Chapter 529

Raon clutched his pounding chest and raised his gaze.

Unlike the neat little village he’d imagined a moment ago, Capply Village had large and classy buildings.

It could even be called a small city if it developed a bit further. It was completely different from the village in his hazy memory.

However, the mountain ridge that seemed to be looking down upon the village and the evening glow shining in between them was exactly the same as in his memory.

It almost felt like two pictures drawn by different people were overlapping one another to form one picture.

‘There’s no mistake…’

Raon pressed his pale lips together.

‘This is the village where I used to live.’

The memories from his previous life emerged from deep under the ocean of his mind like the muddy water splashing up when you played in a puddle.

It was definitely the village where he’d spent his childhood before he was kidnapped.

‘That’s why it felt so familiar.’

The reason the name ‘Cappy Village’ felt familiar when it was mentioned by Sirith, who controlled the Deathbringer Revenants, the reason he felt so natural when he walked through the forest path on the way there, and the reason he became so certain upon seeing the mountain ridge from the village’s entrance was because he lived in that village before.

‘Ugh…’

Another memory stimulated his brain alongside an intense headache. It was a young couple. He could see two people who seemed to be his mother and father from his previous life.

He couldn’t see their faces. All he could recognize were their hands and mouths. Their touch was extremely unfriendly and their tightly closed lips implied they were angry.

After that, he could remember how his mother ran down the path while carrying him on her back. Her rough steps seemed to imply that she didn’t care at all about causing him injury.

“Hah…”

Raon covered his forehead and sighed quietly.

‘I thought I was kidnapped, but I was sold off instead.’

He’d been comforting himself by thinking that he was kidnapped by the Shadows rather than being abandoned by his parents, yet it was proving to be wrong.

He wanted to throw up. He regretted coming to that place because he wouldn’t have seen that nasty memory otherwise. It was painful, making him feel as if ants were gnawing at his heart.

‘Damn it…’

As he was clutching his head in pain, he could hear a quiet voice from behind him.

“Are you feeling ill?”

Raon hurriedly turned around. A gentle-looking old man was smiling at him while leaning toward him.

‘I didn’t even notice an ordinary person’s approach…’

He couldn’t even feel the faintest trace of mana from him. He was an ordinary person who hadn’t even begun to learn martial arts. He hadn’t even noticed his approach because of his turbulent emotions.

“…I’m fine.”

Raon let out the husky voice of a middle-aged man, befitting his disguise.

“Hmm, it doesn’t look like this is your first time here.”

“Why do you think so…?”

“The forest path.”

The old man looked behind him and pointed at the path that he’d come down.

“Those who’ve never been to the village before usually walk through the broad roads instead of a forest path like that.”

He smiled faintly and extended his hand.

“I’m the chief of Capply Village, Beruric.”

“My name is Vallen.”

Raon shook hands with him while telling him the fake name that he’d come up with in advance.

“You must’ve been surprised because you haven’t been to the village in a long time.”

“Indeed.”

Raon simply nodded since he figured he could get some information from Beruric.

“It did change a lot. It will deserve to be called a city soon enough.”

He looked around the village in satisfaction.

“How did Capply Village become so big?”

“Of course, it’s because of the iron mine.”

“Iron mine?”

“Hmm? Do you even not know about that? The mine was discovered a long time ago…”

Beruric tilted his head, saying that they found the mine when he was still young.

“I’ve been here multiple times before, but I simply passed by every time. That’s why I don’t know.”

“In that case, I shall explain it to you!”

He came up next to Raon with a smile on his face. He must’ve been yearning to advertise the village that had developed so much.

“Please enter for now.”

Beruric simply pointed his hand and entered the village.

Raon licked his lips while looking at his back.

‘This isn’t a bad development.’

The Black Market’s information hadn’t arrived yet, probably because he came to Capply Village too quickly.

Since it was a perfect opportunity to get some information in advance, he decided to follow Beruric while matching his pace.

“As I said before, the iron mine’s discovery was the reason our village developed so much. I don’t remember exactly since I was living in a nearby village back then, but it was dozens of years ago.”

“……”

Raon narrowed his eyes while listening to Beruric.

‘It must’ve happened after I left the village.’

There was no way the village in his memory would’ve been so small and neat if the iron mine had been functional before then. The mine must’ve been discovered after he was kidnapped or sold off.

“The iron at the mine’s entrance was low quality, but it becomes better the deeper we go, and the reserve is huge. That’s why our village is becoming gradually more famous. We even got a new trade route to the center of the continent recently.”

Beruric couldn’t hold back his smile, happy about the village’s development.

“That’s nice. But how did you become the village chief here when you were living in a different village before?”

Raon asked a question that could provide him with some useful information while pretending to be interested in Beruric himself.

“I was originally living in Pricile Village, located on the other side of Haro Mountain.”

“Then why did you come here…?”

“Because a huge problem occurred in my village and Capply.”

“What would that be?”

“There was a landslide.”

* * *

Beruric sighed while telling the children to be careful as they ran around the village.

“More than half of this village and mine were destroyed by the landslide dozens of years ago. Many people died, adults and children alike, and there are many cases where we never managed to find the corpses.”

“Ah…”

“It was literally hell back then. The damage to Pricile Village was huge, but there were barely any survivors at all in Capply. Everyone decided that they wouldn’t be able to maintain the village and decided to leave, but the iron mine was accidentally discovered.”

He pointed at the entrance to the mine, located on the mountainside.

“I’m sorry for the deceased, but the living have to live on. The survivors from Capply and Pricile gathered here and became miners. A company called Yuuha built a factory over there, and everyone could live without starving.”

Beruric closed his eyes while looking at the huge factory located at the center of the village.

“I never knew something like that happened in the past. It must’ve been a hellish scene, since many children must’ve lost their parents.”

Raon expressed his sadness about the incident and secretly asked about the children.

“Unfortunately, most of the children and the young couples who should’ve been raising them were buried under the landslide. Instead of children’s cries, the cries of adults were prevalent back then.”

Beruric shook his head while saying that he still couldn’t forget that hellish scene from the past.

“I see…”

Raon’s hand trembled, hidden inside his sleeves.

‘So I wasn’t the only person that they took away.’

Even for such a deserted village, nearby martial families or kingdoms were bound to react if lots of children were kidnapped.

Derus must’ve caused the landslide that wouldn’t have happened otherwise to kidnap the children while avoiding the investigation from the others.

‘What a bunch of fiends…’

On top of kidnapping children, they even killed their parents with a landslide. Even the demons in hell wouldn’t do such a thing. He felt so nauseous that he felt like he was going to throw up.

“Huff…”

His lips parted before he knew it, and he breathed roughly. He wouldn’t have been able to hold back the urge to attack Derus if he were nearby.

“Here we go.”

As Raon was forcing himself to suppress his emotions, Beruric stopped walking. The large stone stack built at the entrance of Haro Mountain was as big as a building.

“This is the memorial stone made to comfort the deceased back then. It’s pretty much their grave. The survivors made this personally.”

Beruric nostalgically stared at the stone stack.

“This isn’t enough to comfort the deceased from such an unfortunate disaster, but…”

“……”

Raon walked up to the stone stack while listening to Beruric. Just as he was about to touch the stack with his trembling hand, a new memory surfaced in his mind alongside a powerful shock.

Instead of a new one, it was the same memory he’d seen when he’d arrived at the village.

However, he could clearly see his mother and father’s faces, unlike back then.

His father had gentle eyes even though his beard gave him a savage impression, and his mother looked beautiful, her black hair neatly hanging down her back. Their touches were still rough and their lips were tightly closed, but their eyes were different.

His parents were looking at him with eyes filled with sadness, pity, and impatience.

His father carefully caressed his head before handing him over to his mother and picking up an axe from the wall.

His mother nodded and went over the window. She passed the village entrance with bare feet and entered the forest path.

As she started to run, her feet and face became quickly covered in blood from the branches scratching her. Her rough breathing sounded like she was going to die at any moment, but she never stopped her steps.

However, she never managed to leave the forest path. She coughed up blood and collapsed the moment a black shadow approached her while hiding the faint moonlight, and his memory came to an end right there.

‘That’s why that touch…’

The unfriendly touch of his parents, their tightly closed lips, and rough steps through the forest were their efforts to save him from Derus’s subordinates.

He wasn’t abandoned or sold.

His parents had tried to protect him until the bitter end, even though their lives were also threatened.

His headache slowly subsided, and he could hear the voice of his parents.

William.

They used to call him that. The name meant that he was a gentle person who loved peace. It was his name even though he couldn’t live that way.

The memories of his past completely subsided after a clear scene where his parents were smiling at him.

He could see the stone stack once again. The strength left his body. He couldn’t even stay standing anymore because of how much his limbs were shaking.

Raon fell to his knees. He put his hands together while biting his lips in order to hide the wrath that was welling up from the bottom of his soul.

‘Mother, father. I’ll take revenge. I’ll bring Derus Robert’s head back here no matter what.’

Comforting the deceased was a matter for another time. It was time to pledge vengeance for the people who couldn’t even close their eyes as they perished while their children were being taken away from them.

“Thank you.”

Beruric patted his shoulder and smiled gently.

“They must be feeling thankful, too.”

He looked satisfied, implying that he thought Raon was praying to comfort the deceased.

“Do you have any other questions? I only know about what everyone else knows, but I’m in a good mood after getting to talk for once.”

Beruric smiled, showing his favorable impression of Vallen, the identity created by Raon.

“I’m currently looking for work. How do the factory and mine function?”

“Oh?”

Beruric smiled, saying that he would introduce him to them if he wanted work. Raon figured the way he had been quietly listening to his story must’ve gained his favor.

“I just want to look around for today since I need to notify my acquaintances from the village where I was initially planning to go.”

“You won’t be disappointed if you move to our village. It will become a city soon, after all.”

He quickly waved his hand and went ahead into the factory.

“Huh? Village chief?”

“What brings you here at this hour?”

The workers standing in front of a furnace bowed to the village chief.

“I dropped by on my way.”

The village chief shook his hand, telling them not to mind him.

“He must’ve forced a youngster to chat with him once again.”

“Judging from how dry his lips are, he must’ve suffered for a long time.”

“There’s at least one victim every week.”

The workers shook their heads, expressing their pity.

“Stop it! Don’t criticize me when I’m such a nice person!”

The village chief shook his hand with a flushed face. It must’ve happened many times before.

“……”

Raon nodded at them and examined the factory.

‘Every single one of them are ordinary people.’

He couldn’t find any mana or the characteristic movements of an assassin inside the factory. They were definitely people who ran a normal factory.

He couldn’t find any issues with the factory from a quick examination. However, since there was no way Sirith would’ve lied to him, there was definitely something in there.

Just as he was about to start up the Ring of Fire and the Perception of the Snow Flower, the room on the left opened up, and a middle-aged man with an abundant belly walked out of it.

“Huh, village chief? Nice to see you here.”

“Production manager, why is it so difficult to see you?”

Beruric called the middle-aged man a production manager with a frown around his lips.

“There is too much work to do. Who is the person next to you?”

The production manager smiled while looking at Raon. However, his eyes weren’t smiling, unlike his mouth.

“Ah, I caught him on the way here. I got to talk for a while.”

Beruric grinned, saying that he’d approached him first.

“Hah, so he’s another victim.”

The production manager waved his hand, telling him to have fun with the village chief’s chattering.

“It’s fine. I’m thankful to him because he told me a lot of good information.”

Raon lowered his head to the production manager. His serious eyes were glowing frighteningly as he raised his head back up.

‘I found you.’

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Writing Ant, 글개미]

[Translator – Kyangi]

[Proofreader – Harley]