Chapter 187 - Trap

Meanwhile, at the World Tree.

With major incidents breaking out one after another in just a few hours, the festival preparations were ultimately postponed.

The high elves began discussing the current situation in earnest.

"The master of the Blue Eye Tower swept through the place and left, so what are we supposed to do about this?"

"It is... an awkward matter to assign blame over and move on from. She did act roughly, but there were many injured and no casualties."

If any wood elves had become casualties, they would have gained the authority to seal her inside the World Tree.

Erica had gone on her rampage with that fact in mind, so stopping her with only the strength of the wood elves and a few high elves had been beyond them.

"Rather, our side responded with the resolve to inflict serious injuries, so if we wish to argue right and wrong, we will have to abandon our rest."

To them, rest was as essential as water and salt.

At last, someone let out a sigh.

"It is a mess. To think everything would become such a mess..."

"Do not sink into grief."

The high elf elder, Cypress, opened his mouth.

He had changed into new clothes and even groomed himself neatly, but his left arm alone was empty.

"The task we must complete is to obtain Mother's seed through joy."

"But in a situation like this, how can we..."

"Do you intend to bring down everything our ancestors built over one private emotion?"

The high elves closed their mouths.

"Stop worrying about the Great Chieftain. If there is sorrow, then one must have the heart to believe that even greater joy will come. If all things circulate by nature anyway, what difference would throwing a few away make?"

"We understand."

"Everything is for Mother..."

The high elves' meeting ended like that.

Cypress did not return to his room.

Instead, he turned his steps toward Mother's Heart.

When he entered, he saw the Threads flying through the sky as though it were a lake.

The scenery was much the same as usual, and the only thing different was the Great Chieftain.

Instead of sitting, he was lying down.

His consciousness had already returned.

He was showing only his back, without even acknowledging him.

"Great Chieftain, your blood kin has left."

"Is that so?"

The Great Chieftain answered bitterly.

He lay still with his head turned away, and the elder also stood in place.

"This is the second time a high elf has fled. Linne, that wretch, was supposed to be the last, but your blood kin has finally created the second case."

"What can be done? Though the child is mine, he cannot connect to the mental network and is no different from a long-lived human..."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"..."

"..."

"Since when did you notice?"

"..."

"The other brethren would pass over it without suspicion, but you alone are quick-witted, so I watched you closely. From what I observed, I am certain you did not know. Or was I simply too arrogant?"

"... As you said, I did not know. Perhaps, if today had not happened, everything would have gone according to your intentions forever."

"What did you feel from that human?"

The Great Chieftain answered.

"I realized that I had forgotten something very important. That when meetings come, farewells also come. That when joy comes, sorrow will someday take its place."

"We wasted more than a thousand years because of that stale way of doing things."

Cypress pointed outside.

"Look. Magic is meant for superior beings like us, yet before we knew it, monkeys were using magic, were they not?"

"..."

"Those things are defiling pure mana. They do not know the essence of a crystallization formed through a united mind."

Cypress's face became even more vicious.

"I do not care if those things use magic and play savior. But Mother's seed, at least, must be obtained by us before those inferior short-lived species."

"..."

"Do you know what those things call Mother's seed? They call it a 'wish.' They divide it into a stage called the 9th Circle and arrogantly try to obtain it without even having any foundation."

"So you decided to trample purity?"

The Great Chieftain carefully raised his prone body and sat up.

His powerless face had become even more haggard.

"Do you think you can obtain 'Mother's seed' by doing that?"

"Of course."

"Think carefully. What you are doing will lead us to nothingness. Our work is something that swells without knowing when to stop and eventually bursts."

The Great Chieftain recalled what he had seen inside Ferda's head.

His conduct and experience that did not match his age.

The emotions before love took root.

The rage and hatred formed over thirty-two years.

And the sheer amount of emotion that even overwhelmed the high elves, who had accumulated theirs over several thousand years.

"That is something no human, no... no one who sets foot on this continent should possess. We are no exception."

It was effectively a declaration that he would give up.

"Is that so?"

His face looked resigned.

Unlike that face, his hand moved swiftly and drew a rune.

WHOOSH!

A sharp wind flew toward the Great Chieftain's head.

But when a Thread moved even faster and blocked its path, the sharp wind scattered.

"But what will you do?"

"..."

"We are already in the process of reaching the root. Telling us to stop now... is not for everyone's sake."

"Do you think you can stop me?"

At the Great Chieftain's will, the Threads were shaped into white hands.

Hands so large that each little finger was about the height of a grown man.

Those hands disappeared in the blink of an eye.

When they reappeared, they seized the place where Cypress had been standing.

"Hmm...!"

The hand that had tried to grasp him retreated.

Half of the white Threads that made up its palm had been blown away.

It was an ominous power to the extreme.

"I know I cannot do it alone."

In his right hand, he was holding something black and viscous.

It was a black grimoire.

Ominous, viscous mana amplified from that grimoire and surged upward.

"A demon?"

"Do you think I would sell us out to demon-like vermin?"

If it was a being similar to a demon, only one possibility remained.

"Demons, then. They lent you their power..."

"It seems you cannot believe it."

Cypress smiled nastily.

The Great Chieftain shook his head.

"No, in your current state, it would not be strange even if you did."

A power he wanted to obtain at any cost, even if it returned everything to nothingness.

To Cypress, Mother's seed was such an existence.

"Do not act relaxed, Great Chieftain. As I am now, I can defeat you well enough."

Cypress raised a finger.

Mana radiated from the tip of that finger and drew a rune.

However, the shape and color of that rune were different from what he had used until now, and it began to stain black.

"I will cast you into the end of emptiness and take the seat of Great Chieftain myself."

He could not think of him as the same as before.

The Great Chieftain steeled himself.

Even if he lost his life, he would stop Cypress here.

All the Threads in the room gathered and created dozens of hands.

"As with all things in this world, it will not be easy."

In the east of the Serdes Continent, Valdrova Castle.

Rize, who had fled from the World Tree, was confirmed to be staying at Valdrova Castle.

The first thing he was doing was greeting people.

"Hello, my name is Rize. I will be in your care from today onward."

"Pardon? Ah, yes. Nice to meet you...?"

When a beautiful young woman suddenly approached and greeted them warmly, everyone, regardless of gender, could not help but be flustered.

Rize, unaware of how they felt, was meeting everyone one by one and greeting them politely.

In the end, Ferda approached him and spoke.

"Former Scribe Rize."

"Yes?"

"You do not need to greet every single person."

"But according to human etiquette, I may be an uninvited guest, so is it not proper to greet each person one by one so that no one is offended..."

An uninvited guest...

What kind of person would treat Rize as an uninvited guest?

With that pure appearance, and even his greetings and manners, he was likable after only exchanging a few words.

Ferda still wondered whether he really was a man.

"If you are going to greet someone, it is enough to greet the master of this castle."

"Y-You mean Lady Valdrova."

Rize gulped.

"There should be no need to be nervous."

"Ah, I am sorry! I was not nervous in a bad way."

"Is that so?"

Most people tended to react that way because of Valdrova's infamy.

Rize was not like that.

"Yes, as you can tell from my behavior, I am not very old among the high elves. So this will be my first time seeing a dragon in person..."

Rize's eyes sparkled as if insisting that he was not lying.

"Would you say I am terribly excited?"

What was certain was that he had a very curious personality.

Seeing that reaction, Ferda answered like this.

"It will be the same."

"Pardon? What will?"

What you feel is the same as what Valdrova feels.

He thought this child might click well with her.

After all, he seemed even more like a noble young lady than Penelope or Lyudmila.

'If only he weren't a man...'

He pointlessly blamed the heavens.

"Former Scribe Rize."

The one who called his name was the maid, Luri.

"Y-Yes!"

He was a little taller than Luri, but crushed by her aura, he looked far smaller.

"It is fine for you to go around greeting people, but perhaps you should manage the spirits you brought with you?"

"Uh... d-did they perhaps cause trouble?"

"Yes. They are causing trouble 'again.'"

Luri pointed somewhere with her finger.

There was a garden there, and three spirits were playing.

"Ahahaha! It's shaped like poop!!"

"Mine's an ugwy elder!"

"It looks exactly like him!"

They were arbitrarily changing the shapes of the ornamental trees.

"And right now, at that."

A vicious vein bulged on Luri's baby-like face.

"Eeeeeek! I'm sorryyyy!"

Rize turned pale and ran to the garden, beginning to scold the spirits.

"How in the world did you pick up things like that?"

"That is what I would like to know."

Ferda answered halfheartedly and asked Luri.

"Where is Her Highness Valdrova?"

"She has shut herself in. The sounds of a female in heat have been spilling out nonstop."

Luri glared at Ferda.

As if saying everything was his fault.

All Ferda had done was utter the name "Eleanor."

After that, Valdrova had staggered away from Ferda like a drunk person.

'Was the name that bad?'

He would have to ask her later if she wanted to change it.

"Regent!"

As he was thinking that, a man approached in an extremely bright voice.

It was Zed, with his brown ponytail.

"I heard."

"Heard what?"

"I heard you brought an incredibly pretty kid with you. And an elf, at that...!"

Instincts never went anywhere.

Ferda pointed toward the garden with his chin.

Seeing Rize, Zed's eyes sparkled.

"Wow, not a woman who looks like an elf, but a real elf. The real thing is on a whole different level, huh?"

"Do you have some disease that prevents you from controlling yourself when you are in heat?"

"I do not know what you mean, but though I may flirt, I am a gentleman who stops if they dislike it?"

"I sincerely hope a witch rots that crotch of yours off."

Leaving behind Luri, who was hurling curses, he asked Ferda.

"So, about that, may I try hitting on her just once?"

Ferda stared at him as if he were pathetic, then answered.

"Go ahead."

"Huh? I really can?"

"What reason would I have to joke about this?"

"What is this? Do you perhaps think I cannot seduce her? I suppose I should show you what I can do."

Zed swept his hair back and checked his greasy smile.

Ferda quietly watched him.

Luri, who had been keeping her mouth shut, asked quietly.

"Does that playboy bastard like men too?"

"Of course not."

"Then this should be worth watching."

Luri also crossed her arms and watched.

Zed approached warmly and greeted him.

Rize greeted him with a smile.

And as they exchanged a few bits of small talk, a friendly atmosphere rose between them.

Ten minutes later, Zed, who had been talking without pause, waved and parted from Rize.

When he turned around and came back to Ferda, his face was certainly worth seeing.

It was the first time Zed's face had flushed so bright red.

He came to Ferda's side and asked this.

"... Did you know?"

"Of course."

"You son of a..."

Because Ferda was his superior, he could not bring himself to curse.

Luri looked at him and gave him a thumbs-up.

"Do not worry. I will work hard to spread word of your taste for men."

"No, I did not even hit on him, all right? So I was neither rejected nor did I seduce him."

"We shall see who believes you."

"Regentttt!"

While the threats against Zed continued, a frivolous voice howled Ferda's name.

It was Penelope, Zed's soulmate.

He had been wondering why she had not appeared.

"I heard an insanely sexy babe showed up."

"... Yes."

Ferda jerked his chin, and Penelope turned around.

Penelope made an even more beastlike sound than when she had run over.

"Oooh! She really is pretty, isn't she?"

"What, are you interested in her?"

"Hell yeah! So, about that, Regeeeent. May I ask whether I might request approval to use her as my daily bread?"

Penelope used honorifics that did not even suit her and rolled her eyes.

Her patheticness was on a whole different level from Zed's.

Amid his disbelief, Zed answered in his place.

"Try it. I permit it."

"Oh yeah! I'm going right now!"

Penelope ran off like a child going to buy a toy, and Zed chuckled as he watched her.

"I can't be the only one who gets got."

"..."

From Ferda's perspective, it was absurd.

Both the bastard and the bitch had left the person whose permission actually mattered behind.

"Come to think of it."

"Yes."

"That demon slept with you too, did she not?"

"She did, right?"

"Then I do not think Rize being a man will be an issue."

"No way, surely not. No matter what, that girl always says she hates men, so how would she—uh, hey, where is that crazy bitch dragging him?"

Penelope was holding Rize's hand and trying to go somewhere secluded.

Zed quickly ran over and knocked her unconscious, protecting Rize's chastity.

For the time being, Penelope received a restraining order forbidding her from loitering anywhere near Rize.