Ch.219219. Retreat and Report (1)

“Sis, fi, fi, fi, fi! No, sis, this! Hiyaa…!”

Elvis’s noisy entrance drew everyone’s attention.

Regardless of his protests, the flames that Tania had playfully wrapped around him must have felt quite hot, as his eyes were welling up with tears. But when he noticed me looking at him, his tearful expression quickly brightened.

“Daddy!”

In an instant, Elvis flew into my arms.

“Chii.”

Following this, Tania stopped playing with her flames and watched our reunion with expectant eyes.

“You know, you know. I really…!”

“I, I was in the spirit realm continuously—”

“Sis always hits my head and pulls my cheeks…”

Unlike Tania who immediately poured out complaints about how worried she had been, Elvis began rapidly telling his story.

When the wind spirit, who had appeared in his intermediate form, showed no signs of stopping his rapid-fire speech, Tania and Orna each made a comment.

“Changsik, you’re too excited. You’re talking too much. Can’t you see you’re making Shinwoo uncomfortable?”

“Chii… but sis still got to talk with daddy a lot. I haven’t seen him for so long—”

—Myaang!

“Ugh…”

Elvis, who had been looking at Orna perched on top of my head, briefly wore a blank expression. Then, showing signs of wariness, he hugged me even tighter.

“…Sis, is that thing that one?”

“That’s right?”

“Uuu…”

—Mya?

“…”

No, what on earth is the problem now?

As Orna tilted her head questioningly, Elvis—who must have heard something from Tania—alternated between looking at me and Orna before making a tearful face.

“Daddy… you won’t abandon me, right?”

“What…?”

“No, sis said in the spirit reaaalm—”

In the end, I could only sigh deeply after hearing what Tania had been telling Elvis in the spirit realm all this time.

Even so, that was too much. Telling him that I didn’t need Elvis anymore so I made a contract with Orna? That I considered Elvis a rival and he needed to prove his worth?

Whether it was Tania who casually told such ridiculous stories, or Elvis who believed them without question—I couldn’t help but think that my spirits were truly my spirits.

After I finished explaining the misunderstanding, Elvis puffed his cheeks and began complaining to his sister, Tania.

“Sis, really…!”

“Oh, our Changsik. You know your sister cares about you a lot, right?”

“But earlier you said you weren’t my sister because we don’t share blood…!”

“Changsik, are you going to keep being cold to your sister? Your sister flew all that distance because she was worried you’d be bored…”

“Eh.”

“Are you going to stay mad at your sister…?”

“No, sis, that’s…”

Tania’s skillful acting as she subtly changed the subject to escape. And Changsik getting swept up in Tania’s performance and giving in.

Watching this, Orna sighed like me, which was unusual for her.

—Heh…

After the brief commotion and brief explanation of the situation ended, since we couldn’t spend too much time here, I got to the main point of why I had summoned Elvis.

“I guess you already heard about the situation from your sister, right?”

“Yeah, the situation is quite complicated… I can’t trust anyone but Elvis with this.”

“I hate elves and demons… but if daddy asks.”

Hesitating and somewhat indecisive, Elvis slowly nodded with a downcast expression.

The pressure emanating from the small spirit who had made a small resolution carried a rather heavy weight, unlike the light wind he governed.

“I’ll do it. You want me to find out what the elves are talking about… and what all the demons in this forest are plotting, right?”

“That’s right. Can you do it?”

“Since I’m in my intermediate form now, not superior grade, I might be a bit lacking—”

—Heh.

For a moment, as Elvis’s eyes met Orna’s, I could see an inexplicable competitive spirit burning in his pupils.

“…I can do it. It’s not like I’m covering an entire mountain range. It’s just investigating one forest. I can ask the winds blowing through the trees.”

Elvis spoke with a resolute voice.

Tania, who had crossed her arms, nodded and gently flew to his side, placing a small hand on his shoulder.

“That’s right. Your sister believes in you, Changsik.”

“No, sis, about that nickname…”

Since the atmosphere had somehow turned into one of encouraging Changsik, I also spoke with a faint smile.

“I believe in Changsik too.”

As if not wanting to be outdone, Sione and Diolia, who had been quietly watching the reunion between me and my spirit and whispering something, followed my and Tania’s lead.

“I believe in Changsik.”

“I be-believe in Chang…sik?”

Sione, who had spoken with Tania quite often and had some understanding of the language I used, pronounced it with relatively accurate pronunciation.

Diolia, who knew neither Korean nor the language used by me and the spirits—which she believed was naturally understood upon becoming a spirit master—carefully repeated our words with somewhat awkward pronunciation.

“Th-this isn’t right…”

Changsik could only tear up again at the nickname he didn’t particularly like being used by everyone.

* * *

The first day of retreat was quiet. We were able to leave the center of the forest relatively peacefully without encountering enemies.

Moreover, we were able to hear new information from Changsik, who had begun to use his abilities in earnest to gather intelligence.

While it was difficult to extract any new information about the Ianet because they kept their mouths tightly shut, he was able to definitely bring back information about the demons.

The small spirit said:

“I found several more huuuge altars at the eastern edge of the forest.”

The spirit informed us that there were several more altars besides the ones we had destroyed.

“…They were hidden by demonic deception, but I could detect them from the subtle disturbances in the wind. Probably no one but me could have noticed, hehe.”

If Elvis said this, it was obvious that even the elven scouts assigned to reconnaissance would have had extreme difficulty finding them.

I asked my spirit about the condition of the altars.

“The three altars were at regular intervals… forming a triangle when connected… and they were all linked by Magia to the largest altar at the center of the triangle.”

Moreover, these weren’t ordinary independent altars.

Three altars supporting the central altar for conducting a grand ritual. The scale of these three was also quite significant, he said.

These altars were probably created for the purpose of summoning at least a superior-grade demon.

“The three altars were already almost ready… and the final altar seemed to have almost all the sacrifices gathered.”

Additionally, the preparations for summoning the demon were already approaching their final stage.

“…We can’t stop this. We need to get out of the forest as quickly as possible.”

We needed to leave the forest even faster.

* * *

On the second day, we had moved quite far from the forest. We would probably be able to return to the city by tomorrow.

The only problem was that today we finally had an engagement with the enemy during our return, with a sudden attack.

Since my physical condition was still not normal, I couldn’t help actively and only supported them by shooting arrows from a distance.

Moreover, as I watched the Ianet during this time, I noticed they weren’t harmonizing well with the Chelnis and Arielt, and—

“Daddy, daddy. That red-haired lady over there fought with the lady called Chenya again. And—”

As Friel Arielt had said.

Airine and the Ianet were in conflict. And quite deeply at that.

“That old lady Chenya has a strange atmosphere. Daddy should never become friends with elves like her! Here…”

“…?”

“Thumb stamp, bang!”

Furthermore, Elvis, who had good intuition, even expressed that he felt a fundamental aversion to Chenya.

I had a brief conversation with Friel Arielt about this.

Friend or foe? Airine might be closer to being our ally, she said.

* * *

On the final day, we were just about to leave the forest.

The forest was particularly quiet. Perhaps because their massive ritual was imminent, it seemed they had no leisure to pay attention to us.

At that moment, Friel Arielt brought up a conversation.

“I’ve spoken with Airine, in a manner of speaking.”

“Did you speak with her directly, Lady Friel?”

“Yes, after returning to my family and briefly speaking with my mother… It’s been a long time since I initiated a conversation with Airine. It wouldn’t be bad to discuss this matter with the young lady later.”

“…Have you already discussed Airine with Lady Sione?”

“No?”

Friel Arielt was laughing softly.

“Even without that, the young lady would have already noticed.”

“Pardon?”

“Ray, it’s fortunate you didn’t see the young lady then. Do you know how frightening she was at that time?”

“…”

“The young lady’s eyes weren’t just following the enemies. Honestly, I thought her combat skills were far inferior to yours…”

Friel was completely sincere.

“But in some ways, she seemed much more frightening than you.”

“Could you perhaps tell me more about that in detail?”

“Hmm—since the story might get a bit longer… let’s talk about this later, not now.”

Friel Arielt, who said this, stepped back a few paces and continued.

“When you woke up, I clearly said I would serve you tea. So at that time, it would be good to talk with the young lady. Now then—”

Friel returned with a relatively light expression and said:

“Let’s head back now.”

Her gaze turned westward.

The massive ancient tree that had grown even closer.

“We’re right at the doorstep of the World Tree’s embrace.”

Our return is imminent.