With nothing to do, Kazar strolled through the temple courtyard when the voices of patients gathered in small clusters reached his ears.
“Sigh, the young master needs to get well soon. This is a serious matter.”
“What do you mean, get well? He still has not grown at all despite being seven, and he is still dependent on a cradle. The temple is only treating him because it has no choice. They say it is not as though they have any way to cure him.”
“Shh. Are you trying to bring trouble down on yourself by speaking so carelessly?”
The old people who noticed Kazar hurriedly closed their mouths. The other patients were looking at the large baby basket carried by the Lady’s maid.
‘Teasing me like this, then stopping the story here?’
He grew curious about what circumstances the lord and his wife might be hiding.
“Did you hear about it, though? Those bastards who lifted the Lady’s skirt here yesterday. I heard the Lady was raging that they be executed, so their lives are hanging by a thread now.”
“They dishonored someone of her station. They cannot complain even if they die.”
“Still, hanging them just because they fell and lifted her skirt a little is too much.”
“Maybe they saw more than just her legs?”
“What are you talking about? Heh-heh.”
Kazar passed the snickering people and went back into the temple building.
For some reason, Ernolf, who ought to have been holed up in the library, was coming down the stairs.
When he spotted Kazar, he welcomed him, saying that he had been just on his way to find him.
“What is it?”
“Something has piqued my curiosity, and I want to verify it.”
“What is it?”
“Come with me.”
Ernolf tugged at Kazar’s clothes, urging him along as he left the temple.
There was a small square in front of the temple, and a market was held there every day.
“Do you know what condition healers have the hardest time treating?”
‘Illnesses or deformities a person has had since birth. Bodies damaged beyond repair. Healers cannot alter the body’s structure or create something that was not there to begin with. That is why doctors exist as a separate profession.’
It was not an answer a mining slave would give, so Kazar answered only in his mind.
When Kazar did not reply, Ernolf kindly added an explanation.
“When the body has been damaged beyond restoration. For example, if an arm has been severed, they can stitch up the severed area or reattach the severed arm, but they cannot create an arm that is missing.”
“So what are you trying to say?”
“The Blue Vine Temple here in Talisa is famous for fully treating patients who have had their limbs amputated. I became curious about its secret method.”
“You could just ask the priests.”
At the question of whether there was any need to come out and see it in person, Ernolf wore an expression that asked what kind of stupid question that was.
“Either way, isn’t it extraordinary? You are going to end it after only hearing an explanation about such an incredible sight? When you can see it yourself?”
Kazar did not understand why they had to go looking for it and see it with their own eyes, but Tirad was far too excited.
While traveling together, Kazar had learned that when his brother became fixated on something, no one could stop him.
‘A Self-Awakened One’s insight truly exceeds all imagination. Could he have noticed this place’s secret?’
There had been unavoidable reasons why Kazar massacred the people of Talisa and burned the city together with the temple eleven years later. It seemed Ernolf had caught wind of it somehow.
‘But does he really have to crouch down and look at it like that?’
Kazar looked toward a corner of the market as though he found it pathetic.
Ernolf was crouching behind the barrels piled in the corner, peeking out with only his eyes as he examined the passersby one by one.
He kept fluttering his hand at Kazar, signaling him to come over and hide where he was, and the sight was truly laughable.
“Why are we hiding?”
“We are ferreting out a secret. We need to move secretly.”
“So, did you find anything?”
A quiet affirmative came from behind the barrels.
Ernolf persistently fluttered his hand at Kazar, telling him to come over if he wanted to hear it, so Kazar had no choice but to go over and crouch beside him.
“Look at that porter. And the butcher’s arm over there. I did not notice at first, but after watching them for a while, something seemed unnatural.”
Kazar secretly broke out in a cold sweat at the fact that Ernolf had noticed the signs before the incident eleven years later had even happened.
‘His instincts are too sharp.’
Kazar felt a little afraid of his twin brother’s intelligence. If he let down his guard, it felt as though Ernolf might discover that he had gone back fifty years in time.
“The porter’s one leg and the butcher’s left arm are excessively strong. Their movements are unbalanced because of it.”
The sight of the butcher effortlessly chopping a massive hunk of meat into pieces as though he were cutting cheese made him seem as formidable as an Aura User.
“That child over there, playing alone because he cannot join the others. The one wearing a glove on his right hand. That child is strange too.”
Ernolf jerked his chin toward the edge of the market.
At that moment, the child crushed a toy with the strength of his grip. The neck and arm of the knight carved from wood snapped and fell to the ground.
Angered, the child flung the toy away and stomped on it.
“Aah, he is doing it again!”
The children nearby whispered among themselves and backed away.
A young woman selling goods at a nearby stall saw this and rushed over to grab the child’s forearm.
“Let go! Let go!”
The child struggled and screamed. In the process, his sleeve was pulled up, exposing his forearm.
The child’s mother recoiled in alarm and pulled the sleeve back down.
It was exposed for only a moment, but Ernolf saw the child’s arm clearly.
“Did I not tell you to play nicely? Did I not? If you are going to be like this, go home and feed the pigs!”
The child’s mother angrily knocked him on the head.
Feeling wronged, the child glared resentfully at his mother.
“Go home, now!”
After the child was dragged away by his mother, Ernolf came out from behind the barrels where he had been hiding and approached the children.
The children, who had been playing happily until the sudden commotion frightened them, were still shaken.
“Hello?”
When Ernolf greeted them, the children, who had been standing still as pictures, began moving again.
“Huh? It is the Mad Boar big brother! You know this big brother, right? He brought back a boar as big as a water buffalo.”
“That is right! He held up a Mad Boar this big!”
The children recognized Ernolf and spoke to him.
Because the twins had caught an enormous boar monster for show, word had spread throughout the city that the twin brothers were unbelievably strong.
“You do not look all that strong. Is that true?”
“Of course it is true.”
Just as Ernolf was about to boast in order to befriend the children, Kazar walked over and shoved him.
“Oof!”
Ernolf flew away limply like a straw doll and collapsed on the ground.
“I am the one who caught and carried the Mad Boar. He is just a weakling.”
The children’s eyes widened to the size of fists when they saw Kazar.
“Wow, these big brothers have the same face!”
“Really! They look exactly alike!”
When the children all shouted at once, Ernolf sprang to his feet and stood before them.
“Now, now. How can you carelessly say something so hurtful as that I look exactly like Kazar?”
“Get lost.”
“Oof!”
Kazar shoved Ernolf away with his backside for spouting nonsense and forgetting why they had approached the children in the first place.
While Ernolf rolled and rolled across the ground, Kazar asked the children about the child who had just been dragged away.
“The boy who was dragged away by his mother earlier was incredibly strong too, was he not?”
“Ah, that child...... Gilbad is different from you.”
“How is he different?”
As though someone had warned them not to speak about the child, the children glanced around nervously. Then one of them covered his mouth with his hand and spoke quietly.
“He is a monster.”
Once one child opened the floodgates, the children watching from the side chattered out their tales.
“His arm looks scary.”
“He was not like that before, but lately he keeps trying to bite people.”
“He screams and throws stones too.”
“They said you might die if he bites you!”
“No. They said he will be taken to the farm.”
“What do you mean, taken to the farm?”
Ernolf asked as he dusted the dirt from his clothes.
At that, the child suddenly lost his nerve and mumbled that it was only something he had heard adults say.
‘Gilbad’s scars may look frightening, and the children may have made up a scary story. It is still too early to decide.’
Ernolf decided not to jump to conclusions before finding decisive evidence.
After parting with the children, Ernolf made a circuit of the estate, carefully observing the local residents working on the farm and the guards.
‘Living-tissue transplantation had such severe side effects even in the eighteenth century I lived in that it was not a healing art one would readily recommend. Yet they achieved that degree of perfection as early as the early Middle Ages.’
Ernolf marveled at how the knowledge and techniques of people from the past surpassed those of the present age.
Come to think of it, even the magic of an ancient civilization said to have existed before prehistory had been more advanced than that of the present age, so it was foolish to judge everything by current standards.
Lost in thought as he walked, he soon arrived before the temple. Seeing the two of them, a priest came out to the door and welcomed them with unusual enthusiasm.
“Oh my, you are here!”
“Were you waiting for us?”
“Indeed I was. I was just about to send someone to find you.”
“Why were you looking for us?”
Saying that someone was waiting for them, the priest led the way inside.
Ernolf stopped where he was and asked him to say who was waiting. Since they were involved with the mercenary company, they could not carelessly follow him.
“The lord and the Lady are waiting for you. Please, come quickly.”
Since the Lord of Talisa was waiting for them, they could not hesitate.
Ernolf glanced once at Kazar before following behind the priest.
The lord and the Lady were waiting for them in the reception room to which they were led.
After Ernolf gave a respectful greeting, the lord spoke first.
“You are Ernolf from Isburuho.”
“I heard that you caught a Mad Boar and brought it back. Are you an Aura User?”
“No. My younger brother is an Aura User, and I am merely a ‘weakling.’”
It was a small act of spite over Kazar having called him a weakling in the market.
“Pfft.”
Kazar, standing behind Ernolf, let out a quiet laugh.
“I see. Then you are the Aura User everyone has been talking about. What is your name?”
“Kazar.”
The lord and the Lady were startled when they heard Kazar’s answer.
Ernolf jabbed Kazar in the side with his elbow. Kazar only wore an oblivious expression, as though asking why he had been hit.
“My younger brother only knows how to fight and has no manners. Please forgive him with your generous understanding, Your Excellency.”
“It is all right. I was merely surprised because he shares my son’s name.”
“Pardon me? Could the young master’s name also be Kazar?”
“That is right. My son’s name is Kazar too. I named him so with the wish that he would grow up healthy and strong.”
“Your parents must be very proud. You have grown up so healthy......”
The Lady said this as she looked Kazar over. Her gaze was filled with envy.
Seeing that, Ernolf realized one new fact.