Hermit Wizard

Chapter 80

The Invitation of White Deer (6)

The eyes that were looking at me disappeared, and there was a huge mountain that stood up without a word. As if we never had a conversation at all. I looked at the mountains in front of me for a moment. It was hard to see at first, but at that moment, it was visible—the old woman lying on her side.

As I looked back, I could see more things I hadn’t noticed.

The foot of the mountain behind Mago’s shoulders looked like a crouching tiger with its head on both forefeet. Of course, if there were such big tigers in the world, it would be a disaster. There was another one. The ridge that looked like a toe must be Mago’s body, but the ridge beyond that seemed like a bird’s head. It was also not an ordinary bird, but a bird with three heads in one body.

Yusu talked to me with a smile of unknown meaning, who couldn’t draw attention to that appearance for a while.

“Come on, let’s go back now.”

***

Yusu and I walked back on the path that we had been before and shared words of blessing. It was the obvious talk of being glad that everything went well and asking for a lot of help in the future. That was a conversation that I would’ve heard only on TV, something I had never done before the channel crisis.

It was awkward when I realized that I was doing what I thought adults would do in social life. I never really had this conversation with humans before.

After walking for a while, we entered the village again. It meant that the point where the gatekeepers first put us down wasn’t far away.

Even though it was the road I walked a while ago, it felt different just because the direction I looked at was changed. In the artistic sense, even to my outsiders’ eyes, the town itself felt like a complete artwork. Interestingly, even though various paintings and reliefs were lined up, nothing stood out, and it was all-natural.

Still, the alleys were quiet.

“You said most of the villagers were practicing or meditating during the day.”

“Yes. The routine of most of the beings who have crossed the wall is practicing.”

“Who makes them do that?”

Yusu thought about it for a moment, then shook his head – “No one. It’s a natural thing. Except for our breaks, most of us focus on the development of techniques and our ability.”

The more I listened to the story, the more I knew it was as I talked with Parvache. A society in which the necessity and frequency of production activities had become extremely low.

It seemed that resources that could only be obtained from outside (especially food for Maek) were procured in large quantities by roaming around Jeju Island once every few decades to avoid human eyes.

“When we were in Jeju, going out was all about going to and from the island for procurement. And then suddenly that vast world appeared before us, and no Dragon was a deterrent.”

Today, many residents were wandering outside the village instead of remaining in the village, striving to strengthen security through surveillance and satisfy their intellectual needs.

The population was quite small compared to space, so that was why the village feels emptier.

I suddenly got curious about something while thinking.

“But I heard from Garam before that the reason you moved the village to the land was that White Deer was already saturated. It’s a lot more space than I thought.”

“Ah… the word saturation does not mean that space is filled.”

“So then?”

“As the village settled in Baengnok-dam and the number of inhabitants increased, the earth also had to become stronger and stronger. As you may have noticed, this land is more than just ‘supporting’ this village.”

An essential element for survival. For example, it seemed to be talking about the power to maintaining air, water, and light.

“As the number of inhabitants increases, the power needed to maintain the village grows exponentially. As the power of the earth of White Deer became stronger, Mount Halla’s energy, which was beholden, rapidly declined. It wasn’t enough to provide all the power on its own, so we had to borrow it. I’m sorry to say, but it’s like a dead mountain that has almost lost its energy.”

That energy was probably referring to primitive planetary energy. The energy that became the material of Mana.

“Huh? Then Han River will also…?”

“Exactly, the river bed in this area… I think it will be the same after many years.”

After that, we talked for a while about future plans, and Yusu suddenly said.

“Would it have been confusing to see the Elder making the same offer, Master Yoon?”

“You mean the offer to be a priest, right? It’s not an easy choice for me.”

What were the benefits of being a priest of ‘the Land of Blood and Oil’?

The possibility of obtaining the necessary information was far from high. Now, even Yusu said it didn’t want to share any information about the Truth-Seekers.

In the end, only divine power was gained in exchange for losing all useful spells.

Should I think about it after that world was ruined? If there was a situation where I was isolated from the outside world with my family, I had to be stuck in an ideal place for survival.

In return, however, I might cling to the ideal I had created in the distant future, and I might be in a situation where I couldn’t even move an inch. Was Yusu also preparing for such a future? I recalled the image of Mago I had seen a while ago and the foot of the mountain in the shape of animals around it.

“Elder Mago seems to have liked you, Master Yoon. That’s why she offered you two times in a row.”

“Ah, yes.”

I was immersed in my thoughts and answered what Yusu said halfheartedly.

“I would like you to know that the only reason she is proposing again is that she feels bad about you. It’s not like she desires to increase one more priest.”

I nodded.

“Anyway, I hope you can understand that Elder Mago encouraged you with pure concern.”

“Yes, I don’t get it wrong.”

“And anyway.”

Then Yusu muttered something that seemed to be hard to understand.

“When we were convinced that we had neutralized all the remains of the Dragon and when enough time passes to reveal our existence to humans… Maybe we don’t have to keep this village anymore.”

His face seemed to hang with a mixture of some reflection and some hope.

“Aren’t you the only priests currently active in White Deer?”

Yusu nodded his head.

“Exactly.”

Our deep conversation continued for a while, and I could hear more stories. Several priests in White Deer worship the same God, but they were all retired priests except for one of the current priests, Yusu.

I once again recalled the situation on the mountain behind Mago.

“It means that Yusu is the only active priest. So, is Elder Mago like a former priest?”

“More than that. She was the very first priest of all.”

“Ah… Then it meant that she had a face-to-face with the apostle.”

“Yes. She said it came right after she crossed the wall.”

The apostle Mago met a messenger of the God who emerged without being restricted to the Channel even in those days when this dimension was isolated. She received her order from the apostle and became the first priest on earth to serve ‘the Land of Blood and Oil.’

Her faith in service was the first to take root in the world.

“I kept wondering, but it feels like there is no other name of that god in White Deer.”

Instead of calling the true name of the God who had been connected to a name, the wizard who received the spells or the priest who offered faith used the common name that civilization used instead. The generic name went beyond the meaning of a simple nickname and functions as a spell.

In my case, the name I called to borrow the power of the ‘Swimmer of the Star Winds’ was Dryflos, and the name that Parvache put in prayer when it was a priest of the ‘Sacred Scriptures Without the Last Chapter’ was Purbagios. These were all names that already existed in Parvache’s original dimension.

We had to do this since we had to keep a reasonable distance for as long as we somehow had a relationship with God. The purpose was to avoid being involved more than necessary by invoking the true name recklessly.

On the other hand, the case of the ‘Land of Blood and Oil’ had no known generic name since it wasn’t served in Parvache’s dimension. It was through Akashic Records that we learned it was the true name.

I asked because I thought perhaps there was a generic name that White Deer used to call it. But surprisingly, Yusu ??shook his head.

“I mean the other name other than the real name.”

“Nothing.”

Since there were no other Gods who were in contact with them, was it unnecessary to be distinguished?

Parvache sent me a sense of doubt.

[It’s like a monotheistic under this limited group.]

‘It’s not like the residents here didn’t know the existence of other gods, right? Yusu knew you to some extent. Didn’t he call you the one who touched the bookmark of the scriptures without the last chapter?’

Nevertheless, the reason why they didn’t make a generic name to distinguish it was that except for the ‘Land of Blood and Oil,” the Gods probably didn’t care if they called them using their true name. They don’t serve those Gods, after all.

[It could be… Ah. Wait. Come to think of it.]

At that time, Parvache asked, conveying its intention to reach Yusu.

[How did you know the true name of the God I worshiped the other day? Its apostles had never been down in this world. You can tell from the fact that that world wasn’t connected to Akashic Records.]

“I asked the God I was serving.”

When Garam and Mrs. Pearl were staying at my house, Yusu seemed to ask God about our identity through a ritual at White Deer.

By the way, it seemed that it gave a helpful answer to the question about the other gods’ information while it zipped its mouth to the question of Truth-Seekers?

[What did it say about me?]

“It told me about the true name and that the elder received power from it.”

It referred to the power to access Akashic Records.

[And?]

Yusu seemed to think about it for a moment, then he said carefully.

“… It also said that the power remains, but it is an incomplete fragment as a priest.”

It seemed to refer to how Parvache lost its divine power as it became a spirit.

[Anything else?]

I remember what Yusu said. It said, ‘A person who stands at the end of the history of a certain world.’ Now I know the meaning, too. That means…

“… It said that the elder’s world of origin does not exist anymore.”

Parvache remained silent for a moment, then replied with relentless determination.

[Right. Even if the connection is weak, it doesn’t seem to interfere with the observation. No, precisely, it’s highly likely that it’s paying attention to us because you asked a question. It’s just looking at us once to figure it out. After all, it’s still a God.]

The feelings buried in its reply were unexpectedly calm. Was it because it’s been too long?

The Silver Forest’s Truth-Seeker once said that when it heard the generic names of the gods’ Dryflos’ and ‘Adeligos,’ Civilizations in which these languages ??were spoken were said to have perished a long time ago.

It didn’t mean simply the fall of civilization. Parvache told me after that happened. It was said that the parental dimension he was born and raised in has already disappeared. It became a spirit and flowed to another world and had existed until now.

It wasn’t until the day when I met Parvache and a decade later that I found out.

… Hmm?

But now that I thought about it, it was strange. Why didn’t Parvache told me that story for so long?

Oh… wait a minute.

“…”

The strange thing didn’t stop there.

Parvache had taught me magic, telling me about its origin dimension hundreds and thousands of times. In the meantime, was it normal to never tell me that the world didn’t exist now?

Didn’t Parvache hide the facts from me no matter how much I look at it?

Parvache and Yusu continued to have conversations about answers from God. But it didn’t come into my ears properly.

I’m confused. I doubt it. And the greatest sense of contradiction that overwhelms all these questions…

How am I ever wondering about this fact, or had I ever doubted Parvache?

Related thoughts continued after another, and I felt as if it swept through my brain like sand in my mouth. It was awkward and unfamiliar.

‘Do I doubt Parvache?’

This self-talk sits heavily in my mind like a wound drawn on the skin that had not ripened yet. A terrible sense of incongruity. The door to the basement that I had never opened opens. A ray of self-awareness pierced sharply through the damp darkness.

I realized at that moment. From the moment I first saw Parvache on that day at the age of 8 until now, that I had never doubted Parvache.

I remembered the day when the Truth-Seeker of the Silver Forest gave me a name. As it searched my memories, its will resonated in my mind. And immediately after that, I recalled the feeling that something was torn off from the bottom of me, and a cool breeze was blowing.

-Let’s look at your deep bottom.

-What is it? There is something on the bottom of your heart? ‘Absolute trust?’

-It indeed affected you, but this is not the real you…

I walked silently without saying anything for a while.