episode_0042

A Meeting in the World Tree

“Ugh, nooooo!”

“Stop right there, you damned human!”

“If I stop, I’m destined to be eaten by you, so why would I stop?!”

More Alraunes than before were chasing me. That is… roughly forty Alraunes were swinging their vines and pursuing me! Damn it! If I keep running like this, my stamina will run out first!

“Catch that human no matter what! They made a fool of us!”

“Made a fool of you? You tried to seduce me or something, didn’t you?!”

“It didn’t work, so it doesn’t count!”

“Is that what you call a ‘word,’ you shameless plant monsters!!!”

“Wh-What?! Catch that human immediately!”

“Ugh, those plants…!!”

This is bad. I started hearing something approaching from the front as well. Are they coming from both front and back…? What should I do…? Even with my greatsword, there are too many of them to hold out in this situation… How can I survive…? Huh? As I pondered for a long time, a luminous stone caught my eye. Oh… if it’s this?

“Hahaha! There are sisters up ahead too! Girls! Kill that human ri—”

“Sister, that human is just standing still?”

“Huh? So they are? They must have given up… Come, eat—”

“Wait!”

“Huh?”

I raised the luminous stone high and showed it to the Alraunes. Then, I pulled the light source stone from the fire stone. The fire stone, which had been glowing brightly thanks to the light source stone, lost its light, and the surroundings instantly darkened. The Alraunes then began to mock me.

“Puhahaha! Do you actually think we won’t find you if it’s dark?!”

“Too bad, human! We are nocturnal creatures! We have our own way of operating even in the dark! Your location is perfectly visible right now!”

“So that’s how you found me so quickly. Hunting using racial characteristics… I’ll give you credit for that, Alraunes.”

“If you know that… now our prey is—!!”

“Wait. The conversation isn’t over, you plants.”

“What?… Huh?”

Who said I gave up? I shot fire from the fire stone. It was a very small flame, but I could see the Alraunes’ expressions one by one hardening as they saw it. That’s right… After all, they are plants. They can’t help but be afraid of fire. All living things are afraid of fire, but I expected Alraunes to be especially so.

“O-Oh, Sister! Fire suddenly came out of that stone!!”

“I-I see it too!! What on earth is that?!”

“This is a fire stone, you plants! It’s a magic stone obtained from salamanders, the fire-breathing lizards!”

“Th-That can’t be… But that fire…”

“Oh… it’s small?”

The Alraunes, who had been greatly startled by the fire, realized that the flame from the fire stone was tiny and one by one began to turn their heads back to me. Hmm… A fire stone is indeed a tool mostly used for starting campfires… That’s why the flame it produces is about the size of my ring finger. Realizing the fire’s small size, the Alraunes suddenly began to shout.

“Humannnnn! How dare you look down on us nowwww! We’ll tear you to death!!!”

“As you said, the fire is indeed small… Far too small to burn all of you… But what if I burn something else instead of you?”

“Kill… What?”

“Have you forgotten where we are right now? This is your home, too.”

“The World Tree… ins—!!!”

“That’s right. Even if burning all of you is impossible… I can at least start a small spark inside here, can’t I?”

When I tried to put the fire stone, which was spewing fire, against the wall of the World Tree, the Alraunes shrieked in fright and began to flinch. Indeed… for you, this choice would be the worst. This is also your nest. No matter that it’s the World Tree, it’s still just a tree. Which means it burns well.

“S-Stop, human! Then you won’t be able to survive either!! And other prisoners might die too!”

“Aria can survive even in a massive fire. And if a fire starts, Aria will quickly know my location. You might not know, but Aria is known as the ‘Black Saintess’ outside. She’ll heal burns in an instant.”

“Th-That means, surely…”

“That’s right. The only ones who will suffer are you and the elves.”

“…!!!”

“Disappear from in front of me right now, you plants. Otherwise… this entire World Tree will burn!”

As I kept pressing the fire stone against the wall, the Alraunes began screaming as if their souls had left their bodies. Oh, they’re so loud… I covered one ear and looked at the Alraunes, seeing them gradually start to retreat. But from another direction, some Alraunes were slowly approaching me. Look at these guys?

“Aren’t you going to scram?! Disappear right now unless you all want to burn to death!”

“Kyaaaaaak!!! Alright, alright, we get it!!!”

“Uwaaaaaah! Sister! I don’t want to die!!”

“Run! She’s a crazy human!”

“Kyaaaaaak!”

At my shout, all the Alraunes vanished from my sight. When no sound was heard, I took my hand from my ear and let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t actually intend to start a fire… I need to investigate this place, and if I burn it, I’d also suffer a loss… Still, it’s a relief to have at least saved my life. Even if those guys hadn’t been afraid of fire and charged, I wouldn’t have set it on fire anyway… Besides, I couldn’t have started a fire in the first place.

‘…Are those guys idiots? How could a fire spread in a place like this?…’

There’s no way a fire would spread in such a damp place. I’d have to start a fire from the outside for the World Tree to completely burn down… Is it because they’re human-like plants and lack knowledge about fire? Well, still…

“Phew… It’s a good thing those guys are really afraid of fire… Hmm… Where should I go…?”

First of all, since Aria isn’t coming right away, it seems I’m far away from her. By now, Aria, out of her mind, should be tearing through walls to find me… Seeing how quiet it is, I have a feeling something might have happened to Aria.

“Surely, the Alraunes didn’t… No way… Who is Aria anyway… Alright then… I’ll keep going… Huh?”

What is it? Something tripped me. I attached the light source stone to the fire stone to make it a luminous stone, then shined its light on something under my feet. And then…

“Ugh… Damn it…”

Damn it… I shouldn’t have looked. Ignorance is bliss [a saying about how not knowing something can be beneficial]… What tripped me was… a creature’s bone… But this bone… looks like a human bone… Gasp!

“Ugh… These damned Alraunes…!!”

Shining the light further, I saw human skulls scattered around. Ugh… For me, who hates corpses, it’s a hellish sight. Especially seeing such things inside the World Tree, which resembles the inside of a living creature…

“Damn it…!!”

It was truly a horrific sight… So I ran away at full speed. Because I hate corpses… But on my way, bones that hadn’t been visible before started appearing here and there. It wasn’t just humans. There were also corpses of other animals.

‘These damned elves… If this is how it is, why did they talk about holiness or whatever…!! Even Alraunes have the same diet as humans, and they accepted them just because of that one characteristic of letting nutrients flow into the ground?! Isn’t that too much discrimination?!’

Thinking like this is useless. The elves already have the perception that humans kidnapped them and made them slaves. But that was what the ancients did, modern humans… Uh…

‘…Ah, seriously… Robdom and Boskana… Why were they created, causing other races to have a bad perception of humans, you troublesome nuisances!!’

These greedy humans are really giving other people headaches… Sigh… Still, let’s not give up. It’s not just bad humans. The reason why the current elves have such arrogant personalities might also be due to the influence of the ancients. I shouldn’t hate the elves so much.

“Ugh… Anyway, this… the uphill climb is steep… Hmph…”

Is it because it’s inside a tree? There are many steep uphill paths… Phew… Perhaps because I’ve been getting hit and running since earlier, my stamina is at rock bottom. Moreover, running with a backpack on quickly depleted my energy.

“Cough… Phew… What should I do…? If the Alraunes find me exhausted like this… I could really die then. Sigh… I need to find Aria soon… Huh?”

As I bent down, exhausted, I noticed a crack in the wall. What is it? I’ve never seen something like this… I took out a hard magic stone from my backpack and began to repeatedly break the crack in the wall with it.

“It can’t just be a simple crack. A crack like this only forms when something is embedded in something very hard. Plus, there are no skeletal remains around… Could this be…?”

I continued to strike the cracked wall with the magic stone. Gradually, cracks started appearing all over the wall, and then the wall crumbled. A hidden passage appeared. My prediction was correct.

“As expected… Alright then… Shall I find out what the Alraunes were trying to hide by building a wall? …Wait, before that…”

I picked up three pieces of the broken wall and put them in my bag. It’s probably a good idea to keep them, as I might be able to do something with these pieces later… But the pieces are really… It feels strange, like they’re pieces of meat…

“…They clearly look like pieces of meat, but their texture is like tree bark… This will be hard to get used to…”

“Is… anyone there…?”

“Huh…? Wh-What?!”

A voice came from beyond the passage, startling me greatly. That means… someone was trapped there until this wall was built! I hurriedly rushed inside. From the voice, it sounded like they had been trapped for a long time…!!

“Is anyone there…?”

“Is anyone there?! Answer me!!”

“!!! No… How can you be here…? Those who enter here are all…!!!”

I saw a white-haired man illuminating the front with a luminous stone. He was wearing brown leather clothes and seemed very surprised by my sudden appearance. Dumbfounded, he looked at me and slowly opened his mouth.

“It’s a human! How did a human manage to get here?! They should have all been eaten by the Alraunes…!!”

“How did you end up trapped here…? Huh?”

Wait. I didn’t see wrong, did I? As I checked his condition with my eyes, I noticed he had no legs. No legs…? Th-Then, surely!!!

“Uwaaaaaah! It’s an explorer ghost!!!”

“Uwaaaaaah! It’s a human who became a ghost after being eaten by Alraunes!”

The ghost and I shrieked in fright, looking at each other. While I was screaming at the ghost, Aria continued to search for me. Veronica was following Aria, holding her breath behind her. And then.

“Eek!”

“Shriek…”

“Ahem~ It seems there are too many nuisances~ Don’t you agree, Elf-ssi?”

“Ah… Yes… Yes… Ha… Haha… T-The Black Saintess-nim’s path is being obstructed…”

“My path? What an unkind thing to say… It’s not my path; it’s the path to find Zeke-nim~”

“Ah, yes! Th-That’s right! I-I’ll be careful!”

“Hehehe… Oh, how incredibly happy Zeke-nim will be! If these Alraunes dare to attack Zeke-nim… my heart will be torn to shreds… And I… I’ll cry my eyes out holding the deceased Zeke-nim… But I won’t let that happen. I will definitely keep seeing Zeke-nim’s face, who is alive and well!”

“Yes… Yes!!”

“Hehehe… Let’s go~”

‘Ah… Ahh… Th-That human is insane… H-How… How can she do such things with a smile…?’

Veronica, trembling with fear, looked back. She saw the corpses of the Alraunes killed by Aria’s staff, and as a huge number of Alraune corpses came into view, Veronica closed her eyes and continued to walk forward. Aria, who had set out with Veronica to find Zeke, was easily killing the Alraunes that attacked them, and Veronica, who witnessed all of it, realized that the elves could never defeat Aria.

‘Alraunes have relatively the same combat power as elves… But that woman… she defeated those Alraunes instantly… She has such a terrifying woman by her side, and that yellow-haired human she’s looking for… What on earth is that human’s true identity?! C-Could it be… they’re stronger than this woman?!’

“Excuse me, Elf-ssi?”

“Yes… Yes!!”

“Do these Alraunes… tempt human males like regular Alraunes?”

“Yes…!! Th-The Alraunes in the World Tree also… like normal Alraunes… Eek!”

Aria’s face began to contort when Veronica said that the Alraunes inhabiting the World Tree also tempted human males like regular Alraunes. Realizing Aria’s fury, Veronica instinctively felt extreme terror and shrieked.

“Ahhh… It seems this entire race must be exterminated… How dare a creature tempt Zeke-nim… I absolutely cannot tolerate it…”

“B-But they are living beings, so that human would…”

“That human?”

When Veronica talked about Zeke, Aria glared at Veronica with a contorted face. Veronica immediately realized that Aria was angry about her unusual way of referring to Zeke, and she stammered, addressing Aria again.

“N-No! It’s just that I thought Mr. Zeke might be sad if the Black Saintess-nim were to carry out a ruthless massacre…!!”

“Hmm… But Zeke-nim told me not to kill elves, not to kill Alraunes.”

“Yes… Yes?”

“In other words~ Since Zeke-nim didn’t say anything… doesn’t that mean I can kill all of these women wagging their tails [a phrase implying flirtation or seduction]? Hehehe…”

‘…!! Sh-She’s crazy!!! H-How did that human named Zeke survive next to this woman?!’

Veronica, aghast at how Zeke could have survived Aria, froze. Whether Veronica was aghast or not, Aria closed her eyes and took a deep breath, continuing to search for Zeke’s location.

“Hmm~ Zeke-nim seems to be moving continuously… If this keeps up, the time I have to see Zeke-nim will get shorter and shorter… What if he’s being chased by Alraunes…?”

“Th-Then breaking through the wall…”

“Zeke-nim is very curious about this place. Breaking this place will only happen after Zeke-nim has thoroughly understood it.”

“What…? D-Do you intend to… destroy the World Tree?!”

“You said it’s a tree where Alraunes live, didn’t you? Of course, I have to destroy it.”

“What?! But you’re a Saintess! H-Harming a sacred tree goes against a Saintess’s…”

“Do you know much about human Saintesses?”

At Aria’s words, Veronica’s mouth closed. She, who had despised humans, had no way of knowing about human society.

“Th-That…”

“Well… it doesn’t matter if you don’t know. Listen carefully. I don’t need gods or anything else. It doesn’t matter if this is an ancient tree that has lived for many years. For me… there is only~ Zeke-nim~”

‘Sh-She’s lost the essence of a Saintess!!! I heard that Saintesses are women who serve a god… Why is this woman like this…? What on earth happened between her and that man?!’

Aria started humming as she searched for Zeke, and Veronica, trembling with fear, followed behind her. And I, right now… I’m happily talking to a ghost.

“Wahahahaha!! Threatening the World Tree?! You’re truly an amazing human, Zeke!”

“Ahaha… I didn’t actually intend to burn it, and there was no chance of the fire spreading anyway. By the way… Mister, were you an elf?”

“Oh? That’s right. Wow… I never imagined I’d see a living creature here! And to meet a human of all things!”

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but this old man… has pointed ears. So, while talking, I realized he was an elf. By the way… this old man’s demeanor is different from the elves outside. The elves of Proserpina despised me and Aria, but this old man is very welcoming towards me.

“But who are you, Mister?”

“Ah, right! I haven’t introduced myself! My name is Zar Ten Prosh! You can just call me Prosh.”

“Ah… Yes… I’m… Ah, I told you earlier, didn’t I?”

“Yes. To continue, I’m 214 years old, and I used to be the captain of Proserpina.”

“What…? Huh?!”

…This feels familiar. Oh, right. It’s almost exactly like when I heard Tess used to be in Kartun’s vanguard. But… this elf is what? A captain?!