from behind.
“We found him! He’s over there!”
“If we kill that one, Valentin is finished!”
—THROB!
The moment Kaian heard the family name from the enemy’s mouth, intense pain struck his heart.
‘Finished…? Valentin?’
His eyes twisted strangely.
The death he had longed for was right in front of him, but he could not accept dying this way.
Guilt and the instinct to survive collided, tearing through Kaian’s mind.
—Thump. Thump. Thump.
The more they clashed, the clearer one emotion boiling through his veins like magma became.
It was….
Rage toward those who had trampled upon his world.
‘Don’t make me laugh. Do you think I’m going to die by your hands?’
Kaian ground his teeth.
The Word of Command that Riana had burned her life to carve into him began to pulse violently.
—[You must survive.]
—[Never allow them to cover your world in darkness.]
Like molten metal being poured into veins that had been growing cold, fierce heat surged into Kaian’s heart.
The sound of his own heartbeat thundered abnormally loudly in his ears.
—Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
And finally, the dam inside Kaian’s heart violently collapsed.
The moment he awakened his mana had arrived.
‘What is this?’
Without even looking, Kaian could now tell how many enemies were behind him.
He could also tell they were taking out [Crimson Night] and [Superior Scrolls].
No.
He could feel it.
His instincts whispered to him.
‘This is dangerous.’
Kaian clearly understood what he had to do.
He focused on the pulse about to burst from his left wrist.
Then, blue-green mana climbed up his left arm and began to shimmer.
—Fwoooooosh….
His instincts whispered again.
‘Now…!’
At that moment, Kaian swung his left arm behind him with all his strength.
And at the same time, with a voice that was cracked beyond recognition, he spat out his message to the world.
“Burn everything.”
It was far too rough to be called an incantation.
And far too sorrowful to be called a curse.
It was Kaian’s first spell.
—Fwoooooom!
The flames that began from a small gesture spread through the entire forest in an instant.
Those caught in the flames let out horrific screams, but those sounds soon turned into ashes alongside their bodies.
Kaian did not see that sight.
Riana’s Word of Command was still urging him to survive.
—[Do not look back, and run!]
The tears that flowed endlessly seeped into the scratches on his cheeks.
His left wrist was hot as if it had been seared by fire.
The forest shimmered orange as though embracing the prematurely rising sun, leading Kaian deeper into the darkness.
Thus, on his eighth birthday.
Kaian lost his entire family.
And became the youngest mage in the history of the empire.
***
The first thing Kaian sensed after regaining consciousness was unfamiliar mana.
‘Someone is here. Who is it?’
However, that question soon faded away.
His five senses were slowly returning.
The scent of old trees and dry leaves tickled the tip of Kaian’s nose.
The bed beneath his exhausted body was soft like a pile of feathers, and sunlight pouring through the gap in the window was gently warm.
That series of peaceful sensations irritated Kaian’s nerves.
Every sense in his body screamed a warning.
‘Where am I? I definitely….’
Fragmented memories rattled around, searching for their proper shape.
The burning estate and his father’s shouts.
His mother’s trembling body.
The flames that burst from his left wrist.
And even the sensation of suddenly falling into darkness….
“Gasp…!”
Kaian shot upright from the bed like a spring.
Every muscle in his body screamed, and the area around his ribs throbbed.
His startled lungs contracted as if refusing to breathe.
But he had no time to savor the pain.
Riana’s Word of Command remained in his soul like a clear brand, shouting.
‘I have to live!’
He instinctively scanned his surroundings.
His vision was blurry.
But Kaian still managed to grab the heavy brass candlestick on the bedside table.
Then he aimed the candlestick toward the unfamiliar mana he had sensed at first.
It was like a small beast trapped at the edge of a cliff baring its teeth.
“Who are you…?! Come any closer and I’ll kill you!”
Where Kaian pointed the candlestick, a woman sat with her back toward the sunlight, turning the pages of a book.
—Flip.
Kaian could not see her expression.
The sunlight pouring through the window was too bright.
However, even from her silhouette alone, it was easy to guess she was not of the human race.
‘What is that…?’
Silver hair reaching down to her waist.
Long, pointed ears rising between the waves of silver.
And elegantly curled above her head…
Goat horns?
‘Huh…? Did I see that wrong?’
Maybe he was seeing things because he had only just awakened.
Kaian quickly rubbed his eyes and stared at the woman again.
“…”
No matter how many times he looked.
It was definitely an elf with horns.
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