Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Lineage Sapling
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Lineage Sapling.
A testament that the Lord heard my earnest plea, did not cast it aside,
and granted the wish of one who is merely an insignificant believer.
A new miraculous power had taken root within me.
It was truly something to be grateful for, but that was only from my perspective.
“So, what is this?”
Those were Roca’s words upon seeing the sapling, resembling a fresh sprout, manifesting between my hands.
She was clearly thinking, ‘Can I eat it?’
And she wasn’t wrong. To a starving person, this miracle was worth less than a single piece of bread thrust into their hands right then and there.
Eating comes first. Sleeping comes first.
Only after those needs are met can one move on to the next thing.
That’s how it is for everyone.
“Humans are born with countless things we can do, but time isn’t on our side.”
Even if we had a full century or so at best,
after subtracting the time spent eating, sleeping, and excreting, not even fifty years remain.
And few people use even those fifty years effectively. Who devotes their entire life to productive pursuits? You have to play, drink, and sometimes waste time gambling. I’m no different. Time spent playing with Roca isn’t productive.
“Even if we had enough time, we couldn’t use it properly.”
For example, there’s more than enough time to teach Roca to read.
But if I shoved a book in front of my house wolf and told her to learn, it would be an agonizingly inefficient use of time. It wouldn’t be strange if she threw the book down every thirty minutes and came begging to play.
I used Roca as an example, but it’s the same for everyone.
No human can stay focused forever. Efficiency drops when doing hated tasks, and even loved ones aren’t always approached at peak condition.
Sometimes, your desires don’t match your aptitudes.
There are things you want to do but can’t, and things you hate but excel at.
Even when doing what you’re good at, you might still want to pursue what you love.
That’s where the Lineage Sapling can help catch both rabbits.
“The Lineage Sapling is the Lord’s gift for people like us. You offer the karma of your life to the tree, and in exchange, you bring a portion of your potential development—not as potential, but as reality.”
Offer your great deeds. Dedicate your life.
Then, like a sprout on the sapling, new possibilities will bloom.
What existed only as potential will stretch out as new branches.
The Lineage Sapling will be with you.
You who would use the sapling must first receive permission.
The connections built facing the world—what we call karma—you offer them,
and in exchange, receive now what you might have gained sometime in the future.
The Lineage Sapling was a wondrously powerful authority. I could instantly understand why the Tree Angel had warned me not to abuse it.
“...?”
“Explaining it in a hundred words would take longer than just trying it once. Roca, put your hand on this tree.”
“Like this?”
Roca placed her hand on the sapling without hesitation.
In that instant, the two of us were in that familiar place without sky or earth. There, only possibilities stretched out, so numerous and dense they hurt the eyes, filling the space before us.
Like drawing a tree. Starting from a single line, countless lines branch out in all directions. I knew instinctively. That single line represented Roca’s present and past. The unchangeable past, already chosen, formed the horizontal trunk of the tree.
‘All those branches are futures Roca can choose.’
No one can have all their branches.
No one has the effort or time for that.
Had the Lord not blessed us, it would have been so. Now it was different.
“Roca. You can dedicate your life to the Lord and bring a corresponding future into the present.”
“I don’t get it, but I kind of do. It’s like my heart is telling me.”
Roca murmured as if entranced.
“It feels like something I’ve known since birth... It’s amazing. There’s no way I’d know how to use something like this.”
Among them, my gaze went to the future where Roca had learned to read.
Something she could master with about three months of focus—more than enough.
Since it was such a minor thing, the karma required was small. Roca’s life had been full of twists and turns, accumulating plenty of karma.
‘Who isn’t living a hard life?’
That was why I had no choice but to worry.
‘Everyone lives hard, everyone struggles. The harder the life, the more karma they carry.’
The Lineage Sapling was an overwhelmingly powerful miracle.
What I had prayed for was the simple matter of Roca learning to read,
not this authority that mocks effort and delivers only results. Yet the Lord had given me this miracle. Surely, He deemed such a powerful one necessary for me.
‘If that karma could convert to power, or knowledge... No. The Lord gave me this miracle for a reason. He sees more than I do.’
“Master.”
“Hm?”
Hop. Roca jumped up and climbed onto my back.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear.
“Please pick for me, Master. I don’t know what to do.”
“Roca. Roca. This is your sapling. How you grow this tree is up to you.”
I had hoped she’d choose learning to read,
but whatever she picked, I would respect her will.
This was her future, not mine,
and people have the right to decide their own futures.
Roca wasn’t my slave or servant—just one person.
A human with the same standing as me.
I could only support this child’s life. What right did I have to force it?
“Then, Master, I want that one.”
Roca pointed to a single branch.
“That one... it feels like it’s calling me. Just thinking about it makes my tail quiver, and I hear whispers. I want that one.”
“Let’s see, that’s...”
A choice that would consume all the karma Roca currently held.
That branch was a future where Roca had cultivated solar mana for about thirty years.
‘Solar...?’
Was there such a thing as solar-attribute mana? I don’t handle mana, so I wouldn’t know.
In any case, that branch was a potential future where she painstakingly acquired the solar attribute she didn’t currently possess. A fragment. It sounded simple, but the details were more complex.
‘No. It’s not just a branch for acquiring solar mana.’
It was a fragment of a future where, through long training and special efforts, her existing lunar mana and the solar mana harmonized without clashing.
People born with attribute mana are rare, but who knew Roca was one.
She’d never used mana in front of me, so I hadn’t known.
“This branch?”
“Yes.”
I gazed steadily at Roca, and she nodded.
Her will was firm. She wanted to go all-in on that one branch with the karma she’d gathered through her harsh life.
“Roca. May it be as you wish.”
But this was the child’s choice.
I approved it. The hazy potential branch shone brightly, connecting to the trunk. In that moment, Roca’s body shuddered. She felt as warm as sunlight.
Her temperature was so hot it was slightly scorching, so I had to set her down.
“Master, I...”
One eye held the icy lunar mana,
the other, the blazing solar mana.
The energies of sun and moon orbited without clashing, as if handled for decades.
The Lineage Sapling had done its job perfectly.
“It feels... incredibly strong. Like I’ve gotten amazingly powerful.”
“Is that so?”
Truth be told, I’d used the Lineage Sapling hoping she’d just learn to read, not get super strong.
Well, if she’s happy with it, that’s fine.
“...Master, I’ll protect you.”
“Reliable, Roca. Thanks to you, I don’t have to worry.”
Look at her grinning like that. How could she be so happy?
I hugged Roca, and she hugged me back. When I stroked her head, she smiled like she owned the world. What is this adorable creature? She’s so delighted it’s almost embarrassing.
‘My Lord receives faith only from me and grants such powers.’
As I petted Roca, a sudden curiosity struck me.
‘Just how much power can the priests of the Three Gods, believed by half the continent, wield?’
I was certain it was something truly fearsome.
They could probably perform miracles that easily surpassed the Reviving Spring, Sanctuary Candles, or Lineage Sapling—ones that would genuinely astonish the world.
Arael, the saintess who joined Yurinel’s party in my place.
How incredible must her powers be?
Perhaps she communes freely with her god, receiving divine protection whenever needed to overcome crises. Nothing like a wretch like me.
‘Everyone has their own path. Me, and them.’
Even recalling the day I was kicked from the party now felt merely calm,
because the Lord still stood behind me, watching over me.
The memories with them no longer felt nostalgic,
because Roca was by my side, vowing to protect me.
The flowed-away past no longer mattered to me.
Only this time I lived in now and the future mattered.
*****
Something made merely by brushing fingertips.
Yet it encompasses all things in this world.
What all creatures, humans included, let slip without knowing its value.
Connections (??) are the most difficult and arduous concept, incomprehensible even to angels.
The universe has no within or without—only beyond.
The Lineage Tree (phylogenetic tree), rooted beyond the world, trembled its branches. Its branches continued growing even now.
Twitch.
An eye in the center of that tree blinked open, gazing at the cosmos.
— Apostle. Never abuse that miracle.
Among connections, those rooted in one person, fully belonging to them.
What is called karma (?). It is the most usable form of connection.
The being Kyle calls the Tree Angel couldn’t use connections but could use karma. Accepting a person’s karma as payment, it could summon future possibilities through it.
To be honest, it was an enormous loss. Even the Tree Angel couldn’t properly handle karma. He was an angel, not a god.
But the Lord compensated for that power, so he didn’t complain.
—That power shouldn’t exist in your world to begin with.
All of Kyle’s miracles were like that. As a human living in the human world, they couldn’t exert full power.
Only when he transcends humanity, accepts his destiny as apostle, comes to the Lord’s side, and stands alongside the angels—only then will all his miracles surpass their limits and become truly great.
When that time comes, he will use the Lineage Sapling on his own, without the Tree Angel’s help.
Ascension is prepared for that,
and it is merely a matter of timing.
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