Chapter 192 – Chapter 192 ― Yeon (5)
Chapter 192 ― Yeon (5)
The eyes of Roan and the elder met.
Roan noticed that the forest fairy was waiting for his question.
So, Roan asked.
“What do you want?”
And the answer given by the forest fairy chief was a bit unexpected.
“We want a peaceful death. Roan.”
Roan slightly frowned, but the other elders were silently listening to him as if there was no disagreement with the elder’s words.
“Could you please explain?”
“We know that the continent lives a finite life.”
Roan’s amethyst eyes widened.
“Everything is finite. The world we live in, this land, all our tribes. Just because we can’t see the end doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
The forest fairy looked at the flame in the hearth with a faint smile.
“Humans want to burn others, and demons burn themselves. However, from the perspective of us who have lived a long life, such an external flow is futile and intense. The land elf couldn’t resist such a flow. So it perished And after seeing that, our forest fairy made a decision. To isolate us.”
“Is that why you don’t reach out to demons or humans?”
At Roan’s question, the forest fairy nodded slowly.
“If it were not for the revelation of the goddess, we would not have thought of calling you.”
“A revelation from the goddess… Are you talking about Goddess Laurecia?”
“Hmm.”
The elder walked over the hem of his robe and tilted the teacup.
The goddess said
Even if you show proof, if the viewer doesn’t have faith, it won’t mean anything.
But even with that being said,
The goddess seems to have tried to do what she could in her own way.
At the last worship in Basel where humans gathered, the goddess showed something of herself.
It occurred to me that perhaps at the same time, the forest fairy might have been given that ‘revelation’.
“… What do you mean? Did you radiate light?”
A small smile appeared on Roan’s face.
Seeing his expression, the elders exchanged glances. It wasn’t an expression as if she were listening to an absurd story, it was because she had no doubt that the goddess had done something.
“The king of demons said he was blessed by you.”
And one of the elders asked.
“Is it true?”
All eyes turned to Roan at once.
And Roan readily agreed.
“That’s right.”
And Roan gathered a small amount of holy power.
Compared to when I first gained holy power, it was a power I had become accustomed to.
The elders’ bodies tensed slightly as they felt the power move through Roan’s body.
Those with magical powers can sense that Roan has powers other than magical powers, but they can’t figure out how strong it is or what texture it has.
So, like Merde’s priests and Helen’s surprise, they couldn’t evaluate Roan’s holy power.
But at least they could tell they could feel the divine energy from the magic in front of them.
A light that even those who do not have divine power can feel the sacredness.
A small ‘starlight’ rises softly over the brazier
It illuminated the people sitting around them.
“…”
The forest fairies did not exclaim.
I just opened my eyes wide and looked at the light.
But Roan could see they were surprised. There was the sound of someone taking a deep breath.
“If you want tranquility, there our interests may coincide. I also want peace. It is not the peace of my life, but the peace of the demons who gave me this place.”
One of the elders murmured.
“It seems that the goddess has a meaning in choosing this demon.”
The captain looked at the ‘starlight’ disappearing darkly. After blinking a few times, the old man looked at the faded light with regret.
“It means peace with each other. Say what you want to say.”
Roan raised his hand.
“We, the demons, are going to try to clear the land while taking care of it in the future.”
“Are you trying to farm?”
One of the elders asked anxiously.
Because they, too, know that Evirzio is devastated.
“Yes.”
However, the elders accepted Roan’s affirmation.
He is the king of demons,
No matter how long they lived, there was no need to argue with the decision of the demons.
They listened closely to Roan’s words.
“In the south, the climate was suitable and self-sufficiency was possible, but places further north than the Dark Forest could not. We plan to make forests in the deserts to the east and cultivate fields in desolate areas.”
“It’s a plan that’s not like a demon.”
“Is that so.”
Roan’s voice was soft,
The chief was satisfied with that.
“I thought the demons I knew would take away the country of humans.”
“I foolishly tried that, but decided it wasn’t very effective.”
Roan fiddled with the teacup.
“Even if we occupy the southern plain of Merde, it will be difficult for us, who are few in number, to rule over all of that land. Anyway, I thought I needed the forest fairies’ support to come up with a plan like this.”
“What about support?”
“There will be many clearings here and there around the Dark Forest and the border. The entry of demons will also increase. We are planning to set the Dark Forest as forbidden. At that time, I want the safety of the demons to be guaranteed.”
Roan looked up.
The forest fairy elders exchanged glances with each other for a moment, but soon turned their heads back to him.
“And I want to formally trade forest by-products. Even if we plant a forest, it will take time to achieve the result.”
“Okay. That would be too long for you.”
The elder smiled lightly, and Roan shook his head.
“Idiots enter and leave the forest not to destroy the forest, but to find fruit or trees. After Merde cut off the food supply, it got even more difficult, but now I’m starting to breathe. If we start a formal transaction with you and there is no need to enter the dark forest, the demons and forest fairies will no longer have to fight each other.”
“You are right.”
The elder who sat at the end asked, affirming Roan’s words.
“Okay. Our forests are dangerous to you. You also had a way to trade the by-products of the forest. But we’ve decided not to go out of the woods because we know you’re not satisfied with just a deal.”
For the first time, hostility was reflected in the forest fairy’s eyes. The gray-haired forest fairy said coldly.
“If you give up something, you ask for more. Humans and you are greedy. The end of the fairies who went out into the world and approached you was always unhappy.”
But Roan looked at him with calm eyes. His answer was as calm as his facial expression.
“You can’t say to suppress the nature of all people. You need a reason to do so. If you give us the help we need, I will keep the utmost good faith. We are not asking you to lend us strength, or to be on our side. A promise not to interfere with each other would suffice.”
“Yes, Raven. Roan might be right.”
The female forest fairy who was sitting on the other side said. She is the only woman in this position. She also had long gray hair, and even in her old age, her beautiful face had a light smile on it.
“If he asked for something big, I thought I would be against it too. But what he put forward is reasonable. Just knowing that someone isn’t hitting you on the back can give you the courage to try something new.”
And she looked at the elder as if asking her permission.
“I think the Goddess also wanted this kind of change. Isn’t that right, Chieftain?”
The captain, who had been watching the conversation silently, smiled along with her question.
“Yeah, maybe it’s much better to be able to exchange what each other wants than to hate each other.”
As if thinking about something for a moment, the captain quenched his throat with tea and then opened his mouth.
“War makes each other fierce. Stopped it, she was told. Thanks to that, we also had an hour. Even in this enchanted forest, it’s hard to be peaceful if there’s a lot of noise around it.”
His deep eyes turned to Roan.
“If it can definitely protect the forest, I will pass on your suggestion to other settlements. I can’t tell you now what the decision will be, but at least your suggestion sounds good to me.”
“Thank you.”
Upon receiving Roan’s greeting, the elder’s wrinkles deepened. It would be a mischievous laugh.
“I guess the goddess really had a reason for choosing you.”
“I also had a dream of a goddess not long ago.”
At Roan’s words, the air changed as if all the elders were agitated.
“Did you say that you came to life in a dream?”
“… That’s right.”
Roan looked around at them with a puzzled look on his face. Seeing this, the elder smiled gently and summoned the kettle with magic.
“Anyway, we are weak against the goddess. Especially Ygret, who is sitting over there.”
The elder was pointing to the woman who was protecting Roan earlier. She shrugged at the elder’s words.
“As a chieftain. It’s not just me, is it? There is not a single one of us who does not feel indebted to the Goddess.”
Roan remembered what Aina looked like while living in the castle.
He didn’t say that he prayed after Helen, but he showed an attitude of intimacy with the story of the goddess.
Although the forest nymph does not have a religion, it was said that he followed Goddess Laurecia as a native religion from birth.
It is her goddess who, together with the forest nymphs, fended off demons and created a magically protected forest for them.
To humans, it’s like a forgotten myth from dozens or hundreds of generations ago, but to forest fairies, it’s a relatively not-so-distant past.
It has been said that, like humans, naturally, without blind education through temples, forest nymphs feel the presence of her goddess as close to her as a friend from a young age.
“Is it because you protected the forest? They say that maintaining the dark forest is the grace of the goddess.”
The elder looked at Roan questioning with admiration and said while pouring water into his teacup.
“It must be something close to a fellowship consciousness. Everyone who remembers that time has disappeared, but the fact that we know how much is true and how much is false is at least close to the truth.”
“Then you also know about ‘greed’.”
It was the same way as usual.
However, the weight of the words inside did not.
The elder frowned for the first time,
The faces of the other forest fairies also darkened.
The magic flowing around them began to freeze coldly, like a shallow water in midwinter.
However, Roan was fiddling with the still warm teacup. As if relying on that little warmth.
“The Goddess said. It couldn’t be completely sealed, and I should be prepared for something unknown.”
The forest fairies were silent, as if they had sunk into the distant past. They felt a faint fear as they pondered Roan’s words. As if swept away by the waves of long years, they felt uneasy.
In a quiet conference room
The only thing that could feel the warmth was the hearth in their center.
But that was enough.
Roan’s warmth made him aware of where he was now.
The flame burning quietly in the hearth was like the mysterious starlight that the goddess gave to Roan. It’s small, but it has the power to give off warmth.
Roan felt now more than ever that the goddess had given him power directly.
“You chose serenity. But I will not leave the people I rule to die in such tranquility.”
The demon emperor’s voice was low and soft.
Words have power.
There was yearning and hope in Roan’s words.
“I found a way to stop the evil coming from the east with a fragment of the power that the goddess gave me in the distant past. So.”
A different color appeared in the eyes of the forest fairies.
“What if we find a way to live together?”
For the first time, the forest fairies stared blankly at the demons reaching out to them.
