Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"So, those children lived with you?"

The giant described his interactions with the children in great detail. Judging from such meticulous narration, it didn't seem like a simple fabrication.

Lake listened, but she hadn't seen any signs of children living on this floating island.

"Where did they go later?"

Lake asked subconsciously.

"Where did they go? Human children will always grow up. I couldn't keep them forever. I didn't understand this until the moment they left."

The Giant King shook his head, giving a reasonable answer, but his voice carried a hint of melancholy.

"Children's games always come to an end. My garden, for humans…

Such loneliness and monotony will eventually end."

The Giant King paused for a moment, then suddenly asked Lake and Poro, "Do you think my garden is lush?"

Lake and Poro exchanged a glance and nodded. "It's indeed impressive. Those magics and plants are unseen outside."

"Yes, but what if you stayed here for a month, five months, a year, or even ten years?"

Without waiting for Lake and Poro to react, the Giant King continued, "Without conflict, change, or thought, although one can stay in such a world for a long time—

The human heart makes them feel bored.

From a certain day, those children were no longer as happy as they were at the beginning. They became somewhat melancholy and heavy…

When I was still on the ground, I never thought about the humans I easily killed, until a group of children闖入了my garden.

Loneliness extinguished the flame in my heart."

The Giant King was silent, uttering two words in a low voice, "I understood something, separation, human emotions."

……

"Thank you, Mr. Giant."

Under the clouds, several children said heavily. Compared to when they came, they all looked much older, some almost reaching adulthood.

But their faces all carried a trace of unnaturalness.

Like a fear or bewilderment in the face of the unknown.

But there was no fear of the giant anymore. After a long time together, they were also familiar with this moving colossus within the clouds.

"Are we all leaving together? I still want to stay in your garden for a while…"

A girl said softly, her voice very low, but she knew that the Giant King could hear it through the clouds.

"No, since you came together, you must leave together. I don't understand humans, but I know that the number and unity of humans will bring greater power."

The Giant King said in a deep voice, without any room for negotiation.

The clouds under their feet began to squirm under the Giant King's magic. They revealed the situation on the ground. Not far away, a city appeared before everyone's eyes.

Viewed from high altitude, the city looked like a castle on the beach.

"Sorry, Mr. Giant, we shouldn't have said those things earlier. We were actually doing very well here…"

A young man said with his head lowered, with a hint of guilt in his words.

"No need to apologize. You shouldn't be bound here. I've experienced this lofty loneliness for too long, but you are not prisoners."

The Giant King said, looking at the children.

Around, the scale of the garden had become much larger than when the children first arrived. The cloud-formed floating island had expanded to hundreds of meters, and those magical plants, whether in terms of variety or growth, were very pleasing.

There were also many moving plants gently waving at the children in the bushes.

"Can we come back again later?"

A child said softly, looking around, his eyes filled with some reluctance and some bewilderment at those familiar plants.

"You are humans, you can't always stay with giants."

The Giant King said, looking at the children in front of him whose eyes were a little red. At this moment, those children truly realized that they were about to leave.

"When you miss it, you will return here in your dreams."

The giant said, and the clouds under the children's feet floated up spontaneously, wrapping the children's bodies and sinking towards the ground below.

"We will remember this place, we will tell others that giants are not all bad guys!"

A child who looked a little lively suddenly said loudly, watching the increasingly blurred shadow on the cloud as his vision gradually moved away.

"Yes, we will remember, Mr. Giant!"

"We will not forget you!"

Under the cover of clouds, the Giant King's starry eyes stared at the children, silently.

He thought of many things, the children's past games in the garden, and in the more distant past, during the Giant Royal Court period, those humans who died under the feet of the giants.

Many, many.

There were adults, the elderly, young people, teenagers…

"No, you will forget me, forget everything on this cloud… You shouldn't remember all this."

The clouds wrapped downwards.

The children's eyes looked at the rapidly changing scenes around them, the clouds blurring before their eyes, making it impossible to see clearly.

And in the depths of their minds, those memories were the same.

Like a white cloth covering them.

Huge plants, tall castles, and statue-like giants, all the fantasy was slowly covered.

Only hazy memories, those happy ones, were left.

"Where do we come from? And where are we going?"

When their feet stepped on solid ground, looking at their companions around them, the clouds had disappeared without a trace, but the vision became clear, and the road ahead became increasingly blurred.

"I remember, we are a family, there is a city there, let's go take a look?"

They looked at each other, feeling a lot more at ease.

But they felt like something was missing, like a key person was gone. Who was he?

Perhaps, more memories can only be recalled in dreams.

In dreams, return to the hazy cloud garden.

……

Lonely?

Lake and Poro listened to the giant's story. There were not many flowery words in the Giant King's words.

But Lake and Poro still heard a strong sense of loneliness from it.

Unconsciously, Lake, who was leaning against a tree, hugged Poro again, and Poro did not struggle.

Of course, this was not because the girl's embrace was warm, soft, and comfortable…

But he understood that the girl also felt lonely.

Lake had a childhood alone in the forest.

She didn't even interact with her peers, and she was even more lonely than those children who came to the Giant's Garden.

"So, after those children left, you were alone again? These flowers, they didn't wither?"

Lake couldn't help but ask.

"Of course not, you know, I was originally going to tell you.

My old friend, he was one of these children, but he is not a child."

The Giant King smiled and said again, "At that time, I thought all the children had been sent away, until… I returned to my castle and saw him again at the dining table!

He was still a kid, beckoning me to eat.

I thought my memory was confused and wanted to send the kid down too—guess what?"

The Giant King looked at Lake and Poro and asked and answered himself, "That kid, with a wave of his hand, dispersed the clouds I raised!

Hey! That's when I knew—this kid was playing with me!"

The Giant King pretended to gnash his teeth in annoyance, but quickly turned to relief, "This kid was different from the other children from the beginning. His palms and soles had red wound-like marks.

Later, he told me that it was called stigmata or something, I didn't understand.

He also invited me to take me to heaven."

"Did you go?"

Lake couldn't help but ask.

"Of course not, I'm a giant, I'm not going to your human heaven or anything else, I remember, during the period of establishing the Giant Royal Court—

Every human who wanted to kill me said I would go to hell, and every human who died in my hands said they would go to heaven."

When the Giant King said these killings, his voice became flat again.

Humanity and some kind of beastliness showed a strange balance in this Giant King.

"Heh, so—I haven't lived enough, I'm not going."

Saying this, the Giant King restrained himself, and his words became somewhat listless. It seemed that the subsequent experiences seemed much more boring than getting along with those children.

"He told me that he was the child of God, God—should be a great creator god?

A long time ago, when those human armies rushed towards me, they also shouted for God… Uh, I'm getting off topic.

In short, I got along well with this friend.

Of course, at first, I saw that he helped me save the plants in the garden that were about to die without children."

The Giant King raised his hand and pointed to the sky. At this time, the turbid and chaotic dark clouds in the sky dissipated, and the white clouds were slowly floating.

Earlier, the deep black hole was now covered up.

There was no trace of its existence, but Lake and Poro had seen it with their own eyes, so they knew where the Giant King's finger was pointing.

"Later, after a long time, suddenly one day—my old friend's home was gone."

The Giant King changed the subject, but his tone still seemed relaxed, as if the collapse of heaven at this time had even less impact on him than the departure of those dozen children.

"Coincidentally, you just saw it too, a 'door' of his house is above my house, which is one of the reasons why he made friends with me at that time, right?"

The Giant King shrugged and continued to tell.

"Those winged eyeballs, withered corpses… In fact, a large part of them were attracted by this guy's corpse."

The Giant King gestured to the tomb with a cross next to him, "Fortunately, he gave me a few gifts, like the harp you just saw, which allows me to close the door of his house.

By the way, that bird also came from heaven, and it can lay golden eggs."

The Giant King stopped talking here.

Motionless, the clouds, plus the huge but dim shadow, looked more like a silent stone statue, and even the light emitted from the eyes was dimmed.

Lake and Poro didn't know what they were thinking.

Lake was feeling the emotions in the giant's story. She felt that the giant's story didn't seem like a fabrication, and she even felt that she could empathize with the loneliness, but she was a little unsure.

After all, in the history seen in the Kingdom of Boren, the Giant King's killings were definitely real.

And a trace of surprise flashed in Poro's eyes.

Some memories were emerging… a fairy tale? Which fairy tale? Isn't this fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk?

Finally, the Giant King stood up and spoke again:

"My story is over, there are no more, can you give me those gems?"

Here it comes.

Lake and Poro looked solemn and exchanged glances. They knew that the giant in front of them definitely wanted to get these two gems.

After all, he had personally admitted that he had the Giant Elect take back the gems for him.

This shows that—these gems must have some meaning for him.

"But your story doesn't include these gems. Many people died at the hands of the 'Giant Elect' who took the gems for you, which is definitely true."

Lake stared at the Giant King, at those glowing eyes under the clouds, without human expression.

She really wanted to believe the Giant King's words, but if this Giant King was just afraid of her Star Killer Sword?

Although Lake really wanted to believe the Giant King, the giant who found humanity in this story did touch her a little, but she knew that she couldn't be deceived. Some things had to be known:

"Why do you need them? Tell us the reason."

But the Giant King was silent. After a while, he shook his head gently, but said:

"It is indeed a very important thing, but I won't lie to you… Forget it, it doesn't matter."

The Giant King paused here suddenly, as if giving up as expected, "You came here, if not to kill me, or to send gems—then what are you here for?"

Lake was stunned, unexpectedly the giant didn't answer, but instead asked a question.

But since it was her initial goal, Lake didn't hide it:

"For the magic vines."

Lake said, and pointed to the outer wall of the Giant King's castle, a strand of green vine wrapped around the outside of the tower, "Just like that, vines that can reach you from the ground, to save my relatives, I need it—"

"Magic vines?"

The Giant King was stunned, he was a little unable to react, what does his magic vines have to do with "saving".

But then, he nodded and said, "Well, this vine is indeed the plant in the entire garden into which I have injected the most magic power. It is special, like a bridge…"

As he spoke, a strand of snow-white cloud silk lightly blew from the depths of the castle and reached the Giant King's raised palm.

The cloud silk dissipated, and in it, there were a few thumb-sized peas.

The Giant King quietly looked at the pea in his palm, and then, without hesitation, he picked up the pea with two fingers and placed it in front of Leake.

"Given soil and water, it can grow; without support, it can reach a height of a thousand meters, but it will die on the seventh day."

Leake took the vine seed, somewhat surprised:

"Are there no additional conditions? Like…"

"No."

But the Giant King not only didn't ask Leake how she would use the magic vine, but also affirmed, "You have obtained the vine seeds. Now, you can leave. Thank you for listening to my story…

It has been a long time since anyone has listened to me tell these things.

Consider these seeds as a ‘gift.’"

The clouds rolled in the sky. Following the cloud threads' perception, the Giant King watched Leake and Poro reach the magic vine they had come from, about to leave his garden.

He was silent for a moment, then walked behind the castle.

There, hidden behind a hill, was a somewhat dilapidated small house—an orphanage.

"Jack? Are you really not going with them? They are different; they are good people. Once on the ground, they will at least find a good family for you to live with."

The door opened, and a boy with slightly red eyes sat on one of the chairs inside.

"No, thank you, Mr. Giant."

Jack's voice was low, his eyes still filled with deep sorrow. "I… I don't want to go back. I'm a little scared."

"Is that so…"

The Giant King listened, and from his face, obscured by the clouds, no expression could be discerned. "Alright, there are some fruits on the east side of the garden… All the fruits in the castle are edible; magic will make you very full.

The stream water is also drinkable; the water condensed from the clouds is very clean.

I may need to rest for a while, and I'll play with you again in a few days.

Fiddling with musical instruments just now did make me a little tired. I'm actually not very good at that…"