Chapter 76: The Strong Who Protects Others
It’s natural for people to desire power when they sometimes face injustice and lose those they want to protect.
If one had the ability to do everything they wanted like Grimudo, Roka would not have lost her hometown or been sold into slavery. This world was inherently cruel.
When you go through such things, you develop a desire to become strong.
I don’t want to deny that desire. It’s just that I hoped this child wouldn’t lose her way.
Because I knew someone who became obsessed with getting stronger but lost himself in the process.
“A long time ago, there was a person who was deeply wounded. He was betrayed by the ones he trusted the most.”
Recalling the past story he had told us himself, I began to weave an old story.
Humans are foolish, and history repeats itself. But while foolish people don’t learn even after experiencing, the wise learn and realize something through history.
I’m not saying Roka is stupid, but I hope Roka becomes a wise person.
“When even his most precious people turned their backs on him, that person who sought power so that such a thing would never happen again eventually became stronger than anyone else, but now there is no one by his side.”
If he wanted to find people to come under him, there would be no reason he couldn’t do so.
If he just wished for it, it wouldn’t be difficult to find people who would enter under him and want to obey him. But he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t want to interact with others.
Why is that? Because compared to his power, all of us are less than ants?
I got a different feeling. He was constantly preoccupied with researching something. So he didn’t even have time to reach out to other people.
“I don’t know what he’s so diligently researching in the North Pole. But that person was clearly obsessed with that work. He didn’t even want to pay attention to anything else.”
I don’t know what he’s so passionately researching and training himself for.
Is it because the power he gains as a result of that research has become the only reward in his life? But is it worth dedicating your entire life to research just for yourself?
The Ancient Demon King is really a strange opponent the more you know about him.
At one time, I thought he was absolutely evil.
I thought he was the most twisted and distorted being, evil from birth. I thought he was a being more terrible than all the evils of this world combined.
However, the one I faced at the North Pole was just a lost soul.
Even if he wields boundless magic power and uses countless techniques, his essence does not change.
He is a person who has accumulated power without even knowing what he should do. He has no purpose.
Perhaps, after living through countless years, he has forgotten the purpose he wanted to achieve with that power, and becoming stronger itself has become his purpose for existing.
I really hoped Roka wouldn’t end up like that. It’s good to accumulate power, but I hope the motivation for it would be a bit more magnanimous than just protecting me alone.
“Research is originally just a means, but it has become the purpose and a ghost that dominates his life. Roka, power is just a tool. I hope you always keep that fact in mind.”
To the child with a puzzled expression, I explained it in more detail.
“It’s good to become strong. But that shouldn’t become the purpose that runs through your entire life. I’m curious if there’s something else you want to achieve with that power. Roka, what kind of person do you want to become?”
“Someone who protects you, Master.”
I patted Roka, who answered without much thought and told her to think about it carefully again.
Having just one person as your life’s purpose is truly twisted. I’m really grateful that I mean so much to her, but it shouldn’t be like that. Doesn’t that mean her life’s purpose disappears if I disappear?
“Hmm, I don’t know. Roka doesn’t know about such things.”
It’s not that you don’t know, but it seems you don’t even have any intention of thinking about it. I wish you would at least pretend to think about it.
“What kind of person do you wish for me to become, Master?”
Is it because I’m the only precious person left for this child that she follows me so blindly? If so, if we can solve the cause, wouldn’t the result naturally resolve itself as well?
“Then, would you like to become someone who can protect many more people besides me?”
So I said. The child’s eyes widened.
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“Roka. I’m always grateful that you try to protect me, but,”
Stroking that child’s head, I smiled at her.
“Sometimes, I hope you would think about protecting not just me, but many more people.”
Roka’s expression hardened. I know. It’s a difficult request.
Roka suffered hardships from people, especially from us humans. I didn’t ask for specifics about what she went through, but the fact that the child doesn’t blindly hate people is actually brave of her.
For this child, whose childhood memories were trampled by humans, asking her to become someone who saves other people is actually a difficult request.
But I hope this child doesn’t try to push away all other humans based only on her past misfortunes. I hoped she would have someone else she cherished besides me.
“I’m not necessarily asking you to include humans in your circle. It can be your own kind, or it doesn’t have to be. Someone other than me, whoever that may be...”
Once upon a time, someone told me that rather than a friend who would lay down their life for me, they wanted a friend for whom they could lay down their own life.
Whether it be a friend, lover, or family, I hoped there would be someone else besides me that this child could love that much. Because it would be too sad if I were the only person Roka let into her circle.
If I’m the only precious person left to her, causing her to cling to me and crave affection like this, I hoped there would be more people for this child to share happiness with so she wouldn’t have to do that.
I wish Roka could make friends, but I don’t know if she can find a suitable person in this place.
On the way to the North Pole, should we stop by the eastern plains where many beastmen live?
“I hope you have someone you love enough to want to protect like this, besides me.”
If there is no such person, what meaning is there in becoming stronger?
Power accumulating without purpose will only make one become a being like Grimudo.
“......”
I comforted Roka, who silently bowed her head. In the end, it is this child who must find the answer.
No one can walk one’s path for them. The idea of becoming someone who can help their neighbors is actually the path I suggested.
Who can force her to walk that path? The Lord? Or me?
No. No one can, not even the Lord.
I can only recommend it, but in the end, if her own heart doesn’t move, my words are just empty talk.
I hope this child can experience helping others and receiving gratitude, but is there a suitable opportunity?
“Excuse me. I am Albert, the imperial palace’s Chamberlain. May I come in for a moment?”
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. With my permission, a middle-aged man quietly opened the door and strode in.
Dressed in a splendid court uniform that would not be out of place on a nobleman, he introduced himself as the imperial palace’s Chamberlain and stood before me, exclaiming.
“Priest of the ancient god, Kyle, please accept His Majesty’s will. Priest. His Majesty wishes to see you in person. Please follow me.”
As a Chamberlain, he must be a nobleman with immense power, but he spoke to me in a respectful tone. Of course, it was directed more toward the one behind me than toward me.
I remain the same, and the Lord remains the same.
But just by thinking of Him as an ancient god, people’s attitudes changed.
In the past, even if I had expressed my intention to seek an audience first, there were people I could not meet. But now, people like Archbishop Armata and the prince come to me first and try to treat me like this.
Knowing that admiration was not directed at me, I did not get intoxicated by the treatment.
I know how unseemly it would be for me to get drunk on worship meant for the Lord. Rather, I had to think about what I should say to His Majesty.
If I can find the meaning of the cycle in this imperial palace, there may be no need to go all the way to the North Pole, but it doesn’t seem like it will end that easily.
It’s just my intuition, but it didn’t seem like things would be resolved so easily.
Is the Lord guiding this, or is this my destiny? Or does that person already have a firm grasp on the clues to what I want to do?
I had a feeling I would have to face that person in the North Pole at least once more. It’s just a hunch. Now that the Observatory of Celestial Dreams has disappeared, there is no evidence to support that hunch.
But if I may venture a guess, perhaps meeting that person again is in the realm of inevitability.