Perhaps because their conversation had taken too much time, by the time Riezel and Aesc walked into the depths of the forest, night had already begun to fall.
"Right."
Riezel suddenly remembered something and activated magic.
"Create Greater Item."
As the magic was cast successfully, a black cloak appeared on Riezel’s body.
Riezel pulled up the hood of the black cloak, half-covering his face, which drew Aesc’s curiosity.
"Is that... really magecraft?"
Aesc seemed a little amazed.
"It is magecraft." Riezel did not explain much and spoke simply. "Didn’t you secretly watch the battle between me and that Calamity? There’s nothing to be surprised about, right?"
Indeed, the fierce battle with the Calamity of Norwich had lasted for two hours, and during that time, Riezel had kept using magic.
Given that Aesc had been watching from the sidelines, she should have already seen Riezel using magic.
"Yes, but seeing someone else use magecraft still feels pretty surprising."
Aesc replied while smiling awkwardly.
"You see, fairies in Britain don’t really think much of magecraft. In their eyes, it’s just something unnecessary. Moreover, the magecraft I use is either something I researched and developed myself, or something I learned from Grimr, so this is actually my first time seeing someone besides me and Grimr use magecraft."
"Were there a lot of people using magecraft in your era?"
Considering this kind of information about the future was not especially important, and knowing it likely would not affect the future, Aesc could not hold back her curiosity and asked directly.
"No."
Riezel calmly shook his head.
"Even more than two thousand years later in Britain, as far as I know, there are only a few people who can use magecraft."
"First is Queen Morgan."
"Second is Morgan’s adopted daughter."
"And finally, Artoria, who, like you, is called a savior and a Fairy of Paradise."
"Not counting myself, in the future, only those few people in Britain will be using magecraft."
Aesc paused in surprise upon hearing the information Riezel revealed.
"Morgan’s adopted daughter?"
Aesc seemed to care about that detail.
"Yeah, though she has already been killed by me."
Aesc’s steps faltered for a moment upon hearing this, but she quickly regained her composure.
"A Fairy of Paradise, a savior like me... Artoria...?"
Her attention shifted as Aesc muttered quietly to herself, seeming lost in thought, as if distracted.
*Pa!*
Suddenly, Riezel reached out and grabbed Aesc.
"Wh-What?!"
Aesc immediately tensed up, instinctively raising the staff in her hand.
It was a staff very similar to the Staff of Selection, but it was not the Staff of Selection, nor was it the legendary spear wielded by Aesc the Savior.
Riezel could sense a magical energy from this staff similar to the one Morgan used with her black staff-like spear, and figured this staff’s power would not be much weaker than Artoria’s Staff of Selection.
As a result, Riezel glanced at the staff a couple more times before speaking.
"What are you thinking about? You’re about to walk right into a tree."
After Riezel said this, Aesc finally noticed that a tree had appeared in front of her at some point.
If Riezel had not grabbed her, Aesc probably would have walked straight into it.
Once she realized this, Aesc silently turned her gaze to her hand—the hand that was currently being held by Riezel.
For Aesc, this was actually a bit too intimate.
"Sorry..."
Riezel noticed Aesc’s gaze and let go of her hand.
"...I should be the one apologizing." Aesc gave a wry smile. "If you hadn’t grabbed me, I would’ve made a fool of myself."
"Hmm, I really would’ve liked to see that." Riezel looked at Aesc and smiled lightly. "Seeing you make a fool of yourself is probably something I’d only get to see once in my life."
"...You’re giving me too much credit." Aesc pursed her lips. "I’m always making a fool of myself, like a clown. I’ve been a joke here in Britain for a very, very long time."
As soon as these words fell, the atmosphere suddenly grew a bit heavy.
"Let’s keep moving."
Riezel did not try to break the somber mood and simply spoke.
"Mm..."
Aesc turned and continued leading the way up ahead.
However, she did not stay silent.
"I remember you said you were a companion of the savior from your era, right?" Aesc asked, seemingly for her own reasons. "What kind of fairy was she?"
"Her?" Riezel thought of Artoria, and his expression unconsciously softened a little. "She was someone who could see everything clearly, taking in everyone’s outward appearance and inner thoughts at a glance, yet she had no idea how to deal with it. How to say it... she could only blindly drift along with the current—a complete fool."
Aesc did not seem surprised by Riezel’s words, as if she understood what he meant by seeing everything clearly.
Just like Artoria, she was also a Fairy of Paradise, so both of them possessed the Fairy Eyes that could see through lies.
Therefore, the meaning Riezel wanted to express, as well as Artoria’s perspective, should have been clear to Aesc.
Riezel then continued.
"She wasn’t just a fool—she was someone who, even knowing she would never be rewarded, and might even be blamed or mistreated by those involved, still couldn’t help but rush forward when she saw someone in trouble. A complete big fool."
"In my own opinion, someone like her really shouldn’t have appeared in the Fairy Kingdom, or Britain at all."
"If she had been alone, she definitely wouldn’t have survived in Britain."
"Well, because of some fate from the very beginning, we started traveling together."
In front of Aesc, Riezel said things he had never spoken to Artoria before.
"From the very beginning, she had known she was a Fairy of Paradise, with a mission to save Britain and save the fairies." Riezel’s expression suddenly grew a little colder. "But honestly, that so-called mission is nothing but a joke in my eyes."
"...Why do you say that?"
Aesc could not help but ask skeptically.
"As long as it’s a fairy, from the moment they’re born, they have a clear purpose, which is the meaning of a fairy’s existence, and also a fairy’s mission."
"Once that’s lost, a fairy becomes something dull and unneeded by this world."
"Let alone a Fairy of Paradise’s mission like saving Britain, saving the fairies... isn’t that a great thing?"
Aesc’s question, rather than being spoken for Riezel’s sake, seemed more like she was talking to herself.
In response, Riezel, for once, showed a rare trace of disdain.
"In my view, focusing on things instead of people is itself a kind of inhuman behavior."
"Maybe the law needs that kind of behavior, maybe a country needs it, maybe the world needs it too, but if a person only does that and treats it as their so-called mission, then at its core, it will inevitably become twisted."
"That’s why I’ve always asked her one question."
"Are fairies really worth saving?"
Upon hearing this, Aesc answered Riezel’s question without hesitation.
"Of course, fairies need to be saved." Aesc answered firmly. "If you protect the fairies, you can protect Britain."
Needless to say, this had always been her belief.
In truth, the reason she kept trying to save the world, the reason she kept fighting against the threat of the Calamity, was all to protect Britain.
And if she wanted to protect Britain, then she had to protect the fairies.
In the past, Aesc had come to this conclusion, and so she began her pilgrimage—her journey of salvation.
Unfortunately...
"You said it yourself—they only need to be saved, not that they’re worth saving."
Riezel looked at Aesc and spoke bluntly.
"For you, saving fairies is only a means and a process needed to save Britain."
"You only save the fairies for Britain’s sake."
"If not for Britain, you yourself wouldn’t think fairies are worth saving, right?"
Aesc was at a loss for words.
Looking at her like this, Riezel could not help but recall the entire life of Aesc the Savior.
Her life, in the eyes of others, could be called legendary, but to Riezel, it could only be described by another word, and that was ’tragic.’
At the beginning, Aesc and Artoria were the same—both of them drifted over the sea to Faerie Britain and were adopted by Britain’s fairies.
Back then, Aesc wasn’t called Aesc yet—her name was Viviane.
In the year 4000 of the Fairy Calendar, the Inner Sea of the Planet sent Viviane to Britain, letting her drift to Orkney, in the north of Britain.
At that time, the six great fairy clans of Faerie Britain were Wind, Earth, Fang, Wing, Mirror, and Rain.
Because Orkney in the north was the domain of the Rain Clan, the fairies of the Rain Clan discovered Viviane and, unlike Artoria, raised her with deep love, letting her grow up in an environment full of warmth and happiness.
Compared to Artoria, Viviane was far more fortunate in those days—at the very least, the fairies who adopted her never abused her, nor did anyone try to sell her.
As a result, growing up in that kind of environment, Viviane’s dream was not to fulfill the Fairy of Paradise’s mission, but to create a fairy-tale kingdom where anyone could live in peace.
However, the fairies of Britain harbored an instinctive hatred for the Fairy of Paradise.
It was hatred from the very beginning.
A grudge that originated before Britain even appeared.
Because of this hatred, the Rain Clan’s act of hiding the Fairy of Paradise angered the heads of the other clans, and in the end, the Wind, Earth, Fang, and Wing Clans joined forces to attack Orkney.
In the end, the Rain Clan was wiped out overnight, and Viviane was forced to flee from the homeland where she had grown up since childhood.
From then on, Viviane’s world changed.
It became full of malice.
It became full of misfortune.
Even though she had always worked to eliminate the threat brought by the Calamity for the sake of this country, along her journey, because of that instinctive hatred, she was always despised by all fairies and continually persecuted by them.
Every time she resolved a Calamity, Aesc would be exiled by the fairies or even subjected to various punishments, including poisoning.
Throughout this process, if it hadn’t been for her belief in saving and protecting Britain, Aesc would likely have broken down long ago.
Ultimately, after enduring all that, Aesc ended up losing trust in fairies, becoming wary of them, and even coming to hate them.
Such was the life of the so-called savior.
Riezel couldn’t help but feel the irony.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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