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

The sound of birds chirping entered my cochlea, and my hands, which were not controlled by my consciousness, felt the touch of electric currents running through my body. The unfamiliar movements made my body forget the stimulation from the outside world for a moment. Even breathing felt difficult in my chest, and just opening my eyes made me feel tired.

Where is this place? As I was thinking and spelling out this word, time in the outside world continued to pass, morning turned into afternoon, afternoon turned into evening...

"Cough...cough..."

He raised his upper body out of weary exhaustion, and saw a wall made of logs and vines. The air was filled with the smell of medicine and plants. The hot temperature still made people feel extremely uncomfortable, but the clothes he was wearing seemed to be woven from plant fibers with good ventilation, and sweat stains were not so easy to get on and make people uncomfortable.

Where is this place? I seemed to have come up with the same question just now.

“…Is there…anyone…?”

No response - of course.

It was difficult for my body to move even though I had already exerted all my strength just to lift my feet and put them on the ground. I wondered how long I had slept to end up in this state.

Regardless of this question, my eyes quickly searched for support, and soon fell on a peeled wooden stick. I didn't know what it was used for, but it was placed right next to the bed. From the knife marks on it, I could tell that it was specially placed here for patients to use, and the end was well equipped with a support point made of non-slip material.

"Hmm..." He started to exert force with his hands and feet to support his body. He took a step with all his strength and moved bit by bit. He felt that his feet were not exerting any force but were just dragging on the floor. If he hadn't had the crutches, he would have fallen down long ago. However, just when he wanted to reach the door, the structure of the wall on the road provided a handrail to support his body, so that he could walk to the door of the room even with crutches.

"Woo..." Even if I don't know who made these auxiliary supplies, I can only keep going to find out. My mind is unable to think about the complicated things one by one. It is already difficult enough to take care of this body that may fall if I am not careful. What I should concentrate on now is how to get out of the room.

"Hmm..." He finally reached the door, stretched out his hand, pushed the door handle, and the door panel with vines as hinges turned outward. Generally speaking, indoor doors should open inwards... His thoughts on this unimportant matter were suddenly interrupted, and the scenery before his eyes shocked his mind.

"……This is……"

"Hello, ma'am, have you eaten yet?"

"I just ate, hahaha, the weather is really nice today."

The demi-humans walking on the road and greeting each other lived here as if they each had their own wooden house. Some were collecting clothes, some were exchanging food, some were jumping and running on the road, some were laughing, and some were looking at themselves with strange eyes.

It's very similar. The human continent once had the same scenery. It makes me nostalgic.

But that place has been destroyed.

Because of the intellectual pioneer's negligence, he was unable to save the future of that country.

Even if the battle is won, it does not mean that society can be saved. This is the kind of world we live in.

Now that things have come to this... after rebuilding this place... he won't have any more emotional ups and downs in his heart.

"..."

Not knowing where I should go, my body moved to the left out of inertia. The big tree that came into view became my next target. Not knowing why I wanted to do that, my body dragged itself step by step. As I moved, the glances from the road became more and more frequent. However, they were not looks of discrimination, nor were they looks of viewing a foreign object, nor were they looks of disgust - instead, they looked more like looks of keeping a distance.

“…Hey…that’s…”

“…Ah…that is…”

"...No way...Why did it suddenly..."

“…This is the first time I’ve seen it…”

The warmth of the earth came from the soles of his bare feet. Knowing nothing about this place, he had no idea how to move his body except to move forward. But what he knew was that he seemed to be looking for something.

Find it, where it is. Where it is, find it quickly.

Is it here? Or is it there?

Want to see. Want to see.

In the end...

"Not this way, that way."

"..."

At this moment, a girl holding her sister's hand and walking pointed in the direction of the tree and said so. Although I don't know what her intention is, the aunt on the side of the road also pointed in that direction, and then the young ladies standing next to the aunt also pointed there - right over there...

"……Um……"

"Well, bye!" After saying goodbye to the young sisters, he continued to move forward and felt that his body was much more mobile than before. Even if the crutches did not fully support his body, he could continue to take steps with his feet. As long as he took one step after another, with the previous step being more powerful than the previous one, he could just walk over there, walk over there, move forward, and keep moving forward.

"come on……"

"……come on……"

"Come on..."

"……Um……"

Don't panic - take one step at a time, it's almost there, it's almost there, don't be anxious...

"Well……"

"what……"

The body that was about to fall was saved by the crutch in his hand. The movements that were worrying just to watch became sluggish again, and the heavy ankles seemed to be tied with iron balls and could not move as they dragged on the ground.

But the big tree in front of me was less than ten meters away. The smell of the plants rushed into my nose, and the sound of people talking gradually rushed into my cochlea. In my gradually clear vision, I saw a figure in a black cloak. He was not tall but he was wearing men's clothes. There was probably only one person in the world who would do that, and that was - the one I was looking for.

"No, no, you didn't use any strength in your wings. You could have flown if you wanted to, but you were too timid. Are you still a birdman?"

"Ugh...but high places are scary..."

"So how high did you climb today? You didn't even reach the branch with the red ribbon tied to it. Do you know how far it is from the ground? Only four meters, no, less than three meters. Even a child can climb up if he jumps! I climbed to the top of the tree when I was eight years old."

The birdman girl looked at the tree helplessly. She had some ideas in her mind, but even so, she couldn't overcome her fear of heights and the sense of distance when looking down: "Terrible things are really terrible!!"

"Don't hide! Are the subhumans so timid? Do you know your own value? If you could fly, this tribe would definitely be better protected!"

"But I just can't do it... Please, Ms. Linna! Let me go! I really can't fly!"

"What bird would say it can't fly? Wendy, that's the thing you can't do. You can't say you can't do something you haven't done yet! How would you know if you don't try?"

When he was less than five meters away from the figure, the birdman girl who had spotted him rubbed her eyes and immediately began to shout in panic: "Uh...uh...uh...ah...ah...ah...ah!!! Miss Lin...Lin Nana!! Back...back...back...back...back...back...back!!!"

"Ah? Come on, don't try to divert my attention. This kind of trick can only work on children..."

"Elf... stretch out your hand."

"!"

"Snap." He pulled the cloak open from behind the shadow and startled the other party. The elf girl was unable to react for a moment and was a beat slower before she turned around and grabbed the owner of the hand. The person in front of her eyes came into view.

He had dark hair and sharp eyes that were a little scary, but his facial expression was gratified. He looked at the girl's expression and said, "...That's...my cloak...Why are you wearing it..."

"Am I... am I... dreaming... This... this can't be real... It's happened so many times... This time must be..."

"Silly girl...are you awake? It's been a while since we last met...you seem to have grown up...am I so old now that you can't tell who I am...Linna?"

"Brother...Brother..."

A tingling sensation in her nose ran through the tip of her nose, and tears welled up in her sky-blue eyes and swept across the girl's unbelieving face. She immediately threw Wendy aside and hugged John's upper body tightly. She was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes and she couldn't stop crying. She was so pitiful that she didn't look like the imposing leader just now. John, who also shed tears, felt very relieved to be hugged by her again. He felt that everything he sacrificed was like he had paid for this moment, and he had got the reward he deserved.

“Wu…wuwu…idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot! Didn’t I tell you not to do anything rash…why didn’t you listen…do you know how worried I was?! I really thought there was no way out…”

"I'm sorry...but...I really...don't want to lose you again...so..."

"Fool, fool, fool... my brother is such a big fool..."

Linnay, who wanted to beat him, saw that John had difficulty even standing, so she put away her fists and hugged him tightly again. She couldn't hit him even if she wanted to hit him, and she couldn't love him even if she wanted to love him.

Why is he so impossible to hate and yet so annoying?

"I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... But why... I was really beyond help at that time..."

"Is this more important than now? If you have this awareness, why are you so reckless! Big liar, big liar, big liar! Brother, you big liar! I will never make an appointment with you again! You are not allowed to leave without permission, understand!"

John, who had to admit that he always broke the agreement, looked ashamed and grimaced, but Linnae, who was hugging him tightly, didn't know how long it had been since she saw him open his eyes. Since then, she has been alone, leading the demihumans to create this destination for the living, wanting him to see that this world is not full of despair, but that this world can still have hope and peace.

"I don't know how you see me... but if you really care about me, then stop doing that! Pay more attention to yourself! Take better care of yourself! Care about yourself more! Why don't you understand... I only care about you..."

“…Linna…”

Linnai lowered her head and pushed him away, wiping the tears from her face with her hands. John understood that she cared about each other just like him. If he were her, he would also be very angry, sad and helpless. This is what it feels like to be protected by someone. The more he wants to protect her, the more he makes her suffer.

As the saying goes, those who don't know how to love themselves are not qualified to love others. Now he finally understands that this truth is true.

"You are no longer alone... You have people around you. They don't want you to get hurt, suffer, or be troubled. You may feel that everything you bear is what you deserve... But - that's enough. Don't do that anymore. Rely on others more, rest more, and let them protect you. Brother, you can no longer... fight..."

"..."

She was right—she could no longer fight, the power of the Demon Eye had disappeared, her magic veins had returned to their damaged state, even worse than before, her physical ability was probably worse than that of a little girl, and she had lost all power to change the world.

But this was his own choice, so John has no regrets.

I knew it a long time ago, so I did that.

To transform this dark power into light that can save the light, it is enough to be able to do this.

"Can you let me bear these sins with you... Can you let me accompany you for a while... If I am the only one who survives all this... then what's the point?"

"...I...am...really...sorry..."

“… idiot… you only know how to apologize after doing something wrong… why – you are so honest in front of others… be more casual… get to know them a little more… be more familiar with them… understand them a little more… you have enough ability to deceive others… but it does not mean you have the ability to deceive yourself – your heart will hurt, you have killed too many… too many people… you clearly loved people so much in the past… now doing that will only hurt yourself, won’t it…”

"..."

No, he wanted to say that, but couldn't.

He hates human beings because he understands human nature too well and has a huge hatred for them. He will not easily forgive others, nor the unfairness of the order and laws of this world.

“You can not care about other people’s lives… You can not care about your own life… That’s because you feel that you are no longer important… That’s why you give up on yourself and don’t care about anything else, not caring about how many people you kill… Forget all the pain, and give up your past feelings - I will change you into a brother like this. I will teach you how to fall in love with people again and create a home that truly belongs to you, so…”

The elf girl reached out her hand to the magician, looked at him sincerely with tearful eyes and said: "I believe in you...so do you believe in me too..."

"...Ahh... Of course... I believe it... Thank you... Linna..."

No matter how many lives he had sacrificed in the past, he had already decided to give everything for the life of that girl. Even if this result was extremely unfair to other living people, it didn't matter anymore, because he had lost the right to redeem himself. Only by believing in the present, believing in her, and believing in himself, could he create the future.

However, loving someone means sacrificing your feelings for other people, and this is an indisputable fact.

People always sacrifice everything that has nothing to do with them in order to protect everything they cherish. This practice is like the order established by the law, which is irreversible and cannot be changed. Only by making a choice can we complete this problem and get the answer.

Faced with the Phoenix attack several years later, the magician regained the power of magic through the spiritual power given by the tree spirit. His fragmented body was damaged because of the magic veins, and his organs and lifespan reached the limit. The intellectual pioneer died in that battle and was defeated by the immortal phoenix that he had severely damaged.

Before his death, he had already made up his mind to protect her, whom he cherished.

But...if...if one day...you cannot become the light that I believe in...or if humanity still has to rely on my power to change the situation...then - I will cast a light of change for the future of the world.

The magician, whose silhouette was covered by the strong light, quietly closed his indigo eyes. The dazed light gradually disappeared in the past that could not be inherited, and turned into a disaster in the near future. That was the beginning of another story.