# Beolgreen
Beolgreen Grikenkos remembers. The feeling from 723 years ago, when he first read the heavens as a child.
When he first stepped outside the influence of the Milestone, beyond the bizarre sky of Kalion that was always filled with auspicious signs.
"Ha."
He couldn't help but laugh, they say. At the truth no one in this world had taught him.
The Astronomical Society taught that the flow of celestial signs was the whim of the heavens. From the moment one leaves the Kalion waters, the fate of all mortals depends on those whims.
But Beolgreen possessed eyes that the professors of the "traditional Astronomical Society" did not have. He was among those with the "best eyes" in the entire history of the astronomical faction.
Therefore, when he first read the will of the heavens.
"Not whims, but malice."
He realized this world was filled with malice.
"The rise and fall of heroes, the prosperity and decline of great nations and races are all merely malicious games."
A massive will was draping threads in the shape of hands all over the world. He could read every detail of how some succeed, some fall, some perish, and others rise again.
It was a sight that would drive an ordinary human to madness. The world itself was freely toying with everything in it, regardless of human will.
But Beolgreen, instead of kneeling before madness, fear, and awe, raised his head and grasped magic.
For about 600 years afterward, he secluded himself in the depths of the society and began his research. No one knew what research he was conducting or what he was preparing.
When "madman" Beolgreen finally emerged from the society's doors, the elven noble houses paid their respects to the birth of the race's greatest magician.
"Three things are needed. A vessel, a hammer, and resolve."
"Brother, you always make your words unnecessarily complicated."
"Resolve is your part and mine. I have already established my resolve, but tell me. Can you betray your god?"
"A priest once told me this."
If the omnipotent Lord of all things truly exists, then none of our actions can be evil.
"How could apostasy be possible when even our evil deeds are under the Lord's grand plan? It's merely my purpose."
The priest who told her these words received an official excommunication from the papal office. Along with one of the rarest major excommunication ceremonies in church history.
"I can't tell if you're obedient or devious."
"I am faithful, Brother."
Even when speaking of apostasy, the daughter most beloved by the human god did not lose her divine power. From this, Beolgreen could understand the principle of god.
God does not judge humans. He only views them as toys, or as trading partners.
He distributes divine power to all who hold faith, showing no concern whether their actions contradict doctrine or ethics.
The vessel can be prepared. In this era, no vessel superior to the Milestone existed.
Now what's needed is the hammer. To be used to break the vessel containing god. The most difficult part.
Beolgreen had internally considered the human called Hero for that position when he joined the United Kingdom. The journey to slaughter the Demon King was nothing new, but—
One man was different.
Beolgreen has a daughter. Elfihera Grikenkos. The most talented magician among all elves he had ever met.
So he did not teach her astronomy.
Instead, he taught her magical interpretation. He built her magical foundation. Unlike himself who started from the bottom, Elfihera was able to complete the basic framework in just twenty years.
Older elves develop certain tendencies. Habits, you might say. A rigid direction of thinking, like a twisted old tree.
Elfihera had none of these characteristics. Thanks to her young age and overwhelming talent. Thanks to qualities that would make her worthy of becoming a full professor in interpretation and structural studies before turning twenty.
The quality to optimize magical circuits by steadfastly extending her hand even when all elves lost their magic and fell into confusion as the Milestone's magic became distorted.
This was his resolve. The first step of his prepared plan was to use even his own flesh and blood.
When such a daughter disappeared in the demon territory, Beolgreen, uncharacteristically, became flustered.
Until she appeared a week after her disappearance, carried on the back of a man.
"Thank you for saving my daughter."
"It was my duty."
"No, I truly mean it."
Beolgreen quietly bowed his head to the man collapsed in the infirmary. The man tried to rise in surprise but screamed and fell back down.
He was barely recovering, thoroughly soaked in humans' terrible healing potions. Beolgreen smiled quietly and said:
"If it were your duty, wouldn't it be to serve your king? Strictly speaking, this matter was outside your area of responsibility."
"His Majesty has already sufficiently commended me for this deed, so you need not do the same, my lord."
"Haha, no. Rather, I should come in person to ask for your continued support."
In the middle of demon territory, an area where a Dragon General could appear at any moment.
He had gone alone to rescue his daughter from an area all humans called a death zone and had given up on.
A mere royal guard of the human king. Not out of admiration for elves, but simply saying it was his duty.
Simply because he worried his lord would be blamed if a foreign noble went missing in the military camp his lord was responsible for, with just that level of judgment, he entered a death zone and faced mortal danger.
So Beolgreen was tempted. That steadfastness. Survival instinct. Quality. The talent that had been personally taught by Edelplat at such a young age.
"From today onward, you will act with our party."
"...Pardon?"
"Speak comfortably. Comrades need not use honorifics with me. Regardless of age, we all work together for the same goal."
"No, wait. Just a moment. Lord Grikenkos...? Where exactly are you saying I'm going?"
"On a grand journey to execute the Demon King! And incidentally, an honorable march for the freedom and peace of this world!"
"The King, His Majesty...?"
To the astonished man, Beolgreen extended his hand and smiled.
"'Can one keep a lion in a zoo?' he said. He was a magnanimous person. Now then, I look forward to working with you."
Firmly grasping and shaking the hesitant man's hand, he said softly:
"Ku Geor. Let's go kill the winter of this world."
"Petrovich is dead? Is it true?"
"Yes... *sob*, yes, Brother... *sniff*... *sob*."
"Hmm."
This was unexpected. Dead after just 4 years? And merely from a civil war in a human kingdom?
Beolgreen returned to the society after comforting the sobbing Saintess. He had prepared all elements, but the hammer broke. Before he could even wield it.
But instead of despair, he picked up his pen again. If one plan fails, he simply needs to prepare another.
He recruited a human royal with absurdly ambitious schemes. While watching his moderate involvement in the world, he attempted to prepare another hammer.
Maximillian wouldn't work. He was already broken. Gil Ber or Einar, either of those two could roughly meet the minimum conditions.
With that in mind, he decided to assist that royal's plans.
"...You could have at least sent word that you were alive. Wasn't our friendship worth that much?"
When he met him again in the skies above Pritzenkaya, Beolgreen could genuinely laugh for the first time in a very long while.
"Come. Let me see your skills after so long."
The hammer he thought he had lost had returned even more solid. He couldn't help but laugh.
The hammer, the vessel, and the resolve have now gathered in one place.
It has been about 700 years since he first prepared this plan. Most elves would have died long ago. Even for elves, it's a lifetime-spanning, lengthy period.
Half the countries that existed when he first drafted the plan have disappeared. The king he remembers most recently is now called the founder of the current human kingdom.
That's how much time has passed. The time for countries to appear and disappear. A dagger honed over that long period, all for a single moment.
-Crack.
Spider web-like fissures began to form in the ice.
Through the twisted magic enveloping the entire waters, familiar magic reaches out to him. Even in this deep sea where all magic is blocked, even through the seals that grip his entire body, it reaches him clearly.
Trapped in ice, Beolgreen looked at the sunken city and smiled.
"Do you know the legend that Kalion consists of 42 islands, Ivan?"
-Crack—.
Cracks form in the ice. His hand breaks free from the binding and rises.
"No. That's a false rumor. Kalion was a continent made up of 13 mountains. Long ago, the Milestone was an artifact embedded in 13 sacred mountains. So, it's not that the islands sank—."
Only the 13 highest peaks remain, appearing as islands.
If the reason why all those once-great distant peoples, all their infrastructure, sank and were confined to the deep seabed was merely due to a "whim."
Then a magician who realized this fact would have only one thing to do. And so.
It's not revenge. Not such a base emotion. Only self-cultivation. On the ladder climbing to the heavens, reaching out toward those distant celestial hands—
To grasp them.
A pledge that never again in this world would the whims of great beings determine the rise and fall of countless lives.
For that, he would "produce" and "raise" his own daughter to use her.
He would ignore the deaths of countless kin and the chaos throughout the mortal world.
Even if he had to stab all his comrades and friends without hesitation, he would focus solely on the result.
And a resolve to reach out and grasp the heavens, knowing that even he himself would perish in the end.
When young Beolgreen looked at the sky, it's not that he didn't feel fear, awe, and despair.
He simply refused to kneel. Because it was a world where even looking up at the sky required madness.
Now no one shall ever again look at the sky and despair.
The astronomer answered the heavens (天答).
With a mortal body, he ascended to the heavens (天踏).
Beolgreen's outstretched hand disrupted the heavens (天遝).
Ep 29. Heavenly Disruption (天遝)
Outside the Eternal Palace, Elfihera sat on the ground, looking up at the sky where the aurora danced.
There was no time. She couldn't know what was happening to Ivan at this very moment.
What could one possibly do against such an overwhelming being?
Yet even in such a situation, Elfihera's eyes did not leave the sky.
In the sky full of ill omens, the clouds part.
Cracks appear in the heavens where the red aurora ripples.
Countless fissures spread like spider webs, breaking like shattering ice.
"Father...?"
Through those cracks, auspicious signs shine.
Ill omens and auspicious signs mix, scatter, collide, and reconnect.
And within them, the morning star shone.