Chapter 5
Perhaps Rosha’s question was too unexpected that the man stared at her for a while. Then, he immediately laughed and shook his head.
“First of all, my name is Aaron. I was the one in charge of investigating this case. Of course, I am the person who found you.”
“Well, maybe…….”
“# 777, we haven’t found any other survivors except you.”
“All the villagers…… Are you saying that they are all dead?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see a five-year-old girl with blond hair?!”
Instead of answering, Aaron pulled out a small envelope from his white robe and threw it onto Rosha’s lap. She hurriedly turned over the envelope, and the photos inside poured out.
“These pictures were taken to identify the victims who had died in that village.”
Rosha hurriedly looked through the photos one after another. She looked at all the photos that seemed to be girls the age of Lily. After that, she looked at all the pictures of the women with long hair. And finally, she looked over all the photos from the beginning, including those of the men. However, Lily’s body was not in any of those photos.
“None. I don’t have a picture of my sister. Is this all? Do you have any more?”
“Every single victim was filmed. If it’s not there, I can’t tell you anything more.”
“Then, you mean there is a chance that my sister could be alive?”
“Well, maybe she was lucky enough. But, didn’t you say that your sister was only 5 years old?”
“Yes.”
“If she is that young, she is unlikely to be alive even if she was lucky enough to escape the village”, Aaron gave Rosha no hope. But, what he said was not important to her.
“It’s only a low probability, and it’s not like you can be very sure that she’s dead.”
Rosha had confirmed with her own eyes that her family was dead. But, it did not include Lily. Lily was her one and only family, and she had gone to the village to get help. If Lily were alive somewhere, she would be waiting for her. The image of her little sister crying and promising to bring the adults to help while running away, was still clear in Rosha’s mind.
“Can you please find my sister? She could be hiding in a nearby town!”
“No.777, I investigated the nearby village, but there was no evidence of a survivor running there. I hate to admit it, but your sister is dead.”
“My sister is not dead!” Rosha yelled at the man with all her might. Then, the man just looked at her quietly as if surprised. Her body was shaking. Perhaps it was because she squeezed out all the remaining energy she had to scream at the man, causing the pain in her chest to throb again, it seemed that the medicine had lost its effect.
‘Lily is alive.’ Until she checked Lily’s body with her own eyes, she refused to believe in the opposite.
Her little sister, who was born with gorgeous blond hair, unlike herself, was lovely, and there were times she was jealous of that loveliness. The loveliness which took her happiness away. However, just because she was jealous and disliked Lily didn’t mean that she didn’t love her. And right now, she was in deep regret as she wasn’t a good child just before her family left her forever.
Lily is the only family she has left so she couldn’t give up now. She will surely find her. But what if Lily really died? Then….she won’t give up on finding her body.
“I’ll tear it to death.”
“What?”
Aaron asked back with an absurd look at Rosha’s sudden words. Rosha snarled, gritted her teeth, looking straight into the man’s eyes.
“There are more monsters like that in this world, right?”
“So?”
“The monsters, I will kill them….All without exception.”
It was hard for Aaron to believe that her pink eyes, as beautiful as jewels, were now gleaming like an illusion of red blood. Perhaps the girl’s words were sincere. The amount of anger in it was big enough to tear the world apart. But just because her anger was great, it didn’t mean that she could achieve her purpose.
“That’s too bad, 777.”
“But, why do you keep calling me number 777?”
“I measured your mana while you were sleeping.”
“My mana….?”
“I thought it was pretty high because you killed Ramia at once, but I was disappointed because the ranking was pretty low. Only in the 777th place. With this rank, you cannot be assigned a mission to kill a demon.”
“What do you mean now…?”
It was when Rosha tilted her head in confusion at the appearance of a man speaking unknown words, she heard a knock on the door. When she looked in the direction of the door, the one who knocked was already opening it.
“Ah, Noah. Did you come?”
A handsome man with light blue hair stood leaning against the door. He was young, unlike Aaron who was next to Rosha. The man, who was wearing a cravat in a neat white shirt, was as beautiful as a prince on the white horse in a fairy tale Rosha had read as a child. She would be enchanted by him if the situation was different, but the man’s beauty had little effect on Rosha today.
“Aaron, you need to be kind to the young freshman.”
“You know obviously that this old man is not good at teaching anyone.”
Unlike when dealing with Rosha, Aaron politely bowed his head to the young man with light blue hair.
“Aaron. Can I talk to this girl for a while?”
“Of course, Noah.”
Aaron left the room, packing a bag full of medicine without Rosha’s consent. Only the young man and Rosha were left behind.
“Hello Rosha.” There was no awkward silence, and the man spoke friendly to her first.
“My name is Noah. Noah Rostelier. You may have heard Aaron calling my name earlier.”
“….”
“You can comfortably call me Noah.”
“Noah.”
“Yes, call me like that.”
Then, Noah found the glass of medicine Rosha had previously drunk, smelled it, then put it on the side table again, frowning.
“Oh, that medicine is very bitter. Do you need candy?”
“I’m fine….”
When she tried to refute his words that the medicine was indeed bitter, suddenly, Noah’s hand reached out to Rosha’s hair. Surprised, she pulled her body back.
“Ta-da!”
With a blink of an eye, the man held out a red lollipop in his hand. It was fascinating and surprising, and while her eyes were still wide open, the red candy was pushed through Rosha’s lips and touched her tongue. The sweet taste spread in her mouth, eliminating the medicine’s taste.
“I know it’s rude, excuse me, but I heard the conversation you had with Aaron.”
“…..”
“I’m sorry about your sister.”
Rosha nodded with somber expression, spinning the lollipop in her mouth meaninglessly.
“We’re trying to see if there’s any survivors nearby, but nothing has been found yet. If you didn’t find your sister in the photos of the dead…”
“…..”
“Maybe she was like one of those who either died in the woods, or escaped somewhere else.”
When the talks about the survival of Lily came out, Rosha took the candy out of her mouth.
“I was also killed by Ramia, but I am still alive! So maybe my little sister is also alive somewhere ..….”
“You are a special case.”
“What…..?”
****
“You’re a special case.”
“What….?”
To Rosha, who knew nothing, the man slowly explained.
“Do you know an old myth? God sent his son to a fallen world to save the foolish humans and the world.”
“I know. By the sacrifice of a child of God, he carried the evil out of this world.”
In the long history, it was the state religion of this country, and it was a myth about the one god that many people still believe. It was an old story that a child of God, who was an angel, was born into the world, saved people, and died with the sins of this world.
“At that time, the God who mourned the death of his son made a pledge. When he sends another savior to this world, he will create knights to protect his son.”
“But God-sent knights need one condition to awaken. He has to be reborn from the death of the demon. Just like you.”
Rosha fiddled with her half-length hair coming down her shoulders, wondered if Noah changed his hair color too when he was attacked by such monsters?
Noah, with light blue hair and eyes of the same color, smiled and nodded.
“Rosha. I’m sorry, but as long as you awaken regardless of your origin, you’re a Rostelier from now on.”
“What is Rostelier?”
“Have you ever heard of the Golden Dawn Society?”
Rosha remembered walking around town with her brother when she happened to see an article on the wall. At that time, Dane said it was a crazy cult.
“Yes. I know.”
“That’s us.”
However, today, Rosha couldn’t call them a pseudo-group. It was because they were the ones who had saved her from her death.
“All the knights who belong to the Golden Dawning Society abandoned their origins and followed the last name known as Rostelier. It is my original surname, the founder, and everyone uses the same surname to symbolise us being in one family.”
“My name is Rosha Lewen.”
“But from now on, you’re Rosha Rostelier.”
“……”
“Don’t be sad. When you become a member of our family, I will find your sister for you.”
“Can’t I go find my sister by myself?”
Rosha felt uneasy to leave the matter on her sister’s whereabouts in the hands of others. So if she could, she wanted to find Lily herself. Noah laughed as if it was a little difficult, and shook his head firmly.
“That’s not allowed.”
“Why? Because I am young?”
“Because you are only ranked 777th.”
“So..?”
“Rosha, our Golden Dawn Knights were ranked according to their strength. Among them, missions that involve meeting or taking care of victims by demons could only be taken by knights starting from the 500th rank, missions that involve actual battles with demons are from the 300th rank, while secret and highly important missions are reserved for the 100th rank and above knights. The rest are only tasked in adding a little power to a big battle.”
To find Lily, she would have to find the victims who have run away from the demon, and she must be able to fight the demon if she met one. However, Rosha doesn’t even rank in the 700th, let alone the 500th. As Noah had said, Rosha’s rank was the 777th knight. She must be on the top 100 to be able to find Lily herself.
“What if I raise my ranking?”
“The innate mana cannot be changed.”
“I will work hard.”
“There are those who have made their efforts to rank 10th or so, but aren’t you too low to do that?”
“Give me a chance. I will try!”
Noah pondered for a moment, looking at the young girl who seemed very desperate. He didn’t like to waste time on things with obvious results. However, if he doesn’t give her any chance here, the girl will completely shut the door to her heart. Anyway, if she tried hard and it didn’t work out, she would resign by herself, so giving her some time to throw away her lingering doubts would not be a bad decision. This little child needs time for education in the future.
“Let’s do this, Rosha.”
“….”
“I’ll give you a year’s time.”
Noah with a benevolent smile, glanced down at Rosha, who was still holding the lollipop in her hand.
“If you do not improve your rank within a year, then you have to give up completely. What do you think?”
Rosha could also feel that Noah is giving her a great opportunity. There was no way to back out from here anyway.
“Good.”
As Rosha nodded, Noah reached out to her and said, “Then, let me introduce you to the Golden Dawn Society.”
Rosha grabbed his hand and got out of bed. She then moved forward slowly while holding his hand, suppressing the slight pain in her chest. As she left the open door, she saw a long corridor. On one side of the wall of the corridor was a railing, the top was open, allowing people to look down. Rosha peered over the railing and was astonished, speechless upon the sights ahead of her. There was a large door far away across them. There was a square inside the gate, which was erected like the entrance of a castle, and there were countless people gathering there. The scenery, which seemed to appear like a city to her, was a space that only the people of the Golden Dawn Society could enjoy.
“Well, it’s a bit late for me to say this, but….Rosha,” Noah gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “Welcome to the Rostelier of the Golden Dawn Society.”
Looking at the young girl who was full of vain hopes that she would be able to raise her rankings if she tried hard enough, Noah hoped that in the near future, the day would come when this child would be able to abandon those futile ambitions and be able to laugh freely.
****
Noah had to admit that he was wrong exactly a year later. As a result of re-measurement, Rosha managed to rise up 700th places. Now, she is ranked 77th among the Rosteliers.
****