Chapter 218 - Reunion (1)

The gazes felt from the surroundings were sharp.

Jager, who had been drinking from a leather canteen alone, closed the cap as he felt the gazes of the headless ones right next to him.

"Why, should I pour you all a glass?"

It was a warm spring day, but the place where the headless ones stood felt as though frost were still falling.

But Jager paid no mind to the atmosphere, merely sneering at the cold gazes.

"Ah. You don't have mouths to drink with. I didn't realize."

The only one with warmth standing among the dead.

His appearance, so alien to the surrounding scene, looked like a painting of a different texture, but Jager simply stood among the dead without stepping back an inch.

"Jager."

Amidst the increasingly hostile atmosphere, there was a cautious gesture beckoning Jager just in time.

It was the beckoning of Joseph, who had finally finished speaking with the Count of Vitskaya and come out.

"How did it go?"

"He has agreed to cooperate. It seems the Count considers Aushrina his final breakthrough."

The Count of Vitskaya's obsession with Aushrina was already burning fiercely, using anger and desire as firewood.

Having confirmed the Count's obsession under Lamashtu's orders, Joseph cautiously continued speaking as he looked at the scene ahead.

"We move with the Count's soldiers. It would be right for the living to move with the living, after all."

The place Joseph's vision was currently reaching was filled with all sorts of ominous things.

There were the headless ones who had returned from death.

As well as cursed beings with their limbs entirely twisted.

Curse-laden spirits drifting like shadows, and even a massive mass of corpses with limbs attached all over.

All these beings were wicked things created by the dark mages who had been drawn by the massive darkness named Lamashtu.

"... Seeing it like this, it truly is a spectacle. How have so many been hiding all this time?"

Even Joseph, who usually maintained his composure, ended up frowning at the sight of the camp, which looked like a hell recreated in the human world.

They were beings that couldn't be found no matter how hard one tried to look under normal circumstances, yet now they were everywhere the eyes reached, so maintaining his composure was a difficult task even for Joseph.

"Who in the world could possibly clear these away?"

It was too much darkness to capture in a single glance.

Darkness that was hard to keep his eyes open and look at, even for him who had steeled his resolve.

But all these wicked beings currently in sight were ultimately the dregs that those who should have fulfilled their duties had been ignoring until now, so someone eventually had to bear the poison they produced.

"Let's go. We'll suffocate to death if we stay here any longer."

"Understood."

Joseph, forcibly turning his head, moved past the death-filled camp and began heading toward Vitskaya's garrison.

In the end, all of this must be the karma that had been built up over time.

Because nobles bear duties in exchange for holding power, and religion must bear responsibility in exchange for holding faith, but the current people in power had not done so.

Therefore, Joseph could only be certain that the boils they had created would ultimately burst in their generation.

* * *

It was a forest with lush greenery.

A forest packed so densely with trees that looking from above, one might wonder if it was a sea painted green.

In the middle of that forest, a young World Tree was currently poking up and looking down at the green sea.

"... How are the movements of Vitskaya's army right now?"

However, even amidst this peaceful scene, Varadis's face was merely stiffly set.

True to the season of spring, the scenery outside looked quite pleasant, but it was hard to find any trace of leisure on Varadis's face.

"They have roughly a thousand soldiers. It seems the Count of Vitskaya has staked everything on this."

"They appear to be fully prepared. According to the scouts' reports, they are ready to advance at any moment."

Urgent answers were heard following the heavily asked question.

The current situation was urgent enough to make even experienced rangers tense, and they could be certain that its beginning was not far off.

"I see."

Hearing the reports, Varadis inwardly let out a small sigh.

The human army of nearly a thousand, as well as the resurrected ones who were still continuing to join them.

Even if they could manage against the human army, the existence of the resurrected ones who were said to have invaded right in front of the World Tree was slowly gnawing at Varadis's nerves.

"When did they say the barrier would be restored?"

"They said it would take another month even at the earliest."

Hearing the report, Varadis slightly turned his head and looked out the window.

"A month."

Beneath the young World Tree visible outside the window, there were still many elders struggling with bent backs, scribbling something.

The elders of the elder council, who, true to being a long-lived elven race, must have lived longer lives than the trees standing in the forest.

But right now, paying no mind to their aging bodies, they were struggling to reconnect the previously shattered protective barrier of the forest.

'The situation is not easy.'

A situation where anyone capable, regardless of age and position, had to move busily.

It was perhaps a more serious situation than when the sharpest dragons, the Nidhoggs, had invaded, but the reality the elves were facing was that they had nowhere suitable to seek help.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, the sound of a knock came to the office where Varadis and the rangers were.

Knowing that there was no one who would visit him at this hour, Varadis looked at the elf opening the door and entering with a puzzled gaze.

"What is the matter?"

"... That is."

The elf opening the door and entering right now was someone who shouldn't be here.

Because he was an elf who had to be watching the World Tree at all times without missing a moment.

But right now, he was standing here with a pale complexion, looking at Varadis.

"I apologize, Lord Varadis."

"For what?"

He was the elf who guarded the World Tree.

More accurately, the elf who guarded Varadis's younger sister, the Divine Maiden, along with the World Tree.

That elf was now standing in front of Varadis, bowing his head in shame as he spoke.

"The Divine Maiden has gone outside."

"..."

Right now was a time when safety had to be prioritized more than ever.

But at the words that the Divine Maiden, who had to be preciously protected along with the World Tree, had gone outside, the complexions of the elves in the office began to change rapidly.

"Why did she do that? There must be a reason."

"I do not know. She stubbornly went out, saying she had to greet a guest."

"A guest?"

The Divine Maiden of the World Tree, who had ultimately gone outside no matter how much they blocked her path.

Varadis ended up feeling a strange sense of déjà vu at her actions of heading into the dangerous outside with an incomprehensible remark about a guest arriving.

"A guest, you say..."

She was a Divine Maiden who had never gone outside in her life, but there was a time she had stubbornly tried to step out of the forest just like today.

Along with the words that a precious guest she had to welcome in person was coming.

Varadis remembered that it was probably the time when they first met the human knight named Vlad.

"Send the rangers right now. Escort the Divine Maiden."

Standing up from his seat with those words, Varadis approached the window and looked at the young World Tree outside.

The green leaves that seemed to flutter even more today.

Between the leaves moving despite there being no wind, there were many young spirits jumping around as if overjoyed by something.

* * *

It was an elven forest densely packed with trees, but there was bound to occasionally be a clearing full of sunlight like this.

A clearing in the forest filled with green clovers.

POP!

In that place where only butterflies seeking flowers fluttered about, there was a guy who suddenly poked his head out.

The little guy, who had been wandering underground just moments ago, flailed its short hands around, heavily squinting its small eyes as if the sunlight shining from above was too bright.

"Are we good? Can I go out now?"

SQUEAK, SQUEAK!

"If we're here, move aside already. How long are you going to stay on my head?"

It was the voice of a man who seemed to be holding back a lot of anger.

Startled by that dreary voice coming from beneath the ground, the butterflies hovering around the petals began to soar up into the sky.

"..."

A human head carefully rose up beneath the mole that had been poking its head out.

Although it was dirtied by piles of soil, he was a man with impressive blonde hair shining in the sunlight.

"What the. Where is this?"

Vlad, having poked his head out from the dark burrow, began to tense up immensely at the sudden feast of green.

Because Vlad had been in the middle of a wasteland just a few days ago, he couldn't adapt to the sight before him at all.

SQUEAK, SQUEAK!

"Where the hell did you bring us, man."

Despite Vlad's questioning, the glowing mole merely went limp as if it had finished all its tasks.

Having relentlessly dug the tunnel and led the group all the way here, the mole sprawled its exhausted body and began to let its tongue loll out.

"... Right, get some rest. Anywhere has to be better than back there."

Vlad, staring blankly at the exhausted mole, carefully placed the creature onto the ground and began to climb outside.

The sight of Vlad twitching his ears with a highly tense posture was reminiscent of a wolf that had just emerged from its den.

"It's a forest."

Using his keen five senses to determine that no one was around, Vlad was able to tell that he was now standing in the middle of a forest.

And in the middle of a flower garden full of bright colors, at that.

"Was there a forest this size within a few days' distance?"

Vlad ended up muttering to himself, puzzled by the surrounding scenery.

He had spent several days leading the Luga tribe refugees through the tunnel dug by the glowing mole.

However, no matter how unfamiliar Vlad was with the geography of the central region, he at least knew that there was no forest this size within a mere few days' distance.

"That's because you followed the path guided by the spirit."

"...!"

There was a voice that suddenly came from beside the flustered Vlad.

Vlad, who had just confirmed that there was no presence around, was startled by the voice coming from right next to him.

"... You?"

"It's been a while."

But the very person who had startled Vlad was simply waving her hand gladly as if nothing was wrong.

"Were the pictures I sent you helpful all this time?"

There was a girl looking at Vlad in front of the flower garden swaying in the breeze.

The appearance of the girl standing in front of the flower garden wearing a wide hat with a long brim.

The sight of the girl standing so naturally like the swaying flowers looked completely devoid of any sense of incongruity, as if it were only natural for her to be there.

"Why are you here?"

Along with Vlad's surprised question, the Luga tribe refugees began to emerge from the underground tunnel one by one.

From young children to the elderly, the people who had come out covering their eyes with their palms in surprise at the bright light soon dropped their jaws in astonishment at the sight before them.

"... This is."

The elves' forest, filled with green waves, neither a dirty alley nor a desolate wasteland.

The children of the Luga tribe, having finally recovered their vision, unconsciously let out sharp shrieks as they looked at the massive tree visible in the distance.

"It's a tree!"

"Whoa! The tree is huge!"

The forest at the eastern edge that they were able to reach because there was a path guided by the spirit. Aushrina.

The young World Tree, which was looking down at the forest, was rustling its leaves as if welcoming the young beastmen who were marveling at it.