Chương 78: The Road Beyond Shinkai

The mountain disappeared behind them as evening settled over the eastern valleys, its dark slopes gradually becoming indistinguishable from the surrounding ridges until only the highest peaks remained visible beneath the fading light.

Leo walked at the front of the group without speaking, maintaining a steady pace that allowed Kaien to recover without forcing him to stop every few minutes, while Rin remained close to his brother, occasionally glancing backward toward the mountain as though expecting to see the entrance reopen and release something that had followed them out. Nothing emerged.

The forest remained quiet, and the further they traveled from Mount Shinkai, the less pressure Leo felt in the air, until the strange sensation produced by the mountain finally disappeared altogether. They continued until darkness made further travel impractical. Leo chose a small clearing between several old trees, far enough from the mountain that the terrain gave them a clear view of anyone approaching from the surrounding slopes.

He gathered enough dry branches for a fire, then sat against the trunk of a tree while Rin prepared a simple meal from the supplies he had carried from the settlement. Kaien remained near the edge of the clearing. He had barely spoken since leaving the mountain. Rin eventually noticed.

"You should eat."

"I am not hungry."

"You have been missing for three years." Kaien looked at him.

"And?"

"And you are still acting as though you have only been gone for an afternoon." Kaien lowered his gaze.

"I don't know how to act." Rin's expression softened.

"You don't have to know." Kaien looked toward the fire. For a while, neither brother spoke. Leo remained silent, allowing them the space. He had no reason to force their conversation. Family had its own wounds, and some wounds could not be treated by simply naming them. Eventually Kaien sat beside his brother. Rin handed him a bowl. Kaien accepted it. They ate in silence. After several minutes, Kaien finally spoke.

"When I entered the mountain the first time, I thought I would be inside for a few hours." Rin looked at him.

"I remember."

"I found the first chamber after less than twenty minutes. There were records everywhere, fragments of old equipment, and the same symbol we found outside. I thought I had discovered an abandoned research site."

"What changed?"

"The doors." Kaien's fingers tightened around the bowl.

"They were not supposed to be there." Leo looked toward him.

"Seven doors?"

"Yes."

"Were all seven present?" Kaien nodded.

"But only one was open."

"The third?" Kaien looked surprised.

"You know?" Leo did not answer. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Kaien continued.

"The third door was already open when I arrived. I heard voices coming from the other side, but nobody answered when I called. I crossed the threshold."

"What did you see?"

"Nothing." Rin frowned.

"Nothing?"

"Not darkness. Not an empty room. Nothing." Kaien stared into the fire.

"I could see my own hands, but when I looked forward, there was no floor, no wall, no ceiling. It was as if the world had simply stopped existing around me." Leo listened carefully.

"How did you return?"

"I heard someone calling my name."

"Who?" Kaien looked toward Rin.

"You." Rin's expression changed.

"I wasn't there."

"I know." The fire crackled between them.

"That was when I understood the mountain could imitate people." Leo leaned slightly forward.

"Did the voice sound exactly like Rin?"

"Yes."

"Did it say anything besides your name?" Kaien shook his head.

"It kept repeating it."

"Why did you follow it?"

"Because I thought my brother had found me." Rin looked down. Kaien continued.

"I followed the voice for what felt like several minutes, but when I turned around, the door was gone." Leo's expression remained calm.

"How long were you inside?"

"I don't know."

"Approximately."

"Maybe two hours."

"And outside?" Kaien looked at him.

"Three years." Rin stared at his brother.

"What?" Kaien nodded.

"That is what the people who found me told me." Rin's voice became quieter.

"You were inside for two hours."

"That is how it felt."

"But three years passed."

"Yes." Leo looked toward the dark forest. The mountain did not merely contain unusual structures. It altered perception of time. That explained why the silver-eyed man could have experienced centuries while believing himself trapped within a relatively short span, although whether his subjective experience had been continuous remained unknown. Leo turned back toward Kaien.

"What happened after you came out?"

"I was outside the mountain."

"Where?"

"On the southern slope."

"You were injured?"

"Yes."

"By what?" Kaien's expression hardened.

"I don't know." That answer did not surprise Leo. Kaien continued.

"I found the road back to the settlement and returned to Hana. She thought I had died."

"She said you stayed two nights."

"I did."

"Why did you return to the mountain?" Kaien's eyes moved toward the horizon.

"Because I heard the voice again." Rin stared at him.

"What voice?" Kaien answered without looking at him.

"Mine." Leo's gaze sharpened.

"What did it say?" Kaien was silent for several seconds. Then he said, "It told me that if I wanted to understand what happened to me, I had to go back before the eastern boundary opened." The words were followed by a long silence. Rin looked at Leo.

"You think that was the same thing we encountered?"

"I don't know."

"But you think it knew the boundary would open." Leo shook his head.

"I think someone wanted Kaien to believe that." Kaien looked at him.

"You don't believe the mountain is alive?"

"I believe we saw something that behaved as though it were alive."

"That isn't the same thing."

"No." Leo looked into the fire.

"Until we have evidence that the mountain possesses consciousness, I won't give it one." Kaien remained silent. The silver-eyed man, who had been sitting several meters away beneath a tree, finally spoke.

"That is wise." Rin looked toward him.

"You have been quiet."

"I have been listening."

"To what?"

"To how you describe things." Rin frowned. The man looked toward Leo.

"You refuse to give the unknown a personality." Leo met his gaze.

"Because people are too willing to blame an invisible intelligence for things they don't understand." The silver-eyed man looked away.

"Perhaps." Night deepened around them. Eventually Rin and Kaien went to sleep. Leo remained awake. He sat beside the dying fire, his sword resting within reach, while the silver-eyed man remained on the opposite side of the clearing. Neither spoke for a long time. Then Leo finally broke the silence.

"You know something about the eastern boundary." The man did not deny it.

"I know what it is connected to."

"What?"

"The old settlements." Leo's expression changed slightly.

"The ones that rejected mana?"

"Yes."

"Chakra." The silver-eyed man nodded.

"They developed differently from the civilizations that dominated the western continent." Leo looked east.

"Where are they?"

"Beyond the eastern mountains."

"How far?"

"Several weeks on foot." Leo considered that.

"Do they know about the mountain?"

"Some of them."

"And the fragments?"

"Probably."

"Probably?"

"I have been separated from the world for more than two centuries." The man looked toward the stars.

"Everything I knew has changed." Leo accepted that. Then he asked the question that mattered most.

"What did the researchers call the eastern settlement?" The silver-eyed man was silent. When he finally answered, his voice was quieter than before.

"Shinkai." Leo looked at him.

"That is the name of the mountain."

"Yes."

"Then the settlement is named after it?"

"No." The man looked directly at him.

"The mountain was named after the settlement." Leo said nothing. The implications were immediate. Mount Shinkai was not the beginning of the mystery. It was a consequence. Something had existed in the east long before the mountain was built, and the researchers who constructed the underground boundary station had deliberately placed it there. The eastern settlement was not merely another place on Leo's journey. It was connected to the origin of the system he had been following.

But Leo did not feel compelled to rush. He had learned enough about the mountain to know that haste was exactly what these places demanded from people. He stood and looked toward the horizon.

"We leave at sunrise." The silver-eyed man nodded.

"For the eastern settlement?"

"Yes."

"And after that?" Leo's eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the trees.

"I will decide when I get there." The answer was simple. There was no prophecy in it. No destiny. No ancient voice deciding his path. Only a man choosing where to take his next step. Far beyond the forest, somewhere near the eastern coast, a faint red light appeared beneath the night sky. Leo did not see it. He did not need to. For the first time since entering the mountain, he was no longer following a mystery. He was following a road. End of Chapter 78.