Chapter 34 : Each One’s Cliff (1)
Chapter 34: Each One’s Cliff (1)
The next day, Hindir woke up early.
In truth, he hadn’t slept at all through the night and had merely lain there, because he could sense that Seff, who was in the room with him, kept tossing and turning without being able to fall asleep.
He quietly got up and stepped out of the house only after sensing that she had just fallen asleep a little while ago.
Though it was as dark as midnight all around him, the sky tinged with a blue hue was visible between the cliffs that enclosed the village.
It looked like the sun would only shine briefly around noon.
A place so secretive that it made one marvel at how it was even discovered.
Hindir began walking toward the cliff behind the village, where the elders had once hidden.
As he passed by the houses, he could sense the presence of those who were either already awake or hadn’t managed to sleep at all.
Under normal circumstances, this would’ve been the time when people were getting ready to head to the mines.
But now that there was no need for that, it was only natural for everyone to feel unsettled.
Just as he was quietly walking along, Hindir suddenly stopped in front of the village hall.
The elders who had come up from the cliff the day before were staying there, and Hindir sensed a particular presence busily moving around inside.
“What’s wrong? Something hurting? Cold? Geez, still better than the floor of that cave though.”
“Heh— Now I can die with no regrets. Should’ve gone out past those snowy mountains and run wild before dying, though.”
As he listened carefully, voices could be heard.
Recognizing the owner of that voice, Hindir lingered for a while longer to listen in.
Not long after, just as things seemed to quiet down, the door burst open and Baltan appeared.
Holding two wooden water buckets, he was briefly startled upon seeing Hindir’s tall figure standing there, but upon recognizing him, his expression twisted with irritation.
“What the—? Hindir?”
Exhaustion was written all over Baltan’s face.
He must’ve been taking care of the elders all night long.
“Hmm, looks like I’ll die before those old folks.”
“What?”
Baltan glared at Hindir with an incredulous expression.
Then, as if the timing was perfect, he put down the water buckets he was carrying.
“I was planning to beat some sense into you yesterday anyway, but you sure slipped away like a weasel.”
“We’ll see.”
With his arms crossed, Hindir studied him again.
His condition was worse than it looked on the surface.
Whether he realized it or not, he was so exhausted that it wouldn’t be surprising if he collapsed at any moment.
“It’s good that you’re taking care of others, but you should check on your own condition first.”
“You little— You’ve been getting bolder since yesterday, huh? Running your mouth like that.”
He stomped toward Hindir like he was ready to grab him by the collar, but Hindir, now finding no need to engage further, simply turned and walked behind the hall again.
“Hey! Hey, you punk. Where are you going? Hey! Stop right there!”
Baltan followed Hindir, continuing to call after him.
But as Hindir approached the edge of the cliff at the back, Baltan cried out in panic.
When Hindir stood right on the cliff’s edge, Baltan’s face turned completely pale.
He wanted to grab him by the scruff and pull him back immediately, but in that precarious situation, a wrong move might cause an accident, so he couldn't act rashly.
“Hey! Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing out there?!”
“Is this the place where the elders stayed?”
Far below the sheer cliff, a rope ladder had been discreetly set up among the rocks.
It looked so dangerous that it was easy to imagine someone had died climbing it.
Considering they had brought the elders up this way yesterday, it was a miracle no one had died—perhaps a stroke of incredible luck.
“You’d better come back up here while I’m still being nice. Don’t think you can scare me with this kind of—”
But before Baltan could even finish his sentence, Hindir stepped off the cliff’s edge, and by the time Baltan let out a surprised, “Huh?”, he had already vanished.
“Argh! You crazy bastard!”
Baltan scrambled to the edge in a panic and looked down, only to be shocked again.
Kwa-ddeud—
Hindir slid downward, his fingers dug into the cliff face.
Baltan's jaw dropped in disbelief at the absurd sight.
Hindir continued his descent for a while before safely reaching the cave entrance and stepping inside, prompting Baltan to shake his head in disbelief as if he had seen a hallucination.
For a moment, he wondered if he had been so tired that he imagined having an argument with a Hindir who wasn’t even there.
“……”
But when he looked back down the cliff again, he could still see the clearly defined imprints of five fingers.
The cave where the elders had lived was quite spacious.
Unlike the narrow entrance passage, the inner sections were filled with winding paths and a large open cavern.
Seeing the many makeshift tools and living items made from wood and stone, one could sense just how desperately they had fought to survive.
No matter how old or weakened they became, the Charun were still Charun.
The blood flowing through their veins refused to give up—that much was clear from this scene of raw struggle.
After thoroughly examining the cave’s interior, Hindir came back out.
He had only wanted to take a look around here once—his real destination lay elsewhere.
He looked further down below the cliff and leapt off again.
When he looked up for a moment, he saw Baltan’s face still staring down with a dumbfounded expression.
‘It’s not even something worth being that surprised about.’
One day, everyone in this place would climb cliffs like this without a second thought.
Thunk—
Hindir landed on the cliff bottom.
It was pitch dark, but to Hindir’s eyes, everything around him was clear.
He began walking slowly through the narrow crevice, scanning the area.
Spirit Elixirs were things that typically grew out of sight of people—or the world itself.
Moreover, the bottom of this cliff was soaked in the blood and deaths of many.
Though ominous, death often also marked the beginning of new life.
Something might be growing here, feeding on all that death.
But Hindir’s expectations weren’t based on vague hopes—he had a more realistic reason to believe.
‘Right before we arrived at the village, I felt a massive flow of mana beneath the cliff.’
It was too unnatural to be just a natural phenomenon. That meant, with high probability, that a spirit beast of some sort was lurking down here, and Hindir planned to hunt it.
Of course, on the first day, he came back empty-handed.
The fact that it erased its presence the moment he showed up meant it was no ordinary creature—he had already figured that much out.
So he climbed back up the cliff without hesitation.
“You… you…!”
As soon as he returned to the village, the first person he ran into—coincidentally—was Baltan.
He trembled like he’d seen a ghost.
“What’s going on?”
Seff, who was carrying firewood nearby, spotted the two and hurried over, thinking Hindir might be causing trouble again.
“I-I told you! This bastard jumped off the cliff!”
“Ah…”
Seff gave Hindir a quick glance, then walked away like it was nothing of note.
“From the start, he was the guy who fell from the sky when he showed up here. Climbing a cliff should be nothing for him.”
“No way…”
It was such an unrealistic story that most had dismissed it as a mistaken sighting.
“Did you get some rest?”
Hindir suddenly asked Baltan.
“What?”
“This village’s steep cliffs mean a single misstep could be fatal. If you keep going in that exhausted state, you might get some permanent rest.”
“What a charming curse.”
As Hindir passed by him, he gave Baltan a couple of pats on the shoulder.
“……”
But it felt strange.
That absurd encouragement from the much younger Hindir somehow felt reassuring.
As he watched that broad back getting farther away, Baltan felt as though he were looking out over a vast land, and he shook his head vigorously to clear the illusion.
“…Guess I really am exhausted.”
Baltan decided he truly needed to rest and walked off in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, Hindir caught up to Seff, who had walked on ahead.
“Do we have enough firewood?”
“Huh? Ah, not really, no.”
Seff let out a sigh at Hindir’s question.
“Right now, we can’t produce anything ourselves. All supplies come through Parno, but the last delivery was ten days ago… So we probably have at most twenty days’ worth? We’ll have to figure something out by then.”
Depending on how you saw it, that was either a long time or a short one.
“Anyway, Kanar and some of the younger ones have been gathering and doing something weird. Did you say anything to them?”
“I suggested they train so they can leave the village at any time.”
“…Seriously, I can never get used to the way you talk. Everyone was going on yesterday about how you suddenly turned into a full-grown adult, did you know that?”
“Ha ha, is that so?”
“Anyway, go check if they’re actually doing it right. They’re at the Parno bastards’ building on the edge of the village. Oh! Did you eat?”
“There should be something over there.”
“Okay then. Take care.”
Following Seff’s directions, Hindir stepped out of the village and found Kanar and the others flailing their arms and legs around in awkward movements.
“Oh, you’re here? Baltan was going on like a madman this morning—said you jumped off a cliff.”
“I did take a look below for a moment.”
“Oh really? It was true? I thought he’d gone insane from fatigue.”
“He is exhausted. Seems like he overworks himself even on normal days.”
“Yeah, that guy’s actually the most devoted when it comes to looking after the elders. But he’s also… a bit uptight. You know the type, right? Heh.”
In short, a total stick-in-the-mud.
Still, Hindir didn’t take his complaint the wrong way—he knew he could be overly stiff himself.
“But what exactly are you doing here…?”
“Ah, this? Training. We’re training.”
“……”
Hindir was momentarily speechless.
“Where did you even learn those moves…?”
“I once saw some of the Parno bastards training among themselves. What do we know? Figured if they’re swordsmen or something, copying them might help.”
What a hopeless bunch.
‘But that’s the Charun for you.’
Hindir chuckled slightly and opened his mouth.
“That won’t help at all. You’re doing it wrong.”
“Ahem… Yeah? Then what should we do?”
“I’ll get the tools ready first.”
“Tools?”
“And then…”
As Hindir glanced around, his gaze landed on the cliff behind the building.
He looked up at the top for a moment, thought to himself, and made a decision—then led the others there.
“Climbing this cliff every day will be a big help.”
“…You want us to climb the cliff?”
“Yes. Among the things you can do right now, there’s no better training than this.”
“Heh, come on, that’s a bit much. How’s anyone supposed to climb that?”
Instead of answering, Hindir stood in front of the cliff.
He reached out, grabbed onto the rocky edges, planted his feet on the cliff wall, and began climbing.
“W-wait a second! You don’t have to push yourself! It’s dangerous!”
Kanar shouted in panic, but Hindir quietly kept climbing.
He didn’t scale it by running up, embedding his limbs in the wall like he usually did.
This time, he moved calmly, one step at a time, demonstrating how it should be done.
Of course, even that was enough to leave the onlookers stunned.
“What the heck is that…?”
Everyone stared with jaws hanging open as Hindir reached the top before waving down at them.
“…How’s he gonna come down?”
He could’ve just jumped, but once again, he stuck to the demonstration.
Hindir descended the cliff in reverse.
By then, other villagers had gathered below and were staring at him in a daze.
“You can all do it too. Not right away, of course.”
“You’re saying this is possible?”
“Yes.”
“…Then we’ll become like you?”
“It’s going to be very difficult.”
Hindir was a special case, so it was hard to compare.
“But who knows? You’ve never even had the chance to test your potential.”
Someone might truly surpass him one day.
He sincerely hoped they would.
That’s why he had to protect them until then.
“What… What did you see out there? What did you do?”
Kanar was genuinely curious.
Just what had Hindir experienced to change this much?
And if they could become like him—what would they be capable of?
A small flame sparked within each of them.
Everyone gathered there, young and old, appeared to Hindir like the children who once left the Great Camp five hundred years ago.
“There’s nothing more I can tell you. The rest you’ll have to figure out on your own. Just remember—you too can climb high.”
They would likely face many trials and errors.
But that was the same for everyone.
They had simply started a little later.
No, it wasn’t even their fault.
‘It was me who was too late.’
They would never know that, though.