Apparently, he had already expected Raven to easily dodge the attack, so as soon as Raven turned his head to evade, Dan lunged straight at him to push him.
But how could such a shallow move work against someone who had been active for about 150 years?
Raven simply twisted his body slightly in place, stretched out his foot a little, and knocked Dan down, looking at him with indifferent eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
…The apology, thrown out so dryly, was more cruel than anything else.
Wasn’t he supposed to be just a weak sorcerer who depended on his guardian spirit?
Where had the image of the man dangerously coughing up blood gone?
Ignoring Dan, who was desperately trying to cling to him again, Raven moved his hands.
Even though Dan’s nails scraped his skin and left a red line of blood, he didn’t even flinch.
─Thunk.
A chilling noise echoed like never before.
“…….”
Silence fell.
Dan, frozen as if time had stopped, crawled toward the woman.
Unable to walk properly, he crawled until he hugged the inert body and murmured in a low voice.
His arms, wrapped around what had once been his sister, trembled.
Dan couldn’t understand this situation.
‘…Why?’
He slowly caressed her cheek, but instead of a response, her head fell to one side.
He placed his hand under her nose, but there was no sign of breath, no sign of life.
‘Why?’
Why had it come to this? Hadn’t you promised to help? He had suppressed his impatience, waiting patiently for the conversation with the guardian spirit to end.
His mouth opened in an attempt to accept an unacceptable reality.
“….”
But only a faint whisper, inaudible to anyone, came out.
…Hadn’t he fought so desperately to save his sister?
Hadn’t he resisted against monsters, even after losing his voice and his tongue, to protect his only family?
His black pupils lost focus, staring into the void.
Feeling the weight in his arms, he looked down at his sister once again.
‘…This isn’t a dream.’
Yes, this was reality. Not a dream.
He would have wished it were a dream. But the weight of the corpse in his arms forced him to acknowledge the truth.
His tightly closed lips opened to release a silent scream. His once dull eyes began to tremble and overflow with despair.
“…..!”
He cursed not being able to scream, not being able to cry.
He cursed having chosen and asked for help from the wrong person.
Rage burned inside him, and the worst part was that the rage was directed at himself. He brought his trembling hand to his neck.
He began to tear at the old scar there with sharp nails.
Even though he was tearing off pieces of flesh and blood was gushing out, he didn’t stop.
Was it that the overwhelming emotion had numbed his pain?
He didn’t feel anything.
Drip, drip.
When the blood falling from his fingers hit the ground, an unusually calm voice interrupted.
“Are you planning to die?”
“……”
A clean voice, without any emotion.
His heavy eyes turned toward Raven. Raven, ignoring his gaze full of hatred, sent back the soul-collecting weapon while speaking distractedly.
“I don’t care whether you die or not…”
“……”
“But, wouldn’t it be too soon to die now?”
…Thinking about it, he was right.
There was still this man.
The same one who had broken his promise and killed his sister before his very eyes. The latent bloodlust shifted direction.
Seeing the murderous intent in his eyes, Raven smiled broadly.
‘Yes, you need something to hold onto.’
Wouldn’t it be too unfair to die leaving the true culprits—the slave traders—unpunished?
Leaving me, who killed your sister, free?
‘I hadn’t planned to get involved…’
With his worn-out emotions and dried-up reason, Raven didn’t feel the need to save someone who was throwing his life away on his own.
If Dan had been an adult,
he surely would have let him die.
But…
‘The problem is that he’s a minor.’
At that moment, something worth reflecting on arose.
Long ago, when Raven realized he was starting to stray from what was considered “human,” he set for himself a minimal principle to remain human.
Was ignoring the death of a child really the right behavior for an adult?
Every adult was once a child, and every child, whether positively or negatively, becomes an adult thanks to the influence of the adults around them.
Unless someone grew up completely isolated on a remote mountain—and even if they did—taking care of the future reflected in children would, after all, be the duty of a true adult.
Thus, having defined himself as an “adult,” and having set his attitude toward children as the standard of his humanity, Raven reflected and found his answer.
‘…I have to stop him.’
It would be too sad for him to lose the opportunity to become an adult.
Aware of that, with his bright green eyes gently narrowing, Raven formed an awkward smile.
“Besides, isn’t it something you shouldn’t do in front of the person who loved you most?”
“…….”
Despite having been the one who killed that person, he still spoke shamelessly. Dan, grinding his teeth in fury, clenched his fists.
Seeing this, Raven tilted his head and, with a malicious smile, threw out an obvious provocation.
“Your gaze is quite fierce. What’s wrong, thinking of killing me?”
“…….”
“Don’t waste your energy on useless things, relax that glare. You can’t kill me anyway.”
That was where Dan’s patience ended.
The fact that he had endured his nonsense until now was already a miracle.
“I swear I’ll kill this guy and decorate my sister’s grave with his corpse!”
Growling furiously, Dan threw himself at Raven.
—“I told you, you can’t”—
Raven stopped him in the blink of an eye.
A person capable of hunting monsters and closing portals alone was not going to be defeated by an unarmed teenager.
Effortlessly restraining him, Raven sat atop Dan, resting his chin on his hand while chuckling.
“You can’t kill me.”
“…!!”
“I’m going to kill you!”
“Well, not just for that reason, but.”
With a light movement, he pressed his hand against the back of Dan’s neck. His expression remained as dry as his empty gaze directed at the sky.
“Your sister asked me to take care of you.”
“……!”
“Isn’t ignoring that request the same as destroying her last wish by letting your emotions carry you away?”
…He truly wanted to kill him.
Even though he desperately wished to shut that shameless mouth, he couldn’t do anything.
“Besides, shouldn’t you prioritize the funeral? You wouldn’t want your beloved family member rotting in a place like this.”
“…….”
The fact that, despite desperately resisting, he couldn’t even scratch him, and was now being effortlessly pinned down, only highlighted the overwhelming power gap between them.
Dan silently lowered his gaze.
***
The grave, which seemed like it would take a long time to build due to the lack of personnel, was finished faster than expected thanks to Dan’s stubbornness.
‘With this, our bond ends.’
While Dan was gathering the body, Raven, who had spent the time torturing a captured pursuer, briefly said goodbye once the grave was ready and left without looking back…
…And that’s how he gained a stalker. Or rather, a potential assassin.
[The Guardian Spirit ??? asks if you’re okay.]
“Of course I’m fine. It’s not the first time I’ve been through something like this.”
Zaaash!
With a slight movement, Raven dodged a crow that grazed his chest at terrifying speed.
Judging by the sound and speed, if it had hit him, it would have been like being struck by a brick from the fifth floor.
‘If I get careless, it would break my ribs.’
It seemed that, although Dan didn’t plan to kill him immediately, he definitely intended to hurt him.
‘It had to be a crow.’
Every time he saw it, it gave him chills, but he had no choice — he had to endure it.
Glancing briefly at the crow circling above his head and at Dan, who was following him from a distance, Raven kept walking calmly toward his destination.
His carefree murmur continued.
“I’ve received so many curses and resentments up until now, what difference does one more from a brat make?”
[…….]
“Besides, once I disappear from his sight, he’ll forget about me immediately.”
[The Guardian Spirit ??? asks what you’ll do about the request she left before she died.]
“There’s nothing to do. It was a one-sided request, and I never accepted it. I have no obligation to fulfill it.”
But…
He glanced sideways at Dan, who was clearly exhausted after building the grave and setting off on the journey without resting.
“…The King of the Elves hates humans, so it would be better to leave this kid in a village before getting there.”
His next destination was the territory of the elves.
He didn’t want to worry about whether Dan would follow him or not, but neither did he want to see him die in front of his eyes. Just in time, a village appeared in sight.
He would leave him there and thus fulfill his last twinge of conscience.
Walking straight toward the village, Raven focused on the presence trailing behind him.
‘…I guess he’ll need some money to survive.’
Before entering the inn, he dropped a bag of money as if by accident.
He felt the crow, which had been hovering in the sky, catch it, but pretended not to notice and pushed open the door.
[The Guardian Spirit ??? says you are too kind.]
“If I were kind, the dead by my hands would laugh at me.”
I could get money whenever I wanted, but he couldn’t.
Ding–ling.
With that small sound, Raven opened the door of the inn and smiled softly at the innkeeper.
His green eyes, sometimes unsettling to people, were hidden behind his half-closed eyelids.
“Do you have rooms? I’ll only stay one night…”
“…Ah, of course, young man! We have plenty of rooms!”
“Do you accept magic stones instead of money?”
***
‘…He dropped it on purpose.’
He could have at least pretended to check his belt for the bag.
But no, he just assumed from the start that he had no money.
It was absurd to think that someone like Raven, who could detect his presence precisely even while blind, wouldn’t notice the disappearance of the weight or the sound of something falling.
Watching the man as he went upstairs after paying with magic stones, Dan lowered his gaze to the bag of money in his hand.
‘I don’t like it, but…’
He had no other choice.
Clutching the bag of money tightly, Dan entered the inn.
‘I have no choice if I want to keep following him.’
While gathering his sister’s body and building the grave, he had made up his mind.
What should he do now?
He couldn’t kill Raven.
His words were hateful, but they weren’t wrong. Ignoring his sister’s last request by letting himself be carried away by emotions would be shameful.
Besides, he didn’t believe he could kill him yet.
‘I may not understand everything, but… I know he’s much stronger than me.’
Even a surprise attack hadn’t worked against him.
So he couldn’t let him go.
Dan hadn’t given up on his revenge, he had only postponed it.
Raven was clearly someone who wandered the world. If he let him go now, there was no guarantee he would find him again.
[Listen carefully. Fragmentaries and Awakened are respected just by existing because of their performance during the first portal crisis. Although they are different in essence, you can think of them as something similar to royalty, respected simply for being who they are.]
[…….]
[The fact that they wanted to turn an imperial citizen, not from a defeated country, into a slave is a much more serious matter than you imagine. Especially since the number of Fragmentaries is decreasing every day, if you request help, the Empire will move. You’ll be treated well and, of course, you’ll be able to take revenge on the slave traders.]
Dan looked at Raven as if trying to imprint him into his memory.
[Of course, you’ll end up entangled with the world of nobles, which will be exhausting. You might even be judged for being a former slave. But since you managed to escape before being sold, it won’t be that bad. Being “a slave” and being “almost a slave” are not the same.]
Who said we’re going to separate?