Ingram’s Lantern - Chapter 1

Meet at the Wind Tomb.

There was nothing there.

If you ask a passing peddler, they will all probably answer like that.

Asha Konak wondered. There was an ocean, a house, a sheep, a horse, and her. Why would they say that there was nothing here?

Of course, there was really nothing other than that, so it wasn’t completely wrong. There was no name for the poor village along the gray sea. Summer had always been brief there and the cold wind always blew for more than half a year.

In the northern part of the village, there was a low hill where people settled their sheep. She often climbed up that hill and looked down at the limestone cliffs and at the metal-colored sea for hours.

However, she had something else to do today.

Asha fell and scoured the ground. She seemed to be diving into the grass. Her round head looked a tiny golden sun that fell upon a dark green meadow.

“Puh!”

The girl raised herself. The white-golden hair with grass flowers tangled into it resembled a bird’s nest, but she did not care. Her small hands were full of wildflowers, collected all afternoon. A simple bouquet was soon completed when the flowers were nicely tied together.

Asha wrinkled her eyebrows and turned the bouquet she made, around.

“… Would Dad like this?”

The wildflowers, found among the tough weeds, were far from splendid, so they felt somewhat lacking. However, even after looking around, she couldn’t see any more deserving flowers.

From a distance, she saw the sheep were leisurely grazing. Asha looked at the sheep with resentful eyes.

“I think you have eaten it all.”

Despite Asha’s scolding, the sheep were all preoccupied with finding grass. She felt hungry when she saw their tranquility. Then she found some delicate leaves and put them in her mouth, the bitter taste of the grass struck her.

“I wish I could live with eating grass too. That way, I wouldn’t be hungry anymore.”

She had the urge to put her hands into the wool and play with it, but it was obvious that she would only become hungrier if she tried doing useless things. Asha left her seat and got up. She didn’t like the shabby bunch of wildflowers, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Asha walked slowly along the coastal cliff. Every time the wind gathered and scattered repeatedly, her hair randomly fluttered along with it. The girl’s face was dirty, but her pale pink colored eyes were so beautiful that even the roses would be shy.

Asha sniffles. Although it has been more than a month since spring came to Nermaz, the cold of winter was still crouching here like a stubborn old man.

The girl, who was moving her steps carefully, in fear that the bouquet in her arms would be ruined, suddenly stopped.

“There is something…”

Asha tilted her head. There was something a little away from her feet.

“A per…son?”

At that moment, she fell under the illusion that a giant crow might have fallen on the grass. But when she rubbed her eyes and looked again, it was a man in black.

The person on the floor may be a dead body from an infectious disease that she was not supposed to approach, but what if he was a tourist in this place where there weren’t many people? She had to make sure. After taking a look around, Asha walked down the street.

When she got closer, she was now sure it was a person. There was a man in a black robe lying down as if rags were put together. He must have walked a long time, for the hem of his robe was ragged all over.

She was scared that he was dead, but when she looked closely, she saw his chest was faintly rising and falling. Asha thought about it and carefully lifted the hood of the robe. The exposed man’s face was surprisingly very young.

It was a young man with a pale, white face like the moon in the daytime. The delicate eyelids were tightly closed, and the thin yet clear-cut lips were as pale as his body.

Asha bowed her head and looked at the man. Tear marks had dried up around his eyes.

“He was crying.”

Asha unconsciously reached out and touched the man’s face. His long eyelashes flinched when the little finger touched him. Soon the man opened his eyes faintly.

He had foggy gray eyes. The moment when the man’s gaze, which had lost its focus and was fumbling in the air, turned to Asha, his eyes fluttered in astonishment.

“Rose…!”

The man who woke up in a hurry reached out to Asha. Asha as if fainting, fell back in surprise. Then he hurriedly crawled on his knees towards the girl who fell on her buttocks.

The man gripped Asha’s shoulders. She tried to get rid of it, but with the strength of a skinny child, there was nothing she could do.

“Ahhhhhh!”

The screaming sound blurred the man’s expression. At the same time, too simply, his hands fell off.

Asha collapsed and stepped back.  For an instant the man felt very distant between the fluttering grass. He was just staring blankly at Asha, forgetting to put his hands down. It was like a person who lost his mind.

But it was none of Asha’s business. The girl ran off frantically. It wasn’t until she got down the hill that she managed to catch her breath and looked back, only to see the man nailed to the same spot.

Asha grabbed her pounding heart and ran home. In the middle of the streets of flat houses, there was a narrow alley where she had to turn in order to get to home.

It was midday, but the house without light was dark and smelly. As if visiting someone else’s house, she carefully opened the door and walked in, and a shout poured over Asha’s head.

“Where have you been that you’re only coming back now!”

Asha’s neck shrunk. Dad had been home since broad daylight. He usually spent more time at the bar than at home.

The girl was about to bring out the bouquet, only to realized she had left it on the hill.

“Just, there, on the cliff…….”

“If you have time for that, then do the housework instead! What’s all this mess?”

Asha’s father, Janir, sat down at the kitchen table. On the floor, glasses and plates were lying around. Of course, it was all due to his thrashing out of anger, but instead of talking back, Asha squat down and began to pick them all up.

Janir glared at Asha with disgust and drank again. Then a flurry of bad words poured over her head.

Cheeky and useless girl, she’s my daughter, but I can’t stomach seeing her face in a broad daylight…

Asha became gloomy. She heard that it felt good when you got flowers as a gift, so she wanted to give them to her dad. If only it weren’t for the guy she met on the hill…

“I’ll get some water.”

Asha who approached the front door without any strength and weakly opened the door freaked out at the next moment and withdrew back.

In front of the door, a tall young man was standing. It was the man she met in the field a while ago. She thought she lost him, so how did he get here?

“Ahh!”

At Asha’s scream, Janir swore harshly from the inside. Then he approached the door, staggering his drunk body that he couldn’t control.

“What’s this fuss about?”

Janir glared at the man with his drunk face.

Instead of answering, the man squinted. His eyes in turn, passed Asha and Janir’s faces and headed to the inside of the messy house and the liquor bottles scattered around.

“I see.”

The man, invited by himself, strode into the house. Janir flew into a rage.

“Hey, I didn’t tell you to enter! The mud is coming in!”

Neatly disregarding his protest, the man opened his mouth. It was an eerie voice, but at the same time, it was a tone as sharp as a knife.

“How old is that child?”

The man pointed to Asha with his chin. Janir responded with a snort.

“Well, she’s probably about ten years old. Do you have anything to do with my daughter?”

“Daughter….”

The man’s eyes glanced up and down Asha. Seeing her hiding behind her dad with a face grimier than the orphans in the slums, the man’s eyes became even heavier.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. And said quickly.

“I understand most of the situation. I’ll be blunt. I’d like to take that child.”

“What? Take the child?”

Janir’s eyes sparkled with a strange light. Excited, he shouted benevolently.

“What the hell are you talking about? Get lost right now! Or I’ll blow a hole in your brazen face.”

Asha blocked her ears, but the man’s attitude seemed to have expected such a reaction.

“How much will it be?”

“How much is it?”

Her father asked twice due to his disbelief.

Instead of answering, he pulled out a large leather pouch from his chest. Then turned it over and poured its content out on the table.

The eyes of the father and daughter grew as if they were to pop out. A pile of shiny Anitz gold coins poured out of the pouch. It piled up and some even fell to the ground.

“M-My God! How much is all of this……!”

The man used his feet to stop Janir, who was about to kneel and reach out to the floor. He then sat back at the table full of gold coins.

“Now let’s negotiate.”

Janir asked dazedly.

“Negotiate?”

The man twisted his mouth up. It was like a cold laugh.

“You know, with this amount of money, you can even buy a noble castle. I judge that child is worth this much, no, more than this, but unfortunately, you didn’t see it that way.”

His gaze rested for a moment on Asha’s forearms which were as skinny as skewers.

“So, let’s discuss how much you’ve damaged that girl’s value in the meantime.”