In Wind Village, year 1380, life was a burst of energy and joy for most. But there is always an exception.
Akusha was 25 when he still had dreams. Now, at 26, he is a textbook definition of a failure. Broken, unemployed, and rotting away. He lives no differently from the ghosts of the slums—disheveled, grimy, and drifting through a life that has lost its compass.
"I'm going to be an Astral Mage!" a young boy from a dirt-poor home once shouted, his voice thundering with conviction. His father fought back tears, forcing a fragile smile. "We will weather the storm together, son," he whispered, the words catching in his throat. He knew the truth: he couldn't afford a single year of tuition, let alone a degree. Akusha was that boy. Or he used to be. He never shared that dream with anyone else—only with his own soul.
Now, Akusha rots in a wretched attic, sharing his bed with the stench of moldy wood and the rhythmic drone of mosquitoes. When the clouds break, he doesn't bother with a bath; the rain does the job for him. Sometimes it's a cool mercy; sometimes it's a freezing curse.
"1, 2, 3... 8, 9." Akusha counted the coins in his palm. This pittance meant two things: find a job, or starve to death. Surprisingly, the second option didn't sound so bad. "Whatever. I'm used to it," he muttered. The ultimate lie of every man who has given up.
He survived only because of a kind-hearted landlady who let him occupy this attic for free. Still, the daily battle for a crust of bread was a war he was losing.
Akusha tried to surrender to sleep, hoping to drown out the hunger and the shame. "Go find the Lilylious constellation, and your life will change. I swear by Saint Miw!"
Akusha scoffed into the darkness. "There's no such thing. There's only—wait. Who said that?"
Silence. No one stood in the room. No one offered an answer. "Just the wind. Right. Just the wind." He felt "fine," yet a cold shiver told him everything was dangerously wrong. Sleep wouldn't come. Not because of the noise, but because of the terror. That voice hadn't just spoken; it had whispered his deepest, most forbidden craving: a chance to change.
"Nonsense," he hissed, yet the "wind's" words remained etched in his mind.
The next morning, as Akusha dragged himself down the attic stairs, the landlady intercepted him. "I need your help." Her daughter had been missing for 7 days. She wanted him to find her. "Me? I'm not exactly a specialist in missing persons, ma'am."
"You will find her. Saint Miw came to me in a dream. He said if you are the one to look, she will be found." She spoke with a bone-deep certainty. Akusha couldn't refuse—not after she had given him a roof.
By nightfall, Akusha stood on the hill where the girl was last seen, a flickering lantern in his hand. "I'll probably go missing myself before I find her," he grumbled. He spotted a clearing and moved to take a breath.
And there it was. A telescope. An elite instrument, abandoned in the middle of a wasteland. One of these cost 70 Gold Cancer coins. A farmer would have to work for 100,000 years—starving and saving—to afford one. Yet here it sat, worth a thousand lifetimes, resting on a lonely hill.
"Either the owner is rich enough to use gold as trash, or their IQ is lower than the temperature of the South Pole," Akusha sneered. Every astronomy student knew you needed a mountain peak, not a low hill, for a clear view.
"That voice... telling me to find that damn Lilylious star..." He scanned the area. Empty. He closed one eye, squinting through the expensive lens.
"ARIES, LEO... SAGITTARIUS... wait, what was that one? Dammit, I've been away from the books too long." A flash of regret hit him. Once, he had been the valedictorian of his Astronomy class.
"What kind of constellation is SAGITTARIUS?" A warm, melodic voice drifted into his ear. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, and he almost toppled the telescope. "W-who's there? What are you doing out here at midnight?"
The girl didn't answer. Instead, she delivered a cheerful uppercut straight to his jaw. Akusha was a skeleton in rags; a stiff breeze could break him. This "devastating" strike nearly launched him to the moon to meet Saint Miw in person.
"Are you a man or an ant?" The girl flexed, mocking him with her muscles. "Don't look down on me. I could carry you like a princess if I felt like it."
He rubbed his chin, checking for cracks. "Still attached. Good." He stood up, trembling. "I wasn't insulting you. I was worried. A woman around 35 went missing recently. It's not safe for a lady to wander alone at night."
The girl's face remained eerily calm. "The missing girl from Wind Village? The landlady's daughter? Last seen on this very hill?"
Akusha's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"
She sat on the grass, gesturing for him to join her. "My name is Ary. I'm the girl who went missing."
"Then why are you out here in this godforsaken void?"
Ary didn't answer. She buried her face in her hands and began to sob. Akusha panicked. "Hey! I didn't mean to offend you!"
Ary wiped her eyes, her voice trembling. "Do you know who the richest man in this village is?"
Akusha knew. The man was rich enough to crush anyone, literally or figuratively. A notorious lecher with a taste for young girls. "I know. What did that bastard do to you?"
"I accidentally tripped a teleportation trap and ended up here," Ary whispered. "But the truth is... I don't want to go back."
"You love your kids, don't you? Why stay away? And what's with the telescope?" He pressed for answers, but Ary only sobbed harder.
Then it clicked. Her husband. The "Rich Man." He liked young girls, but Ary, despite being over 30, was a rare beauty. She looked like a flower in full bloom, not a woman of her age.
Akusha was a failure, but he wasn't a coward. "Fine. I'll help you."
Ary looked up, bewildered. "Help me how? Go where?"
Akusha stood tall, his voice finally finding its old strength. "I don't know why you're crying yet. But I'm going to find the reason behind those tears!"
Ary flashed a mysterious, sharp smile. "Then take me to that mountain peak over there!"
[Author:"Thank you for reading ''THE WHISPER OF THE WIND'' ! If you like this story, please give me Power Stones or add it to your Library. It will be free for you, but it means everything to me!"]