Chương 29: Mana 0

Ren looked at the measuring stone in the elder's hand. The stone was transparent. When Ren touched it, a faint blue light had turned inside the stone. When Tarok touched it, the light was weak, but clearly remained. Even when a village child put a fingertip on it, and when the woman carrying bread touched it, the light varied a little but did not go out. But when the stranger's hand touched it, nothing happened. The elder looked at the stone again. Then at the stranger. Back to the stone. Back to the stranger.

The stranger spread both hands.

"I don't think I broke it." Ren did not know what the words meant. But he could roughly understand the stranger's face. It was the face of someone saying he had not done anything wrong. The elder quickly asked Ren a question. Ren pointed toward the forest. He drew the fallen cart with his hands. He imitated the head of the horned forest beast. Then he made a short swing with his hand, copying the strange stick the stranger had been holding. Tap. He could not imitate that small sound.

But he could show that the horn had broken. Ren bent one finger, and a woman behind him covered her mouth. Tarok still could not put weight properly on his leg. But the blood that had been pouring out until moments ago had stopped. Ren pointed at Tarok's thigh, then at the stranger's hand. The elder's brows furrowed deeper. He looked as if he could not decide how much of Ren's account he should believe. Ren looked at the measuring stone again.

Instead of answering, the elder showed the stone to other people one by one. When one child touched it, a very weak light turned inside. When the woman holding bread touched it, it gave off a pale green light. When the old man with the cane put his own hand on it, the blue light came on a little late. And then the stranger. Nothing. No light at all. The villagers murmured again. The stranger pointed at the stone, then tapped his own chest.

"No mana." The elder narrowed his eyes. The stranger said it again.

"None. Zero. Yeong. Ah, English doesn't work either." The words were incomprehensible. Then the stranger suddenly held his breath. Ren saw the change. The stranger's hand did not move toward the inside of his clothes. But his body froze for a very short moment. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. The elder brought the measuring stone close to the stranger's forehead. The stone still did not shine. But the elder's hand trembled.

The elder could not look into the stranger's eyes for long. As if he had peered into a dark well where nothing could be seen, he took one step back. The stranger looked as if he did not know what he had done.

"Why?" The elder did not answer. The village grew even quieter.

The first word Kichan learned in the other world was mana. The exact pronunciation was almost the same as "mana." That made it feel even more ridiculous. The next was a word close to "none." The elder had pointed at Kichan and the stone and repeated it several times.

"Mana. Nah." Kichan repeated it. The elder nodded.

"Right. Mana nah." Kichan pointed at his own chest.

"Kichan. Mana nah." A small laugh burst out among the villagers. It was not a good laugh. It was mixed with confusion and tension. Still, it was better than a moment ago. Ren patted Kichan's shoulder and, instead of speaking, gestured toward the inside of the village. The road inside the village was narrow enough that even two people walking side by side would have trouble.

The house walls were patched many times over with wooden boards of different colors, and every door had dried herbs and small bone ornaments hanging from it. Kichan kept checking his surroundings as he walked. The place where they drew water, the position of the hearths, a building that looked like a storehouse, gaps in the fences, the road leading back to the forest. The villagers probably thought he was gawking at them, but Kichan was looking first for escape routes, hiding places, and places to get water.

Birds similar to chickens wandered over the dirt road, which looked like it would turn to mud the moment it rained. Their beaks were broad and their tails were short. Before pecking at feed, the birds swallowed small stones first, making clicking sounds inside their throats. The goat-like beasts did not bleat when they saw Kichan. Instead, they gave low snorts. Their horns numbered three, not two. Kichan stopped for a moment when he saw the third horn. Dust wriggled faintly on the back of his hand.

Several tiny legs stretched toward the goat, then folded back when Kichan pressed them down with his finger.

"If you start doing that with livestock too, we're going to have a problem." Kichan turned his head for no reason. He walked while looking at all of it. There were no power lines. No cars. No one was holding a phone. The more he checked each obvious thing, the more his heart sank. This was not being stranded in the mountains. It really was somewhere else.

"I need to call Mom." The words came out of his mouth. No answer returned, only hearth smoke flowing low through the air.

His first meal was served beside the large hearth at the center of the village. Tough bread. Thin soup. A strange root vegetable. Kichan picked up the spoon and took a bite. The villagers tried not to stare openly, but almost all of them were watching him from the corners of their eyes. Children hid behind adults' legs, and the elder watched Kichan's hands longer than he watched the soup bowl. It was bland. Blander than he had imagined.

"Is salt precious here?" Kichan lifted the spoon again. He could not starve just because the food tasted bad. It was better than the beast meat he had eaten in the forest. At least this soup was food cooked by people. He finished it cleanly. Seeing that, the villagers' expressions softened a little. People looked less dangerous when they were eating. Kichan knew that too. Ren tore his own bread in half and gave Kichan more. Kichan waved his hand.

"No, you're hurt. You eat it." Ren simply kept holding it out. Kichan eventually accepted it.

"Thanks." He said it. Ren tried to repeat the word and failed.

"Go-ma?"

"Gomabda."

"Gomadda."

"Close enough." Kichan chewed the bread. It was tough. Then one village child was watching him from far away. The wrist gripping the doorpost was thin, and under the child's tangled hair, only the eyes looked especially large. The child coughed. Small, thin shoulders hunched first, and then a rough sound scraped out from deep in the chest. The child made a face as if trying to smile and failed, and moisture gathered at the corners of the eyes. The first cough was short. The second was long.

By the third, it was severe enough to fold the child's body. A woman who seemed to be the child's mother ran over and patted the child's back. The elder brought a bundle of herbs, and someone took smoking leaves from the hearth. Kichan put down his spoon. What his fingertips caught first was the child's dry breathing. Something inside the chest felt hot and blocked, then scraped roughly each time the cough came out. Even Kichan, who knew nothing about this world, could tell that cough looked pretty bad.

Kichan stood. The villagers all looked at him at once. Kichan took one step toward the child. The mother hugged the child and retreated. Kichan stopped. He slowly raised both hands.

"I'm not trying to hurt you." He pointed at his own chest, pointed at the child, and showed an open palm. The child's coughing had not stopped. Kichan swallowed a curse. He had not known being unable to speak to people would be this frustrating from the first day in another world. But he could not just ignore that cough.