Became a Medieval Fantasy Wizard

TL/Editor: raei

Status: 5/week mon-fri

Illustrations: none

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Ian followed the giants, traveling somewhere for quite a while.

'Where is this?'

In the medieval era without maps or anything.

After endless grasslands and mountains, Ian felt his concentration slipping in the bleak landscape.

He felt it whenever traveling - nature was the world's true master.

The world was sickeningly vast, plants and trees having covered everything long ago.

'Green everywhere.'

Ian thought while riding his horse through leaf-covered paths.

With no concrete buildings in sight, it's healing vibes all around, right?

'Healing... my ass.'

"[We're here.]"

Polymus said in a heavy voice.

"Wow...!"

Elia gasped.

This gathering of huge stone houses was the hill giant village.

"[Seems Sephius already arrived.]"

"[Yeah. Wonder if he's meeting Sephina.]"

Ian asked while heading toward the village.

"[By the way Polymus, the giants' names sound quite familiar?]"

"[Ah. We used to be friendly with humans wearing skirts, and they gave us names and strange books as gifts.]"

'...The Golden Empire.'

Though he simply said skirts, they were probably Golden Empire soldiers' battle dress.

Having experienced Maronius's era, Ian knew this for certain.

Ian smiled wryly.

That damn Golden Empire. Their influence reached everywhere even in this medieval era. They really lived up to their nickname as the ancient empire.

Giving imperial names to hill giants?

"[Strange books?]"

"[Some book about heaven's mysteries or something...]"

"[With no one who could understand it, it's just sitting in storage.]"

'Must be scripture?'

Ian roughly figured out the ancient Golden Empire's diplomacy.

They offered names and scripture as gifts to befriend the human-friendly hill giants.

Though the empire fell and vanished, the custom of using imperial names carried on.

"The giant village! Just looking at it makes my blood boil!"

"..."

You'll die that way, old man.

Ian considered stopping Demonite but shook his head.

He figured such an outstanding summoner would know what he was doing.

"Miss Elia! Follow me! Let's study the giants' ecology in detail!"

"Ah, hahaha... Professor. I'll stay with Ian."

When Elia politely declined, Demonite looked shocked.

"What are you saying! A researcher's treasure trove is right before us! Ian has work to do, so let's not disturb him and go explore ourselves!"

Ian nodded.

Hmm. As expected.

That guy really doesn't care about rescuing the kids.

"Do what you want, Elia."

Ian said.

"It won't take long anyway."

Demonite might have forgotten, but Ian hadn't come for fun.

He'd come to rescue the missing children.

He'd even turned down Salvador and Belenka's offers to help (since the giants disliked large groups).

Ian had the responsibility to take the children home.

"To properly learn summoning, now's the perfect time! Miss Elia!"

"..."

"I'll go ahead! If you want to command rabbits as familiars, follow me!"

Like every second counted, Demonite ran screaming into the village center.

"[Giants~!]"

"[???]"

"[A human? It's a human?!]"

"[Oh my. How cute!]"

Demonite spread his arms wide and jumped into the bewildered giants' embrace.

"[Hug me~~!]"

"..."

He really seemed insane.

Ian turned away.

To do such crazy things so naturally...

Demonite must really be an outstanding wizard!

Whatever Ian thought, the giants were busy showing Demonite affection(...).

"[Look at those tiny hands and feet!]"

"[So adorable!]"

Demonite flapped his hands and feet.

He really couldn't look more ador?able...

"[Hey! What are you doing there!]"

Just then.

A voice loud enough to shake stones echoed through the giant village.

A giant who looked easily 5 meters tall, particularly huge even among giants, appeared.

Polymus whispered.

"[That's the village chief.]"

'Guess giants choose their chief by size.'

The giant chief harshly scolded the giants drawn to Demonite.

"[You lot! What are you doing! If you see lost humans, you should show them the way home!]"

"[We-we're sorry...]"

"[You guys really! Losing your minds whenever you see something cute!]"

The chief paused, then gently reached toward Demonite.

Cute? Demonite waved his hands wildly.

The chief smiled warmly.

A sight impossible to get used to.

An old man wizard's deadly cuteness!

Ian squeezed his eyes shut...!

"[If I don't say anything, someone will secretly take them home to raise!]"

"[N-no! Chief!]"

"[Don't lie! I knew I shouldn't have let Sephina keep a human!]"

'Sephina.'

Ian rode his horse toward the chief.

Though mounted Ian stood nearly 3 meters high, the chief's head was still 2 meters above.

'Damn he's huge...'

As Ian approached, the chief bent his knees with an incredibly gentle expression.

With his rough giant face, it looked truly incredible.

Even Ian, who'd faced countless monsters, felt slightly intimidated.

"[My~! Another adorable friend~?]"

This time's adorable friend was Ian.

Ian briefly considered showing aegyo to win the giant's favor but...

To maintain human dignity, he decided to speak normally.

"[Pleased to meet you, honored giant.]"

"[??? What? You can speak?!]"

The chief was startled.

An incredibly cute human who could even speak?!

Was this a fairy fallen from heaven!

'You-you're too cute!'

The chief thought about just picking Ian up and putting him in his pocket, but barely managed to continue talking.

"[You're friends with that human~ right?]"

"[Yes, honored giant. I have something to tell you.]"

"[Oh ho. What is it? Tell me.]"

Ian explained his purpose for visiting the giant village.

"[Recently, two children went missing from our village. With Polymus's help, I followed their trail, and that's how I arrived here.]"

"[...Polymus! Come here!]"

The chief called Polymus over and scolded him.

"[So you brought humans too! Huh!]"

"[Well... they said they were looking for children...]"

"[Really! How many times must I say this is dangerous land for humans!]"

Ian stopped the chief.

"[Don't be too angry. I asked him to bring me.]"

Actually, Demonite had strongly insisted, but that guy was busy acting crazy trying to study giant psychology.

The chief sighed and said to Ian.

"[Many volcano giants roam around here. And humans are volcano giants' favorite snacks.]"

"[I-I see.]"

"[The children you're looking for must be the ones that Sephius brought. Right?]"

"[That's right.]"

"[Good. Come with me to Sephius's house.]"

The chief shot Polymus a sharp look but.

Polymus just smiled and waved to Ian.

Ian smiled and waved back too.

The hill giants really were suspiciously sweet toward humans.

"I-I'll come too! Ian!"

Elia hurriedly stuck close behind Ian.

She clearly had no confidence in being the giants' toy(?) near Demonite.

While walking, Ian had a brief conversation with the chief.

"[Sorry for showing you something unpleasant right after meeting.]"

"[I don't mind at all.]"

"[Hahaha... actually, we giants once fought because of humans.]"

Fought because of humans?

Ian listened to the chief's story and soon was dumbfounded.

In the past, during the Golden Empire era.

Exchange between hill giants and humans was active, and giants entered an era of one human per household.

'...What?'

The Golden Empire cleverly provided slaves to the giants.

The empire was happy to befriend giants, and giants were happy to raise cute, pretty creatures.

But the slaves weren't very happy...

The slaves tried to escape whenever possible, and giants filed complaints(?) with the empire whenever they lost their humans.

'The humans keep running away, it's troublesome~'

'??? You're giants, right? Just catch them yourselves.'

'How can we catch such cute things with our own hands? They must want to escape because our houses are stuffy~ Please send more docile ones next time~' ꭆà𝐍ộꞖÊś

The Golden Empire seriously considered the giants' warranty claims.

In an extremely fucked up way.

'The slaves keep running away?'

'??? Then let's cut their leg tendons before sending them!'

'Excellent!'

Though the Golden Empire was the greatest ancient nation, they were still ancient people.

The empire, which treated slaves worse than beasts, sent slaves with cut leg tendons to the giants.

Soon the hill giants were greatly shocked.

'...We like and cherish humans.'

'But if humans suffer because of our affection... should we keep loving them?'

Internal strife broke out among the giants.

It was a conflict between those who wanted to keep raising humans and those who said humans should be kept at a distance.

And the winners were... those who said to keep distance from humans.

"[Just look at humans with your eyes. That was our ancestors' conclusion.]"

The giant chief said.

Ian asked.

"[Then the human called Henry...]"

"[That was my oversight. Though Sephina begged and I let her raise him. In the end it became a reason to take more humans.]"

The first time is hard but the second is easy.

If giants started raising humans like this, kidnapping incidents would clearly skyrocket.

Since they kidnapped out of greed, they wouldn't release them easily either.

"[Sephius! Open the door!]"

Boom boom boom!

The chief shouted.

There was a loud noise inside, then a shabby-looking giant poked his head out.

"[Chief? Why are you...]"

"[The humans you took. Hand them over right now.]"

Sephius's expression twisted.

"[What nonsense is that! I picked them up in the valley-]"

"[You're the one talking nonsense! Taking them from a human village, yet!]"

"[!]"

Sephius's eyes widened.

'How did they know?!'

He'd told the villagers the new humans were 'baby-humans stranded in the valley'.

Obviously a lie.

Since Sephius had directly poached them from a human village.

"[Polymus spilled everything you did. So bring out the humans right now!]"

"[W-wait! Chief! This is too much! That's!]"

Sephius was greatly flustered.

To think Polymus would catch his tail...!

If he didn't do something, he'd lose all the humans!

Sephius immediately locked the door.

The chief shouted in disbelief.

"[Hey, hey! Sephius! You bastard! What are you doing!]"

"[I'll return the female human! But the male! Let us keep the male!]"

"[What?! Hey! Sephius!]"

There was a crashing sound.

The chief's face turned ashen.

"[Damn it! Wait a moment! I'll get people!]"

"[? What's wrong?]"

"[Sephius is going to castrate the male human!]"

"[...?]"

For a moment, Ian didn't understand what that meant.

Castration?

That... removing an animal's reproductive organs... that?

"[Most male pets raised in the village are castrated! They don't go into heat and live longer that way!]"

"..."

Ian, having been modern, instantly understood the chief's words.

So... they're going to cut off the boy's nuts?

To declare 'this is our pet', bang bang bang.

Hmm...

Hmmmm...

...This got really fucked up.

Ian took a deep breath and stretched out his hand.

Then spoke in an unwavering voice.

"[Stone wall there.]"

[What is it, human?]

"[Move aside.]"

[...Understood. I will move.]

Ian was a wizard.

He knew how to put will into language.

And the stone wall understood Ian's will very clearly.

Ian's will...

Was burning with hot rage.

Rumble...!

"[Wh-what is this?!]"

The chief backed away in shock.

Suddenly the solid stone wall cracked and...

A hole big enough for people to pass through opened up!

'Did that human do this!'

After instantly making a hole in the wall, Ian entered the house.

He saw Sephius tying a child to a pillar.

Ian shouted like lightning.

"[Darkness!]"

[Yes! Ian!]

"[Erase everything in this room-!]"

[As you wish!]

Black darkness erupted like an explosion.

The darkness, like Ian's limbs, began swallowing everything into darkness according to his command.

Not just light.

Smell.

Sound.

Even sensation.

[Dark magic: Abyss of Void]

[A magic that explodes shadow's secrecy to cover all senses. Even skilled dark wizards might lose their way in this magical darkness!]

"[Wh-what is this!]"

When magical darkness covered the room, Sephius screamed.

But Sephius couldn't hear his own voice.

Light and sound, smell, even sensation.

All dissolved into shadow's secrecy.

"[Ah... ah...?]"

Like being isolated alone in space-

Overwhelming solitude and terror.

"[Ahhh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhhhh!!!]"

'...That did it.'

As soon as he confirmed Sephius was paralyzed, Ian untied the child.

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