Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 222

Chapter 222: Lirael
Slowly emerging from the shadows surrounding Hans, the silhouette of a human walked towards him.

When it was close enough for Hans to see it clearly, he recognized the creature standing in front of him.

Her beautiful body was attractive even to him, and her white skin seemed to be made out of smooth jade.

For a few seconds, even if he was already expecting someone to come towards him, Hans was as shocked as the person in front of him… not by the situation, but by her beauty.

Her hair looked like golden threads, and her green eyes were like emeralds floating in her white skin.

She had this aura… how to describe it… she seemed otherworldly, even the way she moved looked so delicate and elegant…

But what stood out the most were the two pointy ears.

‘I had prepared myself for this… but there really are other intelligent races apart from humans…’

Hans, after barely regaining his composure, talked to the lady.

“Pleasure to meet you”

He said, talking with a respectful tone, one that would usually be used when working, or for important occasions.

Before replying, the elf observed Hans’s movements, also following his eyes to figure out whether there was any lust in them, but the only thing she could perceive was shock, so she did not comment.

“Where… are we?”

She asked.

Her voice was gentle yet reassuring and her soft tone seemed that of an angel.

Hans however, was more curious about her story:

“I am afraid to be the one to give you the bad news…”

“So in the end… I died”

The elf said, watching the dark beneath her feet as her eyes began soaking in tears.

“Yes… unfortunately, you have died”

Hans confessed.

“But… if I died then… who are you?”

“Who I am is not important, what I am here for should be the main focus of this conversation”

“Wh-what do you want?!”

She asked, taking a step back and sharpening her gaze.

“It’s not about what I want.

Something you want is something you have to get, I am here to take something I already have.”

“And what… would that be?”

She asked, even more intimidated than earlier.

“Your story, your knowledge, your adventures, I want to have them, I want to see them”

This answer… certainly wasn’t something the female elf expected.

‘My story he says… there is no way! I don’t even know what he’s talking about, however, even If I could, I would never show something like that to a human!’

Her tone had changed from normal to aggressive, just bringing up the memory of her life seemed to have sparked something in her which made her loathe Hans.

“You talk as if they were already yours… then you can take them by yourself”

Hans heard the rude tone in her voice, but decided to ignore it since it was meaningless, he just replied saying:

“Alright then, seems like talking like this isn’t going to do anything, I’ll have to look through it by myself”

“What?”

The elf’s eyes, which were fixed on Hans with a hint of hatred in them, immediately enlarged as her pupils shrank.

‘He wasn’t lying? Does that mean he can really see them? Can he really see my memories?…’

Before she could think about it any further, proof stood before her eyes, as the scenery around her changed, and a little paradisiac garden suddenly appeared.

The smell of the fresh grass coupled with the countless flowers’ perfumes took over her nose, making some long-lost memories pop up in her head.

Tears started running down her cheeks at this sight, but at that moment, someone appeared, passing through her body.

It was a young girl, her green eyes and smooth skin weren’t strangers to the elf.

‘Is that… me?’

“That must be you when you were little”

A voice commented, immediately taking the elf’s attention.

She turned around just to see the man she had been talking to float just beside her, as he observed the the scenery with interest.

‘Who… could he ever be for him to do this? Is he a spirit? Am I in the spirits’ world?

“It feels rude to watch someone else’s story without knowing their names… would you mind telling me?”

Hans asked, without even turning his head towards her, he was only focused on the little child, walking through the field of flowers and grass with a wide smile on her face.

The elf was about to reply, when someone interrupted her, running towards the child version of herself and revealing her name before she could do it:

“Lirael!!”

The woman called out.

At the sight of that person, the elf, who was seeing one of her dearest people for the first time in countless years, fell to the ground crying.

‘I am here to learn her alchemy… but I guess learning a bit about how other worlds work could turn out pretty useful, I’ll just watch for now’

“My lady, you cannot leave now, the ceremony will begin in a couple of hours, we must get you dressed up properly!”

Even though the woman talked a lot, the child just smiled and ran through the fields with that happy smile on her face.

The scene then changed, seeing as many elves were gathered, and most of them held a solemn expression on their faces, it was easy to assume it was the scene of the ceremony the woman was talking about just a few moments earlier.

They were still in a beautiful and eye-pleasing garden, but this time, they were surrounded by a dome made out of vines, which let only a few rays of light pass through.

The little girl, just like seven other kids, was standing in front of a white altar, covered in beautiful green vines and purple flowers.

“What were you doing here?”

Hans asked, curious to know what was going on.

Even though he wasn’t sure a reply would come back, luck seemed to be on his side, as the beautiful elf got up from the ground and told him what he wanted to know:

Her eyes were still lucid, and her voice still trembling from the sigh in front of her, but she still managed to speak:

“It happened when I was six, it’s a ceremony we held in order to assess our talent at handling the spirits”

“Handle the spirits?” Hans asked surprised.

“Yes, spirit summoning is something that can be learned as long as one has the minimum talent required for it, but spirit handling is another thing… it’s imprinted on one’s soul, and with little exceptions, it remains the same throughout an elf’s whole life.”

‘Handling the spirits? I heard that summoning them is already an incredible feat, and that the higher level the summoned spirit is, the higher the power of the Elementalist, does that mean we are only merely scratching the surface of the world of spirits? Is this perhaps a gift unique to elves, that we, as humans, will never be able to acquire…’

Hans was curious about it, but seeing as the memories continued, he figured that asking about it later wouldn’t have been a problem.

A male elf, dressed in green clothing made from smooth and shiny silk, walked towards the altar and positioned himself behind it.

“As of today, we present this circle’s offspring to our god and let him judge their talent as a spiritual Elementalist”

‘A spiritual elementalist… that sounds like an epic class at least’

Hans thought as he watched the man raise his hands to the sky.

‘Also… a god, it’s the second time I’ve seen a god out of three worlds I’ve explored, is it a coincidence? Or is it the standard for a world to believe in a single god? If that were to be the case then… why isn’t it the same for Earth?’

A few seconds passed, and a string of light wrapped around the altar before shining even more brightly, blinding Hans and all the spectators, especially the little kids, who watched the altar in awe.

“Come forward now, it’s time to let our god see you for the first time.”

One after the other, the kids touched the altar and stood still for a few seconds before the altar shone once again.

According to what Lirael had said, the brighter the altar shone, the higher the kid’s talent was. Still, there was no need to watch it since even if she was the daughter of two renowned elves, her talent had turned out to be one of the lowest ever shown during the ceremony.

‘The story of someone with a non-existent talent huh?

That’s pretty cliche’

But contrary to Hans’s expectation, after her talent was revealed to be so low, the other people’s attitude towards her didn’t change in the slightest, it was not a world like his, where those who were more talented than others could do everything they wanted…

And even with her trashy talent, Lirael lived the following twenty years of her life peacefully…

Until that disastrous day.