Ch.119Now It’s Time to Be Subdued.(3)

[The… master of the forest… does not… wish for conflict… with you.]

Countless fallen leaves crumbled as a golem-like, deep voice flowed out.

Judging by the heavy weight that could be felt, it didn’t seem to be a creature composed solely of fallen leaves. Kiel muttered quietly.

“…What is that?”

A shape like a giant turtle. However, because its shell was completely covered with red fallen leaves, it created quite an eerie atmosphere.

[Turn… back.]

The voice of the forest guardian resonated loudly once more.

Thud!

As the guardian took a threatening step forward, the ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred. The creature was so enormous that it could treat the towering trees that nearly touched the sky as mere reeds.

‘…What should I do?’

Olivia pondered while stroking her chin. There was no reason to force their way in when the opponent didn’t want to fight. After all, her plan was to lure the Devilhunter, not to fight with druids.

‘I don’t even know how many will come. There’s no need to increase our enemies unnecessarily.’

Still, given the inaction shown in the south, Olivia guessed that at least four would come this time.

‘At least one of them will have to protect the princess.’

Olivia clicked her tongue as she looked up at the forest guardian. The red shell of indeterminable thickness, the natural energy covering its entire body.

Even the druid who controls such a monster as a mere summon isn’t normal.

Then again, are there any normal elves living in Euran?

For now, let’s retreat and then infiltrate secretly…

[‘Sword Master Kiel’ uses ‘Spatial Sword’.]

Whoooosh!

Before Olivia could say anything, Kiel’s blade moved.

It was instantaneous. The highly condensed dark aura literally cut through space as it advanced.

There was no sound. The body of the guardian, which had been large enough to cover the sky, split apart from the middle as if collapsing. Once horizontally, once vertically.

The world split in a cross shape, and the red leaves turned to powder and disappeared.

[Grrrrrr…!]

The scene unfolding before her eyes felt like a dream.

Olivia’s eyelids trembled.

“You, you… what did you just…”

“It was blocking our path, so I dealt with it. Since you’re being tracked, finishing the job quickly is most important.”

Olivia rubbed her forehead with her hand. It was an attempt to somehow control her rising anger.

“Do you know what happens when you mess with the forest guardian?”

“…What happens?”

Whoooosh.

In an instant, the green vegetation turned red. It wasn’t the natural color of fallen leaves. It was an ominous blood color that made one’s heart sink.

Kiel turned to look at her with an anxious face.

“The forest guardian is, simply put, like a guard dog. And you just killed that guard dog. How do you think the owner will view us?”

“…They’ll try to kill us.”

Olivia clutched her head as if it was giving her a headache.

“…Wait, didn’t you say you’ve been here before?”

Kiel’s expression darkened.

Olivia stared at Kiel for a long time like he was a pathetic foal, then sighed self-reproachfully.

“Fine… since you said you’d been here before, I assumed you knew and didn’t explain. That’s my fault.”

She hadn’t shared information for fear of revealing her memories of the annihilation cycle, but she hadn’t expected such a major incident.

As always, things had never gone smoothly.

Vines shot up from all directions.

Crack!

A vine whipped past just above her head. The rock that collided with the vine shattered into pieces, spewing fragments in all directions.

“Stay still! Don’t attack, just dodge! I’ll handle this!”

“…Understood.”

Fortunately, he seemed to understand.

Perhaps knowing he had made a mistake, Kiel focused solely on evasion.

Olivia also used her magical power to block the movements of the vines while considering how to overcome the situation.

The master of Euran Forest was, of course, a regressor.

A druid who had lived for hundreds of years.

As the most noble High Elf, their love for nature was genuine.

That’s probably why they initially expressed their unwillingness to conflict through the forest guardian.

Because fighting would inevitably lead to the destruction of the forest.

‘They must be watching from somewhere.’

Olivia spread her magical power and instantly detected the presence of familiars.

Surprisingly, the Great Forest was filled with familiars placed by the druid. From squirrels hiding in holes to rabbits, eagles…

It was to the extent that almost all animals in the forest could be considered the druid’s familiars.

The moment she realized that her position had been completely identified, Olivia immediately took action.

Tss tss tss.

Kiel, who had been focused solely on avoiding the vines, suddenly realized that the flow of air had changed.

The air was cold.

Kiel’s gaze was now directed toward Olivia.

Olivia breathed. With each exhalation of her white breath, the leaves that had been dyed blood-red gradually lost their color.

Olivia couldn’t handle plants like the elves.

However, she could control the seasons.

Not spring, which represents life, nor summer and autumn, which symbolize abundance and harvest.

Just winter.

The only season she could control was winter.

A cold wind blew. Just from the touch of the wind that was merely cold, the vines flinched. When the familiars came into contact with snowflakes, they froze in place as if time had stopped.

The leaves continued to fall until they could no longer cover the sky.

Winter had arrived.

It wasn’t the winter that symbolized death and end. It was just the kind of winter that comes once every year.

At some point, snowflakes fell instead of leaves. The vines retreated deep into the ground. The animals also left to find their own way to survive.

The druid couldn’t stop the familiars from leaving to hibernate. If they had stayed longer, innocent lives would have surely perished.

“…”

Olivia’s breath flowed. Her eyebrows had turned white like her hair.

Kiel learned for the first time that winter could also be warm.

“It’s hard to control my power. Reducing lethality to the extreme is also a task.”

“Olivia, what exactly is this…”

Kiel stared blankly at Olivia with a look of disbelief.

It was because it far exceeded the category of magic he had in mind.

“What do you mean? It’s magic.”

“…”

“Anyway, follow me.”

Crunch.

Olivia walked through the snow-covered path. The direction she was heading was toward the center of the forest.

In a world completely transformed into winter, a massive world tree alone exuded verdant vitality.

There was an elven village there. Huge vines surrounded the village like a fortress, and several were standing guard on the trees. Olivia watched them from a distance and pondered for a moment.

Whether to enter, or wait outside for other regressors to arrive.

But having already made the wrong first move, there was no choice.

‘In that case, I’ll get the neck magic key before leaving.’

Olivia felt gazes observing her. They weren’t the gazes of familiars.

It seemed the elven patrol was monitoring their movements.

Olivia reminded Kiel once more.

“This time too, just block or dodge.”

“Understood.”

Dozens of elves suddenly appeared and surrounded Olivia. They took out the great bows they had been carrying on their backs and aimed at Olivia.

“Human.”

The one who appeared to be the leader spoke.

“Was it you who changed the season?”

“Didn’t you already know that when you came?”

The leader elf’s expression hardened at Olivia’s response. It was a face as if confronting trash not worth associating with.

Suppressing his anger, he barely managed to spit out a sentence.

“The great High Elf has spoken. There won’t be a third chance, so retreat.”

“That would be difficult.”

No further dialogue was necessary.

Just as the elves were about to draw their bowstrings, someone stopped them.

It was a woman exuding an antique atmosphere.

“How rude.”

The druid spoke in a low voice.

“Did you think you could deceive me by coming with the Empire’s Sword Master?”

“There seems to be a misunderstanding…”

“Sword Master, I did not give you permission to speak.”

The druid glared at Olivia with cold eyes.

“I’m sure you’ve been deceived by that devilish person’s sweet talk again. It’s truly unfortunate to see you make the same choice twice.”

“…Twice?”

Kiel’s face changed strangely. It was a statement that could only be made if one already knew about Kiel’s regression.

But the place where the druid resided was the deepest part of Euran, where human rumors couldn’t reach.

There was only one thing that could mean.

Someone had informed the druid about regression-related information.

“They will soon come here.”

Sensing something ominous, Kiel surrounded the tip of his greatsword with dark aura.

“…Who do you mean by ‘they’?”

Instead of answering, the druid burst into laughter.

Space rippled.

As if using spatial magic, the space around the druid began to distort completely.

A form of spatial magic different from Melina’s.

Olivia, who had discerned the nature of the magic, smiled bitterly.

Dragon language magic.

The dragons had arrived.