-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On a continent whose very existence has been forgotten by humans, in a place where clouds gather in the dark sky with no end in sight and rumble like the cries of a newborn child, a horse-drawn carriage races at full speed in this challenging weather, ignoring the rain and the sea breezes blowing. Despite the difficult conditions, the horse driver skillfully follows the path, which almost disappears in the rain stream, to navigate out of the forest. Inside the rocking carriage sits a handsome young man, holding a cigarette in one hand and reaching for the ashtray with the other. He rubs his eyebrows, which are drawn in anger, and looks out of the window. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! Fuck everything!!! Fuck this junk cart, fuck the villagers in the temple who are obsessed with faith and virtue, fuck the Buddhist bald bastard who forced me to come here, fuck them all!" Ironically, part of his chest is quite similar to the clothes of the Buddhist monks he cursed. Although he wears an orange robe that exposes him, this man with bushy hair sets him apart from other monks. "Calm down, okay, calm down. It's not like they're not useful." After clutching his bushy hair as if someone were going to steal it from him and looking around in fear, realizing that no one is there, he continues, relieved. "If I complete the task assigned, I will finally be able to ask the leader for a few things in return. And if that weren't enough, I even had the chance to escape from that dreadful place called the Temple." After waiting a while, he sighed and continued. "For a while..." Then he gets depressed again. After taking a drag from his cigarette and sighing in frustration, he quickly opened the screen separating him from the coachman and loudly demanded an explanation in a voice that drowned out the lightning flashes. "Hey, you lying, deceitful, scumbag coachman, you said we'd reach fluere before morning? It's already dawn, but there are no people or villages, let alone a city. There are just you, me, the trees, and this junk carriage. Fearing his customer, who was getting angrier the more he spoke, the coachman continued with a fake and stupid smile. "Y-you're right, of course, sir! However, I've heard from the villagers at the resting point that the number of strange incidents in the forest has increased. Of course! I didn't decide to rely on that alone. On top of that, after the kingdom closed the main road to fluere for protection, this was the best, safest, fastest, and most direct way I could find." The carriage entered a series of bumps that lifted him a few centimeters above his seat, by the "truth" of the coachman's last words. "What I could find..." Said the coachman shamelessly. "..." Although the series of bumps gradually diminished, the same could not be said for the angry glare of the client. The "sweet" glance ended when the monk pulled the screen over the coachman's face. Then, the bushy-haired monk went into his inner thoughts. 'The road is blocked, huh? You'd think our Buddhists were idiots?...Okay, they are idiots... But not that idiot. I bet both sides already know what happened...' He directed his gaze outside the carriage window and continued uncomfortably. "But it's strange... If the kingdom has declared this a dangerous area and if, again, what I 'guessed.' For some reason...How did this information get out to the general public? After all, there's the danger zone AND, There is a 'danger zone." The monk, his chin resting on his head as his hand was again jolted by the bumps, did not hold back this time and started shouting angrily. "YOU DONKEY! WHAT DID I TELL YOU-" But the monk's words were cut short when a blue light suddenly appeared on the ground beneath the car, swelling and inflating, resulting in an explosion that devastated the vehicle. The explosion raised a layer of dust from the ground, making it difficult to see. When the dust finally dissipated, all that was left of the path was a deep hole created by the explosion, the burnt branches of maples and other unidentified trees, and finally, a wheel that had been thrown from the wrecked cart and partly stuck to the ground, but still managed to turn. The monk and his coachman were nowhere to be seen. --------- ------------------ ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------  City Fluere...a place by the sea, famous for its impenetrable forests and a place that the kingdom's inspectors often forget to visit. It doesn't really meet the requirements to be a city, but it's too big to be a town or a village, and it's only recently that the Lord has taken control of the four but large villages, so it's been called the Little City or City fluere. And Today was a busy day in Fluere.  Like a busy yesterday, a busy week, and a busy month... It was bustling! In fact, these endless busy days gradually replaced "normal" days for the Fluere natives.So, what was the reason for all this intensity and distress?The reason was simple: the Lord would have an heir, and the shamans said it was sure to be a boy. After all, in the nobility, the male symbolized the continuation of the lineage and the family, so he was a cause for celebration in his own right. If the inhabitants of the City had been led by a regular lord, perhaps they would not have welcomed so many caravans of merchants, high-ranking officials, and guests from the noble families of various kingdoms. Perhaps it was the fact that the Lord Himself was of a distant lineage that was the real reason for this relentless influx of nobility, but it was also confirmed that the City attracted people from all walks of life.   However, the Lord's achievements could not be ignored, for within five years of taking control of what was then a town, he had brought it to the level of a city, cleared much of the dark forest of darkness for his people, married, and at the end of a grueling process, he would have a wife and heir. It is safe to say that another reason for the fluere's crowdedness is the epic achievements of the Lord of Stories. But this Lord, revered and loved by his people, was now pacing back and forth in one of the rooms of his seaside mansion, his brow furrowed in obvious anxiety and stress. "Knock knock" Until his worries were interrupted by a knock on the door. "!" Hearing the knock on the door, the Lord relaxed his frown as if he had been expecting it. After a slight nod to his butler standing at the door, he went to his desk and sat down in his armchair. The butler opened the door. It was a young maid who came in. But it was not who the Lord had expected, and he could not hide his disappointment. The servant who entered was remarkable. A relatively young servant, maybe not even 20 years old, with long blond hair, dressed in a white apron and a blue undershirt, appeared before the Lord.   The servant came in, bowed respectfully to his Lord, and told him the news for which he had come.   "Sir, the doctor said there was something important he needed to talk to you about." 'Ahh! my tongue' The maid, who was obviously as clumsy as she was beautiful, was passing on the news from the Doctor while checking to see if the Lord was angry because he had bitten his tongue. "Oh, I see. So... did he say anything else in addition?"   The Lord, who seemed to have gotten used to the servant's clumsiness, said to the servant in a tone that sounded as if he was hoping to hear something.   "N-no, but Dr. Lloyd told me that the faster we act, the better."   The maid was glad she hadn't bitten her tongue, but this time she accidentally stuttered.The butler beside him looked at him with shame and rolled his eyes. 'Oh, that stupid Amelia, how many times do I have to say it...' Even the butler was annoyed by the maid's clumsiness, but the Lord didn't seem to mind. It was as if he was speculating why the Doctor had sent for her, but after a little more thought, he decided to let it go.   'Well. Maybe it was stupid of me...to try to cure something that there was no cure for.'   Finally, he gave up. After a short sigh, he exited his desk and addressed Amelia.   "Anyway...Amelia, let's go to the Doctor's room for now." said the Lord. The room where the Doctor was staying was constantly changing due to some "accidents," so even the Lord could not keep track of what was happening, so he assigned Amelia and a few servants to take care of the Doctor. The Lord followed behind the servant, who nodded in acknowledgment. He was again immersed in inner thoughts from which he could not escape. Even though he had been trying to recover mentally for a long time and tried not to show it, every day was worse than the last because of these damned events that had happened to him. It all started 8 years ago when one of his brothers was appointed Lord, and he was appointed knight to help him. Unfortunately, he lost his brother in a dark forest expedition 2 years after he took over the town. The clan appointed him as the next Lord, and he took over the town. It was the beginning of the most glorious years the small town of hundreds of thousands of people would ever see.   But since the events after he took over the City were far from what the Lord had expected, he had little time to spare. At first, he had to deal with the uprising of the outlying villages that would last for years, then he had to contain the monsters of the dark forest that had spiraled out of control for no good reason, and then he had to add to that the economy that was being shaken by the continent's endless wars...The Lord, now in his mid-30s, had no gray hair left. But eventually, he overcame every problem. Except for one, a heir. When all the problems were solved, his beloved wife finally said that she wanted to have an heir, an idea that had been on Lord's mind for some time. The two proceeded to have a child, but reality would soon slap Lord hard in the face.   No, it wasn't infertility or anything like that, at least not according to what the doctors said, but even tho it was not infertility, no matter how hard both tried, no matter which Doctor both went to, no matter what medication Lord took, he and his wife Helen couldn't have a child together, he loved her more than anything in the world, and he certainly wanted to. Still, it wasn't happening, and when they finally gave up, a doctor told them she was pregnant. What good news.   'ah...' Lord sighed 'Really...what a good news.(!)'   After some time on the road, Lorda called out, indicating that the servant had arrived.   "Sir, we're here. Dr. Lloyd said he'd wait for you inside."   "..." But he got no answer. The Lord was, as usual, absorbed in his inner thoughts and did not hear the servant's gentle voice.Calling out to her master, the servant received no answer, so she tried calling out again in a shy voice. "My lord?" At that moment, the Lord finally woke up from his deep thoughts and realized he was already outside the Doctor's door.   He looked at the maid and spoke. "Ah, we're here. Why didn't you tell me?" the Lord said with a frown.   He was not known to be angry, whether it was the hard times he had been through or the varicose veins he was dealing with. The Lord was sometimes angry, too.   Surprised that his Lord was angry with him, the poor servant tried to explain the situation in a voice he could barely hear. "B-but I... just... I just told you already." The Lord's gaze, scolding his servant, was interrupted by an explosion from the room. Lord"?" Amelia"?"   They both hesitated for a moment and turned their heads towards the door but then realized whose door they had come to.   Lord said in an accustomed tone as black smoke slowly seeped from the doorway where the duo stood. 'Well, should I be happy or sad that it's still the way I left it?' With an exasperated look on his face. Then he turned his gaze to the maid.   The poor servant bowed with a few small tears on her face, afraid that the Lord would be even more angry with her, then turned around and knocked gently on the door. An unpleasant odor greeted them when they entered, as if they had come to a cemetery and not a doctor's office. Although... the appearance of the room was not much different. Books of unknown spells filled the shelves where bandages and herbs would normally be, while a ritual circle on the floor completed the picture.   At the bottom of the ritual circle was a very young man who stood up after standing bent over and muttering something in a language the Lord did not understand. This man with long hair and a white apron, with dark circles under his eyes from fatigue, greeted the Lord at the foot of the door with a small smile and then came to greet the Lord by placing the materials in his hand on the table across the circle.   "Master Roland! I see you are, as always... full of life," he said in a cheerful tone, referring to the tired Lord. Roland, ignoring the sarcasm of this young man, who was hardly a doctor, responded in kind with a slight smile.   "Great to see you too, Dr. Lloyd. What evil ritual are you up to this time? Also, I understand from the explosion that the gunpowder you asked me for last time was on the "for healing purposes" list... I guess it's really useful!"   Seeing that his little escapades had been noticed, the Doctor continued with a worried smile: "Ahaha, you're really funny, my Lord. Anyone who hears what you're saying will think I'm a fake doctor who deals with demons and other things. It's not even my area of interest. Also, could you see the 'ahem ahem' lists?" Dr. Lloyd finished his sentence with a shudder. The Lord was thinking about something else again. The Doctor hadn't changed since the last time the Lord had seen him. Really, he still looked like anything but a doctor, but ironically, he was capable of doing things that even the famous doctors with beards on their chins couldn't.   He proved it by saving his wife Helen when her pregnancy turned life-threatening.   Helen had always been physically stronger and more resilient than most women but also very graceful. But after the third month of pregnancy, when Helen began to have difficulty walking, to stand only a few hours a day, and to feel sick all the time, Roland began to suspect that something was wrong.   Even though Roland knew that this was normal during pregnancy, he never expected that this woman, whom he knew as his wife, would be in such a difficult situation. Finally, when Helen could not stand up and had difficulty eating, Roland realized the seriousness of the problem and began inviting all the doctors he could find to his palace in the hope of a cure. But it was futile. No doctor could understand what was wrong, let alone cure Helen. Until this crooked Doctor showed up. Dr. Lloyd made a face the moment he saw Helen.   The Doctor's behavior, which would typically have resulted in his beheading, was ignored because of the Lord's desperation. Dr. Lloyd, after a grimace, continued. "Just give me a few days," he said. Then, after informing the butler of the strange materials he wanted, he locked himself in the room and did not leave it for the next few days. A few days later, as promised, he appeared before the Lord with a miraculous syrup and told him that even if it was not a definitive solution to the problems, it would save Helen from her current situation. And so it was...Helen began to feel better in the following days, well enough to walk again and even go out for walks, though Lloyd often urged Lord Roland to exercise caution and remember that Helen was not yet fully recovered. And now... In the second month since the Doctor's arrival and in the sixth month of Helen's pregnancy, when the Lord's worries were increasing day by day, the Doctor suddenly said that he wanted to talk to her.   Inside Roland, there was both hope and a strange fear. The hope of finally finding out the cause and the solution to this dark event that has happened to them, but also a fear of a different kind, the fear that if this man stays here much longer, maybe this room won't be the only thing that explodes...   With an exasperated look, looking at the Doctor who feared he had been caught, the Lord resumed. "I've ALWAYS seen it." Alarmed, the Doctor immediately stepped in to change the subject. "Haha. Of course you did...Anyway, you are a busy man, my lord, with your permission I would like to get to the point." He then pointed to two armchairs and a table by the window and invited the lord to discuss matters of interest. The two then took their seats while maid made her way to the kitchen to prepare some drinks and snacks. ...   .......   ...... Meanwhile, on the path in the dark forest.   "Tak" "..."   "Tak" "..." "Tak" Near the pathway, there was an intermittent sound in the dark forest that sounded like something was knocked on the ground.   "Tak" "..."   "Tak" "..." And the sound stopped.   When this rhythmic sound finally stopped, the person who had made the sound also appeared. He was a stern man, probably in his thirties, without a hair on his face, with a warrior's expression but also with a compassionate look, with a black cane that resembled the darkness of the forest they were in.   The place where he was standing was nowhere else but a wagon and the wreckage left behind, devastated by the explosion. But his expression was sad, unlike the expression a middle-aged man usually has. Looking at the ruins of the wrecked carriage in front of him with pain and guilt, as if he had been the cause of its destruction, he muttered quietly:   "Poor wretches, they were where they shouldn't have been. But it was their fate, and you can't go against fate or the gods."   As he continued to watch what was happening, he opened his hands and surrendered these sacrificed souls to the mercy of God.   "May the gods have mercy on your soul. Amen." But then, an unexpected voice was heard. Someone agreed with the words of the man with the cane, who must have been there alone.   "Amitabha! The deceased was a very good man." Surprised, the man with the cane immediately glanced in the direction of the sound. A few trees away, this figure was approaching, holding the body of someone in his hands and mockingly joining in his prayer. However, the words of the person who had arrived were obviously unfinished, as the man with the cane, after seeing him, reverently placed the corpse, which he had managed to save from the explosion in one body but which had not opened its eyes, in the corner of the tree, and then continued his words: "... He was a very good person who still thought he had the right to be upset about the scene he created. "Can you believe it? What an 'innocent' man! The person who came completed his ironic words with anger and hatred in his voice. The man with the cane went out of his melancholy state, looked at the man, and continued. 'Temple?' The man with the cane deduced from his clothes that it was a temple official. But his thoughts were interrupted by an airborne attack. "!" The man with the cane realized the danger in the air and jumped back a few meters in one move. His surprise grew even more significant when he saw what was attacking him.  "It's a... bird?" It was only a bird that attacked him from the air and forced him to retreat. 'What is this? Are you kidding me? Did I break a nest or something? Why is a bird attacking me?' But as he watched the bird wobble up from the ground it had just hit and landed on the monk's shoulder, it all made sense. 'I see. This is part of his talent. How interesting and rare it is.' The guilt-ridden, melancholic man from before was gone, and in his place was a calm, careful man ready to fight. The monk's angry voice was heard as he petted the bird that came to him. "Oh my... Are you laughing now? After all you've done, keeping me from where I was supposed to go, attacking and destroying the vehicle I was in, you're laughing now?" His face turned severe this time, and he said, "Well, laugh. After all, it will be your last laugh, asshole." The monk clasped both hands together, closed his eyes, and began to whisper things the man with the cane did not understand. As he whispered, the ground began to tremble, and different voices rose from the forest. The man with the cane was too late to react to these developments and thought, 'What has he done? This unexpected guest had to be a warrior or an official from the temple. Usually, warriors from the temple used different methods of fighting. After all, while most of the monks fought with the help of spells and other powers, his opponent seemed to have started with his own abilities. The man with the cane should not have let his guard down any further. At last, the ground stopped trembling, and silence fell. Behind the monk was an army of mountain bears two to three times his size, followed by lions, hundreds of eagles and hawks waiting for his command in the air, and wolves and other wild animals following his steps in the darkness. Despite this majestic army of animals that could attack any moment, the man with the cane did not seem worried. He dropped his mask of sadness and gave a slight smile mixed with concern. "Oh, they don't look very kindly on me, do they?"  The monk smiled. An image of an unpleasant future flashed in the mind of the man with the cane. And so it was. When the army of animals that had appeared behind the monk attacked, the man with the cane knew it was time to do something. 'So let's start by running away,' he thought and began to disappear faster into the forest. The monk's voice sounded behind him: "Where do you think you can run?" The monk called out fiercely to his opponent, who fled from him without resistance. During his run towards the depths, he continued his run towards the forest without slowing down, skillfully avoiding the snakes that attacked him from the places where he would step, climbing to the top of the trees from the wolves lurking in front of him, and holding the eagle and the hawk, which attacked him by diving from the air, in the air and throwing them to each other. The monk was following behind him, but his expression was strange. 'Hmm... he seems to be quite talented. His movements must be due to his talent. He's not really like that, but judging from what he said earlier, he didn't know I was in the carriage. The temple's past is not so innocent, but it's still a respected group. It's really strange, who sent him here. Something's going on, and it annoys me that I don't know about it.' As he continued his pursuit, the man with the cane finally stopped. He had stopped because there was nowhere left for him to go. Behind him was the great dark forest, and in front of him, the endless sea waters. As he stood at the bottom of the slope, he turned in that direction with a sound coming from behind him. "There's nowhere left to run." Hearing the lion's roar, the monk rode in pursuit. The animals respectfully stepped aside to make way for them to take the lead.  The man with the cane was surprised when the two of them finally looked at each other clearly, eye to eye. 'I see. So you are "him,"' the unknown man continued. Despite his predicament, the man with the cane had an epiphany about who the other person was A monk with a rude attitude, a talent for animals, and, most importantly, hair? He finally had an idea of who the other person was, so in the silence where the two could only stare at each other, he was the first to speak to confirm his hypothesis. "Dharma, right? Your name." The monk's expression turned serious, and the man with the cane continued as if to thank him for his confirmation. "Dharma, the genius of the Buddhist temple, is one of the notorious elites born with a gift. Although you're usually known for your troubled personality. Well, fame is fame." The monk's face turned sour. It wasn't enough that Dharma had heard it in the temple since childhood; now, even the man who had tried to kill him was calling him by the word he hated: "genius." 'Genius, someone like me? Come on.' Dharma hated being called "he's a genius anyway" and having all his efforts dismissed as such because he was a little more gifted than he was born with as a result of his own good fortune. Few things in the world so irritated and disgusted him. Although he had a lot of thoughts about it, it was not the time or the place.  Dharma continued, maintaining her rude demeanor. "You talk too much for a man who's surrounded and about to die," he said. The man with the cane, surrounded and with nowhere to run, laughed in surprise at Dharma's remark. "Ah, I'm going to die? Haha, you're really still a very immature young monk." "TAK" The cane he held in his hand struck once more against the rugged rocks of the hillside. As he struck, the sea behind him began to stir, and the water behind the man with the cane became a colossal wave tens of meters high. "Fuck!!!" Dharma was shocked. 'Ok, I was expecting a some sort of resistance, but what the hell is that!' The man with the cane looked at the Dharma and said his last words to it before using his waves to attack. "Unfortunately, you are too young and inexperienced, temple boy...be careful not to fall into the trap so easily next time." With his words, the great wave hit the animal army, and the screams of various animals could be heard as they were swept away by the wave. At the last moment, Dharma put her hands together and tried to do something again, but it was pointless. The huge wave took everything on the shore at once and returned to the sea. Finally, when only the man with the cane was left on the hillside, he said, looking in the direction of the Dharma that had been tossed out to sea by the wave and then sucked into its depths. "Don't hate your fame and talent, young man, because, at the end of the day, it was your fame and talent that saved you." And then the nameless man disappeared again into the forest he came out of ... ----------- ----------------------- ---------------------------------------