Way of the Knights

Chapter 311 - Little Paradise

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"Alright girl. That's enough, I'll take it from here." 

Raven patted Venus' head as he arrived beside her. The Albino Snake hissed and nodded like a human before stopping on its tracks and watching its father do the hard work. 

Step by step, he moved closer to the location of their troubles - which are a stacked debris of rocks and trees. These things blocked their way and what's behind them is an important road that Raven wanted to take. At first, Venus was trying to clear them by herself. However, its taking a long time so Raven decided to do it instead. 

He spread his consciousness around him, his vision penetrated and searched for the most ideal spot to make an entrance. After finding it, he walked towards the spot and paused.

Raven planted one foot forward and clenched his hand. Concentrating a dense yet controlled amount of Chaos Force plus his laws, he inhaled sharply and sent the fist forward. 

An muffled explosion sound occurred followed by shattering sounds. Webs of cracks appeared and spread in front of him. An intense rumbling followed that, then the debris shook and a hole he could fit in was made. 

"Come." Raven told Venus. She then moved and wrapped herself around his neck while transforming into a white scarf. 

Raven went inside and started walking. The ground beneath him was uneven but he could manage. When he heard some rumbling behind him, he frowned and kicked up his speed. He dashed like a like an arrow, leaving the wind whistling on his wake. 

It didn't take long before he saw the other side. Hearing some more intense rumbling above him, Raven clicked his tongue and pushed his speed to the maximum. 

He exited the tunnel like a bolt of lightning, just in time before the tunnel he made collapse. Raven sighed in relief and continued on his way. 

What's on the other side of the fallen debris, is a lush and vivid garden filled with rich vegetation. Trees were filled with fruits and flowers bloomed beautifully, each blade of grass swayed gently with the wind. The air was fresher here compared outside, it also soothes the fatigue out of Raven specially after travelling non-stop. 

No too far away from them, there is a clear stream of water which seems to be sparkling because of sunlight reflecting on its surface. One could also see some non-aggressive animals at a distance. Although they were wary about the commotion and seemed to be afraid of Raven, all they did was to run away. 

Raven smiled and calmly walked forward. Not too far away from where he was, a humble hut. He walked towards it and knocked. He did this three times with varying intervals. After that, he pushed the door open and walked inside like he owned the place. 

Sitting on one of the chairs available, he looked inside the simple hut and smiled as memories came rushing in. 

"My little paradise." He murmured. 

This is what he called this place since he actually don't know what it's called. Little Paradise is also an isolated land, similar to the kingdom. This place is far away from the dangers and horrors of the outside. It remained pure and undisturbed, became a home to regular animals and for those who's seeking some peace and calm. 

He had no idea how this place turned out to be like this. In fact, he wondered about it for a long time but had no answer. Nevertheless, this became a memorable place to him due to how he ended up here in his past. 

Raven was close to being dead when he ended up here. He got into a huge battle against beast which lasted for five days and nights. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises. He lost so much blood and was barely awake. Raven was only moving through sheer will and his instincts to survive. 

The last thing he remembered back then, was being picked up by a massive flaming bird. But before he ended up as a meal to its hatchlings, he fell into a hollowed mountain and ended up here. 

He woke up extremely weak, and for a while he refused to believe that this place was safe. After witnessing the harsh horrors of the wilderness, he just couldn't bring himself to believe that there are no potential dangers here. But after he recovered and combed the whole place, he saw nothing that could threaten him. 

"I remembered tearing up in happiness back then." Raven chuckled as he remembered the memories fondly. 

That was the moment that Raven dropped his guard for the first time and returned to his old self. The peace of this place gradually washed away the exhaustion and provided him a home that he had been longing for. He recovered and lived like a mortal. He made the hut his home, fished for food, took a bath at the stream, read books under the shade of the trees, made friends with a deer and so on. 

He gradually forgot about it all, and for some period of time, he was tempted to drop everything. His revenge, the pain, the memories, his vows, his struggles, his pursuit of strength. He wanted to move on and forget about it all. At some point, he thought that dying in place like this isn't so bad of an ending. He wanted to rest so bad and just embrace the peaceful environment around him. 

"Come to think of it, that is the scariest thing about this place." Raven muttered, "It is so peaceful. So much so that it convinced me to lay down and slowly wait for my death."

This place made him forgot about what's outside, at some point his mind was telling him that what he experienced in the wilderness is nothing but a long nightmare. His mind kept on telling that it is not real, and this peaceful place is the reality. Here he was safe and sound, far from the dangers and pains. 

But Raven's will, which was sharpened by his experiences, prevented him from running away from the truth. 

"Well, it's not like this place doesn't have any secrets anyway." Raven chuckled and stood up from his seat. He then gave furniture a simple gaze and chuckled some more. 

As soon as one entered the hut, they will be welcomed with a simple interior. It's wooden walls were empty and the wooden floor was neat. There is a circular table in middle and four wooden chairs. There is a bed and two pillows stuffed hay along with a small drawer on the side. On the left wall, there is a window which could be opened by pushing it up and attaching the suspenders on the bottom rim of the window. 

All in all, everything inside this hut appears normal. But what gave it away, is this one book hidden under the bed. Something that Raven never thought was there in past. 

The book was a diary of an unnamed person. It contained regular entries, detailing what that person did everyday. However there are two things here that made Raven's suspicions rise. 

One would be the fact that the diary was written in Elven language. In the past, Raven was so used to speaking and hearing different languages that his brain noticed this late. The other thing would be the last that the last entry in the diary was from a thousand years ago. 

 These two things bothered Raven so much in past. He thought that whoever lived here was probably an Elf, which would make sense as to how nature was teeming with vitality here but if that's so, then where did this person go? 

Raven never saw any evidence of the death. He also tried blaming it on time but he couldn't since if a Elf died, then he should've seen the remains even after a long time. Elven people have an astonishing vitality, their bones should stay around even after a long time but Raven saw none. And he also refused to believe that this person just buried themselves somewhere. 

Raven also knew that this person should have no way of getting out of this place since there is no particular entrance or exit here. In past, Raven was dropped here by a big flaming bird. In this lifetime, he had to make an entrance and that didn't even last long.

This also raised another question for him. If the last entry on the diary was from a thousand years ago, then how come the hut didn't accumulate even a speck of dust? 

It had been unattended for at least that long, the fact this hut was still intact after that long is a miracle on itself. 

All of this raised Raven suspicions in past, and this caused him to search for clues around to solve his mysteries. 

He search the whole place for clues, every single tree, flower, and animals. He even search the bottom of the stream but found none. He searched high and low only to make fun of himself since he had been an idiot. 

The clue that he was searching for, was under the bed.