The thing Alex noticed was the heat of the sunheart. The item itself being relatively hot was something he had known for a long time; old woman Lala had told him as much.
What did surprise Alex at the moment was the heat surrounding the sunheart in the air. It was natural to believe that this heat was something the sunheart was giving off, given that it was hot itself. But upon observing it carefully, he realized that this heat did not come from the sunheart itself.
In fact, this was heat going into the sunheart.
The sunheart was pulling away heat from the surroundings and onto itself. It was absorbing rather than giving away.
‘Interesting,’ Alex thought. ‘Is that why it is so cool in this place?’
As he observed, he recognized that it wasn’t just heat that was being drawn onto the sunheart but rather Yang. In fact, it was all Yang. The heat was just a side effect of the Yang being drawn into it.
“Wait… but then that would mean…”
He imagined how great this gem would be for the Baylords, who had the ‘curse’ that was because of an overabundance of Yang. That led him to thinking about the overabundance of Yang for everyone.
And immediately, he recognized the value of the sunheart.
“It is what is keeping everyone safe from the Yang,” he said out loud, surprise clear on his face. He had sometimes thought about how the other tribes or people from the desert dealt with the Yang, but he always thought that it likely didn’t matter there because those people had a way to get Yin.
That might be the case, but the sunheart was obviously the main way to do so.
‘How is it doing this?’ he wondered. ‘Does it naturally do this, or did someone have to make it behave this way?’
The shape itself already made him feel that it wasn’t a naturally found gem, and no jeweler had touched it yet.
‘Ward off evil,’ Alex thought. ‘They must’ve been talking about the physical Yang imbalance too. They called it evil to pass it down through the ages for these tribes.’
The understanding of what a sunheart did to a tribe was satisfactory. At the same time, Alex couldn’t help but be disappointed now that he had learned that. He couldn’t help but sigh.
‘I can’t take this,’ he thought.
Even if he wanted to steal from the chief in revenge for them trying to kill him, he couldn’t condemn the innocents to a fate that was death. Even if all the adults in the tribe may have been in on the decision to kill and steal from him, the children had no hand in that.
And they would be the ones to suffer if he did take these away.
Alex sighed. As angry as he was, he knew his own limits. He couldn’t let go of his guilty conscience if he ever did something like this.
‘There are more ways to find these,’ he thought and placed the sunheart in the metal box. He tossed the box back toward the young woman before him, who stood still, unable to say a single word in fear.
Alex glanced at her for a single moment before standing up and walking away. There was no more reason to stay in this village.
It was close to noon when Alex walked back outside and saw the mass of people who stood there, not daring to come in. Each one of them had a weapon in their hands, a few even with bows and arrows drawn immediately upon seeing him.
“Where is the chief’s daughter? Where is Yuana?” someone old asked.
“Do you understand what happened today?” Alex asked the group. “Do you understand why I am hostile?”
The lot remained quiet, seemingly waiting for him to continue.
“Your chief attacks a guest in their sleep to steal from them. I do not know if any of you were in on that plan or not. If you were, I truly pity you for the life you’ve lived. If you were not, then you might want to choose another chief, because she is not worthy of leading your tribe.”
“I have made the decision to leave them all alive. The next person may not be so kind. Change, Longcreek. Change while you can.”
He turned and left.
He had barely left the porch of the chief’s house when an arrow flew directly toward his head. However, instead of hitting him, it remained hovering in the air.
Alex turned in the direction of where the arrow had come from and saw Reval staring toward him with wide eyes.
Alex slowly reached for the arrow hovering next to him. He sighed. “Maybe I won’t be as kind as I thought I would.”
With a flick of his wrist, the arrow flew straight toward Reval’s head, piercing through it enough to come out of the other side. No one realized what happened just then, as it was all too quick for them to see.
It was only after Alex walked away that they saw Reval’s body slump to the ground. When they saw the fate that Reval suffered, no one could do a thing at all.
All they could do was stare at the dead man.
Alex heard the commotion he left behind but didn’t turn to watch it. He continued walking, making his way out of the forest. He walked out into another patch of farmland with small budding sprouts.
He continued walking, looking for a place where he could rest for the moment. While he was much better than before, his head still ached a little, and he needed to rest as soon as he could.
After a while, he had walked far enough away from the village that he wouldn’t have to worry about being annoyed again. He found a tall tree with thick branches, so he jumped onto its crown and sat down with his legs crossed, ready to let his aching mind get some rest.