小嫂子的味道

"Were you the one who killed it?" I asked, a sense of caution in my voice as I unconsciously took a step back.

It was horrifying to believe that a human can kill a klauth; the dragons the whole world feared, whom even the five kings did not dare to attack. To be able to kill such a thing… was a terrifying thought. I was scared, as a kid should be from such a person.

"Did I kill it, I wonder" Reshi said while still looking at the skeleton. "Well, a cave this big can't be formed naturally—not even by the biggest lava tubes, and I can't dig it with my hands, so…" he stopped, which was a sensible thing to do.

There was no more need for words. I already had the answer I wanted. He had killed the klauth, whose skeleton lay before me. This person had the power to kill the being on the top of the food chain. He…

My body and survival instincts screamed that I should get away from him and run as far as I can without even looking back in his direction.

Run and run until my legs are numb my lungs out of breath my throat dried up my sweat drained out, run until I can't.

I dripped into a cold sweat as I took two more steps back and gulped nervously.

"Thank you for saving my life, but I want to leave now. Please show me the way," I said. Under normal circumstances, I would've broken out into a sprint without saying anything to him. But here I can't possibly climb down the Devil's Mountains on my own.

And what I feared the most at the moment…

"No. You can't leave."

…came.

I gulped once again and took a deep breath to calm myself. I needed to keep my mind clear if I had to handle this. All the cells in my body were screaming that I would die if I made a mistake. Hence, I took another long breath, and let it out.

I asked, "Why?"

"Because I want you to be my successor, to continue the legacy of the Requiem sword," he said. I must've had a confused expression, since what he did next was probably to erase my confusion.

He turned to face me, and then he raised his right hand in the air. He stuck his fingers close and then made the motion of slashing the air with just his hand. At the same time, a magic circle glowed on top of his palm, and the trail where he'd slashed the air shone similarly.

Right before my eyes, even though I didn't know it at that time, space itself was torn apart, leaving a gush in the air. Reshi inserted his hand inside the cut and when he pulled it back, he was holding onto a beautiful sword with a dark, ocean-blue colored blade.

The gush in the air closed itself and things were back as if nothing had happened at all, as if there was never a cut in the first place.

Reshi looked at the sword for a good while, I saw his eyes and there was a warm feeling of admiration. At the same time, they were full of resentment.

Then he held out the sword toward me, and I scanned it with my eyes. It was truly a beautiful sword, not that I'd seen many at that time.

"I have but one wish, and that is to die peacefully. But this sword won't let that happen, I can't die as long as I have this. That's why I want to pass it to you," he said.

"So…basically, you want me to take your cursed sword from you?" I asked; I wasn't aware of it at that time, but I was speaking sarcastically.

"This isn't a cursed sword, girl. I'll admit it resembles a curse, but that it does for me, as I long to die. I have lived my life and spent many years with this sword, and it has yet to let me down. It is powerful, and it made me powerful. A sword like this is perfect for someone like you."

The wording caught my attention.

"What do you mean by 'someone like me?'"

He sighed, then looked back up.

"You see, along with doing magic, I can do many other things too. One of them is seeing the soul of things. These eyes of mine, they see the soul of things. Plants, animals, dragons, rocks, wood, even you. I see the soul of all things, and the soul of a person tells many things about them."

Everything was getting over my head, I did not understand a single word of what he said. You can't blame me. Despite all the circumstances, I was but a kid. He seemed to know that.

"Everything in this world has a soul, it doesn't matter whether it is a living thing or a non-living thing. And I have the power to see them with these eyes of mine. Especially in humans, their soul tells a lot about the person to whom it belongs. Such as your soul tells me about you."

"What does it say?" I asked.

"That you want something, no, you desire something. Your desire is strong, too strong. There is a fire burning inside of you, a flame of vengeance. Yeah, that is what you want: revenge. Isn't that right?"

It surprised me to know how right he was, and I was in no place to question the power of the person who'd killed klauth.

I was left speechless for a moment, or so I thought…

"You are right. Revenge, that is what I want more than anything," it was not my intention to speak, but I was. Words were pouring out of me on their own. "I want to kill them, every single one of them. I want to burn them alive, just like they did to my people."

Finally, I knew why it was happening. The way Reshi described my nature brought back memories I'd locked away deep in the chambers of my mind. I began to remember it all.

How my house was burning, how I was digging around with my hands even though they were smoldered by fire, the smell of burning flesh and hair, what I saw when I finally found them, the way my father's arms were twisted and broken like sticks, the way my mother's head was…

I remembered it all, and with that came rage. The rage I'd felt when I was ravaged by that bastard, the anger I felt when I wasn't able to catch hold of Roe's hand. All of it came flooding out, and I broke into tears.

Reshi slashed the air the same way he'd done before and put the sword back. Then he came to me and patted me on the back, and I cried more widely. We sat on the floor, and Reshi was quiet until I was done crying.

When it seemed like I was done, he spoke in a simple and caring tone. "Tell me. Tell me everything that's happened to you, the least I can do for you now is help you lessen the burden on your heart."

So I told him everything. How my parents were murdered, how my village was burned, how I was captured and then ravaged by a knight, how I tried to escape when the dragons attacked but ended up losing Roe, how I then lost consciousness, everything. I told him everything that has happened till then.

And he listened, quietly and attentively. He did not say a single word or tried to interrupt when I started to cry or when I spoke some words a mannerly woman shouldn't while I addressed the five kings.

"Everything was the fault of this war and the five kings who are responsible for this. And I swear I'll kill them in the worst possible way, and make them pay for it. No matter what I have to do to achieve that goal," I finished, my cheeks red with all the crying and raging.

"I understand. That is what reflects in your soul, that desire. And that's the reason I say wielding the Requiem sword is perfect for you. It is the five kings you are going up against, after all. All of them are ridiculously strong, that is something I can confirm via personal experience," Reshi said, finally deciding to break the silence.

"And to need the power to do that. You need power, and the Requiem sword has it. This was the very sword that I used to slay that klauth you're seeing over there," he added.

"So, will you be willing to wield the sword for me?" he asked.

The question left me wondering.