A Heartfelt Talk

Tonight, the sky was clear and the village was bathed in the light of the beautiful blue moon. By this time, almost every villager was asleep and cozy in their warm beds. All except for Din and Paro.

The uncle and his nephew sat on the porch in front of the house and just stared at the sky. The two had been talking about their life after Paro had left Ravenwalt.

Paro lowered his scarf to reveal a scar on his neck. It was an old scar, but the shape was still clear.

"I got this scar a few months after I left Ravenwalt, actually. A guard encountered a bear, but he managed to get away, barely holding onto his life. While I was treating him, the pain became too much for him and he ended up almost cutting my neck off. Of course, he apologized almost immediately, but that was when I learned to never let my patients hold onto anything, even if their lucky item was a dagger."

A slight chuckle escaped from Din.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at your story. I just can't understand why you'd let them hold a weapon during a treatment."

"I don't know what I was thinking either. It was my first time seeing a real injured person so I guess I just became too nervous to the point that I wasn't even thinking straight. But, I have years of practice now so I'm pretty reliable, if I do say so myself."

While looking at the scar, Din noticed Paro had been wearing a necklace. Din teased him, "Huh? I never knew you to be the type that would wear necklaces, Uncle Paro."

After Paro pulled out the necklace, we could clearly see the emerald crystal that was attached to the string around Paro's neck. Beautiful would be an understatement. The crystal almost seemed to be glowing under the moonlight, a radiant light left the crystal that left us mesmerized.

"This… is something very important to me."

He clutched the crystal and closed his eyes. As if saying a prayer, he paused like that for a moment before putting the necklace back in his shirt.

"I guess you can call that my lucky item. It gives me strength when I need it."

Din looked at Paro as if he wanted to know more, but Paro didn't seem to want to answer. Rather, Paro changed the topic.

"I think you'd be happy staying here, Din. If you'd like, I can send some villagers to bring your parents here as well. I bet they'd love the village. Although I guess your dad won't be able to fish anywhere near here."

Without making eye contact, Din said, "That's not possible."

"Why's that?"

Din had never mentioned his parents when we were together and whenever I brought them up, he would only brush the topic aside. Even though Paro couldn't see me, I kept my distance to give Din some privacy, but I just couldn't control myself to not listen in.

It took Din a while to collect his thoughts, but he finally answered, "My dad… died a year after you left."

"What? I-I didn't hear anything about this from my sister. How did that happen?"

"Thieves… some thieves snuck into our mansion. I heard a window breaking from one of the rooms close to mine so I went to go tell my parents. My dad went to check and that was when they killed him. My mom and I hid under the bed, but they found us, or… they found my mom, not me. They noticed my mom under the bed and pulled her out, but they didn't notice me there. They stabbed her and almost killed her, but she's still alive. She's in a hospital in Ravenwalt, but there was no sign of her getting any better when I last checked in on her."

"Din, why didn't you notify me right away? I could've—"

Paro stopped himself for some reason. He closed his eyes shut and then slammed his fist onto the wooden floor.

"Damn it—!"

"We had no way of contacting you…"

"Yeah… I cut my connections with your family when I left. I only sent a letter a few months ago about my whereabouts. I'm so sorry, Din."

At that moment, Paro seemed to realize something.

"What about Katherine? She was a knight by that time, correct? She could've easily taken on some thieves."

"Katherine was in a training camp when all this happened. When she came back, she promised to take care of me and never leave me again. But right now… I have no clue where she is or if she's even safe."

Paro comforted Din, "She's an Ace knight. I know she's a strong girl. She can take care of herself, don't you worry."

"But I still have to find her. She's one of the few family I have left. That's why I can't stay here, Uncle Paro. Then there's also another matter," Din said while glancing towards me.

"Your friend, Lorelei, correct?"

Paro looked around even though he couldn't see me.

"Yeah. She's right over there." Din pointed out.

"Oh, has she been here this whole time?"

I felt a little embarrassed hearing that, but it was the truth.

Paro continued, "I'll be honest with you, Din. I'm amazed at the fact that you're able to see her ghost. That's something unheard of, but even so, even with that ability, I don't think you'll be able to bring her back from the dead. It just goes against any logic in this world. There've been many people that spent their entire life trying to find the cure to death, but none have succeeded. It's just a dead end."

With a chuckle, Din asked, "Do you hear yourself, Uncle Paro?"

"Huh?"

"Going against any logic in this world… just being able to see a ghost should be proof that we have no understanding of this logic. There are even Gods and Spirits now, what makes resurrection so different? I'll just have to travel around and find a way myself. If I can see her ghost, then that must mean there's a way to make others see her too. I won't take a 'no' from you on this matter, Uncle Paro. No matter what you say, I will escape from here and find an answer to all this."

With that, Din got up and then went inside the house. Paro watched as Din walked away, but he remained still. After Din had left, Paro continued watching the moon with a sad smile.

—Because I didn't feel the need to sleep anymore, I stayed together with Paro. It had been a while since Din had left, but Paro remained in the same position. I was beginning to get bored waiting so I sighed as I started heading inside. It was then that Paro suddenly turned around.

"Who… are you?"

He was looking straight at me. I turned around first to check whether someone was right behind me, but the only person in this direction was me.

Just to be sure, I pointed to myself.

"Me?"

Paro stood up and faced me.

"I've never seen someone like you around. How did you get here past the guards?"

"I-I—"

I froze. I hadn't expected to be seen by anyone aside from Din. I didn't know what to say.

"By any chance, are you… Lorelei?"

I nodded quickly.

I asked, "H-how can you see me? I thought only Din could see me."

Paro scratched the back of his head.

"That… I don't know. It's true that I couldn't see you before, but you're clearly there now. At first, I thought you were just another person, but then I noticed you were floating. So you really are Lorelei, huh?"

He appeared calm now. He sat back down and then motioned for me to sit down next to him. As I sat, he claimed, "You must hate me right now."

"Hm? No, I—"

"Din's trying to help you return to normal and here I am, trying to stop him."

I didn't know what to say. What he said was slightly true, I wished that he wouldn't keep Din in this village, but that wasn't because I wanted to be saved.

"That's not it…"

Paro turned towards me.

I continued, "For the past few days we've been here, Din's been looking more depressed than ever. I think being locked up in this village is reminding him of all that went wrong that night. He loathes himself for what happened. I just hate seeing him like that."

"Was that really what was happening to him?"

With a sigh, Paro held his head.

"Oh how stupid could I have been. This is the exact reason why I hated my father in the first place and now I'm the one doing the same thing to Din."

He noticed my confused expression.

"The reason why I left Ravenwalt was because I wanted to use my practice as a doctor to help those that didn't have access to them. I originally planned to travel around the world as a travelling doctor, but after I reached Sebraten, I ended up just staying here. The thing is though, my father wouldn't let me leave Ravenwalt, he told me that the King would protect the family only while we were present in Ravenwalt, but I didn't care. It was because of the stories he told me that I wanted to travel so much in the first place. It was like there was a whole different world out there just waiting to be seen and people in need of my help."

Paro had a wide smile on his face as he spoke, but then it suddenly became grim as he continued.

"Even though I wanted to leave, I still stayed because I didn't want to make my father unhappy. Even after he died, I still lived with my sister and her family for a few years, but then I decided that I had enough one day and then left. I made sure to leave a letter telling my sister that I would contact her once I was happy with where I was in life."

At this point, he was holding back his tears. He would clear his throat occasionally as he spoke.

"The day after I married Karlyn, I wrote my sister a letter telling her all about my journey… and how I finally decided to settle down in Sebraten. But I guess… she was already… at that time…"

Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, he paused to regain his composure.

I asked, "Do you regret leaving Ravenwalt?"

He looked at me with a glitter of tears still in his eyes. Then, thinking for a moment, he wiped those tears and then answered, "If I hadn't left, I might've been able to save both my sister and my brother-in-law… but I don't regret leaving. The life I'd lived outside the walls of Ravenwalt, the people I'd met and the lives I'd saved… that was only possible because I chose to leave that day. There's no way I can regret that decision."

Pushing himself from the ground, he slowly stood up.

"Please take care of Din. I know he can be a little too daring at times, but he's a good kid."

I nodded, "I know."

He laughed. He then held his mouth with his hand.

"I can't believe I just cried in front of a little girl. But for some reason, I feel a lot better now. Thank—"

He paused. He began looking around for something.

"Lorelei?"

"What is it?" I asked.

Paro moved around, even walking through me, checking inside the house and then coming back outside.

Oh, he couldn't see me anymore.

After he seemed to have realized that, he said, "I don't know if you're still here, Lorelei. But thank you. Please watch over Din for me."

I stood up in front of him. Even though he couldn't see me, I bowed.

"I will."

Suddenly, Din peaked out from the front door.

"Oh, you two are still here? I thought I heard people talking so I came to check it out."

Paro began walking back inside the house.

"Din, tomorrow during breakfast, I'll tell you of a place that might know about Lorelei's abnormal case. Rest well tonight."

"Huh? Uh, good night Uncle Paro."

Din looked at me asking what had happened but I only shrugged and smiled.

It was weird how he was able to see me earlier, it seemed like there were times others could see me as well, if only for a limited time. I wondered whether that was how the lady in black had seen me before as well.