〈 Episode 268 〉 Reality and Ideals (5)
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The battle to annihilate Berta Gorge ended successfully.
All of the above objectives were achieved, and only a very small amount of damage was inflicted on our troops.
All of the necromancer’s towers that were taking out the Dragon Bone Soldiers were destroyed. Pieces of shattered dragon bones lie scattered on the ground, and the corpses of necromancers with their heads blown off fill the canyon.
Meanwhile, there are also places where not a single body is left behind.
An example is the place where the knights passed, leading waves of fire and sweeping the area with heat. All that remains in their path is a pile of charred ashes.
Sabak.
The knights who marched on the ashes experienced first-hand how much influence a wizard could have on the battlefield.
『Rania van Trias.』
The knights ponder the name of the wizard.
If I were to pick one person who contributed the most to this operation, it would definitely be that girl.
A light hand gesture, a single swing.
That was the end of it.
The knights now feel fearful of the wizard who wipes out the entire area with a single spell. I feel like I once again understand why the ancient lich is called a battlefield nightmare.
‘If I were to face something like that, if I had to raise a spear knife against it…’
That is truly a nightmare.
Some people look at Rania with fearful eyes, while others look at Rania with longing eyes. She is taking off her gloves and exhaling briefly.
Rania van Trias is expressionless.
His expressionless expression is like that of a doll, as if he doesn’t need emotions to do what needs to be done.
However, the knight who stood by Rania throughout the operation had a slightly different opinion. The article saw. The sight of Rania lowering her rolled up sleeves right after the operation was over.
In this way, the wound is hidden.
Even though they hide the wound like that, they cannot hide the sound and the smell.
Chi profit.
The knight frowned at the stench of burning skin. The overheated circuit was crushing the girl’s skin.
“···Are you okay?”
Rania turned her head to the knight’s question.
The knight silently pointed to Rania’s forearm.
“You look like you’re in a lot of pain…”
There is no confidence in the knight’s voice when he says that. Although the injury looked very painful to my eyes, the girl’s expression was still calm.
‘Does it really hurt?’
While the knight was wondering such questions, Rania suddenly looked at her forearm. Her skin was growing warm. It’s a pain I’ve become accustomed to. Enduring it is also a pain that one has become accustomed to.
“Is this what it is…”
Rania, out of habit, was about to say, “It’s okay,” but then closed her mouth for a moment. After thinking for a moment, Rania smiled bitterly.
“It hurts a little. “Can I borrow some potion?”
“of course. Medical class…”
“You don’t have to go that far, just give me the potion.”
The knight handed Rania a potion.
Rania rolled up her sleeves and poured the potion on her forearm and frowned. She poured a potion on the wound, so there was no way it wouldn’t hurt.
“If you swell like that, it will hurt.”
“Iknow, right. “It hurts.”
“…Usually, I put it on a cloth and wipe it off. “I guess you’re not used to using potions?”
It’s not that I’m not used to it.
There just wasn’t time for that. Unlike Kyle, who recovered quickly from minor injuries, she had to run and pour potions every time she got hurt.
It is natural for Rania, but it is not natural in the eyes of others. The worse knight opened her mouth.
“Please wait a moment. “There is a barracks nearby, so I will get some spare rags.”
“There’s no need for that…”
“Aren’t you the person who made the biggest contribution in this operation? “I feel like I want to bring the priests in right away… but since you say you don’t want to do that, please let me do this.”
The knight smiled bitterly and ran to the barracks.
While looking at the back, Rania scratched the back of her head. It felt a little strange.
2.
Under a successful operation, numerous knights are immersed in the joy of victory. But there are places where this is not the case. No matter how well you fight, or how little you sacrifice, it is impossible for not a single person to die on the battlefield.
someone dies
It is a battlefield because someone dies.
Knights who die like that are not buried underground.
It is not simply because it is a luxury. Those buried beneath the ground will never find eternal rest. The necromancers will drag out their corpses and point their spears at their former comrades.
Those who are resurrected cannot rest.
Their spirit and body will be defiled for eternity.
Since they don’t want that, they burn all the corpses.
The sacred fire created by priests burns the corpse without any scent or sound.
Everyone is silent.
Galahal stood in a place filled with silence.
“······.”
Galahal stood there until the torch went out.
Chloe watched in silence.
Chloe thought as she looked around.
‘···Battlefield, and death.’
This is a scene not depicted in fairy tales or heroic stories.
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It’s natural. There is no way such a realistic scene could be depicted in media that sings of hope and instills longing in children.
The battlefield is not a stage where heroes play.
The battlefield is a place that needs heroes.
There’s no way such a place could be that fancy. Because it is so cruel, a hero is needed. Chloe knew that fact, but what unfolded before her eyes was beyond her imagination.
I saw numerous corpses.
The body was thrown into the blazing flames. Those who were alive a moment ago turn into cold corpses and are thrown beyond the flames. Among them are the knights who spoke with Chloe before the operation.
It is a landscape that has no sense of reality.
Chloe felt her heart flutter.
She turned her head and looked next to me. There, Galahar is silently looking at the icon. A character more like a fairytale hero than anyone else.
In a scene not described in fairy tales, Galahal, like a fairy tale hero, stood there. It was a very inappropriate scene.
“Shall we stop?”
Only after the fire had completely died down did Galahal open his mouth. Chloe walked along with Galahal leading the way.
“I know a place with a nice view. It was probably around here. Shall we walk a little?”
After walking for a while, the place where we stopped was an open field.
Galahal stopped in the field and looked back at Chloe. Galahal smiled bitterly as he looked at Chloe’s complicated-looking eyes.
“The scene of lighting the torch is not a very nice scene. It’s also a shocking scene. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, no…”
Chloe shook her head.
Because I felt like I had a vague understanding of why Galahal had taken him there.
“It’s a scene I have to see someday…”
“That’s not all.”
Galahal sat down on a rock in the field.
“Many warriors dream of becoming fairy tale heroes. “I hope to become a hero like the protagonist of a heroic story who is brilliant, shining, and always victorious.”
He released the spear he was carrying.
“But of course.”
With a thud, the spear fell into the field.
A heavy sound echoed.
“There is no way that path will be easy. Even if you walk that path and sit in the symbolic position… you must endure a heavy responsibility.”
Galahal said in a lighter voice.
“Because reality is not like fairy tales.”
Galahal continued with a light laugh.
“Fairy tales do not depict gory scenes. No matter how great a hero is, he cannot save everyone. The same goes for Ganur, the warrior of salvation.”
Someone dies.
You die.
Galahal muttered.
“No hero, no matter how good he is, can save everyone. You have to lose someone, you have to see someone die. “There is a difference between reality and a fairy tale.”
In the end, nothing perfect can exist.
Therefore, it is impossible to become a perfect hero.
The boy who admired heroes only came to understand that fact when he became a young man. The young man embraced in his heart those who had let go of him because he was not good enough. It is now and will be so in the future.
“Perfection, the ideal, is far and difficult.”
It’s so far away.
“Maybe we’ll never be able to reach it.”
In the end, you may not be able to reach it.
Just because someone is Galahal doesn’t mean they don’t know that fact. In fact, I know it better than anyone else. Because Galahal understands his own shortcomings.
“Nevertheless, I want to move forward.”
Do not ignore reality.
Dreaming of ideals and moving forward in reality.
Even though I know I will never be able to reach it, I do it.
“I think it’s all worth it…as long as you don’t give up. However, this is just my opinion. “I have no intention of saying it is right.”
Galahal smiled.
“Chloe.”
The young man looks at the girl in front of him.
The young man had many stories he wanted to tell to the girl who might have the same dream as him and try to walk the same path as him. There were so many.
“you are.”
The young man asked a question.
“What kind of hero do you want to be?”
That was a question I asked myself several times.
3.
“What is your dream?”
Destel blinked at the question thrown out of nowhere.
“what?”
The operation ended successfully, and we are in the process of cleaning up at the temporarily erected camp. Destel blinked and looked at the girl in front of him.
Rania van Trias.
A girl who was the number one contributor to this operation and truly accomplished the same task as the Gray Wizard. To Destel, she really looked like a gray wizard.
‘Racing up a ridiculous criminal record…’
A being that doesn’t feel like a human being at all.
However, unlike the gray wizard, Destel senses humanity in the girl in front of him. Not only because of the bandages she had wrapped around her forearms.
“What is a dream? A dream. “Are you deaf?”
She bends down and looks at Destel. Feeling burdened by her blue eyes, De Stelle pushed back her chair.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Because I’m curious.”
“···Suddenly?”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit strange that the guy who was scolding me from the very beginning now looks at me out of the blue?”
Rania burst into laughter.
“I’m just really curious.”
“···Do I really have to tell you?”
“They said he was the number one contributor to the execution of the operation. “As the commander, you have an obligation to reward me.”
“If that’s the case, separate…”
“It’s okay because I have a lot of money, I’m not greedy for land, and I’ve built up enough reputation. “Just answer the question.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I think I need to listen to understand you.”
That’s it again.
What on earth are you going to do by understanding me? It was difficult for Destel to understand this situation. However, the girl in front of her seemed to have no intention of backing down.
‘I’m just trying to get an answer…’
The blue eyes are infinitely serious.
Destel, who was looking into those eyes, finally opened his mouth in desperation.
“Achieve an achievement that everyone will recognize, and return to the village alive.”
“Going back to the village?”
“okay. I don’t know about you, but our town is famous for its theater companies. “Before I became a warrior, my dream was to be an actor.”
A dream I never told anyone about.
“Now I can’t achieve it, but I can still dream, right?”
Destel shrugged his shoulders.
It was a dream I had never told anyone for fear of others laughing at me. The girl in front of me would definitely laugh at me too. With that thought in mind, Destel looked at the girl in front of her…
“okay?”
The girl didn’t laugh.
I just nodded as if I was interested.
“Is that why you want to retire?”
“···well. It’s not just a dream. “I’m sick of this and that, and that’s why I want to retire.”
“Then you can just run away.”
“You’re servile because you don’t have the courage to do that.”
Destel sneered.
“Am I being servile for no reason? “They don’t have the courage to risk their lives to make achievements, nor the courage to throw away their responsibilities and run away, so they are servile.”
The person the ridicule is directed at is myself.
Destel said, laughing at his situation.
Rania still did not laugh at Destel.
“It means trying to take responsibility.”
“···Is that interpreted that way?”
“Whatever the reason, I’m saying I won’t run away.”
Rania let out a short breath.
Rania took a few steps back and smiled, as if she felt a little more comfortable. She is more comfortable than ever.
So, a human smile.
Destel feels a sense of discomfort in that smile.
He thought he looked like Raniel, but the Raniel that Destel remembered didn’t smile that way. The gray wizard’s smile was always dry and heavy.
Destel suddenly asked a question.
“Didn’t you hate me?”
“I don’t like it.”
“I hate it,” Rania said.
“Apart from that, I heard you didn’t give up.”
“I live with half of it down.”
“Anyway… No, f*ck.”
Rania frowned.
“Why am I packing you? What on earth do you want to hear from my mouth? Should I at least praise you?”
“Would you do it if I asked you to?”
“Are you crazy?”
Destel laughed, and Rania nervously tangled her hair.
“I still don’t like you, and I don’t understand all of your ways, but…”
Rania looked straight at Destel.
“I thought it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand it at all. Just, that’s it.”
“It’s different from your brother. “Your brother looked like he was holding you by the collar.”
“That must have been because you acted like an asshole back then.”
Destel laughed bitterly.
That was correct. At that time when Raniel grabbed him by the collar and screamed, he knew that no matter what anyone said, he was trash.
『Their sacrifice was not worthless.』
『You are the one who made that sacrifice worthless. 』
Destel cannot forget those words.
Because it was a straight argument, and it hit the nail on the head.
“One last thing.”
“That’s a lot to ask.”
“It’s simple.”
The question Rania asked while saying that was by no means a light question.
“Do you plan to come forward again someday?”
Destel was silent at those words.
The silence continued for a while. After several minutes passed, Destel opened his mouth.
“well.”
And then he answered.
“Chloe, if that child comes forward… I might come forward too. “Because I don’t want to live my life drinking the blood of a child like that.”
Was the answer satisfactory?
Rania answered with a sigh and a smile.
“That’s enough.”
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fantasy,
