I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 44

With Rynn's cold glare piercing me through the screen, I couldn't help but let out a groan.

"Why did it have to be him..."

I can't believe I got stuck with the one human in my realm with a negative opinion of me as my Oracle. It hasn't even been ten minutes and he's already threatening me.

Although part of me was annoyed about how he was behaving, I couldn't really blame him. He had just watched his brother die in front of him- it would be unfair to expect him to be acting rationally in this circumstance.

.... But that doesn't mean I can just let my Oracle behave like a toddler. No matter how unfair it was, he has to be held to higher standards.

"Rynn, you are accusing me of something without knowing a thing about my circumstances."

The person in question continued to point his weapon to the sky.

"I know enough. You had the power to create this world. You had the power to make javelins fly. You had the power to slay a mountain chicken without any effort. You even had the power to open up the ground and swallow his corpse. So why... WHY DID YOU NOT USE THAT POWER TO SAVE MY BROTHER!?"

His scream was loud enough to deafen the raging battlefield around him, as both humans and mountain chickens alike glanced over at the sound. 

"Caaaw!"

"Caaaaw!"

"Caaw!"

... And of course that made him a prime target for the beasts.

This guy...

I could only let out a sigh of pity and disappointment as I watched Rynn turn his anger toward the lunging mountain chickens.

Schlinch!

"RAAAAAA!"

He's too immature.

It made sense. Not only was he still not yet a teenager, but he had been without parents since he was a young child. Rynn was practically raised by his brother who was only a few years older than him.

Schlinch!

I watched as his javelin pierced the torso of another mountain chicken sending it collapsing to the ground.

His strength was definitely not bad. Such was the case even before he received divinity, which is why I considered him as a candidate in the first place.

"WHY DID YOU-"

Thud!

"LET MY-"

Crack!

"BROTHER DIE!?"

Schlinch!

He was smart- the deduction that led to him blaming me, though flawed, was proof of this. It was his emotional maturity that really held him back.

I continued to watch the screen with pity as the new Oracle slaughtered the horde of mountain chickens charging him as he yelled toward the sky.

"ANSWER ME!"

Well... when he asks so nicely I guess I have to.

"I tried to save your brother, Rynn. I really did. Think about this for a second; why would I give you the power you now have?"

Rynn ducked under a lunging mountain chicken and pierced its underbelly with his javelin.

"... To kill these beasts?" he asked begrudgingly.

"Well, I would like you to, but no. You are the only person in your village who did not believe in me, so why did I choose you to give this power to?"

"... To make me believe?"

"... You think I would give this power to you for something so petty?" My mouth unconsciously gaped at his guess.

Rynn scowled at my retort.

"Why then!? What other reason could you have!?"

Crack!

Rynn whacked the torso of a mountain chicken with the shaft of the javelin causing some of its ribs to break.

"There was no reason," I corrected.

"... What do you mean?"

"I mean that I didn't intend to give you this power. It was meant for your brother."

Rynn's eye twitched at those words.

"... Even if you are telling the truth, you gave me this power after he died. You could have saved him before," he argued.

He's tough to convince...

"Giving power takes time, but I am extremely weak during the process and can not use my power. I started before he even began fighting the mountain chickens, so he should have had enough time. He really only needed a few more seconds before he would've become my Oracle but..."

I didn't need to finish the thought. The look on Rynn's face proved he connected the dots.

"Because he saved me..." Rynn muttered. 

I had to be vague so that I wouldn't get punished by the Academy, but I did my best to explain the situation.

Schlinch!

"C-caaaw~"

Rynn's face grimaced with a mix of guilt, despair, and frustration as the last mountain chicken from the small horde fell from his javelin.

With him silent, I decided to hammer my point in even more.

"Did you forget about the girl behind you?"

Rynn looked back at his childhood friend who had retreated into the tree's branches once the horde approached. 

"I didn't have to save her. I could've just feigned ignorance and looked away as the mountain chickens tore her to shreds. From a logical standpoint, it would've made sense to save my drained power... but I didn't. I decided to save her anyway. Yet instead of thanking me or even appreciating my effort, you pointed your weapon at me."

The new Oracle hung his head at my words; I could see the grip on his javelin tighten.

"Listen, I know you're upset. I'm sure I would be too if I were in your position," I continued, "But there are some situations where you need to clear your head despite how angry or frustrated or upset you may be and think of things from a perspective outside of your own. There are over 1.5 million people in my world right now. No matter how hard I try, I can't save everyone. Even with the power I gave you, neither can you."

I paused as memories of a 9-month long march played in my head.

"... That doesn't mean we can't try though," I finished.

Rynn's head rose at my words.

"You have the power of an Oracle; you bear the responsibility of saving this world and the people who inhabit it. Their lives are in your hands now. So... since you speak so much about saving people, why don't you start by saving those right in front of you?"

The Oracle finally focused back on the village around him. Although much less than before, fighting was still indeed raging strong.

A sudden light seemed to fill Rynn's eyes which were plastered by a cloudy sorrow mere moments before. His chest puffed out as he took in a deep breath, before quickly releasing it back into the air.

"Ayla!" Rynn shouted- his back still facing the tree she sat in.

"... Yes?"

"Yell if you need me! I will not let these beasts take anyone else!" 

With those words, Rynn rushed to the village interior with a javelin in hand.

I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth from rising at the sight.

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Schlinch!

"Caaaaw~"

Thud!

"F-finally... It is finally over!"

Out of breath and with his body screaming at him, Rynn flopped onto the mossy ground next to the body of the mountain chicken he just slayed.

The fighting went on for another hour following his talk with the creator of the world. He lost count of how many mountain chickens were slaughtered by his hands, but it was easily in the dozens. Running around the village to locate the stragglers took him longer than the fights themselves.

This fact did not go unnoticed by those saved by his effort, whose words of gratitude felt a bit overbearing to this Oracle inexperienced with receiving them.

Honestly, my brain might be more exhausted than my body.

Way too much had just occurred. It was only a few hours ago when he was carving javelin tips on the edge of the village with his brother. Now, the village was practically laying on the ground that his brother was buried beneath.

Then there was his selection as an Oracle and the talk with the creator of the world, which gave Rynn a headache whenever he tried to wrap his head around it.

"Ugh. This really is a nightmare..."

As Rynn was catching his breath, a slender hand reached out to him and obscured his vision of the sky now enveloped in the darkness of night.

"You look pretty tired,"

"That is putting it lightly," Rynn forced a smile at the girl's words and pulled himself up using her hand, "Are you okay, Ayla?"

"I am not injured, but... I can not say that I am okay either," Ayla shrugged and said with a sigh.

The village around them, if it could even be called one now, was a mess, to put it bluntly. Virtually all of the tipis were knocked down or destroyed. What little ground was not covered in rubble was instead littered with the corpses of mountain chickens and humans alike.

With most of the hunters presumedly caught up in the initial horde, the village was nearly defenseless against the massive wave of beasts. Aside from the handful of men who remained in the village for various reasons, it was mostly up to the women and children to defend themselves from the vicious predators.

The carnage around them spoke for how well that turned out. Of the roughly 2,000 people originally in the village, only a couple hundred could be seen wandering through the wreckage- many of them were badly injured.

If I had not been made an Oracle...

"Hey, Rynn," Ayla spoke interrupting his thoughts, "What you said earlier... about Rathok... is he really-?

"Yeah. He is dead," A sharp pain shot through Rynn's chest as he answered. 

"H-he... really is..."

A small tear illuminated by the glimmering stars dripped down Ayla's cheek.

Rynn stuck out his arms at the sight, not knowing anything else to do.

"Come here..."

The girl did not hesitate at his offer and quickly buried herself in his chest. Her tears immediately soaked through the Oracle's torn clothing.

"Rathok!"

Ever since they were babies, Ayla, Rynn, and Rathok had been an inseparable trio. Now, that trio had become a duo.

Although her cries rang out for a while, the sad reality was that her tears were only a small part of the symphony sounding through the village. The destruction was enormous; not a single person was without the loss of a friend, a family member, a neighbor, or a home.

Their lives are in my hands, huh?

The words from the creator of the world replayed in Rynn's mind as he gazed at the dim destruction around him.

It was a landscape full of rubble, corpses, and tears. Honestly, Rynn desperately wanted to join in their wailing and let his pain flow through his tears, but despite his sorrow, something was stopping him from giving in.

Someone needs to fix this whole mess... and I am the only one with the power to do so.

Gently, Rynn separated from the still-tearful girl and began scavenging some of the nearby wreckage for any materials that managed to make it through the brief storm without getting completely soaked.

"Ayla, could you do me a favor and find me a piece of flint?" the Oracle asked as he made a small pile of pieces of bark, leaves, and wood on the ground.

Ayla seemed to flinch at the request.

"F-flint? I can but..."

"Thank you."

Seeing how Rynn shrugged off her worry, Ayla began searching the dark ground for flint. By the time she found some, Rynn had constructed a pretty big pile of material.

"H-here. I found some..."

"Perfect."

Rynn stretched out his shaking hand for Alya who hesitantly placed the rocks in his palm. One was flint and the other was a gray rock containing golden-colored specs.

Tsk. This is harder than I thought.

After letting out a breath Rynn struck the two rocks together causing some sparks to fly on some crushed dry leaves. It only took a few minutes before he had a decently sized fire going.

The sorrowful eyes of the surviving villagers turned to this one source of light in the darkened village. Rynn paid it no mind and instead turned his attention to the corpse of a mountain chicken behind him. As Ayla sat by the fire, he began roughly using his javelin to cut through its feathers and hide before cutting out portions of its meat.

"Here you go," Rynn handed the girl a large piece of the mountain chicken meat that he stabbed a stick through.

"Thank you, Rynn," Ayla accepted the food with a faint smile and started to roast it over the fire.

The cold, hungry, and soaked villagers gravitated toward the fire and were promptly handed a meat skewer by Rynn once they arrived. Soon enough, the few hundred survivors created a few more fires near the group, and a few helped Rynn butcher the mountain chickens.

Their hearts which were frigid from loss seemed to slowly thaw around the fire's warmth.

Eventually, sounds other than whimpers began to flow from their mouths- some recounting what had occurred, others mourning who were lost, and the rest pondering where to go from here.

The two kids were no exception to that.

"Hey, Rynn... back when you rescued me after I fell from the tree, you said someone else killed the mountain chicken that was attacking me?"

Rynn put down his mountain chicken skewer at Ayla's question and let out a sigh.

"Yeah. It was the creator of the world who saved you."

The conversations around the fire immediately came to a halt at Rynn's causal words.

"Did he say the creator of the world?"

"That poor kid, he lost his mind."

"I heard his brother was killed. I bet he is taking this all pretty hard..."

Murmurs of concern rang out through the crowd, but Rynn paid them no mind and stood up.

"Everyone!" he announced, "I know it may be hard to believe, but I was given power by the creator of the world. I have been given the power of an Oracle!"

This declaration only seemed to cause more looks of pity among the crowd.

Many of those present had actually been saved by him, but as he did not do much more than pierce the mountain chickens with his javelin, it was difficult for them to believe he had been given the power passed down through legends.

Ugh. Of course, they do not believe me, but I can not blame them. I would have had the same expression if someone said that to me yesterday... Maybe I should throw a tree or something.

I am way too tired for that right now, though.

"... You do not need to believe me. I do not really care either way-"

Fwoom!

Suddenly, a giant spiral formed in the fire in front of Rynn, easily reaching double his height. 

"Raaaaa!"

"The fire!"

"What is that!?"

The villagers hurriedly backed up from the sudden burst of flames, which soon vanished as quickly as they came revealing a fish hovering in the air.

Rynn watched in bewilderment as the fish slowly floated over to him and landed on top of his head.

"He was right!"

"That fish! It is just like the story! The kid was telling the truth!"

"The creator of the world really is watching us!"

Energy rapidly began to return to the villagers who were filled with a desperately needed sense of hope.

Yet as they all celebrated, Rynn could only stare blankly at the fire while balancing the weight of the creature on his head.

... What is my life becoming?