episode_0189

“Young master, you were still here.”

“Baekryeon, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on… Isn’t it already the third day that you’ve been blankly here?”

Baekryeon approached me, shrugging her shoulders.

Has that much time already passed?

Baekryeon moved next to me, glanced at what was in front of me, and then opened her mouth.

“But young master… Are you really okay with that?”

“Yeah. This is enough.”

What Baekryeon saw was a small tomb.

In front of the tomb, there was a very old, gray sword stuck in the ground.

It was none other than the sword that Tiriss had used.

Yes, this place was Tiriss’s tomb.

After the battle with the , I collected her body and created a tomb here.

“Danica recommended this place as the sunniest spot.”

“Hmm… Still, wouldn’t it be better to return to her homeland?”

“No.”

I shook my head at Baekryeon’s words.

“You’ve been with me since then, so you know, but Tiriss has already been disowned by her family. Of course… If she had made a great contribution to subjugating the fragments of the Demon King, the story would be different… But that wouldn’t be forgiving Tiriss and accepting her into the family, but rather politically exploiting the atonement that Tiriss barely grasped.”

“That’s…”

That is not forgiveness.

It’s just trying to bring a politically useful card.

At least… I feel that her atonement should not be used in that way.

“Besides… The biggest problem is when to take the body all the way there. It’s impossible to carry the body, and even if I went by something like a carriage, the body would rot before that.”

“Well… That’s true.”

Of course…

I haven’t experimented with it yet, but I wondered if I could move it by ‘storing’ it in my inventory, but I don’t intend to experiment.

“So this place is good. This place can be seen as a place saved by her.”

“Hmm… I see. If you think so, I won’t say anything more.”

“Yeah. Besides, there are elves here, right? There are guys who live incredibly long, so they’ll take care of Tiriss’s tomb for a long time.”

“Ah… The elves… you mean?…

Baekryeon groaned and trailed off at my words.

It was clearly a strange reaction, so I tilted my head and asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um… That is… You’ve been here ever since the situation was resolved, so you may not know much about the elves’ situation.”

“Lucy, who came last time, gave me a rough report… Is there anything else special?”

Baekryeon pondered for a moment at my words and nodded.

“First of all… To what extent do you know about the current situation of the elves?”

“Um… Most of the elves have returned, but some elves who were deeply involved with the are still dark elves, right?…”

Baekryeon continued, as if she understood my story.

“First of all… The mark of the engraved on the elves. It seems to be slightly different from the one put on the dwarves.”

“Well…”

The dwarves acted almost like beasts without consciousness, but the elves were not like that.

“It seems that the elves fully retained their memories of when they were brainwashed by the .”

“Memories?”

“That’s right.”

They have all the memories of when they were dark elves…

“Because of that, all the elves are suffering from lethargy.”

“…Lethargy?”

What is this again?

What is the correlation between having memories and lethargy?

As I tilted my head and looked at her, Baekryeon scratched her cheek as if she was also troubled.

“That is… It seems that they were very shocked that they corrupted the World Tree that they had to protect with their own hands, and attacked their own people…”

“…Haa.”

I got up from my seat.

“Let’s go.”

“Um. I understand.”

These stupid elves…

I have to say something sharp to them.

* * *

“Hmm…”

The elf, Danica Eruin, was in a very difficult situation right now.

Thanks to the help of the human hero, Leon, they subjugated the and most of the elves were freed from the hands of the .

Some elves are still dark elves, and they ran away without changing their tendency to worship the …

For now, I thought things had ended well because most of the elves had returned to their original forms…

“I’m sorry, Danica…”

“We tried to kill you…”

“Besides, I contributed to making the World Tree, which I had to protect, like this…”

Most of the elves have lost their will to live, and are either gathered in one place, apologizing to themselves, or weeping while looking at the dried-up World Tree.

Everyone is currently in a very mentally unstable state.

“How is everyone?”

“Ah, sister… Everyone is in the same condition…”

Three days have passed, and the elf Dahlia Eruin is now able to move around somehow.

She was on the verge of death after being hit by Leon’s slash, but somehow she was able to recover.

Also, because she was an elf who was not corrupted by the , she was able to escape from the depression that is currently stuck in the elves.

In other words, only two elves are currently in a normal state.

“Hey.”

“! Yo, Hero!”

“Ah…”

Just when I was wondering what to do, the human hero Leon, who subjugated the , appeared there.

“Hero… Is it?”

“…Ah.”

The hero saw her sister and trembled.

Danica thought that her reaction was strange, but the hero Leon turned his gaze to Danica first.

“I heard the elves are in a strange state.”

“Ah… Yes! It seems that everyone is because of the memories of when they were being controlled…”

“Yeah. I understand. Leave the rest to me.”

The hero says confidently.

After all, if it’s the hero who defeated the , he’ll surely give a great speech that can ignite the flame in other people’s hearts.

With that thought, Danica’s eyes twinkled as she looked at the hero’s back.

“Hey. Elves.”

“?”

“Who are you?…”

“Ah… The one who subjugated the …”

Some of the elves saw the moment when they defeated the , and their eyes twinkled slightly when they saw the hero.

“I heard that you have memories of joining the and doing crazy things. I also heard that you are depressed with guilt because of that.”

Leon said that far and spat it out casually.

“Just die. All of you.”

“…Yes?!”

* * *

There was someone who was startled by my words from behind and ran straight to my side.

It was Danica.

“What.”

“Su, suddenly telling everyone to die!!”

“You don’t have the will to live anyway. Then it’s better to just die neatly.”

Words that are too cold.

Danica seemed shocked by those words and took a few steps back.

“Th, that can’t be…”

“Di, die…”

“Hu, but…”

“Your words are a bit harsh…”

As expected, the words to die caused a stir among the elves who were suffering from depression.

“Haa…”

I deliberately took a deep breath, noticeably.

Then, I took out the Holy Sword from my inventory.

Then, I emitted a white holy energy and swung it as it was.

The great slash passed through the group of elves and the slash collided with the empty lot beyond them, causing a huge earthquake in the ground and creating a huge scene of destruction.

“!!”

“He, he attacked us!…”

“He’s really trying to kill us!…”

The stir that had spread among the lethargic elves soon turned into a definite movement.

“Everyone listen!!!”

And taking advantage of that timing, I poured magic power into my voice and shouted.

“Listen carefully. In this subjugation of the , I lost one person I knew. That guy, you see, committed a great sin against me. Because of that, she was abandoned by her family and lost everything. But even so… She endured hardships for atonement, accumulated asceticism, and walked, and finally made a great contribution to the subjugation of the in a fierce battle for atonement, and died in return.”

The elves’ movements stopped.

Then everyone looks at me.

“Even if she committed a great sin, she may have run away at first… But in the end, she faced her sin and worked hard to do what she could for atonement. But what about you?”

The elves were silent at my question.

Some avoided eye contact with me, and some seemed to be contemplating.

“What do you want? Should I comfort you by saying, ‘You didn’t do anything wrong~ The is the one who did wrong~’? Or should I clearly state, ‘That’s right. It’s your fault.’? Is huddling here and licking each other’s wounds… the elves’ way of facing the sins they committed?”

Some of the elves were angered by my sharp and provocative words, but in the end, no one said anything.

Even they thought that their actions so far were so bad that they had nothing to say even if I said that.

“If you each want to repay the sins you have committed, don’t waste time foolishly in a place like this and seriously think about how to atone. If not, tell me. I will personally take your heads with the Holy Sword that took down the .”

Having said everything I wanted to say, I turned around.

Three gazes looking at me.

Baekryeon, Danica, and…

“Haa♥…”

“…”

No, what the hell is wrong with her?….