Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 146

Chapter 146: Long Lost Siblings
‘I… am inside that man’s memories’

Knowing he couldn’t interfere with anything that was happening, Hans just watched the child struggle trying to cross the never-ending snow-covered plain.

At that moment, appeared beside Hans Calean, in his adult form.

“You might’ve already figured, but that’s me”

“Mh…

What… were you doing in this memory?”

“I was running”

“Running from who?”

“I always held a deep hatred towards her precisely because of this reason.

Since her attack began touching our world, people, beasts, and monsters, all started going crazy.

I don’t precisely know how much time has passed since then, but this place sure looked different.

At least a couple hundreds of years, if not thousands.

Anyway…

It all began right here…

I was running away from my homeland.

My name is Caelan Frostbane, I am the last survivor of the Ice Lords’ Frostbane family.

My father was an incredibly powerful mage, whose name resounded throughout the whole continent, having reached the ninth tier at just fifty years of age, he was expected to be the first person in hundreds of years to touch the unachievable archmage rank.

But even his powers… weren’t enough to hold the calamity that had befallen upon us.

Our family, as the brightest pillar of hope, fell into the mud after a single attack.

And I, as the one and only child of the patriarch, had the only job to survive.

The inhabitants of our world believed in the goddess of winter, and our family harnessed the power of the goddess to fight the evil that others cannot face up against.

We were like the executioners of the winter goddess.

Before I left the family, my father had told me to search my path in the lands at the northernmost part of the continent, where the goddess of winter’s temple resided.

In this memory, I was desperately searching for that temple…”

The footprints left behind by the child were so superficial that they were almost instantly erased by the blizzard, but even with his small body, he pushed through the winds.

His body slowly froze over the next few hours, even the sacred vessel possessed by the Frostbane family’s descendant could not fully withstand the cold in that place when not developed.

The child began losing hope, and energy.

His steps became shorter by the second, and after a long time, his exhausted body fell.

Even when he was on the ground, he still watched forward, his eyes weren’t searching for pity, they were the eyes of someone who had a mission to accomplish, and he would’ve done everything in his power to complete it.

Unfortunately for him, his little body could not follow the order of his mind, and he fainted, abandoned to die in those frozen barren lands.

When he thought that everything was over, someone found him.

It was a beautiful woman, whose hair was white, just like his, and whose eyes were blue… just like his.

“Ohh… to think one of the descendants would come to me…

I shall take care of you, little child”

The woman seemed unaffected by the weather, she just picked up the boy and started walking away.

By the time he opened his eyes again, the boy found himself lying on an ice bed covered with feathers.

He looked surprised seeing the ice pillars and the vast sea of clouds all around him.

“Am I in heaven?”

Said the boy.

“No, we aren’t quite there yet”

Replied the woman.

The boy quickly turned around to see who had answered him, and seeing the beauty of the woman standing in front of him, his mouth couldn’t help but fall open.

“Hey kid, do you remember what you were doing down there in the blizzard?”

“I, I am searching for something”

“Really? Tell me what you are searching for, and I may know where it is”

“I am searching for the temple of the goddess of winter”

“The temple of the goddess huh?..”

Seeing her mumble to herself, the kid got excited about finally having a trail to follow.

“Do you know where it is? Please tell me! It’s really important”

“Why do you need to go there?”

“This… dad charged me with this mission before passing.”

“Passing… child, you are one of the descendants of the Frostbane lineage aren’t you”

“Yes.. how did you?”

“Don’t tell me…

The woman grabbed the boy from his shoulders, shaking him and strengthening her grip to get an answer.

“Is the family okay? Has something happened to them? Tell me! Boy, tell me!”

Violently shaking the boy, she noticed his tears falling out of his eyes and realized what she was doing.

She let go of her grip and wiped the tears off the boy’s face.

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, here here, please don’t cry”

She hugged the boy keeping him warm, while rivers flooded out his eyes.

It wasn’t only because of what she had done, but more because of what she had made him remember.

Even if Hans was only watching from the outside, he could feel the emotions moving the boy’s heart.

It was a terrible feeling, a feeling of nothingness, no hope, no family, no house to return to, no friends…

The kid felt like… he had disappeared from the world.

A tear also slid off Hans’s cheek watching and feeling the scene.

A few days had passed since then, and both the boy and the woman had the chance to talk about everything they wanted to know.

He told her about the falling of the family, and the death of his loved ones, while she told him about the truth behind that building, revealing that in fact, he was already standing inside the temple.

“But… why has Dad sent me here?”

He asked while sitting on a little ice chair the woman had created for him.

“I think… he wanted you to meet me”

“To meet you?”

“Yes, if we want to be more specific, he wanted me to train you”

“What? Did you know Dad?”

“Do I know your dad? Of course, I know him.

He is my father too.”

Hearing this, the boy immediately froze on the spot.

“What?! Impossible..”

“It is possible, I am your sister, well, half-sister technically.

Although I have no memories of meeting my father, mother used to tell me stories about him.

I am just twenty-two this year, so we are fifteen years apart”

“If you are my sister then.. why…”

“Why am I here?

Did you know what pact our ancestors did to obtain the blessing of the winter goddess?”

The boy shook his head.

“He promised her an apostle, and not only one, but one every generation.

Our first ancestor was an incredibly powerful mage, even more than our father, the goddess witnessed his powers and offered him a blessing, but in exchange, the firstborn of the Frostbanes’ every generation would have to be handed over as an apostle for the winter goddess.”

“An apostle?”

“Oh.. well, you could see it like this.

The gods are beings beyond the imaginable, they can do what they want, but if there is something they cannot go against that is fate.

A god cannot directly interfere with the mortal’s worlds, since it would greatly alter that world’s fate, for that reason, gods need apostles.

Apostles act as the god’s arms and feet, doing everything the gods cannot do by themselves.

I have the honor of being the seventy-first apostle among the Frostbane descendants.”

“Aren’t you lonely here?”

“Lonely? No, I am fine.

It did get pretty quiet since Mother’s death, but I managed to get used to it.

The villagers down the mountain are also quite friendly.”

“What?! People live here?”

“Hahaha, yes, there is a zone in which the blizzards are greatly weakened, and a village populated and visited only by travelers was created there.

My mother lived there before passing away.”

“I see.

But sister, what if an apostle lives long enough to see the birth of a new heir, wouldn’t the pact get broken then?”

She watched the distance quite saddened by the question.

“I will tell you the answer when you are old enough to know”

“Ahhh?! What?! Tell me right now!!

Tell me! Tell me! I want to know it right-

She froze the boy in a pillar of ice before freeing him a couple of seconds later…

“Brrrr”

The boy trembled from the cold, being wet and getting hit by the strong wind that circled the mountain peak.

“Sister.. How did you do that?” asked the boy still trembling.

“I will tell you when you are old enough to know”

“That’s… unfair”

A few years passed quickly while the woman trained her little brother in the path of ice magic.

She found out he was incredibly talented, even more than her, but being that he was born in an age of chaos, he had never been properly taught even inside the family.

It was all going well, and life had finally taken another color from Caelan’s point of view.

But that was about to change…