I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

77. Past and Present

‘The good news is that this isn’t the worst.’

One thing that can be reassured is that, surprisingly, the elders did not recklessly slaughter foreign races.

Of course, when the highest elder passed away, some elders went to reconnoiter and look at the ecology of humans and demons outside.

“Elder of the Wind, what is that?”

“This is a snack I bought in the human city. “It’s a cake, but the strawberry-flavored honey and white milk inside are so delicious…”

And that is the current status of the elders.

The elders who went outside observed the human ecology and were immersed in their culture.

In particular, humans had a different culture from elves, which stimulated the curiosity of the elders.

‘It’s different from the food we eat.’

Elves get all their food only from things found in this land.

They do not eat meat at all, and all they eat is fruit from trees and, at most, birds’ eggs.

However, humans were making such snacks by processing not only meat but also fish and various grains, so it was like a new world for the elves, who always roasted flour and ate it with honey.

Thanks to this, the disposition of external races was postponed.

Similar to the previous policy, we decided to wait and see as long as we did not directly touch this land.

“…I’ll just leave now.”

“Hmm? “Root Elder, the meeting isn’t over yet…”

Anyway, I thought there was no point in staying here any longer.

“I have a child to take care of.”

At first, I didn’t want to have a baby.

However, if I was worried about the future of the elves in the future, I needed to find out what could be improved by experiencing everything firsthand.

Besides, there was no better excuse to get out of such an unproductive meeting, so it felt quite good.

I don’t know if the 10 months of hard work were worth it.

“Oh, I did… I understand. Then, the results of the meeting will be organized and delivered later, so please go and look after the child.”

“Yes, good work everyone. “Elder of the Leaf, you are having a hard time too.”

In some ways, it might have been seen as running away.

However, there is something to be gained by exploring more and trying to improve during times like these.

Shion returned to her room and opened a book, leaving behind the elders who barely paid any attention to her leaving.

“…You won’t gain anything by reading the elf’s book.”

It was the elves of the past who created the present elf society.

The books in the library were written by elves from the past.

The elves also had many different types of history books and magic books, but no matter how much you read them, they are not particularly helpful in solving the problem.

From Noble mtl dot com

In order to get the right answer, it was necessary to look outside.

‘I guess I’ll have to look outside.’

Just then, the Elder of the Wind had gone outside to encounter and examine human culture.

She said that the no-man’s land she visited was a lively and noisy place, but there was also a lot to see.

This means that it is not just a peaceful place like the land of the elves.

Zion decided to tour the human village that the elders had visited.

Although, unlike elves, humans die of starvation and various conflicts constantly arise, I heard that despite such hardships, babies are always born and children play outside.

Shion went outside and looked around.

It is a quiet and peaceful land.

‘It’s too quiet.’

However, compared to this peacefulness, there were almost no sights of children even when I looked around.

The number of children among all elves may be in the thousands.

It was truly a pity.

“Baby, this mother should go somewhere for a while.”

Shion spoke to the child who was sleeping soundly on the bed.

Although she was a child born without her father and only accepted her seed, she still had affection in her own way as she was a child born with pain in her own stomach.

Even if this child was for her future to live, she had to somehow lead these elves.

†††

“And her grandmother decided to leave the land of her birth and see for herself the races outside, starting with the most numerous humans. “Let’s end it here for now.”

“…I don’t understand.”

“What?”

Arsel, who was listening to the story in silence, responded that he could not understand.

“That’s why your maternal grandmother did this. “From what I have seen of her character and the way she looked at her maternal grandmother in your story, she would never have done something like this.”

Sion followed her grandfather’s wishes and worked hard to save the future of the elves, even if it was on her own.

But now, they have massacred all the elders and gone into hiding from the secular world.

What on earth happened in the meantime to change so much?

“That’s because the story isn’t over yet, and there’s still a lot left in the back of the diary.”

Alfred fluttered the diary and said that he did not tell the whole story behind it.

“Then why did you end the story now?”

“I think there’s something I need to address first.”

Alfred smiled and took out the book Arcel had entrusted to him.

“Did I tell you that this book contains information about calling on God?”

“Yes, it certainly was.”

“Then before we talk about the next story, I think we should first go over this god and how to call him.”

Alfred stood up and opened the book.

Then the book floats in the air, emitting black light.

I didn’t specifically activate the magic engraved in the book, it just became like that by infusing a little magic power.

“In order to call a being called God according to the contents of this book, you need tens of thousands of demons or hundreds of thousands of humans, and here’s the most important thing.”

Light came out of the open book and the night sky was projected.

In the group of stars that shine forever, strangely enough, there were two that glowed with black light, different from the other stars.

Alfred points to it and opens his mouth.

“It seems like the magic in this book has already been performed twice in the past, once in this land of demons. “The other is the wizard’s kingdom that my mother destroyed.”

“If you say the wizard’s kingdom, do you mean the terrarium kingdom?”

A kingdom that was destroyed by the Witch of Cinder hundreds of years ago.

It was a place where magic was so advanced that it was comparable to that of the elves, but the Witch of Cinder turned everything into ashes, so there was nothing left.

The only thing that was left was to restore what had burned down and salvage only the dregs.

If the Terrarium Kingdom had remained, human magic would have developed to a point where it could not even be compared to what it is now.

If you think about it, it was a really sad thing.

“…But if something like that had happened, it would definitely have been recorded in history. “Sometimes hundreds or thousands of people are forgotten, but if there was a sacrifice on that scale, there’s no way we wouldn’t know about it.”

To give an example, it is about the Witch of Ember.

The entire Terrarium Kingdom was destroyed due to the Witch of Cinder, and the story of that witch continues to be infamous to this day.

“Of course, if tens of thousands of demons had been sacrificed, they would have gone extinct a long time ago. “If humans had been sacrificed, one or two more kingdoms would have been destroyed.”

Alfred smiled and moved his gaze to Stella.

Stella had been silent ever since Alfred’s story began and only had a complex expression on her face.

“Did you guess what the sacrifice was?”

“…I don’t know.”

Mischievously, Alfred approached Stella and said,

“When I looked at it, it seemed like I had already figured out the answer.”

“You said you didn’t know.”

“Didn’t you hear from her grandmother that lying is bad?”

“Uh… Okay, I think I understand. “That’s enough now, right?!”

Finally, Stella gritted her teeth and opened her mouth.

“Then, won’t you reveal the correct answer? “If I say it, it might feel a little awkward.”

“Elders here. “So you’re saying they sacrificed high elves?”

“…They were sacrificed?”

Arsel looked at the bodies of the elders.

A body so cleanly and well preserved.

But compared to that, even a single hair on the body had hardened like white plaster and turned into a statue.

At first, I thought it was because of the characteristics of elves, but after thinking about it again, I heard that the bodies of elves are not that much different from humans.

Is there a story about a human who died and turned into a plaster statue like that?

“That’s right, each well-aged demon possesses 10 times, no, 100 times more, and denser magic power and soul than an ordinary demon. “And that’s even more so if it’s an elder who is the most outstanding ear.”

“So what you’re saying is that they were used as sacrifices to summon the gods…?”

Alfred nodded his head in response to Arcel’s question.

“Actually, the bodies of these demons are not dead. To be precise, it means that its soul was taken away as a sacrifice and it can no longer be defined as a living thing.”

It is as they say.

All of these people had their souls taken away and could no longer remain as living things, and as a result, their bodies hardened into a statue-like form.

However, just because something is not dead, it cannot be revived.

It’s actually worse than dying normally.

If a person had simply died, he could be resurrected as an undead through necromantic magic, but if his soul had been stolen, even that would be impossible.

“That means your maternal grandmother sacrificed them to summon God!”

“Uh… Is that how the story goes? “After hearing it, it seems like that.”

If you just look at the situation, it was like that.

Zion brutally murdered his elders and left this place.

But what if Zion used the elders as sacrifices to summon the gods?

“Oh my god…”

Arcel covered his mouth, hoping that the shock would go away.

What on earth happened that made Zion do such a thing?

She clearly tried hard to save the elf even on her own, but why on earth did she make that choice?

“Then your maternal grandmother met God…? “Then what on earth did you get from God?”

And what did you do with the being called God?

Arsel had that question swirling around in his head.

“Well. We don’t even know if God still exists, right? “This book only describes how to call God and does not mention anything about God’s identity or existence.”

Alfred dusted off his clothes and put away his book.

While Arcel and Stella were serious, Alfred just got tired of getting dust on his clothes.

“Maybe God is something very different from what we know. “In the first place, the concept of God was created by embodying people’s illusions and imaginations, right?”

Kwasik!

“…But before that, let’s deal with the rat who has been secretly stealing our story from earlier.”

“A rat?”

Afterwards, he laughed bitterly and kicked the ground and rushed backwards.

Her hands were wrapped in black magic and it seemed like she was planning to rip out her hair if she was caught.

In fact, someone was listening to the story in the back.

“What?! Since when-“

“You worthless ear, get out of the way! “I can handle a rat like that with a body like this!”

Arsel and Stella immediately grabbed their weapons.

Alfred noticed that he hadn’t said all the important things yet.

“Oh, that’s right.”

However, Alfred is in vain.

It was because I had not yet fully adapted to my smaller body.

Suddenly!

Because my arms were shorter than before, the distance was about one step short.

In the end, he was counterattacked and his head was cut off in an instant.

“…Huh? No! “Did you reflexively cut off the child’s head?!”

Immediately afterwards, a voice of great confusion was heard.

‘This voice is-‘

The voice seemed strangely similar to Arcel.

At first, Arcel felt like his whole body was tense when he heard that voice, but…

“What, that kid’s head was clearly cut, but he’s still alive?!”

“Oh, my head got cut off again! Okay, I’m out! Why is it always me who gets my hair cut? “I’d rather cut that idiot!”

“Why me again?!”

“Wait a minute, at least put your head on and speak!”

“I don’t know because I’ve never cut off a head in this condition, but the process of attaching the neck is very delicate. So, please give me some instead.”

Alfred speaks with a bright smile.

“Why are you asking me to do that?!”

All of Arcel’s tension disappeared as Alfred cried and hugged him with his severed head in his arms.

“Have you not only turned into a child physically, but also your heart?”

“Of course, I changed my soul back to my childhood, so isn’t it natural for my heart to also become younger?”

In the end, she was able to turn her gaze after putting Alfred’s head on his neck and patting his back to comfort him.

While holding Alfred, I slowly raised his head.

“…So, what is your identity?”

There, a girl who looked very similar to her, holding her holy sword in her hand, stood there with a worried expression.

She is probably worried about Alfred, whom she cut off his head just moments ago.

In fact, it was surprising that he was still standing, although his entire body was covered with big and small wounds.

“Ah… You are the former hero, Arcel, right?”

From Noble mtl dot com

A slightly nervous voice.

“Please take care of me! “I am the next hero, Morian!”

The girl bows her head politely and says hello.

“The next hero?”

Two pairs of blue eyes were conscious of each other.