Chapter 5:
Rin sat in her father’s room, which had been completely emptied of furniture—everything except the rug spread across the floor, dyeing the space a deep, somber green. She stared at her father’s photograph, resting against her brother’s, both placed atop a wooden tablet engraved with their names, encircled by white chrysanthemum flowers.
Her warm breath mingled with the scent of incense, dissolving into the air until the world around her faded away. For a fleeting moment, she felt as though she, too, was dead.
Then Molinder spoke—pulling her back into reality.
“Do you know who killed your family?”
She whispered faintly,
“I think you already know my answer.”
She shifted where she sat to face Molinder and Sez, who were seated at the far end of the room, listening to the silence she carried. Molinder looked at her calmly and said,
“Thousands of years may have passed for us, and many things have changed… but now I’m certain that what truly matters has not.”
He paused, then added,
“I won’t burden you with words.”
He placed a small wooden token before her, his name carved into it in English, and said,
“If you ever need help—talk to us.”
He turned to leave, but her fingers clutched the edge of his shirt. Realizing what she had done, she lowered her gaze and spoke, her voice trembling like that of a frail old woman shaken by the wind:
“Tell me, Moli… tell me everything.”
His eyes widened at last. He looked at her with a gaze steeped in mystery, then sat across from her and said,
“The world is far larger than you think, Rin.”
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He added, his warmth unable to soften the gravity of his tone,
“Larger in a terrifying way.”
After a brief silence, Rin spoke:
“I’m not trying to be a smartass, but in this age, humans have already discovered—”
Molinder interrupted her.
“What? That the world consists of five continents and seven seas?”
He raised an eyebrow meaningfully. Rin muttered,
“Bigger than that!”
He continued, weaving the thread of a thought she had just interrupted:
“Unlike what I see today, humans were once prey. Their world was the smallest, and their sight the shortest.”
Rin asked hesitantly,
“Prey to whom?”
Molinder replied,
“Demons. Beasts. Titans. Not because their flesh was delicious—but because they were simply the weakest.”
His hands curved gently, as if shaping the world between his palms.
“Until the day fate’s coincidences intertwined, and humanity was astonished by its Golden Generation—a generation that rose suddenly and chose to act. Three figures: Maso of the Twin Horns, Katakai the Sword King, and finally, the nun Inder. They erected a veil between humans and the rest of the world, and ensured that the power God had bestowed upon them would pass down through generations.”
He continued,
“And thus, after years… and centuries, the Three Lullabies emerged—the forces that keep this world as it is today… existing.
The Lullaby of the Sword: the Katakai Clan.
The Lullaby of the North: the Inder Family.
And the Demonic Lullaby… the Masonic Order.”
He lifted his head and asked her,
“What is the most powerful country today?”
Rin answered with dry irony,
“America?”
“And the name of its leader?”
She frowned, unsettled by the direction of his questions, but answered,
“Alfred…”
She swallowed.
“…Maso.”
Molinder smiled.
“If you were to refer to him by lineage, how would you say his name?”
Rin exclaimed in disbelief,
“Alfred the Mason!!”
Molinder gestured toward a distant window, visible from the adjacent room like a solitary entity frowning in the dark.
“Yes. That symbol carved above the window is not a depiction of Amaterasu. It is a protective talisman—a covenant of safety your father made with the Masonic Order to protect you from the Katakai Clan after he defected from them.”
Rin released a heavy breath from her lungs.
“How did you know?! And why would a simple fisherman carry such an important bloodline?!”
Molinder looked at her steadily.
“He was not a simple fisherman. And he wasn’t the only one who carried that blood…”
He met her gaze.
“You do too.”
With a sly smile, he added,
“Katakai… isn’t it the same as Atakai, just with a K?”
Rin began shaking her head violently, desperate to cast these truths away. Her wish to live an ordinary life was unraveling before her eyes—though she knew there was no longer any place for such a wish.
She froze when Molinder gently lifted her chin with his finger.
She raised her head, her eyes pleading desperately.
“Rin,” he said softly.
“Do you want a normal life… or a safe one?”
Her eyes shimmered with restrained tears. He had touched something deep within her—something she had never been able to name. Something lost.
With a gentle smile that finally broke her, her tears spilling warm down her cheeks, he added:
“I will guarantee your safety.
So tell me—are you ready now… for a mythical life?”
