“Mnh... Ugh...”
The very instant I opened my eyes, a bolt of piercing pain shot through me, and I let out an agonized moan. Strangely enough, it also felt like I was covered in something soft. I could sense somebody standing nearby, watching me. I opened my eyes.
“Oh, you’re awake?” A boy with vivid, crimson eyes was sitting beside me. His hair was silverish-white, his face was youthful and faintly freckled, and his smile was warm and affable. I could count all of my acquaintances using only my fingers, and I could confidently say that he wasn’t among them. “Feeling okay? Still alive?”
“I’m not exactly feeling great, but I’m alive, all right.”
“If you’re in good enough shape to pick my question apart, I’d say you’re doing just fine.” He sat down on a stool next to the bed I was resting in. “I’ll have you know, you seriously scared the hell outta me! You must’ve fallen all the way from the top of that cliff! You landed right in front of me! I was so sure you were dead that I was worried your spirit might haunt me.”
“I fell from a cliff...? Hmm.” I could dimly remember what had happened. The last thing I knew, I was midway through a pitched battle with a monster. We were indeed on the edge of a cliff at the time, overlooking the Witchmist Gorge, a valley known for its ever-present blanket of fog that enshrouded the bottom of the ravine. I’d been caught up in the monster’s desperate charge and was knocked right off the cliff.
I glanced out the cabin’s window but couldn’t see much of the outside at all on account of the thick fog. Considering that, I assumed I was still somewhere on the valley’s floor.
“Anyway,” the boy continued, “you look pretty young, huh? Lemme guess—twelve or so, right?”
I hesitated. “How’d you know?”
“Wait, I actually got it? Dang, I’m good!”
“Why are you surprised?”
“’Cause I’m twelve!” He grinned proudly, elated to have run into a boy of his own age. That said, a secluded valley didn’t feel like an appropriate place for either of us to be, considering our age. “I live in a village just a little ways away from here. I’m doing some fieldwork, basically. I only use this cabin when I feel like taking a nap, so the place is yours for however long you need it. No monsters ’round these parts either, so you should be just fine here, as long as you can put up with the rock-hard bed.”
“It’s more than comfortable enough for me.”
“Whoa, seriously? You might be in for a shock if you ever end up sleeping at my house, in that case.” I stared blankly at the boy as he cackled. Same age or not, my expression stood in sharp contrast to his—I just couldn’t bring myself to smile, unfortunately. “Oh, sorry, guess I never introduced myself. Name’s Balrog. I’m just your everyday magic researcher.”
“My name is...Koh.” I chose to hide my identity as a Hero and introduced myself by name alone as I shook his hand. In that moment, I made my very first friend. It was a moment I would look back on more times than I could count.
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Three days had passed since I took up residence in Balrog’s cabin. He would come by each day early in the morning, spend an hour or two on his so-called “research,” and then entertain himself by chatting with me.
“Aha ha ha ha ha! Man, Koh, you really are hilarious!”
“I don’t understand what’s so funny.” We never talked about anything particularly significant, and I more or less just reacted to the things that Balrog told me, but he cracked up in raucous laughter and told me how funny I was time after time regardless. Strangely enough, though, seeing him act that way didn’t bother me at all.
“Y’know,” he said, “the two of us might just be on the same wavelength. I’ve never had a guy around my age to hang out with either, which probably makes a difference.”
“You haven’t?”
“Yeah, it’s a tiny village. The closest guy to my age is a decade older than me. There’s a girl my age, though, and another who’s just one year younger than me. It feels like I’m surrounded by girls more often than not.” Balrog let out a sardonic chuckle, but unfortunately, I couldn’t relate. My own social circle wasn’t big enough for me to understand his problems, and I wasn’t good at dealing with people to begin with.
The only people who I felt even remotely close to were my traveling companions. Elena the healer and Brad the spy might’ve been close to my age, but I didn’t know precisely how old either of them were. Brad was a man, so we had that in common, but throughout all of our travels, he and I had never actually had a proper conversation. I barely ever talked with Elena either—she always seemed a bit awkward and on edge around me.
In that sense, Balrog may have very well been the first person around my age that I had a decent conversation with too. The fact that he didn’t know I was a Hero helped a lot with that.
“You said you’re researching magic, right?” I casually asked. Balrog’s informal, friendly manner of talking had been making me self-conscious about my own clumsy and stiff manner of speech, and I was making an effort to work on that.
“Yeah. More precisely, I’m doing research into the fundamentals of magical tool development.”
“‘Magical tools’?”
“How much do you know about magic, Koh?”
“Not very much... I’ve been told I have an aptitude for it, but I’ve barely been able to actually use any.”
“Oh? That’d make you a specialist.”
“A ‘specialist’?”
“Well, that’s what I call ’em, anyway. Generally speaking, there’s two types of mage: the ones who can use pretty much any spell they find written down in a book, and the ones who can only use one particular type of magic that’s specific to them as individuals. I’m one of the former, if you were wondering.”