Chapter 24: A Student of History
Lumine did not hate studying like his sister Rahil, but he did not love it either. He simply used to go to school and study with all his effort in subjects whose teachers he respected, such as language and history.
Through the effort he exerted, he became the best student at memorizing and understanding history. He memorized the names of the battles that changed the course of wars, memorized the names of the empires and kingdoms that rose to prominence, and memorized the biographies of humans and other creatures who received the gift of the Rulers and became blessed.. like Zarmitchel.
Naturally, he had studied the disasters that occurred throughout history, such as the disaster of the Witch of Greed that separated the Second Era from the Third.
...
In a calm tone, the Venerable Ra issued his order, "Search for everything related to the Witch of Greed."
Lumine was stunned when he heard the Venerable Ra's order. The Witch of Greed stood at the pinnacle of the world's evils, and she had vanished five centuries ago without a single trace. With no doubt in his mind, Lumine did not place himself at a level that would allow him to find a trace of her when hundreds before him had failed.
He wanted to refuse this mission, but the voice of the Venerable Ra interrupted him, continuing, "As a reward for you, I will gift you the ritual of the Changer Station, the Seventh Station of the Linker path, and I will pave the way for you to restore your memories with the one you forgot.."
'This.. he knows about Amelia? How..?' Lumine was bewildered by the Venerable Ra's knowledge, and he repeated with emotion after hearing about the reward, "Amelia.."
Lumine was grateful to the Venerable for saving his life, but the mission was harder than what he was capable of, as if he were searching for a specific grain of sand in a desert.
Throughout the past five hundred years, not a single person had succeeded in finding the Witch of Greed and eliminating her with certainty after her disappearance.
Of course, Lumine did not elevate his worth to the point of discovering something that no one else had discovered for five centuries.
Lumine raised his head and noticed a smile of confidence on the Venerable's face. Lumine clenched his fist at this smile and said confidently, "I will do it, for her sake."
The Venerable Ra nodded his head at Lumine's answer and tapped his finger on the table before saying, "You can come here when you are in a bad state. Hold the card and think of requesting help."
Lumine smiled and knelt down on his knee to the ground again, thanking the Venerable once more, "Thank you for saving me."
Lumine noticed the similarity between the capability of the Venerable Ra and the Castle Man, but he did not ask about the reason for this, as the Linker path crossed his mind.
The Venerable Ra fell silent for a second before speaking in an informal tone, "Time in this place runs faster than the outside. All the time you spent here is like a blink of an eye on the outside. When you wake up, you will find yourself in the Red Mist, for the Castle Man transported you there while we were speaking. You can do what you wish, but, do not tell anyone, whomever they may be, about this meeting."
The Venerable Ra emphasized his final sentence. Lumine swallowed his saliva and took note of the strict tone of voice, but he accepted it of his own will, for without his help, he would have been dead without a doubt.
...
Lumine opened his eyes and found himself under the red fabric of his previous bed; he had transported to the Red Mist just as the Venerable said.
He remained lying on his bed for seconds, remembering his meeting with the Venerable Ra and the details of the meeting.. At first, he hesitated to accept the mission due to its relation to the Witch of Greed, but in the end, he accepted for the sake of restoring his memories with Amelia.
Although he did not remember her, he felt a lot of emotions alongside her rising from within his chest, and these emotions were the greatest motive to believe her.
When he met her at the inn, those emotions of unknown origin were unlocked from within him.
He connected the relationship of the Venerable Ra and the Castle Man to the Linker path because of their shared capabilities; both of them possessed authority over linking and were able to link themselves into cards that symbolized their organizations.
With the Castle Man's card, Lumine could speak with him and request help and advice.
With the Venerable Ra's card, he could transport to that burning forest whose sky resembled the Red Mist in this city.
Despite the similarity of their capabilities, each of them had his own way of dealing with Lumine, which would define their relationship with him.
For the Castle Man had taken Lumine as his disciple, introduced him to the paths and Pathfinders, helped him become a Pathfinder, and gave him a powerful tool to use—the Linker's stick.
Meanwhile, the Venerable Ra brought Lumine into his organization, gave him his own card to use and come to him to request help whenever he needed it, and promised to help him restore his memories of Amelia.
Unlike the Castle Man, who approached Lumine and helped him without an obvious benefit to himself, the actions of the Venerable Ra were built on a mutual exchange of benefits; Lumine had to search for everything related to the Witch of Greed so that the Venerable would fulfill his promise..
Lumine suspected the existence of an enmity between the Venerable Ra and the Castle Man. If what he conjectured was true, and the two belonged to the same path but different organizations, they would naturally have to conflict, and Ra's order to conceal their meeting from anyone might be proof of this..
He rose from his bed and drew the window curtain. Thanks to his enhanced vision, he found many buildings smashed to the ground, while other buildings had only their upper parts destroyed, and a small number of buildings were completely safe from the debris. Beside the buildings, he found small and large carriages of different colors and shapes, without any place for horses to pull them.
He noticed the crimson red sky moving in chaotic movements and twisting upon itself, creating distant tornadoes. Thanks to his extraordinary vision, he was able to notice faint shadows moving above in the twisting sky.
'The sky is like the sky in the world of Lord Ra. He might be sealed within the Red Mist..'
Lumine did not delve deep into thinking about the world in which the Venerable Ra was trapped. He closed the window and opened his bedroom door, deciding to head to the guest room below to search for the Castle Man, and completed his thought, 'It is possible that Lord Ra lost against the Castle Man, and for that reason he is sealed, but in a certain way, the Venerable Ra was able to communicate with me.. Could it be because of his name? - Richard Alexander -'
'The Castle Man asked me not to call his name outside the Red Mist, but at that moment I was facing death and had no other choice. When I uttered it, I transported to the Venerable Ra.. and he even asked me about the Castle Man and where I met him.'
'Could it be that my utterance of the Castle Man's name broke the seal and the Venerable Ra was able to free himself? Or what?..'
'..The Castle Man might not be able to move and search comfortably for the Venerable Ra in the Red Mist, and therefore at a certain stage, he will ask me to search for Lord Ra and help kill him as repayment for his favor. On the absolute contrary, at a certain stage, Lord Ra will ask me to help him take revenge on Lord Richard and kill him. I am a member of an organization.. At that time, as Emperor Lancot used to say, I will be between two choices, the sweeter of which is bitter.'
Lumine noticed as he was coming down the stairs to the ground floor that the wooden clock pointed to twelve-fifteen. 'There is another probability. Lord Ra might be searching for Lord Richard to help him leave this turbulent world, but for some reason, Lord Richard does not want and is not trying to help Lord Ra. Lord Ra will ask me to request Lord Richard to help him. But if this reason is true, why did Lord Richard send me here? What does he want from me? And why did the Venerable Ra ask me to search for information on the Witch of Greed instead of interceding for him with the Castle Man?'
As soon as Lumine reached the end of the stairs, he heard a familiar voice that cut off his thoughts—the voice of an old man full of confidence, the voice of the Castle Man, Richard Alexander, saying, "You are late."
Lumine smiled and walked into the guest room while replying, "I apologize, I was trying to remember what happened to me before I transported here."
Lumine found the Castle Man sitting on the couch with a red cup in his hand.
Lumine sat before the Castle Man and said, "Good evening, my teacher."
Lumine avoided calling him anything other than "my teacher." When he met Lord Richard for the first time, he described him as his disciple, so Lumine reciprocated this and considered Lord Richard as his teacher until he could know his true goal.
Before Lord Richard initiated the conversation, he heard Lumine's voice, "My teacher, since our last meeting and my search for Rahil's diary, I haven't found your card."
The Castle Man was not flustered, as if he expected this. He took a sip of the tea in his hand and said calmly, "When you transported here the first and second time, what was the first thing you felt whenever you woke up? What is the difference you notice when you wake up after the disappearance of the card?"
Lumine took some time to think before his eyes widened and he answered, "The headache!! I used to feel a headache every time I transported, a severe pain in my head, but it disappears in a few minutes. I also used to feel a kind of emptiness, a strange emptiness as if I had gone through an experience and forgotten it."
"But after your card disappeared, I no longer felt the headache or the emptiness in my memories. Does this have a relation to your disappearance throughout the past period?"
Lord Richard took another sip of tea before saying, "Yes. The explanation is difficult, but imagine that you are driving a carriage full of tools and home furniture on a new, clean road. Will you face any difficulty in arriving from Valensia to the city of Hansan without any breakage of the tools?"
Lumine replied immediately and said, "No."
Lord Richard continued and said, "Then let us imagine that you crossed a long distance on the road, for a day or two, but in the middle of the road, it began to fill with potholes and small obstacles, and you cannot detour into the forest for fear of the Red Mist's turbulence. Will you face a problem in walking on the road and arriving without breakages to the items?"
Lumine replied directly, "I will face hardships on the road, but in the end, I will be able to arrive successfully if I reduce the speed of the carriage."
* "Then let us imagine that there is a large pothole large enough for the carriage to fall inside it in the middle of the road, and also you cannot detour outside the road. Will you arrive without breakages?"
Lumine sighed as he thought, 'Why are you asking about the carriage? Explain to me the relation of your disappearance and the headache instead of this.'
"If there isn't a time limit hindering me, I might be able to return and ask the Count to look into the matter of the pothole. After he finishes its maintenance, I can reach the end of the road without any problems."
Lord Richard smiled after hearing his answer, as if he had not expected this answer to come out of Lumine. "Well, it is not the answer I want, for you should not fear and instead detour around the pothole, but it remains an excellent answer. I suppose you know the reality of this place and where we are, correct?"
Lumine nodded his head and said, "Yes, we are in the Red Mist."
Lord Richard smiled and continued, "Then, imagine yourself in place of the carriage, but with a time limit to arrive.. By your sleep, you transport to the Red Mist, but in the middle of the road there is a large pothole hindering your arrival. For this reason, you were forced to detour into the forest to arrive here.."
"Your headache is the result behind detouring into the forest. On those times, you used to go and return while detouring around the pothole, and unfortunately, there was no person like the Count to restore the road."
"But thanks to the card in your breast pocket, it discovered the pothole and maintained the road once again, which concealed the headache from you."
Lumine nodded at the Castle Man's explanation while thinking, 'Did he use the example of the carriage on me so that he wouldn't explain to me what happens during my transportation?'
The Castle Man stopped speaking, and snapped his thumb and middle finger to make a card appear out of thin air in his hand—the Castle Man's card.
The Castle Man completed his speech after the card appeared and said, "Because of that, the card disappeared; I consumed it for the maintenance. But this is better than you suffering from the headache, isn't it? Take this as a replacement for the previous one."
Lord Richard placed the card on the table, and Lumine avoided taking the card to give his teacher the space to speak further.
Lord Richard took another sip of tea before asking, "Did you take the Linker potion?"
Lumine initiated the reply, "Yes. After performing the ritual, the strength of my five senses increased, such as vision and smell, and supposedly I obtained the capability of spiritual perception and the capability of linking, though I still do not know about the latter two. However, I came out with an assumption about the reason for the strengthening of my senses: my five senses linked directly with my mind, which raised the capabilities of my senses to a better and stronger degree."
Snap. Lord Richard snapped his thumb with his middle finger.
The teacup disappeared from the table, and he initiated the conversation after that, "Your interpretation is correct; no doubt you are smarter than your peers. I will teach you the method of the latter two, but I will explain to you from the beginning."
Lord Richard went silent for a bit as if organizing his thoughts before sighing and continuing, "Heh, what do you know about the Eras?"
Lumine took a few seconds to gather his knowledge of history before speaking, "Thousands of years ago, humans appeared on the planet, and humanity suffered from the Red Mist and the disasters it brings to the world."
"Over the years, humans scattered into small villages atop hills across the continent to survive the monsters that do not climb, and the disasters. After many centuries, every city that remained thought it was the only surviving city. They fought the monsters, carrying upon their shoulders the hope of human survival, until Zarmitchel appeared, made roads between the surviving cities, and linked them."
"The kings of the cities abdicated their rule to Zarmitchel, and he became the pledged person 2,293 years ago. That year was named the Year of the Pledge, and it became the first registered year in the First Era. Historians named the First Era the Era of the Pledge as a metaphor for the kings' pledge to Zarmitchel."
"Zarmitchel succeeded in freeing many lands from the turbulence of the Red Mist, and he chose to abdicate the rule and return the lands to their rulers to focus on the total elimination of the Red Mist. But two hundred years before the Second Era, Zarmitchel disappeared.."
"There is no clear reason for his disappearance, but some believe he vanished to limit the spread of the Red Mist."
"The old cathedrals, such as the Cathedral of the Red Moon and the Cathedral of the Lord of Fire, mention greater details of things that happened after the Year of the Pledge, such as Zarmitchel's agreement with the Elves, the Vampires, the Genies, and the Uncorns to limit the spread of the Red Mist, and the decision of the Treant race, the Giants, the Dragons, the Endermen, and others to flee to distant islands instead of fighting. The Queen of the Elves sacrificed her life in that Era."
"Naturally, the Elves' power diminished by losing their queen. Gradually, the gap between humans and Elves became extremely large. In the year 737 after the Pledge, the Elves decided to move to the sea to search for their promised island where their queen would return from death, with the help of the Vilanr Empire."
"The year 738 after the Pledge was named the Year of Fire and Blood. In that year, major wars spread across the Eastern Continent. The Vilanr Empire, the Tirir Empire, the Silrir Empire, and the Nitar Empire—the four empires dominated the continent, and the war between them continued for over a thousand years. But in the end, the war ended without any winner after the disaster brought by the Witch of Greed. The four empires perished from the disaster, and with them ended the Era of Fire and Blood."
Lumine went silent for a bit before adding, "After destruction, ashes will appear, and for this reason, our Era was named the Era of Ashes. The Era of Ashes began immediately after the war, 555 years ago up to our current year. With the perishing of those empires, Lancot appeared and established his empire."
Lord Richard smiled and said, "That is correct according to what schools and cathedrals promote. But do you know why the records of history began from after Zarmitchel and not before?"
Lumine went silent and tried to think of the correct answer, but he was caught between many answers and did not know which was the most correct and appropriate to reply to the Castle Man.
The Castle Man completed his speech as he noticed Lumine's silence and said, "Before the Era of the Pledge, everything before the Era of the Pledge can be described as the Era of Chaos. In that unrecorded era, the world was not as you know it now. The Red Mist spread across the two continents. In that era, and within the many variables inside the Red Mist, many things happened. Some humans were born with a special talent, and others discovered their own ways to earn the talent—ways that give them the necessary strength to survive in the chaos. To put it simply, some humans were born as Pathfinders, and some humans discovered the paths."
"Let us focus on those who discovered the paths. After their discovery and the return of hope to humans, the desire for control swept over them. They spread their paths to their followers.. At that time, the stations were limited and short, which made some risk trying different potions without verifying their correct ingredients or rituals, causing them to lose their minds."
Lumine was shocked by what Lord Richard said. Nothing crossed his mind except one question, 'Are they the monsters in the Era of the Pledge?! Were they all humans?!'
Lord Richard went silent for a period of time before sighing and continuing, "People who found their paths like you are called Pathfinders."
"With the long fluctuations across the four eras, Pathfinders were divided into two categories: Official Pathfinders, the Pathfinder who became a Pathfinder because of cathedrals and governments. The official Pathfinder lives without fear of being exposed and executed, and receives support from the faction they work with. Their name is placed as a Pathfinder in some records, which grants them some special privileges, but they will lose their freedom, and if they die under any circumstance, they will take their corpse and their family will receive a special compensation."
"And there are Unofficial Pathfinders, who are Pathfinders unsupported by cathedrals, governments, or official organizations. They are often people who work in secret organizations pursuing their own goals, such as controlling the continent, spreading their religion, destroying the world, bringing back the Witch, or anything else.. And of course, there are some Pathfinders who do not belong to organizations; they acquired their paths due to their own influence or life circumstances, and they can be described as the third category."
"There are cases where the cathedrals captured some unofficial Pathfinders, and these Pathfinders did not possess any hostile record. So instead of killing them, the cathedral gave them a job under their authority, and they became Informant Pathfinders—a Pathfinder who works as an informant for the cathedrals. In most cases, informants spy on government organizations."