48 – Mirage
I made a neat path through the dense forest like a siege weapon.
There was no need to use mana, and whenever he wielded his spear with pure muscular strength, the tip of Ezetus’ spear broke and snapped all the trees that stood in his way.
But as Oznia’s presence got closer and closer, it became difficult to push the forest any further. It was because she could have been caught up in destroying her forest like she is now.
But we’re already close enough. Even if her senses were disturbed again, I no longer had to worry about missing her.
I grabbed Ezetus and walked into the forest without hesitation.
-Paaah!
Just when I thought I had gone quite deep into the woods, my surroundings changed in an instant, like magic.
Surely, just a moment ago, I was in a dense forest full of towering trees, but before I knew it, I was walking on a narrow road in a quiet rural village.
“Huh….”
It’s not just about showing people, it’s an illusion that even changes the surrounding landscape.
I was not taken aback by the sudden change of scenery, and I calmly looked around.
At first, I thought it would show Ella and her hometown in my memory. Because this town looked strangely familiar to the eye.
But I was just mistaken for a moment because all the rural villages looked alike, but when I looked closely, this place didn’t look at all like the village where I grew up.
Then this is probably a fantasy world created based on Osnia’s memories.
Oznia’s village was an ordinary rural village, as you would find anywhere, except for a fairly large Goddess Church in the middle.
But the village was eerily quiet, as if the inhabitants had suddenly vanished into thin air. There are clear traces of life in buildings and vegetable gardens, but literally only people are missing.
Why? Simply because the fantasy couldn’t be realized by the villagers?
For that reason, the buildings and surrounding scenery were too detailed. If it was enough to omit people, it wouldn’t matter if I omitted buildings anyway.
I put aside the unavoidable problems for a moment and focused on finding a place where Oznia could be.
The only house that seemed inhabited was a hut with thin smoke rising from its chimney.
As I approached the house, I felt a large number of people from inside. When I looked inside the house through the window, there was a family that seemed harmonious like a painting.
They held in their arms a little girl who looked exactly like Oznia, expressing their love affectionately.
“I love you. Oznia.”
“My daughter, Mommy loves you.”
I fixed my expression on their conversation.
“… Oznia?”
Are you that young?
Even Ozunia’s usual impression was that she looked small and young compared to her peers, but the girl in front of her was at most 5 or 6 years old, no matter how you look at it, she was just a child.
At first, I thought it was a fake created by fantasy. However, unlike men and women whose developed intuition is just an illusion, I could feel the vitality of young Oznia as if it were a living person.
Did the fantasy make Oznia young, or did Oznia want her to return to her childhood in her fantasy?
Anyway, Ozunia seemed to be having a hard time getting out of the illusion on her own. I should have brought her out now before she plunged deeper into this fantasy.
When I opened the cabin door and stepped inside, the men and women presumed to be Oznia’s parents looked at me with wary eyes.
“Everyone, who are you? Why are you here?”
“We have nothing! Please get out of here… !”
No matter what my parents say, I ignore their questions and focus only on little Oznia, who looks at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
“Oznia. Wake up.”
But Oznia didn’t respond.
I spoke again in a firm voice.
“This is all fake. You have to get out of the fantasy.”
But Oznia still didn’t answer. Instead of answering her, she only pushed deeper into her mother’s arms, perhaps arousing her anxiety.
“… ….”
This is embarrassing. What about this
The fact that there is no reaction to the word fake means that Oznia is so deeply immersed in this fantasy that she is not aware of the truth.
Or maybe she knows it’s fake, but thinks she doesn’t want to escape the blissful fantasy in front of her.
He could have broken the illusion by swinging Ezetus, but he did not know what the consequences would be for Oznia.
If Oznia were too deeply immersed in her illusions, in the worst case, her current self could be lost forever, her mind trapped in a state of eternal innocence, even though her illusions were gone.
In order for her to help Oznia, she had to recognize that this was her fantasy and get out on her own. Shattering the illusion came next.
I put Ezetus into the subspace and called her name heavily, paying full attention to Oznia.
“Oznia Hebring.”
She raised her head cautiously at my call and looked at me.
Although she appears to be a child, I open her mouth hoping that the real Oznia is listening to me.
“This is not your hometown. Do not mistake where you are.”
From noble mtl dot com
“… ?”
Oznia innocently blinked like a child who didn’t know anything.
In the end, Oznia’s father, who was worse off, grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to pull me out.
“Hey! What are you doing to my daughter!”
However, even if the country man used the dragon as hard as he could, there was no way my body could budge.
As if nailed to her place, I watched Oznia’s reaction, and Oznia’s mother wrapped her arms around her daughter as if to protect her, turning her back to me.
“You can take everything in the house, just don’t touch my daughter! Please… !”
The more you talk to and react to non-existent fantasies, the stronger the influence of fantasies in reality becomes. Therefore, it is best to ignore it without even paying attention.
However, the sight of the two desperately trying to protect their daughter, even though they knew it was fake, gave me a strange feeling.
“… ….”
But something was strange.
The appearance of Oznia’s parents was full of love for her daughter, but because of that, she felt a strong sense of estrangement, as if her front and rear were not aligned.
I got down on one knee and met Oznia’s eyes and asked calmly.
“Oznia. Have you ever felt really strange?”
A father who takes risks to drive out outsiders to protect his family.
Her mother embraces her daughter with all her body to protect her.
“Your parents care and love you so much, why are you acting like that?”
The love and affection that her parents poured out on Oznia was completely at odds with the state of the family, and most of all, Oznia’s appearance.
Oznia was wearing old clothes more befitting a beggar than a precious daughter, and her silver hair, which was originally shiny, had turned a dirty gray from how long it hadn’t been washed. Moreover, there was no trace of food, toys, or bedding for her young daughter in her house.
In her fantasy, her parents showed her a love that did not match her reality at all.
I realized at the same time. A fantasy that shows what the person misses the most.
That there is no law that will necessarily show that it actually existed.
“Ah….”
After hearing my words, Osnia’s eyes began to blur with anxiety and doubt.
“Oh, Dad… mom… I am… I am… ! Ugh!”
Little Oznia must have realized the imbalance between her parents’ love she so desperately wanted to believe and her cold reality. She frowned and began to suffer.
“No, no… ! Stop! I mean stop!!”
As turmoil raged within her, the fantasy world began to become more hostile to me.
Oznia’s father eventually started hitting and banging her on my body, and her mother threw her daughter to the floor and vomited her terrible curses and hateful words at me. .
“Get off, get off now! Disappear before my eyes! Do you know how much we suffer because of you!?”
“You are trash that never deserves to be loved! Everyone knows how terrible you are!”
At the same time, outside the village where there was no one but the three of them, a loud commotion suddenly started.
Boom!!
Suddenly, the door of the hut was thrown open violently, and the villagers rushed in.
They held in their hands menacing weapons such as torches and pitchforks, and everyone’s faces were contorted with fierce anger and fear.
One of the villagers raised his voice as he pointed at me.
“That brought disaster to the town!”
Another person raised a torch and shouted.
“We need to get out of town right now! Or burn them to death!”
Someone put both hands together and prayed earnestly to the goddess.
“Oh, Goddess! Protect us from this evil seed… !”
Their words were full of hate, violence and curses against me. Strangely, however, I felt that the hatred was directed at Oznia rather than at me.
As if to prove him, as the villagers shouted her hateful words, Oznia shook her shoulders with her terrified expression.
“Stop, stop… !!”
Her eyes were constantly shaking with deep confusion and shock. Finally, as if she couldn’t take it any longer, she closed her eyes tightly and put her hands over her ears.
“Please… ! I was wrong, I was wrong… ! So, please, I don’t like it anymore… !!”
While only curses filled with hatred and madness resounded throughout the village, I calmly called Oznia’s name.
“Oznia. Open your eyes.”
Oznia shook her head in disapproval. Her long messy silver hair swayed dizzily with her movements.
I didn’t rush her like that, but instead of her, I gently put her hand on Oznia’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, open your eyes.”
Oznia slowly opened her eyes at the sound of my voice. Her eyes were still full of anxiety and fear, but she seemed to feel a little relief from my touch.
When Oznia opened her eyes, I lowered my body to cover her with my back as if to protect her.
The anger, hatred, and violence around us were pouring down on us, but it only hurt me and had no effect on Osnia.
“It is an illusion that has no effect on you. It’s not all real.”
She put on an incomprehensible expression as if asking why she did this.
“What the hell, why… ?”
I knew that this was just an illusion that had no effect on reality, so I was able to ignore it casually.
But aside from all that, it was because it was the instructor’s responsibility to protect the students.
Instead of explaining the reason in detail, I just tapped Oznia on the shoulder.
Just like she did the day she first called me instructor.
Oznia looked at me in surprise with her mouth open in her blankness.
At that moment, Oznia’s lips parted and her short words spilled out of her mouth.
“D-“
I didn’t know what Oznia was trying to say, but I was able to understand her intentions from her words that followed.
“-Dispel magic.”
In an instant, the fantasy was shattered and the rural village melted into a quiet and serene forest.
The angry villagers and the shabby huts all disappeared like a mirage.