Chapter 766 – Freedom in Bondage

000

Upon entering the room, Lila sat down on the old bed she had previously used, crossed her arms and crossed her legs, looking up at Ventuna.

Ventuna looked at her with a somewhat pointed attitude, in contrast to the kind attitude Lila showed at her prom just now.

“Don’t stand, why don’t you sit down too?”

As she said this, she pointed with her hand to the small chair in front of the desk that Lila had also used in her childhood. Ventuna closed her mouth for a moment, but then she sat there as if she had no choice.

Then the next moment, boo! A sound was heard, and chains appeared, binding Ventuna’s body to her chair.

“It’s a version with the flames removed. “It doesn’t hurt that much, does it?”

＂That’s so kind…＂

When Ventuna heard Laila’s words, she responded in a confused manner, wondering if she was dumbfounded or if she was being sarcastic about Laila’s words.

But the important thing is that she cannot escape from this.

It is also possible for Ventuna to take on the form of a spirit like Aqua, but it is also impossible unless it is in a place where her magical energy overflows in the atmosphere like her.

However, Lila’s restraint on herself was within the scope of what was already expected.

That’s why she was able to answer Lila calmly without panicking.

“I don’t want you to run away just in case. It’s not that I can’t track it, but I’ve already consumed a lot of magical power while fighting Aqua.”

“I don’t do things like that. If that were possible, the moment Mr. Fromme said that he knew Petrus’ identity – no, I would have taken the opportunity to run away while Aqua ran away, and you disappeared.”

“Ah, that’s impossible. I already told Sasha to keep an eye on me. Even if you were a wind spirit, it must have been difficult to escape that child’s eyes, right? That child sees faster than the wind and flies faster than a gale.”

At Leila’s words, Bentuna couldn’t help but keep her mouth shut, thinking, ‘Somehow, she let herself go too easily.’

“There are a lot of things I want to ask. But… That’s right. First, I would like you to answer these two most important questions.”

“Anyway, they will not be given the right to remain silent or the right to appoint a lawyer.”

She sighed but nodded her head as if she couldn’t help it.

Then, Lila extends her index finger, and she talks to her.”

“First. “How much of what you said was sincere?”

What was said during the conversation in her mansion – that she would burn down the mansion to be free.

If her plan had gone ahead, not only would Lila’s wish disappear, but so would Petrus and Aqua’s hope of returning to the spirit of the magic tower that she had aimed for.

And that goes for Ventuna as well.

Compared to the magical body she had when she was a spirit – a body literally made of wind and air that could freely roam the sky – the human body made of blood and flesh that makes up her body now is very weak, heavy and heavy. You may be feeling dull and unfree, as if there are heavy shackles on your entire body.

No matter how much I think about it, the one that suits the freedom she wants is not her current body, but a spirit body.

It felt somewhat contradictory for Lila to say that she would give up her freedom and burn down her mansion to free Lila and the others from the shackles of their dreams. 〉

“Surprising… Do I look like someone who would lie?”

“If you lied once, it doesn’t seem like you can’t lie a second or third time, right?”

Ben Tuna responds as if trying to trick her, but Lila also glares at her as if she has no intention of backing down.

Then, Bentuna, who thought she couldn’t win in a snowball fight, let out a sigh that I don’t know if it was a small sigh or an expression of enthusiasm that said, “She’s good, she’ll talk from now on.”

“Did you hear how I became the head of the Gailgazer family?”

“Aqua… I heard that you negotiated with them and obtained the position of head of the family. … I don’t know what you think about the position of the four great families.”

Bentuna, who heard Lila’s answer, smiled as if she agreed, but continued to tell her story with a somewhat nostalgic expression.

“At that time, the Gailgazer family had almost lost their identity as wizards. Most of the previous disciples did not admire him as a magician, but rather admired his skill as a merchant who assisted his grandfather, who was a hero, and came to learn trading techniques from him.”

Thinking about what happened at that time, Ventuna smiled as if it was somehow funny.

It wasn’t easy for Laila to judge whether she was laughing at the disciples, or if she really felt something different about their appearance.

“He is released from the seal and takes on human form. Like Aqua and Petrus, I went looking for them. It was a shock at first. If the situation went badly, I was planning to use magic to subdue it, but the library they showed me when they let me into the mansion was a warehouse-like room filled with dusty books and miscellaneous items that had not been opened for a long time. ＂

There, Ventuna found it impossible to prove her own worth even if she faced them with her magic.

But – at the same time, there were a lot of various works of art, items that were helpful to people’s lives, or seemingly useless miscellaneous things that they collected that could not be found in Helix.

Even when the Magic Tower was alive and well, she had never left this land, so everything seemed strange and made her imagine where these items were made, for what purpose, and by what hands.

And although they may not have had the talent of a wizard, they had enough talent as a merchant.

As soon as they saw Ventuna, they realized that she was not human.

Ben Tuna herself thought she disguised herself well as a human, but she didn’t get along with her merchants, whose job was to deal with people and read their minds.

There, for the first time, Ben Tuna felt that she had been defeated by humans. Unlike Aqua, she recognized humans.

And her merchants also aligned their interests, thinking that what she could do only for her, not for humans, would definitely bring benefit to them.

That is, Ventuna, the spirit of the wind, creates sculptures and works of art with incredible precision using wind magic from unique stones collected from the Helix. Instead of bringing enormous profits to merchants, Ventuna gives Gael to Ventuna. It was a contract to hand over the position of head of the Geyser family.

As if they had been waiting for someone like her, they handed over everything in her mansion to Ventuna and left Helix to exercise their original abilities as merchants, now setting up their own shops and peddling all over the continent. Or, it may be delivered somewhere exclusively.

And, they say that the contract must be kept absolutely, and if more profits are generated than what was specified, the extra money is sent to the Gaelgazer family, which can be said to be the original family, i.E., Ventuna.

Although she was unable to leave Helix, Ventuna was able to use her funds to communicate with the outside world of her village.

＂The wind spirit is a free being. You can fly in the sky, run over the sea, and go in and out of mountains and fields as if it were your own home. However, that is only the freedom of the body. It is different from freedom of mind. Can a spirit that knows nothing about humans have aesthetic sense and appraise a work of art? Can others recognize the value of the work you create? Is it possible to travel from end to end of a continent, pulling a carriage with two legs, to read the flow of money and capture that flow? Can you choose to give your all in the moment of living, to receive life, to be born, to grow up, to share friendship and love with someone, to form a relationship and leave descendants, and to look back in bed on a happy life?”

After Ventuna finished speaking, Laila and Cleon fell silent for a moment.

In her words, there was no sense of deception through any kind of decorative modifier or any exaggerated expression.

It’s simply because everything she said spoke of the truth she had in her heart.

“The freedom I desire is a freedom that can only be enjoyed when one is within the unfreedom that is human. This look is truly worth it. I hope you understand that, although it may be a little difficult.”

Lila watched Ventuna talking like that without saying anything for a while, then nodded her head as if she understood.

“… Well, okay. If you praise humans so passionately, you can believe it. So… Next question. Although it is also connected to what you just said.”

As Lila says this, she approaches her, pokes her hair or her cheek with her hand and asks a question.

“How could you, spirits, take on human form? Aqua didn’t seem to have the answer. But… If you were analyzing the situation more calmly than others, didn’t you know something?”

“─As expected, you’re sharp.”

Ben Tuna answered Laila’s question like that, and when she thought she could take it as an affirmation, Laila moved away from her and nodded, as if to continue her story.

“As you said. Our spirits are bodies made up of magical power that have no original substance. To be precise, it requires a medium within the material world called the core, but its source is an entity created by the gathering of natural magic flowing everywhere. Since it can change its form at will, it would also be possible to take on a human form. In the end, it is just a lump of magical power created by imitating a human being. Touching something or having a human body that can be touched is impossible unless it is a ritual or magic that results in ‘incarnation’.”

“Okay. But even those who have bodies like that are just clay dolls that resemble humans. It cannot be maintained for a long time, and as time passes, the body and the spirit body begin to oppose each other, and the physical body collapses. Menstrual phenomena do not occur and no blood or tears come out. … At least, with current magic technology.”

The reason Laila added that at the end is that there is a record that this was not the case in the past.

In the past – during the heyday of wizards, when their magic was at its peak, there remains actual history, not legend, of wizards giving bodies to spirits, falling in love with those spirits, and actually giving birth to offspring.

Laila knew well that it was the era of the Magic Tower.

＂The story so far – assuming that everything is telling the truth. Unless you’re really hiding something from us – you should be honest.”

And Laila asks Ben Tuna her most important question.

“After her grandfather passed away, she was released from the seal. Really, it’s just you three?”

Even Lila, when she asked that question, she wanted the answer to be ‘yes’.

Her own grandfather’s magic was best known to Lila herself.

Lila has been praised as a genius by many people, but even Lila thinks that she is still far away from her grandfather’s magic.

A discovery of the century, something that time alone cannot catch up with – a bloody effort – or a contract with the devil?

She only vaguely wondered if she would be able to catch up with him if she didn’t do such a cowardly thing.

However, my grandfather’s magic also lost its power and disappeared after his death.

The sealed warehouse that my grandfather had sealed, full of things that were not good for this continent, must have been full of things more dangerous than the childish spirits created by this granddaughter.

If his grandfather’s death weakened all of his magic, there would almost certainly be some that could be released from the seal.

Ventuna, the person receiving the question, knew well what Laila’s question meant.

Ventuna did not smile at all toward Laila, but with the same serious expression as when he was preaching the idea of ​​freedom.

Talk to her.

“I was waiting to hear that question.”

＂What does it mean?＂

“It’s literally like that. If I don’t get that question, I can’t convey that fact to you.”

Ventuna thought for a moment about Lila’s strange words, and then she nodded her head as if she understood, lowering her hips once again to the bed she had been sitting on until now and resting her chin on his chin. Raise your hands

“It’s that kind of oath.”

“Yes, that’s right. The thing is, she told me not to answer unless she asked me something about myself. That is the condition for receiving this body.”

Lila frowned, but Cleon questioned Ventuna as if he didn’t understand.

“… Why did the guy who gave you the body make such conditions? It would have been okay to just tell you not to tell anyone from the beginning.”

“Well. Maybe she was trying to test Lila. Was she… Able to reach her own existence through her own power?”

When Ventuna shrugs her shoulders, Lila replies by frowning her face even more.

“He’s an unpleasant guy. I don’t know where you live or who you are, but you’re trying to test me.”

“Bentuna, do you know that guy’s identity?”

“Of course. Because he said it with his own mouth.”

And, Ventuna speaks while looking at Layla.

“There was once a contract with your grandfather, and it was sealed by him. He is the one who burns the flame of eternal hatred for revenge.”

＂…!＂

＂His name is… Rex Ignis. The ancient flame spirit that protected our magic tower – He was once called the god of flames, and he is the king of the spirits of the magic tower.”