Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Crimson Mage Sharen
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The Empire is hell.
If you asked the people living in the Empire right now, every single one of them would say the same.
The Emperor was on his deathbed, and the imperial family ignored the common folk entirely, too busy fighting over the throne.
The lords endlessly exploited the people for their own luxury and ambitions, dragging them into wars.
Unable to endure it any longer, the people fled their hometowns.
Some became fugitives, some died to monsters, and others turned to banditry.
They were just struggling to survive, yet the people only suffered more hardship and pain.
If this wasn't hell, then what was?
"Please, spare us!! I beg you, let us live!!!"
"Please... please, just leave this child alone."
"Kehhehe! I'll think about it depending on what you do!"
Seizing the cover of a late night, this mother and daughter had fled their hometown.
They ran to escape the exploitation, hoping for a territory where they could live like humans, even if just a little.
But what awaited them wasn't watchmen or monsters—it was bandits.
"Huh...? Who the hell are you!?"
The bandit, thrilled at the prospect of some fun after ambushing the pair, suddenly whirled around at the gaze he felt from behind.
There stood a figure in a brown robe, holding a red staff.
"I don't know who you are, but if you don't wanna die, mind your own business and scram!"
The bandit drew his sword and shouted.
From within the robe that hid the face came a voice that chilled him to the bone.
"If you don't want to die, then back off yourself."
The bandit ignored the warning and charged.
What happened next was over in an instant.
Whoosh!
"Gaaahhh!!!"
Before he could even reach the brown robe, the bandit was engulfed in flames.
The blaze rose in a flash, reducing his body to dust without even leaving ashes behind.
The world fell silent once more.
"I told you to back off..."
The flame-wielding mage approached the mother and daughter.
At that moment, a gust of wind blew, lifting the brown robe to reveal an elf with strikingly beautiful short red hair fluttering in the breeze.
The little girl, entranced by the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen, forgot she'd nearly died and lost her words.
"Little one, are you alright?"
As the red elf mage drew near, the girl finally snapped out of it and replied.
She bowed her head repeatedly, just as her mother had taught her, and cried out.
"Thank you for saving us!! Mage!"
"Save your thanks for your mother. It was her desperate plea that called the spirits, allowing me to help you."
"Yes! Thank you, Mom!!"
"Really... truly, thank you so much, mage."
"No need. I only did what anyone should."
Her name was Sharen Lirisia.
A half-elf mage wandering the Empire.
The reason she roamed the Empire was to help people.
Elves, by nature, did not meddle in human affairs.
They lived in their forests or studied magic in mage towers—that was the elven way.
But she couldn't stand idly by.
She couldn't just watch as the Empire—her father's world—crumbled and people suffered.
In the end, she broke her promise to her master and plunged into the human world.
She ventured out to use her abilities as a mage to aid the people and stabilize the Empire.
But what she witnessed was humanity's endless greed.
"Um... if it's not rude to ask, where are you headed, mage?"
"Good question. Where should I go...?"
She had traveled through countless territories in the east and west.
Some welcomed her, others rejected her.
But she paid it no mind and used her magic to help the people regardless.
She healed the sick, drove off monsters, and enriched barren soil.
Naturally, the local lords and nobles would come to her after she helped the people.
She was always ready to cooperate if it was for the sake of the common folk.
But they didn't want her help for the "people"—they wanted it for themselves.
They didn't see the commoners as fellow humans; they wanted her magic solely for their own benefit.
In exchange, they offered gold and jewels, but she turned away, disappointed by their greed.
Still, she continued wandering the Empire, helping people.
She believed there must be someone out there with true goodwill, trying to change the world—and she wanted to lend them her strength.
Bards sang praises of her deeds.
Not of a wanderer aiding the people, but of the half-elf red mage.
Before long, people began calling her with respect and admiration:
The Crimson Mage Sharen.
Ten years passed like that.
To elves, ten years was but a fleeting moment.
But to humans, it was enough time to wear down one's resolve.
After a decade of witnessing human greed, she began to understand her master's words and felt like giving up on humanity.
"Um... mage... if you have nowhere to go, come with us!"
"With you?"
"Yes! We're heading south right now."
"South? What's there?"
She had only been to the east and west.
So she knew little of the south and north.
At her question, the little girl shouted excitedly.
"Bards told us. There's a paradise in the south."
"Paradise?"
Sharen didn't believe the girl.
Bards' tales were almost always exaggerated.
"They say there's an incredibly kind and great lord there. He gives lots of money to his people, accepts all the fugitives who flee to him, and... oh! He even jumped into the sea himself during a storm to save his people."
"Jumped into a storm-tossed sea?"
Sharen was a bit surprised by the girl's words.
She'd heard tales of lords fighting dragons or slaying a hundred bandits single-handedly.
But a lord diving into the ocean to save his people? That was new.
"The people there are kind too, and they all band together to fend off bandits and live peacefully. That's where we're headed!"
"Such a place exists..."
A lord protecting his people, folks uniting to create peace.
It was the world she dreamed of.
But she found it hard to believe.
She had roamed many territories based on bards' songs.
And her faith had always led to disappointment.
"If you have nowhere to go, come with us, mage!!"
Sensing her hesitation, the girl clung to her and pleaded.
Seeing those pure, innocent eyes filled Sharen with sorrow.
She too had once viewed the world with such hope.
But now she was disillusioned with everything, even hesitating to save this mother and daughter.
How had it come to this?
Why had it turned out this way?
Was her master right—was humanity's misery just the natural order?
If so, then at least...
At least she had to protect this girl, Sharen thought.
If they traveled together, the girl would come to no harm.
And if the paradise turned out to be a rumor, she could at least take them to her mage tower and save them.
"Alright... let's go together."
"Yes! Mom! The mage is coming with us!!"
The girl ran to her mother in delight.
Her mother, sensing the intent to protect them, bowed in endless gratitude.
And so, Sharen headed south—to a part of the Empire she'd never seen before.
* * *
Sharen set off on her journey with the mother and daughter.
She learned their names too.
The girl's was Layla, her mother's Aila.
Sharen protected them as they headed south.
The road was far from easy.
Bandits came every other day, and monsters like goblins and slimes attacked them.
Sharen thought that without her, they wouldn't have lasted a week—and she was glad she'd joined them.
Two weeks into the journey, she sensed something odd.
'(The spirits... they're joyful.)'
The further south they went, the more spirits brimmed with joy.
Spirits were sensitive to human emotions.
And elves could feel those spirits' emotions.
That was why she'd left so many lords behind.
No matter how lords hid their people's suffering, she felt it all through the spirits.
That's why she'd left, why she'd traveled alone.
Yet now the spirits sang joyfully, like birds at dawn.
It had been so long since she'd felt this.
"Sharen's smiling. Did something good happen?"
"The spirits are happy, so I smiled, Layla."
"The spirits? Ah! They must be happy we're here!!"
"Heehee, maybe."
Feeling the spirits' happiness after so long, Sharen began to enjoy the journey with them.
It was a novel experience.
The further south, the fewer the bandits.
The joyful spirits multiplied, and monsters stopped attacking.
And at last, they arrived at that southern place.
"Wow!! We're here, Sharen!!!"
"......"
Sharen would never forget that sight, not even in her dying moments.
On the vast plain stood countless people who had staked their lives to flee here with hope in their hearts.
Warm hands welcomed them.
Spirits flew through the blue sky, sharing in the hope and joy they felt.
It truly was paradise.
That day, one of the Novarens Empire's greatest mages—the Crimson Mage Sharen—arrived in Cron Territory.