Ch.174174. Invasion, Harbinger (4)

A short while later, at the Druid Assembly Headquarters.

“Hey! Where’s the mana accelerant?”

“Warehouse number 5!”

“Move aside, move aside! Something big coming through!”

-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Druid Assembly Headquarters was in complete chaos since morning, with people moving supplies and transporting troops in preparation for the war against the great orc invasion.

The Druid Assembly, as an organization, was participating in the war against the great orc invasion as an independent force like temples or magic towers. Despite being smaller than the other two forces, there were several reasons why the Assembly was recognized as an independent power.

First, most magic cast by orc shamans closely resembled druid magic, allowing for quick countermeasures against such spells.

Second, since druids don’t age physically and thus don’t die of natural causes, many among them had witnessed previous orc invasions firsthand. This gave them extensive knowledge and past experience regarding orcs, enabling them to serve in advisory roles.

Third, thanks to the characteristic of not dying naturally once reaching the intermediate level, druids were, on average, not inferior in quality to those from magic towers or grand temples. Their active participation against the great orc invasion made their fighting power impossible to ignore.

And the fourth reason was simply that the Druid Assembly, due to its long history, could mobilize substantial forces.

They could mass-produce spirit soldiers by possessing nature spirits into natural bodies (artificial bodies made from natural materials), creating troops that wouldn’t lose to elite soldiers, and thus they weren’t particularly lacking in numbers either.

They could summon hundreds of formal (intermediate) druids scattered throughout the Western Continent during normal times, and about 10 high-level druids resided at the headquarters.

Though fewer in number, the Druid Assembly, whose quality was not inferior to other major powers, was preparing for a holy war against the orcs, who could be considered the natural enemies of druids.

“…”

-Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch…

Of course, the 74th Grand Assembly Leader of the Druid Assembly, Drona Malkaden, was also inevitably overwhelmed with work in the process of preparing for war.

She had to establish rules and regulations for the Assembly, which was basically a loose social group, turning it into an organization while carefully adjusting personnel to prevent internal issues and deploying troops.

Additionally, she had to send respectful summons to druids outside the Assembly headquarters, including those with longer careers than herself, coordinate schedules with external forces, and adjust the timing for joining the allied forces.

It seemed like even having two bodies wouldn’t be enough as Drona Malkaden frantically processed the overwhelming workload. Eventually, seeing the pile of documents starting to diminish, she let out a deep sigh mixed with relief and despair.

‘Haaah…’

Why did the orcs have to launch their great invasion during her term, and just a few months before it was due to end?

While despairing at this timing that seemed as if someone was deliberately tormenting her, Drona suddenly remembered what she needed to do after finishing the paperwork.

For this invasion, the Druid Assembly planned to use one of Drona’s animal friends, a gigantic behemoth also known as the “Moving Mountain,” as their operation headquarters.

This behemoth, who was also the master of the otherworld “Great Forest” where the Druid Assembly headquarters was located, was essentially the largest land monster among magical beasts. Setting up an operation headquarters on its back would provide almost complete protection from situations like assassinations.

…Of course, convincing the behemoth, who was extremely lazy and didn’t even like moving much, would be entirely her responsibility.

Anyway, while briefly pondering how to motivate her animal friend, Drona Malkaden was about to get up from her desk to stretch her body, which had become somewhat tired after 120 hours of non-stop night work, when…

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, she discovered a piece of paper emanating an ominous aura among the pile of documents.

With her crude celestial magic aptitude, she hadn’t reached the level where precognition was constantly active. So if she had to explain this sensation in words, it was probably an animal-like instinct that had become extremely sensitive due to years of magical training.

“…”

Trying to calm her wildly beating heart, Drona Malkaden reached out with her fingertips to pick up the document and…

“Aaaack─!!!”

Despite not even reading half of the document, she dropped it to the floor.

Because what was written on that document was…

[Summons.

In accordance with the honorable Druid Law, the Guardian of Aleinos Forest (or their successor) is ordered to participate in the defense force against the great orc invasion.

This is…]

It was evidence that she had written a document summoning ‘THE’ Guardian of Aleinos Forest, ‘HER’, as a member of the Druid Assembly forces.

“What, what is this…!”

Faced with a situation she could neither accept nor understand, Drona felt as if her brain was about to be destroyed.

Well, procedurally speaking, it would be correct to issue a summons to ‘her’ too, but to actually send it… whose idea was this?

“…It was mine!!”

She screamed. She couldn’t help but scream.

Most likely, she had sent out the summons in bulk because she couldn’t possibly write each one individually while overwhelmed with work, but that alone couldn’t excuse sending a summons to ‘her’.

After all, what Drona had just done was equivalent to appearing before a hungry lion covered in blood.

‘Her’. The woman who had established herself as a legend of the Druid Assembly in many ways was, for Drona, like the ‘monster under the bed’.

Though she had only met her a few times, those experiences were so intense that ‘she’ naturally became an extremely fearsome existence in Drona’s mind.

In the past, when ‘she’ roamed the country with just a staff, defeating various magical beasts. The young Drona Malkaden witnessed a scene that, even now, was enough to make her doubt her own eyes.

‘She’ who turned a red dragon that was burning the forest ‘inside out’ like a rubber glove, and who melted the skin of a high-level vampire lord, ‘Bloody Vlad’, who had commanded an adult red dragon, all while laughing maniacally.

That’s why Drona Malkaden couldn’t help but scream in earnest.

The legendary ‘her’ from her prime was coming in person. Knowing better than anyone the ripple effect this would cause, she didn’t want to think about the aftermath.

And… a few days later.

“Assembly Leader. It’s been a while.”

“Welcome, Gregory!!”

Upon seeing her junior druid, Gregory Aleinos, whom she hadn’t seen in a very long time, Drona Malkaden felt an overwhelming emotion that made her want to weep.

Emotion, this feeling was definitely emotion.

Unlike the terrifying and dreadful ‘her’, Gregory, a junior druid of the same wild school as her, was still within the category of humans, even if he was a bit scary.

Of course, it was inevitable to feel somewhat uneasy about Gregory Aleinos, who had spent his childhood under ‘her’… But still, wasn’t it better than meeting ‘her’ directly, regardless of what happened?

“Oh, Sophia is here too?”

“Hello, Assembly Leader. Have you been well?”

Moreover, beside Gregory was her former disciple Sophia, and the two young druids were looking at each other with honey-dripping eyes. Noticing that these two druids had somehow become lovers, Drona was about to smile warmly when…

‘…Huh?’

Drona suddenly noticed a very powerful magical energy flowing from the two young druids in front of her, something she had failed to notice earlier because her mind was preoccupied with other matters.

Having spent hundreds of years as a high-level druid, and at least 100 years as a teacher or mentor at this druid training institution, she could tell.

“Goodness…! You two, don’t tell me you’re high-level?”

“Yes. We became so recently.”

These two had reached the high level at the unprecedented young age of not even 50.

If Drona remembered correctly, Sophia was barely over 30, and in a world where many couldn’t even reach the intermediate level past 50, this was astonishing.

But even the surprise she felt when seeing Sophia paled in comparison to the awe that welled up from the depths of her heart when she saw Gregory Aleinos.

In this world, the age at which one is generally recognized as an adult is 16, but that doesn’t mean a 16-year-old is considered old.

It’s merely a basic status as an adult; objectively speaking, people of that age are still quite young.

So Drona was staring. She was staring in a daze, in a different sense from romantic interest.

A genius druid who might go down in the history of this world… no, a future legend who had reached the high level at the mere age of what seemed like 18.