This is the story of a magician and an elf girl.

"Miss Linnae... Mr. Jack is right. Sir John's death is definitely not your fault. Miss Linnae, you should know this very well... Sir John trusts you more than anyone else. When no one else could convince him to have a haircut, it was only you, Miss Linnae, who convinced him. I... thought that this must be something that only you could do, so I have always kept it in mind. Now that I think about it... maybe there is nothing that can be undone, but even so, I don't think these things are Miss Linnae's fault. If it weren't for Miss Linnae, Sir John would definitely not have smiled like that."

"..."

Wendy's subjective remarks helped ease the tense atmosphere, and Linnae, who had calmed down a little, tightly grasped the relic he left behind in one hand, and the elf's bow in the other.

That's right, what I had to do was decided from the beginning. I had to protect the trust between him and him, believe in the companions I trusted, and defeat Teacher Doris to see if I could bring her back to the tribe in the forest to restore the elves' proper faith.

Being passive all the time - it won't have any effect in the first place.

Go forward - fight, use your strength to build your own position for dialogue, that is what you should do now.

"You're quite good at talking... You two... have such a good relationship..."

"Ahh...but I think it's not bad to get along with you. Now let's not worry about such trivial matters."

"I still like Miss Linnae more than Mr. Jack, okay?"

"So you're a lesbian... Well... Never mind, Teacher Doris, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm still the same as before, believing only what I see and accepting the rationality built on errors for the sake of subjectivity. No matter what, I will stick to the promise I made to him."

"... How ridiculous... It's simply a fantasy to think that you can stick to any promise with such a thin bond... Listen carefully, in the near future, the world will usher in a huge change. No one will survive. All life will be reborn in a brand new form. In order to prove that the ecological environment of intelligent life forms can be justified, all life will be forced to accept trials and elimination rounds. For this reason, I must eliminate you obstacles."

Doris stated her purpose in this way without any hesitation or reluctance in her eyes, as if she was just a weapon made to achieve her goal, expressing the value of her existence and her philosophy of action.

A huge change... a brand new attitude... a proof that there is still a sentient life form... Teacher Doris... really surrendered to the devil willingly... Sister Leah... I'm sorry... If I killed her to protect my comrades... even if you forgive me... I won't forgive myself...

"The time is almost here... Don't you want it?"

"…Use…what?"

"Don't play dumb, you got it, right? The power of the magician."

"!"

Linna frowned, not quite understanding the meaning of Doris's words. She could only vaguely guess that she had misunderstood that she had learned the magic of the magician. In fact, she knew nothing about magic.

“Use it. In order to obtain that power, I must bring back your head. This is my ultimatum, Linna. If you don’t use your full strength, there will be no next time.”

"Wait... Teacher Doris, I don't quite understand what you are talking about... The power of the magician..."

"Stop pretending, your indigo irises are the evidence that betrays you."

"!?"

Eyes reflecting the light stared at the question with a confused look - but before Linnay could draw a conclusion, Doris, without mercy, had already recovered all the arrows that had just fallen to the ground with the power of the wind spirit, and added stronger spiritual power to the arrows to use a skill that had never been used before: "Quick, use it, let me see your growth and the proof - Storm."

"?!"

The torrential rain that came with the turbid tornado was like a huge disaster in this area. The three people who had no power to fight back could only let the mist do whatever it wanted and wreak havoc on this land that could no longer be called intact - if every arrow she shot could still use such a skill...

"You still don't plan to use it..."

"I don't know..."

"Use it!"

"I have no idea!"

"Stop lying! How could the magician not have given you that power?!"

"I said I don't know, and that means I don't know! The power that person gave me was only the means to use knowledge, and everything else is——"

"——Don't be ridiculous! If that's not the case! Then why are you against us! Why are you standing on Athena's side! You will get nothing in the end by teaming up with a goddess who has no intention of saving the world! Just like that magician who was used! You were just deceived!"

"!"

Linna, who knew very well that Athena was still not worthy of complete trust, was fully aware that the source of this doubt was the power of the magician.

If... that person had a similar experience in the past, then it does make sense that the goddess is not trustworthy, but the goddess has no intention of saving the world. Even if Athena is not included, the devil's actions cannot be called saving the world...

"Why...why are you so obsessed with the magician's power...he's already dead...why are you still entangled with him over these things!"

"Needless to say, of course it's because the worst person is him. If he was willing to use that power for the world, the world wouldn't have fallen to this point! The attitude that people should have should never be controlled by selfish desires!"

"Does that mean that all the people who are alive now have to be sacrificed for the sake of this world? Is this the result you, Teacher Doris, wanted?!"

"Don't you understand?! Can the attitude of the people alive now really be called living?! Blind labor, endless pain, and death will inevitably come sooner or later. Isn't it eternal happiness that people should pursue? In that case, why do we have to endure meaningless pain every day? Why do we have to engage in meaningless thinking every day? The reason why humans are called intellectual life forms is because rotten thinking shackles the body's actions. If humans can break away from this kind of thinking, go to a higher dimensional era, and break free from the shackles of desires - even if it means sacrificing all the intellectual life forms that are still alive, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? Isn't what we really desire eternal happiness, but eternal pain!"

"...Teacher Doris..."

Crazy, she couldn't say the words.

That made sense, she couldn't say that either.

She knows better than anyone whether there is something wrong with the way people live.

Prosperity cannot be eternal, and happiness cannot be eternal either. People must live with pain. No one can live without pain. If people can live like that, then no one will cherish peace and prosperity anymore.

The desire to protect something comes from having known what pain is like, and it is the empathy nurtured by emotional intelligence that motivates people to take this action.

That person once told himself that he should feel the pain and experience the pain. Only in this way can he know the meaning of pain and the value of compassion. People will thrive in this way, so pain is also called the bridge of growth.

However, things are often not as simple as described.

Human beings are emotional beings. Just dealing with the pain of life is exhausting. Once someone appears who does not fulfill his or her responsibilities, a sense of unfairness will arise in the human heart. That person also said that no matter when, people cannot tolerate this feeling, especially the more diligent people are, the more they cannot forgive lazy people.

Jealousy, blame, ambiguity, uneasiness, anxiety, people hurt each other out of ignorance, disputes arise because people cannot tolerate each other, as long as people are still tortured by pain, as long as people still live in this unreasonable world... no one will get eternal happiness.

But the man's back told me.

Letting everyone know about the pain is to make everyone more united. Only when everyone overcomes this difficulty together can the meaning of prosperity be born. For this reason, he sacrificed his life and entrusted all his ideals to the remaining people.

Whether people can create this future with their own hands depends on their own eyes.

At this point, she would never let that person's sacrifice go to waste.