Immortal's Ascending Path-Episode 23
Episode 23: Journey
Monsters originally referred to the creations of the evil gods. In the era of gods when Kunkan, Takna, and Galpa, the three gods, wielded their authority in the heavens, their descendants planted in the world were the targets.
However, as time passed, the meaning of monsters changed. This was because the creations of the evil gods no longer served their creators or had perished, greatly reducing the number of targets to refer to.
Monsters became a derogatory term referring to all animals that committed evil deeds, even if they were not creations of the evil gods. The monsters that attacked Ruman's village were an example of this.
About 80 years ago, a group of monsters reached the County of Goeten.
No one knew where they were born or how they came to be in the first place. It was certainly not the Ice Peninsula. Ditmarsken was blocking the peninsula. A single individual might cross, but a group could not.
The monsters had heads like pigs, walked on two legs like humans, and were slightly taller than dwarves. Their intelligence was lower than giants, so they could not speak any language. However, they reproduced faster than any other monster. When their existence was first revealed, there were already over hundreds of them.
However, even so, it shouldn't have been a big problem. It was a county, after all. It was also long before the Osnober Kingdom was engulfed in civil war. How could the Count of Goeten not catch a mere group of monsters?
The problem was the collapsed vigilance.
A man who came as a son-in-law to Ditmarsken in the north had been ruling for over 200 years. As he culled the monsters of the Ice Peninsula, the people of the south relaxed their guard to the fullest.
'Surely, monsters won't come?'
Even if they happened to cross over by chance, they would be a weak race.
The soldiers who should have been guarding against monsters were consumed to gain territories as small as millet grains, and the monsters safely grew into an army. The Count of Goeten must have realized his foolishness the moment he faced the monsters in his pajamas.
It was then that Ulrich of Ditmarsken moved. Hearing the news, he led monster hunters and hunted down the monsters that had become an army.
The place where the monsters, who were catching humans to increase their numbers, fled and finally reached was Ruman's village. The boy Ruman was one of the children who survived that day.
#
Summer sunlight poured through the wide-open window of the room.
Village Chief Ruman stood before Ulrich, supporting his emaciated body with his thin legs. Also, he was holding his hand with his bony hands.
Ulrich, regardless of the old man's actions, closed his eyes as if lost in thought. Reflected in Ruman's cloudy eyes, he looked young. Too young, he looked younger than Ruman's grandson. But the reality was different. He was a human older than Ruman.
Some say that he found the frozen soil of the north more than three hundred years ago. Ruman had no way of knowing whether that claim was true or false. He had no intention of doing so.
The important thing was one thing. The fact that he, the one in front of him, was the person Ruman met that year when he was nine years old, the person he only met once.
"Now I remember,"
Ulrich said, opening his eyes.
"There was a child who ran away carrying his sister on his back."
"That's right. You remember."
Ruman drew a deep smile on his wrinkled face. Ruman also remembered that day that Ulrich spoke of. Even now, eighty years later, when he tried to recall that day, it came to his mind strangely vividly.
Time blurs even the memories that one has vowed not to forget and paints over them in the name of memories, but the memory of that day was an exception.
It was an afternoon when the world was dyed red, whether due to the sunset or the flames. Monsters appeared and killed the adults. The children were captured, and the boy's sister was injured.
Ruman knocked down a monster with his father's sword and then fled into the plains with nowhere to hide, carrying his sister on his back. The boy replied with a tearful voice that he hated his sister's words, who said weakly to leave her behind.
The siblings had nowhere to run. Even the children who were alone were too slow to escape, so how could they not catch a boy carrying his sister on his back?
He felt his sister's blood soaking his back, and he also felt the sound of the monsters' footsteps growing louder and louder. Eventually, when the boy collapsed, the monsters snatched the siblings.
Ulrich arrived with his group at that time.
"Ulrich-nim, you picked me up when I collapsed."
"How about your sister? Her injury must have been deep."
"Fortunately, the Priest-nim healed her. She had no disabilities and was healthy. And she left 20 years ago. Among the children you saved, I was the youngest, so I am still alive."
Thirteen villagers survived that day.
All of them were boys and girls who had not yet undergone their coming-of-age ceremony, so they could not maintain the village. It was only after Ulrich brought adults from other residential areas who had suffered similar damage that they barely managed to form a village.
After that, he newly appointed a lord to the vacant Count of Goeten. She was someone from the Hilderson clan. The Countess of Goeten helped with the recovery by exempting the damaged areas, including Ruman's village, from taxes for several years.
There is a saying that the ground hardens after the rain. Ruman thought his life was like that. He was swept away by the storm, but when the storm stopped, his life always went up. Of course, the wounds created by the storm remained as scars and tormented him for the rest of his life, but he stood up.
"I sent tributes... Do you know about it?"
"I don't remember that. You sent tributes?"
"Yes. I thought that was the only thing we could repay..."
Ulrich shook his head.
"You were wrong. Did you think that meant anything to me?"
That was true. Ruman and the survivors sent him several tributes after finding stability, but no matter how many times they sent them, they came back. They even came back with increased amounts, and seeing this, they couldn't bring themselves to send them again.
"...Adnan must have done that."
Ulrich said that he was a vassal who served him at the time.
"He had blue hair, right?"
"You know him. Have you ever met him?"
"When I visited, he welcomed us."
At the time, Ruman thought that if he didn't receive tributes, he would have to express his gratitude directly. So he came to Ditmarsken with his sister, but the lord was fast asleep. Instead, an old knight named Adnan greeted the Ruman siblings.
Adnan said this,
"The elder doesn't want this. How many lives do you think he has saved? The more each of you does that, the more burden you put on him."
And he sternly told them not to come again.
"That's right. Adnan was such a kid."
Ulrich nodded, chuckling lightly.
"You could say that he always said he served me, but in reality, he was protecting me. He had a knack for doing what I had to do before me and keeping it from reaching me. He was like a nanny."
"He was just a scary person to us."
"It's understandable to feel that way."
Ruman gave a bitter smile.
"I thought I was really unlucky back then."
"That's because I was asleep. The timing was bad."
"Yes, that's right. But... eventually, I get to see you like this."
Ruman said that fate was strange, looking at Ulrich. He was not only young. It was the same as the figure that hung in front of the nine-year-old boy Ruman that day.
The boy became an old man and lived a life where he could face the end at any time, but he had not changed in the slightest. As if the past was placed intact in the present.
There was no doubt. Who would make up a lie to tease an old man in this remote area? And who would remember his old appearance and divide it so exactly?
Ruman sometimes thought his life was too long. He thought that every day was not painful, but it was going on boringly. But at this moment, he felt like he knew the reason why it was so long.
#
Ulrich stayed in Ruman's village for only one day.
Even though he had some leeway in his schedule because he had passed through the snow forest, he didn't seem to want to take his time until he arrived in Icelandburg. Ruman tentatively asked him to stay a few more days, but he shook his head.
However, the departure time was postponed to the afternoon the next day. This was because there were several babies in the village who had not received the Infant Sacrament and people with mild illnesses. For some reason, the Priests of Goeten were not visiting Ruman's village.
Even the most incompetent and corrupt Priests cannot postpone the Infant Sacrament recklessly. Roberta also underwent this year's sacrament and set out on a journey. But such an absurd situation unfolded before her eyes.
She found it strange and hoped to perform the sacrament and healing in place of the Priests of Goeten for Ulrich. That was why they left the village after noon.
"Ulrich-nim."
As the group led their horses out of the village, Ruman and the villagers came out to see them off. The people's eyes were on Ulrich. They seemed to have heard something from Ruman.
"Can you see? These are the children you saved."
Ruman approached Ulrich and said. Gunter tried to support him from the side, but Ruman refused and stood directly on his thin legs. And he stretched out his arm and pointed to the villagers.
The nine-year-old boy Ruman grew up and had six children. The six also grew up and had their own children, and the twelve who survived with the boy followed the same path.
A few more refugees in the same situation were added among them. Before they knew it, time had passed and eight out of ten had passed, so now the number of people making up the village was close to two hundred.
Some might laugh. Saying that it's just a small village. But Roberta, seeing this small village, was reminded of a human story.
When Hestio came down from the heavens and handed fire to humans, the number of humans was not greater than this.
"I taught the children about you. I will continue to do so in the future. Even if I die soon, my descendants will remember your name and pass on what you have done..."
"No, don't do that."
Ulrich shook his head.
"I just grabbed you so you wouldn't fall off the cliff. You climbed up yourself. I didn't raise you. It's useless to give everything if there's no will to do it."
"Ulrich-nimâ€""
"As time passes, gratitude will only turn into faith. You don't need to be tied to me. You have proven your life yourself."
"...Do you think my life was okay in your eyes?"
"Yes, more than I wanted."
The boy who had become an old man smiled silently.
Seeing that smile, Ulrich got on his horse. He bowed slightly and turned his back and went forward. Roberta and Fritz followed behind.
The village was in the middle of a flat and wide field. Even though they had gone a long way, if they looked back, they could still see Ruman's people watching the three of them.
Fritz kept glancing back and wondering when the people would go in, Ulrich opened his mouth.
"Roberta, do you remember the ruins I saw on the Ice Peninsula?"
The ruins of the Ice Peninsula, she could never forget.
"You mean the civilization before human history...?"
She entered the Ice Peninsula to meet a dragon named Narvakayani, and stayed in a tower to avoid the snowstorm on the day before the fifteenth day.
There was an inscription carved on the wall of the tower by an ancient man. Ulrich said that it meant 'We die here' in ancient letters. She felt like it was the death throes of an ancient civilization and felt ominous.
"Actually, there's more to it."
"Is that so?"
"It was about not being defeated even if we die."
She stared silently at his back a few steps ahead.
"I like that saying."
His back wouldn't have an expression, but she felt like she had seen a smile.
"It contains the meaning that although their civilization will be destroyed, humans will achieve their will. Humans were not created to be defeated, so they will rise even if they face death."
Is this why he visited Ruman's village?
He said it was to shorten the road, but in reality, he may have chosen the journey to retrace old memories, Roberta thought. To him, Ruman's village was a way to confirm that a human who had fallen once in his memory had risen again.
Also, the journey ahead will be the same. For one human who has gone through many names and long years, Ulrich, Laurent, Oscar, the journey will be a journey through memories.
"That's... a good saying."
Roberta smiled softly and rode her horse side by side on Ulrich's left. Following her, Fritz also followed on Ulrich's right.
The three crossed the horizon. The sun was already in the middle of the sky, but they went down below the boundary where the earth and sky met. Ruman watched their backs until the moment they sank.