Ch.142141. Luna Crystal (1)

# 141. Luna Crystal (1)

Luna was still in a daze after receiving that greeting, and we approached her.

Then the woman who had just greeted her called out to Luna once more.

“Excuse me?”

Only after hearing that call did Luna seem to come to her senses, and she finally responded.

“Uh… Oh! I’m sorry… I was just a bit flustered…”

“Are you perhaps here to escort us?”

“Yes… that’s right, but… did you two really catch that?”

Luna was still doubting that fact.

Of course, it was perfectly understandable, so neither I nor she felt any displeasure at Luna’s behavior, and I answered Luna’s question.

“Of course we did.”

“You’ve certainly gotten stronger than before…”

“Before…?”

She repeated the word “before” while staring at me.

Her cold tone and chilling gaze even made me feel a bit afraid.

“I… I’ve seen you once before… in the past.”

“When exactly?”

For some reason, her voice grew even colder, and I hurriedly explained the truth of the matter.

“During midterms, I happened to meet you when I entered the dungeon. Just by chance…”

“Hmm… you’re not lying, are you?”

“Of course not. If you’re still suspicious, you can ask her directly…”

Seeing her tone return to normal, it seemed she didn’t really think I was lying.

That suffocating moment just now.

Luna, who had been watching the situation from the side, spoke up herself.

“It’s true. After defeating the monsters, he left right away.”

“I see you’re not lying after all.”

I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that if I hadn’t told the truth, something terrible would have happened.

‘She’s really scary…’

It was far too frightening to simply think of it as jealousy and be happy about it.

Just seeing that expression was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, that expression didn’t last long, and after regaining her usual demeanor, she asked me:

“Why are you so tense?”

“Ah… I must not be feeling well. There was that incident earlier too, right?”

Her reaction seemed to be telling me that her previous demeanor wasn’t intentional.

Or she might be asking while knowing full well.

Though for that, her reaction was too natural.

“I guess so… I haven’t been sleeping properly for a while. Excuse me, Elf lady?”

“It’s Luna.”

Luna’s calm voice made me wonder why she had come here.

And I wasn’t the only one with that curiosity.

“By the way, why did you come here? Was it to escort us?”

“Something like that… I thought it looked dangerous…”

As she said this, Luna looked at the ice block.

It seemed she had rushed over after judging that monster to be dangerous when it made contact with us.

“It certainly was dangerous.”

“But… you caught it. Weren’t you not at this level before?”

Luna looked at me with eyes full of wonder.

My growth had certainly been rapid.

However, there was a problem with attributing the capture of the King Snake to my growth.

“It was more thanks to her than me. I couldn’t have done it alone.”

“I can’t call that modesty this time.”

As she said, it wasn’t just a polite remark.

Thanks to her support ability, I was able to get used to its movements, and her skill [Absolute Zero] played a crucial role.

“But who is this person? For a human, she has an extraordinary amount of magical power…”

The two people who seemed somewhat similar were complete strangers to each other.

Two people with similar auras, and they even shared the commonality of high status.

“She’s our Imperial Princess.”

“Imperial Princess?”

“Yes.”

I also revealed Luna’s identity to her.

“By the way, this person is a Princess.”

“I thought so…”

“You knew?”

“Sort of.”

I’m not sure what gave it away, but she seemed to have already predicted it.

I was curious about how she knew, so I asked right away.

“How did you know?”

“Because she’s beautiful.”

“What…?”

It was such an unexpected answer.

And hearing that response, Luna smiled broadly and expressed her gratitude to her.

“Thank you! The Imperial Princess is beautiful too!”

“Thank you.”

“By the way, have you seen any other humans around here?”

This place was quite close to the Persian Kingdom, so the main group that had fallen nearby should be around here too.

Assuming they traveled at a similar pace to us, that is.

They might have already arrived.

“Yes, they’re nearby, but quite far from here.”

“How long would it take to get there?”

“From here, about a day or so?”

It was quite a distance, more than I had thought.

We must have moved more quickly, arriving much faster.

The difference was about a day, after all.

“Then we should go there first.”

“But… how did you get this far? You seem separated from the main group.”

“When we first entered, they gave us a rough location.”

Even after I said that, Luna seemed unconvinced, but while she observed my reaction, she didn’t express her doubts verbally.

And since what I said was technically true, it wasn’t a problem.

In her case, she already knew the answer to that question, which made it even more so.

“Well then… shall we depart?”

“Just a moment.”

Though it was getting quite late and we should leave quickly, there was something to do first.

Looking at the monster we had just caught together, I continued speaking.

“We should take this with us.”

A monster on a completely different level from other ordinary ones.

The corpse of the King Snake.

Both its name value and its worth as a material were excellent.

A corpse of considerable size.

Luna looked at the corpse and said:

“But how will we carry it?”

“Could you please melt this?”

Hearing my request, she placed her staff against it just as she had done earlier, and the frozen ice block began to melt rapidly.

After about 10 minutes, the corpse regained its original form.

“Is your magical power alright?”

It was highly unlikely that such a feat could be performed without any cost.

At the very least, she must have consumed some magical power to do that.

“I’m fine, it doesn’t take much.”

For some reason, to me, that statement sounded like “it doesn’t not take much,” but I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

I approached the lifeless King Snake and began the dismantling process.

-Slash!! Crunch!!-

I separated the monster’s inner flesh from its tough skin and also put useful materials like bones, teeth, and organs into my bag.

Due to its large size, it did take some time, but not unreasonably long.

“It didn’t take as long as I expected. But what do you use organs for?”

“They can be used as potion ingredients.”

With the variety of potions available, there are also an enormous number of recipes.

And even for the same potion, if the ingredients differ, the performance or effectiveness changes slightly, so there are almost no useless materials.

Even flesh that contains poison and can’t be used for food can be sufficiently used as potion ingredients.

“Let’s depart now.”

“Don’t you know where to go?”

“Of course we don’t. We just rushed in this direction without a plan.”

Luna seemed to ponder for a moment at my flawless acting.

She probably considered the possibility that I genuinely didn’t know.

“Then let’s depart.”

After that, Luna took the lead and guided us to the Persian Kingdom.

Being with Luna made me feel more at ease.

Otherwise, I would have had to persuade the guards at the kingdom’s entrance myself.

‘That would have made us wait another day or so…’

After walking for about an hour, we arrived near the entrance of the kingdom, and the atmosphere there was quite different from the forest we had just been in.

“Coming here gives me a strange feeling… kind of eerie, I’d say?”

As she said, there was an eerie chill permeating the entire area.

This chill was intentionally created by the elves.

The intention was probably to make people leave quickly by giving them such a feeling.

“The kingdom must be nearby.”

“That’s right. It’s so that people who accidentally come here will quickly run away.”

“Is it okay to tell me such things?”

“Of course. You’re the Imperial Princess of a country that will soon be our ally.”

I don’t know how she knew, but she was already aware of why we were here.

And judging by her reaction, it seemed she had already decided to accept the proposal.

‘How did she know…’

It was as if she had listened to the conversations of the main group beforehand and made a decision.

It seemed like they were monitoring the entire forest.

Of course, with the technological capabilities of the Persian Kingdom, that would be more than possible.

“You seem to know everything.”

“I just heard about it. And we’ve arrived.”

At that moment, an ordinary-looking tree came into view.

However, the energy emanating from that tree was anything but ordinary.

A tree that exuded an eerie aura that made one’s skin crawl just by being near it.

Looking at the tree, I asked Luna:

“Is this an illusion magic?”