Chapter 148

Chapter 148

***

The tent fabric fluttered in the night wind. The peculiar vulgar laughter and shouts of people drunk on alcohol were not heard in the encampment.

Instead of sacrificing countless lives, the fact that the commanders would decide victory and defeat through a one-on-one duel had spread entirely to the soldiers.

The soldiers all knew too. That Rickart and Vilter were brothers.

There are various tragedies in war, but among them, there was nothing as sad as pointing swords at one's own flesh and blood divided into sides.

Inside the dark tent, Rickart was sitting on a chair, holding his head with his upper body bent forward. Whether sleeping like that, or dead. He stayed in that state continuously. He wasn't sobbing.

Looking at such Rickart, Hashim truly had nothing to say. Think beyond that? Accept it?

At the last of the last moments, he ultimately had to figure it out himself.

However unexpectedly, Rickart lifted his head and spoke to Hashim first. His expression was calm.

"In case I suffer a mishap, Hashim you, please deliver the news of my death in battle to my family. I will give the sword, armor, and horse to you, so if you dispose of them you will not have great difficulty making a living."

"......Is it a will?"

"It is something like that."

"Can you absolutely not make a resolve?"

"No."

"Then?"

"I think I will only know when that moment comes. Until then, no matter how much I try to make up my mind, what doesn't work seems to not work. When I draw my sword from the scabbard, I have never hesitated even once. Whether it was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do. The reason I haven't been defeated until now might be exactly because of that. So if hesitation dwells at the tip of my sword, I don't know what will happen to me either. Because I've never been like that."

"What makes you, Ricky, fight your brother?"

"I don't know that either. Stupid right. Hahaha......"

"Then what if you think of it like this? If you don't stop your brother, it's because things will worsen even more. Both for your brother himself, and for innocent people. Since terrible things continue to happen, you have no choice but to fight for anyone's sake."

"You, Hashim, always speak the correct answer. However, right now I just want to leave it in an unknown state. Because I do not want to justify it with anything. Tomorrow, one of the two will become a kin-slayer. That is the only evident truth."

"Do not push yourself too hard...... No one criticizes you in such a way."

At Hashim's comfort, Rickart smiled gently.

"Thank you. But, for now I want to be alone."

Hashim nodded his head. However, before leaving the tent, he asked one thing.

"What did you pray about in the Holy Land?"

"Saying it now makes me a little embarrassed though."

"I recall that you told me. You prayed that you definitely wanted to meet your brother."

"Then your wish came true. Mine is nothing much. At the final of final moments, I said I wanted to be a person who quietly tears up. I think I wished to become a person capable of doing so. Funny right?"

"No. Your wish will also come true."

"Well......"

"Get some rest."

Hashim left the tent. Bonfires lit by soldiers were burning here and there in the encampment.

Hashim didn't particularly have anything to call luggage. Neither food, nor clothes. If his shoes wore out he just walked barefoot.

He left the encampment holding the bottle containing the crystal flower. Climbing a low rocky mountain nearby, he sat down precisely. Closing his eyes, he entered meditation.

There was one thing he hadn't told Rickart, which was that memories and the like didn't matter anymore.

What he wished for right now was solely that Rickart would overcome his sin and sorrow and live a healthy life again.

Would there truly be magic that makes that possible? He didn't know now, but if he recovered his lost memories he might know.

However, he was anxious that his current mindset might waver once he regained his memories. Therefore, it was a meditation to not waver.

Like counting grains of crop one by one, Hashim traced back his past.

Between memories cut off here and there, he was connecting them with some probability without even realizing it. Cutting off all those probabilities, he merely looked at each memory just as it was.

Even so, it was difficult to know the existence called 'I'. Therefore, what the current me, and the past me, on earth was, who it was, couldn't be known.

Still, although the flesh is restricted by time and space, thoughts and mind could head to the past, so Hashim immersed himself more and more in meditation. Then his senses dulled and he began to forget the time of reality as well.

The night deepened, dawn broke, and the sun poked its head out. When he opened his eyes again, nothing had changed. But that rather felt fortunate.

However, the reality he faced after meditation ended was the time when the duel was already about to begin. The sky was tightly packed with dark clouds.

On the field, combining both sides, nearly 10,000 men were filling the field full. Even the murmuring sounds weren't that loud so it was an atmosphere like some large-scale funeral.

The first to reveal his figure was Vilter. Mounted on an ash-grey horse, not wearing a helmet. Because of vision and sound, there were many cases of not wearing helmets in duels.

When he revealed his figure, before long Rickart also came out holding a lance, riding the red horse. All the people on the field watched the two people.

There was no referee, and no moderator. Rickart and Vilter merely looked at each other from afar.

When Vilter stepped forward first, Rickart also moved forward. And when Vilter increased his speed and ran towards his brother, Rickart also spurred on and ran forward.

The two reached top speed in an instant. With no past and no future, each other's lance tips pierced through time seeking only death.

Would victory or defeat be decided in a single clash? Hashim, as well as the watching people, felt an anxious heart.

At the moment of the decisive battle, the two lance tips merely sliced through the empty air and passed by. The brothers who quickly brushed past each other hurriedly turned their horses.

Rickart's horse was much better so the direction change was faster, and he surged in again. However, it was inevitably slower compared to the first charge.

If done well, Rickart's lance seemed like it would pierce him. But Vilter didn't run towards him, slipping away to the side breathtakingly. Then he let go of the lance from his hand, drew his sword, and slashed Rickart's lance shaft.

As if he even expected it, Rickart wasn't flustered in the slightest, threw away his lance without lingering attachment, and drew his own sword.

Golden flames bloomed along the blade. Then, flames also surged on Vilter's sword.

The colors of the two were different. One was golden, while Vilter's was exactly red full of vengeance and resentment. The two swords clashed as the two horses mingled dizzily.

Then a sound no one had ever heard in their life echoed very loudly all the way to Hashim far away.

Chwaaaang-!

A shockwave spread out and the grass in the field lay flat. Seen from afar the fight between the two people looked small, but all that bloodthirstiness was conveyed.

With things turning out like this, the direction of victory or defeat couldn't be known. So Hashim's heart became urgent and he unknowingly broke the bottle containing the crystal flower.

And then he put the crystal flower in a small bowl and gently crushed it with a stick. Then the crystal flower became powder like ice or glass breaking. Hashim set fire to it.

Smoke rose, and Hashim brought it to his nose and inhaled deeply. Then a terrifying scent like the chill of the netherworld passed his nose and directly struck his brain, and what was beyond it.

His body convulsed. Lost memories unfolded like a panorama, and like stamping a brand on his eyes.

At some pier, a slave boy was seen. His thoroughly emaciated body draped in tattered sacking clearly showed traces of abuse. His eyes seemed to have died a long time ago. Hashim approached the boy and asked.

'What is your name?'

'Armand.'

'Do you not feel cursed by the world?'

'It's just...... lonely.'

'Then I will impart one secret method to you, so would you like to make family or friends?'

'I would like that.'

'Instead, your soul will no longer be yours.'

'I already have no soul. Only by killing the soul, can I live.'

'I understand......'

It couldn't be known exactly how long ago this memory was. However, he could guess it was extremely long ago estimating from the surrounding scenery.

Another memory, a magnificent mountain range topped with eternal snow unfolded before his eyes. Beside him stood a man with short hair, a very large build, and a naive appearance.

'No, really, I'm telling you they can't use their power if you pull out their horns. Isn't there such a saying? Pull out the iron horn while it's hot.'

'That isn't a saying used in the current situation. And, the horn you speak of right now is not some cow's but exactly a dragon's, is it not.'

'A horn is all the same horn, what's different?'

'Sigh......'

'Just trust this Ilya-nim! If you're that anxious, old man you stay hidden! I'll take care of everything! Regaining memories in an instant with dragon's magic! It's a perfect operation!'

The large man bent both his arms and showed his biceps as if showing off his strength. His ignorant yet bright smile was truly like sunlight.

However, that sunlight changed to scorching sunshine, and Hashim headed to an even more distant past.

It was weather where sweat seemed to trickle just from standing still. The sound of cicadas was heard from afar. He stood in the middle of a wheat field. Yellow ripened wheat reached his waist.

'Try saying it once again!'

'Ah, I'm telling you it was just a mistake! You're really acting so picky. I said sorry!'

'Is that the attitude of a person who is sorry!? You did that on purpose right!? You purposely let the sheep loose in my field right!?'

'I said no! Why would I do that on purpose!'

Saying so, the boy spun around and went his way. Suddenly anger flared up, Hashim forcefully pushed the boy, climbed atop the fallen boy, picked up a nearby stone, and lifted it high above his head.

And struck down.

Thwack!

'Ack! Why are you doing this!'

Thwack!

'D, don't do this! I'm sorry! I was wro......!'

Thwack!

'Forgive me!'

Thwack!

'Cain, please...... forgive......'

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Crunch!

"Gasp!"

Cain's eyes shot wide open. His eyes and mouth were wide open. From an incredibly massive shock, his whole body trembled uncontrollably. Rigid face, tears flowed down his cheeks.

Even though it was an event from the unimaginably distant past, that terrible sensation was vividly alive in his hands.

Cain was oppressed by massive regret and guilt, and his own unbearable cowardice. To escape from the guilt, he had thrown away his memories himself.

The reason he developed magic was largely due to such reason, and he had been repeating the foolish act of losing his memory and learning magic again from disciples he taught.

Agony pressing down on his heart, his soul, assailed him. But at that time, the shouts of the two brothers brought him to reality.

"Coward!"

"The coward is you!"

The brothers' duel had already become a messy fight. It was heavily emotional, and the beauty of arts could not be found.

The two people fell from their horses and rolled in the field tumbling and tossing. Sometimes Vilter climbed atop his younger brother, then Rickart reversed it and climbed atop instead.

They blindly hit with their fists and seemed ready to strike down with whatever their hands grabbed.

"No!"

Cain shouted. But that shout was too far to reach. Magic, magic!

Cain hurriedly tried to cast magic, but having regained his memories he couldn't use the power of magic. Because the essence of the magic he commanded was forgetting.

At that time Rickart reached out and grabbed his sword fallen nearby.

From that, his posture crumbled somewhat, and in that opening Vilter shook him off and ran away. He too grabbed his sword. The two brothers swung towards each other the moment they grabbed their swords.

It was a hair's breadth difference. Rickart's sword pierced Vilter's abdomen.

"Urgh!"

Clang.

Vilter missed the sword from his hand. Even though 10,000 brave people were gathered in the field, it was quiet as a dead mouse. Cain blankly watched that sight.

The blood that flowed from the abdomen of the man born from the same womb soaked Rickart's hand. The fiercely burning emotion cooled abruptly like a lie. What exactly have I done.

Rickart momentarily felt dizzy before his eyes. Mother, I have killed Mother's child. What should I do about this.

Vilter's legs lost strength and he collapsed, and Rickart knelt while supporting and holding him. Coming to this point he couldn't even say sorry, his head was a jumbled mess so his mouth only gaped silently.

Vilter extended a trembling hand and touched Rickart's cheek. And coming to this point, he spoke his true feelings.

"I missed you, Ricky......"

From Rickart's blank face only tears dripped down.

"Actually, I'm, a coward, yes. Father too, brother too, I miss them but...... patience, I raised, a lot, but...... saying harsh words, sorry...... forgive me...... haa......"

Vilter let out his final breath, and dropped his head heavily. His soul slipped out from his opened pupils.

That boy in the most beautiful memories, my brother, Billy didn't disappear. Playing around in the fields laughing together, joking, sleeping together at night, that scared look when we parted......

What drove the boy to this extreme?

Unable to accept reality at all, Rickart stayed blankly for a while, then bowed his head holding his dead brother's corpse. He gritted his teeth tightly as if they would break.

I prayed in the Holy Land, saying I wanted to be someone who quietly tears up, but it seemed that wish couldn't be fulfilled.

Throwing his head back towards the ashen sky full of dark clouds, Rickart burst out an unbearable sorrow.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Rickart's scream reached the 10,000 people, and even up to Cain on the rocky mountain.

Cain closed his eyes. His eyelids trembled and his eyelashes wet. In the end, what is meant to happen happens. Just as he taught Armand.

However, forgetting or whatever was unnecessary now. Just faintly realizing the working of God, there was only one earnest wish.

Since I will no longer run away and shoulder the eternal pain, please overlay his sin onto me. Let me be able to embrace his sorrow and pain......

Then suddenly, as if the prayer truly reached heaven, a hole popped open in the sky full of dark clouds. And from there down to where Rickart was, light poured down straight.

It was a golden pillar of light illuminating the ground from heaven, and that light fell like a waterfall.

It was exactly as if God was singling someone out with His finger. The one who looks into the beginning and end of the universe, all time, pointed exactly to one person right now, at the present.

A deed that could only be called a miracle, everyone on site witnessed it and their faces were dyed with astonishment.

Rickart looked up at the light falling on him with his hair fluttering. There was no glare, merely full of pure white.

Within that pure white light was remission of sins, filled with forgiveness, compassion, and love. The sorrow and pain remained as they were, but the healing and joy behind them were visible.

The heart torn into a thousand, ten thousand pieces closed up quickly yet slowly.

Then at some point the beam of light thinned, and disappeared. A hole was still popped open in the sky, and clouds slowly filled that hole.

Rickart suddenly felt the arms holding Vilter became lighter. Looking down, Vilter was nowhere to be found. Only his own sword had dropped lonely on the ground.

On the rocky mountain, only the scattered clothes and ashes piled on the ground blew in the wind.

The first murder occurred, as it was something that happened between brothers. Finally, the long karma had its period marked.

Everyone on the field knelt towards the knight chosen by God, ordained by God, taking off what they wore on their heads, and making the sign of the cross.

There was neither the previous lamentation, nor sobbing for the bowed Rickart. Merely, only tears flowed quietly.

This was exactly the method by which God saved everyone, and no one could understand it.

Chapter 30 - Murder of Abel, Death of Cain. End.