The Wizard of Oz (Part 1)

Chapter 21: The Wizard of Oz (Part 1)

During this time, Lancelot could occasionally hear wishes coming from afar.

Every day, he would pick out the strongest few desires, listen carefully, and fulfill them.

Lancelot didn't need to actually travel to the wisher's location; instead, he would summon weak nature spirits and flying birds, or directly give orders to local officials, providing help indirectly.

Suddenly, he heard another prayer from far away.

"What a tempting power of desire!"

Lancelot shuddered all over.

This time, the petitioner was a "Child of Destiny," or rather, a "Protagonist of Destiny"! Lancelot had suspected before that the so-called "Children of Destiny" should be those characters who had appeared in the story and had a sense of existence, but he had never had a chance to verify it.

The boy quickly closed his eyes and listened intently to Oz's prayer.

"A wizard named Oz and a balloon driver? Working in a circus. Worried about being implicated by the gold plate counterfeiting incident..."

After reading the content of the wish, Lancelot couldn't help but laugh.

"What's this? So he's just afraid of this..."

"But, since you prayed to me in your dream, I'll make your wish come true." The boy smiled quietly.

"The content of the wish is: escape the kingdom and go to a safe place."

Amidst a flurry of thoughts, Lancelot made many associations about Oz's identity.

His name is Oz.

He's also a Child of Destiny...

A rather timid personality...

Skilled in magic and balloon driving...

"Could it be that Oz?"

"The Oz from The Emerald City or The Wizard of Oz—the fraudulent king of Oz!"

In this story, the protagonist Dorothy is blown by a tornado to a dreamlike land far from the mundane world—the Land of Oz—where she embarks on a fantastic journey and befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and others.

The Land of Oz has a powerful witch in each of its four directions, while Oz, who lives in the Emerald City at the heart of Oz, is an even more formidable great wizard.

Of course, as the story develops, following the protagonist Dorothy's perspective, readers discover that the so-called great wizard Oz is actually a big fraud, and all the "magic" is just magic tricks.

"So it's that Oz."

"The Oz before the Land of Oz!"

"Pfft, that place probably isn't called the Land of Oz yet, since Oz hasn't even gone there."

"It'll probably be a few more years before the Emerald City is built!"

"It'll be many more years before the protagonist Dorothy sets foot in the Land of Oz!"

"I've actually come to this early era and met the future 'Great Wizard' Oz ahead of time."

This discovery was somewhat unexpected for Lancelot.

After all, according to the original The Emerald City, Oz's hometown is Omaha, USA.

Of course, as far as Lancelot knew, there was no country called the "United States of America" in this mixed fairy-tale world. That Oz's birthplace and some of his background had changed was only to be expected.

So Lancelot began to think about how to fulfill Oz's wish.

"According to the original, Oz goes to the Emerald City because his balloon goes out of control. Then I'll just help him make that prophecy come true!"

Today, the circus where Oz worked was holding a performance.

Before the show began, sitting in the rising hot air balloon, he attracted the audience to come and watch, gathering them together so everyone would buy more tickets.

Just then, Oz heard someone in the crowd shout, "Wow, it's His Majesty the King's soldiers! Are they here to watch the circus too?"

Oz craned his neck to look and indeed saw a small squad of soldiers walking this way.

"Oh no, oh no!"

"My nightmare has come true. The King must have sent soldiers to arrest me!"

This genius wizard's face turned as pale as a corpse, trembling in the balloon basket.

Snap! Just as Oz was at a loss, the rope broke on its own.

"Ahh, what's going on? How did the rope break?!"

The uncontrolled balloon drifted with the wind, rising into the sky.

The balloon floated and floated, flying farther and farther away.

The audience below screamed:

"The wizard Oz is still on the balloon! Who's going to save him?!"

Oz's story is just a small interlude; tomorrow we'll return to the storyline of the little princess Ophelia.

——(This chapter ends)