High Guardian Spice Twice

Ch. 5 - The Petals of the Rose. (Part 2).

How about if I tell you a story....

Once upon a time, there was a young elf boy in a village in the land of Bestiaria... an elf who longed to uncover the mysteries of life. His curiosity was as vast as the world itself, and his long life would allow him to explore it.

For an elf, life moves at a slower pace. While a human is considered an adult at 23, an elf at 25 is just beginning adolescence, their body reflecting that stage.

The boy's mother was a Guardian, a protector of life and goodness. She would tell him that in 18 years, when the young elf reached the age of 38, they could visit his father together. His parents' relationship had been an adventure, but his father had promised to welcome them in the future. Unlike the boy and his mother, his father was human and lived in Lyngarth... but that was the original plan.

Then, after those 18 years, the boy's mother vanished without a trace. Without her protection, their home was overrun by relentless beasts, forcing him to leave the place where he had grown up...

With no home and no idea of his mother's whereabouts, the boy had only one lead—that his father was a human living in Lyngarth. So, he set off on his journey, walking and exploring as he had always dreamed. Finally, he would explore the world and find the answers to his questions. But he soon learned that life was not a fairy tale, and the innocence that drove his curiosity was also his downfall.

Stumble after stumble, he encountered people who took advantage of his innocence. He had been treated as a child by his mother and village, and the cruelty of others was something new to him. He knew of dangers, but he never imagined how overwhelming true evil could be.

It took the young elf 20 years to reach Lyngarth... He had endured blow after blow, surviving however he could, gaining knowledge, meeting a few people who helped him stay alive, and acquiring a question that seemed to have no answer: "What is the limit of evil?"

At 58 years old, the young elf finally found his father's home, following the sparse information he had gathered from various people. Excited to finally meet his father after all these years, he knocked on the door. An older woman answered, and the young elf asked for his father by name. But the words that followed were ones he never expected...

"I'm sorry, but you're too late. Your father passed away 5 years ago at the age of 98."

All this time, the young elf hadn't considered that life doesn't pass the same way for humans. He thought all life forms lived for the same span of time... He then learned that the woman before him was his father's real wife, with whom he had three young children.

The young elf asked if his father had left anything for him, as he had promised. The woman appeared nervous for a moment before telling the elf that no, his father had left him nothing. But with all the experience he had gained from living a life of constant caution, the elf noticed the woman's nervousness and realized she was lying.

That night, the elf used magic to sneak into the house, searching for anything his father might have left him. Finally, he found a chest containing various items and a note stating that everything within it was his. Inside were a large sum of money, a fencing sword, and other items, including the deed to the house where he stood, as his father had suspected that by the time the young elf arrived, it would already be too late.

Overcome with frustration, tears, and anger at his father's wife's lie, the young elf took his chest and, in his rage, set the house ablaze and destroyed it completely.

Everything he had suffered had eroded his mind and poisoned his soul. His emotions overwhelmed him the moment he learned that his father had died and that the woman's greed was robbing him of the one place he had strived to reach for years.