Old man Rashid frowned as he watched the boy with his head buried in the bowl like a dog. He advised him in a low voice not to eat like that, but the boy didn't even pretend to listen.
He took a deep breath and said,
"It started when I was twenty. It was a very hot summer."
#
Under the scorching sun, Rashid, a young man of twenty, was climbing a ladder. The ladder leaned against a towering castle wall, and soldiers with long spears shouted at him from above the wall. Soon, spears came thrusting at him along with all sorts of curses.
Rashid gripped the ladder with his left hand and twisted his body slightly, while snatching a spear with his right hand and pulling it hard. Before the soldier could let go of the spear, he fell below the castle wall. As the enemy hesitated in shock at the impact, he quickly climbed to the end of the ladder and jumped onto the castle wall.
"Block him, block him!" a defending soldier shouted as he rushed in.
However, their attacks were blocked by his plate armor, and Rashid wielded his sword and hammer, slaughtering the enemy.
"Damn it."
After a round of rampage, there were no enemies left on the castle wall.
"Goddamn, it's hot."
He gasped for breath and supported himself on his knees. What could be more terrible than covering his entire body with iron plates under the scorching summer sun? He was even wearing inner armor inside the iron plates.
He took off his helmet and held up the water bag he had on his waist. Even though it was lukewarm, it quenched his thirst and gave him some energy. After shaking his sweaty and flattened hair, he looked around.
The entire cityscape came into view at a glance.
It was a large city named Karmaya. Originally, it was a base of a great noble, but the citizens drove out their master and bought the title from the king to start self-governance.
Since then, they had been accumulating wealth based on trade, but an enemy appeared, seeking the wealth they had accumulated, and that was the lord Rashid served.
"Is it over?"
*Thump*, the castle gate was breached.
The castle gate, which had somehow managed to withstand the impact, was destroyed immediately after the castle wall was captured. The shouts of the besiegers rang out loudly. The defending soldiers, who had been barely holding on behind the castle gate, turned their backs and began to flee.
It is not for nothing that they say, 'If you break through the castle gate, do not accept surrender.' Moreover, with the castle wall already taken by the enemy, there was no way they could win by resisting.
One side screamed, and the other side shouted even louder, becoming the fleeing and the pursuers. Rashid stared blankly at the sight of flames rising in various parts of the city.
"Rashid."
*Thud*, an elderly knight tapped him on the back. Rashid bowed to him. The old knight praised Rashid for his hard work and continued.
"It's the lord's order. Bring back an old man."
"Who are you talking about?"
The old knight shrugged at Rashid's question.
"Well, they say he's an alchemist. It seems the lord heard some strange rumors. I guess he hasn't run away yet... but he's urging me to catch him, so there's nothing I can do."
"Understood."
He immediately went down the castle wall and headed to the alchemist's mansion. It was a magnificent mansion. As if it were a public office of a great country, it had three floors made of stone.
When Rashid and his party arrived at the mansion, the mansion greeted them with its doors wide open. The guards, who would normally be there in such a mansion, were only a trace of thrown spears, and the same was true of the other servants.
"It seems we're late."
"We still have to check."
Rashid and his men scattered to search the mansion.
There were quite a few rooms, but most of them were warehouses. There were few spaces where people lived, and all kinds of materials were piled up. There were no valuables either. Gold or silver, those precious metals that came to mind when thinking of an alchemist, had already been taken.
"Hmm?"
The place where he stopped was a large workshop. The traces of work done until recently were clear. The furnace was lit.
A cauldron was placed on it, and an unidentified black liquid was bubbling inside. The smell was, of course, terrible. As soon as he tried to get a closer look, his stomach acid flowed back up, and he quickly backed away.
'What were you making?'
He cursed and examined the metal pipe attached to the side of the cauldron. The pipe narrowed as it passed through various structures in the middle, and it narrowed to the size of a little finger on the table, pointing downwards.
*Drip*, *drip*, very slowly, the liquid formed at the end of the pipe dripped.
A clear purple liquid was placed in a glass bottle below. The bottle was small enough to hide in the palm of his hand. When Rashid found it, it was almost overflowing with liquid. Without much thought, he grabbed the stopper next to it, thinking he should close it.
It was then that an angry voice burst out from behind him.
"Don't touch it!"
Startled, he turned around and saw a young man standing in front of the workshop door, glaring at him. He was wearing a white toga, and judging by the gold-embroidered patterns on the toga, he was no ordinary person.
Rashid took a step forward, placing his hand on his waist.
"Listen...".
"Get out of here! You uncivilized bastard!"
As he was about to speak, the young man stretched out his right hand towards Rashid. At first glance, it seemed like he was gesturing 'Don't come closer,' but Rashid noticed mana gathering in front of his hand.
He reflexively twisted his body.
Almost at the same time, the wall behind him crumbled like sand.
"What the hell!"
The young man aimed his hand at Rashid, who desperately drew his sword again. Rashid judged that rushing in would be too late, so he stretched out his opposite hand to the table and threw something. It was a jade-colored stone, and it exploded when it collided with the wave of mana that the young man had unleashed.
The shock of the explosion overturned everything in the workshop.
Rashid staggered beyond the sand-covered wall and struggled to lift his head. He saw the young man moving in the dust. Instead of finishing off Rashid, he was desperately grabbing the glass bottle rolling on the table and picking up the liquid he had spilled around it.
He didn't miss the opportunity. Taking advantage of the opponent's distraction, he rushed in and struck a blow. The blade pierced the young man's back, passing through his heart.
"——!"
Instead of a scream, a sound of air escaping came from his mouth.
However, the young man did not collapse. He stretched his arm back and began to struggle as if trying to grab Rashid. Rashid was flustered by the sight of him enduring even after his heart had been pierced, so he pushed him to the side and kicked him.
The young man rolled over the oil that had been spilled by the explosion and collided with the furnace, setting his whole body on fire. Rashid blocked the entrance to the workshop and waited for him to burn to death.
The time it took to get there was short.
Rashid spat out blood-mixed saliva.
"Sir Rashid!"
Following that, he heard the urgent footsteps of soldiers. Rashid looked down at the corpse for a moment, then picked up the glass bottle, put the stopper in, and put it in his pocket.
"Are you alright?"
While answering that he was alright, he ordered the corpse and workshop to be preserved. The soldiers looked at the corpse and asked who it was, but he had nothing to say. He could only guess that he was the alchemist's son, judging by his age.
Later, after the city was cleared, the old knight visited the mansion with the lord. While the lord was observing the mansion, Rashid came out with the old knight. He put a cigarette in his mouth and said.
"That corpse."
"Yes."
"It seems that was the alchemist the lord was looking for."
Rashid's eyes widened.
"That's impossible. He looked about the same age as me."
"The same age as you? Not an old man?"
The old knight frowned, but when Rashid nodded with a firm expression, he took a deep breath of the cigarette and exhaled.
"Maybe that's why the lord was so interested."
"What do you mean?"
"That's what the owner of this mansion was researching."
The old knight continued, saying immortality.
"If there was a rumor that some madman was researching something that humans long for, wouldn't there be more than one or two people who would spend a thousand gold just to live longer without aging like dwarves or fairies? I wondered why the lord fell for such rumors, but now I know."
Rashid muttered, recalling the alchemist who had burned to death.
"Then he succeeded to some extent."
"Succeeded?"
"Didn't he gain youth?"
The old knight burst into a hollow laugh.
"Listen, Rashid. Don't get carried away."
When Rashid asked what he meant, the old knight pressed Rashid's chest with his index finger and replied.
"I mean, don't have strange thoughts. I've never seen anyone who pursued immortality who was sane or had a proper ending."
He threw the finished cigarette on the floor and stomped on it.
"Immortality has never been successful. At best, it only slows down aging a little. You can't live your whole life as a greenhorn. Just like the rumors called him a madman, there must be something seriously wrong."
Rashid closed his mouth. His slightly tilted head indicated that the answer did not satisfy him, but the old knight did not notice it. He also did not notice that Rashid was subtly putting his hand in his pocket and fidgeting.
"Don't worry about killing the alchemist. The lord's interest will soon fade. He's a wise man, so he'll be satisfied with collecting the items left in the mansion. What great things could there be?"
The old knight patted Rashid on the shoulder and said.
#
Several months later, Rashid returned to his hometown.
Having been recognized for his merits by the lord and receiving generous rewards, he gained quite a bit of confidence. He told his wife about his heroic deeds, and in the process, he also talked about the alchemist. He had no intention of confessing that he had stolen the glass bottle.
He was just trying to brag to his wife that he had cut down a sorcerer with a single blow. But his wife questioned him about the item he had stolen as a trophy.
"Why did you do that?"
His wife immediately sighed and said.
"You're not that kind of person."
"Not that kind of person?"
Rashid scratched the back of his neck at his wife's question and frowned. He was happily reciting his boasts, but suddenly he was being treated like a criminal? He raised his voice.
"I told you, he almost killed me. Do you want me to retreat foolishly even when I'm in danger? It's okay to take this much as compensation."
His wife stared blankly and asked another question.
"Wouldn't it be better to get it checked by the priest?"
"No! Then I'll have to explain it. What should I say when they ask how I got it? Even if I tell the truth, do you think the priest will keep the secret?"
"Then what are you going to do?"
"What else can I do but keep it?"
He took out the glass bottle from his pocket and shook it gently. Because it had been overturned once, it was filled with a little more than half of the contents. His wife's pupils trembled as she looked at the purple liquid shimmering in front of her eyes.
"What are you so anxious and scared about?"
"You know that my mother was called a witch, right?"
Rashid euphemistically said that her personality was a bit unique.
"She had an excessive desire for knowledge. If there was something she didn't know, she would dig into it until she found out, and because of that, she often committed acts that deviated from the norm."
"Just get to the point, just get to the point."
"My mother taught me a saying. 'Do not covet eternal life.' Like the dwarves who invaded heaven, eternal life is something that humans cannot and should not aspire to."
"Another story of the great gods."
Rashid shook his head.
"Well, I don't think this is a potion for immortality either. If it were, he would have drunk it long ago and killed me. However... looking at his state, I think I can sell it for a very high price."
He looked at his wife, whose expression was still stiff.
"If I have a chance to go far away later, I'll check what the effects of this are and dispose of it. It's not like I'm going to drink it. You can understand that much, right?"
Only then did his wife close her mouth.
And for a while, the two forgot about the glass bottle.
It was because they had no reason to go outside the territory, and his wife was busy because she was pregnant with their first child. There was no room for immortality to intervene in their harmonious life. The promise to dispose of it was not kept either.
The time they remembered it again was nine years later.