The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 116

116

“Help us?”

“A human brat?”

“Help us?”

I could sense it was finally my turn as the beastmen warriors murmured suspiciously.

“I didn’t come here to fight. Nor did I come to insult the Gryphon. I’m just here to tell you that I can open the gate in the wall peacefully.”

Peacefully open the wall…?

Just as the beastmen’s eyes were about to widen, someone burst into laughter. It was the one-eyed white bear, Opus.

“I wondered what it was, but Barzhen, you’ve been properly fooled by these brats. You must not have met enough wolves since you’ve been in the depths.”

“What?”

“Don’t you get it? They’re just using you! Because they want protection up to the wall! Do you think brats who aren’t even adults would sincerely think that way!”

“I, I sincerely—!”

“—Don’t play innocent! Do you think we don’t know your evil nature? All the warriors here know!”

“I’m telling the truth!”

“My three sons, who believed those words, all died at the hands of humans. All of them were great warriors who fought in the abyss.”

“Excuse me?”

“The youngest of them saved a dying wolf and sent him back to the wall, but that bastard stabbed him in the neck from behind to kill him! To make my son his achievement!”

As soon as he finished speaking, murmurs agreeing with Opus’s words were heard here and there.

“My husband also died, by a human…”

“My daughter wasn’t even a warrior…”

“I didn’t have a father when I was born. I heard he was tricked by a wolf and died…”

I felt suffocated by the complex and hopeless reality that seemed to tighten around me without being resolved at all.

What to do? What should I say in this situation? To this hatred that has taken root deep in my heart, no, my soul…

Tell me, Rista. What should I do in this situation?

“…Rain! Rain! Why are you so quiet! Say something…!”

Casena, sensing that the situation was going strangely, grabbed me and shouted something, but my ears were muffled as if I were submerged in water, and I couldn’t hear well.

“…Tell me honestly. That you lied because you wanted to live…”

“…”

“…Then, considering the honor of the Durankus tribe and Alakish’s dedication, I’ll let you go this once…”

Is there really no way? Is there no solution to this animosity that has been built up for hundreds of years?

No, maybe there is a solution, but it was beyond someone like me.

Then, maybe it would be better to just go over the wall here and find a solution under the wall… It was then.

“Why?”

A strangely dignified voice flowed out from the crowd of beastmen warriors.

The warrior who came out through the ranks, receiving respectful concessions from all the warriors, was the tallest and most agile beastman warrior Rain had ever seen.

He had the head of a pure white eagle, and the sharp eyes of a bird of prey conveyed the majesty of a warrior who had survived harsh times.

“Gryphon?!”

Opus turned to him and shouted in surprise, and suddenly I came to my senses.

Is this person the Gryphon?

The warrior of warriors and the chief of chiefs who gathered all the tribes in this city, the Grand Chieftain Gryphon?

The Gryphon didn’t respond to Opus’s cry, but just walked straight out and faced Rain.

“Answer me. You said you came all the way here to help us. What’s the reason?”

“Isn’t it obvious? There’s no need to ask. It must be a lie mixed with wanting to survive.”

“I’m asking this human boy now.”

The Gryphon cut him off with a short, firm voice, and Opus immediately shut his mouth. Not only Opus, but all the warriors.

At the same time, I could feel all eyes on me and the Gryphon. Heavy and dizzy.

“And Barzhen, the same goes for you. Not Alakish-nim either. Now, answer me.”

Calm down, and be calm.

I don’t know his true intentions, but it was clear that the Gryphon had given me a chance to talk. There was no guarantee that his favor would last forever, so what I was about to say was the most important thing.

But how should I tell the story? There was no clear solution like mathematics anywhere in the world.

“So, I heard the story of Enuel from Chief Beduel…”

I could have listed realistic problems.

The Spider Lord’s seal is being released, and now the power to control the old is awakening. So humanity and the beastmen must unite again.

If they try to forcibly break down the wall and wage a siege, everyone will be swallowed up by that power and die.

“I could understand how you beastmen have been fighting in this land all along…”

But, but why?

I was thinking about those countless rational judgments in my head and reconsidering the possibilities, but my mouth was chattering like this on its own.

Expressing sincerity, the true feelings in my heart, was the most difficult thing, but how.

“You’ve lived like that, but in the end, breaking down the wall… becoming the enemy of the world… being remembered by everyone like that…”

As I said before, this may have been an impolite interference stemming from a sense of kinship with Enuel and the beastmen.

No one expected me to come back like this. But what would my heart have been like if my hero party members had been recorded as enemies of the world?

My companions lived their best lives for the day they would return, and returned to the soil as the best. The beastmen deserve that joy too.

“That’s too sad…”

Was it shame for telling the truth, or was it sadness from thinking about the longing lives of my hero party members?

With my vision blurring, I couldn’t face anyone, so I lowered my head.

But I had to finish my words even with a trembling voice. Because there would never be another chance like this.

“So I just, really just, wanted to help you. You might think it’s presumptuous… so that’s why…”

A heavy silence overwhelmed the area as if the Arctic sea breeze were dancing.

All the beastmen warriors doubted their ears at the human boy’s words, and doubted their eyes at the dew that sparkled in the boy’s eyes.

The boy’s sincerity, explained briefly but thickly, melted and resonated with the heartstrings that had been frozen in their hearts quietly and clearly.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Casena crossed her arms with a satisfied expression and nodded with Pipi, and a soft smile formed on Alakish’s lips as he looked at Rain with surprised eyes.

‘It wasn’t because of KarenDen-nim’s fragment after all.’

It’s not because of Black Yangrin. I can smell the faint scent of the gods from that child. The same as Tersia-nim or KarenDen-nim, whom I met briefly when I was young.

– Wow, Bell! Are these really your children? How can they be so cute?

Then Barzhen approached Rain, hugged his shoulder tightly, and shouted in a voice mixed with tears.

“Did you hear? This guy is our Durankus, no, my friend Barzhen! I, Barzhen, will not forgive anyone who insults this guy again!”

There have been quite a few humans who have listened to the beastmen’s stories in a pretentious way and used them.

There have been countless humans who pretended to acknowledge the beastmen and then stabbed them in the back.

But no human has ever listened to the beastmen’s stories, shed tears, and sincerely thought about their honor.

“D-don’t be ridiculous! Do you think I’ll believe you humans just because of that! They just want to get to the wall! They’ll stab us in the back and go inside!”

Opus shouted like that, but his voice was not as sharp as before, and there were no voices agreeing with him.

“Human boy, I want to know the name your father gave you.”

The Gryphon raised his hand to silence Opus, then asked that. When I said my name, the Gryphon put his hand on Rain’s head.

“Rain Ludwig, son of Keibon, I, Gryphon, son of Ralquen, will trust you.”

All the warriors looked at the Gryphon with surprised eyes.

Rain was the same, he never imagined it would be this easy.

I thought I had to persuade them by presenting a rational and realistic blueprint, but I thought I had made a mistake.

“It’s funny. I’ve been deceived by humans so much that I can now tell whether a human is telling the truth or lying.”

Suddenly, he gave a faint bitter smile and said this?

“Yes, so what are you going to do? What do you want me to do?”

“Please, just wait a little. I’ll go to the wall and talk to the White Wolf Corps. I’ll make them open the wall peacefully.”

“Is that really possible?”

“I may not be able to, but Miss Casena here can! She’s a direct descendant of Emitsa Page, so her influence is enormous.”

When I pointed to Casena with both hands as if I were holding her up, the beastmen looked at her and began to murmur blankly.

“A direct descendant of Emitsa?”

“That girl?”

“No, I think I know. That hair color… it’s exactly as it is in the old stories.”

Casena seemed a little embarrassed by the attention, but soon cleared her throat with a dignified air and nodded her head vigorously.

“Yes, wait until I come back from the wall! Rain and I will solve everything and come back!”

The warriors began to buzz, divided in half by the proposal.

Wait, how can we in this land that’s getting colder and colder? Can they really open the door, these brats?

The Gryphon’s aides also had a heated debate over the possibility of this, and it was truly a moment when dry saliva was swallowed.

How long has it been, finally the Gryphon raised his hand high to silence the warriors and focused all attention on himself.

“Brothers, shouldn’t we also sincerely repay the sincerity that these children have shown us? I believe that will also be a honorable thing for our warrior corps.”

“……!”

“Rain Ludwig, and Casena Page. I’ll give you ten days, with four days to travel to the wall. I will wait for you here until then. I will not advance to the wall until then.”

Casena and Barzhen looked at each other and smiled brightly with an indescribable expression. My eyes grew hot with an indescribable, heavy thrill.

Did it really get through?

Did they really know?

The words I was trying to say, the sincerity I had in my heart after hearing Enuel’s story… Is that why I was bowing deeply to the Gryphon.

“Thank you, thank you. I will never disappoint you.”

* * *

If the qualities of an educator include knowing how to use carrots and sticks skillfully, Lynn would probably be a zero as an educator.

Because the magic education for Toureina consisted only of nagging and scolding, without any praise at all. She only knew how to use the stick.

Lynn was aware of her problem and was racking her brains.

How, she couldn’t say that she did well. Even if she tried to praise her, she felt so embarrassed that she felt like thorns were growing on her tongue.

─Is this all you’ve done and you’re saying you’ve done it all now?

─I was doing this a month after I learned magic?

─You can’t do this? Even if I teach a passing grandmother for a week, she’ll be able to do more than that?

Therefore, Lynn’s special sarcasm, which was worse than usual, came out at times like that. Toureina studied harder while sobbing.

“I was wondering why you’ve been sulking lately, but it was just because of that?”

So (I really didn’t want to), I asked Rista for a solution to this problem. Because I really didn’t know what to do.

“Just because? I don’t think there’s a more difficult problem than this.”

When I retorted bluntly, Friede, who was sitting next to me with her legs crossed and puffing out smoke from her pipe, chuckled.

“What’s so difficult about it? You’re already doing well.”

“No, I came because I’m not doing well, what are you talking about?”

Then Rista, who had tied her hair up to reveal her long, white neck and was sharpening the blade of the extreme star sword Shirpang [a legendary sword] with a whetstone, smiled brightly.

“That’s right, Friede is right.”

“Don’t joke around.”

“It’s not a joke. The fact that Lynn came to us with that problem is enough to treat people sincerely.”

I tilted my head, wondering what she was talking about, and Friede tapped Lynn’s crown with her pipe.

“Just do it as usual! Rather, if you suddenly praise her like crazy, she’ll think you’re possessed by an evil spirit and be scared. Ugh, just thinking about it is terrible. That brat will run away.”

That was for sure, and when Lynn nodded as if she understood, Friede laughed ha ha.

“You can’t do everything well from the beginning. Just try little by little, and slowly.”

Friede was always like a psycho, but sometimes she would say things like this seriously and kindly.

“Someday you’ll be able to do well. Conveying your true feelings.”

As if agreeing with her, Kies, who was standing behind her, put his hand on Lynn’s head and smiled brightly.

“What are you guys talking about? I never said I wanted to tell you my true feelings! I’m just saying it’s hard to teach that brat…”

“She’s running away again because she’s embarrassed, oh, how cute. Kies, hold on tight to that. It’s been a while since I tickled her.”

“Ah, no! Let go of Kies!”

My moments of memories that shine more beautifully than ever in my life.

And at the end of these memories, there was always Rista’s echo, smiling brightly like a flower blooming.

“It’s okay, Lynn. Rather, since Lynn doesn’t usually express her true feelings, she’ll know right away when Lynn tries to convey her sincerity, right?”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, just like we know that Lynn is actually a kinder child than anyone else.”