Chapter 107
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Chapter 107
Strangely enough, the moment I met Kaiden, the fog began to dissipate. As if it had completed its purpose and was now withdrawing.
"Are you hurt? Any pain? Did you encounter any monsters?"
At my questions, Kaiden finally lifted his head and looked at me, breaking into a gentle smile.
"I like how earnestly Margaret worries about me."
He dodged my question with a deflection instead. I decided not to press further and simply examined his condition. Enoch, who had been silently observing with his arms crossed, also inquired after Kaiden's wellbeing.
"The fog was quite thick—I was worried. Are you truly alright, Rodban?"
Kaiden turned to face Enoch, his expression embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head.
"Should we find a place to sit down and talk?"
We gathered in a spot hidden from the monsters' sight to have our conversation. Our plan was to first organize what had happened, then seek out a safer location to continue.
"First, tell me what happened to you, Kaiden. The fog appeared, and I met Enoch not long after. But you've been alone in this fog for an entire day."
At my words, Kaiden looked bewildered, glancing between Enoch and me.
"A whole day passed? I didn't even realize time had gone by like that."
He ran his hand through his hair with a tired expression, squeezing his eyes shut.
After a moment of seeming to retrace his memories, he furrowed the bridge of his nose, then calmly explained to us everything that had happened over the course of the day.
"I was continuously following the cabin. But at some point, it disappeared from my sight. However, since that cabin emanated such a peculiar aura, I could sense roughly which direction it was in, even if I couldn't see it."
So he had sensed the cabin's strange aura.
It seemed similar to how Asdal could perceive the flow of mana through intuition. Kaiden had always possessed keen instincts and sensitivity.
Perhaps the strange aura he felt was Jenath's presence.
"So I kept trying to move in that direction, but the fog kept blocking my vision. Eventually, I even started seeing hallucinations. It felt like something was deliberately preventing me from finding the cabin."
I recalled what Jenath had said as he pushed me out of the cabin. He had mentioned that an uninvited guest had arrived, and as he thrust me outside, he had apologized.
"It definitely felt like he was disrupting things to keep me from entering, but when I came to my senses, I was standing right in front of the cabin. I thought you were inside that cabin."
The story continued—his encounter with the Silver-haired Woman in the Room of Rest, and then meeting the Silver-haired Boy after being dragged out of the cabin.
I was so shocked that I found myself at a loss for words.
The Room of Rest had definitely been locked. Yet Kaiden claimed he had opened that door. And there had actually been a person inside.
Kaiden exhaled a long breath.
"Subjectively, it didn't feel like much time had passed, but I'm amazed an entire day has already gone by."
He appeared somewhat dazed. It was extraordinarily unusual to see him react this way.
I watched him quietly for a moment before speaking.
"...Perhaps he really was disrupting things to prevent you from finding the cabin."
Kaiden looked at me with a puzzled expression. Enoch, who had been listening intently with his arms crossed, also turned his gaze toward me.
I had promised to tell Kaiden about Jenath when we reunited, and this seemed to be the right moment.
"I also spent a night in that cabin. With a Grand Mage over a thousand years old. The young boy you met seems to be that same Grand Mage who was with me."
"A Grand Mage over a thousand years old? What are you talking about?"
Kaiden's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at me. I understood—even I couldn't believe it.
"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. And he said his name was Jenath Igran."
"Wait, what? Jenath Igran?!"
Kaiden looked even more shocked than before and shot to his feet. Startled by his sudden movement, I leaned backward, and Enoch reached out to steady my back.
"What's wrong, Rodban?"
Enoch asked, his brow furrowed.
Kaiden covered his mouth, lost in thought for a long moment, before suddenly pulling something from his pocket.
It was a pendant that had been passed down through generations of Tower Masters. The very same pendant that had struck my cheekbone when we first met.
I stared at him with a puzzled expression.
"Why are you showing me that?"
"The master who created this pendant was a mage named Jenath Igran."
"...What?"
"...And he's an ancestor of our family. Jenath Igran Rohade. An Archmage and the founding patriarch of the Rohade Marquis Family. Damn it, I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before."
"What?!"
I let out a startled cry at Kaiden's shocking revelation.
Only then did I understand why Jenath had silver hair and crimson eyes. It must have been a hereditary trait of the Rohade Family.
"Jenath is a mage who died a thousand years ago. How is he here?"
This time Kaiden turned the question back to me. I shrugged.
"I don't know either. But according to what he told me, he said he's lived on this Island for a thousand years. He couldn't escape, apparently. I'm not sure if I can trust everything Jenath says, though."
"He's been trapped here? That genius mage?"
Kaiden questioned in disbelief.
I nodded and recounted to them everything I had experienced in the Cabin.
Someone had pulled me out of the River, and that's when I discovered Jenath. He brought me to his Cabin and treated my wounds. I even told them about the strange "door" and the "Room of Rest" I found in Jenas's Cabin.
Now that I thought about it, when I first met Jenath, he was holding a coconut. He said he could survive without eating.
Then Kaiden, who had been deep in thought, spoke to me.
"But the Jenath you're describing seems quite different from the Jenath I've heard about in family records."
"What kind of person is the Jenath you know?"
"For one, Jenath wasn't a child. He was a fully grown adult—a pervert who enjoyed killing. The records even suggest he might have been a demon, given his severe lack of human emotion."
"..."
The Jenath that Kaiden described was vastly different from the one I had met.
"Could it be a different person with the same name?"
When Enoch asked Kaiden, he shook his head firmly.
"He lived during the Ingram Dynasty era and was a mage who even altered his body's balance so he could survive without consuming food. There was no other mage capable of such advanced magic during that time besides Jenath."
Kaiden drew a clear line with absolute certainty. Enoch raised another question in his calm voice.
"Then was the fog around the Cabin created by that mage? But magic can't be used on this Island, can it?"
At Enoch's words, I pondered what Jenath had told me.
"Perhaps he can change his body? If Kaiden is right, he originally had an adult's form, and when he's in that form, he might be able to use magic. He told me, 'In this body, my magical power is being suppressed.'"
"Then why is he deliberately taking the form of a child now? To protect his body? But if he can't use magic in that state, how did he create the fog?"
Kaiden muttered in confusion, lost in thought. I asked him again.
"Kaiden, you said you entered the Room of Rest—why was the door open? I couldn't enter because the door was locked. And the door clearly had 'sealed' written on it."
"I'm not sure why the door was open, but that place does seem to be sealed. That woman was bound above a magic circle."
"Was that also done by the mage Jenath?"
At Enoch's question, Kaiden furrowed his brow, rubbing his temples as if searching his memory.
"I'm not entirely sure. That woman told me to run away. The moment she did, I was thrown out of the Cabin. Right after that, I encountered the short-haired kid. According to what Margaret said, that kid was apparently Jenath."
Run away.
From what? From whom was I supposed to run?
"Oh, that's right. Jenath mentioned he had an older sister. He said her name was Anata...."
"Anata? Anata Shanet Rohade was here too?"
Kaiden asked me in surprise, his voice rising.
"Jenath spoke of her as though she were dead. But if the silver-haired woman with crimson eyes you saw in the Room of Rest matches that description, she might very well be Anata. It aligns perfectly with the distinctive features of the Rohade Family."
Why had Anata been sealed away in that place? Why had Jenath hidden this fact? Could it be that Jenath himself was the one who sealed her?
There were far too many unanswered questions.
"Margaret."
At Enoch's call, I lifted my head from my troubled thoughts and looked at him.
"You mentioned there was something called the 'Room of Rest' there, and that it had sealing inscriptions written on it, didn't you?"
I nodded in affirmation.
Enoch stroked his chin as if recalling something, his nose wrinkling slightly. After a moment, he spoke in a low voice.
"...There was a custom in the Ingram Dynasty where if you created a Room of Rest and sealed a person within it while alive, their spirit would become a guardian deity."
Even amid this flood of shocking revelations, Enoch remained composed and resolute, showing no sign of disturbance.
He continued speaking with measured calm.
"It's possible that the mist enveloping the cabin wasn't born from Jenath's magic, but from the sealed spirit's power instead."
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