The Traveling Hero Won’t Let the Innkeeper’s Son Escape

"What do you want to hear?

"Why is Mr. Wonok here when he says it's a place you can't normally come in?

"... because I've known this place for a long time. Sometimes I come to see how the pricks don't come into the land."

From what I'm saying to Ruth that the amount of magic could not possibly be put into the problem, it was likely that he knew quite deeply about this building, but he just didn't think he was even looking around.

But the expression was completely different from the atmosphere when we were neighbors, with no temperature. It's like a noodle. Wonok is supposed to be just pale in his answer to Ruth's question, but for some reason Zowari and Chilly run. But I couldn't stop asking questions here.

"So you know who they are, don't you?

…………

Wonock kept his mouth shut for a while to Ruth's question but eventually nodded quietly.

"Tell me, are they...... who is this woman named Aristotle Teresia Catley!?

"…… an old human being."

"Are you dead?

"I'm alive, I can't get out of there... it's like I'm asleep"

"Sleeping means you have an awakening?

"Oh, it will be a while…………"

Wonok's mouth is heavy, as if the rap was always a lie when he taught Ruth things. I know that's because Ruth is listening to what I don't want to talk about, but I wasn't going to leave it like this.

"So tell me. Why does she look just like Aristotle, the goddess I know? She's not the only one, the three people behind her, left and right, look just like the paintings of the Four Gods passed down to Celestialism. There is no way that the four of them can be at the same time, in the likeness of others. Not to mention in a building like this, it's not normal to go into a case like this and“ sleep ”. Why are they here!?

……

"Mr. Wonock. Could you have made them like this………?

……

When Ruth asked the question not to be deluded, Wonock shut up. I can see my eyes staring at Ruth shaking as she grows more red. Does that mean I'm lost, I was just staring at him earlier and he was about to kill me, but now it's quietly healed too.

"Are you prepared to know?

Ruth thought for a moment to quiet words like droplets falling.

Surely I don't see any use in knowing that the average person, Ruth, is like this. The content is too heavy no matter what you think, just because it's just a desire for knowledge. If you suck at that, it's also possible that Wonok, who is now missing out on me because he knows me, will strip his fangs. If that happens, Ruth and others will be killed without Wonok moving their fingers.

But my chest stiffness didn't heal even when I tried to calm down.

(I need to know... I shouldn't, I feel...)

I couldn't wait to be afraid of something. I didn't feel like I was going to miss the worst without knowing anything. Such a heartbreak did not subside, and Ruth decided to be ready.

"Me... on my way here, I heard something weird."

Ruth stared at Wonock and talked about the 'city killed by an infectious disease' he heard about in something like a commercial establishment.

"Even if I look at one hallway, I think this building is using more advanced technology than we can think of in the lives we live in. So I can't believe the cities of those times were killed. I'm sure there was chaos all over the world at the time."

"I guess."

It's basically Wonok who does the teacher's imitation, but he doesn't teach Ruth from one to ten. It is Wonok's way to ask questions, make Ruth think, and thus supplement and guide the missing parts. See how far Ruth thinks and tries to think, then judge and decide. Knowledge should not be given to humans who are unwilling to think about it, who are going to teach it all from the beginning. That's why Ruth himself has to let Wonock talk.

"I was saying on that broadcast. Four young heroes are trying to calm the disaster in order to solve the problem."

Without changing his expression, Wonok said, 'So?' and urged ahead.

Ruth looks back again.

"There are young“ four ”people here who are no different from me. Once again, the hero who stood up to save the world was also a young“ four ”. And the Celestial god we all knew had a" four ”body, all of them looking like young people. - It's all four. It's impossible to call it a coincidence. Plus this building, that broadcast, the word" asleep "Wonok said, the Celestial myths we believe in, each of which should have absolutely nothing to do with it, but it seems like there's a connection if we change our view."

When Ruth cut the words, the room became quiet. Sometimes the sound of a copocopo or something like water just sounded, and the heavy air spread as if the flow of time had stopped.

"Mr. Wonock. The Celestial“ God ”that we all believe in is about the heroes of the past - that is, the four people who sleep here, right?

Ruth's sure words echoed in the quiet room.

It is Ruth's view that the heroes of the past are the four gods handed down to Celestialism. And the four of us here are the main bodies of that hero. The heroes of the past could not save all mankind at that time, but I thought that the later descendants, that is, the world in which Ruth and his men lived, might have protected them. And the result is the state of these four people. For what reason, the question remains as to why, but I nevertheless thought it was much more natural than ignoring a number of matters that fit so far and dividing it as a coincidence.

(A human who has changed history can be passed on to future generations like God... it should be a possible story)

Similar to the fantasy world I read in my previous life, it doesn't really mean that God exists as an individual. As for Ruth, I studied that there were real people in my previous life who were said to be God and Buddha, so I didn't think it would be strange to be that way.

"I had no idea that there were people who thought they believed in God as a real person."

Wonok sighed deeply.

That appearance had a troubling atmosphere, but I don't deny Ruth's words. I guess that means the speculation is on. He's the one who always puts in corrections if they're wrong.

"…… you've looked around in this for a long time."

"The road was a mess and it took me a while to get here"

"That's why he said he could have guessed that far. The one who brought you here at all, what were you thinking..."

Wonok slowly walked out and stood in front of the glass case of the masculine god/fance. And with a slightly sad face, I looked up at him in the cylinder.

"... have most of the old people died?

"No, I didn't wipe it out. Toddlers of all races and some humans were not infected for a reason. Several other long-lived species, including myself, are still alive, enough to count."

I remember where it was in front of this room, with something like a plane guide light on it. Sure, that one showed signs like people were in there. Perhaps it was used in applications to survive, and I felt complicated. Did the people who went inside feel relieved to be able to live, or were they heartbroken when they left because they couldn't help?

"... a thousand years ago, is it?

"Where did you get your years from?

"The Church priest didn't tell us anything about 'cities destroyed by infectious diseases' when teaching history. On the contrary, I have never heard anything like that. It was also Celestialism, a thousand years ago, that God had built the world. From that, I'm sure."

"I see."

Wonock nods as impressed by Ruth's words. I was a little happy with the unusual appearance, but I kept asking questions because I had thought more than that.

"... has Mr. Wonok seen the world of men for a thousand years?

"It's nothing big. Compared to these four, the funnier the lesser the responsibility."

Wonok has a self-derisive grin. It was always full of confidence and a terrible rarity for a wonock full of expressions like doing nothing wrong or anything else.

"What do you mean,"

"…… the four of us have sacrificed ourselves to protect this planet from the scourge created by mankind - the" pillar of humanity ”."

"Man, pillar……………."

When I hear about the human pillar, the zokri and the unpleasant stuff creep up.

A human pillar is a kind of personal confession. To pray to God, to bury humans alive in the earth or sink them in the water. When I found out that such a person was in front of me, I got emotions that I didn't know what to say. It's painful, it's sad.

Ruth looked up at Aristotle Theresia entering a column-like glass case. I don't have any emotions for that look, but when I heard about the human pillar, it also seemed to withstand the spiciness.

"They're alive, aren't they?

"Oh.... but all the way into this to protect the stars, the body does not move even though it remains slightly conscious, it is a circulator that keeps replenishing the magic to seal the disaster. I've been forced to stop old and just keep making magic - to protect this planet ever since."

"A thousand years, is…………?

"Yeah, a thousand years."

A thousand years - a length of time unimaginable to a human Ruth who can't live for a hundred years. In the meantime, I will continue to create magic to seal the disaster - so to speak, acting like a tool - while being kept in such a glass case. Moreover, he said that his consciousness remained marginal. According to Ms. Wonok, Aristotle Theresia is advising the Church in the name of divinity with something like a reading, also because she wishes people happiness with the slightest remaining consciousness. Apparently she was originally a family of people who were good at such techniques.

Moving, sleeping, eating - I felt like it was more painful than I could imagine to keep living without being able to do anything.

"Can't you do something…………?"

"At the time, it was the only way to protect the world from me."

"... even with the power of Mr. Wonok, sir?

Wonock didn't answer Ruth's question, he just had a very bitter look, but it felt like that look was the one that represented his thoughts on the answer.

And at the same time, I was dismayed by the calamity that even Wonok did not have the skills to fight it. I'm not willing to say that Wonok is omnipotent in everything, but he's still a different dimension of life than Ruth. It was horrible that he had to rely on others.

"… isn't disaster like an infectious disease? Medicines, healing techniques..."

"Things are a little complicated. There was only one hand in using the power of the four to seal the disaster. But don't worry. Three hundred more years... No, at least a hundred years, and the four of us can be free."

"Is that so……………"

Ruth was relieved to hear what Wonock had to say.

It will be many years in the next hundred years, but until then, it is believed that it will be only a few years later. Apparently, Gio, a high-ranking mage, who visited the village six months ago, was also a living human being for a thousand years, just like Wonok, exploring various ways with a few others and finding the thread for a solution.

(Good. Not all these people's futures are dark...)

I was relieved to know that they had a future to be liberated. A hundred years away, Ruth will not be able to be present, but it will be possible to tell the children.

But for some reason, Wonok looked at Ruth with a slightly unfortunate face. On top of that, when Ruth and I meet each other in sight, we return to every look. I tried to return the question wondering if Ruth had asked any strange questions, but now Wonok opens his mouth better first.

"At first, he told the story of the four to his descendants in an easy way to understand. Because I didn't want the four of them to forget their endless deeds and lose their grateful hearts.... but as the years went by, the four unseen beings eventually became heroes of old times and at some point had turned into gods of mythology. Celestialism was originally an organization created to teach history, but at some point it was the foundation of this world's religion."

The four people who are said to be saving the world beyond sight because they do not know its existence except for Wonok and a few surviving long-lived species have gone up from the position of man to the presence of God among the people. Those who sealed the disaster a long time ago - I don't think it's just people who went with that phrase alone, so maybe that's for granted.

It was already too late when Wonok and the others realized the story was changing and it seemed useless to say anything to people who believed it was God. Although they are long-lived species, it would therefore be due to their failure to notice changes in the memories and stories of people and subpopulations of short-lived species, which make up the majority of the world's population (if seen from them).

"Didn't you think I'd tell you in a sentence?

"In order not to repeat history, the letters were changed so that they could not be read. It became a vendetta."

If the letters can be read, they seem to have changed the shape of the letters because they could repeat the mistakes made by mankind a thousand years ago on the detachment of finding the old books. Ruth's inability to read the letters also seems to be due to those circumstances. But the words couldn't be changed so easily, they stayed put, and it seems that's why Ruth was able to hear the broadcast.

(Speaking of which, these two haven't appeared on the air or in Mr. Wonok's story...)

Ruth stared at two men and women in similar glass cases, away from Aristotle and the others. From the circumstances they also seem to be helping to stop the catastrophe, but I was also curious why Wonok would not touch its existence at all.

"Mr. Wonock. These two are just like them, right?

Ruth asked Wonock a question pointing to the two of them. There are no characters in Celestialism with basic names except the Four Gods. The images of these two men and women were never painted. That's why I never even heard of the priest. So the two beings caught on to it.

And there were other things that bothered me. It's a glass case with no one in it that's placed on the left or right of the two of them. I don't know why there are unnecessary cases here because it doesn't seem to be used by anyone.

"I don't know these two names...... who are they?

"……… the one who supports the four."

"Who supports…………? The seal went with the four of us, didn't it? Or the six of us?

……

"Mr. Wonock?

Wonok, who had spoken normally to me until earlier, suddenly shut up, and Ruth frowned.

Wonok stared at Ruth with a distorted look that looked painful but also sad when he touched his mouth as if he was unsure whether to say it.

"…………………………… Hey Ruth. Who do you think those two are?

"Eh?"

"It doesn't even appear in Celestialism, these two figures. The two clothes are different from each other. The man is quite old, and the woman is a little closer to modern, but still old................ who do you imagine the two of you are?

I don't know more about that look that seems frustrating or painful.