People in Xumi: I am really not the Dragon King

Chapter 568 Shadow: If I cannot return, I hope you can take over Inazuma's life for me.

The next day, on the other side of the sea.

On a summer morning in early July, Inazuma was awakened from its slumber by the sea breeze and the rising sun. Although there was still a slight dampness in the air, passersby had already begun to busy themselves with their livelihoods for the day.

In front of the town, along the rustic stone pavement, large swaths of cherry blossoms scatter petals at the shop entrances and street corners.

Blessed by the god Narukami, the cherry blossoms, which bloom year-round, spread their branches and leaves, imbuing the wooden doors and walls of the surrounding shops with a unique fragrance.

Stepping out of the room, I raised my hand and hung a triangular flag, symbolizing the festival, on the side of the dessert shop's signboard.

Lin Feng sensed the two approaching presences behind him, stopped what he was doing, and turned around with a smile to greet them:
"Good morning, are you settling in well here?"

"The dessert shop occupies a large area, and there happen to be some empty rooms left over from before. Although I don't care where I am, if you don't like living here, you can ask me to renovate them now."

I had been preparing for the two little guys' visit for a long time, and my current status can be considered as the boss's "friend".

Generally speaking, the Tree King and Nasita aren't very picky about where they live; they can stay in any place in the forest for a long time.

But a vacation is a vacation, so it should be perfect in every detail. Anyway, expanding the interior space is a pretty easy task for me now.

"No, there's nothing I'm not used to, it suits me perfectly."

"The environment is great, and the freshly baked desserts smell delicious."

"Waking up to this smell every day feels like being a squirrel sleeping in a pile of nuts; it brings a sense of peaceful happiness."

I sniffed and looked at the plants from different countries in the flowerbed in front of the door.

Nasida is clearly very satisfied with her current living environment and has no need for any changes.

"Ah That's good."

“Kalibel gets up very early every day to bake bread, since many customers like to come and sit for a while in the early morning. Although I guess you won’t dislike the taste of the desserts, it would be great if you could be satisfied.”

Nodding, I could sense the little one's feelings from Nasita's wonderful metaphor.

Lin Feng looked up at the vendors who had started to come and go on the street. After being the "behind-the-scenes manipulator" for so long, he was surprised to feel a bit of life.

"—Here are some colorful flags. Do you want me to help you hang them up?"

"The festival should officially start in a few days. After you finish decorating the shop, if you have time, you can consider going to the nearby small warehouse to order a couple of outfits."

“I tried to prepare for you in advance beforehand, but if you buy directly, I can only find children's sizes of this size. If you don't mind, you can come and try it on.”

"."

Hearing two pairs of eyes staring at him from behind, he paused, a strange intuition telling him it was best not to continue.

Although these two are currently in very similar situations, both being the type who would wear the same Paimon swimsuit even to a hot spring.
But facts aside, directly suggesting wearing children's clothing seems...
"."

"Phew, forget it. Give me the colorful flag. We can get the clothes custom-made later. You know Inazuma better, so remember to come and see if they fit."

"After all, it was our suggestion that we should adapt to local customs, so preparing clothing is a necessary step."

With a slight sigh, Nasita, already used to being poked for no reason, even wondered if her sage was deliberately mocking her height.

But her own wise mother said she wanted her to enjoy a relatively normal growth process, so she wouldn't help her and would just skip her childhood.

Even when she asked the Tree King how to grow faster, it just smiled and shook its head, replying with a nonsensical "Isn't this better?"
"."

"Well, I guess I'll take you there later. Once we've finished with the current matters, there shouldn't be much work left."

When Nasita took the colorful flags and then gave up on moving the stools, the surrounding plants began to spontaneously help, following her will.

Lin Feng paused, suddenly curious whether the little guy had assigned them both the identity of being holders of the Eye of God in order to deal with this situation.
"Speaking of which, is that a phonograph you're holding? And it seems to be a recently developed experimental model?"

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to photograph? If it's the unique scenery of Inazuma, I know a little about it."

A moment later, with the help of Naxida and the Tree King, the colorful flags were hung up with great efficiency.

It is clear that Narcida, under normal circumstances, is the same type as the old man Wendy, who avoids using power whenever possible and values ​​ritual and purity.

Lin Feng glanced at the mechanical devices that the two of them were carrying, but didn't say anything that would spoil the mood, like "the Void System also has a shooting function."

"Ah, I did have a similar idea, to photograph some special landscapes and record what Inazuma looks like at that moment."

"But Nasita probably wanted to film scenes that belonged to 'people,' places they visited, the environment of festivals, and everything she witnessed."

The equipment in his hands was familiar to him; although it was mechanical, he was still able to use it skillfully.

Looking back at Nasita, who nodded in approval, the Tree King knew that this was exactly what the little one had lacked most in the previous hundreds of years.

"Alright."

Lin Feng nodded, not surprised by the result:
"Whatever you want to photograph, if you like it, we can go and explore different places together later. I actually quite recommend doing photography here."

"Inazuma's environment is somewhat polarized. While some areas are not very suitable for living, its unique landscape and culture are among the best in the world."

Inazuma has changed very little over the past few centuries, and its isolated nature has resulted in distinctive architecture and landscape.

There's no need to worry about these two encountering any danger. Lin Feng figured that if he accompanied them, he would at most be acting as their tour guide.

"."

"Heh, then I'll leave it to you. If any bandits or monsters in the wild attack us, please make sure to protect us." The Tree King usually chatted in a joking tone, but just as he was about to say that the two "kids" had no fighting power,
She paused, and a somewhat familiar aura suddenly entered her perception range.

"Hmm? The aura of lightning, but it seems particularly chaotic. What is this?"

The Tree King could easily deduce the identity of the visitor from the aura of lightning elemental authority emanating from the Land of Lightning.

But what puzzled her was that this aura was quite different from the one she had sensed at a banquet thousands of years ago.
It not only contains other elements, but is also in a state of instability and conflict.
"Something's strange about the 'Shadow' aura; it's not quite what you remember."

"Actually, that's why I said that Inazuma still has one very important task to finish."

"During the five hundred years that your fragmented consciousness was dormant, a lot of things actually happened to Inazuma, and it could even be said that the course of events deviated greatly from the normal course of events."

"It would be too complicated for me to explain. Anyway, you already know this former shadow warrior, so you can just talk to this acquaintance yourself in a little while."

It's hard to say that "after Thor was replaced, he suddenly had the idea to transform his body into a puppet, and then let an artificially disabled person rule the country, successfully pushing the country to the brink of collapse."
How can we explain this surreal turn of events where, after stubbornly restarting hundreds of times and finally realizing the error of their ways, they still have to fight against an artificial intelligence idiot to change their previous rigid policies?

Lin Feng, whose head ached just thinking about it, decided to let them communicate on their own.

".?"

"Wait? If I heard correctly, you mean you used your own body to transform into a doll?"

"And now this doll you made is rebelling against you, and you haven't left any way to counter it. You're even losing the right to use your own body now?"

Inside the room, in front of a round table laden with desserts,

The Tree King and Shadow, who are theoretically acquaintances, are communicating about the current situation.

But after exchanging a few words, before Ying could even express her doubts about why there were three gods in Sumeru, the Tree King was filled with questions and wondered if he had misheard.

The fall of "True" was known to her, but she was actually asleep for most of the time after that. The last fragment of her consciousness had little ability to manipulate the World Tree, so apart from the change of Thor, she was not very clear about what happened to Inazuma.

After being resurrected, she no longer needed to worry about work as she used to.

Out of a certain tacit understanding, people will not randomly search for things on the World Tree unless absolutely necessary.

After a few exchanges, I gained a general understanding of Inazuma's current situation.

But the Tree King was at most puzzled as to how anyone could govern a country like this; he never imagined it would unfold in such a bizarre way.
—What does it mean to find the right technology, so you decide to transform your body into a puppet, then shrink yourself down and meditate, letting the puppet manage the country in your place?
If this situation can still be understood for the time being,
How could anyone possibly choose not to leave a backdoor in a decision that involves control over their own body?
Neither in the past nor now, even the most reckless mechanical scientist would do such a thing.
"."

"Although there are some minor differences in details, the general situation is as follows."

I want to refute it, but I can't find any angle to refute it.

I could sense the look in their eyes, as if they had seen some rare species.

But the fact that had already happened couldn't be changed. Shadow nodded wearily; she'd been scolded by Miko and Chiyo quite a bit lately for things like this.
"."

“Hundreds of years ago, I was terrified of ‘wear and tear.’ I feared that one day it would erode my mind and inadvertently destroy the Inazuma I truly wanted to protect.”

"After careful consideration, I felt that leaving myself a backup plan would make me waver, so I set the general up as he is now."

"The original intention was that if I wanted to do something detrimental to Inazuma, the 'General' could stop me in time. However, after the recent events, I have realized that the 'eternity' I envisioned in the past has serious problems."

Every movement had a noticeable sluggishness.

Even though he was trying to suppress it, his body still occasionally flashed with lightning.

Essentially, it's forcibly suppressing the general's confrontational processes, but this suppression is now nearing its limit.
Not to mention that the general still harbors resentment over his countless failures during the invasion of the Abyss and still wants to have a showdown with the "mastermind behind the scenes".
“I understand your concerns, but being overly concerned about wear and tear is itself a form of wear and tear. Your previous obsession is actually accelerating things in a direction you don’t want to see.”

"Just like a squirrel worried about its winter food supplies being stolen, it painstakingly hides its harvest too deep, only to forget about it itself in the end. This is a case of going too far."

It's understandable that humans are prone to making impulsive decisions after experiencing sudden and drastic changes.
The "shadow" before us, having lost its twin sibling, experiences an emptiness rooted in the very essence of life that is hundreds or thousands of times deeper than that of humans.

But no matter what, this is the other person's only body, and should have been treated with more care.
Backdoors can be difficult to activate or involve complicated procedures; even with numerous restrictions, it's better than having none at all.

Strictly speaking, this body actually belongs to the "general" created by the other party at this moment, while the shadow, which violates the "underlying logic," has become an illegal user.
"."

“Chiyo and the Divine Child both told me this. I have realized the immense impact the Shogun has had in carrying out the ‘Eternity’ over the past few centuries, and I know that past ideals should not continue.”

“I do not lack the courage to ‘confront’ the general, but now is not the time. At least I need to stabilize order after the people who died because of the Eye Hunt Order and the war return, and ensure that Inazuma can continue to function smoothly even if he leaves me for a short period of time.”

Looking up ahead, I couldn't quite distinguish the two childlike figures.
Under that unspoken understanding that made them seem like one, when Ying looked at them, it was as if she were seeing herself and Zhen from that time.

He hadn't forgotten that he had once praised the "god of wisdom" for his governance.

Sensing the general growing increasingly restless within the space of consciousness due to his violation of "eternity,"

Ying glanced at Lin Feng, who, though merely adding desserts to the table, clearly held absolute dominance among the three, took a deep breath, and stated the decision she had already made:
"I know that the previous 'eternity' brought countless sufferings to the people, but the past cannot be changed. Now, the only way for the general and me to convince each other is through the clash of swords."

"Even though I keep refusing the general, there's always a limit to delaying. I have a feeling that the time for this formal 'debate' is very close."

"The general's will is unwavering. This battle may take decades, centuries, or even have no end in sight."

"Therefore, in order not to abandon the people who trust me again, there is a decision I have been hesitating over."

He raised his head slightly.

Sensing the eager looks from the three people in front of her, she pursed her lips:
"What if, in the very end, I cannot return from the battle with the general?"

Ying paused slightly, her expression towards Lin Feng becoming complex and heavy:
"I hope that you can take over Inazuma and at least ensure that the people here will not face the same despair and helplessness as they did 500 years ago."

(End of this chapter)