Ch.142Chapter 142

“… I suppose there’s no need to be ashamed since it was all done for a good cause.”

Wendigo wiped his face as he steeled his conscience.

Why should he feel ashamed? It wasn’t like he manipulated people for personal gain—he did it to catch a truly dangerous creature.

Wendigo was feeling quite righteo—

“Our warriors guard the sealed treasure day and night. Even though it’s a dead dragon’s heart, its evil power remains, so who knows what might happen?”

“Hmm, that seems unnecessary.”

In Wendigo’s opinion, Gicas was at best an earth dragon… basically a worm. He had struggled to surpass the limitations of a parasite, but in the end, he was nothing more than an oversized worm.

Frankly, if he introduced Gicas to other Summoners as a worm that became a Beast rather than a parasite, quite a few would believe it.

However, Dmitri, unaware of the truth, seemed to misunderstand Wendigo’s words. His eyes shone with reverence as he pounded his chest.

“Haha, of course we don’t believe the seal placed by Your Majesty and the Great Witch would break. But the world is full of those who would break seals to obtain evil powers, isn’t it?”

“Hmm…”

Wendigo couldn’t deny Dmitri’s words. Just thinking about the people he’d encountered while founding Manheimr, there were plenty of such individuals.

Besides, there was a saying that seals were called seals because they would eventually break.

Even the Creator God, who could be considered this world’s master, failed to completely seal away the gods.

Of course, the heart didn’t possess abilities as great as the gods—its only talent was creating fertilizer…

‘Come to think of it, what happens to the land if I put the heart in my model?’

Manheimr’s national power came from its fertile soil, full of vitality rarely found in the north.

What greater card could there be for northerners who had made murder and plunder their livelihood, if they could escape starvation?

However, this fertile soil wasn’t Wendigo’s power but rather a byproduct created during the purification of Gicas’s heart.

No matter how important smooth foreign relations were, he had no intention of giving up the fertile soil for that…

“Ahem, I apologize. It seems I’ve talked too much after seeing Your Majesty after so long. If I’ve disturbed you, please punish me.”

Flinch.

Lost in his thoughts, Wendigo snapped back to attention when Dmitri bowed his head in apology. Of course, he hadn’t heard Dmitri’s praise-filled speech…

Feeling sorry for Dmitri, who must have spoken earnestly, Wendigo shook his head and spoke.

“Who would pledge loyalty if I blamed actions born of loyalty? It’s nothing to worry about, so you may withdraw.”

“Yes! I will continue to guard the treasure with unwavering loyalty!”

“…?”

He had come to retrieve the treasure, yet Dmitri was talking about guarding it?

Wendigo was about to question him, but Dmitri faithfully carried out his order.

Dmitri moved quietly yet swiftly to the end of the corridor, bowed respectfully, and left, closing the door behind him.

Wendigo watched blankly with his finger raised. He had ordered him to withdraw but hadn’t expected him to leave so quickly.

Finally, Wendigo sighed and looked at Skadi. Recognizing the question in Wendigo’s gaze, Skadi smiled awkwardly and scratched her cheek.

“Well, the young warriors said they’re grateful for Wendigo’s grace and are developing patience and perseverance by guarding the sealed treasure. They all take pride in protecting the king’s treasure.”

“… I suppose we should keep the retrieval of the heart a secret.”

Wendigo wasn’t cold-hearted enough to say, “I need the heart for something, so you no longer need to guard the treasure,” after hearing that.

Skadi nodded in agreement with Wendigo’s opinion. After all, it was because of her suggestion to use the heart that they would be taking away the warriors’ source of pride.

And so, making the retrieval of the treasure—or rather, the collection of it—their secret, Wendigo entered the room where the treasure was sealed.

* * *

The room where Gicas’s heart was sealed was utterly chaotic. The ceiling was filled with ropes bearing talismans, and on the floor, totem figures in the shape of beasts glowed with vigilant eyes.

It was a kind of barrier that Skadi had set up to prepare for any contingencies, as she judged that Wendigo wouldn’t be able to check on the heart’s condition frequently after relocating…

Wendigo asked Skadi in a disgruntled voice:

“Isn’t this… a bit excessive?”

To an outsider, the room might just seem messy, but to Wendigo’s eyes, the room was filled with mystical energy.

The talismans on the ropes emitted intense cold, ready to freeze anything that touched the ropes, and the totems seemed so lifelike they might bare their teeth and pounce at any moment.

Considering that proud warriors were already guarding it like an iron wall, it seemed like an excessive amount of mystical energy for a seal…

Skadi, who never compromised when it came to anything related to Wendigo, answered with rare firmness:

“If one harbors no disrespectful intentions, nothing will happen. If one does harbor such intentions, there’s no need to consider their circumstances.”

“Hmm, when you put it that way, I have nothing to say.”

Indeed, there was no reason to consider a thief’s circumstances. Nodding, Wendigo lifted the ropes that caught on his horns and headed toward the center of the room.

Wendigo placed his hand on the floor and concentrated. It had been a while since his last visit, and he couldn’t quite remember the heart’s exact location.

If he started digging without knowing the precise location and damaged the heart, he would surely grind his teeth in regret.

Like a plant extending its roots, Wendigo began searching for Gicas’s heart using thin roots that spread from his palm.

The roots transmitted sensations to Wendigo as if they were part of his body, digging into the ground… but the sensations from several roots made Wendigo tilt his head in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, not a problem… but it’s a bit strange. I’m sure we removed all foreign substances before burying Gicas’s heart…”

Why was he sensing something like tree bark here?

Wendigo slowly extended his roots, measuring the size of the bark through his senses. Its size was very similar to Gicas’s heart.

“It seems like Gicas’s heart is wrapped in something like tree bark. Did you take any measures without telling me?”

“No. I might not mention trivial matters to Wendigo, but Gicas’s heart is quite important—I wouldn’t do that.”

Since Skadi was telling the truth, it wasn’t because someone had done something to make Gicas’s heart strange.

In that case, the only way to identify the nature of the bark was to take it out and check. Wendigo controlled his roots to wrap around it.

After binding what was presumed to be the heart tightly, like a spider binding its prey, Wendigo pulled on the roots without hesitation…

Crack!

Thanks to the firmly bound roots, the target was cleanly extracted from the ground. Looking at it dangling, Wendigo let out a chuckle.

‘It feels like pulling out a sweet potato.’

Of course, given that it was in the place where the heart should be, it definitely wasn’t a sweet potato.

Wendigo carefully removed the roots, sharpening his senses. Watching from the side, Skadi swallowed dryly, her eyes gleaming.

What exactly was the identity of what Wendigo had pulled out?

“What is this?”

“It looks like… the heart? But its appearance and the energy it gives off feel strangely familiar.”

Gicas’s heart had transformed into something resembling a seed covered with a hard shell.

With root-like structures visible in places, if one didn’t know it was a buried heart, it could easily be mistaken for an unusually shaped seed or seedling…

Wendigo sensed mystical energy very similar to his own from Gicas’s heart.

Except for the faint, pure natural energy that felt more refreshing than his own mystical energy, it was so similar that it wouldn’t be strange to call it his heart.

“Wendigo, if it’s alright, may I examine it?”

Skadi, intrigued by this unexpected change, unconsciously clasped her hands together, her eyes gleaming.

For a researcher, unexpected changes were nothing short of joy.

Wendigo handed the heart to Skadi, seeing that it didn’t seem particularly dangerous. She, being more proficient in sorcery than him, could make a more accurate assessment.

Taking the heart, Skadi opened her spiritual eyes and controlled the mystical energy around her. The energy began to gather around her ring and, following her fingers, inscribed spells on the heart.

The spell, an adaptation of Wendigo’s ability to discern truth, poured information about any impurities in the heart to Skadi…

Gicas’s heart was so clean that not even a trace of its original owner remained.

“There’s not a trace of Gicas’s mystical energy left. I had expected that the mystical energy bound to Gicas’s heart would be completely washed away by now.”

“So that’s why you said you wanted to use the heart.”

“Yes. It seemed wasteful not to utilize the treasure… and since it’s the heart of a Beast that Wendigo personally hunted, I thought it would be good to use it for Wendigo’s benefit.”

Wendigo agreed with her. If you don’t use a treasure because it’s too precious, it’s worse than not having it at all.

Now that Gicas’s impure mystical energy had completely disappeared, his heart needed a new role.

Skadi handed the heart back to Wendigo and discussed the reason for its transformation.

“The change in the heart’s appearance is likely because Wendigo’s mystical energy flowing through this land washed away Gicas’s energy, transforming the heart. Into a form more suitable for Wendigo’s mystical energy.”

“That’s good news.”

“Yes. There couldn’t be a better material for creating a body for Wendigo to possess.”

As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot—Skadi drew mystical energy from the ropes and totems to prepare her spell. As she gestured with intent, the mystical energy transformed into characters that orbited around the heart.

With her eyes gleaming with fluctuating mystical energy, Skadi requested of Wendigo:

“Wendigo, please infuse as much mystical energy as the heart can withstand while I calibrate. Push it to the limit, and I’ll quickly seal and stabilize it.”

“Understood.”

He didn’t worry about Skadi failing. His faith in her wasn’t so weak as to question that.

Wendigo drew up his mystical energy and lifted Gicas’s heart.

Gicas’s heart began to greedily absorb Wendigo’s mystical energy, like a deep-rooted plant sucking up underground moisture.

Wendigo continued to push in mystical energy without the slightest hesitation.

If an ordinary Summoner or Witch had attempted to control this, they would have been unable to withstand the pressure of the surging mystical energy and would have become an ice statue or sprouted plant roots from within their body.

However, Skadi merely let a single drop of sweat roll down as she inscribed characters in the air. Her characters, each only the size of her fingernail, formed dozens of circles around the heart.

Crack!

Wendigo’s mystical energy created a small storm in the room, covering the surroundings with cold air.

The ropes, drained of mystical energy, froze white as if they had spent decades in snow, and the talismans crumbled as if worn away by a blizzard.

The totems took root in the ground as if time had accelerated, spreading branches and blooming vibrant flowers.

These two phenomena, which could never coexist, gradually extended toward Wendigo and Skadi as they reached their peak…

Without a single word of communication, Wendigo and Skadi instinctively realized it was time to end. Wendigo gathered the surging mystical energy and pushed it all into the heart without missing a drop.

The moment all the mystical energy was sucked into the heart.

The characters floating in the air flew into the heart. The characters dug into the hard shell and were engraved on it, and as they settled one by one, the fluctuating mystical energy began to stabilize.

After the last character was perfectly in place, Skadi wiped away her sweat, looking satisfied.

“I was a bit worried since sealing isn’t my specialty, but perhaps because I’m familiar with Wendigo’s mystical energy, it seems well-calibrated.”

“Is this sufficient?”

“Yes. If Summoners saw this, they might cause a commotion out of greed.”

The heart, infused with extremely compressed mystical energy of Wendigo, was a treasure that anyone capable of sensing mystical energy would covet.

Wendigo had previously rewarded Summoners with crystals containing mystical energy, but this heart was incomparable.

Despite containing enough mystical energy to cause a catastrophe, it maintained such stability that even an ordinary Summoner could easily extract the mystical energy.

“I always knew you were remarkable, but… you never cease to amaze me.”

“I’m just glad things went as expected. Perhaps I’ve grown a lot since becoming a Witch?”

“How modest. You’ve always been an exceptional Summoner… Huh?”

Thump.

As Wendigo was about to compliment Skadi, he looked at Gicas’s heart in confusion, feeling a pulse from it.

Although transformed, Gicas’s heart was technically dead, wasn’t it?

But as if to prove it wasn’t an illusion, the heart pulsed again, announcing its existence to Wendigo. Moreover, the roots sprouting from the heart wriggled and moved…

Wendigo turned to Skadi, wanting to hear about this strange phenomenon.

She would surely explain this phenomenon…

“Eek!?”

“……”

… Apparently, she hadn’t anticipated this far.

Startled by the heart’s creepy wriggling, Skadi let out a cute scream and hugged Wendigo. Even as a Summoner, she couldn’t predict all the changes her spell would cause.

Who would have imagined that filling a dead heart with mystical energy would make it wriggle?

“Calm down. It’s just the heart wriggling a bit… even I find it a bit creepy to say.”

Wendigo stroked her head, dropping the heart far away out of consideration for Skadi.

It was an action meant to calm her. However, far from calming her, it only excited her more.

Feeling his hand on her head, Skadi snapped back to reality and looked up with a foolish expression. Then her neck turned stiffly toward her arms that were hugging Wendigo…

“Ah, that, well…”

Was it an illusion that steam seemed to be rising from her head?

Skadi’s face turned red as she stammered, then she completely froze up.

After muttering words close to moans, she regained her senses after about an hour, thanks to Wendigo’s efforts.