Chapter 107: Being better

-Xania-

The place we call the 'cursed fields'... This region of the demon wasteland used to be all fertile farmland where the minotaur tribe grew their crops.

However, just over 700 years ago there was a battle here, the gray demons fought against the minotaurs. My ancestors attempted to cast a combined spell far beyond their capabilities and accidentally cursed the land itself.

All the plants that attempt to grow here end up melting into black goo, and a strange purple smoke comes out from the ground, making anyone who breathes it feel sick. Needless to say, nobody has been able to grow anything in this land ever since.

After the loss of such an important source of food, not only the minotaurs but also the tribes that used to trade for it have been holding a grudge against the gray demons. Well, that is only one of the many grudges that each tribe has against the others here in the demon wasteland, but it's still shameful to think that my tribe was responsible for creating a place where nothing living can grow.

Yes, this is a place where nothing living can grow... Or at least it was, until an hour ago.

"Ah!, looks like this worked better than expected."

I can hear the voice of my new queen, but I cannot see her, the grass that just grew here in a matter of minutes is taller than me and it's blocking my vision in every direction...

I thought that I should tell Luna about this place. The curse here was supposed to be equivalent to dark magic of rank 13, so even her rank of 20 would not be enough to take control of it. But since she's such an expert when it comes to dark magic, I figured that she should still be able to do something.

And as soon as she took a look around this place, she said that she could try 'reversing' the curse. What is 'reversing' a curse even supposed to mean? I've never heard about anything like that before. And yet, it didn't take even an hour for this place to become a jungle of grass and weeds.

"Every time I think that your magic cannot get any more ridiculous, you do something like this..."

"Hahaha. Well, the curse was very old, and it was made by accident so there was no willpower behind it, it wasn't hard to modify it."

Ugh... She's always so irritating. This curse has been a thorn on our side for over 700 years and she just came here and fixed the problem in an hour. And she's talking about it like it wasn't a big deal, this is so frustrating...

"So... Is all of this sudden growth a result of 'reversing' the curse?"

"That curse had been stealing energy and earth mana from the plants that tried to grow here, so there was a lot of it stored, that's the reason for what just happened here. I'm sure that any crops that get planted here from now on will grow bigger and faster than normal, but first, we'll have to get rid of all of these weeds."

At this point there's just no denying it anymore, she's a god.

Even if she's just a 'normal' mage that 'just happened to become very good at magic', what she did here just now is a feat that only a god should be able to do.

That said, we should not have needed the help of a god.

What makes this such a godly feat is the fact that she could do it by herself in a mere hour. But we didn't need to do it with only one person, we have had plenty of mages that should have been interested in getting rid of this curse. And we didn't have an hour to do it, we had 700 years...

We should not have needed anyone's help, but we all kept trying to throw the blame on someone else or pretending that it was not our problem, doing nothing to actually fix the issue. And it got to the point that we needed a god to come and fix all of our problems for us... Are we really that pathetic?

Yes, I think that's the reason why Luna always makes me feel so frustrated. She keeps making all of my flaws so obvious...

I was angry because I knew that other countries look down on us, and I thought that if someone like Kalroth made us 'stronger' we could get back at them. It's frustrating to think that I never did anything to solve our actual problems.

"We'll take care of the weeds, I have some of my underlings here with me, and we brought a few hundred zombies with us."

"Eh? We're going to take care of this field?"

One of those underlings of mine is apparently nearby, not that I can see him with all of this grass.

"Yes, we are."

"But I thought that this was part of the territory of the minotaurs, are we going to take it from them?"

"No, we need to do this to start paying our debt back to them. And more importantly, we're all part of a real country now, we should help each other when we get the chance."

"I see..."

"Xania! I'm so happy to hear you say that! I knew that you could become a good person. Anyway, if we need to get rid of the weeds, then I could-"

"You 'could' nothing!!! WE are going to take care of this!"

"Eh? But I have a spell that-"

"JUST LET US DO SOMETHING USEFUL!"

"Uh, ok then. I guess I'll be going back to the castle."

From the dark mana I sensed and the fact that she seems to have disappeared I assume that she used that 'black gate' to go back, another crazy spell...

Just what is going to happen to the demon wasteland? She already said that she wants to change our name back to manaborn, and if she keeps doing stuff like this, it might actually stop even being a wasteland...

After making the undead work all day we're still not close to being done, this place is quite large and the grass is tougher than I thought.

"Hey, boss! Someone is flying over there!"

"Uh?"

I can indeed see the figure of a man wearing a long gray robe flying in the sky, and he's coming down to us. Now that he's closer I can see that he looks a bit old and his eyes are closed, is it safe to fly when he cannot see?

Wait, he's flying with wind magic... And he cannot see... Don't tell me that he is...

"All of you! Get away from here!"

"Eh? You want to be left alone boss?"

"I know who that man is... This could be dangerous. Go away, now!"

By the time he lands in front of me, my subordinates have already left.

"Good evening. Sorry for appearing without any warning, but as I was flying I couldn't help but notice the jungle of grass right where there used to be a curse stopping plants from growing."

"You... You are Alber, the 'Grand mage', correct?"

"Oh! It always feels nice to be popular with girls. And if I am not mistaken, you are Xania, the current high necromancer of the gray demons."

Uh, it really is him, and he even knows who I am.

This is bad, this is the guy that killed four of the rulers of the demon wasteland that wanted to invade the rest of the continent, he's a symbol of terror around here.

The pressure that I'm feeling from being near the greatest enemy of the demon wasteland is... almost nothing. After getting used to my new queen, everything else seems tame.

"Well, there's nothing for someone like you to do here, our new queen is not planning to start any wars. In fact, she just fixed this field so that we can take care of ourselves."

"It's a bit mean to assume that I could only be here because I'm expecting a war. I only wanted to get permission for an official visit from the second prince of my kingdom."

"An official visit? Since when do you guys treat us like a real country?"

"Time will tell if you can become a proper country. For now, this is just an excuse to allow me to meet your queen and figure out what she's all about."

"You sure admitted that easily...."

In any case, I can breathe a sigh of relief. It doesn't look like he's planning to kill me.

"And what is your opinion of her? All the rumors and testimonies I have heard are... contradictory, to say the least. Is she as evil as people say?"

"No, she is scary, but she's not evil in any way. If anything she's way too nice for her own good."

"Is that so... Well, figuring that out is the second most important reason why I want to visit this place. Some people tend to lose their rationality when they are scared. And some other people are really bad at causing a good impression, like you, for example."

"Me? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You were worried when you saw me and tried to cause a good impression, but you didn't attempt to get those undead out of sight. Are you not aware of what most people think of undead?"

"I know that they hate that we don't 'respect' the dead, but a dead body is nothing more than a tool that's no longer being used, so why should I be ashamed of making them useful."

"What you just said is what gray demons are taught since childhood. But for someone who is not used to it, seeing a walking corpse will cause a natural reaction of fear and revulsion, and that includes the rest of the demon wasteland. Tell me, do you want the customs of your tribe to be accepted by the others?"

"Yes, obviously."

"And what have you done to achieve that?"

"Why would I need to do something? Being afraid of the undead is stupid, they are the ones that need to learn."

"See? That's the problem. For people to understand each other requires effort from both parties. The tribes of demons often complain about not being understood, but they do nothing to explain themselves or understand the others. If you want to become a proper country, this stubbornness is the biggest obstacle you will need to overcome."

"What do you care if we can be a country or not? Are you not supposed to hate us?"

Everyone knows the story of his village being destroyed and his family being killed by demons from this wasteland when he was a child. Why is he trying to give me advice?

"Hahaha, I guess I did, for a while, but my mentor taught me the folly of that way of thinking."

"Your mentor?"

Looking at this guy, you'd think that he should be the mentor. I guess even he was young at some point.

"She taught me a lot about wind magic and rationality. She understood better than anyone the way that people think and the pitfalls that often lead them to evil and misunderstandings, and how to lead them to become better versions of themselves. That's why I found it so strange that she..."

"That she what?"

"Nevermind, let's just say that finding out what happened to my mentor is the number one reason I wanted this visit. Tell your queen to let us know if we're allowed to come, if the answer is yes, we'll be here a week after receiving it."

And he left just like that. Flying back the way he came.

Well, that was not someone I was expecting to have a conversation with today. I wonder where all of this is going...

forli

Anyway, I want to thank all the people that replied to my rant, I know that it must have been annoying to see me post something that has nothing to do with this novel, but I really needed to do it. I kept seeing how nobody complained about that trope while complaining endlessly about others that don't bother me too much and I felt that I was going to explode.

In particular, it's true that part of the problem might be with the type of novels I've been reading and the fact that I mostly read on this website. Hopefully, that trope is not as popular elsewhere.

I also want to thank the people who tried to explain why the trope does not bother them as much. I kept arguing back because I'm far to obsessed with it, but I really appreciate that you helped me understand your perspective.