Riftan’s POV (Under the Oak Tree Side Story)

“Hang in there! I’m in the middle of healing you.”

He heard a familiar voice against his confused thoughts. Riftan turned his eyes and witnessed the magician mending his half-torn arm.

Blinking at the strange sight, Riftan scratched the ground with his other hand as his bones and flesh felt like melting at the simmering burn. Trying to escape the pain, his whole body innately flailed in protest, but something was holding him back, preventing his movements.

He glanced over his body with dilated pupils. Blue flames swayed all over the dark, cramped cave. Intricate writings were etched on the ground. Soon, he realized that something like tree roots were magically grown from the ground were tightly wound around his body.

He felt a cold sweat drip down his back. Isn’t this ritual for summoning demons? Riftan thrashed around harder.

“F*cking hell! What… are you planning to do with my body?”

“I’m just trying to heal it!”

As the black roots holding him still started to break, the wizard panicked and pressed Riftan’s shoulders down firmly.

“Please stay still! Your body has been too damaged that I can’t possibly heal it with ordinary magic!” The wizard’s face contorted as he shouted ferociously. “Do you know how much blood you’ve lost? Not only were your limbs crushed but your internal organs were damaged by the electric shock! I can’t believe you were able to wield a sword in that condition… you must be insane.”

As soon as Riftan tried to refute the wizard’s words, a terrible anguish washed over him, like a knife scraping his bones. Riftan raised his head. The crushed bones of his damaged arm were vividly growing.

The torn muscles swelled and twisted together like mud, his body felt like it would explode at any moment. The pain was so excruciating that dying seemed like a better choice. He gasped wildly and howled.

“Stop… stop it!”

“Damn it, you woke up so soon. I need more time to help you fully recover…”

Curses formed in Riftan’s mouth. He wanted to threaten the wizard, tell him that he would kill him if he didn’t stop at that moment, but he only managed to let out a groan of pain.

Riftan gritted his teeth, he had been through all sorts of hardships since he left his home, but he had never experienced such terrible pain until then. When he couldn’t bear it any longer, he tried to bite his tongue but Ruth screamed, holding Riftan’s head tightly.

“No! You have to endure it!”

Riftan glared at him like he could kill him with his bloodshot eyes. The wizard, who was biting his lips anxiously, spoke soon like he had come to a decision.

“I’ll cast a hallucination spell for you to forget the pain. Think about something… something fun, or something that makes you happy.”

Riftan bewilderedly looked at him and all sorts of curses ran out of his mouth. For him to think about happy memories in this situation, he must be completely out of his mind. However, the wizard gleamed with determination.

“For hallucinations to be induced effectively, you have to think of positive memories. If I cast it like this, you will have mind-crippling nightmares.”

“It doesn’t matter, just do it!”

“No! If that happens, your brain will go into shock and you might never wake up again! Hallucination magic is purposely designed to confuse enemies…”

“F…f*ck it! I’m telling you, just let me die!”

Riftan shook his head frantically and somehow managed to flail again, his body innately looking for an outlet caused by the pain. The wizard urgently shouted, trying to get him to calm down.

“Anything will do. Any memory or moment that made you feel happy… anything is fine so think about it now! It will make the pain go right away!”

Riftan scratched the floor and groaned like a beast. You can escape from the pain. I can get out of this pain. He desperately racked his panic-stricken brain as he repeated the words in his mind.

A happy memory. A moment when I felt happy. F*ck my head is empty.

He ridiculously couldn’t think of anything. All he could remember was the lifeless body of his mother hanging from a beam, the image of his stepfather weeping in the dark, the stench of hunger and filth, the uncomfortable feeling of stabbing a person for the first time, the several moments he almost died… he had nothing but miserable memories. Suddenly, a strange laugh came out of his lips.

It’s amazing how I never had a single happiness in all my life.

Riftan, who shed a desolate laughter like a madman, suddenly blurted out a word as a memory came to his mind. “T-the girl…”

“A girl?”

Not missing his soft murmur, the wizard asked urgently. Riftan barely managed to say more of the story.

“There was a girl. I-I saved her…”

Suddenly, the agonizing pain intensified. He pounded the back of his head against the ground and Ruth grabbed him who was about to lose his self-control.

“Keep talking! Was saving her a good memory of yours?”

“She gave me… a f-flower crown… for saving her.”

“Imagine her vividly in your head.”

Riftan scoured his memory as he could barely hang on.

Hair that was fluffy like clouds, eyes that shined silver in the sunlight, narrow shoulders that always hunched…

In time, a blurry light covered his vision and the excruciating pain that seemed to tear his body apart, faded like it was a lie. He staggered, unable to keep up with the sudden change in his senses. His body felt like it floated into the air, settling gently in a place where a hazy mist outlined his body. Riftan unconsciously plowed through the fog.

After a while, a field came to view, as he came closer, the familiar landscape grew clearer and he blinked blindly. Amidst the beautiful garden filled with colorful blooming flowers, a girl was weaving a flower crown. A gentle breeze blew her hair gently, and a black hound sat with its paws next to her, yawning and lying his head down.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the peaceful sight even for a second. The girl placed the flower crown over the dog’s head and it licked her cheek, wagging its furry tail. A giggle echoed softly in his ears.

“This is just…”

The spring breeze blew some petals off the flowers, tickling his cheek. Strange and various emotions that could never be explained with words rose in his heart. It was him watching her.

Was this the only comfort I had in my life? This humble memory was the only light in my whole life?

He shuddered and held his face. It was a fantasy, but it revealed how desolate his life had been. A girl who looked as lonely as him: her presence was the sole warmth that eased his hardships at that time.

He slowly closed his eyes just to open them again. Petals stuck to his wet cheeks. His humble paradise smiled brightly, surrounded by a faint gleam of golden colors. He stood there like he could be there forever. Until…

***

He felt drowsy and his whole body felt heavy like it was a soaked cotton. Riftan, whose eyes flickered in his weakened state, slowly regained consciousness and turned his head. The wizard sat at the cave’s mouth with a cramped bonfire. He turned his head as if he felt Riftan’s gaze and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, you’ve barely come to your senses.”

Riftan gazed at the wizard’s bloodstained face and slowly got up. The cold night air was probably biting the skin of his naked torso, but he couldn’t feel a chill. He moved his limbs that were attached to his body like nothing happened, then moved his eyes around the cave, looking side to side. In the narrow cave they used for shelter against the rain, there were several intricate patterns that he assumed were used to perform magic.

Riftan inspected his body, looking down at his chest. All the large cuts, and even the small wounds that were scattered in his whole body, were all gone, but it wasn’t just that. He felt something dissonant inside him that he couldn’t put his finger on.

The moment he realized that, he thoughtlessly grabbed the wizard’s leg and pushed him against the cave’s walls. Caught off guard, Ruth squealed and coughed. Riftan growled furiously, pushing him harder.

“What have you done to my body?”

“Hey, what the hell are you doing? I just… those injuries…!”

“Do you think I’m a fool? That wasn’t just healing magic. You… are you a dark wizard?” A clear sign of agitation appeared on the wizard’s face and Riftan grinded his teeth. “Even if the church’s influence isn’t as strong as is used to be, anyone who’s discovered to have used black magic will be condemned and can’t live anywhere in this world. Not only that, if I die, my soul won’t be blessed nor will I be buried!”

“I didn’t use black magic!” Ruth cried out like he was wrongfully accused. “Yes, it is a dangerous magic, but… it’s not defying any doctrine!”

Riftan stared at him with disbelief. Ruth tried to pry off from his hold, flailing his arms and legs to escape Riftan’s grip and hurling abusive words.

“Damn it! I saved your life and used up my remaining mana yet you’re treating me like this? Even in repaying kindness, you’re a hostile being! If it weren’t for my magic, you’d be dead!”

“I’d rather die than turn into a ghoul, an undead wandering the world for the rest of my life!”

“I told you it wasn’t black magic!”

The wizard’s face grew redder as he screamed. Riftan looked at him like he could kill with his eyes and tossed his grip from him.

“Fine, if it’s not black magic, I’ll go to the church myself to verify.”

Ruth, rubbing his neck, cried out with a blue face.

“Are you really making your life-saver serve a sentence now?”

“Life-saver? You’re turning people into monsters and you have the audacity to talk b*llsh*t…!”

“I did not heal with you the monster’s body parts! I didn’t have enough mana to heal you, I only used the monster’s mana stone but I didn’t use any part of that monster or black magic!”

Ruth pointed out of the cave with his finger. At first look, he could see the monster’s body drooping in the middle of the mountain where the darkness surrounded it.

“Theoretically, it’s not against the doctrine to draw mana out of mana stones. Magic tools are also made of mana stones!”

“But your magic… is definitely far from the doctrines. I’ve never heard of that kind of magic, mending mangled human bodies on the brink of death! Healing magic can only treat wounds up to a certain point. However, you regenerated damaged parts beyond repair of healing magic. Am I wrong?”

Dismay and frustration painted the wizard’s face as Riftan bombarded him with interrogation. Ruth, who was sweating profusely like he was cornered, finally sighed and confessed.

“Fine, I’ll be honest with you. The magic I used for Sir Calypse is a taboo magic, unknown by the Wizard Tower of the Western Continent. When the day comes this magic is exposed to the world, it is not only me who will get in trouble but Sir Calypse as well. Because this magic…” As if Ruth wasn’t sure how to explain, he paused for a while before spitting the words out. “It’s a magic designed from studying the regenerative power of trolls.”