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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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“Ugh.”
The boy’s arms trembled as he carried the heavy basket filled with oil. Yet, he didn’t stop, quickening his pace.
‘Just a little further, just a little bit more.’
Finally, he reached his home. He carefully placed the heavy basket on the table. Some oil splashed out, but that was nothing compared to the trembling in his arms.
‘If only I had a stigma, I could have carried this more easily.’
No, if he had a stigma, he wouldn’t be stuck at home doing chores. He would be a Hero, having grand adventures. But without a stigma, it was just a fantasy. A voice urged him on, proving his point.
“Ann, there’s no time to rest!”
He wasn’t sure if he was the son or the slave in this house. With that thought, he headed back out. It was better to take a detour than to stay home and listen to nagging.
‘Why does our family make candles?’
Chandlersmith. A candle maker. It was a skilled trade, and his family was the only one in the Lodreim Kingdom that made candles.
The problem was…
‘Where in the Lodreim Kingdom do people even use candles?’
Unlike Sak, the land of perpetual night, the Lodreim Kingdom was the land of perpetual day. Candles were rarely used, except occasionally in dark rooms.
‘It’s bright like this all year round, so it’s only natural.’
Well, not exactly all year round. There was one day in the year when the sun set in the Lodreim Kingdom. That day was the approaching Nameless Day. And that was the reason for the boy’s current hardship.
“Look, it’s the chandlersmith!”
“Ew, he smells like oil.”
The voices of ill-mannered children echoed around him. He ignored them. When he was younger, he used to get angry and lash out, but he was too old for that now.
‘And they’ll be using our candles during Nameless Day anyway.’
Nameless Day was both a national holiday and a festival. When the sun set in the kingdom, people would gather in the streets with candles. The boy was toiling away to make the candles for that day.
‘I told them to make more in advance.’
It was the same every year. They could have made more earlier, but they waited until the last minute for orders to pour in, and now they were struggling. He knew they didn’t have much money until the orders came in around this time, but he thought they could have borrowed some.
‘At least I’ll do that when I become a chandlersmith.’
He was thinking about that when…
‘Huh?’
As he walked past the stalls being set up in the square, a figure caught his eye. It was an elderly woman with a hunched back and white hair.
‘Grandma Marie, have you already started working?’
Grandma Marie was a sculptor. Not a sculptor of grand statues, but one who carved small wooden figures and sold them to children. Her sculptures lacked detail, but there was something about them that made them seem alive.
‘I should take a look.’
He never got tired of watching her work. He carefully approached her. Even though he tried to be quiet, she noticed him.
“Is that Ann?”
“How did you know?”
She recognized him without even turning around. She pointed to the ground with her carving tool. There was nothing there. But she said,
“Your shadow.”
“My shadow?”
It was difficult to see shadows in the Lodreim Kingdom, where light shone from all directions. But looking closely, he could faintly see his own shadow.
“Since light shines from everywhere in the Lodreim Kingdom, even shadows are three-dimensional. I can tell who someone is just by their shadow.”
She made it sound easy, but it was clearly a difficult skill. The boy gave up on understanding the technique and decided to observe her carving.
-Tap, tap.
It seemed careless, but with each cut, the wooden figure took shape. It gradually became the figure of a woman. But the most peculiar part was something else.
‘She’s not carving the face, as usual.’
She nonchalantly placed the faceless figure on the table. It was complete. This had always puzzled the boy.
“Aren’t you going to make the face?”
She continued carving without looking up, and replied,
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s the Nameless King. We don’t know her name, her face, anything. So, this is the limit.”
But that was strange. Other sculptors often carved the Nameless King’s face. Of course, each face was different. Some sculpted a mature woman, others a young girl.
And those figures sold for much more than Grandma Marie’s faceless ones. Her small figures were only sold cheaply to children.
“And I…”
She continued carving as she spoke.
“I want children to remember. That 500 years ago, she saved the kingdom by sacrificing herself.”
It was the story of the “Nameless King.” He had heard it many times since childhood, like a fairy tale. Nevertheless, he quietly listened to her story.
“500 years ago, when chaos encroached upon the kingdom, most people abandoned the kingdom and fled to Heilen. The last knight vanished beyond the chaos, and there was no hope left for the kingdom.”
500 years. It was a time so long ago that he could hardly grasp it. But sometimes, when he realized he was standing on the very ground where that history unfolded, it felt strange.
“At that time, she emerged from the royal palace, having barely recovered from childbirth. And she began to pray in the center of this square.”
She pointed to the center of the square. There stood a statue of the Nameless King, praying. And the statue, too, was faceless.
“It was a dark and stormy day. The Nameless King prayed for days and nights without food or sleep, enduring the wind and rain. Gradually, people who had lost all hope began to gather around her.”
Even as she spoke, she finished carving another Nameless King figure and placed it on the table.
“Then, on the fifteenth day, a miracle happened. The dark clouds covering the kingdom parted, and the sun rose. Chaos was blocked by the veil of light surrounding the kingdom. But…”
She looked sadly at the Nameless King figure and continued.
“The Nameless King was nowhere to be found. No one remembered her appearance, not even her name.”
It was the ending he’d heard countless times. It never changed. That was why she was called the “Nameless King.” And Nameless Day commemorated the day she disappeared.
For some reason, on Nameless Day, once a year, the light faded from the barrier protecting the Lodreim Kingdom. On that day, people gathered in the square, each holding a candle. Just like that day, 500 years ago.
The light from hundreds of candles, though not as bright as usual, was enough to illuminate the kingdom. That was why the Lodreim Kingdom was known as the land of perpetual day. Even on Nameless Day, the only day the sun set, people lit candles to illuminate the kingdom.
“So, shouldn’t you get back to work, young chandlersmith?”
“Ugh…”
He finally stood up from where he had been watching her carve. She was right. He had work to do.
‘Yeah, I should get back to work.’
Being a chandlersmith wasn’t lucrative or easy. But he still liked it. He would probably feel it more strongly when Nameless Day arrived soon. Everyone would gather in the square, holding the candles he had made.
“See you later, Grandma Marie.”
“Alright.”
The boy dusted off his dirt-stained trousers, picked up his basket, and headed to the other side of the square. The elderly woman watched him go as she continued carving with practiced ease.
‘But something feels strange lately.’
The atmosphere in the square wasn’t the same. It had been a long time since she’d seen members of the royal family come out to inspect the square, something they usually did around this time.
Since opportunities to see them were rare, the change was noticeable.
‘What’s going on inside the royal palace…?’
Her intuition, honed by age, sensed something amiss. But there was nothing she, a mere old woman, could do. All she could do was carve figures at her stall.
“Excuse me…”
Someone spoke to her.
“Hm?”
Slightly startled, she turned her head. There were a man and a woman. She hadn’t noticed them until they were right next to her stall.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you selling this figure?”
The woman, pointing at a figure, asked. Black hair, but not the facial features of someone from Sak. Considering the current closed border due to the cold war with Sak, it would be impossible for someone from there to enter.
“Yes, it’s one copper coin.”
Without suspicion, she presented the figure. The woman seemed surprised by the price.
“It’s that cheap?”
“It’s just a child’s toy made by an old woman.”
“But…”
The man placed a coin on the table. But it wasn’t the color of copper. She thought it might not be a Lodreim Kingdom coin, but looking again, it was.
“Keep the change.”
“But this is too much…”
“Then give me ten figures. Each one seems worth at least ten copper coins.”
She reluctantly handed him ten figures. He took them and casually tossed them into the air. With her age came experience, and she understood what that meant.
‘A Hero?’
She’d heard that only certain special Heroes possessed that ability. It didn’t change anything for her, an old woman.
“Thank you.”
After tossing nine figures into the air, he handed the last one to the woman beside him. The woman took the figure, seemed lost in thought for a moment, then put it in her pocket. Then, they left the stall.
That’s when it happened.
‘Hm?’
She saw something unbelievable. A faint shadow stretched out beneath the departing woman. It seemed to perfectly match the shadow cast by the figure on the table.
‘This is…’
She strained to recall the woman’s face. And then she began carving it onto the faceless figure. But she soon shook her head.
‘This isn’t the face.’
Her intuition told her so.
‘But…’
She moved her tools with practiced skill. It had been a while since she’d been this focused. Sweat trickled down like rain. Before it reached her fingertips, she stopped carving.
‘This should be enough.’
It was just a slightly altered version of the woman’s face she’d seen. But somehow, she felt this face was the closest resemblance to the Nameless King, whose face she had never seen.
‘I told Ann I wouldn’t carve a face.’
Yet, she had done it anyway. She carefully placed the figure in a cloth pouch, thinking she would give it to the young chandlersmith later. And then, as if nothing had happened, she continued carving.
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