Julius stood motionlessly, watching Ian gradually fade away past the exit of the forest.
The boy did not look back. That small silhouette crowned in raven-locked hair simply walked farther and farther away, step by step leaving behind the place that had nurtured him, the very place that had just regarded him as a calamity requiring eradication.
Julius could have called Ian back.
He could have told him that the path ahead would be far from easy, that the destinies awaiting both him and Kei were far more terrifying than anything they had just experienced. He would be forced to navigate ruthless choices, and a day would come when he was pushed right up to the brink where even magic power could no longer salvage everything.
Yet knowing all of that beforehand, would Ian still be able to press forward?
Julius let out a quiet sigh.
At the very least, right at this moment, the boy needed a shred of hope to carry along with him.
Eleanor remained kneeling on the ground. He watched Ian depart, his cold expression gradually returning, as though only once that figure vanished did he finally dare voice the words wedged in his chest.
"Creator God... why did you let him go?"
Julius didn’t reply immediately. He looked down at Kei resting securely within his arms. His son’s respiration had grown steadier, yet remained as fragile as a thin thread ready to snap at any second.
"Because he is a Dark Elf, he shouldn’t be allowed to live!" Eleanor ground out. "Dark Elves bring nothing but calamity. You know that!"
Julius offered a faint smile, entirely devoid of anger.
"If Ian eventually transforms into an existence capable of plunging this entire world into agony, does that make him a calamity?"
Eleanor froze. His gaze turned frigid. "If that is indeed the case, he deserves to die all the more."
"What if I were to tell you that if Ian dies, an even more horrific entity will emerge, plunging this entire world into total annihilation?" Julius stared straight into his eyes. "At that point, is Ian still considered a calamity?"
Eleanor offered no response.
He stared at Julius, his lips twitching without managing to squeeze out a single syllable. A long beat passed before he finally spoke in a raspy whisper:
"That’s impossible..."
"It is the truth."
Julius wasn’t uttering those words to shield Ian. He was simply imparting a reality that the Elf King had never once contemplated: fate did not always cleanly divide the world into heroes and catastrophes.
"Had Kei and I never surfaced, Ian would still have turned into a Dark Elf. He still would have survived, leaving this forest without being murdered by you, and ultimately rising to become one of the most ruthless figures across the entire continent."
Eleanor’s complexion turned ashen. "He would have—"
"Some individuals are born right at the epicentre of this world’s destiny," Julius gently smoothed Kei’s hair. "They possess the freedom to choose their own paths, yet no one can arbitrarily erase them from the grand chessboard. Not even I can interfere excessively in their lives."
He paused for a beat, his gaze sinking lower. "Just as my son’s destiny is beyond my absolute control."
Had Ian not intervened, Kei would never have secured the Sacred Spring of Life. Had the individuals within this forest not played their parts, Julius would have lacked the opportunity to ferry his son close to the Tree of Life; if he had arbitrarily deployed sheer power to meddle with Kei’s destiny, the child undoubtedly would have perished.
He had expended everything he had left to save Kei, but that window of opportunity had never belonged to him alone.
It had been forged collectively by every single person who had brought Kei all the way here.
Julius was grateful to them.
The golden radiance surrounding his body abruptly dimmed. His vibrant, long locks gradually faded, reverting to a stark black. His golden eyes dulled, before shifting back into his familiar ruby-red hue.
Julius lowered his gaze to Kei. Profound exhaustion weighed heavily across his features, as though the blazing light from moments prior had drained the absolute last drop of his vitality. He pressed a light kiss upon his son’s hair, lingeringly cradling him for one final fraction of a second before passing Kei over to Eleanor.
Eleanor accepted the child in stunned disbelief. He looked down at the tiny face lost in deep slumber, entirely unsure of how to position his arms to properly cradle a human child.
*No, this is the child of a deity, not an ordinary human.*
Julius watched him, offering a gentle, soft smile.
"Eleanor, you are a good child."
The Elf King snapped his head upward. Having lived for over a millennium, he had listened to countless praises, yet not a single set of words had ever unsettled him quite like that simple statement; the corners of his eyes grew faintly damp.
"Only," Julius continued, "you ought to step out and explore the outside world far more often."
The smile upon his lips remained soft, yet his words carried absolute weight.
"Remaining cooped up inside this forest forever will only cause your perspective to shrink steadily. You will come to view everything you fail to understand as a looming threat, ultimately driving the Elven race straight toward ruin with your own hands."
Eleanor stiffened. Kei shifted faintly in his arms, his gentle breath brushing against the forearm supporting him.
For the very first time, the Elf King found himself devoid of any words to defend his innate pride.
Julius waited a beat before speaking up: "Eleanor, keep what I have just said etched in your mind. Do not rely on fear toward the unfamiliar to dictate who deserves to survive. If you continually slam the gates of this forest shut against everything outside of it, a day will arrive when you can no longer differentiate between a genuine calamity and a simple life form desperately crying out to be saved."