At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 86
All she knew was that they had an outstanding appearance and were closer to plants than animals.
In fact, after hearing someone tell her that her decision to get married was hasty, Jiwoo also thought about it a little more.
She didn’t know how much longer she would have to live with them in the future, but it’s true that she did not know much.
“Would you take a look at this?”
Helka put his hands together and created a small sphere. Glowing white light, the source of light seemed to be floating in the air.
A bright, white light like sunlight shining on a pure white snow field without any curves. The amazing thing was that even though it was shining so coldly, she was able to look straight at it.
“Pretty. Is it magic?”
Helkainis grinned, moving only his lips.
“It is the crystallization of magical power. This is what a body becomes when it receives the energy of Elandos for a long period of time.”
“…What?”
Helka pointed to himself, saying ‘a body’, and Jiwoo at first wondered what he meant. But she soon understood.
“You mean this is your childhood? If this grows, it will become like you?”
“Yes.”
“I-Is it alive?”
When Jiwoo wanted to touch it, Helka held it close to Jiwoo’s hand.
The bright sphere warmed Jiwoo’s hands. But it was soon absorbed by her hands.
“Oh…”
Starting from her hands, warm energy spread throughout her body. It felt good, like her body was floating.
When she looked at Helka, he was smiling warmly, as if he knew she would feel good.
“If you receive the energy of Elandos for a long time, you will gain worldly wisdom and your ego will awaken. However, not many will choose to get a body or even open their eyes. Usually, they just exist in the same elemental form and then return to nature. And even if the ego wakes up, it doesn’t necessarily wake up if there are too many of them.”
This seemed to be the reason why those born from trees, with long life spans, lived in a community of about thirty people.
“Then it must be really difficult to achieve this.”
“You’re right.”
“I think the population will be small.”
“If you compare it to the human population, then yes.”
Helka looked at a white tree located some distance away from the village.
The pure white Elandos that Jiwoo revived upon arriving at El Ragneil. It stretched high into the sky and was so huge that it was amazing even when seen from a distance.
“Our Elandos has lived for two thousand years.”
“Wow… It’s been so long.”
Helka smiled and shook his head.
“Among the Elandos, ours is quite young.”
“Really? Um, the other group earlier… I heard that they said ‘young children’. Is that why they said that?”
To Jiwoo, these people were already significantly older than her, but it didn’t seem to be by their standards.
“This is because the standard is not our respective ages, but our parent Elandos. The Elandos of the group we saw earlier lived at least two to three times longer than ours.”
It was amazing, but the unit of a thousand years was not something that Jiwoo, a human being, could easily grasp compared to how easily he could say it. Even though they were obviously holding hands close together, they seemed very far away.
“Seo Ji-woo, you said you were curious about the existence of the female body. The female body that is born only when the Elandos is fully grown… It’s a little different from us. They are like the embodiment of trees.”
“I thought you were like trees.”
Helka slowly shook his head.
“The female body, the incarnation of a tree, is a being that can live alone. On the other hand, we… are an unstable being born from the chaos of nature. We are just one of those beings that were collected.”
There were several people similar to the Akarna, and the Akarna lived in a community with only a small number of about thirty people.
It felt like she could understand what it meant to say that they were jealous. If they had to share something precious, about thirty brothers was the limit.
“I still can’t imagine it.”
“I’ve never met one either.”
“But how do you know so well?”
“I know what you’re worried about.”
Helka paused again. It seemed a bit difficult to explain.
“If Carnazion is a continent conquered by humans, then the owners of this land are the trees.”
Earth, Carnazion, and humans who lived in the past were similar wherever they went. This was because humans claimed to be the owners of the land.
Although it’s true that she had crossed dimensions, Carnazion was not a very unfamiliar environment to Jiwoo. The people there lived in a country, there were hierarchies within its society, things were traded with monetary currency, people cried and laughed over big and small things, and acted according to their desires…
No matter how much she lived there and did not see any good things, they were still the same human beings. There were still good memories nevertheless.
But it wasn’t like that in El Ragneil.
This place looked different from the human Jiwoo, and the way it worked was difficult to intuitively understand.
“The reason humans build castles and fences to live together is to protect their fragile bodies. Filling and preserving the granary is also to avoid starvation in the face of changing seasons and natural disasters. Storing knowledge through books, creating and spreading specific cultures and religions, creating various types of classes to encourage conflict, and creating new conflicts to avoid conflict. All of this is so that the community, and therefore individuals, can live safely. But we don’t have to.”
All the strength they need to survive comes from trees. The tree was the true owner of El Ragneil. The children of Elandos were beings who did not conquer this land, but were granted a piece of land by the tree, the owner of the land, and lived with its permission.
“We share the power to protect our bodies and knowledge about the world and grow together through Elandos. We don’t change our surroundings like humans do. We ourselves do not change either.”
The way they looked at humans was neither contempt nor respect. A strange crush developed through their spouse, Seo Jiwoo. That was it.
“To you, we will seem very slow. Development and change are achieved through conflict and threats, and we do not have anything like that. But we also think humans are too fast. Humans suddenly appear, run away alone, cry and laugh for a split second, and then burn to ashes overnight.”
It cannot be said that there was no development here. What they had was only the weight of time, not a desire to advance beyond others.
To the children of Elandos, humans were beings that suddenly appeared and disappeared like candles. It’s so insignificant, but it steals so much attention.
“Seo Jiwoo.”
“…Yes?”
“This is our first time too.”
Helka paused for a moment again. His voice was a little emotional as he spoke in a stiff, explaining tone.
“Meeting a woman we thought we could get along with… Moreover, a woman who is a human being… But as I said, we are not changeable beings. You may find it slow and perhaps frustrating.”
At first, Jiwoo didn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“So… A brother may be a bit confused. Please be lenient with them.”
Helka had said all he needed to say, so he left the desk and got up to prepare for tomorrow’s schedule. Until he turned his back and started walking away, Jiwoo had no idea what he was trying to say.
“Helka.”
Helka, who was walking forward, looked back.
“Are you sure you’ve lived for a thousand years?”
Helka smiled.
It was a smile too childlike and innocent to be seen on an old sage.
“Well.”