good change
Leon was finally able to see a village like a village inhabited by people.
The village of the Needley tribe had already been devastated by the demons, and the place they stayed last night was just the forest itself.
Countless huge trees stood there, and thick vines were intertwined between them to form a bridge.
The sight of trees with a circumference of more than 100 meters rising by hundreds of meters is a sight that can be believed even if each tree is a world tree.
However, there were dozens or hundreds of such trees.
Reeves were living on the tree as their home.
However, they do not artificially dig tree trunks to decorate their houses, they only live in naturally created holes.
The name of this tree is Knot Tree, and when a huge branch growing from the trunk cannot support its own weight and is pulled out of the trunk, a knot hole is made, and the Reeves were living there.
It is said that if Reeves want to build a house, they plant the fruit of this knotweed tree.
It takes hundreds of years for a house to be built, but with Reeves’ unique laid-back personality and long lifespan, it seemed that he did not feel any inconvenience.
However, those Reeves were now looking at Leon with eyes trembling with fear beyond the discomfort.
I don’t know what the chieftain of the Needley tribe was talking about, but it felt as if he had become a demon king himself.
Wasn’t the name the Demon King from the beginning?
If you are a king who walks on the path of the devil, what is the difference between that and the devil?
In the distance, Reeves soldiers, with bows and spears in their hands, clad in sloppy armor made of animal skins, were glaring at us.
As if he was going to pour out javelins and arrows if he did even the slightest bit of nonsense.
Buy that spirit high, it would be unreasonable.
There is a huge difference in numbers in the first place.
This is 50,000 wizards.
The number of troops over there is not even a thousand at best.
The military strength was enough to subdue Leon with just a slight wave of his hand.
Of course, among the Reeves, some knights with high martial arts stood out, but that was all.
The magician who formed the circle was nowhere to be seen.
Of course, the martial arts of Reeves take the form of nature.
Burning flames and exploding volcanoes, cascading waterfalls or raging torrential rains, storms and earthquakes.
He could wield the powers of fire, water, wind and earth just by raising an auror, so there was no need to learn magic.
“I’m sorry.”
The Reeves wizard, Pana Needley, who was walking next to Leon, responded to my words.
“What do you mean?”
“The Reeves have a great talent for magic. If they could use their long lifespan and long tradition to study magic, the magic of this world could have been further developed.”
“It is unavoidable. Reeves are not greedy.”
Leon gently shook his head at Pana’s answer.
you have no desire
I thought that was the reason for disqualification as a living creature.
But it did just that.
Reeves have no appetite because they can get energy to sustain the day by eating only the morning dew and basking in the sun.
Perhaps it was due to the formation of a survival strategy to avoid and reluctance to fight, he had little fighting instinct and no greed to indulge in luxury.
I just live and breathe every day.
like a single tree.
It seems that the reason why there are enlisted soldiers who can protect themselves is that the role is determined by the positions given to them when they are born by the queen.
They are chosen as soldiers the moment they are born, and to protect their people, they have been training for 200 or 300 years to awaken the Aurors.
They simply form force out of necessity, and do not pursue it if it is not necessary.
For Reeves, magic was one of the things they didn’t need.
As I was walking with that thought in mind, a Reeves citizen who was paving the way to avoid Leon fell.
Although Reeves was originally a slender race, she was a more slender woman compared to other Reeves.
When Leon stopped walking thanks to her fall, the 50,000 wizards also stopped walking.
At that fact, the woman hurriedly got up and tried to get away, but she did not get up and fell again.
It looked like he sprained his ankle from moving too quickly.
As Leon tried to approach her, a small boy interrupted in front of her.
In human terms, he was a small boy who would have been around 10 years old.
He was holding out his hands to protect the woman from Leon while his body was trembling.
“Oh, don’t come. If you come closer…!”
“Are you approaching? What will you do?”
“Oh, I’m going to ask you!”
Leon looked at the boy with an intriguing gaze.
Reeves are a race that avoids conflict.
If so, the boy’s act of warning that he would bite him could be said to be beyond the category of that race.
In other words, it must mean that that woman is a very important person to this boy.
“Are you trying to protect your mother from me?”
The appearance of the collapsed woman seemed too young to be a parent of a child, but the boy shouted with wide eyes to see if Leon’s guess was correct.
“I will protect my mother!”
“Zicon!”
The woman shouted, but she sprained her ankle and couldn’t move.
Leon walked forward, looking intently at such a boy.
“Everyone, I told you not to come!”
“You can’t stop me with your own strength, can you?”
Leon spoke provocatively and did not stop, the boy clenched his teeth and ran out, biting Leon’s leg as he had warned himself.
The boy’s actions led Pana to try to subdue the boy, but Leon raised his hand to stop her.
Seeing the boy who was desperately resisting somehow made me feel uncomfortable on one side of my heart.
‘Oh, that’s right.’
Leon was looking at the boy overlaid with himself.
With himself, who desperately cried out to the family to save his mother for his sake.
And even the memories of her mother who died in vain at that cry and the sense of helplessness she felt desperately.
Leon lightly shakes his leg, dropping the boy.
There was nothing the boy could do with just that.
are you upset?
Leon said while looking at the boy who was weeping.
“If you want to protect your mother, be strong.”
Leon didn’t know why he had to learn magic.
I learned magic just because my mother said that I had to learn magic to live.
And it was only after my mother died that I realized why I had to learn magic.
In this world, only the strong have freedom.
Because you can get what you want.
Because you can protect your loved ones.
Leon passed the boy lying on the floor, approached the woman, knelt down on one knee and reached out.
However, her swollen ankles had noticeably recovered.
And Leon went forward and forward without even paying attention to the boy.
The boy was watching Leon’s back with wide eyes.
The power and magic that healed the wounds that would have lasted for a year if Reeves had a slow metabolism.
That magic that is said to have defeated the demons who broke the peace of Reeves.
It was a moment when a boy was fascinated by the power of magic.
* * *
Leon was finally able to reach the largest Knot tree in Reeves’ village.
Numerous vines were intertwined with the surrounding knotweed trees to form a splendid stepping stone that could climb from the ground to a high knothole.
Like the queen’s residence, the stepping stone is as splendid as the stairway leading up to heaven.
Of course, since the frame is made of vines, it shakes a lot with every step, so it was not a very good structure to receive guests other than Reeves, who has a good sense of balance.
As they climbed that long stepping-stone, a woman dressed in pure white silk and a crown bearing red fruits appeared.
Among Reeves whose skin was as white as white jade, the whiter skin was too much and she was a woman with the impression that she looked sickly.
But she had the charm to sublimate even that into a beauty.
“Welcome. mage king I am Finas Evergreen, the Queen of Reeves you have been looking for.”
“Let’s pretend that the title of the mage king didn’t exist. My name is Leon.”
With an expressionless expression on her face, she gently tilted her head as if to represent that emotion, she continued.
“Leon, are you a messenger from the sun?”
“A lion of the sun?”
“The chieftain of the Needley tribe, Solei, said: You, and the Reeves who followed you, wielded great powers of the sun. And saw the wounds of a fallen woman on the street healed. Isn’t that a blessing from the sun god?”
Leon looked back softly.
Although the view is good, the distance to the ground is several hundred meters, and the place where the woman fell is several kilometers away.
did you see it?
The queen had very good eyes.
“I am just a wizard.”
“But it is definitely…”
“okay. It’s a blessing from the sun god. To be precise, it is a magic created by applying the principle of the blessing of the sun god.”
Queen Finas opened her mouth very slightly and admired Leon’s reply.
“That’s magic….”
“okay. And I have come to make an offer to you, Reeves.”
At that, the queen shook her head.
“If it’s telling us to leave the forest, that’s unacceptable. Our Reeves are only at peace in the forest. Leaving the forest is seeking change and breaking peace. As a representative of the will of the Reeves, I cannot tolerate that.”
You’re going to be so adamant
Leon asked, savoring inwardly.
“If you were going to reject the offer so quickly, why did you allow me to talk to you?”
“I just wanted to say thank you in person.”
Saying so, she bowed her head deeply.
“thank you. mage king. No, Leon. With your help, many of our compatriots have been able to survive without losing their lives. On behalf of all of them, I thank you once as Queen and once again as a woman named Finas.”
Such a gesture of the queen was pitiful and vague, giving the feeling that if she stretched out her hand, it would burst and disappear.
“…then what are you going to do next? If the demons attack the Forest of Peace one more time like this, Reeves alone will not be able to resist any more? Do you think it would be better to annihilate like this only with human help?”
“that······.”
It seemed that Finas did not have a proper answer either.
She looked at her without knowing where she was looking, with an expression that she didn’t even know the fear of death.
Leon, who became frustrated with that gaze and expression, came up with a solution.
“I won’t tell you to leave the forest. In return, I will teach you magic.”
“Are you talking about magic to Reeves?”
“You must have heard the story. About the inaction of Reeves who learned magic from me. It’s not really a magic that was possible because they were special. To be precise, you could say that all Reeves are special.”
At Leon’s words, Finas kept her mouth shut.
Reeves is special.
Until now, the meaning of the word has threatened Reeves’ well-being.
Reeves’ tears were so special that they suffered endlessly,
Because Reeves’ blood is special, he suffered numerous deaths.
But Leon, unable to understand how Finas felt, continued to say.
“You may not know it well, but your soul is special. That soul learns magic, and it will become your unique personality that other races cannot match. Like the light wheel of the Elyos or the horns of the demons.”
At Leon’s words, Finas lightly closed his eyes.
“Then what is the price for that specialness?”
Does that mean that Reeves is destined to be exploited not only by endless suffering and countless deaths, but also by the exploitation of his soul?
What is this person, a self-proclaimed wizard trying to do by teaching Reeves magic?
“freedom.”
However, as soon as the unexpected words came out of Leon’s mouth, Finas opened his closed eyes.
In that gaze, a young man with a cheerful smile was on his lips.
“Your soul will be set free by magic.”
“Yes? But if that’s the case…”
Why are you trying to give Reeves freedom?
“I think you are immutable, not immutable.”
Because Reeves has no power and no true freedom, he has no choice but to live in hiding in the deep forest, far from everyone.
Reeves are not particularly fond of forests.
You can only find rest there.
“But if true freedom comes to you, you will change without anyone forcing you. And that would definitely be a good change.”
“Good, change……?”
“And when you get that freedom, think again. What would you do with that freedom? Maybe you can do me a favor for giving you freedom. Well, it doesn’t matter that much.”
“Really, really?”
“It’s too expensive. At best, he was gifted with magic, but he was rotting it away. I’m curious to see what the results will be if I study magic with that long lifespan.”
Have you ever thought of that?
Geniuses are short-lived, and what if there was a genius with a long lifespan who could constantly advance his field?
What if Albert Einstein, who completed the theory of relativity, which was already insightful to the extent that it could not be fully explained 100 years ago, had only been a thousand years or 200 years?
Perhaps Leon could have discussed each other’s theories by talking directly to him in the name of Lee Won-hyung.
For Leon, the Reeves were such a race.
“At the end of the day, I too have reached a long lifespan.”
Of course, it was uncertain whether an Einstein-class genius would emerge from among the Reeves, but he was willing to wait patiently for that.
First, after subjugating all of the public enemies and demons that threaten the safety of humans and Reeves.