First Gathering

I don't know my apple. I am confused. I meant I don't know my name. I am an apple.

What I understood, in brief, meant that once there was a human who came and killed my Mother Tree. And I am the Arcane of my mother. And Arcanes are the manifestation of a monster's soul. So I am the manifestation of my mother's soul.

That is very interesting. I wonder who the man was. He must have been quite powerful.

In any case, so with enough time, monsters can revive from their Arcanes, as happened with me? But as it seems, the memory will be erased...

Well, so if I was the Mother Tree, I guess I had done quite a favour to the spirits of Astagha Forest back then. No wonder they are so willing to be loyal to me. Well, it still feels better to be called a King than a Mother. I am not too sure as for why, though.

"I understand now." I replied to the purple-robed witch's answer. "What kind of behaviour do you expect from me?"

I threw at them, yet another question. While it might have perhaps appeared as courtesy to them, I genuinely had no idea how to behave with them.

One of the skeletons tried to answer me this time, it was standing in front of Hahu.

"Your Majesty... we are... convinced, that... you only wish... for our good. You can... trea...t us however... you want."

This skeleton's tone of voice was much clearer than Hahu. However, certain questions arose in my mind. They are telling me they are convinced that I am their guardian, I wish for their good alone and all that. But I did not feel any such attachment to them. If anything, I was plotting to see how I could make use of these spirits to do things in a bid to benifit me. Is that not quite selfish?

Ah, is that not quite 'greedy'?

Perhaps, if I meet more humans, I will understand the difference between them and me.

At the end of this thought, I gazed with my apple eyes to the brilliant skull and said,  "I assure you. I do not wish for any of your harm."

My response overjoyed them.

A little too overjoyed.

The shout I heard a few hours ago, which almost paralyzed me, I heard that again. I could not understand who was the person who made that sound, but I could be sure that the person was worse than devils.

What kind of a psychopath shouts like that!?

"Our King! Our Guardian! He has promised us our welfare. This moment, my friends, my disciples and everyone! Is historic! How can we repay him, ever!"

As the rhythmic shout ended that began and ended from an unknown source, I was paralyzed harder this time, since the spirit or whoever shouted, shouted from a much closer distance this time. Ironically, the spirits and monsters ahead of me seemed to be just fine.

They were rejoicing among themselves by chanting weird things which I could not understand and they were hugging each other.

As I felt sorrow for the big slime who found nobody to hug for the second time, I uttered, "Rejoice later, my..."

I stopped for a second and changed the word 'subjects'

"..my friends!

"As you see, I have a lot to know yet. I may be your King, but I have only regained my senses recently. If your loyalty is true, tell the most knowledgable person in the village to come to me. I will learn from him. And only then I will start ruling."

I presented my suggestion. This was the second time that I made my ignorance of the situation clear to everyone. It was an unwise move, I understood.

But I did not feel unsafe to do that. Somehow, they had convinced me that their loyalty to me was sincere enough. Not as though I had any measure to test to their loyalty.

Mar Hast, my knight who was standing in front the entire spirit gathering was the first one to respond to my suggestion, "A wise suggestion, your Majesty. The most knowledgable in the forest must be Wizard Kavest."

"No, it is the Vayan-shi sisters." a beast rebuked Mar Hast as he talked.

"You foolish donkey. Have you any idea how old Wizard Kavest is?"

"Age is not everything!" the donkey-like beast argued again. "Don't you see their beauty? While Wizard Kavest has become an old man, these sisters still blossom like spring's flowers."

That said, I realized that I had not seen Wizard Kavest. Did he for some reason not attend the gathering?

At the rebutal of the donkey-beast, the white-robed mage from before stepped behind to give her opinion, "I, Vayanka, do not deem myself to be wiser than Wizard Kavest."

The purple-robbed witch from the other side uttered in a very similar tone and voice, "Neither do I, Bivishi, deem myself to be wiser than Wizard Kavest."

Mar Hast, the knight almost laughed then. Looking at the donkey-beast he smirked from behind his blurry helmet and did not say anything.

I remember my old man once said in his stories, sometimes silence is the greatest insult.

At the end of the little argument, I wondered where Wizard Kavest is. It did not feel like my place to ask that.

But right then, a voice I hate resounded for the third time. It was the same voice which was shouting a minute ago.

But then, the voice seemed like it was right before me. It did not shout this time. It said, "I am the Wizard Kavest, your Majesty. At your service, under your command, by your will."

Beautifully arranged words, I thought. He was really poetic. However, I could not freaking see the Wizard Kavest. Was he invisible? Was he not?

Being a little apple, I am not very hateful, but if I had to bury someone alive while watching them getting their bellies wretched apart by Mar Hast's giant hands, it would be this Wizard Kavest.

The Wizard asked again, being somewhere right in front of me, invisible, "Your Majesty?"

He was waiting for a response. Well what did he expect me to answer to someone I could not even see?

I said then, staring at the ground to not arouse suspicion. Because I looked at the spirits in front of me, and all of them were staring at me.

I immediately understood that all of them were seeing this stupid Wizard just fine.

"Alright. We will discuss then. Can't we call off today's gathering for now?"

I felt like gritting my teeth, with hate fuming for this Wizard. Because I understood this Wizard was mocking me the entire time.

Hell with their loyalty. Kavest had me under a spell! How dare he do such to his King!