Chương 110: No One to Hit

By the time Kichan arrived at the border, the fighting was almost over. The military flags were not the first things he saw. The salt scale used for haggling at the market entrance lay overturned in the mud. One weight was scorched by fire, and another was half submerged in blood. The handle had broken off the molly tea kettle. The mandragora doll a human child had bought was split in half underfoot. The wooden wake-up rod used in the Kichan Gang game was broken in the mud.

The metal buttons the children had shared lay scattered over the blood-soaked ground. Only then did Kichan see the people. The child who had tied scraps of cloth to Batu's armor lay collapsed below the wall. The child who had made Valkyrie play with water drops was holding a broken water bowl. The merchant who had secretly added one more piece of dried meat lay in front of his own cart. The parents who rose every time Kichan passed while they were eating had fallen too.

In the hand of the farmer who had only been waiting for the day he could return to his field, a molly seedling was crushed. Humans and demihumans were mixed together. Animals were dead too. Only one pole remained of the tea tent. Under it, Marena lay collapsed. A little white molly fiber and red mandragora thread remained wrapped around Marena's wrist. Beside her lay the cup she had once held in both hands, now broken. The same colors were tied to Kichan's wake-up rod as a proposal knot.

Kichan looked back and forth between Marena's wrist and the knot.

"You told me to answer when I got back." There was no answer. Kichan placed his fingers on Marena's neck. There was no pulse. With the end of the wake-up rod pressed above her chest, his fingertips searched for the severed grain of life. He could see broken bones and torn flesh. As usual, he joined the grain with biological alchemy and stopped the blood. The wound in her chest closed. Her breath did not return. Kichan went to the child beside her. In the same way, he set the bones and stopped the blood.

The child's hand did not grow warm. Valkyrie pressed its small body against the child's chest. Once, twice, again and again, it pushed light in. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. There was no response.

"Why won't it work?" Kichan said without knowing whom he was asking. Riphiel could not answer. Inside the collapsed fortress, Marten and Grad were pinned under the same stone. A mandragora medicine pouch remained in Marten's hand. Grad's hand was wrapped in a piece of human-army cloak torn while shielding a child. The two lay motionless with their hands stretched toward each other. Seria and Theor were alive. Theor was holding up the last gate with a broken arm.

The arm was bent in a strange direction, but he could not pull his body out. If he let go of the door, the people still inside would be trapped under the stones. Seria moved among the people, covered in blood. No voice came out; every time she called a name, only breath escaped. Seeing Kichan, Seria stopped walking. Kichan asked, "Aren't you going to ask me to save them?" Seria's lips moved. No sound came out. She swallowed one breath and barely said,"I tried to stop it... but I could not stop everything."

Kichan gripped the wake-up rod. First, he tried to find Lauren. It felt as if finding that person and beating him down would be enough. But even if he beat an officer, Marena under the tea tent would not stand. Even if he beat the entire human army, the broken wake-up rod in the child's hand would not move. Even if he dragged over the demihuman chieftains, the molly tea cup would not mend itself.

Even if he lined up the king, the Pope, and the tribal council and swung the wake-up rod at them, the people on the ground would not return. There were many targets to hit. Nothing would change if he hit them now. Kichan could neither lower the wake-up rod nor swing it. Riphiel stood beside him.

"Kichan." Kichan did not answer. Valkyrie spread its body wide over the dead children. Its light weakened as if it was about to go out. Batu lay still without biting at the cloth scraps on his armor. Dust did not move. A button it had found in the blood clung to its body. Argaon did not speak either. Kichan checked the faces he knew one by one. The people whose names he knew, he called by name. The people whose names he did not know, he remembered by what they sold and what they ate. The man with the salt scale.

The person who gave him extra meat. The soldier who said molly tea gets bitter if you boil it too long. The child who always missed the second note of the song. The parents he had told so many times not to stand up from the table. The person who kept today's soup for later. Near the kitchen, the large pot was overturned. The beans and dried meat Kichan had left were spilled into the ash. Beside the hand of a child who had been eating soup lay an ownerless spoon.

Nowhere in the market could he hear the thieves' song. Kichan picked up the broken wooden wake-up rod. He laid it on the ground beside his own wake-up rod. He found Tira's broom handle too. The red cloth was half burned, and on the handle was a small handprint left in blood and ash. Kichan did not wipe the print with his palm. He placed it beside the child as it was. Dust brought another button it had picked up and set it down between the two rods.

Batu took one of the cloth scraps the market had tied on him in his mouth and lay down beside them.

"I was late." Seria shook her head. Kichan did not see the movement. A sound came from inside the magic bag. The sealed box holding the Fragment of God's Word was ringing. The black mineral brought from the dungeon trembled at the same pitch. When the two sounds overlapped, the proposal knot tied to Kichan's wake-up rod trembled faintly. Kichan took out the box. The seal remained intact. He did not touch it with his bare hand.

And yet the sound that had opened the mountain and stopped the cave rose from deep inside his throat.