Glan Natural Science Academy

Night.

Anna’s grandfather had only an arm and an eye left. Even still, he was one of the luckiest out of countless hunters. It was rare for hunters to live till this life – most of them suffered the same fate as Ryger’s father and died to their prey. After all, the difference between wild animals and proteuses was simply too vast. An ordinary hunter was nothing more than a weak biped to a proteus.

Anna’s father was a simple, honest farmer who planted crops for the town’s baron whereas her mother was a housewife who did some needlework to supplement their income.

 

“Come, Ryger, eat more! You’ll have the energy to do things for the Lord only after you’re full1.” Anna’s grandfather was full of smiles and his usual dignified, stately demeanour was absent. It was apparent that he truly liked Ryger. Or perhaps it was because of Ryger’s father.

 “Sir, I’m really full.” Ryger smiled helplessly – this was already his third time explaining.

Anna’s grandfather looked at the silent, downcast Anna, then looked at Ryger before talking slowly. “Ryger, have you really decided that you want to serve the great Light God for a lifetime? Oh, please don’t misunderstand. This old man is also a faithful follower of the Light. It’s just that… you can also become a radiant knight2 to serve the Lord. They are allowed to marry and sire a child.”

Ryger understood what the elderly man meant and said lowly: “Because of my mother’s dystocia, it’s hard for my body to reach the level of requirement for a radiant knight.”

Disappointment.

“Ahh, what a pity. If Anna could be with you, then I’d be able to rest my heart” The old man sighed and said nothing more.

Ryger peeked at Anna. He saw Anna’s face which was reflected by the light and the shy, lost way she looked at him, and couldn’t help but think back to how close and innocent they were way back then. If he wasn’t a descendant of the sorcerers; If he was able to become a radiant knight… how nice would it be if he could live with her for a lifetime and be forever happy.

As he thought about this, Ryger masked his sadness and dejection in his heart, and made a content smile. Excitedly, he said: “Thank the Lord! I received a special grace from the Church yesterday. They decided to let me go to a distant place called Soufeel so that I could spread the Lord’s Light as a trainee preacher. I’m finally going to serve the Lord.”

The crowd around the fireplace heard Ryger and all made an expression of being pleasantly surprised. Even Anna, for all her feelings of loss, made a prayer posture and heartily wished Ryger well.

 

 

A month after—

 

Ice and snow melted and all beings were recovering from the winter season.

Meltwater converged at the lake of the town and its limpid surface reflected the newly grown twigs near the lakeside. People stepped on muddy land and began a new year’s labour. They heard the bell sound of the distant, and praised the Light God with all their might, praying so that their harvest that year would be bountiful.

Though life was hard, the people were very easily satisfied. A pure and honest smile was visible on their tired face.

Ryger stood on the streets with a wooden luggage on his back. He turned his head to look at the town of Agate Lake for the very last time, and his reluctance to leave gradually changed to resolution and resolve.

“Mother, Father, I’m off on my way now!”

He turned and left without any hesitation.

As Ryger walked on the muddy road, slight redness appeared around his eye. He had abandoned all that he knew and stepped on a journey to the unknown. He didn’t know when he could ever return, if ever.

The leather shoes moved along the muddy trail left behind by the wheels of horsecars, but he still couldn’t avoid the splattering of mud on his clothes. Father had said that with this road, he would reach St Glan Castle, capital of the Glan Principality, after passing through the Accipit Jungle3.

In the little town, nobody noticed the departure of a boy who once aspired to be a preacher. To the town, Ryger wasn’t anybody of much significance at all. Perhaps, only the pastor would remember the follower who always followed him around and be curious about his absence come next year.

The walk went on for nearly 4 hours4. Gradually, farmland was replaced by shrubs. If one looked around, there wouldn’t be any traces of human activity. Boundless greeneries, with some wildlife movements within, went on for as far as the eye could see.

Further front was the Accipit Jungle, the destination of the town’s hunters. Legend goes that deep within the Accipit Jungle resided a group of terrifying hawks. All that was seen by the hawks would have their souls frozen and then hunted. None have ever escaped from them. That aside, many other scary beings live deep inside the Jungle and all sorts of proteuses moved around inside it. Only a few mighty mercenary groups dare to venture into it and seek their fortune.

What was fortunate was that this road merely passes through the outskirts of the Jungle and received many uses from caravans. Generally speaking, proteuses won’t appear on this pathway and at worst, only ordinary wild animals would appear.

After experiencing the brief feeling of loss when he started his journey, Ryger neared the Accipit Jungle. This place was further beyond any place he had explored before, yet he felt a sense of unexplained excitement deep in his heart.

It was like the cells that had been slumbering for 10 years were celebrating. As if they were excited for leaving the dull, boring life in the town, jumping for joy for the imminent brand-new life, and full of desire to explore the unknown and vast, wide world.

Ryger’s footsteps too, were seemingly faster.

Now that he thought of it, wasn’t his ideal to leave the town as a preacher and head to an unknown land?

 

“Hey ho, hey ho…” Shouting noises from several men came from the dirt road ahead.

Ryger made an astonished look and accelerated his steps. After he passed several patches of shrubberies, he saw several men carrying a fat, black wild boar in his direction. He didn’t recognise them, which probably meant that they’re hunters from nearby villages.

The hunters were beaming with joy because of their bounty and had greeted Ryger when they saw him.

 “Are you entering the forest on your own, kiddo?” The person who talked to him was a hairy, burly who was nearly a head taller than Ryger. The man used the time spent greeting Ryger to stop and rest for a moment while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

The other 2 hunters sat on the ground near the wild bear, lighted their cigarette and took some cured meat out to eat.

“It has so much fat even after winter!” Ryger looked at the black wild boar and made a compliment before replying. “Mmh5  I’m going to St Glan Castle.”

“Haha, we have the Light God’s favour to thank for allowing us to catch this big guy here. We’re now getting ready to carry him to the church and give the best part to the pastor.”

When they heard the word ‘Light God’, the two resting hunters quickly made a prayer pose out of fear of losing their luck due to their disrespect. Ryger, too, hurriedly made the same pose.

Is it really because of the Light God’s favour?

Does the Light God really remember the self-dedication of each and every one of his followers?

After the facial hair hunter finished laughing, he looked at the lone Ryger, frowned and urged him: “Even though this road only passes the outskirts of the Jungle and there won’t be any proteuses roaming about, the wandering animals are sufficiently dangerous. Even more so after the long winter when all the animals are out foraging for food. You’ll need to be careful, kiddo.”

Ryger’s heart warmed at being able to meet such kind-hearted hunters even after just leaving his hometown. “It’s fine. I brought some animal repellents.” (Animal repellents is a local term used by hunters of Agate town and is made from powdered manure of proteuses. Since wild animals have a great sense of smell, hunters would scatter the repellent around when resting to prevent danger)

The burly man grinned when he heard Ryger brought animal repellents with him and said nothing more.

After bidding farewell to the hunters, Ryger continued on. Not long after, he truly entered the Accipit Jungle. 

Footnotes

I feel that one of my weaksuits is dialogue. I don’t think I can give different voices and speech styles for each of the characters. And while I’m on that topic, another thing I think I’m bad at is religious talk and punctuations. I hope that it doesn’t ruin the experience too much.  They all use the same word 光明. I just feel that radiant sounds better here魔鹰森林. Lit. translation is demon/magic hawk jungle which sounds off. Accipit is from accipiter which is latin for hawk. This book denotes time using hourglass like ‘2 hourglass later’. Thankfully, thanks to the power of pirates I can check for specific phrases in later chapters. Apparently a hourglass is 2 hour long. This but shorter. If you see something like this its most probably a grunt of agreement