Boer and Ned

Several years passed swiftly once again.

Boer and Ned grew up.

This year.

They turned nineteen.

Their personalities diverged further apart as they aged.

At first, Boer's lively and flamboyant nature gave Richie some headaches.

Though this youngest son studied by Blair's side, he was always obsessed with having fun.

But after he began handling clan affairs alongside his father, Boer gradually became steady and mature.

Ned, originally quiet and withdrawn, had a solitary disposition.

Yet his personality underwent drastic changes as he grew.

One day, it was as if Ned suddenly had an epiphany.

He started reaching out to others and displayed an extremely affable character.

Often, he would laugh and sling his arm around the shoulders of clansmen working by the coast, chatting about everything under the sun, without any airs of the chieftain's son.

But Ned wouldn't stay in one place with people for long.

He seemed more like he was experiencing new ways of life.

When he grew bored, he would move on to the next place, seeking fresh and interesting things.

Their figures seemed to cross paths along the road of time.

In that moment of crossing, their souls swapped.

Still, in the eyes of the clan, despite their starkly different personalities, the bond between the brothers was very strong.

Richie felt gratified by this.

Though he found some shortcomings in both children's characters, the thing he worried about most never happened.

Greed and cruelty showed no trace in the children.

Boer and Ned treated the clansmen with benevolence.

Each earned different recognition and praise from the people.

Boer's steadiness and humility made him deeply favored by the elders and senior members.

Ned's easygoing and unrestrained nature also won him a good reputation within the clan.

Beyond that, Ned was especially popular among some of the young girls in the tribe.

Of course, this wasn't just because of his personality.

It was more about his appearance and status.

Ned inherited his mother Naen's looks.

His fine, gray-white hair made him just as striking as her, though his treatment was worlds apart from hers.

As the chieftain's eldest son and heir to the God-Chosen, no one dared mock him for it.

Instead, that unique hair color attracted many girls.

When the clansmen saw girls deliberately or casually sending Ned woven bracelets or ornaments, they would smile knowingly.

Aged Richie watched his two children grow up.

While feeling gratified, he was also filled with conflicting thoughts.

Who should take up the torch to lead the tribe forward?

Though the clansmen all believed that the mature and steady Boer was more valued by him and should become the next chieftain, he still hesitated inside.

He began to think.

Should he give the children a fair and suitable trial opportunity?

But just then, an unexpected incident changed the original plan.

Ned had gotten into trouble.

He didn't know why he'd developed a craving for alcohol at this time.

He and those pleasure-seeking youths reached a silent agreement, secretly gathering wild fruits to brew wine.

Then, under the pretext of hunting, they spent entire days and nights in the forest drinking and carousing.

This violated the rules his father had personally set.

A elder's son, while inspecting work in the mountain forest, spotted Ned lying on the ground.

Perhaps out of jealousy.

Perhaps because of the gossip among the older generation.

He said a mocking remark to his companions:

"Look at him, wallowing like this—he's nothing like his brother. He doesn't seem like Chief Richie's child at all. More like the bastard his mother bore with those sinners."

That light, careless sentence fell into Ned's ears.

No one knew how Ned, already drunk and collapsed on the ground, managed to stand up and block the group.

"Whoever insulted my mother, step forward and admit your mistake. Otherwise, your tongue has no reason to exist."

The drunkenness on Ned's face had vanished at some point.

His blazing, earnest gaze locked precisely onto the youth among the crowd whose eyes darted away.

In front of everyone, the youth forced himself to hold his ground, unwilling to bow his head.

At that age, people always valued dignity and honor above all else.

So the onlookers began to jeer and stoke the fire.

Gritting his teeth, the youth, urged on by the crowd, proposed a duel with Ned.

Ned accepted the duel without hesitation.

He took down his opponent with ease.

He was Barlow's student.

Years of surviving in the wild had also given him a physique that matched his skill.

That frail elder's son was no match for him at all.

Driven by alcohol and rage.

Ned showed no mercy after his victory.

He actually tried to cut out the youth's tongue with a flint knife.

In the struggle.

The flint knife stabbed the elder's son in the eye.

The jeering crowd, seeing this, gradually sobered up.

If people hadn't rushed in to stop him.

That youth, whose tongue had brought disaster, would have lost more than just one eye.

In the end, the youth, his face covered in blood, was sent to Huxter for treatment, barely saving his life.

But the price was that the broken flint blade remained lodged in his eye, destined to accompany that youth for the rest of his life.

This matter reached Richie's ears.

Richie learned the full story from the people.

"Discipline your child, Drai. A child's words are taught by the father. I don't want to hear such talk again."

In front of everyone.

Richie said this.

That elder named Drai, hearing Richie's icy tone, felt his heart tremble.

The elder, who had been fuming and ready to demand justice for his child, immediately shrank back like a turtle into its shell and silently withdrew.

Then, Richie turned his gaze to Ned.

"Is there anything else you want to say?"

Ned looked up at his father, who stood high above.

The gaze cast down upon him was deeply complex.

Solemn, compassionate, approving.

And a trace of disappointment.

Ned simply shook his head.

He took all the blame upon himself.

From secretly brewing wine, to proposing the duel, and finally to gravely wounding a clansman.

After receiving his due punishment, Ned gradually became estranged from the rest of the tribe.

Many of the young girls also drifted away from him.

Because they all understood that Ned had lost his chance to ascend to the position of clan leader.

But he didn't care at all.

It was only from that day onward that he quit drinking.

Two years later.

Ned married a girl who still kept coming to see him.

They settled into a wooden cabin deep in the secluded mountains and forests.

Ned no longer used alcohol to fill the emptiness and boredom.

Whenever life felt dull, he placed his interest in the insects of the Rot Spirit Flower.

Just like he had in his childhood.

Ned would go to where the Rot Spirit Flower grew, lie down on the grass, and play an amusing game.

He would build a maze out of grass piles, then put the rot insects inside, trapping them in the center of the maze.

But no matter how he tried, or how intricate he made the maze, those rotting insects always managed to find a way out, as if by some miracle.

No matter how many times he watched this sight, Ned found it utterly fascinating.

Still, watching this scene, Ned eventually grew a bit drowsy.

He yawned.

Just as he was lying comfortably on the grass, about to drift off to sleep and seek some amusement in his dreams, someone suddenly walked up behind him.

"Wake up, Ned."

He blearily cracked open an eye.

When he saw who it was, he immediately shut it again.

Boer looked helplessly at his brother, who was still pretending to doze off, then pressed on:

"Get up, brother. This time, I have something to discuss with you."

Ned acted as if he hadn't heard.

Then he turned over and went back to sleep.

Soon, snoring started up.

Boer shook his head.

He could tell at a glance that his brother was faking sleep, just to make him leave quickly.

It was the same every time.

Back when he had pleaded for his brother before their father, Ned had been snoring like thunder in his room.

A year ago, when he took over most of the clan's affairs from their aging father and wanted to talk to his brother, Ned had done the same—pretending to sleep to brush him off.

Boer didn't know when he and his brother had grown so distant.

The two who had been inseparable in childhood were long gone.

Ned still showed no reaction.

Boer thought for a moment.

Finally, he leaned close to the other's ear and whispered softly.

"The Wonder on that mountain has been completed. Are you sure you don't want to come see it?"

The snoring stopped abruptly.

Ned's motionless head, upon hearing those words, finally turned slightly.