Ch.227227. Final Discourse (3)

“I strongly urge a grand trial regarding the atrocities committed by Ianet during operations and the hidden stories entangled with them.”

The atmosphere turned cold.

Edeline, who had seemed like she would maintain her benevolent expression forever. Even her serenity cracked in an instant. It would be correct to assume that Ianet’s alignment with the dark side was an exception and variable that she hadn’t seen in her prophecy, and thus hadn’t considered until now.

Although she had lived for over a thousand years, Edeline didn’t appear senile yet. I don’t know how they managed to plot such a scheme while evading her intuition and hidden sight. How they were able to keep this matter so thoroughly concealed that it surprised her this much.

I wonder just how exceptional Ianet’s concealment abilities really are.

“What you’re saying is—”

As if clouds had suddenly covered the clear sky. The golden rays of light shining into the cathedral disappeared. And with it, the brilliance illuminating Edeline faded away.

The shadows had fallen upon her, and only her gray pupils retained their sharp light.

“You heroes believe that Ianet, one of the three pillars of our Great Forest, has allied with demons for some reason, is that right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Pointing to one of the great houses and claiming they’ve allied with demons is quite a serious accusation requiring substantial responsibility… I’d like to hear what led you heroes to think this way. Would you tell me your reasons?”

The High Elf’s voice had transformed from gentle to distinctly formal. Sensing that wasting time with hesitation might displease her.

I immediately joined the conversation between Sione and Edeline.

“For my explanation, I’ll need the power of my spirit… would it be acceptable to summon it here now?”

“Of course. However, I’ll summon my spirit as well to discern truth from falsehood.”

“Gladly.”

Good, I’ve received the okay sign. Even if she wants to distinguish truth from falsehood, I’ve only spoken the truth so far. There’s no reason to hesitate.

I immediately circulated my Mana to summon Elvis. The flow of wind changed around the central platform of the cathedral.

When only my Mana interfered with the environment, it created just a gentle breeze. But now Edeline had joined in, summoning her own spirit and adding to the wind’s interference. Two spirits appeared in the center of the now quite strong wind.

“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

“…!”

What Edeline summoned was clearly a spirit of a different caliber.

It had an even more majestic appearance than the current Tania.

High Elf, Edeline. Befitting her status as queen of this place, she had summoned a complete top-tier spirit, a true monster.

“……”

However, the wind spirit she summoned seemed to have a taciturn personality, unlike the typically talkative spirits.

For some unknown reason, it stared at me silently before returning to Edeline’s embrace.

Meanwhile, our Elvis—

“Uh, uwaah……”

“…Elvis?”

Even though he was originally a top-tier spirit… though now he’s only at a mid-tier level, it would be nice if he could make an entrance as dignified as the other one.

But our innocent creation was floating in the air after being summoned, eyes tightly shut in a grimace while rubbing his left cheek.

“Eh…? Daddy?”

Hearing my voice, Elvis opened his eyes wide and looked around.

Sione, Edeline, and another unfamiliar top-tier spirit.

Only then realizing that everyone’s gaze was on him, Elvis startled and flew to my side.

—Uuugh… Daddy, what’s going on here?

‘What were you doing just now…?’

—…Sister Tania pinched my cheek. She’s always bullying just me. If you hadn’t summoned me, she would still be bullying me right now.

Elvis made a sulky expression, puffed his cheeks, and crossed his arms.

Edeline, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke.

“So that’s the wind spirit you successfully summoned without my help. I can see it left quite a few soul fragments in the spirit realm. Then I assume this spirit will provide evidence for what you’ve been saying?”

“Yes, that’s right. First, I’d like you to hear what my spirit has discovered. Would that be acceptable?”

“…Of course. Since your friend’s original rank is no less than my spirit’s, I’m quite looking forward to it.”

As Edeline finally regained her gentle smile on what had been a cold face.

I redirected Elvis, who had been chattering complaints directly into my mind.

—And also… that spirit called Orna…

‘Elvis?’

—Yes?

‘More importantly, things are a bit urgent… could you replay the voices you’ve collected, loud enough to fill this cathedral?’

—…Then you have to listen to my whole story later.

‘Alright—’

—Here, pinky promise.

‘…Do we really have to do this?’

—If we don’t do the pinky promise and thumb press, you might just make me do what you want and then reverse-summon me. Can’t be helped.

‘……’

Finally, after making a pinky promise with Elvis, who was beaming with happiness in front of everyone.

I was finally able to expose the true nature of House Ianet to Edeline, one by one.

Whoosh—

Wind began to blow through the spacious cathedral. The wind carried the sound memories our Elvis had collected. Airine’s anguished voice and Chenya’s cold voice echoed loudly throughout the cathedral.

As the voices ended, Edeline, who had been sitting quietly with her eyes closed, whispered.

“Truth or falsehood, which is it?”

The spirit nestled in Edeline’s embrace briefly raised its head to gauge Edeline’s mood.

Then in a bleak tone, it briefly stated its conclusion.

“Truth. Truth without any manipulation.”

“Hmm.”

That wasn’t the end of it.

Even without verbal communication, spirits can exchange intentions and information without distortion if they choose a target and clearly convey their will, provided the other side accepts it.

Edeline’s spirit and our Elvis locked eyes.

—Daddy, how much should I tell?

‘Everything important, if possible.’

—Even about that altar?

‘Of course. Just tell everything.’

There’s no reason to hesitate when the only ones who’ll suffer from full disclosure are them.

Following my wishes, Elvis transferred all the information he had to Edeline’s spirit. Her spirit remained silent with eyes closed for a while, organizing its thoughts, then slowly began to recite the information it had received.

Edeline’s spirit seemed to have noticed that our Elvis was no ordinary spirit, as it showed no sign of looking down on him.

“Edeline.”

“Yes?”

“You don’t need to doubt. That spirit is a fool who doesn’t know how to lie.”

Though Elvis’s shoulders slumped, apparently displeased with how it was expressed.

—…I’m not a fool.

But I could comfort him about that later.

After quietly organizing her thoughts, Edeline finally made her decision.

“…Very well. I think I have a general picture now. Since seeds of doubt have sprouted at such a critical time, it wouldn’t be bad for me to leave this place after so long and see them directly to confirm.”

“Then—”

“I will accept the heroes’ request. Well… given that the House of Arielt has granted all authority and the only current heroes have made such an important request, it would be difficult to refuse anyway.”

The clouds obscuring the sky seemed to have cleared.

Once again, brilliant golden sunlight began to fill the cathedral.

As warm rays of light again fell on the right side of Edeline’s face, she spoke with her two pupils, bathed in sunlight and shadow, filled with the images of Sione and me.

“Let us hold a grand trial.”

The words we had been waiting for.

“The plaintiffs will be the heroes under my protection and that of Arielt.”

The heroic roles will be ours.

“The defendants will be the elves of Ianet who directly conspired with demons and their accomplices.”

The villains will be those pointy-eared fools from Ianet who didn’t know their place and provoked us.

“The turmoil this trial will bring to the Great Forest may be heavier than expected. Are you heroes prepared to handle the waves of upheaval?”

“Of course we are.”

We will triumph in this trial for all to see.

* * *

After spending sufficient time in heavy conversation, now that we had completed our task, Sione and I finally felt our tension release.

Gone were our faces filled with sharp tension. Instead, we naturally wore the faces of overworked employees pretending not to be exhausted.

Seeing Sione and me like this, Edeline found something amusing and said with a smile.

“Now that our important discussion is over, how about we continue our conversation outside, Lady Sione and Sir Ray?”

Sione, who had been eyeing Edeline’s garden in the distance since before we entered this building to meet her, eagerly took up Edeline’s suggestion.

“Outside, you say?”

“Yes, I recently succeeded in making a certain flower bloom in my garden. And this flower might be better known to you, my lady, than anyone else on the continent… so it might be a good opportunity to see it with your own eyes.”

“…That sounds intriguing. I would very much like to see it.”

“Wonderful, and I also have something I haven’t yet told Sir Ray.”

“Me?”

Scrape.

Edeline pushed back her chair and stood up.

“When we met last time, I said I would help you reunite with the spirit you hadn’t yet met again… but you’ve already succeeded in reuniting. So the materials I gathered for the magic preparation are now without purpose.”

Materials she had gathered…

Last time, I summoned Tania using a spirit stone as a medium.

So that means—

“I have some high-quality spirit stones prepared in the garden. I thought I might give you a choice.”

“……”

“Whether to take the prepared spirit stones, or to receive my help to create another advancement.”

Prepared spirit stones.

And another reward I could choose instead.

“Taking time to think about it thoroughly in my garden wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

I had an intuition.

That the reward I would obtain this time would be the most brilliant one before the demons invaded this city.

With that, I stood up even before Sione and said:

“As it happens, I was also hoping to look around the garden.”