"Are you pretending you didn't hear me?"
The voice rang as if it were echoing directly inside Aster's ear.
Aster's eyes widened. He quickly slipped out from under the man's arm and turned to face him.
"Hans!"
It was Hans, the village chief.
"Why are you sneaking around?" Hans asked with a grin, glancing at the axe in Aster's hand.
"And with such a big axe, no less."
Hans was a former adventurer and swordsman. Unable to let go of his old habits, he always carried two swords hanging from his belt.
Aster frowned at his words.
"It's not big at all. It suits me just fine. And I'm not a little kid anymore. I turned twelve today."
Hearing Aster's childish declaration, Hans covered his mouth with his hand, barely holding back his laughter, his shoulders trembling slightly.
Aster stared at him seriously.
'If he laughs, I'll punch him in the stomach.'
Noticing that look, Hans quickly composed himself and coughed a couple of times to suppress his amusement.
"Oh? You say you're a man now?" Hans said.
"You still have a long way to go before you can call yourself that. You'll be a real man when you can shoulder responsibility for others as well. Ah, such manly words!"
He ruffled Aster's hair.
While listening to him, Aster suddenly remembered something important.
His mother's dinner.
How could he forget that?
"I have to go! I promised my mom I'd gather firewood," Aster shouted as he ran off.
As he hurried away, Hans called out after him.
"Be careful! Don't go near the river!"
Aster heard him and nodded without stopping.
Before long, Aster reached the forest and got to work.
After finishing the firewood, a tree branch scraped his hand as he moved.
The wound wasn't serious—but it was bleeding.
'What should I do about the blood?'
As he wondered, he heard the sound of a river nearby.
The river was swollen and overflowing. Even though it was the last month of spring, a heavy flood had passed through just yesterday.
Because of that, many things carried by the water were piled along the riverbank—wagon wheels, wooden planks, stones.
Aster approached the river, removed the cloth that had been tied over his eyes earlier, and began washing his hand.
The bleeding quickly stopped. Since he had been sweating while cutting branches, he also washed his face.
'That feels much better.'
He glanced at his reflection in the water.
While sitting there, lost in thought, something suddenly glimmered beneath the surface of the river.
'What is that?!'
Drawn by the shine, Aster reached into the water and picked it up.
To his shock, it was a red, solid stone—something that looked exactly like a ruby.
But how could such a rare stone end up here?
As Aster stared at it, he couldn't fully grasp just how valuable the object in his hand was.
'Could this really be…?'
He examined the stone more closely.
He was so happy he could have jumped for joy. And then another thought crossed his mind.
Human greed quietly did the rest.
'What if there are more?!'
With sharp eyes, he scanned the river.
After searching carefully, he found six more stones just like it.
He was practically floating with happiness.
It wasn't just about selling them and living better—
More than anything, he imagined the joy on his mother's face when he gave them to her.
Drunk on happiness, holding the stones in both hands, he started heading back to his mother—
Crss
He heard a strange sound.
It came from the stones.
Cold sweat broke out across Aster's body.
"Nothing's happened to them, right?!"
He looked at the stones closely.
Small cracks were forming on their surface. The cracks grew larger and larger, ruining the stones completely.
'What's happening to them?! They were fine just a moment ago! What did I do?!'
Aster panicked, terrified that he had done something wrong.
In truth, these stones were far from ordinary.
And normally, nothing could cause them to decay—
Except for one thing.
'What do I do now?! I have to do something!'
He leaned in closer.
At that moment, the stones shattered into fine dust and burst straight into Aster's eyes.
Though as fine as powder, the instant the dust entered his eyes, his entire body began to convulse violently, completely beyond his control.
Unable to endure the pain, Aster rubbed his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs.
It felt as if someone were gouging his eyes out.
No one heard him.
The village was far away, and the roaring, foaming river drowned out any human voice.
No one came to help Aster.
He himself was powerless to do anything.
The only thing he could do was keep rubbing his eyes, desperately hoping the pain would fade—
Even though it didn't help at all.
While rubbing his eyes, Aster noticed something.
"What is this?!" he muttered in a trembling voice, barely opening his eyes and looking at his hands.
His vision had turned completely red.
It was because what flowed from his eyes were not tears, but blood.
Not fast—but enough to notice. Like tears.
'I need to go home…'
Gathering what little strength he had left, Aster decided to walk back.
With his eyes shut, he stretched his hands forward, trying to find his way. He took a few steps—
Then suddenly, all the strength left his legs.
The red in his vision slowly turned black.
At that moment, he realized he was losing consciousness.
He felt as if he were slipping away from life itself.
His body grew lighter and lighter, as though he were about to float away.
Yet the pain in his eyes kept his soul bound to his body, refusing to let him fade completely.
Before long, everything was swallowed by darkness.
After some time had passed, Aster slowly began to regain consciousness.
'Where am I? When did I pass out? No… first I need to figure out where I am.'
He thought drowsily.
He tried to open his eyes—but the pain wouldn't allow it.
"Ah—my eyes!"
He pressed his hands against them.
Even so, he forced them open slightly.
When he did, he realized he was in his own room, lying wrapped in blankets.
'Who brought me here?!'
As he looked around, the door opened and Aurora rushed in.
"Are you okay?!" she cried, running to his side.
Her eyes were filled with tears, her breathing uneven.
"You scared me! What happened?!"
Seeing her like that, Aster didn't want to make her worry even more.
Still, calming her down took quite some time.
After Aurora finally settled, Aster asked,
"Who brought me home?"
She explained everything.
"You were gone for a long time, so I went to Hans. He said you'd gone toward the river. We searched together and found you unconscious. Hans carried you back. He said he'd come check on you tomorrow. What happened?"
After that, Aster had no choice but to explain everything that had occurred.
"Are you really okay? Your eyes…" she asked, her voice trembling.
"I'm fine now. They just hurt a little," he said with a shrug.
Hearing that, Aurora glared at him angrily.
"Just a little?! How can you say that so calmly? What if you'd gone blind?!"
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she said firmly,
"That's it. Tomorrow, we're going to see the healer."
The moment she said that, Aster felt as if he had to recover immediately.
He knew exactly who that healer was.
'I don't want to see that witch.'
There was a reason he called her that.
Once, when he'd gone to her for a simple cold, she gave him some 'healing medicine'. That was when Aster realized—his cold would have been better without it.
'I spent the entire day in the latrine. I'd rather stay sick than drink that witch's so-called healing herbs again.'
Aster now had an important mission.
Convince his mother.
"I'm really fine. Truly. If I just get some rest, it'll pass. There's no need to go see the healer. Why bother her? She should rest too."
Aurora frowned.
"Maybe I'll call her anyway. Just to be safe. She should examine you."
Hearing that, cold sweat ran down Aster's back.
After a long discussion, he finally managed to persuade her.
"…Fine," she said, giving him a meaningful look.
Aster let out a sigh of relief and glanced out the window.
Only the stars were visible in the night sky.
He blinked repeatedly, unable to believe his eyes.
To think that whatever those strange stones were, entering his eyes had put him out for so long…
That was truly strange.
Not long after, Aurora left his room.
Silence filled the space.
No sound. No voice.
Aster lay down and closed his eyes.
But after some time—
Something strange began to happen.
As he lay in bed, Aster started hearing unsettling, terrifying sounds. At first, he thought it was just the wind.
But the sounds grew closer—more dreadful.
Someone was crying. Someone was screaming.
It felt as if a horrific uproar were hanging over the village.
At first, Aster didn't understand what was happening. Then he thought maybe there was a fight in someone's house.
Trying to escape the noise, he covered his ears with his pillow.
It didn't help.
No matter how much he blocked his ears, the sounds wouldn't stop.
They only grew louder.
In the end, unable to endure it any longer, Aster forced himself outside to see what was happening in the village.
'Will you all just calm down…? People are trying to sleep.'
Then—
The sight before his eyes froze him in place.
Half of the village was already engulfed in raging flames.