Chapter. 11. Wizards of Wizards (7)
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It is commonly said that elves are creatures closer to trees than humans.
Branches extending from a huge tree called the World Tree.
A custom that prioritizes the world tree, which is their root, and the consciousness of the community connected to it, over the happiness of individuals.
A being who lives a life close to centuries, living a life closer to still life that is unhurried and does not enjoy stimulation.
Therefore, change is rare for elves, and once change occurs, it is said to have such a big impact that it can be said to determine the life of the elf.
Just as a small scratch on a young tree turns into a knot on a huge tree decades later, the moment an event is engraved in an elf’s life, the elf cannot escape from it.
Therefore, the professor could not easily speak out.
The right arm and left leg were loose and empty, respectively. The area around his only remaining eye was full of irregularly tangled scars, like a child’s scribbles on drawing paper, and his remaining hand had only three healthy fingers.
[Ego. A child blinded by light. Will you once say to me that humans and elves can get along well?]
Considering the meaning of her words, it was not that difficult to guess who the wound originated from.
‘It can only be seen as a wound inflicted by a human…. It also happened very badly. If you think about what the roe deer said before, it is said that if you treat an elf slave too harshly, he will suffer and die. The fact that the elf is still alive after being treated like that… is it resentment? ‘A grudge so much that I prioritize it over my own life?’
I felt fortunate that the atmosphere in the village was not that hostile, but there was an unexpected ambush here.
‘…It might be difficult to persuade.’
Elves do not change. If you want to force change, you have to create enough shock or elicit sympathy to erase the turning point of the past… How on earth can you overcome the memories that made people like that?
But Plan B, that is, the plan of first going to Bossam and persuading him to use him as a guide, didn’t seem very promising either.
That elf called Godmother. At first glance, the face value appears to be well over 65 years old.
‘The kids around me who looked like they were about 5 to 7 years old said they were 25 years old. If you think it’s roughly 5 times the face value… crazy. Isn’t that a monster over 300 years old? ‘There is a reason why a village built in the middle of the Blue Line can be okay.’
If you ask me if I’m not that scared just because I haven’t shown any great ability yet and I’m barely old, it’s because I don’t know this neighborhood.
At GG, regardless of time or place, if you see an old man who looks like a simple person, they tell you to be careful.
If it’s a swordsman, it’s like an entity outside the game wielding a Delete Key called an ‘Auror’ that has already succeeded in separating itself from the world through decades of misery, and if it’s a
wizard, even if it stays in the lower world with a shitty mind, it doesn’t have enough mana for decades. Since it would have been accumulated, the output alone would be similar to that of a wizard two levels higher, and
in the case of spiritists, there is a feeling of ‘each other learning from each other’, and the spirit learns about the life of the spirit and this relationship continues for a long time. If you look at it, the spirit can read and react to the spiritist’s thoughts without any commands or instructions. It is said that when they reach a level where they become one with each other, their spirit affinity increases rapidly, allowing them to easily summon even higher-level spirits… A
300-year-old elf would be able to say a word with the spirit king from afar. It is a level.
Kidnapping an elf in front of an elf like that and throwing him away?
Perhaps we will be able to see the spectacle of a nearby mountain range rising and burying our group.
‘Minor topics such as interest or sense of crisis don’t work at all. One big one. At least I need a big issue that can surprise the godmother…’
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a way to persuade the old elf who had been imprisoned and tortured for being an innocent elf.
As the silence grew longer, deep furrows appeared on the godmother’s wrinkled forehead.
“You have a worried face.”
“….Because the weight of the matter is as heavy as the accumulated time. “It’s because I can’t say it easily.”
“Your kind has been like that since ancient times. I came here because I felt regretful. I like to talk for a long time, twisting what should have been just one word hundreds of times over, and in the meantime, I misinterpret the words and fall into confusion. If you have any thoughts, let them out. “Don’t even think about deceiving me with your tongue.”
Shit. This means that if you make a fuss, you are out. In this case, I can only act as a messenger in a business-like manner…
But I can’t just ignore the firm request from the other side and start gossiping. I had no choice but to take out a piece of luxurious paper with a preservation magic from my pocket and hold it out to my godmother.
“….This?”
“This is a handwritten letter from the archbishop of the church, the so-called representative of light. He looks forward to the day when the old past will be put right and light will once again shine upon all mankind.”
“The church wants to correct the past… who is it?”
“….yes?”
“The agent of light you spoke of. Aselion? Dimatis? Or is it Cornelius?”
Who is that again? I don’t know about the last two. Aselion… was probably one of the hero units that went around beating up undead with a staff in World 2?
“…This is Saint Norman.”
“Norman Norman….. Aha. okay. Among the children who arrived here 20 years ago, there were children whose names were written in bloody tears. When our children were chased by slave traders and went to the guard, he was probably the one who made the guard catch them and hand them over to the merchants? A person like that… is now talking about reconciliation? dare?”
Kuddeuk! Crack!
Dedddddddddddd!
As if sympathizing with her feelings, thick tree trunks were growing in the small tree house and shaking in all directions.
“No matter how much you bow your head and express repentance, why don’t you know that branches that have already fallen cannot sprout new shoots again? Do you really think that we can forget our bloody past and laugh and chat with you again? If that is the conclusion reached by the ‘most thoughtful race’, it is beyond ridiculous! Elves never forget! “It is only in your human territory that a piece of paper and a few small drops of ink can have power. To us, this seems like nothing more than an insult to avoid the terrible past!”
Grumble!
The bishop’s handwritten letter held in the godmother’s remaining hand was reduced to charred ashes even before its seal was broken.
‘Shit! What do we do? What do we do! If we continue like this, let alone negotiate, we will end up as fertilizer for this village!’
The group senses the wildly growing tree roots and the atmosphere being unusual, and each begins preparing for battle. The elves saw this and pulled out arrows again.
What came to the professor’s mind at that moment was the face of Archbishop Norman, who spoke of his past with seething eyes and could not bear his sins.
A person who is more faithful than anyone else and stands at the forefront of racial discrimination despite knowing that it was a sin against God’s will. A believer who did not hesitate to move forward resolutely even though he was bound by the framework of his own guilt.
[Someday, when I return to the light and stand next to Haram, I will ask, ‘Have I lived as an instrument in accordance with your will?’ I don’t have the confidence to ask that.]
What made him take his first steps? Even in pain, without even a single tremor. What made him hesitate to do something that went against the doctrine he had believed in his whole life?
Quarrrrrrr!
“Speak! “With what will you repay the price of so much blood!”
There was no cost to the bishop for doing so. Just to prevent others from going through what he had to go through. That was the only reward the bishop had hoped for.
“What we present… is the future! “A promise that in a future where much more blood will be shed than the countless blood and tears you have shed so far, if this continues, the world that will never change will change!”
Dedddddddddd!
The godmother didn’t even move even in the midst of shaking so much that her teeth chattered.
Her single eye lit up at the professor’s words.
“The future. The future! What you mean is that in return for that, you are willing to risk a future where nothing has been decided? The compensation for us who have been hunted for hundreds of years and suffered from your sprouts of light for decades is an empty check called ‘the future’, which is completely empty? Do you think that makes sense?”
Dudduduk!
‘Uuuuugh!’
My whole body was overwhelmed by her roar. Like a rabbit in front of a lion, the instinct of a living being in front of someone so strong that you can’t even see the difference with your eyes.
‘Here… If you get scared here, you’ll really get scared!’
Diplomatic rhetoric and everything else just flew out of my mind. The only thing that comes to mind now is that if I don’t open my mouth because I am overwhelmed, I will die, and the look in the archbishop’s eyes as he bitterly talks about his past.
“So, aren’t you talking about finding someone who can sign that official check? That worthless paper and a few drops of ink you mentioned! As you say, that letter is of no use here, but to put it conversely, in the human world, that single letter has the power to start a war and cause hundreds of thousands of people to die without even knowing why! With just a few words, humans started discriminating against elves, so with just a few words, that can be reversed! “Why don’t you know that simple fact even after experiencing it yourself!”
“….This is nonsense. It’s just a facade trying to escape this moment! Do you have any proof? If there is proof that those words are not just an idea that came out of your head, but a real reality-”
Quad dud!
“evidence? Yes, the evidence is good! There’s a lot of stuff right in front of you! You people hiding here right now are proof of that! I saw with my own eyes a man who went against his own feelings and beliefs and went this far just for the sake of others! “You and the world today are the result of those actions!”
archbishop. He was just a believer in light. Despite the countless tragedies that visited his life, he could not hear the voice of God or find a passage in the Bible that gave him the right answer.
That may be why he decided to take the blame upon himself.
Even though he knew that he would suffer for the rest of his life from his sins, he took action without the slightest hesitation, and with the help of influential nobles and merchants, he elevated the church to an omnipotent position. As a result, many believers, who were considered tools of the nobles’ war, simply believed. It was made to the point where one could lead a life with it.
The price of all that was my own belief. The cost of denying one’s life’s faith by revising the scriptures that tell all people to shine equally.
It was not done for personal satisfaction. He moved to change the world, risking everything he had to protect those who were within reach by stretching out his arms.
“I won’t forget it! okay! I know because I’ve experienced that too! If you count the number of cuts, he’s hundreds of times more expert in this field than that! Even now that I have achieved my revenge, I can still see the faces of those bastards who cut off my arm and put it in a glass jar. How can I forget that? do not forget! “I never asked you to forget, and I know it would be impossible even if I told you to forget!”
The words stuttered around my mouth due to the pressure that felt like my entire body was being pressed down on a rock. I should be speaking properly. I think it needs to be conveyed a little more clearly.
Half walking and half crawling, I approached my godmother. Idrasil’s arrowhead was aimed at my head, but she was so confused that she couldn’t let go of the bowstring.
Wow!
After stepping forward with my toes crossing the wooden floor, I was barely able to look into my godmother’s one remaining eye. A single eye whose depth is unknown, shining brightly.
“Don’t forget either. But don’t even think about revenge. So… do you mean to live like this? In such a miserable state. To me, who has lived many times longer than your short-lived species. “Are you going to keep watching me like this?”
“If you truly care for the branches of the World Tree. Because your sacrifice may create a better world for countless elves living in the future. At least this moment could be the starting point of a changed world.”
“…He’s an arrogant person.”
Drudddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd…. Grumbling.
The vibrations that shook the small wooden house stopped and the pressure that seemed to be squeezing my heart disappeared without a trace, like a lie.
She glared at me for a while and sighed with a wrinkled face that I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“…Yea and now. You humans speak in a terribly twisted way. Just bury my feelings, close my eyes, and cooperate for the future of the elves. “You can say it like this.”
“Puh-haa-! The matter was too heavy to just say out loud. If you say it long, it will fit well into the ears of the listener and put less pressure on the person speaking.”
“okay. “It’s a little ambiguous, but…doing more here is a bit excessive for an exam.”
.
.
.
.
.
.
huh?
“Test… Iragupsyo?”
“okay. Even though it is a small town, I am also a person who leads people under me. “Did you think that as a leader, you don’t even know how to distinguish between individual emotions and practical interests?”
“No, just now the whole house came alive and moved, and I couldn’t breathe living with Angwang in my eyes-” “
Then, you’re a famous warrior of the Loharam Church, so wouldn’t you have to do something like that to be worthy of the name test? “If they sent a chaff who was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t even speak, it would be safe to say that the will of the church was only at that level.”
Slurp –
Wooden limbs naturally grew and attached to the godmother’s empty arms and legs, and she stood up very naturally and faced me.
“Can you tell me an interesting fact?”
“…I don’t think it would be fun.”
“Elves do not easily expel their own people. No matter how much she insults humans and impregnates the child, the mother forest always holds its branches in its arms. Just as new shoots sprout from wounded branches.”
Eh? what. Wasn’t it a gathering of elves who were taken here by humans and suffered all kinds of hardships, but were then rejected by their hometown as being defiled?
“Then why…”
“It’s because our consciousness has gone through too many changes to blend in with the mother tree.”
Srrrrrrr –
When she waved her hand, the tree trunks of the house scattered and the ceiling and walls were sucked into the tree trunks.
Spreading out before him was a morning of vast nature that could only be seen from the top of a huge tree. The vitality of the forest that raises its head in the rising sunlight.
The previous vibration was like a vibration created by a house under a tree being pulled up.
“Elves share each other’s emotions and consciousness. We have become so entangled with humans as enemies, companions, and lovers that we have become impurities that cannot be incorporated into that consciousness. “No matter how much they beckon us to return, we know that if we join, we will bring human-specific confusion and anxiety to the other branches, so we have no choice but to leave the forest and settle down somewhere else.”
….Something strangely made the back of my head tingle. This feeling. This feeling is so familiar. The feeling of exasperation mixed with admiration when I realized that I had been caught up in President Young’s trick couldn’t have been…
“…I’m just asking this just in case. “Where did those wounds come from?”
“Hehehe. You mean this? I’ve been around the world for nearly 300 years, so where do my scars come from? This eye… It got like this after being hit by an arrow when I was with the 8 princes who were shouting that they would fix the empire. Was Pal a Deadly Knight 70 years ago? I faced seven undead knights as black as charcoal and gave up one. This severed leg is my pride! The one who put an end to the actions of those dead people paid the price with this one leg instead of the life of the great hero of the princess family! He was such a cute guy. “Human life burns out as quickly as the brightness of the flame.”
“…Well, then, was there anything like confinement or torture among those injuries?”
“I? In the first place, I am an elf who came out of the forest on my own feet. I was able to get permission because I had enough skills not to worry about the branches of the forest. “I have never once said that I have suffered unreasonable hardships from humans. Are you a thoughtful child?”
‘….I got hit! Thinking that it was an exiled elf village, I unconsciously thought that it was all caused by humans!’
The godmother came up to me with an angry expression on her face and tapped my shoulder with a wooden prosthetic arm that moved like a living arm.
“In fact, I am a guest who has been visiting for the first time in decades, and I am sorry for treating you so harshly. “I apologize.”
“No, you have no grudge against humans… why did you do this to me? “No, just listening to you, it seems like you actually like humans, right?”
At my bewildered words, my godmother smiled across her face, which was full of thick scars and wrinkles.
“Well, this is an opportunity we’ve been waiting for for decades, but can’t it just end with a small promise?”
“…..yes?”
In response to my question, the godmother stretched out her two arms, each made of skin and wood, toward the vast forest.
“You said it clearly with your own mouth. ‘To create a world where elves do not shed meaningless blood like they do now.’ Since the priest spoke of his personal feelings and beliefs in order to protect the believers in his arms, it must mean that he will provide that level of effort and dedication. Isn’t it? Don’t think I’m just saying this because I said it. Although it is a small branch, the place where we stand now is part of the world tree that grew from a place where branches of the real world tree were cut and planted. All the rooted beings in the world were listening to your words. “Sometimes words themselves have power.”
“!!!!”
I
could feel it. The unfamiliar mana that I felt for the first time in my life penetrated every corner of my body and then split into small pieces and disappeared without a trace.
“….Subak?”
“It’s called an oath. Don’t worry too much. There is no great coercion or negative effect. It’s literally close to a vow I made to myself. However, if you find yourself wandering in such confusion that you cannot even figure out your way… today’s pledge may be able to gently hold your hand and guide you. Oh, take this back. There will be times when I will use something more useful than what I have in my hand. As you say, even though it is just a piece of paper and a few drops of ink, it can change the world.”
Grumble!
As flames erupted from the godmother’s fingertips, the air rumbled, and the archbishop’s letter, which had been thought to have been reduced to ashes, reappeared.
“You look very confused, so let me explain it clearly. I, El-Farna, the ancient trunk of the World Tree, stand at the edge of the World Tree and swear. The branches of Kaneran here will not reject the hand of man who has finally arrived after a long wait. We promise to one day take root in all lands without discrimination, and we will cooperate until the day when the Hero of Light announces his will to the World Tree.”
The moment she finished speaking, the wind at the tip of the branches of the huge tree was seen blowing around her. A similar feeling to the one that penetrated my body a moment ago. That too is a pledge. The exiled elves here had been waiting for someone like me to reach out to them from the beginning, without any need for negotiation.
I was dumbfounded and didn’t understand it, so I had no choice but to ask.
“Why are you so friendly to humans? In any case, the changes brought about by them forced you to leave your hometown and live in this harsh place.”
“Didn’t I tell you? “Elves are beings that remember.”
Godmother El Parna’s face showed longing.
“Those who were hurt and harboring resentment returned to their hometowns. Because they grew to love their mother tree and the community as deeply as the years of loss. There is only one case where an elf kicks out an elf. “It is only when there is something deep in their hearts that is more precious than the mother tree and that they prioritize it over other branches.”
“….no way?”
“okay. All elves born here in Kaneran are half-elves. We are people who already have a human-like passion deep in our hearts and have engraved that companion in our memories. Now do you understand why the branches of the village treated you so repulsively?”
The professor just nodded like an idiot as his godmother smiled mischievously.
“Don’t try to understand it all. Sadness and joy, resentment and longing. It’s all so complicated. It’s become too complicated for an elf. Just think of it as elves who fell in love with humans and can’t escape it. The hunter’s “The elves are so ‘fixed’ that they can’t forget their love for humans, even though they live in hiding in remote areas like this to avoid harm.”
Now that I think about it, there was nothing about that godmother that was elf-like. From the way you speak to the way you think and act.
They were already closer to humans than elves. Like humans, they were more complex than any other race.
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