Chapter 85 - About Rhema

It was surprising that it had been so long since he read an interesting book, there was even more surprising fact. About 600 years ago, even before the Kingdom of Aucandor was established, there was a bad drought in the whole continent. The earth dried up and people pleaded to God for their lives. Then, all of a sudden, there was a sudden rain in the whole continent for three days. A moderate fine rain, not a downpour, ceaselessly poured down for three days and wetted the entire ground. People praised God, saying that their plea reached God. It was an event written in history as ‘the Miracle of Rain.’ Azriel vacantly opened her mouth.

“The Miracle of Rain was what you made? It was you who made it rain on the entire continent for three days?”

“Yes, the crying sounds were annoying.”

“The crying sounds?”

“Wherever I went, I heard people’s cries, and it was difficult to find things I wanted. So, I made it rain.”

She was lost for words. Azriel opened and closed her mouth for a while, not being able to say something, barely managed to speak.

“Why didn’t you tell others that it was your doing? Nobody knows that it was a miracle made by the Wizard of the Horizon!”

“Is there a reason to let others know?”

“If no one knows who did it, no one will thank you, Rhema.”

“I don’t particularly want to be thanked.”

“But still. Everyone praised it. Didn’t you feel sad?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t felt such an emotion.”

Suddenly she recalled the time when she prepared his birthday present for the first time. What did he say when he received the gift?

“Don’t try to give me something, Azriel,” he said.

“…Were there other events like that?”

“What kind of events are you talking about exactly?”

“When you used magic because of people’s pleas.”

Rhema leaned his back against the armchair. He lowered his eyes and thought deeply before opening his mouth.

“I haven’t counted it one by one, so I have no idea. I just remember that their scale was large—”

He told her several incidents such as: turning the course of a tsunami, stopping an earthquake, preventing a volcanic explosion, and so on. All of them were events in which he saved countless people’s lives from a disaster. Those were written in history and miracles that became the grounds that God existed and listened to people’s prayers even though he never responded. It felt strange. Rhema, who crushed knights, made the people of Hanora Village go crazy, turned Colte Castle into dust and killed the whole Colte family, made it rain to resolve a drought without moving from one spot for three days and did not feel sorry even though no one recognized his hard work, who did not want to receive anything, had been reading books he already knew the contents of and that were not even fun for hundreds of years just to pass time— It seemed the more she learned about him, the less she knew who he was, the wizard called Rhema Reshith. Azriel absent-mindedly looked at the white wizard and asked a sudden question.

“Rhema, do you ever want to spend time doing something else? Something more enjoyable.”

“Like how?”

“Making friends or enjoying people’s company—”

Azriel blurred the end of her sentence. Rhema had said that she would be miserable if she stayed by his side. He even abandoned her once for that reason. She shook her head quickly and restated her words.

“There must be something you can do to spend time more enjoyably. Do you have any hobbies?”

“I don’t have a particular thing that I enjoy.”

“You used to be in the underground lab often. Is it fun to study magic?”

“I don’t study magic there. Besides, ever since I reached the limit of a human, I haven’t had a desire to research something.”

The words that could sound prideful did not sound prideful at all. It was because he was speaking the truth in a very calm tone. Azriel asked back.

“Then what do you do in the lab?” 

“…” Rhema became silent.

It must be something he cannot tell. Could it be related to his duty? Instead of inquiring more, Azriel leaned against him.

“Then, let’s look for it together.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your hobby,” she smiled and added. “We’ll try different things together and find what is fun for you. It’s too lonely if you have to repeat a meaningless action just to pass time.”

He blankly gazed at her face and murmured in a little hoarse voice.

“I’ve tried quite a lot of things but there was nothing that was very enjoyable for me.”

“You’ve don’t most of them alone, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“There are things that are more fun doing together than doing it alone and there are hobbies that you can’t do alone.”

“…”

“What about hunting? Any instruments? We can try this and that together, can we?”

The eyes like twinkling stars. The wizard could not take his eyes off of them.

“…I’m fine just like this, Azriel.”

“Are you really fine? Just passing time meaninglessly?”

Rhema opened his mouth and closed it. He could not answer her somehow. Something inside him rustled. Azriel quietly watched him. The wizard whose eyes were lowered was beautiful and dried up.

‘He looks like a person who’s not here but somewhere else.’

She involuntarily reached out her hand. His cheek touched the tip of her hand. She could feel his temperature. He had the same warmth as other people. Azriel smiled.

“Rhema, I want you to be happy. Just like how you want to make me happy.”

Rhema Reshith possessedly looked at her hand that touched him and her face with a smile.

“So I don’t want you to pass time, that’s not even fun, alone.”

“I usually feel comfortable to be alone.”

“You mean it’s okay for you to be with me, correct? You said you want to have more conversations with me.”

“…Right.”

“Then I’ll be on your side.”

The girl who said that she wanted him to be happy smiled. Crack. He heard the sound of an egg cracking.

At that moment, a colorful bird sitting on a nest far away cawed unpleasantly.

“Like I thought, he should’ve killed her and forgotten about her. Because he kept her alive, he brought her again and is making the same mistake,” Ofeq’s eyes were narrowed. “Should I kill her myself instead?”

The bird was surprised by what he uttered. After fluttering meaninglessly for some time, he looked at the egg inside the nest.

“…Yes, I can just kill her myself. That’d be better. But how can I kill her?”

A familiar spirit could not go against its owner. Even Ofeq, who was the greatest and oldest familiar spirit, was not free from that principle. Then what could he do? Ofeq fell into deep thought.