The echo of Ray's words lingered in the air even after breakfast had ended.
She stood up to gather the dishes, while Aren remained seated, staring at the worn wood of the table as if something missing were pressing on his mind.
Suddenly… he noticed.
Not because a name had been mentioned,
but because a name had not.
He slowly raised his head and said, in a tone he tried to keep casual:
"Ray… you talked about humans, elves, dwarves, and even demons…"
Her hand stopped moving for a brief moment—barely noticeable.
Aren continued:
"But… what about the Kingdom of the Half-Bloods? Did you forget it? Or was it not important?"
Silence fell all at once.
It was not a calm silence, but a heavy one, as if the room had been sealed from the inside.
Ray did not turn around immediately.
She remained standing with her back to him, as if trying to grasp something she had suddenly lost.
Her voice lowered when she spoke:
"I didn't forget."
Then, after a longer pause, she added:
"But some things… are not mentioned because they no longer exist."
She finally turned around.
And her eyes—eyes Aren was used to seeing steady and firm—carried a hidden fracture.
She sat down slowly, as if even sitting required effort.
"The Kingdom of the Half-Bloods… no longer stands."
She paused.
"It ended long ago."
Aren felt something tighten in his chest.
He did not ask, but he understood that behind those words was a wall he should not cross.
Ray continued in a softer voice:
"There was a war. With another kingdom."
Then she added quickly, as if closing a door:
"That's all you'll know for now."
Aren lowered his gaze.
He said quietly, sincerely:
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to open a wound."
She looked at him for a few seconds, then a faint smile appeared on her lips—
a smile that carried no joy, only acceptance.
"It's fine,"
she said calmly.
"You would have learned eventually. The world doesn't hide its past forever."
She stood up again, gradually regaining her composure.
"You'll learn a lot with time… but leave this topic now. It has no place in this morning."
Aren nodded without objection.
But inside him…
something else was taking shape.
What kind of kingdom possesses the power to erase an entire kingdom?
How can a whole people vanish… without being mentioned except as a painful memory?
And if Ray carried this past in silence…
what kind of world awaited him beyond the silent forest?
Questions he did not voice.
Yet he felt their weight accompany him,
as if breakfast had ended…
but the truth had only just begun.
Silence settled after Ray's last words—
a silence that was not comforting, but pressed slowly against Aren's chest.
He should have stopped there, respected her pain,
but the questions piling up inside him were heavier than being left unanswered.
He raised his eyes to her again.
This time, his voice was not curious, but cautious—
like someone who knows what will be said will not be simple.
"Ray…"
The word hesitated on his tongue.
"There are things stranger than everything I've asked before. Things… I can't ignore."
She looked at him without interrupting.
"First…"
He gestured with his eyes toward the table.
"Where do you get the food and water? This forest… gives nothing."
She showed no surprise.
On the contrary, she leaned her back against the wall and picked up another piece of bread, as if she had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
"I knew you'd ask,"
she said calmly while eating.
"You were just late… because you're you."
Aren frowned.
"Because I'm me?"
She swallowed her bite and answered:
"Because most who reach this place don't live long enough to ask these questions."
Then she continued plainly:
"I leave the Silent Forest every five months."
Aren's eyes widened.
"You leave…?"
"Yes. To the outside world. I bring supplies that last me five months—food, water, tools… everything I need."
She paused briefly, then added:
"When they run out, I return and bring more."
He stared at her as if she had said something impossible.
"Five months of supplies… by yourself? How do you even carry all that?"
She smiled slightly—that smile she wore when she knew what she was about to say would shock him.
"Magic."
He leaned forward unconsciously.
"What kind of magic?"
"Storage magic,"
she said simply.
"A magic that opens a separate dimension, isolated from external time. I place whatever I want inside it, and it remains preserved as it is. Food doesn't spoil, liquids don't evaporate, nothing changes."
Aren's mind froze for a few seconds.
"That… that's unnaturally useful magic."
Then he said with genuine excitement:
"It solves an enormous number of problems!"
Ray laughed lightly.
"True."
Then he asked quickly:
"Is it easy to learn?"
She replied:
"In principle? Yes."
Then she added seriously:
"But its power differs from person to person."
"How?"
"By the amount of mana,"
she said, pointing to her chest.
"The greater your mana, the larger the dimension and the greater its capacity. Some can only store a bag. Others can store an entire house."
She fell silent for a moment.
"The magic is the same. The user is the difference."
Aren nodded slowly.
He was beginning to understand.
And his excitement for magic began to grow.
Then he remembered the second question.
The heavier one.
He raised his voice slightly:
"And what about the Silent Forest?"
Ray stopped.
This time… she truly stopped.
She didn't answer immediately.
She looked at the ground, then said in a low voice:
"In the past… this forest was home to the Half-Bloods."
Aren lifted his head quickly.
"Your homeland…?"
She nodded slowly.
"My homeland."
He felt as if the ground beneath him had shifted.
He hadn't expected that.
He hadn't imagined that the place he stood on… was the remains of an erased homeland.
"I… I'm sorry,"
he said immediately.
But she didn't smile this time.
"But why is it empty?"
he asked cautiously.
"Why is there no living creature?"
She hesitated.
Then raised her eyes to him, her features sinking into deep sorrow.
"Because it is cursed,"
she said with deadly calm.
"And forbidden."
A chill ran through Aren.
"Any living being that steps into the heart of the forest…"
she continued.
"Its soil, its trees, even its blood… is instantly cursed and dies."
His eyes widened.
"And you…?"
"I am of its blood,"
she said with painful simplicity.
"That's why the curse doesn't affect me."
Then she added:
"In the outside world, its full name is: The Forbidden Silent Forest."
Aren found nothing to say.
Shock upon shock.
Questions multiplying without answers.
Then the question escaped his lips, trembling:
"Then… why am I alive?"
She looked at him for a long time.
"I don't know,"
she said honestly.
"Even I find it strange."
Then—inside her—she thought:
I think it's because of your power.
But she didn't say it.
Instead, she said:
"I think you're… an exception."
His voice shook.
"What do you mean? Why me, specifically?"
And in that moment…
The thought struck Aren's mind like a bolt of lightning.
Does this have something to do with my coming to this world?
Or does this misery follow me even here?
Is it luck? Or a curse?
Is it… is it because of that damned dragon?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
The thoughts collided violently.
Aren screamed as he grabbed his head with both hands.
He collapsed to the ground, his breathing broken, and then…
He lost consciousness.
And the sound of the Silent Forest…
remained more silent than ever before.