The highest cliff in Reaper Village always had a lone man standing upon it. His black coat fluttered in the cold wind, and a faint blue aura flowed from the sword at his waist.
The strongest young warrior in Reaper Village. Ryu, twenty-two years old.
Ryu always wore an expressionless face. He never smiled at anything joyful, nor shed tears at anything sad. The villagers believed he had completely cast away the unnecessary emotions of a reaper. Ryu believed the same. Guiding the souls of the dead, cutting down vengeful spirits that had strayed from their path, and obeying the orders he was given. He believed that was all he was.
But on nights when no one was around, Ryu often sought out the Forbidden Forest. It lay on the border between Reaper Village and Goblin Village. Since neither race entered it carelessly, it was the one place where he didn't have to be conscious of anyone's gaze.
The moment he entered the forest, even the air was different. Instead of Reaper Village's cold, orderly wind, a breeze carrying the mingled scents of damp earth and nameless grass blew through the trees. The trees held both the reapers' blue mist and the goblins' golden moss. A place that belonged to neither side, yet rejected neither one.
When Ryu leaned against an ancient tree and closed his eyes, every sound in the world seemed to grow distant. That silence was his only refuge.
Ayoung, the youngest daughter of Goblin Village, was always smiling. Whenever she passed by, even dying lanterns brightened again, and crying children quickly found their laughter. The golden goblinfire blooming from her fingertips was warm and bright, just like its master.
The villagers loved Ayoung for that. At the same time, they worried about her. Ayoung couldn't simply ignore anything that made her curious, and whenever someone told her not to do something, she always asked why first.
“You must never enter the Forbidden Forest.” It was a warning she had heard countless times since childhood.
Yet one day, Ayoung spotted an unfamiliar blue light at the forest's edge. It was cold, but somehow it looked sad.
Before she knew it, Ayoung followed the light into the forest. A thin mist drifted between the trees. She walked with a golden flame hovering above her palm to light the way, then stopped before an ancient dead tree.
A man in black stood beneath it. A face pale as moonlight, and blue eyes that revealed nothing of his emotions. She could tell who he was from the cold aura alone, flowing from the sword at his waist.
A reaper.
Ryu had noticed Ayoung as well. A goblin carrying golden flames stood in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. There was only one youngest daughter of Goblin Village who could wield golden goblinfire.
“Ayoung.”
Ayoung's eyes widened when her name came from the mouth of an unfamiliar reaper.
“You know me?” “I heard you were the only goblin who could wield golden flames.”
Ayoung looked at the sword at his waist. There was only one young reaper who wielded a sword steeped in blue aura, too.
“Then you must be Ryu.”
Ryu's gaze sank into icy stillness. His hand immediately moved to the hilt of his sword.
“Move.”
Ryu's voice was as cold as the winter wind. Ayoung didn't back down.
“Why?” “This isn't a place you should be.” “It's not your land, either.”
Ryu's eyebrow twitched faintly.
“Go back if you don't want to die.”
Only then did Ayoung take a step closer. Ryu drew his sword halfway. Blue aura spread through the gap between the blade and its sheath. But Ayoung looked at his face, not the sword.
“We just met. Why do you look so sad?”
Ryu's hand stopped.
He had heard countless things throughout his life. Cold. Frightening. Emotionless. But no one had ever told him he looked sad. Without realizing it, Ryu relaxed the hand gripping his sword's hilt. Then, the moment he realized it, he tightened his grip again.
“Don't say pointless things.”
Ryu slid the sword back into its sheath.
“Go back.”
Ayoung watched him for a moment, then smiled brightly.
“I'll go today.”
Ryu's expression hardened.
“Today?” “Yeah. Because I'll come again next time.” “Don't come.” “That isn't for you to decide.”
Ayoung waved and headed back down the forest path. Her golden flame receded between the trees, then finally disappeared.
Ryu remained standing there for a long while. He stared at the place where the flame had vanished. The mist where she had stood had yet to fully return. Only that spot remained thin, like a trace left behind by something warm.
Strangely, the silence that returned wasn't the same as before. It was the same quiet, but what had been a refuge moments ago now felt like an empty space.
Ryu decided not to give that feeling a name.