Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: The Boy's True Heart
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“Help us?”
“A human brat?”
“You’re gonna help us?”
Seeing the beastkin warriors murmuring suspiciously, I could tell my turn had finally come.
“We’re not here to fight. And we’re not here to insult Griffion, either. I just came to tell you that we can open the barrier gate peacefully.”
Open the barrier peacefully...?
Just as the beastkin’s eyes were widening in shock, someone burst into loud laughter. It was the one-eyed polar bear, Opus.
“I knew it. You got properly duped, Barlzen. You’ve been holed up in the depths, so you must not have run into many wolves.”
“What?”
“Don’t you get it? They’re just using us! They want protection all the way to the barrier! You think kids who aren’t even adults yet would seriously think like that?”
“I mean it! I really─!”
“─Don’t play dumb! You think we don’t know your wicked nature? Every warrior here knows it!”
“It’s true!”
“My three sons, all fine warriors who’d fought the abyss, believed words like yours and got killed by humans.”
“Huh?”
“The youngest even saved a dying wolf and escorted it back to the barrier, only for that bastard to stab him in the back for his own glory!”
No sooner had he finished than murmurs of agreement rose from all around.
“My husband died to a human, too...”
“My daughter wasn’t even a warrior...”
“I was born without a father. They said he got tricked by a wolf...”
The tangled, hopeless reality closed in from all sides, suffocating me.
How? What do you say in a situation like this? To that hatred rooted deep in their hearts, their souls...
Tell me, Rista. What do you do in a time like this, in a situation like this?
“...Rain! Rain! Why are you just standing there quietly? Say something...!”
Kasena grabbed me, sensing something was off, and shouted something, but my ears were muffled like I was underwater.
“...Just be honest. Say you lied to survive...”
“...”
“...Then, for the honor of the Durankus tribe and Lady Alakishi’s devotion, we’ll let you go this once...”
Is there really no way? Does centuries of enmity have no solution?
No, there might be a way, but maybe someone like me just isn’t enough for it.
In that case, maybe I should just cross the barrier and find a solution on the other side... That was when it happened.
“Why?”
A voice strangely dignified emerged from the midst of the beastkin warriors.
Parting the ranks with the respectful yielding of every warrior, the one who stepped forward was the tallest and most sharply graceful beastkin warrior Rain had ever seen.
He had the head of a pure white eagle, and from his raptor's piercing eyes emanated the majesty of a warrior who had survived brutal years.
“Griffion?!”
Opus turned toward him and cried out in surprise, snapping me back to my senses.
This is Griffion?
The warrior of warriors, chieftain of chieftains, the great chieftain who united all the tribes in this city?
Griffion ignored Opus’s shout and simply strode straight forward to face Rain.
“Answer me. You say you came here to help us. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? No need to ask. He’s just mixing lies to survive.”
“I’m asking this human boy.”
Griffion cut him off sharply and firmly, and Opus clamped his mouth shut immediately. Not just Opus—all the warriors did.
At the same time, I felt every gaze heavy and chaotic, focused on me and Griffion.
“And you too, Barlzen. It’s not Lady Alakishi, either. Now, answer.”
Calm down. Stay composed.
Whatever his intentions, Griffion was clearly giving me a chance to talk. There was no guarantee his goodwill would last, so what I said now was crucial.
But how on earth should I phrase it? There was no clear solution like in math anywhere in the world.
“So, um, I heard about Lady Enuel from Chieftain Beduel...”
I could have laid out practical points.
The spider lord’s seal is breaking, and a power to control the old ones has awakened. So humanity and beastkin must unite again.
If we try to force the barrier down with a siege, we’ll all get devoured by that power.
“I could tell how you beastkin have been fighting on this land all this time...”
But why?
Even as I weighed all those rational options in my head, my mouth ran away on its own.
Expressing true feelings from the heart is harder than anything, so how?
“And after all that, if it ends with the barrier falling... becoming the world’s enemy... remembered that way by everyone...”
As I’d said before, this might be rude meddling born of empathy for Enuel and the beastkin.
No one expected it, but suppose I came back to find my hero party comrades recorded as the world’s enemies. How would I feel?
My comrades lived their best for the day they’d return, recorded as the greatest, and returned to dust. The beastkin deserved that joy, too.
“That’s just too sad...”
Was it shame from speaking my true heart, or sorrow from thinking of my hero party comrades’ devoted wait?
My blurring vision couldn’t meet anyone’s face, so I bowed my head.
But I had to finish, even with my trembling voice. This chance wouldn’t come again.
“So I just... really just thought I wanted to help you all. You might think it’s presumptuous... but that’s why...”
A heavy silence danced through the arctic sea wind, overwhelming the area.
Every beastkin warrior doubted their ears at the human boy’s words, and their eyes at the tears glistening in his.
The boy’s short but profound sincerity quietly and clearly melted the frozen regret in their hearts and set it resounding.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Kasena crossed her arms contentedly and nodded with Pipi, while a soft smile formed on Alakishi’s lips as she looked at Rain in surprise.
‘It wasn’t because of Lord Karenden’s fragment after all.’
Not because of the black sheep Lin. That child faintly carries the gods’ scent. Just like Lord Tersia or Karenden, whom I briefly met in my youth.
- Wow, Bell! These are really your kids? How can they be this cute?
At that moment, Barlzen approached Rain, hugged his shoulders tightly, and cried out in a voice thick with tears.
“You heard him? This guy’s a friend of us Durankus—no, of me, Barlzen! Anyone who insults him again won’t get away from me, Barlzen!”
There had been plenty of humans who listened to beastkin stories pretentiously and then exploited them.
Countless humans had pretended to acknowledge beastkin only to stab them in the back.
But no human had ever listened to their stories, shed tears for them, and truly cared for their honor.
“Hah, don’t make me laugh! You think we’ll believe you humans just like that? They’ll ditch us the second they reach the barrier! Betray us and slip inside!”
Opus shouted, but his voice lacked its former sharpness, and no one echoed him.
“Human boy, I want to know the name your father gave you.”
Griffion raised a hand to silence Opus, then asked. When I gave my name, he placed his hand on my head.
“Rain Ludwig, son of Kevn. I, Griffion, son of Ralqun, will trust you.”
Every warrior looked at Griffion in shock.
Rain was the same; he’d never imagined it would go this smoothly.
He’d thought he needed to persuade with rational, realistic plans, and that he’d messed up.
“Funny, isn’t it? We’ve been tricked by humans so much that now we can tell truth from lies when a human speaks.”
Suddenly, he gave a wistful, bitter smile and said that.
“So, what do you plan to do? What do you want me to do?”
“Please wait just a little. I’ll go to the barrier and talk to the White Wolf Corps. I’ll make them open it peacefully.”
“Is that really possible?”
“I might not be able to, but Kasena here can! She’s a direct descendant of Emita Page, so her influence is huge.”
As I urgently pointed at Kasena with both hands like I was offering her up, the beastkin stared at her and began murmuring blankly.
“A direct descendant of Emita?”
“That girl?”
“No, kinda rings a bell. That hair color... it matches the old tales.”
Kasena seemed a bit flustered by the attention but soon cleared her throat with feigned dignity and nodded vigorously.
“Yeah, wait till I get back from the barrier! Rain and I will sort it all out!”
The warriors split down the middle, buzzing at the proposal.
Wait? In this land growing ever colder? Can these kids really open the gate?
Even Griffion’s aides debated the feasibility, swallowing dryly.
How much time passed like that? Finally, Griffion raised his hand high, silencing the warriors and drawing all eyes to him.
“Brothers, shouldn’t we respond in kind to the sincerity these children have shown us? I believe it will be an honorable matter for our warrior band as well.”
“...!”
“Rain Ludwig, and Kasena Page. We’ll give you ten days, allotting four for the trip to the barrier. We’ll wait here that long and won’t advance until then.”
Kasena and Barlzen looked at each other with ecstatic grins. An indescribable thrill heated my eyes.
Did it really get through?
Did they really understand?
The words I wanted to say, the true feelings I held from Enuel’s story... That’s why, I was deeply bowing to Griffion.
“Thank you. Thank you. I won’t let you down.”
* * *
If being a good educator meant skillfully wielding carrot and stick, Lin would probably score zero as one.
His magic lessons for Tureina consisted solely of scoldings and rebukes, without a single word of praise. All stick, no carrot.
Lin was aware of his flaw and racked his brains over it.
How could he? He just couldn’t bring himself to say “good job” for something well done. Even trying made his tongue feel prickled with thorns, like it was embarrassing beyond words.
- You think this is done? It’s barely anything.
- I was doing this after just a month of learning magic.
- You can’t even do this? I could teach a random grandma in a week and she’d nail it.
That’s why his special brand of sarcasm came out even harsher then. Tureina would tear up but study even harder.
“I wondered why you’ve been sulking lately, and it was just that?”
So (though he really didn’t want to), he asked Rista for a solution. He truly didn’t know what else to do.
“Just that? To me, it doesn’t get harder than this.”
She snapped back curtly, and Fride, lounging with legs crossed and puffing her pipe, chuckled.
“What’s so hard? You’re already doing great.”
“No, that’s why I came to you—because I’m bad at it.”
Rista, her hair tied up high to bare her long, pale neck, was honing the ultra-radiant sword Shyrfang on a whetstone. She laughed brightly.
“She’s right, Fride is.”
“Stop joking.”
“I’m not. The fact that you came to us with this problem means you’re already treating people sincerely enough.”
What was that supposed to mean? As he tilted his head, Fride tapped his crown with her pipe.
“Just be yourself! If you suddenly started showering praise, she’d think you were possessed by a demon and get scared. Ugh, just imagining it’s horrifying. The kid’d run away.”
That made sense, and Lin nodded in agreement. Fride laughed, “Ahaha.”
“No one’s good at everything from the start. Just keep at it, little by little, slowly.”
Fride was always a bit psycho, but sometimes she’d say things like this, serious and kind.
“Someday, you’ll get good at conveying your true feelings.”
As if agreeing, Kies—who’d snuck up behind—placed a hand on Lin’s head and grinned.
“What are you all saying? I never said I wanted to share my true feelings! I just said teaching the kid is tough...”
“Aww, he’s dodging ‘cause he’s embarrassed. So cute. Kies, grab him tight. Time for some tickles—it’s been ages.”
“Ah, no! Let go, Kies!”
Moments from my memories, shining more beautifully than any time in life.
And at the end of these memories, there was always the echo of Rista’s radiant smile, like a flower blooming.
“It’s fine, Lin. Since you don’t usually show your true self, we’ll know right away when you’re being sincere.”
“...Really?”
“Yeah. Just like how we know you’re kinder than anyone deep down.”