Chapter 253
Hyukjin flinched.
“The Endless Sky?”
“Yes. Do you know it?”
Natalie tilted her head slightly to the left. Her mystical silver hair cascaded like water.
“Could you tell me a little about the Endless Sky?”
“Why?”
“I’m a bit curious.”
There was no need to tell her that the Demon King said he would be waiting there, and he didn’t need to explain the nitty gritty of his circumstances.
“You said the reason a race as strong as you guys left the Endless Sky is because you’re a peace-loving race. A human like me can’t understand it at all.”
Natalie glanced warily around. Her silver hair sparkled, bringing light to the dark ocean depths. There was nothing nearby.
Her way of speech changed a little.
“That’s what I’m saying. I can’t understand it, either. It’s so darn frustrating.”
Her previously stately expression morphed into a mischievous scowl.
‘She’s young.’
It was as if she were done acting, and this was her true self. Hyukjin didn’t know what kind of race the whalekin were, but he got the feeling that Natalie was a child.
“This is something the adults of our race decided. It’s frustrating as all hell. We can’t even use our strength because of the stupid vow they made, and now, even going up to breathe is scary because of the fruit flies up there. Tch, it makes me mad.”
As she complained, Hyukjin felt intense mana in her voice. She wasn’t trying to discharge mana; it was simply infused in her voice.
‘Seriously?’
It was his first time experiencing a force this immense, but simultaneously unaggressive.
‘I think she’s stronger than a Fire Giant.’
At least a Fire Giant had strength he could see. The power it possessed was violent and aggressive, the kind of power that wanted to crush everything it could see.
But this girl’s power was something else entirely. It gave off the same feeling as the darkness pervading the depths of the Sea of Clouds. It was something fathomless, something heavy and impossibly deep.
‘If I’m right, she’s just a young whalekin… yet she’s this strong?’
Then how strong were the fully-grown adults? He couldn’t even imagine.
‘And how strong are the waterdrakes that took over the Endless Sky?’
His head was a mess of thoughts. Hyukjin decided to figure out one thing at a time.
“What do you mean by not being able to use your strength because of a vow?”
“Our adults are weak cowards.”
“…”
“The adults are strong, but they didn’t fight. They could’ve sent those pathetic waterdrakes packing with a few good whacks.”
Waterdrakes came to the Endless Sky. The whalekin didn’t want to fight them, so they made a vow and fled. That was Hyukjin’s understanding of the situation.
“Did they make the vow with the waterdrakes?”
“Those jerks don’t have the authority to make vows with anyone.” Natalie covered her mouth and laughed. “Hoho. This oppa doesn’t know about the waterdrakes, does he?”
“…”
Her character now was worlds apart from how she was at first. Somehow, Hyukjin didn’t really like hearing “oppa” from her. The girl in front of him didn’t feel at all like a younger sibling. It was true she had a mystical appearance and was a whalekin child, but… it was like a warrior bulging with muscles was calling him oppa.
“Our adults made a vow between each other. A promise to leave the Endless Sky, and to love peace. That is why we cannot kill.”
Hyukjin got the gist of what the whalekin girl Natalie was saying. He also realized what Natalie wanted to hear.
‘I just need to scratch her itch a bit.’
So he said this:
“By human standards, that’s not loving peace, but cowardice.”
“Right?”
Natalie’s face was bright with vigor. Her swaying silver hair glittered more radiantly.
“It’s my first time meeting someone who thinks the same as me.” She tucked back her silver hair. “Nice to meet you. I’m Natalie.”
She extended a hand, and Hyukjin took it. They both shook.
“I think of peace as something you can only protect when you have strength,” he said.
“The whalekin are strong.”
“Strength you can’t use isn’t strength. If I were to pull out a knife right now and try to harm you, would you be able to protect yourself?”
Hyukjin looked Natalie directly in the eyes, and she met his gaze. The one who averted her eyes first was Natalie.
“I could… run away.”
“No.” She couldn’t. He had already confirmed that earlier. “A race as strong as yours should be able to make Steel Wyverns submit with no problem. And yet, you were deeply wounded by a Steel Wyvern, and weren’t even able to escape.”
“That’s…”
He could tell even without analyzing the situation with Observer’s Eye. The answer was clear when he matched all the puzzle pieces together.
“Your people once possessed great strength, and there was no need to run.” At least in the Endless Sky. “But your people actually aren’t capable of fleeing.”
They were strong, but they weren’t fast. That was okay, since they had no natural enemies. They only ever needed to move with unconcerned, ponderous grace.
“…”
“That’s why if I were to attack you, you wouldn’t be able to escape from me, Natalie.”
Natalie had nothing to say. That was because Hyukjin was exactly right.
“In addition, the vow your elders made became chains that bind you. Otherwise, there’s no way you would have been injured by the likes of a Steel Wyvern.” Hyukjin pinpointed the exact reason Natalie was injured by a Steel Wyvern. “Because if you were to take an attack from them in your original form, they would be injured.”
It was simple. If you threw an egg at a boulder, the egg would crack. The boulder would just get a little dirty. The boulder in this analogy was the whalekin, and the egg, the wyverns.
“Your vow, the vow to not do harm to others, is restricting your abilities to the greatest degree.”
The whalekin undertook damage to themselves to prevent the egg from cracking.
‘How can there be a race with such an utterly stupid setting?’
Natalie blinked.
“You’re a human, right?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you had a true name.”
“I don’t have a true name. Actually, I don’t even know what that is.”
“Huh? You don’t know what a true name is?” Natalie looked left and right a few times before opening her mouth. “A true name is — — —-.”
He couldn’t hear it. The System had interfered. True names were something he had heard of very early on—Senia had asked him if he had a true name. Hyukjin believed this was a mystery that would be resolved in due time.
“When I looked you in the eyes earlier, I averted my gaze.”
“You did.”
“That’s because I’m a whalekin. And also because it’s not polite to stare directly at someone for too long.”
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