episode_0115

The elves secretly communicated with the Hero’s party using telepathic magic.

‘Do you really believe they’re the true Hero’s party?’

‘They bear the Holy Sword, so I believe they are.’

‘We’ve also confirmed it’s neither transformation nor illusion magic.’

‘Then, do you believe their claims about being the daughter of the Goddess of Light, Serena, or being her friend?’

‘That…’

‘Hard to believe…’

‘I agree.’

They had confirmed that this was indeed the Hero’s party.

However.

They still needed to question whether the Hero’s party was truly trustworthy.

‘If it were an elven Hero, we could trust them…’

‘But a human Hero is hard to believe.’

Humans were an untrustworthy race.

‘If you think back to when human arrogance reached its peak…’

‘Ugh…’

‘Back then, humans were no different from demons.’

In the past, humans had sincerely worshipped the gods,

and they had never attacked other races.

Though they were a brutish race, constantly warring and brawling among themselves,

they had never picked fights with elves or dwarves.

Beastfolk were the exception.

Not all beastfolk loved fighting,

but most of them did—they were lunatics who would gleefully charge into battle the moment war broke out.

But.

Elves and dwarves were races that cherished peace.

Elves were the guardians of the forests,

and dwarves were shut-in craftsmen who only cared about forging things.

They were pacifist races who would never fight unless provoked.

Humans knew this well,

so human nations never encroached upon elven or dwarven lands.

Sure, there were occasional bandits who trespassed into elven forests to kidnap young elves or steal treasures,

but the elves had set up magic that automatically attacked anyone who entered with ill intent.

Not a single bandit had ever reached the heart of the elven forests.

Thus.

There had been no reason to hate humans.

They were a race that had never harmed us.

But.

At some point, humans began to change.

As their civilization advanced,

and their magic developed, they began to see themselves as a superior race.

They declared themselves the greatest race,

and their ambitions grew—they sought to surpass the gods and become the rulers of the world.

That was when it began.

Humans started attacking elven forests.

They captured elves and enslaved them,

using them as test subjects to further their magical technology.

The Goddess of Light, Serena, had been furious and sought to punish them,

but the humans were already prepared.

They severed the heavens.

They completely blocked divine intervention.

‘It was truly tragic…’

With even the gods rendered powerless, humans had nothing left to fear.

‘Especially that bastard… He was more wicked than the Demon King…’

The emperor of that era,

a human who declared he would become the god of all races.

He was a tyrant,

a greedy monster no different from the Demon King.

But.

His ambition to unify the continent collapsed with laughable ease.

‘The demons invaded.’

Countless monsters poured forth, sweeping away all humans,

and the demons seized control of the land.

In the end.

The emperor, who had sought to become a god, died as a plaything of the demons.

Most humans perished as well.

The other races suffered near-extinction.

But.

Ironically, the elves became safer because of the demons.

Humans had relentlessly attacked elven forests, vowing to enslave all of us,

but the demons never did.

Or rather, they couldn’t.

Thanks to the distortion magic derived from the power of the World Tree, any invaders were forcibly expelled in random directions.

‘No matter how many times we banished humans, they kept trying to break through…’

But the demons gave up easily.

That was why we had lived in peace until now.

Still.

This didn’t mean demons were better than humans.

The demons were the ones who swore to kill the Goddess of Light, Serena, and the World Tree.

They were beings we could never coexist with.

On the other hand,

humans had begun worshipping the gods again.

Though they were a race we’d rather not associate with, given their past arrogance,

the most arrogant nation had already fallen,

and only the most devout human nation survived.

The surviving human nation was the rebel faction that had opposed the tyrant.

They were humans who had resisted the emperor,

preaching that all races should live in peace

and that the gods must be worshipped once more.

So they weren’t complete trash.

But.

They still weren’t a race we could trust.

We knew just how vile humans could be.

When weak, they would act devout, offering everything to the gods,

but once they gained power, they would betray even the gods, consumed by greed.

‘The same goes for the Hero.’

In their early days, Heroes seemed decent enough.

They served the will of the Goddess of Light, Serena,

becoming her sword to eradicate the Demon King’s army.

But.

Once the Demon King was slain,

when the Hero’s power reached its peak,

and their authority surpassed even that of kings—

the Hero would fall.

They would become beasts, chasing pleasure and lusting after countless women,

or degenerate into thugs, drowning in alcohol and gambling while hoarding wealth.

There were exceptions,

but we had seen far more corrupted Heroes.

Some even fell before defeating the Demon King.

So.

We couldn’t trust the current Hero either.

‘Especially that bastard… the arrogant one who dares call the Goddess of Light, Serena, his friend…’

‘Unbelievable.’

How dare a mere human claim equality with Lady Serena?

Arrogant.

Utterly arrogant.

Just like that emperor from back then.

So.

He deserved to die.

‘Exploiting the fact that the heavens are severed to spread such lies… That’s grounds for immediate execution.’

The heavens were severed.

The Demon King must have restored the ancient human magic from that era.

That human was taking advantage of it.

‘Nonsense.’

‘A friend of Lady Serena? Delusional… How dare this insect imagine such a thing…’

‘The claim that the Hero is Serena’s daughter must also be a delusion.’

‘Humans are notorious for their tall tales.’

It was something kings and nobles always did.

Born with divine blessings.

Inheritor of dragon blood.

And so on.

Mixing absurd lies to elevate their authority was a human trait.

So.

Their legends were not to be trusted.

With that in mind, they dismissed the Hero’s party’s words as pure fabrication.

‘Then their claim about reviving the World Tree…’

‘Must also be a lie.’

‘Ugh…’

But.

They weren’t about to dismiss the Hero’s party entirely.

Even if they were a pack of liars, a Hero was still a Hero.

They were transcendent beings blessed by the Goddess of Light, Serena,

and the ones destined to slay the Demon King.

Many Heroes had rotten personalities,

but.

At the very least, they always fulfilled their duty of defeating the Demon King.

‘At the very least, we can use them until the Demon King is dead.’

‘Only by killing the Demon King can we make our wish…’

‘So we have no choice but to let them do it.’

Thus.

All we had to do was use the Heroes.

We would wield them to slaughter the demons.

With the Hero’s power, we would destroy the demons who killed our great mother, the World Tree!…

‘Ugh…’

‘Mother…’

‘Ahh… Our beloved mother…’

The mere thought of her made their hands tremble violently.

Though the demons were to blame for everything,

it was we who killed our great mother.

Even now, they could still feel the blood on their hands,

still hear her screams echoing in their minds.

Guilt.

This feeling would haunt them until death.

So.

Even if it cost their lives, they would have their revenge.

They would slaughter the demons,

annihilate the Demon King’s army.

…Or so they thought, until—

“I know exactly what you’re all thinking.”

“……?”

“You’re treating us as a pack of lying Heroes, whispering among yourselves via telepathy about how you can’t trust humans.”

“!!!!!!”

“You’re drowning in guilt over killing the World Tree, burning with the desire to wipe out every last demon.”

“!!!!!!”

“And one more thing.”

The man named Cain looked at them and spoke.

“You’re seething at my ‘arrogance’ for daring to call Serena my friend, and you’ve even considered killing me in secret.”

“!!!!!!”

“What did you say?!”

“You’d kill our master?!”

“My husband… What did you just say?! You’d kill him in secret?!”

Upon hearing Cain’s words, the Hero’s party drew their swords in fury.

But.

Cain only laughed and calmed them down.

“Relax. The elves have suffered enough to think that way.”

“Suffered enough?”

“Thanks to the distortion magic mist, modern elves have lived in perfect isolation, untouched by the world…”

“But?”

“The elves of the past suffered greatly at human hands. The humans before the demon invasion were unspeakably cruel.”

“Hah… So you know about the humans of that era.”

“I do. I studied ancient history, and… damn, there were some real psychopaths back then. The world was so rotten, I almost wondered if the demons invaded to purge humanity.”

“Heh… If you know that much, you should understand why we distrust you.”

“I do.”

“Then…”

“But… so what?”

“What?”

“Honestly, whether the World Tree lives or dies doesn’t matter to me.”

“What?! ‘The World Tree or whatever’?! You—! How dare you speak of our great mother like that?!!”

“Kill him now!!!”

Some elves actually loosed arrows and spells in rage.

But.

Every attack was blocked by the Hero’s barrier magic.

“Calm down and let me finish.”

“You insult our great mother and expect us to listen?!!”

“I don’t want to hear that from the bastards who killed her.”

“What?!!”

“If you didn’t want to hear this, you should’ve done better. Honestly, what have you all been doing? You knew the demons were going to destroy humanity and kill the gods. What did you do?”

“Th-This…!”

“Did you think this crisis happened overnight? No. The demons spent centuries, millennia, meticulously planning the World Tree’s death.”

“They… planned it?”

“Yes. From the very beginning, they sharpened their blades to kill your mother.”

“……”

“And what did you do? While the other races were dying, you just sat safely in your forests! What did you do?!”

“……”

“Nothing. You so-called devout believers, who thought yourselves superior—you did nothing, and now you’ve paid the price.”

“……”

“And now you dare distrust the people who came to clean up your mess? Even consider killing them? Should we just call it quits? Abandon the plan to revive the World Tree?”

“……”

“Answer me.”

“……”

“I said answer.”

“……”

“Tch… Fine, let’s just drop it. I don’t need insects who can’t even bow their heads to those trying to help them.”

Cain pretended to be genuinely angry while thinking to himself:

‘That should knock some sense into their heads, guys. It’s better for everyone this way.’

He had claimed he would abandon the World Tree,

that he would let the elves die.

But no.

He planned to save them all.

‘Not that I care if the elves live or die…’

Except for one.

To win the favor of the elven spirit priestess who would join our party,

reviving the World Tree was the best move!