Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Mentor

Chapter 164 Return to Solitude
"So, those children lived with you?"

The giant describes the interaction between himself and the children in great detail, and judging from such a detailed narrative, it does not seem like something that can be portrayed through ordinary fabrication.

Lake listened, but saw no signs of children living on this floating island.

"Where did they go afterwards?"

Lake asked subconsciously.

"Where did they go? Human children always grow up. I can't keep them forever. I didn't understand this until the moment they left."

The Giant King shook his head and gave a reasonable answer, but there was a sense of loneliness in his voice.

"Children's play will eventually come to an end, and my garden, for mankind...

Such loneliness and boredom will eventually come to an end."

The Giant King was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked Lake and Poro, "Do you think my garden is flourishing?"

Lake and Poro looked at each other and nodded, "Indeed, it's good. Those magic and plants are things that the outside world has never seen."

"Yes, but what if I stay here for a month, five months, a year, or even ten years?"

Without waiting for Lake and Poro to react, the Giant King continued, "There is no conflict, change, or thinking. Although you can stay in such a world for a long time—

The human heart makes them feel boring.

From one day on, those children were no longer as happy as they were at the beginning. They became a little depressed and heavy...

When I was still on the ground, I never thought about the humans I killed so easily until a group of children broke into my garden.

Loneliness extinguishes the fire in my heart."

The Giant King remained silent, then whispered two words, "I understand something. Differences. Human emotions."

……

"Thank you, Mr. Giant."

Under the clouds, several children spoke solemnly. Compared to when they came here, they all seemed much older, and some of them were almost young adults.

But there was a hint of unnaturalness on their faces.

It's like a kind of fear or confusion when facing the unfamiliar.

But they were no longer afraid of the giant. After spending a long time together, they became familiar with this giant that could move in the clouds.

"Shall we all go together? I'd like to stay in your garden for a while..."

A girl whispered, her voice was very low, but she understood that the Giant King could hear it through the clouds.

"No, since you all came here together, you must leave together. I don't understand humans, but I do know that numbers and unity bring greater strength."

The Giant King said in a deep voice, leaving no room for negotiation.

The clouds beneath their feet began to wriggle under the magic of the Giant King, revealing the situation on the ground. Not far away, a city appeared before everyone's eyes.

Looking down from the sky, the city looks like a castle on the beach.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Giant, we shouldn't have said those things before. We're actually living very well here..."

A young man lowered his head and said, with a hint of guilt in his words.

"Don't apologize. You don't deserve to be bound here. I've felt this high and mighty loneliness for too long, but you are not prisoners."

The Giant King said this, looking at the children.

The garden had grown much larger than when the children first arrived. The floating islands formed by the clouds had expanded to hundreds of meters, and the magical plants were very pleasing to the eye, both in species and growth.

There were also many moving plants, gently waving at the children in the bushes.

"Can we come back again later?"

A child whispered, looking around at the familiar plants, with some reluctance and confusion in his eyes.

"You are human beings. You can't always stay with giants."

The Giant King said this while looking at the children in front of him with red eyes. Only then did those children realize that they were about to leave.

"When you miss it, you will come back here in your dreams."

As the giant spoke, the clouds beneath the children's feet spontaneously rose up, wrapped around the children's bodies, and sank toward the ground below.

"We will remember this place, and we will tell others that giants are not all bad guys!"

A lively-looking child suddenly spoke loudly as he looked at the increasingly blurred shadow on the cloud as it gradually disappeared from his sight.

"Yeah, we'll remember that, Mr. Giant!"

"We won't forget you!"

The Giant King was shrouded in clouds and mist, staring at the children with his star-like eyes, without saying a word.

He thought of many things, including the children playing in the garden in the past, and the humans who died at the feet of giants in the long past, during the Giant King's Court.

very many.

There are adults, old people, young people, teenagers...

"No, you will forget me, forget everything on this cloud... You shouldn't remember all this."

The clouds and mist were swept downwards.

The children looked at the rapidly changing scene around them, and the clouds and mist blurred their eyes and made it difficult to see clearly.

And deep in their minds, those memories are the same.

It's like it's covered with a layer of white cloth.

The huge plants, tall castles, and stone giants, all the fantasies were slowly covered up.

Only hazy memories remain, those happy times.

"Where do we come from? Where are we going?"

When their feet stepped on solid ground and they looked at their companions around them, the clouds and mist had dissipated without a trace, but their vision became clearer and the road ahead became increasingly blurred.

"I remember, we are a family, there is a city there, shall we go there and take a look?"

They looked at each other and felt a lot more at ease.

But I feel like something is missing, as if a key person is missing. Who is he?
Perhaps, more memories can only be recalled in dreams.

In the dream, I returned to the hazy cloud garden.

……

Lonely?
Lake and Poro listened to the giant's story. There were not many fancy words in the Giant King's words.

But Lake and Poro still heard a strong sense of loneliness.

Before they knew it, Lake, who was leaning against a tree, had hugged Poro again, and Poro did not struggle.

Of course, this wasn't because the girl's embrace was warm, soft, and comfortable...

But he understood that the girl also felt lonely.

Lake also had a childhood spent alone in the forest.

He didn't even get along with other children his own age, and was even lonelier than the other children who came to the Giant's Garden.

"So, after those children left, you were alone again? These flowers, didn't they wither?"

Lake couldn't help but ask.

"Of course not, you know, I was going to tell you.

My old friend, he is one of these children, but he is not a child."

The Giant King smiled and continued, "At that time, I thought I had sent all the children away, until... I returned to my castle and saw him again at the dinner table!

He was still a little kid, inviting me to eat. I thought my memory was messed up and wanted to send that little kid down with me - guess what?

The Giant King looked at Lake and Poro and answered himself, "That little brat, he just raised his hand and dispersed the cloud I raised!
Hey! That’s when I realized—this kid was playing tricks on me!”

The Giant King pretended to be a little annoyed and gritted his teeth, but soon turned to relief, "This kid was different from other children when he first came. There were red marks on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet that looked like wounds.

Later, he told me that it was something called stigmata, but I didn’t understand it either.

He also invited me and said he would take me to heaven."

"did you go?"

Lake couldn't help but ask.

"Of course not. I'm a giant, and I won't go to your human paradise or anywhere else. I remember the period when the Giant King's Court was established—

Every human who wants to kill me says I will go to hell, and every human who dies at my hands says they will go to heaven."

When the Giant King spoke of these killings, his voice became calm again.

Humanity and a certain animality show a strange balance in this giant king.

"Oh, so—I haven't lived enough, so I won't go."

Having said this, the Giant King restrained himself and his words became a little dull. It seemed that the experiences that followed were much more boring than his interactions with those children.

"He told me that he was a child of God, and God—should be a great creator god?
Long ago, when those human armies charged towards me, they also shouted for God... uh, but I digress.

All in all, I get along pretty well with this friend.

Of course, at first, I did it because he helped me save the plants in my garden that were about to die after losing their children."

The Giant King raised his hand and pointed to the sky. At this moment, the dirty and chaotic dark clouds in the sky dissipated, and white clouds floated slowly.

Previously, the deep black hole was now covered up.

There was no trace of its existence, but Lake and Poro, having seen it with their own eyes, knew exactly where the Giant King's finger was pointing.

"Then, a long time later, suddenly one day - my old friend's home was gone."

The Giant King changed the subject, but his tone still seemed somewhat relaxed, as if the collapse of heaven at this moment had a much less impact on him than the departure of the dozen or so children.

"Coincidentally, you just saw that one of his 'doors' is right above mine. Is this one of the reasons why he became friends with me?"

The Giant King shrugged his shoulders and continued his story.

"Those winged eyeballs and withered corpses... a large portion of them were actually attracted by this guy's corpse."

The Giant King gestured to the grave with the cross beside him and said, "Fortunately, he gave me some gifts, like the harp you just saw, which allows me to close the door of his house.

Oh, and there’s that bird, too, it comes from heaven, and it lays golden eggs.”

The Giant King said this and stopped talking.

It was motionless. The clouds and the huge but dark shadow made it look more like a silent stone statue. Even the light emanating from its eyes was dim.

I don’t know what Lake and Poro are thinking.

Lake was feeling the emotions in the story told by the giant. She felt that the giant's story did not seem made up. She even felt that she could empathize with that kind of loneliness, but she was a little unsure.

After all, in the history seen by the Kingdom of Boren, the killing of the Giant King is the only certain truth.

And a hint of surprise flashed across Poro's eyes.

Memories were emerging... a fairy tale? Which fairy tale? Wasn't it Jack and the Beanstalk?
Finally, the Giant King stood up and spoke again:

"My story is over. There is no more. Can you give me those gems?"

coming.

Lake and Poro looked at each other with serious expressions. They knew that the giant in front of them must get these two gems.

After all, he had personally admitted that he asked the Giant Chosen People to retrieve the gem for him.

This means that these gems must have some meaning to him.

"But your story doesn't include these gems. Many people died at the hands of the 'Chosen Giants' who came to retrieve the gems for you. This is certain."

Lake stared at the Giant King, his eyes glowing under the mist, without any human expression.

She really wanted to believe what the Giant King said, but what if the Giant King was just afraid of her Star Killing Sword?

Although Lake wanted to believe the King of Giants, and the story of the giants finding their humanity did touch her a little, she knew that she could not be deceived. There were some things she had to know:

"Why do you need them? Tell us why."

But the Giant King was silent. After a while, he shook his head slightly and said:
"It's indeed a very important matter, but I won't lie to you... Never mind."

The Giant King paused at this point, as if giving up on the idea. "If you didn't come here to kill me or give me the gem, what was your purpose?"

Lake was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect that the giant didn't answer, but instead asked a question.

But since this was her original goal, Lake did not hide it:

"For the magic vines."

Lake said, pointing to the outer wall of the Giant King's Castle. A strand of green vines was wrapped around the outside of the tower. "It's like that vine, which can reach you from the surface. In order to save my loved ones, I need it—"

"Magic vines?"

The Giant King was stunned for a moment. He couldn't quite understand what his magic vines had to do with "salvation".

But then he nodded and said, "Well, this vine is indeed the plant in the entire garden that I have infused with the most magic. It is special, like a bridge..."

As he spoke, a wisp of snow-white cloud blew lightly from the depths of the castle and landed in the raised palm of the Giant King.

The clouds dispersed, and among them appeared a few peas the size of thumbs.

The Giant King looked quietly at the pea in his palm, and then, without hesitation, he picked up the pea with two fingers and placed it in front of Lake.

"If it encounters soil and water, it can grow. Without support, it can reach a height of a thousand meters, but it will die within seven days."

Lake took the vine seeds and was a little surprised:
"Are there no additional conditions? For example..."

"No."

But the Giant King not only did not ask Lake how to use the magic vine, but he also said with certainty, "You have obtained the vine seeds. Now, you can leave. Thank you for listening to my story..."

It's been a long time since anyone listened to me.

Consider these seeds as a 'gift'."

Clouds rolled in the sky. The Giant King followed the perception of the clouds and watched as Lake and Poro arrived at the place where the magic vines came from. They were about to leave their garden.

He was silent for a moment and walked to the back of the castle.

Hidden behind a hill there is a small house that looks a bit shabby. It is an orphanage.

"Jack? Are you really not going with them? They are different. They are good people. Once you get to the surface, at least they will find you a good family to live with."

The door opened, and on one of the chairs sat a boy with red eyes.

"No, that's not necessary, Mr. Giant."

Jack's voice was a little low, and his eyes were still filled with deep sorrow. "I... don't want to go back. I'm a little scared."

"That's it..."

The Giant King listened, his face obscured by mist, and no expression could be seen. "Well, on the east side of the garden, there are some fruits... The fruits in the castle are all edible, and the magic will make you very full.

The stream water can also be drunk. The water condensed from the clouds is very clean.

I might need to take a break and play with you again in a few days.

I'm a little tired from fiddling with the instruments just now. I'm not really good at that..."

(End of this chapter)