This story is told from the Great Sage's perspective.
My name was Otfried.
I was a simple, humble old man.
Or so I liked to think, though those around me insisted on calling me the "Great Sage." I considered myself nothing more than an elderly man nearing his end, but I suppose when it came to magical prowess, I had no intention of yielding to anyone.
Despite being a man respected by mages across the continent and receiving lavish hospitality from kings, I had been troubled by a certain worry of late.
Recently, my grandson had been acting strangely.
His name was Armin, and he turned ten years old this year.
My daughter and her husband had been killed by the Demon King's Army. It was a tragic affair; at the tender age of eight, Armin was forced to part from his parents forever. It was an incredibly painful burden for a child to bear.
Because of this, I decided to take the boy with me on my travels. I figured I could oversee his training along the way. I had to raise him to be a strong man so that he might survive even if he were to face the Demon King's Army in the future.
To that end, I put him through harsh, grueling training. However, Armin could not endure it. At that rate, he would never have grown strong; if anything, he was developing a habit of running away. I feared that instead of becoming a man of character, he would grow into a cowardly adult.
To be honest, I was at my wit’s end. I couldn’t bear the thought of facing my daughter in heaven. I had managed well enough when I raised her, but it seemed I couldn't keep up with my grandson.
What was I to do? Help me, my dear wife. It felt as though raising this boy was beyond my power.
And then, Armin suddenly changed.
It happened when we visited a certain village on the border. A couple there had been killed by a monster, and I was requested to exterminate the beast. They had left behind a child—a girl. Though she kept her hair hidden, it was pure white, just like mine. She possessed a truly mysterious aura.
That girl was nearly ten, the same age as my grandson. They shared the same tragedy of losing their parents. It was only natural that I felt a sense of kinship with her. Deciding this was a twist of fate, I accepted the request to help.
The abnormality occurred while I was away hunting the Barbaaffe—the monkey-type monster responsible for the parents' deaths. My grandson went missing in the forest.
Three days passed without a sign of him. I was frantic, but as soon as I began a search using Wind Magic, he suddenly reappeared. I had been worried sick.
But it was after that incident that the change took hold of him.
First, his look transformed. His expression became one of absolute devotion, overflowing with a renewed spirit. He began to actively tackle the training he had once loathed with a passion. I could feel an astonishing level of focus and a tremendous drive for self-improvement emanating from him.
He remained tight-lipped about what had happened in the forest, but surely something positive had occurred. Now, I felt I could finally hold my head high when I eventually reunited with my daughter.
However, that wasn't the only change. Perhaps his sense of taste had altered as well, for he began to crave sweets incessantly. Every time we reached a new town, his first priority was to find a honey shop. There, he would attempt to buy every jar in stock.
I would have to restrain the excited boy, allowing him to buy only as much as he could carry. The moment he stepped out of the shop, he would grab the honey by the handful and begin licking it. He was never a child who cared much for honey before.
Furthermore, whenever he tasted the honey, he would invariably mutter, "This isn't it," and look utterly dejected. I wondered if he simply couldn't find a flavor he liked. I hated to see him so sad after he had finally started working so hard.
Therefore, I decided to pay a visit to the King. As the highest authority in the land, he was bound to know where to find the highest quality honey. I had already been summoned for an audience, so the timing was perfect.
It had been four years since I last visited the Royal Capital of the Kingdom of Gardenia. At that time, the Hero's Party was just departing the city to subjugate the Demon King. The Hero, who was a prince; his fiancée, the greatest Saint of the age; the son of the Kingdom's Knight Commander; the rising star of the court mages; and several others had set out together.
In the end, it seemed the Demon King was not defeated. I heard that several members of the party never returned. Even the Hero’s fiancée, that peerless Saint, was among the lost. I hadn't seen a girl capable of such Light Magic in decades. It was a tragedy to lose such a talent.
The Hero, who had survived, eventually married the newly appointed Saint. Apparently, they had been comrades in the party. That was all well and good, but despite their companions being killed and the lives of the people being threatened by the Demon King's Army, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't set out to finish the job.
Even the King, the Hero's father, complained at a banquet that his son refused to leave the Royal Capital no matter how much he was persuaded. Apparently, the Hero would only listen to his new wife. There was a limit to being henpecked. I, too, could never go against my own wife, but she would have kicked me in the backside and told me to go defeat the Demon King's Army already. It was thanks to her prodding that I eventually became known as the Great Sage.
The Saint who became the Hero's wife had continued to refuse the subjugation mission for three years now. I couldn't help but feel there was some hidden reason behind it. It was too strange otherwise. As a man who carried the weight of a nation on his shoulders, the Hero lacked a certain level of awareness. I truly wondered what was going on in his head.
Aside from being introduced to the finest honey shop in the country by the King, I gathered other useful information. As one would expect, intelligence centralized in the capital.
It was the year 1020 of the Celestial Era.
This single year had been filled with upheaval. This past winter, an extraordinary cold wave had assaulted the nation. An amount of snow not seen in a century piled up across the land, paralyzing the country's functions. While the plains were manageable, the snowfall in the mountain regions was beyond imagination.
To make matters worse, a certain city was invaded by the Demon King's Army in the midst of that blizzard. The place that fell was the Fortress City—the Kingdom of Gardenia’s front line against the enemy. It was also the city where our greatest military forces were stationed.
Isolated by the heavy snow, the fortress was reportedly attacked from the sky by a swarm of dragons. They were likely the same dragons I had been searching for in the mountain ranges. They had been hiding their presence then, but perhaps they had moved to prepare for this very assault. Had I encountered them sooner, I could have returned them to the earth myself.
I had heard rumors that the current Demon King could even manipulate the weather. If so, this great cold wave was undoubtedly his handiwork. If only the Hero had gone to defeat him sooner, none of this would have happened.
But the news didn't stop there. A Witch, wanted by the Empire, had fled to our country and was reportedly sighted in the remote regions. By national decree, Witches had to be eliminated. A Witch Hunt unit was immediately organized from the surrounding towns to strike her down.
A Witch discovered at almost the exact same time the Fortress City fell—I couldn't help but feel there was a connection.
Furthermore, in a certain border forest, the monsters were said to have vanished. That forest was famous for its powerful inhabitants, and it was the same one where Armin had gone missing. I only hoped it had nothing to do with my grandson.
Speaking of which, I wondered where the boy was. He was likely licking that honey he received from the royal purveyors right about now. I only hoped it would finally satisfy him.
Well, the highways that were closed by the heavy snow had finally been restored. Since the Hero refused to lift a finger, I supposed I would do a little work for the sake of the country myself. I had received a letter from my wife telling me to hurry up and do something about the Demon King's Army. I had best depart before my own backside began to ache from her "encouragement."