“This isn’t like inviting other people; this banquet was held to invite us to Shimoa.”
Yet, even before it started, the atmosphere shifted stiffly after my duel with the master, Hamel.
What’s worse is the tension was aimed at me, not Hamel.
The attendees claimed everything was fine, but it seems the people of Shimoa couldn’t believe Hamel actually lost the duel.
After all, it felt like I had casually come to break the pillar of this region.
“Well, it seems things ended well between us.”
Feeling too upset, I consulted Casey, and her response was quite cold.
“That’s something you should deal with. Who just barges in and beats up the host?”
“…That was a bit extreme.”
That’s true enough.
Who would blame anyone?
Yeah, it’s all my fault.
————————-
Since returning to my hometown, River couldn’t shake off a restless feeling.
Not long after coming back, he was caught by his father Hamel regarding his relationship with Atlas.
And it wasn’t just about getting caught; Hamel seemed to have figured out nearly everything.
He just wanted to learn about the secret of the wolf god descending to Shimoa, but he got caught in one fell swoop.
Though parents might be close, being found out like this was beyond imagination.
Angry, Hamel suddenly drew his sword.
Surely, raising a sword against a guest who came to visit was too much; I was embarrassed enough it felt like my head was going to explode.
Having invited him warmly, I felt like I was exposing family problems, and my head was getting hotter and hotter, but Atlas just kept smiling.
Even after being suddenly attacked and shouted at, Atlas declared he would duel Hamel and ended up winning.
To be honest, I was really scared when I heard that Atlas would duel.
Considering the usual way Atlas behaved during duels, it was only natural.
When Atlas entered the duel, he was like a bomb.
He either started in an explosively volatile state or exploded shortly after the start; it was one of the two.
But this time, surprisingly, he displayed a very stable and overwhelming skill difference, defeating Hamel.
Thinking about his skills, there surely could have been an easier way to win, but he chose the troublesome route to somewhat preserve Hamel’s dignity.
‘He’s really considerate, thinking seriously about things…’
The more I thought about it, the more my face flushed.
The one actually involved looked blissfully unaware, smiling nonchalantly.
————————
The banquet came to an end, and night arrived.
Lately, it felt like I was constantly stumbling around at night, and sure enough, there was another guest in the middle of the night.
“Alright then… let’s go.”
Of course, it was River.
He had come because of something Hamel said during dinner.
Passing through the hallway, we arrived at the place we had visited before, where Hamel was already waiting.
“You’ve come.”
“Dad, you have to keep your promise from today.”
“I know.”
I had no idea what he was trying to convey, but he looked incredibly serious.
Here I was, thinking lightly about this, worried I might be getting in the way for no reason.
“You’re not uncomfortable with my presence, are you?”
“You have the right. It would be wise for you to know if you want to live with River in the future.”
If he said that much, there was no excuse to run away.
With that, Hamel suddenly stood up.
“Now then, let’s continue our conversation outside. There’s somewhere we need to go.”
.
.
.
Hamel led us towards a forest slightly detached from the mansion of Shimoa.
It wasn’t treacherous; we walked up a well-maintained mountain path.
After a few minutes of walking, Hamel suddenly veered off the path into the underbrush.
Pushing through the bushes, he began walking where there was no clear path.
“I intended to inform you of this someday. No… I really should have told you sooner, if only the Sword Master hadn’t caught onto this place.”
“The Sword Master?”
The reason for the Sword Master’s interest in Shimoa; he was someone in search of immortality.
So, they must be heading towards something like ruins.
The biggest reason he targeted River was that ‘legend.’
“Exactly. This is why the Sword Master was so obsessed with you.”
The place Hamel brought us to was the ruins of a collapsed building.
The roof and walls were completely weathered, with only a few cracked pillars showing remnants of a structure.
In the center of that desolate ruin stood a small monument.
I could see a wolf symbol resembling Shimoa’s insignia drawn on it.
“This monument was erected by Shimoa.”
“How did you recognize that?”
“Because this monument is less worn down than the others.”
It was smooth amidst the crumbling ruins.
Being too clean to be said to have been erected at the same time, its signs of wear suggested it had lasted a while thanks to divine blessing.
That left only one possibility.
“Right, this monument was established by our ancestor. It was erected about 11 generations ago.”
Considering the average lifespan of people living in this era, it seemed to have been discovered around 500 years ago.
Back in a time when magical engineering was still developing, it wasn’t like today’s world.
It was a monument set up in a fully collapsed ruin, and the information I knew was sliding into place like puzzle pieces.
“Could this possibly be the temple of the Wolf God?”
“How do you know that?! The Wolf God is one of the forgotten deities.”
As soon as I mentioned the keyword ‘Wolf God,’ Hamel looked visibly surprised.
The term forgotten god refers to those deities whose existence has been overlooked today.
A god is acknowledged because someone worships them, but forgotten gods fade away from memory due to various factors, losing their believers over time.
Lucky gods remain in the flow of legends or songs, but truly unfortunate ones leave no traces at all.
“I heard that from the Sword Master, so I looked it up.”
“You knew too?”
“I hadn’t grasped it fully, but I knew he had mentioned something.”
I hadn’t discovered this myself; it was something Professor Praha had found before.
Among the materials Professor Praha had uncovered, there was definitely a legend about the Wolf God.
“Do you remember the portrait of your grandfather?”
“Yes. I certainly remember my grandfather’s portrait.”
“He had golden hair and pumpkin-colored eyes, just like you, right?”
“Isn’t that just natural due to the bloodline?”
Many believe so, but that’s not always the case.
Usually, children inherit traits from both their mother and their father.
“Does that imply the traits from the mother’s side do not get passed down?”
Excluding the mother’s traits would be an extraordinary occurrence.
It’s not unusual for a child to inherit the father’s traits, but it makes no sense for them to inherit only the father’s traits.
Even mixing the same colors could yield traits from other ancestors, so how could that be possible?
“That’s right. Our family… Your father’s father and his father all the way back to about 10 generations had golden hair and pumpkin eyes. The firstborn will always inherit those distinctive traits.”
“Up to 10 generations… you say?”
He had just mentioned that monument was erected 11 generations ago.
It appeared there had been an incident back then.
“Yes. Originally, Shimoa had white hair, just like his nickname of the White Wolf.”
.
.
.
.
Hamel’s explanation was this:
Shimoa’s ancestor originally had white hair and red eyes.
He was a talented knight, recognized for his bravery on the battlefield and granted land by the royal family after discovering the site of the temple.
Though I had thought nothing of it and moved on, the strange feeling struck the next day.
There were signs of human presence at the temple ruins.
Who could possibly live in a forest far from the village? I wondered if it was a bandit or something, so the ancestors of Shimoa went searching the woods and stumbled upon a woman.
She was a jewel-like woman with brilliant golden hair and pumpkin eyes.
Perhaps because she lived alone in the woods, her speech was awkward, and her attire made from beast hides looked rough but wasn’t primitive.
She looked like a typical hunter often found in the forest.
Shimoa’s ancestor fell in love with her at first sight.
The ruins of the temple were not her home.
She lived in a suspicious hut, concealed from the eyes of others.
Shimoa’s ancestor tried to do whatever it took for the woman he fell for, but she kept evading him.
Though her speech was a bit clumsy, it wasn’t as if she was incapable of speaking, so Shimoa persistently pursued her and, after some time, succeeded in opening her heart.
On the day the ancestor finally earned her affection, she shared with him the secret of herself and the collapsed building’s remnants.
She explained that she was, in fact, a priestess serving one of the forgotten gods, the Wolf God, and that the temple had once stood atop the ruins.
Though it had all collapsed, she still visited the place to serve the Wolf God.
The woman was the last priestess of the Wolf God, having continued to survive from eons past when the temple crumbled.
Having monopolized the blessing of a forgotten god, she possessed physical abilities surpassing humans and the power of immortality.
Nothing lasts forever in this world. Once she became pregnant, the blessing that seemed bound to permanently dwell in her body mysteriously disappeared.
The god she served hadn’t left the world.
The blessing she held transferred to the child she bore.
The child born possessed golden hair and pumpkin eyes, just like the mother and not the father.
From that day forth, the bloodline of Shimoa became intertwined with the blessing of the Wolf God.
The blessing of the Wolf God was not a force meant for one person to monopolize.
It was a divine blessing that prospered the family.
It manifested as a shared blessing that protected the entire family—father, mother, and child.
