The abused merchant’s daughter – 14 | Sousaku – 創作

Chapter 1, Episode 14: The Sacred Tree (Cyril’s POV)

Holy Tree

They are scattered around the world and bring fertility and fruitfulness to the land.
The land without the sacred tree is a wasteland where no greenery exists and the desolate wilderness spreads.
Once there was a war of the gods in the world and the whole world became a wasteland.
The role of the sacred trees was to fill that wasteland with greenery.

Each sacred tree had its own name.
Because they too had a will.
They appointed a holy child and brought forth prosperity through them.
That holy child was the saint.

And saints were not necessarily human.
The saint of Eldia was Cyril the Silver Wolf.

The saints were the protectors of the land.
Without the saints, the holy tree could not convert its power into fertility.
And the land would slowly but surely become barren and desolate. Leaving only the sacred tree.

That is why saints were to be protected.

And yet, I wonder.
What are the circumstances of the Saint of Kardiana?
From the memories I was shown, I learned how Riese was in a terrible situation.
Because of that terrible abuse and confinement, she looks like a 10-year-old child when she should be 15 years old.
Unlike other human beings, Riese was able to consume spiritual energy and was a saint with a strong self-healing ability, which kept her alive, but an ordinary human being would have died.
The terrible circumstances made Cyril angry.

People were really dirty.
There used to be a forest of sacred trees where only sacred beasts ruled.
But humans migrated to the area, wanting to live on a little piece of land.
They said they were being persecuted and chased.
So the kind-hearted Holy Beast lent them the land.
At first, the humans were grateful.
But the meekness only lasted at first, as time passed they became more and more demanding, and eventually began to persecute the beasts of the forest.
Then the war between humans and sacred beasts began.
The holy beast, which was originally a saint, died while trying to protect her own child, who was attacked by a human.
They tried to take the saint's child hostage, and the holy beast that was trying to protect it accidentally died.
The holy tree was angered when the saint was killed, and no blessings were brought to the land thereafter.
Thus ...... the land was transformed into a barren wasteland where only the sacred tree loomed above.
The name of that holy tree was Faralina. There are many beasts that fled from Faralina in this land.
Faralina asked me to look after them.
That was why Cyril would never allow humans to live in this land.
Although she has lent a place for the human priests. She had no intention of letting any more humans live there.
But now that she has seen Riese's memories, he was even thinking of kicking those guys out too.

That was how outraged Cyril was.
She wondered if it was a lie that they were sorry for what happened to Faralina and vowed never to do anything like that again.
Because of their short lifespan, humans were quick to forget and repeat mistakes.
Do we really need to hand over our lush green lands to those fools?

Like the parent and child who held Riese captive, and the ragtag group of people who tried to kill Riese.
People were still filthy.

Those runaway thugs would never get out of the woods forever thanks to Cyril's power.
They could be killed later, slowly.

But still, the women who had assaulted the Saint.
Even cutting them up and tearing them into pieces would not be enough.
Kardiana must have felt the same way.
That is why she allowed her saint to leave her land and entrusted her to Cyril.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for a saint to get out from under the protection of her own sacred tree.
If she had at least turned seven years old and undergone the coming-of-age ceremony held by the human priests, she would have been able to use her sacred power and not have been beaten one-sidedly by those little twats.

Kardiana must have been very frustrated.
A saint who conveys the will of the holy tree cannot convey any will in that condition.
She could only watch her own saint endure the abuse.
Riese was finally able to communicate with her by touching the seed of the sacred tree that Farne was holding.
Riese was able to use some of Kardiana's power.

I have to make this girl stronger.

Cyril looked at Riese and made up her mind.