CHAPTER 23: DRUID RACE

A cool breeze hit Gara’s face as a bead of sweat rolled from his forehead. His hand was still clutched firmly by a disappointed Wina.

"M-mom... this..." He could only stammer one word before closing his mouth, then opening it again for another, only to finally shut it.

Wina’s disappointment quickly morphed into rage as another important matter resurfaced in her mind. "That insolent boy!" she snapped. "You, go home! Mom will beat the ass out of that boy!" She ordered, glaring down the road towards Galiga Village.

Gara instantly realized what his mother was thinking. "Mom, it’s not Madha!" he cried, reaching for her hand.

Wina finally stopped. She stared at the teenage boy in front of her with a scrutinizing look, trying to discern if he was lying. "Then, who is it?"

Gara shook his head, feigning ignorance. They were too poor and powerless to oppose a noble. Besides, he himself had no desire to meet that man ever again.

"Let’s go back first, Mom," he said softly.

With slumped shoulders, she walked ahead. Behind her, he followed like a little duckling—a pregnant one.

After a few moments of silent walking, they arrived home. Without a word, Wina entered her bedroom. Gara could only watch, confused. Had his mother given up on him?

But then, she emerged from her room with a rustic, red-earth colored pouch in her hand. She walked past him, still silent. He could only follow quietly as his mother left the house.

Wina stood amidst the plot of herbal plants in the yard. She pulled something small and green from the pouch, seemingly a seed, and threw it into the air.

Something inexplicable happened. The seed shot towards the sky, and about five meters above, it exploded soundlessly into a transparent, dome-shaped light that seemed to cover the house and yard.

She repeated the action three times, each producing the same effect. A flock of birds veered sharply aside as something invisible blocked their way in the sky above, and the wind became steadier.

"Mom, are you a Liner?" he asked, knowing there was yet another secret he didn’t know.

As Wina turned her head to Gara, he saw his mother’s teary eyes. Even though she wasn’t his biological mother, he still felt a pang of guilt.

"I’m sorry, Mom," he mumbled again.

"You’re not wrong, son. This is solely my fault. I couldn’t protect you," she said, caressing his delicate face. "You’re this pretty, and I couldn’t even take precautions. Even though I know how greedy humans are, how they’ll do anything for their own sake, disregarding others."

Wina sobbed, and Gara stood there, feeling his mother’s rough hands, perhaps the result of years of hard work in the fields.

But something felt odd. His mother talked about humans as if she wasn’t one herself.

"But Mom, we’re also human. We can make mistakes," he soothed her.

Suddenly, Wina stopped crying, looking at her son with red, watery eyes. A strange feeling stirred in his heart. His words of comfort were just words to him, yet his mother seemed startled by them.

"What happened, Mom?" he asked, anxiously. She shook her head then entered the house.

Following his mother, he stepped inside, a suspicious feeling growing within him. "We are human, right?"

As Wina heard her son’s question, her steps faltered, then continued without a word.

"Are we not?" He couldn’t be appeased without an explanation.

Inside her bedroom, Wina sat on her bed, staring at Gara, who stood in the doorway. Taking a long breath, she said with a serious expression, "I’m not your biological mother, son."

Gara felt a metaphorical thunderclap in his head. He didn’t feel remorse, disappointment, or anything the original Gara might have felt, but he was still taken aback.

From the original owner’s memories, Wina had been fiercely protective of him. She couldn’t bear even a small scratch on his body. He didn’t need to work, and she provided everything for him.

What was that if not motherly love?

"You are Lady Vita’s only son. But through the years, I’ve raised you as my real son."

"Lady Vita?"

"Indeed, you’re not human, son. You were born from a druid race and a human race. But you weren’t an ordinary druid descendant. Because Lady Vita was the guardian of the Tree of Life..." Wina’s voice softened. "And I was the human servant whom Lady Vita saved."

Gara listened with a shocked expression, finally feeling the fantasy world truly materialize along with Wina’s story.

In this world, there was a race called the druids, who lived in forests and acted as their guardians. The only territory in the Bhumi Kingdom with thick forests was Myatra Province, which the druids automatically claimed as their own.

Every forest had its Tree of Life, the source of energy and life within it. It was said that if anything happened to a Tree of Life, every living thing in that forest would be affected.

That’s why the strongest druid would be chosen as the guardian of the Tree of Life, also serving as the leader of that forest.

One of the forests in Myatra Province was Wasyah Forest, the home of Wina and Lady Vita, the woman Wina called Gara’s biological mother.

One day, humans made an agreement with the druids in Wasyah Forest. That’s when Lady Vita met a human man and fell in love with him. From their relationship, Gara was born.

Unfortunately, the guardian of a Tree of Life should not have any romantic relationship with a human. As the strongest druid, she was expected to marry another druid so that their offspring would possess much stronger druid power.

The druids also believed other races didn’t deserve their power. They honored nature, while a few races, including humans, sought to damage nature for their own interests. A few races with low birth rates also took an interest in the druids because of their fertility. It was just that druids didn’t have high libidos, which prevented their population from booming.

This made Vita and the human man’s relationship fiercely contested by other druids.

...