Chapter 257 |
TL: TangSanFan
ED/PR: Tanthus
『Side Story』 Blossoms of the Wind (7)
The poison and curses he endured were quite strong. Therefore, her action of approaching the injured man wasn’t a very wise decision.
‘Be wary. The venom of this snake is not something a human can withstand.’
The young man, Tir Kalax, warned her painfully as he opened his eyes. However, Kaitin didn’t take his words seriously and, driven by sympathy, decided to continue helping him.
At that moment, I, observing the unfolding scene, used the power of the Flame Record Device to virtually eliminate the boundary between them. This allowed their conversation to be fully audible to me.
“Hey… Are you alright? I can’t just leave you here after you suddenly collapsed.”
The man’s gaze slowly caught her as she approached. After a brief silence, his deep voice resonated through the silent forest.
She shook her head firmly.
“I won’t give up. There are plenty of herbs here. I can save you!”
Kaitin’s voice was resolute, and her face exuded confidence. Tir Kalax tried to dissuade her once more, but Kaitin was already seated beside him, beginning her treatment.
Though the flow of magic was almost imperceptibly weak, Kaitin devoted all her knowledge to saving Tir Kalax. Her sincerity started to flow into his body.
This scene was indeed the significant discovery of this investigation, allowing me to observe this moment in the past more vividly by actively relaying my magic. I realized that Yennika’s request was focused on this very scene.
Her enormous secret and the intertwined relationship between her and Tir Kalax…
I was engrossed in documenting this moment, and the Flame Record Device kept running to capture that information. Quietly, I sensed the potential storm-like impact of the events unfolding in Jedong and maximized the device’s capabilities.
Due to a lengthy curse, I was unable to properly control my magic powers.
Spirits lack the concept of death. There is only the cycle of returning to nature and reverting to an ethereal form.
Phlukrox knew this well, which is why he had etched a curse on Tir Kalax just before he was to revert to his spiritual form.
He trapped Tir Kalax in a frail human body, scattering his magic powers and condeming him to endless agony from wounds that could not heal.
The absence of death is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It was because of the cursed mark that I had to endure constant agony from the wounds, unable to control my magic powers properly.
The curse cornered the mind. Its purpose was to drive one into madness through incessant pain.
It was like a twist of fate that a third-rate spirit master named Kaitin discovered Tir Kalax in such a state…
From then on, everything happened fast.
Kaitin Faelover, having been raised among country wives, was a girl adept with her hands and full of vitality.
She gathered brambles to make a bed for the young man writhing in pain and later collected timber to build him a shelter when that wasn’t enough.
Her diminutive figure busily crafting something was profoundly remarkable.
Tir Kalax didn’t want to reveal himself to humans. Spirits are extremely wary of getting involved with non-spiritual humans for an obvious reason—the end of spirits who have had too much interaction with humans was generally not favorable.
Understanding Tir Kalax’s feelings, Kaitin carefully tended to him every time she passed through the forest.
She brought cotton and fabric from the village to make a proper bed.
At night, she lit a fire to keep him warm and set up a proper tent in case it rained.
The curse of Phlukrox weakened day by day, but the pace was too slow. Thinking it was too difficult to care for the young man in such conditions, the girl remembered an abandoned hut deep in the forest.
It was an old base camp used by hunters who once used the forest as hunting grounds; now it was just an abandoned hut.
Over two days, Kaitin moved the young man’s heavy body to that place.
She lit a campfire in front of the hut and brought proper tools. She continued her caring routine there.
Days began and moons set. Be it rain or snow, Kaitin always sat in the hut, sharing stories beside Tir Kalax.
She even brought cooking tools to prepare hot soup, though the young man scarcely touched it. For a spirit, consuming food wasn’t significant.
Instead, he had to rely on Kaitin’s modest talent as a spirit master to untangle his distorted flow of magic.
Daily, as she observed Tir Kalax’s magic flow by his bedside, Kaitin’s spirit sensing abilities improved significantly.
Not many had the chance to commune so closely with a supreme-ranking spirit.
Gradually enhancing her understanding of spirits to assist Tir Kalax, Kaitin became capable of interacting with intermediate spirits and became a matter of pride as a genuine spirit master in Toren Village.
Tir Kalax’s condition gradually improved, and he began to support himself.
Although not fully recovered to reverse his humanization, at least Kaitin could leave him alone at the hut camp.
As his health improved, Tir Kalax began to walk around the camp, check his magic power, chop wood, and maintain the hut.
Thus, Tir Kalax lived a brief human life.
Though it might have been a mere moment in the long life of a supreme-ranking spirit, that brief memory was forever etched in Tir Kalax’s heart.
The person always by his side during those moments was a girl named Kaitin.
She would roll up her sleeves, confidently step forward, and care for Tir Kalax with a sense of conviction. A fragile human girl, insignificant to the point of not living even a hundred years.
Despite knowing that getting too involved would only bring heartache, Tir Kalax followed and thought of the girl.
Walking along the ridge and looking at the Phulanshan Mountains together brought a unique sense of peace.
At dusk in the mountain range, Tir Kalax enjoyed the scenery.
He followed Kaitin, who was humming and skipping along with a picnic basket, and the landscape of the mountain stretched out below like a painting.
“Hey, in our village, the pansy flowers blooming along this ridge are called wind flowers.”
“Wind flowers? You mean those pansies?”
“Yeah. You know, since it’s always windy up in highlands, if you look at the pansy flowers, they are always swaying this way and that in the breeze.”
They sat on a fence by the roadside, facing the wind.
Tir Kalax’s dark red hair swayed in the same direction as Kaitin’s.
“Doesn’t this pansy seem to be looking at the direction of the wind?”
“In that case… humans assign meanings like this…”
“Ahaha, it might feel a bit pointless for you, Tir Kalax. It might be hard to understand, but we humans like to bestow such insignificant meanings to things. Look.”
Kaitin, radiantly smiling, hopped off the fence and gazed at the pansy flowers along the road.
The pansy flowers, swaying meaninglessly, seemed to be looking in the direction of the wind.
“If there’s a cute and pretty flower like this, you just want to attach a story to it.”
“Do you think that way, too?”
“Well, I tend to attribute a different meaning.”
Kaitin looked at the swaying pansies then softly closed her eyes.
“Even though the wind roams freely around the world, a single pansy plant is rooted in the ground, merely standing still. Just blankly watching the wind wander the world.”
“…”
“Maybe waving their heads toward the wind because they wish to roam alongside it. But you know what, flowers die if you pull out their roots.”
The feeling of that single pansy, rooted in the ground, always staring up at the wide sky.
The posture of those plainly longing for someone unreachable, earnestly yearning for someone so far above them resembles the common folk.
Maybe it’s about people rooted to reality, merely watching someone who can wander the world like the wind, freely unfolding their will.
The pansies flourished along the ridge seemed to embody that yearning and longing.
Was that the image of Kaitin in love with Tir Kalax? Or was it the image of Yenika Faelover infatuated with Ed Rothtaylor?
Perhaps it was both.
“Will the curse be somewhat sorted out soon?”
“Yes…”
“Come to visit occasionally if you remember. You know, humans are just feeble beings from the perspective of spirits; if you don’t see them for a moment, they might simply drop dead. So don’t forget, and come by when you can!”
Kaitin chuckled and playfully tapped Tir Kalax’s chest, prompting a smile from him.
He had to acknowledge it; he felt something more than mere kinship towards this girl.
For a nearly eternal being like a spirit, such emotions were no different from poison, but he could not deny it. Among all the humans he had met, no one was as special as this girl.
Remember the now.
That was all Tir Kalax could do to console himself, and he believed it was the right thing to do.
Until he noticed the manifestation of Phlukrox’s cursed mark on Kaitin’s hand…
* * *
“…”
『 The reason Phlukrox’s curse could devastate an entire city is that it spreads through magic. 』
I quietly closed my eyes to the whispering voice of Merilda. What followed didn’t seem very pleasant.
I knew it already. Their story didn’t end with a happy ending.
That’s why Merilda didn’t want to tell this story to Yenika.