Kell was still sorting through his thoughts when Mara shook her head firmly and tightened her grip on his wrist.
"No need for now," she said, already pulling him away. "We'll think about your offer later."
The guard straightened immediately and nodded, forcing a polite smile. "O-of course, of course." Then, as if remembering something important at the last second, his eyes flicked back to the book in Kell's hand. "Ah—by the way… would you be willing to sell that spell book?"
He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice. "Don't worry. I'll pay more than the market price."
Hearing that, Kell didn't hesitate. He shook his head once. "No need. But I appreciate your kindness."
With that, he reached into his pocket and took out a small red crystal. The surface glimmered faintly, pulsing with condensed mana. He had already named it in his mind—a Mana Crystal. After all, it was simply mana solidified into a stable form.
He casually tossed it toward the guard.
"This will be your payment for the advice."
The guard caught it instinctively, then froze.
His eyes widened as he stared at the crystal resting in his palm. "A-are you sure?" he asked carefully. "This is rare, you know. One like this can fetch ten copper coins."
Kell tilted his head slightly.
'Copper coins?'
For a brief moment, confusion flickered across his face. 'So these aren't used as currency here?'
He had assumed the crystals would function like spirit stones—both cultivation resource and common tender.
'So they're treated as materials instead,' he concluded.
'Good to know.'
Aloud, he only said, "It's fine. Take it."
Mara, who had been listening quietly until now, stiffened.
"Ten… copper?" she repeated under her breath.
Her eyes snapped to the crystal, then to the guard's hand, then back to Kell. Her mouth opened as if to protest, to snatch it back, to say that's too much—
But it was already done.
Kell turned to her calmly. "Let's go. You said the others haven't eaten yet."
Mara looked at him, then at the guard, her expression torn. She clearly wanted to say something—anything—but no words came out. In the end, she could only sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly as she resumed dragging him away.
Ten copper coins.
Just… given away.
Behind them, the guard stared at the Mana Crystal one last time before carefully closing his fingers around it, a grin slowly creeping onto his face.
And in his excitement, he completely forgot to do one very important thing—
Inform the guild about Kell.
----
As Kell and Mara walked along the dirt road leading toward the towering stone walls and the grand gate of the town, the excitement from earlier slowly drained away. The air grew quieter, broken only by the crunch of their footsteps.
Mara finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Why did you give him that Mana Crystal?" she asked, her voice tight. "Do you even know how much it could've fetched us? We wouldn't have had to worry about food for at least half a month."
There was frustration in her tone—but beneath it, resignation. The kind that came from someone used to counting meals, not luxuries.
Kell turned his head toward her, genuinely puzzled. "Is it… that valuable?"
Mara stopped walking.
She stared at him as if he had just asked whether water was wet. "What do you mean is that valuable?" she said slowly. "Of course it is. Why are you acting like you don't even know that?"
Kell hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "Because I really don't know."
He met her eyes, his expression calm but sincere. "Didn't I tell you already? I've lost all my memories. Other than my name, everything is new to me."
It was the truth—just not the whole truth.
Mara frowned, clearly trying to process his words. Her brows drew together, and for a moment she just stood there, thinking. Then her voice came again, softer this time… and unsteady.
"Do you know me?"
Kell shook his head.
Her fingers tightened around the cloth of her dress. "Do you know where you live?" she asked. "Who you live with? The children… the others?"
Again, Kell shook his head.
"I don't know you," he said quietly. "I don't know anyone. I don't even know who I was before."
He let out a small sigh, as if organizing the fragments in his mind. "I only remember waking up in a dark place. There were small green human-like things there. I had to kill them to grow stronger. Then I killed a bigger one… and after that, I was able to leave."
Kell tried to explain again, carefully laying out just how little he actually knew. The more he spoke, the more silent Mara became.
When he once again referred to them as "green human-things," her breath caught.
Goblins were something even the smallest children in town knew about—creatures sung about in warning rhymes, painted on crude signs near the forest paths. The fact that he didn't even have a name for them sent a chill through her spine.
Slowly, as if afraid he might vanish if she moved too fast, Mara placed her hands on his shoulders. Her fingers trembled.
"You… you know why you went into the dungeon, right?" she asked, her voice barely holding together. "You know for whom you went inside?"
Kell shook his head.
"I don't know," he said honestly. Then, after a brief pause, he tilted his head. "But when you called out the name Little Sofia… does it have something to do with her? Did I go in because of her?"
At those words, Mara's shoulders sagged slightly, as if some invisible weight had shifted—but her heart only grew heavier.
That was when she truly noticed it.
His eyes.
They weren't the same eyes that used to avert themselves shyly when she looked at him too long. There was no familiarity in them anymore. No warmth shaped by shared days and quiet evenings.
Only curiosity.
And confusion.
It felt as if someone had gently replaced the boy she knew with a stranger wearing his face.
Her chest tightened.
Just as her vision blurred, Kell spoke again.
"Should I go away?"
The words were calm. Almost clinical.
Mara stiffened. "What?" she asked sharply. "What did you just say?"
Kell looked at her, genuinely puzzled. "Should I leave?" he repeated. "It seems my presence is hurting you. If that's the case… wouldn't it be better if I went away?"
That was enough.
"No—no, no, no."
Mara shook her head violently, as if denying the words could erase them. She pulled him into her arms again, tighter this time, desperate, as though the world itself were reaching out to tear him away from her grasp.
"It's okay… it's okay," she whispered, over and over, the words breaking apart as they left her lips. Her breath hitched; her fingers trembled against his back.
"I'm sorry," she said, the apology small and raw, pressed into his shoulder like a confession she couldn't bear to say aloud.
"Forgive me."
Her voice broke, and tears spilled freely now, soaking into his dusty shoulder.
She was grieving.
Not for the Kell standing in front of her—but for the one she had already lost.
Yet she couldn't let him go. Not when he had lost even more than she had.
'Why… why is the Lord so cruel?' she thought desperately, clutching him tighter. 'Why punish us like this?'
Kell stood there, stiff and uncertain.
'This mortal woman cries far too much,' he thought, a trace of irritation surfacing. In his past life, no mortal would have dared touch him so freely. This much closeness would have been unthinkable.
And yet…
She was clearly in pain.
Loss. Grief. These were emotions mortals couldn't easily escape.
After a brief hesitation, Kell did something he never imagined he would do.
He raised a hand… and gently patted her back.
Awkward. Uneven. Unpracticed.
It was a motion he hadn't used since abandoning everything to walk the path of immortality. But somewhere deep in his mind, a memory stirred—his master's hand, resting on his back after a rare failure, grounding him when disappointment threatened to swallow him whole.
'How long has it been…?'
The face attached to that memory was already blurred, lost to time. Only the sensation remained—faint, but precious.
Mara felt the hesitant pats and slowly began to calm. Her sobs softened, though her arms tightened around him, as if she feared that letting go even once would mean losing him forever.
----
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