episode_0038

About three weeks after that.

Our party’s carriage crossed the border of the Kingdom of Rekaia and entered the area near the Yggdra Forest.

If it were a normal journey, it would take almost a month…

Because it was an urgent matter, we ran as fast as possible, minimizing our actions, such as stopping in villages to rest or taking detours to avoid danger zones.

Thanks to that, everyone is quite tired and exhausted, but…

It was worth it, since it saved me almost a week of time.

— Dagudak, dagudak, dagudak, dagudak….

The unsteady rocking of a carriage running along a rough forest road.

At this point, I briefly thought that it might be better to get off the horse and walk.

I spoke quietly to Zion, who was sitting in the room.

“–Zion.”

“Huh?”

“Is it really okay not to stop by the Yggdra Forest?”

“Well…. The procedure is to stop by, report, and get permission. But the situation is what it is. If we stop by the forest and leave, we’ll lose about three or four days on the route…. We can’t waste time like that because we need to clean up the lake as soon as possible.”

“Hmm….”

“The lake barrier is my bow… I can break through it at any time since I have the ‘s proof, the eternal bow Cellstar. So for now, let’s just think about getting to the lake as quickly as possible.”

“Yeah. Well, if you say so…..”

Around that time.

“……….Huh?”

Zion let out a strange voice.

I looked in the direction she was looking, but I guess it was because my eyesight was so different.

Nothing special caught my eye.

“What’s going on?”

“No…. There are elves passing by on the road ahead. About 20 of them? Mixed genders…. They’re all pretty heavily armed.”

“……….”

“The only place that connects to this road is Mirror Lake… What the heck is going on…?”

I see. .

Anyway, it’s a narrow forest path.

It was dangerous to pass by in a carriage with a crowd of twenty elves, so I pulled the reins to slow the horse’s speed and slowly closed the distance between us.

— Tap tap tap….

and.

As the distance between us narrowed, they also seemed to notice us.

The group of elves stopped in their tracks and took a state of alert.

Then a young man standing at the very back of them raised his hand and signaled for us to stop.

“Stop!!”

“……..”

I slowly stopped the carriage, and they quickly surrounded it.

“What are you guys!!”

“What the…. I’m just an adventurer passing by.”

“Adventurer….?”

He looked at me with a suspicious expression for a moment.

The elf youth waved his hand roughly.

“This is the path leading to the Mirror Lake, the sacred place of the Yggdra clan. Passage is not permitted to lower races such as humans.”

“……….”

“Originally, it was a serious crime that could have been summarily punished if you crawled all the way here… But just pretend you didn’t see it this once. Turn the carriage around immediately…..”

“–Since when did the rules become so strict?”

Breaking up the story of the elf youth.

Zion got down from the carriage, and the elves who saw her all took a step back hesitantly.

“Uh…. Si, Zion?”

“Guardian!?”

“Ah, no…. why are you here…..”

The elves are a bit too agitated to just say, ‘I met an old acquaintance in an unexpected place.’

Zion looked at them with cold eyes and parted his lips.

“I’m on my way to purify Mirror Lake. These humans here are my colleagues.”

“……..”

“…………”

“Why are you guys coming up this way? Do you have any business at Mirror Lake? And…. Owl Heights, Geochang, Crane Queen Palace, and Wolhyeon Palace? What on earth were you thinking of bringing all that heavy equipment with you? Are you planning on going to war?”

“………”

While everyone else was avoiding eye contact or keeping their mouths shut.

An elf woman stepped forward.

“On my way to deal with the basilisks at Mirror Lake.”

“……..!!”

A tall elf woman with striking, venomous eyes and sharply trimmed short hair.

Captain of the Elven Forest Rangers, Agnes Wagler.

“No!? No…. What are you talking about? If you kill the basilisks recklessly, the pollution of Mirror Lake will become much worse than it is now, and even the World Tree will be damaged…..!”

“Are you telling me to just watch it like this?”

“………..!!”

“If we leave them alone, they will continue to spit out poison, and the contamination of the World Tree will only get worse. If it is going to get contaminated anyway, the answer is to cut off its suffocation as soon as possible to minimize the damage.”

“………..”

“This is a matter that has already been approved for processing by the council of elders. You, who have left the forest, are not in a position to intervene and speak out. If you understand, please disappear from my sight along with that disgusting low-class vehicle.”

“Has my letter not yet reached the Yggdra Forest?”

“………”

“There is a way to solve this without harming the World Tree. If you use the I brought, you can purify all of the Basilisk’s after-venom. So don’t act rashly, and leave this matter to me…..”

“That’s it….”

A young elf standing next to Agnes joined in the conversation.

“The elders and the forest elders discussed the matter. To sum it up… The consensus was not to use the solution using the crystal of purification.”

“What? Oh, no… why?”

“That crystal of purification or something is a divine substance for humans, isn’t it? Using the divine substance to stop the basilisk is like drinking another poison to avoid poison.”

“The divine power of humans flowing into the World Tree may have some negative effects. The Council of Elders decided that it would be safer to leave the basilisk’s after-venom flowing in.”

At the story of the elf youths, Zion shook his head with a miserable expression.

“You guys… Are you serious right now? Humans are a race just like us!! Their divine power would have a negative effect on the World Tree… How can you say such nonsense! That’s the same as denying the Goddess who blessed humans!!”

Zion desperately appeals.

The polite elf woman– Agnes looked at her silently, then slowly stepped forward.

“Are you really Guardian Zion?”

“What…..?”

“The story you’ve been talking about…. You’re just unilaterally defending humans and taking their side. And you’re even accepting their culture and items without hesitation…. You don’t seem like the successor to the Guardian Clan.”

“Tsk…..”

“And also….”

Looking at Zion’s chest with a gaze full of contempt.

Agnes continued speaking.

“What the hell are those cheap breasts? As far as I remember, you were one of the most feminine of our clan…”

— Rumble, rumble….

“Come to think of it….”

“My mother once said that the chests of fallen elves change into such ugly shapes…..”

“Look at those rippling breasts. It makes me sick……”

“What on earth would you do while hanging out with humans? Isn’t it obvious?”

I listened to the voices of my colleagues muttering behind me with confident expressions.

Agnes roughly extended his hand and pointed at Zion.

“I can’t believe you’re in your right mind right now. No… maybe you’re not the Guardian himself, but a being possessed by the demon and controlled by his mind.”

“………!!”

“We cannot allow you to approach Mirror Lake, the sacred place of our forest clan. Please go back.”

Agnes Waggler.

According to the original setting, her mother lost the competition with Zion’s mother and was eliminated as a candidate for the Guardian.

Agnes grew up with inferiority complex and hatred instilled in her from her mother since childhood, and trained herself with the sole goal of defeating Zion and rising above it.

The hatred she is spewing out now may not be unrelated to that past.

— Ugh…..

After lightly patting Zion’s shoulder, who had a pale expression and kept his mouth shut.

I stepped forward.

“When I listen to you, you really are just talking as you please.”

“What…?”

“Do not interfere, inferior race. This is our problem–the Yggdra Forest Clan.”

“Well, if you guys just hang around in the forest and destroy yourself without bothering others, I wouldn’t mind….”

“………?”

“If the World Tree rots and collapses due to your negligence, the surrounding countries will also suffer significant damage. So, I’m sorry, but I have to open a path and pass through here by force.”

— Jieeeing….

Focusing magical power and performing magic.

I declared in a tone full of contempt.

“Get out of the way. If you block the way, I won’t let you pass.”

“This kid….!!”

“How dare a human like you look down on the forest clan now!!”

“After…..”

Agnes gave the order with a light snort.

“As expected, they are people who hang out with the guardians of those cheap breasts. They say that lowly people hang out with lowly people…”

“……….”

“It doesn’t matter. Since you have invaded the sacred ground of the clan, justice is on our side. Kill them all. I will take responsibility for the rest.”

“Yes!!”

“Okay!!”

— Pot, papat….!!

Elves scattering in all directions at high speed.

Well, at best, they’re pyramids of level 15 to 25. You can just fight them without having to give any special instructions…

If you think about it later, it might be a bit difficult to kill them all.

After a moment of gathering my thoughts, I gave instructions to Zion, Julia, and Krimhild to use the salt.

‘Zion, move quickly and distract them. Julia and Krimhilt, stay around the carriage and focus on defense. If possible, avoid killing them.’

“Okay.”

“Yes~”

About 3 minutes later.

The battle ended much more blandly than I expected.

“Ugh…. Ugh…”

“Eww….. Ouch, aah……”

Elf youths rolling around on the floor with their limbs broken one by one.

An elf maiden dangling from a tree branch.

Elves rolling on the floor, flinching, convulsing, and shaking from the aftereffects of the electric shock.

The miserable state of the slump is truly pitiful.

They tried to attack us using scattered and stealth tactics, taking advantage of the forest’s terrain.

but…..

Our party has Zion, who boasts mobility and stealth abilities that are incomparable to those elves.

She moved through the forest at a terrifying speed, shooting at them with arrows that had their heads removed, and the elves waiting in the trees for a sniping angle fell without even drawing their bows.

And the attacking force that approached the carriage was destroyed by the combined attacks of Julia and Krimhild.

There were some who tried to sneak up on him and attack him from behind, but realistically, it would be impossible to fool the senses of the with a stealth ability like level 20.

The two men who didn’t even care about their hands attacked and fell down with their limbs broken one by one, and I completely incapacitated the ones who were still writhing with electric shock and freezing magic.

“Sigh….”

Straightening her disheveled clothes and brushing back her hair.

Zion came over to Agnes, who was writhing at my feet.

“Your skills have gotten a lot worse since I last saw you. Aren’t you being too lazy with your training?”

“Ugh… That….. Ughhhh…. All of you…… How dare you…..!! Trying to overturn the decision of the council of elders….. Heuk, huff… You’re in your right mind….! Later, what kind of punishment will there be……”

— Crash….!!

After kicking Agnes’s chin as he desperately stretched out his arm as if trying to grab his ankle.

Zion turned away.

“I wasted time on useless things. Let’s hurry. It’ll be faster to walk from here.”

“Yeah. I guess I can just tie up the carriage here and go.”

— Ssuk, thud….. thud, thud…..

While pulling a carriage towards an empty lot on the side of the road.

Zion quietly approached me and opened his mouth.

“By the way…. Aren’t you going too far? Among the children who were affected by your magic, there were some who suffered injuries that left serious aftereffects…”

“I intentionally made it a bit worse.”

“……Why?”

“That’s right….”

— Talk….

“Ah…..!”

He put his fingers through the gap in the hem of her clothes and stroked Zion’s lower chest.

I whispered in a small voice.

“You are trash who belittle your beautiful chest as ‘evidence of corruption’. Shouldn’t you show them that much spicy taste? ”

“Tsk…..”

Zion avoids eye contact with a flushed expression.

Judging by the fact that the tips of her ears are red, she doesn’t seem to hate it.

“………”

After admiring her profile for a moment, I turned my gaze back towards the elves sprawled behind me.

Lying on the floor, writhing.

Agnes is looking at me with a poisonous expression.

In those murderous eyes, one can even see a hint of madness that could lead to something.

It wouldn’t be difficult to kill that bitch now and avoid any regrets, but…

If we handle it here, won’t occur.