Ranker's Return

“Still, nothing has changed.”

An old man in a ragged robe climbed the mountain with a staff. It had been more than 10 years since the old man left the area where he lived, but the world hadn’t changed. It was still absurd. The nobility was still rotten and the commoners were still living in poverty. There were too many people who couldn’t hold on and ran to the mountains to become slash and burn farmers.

‘We were like that too...’

“It is greedy if I want it to be different.”

The old man barely survived the bloodbath that took place over 10 years ago. He had been prepared to run away in advance, but he could still only barely survive.

‘Those monstrous guys.’

The cause of the bloodshed was because he joined forces with corrupt nobles. Considering the purpose for why they gathered, they formed solidarity with a group they should’ve never been with. It was an inevitable choice to emerge from the shadows, but there was huge bloodshed as a result.

‘It was over the moment we lost our original intentions.’

In the face of this paradoxical contradiction, the old man realized that the future he first dreamed of had become impossible. This was why he made a hole to run away without others knowing.

Fleeting time passed. An opportunity finally came for him, who had been hiding.

Edward, the second imperial prince, rebelled against Alexander for some reason. Edward was understandably defeated. Alexander was a monster. It wasn’t a level that Edward could deal with.

‘Thanks to him, I, no, we survived.’

At that moment, the old man approached Edward and held out his hand. This was how a new organization was born. It was smaller than before, but people who dreamed of the same ideals gathered again.

Just then, a noise entered the old man’s ears. “By the way... what is this?”

The old man climbing the mountain frowned and stopped walking. There was a noise in the forest that should be quiet. The old man poured magic power into his staff and raised it toward the sky. Black magic power scattered in all directions. Following the movement of magic power, all types of information flowed into the old man.

After a while, the old man took back his staff and hurriedly left. The more the old man walked, the more the unidentified sound stimulated his ears. The old man walked for a few more minutes before finally discovering the epicenter of the sound.

“A baby?”

On a huge rock, a baby who seemed to have just been born was laid down.

“Why is there a baby in a place like this?”

The old man quickly ran over and looked at the baby.

‘Where are his parents?’

It was a mountain near a city, but it wasn’t a place where babies who couldn’t walk could come to. There would naturally be someone who brought the baby here.

“Hah...”

A sigh burst out of the mouth of the old man who walked around the rock while holding the baby.

“They were killed by monsters.”

He could see two corpses that seemed to have been killed by monsters. The bodies consisted of a man and a woman.

“They are his parents.’

It was obvious that they had left the baby and moved for a bit.

‘If this is a fated relationship...’

The old man used magic to create a grave for the two of them and left.

“I’ll raise the child well.”

***

A library full of books.

There, an old man and a boy sat facing each other with a desk between them.

“Teacher, can we take a break?” the boy asked the old man with an earnest expression.

“This guy, it has only been 30 minutes. Weren’t you the one who said you wanted to learn magic?” the old man scolded the boy. The old man didn’t want the boy to learn magic. He just wanted the boy to live a normal life like everyone else.

“I want to use magic like Teacher. Ignite flames in the air and strike with lightning. It is really cool.” The boy’s eyes shone.

“I didn’t mean to show you that...”

The old man raised a hand to his forehead. The source of the trouble was the magic he showed not long ago. From the moment the boy first saw the magic, he asked the old man to teach him magic.

‘There is no talent.’

The problem was that the boy had no talent. He couldn’t feel magic power very well and his mind was ordinary. Additionally, his concentration wasn’t very good because he was young. He didn’t have any good conditions at all. The more he held on, the more likely the boy was to be unhappy.

“Then shouldn’t you at least work hard? Once you grab a book, you should read it for at least three or four hours. That is what magic is. It isn’t something that will work all of a sudden. Endless learning is the beginning of magic. If you can’t make an effort, then give up right now.”

Therefore, the old man couldn’t help his words being cold. He had to make the boy give up as soon as possible.

“I understand. I’ll study again.”

The boy started reading the book on the desk with a slightly sullen expression.

“If there is something you don’t know, don’t grumble, and ask me. Thinking alone at this level is a waste of time.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

The boy nodded without taking his eyes off the book. The old man smiled and started to read like the boy. In the library, there was only the sound of the boy and the old man flipping through the book.

‘It has already been so long.’

Once the sun illuminating the world started to fall, the old man felt he had to get up. He hadn’t felt the passage of time because he was so immersed in the magic book.

“This guy...”

The old man looked up and saw the boy sleeping with his face on an open book.

“There is no need to force it.”

The old man lifted the boy in a manner that wouldn’t wake him up and moved him to the bedroom.

“Sleep well.”

The old man carefully looked at the sleeping boy’s face. It was a relationship that happened through chance but now it was no different from a blood relationship.

‘I’ll have to get a few more magic books.’

The old man had mastered black magic, but he didn’t intend to teach it to the boy. Even if the boy was to learn magic, he was going to teach him ordinary elemental magic, like everyone else.

“I hope you sleep well,” the old man spoke to the boy in an affectionate manner.

***

The boy dipped his swollen red calves into the stream.

“Hung, the theory might be wrong. Did I hit my calves?”

Three years had passed since the boy started learning magic from the old man. During that time, the boy didn’t make much progress. He just barely got into magic.

“Magic isn’t theory, but practice...”

The boy thought of the magic that he was most confident in. It was magic to make ice. A figure of ice was drawn in the boy’s head. Then a very small bit of ice appeared at the boy’s fingertips. The boy only moved the ice around for a few minutes before his face turned white.

“Gasp!” The boy coughed. In a short time, all his magic power was depleted.

“Sigh... The actual practice is nonsense.”

A sigh emerged from the boy’s mouth. There was still a long way to go.

***

The magic power that had run out had just filled up again when there was a rustling sound from behind the boy.

“Teacher?”

The boy thought that the owner of this sound was the old man. Thus, he quickly ran toward the place where the sound came from.

“Uh...?”

The boy’s steps suddenly stopped. It wasn’t only his feet. His entire body hardened. What he saw wasn’t the teacher, but the eyes of a beast shining brightly in the bushes.

“Uwaaah!”

The boy screamed and fell on his butt. The fallen boy was unable to think of getting up and shuffled backwards. The beast’s eyes slowly approached the boy.

“Uwaaaah!”

The boy’s scream grew louder, but there was no one around to help him. It was because the old man had left a long time ago, saying he had something to do. Yet at one point, the screams coming from the boy’s mouth ceased. Instead, the boy’s eyes grew wider.

It was a small bear that popped out of the bushes. It was small enough to only go up to the boy’s waist at most.

“What? It wasn’t a big deal?”

After confirming the appearance of the beast, the boy got up and shook off the dirt on his butt. Then he slowly walked toward the beast in front of him.

“What are you?” the boy asked the bear. However, the ordinary bear couldn’t answer.

“Why aren’t you answering me? Don’t tell me... you can’t talk?”

The bear didn’t take any action despite the boy’s question. It just cocked his head.

‘Wow, so cute.’

The boy moved a bit closer to the bear. The initial fear had long been forgotten. Now he was curious about a creature smaller than himself.

“It is my first time seeing you... where is your home?”

The boy kept asking the bear questions as if he didn’t know that the bear didn’t understand what he was saying.

“Are you a fool? Why can’t you answer?”

The boy unilaterally poured out questions toward the bear for a long time before becoming angry at the bear. However, the bear still reacted the same way. It cocked its head and made eye contact with the boy.

‘Is Teacher back?’

The boy saw the moon rising in the sky and remembered his teacher’s face. Then he realized that it was time for the old man to come back.

“I have to go now. Hurry up and go home too. Your parents will be looking for you.”

The boy gestured to the bear and started to run toward his house. The little bear was left alone. It looked at the boy’s back and slowly moved. It was in the direction that the boy ran.

***

“This guy, it is late at night. Why were you wandering around like that? How many times do I have to tell you that night in the forest is really dangerous?” the old man shouted when he saw the boy rushing in with sweat all over his forehead.

The boy still didn’t seem to understand, but the forest was very dangerous. The old man wandered around several times a day to clean up the surroundings, but he still didn’t know when or where monsters would appear.

“I’m sorry, Teacher. I was thinking... and didn’t pay attention to the time.”

The boy looked down. He knew it was his fault this time. He knew that his teacher wasn’t shouting out of anger, but concern for him.

‘Magic is the problem...’

The old man was well aware of what the boy had been thinking about. To be precise, the expression ‘distressed’ was more appropriate than ‘thinking.’ The magic abilities that didn’t improve well. He must’ve been worried about this.

“Why aren’t you coming in quickly? I’ve prepared dinner, so let’s eat together.”

The old man reached out to the boy.

“Yes, Teacher.”

It was the moment the boy grabbed the old man’s hand. There was a crunch of leaves from the forest.

‘A monster?’

The old man stopped as he was about to enter the house with the boy. Then he quickly turned and held out the hand that wasn’t holding the boy.

“No, Teacher!”

The boy saw the magic at the old man’s fingertips and shouted with surprise. The old man quickly took back his magic at the boy’s scream. Then the boy let go of the old man’s hand and ran forward. There was a little bear that was approaching the boy.

“You fool, why did you follow me? I told you to go home. Your parents will be worried,” the boy scolded the little bear. The little bear shook its head and clung to the boy.

“Don’t tell me... you don’t have parents either?” the boy cautiously asked the bear who held his waist and wouldn’t let go. The bear looked up and made eye contact with the boy.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked this. It is late today, so I will let you stay tonight. However, you have to go home tomorrow, okay?”

The boy carefully stroked the bear’s head. Then he turned and spoke to the old man.

“Teacher, can we make one more seat at the table?”

“I don’t know if you like him, but... I’ll make a seat.”

The old man nodded with an expression that was hard to describe. The boy’s words stuck in his heart like a thorn. ‘Parents...’