The Soldiers and the Dandelions

“Teacher, over here! Over here!”

“Uhm, yes…”

Theodore, who had jumped down the path, was waving his hands to Sian. Sian looked down at him with a difficult expression.

Theodore, who had been locked in the mansion during the winter, was running around energetically with Sian.

Even Sian was finding it hard to keep up with Theodore. Sian nodded to Theodore with an awkward smile.

You really shouldn’t underestimate the protagonist. Theodore’s growth, which had been improving day by day with just a little bit of learning for a year, was also surprising to Sian.

Not only in swordsmanship and magic, but he also devoured books as if he was starving for knowledge, and read almost half of the books that Sian had.

Moreover, he reads a book in an instant and never forgets it even after time passes.

It was almost comparable to a dragon’s memory.

‘Well, you have to have that kind of ability to have the title of protagonist.’ She thought. ‘In the end, he becomes a transcendent and approaches God.’ Sian followed Theodore, vaguely imagining the future.

“There are lots of them here too!”

“I see.”

Looking down, sitting on the ground, the dandelion leaves that looked like a rake and the yellow flowers were in full bloom.

Not long after Theodore had discovered the dandelion leaves in the garden, many yellow dandelion flowers had bloomed on the mountain.

Flowers really bloomed like this on the Mountain of Death. Sian was in awe as she confirmed it with her own eyes.

Sian was also surprised at the side of Theodore, who was constantly admiring the flowers with joy.

‘Is it possible that Kalley’s experiment will really succeed and a lot of flowers of all kinds will bloom on the mountain?’

Even if it was a wildflower with strong vitality, other flowers or flower trees had to be grown more carefully.

Besides, the land had not been sufficiently purified yet.

“Uhm.”

“Teacher? What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“……?”

Theodore looked up at Sian, who was pondering, with a questioning gaze.

Then, a dandelion seed, carried by the wind, landed on Sian’s head. Theodore saw that and opened his eyes wide.

“Teacher!”

“Hmm?”

“Lower your head.”

“Why?”

“Quick!”

“……?”

Theodore urged her, so Sian had no choice but to lower her head.

Both of them were kneeling to see the dandelion flowers, so Sian only lowered her waist a little further while sitting.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just a moment.”

Theodore, who had been engrossed in the dandelion seeds, didn’t even properly answer Sian’s question.

Theodore, reaching out his hand, carefully grabbed the dandelion seed on Sian’s head.

“Now, it’s all…”

“……?”

“……!”

Theodore, after removing the dandelion seed, looked at Sian with a bright smile. But he stiffened his whole body as soon as his eyes met Sian’s questioning gaze.

The dark black eyes of Sian were the same color as the gem on the ring that Theodore was wearing.

At first, he was afraid that the ring would hurt him like the other accessories, but the ring with the gem that looked exactly like Sian’s eyes, somehow, didn’t seem to harm him.

Looking at the quiet and beautiful black eyes, Theodore’s heart ached in one corner.

Theodore was always happy and excited when he looked at Teacher, but now he felt a different feeling for some reason when he was face to face. Theodore, with just a young heart, thought that he wasn’t sick.

“Theo?”

“Ah.”

Theodore was startled and quickly stepped back when Sian called.

Sian realized that the seed had been removed from her head after seeing the dandelion seed that Theodore was holding.

“It must have been on my head.”

“Yes, yes…”

“Thank you.”

“……”

Theodore couldn’t bring himself to meet Sian’s smiling eyes. Sian, with a red face, looked down at the ground, and she asked with concern.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No, no. Just…”

“Just?”

“……”

Theodore, hesitating a little, looked at the dandelion seeds fluttering in the wind, and answered in a small voice as if muttering.

“The flowers… are pretty.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Although Theodore’s appearance of hesitating was a little strange, Sian didn’t take it seriously because she could immediately tell if Theodore was hurting thanks to the magic item.

She was more concerned about the aura that had been felt near the barrier since earlier. Sian frowned.

Several months had already passed since the residents of Ador Village had settled inside the barrier.

At the time, it was around the beginning of the rainy season, when it was perfect to make it look like the residents had died in a landslide.

After the long rainy season ended, the soldiers dispatched by the lord to find the missing villagers had, as Sian expected, roughly looked around the place where the landslide had occurred and went back.

After that, winter had come, so there were no more soldiers coming and going around the mountain.

But did they send the soldiers again after winter was over and the weather became warm? Sian pondered inwardly because of the unfamiliar aura that was felt more and more strongly around the barrier.

“Teacher? What’s wrong?”

“Theo, we have to go back today.”

“Yes? Why?”

Theodore, who had been excited about the long-awaited outing, was openly disappointed at Sian’s words.

He would be sad to go back so quickly. But there was no other choice.

She couldn’t leave someone lingering around the barrier as it was, and it wasn’t desirable to leave Theodore alone in a place like this.

In the end, Sian decided to take Theodore to the mansion and then go to the area around the barrier.

“Teacher has a place to go for a moment.”

“Can’t I go too?”

“It’s dangerous, so no.”

“But…”

Theodore wasn’t the type to throw a tantrum like this. He must have enjoyed being outside after a long time.

She had let him play in the garden often after the weather had gotten warmer, but was that not enough?

Sian felt sorry for him, too, but she comforted Theodore, promising him next time.

“Let’s play longer next time. Okay?”

“Tsk… Yes…”

Sian thought even Theodore’s expression of pouting was cute.

But since the situation was what it was, she stopped acting like a fool and recited a magic spell inwardly. In an instant, the two people’s figures disappeared.

More than a dozen armed soldiers were gathered below the mountain.

They were revisiting the area where the landslide had occurred last year.

The faces of the soldiers who were looking around, as a result of the black earth and huge rocks mixed together, were grim.

The soldiers’ faces were filled with tension. In fact, coming here was virtually risking their lives.

Magical beasts resided mainly around the top of the mountain, where magic gathered, but sometimes there were some that rushed down the mountain to attack people when they lacked food.

“Ugh, damn it. Well, there’s nothing to see. Why did the lord guy make such a fuss….”

“Shh, be careful what you say.”

“Tch…”

The soldiers, who had come to the mountain against their will because of the lord’s demands, all had dark expressions.

During the first investigation, they had managed to find only a few belongings of the villagers and went back.

It was because the terrain was unstable after the rainy season had just ended, and it was more difficult to investigate because of the barrier inside the mountain.

Moreover, too much time had already passed, so it was difficult to find even the traces that they had barely discovered at that time. The ground that had been frozen hard during the winter had melted, and the terrain had changed even more than before.

“We have to do what we’re told. What else can we do?”

“Ha…”

Even so, they were here again because the lord was making a fuss about the disappearance of the residents of Ador Village.

It was obvious that the villagers, who had abandoned the village due to excessive conscription and taxes, had been caught in the landslide while wandering down to the Mountain of Death, but he would not budge.

Even if the villagers, as the lord suspected, had luckily avoided the landslide, it was impossible for them to survive unless they entered the mountain.

“Ugh, there are no more traces except for these rock piles, so what can we do to find them?”

“……”

Some, among the soldiers expressing their dissatisfaction, stared at the piles of rocks that had fallen down due to the landslide without saying anything with dark faces.

Someone, looking at their faces, poked the ribs of the soldier who was expressing his dissatisfaction with his elbow.

“Don’t get too angry. There are also a few from Ador Village here.”

“No, is the lord, this crazy guy, including the missing villagers in the investigation team?”

“Is he the type to care about such things?

These days, there aren’t enough people because of the war, so it seems like the chief had no choice… Anyway, what must those people be feeling right now?”

“Yeah… they’d know each other since it’s a small village. It’s hard.”

Tsk, the sound of someone clicking their tongue was heard around.

Even while listening to those words, the soldiers, with gloomy faces, endlessly looked up at the piles of rocks.