Got a Gallery in the Wild

The King of Mages, Kadir.

The stories about his life were filled with feats that sounded as though they had been taken straight out of a fairy tale.

That he defeated a dragon by himself.

That he defeated all the most powerful mages in the world.

And many other stories like that.

But among all of them, the one that most resembled a fairy tale was undoubtedly his friendship with the Hero.

The Hero protagonist and the mage who supported him.

A classic combination from storybooks.

Even their achievements were worthy of a legend, as the two of them defeated the Immortal King together.

The Immortal King appeared when the demons were gradually beginning to break free from the image of the Demon King, driven by the atrocities committed by the Holy Kingdom.

Regardless of what his past may have been, the Hero of the previous generation and Kadir joined forces to defeat him.

Although it ended in tragedy and the Hero lost his life, the event was recorded as a noble sacrifice.

Kadir, the Hero’s closest friend, also concealed that painful truth for a time and remained silent in his honor.

However, when confronted with the dark and disgusting truth that the Holy Kingdom had been hiding, even that tragic reality began to seem insignificant.

‘Since ancient times, those who claim to have no greed for money are usually the greediest of all.’

The same applied to justice.

Those who loudly proclaim their own righteousness are rarely in their right minds.

And that was exactly what was happening in Eldorado.

Those who should have stayed away from greed were the very ones indulging in it.

On the surface they pretended to be devout and honorable.

But Kadir had noticed it a long time ago.

The image of Eldorado’s “Holy Kingdom” had collapsed years ago.

‘I’m curious to see what kind of nonsense they’ll try to say.’

That was why Kadir headed to Eldorado after making careful preparations.

He didn’t even ask permission from the Kingdom of Iris, the nation where the Mage Tower was located.

After all, he himself was practically the Mage Tower.

He was a mage whose existence alone equaled the power of a nation.

Who was going to stop him?

There was a reason he was called the King of Mages.

Even the King of Iris had to choose his words carefully in front of him.

And so, Kadir visited the Holy Kingdom of Eldorado completely alone.

The sudden visit caught Eldorado by surprise, but they quickly welcomed him as a distinguished guest.

After all, he had informed them beforehand, and there was also a connection through the Immortal King incident.

Eventually, Kadir was able to enter the Vatican without anyone stopping him.

“…What did you just say?”

“We merely follow the will of God. What will could a servant possibly have?”

It was during that meeting with the Pope and the cardinals that Kadir was left stunned.

As a friend of the previous generation’s Hero, he knew very well the degree of corruption among Eldorado’s upper ranks.

However, the powerful figures of then and now were not the same people.

Humans lived short lives, and generations changed quickly.

So he thought perhaps things had improved a little.

But it only took a few minutes of conversation for him to realize they were even more rotten than before.

‘These bastards truly have no salvation.’

Kadir calmly looked at Pope Louis II.

On the outside, he looked like a kind old man.

On the inside, however, lurked a venomous serpent.

A serpent ready to devour people at any moment.

‘All of Eldorado’s worst qualities seem to be concentrated in this one man.’

Kadir clicked his tongue inwardly.

At a glance, he appeared younger than the Pope, but in reality they were about the same age.

Then he turned his gaze toward the other cardinals.

All of them seemed to have become nothing more than the Pope’s hands and feet.

Not a single one opened his mouth.

“Servants of God, you say…? What an ambiguous expression. Then was it also God’s will to mercilessly slaughter the citizens of the Immortal King?”

“Do you think we enjoyed that? We merely followed orders.”

“The orders of the previous Pope, or God’s?”

“The Pope’s word is God’s word.”

That excuse of “God’s will” was as convenient as ever.

It could be used both to attack and to defend.

If this had happened in ancient times, Aris would have descended personally to punish them for blasphemy.

But times had changed.

Human civilization had advanced.

And the gods no longer intervened directly in the world.

‘Perhaps they left in disappointment.’

It was a highly plausible possibility.

Even he, who did not believe in the gods, felt enormous disappointment at that moment.

No.

More than disappointment, he was beginning to feel disgust.

Because he knew better than anyone the nobility of the previous Hero.

“You claim God gave that order…? Is that really true?”

“Are you suggesting that God made the wrong decision?”

“No. What I’m asking is whether there was a divine revelation or a prophecy. Because the Hero was not pushed by God, but by his own nation.”

“……”

That was your doing.

Who exactly are you trying to deceive?

I was the Hero’s friend.

And I also possess recent evidence.

That was the true meaning behind his words.

Louis II’s expression stiffened slightly.

The other cardinals were unable to hide their discomfort as well.

Kadir absentmindedly stroked his thick beard before continuing.

“In Zhongyuan, there is a saying. It says that one may try to cover the sky with the palm of one’s hand. Do you truly believe the world will never learn the truth? I think you’re still in time to repent.”

“With all due respect…”

“Ah, of course. You probably weren’t the ones giving the orders back then, but the ones receiving them. It would have been far better to emphasize that fact and apologize. What a shame.”

“……”

If they had not been the ones giving the orders, he could still understand.

But if they were not even capable of apologizing for it, then they were hopeless trash.

Or simply complete idiots.

“Listen, your words are far too…”

One of the cardinals was on the verge of losing his temper.

But Louis II raised a hand and stopped him.

The cardinal had no choice but to suppress his anger.

Then Louis II spoke again, maintaining the same kindly smile.

“I completely understand what you’re trying to say, Lord Kadir. But I hope you understand that we simply follow God’s will.”

“I highly doubt God would approve of that will.”

Kadir let out a mocking laugh.

It was a laugh filled with contempt.

A way of saying that people would no longer believe their words.

And only someone like Kadir could afford to laugh directly in their faces.

He was the companion of the previous Hero.

A figure whose fame and power no one could ignore.

If anyone else had said such a thing, they would have already been beheaded.

However, not even Kadir expected to discover that there could always be an even deeper bottom.

“King of Mages. Do you know why we, and humanity as a whole, believe in God?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Because we are ignorant and foolish. We always make the wrong decisions, which is why God guides us. Of course, God does not always make the correct decision either, but at least His decisions are far better than ours.”

Simply put.

[Humanity is livestock.]

More specifically, he was referring to the people of Eldorado.

But interpreting it that way wasn’t wrong either.

After all, before God everyone was equal.

What difference could there be?

Kadir ended up letting out an empty laugh.

He didn’t know whether it was audacity or insanity.

“Now I understand your way of thinking perfectly. Thanks to you, I feel as though my eyes have been opened.”

“We are pleased to have been of assistance.”

“You won’t be able to keep pretending forever.”

Snap!

At that very moment, Kadir snapped his fingers.

Louis II immediately understood what that meant.

He had undoubtedly cast a spell.

His expression changed at once as he spoke hurriedly.

“What does this mean…?”

“Oh, nothing important. Just as my eyes have been opened, I simply made sure that the people open theirs as well.”

“Do you think you’ll walk away unharmed after doing something like that?”

“And how do you know what I did to say something like that?”

Meeting audacity with audacity.

That was the conclusion Kadir reached.

Without caring whether Louis II exploded in rage or not, Kadir slowly rose from his seat.

One of the cardinals, realizing the situation, hurriedly tried to summon the Holy Knights, but—

“Your Holiness! Something terrible has happened!”

“What is it?”

“R-right now, recordings of this meeting are being broadcast all across Eldorado!”

“What are you talking about?”

Louis II could not understand the messenger’s report.

The minutes of the meeting were being spread throughout all of Eldorado?

It wasn’t even a transmission spell.

The situation was so absurd that he simply couldn’t comprehend it.

So Louis II fixed his gaze on Kadir.

“Oh, it’s nothing important. I simply imitated that Gallery you consider evil.”

“You imitated it?”

“Doesn’t recording and replaying everything one sees without the aid of any device sound like fascinating magic?”

Kadir laughed.

It was a laugh as eccentric as he was.

By the time Louis II’s face was twisted like a demon’s, Kadir calmly raised a hand.

“You’re going to have a rather difficult few days ahead. But don’t hold a grudge against me. You brought all of this upon yourselves.”

“Do you think God will ignore the truth? Do you worship that Gallery as well?”

‘That’s where I got books and even translations from, you idiot!’

Kadir swallowed those words.

It wasn’t time yet.

That was a matter that needed to be revealed later, when the proper time arrived.

“The Gallery? I have no idea what you’re talking about. It seems there’s something that worries you quite a bit.”

“You damned…!”

“Well then, deal with your own problems. I’ll be leaving.”

Set the fire and walk away.

Kadir had just thrown firewood onto embers that were already burning.

And so, while Eldorado grew increasingly chaotic and edged closer to civil war, the entire world was thrown into turmoil.

As he calmly returned to the Mage Tower, Kadir reflected.

‘At times like this, a Hero would be needed… no. Perhaps it’s better that he isn’t here.’

The Hero currently bore the stigma of a traitor and was on the run.

No matter how angry the protesters became, without a central figure they would eventually disperse.

Would the Hero return?

Or would the Vatican act first?

‘It’s going to be quite a long struggle.’

As Eldorado sank into chaos, Kadir swiftly returned to the Mage Tower.

Using magic, teleportation was simple.

Though, of course, that was only possible because he was Kadir.

The moment he returned to his beloved laboratory, he opened the refrigerator.

“The blue mushroom I received earlier is right here.”

[Kill me.]

“Later.”

Kadir casually ignored the Immortal King’s request and closed the refrigerator again.

***

While the Gallery was burning with discussions about humanity being livestock,

to me, it was nothing more than watching a fire on the other side of the river.

It wasn’t particularly important.

I simply thought.

‘Wow. Looks like something strange happened.’

No matter what I said, it wouldn’t help.

And the Gallery wasn’t going to help me either.

The only interesting part was watching that small stone I had thrown end up becoming a massive meteorite.

‘It’s much warmer.’

It was obvious that winter was coming to an end.

The temperature had risen enough to be clearly noticeable.

Even the thick winter clothing was starting to feel hot.

Though I would probably keep wearing it until tomorrow.

Now it was time to take care of the house again.

The first thing was the ground.

It had rained.

Then winter had suddenly arrived.

And now the weather was warming up again.

As a result, the frozen earth had thawed and turned muddy.

That made working on it rather annoying.

Still, it wasn’t so bad that I would sink into it like a swamp.

It was simply inconvenient.

‘Later on, I’ll have to gather some gravel from the river.’

The most important thing when constructing any structure was the foundation.

Simply preparing the ground properly could consume more than half of the total construction time.

Soon I would be building a furnace and a smelter, so I planned to compact the ground correctly.

It would be enough to bring gravel from the river, spread it out, and pack it down firmly.

“Wonmo. Come here.”

“Kyuu?”

“Uhehehe.”

The sun was beginning to set, and it was almost time for dinner.

I was hugging Wonmo while rolling around on the ground.

Winter was ending.

And Wonmo had already awakened.

At last, I would be able to move around seriously again.

Once I finished the pending tasks, I could even explore new areas.

‘As long as that damn dust storm doesn’t show up.’

Though it might not even be a sandstorm.

Maybe nothing would happen at all.

After all, this wasn’t exactly the same as spring in Korea.

I had already prepared everything necessary to deal with the arrival of spring.

‘Just in case, I’d better put up the tarp.’

Once I covered the cave entrance with the tarp, the preparations for sleep were complete.

After that, I added more firewood to the hearth to keep warm.

“Achoo!”

While working, I sneezed.

My nose was itching terribly.

It wasn’t a cold.

It just suddenly started itching.

‘What’s going on? This feels ominous.’

Maybe I should sleep wearing the mask.

It would be uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t prevent me from resting.

I asked Sloth, who had already begun staring blankly into the fire, to keep watch during the night and went to sleep.

Ah.

And before sleeping, I didn’t forget to practice my internal cultivation method.

Those kinds of things had to be done constantly to improve, even if only a little.

And so I spent the night in the cave, eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring.

The next day.

Whoooooosh!

The moment dawn arrived, I removed the tarp.

And a completely yellow world greeted me.

‘So the yellow dust really arrived.’

That was what I thought for an instant.

“Achoo! Achoo! Aaaachoo!”

The sneezes began coming one after another.

My nose itched so much that it actually hurt.

At first, I thought it was because of the yellow dust.

But it felt strange that I was sneezing instead of coughing.

Even with the mask on, it felt as though something yellow was passing through the fabric.

I forced my eyes open.

‘Wait a minute. This isn’t yellow dust…’

The thing that had tormented me every spring.

Pollen.

“AAAAACHOO!!!”

The pollen floated through the air like a dust storm, turning the entire world yellow.