Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint - Chapter 592



Do Not Think of a Pink Elephant

A walk riding a deer isn’t so bad. I enjoyed it. I put Shay down and got off the deer. Shay, it might be better for you to run away and act freely, but there’s no particular merit for me.

“I heard you well. I’ll be going now.”

As I lightly waved my hand and tried to leave, someone grabbed my clothes. Who’s holding on so desperately?

“…Hughes, are you really leaving?”

When I turned my head, Shay was holding onto me with wide eyes. Her trembling hands had no strength, but I was more moved by her heart than her grip, so I kindly explained.

“Yes. I’ve heard everything I need to hear and know everything I need to know. Now I have to act according to your wishes.”

“Wishes…? These people came to stop Nevda.”

“Yes! Exactly. They came to ruin Nevda’s plan. In other words, their goal can only be achieved if Nevda’s plan exists.”

Sustaining life by transforming into a tree is not highly recommended even from a druid’s perspective. It’s because it goes against the natural order.

That’s not all. Rebellion is historically a taboo act, and burning the World Tree is one of the worst sins a druid can commit.

“Humans are born from fruit. Because of that one fact, they betrayed their lord, destroyed a country, burned the World Tree, and made the great witch who helped them out of goodwill suffer from guilt. Is there anything among these that isn’t a taboo? Is there any action here that deserves praise?”

Who decides what can and cannot be done? Humans decide that too. Druids decided. Rebellion? It can be done. Burning the World Tree? It’s bearable.

If they could just prevent humans from being born from trees, druids decided to overcome all such taboos.

“They’re all taboos! The same taboos, but druids committed all those atrocities. Just to prevent humans from being born from meat fruit! They abandoned everything else for that one thing!”

Raising my voice, I pretended to be gloomy for a moment.

“…But Nevda is too powerful, and there’s no one to listen to the truth, and even after abandoning everything they held dear, the tree of betrayal still stands. So they hid beyond time, waiting only for this day.”

“This day….”

“Yes! This very moment when Nevda tries to resurrect the human king! When Nevda’s grand plan bears great fruit, they came to interfere!”

They were waiting for me. Although their purpose was different, these people were also eagerly awaiting the human king. Perhaps they were waiting for me even more eagerly than any other creature.

“Now that I have appeared, it seems that your miserable survival has been rewarded. But if we succeed in escaping like this, what will happen to them? If we successfully escape, they will lose their purpose and wander aimlessly, and if we fail, they will die uselessly. I’m sorry, but that’s neither your wish nor mine. Not even the wish of Nevida, who is waiting for the king of humans over there.”

Shei was a little confused. It wasn’t because he couldn’t understand my words rationally, but because it was difficult to accept them emotionally.

“So… that means, Hughes, you…”

“Yes! If a wish is too easily granted, it’s no fun, right? Moreover, taking me and running away is not your true wish. It’s just a stopgap measure! Shouldn’t it be achieved in a more dramatic and fundamental way?”

“What are you going to do?”

The answer is simple. Their wish and their wish. Nevida, who wants the king to return, and the druids, who want to prevent it at all costs.

There is only one way to fulfill all these wishes.

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“I declare here. As the king of humans, with the power of your wishes! I will go to the top of the tree of betrayal!”

I raised one hand above my head and shouted loudly enough for the forest to hear.

“Those who want to stop me, stop me! Those who want to help, help! There is not much time left. The moment I reach the end, the true king of humans will be resurrected!”

The druids who brought me here, the great witch who blocked me with the night parade of a hundred demons, and even Shei, who was with me until just now, were speechless. Especially, it seemed that Shei was the most shocked. The fingers that had been barely moving were now moving quite well.

The first to move was Nenyaf. Nenyaf approached me with an incredulous face and asked.

“How can you do that? Although we betrayed the lord, it was to uphold human morality. But how can the king of humans compare that to mere rebellion?”

“Human morality? Who decides that?”

“We humans do. If you are human, there are duties that must be upheld, even if not promised in words or shown in actions. The previous king impregnating a beast child among countless meat fruits was a taboo that distorted the very species of humans! It was something that should never have happened!”

“Yes. You wished for that. And you are acting according to what you decided. You did the right thing according to your belief, so there is no problem, right?”

I smiled brightly at Nenyaf.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not criticizing you. I’m actually praising you.

Didn’t you destroy countless orders to keep the one thing you decided? If this isn’t barbarism, what is? I like that kind of thing.

“The wish to not think of a pink elephant cannot be fulfilled. Because the wish itself requires the pink elephant to come to mind. Similarly, if you want to prevent a taboo, the taboo must happen first!”

“That’s sophistry! Our desire is to be perfect only when there are no taboos!”

“Is that really so? When the tree of betrayal grew, when the rumor spread that the king of humans had appeared. When the taboo was about to be repeated. Weren’t you really happy? Weren’t you thrilled that the time had finally come?”

“That…!”

Nenyaf and the other druids couldn’t give a definite answer to my question. They were forest keepers who had waited, holding only one purpose for their existence. The fullness they would feel at the moment of fulfilling their purpose was also true.

But Nenyaf couldn’t easily admit it.

“Then what about our desire? The desire we endured for hundreds of years, turning into trees, bearing the time and pain to prevent the blasphemy against humans? Is that something that can never be achieved?”

“It’s right there. In your hearts. In the bows and arrows you hold.”

If you want to stop it, shoot me with an arrow. If you can kill me, Nebida’s plan will be delayed for quite a while.

Nenyaf’s eyes shook for a moment, understanding my meaning. I grinned and tapped my heart.

“As long as I’m alive, the resurrection of the human king is always possible. The surest way is to drag me to a secluded place, kill me, and bury me so I can’t be found. Oh, it would be better to turn me into a tree.”

“I had no such intention.”

“No such intention? You say that, but if that were the case, there would have been no need to bring me all the way here. But if you’re driven into a corner, won’t that method come to mind? Don’t say no. You’ve already destroyed a country and burned the World Tree.”

Well, the statement that they had no intention of killing me was probably true. Escaping together would take more of Nebida’s time than killing me.

This druid couldn’t ignore the moral implications either.

“This is also for your sake, Nenyaf. I may be an ordinary person, but I won’t die at your hands.”

At my assurance, Nenyaf clutched his heart tightly and said.

“…There are differing opinions on that matter.”

Oh, so he has confidence. But the situation is not favorable for the druids.

During the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, a black jaguar leaped out of the darkness and attacked one of the druids. At the same time, Shay kicked a druid who was quietly nocking an arrow.

A series of short impact sounds followed. Then the voices of the parrot and Shay flowed out.

[Leaving will not be stopped, Nenyaf. But know that this will be my last mercy.]

“Try to lay a finger on Hughes. I will kill you.”

A tense atmosphere flows in the darkness. Nenyaf still has some ‘certainty’ left… Facing both the Great Witch’s Night Parade of a Hundred Demons and Shay at the same time, there is no chance of killing me before Nevda arrives. And I wasn’t inclined to do so either.

Having finished his calculations, Nenyaf signaled to stop. The druids who were preparing to attack saw the signal and stopped.

“Stop. The King of Humans has decided not to join us.”

“Nenyaf! What do you mean! If we leave like this, we won’t be able to stop the Great Druid’s sins!”

“Exactly. What we must fight is the Great Druid’s sins, not the King of Humans. Moreover, if we fight both at the same time, we will die miserably.”

“I’m not afraid of dying!”

“Neither am I. Death is not frightening. But not being able to stop the sins committed by the Great Druid is frightening. If that happens, we won’t be able to lie under the roots of the World Tree even in death.”

The druids did not understand, but in this atmosphere, they could not stop me. The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons seemed ready to tear them apart at any moment. The druids slowly moved away, still not understanding.

Meanwhile, Shay unknowingly drove the deer closer to me. It was so natural that I almost mounted the deer without realizing it.

“No, Shay, you should follow them.”

“Why?”

Why? Because you have nothing to do at the Tree of Origin. I am going to resurrect the King of Humans, and you won’t just stand by and watch. You’ll get yourself killed again.

“So that you can come to stop me, Shay.”

“…Can’t you just not resurrect him? You can do that.”

…Is he asking if I really have to resurrect the King of Humans? Indeed, if my desire was the same as Shay’s. I might have resisted as well.

But Nevda will resurrect the King of Humans by any means necessary. He might threaten me with force or control me by force. In that case, I cannot resist. If that is his desire, I have to act.

“I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t have a way to go back. To survive, I have to follow Nevda’s words.”

Whether I like it or not, I am a being that moves with the wind. In the end, I will follow. Especially when there are so many desires gathered.

And crucially… this is the only way to overcome this situation.

“Come on, let’s go.”

I pushed Shay’s back.

Shay glanced at me several times, but she had no choice either. The option to kill me if things went wrong had disappeared from her mind.

“…I’ll be back.”

“Don’t come back with half-hearted resolve.”

I waved my hand and walked away briskly. I didn’t look back. Instead, I moved with deliberate steps, stomping my feet so that the entire jungle echoed.

The Great Witch’s Night Parade of a Hundred Demons did not chase the druids but flocked to my side. They surrounded me as if to escort me and matched my pace.

As I walked slowly in the midst of the beasts, I felt a strange presence. Using telepathy to identify the other party, I raised my voice and called out the name.

“Did you hear, Nevada?”

The forest swayed. Some of the densely packed trees seemed to move aside, and before I knew it, Nevada appeared as if she had been there with the trees all along.

The parrot flying beside me spoke reluctantly.

[…It’s not that I was early. Nevada figured it out on her own.]

“I know. Since I didn’t betray or run away, I have nothing to be scared of.”

And by doing this, Nevada wouldn’t be able to chase them. To Nevada, they were nothing more than annoying bugs. Nevada’s only desire was the resurrection of the human king. Everything else was just a bonus.

She couldn’t afford to miss the long-awaited return of the king while dealing with bugs, so Nevada had no choice but to follow me. That’s why Nevada sensed my intentions more than anyone else.

“My lord. Did you really want to protect that woman so much?”

“Huh? Why?”

“If you hadn’t declared so, I would have killed them all. Didn’t you do that to stop me?”

“Oh, no way. If I really wanted to protect Shay, I would have begged you to spare her life.”

Nevada looked at me with an expression too monotonous to read. Nevada spoke slowly.

“…I can kill them all even now.”

“Really? Well, do as you wish.”

“Are you sure that’s alright?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? If, after much contemplation and expansion of thought, you have come to that conclusion, I have neither the reason nor the power to stop you. Things will just flow as they will.”

Whether it happens or not. Can I stop the strongest being in the world? Stop acting like you might change your mind if I cling to you. It’s already out of my hands.

As I hastened my steps towards the Tree of Origin, Nevada turned his head away as if giving up.

“If that is your will. I shall not do otherwise.”

“Wow, thank you for your mercy. To repay that grace, I will work even harder!”

Not very trustworthy, it seems. But, Nevada.

“Don’t you trust me? Are you curious about my intentions? Oh dear, but you can’t read my mind. So what will you do? Control? Acceptance? That’s up to you.”

In the end, things will go as you wish. If that wish is true.