31 _( :⁍ 」 )_ <-- this is Spatia. Chronotia is close by and is about to beat the hell into this fellow

Nicholas, relieved from the cliffhanger, shorten the story "Long story short, her grandpa, Rutehom Furshia is a Grand Magician who, with his Painting Magic, painted this city into existence. Anything that I missed?"

"No that's about it. The reason why he would paint a city into existence is still a mystery to us." As the City Lord of Ruteshia, Lord Grun knew a bit about the history of his city.

But Iledoya, who has reaped the soul of the co-founder of Ruteshia knew more. 'But there's no need to tell the full story I guess' he thought. "So… Charfania was it? What happened to Rutehom?"

The girl whose name is Charfania answered "I… I don't know… grandpa he just… he just fell sick and looks in pain everyday… he occasionally mumble words like 'magic' and 'death'..."

Iledoya was surprised to hear that. He turned to Lord Grun and asked "Was the city or the lands around it recently attacked by a group of Death Mages?" at the same time, he asked Charfania with his soul magic telepathy "Did your grandpa just recently made the breakthrough to Guardian Beast?"

Hearing each of their questions, both Charfania and Lord Grun looked in surprise toward Iledoya. Charfania answered "Yes, 5 years ago" while Lord Grun answered "Yes, 5 years ago there was a group of Death Mages that randomly plagued the land with their Death Magic." Lord Grun paused for a moment as the whole room glanced at Charfania in confusion. Iledoya then signaled him to continue.

"We were only able to drive them away without being able to catch any of them for interrogation. Following that, when we wanted to remove the lingering Death Magic, we also found out that the few Death Mages and Life Mages were gone."

Hearing both of their answers, it didn't take too long for Iledoya to know the problem. "Well this isn't so hard to fix. Charfania, Nicholas, come closer"

Lord Grun and Charfania was visibly shocked to hear Iledoya say it was easy to fix.

'What do you mean it's easy to fix? Even if our Life and Death Mages were still around, it will take months if not years to remove all the lingering Death Magic in the land! And what does that even have to do with the sickness that Lord Rutehom is afflicted with?' Despite everything he wants to say, Lord Grun dare not voice it. In the end, as a U.U member, Iledoya was his boss.

Charfania on the other hand, was happy to hear that. 'It's… It's easy to fix? Then grandpa… Yeay!!' She immediately cooperated and stood up to move closer. Nicholas just leaned forward since he was just standing behind Iledoya.

After Charfania came close enough, Iledoya tapped Charfania's forehead before proceeding to tap onto Nicholas' forehead. Both of them went into a daze for a while before they both staggered back a few steps. They both said at the same time "W-What… What happened?"

"Nothing much. Just a little side effect from having your soul accessed." Iledoya answered as if it was nothing much, ignoring the shocked faces of everyone. He stood up and looked towards Nicholas "You should know where her grandpa lives now, right?"

Nicholas thought 'Heck, I just met her today so how am i suppo-- wait what the actual--' as he was thinking that, he realized that for some reason, he was actually very sure on where her grandpa lives. "I… I think I do? Did you…"

"Yeah yeah I did. Either way, you can open up a portal to where he lives now, right? Like how you just appeared here out of nowhere." Once again, Iledoya just shrugged the answer off as if it was nothing much.

Nicholas did as told and opened up a portal. Though before they could enter, a voice could be heard.

"Who goes there!"

Along with the voice, they could feel a domineering aura radiating from the portal. It didn't do much but the aura made everyone in the room hesitant about entering, even Charfania. Everyone except Iledoya.

"Gramps, it's your granddaughter. Aren't you going to let her back?" Iledoya responded to the voice. There was silence for a while before the aura started receding until it vanished. When it vanished, Iledoya just walked right in. Seeing that, the others looked at each other first, before following suit.

On the other side of the portal, was a hut. The hut was built at the peak of a mountain. There was a veranda at the front of the hut. From the terrace, one could see the beautiful city Ruteshia in all its glory and beauty.

Standing on the veranda, Iledoya clicked in his tongue in amusement of the scenery.

Charfania entered the hut first, making sure to shout in a loud voice "Grandpa, I'm home!"

Inside the hut, there was only 3 rooms. The kitchen, the toilet, and just a big room. The big room is the first room after entering the hut and there, Charfania's grandfather - Rutehom - was laying down, constantly sweating and visibly in pain.

Looking around, Nicholas find their living style quite familiar. As someone who claims to be a fan of anime, he considers himself quite familiar with the japanese culture. The house they were in has a veranda, sliding doors, and tatami mats, it looked very much like a traditional japanese house. Though the small size is what made it look more like a hut.

"Grandpa, these people said they can help… You'll finally be free from this suffering..." Charfania sat beside Rutehom as she held his hands.

"Char… Charfania…" Only Iledoya there could guess, that he had spent a lot of his energy to say the few words he could and to release his domineering aura for as long as possible when Nicholas made the portal.

"I should begin know." Iledoya made his way outside, in front of the hut. 'Hmm… now how to do this… Oh!'

When the others looked at Iledoya, they can't help but scratch their heads. From what they're seeing, all that Iledoya is doing is just making some weird hand gestures. Occasionally making balls of magic. Oh, and with a twig in hand that he plucked from his backpack tree. And while mumbling incomprehensible phrases.

After around 30 minutes or so, Charfania was starting to get impatient "What are you doing?" even though she understands that healing his grandfather is definitely not easy, she was sure on believing that just 30 minutes of him fumbling around would not help

Even Lord Grun was feeling the same. He was also asking the same question in his mind.

"Let me explain then while I finish this up." Iledoya continued his fumbling, but this time while explaining his findings.

"What you should know first and foremost, is that Rutehom Furshia is a Noble Beast"

"What!?" Everyone shouted in surprise.

"From the Draconic Clan"

"WHAT!?" Shouted everyone in surprise

"Who is now of the Guardian Beast Rank since 10 years ago"

In surprise, everyone shouted "whaaaaaaaaaaat" but this time only to themselves. Leaving only their expression to show their shock and amazement.

"But after making a breakthrough to the Guardian rank, he couldn't immediately familiarized himself with his new gained powers. In that period of time, to be exact - 5 years after his breakthrough - Ruteshia was attacked"

Listening to Iledoya's explanation up to this point, Lord Grun had an epiphany and finally came to understand the problem "I see! As a Guardian Beast, the Life of the Beast and the land is connected, and due to the recent breakthrough, Lord Rutehom did not have enough time to adjust the strength of this connection. So when those Death Mages plagued the land with Death Magic, Lord Rutehom became sick as well! Am I correct?"

"Yes, that's it." Iledoya smiled as he confirmed Lord Grun's answer. "And to fix that, I decided to make a new spell."

He lifted the twig in his spell and suddenly made a stabbing motion to the ground. But he paused midway saying "Wait… So is this a Life Magic… or a Death Magic? Or maybe Plant Magic? Plant Magic it is!"

He continued his stab. While stabbing the twig into the ground, he chanted "Plant Magic: Tree of Fruiting Death!"

The twig, now stabbed into the ground, began growing at a fast pace. But even faster, was its roots, as it made a network of roots by connecting with the roots of other plants and began affecting that plant as well to make a network of roots.

It didn't take long for the twig to grow into a tree three meters tall. It had visible white and black lines on its bark. Iledoya walked back towards the hut and took a seat at the veranda. "Now we wait"

Just another 30 minutes later, Rutehom could now get up. While the tree outside now had a few black round fruits. Sinov plucked one intending to taste it but Iledoya then warned "Its black colour stems from Death Magic. Eat it if you want a chance of rotting your insides" to which Sinov immediately threw the fruit to Iledoya.

The first thing that Rutehom said after getting up was "Amazing… What is that tree?"

Happy to see her grandfather well again, Charfania instantly embraced him with tears of joy "Grandpa!"

In response, Rutehom caressed the granddaughter in his embrace. "I've worried you a lot, little one. I'm fine now."

Leaving aside the happy family, Sinov asked Iledoya how the tree worked.

"Pretty simple actually. It just spread its roots, connect with other roots, then it keeps on connecting roots until it finds an area afflicted with Death Magic. From there, it just moves the Death Magic into a fruit and done!"

While it may sound like a simple locate and move sort of situation, Sinov could roughly guess the complexity that he did not mention. To make sure the tree itself will not rot in contact with Death Magic, he must have made sure that the tree was infused with Life Magic. He must have also made it so that the plant would be self-sufficient by making it absorb Life magic from the surroundings of itself and the plants connected with it.

"Thank you for your assistance. How can I possibly repay you?" Rutehom took a seat beside Iledoya as he asked his question.

"Well… Nothing much really comes to mind… Except…"

"Something in mind?"

Iledoya sat up straight and put on a solemn expression as he continued "Well yes, but I am not sure if you would accept"

Seeing his solemn expression, Rutehom began to frown. "What are you asking for?"

"Sir…" Iledoya paused for a moment. Looking Rutehom straight into the eye, he said "I would like to ask for your granddaughter!"