**PROLOGUE**

The night the child was abandoned, the moon was bright.

As if it were peering into the child’s fate, it lit the night and revealed the forest.

A man on a silver horse looked down at what he held. Wrapped in a black robe was a newborn. The child, only two days old, was a beautiful golden-haired boy, but he had been born with something he should never have possessed. A secret that could not be hidden, even if one tried. It was the purple and blue eyes revealed under the moonlight. Odd eyes.

The right eye was blue, like his father’s. The left was violet, as if to flaunt his mother’s infidelity.

This was an omen of misfortune. Beyond misfortune, it was a symbol of sin, and it would become a disgrace to the Helter Turis royal family. As the records of history said, he would tear everything down and build anew, and instead of embracing all things perfectly, he would trample everything that already existed.

The man covered the child’s eyes, which shimmered with a strange light. Not satisfied with that, he wrapped the child completely in a blanket, and from deep in the forest a dwarf appeared. The dwarf approached with quick steps and bowed his head.

“You’ve come, Master Scholar.”

“500 bill.”

The Master Scholar flicked the hem of his silver cloak and placed a bundle of bill into the dwarf’s palm.

“He must never leave this forest until he is fully grown.”

“Do not worry.”

“Even if you must raise him as a dullard, he must not die until I send a word.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Of course, once I send word, you will have to handle this child’s life and death with your own hands.”

“Why would I not?”

The dwarf shoved the heavy pile of bill into his pocket. Once the pouch at his waist bulged, he received the child. When he tried to look at the child’s face, a crow flying overhead cried. As if that were a signal, the wind and rocks that made up the forest began to hum.

“An unlucky child. Never let him leave this forest.”

The man wore an expression that said he did not wish to see the child twice, then mounted the silver horse again. When he climbed onto the silver horse, the powder scattered to drive off forest insects puffed into the air.

“I will send word on the day the moon rises.”

Still on the silver horse, the Master Scholar looked down at the child in the dwarf’s hands. The day the moon rises was the fifteenth of every month. When the fifteenth came, he would send a messenger to this forest. He did not know how long the child would live, but before her infidelity was completely buried in the ground, no harm could come to the Helter Turis royal family. At least not until her hidden lover pushed out the king and ascended as the new king.

The man pulled on the reins of the large silver horse.

Powder puffed from the man’s clothes. The powder carried by the wind opened the forest, and the sound of the silver horse’s hooves vanished completely from the forest.

“This is a forest.”

“Yes.”

“This is a stone.”

“Yes.”

“This is bait to catch bugs.”

“Correct.”

“This is a shoe.”

“Yes, yes.”

White hands turned the pages of a picture book one by one. The books were so old that even the letters were invisible, but the child’s eyes read the pictures exactly and pronounced clearly what they meant.

“What is this, Ruti?”

“This is a big sound coming down from the sky.”

The dwarf Ru’s lips curved into a smile. The answers to things he had not taught grew faster, taking less than a second.

“Yes. This is called thunder, a big sound that comes down from the sky. When this sound begins, what must we do?”

“Close the windows and fold the stairs to the well. Put the dried meat in baskets and place them high on the shelf. And then come to Ru’s side.”

“Yes. That’s right. Our Ruti is so clever.”

The child with different-colored eyes was bright and smart. From around the time he began to babble, he was a little different from ordinary children. He did not cry or fuss like other children, he walked early, and he acted as if he understood everything in the storybooks read to him. He pointed with tiny fingers at the letters and words Ru spoke, and he could even read through the news sheets that came from Yondo.

The child understood everything he was taught. His fingers were too small and weak to hold a pen, but he pronounced the writing Ru had written correctly. Growth and records happened every day. Like the forest’s size, which could not be measured, Ruti grew day by day, and now he knew almost everything.

He could read, hold ordinary conversations with Ru, and now even a three-year-old was doing Ru’s errands. The day before yesterday, when Ru told him to go into the study and bring an old book, he dragged it out in less than ten minutes.

“I am Ruti.”

“Yes. Your name is Ruti.”

“I am the son of the dwarf Ru.”

“Ruti, Ruti does not mean you are Ru’s son. It means you are a child Ru is raising.”

At Ru’s correction, the child looked sullen. But it could not be helped. The child was not Ru’s child. He was the child handed to him three years ago by the Master Scholar. He was a child raised under orders never to let him leave the forest, a child who might one day die by Ru’s own hands.

“But Ru is still the smartest dwarf in this forest, right?”

“Yes. There is no dwarf in this forest as smart as me.”

Ru was born and raised in this forest. It was not that he had never gone out into the human world, but to him the forest was the most comfortable and peaceful place. The forest was always comfortable, he did not need to be greedy, and there was no need for jealousy or scheming.

Ru learned everything here. There was nothing he did not know about the forest where he grew up. However, he did not know the value the forest held.

That was the seeds of Humbaba and Latumbiul.

These two plants were medicinal herbs that grew only in this forest, and they had the effect of removing toxins and restoring wounds to their original state. If the seeds of these two plants, which were difficult to grow and bloomed only briefly, were ground and made into clothing, one was safe from the outside. They protected against animals and poison-bearing creatures, and they strengthened stamina, making them useful when going out to hunt.

Then one day, the people of Yondo began to demand that powder. They said they would use it to make armor and to save people. They claimed it would sustain soldiers’ life force and make armor significantly lighter, freeing them from attacks, and they came to Ru to propose a trade.

Under persistent persuasion that it would be used not to kill but to save people, he reluctantly allowed it, but he could not have imagined what results it would bring.

“The people of Yondo know that well. They also know that I wield the greatest influence in this forest.”

This vast forest is home to Ru the dwarf, as well as ferocious animals and beasts. It was crowded with malformed, nameless creatures, and packed with poisonous plants and trees. So many humans who entered to gather armor materials died screaming, and the number of Yondo Kingdom’s subordinates returning crippled increased every year. Even so, Yondo could not refuse the requests of the war-mad nation called Helter. For decades, the money earned because of them, who laid waste to neighboring countries, was enormous.

The royal palace of Yondo, always struggling with deficits, used the money earned from selling armor to open blocked waterways, sow seeds on dried land, and build castles. They opened schools, increased research institutes and academies, and threw themselves into making armor and tools needed for war. That was why they could not take lightly the existence of Ru, who knew how to make the powder that served as armor material.

“Ru.”

“Yes?”

“How big is this forest?”

At the child’s question, Ru looked up at the huge mountains and trees that seemed even taller.

“I don’t know either. I have never gone all the way to the end, so I cannot know its size.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know the end.”

“Why?”

“Because this place is so, so large that its size cannot be measured.”

“Then you don’t know what is beyond the forest?”

“Hmm, there is a place called the Land of Ice. I heard that beyond it lies a very large continent.”

“What is a continent?”

“That is…”

The child was wise and smart, but still too young to know everything. He was too young to understand that there was a land called Nipleth beyond the forest, that beyond it lay a very large continent, and that on that continent there was an emperor of an empire that could not even be compared to Helter.

“Why? Don’t you know either, Ru?”

“No. I don’t know because I haven’t been there. We cannot cross the Land of Ice.”

“Why? Why can’t we cross?”

“Who knows. We have not been able to cross until now, but who knows about the future. You might be able to go.”

At Ru’s answer, the child’s eyes sparkled. When light filtering through the leaves passed through the child’s eyes, different colors were revealed.

“Why me?”

“Because you are special.”

“I am special?”

“Of course, Ruti. You are a very special child. So you can learn anything you want to know.”

At the dwarf Ru’s words, the different-colored eyes sparkled. As if gaining confidence, the child looked at the sky with eyes like gleaming jewels. As if the entire forest belonged to him, he spread both arms wide and spoke in a happy voice.

“All right! I will figure out this forest! I will become close friends with this forest!”

The child embraced the sky with both arms. Even though dazzling sunlight poured between his small fingers, he did not frown once. Rather, as if searching for the source of that light, he stared intently into the sunlight.

The blue and purple eyes followed the light up into the sky as if enchanted.

Birds fluttered. A woman of the night, whiter than salt, smiled at the child’s spirit.

The forest is enormous. It was so vast that its end could not be known, and nowhere in the records was there anyone who had seen the forest’s end. No one knew who had made the forest, or what history it had carried to become what it was now.

Ruti looked up at Clouden, rising along an endless stream. The forest, holding leaves ripened blue and red, was truly enormous. As Ru had said, its size could not be measured, and it was impossible to know how many mountains it contained. Other than the fact that the mountain embracing rough caves and beasts of monstrous strength was named Clouden, and that it held the magic powder used for armor, there was nothing else to define it.

Looking up at the vast forest, Ruti tied the bag Ru had prepared tightly to his side. The bag held a pen sharpened to a point and paper, so it would be a problem if it got wet. He tied it as carefully as possible, then finally fastened the shoes made of orc leather.

From now on, a harsh journey began. It would be no problem for a tall adult, but Ruti was still thirteen. He did not have a large nose or thick fur like the Yondo subordinates who passed through this forest casually. His height, now slightly taller than Ru, was only that of a fawn, and he was frail for running through the rugged forest.

If not for the eyes slightly revealed between his golden hair, and if not for his spirit overflowing with the ambition, “I will become an incredible man!”, he had a beautiful appearance that could be mistaken for a girl.

“I need to find Landters. Today’s goal is three Landters.”

Ruti’s goal was bold. With that body, he intended to catch a Landter that was well over twice his height. Landters mainly lived around lakes and survived by eating red fish. They produced oil in particular, and if this oil was burned at a low temperature for a long time, it guaranteed a warm bed throughout winter. It also sold for a very high price, enough to buy the book of constellation prophecies he wanted to read.

Ruti stepped up onto a rock. Using grass roots and branches to climb for a long while, it became quite dizzying. The green moss was slippery, but it was fine because he had smeared plenty of the powder that drove off forest insects on the soles of his shoes. He was wearing pants sewn with Ru’s careful stitching, so they would not get wet either.

He continued searching for Landters without rest. Along the way he met water snakes and small demons with horns on their heads, but his accumulated know-how was not for nothing. When he met demons in the forest, he avoided eye contact as much as possible instead of picking a fight, and when he encountered ferocious animals, he quickly sprinkled death-smell powder on himself and pretended to be dead.

Demons in this place were not beings that used magic or harmed humans with grotesqueness. They did torment humans, but for them that was something like a purpose in life, meant to make humans acknowledge their existence, since they were born different from humans. In other words, they only made humans miserable to prove that they were one step above humans.

And just now, he had run into one of those demons. Just before passing a rubber tree, he came face to face with a small demon. The black-faced demon had living eyes, and compared to other demons its eyes were sharp and its features clear. His body flinched.

‘Ah… what do I do.’

Ruti, who had met eyes with the demon resting under the rubber tree, quickly turned. But the demon had already recognized Ruti and was raising sharp teeth and ears. It even sparkled its eyes as if it had found a very tasty prize, and it seemed too late to run.

What should I do? If it is a nasty-tempered demon, it will kick me off and send me falling down there. Even if I sprinkle Ru’s powder and avoid serious injury, if I fall from this height I will have to stay home for a while.

“Where did this human come from?”

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