Estio Volume 8
- Episode 7
'The smiling face must be similar to Loaren.'
Is it because there have been so many ups and downs since we met with difficulty? It was the first time the child had released a stiff expression. At first, Estio wasn't the type of person who had a variety of facial expressions. In that respect, he resembled Shuhanan himself, not Loaren. Shuhanan continued to look at Estio, who was holding the next coin in his hand as a practice, returning to his expressionless face, but the expression that disappeared once did not come back.
Private lessons continued for several days after that. At the same time, Shuhanan found out that Estio didn't really have any basic knowledge, let alone magic, to have as a dragon, and he was in a new dilemma.
'I can't do this. If it was a Loaren, it must have been a Guardian...?'
There's no way that thoughtful companion would have left the world alone with a baby who never woke up. Shuhanan was almost certain of that guess.
From what I heard from the holy knights who ordered the investigation, Estio said that he was 19 years old now. No, now that the years have changed, it's been 20 years.
The child turned twenty without a guardian. Even if Loaren died 500 years ago, it means that he was asleep in the egg the whole time. Loa Ren enchanted the eggs she laid to forcibly prevent his hatching. Until one day Shu Hanan finds him, so that he can hide safely.
'500 years.'
It was possible because of the guardian's protection that the dragon's egg could not be broken and remained unnoticed for a long period of time. Shuhanan thought that the guardian Lorren attached to existed before Estio was born.
'...Is he dead?'
Loaren was a strong black dragon. She cannot imagine that she would have easily closed her eyes before the Guardian, who drank her blood, finished her mission, but she was not at all impossible, Shu Hanan knew.
'When the Master Dragon dies, the Guardian begins to age.'
All living things age. And of course they die. I do not know what the original lifespan of the guardian who was ordered to protect the egg was, but it was acceptable to endure 500 years.
'So did humans discover it? Thank you.'
Shuhanan felt his anger towards humans subside a little. If Moobin had heard him, he would have grabbed the back of his head and pulled him back, but now there was no one to correct it. Estio, the only one with the ability to read minds, did not notice at all as he was practicing the magic he had learned for the first time today.
'I don't want to tell you about where Estio has been growing up, so it would be better to visit it in person.'
I can only guess why you didn't want to tell me.
'I'm afraid I'll hurt them.'
It is natural for the child to be anxious because he has expressed his ferocious hatred by saying he hates humans so much. Shu Hanan blamed herself for that and swallowed her heavy sigh. But he never meant to harm them.
Shuhanan wanted to see the environment in which Estio grew up. He has no guardians and it was important that he Hatchling knew how he lived. In particular, the time immediately after hatching from the egg was the most important period in determining future tendencies and personality formation.
Sooner or later, Shuhanan decided to sneak a peek to the human village he was grateful for for helping the child to be born and grow up.
Chapter 31 Like a spring flower that blooms in winter
A month has passed.
In the meantime, the holy magic training held at the Pontifical Elysium took shape. At first, the amount of training was small because Ruby and Lipe had to deal with it, but the holy knights who were blessed and recovered one after another robbed their seats and got up and joined, spurring the training.
At the beginning of the training, the guardian of the Black Dragon and the guardian group of the Hwangryong kept quarreling from the start, and there was a creak between them. Then, as the training progressed, they recognized that they were similar to each other. As a sympathy for the various things experienced as a guardian was formed, in the past, they became close enough to exchange jokes.
Of course, no matter how much time passed, the black cat Tsuki never got mixed up with the group, and in the end, even during training, he often disappeared by himself. If Tsuki made up his mind to hide, even Estio could not be found, so the holy knights who were in charge of training had to give up aimlessly looking for a black cat with a broken neck. In the meantime, the learning speed is also like a ghost, so after a few days, Ruby no longer cares about Tsuki's unauthorized polka dots.
So, a month has passed since the guardians of Estio received divine magic training under Shuhanan's order, and a lot has changed. Among them, the person who has undergone the biggest change is none other than that.
「Ehh! There is no truth in this blood, sincerity."
It was a cactus. When he first started learning divine magic, Ahur insisted that he was a non-violent and would never learn any fighting skills, but after hearing Ruby's explanation, he changed his mind.
'Let's get rid of the stereotype that divine magic must be used only in battle.'
Ruby, who showed Ahur on a new path, smiled as he said that, and the cactus accepted the proposal without being vigilant.
And the results have arrived right now.
"Hehehe. I'm so lacking in faith, I'll repent!"
"Oh, come on. Come strong."
"Ahur! Test my faith!"
"Why are you so anxious because you can't pass the exam? Just trust me who believes in you!"
"No. Only 10 years of apprenticeship! Today, I will definitely show you that flower!"
A loud cry resounded throughout the chapel. Hearing the tearful declaration, enthusiastic applause erupted from the waiting line. Neju, who was holding the cactus flowerpot so as not to get hurt, blinked her red eyes and looked back at Parker beside her.
"What's going on?
"Ahaha, what can I do? It's all a form of training? I'll keep doing it until Ahur-sama gets tired."
Neju nodded and handed the cactus flowerpot in her arms to the waiter in the front row. The apprentice priest, who took the cactus with a very reverent expression, trembled with his eyelids, and immediately embraced the cactus tightly in his arms.
'Oh, I'm really sick.'
The spot where the thorn was stabbed quickly turned red because he was purposely wearing thin clothing. Swallowing her groan, she returned her flowerpot to Neju, and found her blood dripping from every thorn of her cactus. However, after a while, to his surprise, the drops of blood that had formed on the thorns were absorbed by themselves.
"Ko, the flowers...!"
"Uh-huh."
The apprentice priest looked into Ahur with great sorrow, but showed no sign of blossoming. In the end, sad tears flowed from the corners of her eyes, unable to bear the pain.
"Heuk. Teacher, why aren't the flowers blooming?"
Now, among believers, Ahur's title was 'teacher', like a famous doctor or researcher. A Hur, who had been rubbing his cheeks for a while, shook his branch.
"The taste was good, but the willpower was lacking. So, what is my score…"
"......!"
"Sixty points out of one hundred! You should have burned the intense ego that made flowers bloom with faith. You drop out!"
Hearing Ahur's advice, the apprentice priest staggered back with a sad sigh of 'ahh'. The ten-year apprenticeship was a dismal failure. He was pierced by thorns, leaving only his clothes with holes in them as a bitter wound of faith.
"I guess I should say it's fortunate that all of them are apprentice priests……"
Parker looked tiredly at the apprentice priests who lined up after that.
"Faith is really scary."
Trained by the Holy Knights, Ahur learned to wield divine power, but he could not use attack magic, blessings, or curses. Instead, it became possible to use the ability he received from Estio by converting it one step further.
When two things are satisfied: proper nutrition and a strong mind to think of someone, red flowers with healing power can bloom without Estio's blood.
The theory was perfect, but Ahur was very sad because he never had a chance to actually make a red flower bloom. It was at that time that Ruby's idea to give practical training to apprentice priests was helpful.
It was just advice I gave while passing by, but rumors quickly swelled up, and the title 'Cactus that Tests Faith' was attached. As a result, apprentice priests seeking Ahur began to line up as they do now.
"Volunteer free hugs with cactus! I can't possibly do it."
"Neju can do it if Estio is sick!"
"Uh, umm. Motivation is good, but cactus thorns don't seem to be able to penetrate Neju-sama's skin."
Parker smiled awkwardly as he saw the little white furry monkey that had recently become more ambitious.
In fact, training is training, but there was another reason why Ahur worked so hard with people. To the cactus who drank Estio's blood and changed its ecology, blood was food.
Ahur learned how to survive the sleep phase by getting enough nourishment from the people. It was a 'faith test' that was beneficial to both the apprentice priests and Ahur who were not yet confident in their priesthood qualifications.
'Everyone has been growing steadily since coming here.'
Parker looked around to find Tsuki who had disappeared today, but gave up and turned his gaze back to the cactus hugging with another apprentice priest.
I heard that Tsuki and Mubin were learning divine magic that could be used in battle, but Parker had never witnessed it with his own eyes. Parker and Neju had nothing to do for the past month because Shuhanan had nailed them so that non-guardians could not participate in the training. Fortunately, he was barely permitted to walk around the temple following a cactus in need of care.
There were also changes among the party who were not the Guardian. Guild master Kai confirmed that Estio was safe and returned to the guild headquarters a month earlier.
The reason he left Elysium so hastily was also because the eyes of the saints and the Holy Knights looking at Kai were as cold as the snow piled up over the winter.
'Why do all the priests hate the Master?'
Parker wondered about the atmosphere of the temple, which was particularly neglectful of caiman, but he did not come up with an answer.
Parker didn't have to stay, but he was a member of the Leader Support Team, so even if he went back to the headquarters without Estio, time would be wasted. So Parker decided to stay with Nezu at the Vatican.
While waiting for the training to be over, Parker took care of Ahur and jotted down the information he had heard over the years in a notebook, and also bought some sacred artifacts and stuffed them in his bag. He also didn't forget to check the newspapers that were loaded with domestic and foreign circumstances.
Estio Volume 8
- Episode 7
'The smiling face must be similar to Loaren.'
Is it because there have been so many ups and downs since we met with difficulty? It was the first time the child had released a stiff expression. At first, Estio wasn't the type of person who had a variety of facial expressions. In that respect, he resembled Shuhanan himself, not Loaren. Shuhanan continued to look at Estio, who was holding the next coin in his hand as a practice, returning to his expressionless face, but the expression that disappeared once did not come back.
Private lessons continued for several days after that. At the same time, Shuhanan found out that Estio didn't really have any basic knowledge, let alone magic, to have as a dragon, and he was in a new dilemma.
'I can't do this. If it was a Loaren, it must have been a Guardian...?'
There's no way that thoughtful companion would have left the world alone with a baby who never woke up. Shuhanan was almost certain of that guess.
From what I heard from the holy knights who ordered the investigation, Estio said that he was 19 years old now. No, now that the years have changed, it's been 20 years.
The child turned twenty without a guardian. Even if Loaren died 500 years ago, it means that he was asleep in the egg the whole time. Loa Ren enchanted the eggs she laid to forcibly prevent his hatching. Until one day Shu Hanan finds him, so that he can hide safely.
'500 years.'
It was possible because of the guardian's protection that the dragon's egg could not be broken and remained unnoticed for a long period of time. Shuhanan thought that the guardian Lorren attached to existed before Estio was born.
'...Is he dead?'
Loaren was a strong black dragon. She cannot imagine that she would have easily closed her eyes before the Guardian, who drank her blood, finished her mission, but she was not at all impossible, Shu Hanan knew.
'When the Master Dragon dies, the Guardian begins to age.'
All living things age. And of course they die. I do not know what the original lifespan of the guardian who was ordered to protect the egg was, but it was acceptable to endure 500 years.
'So did humans discover it? Thank you.'
Shuhanan felt his anger towards humans subside a little. If Moobin had heard him, he would have grabbed the back of his head and pulled him back, but now there was no one to correct it. Estio, the only one with the ability to read minds, did not notice at all as he was practicing the magic he had learned for the first time today.
'I don't want to tell you about where Estio has been growing up, so it would be better to visit it in person.'
I can only guess why you didn't want to tell me.
'I'm afraid I'll hurt them.'
It is natural for the child to be anxious because he has expressed his ferocious hatred by saying he hates humans so much. Shu Hanan blamed herself for that and swallowed her heavy sigh. But he never meant to harm them.
Shuhanan wanted to see the environment in which Estio grew up. He has no guardians and it was important that he Hatchling knew how he lived. In particular, the time immediately after hatching from the egg was the most important period in determining future tendencies and personality formation.
Sooner or later, Shuhanan decided to sneak a peek to the human village he was grateful for for helping the child to be born and grow up.
Chapter 31 Like a spring flower that blooms in winter
A month has passed.
In the meantime, the holy magic training held at the Pontifical Elysium took shape. At first, the amount of training was small because Ruby and Lipe had to deal with it, but the holy knights who were blessed and recovered one after another robbed their seats and got up and joined, spurring the training.
At the beginning of the training, the guardian of the Black Dragon and the guardian group of the Hwangryong kept quarreling from the start, and there was a creak between them. Then, as the training progressed, they recognized that they were similar to each other. As a sympathy for the various things experienced as a guardian was formed, in the past, they became close enough to exchange jokes.
Of course, no matter how much time passed, the black cat Tsuki never got mixed up with the group, and in the end, even during training, he often disappeared by himself. If Tsuki made up his mind to hide, even Estio could not be found, so the holy knights who were in charge of training had to give up aimlessly looking for a black cat with a broken neck. In the meantime, the learning speed is also like a ghost, so after a few days, Ruby no longer cares about Tsuki's unauthorized polka dots.
So, a month has passed since the guardians of Estio received divine magic training under Shuhanan's order, and a lot has changed. Among them, the person who has undergone the biggest change is none other than that.
「Ehh! There is no truth in this blood, sincerity."
It was a cactus. When he first started learning divine magic, Ahur insisted that he was a non-violent and would never learn any fighting skills, but after hearing Ruby's explanation, he changed his mind.
'Let's get rid of the stereotype that divine magic must be used only in battle.'
Ruby, who showed Ahur on a new path, smiled as he said that, and the cactus accepted the proposal without being vigilant.
And the results have arrived right now.
"Hehehe. I'm so lacking in faith, I'll repent!"
"Oh, come on. Come strong."
"Ahur! Test my faith!"
"Why are you so anxious because you can't pass the exam? Just trust me who believes in you!"
"No. Only 10 years of apprenticeship! Today, I will definitely show you that flower!"
A loud cry resounded throughout the chapel. Hearing the tearful declaration, enthusiastic applause erupted from the waiting line. Neju, who was holding the cactus flowerpot so as not to get hurt, blinked her red eyes and looked back at Parker beside her.
"What's going on?
"Ahaha, what can I do? It's all a form of training? I'll keep doing it until Ahur-sama gets tired."
Neju nodded and handed the cactus flowerpot in her arms to the waiter in the front row. The apprentice priest, who took the cactus with a very reverent expression, trembled with his eyelids, and immediately embraced the cactus tightly in his arms.
'Oh, I'm really sick.'
The spot where the thorn was stabbed quickly turned red because he was purposely wearing thin clothing. Swallowing her groan, she returned her flowerpot to Neju, and found her blood dripping from every thorn of her cactus. However, after a while, to his surprise, the drops of blood that had formed on the thorns were absorbed by themselves.
"Ko, the flowers...!"
"Uh-huh."
The apprentice priest looked into Ahur with great sorrow, but showed no sign of blossoming. In the end, sad tears flowed from the corners of her eyes, unable to bear the pain.
"Heuk. Teacher, why aren't the flowers blooming?"
Now, among believers, Ahur's title was 'teacher', like a famous doctor or researcher. A Hur, who had been rubbing his cheeks for a while, shook his branch.
"The taste was good, but the willpower was lacking. So, what is my score…"
"......!"
"Sixty points out of one hundred! You should have burned the intense ego that made flowers bloom with faith. You drop out!"
Hearing Ahur's advice, the apprentice priest staggered back with a sad sigh of 'ahh'. The ten-year apprenticeship was a dismal failure. He was pierced by thorns, leaving only his clothes with holes in them as a bitter wound of faith.
"I guess I should say it's fortunate that all of them are apprentice priests……"
Parker looked tiredly at the apprentice priests who lined up after that.
"Faith is really scary."
Trained by the Holy Knights, Ahur learned to wield divine power, but he could not use attack magic, blessings, or curses. Instead, it became possible to use the ability he received from Estio by converting it one step further.
When two things are satisfied: proper nutrition and a strong mind to think of someone, red flowers with healing power can bloom without Estio's blood.
The theory was perfect, but Ahur was very sad because he never had a chance to actually make a red flower bloom. It was at that time that Ruby's idea to give practical training to apprentice priests was helpful.
It was just advice I gave while passing by, but rumors quickly swelled up, and the title 'Cactus that Tests Faith' was attached. As a result, apprentice priests seeking Ahur began to line up as they do now.
"Volunteer free hugs with cactus! I can't possibly do it."
"Neju can do it if Estio is sick!"
"Uh, umm. Motivation is good, but cactus thorns don't seem to be able to penetrate Neju-sama's skin."
Parker smiled awkwardly as he saw the little white furry monkey that had recently become more ambitious.
In fact, training is training, but there was another reason why Ahur worked so hard with people. To the cactus who drank Estio's blood and changed its ecology, blood was food.
Ahur learned how to survive the sleep phase by getting enough nourishment from the people. It was a 'faith test' that was beneficial to both the apprentice priests and Ahur who were not yet confident in their priesthood qualifications.
'Everyone has been growing steadily since coming here.'
Parker looked around to find Tsuki who had disappeared today, but gave up and turned his gaze back to the cactus hugging with another apprentice priest.
I heard that Tsuki and Mubin were learning divine magic that could be used in battle, but Parker had never witnessed it with his own eyes. Parker and Neju had nothing to do for the past month because Shuhanan had nailed them so that non-guardians could not participate in the training. Fortunately, he was barely permitted to walk around the temple following a cactus in need of care.
There were also changes among the party who were not the Guardian. Guild master Kai confirmed that Estio was safe and returned to the guild headquarters a month earlier.
The reason he left Elysium so hastily was also because the eyes of the saints and the Holy Knights looking at Kai were as cold as the snow piled up over the winter.
'Why do all the priests hate the Master?'
Parker wondered about the atmosphere of the temple, which was particularly neglectful of caiman, but he did not come up with an answer.
Parker didn't have to stay, but he was a member of the Leader Support Team, so even if he went back to the headquarters without Estio, time would be wasted. So Parker decided to stay with Nezu at the Vatican.
While waiting for the training to be over, Parker took care of Ahur and jotted down the information he had heard over the years in a notebook, and also bought some sacred artifacts and stuffed them in his bag. He also didn't forget to check the newspapers that were loaded with domestic and foreign circumstances.
