Arc 3 - Chapter 5: On the Most Holy (1/2)

He opened his eyes when he felt the wetness above his head. Raindrops were falling through the leaves of the trees above him. There was also a great lightness in his head. The reason for the lightness was that he no longer had a mane.

Rhuu'fu's body shivered from the cold air. Normally roarons were somewhat resistant to cold weather because they were covered in feathers, but when his feathers burned, as did his mane, he felt the cold and wind in a way he had never felt before.

It was strange how the wind caressed his skin. To check if he really had no hair, he put his hand on his arm and his palm touched bare skin.

"Am I in heaven?"

Did he enter heaven in his final state on earth? Is that why he had no hair? It was a shame to be mane-less, but this was supposed to be heaven.

The people of Roaron believed that strong and honorable warriors would reach heaven. Rhuu'fu was an honorable warrior and the strongest of his clan. So he was in heaven now.

But he always imagined heaven as a warm and sunny place. Here it was cold, rainy and not unlike the dark forest where he died.

His back was covered in mud. He put his hands down to stand up, but his hands slipped on the mud and he fell on his back. Rhuu'fu watched the sky for a while before trying to get up again.

"So you're an intelligent creature. I'm relieved to be able to talk to you."

Contrary to what he said, his voice did not sound relaxed, it was harsh and he wanted to assert his authority over Rhuu'fu. The owner of this voice spoke from outside Rhuu'fu's field of vision. In truth, all Rhuu'fu wanted was to rest, but he forced himself to sit up so that he could see the owner of the voice.

"You are not dead yet, so you cannot go to heaven or anywhere else. But I can make you go there, depending on the choices you make."

Sheltering under the awning of a wooden box to protect themselves and their campfire from the rain, dressed in human clothes unfamiliar to Rhuu'fu, stroking the head of the white-haired half-human girl in his lap as he spoke, the young human male looked at Rhuu'fu with uncompromising purple eyes.

"Are you an aggressive creature or a docile creature?"

"Human!"

Rhuu'fu's village had been attacked by humans. His warrior instincts suddenly kicked in, he bared his teeth and unsheathed his claws to intimidate his opponent.

"Your attitude towards those who saved your life is disturbing, if you look at the dog behind you, you will realize that a more docile attitude would have been a much better choice for you."

Rhuu'fu turned his head and looked at the dog that had just chased him. The dog was three times his size and all the wounded Rhuu'fu could do against it was to run away. 

The monster that Rhuu'fu had fled from lay on the ground with all three of its heads cut off.

He looked back at the human youth who had spoken to him. Was he the one who had killed the beast? To Rhuu'fu, he looked like a weak human, but those who attacked his village were like him.

The humans were strange. They seemed weaker than the Roarons, but they could move faster, set traps and cast spells that the Rhuu'fu could not detect.

So he should not underestimate the other person. He was as mysterious as any other human being, and underneath the surface he could be an opponent equal to Rhuu'fu, perhaps even stronger.

"My name is Yu Valarfin. I am the butler of Yurine, the young lady who saved your life by healing you and who will soon be the head of the Virgo Cathedral."

From Rhuu'fu's point of view, he looked more like a father with his daughter on his knee than a steward.

"And... What the hell is a butler?"

Rhuu'fu studied the young man a little longer and then spoke.

"My name is Rhuu'fu Ki-Gar'o. I am a warrior of the Ki-Gar'o clan... I was a..."

"R... Rrrrh... Uu? Ruhu? Rrrrh? How do you say that name?" Yu put his fingers to his mouth. "Is that a soft g after the r? I thought I heard the letter h there too... Rhğu... I can't..."

People in general had a hard time pronouncing roaron names, Rhuu'fu and other roarons were used to it.

"Anyway, from now on, we'll drop the first word and call you Kigaro."

"From now?"

What did he mean by that? What did he have planned for Rhuu'fu?

"You owe us three things, Kigaro. The first is the jacket I threw over you to cover your crotch. I can't wear it again even if it's washed because it's called there now. So you owe me a jacket or something to make up for it."

Rhuu'fu looked at his crotch. He hadn't noticed, but there was a jacket there. He was about to grab the jacket and lift it up when Yu stopped him.

"Don't! Are you going to walk naked around a little girl?"

Rhuu'fu did not understand why, but he had heard rumors that people were sensitive about certain things, so he obeyed.

"Secondly, you scared away two of my animals when you ran here. You owe me two rinos or you will make it up to me somehow."

He looked at the box that people used for transportation. Before him were strange creatures that Rhuu'fu had never encountered in the forest where he had spent his life.

"And third, most importantly..."

Yu's voice dropped to its deepest and most serious level yet, and Rhuu'fu realized that this would be a more serious debt than the others.

"We saved your life, so from now on you owe us, no, you owe Yurine your life. From now on your life belongs to the young lady and you will serve her in the human world. So your name will be Kigaro, a name that people can pronounce."

"This means a lot," Kigaro thought. Rhuu'fu's other debts could be settled somehow, but the debt of life could only be paid with life.

"Does this human knows the roarons?"

To say that a roaron owed a life debt was certainly a serious matter. If the rescued person was an honorable roaron, and Rhuu'fu was an honorable roaron, he must have to serve the little girl Yurine until his death.

It was a matter, a ritual, independent of what he wanted to do. He had to devote his life to that little girl and wait for the moment when he would die for her. That was the only way the debt could be settled.

"If he's telling the truth... I would already be dead... I mean... But..."

It was not an easy thing to dedicate your life to someone, and now a person he did not know, a half-human he did not know, was asking him to dedicate his life. It was not only he who wanted this, but also the roaron ritual that Rhuu'fu could not defy.

The drops falling on Rhuu'fu's head began to bother him as the rain began to increase in intensity. Thunder rumbled as the jacket that covered him got wet and the man spoke again.

"Come under the awning."

Rhuu'fu did as he was told to avoid the rain. He stood up, tied his robe around his waist and went under the awning. The awning was only two meters high, so Rhuu'fu could not stand. He sat on the ground next to the fire and waited for Yu's next words as the flames warmed his body.

"You said you were one of his warriors, I mean you used to be. Why? Did your clan kick you out? Is that why you were running away?"

"My clan... No! We were attacked! By humans!"

The moment he came back from the dead and regained consciousness, he had forgotten that he had been made a slave, but now he remembered, he had made himself bait to save the children. He had to rush to the surrounding villages and check on the children. They were the future of the clan.

"Stop yelling."

Rhuu'fu ignored him and kept shouting.

"Children! We have to save them!"

Yu became angry and as Rhuu'fu hurried to his feet he hit his head on the awning, tearing a tear in it.

"You're just a loss! Sit down!"

Yu, annoyed, couldn't help himself and shouted, and with both of them shouting, the white-haired little girl woke up.