Only God

The Kingdom's frontier had been peaceful for many years now. The Beastmen were hardly a concern—plus, with the icy snowy terrain, even if they wanted to invade, they would have been powerless to attack from this direction and would have looked elsewhere.

In Jon's view, it was simply impossible for the Beastmen to invade.

After a brief exchange, the servant bid farewell to Jon, leaving him to return to his solitude.

Night had fallen completely; the stars were absent in the cold sky. Jon sat beside the fire, in a silence as profound as a dung beetle pushing its ball.

Silent and contemplative in the pervasive calmness—an everyday occurrence—Jon wondered why the servant did not find the possibility of a Beastman invasion along the border utterly boring.

"Why is that...

It's obvious that the Beastmen will never come to attack.

Why isn't he bored with such a thought?"

Jon closed his eyes, trying to imagine a horde of Beastmen crossing the ice and snow, brandishing their Swords.

Farmers pillaged, women and children violated, the land poisoned; everywhere one would look, living beings would suffer, the Kingdom's flag would no longer fly proudly, but would hang limp; the nation's dignity trampled to dust.

Jon shuddered at the thought—it was terrifying.

After the fear, he suddenly felt a surge of warmth well up within him, a sense of noble mission that pervaded his entire being.

He was under the delusion that his watch at the watchtower was no longer a torturous punishment, but a mission to protect his homeland.

"I must assume they could come at any time."

Jon murmured to himself,

"I must assume they could come at any time!"

He repeated the phrase again.

Jon suddenly understood something.

He had thought he couldn't bear the loneliness, but at this very moment, he felt that perhaps loneliness wasn't so frightful after all.

Loneliness wasn't the greatest enemy...

The greatest enemy in life was boredom!

It was living without doing anything, without any goal.

He had to assume that they might come to invade at any time. Only by doing so could he prevent himself from a listless vigil, from becoming bored, and he had to keep imagining that the Beastmen could come at any moment.

Jon finally had an epiphany. He couldn't run away from this watchtower, because no matter how he tried to escape, the Mercury Priests would capture him and bring him back. So, he couldn't flee, nor could he continue to shirk his watch as he had before. On the contrary, he had to embrace the watch and consider it a Divine mission bestowed on him.

He stood up vigorously, rushed out of the house, and climbed to the highest point of the watchtower amidst the wind and snow. Scanning the horizon against the thick night, it seemed as though a vicious horde of Beastmen might approach at any moment.

His eyes suddenly moistened, and Jon knelt down, praising the Gods ceaselessly, thankful for their Divine mercy; at last, he had found a way to endure the next forty years.

......

And so, Jon no longer ran. He watched from the watchtower, awaiting Beastmen who would never arrive.

Even though each day remained difficult, he no longer despaired as he once had, quite the opposite, filled with hope for his great mission every day.

Once he rid himself of boredom, solitude was not unbearable after all.

Just like the servant who had been a Sentinel, Jon gradually became accustomed to the solitude.

Time passed day by day, and before he knew it, Jon had been watching here for twenty years.

Twenty years of blizzards had battered the watchtower again and again, wearing it down. Throughout all these years, Jon had never witnessed an invasion by the Beastmen.

Still, he continually convinced himself that watching was a great mission with supreme significance.

Gradually, Jon began to see the watchtower as something as essential to his life as breathing, and he silently vowed time and time again that as a Sentinel, he would defend this place to the death.

Watching from the watchtower for decades was no longer meaningless.

He had countered a meaningless existence with new meaning.

Even if this meaning was only imagined, only assumed.

Just like that, another ten years passed.

Less than ten years remained until the end of his exile.

During these years, the servant who had shared his heart had passed away, and a new servant had been sent to manage the supply deliveries.

Jon had a few exchanges with him, but the new servant was dismissive. After inquiring further, Jon learned that this man's parents had been killed by Rebels, and he harbored a deep hatred for such defectors, unwilling to associate too much with a Rebel like Jon.

After learning this, Jon didn't bother to speak to the new servant much. So many years of punishment had left Jon, once a son of Nobles, no longer fearful of solitude; he continued his devoted watch over the frontier.

Amidst his watch, Jon felt a twinge of fear.

What did he fear?

He was afraid… of his impending release.

"I'm going to be released… less than ten years left..."

To be on the brink of release should have been cause for excitement.

But Jon felt a deep sense of worry.

For years, he had watched over this place day and night, having come to see the watchtower as part of his very life.

But once released, he would have to leave the watchtower and would lose that part of his life.

"No, I can't leave… I shouldn't leave; the Beastmen could come at any time!"

Jon muttered to himself, almost madly,

"Not only that, the most important thing is…

I've placed all my meaning here."

He couldn't leave this place, it was his life, his soul; once he'd leave the watchtower, he'd be no better than a walking corpse.

In this terrifying situation, Jon once again chose to flee.

Because he knew, escaping would only add to his punishment.

Soon after, Jon intentionally let the Mercury Priests catch him, hoping against hope that they would intensify his punishment.

But contrary to his expectations, it seemed the Mercury Priests saw through his ruse.

Jon's punishment was not increased; on the contrary, the Mercury Priests reduced his sentence, cutting five years from his time on watch.

What was originally a remaining ten years was now shortened to five.

Upon learning of this, Jon almost collapsed.

After being returned to the watchtower, Jon knelt on the ground, first he praised the Gods, extolling them, and then suddenly his emotions collapsed, and he cursed the Gods loudly.

Hypocrite, filthy, corrupt... Jon exhausted his vocabulary, having cursed nearly half of the deities of the Celestial Kingdom.

Then, the cursing became quieter and Jon knelt powerlessly on the ground, weeping bitterly,

"I've placed all my meaning here... I've placed all my meaning here..."

He repeated this sentence over and over, his body curled into a ball.

His voice grew lower and lower.

Suddenly, Jon looked up to the sky and cried out maniacally,

"Any Divine Beings I haven't yet cursed! Help me! Save me!

I beg you, I implore you, have pity on me! End my suffering!"

The cold wind continued to howl, with snow and wind swirling around the watchtower.

Jon knelt there as if he had died.

After an unknown amount of time...

In the icy and snowy landscape, Jon suddenly felt an odd warmth.

He couldn't describe the warmth in words.

Experiencing this unparalleled miracle, he repeated fervently,

"Divine Beings! Great Divine Beings!

Free me from this pain, let me watch over this place forever!"

As his plea ended, it was as if someone responded to his prayer.

Jon only felt his body slowly freezing up, unable to move any longer.

He looked down and saw that his lower limbs had turned into a tree stump, for some reason, unknowingly.

By the time he came to his senses, his hair was stretching straight and slowly turned into a tree canopy, his hands transformed into branches, his fingers into slender twigs, and his fingernails into new leaves.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

Jon had become a great tree standing tall in the wind and snow, its roots extending, occupying the entire watchtower, and deeply embedding into the ground beneath, making it its own soil.

A righteous man in helplessness begged the heavens, only to be slighted by the stars.

Amidst the wind and snow, only He showed mercy, making the righteous man's wishes come true without exception. In the end, he became a great tree, standing eternally on the frontier as a witness to the miracle.

This is the story of the "Tree of Watch" as chronicled in the "Miracle Book" of the later Giant King Sect.