Ch-88: Elf King (2)

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Just when Shedia smiled brightly to the confirmation we were going to see the World Tree.

"The King invited them?"

"You mean, these intruders?"

The elves asked, incomprehensibly, but a Ranger shook his head.

"He's a Hero, not an intruder. Set your words right."

He bounced off the complaint. Scores of conversation balled between the elves and Rangers, but ultimately, it seemed Rangers ranked higher in authority.

Meanwhile, there was another person who was shocked by the Ranger's words…

"Hero..?"

It was Katarina.

She looked incredibly like she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Cloud…. what are they saying? You're a Hero?"

"Didn't I tell you? I am a Hero."

"…don't kid with me."

"I'm not kidding."

Katarina's eyes quivering.

"Well, then I'm not traveling the continent like normal people do, but I'm following the journey of a Hero who's on a quest to defeat the demon king…?"

"Answer!"

When I nodded in affirmation, Katarina chuckled, somehow dangerously as if she had lost her mind.

"Cloud, I will go back and become the best dancer. Let's meet again after defeating the Demon King someday."

She naturally took the angle to run away.

I caught her, chuckling, gave her a deep kiss and said, parting our lips.

"Ha ha, I can't let you go."

* * *

After injecting Katarina with the reality of the unachievable, we followed the Rangers.

They walked us through the woods for a while and then they led us into a cave system under a cliff.

"…why do we have to enter a freaking cave?"

Katarina muttered in a weak voice.

Well, she was still trying to get over the shock.

Anyway, talking about weak…

Back in the days, if I had revealed I was a Hero, the guys who fought me in the tournament back in Alitia would have quit that instant, jumping out of the ring.

As I clicked my tongue at the weakness of things these days, we reached the end of the cave before we knew it.

Exiting the cave, a beautiful scenery unfolded that was incomparable to the forest f**kery from before.

A large tree — World Tree — sat right in the center.

A white wall surrounded the World Tree and an antique palace sat under it.

""

Not to forget the jade-colored fresh fields stretching across the palace.

"Wow…"

Not only Shedia, but Katarina also was mesmerized by the scenery.

The Rangers gave the two women time to admire.

They pretended to be reticent, but their wooden faces cracking down behind their masks showed pride.

"Please, come. Our King awaits your presence."

They ushered us into the palace.

The white walls exuded more grandeur the closer we got.

It reached its climax when we reached the gates.

The palace gates, made of the very same material as the castle walls, looked very sturdy.

'There are dozens of defense magic formations alone.'

An unbelievable amount considering that only five defense magic formations were engraved on the gates of the Capital of Prona.

As I was looking at the magic technology applied to the gate, someone came out through the open gate.

It was a female elf with her hair braided in a tail.

She did some quick chat with the leader of the Rangers who was leading us.

"Klein, you are here. Are they those people?"

"The Hero and his companions. I'll take them to where the King is."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work."

After gaining clearance from the female elf, Klein led us into the palace.

The inside of the palace was all white, as if it were designed by a patient with mysophobia.

If it weren't for the colorful patterns engraved here and there, you could think of it as a place made to torture people's mind.

As I was looking around the palace, Katarina tugged at my seam.

"Hey, Cloud. Those people over there… No, the elves are looking at us and whispering something, they give me a bad vibe. What do you think they are talking about?"

Looking in the direction she was pointing, I saw elves dressed in luxurious clothes that imperial aristocrats would wear. They gathered among themselves, looked at us, and whispered and squabbled.

""

I didn't try to overhear their conversation using the Behemoth's Glyph.

Just by looking at their expression, you could tell it was nothing good.

"Racists, you can find them anywhere actually. Here, they are hating people with short ears — us."

"Uh… are ears really that important?"

Katarina asked in a puzzled tone.

"They are like that. Someone gotta be on the lower end of the scale, right?"

"Ah, it's like that."

Convinced, she nodded her head.

Then she made a pouty face.

"That means we're not welcome."

"Better than being riddled with arrows."

"That's true, but…"

"Please maintain silence. Soon we will arrive at the place where the King is."

Klein cut short of our conversation.

We walked in front of a stone gate with a huge wooden inscription engraved on it.

Klein got down on one knee toward the stone gate.

"King. I brought the Hero, Cloud, and his companions."

Krrrr!

The stone gate opened, revealing the expanse of white mist blocking the door.

"Come in."

"This… means we can go in, right?"

"Yes. If you go in without the King's permission, you'll be lost in the woods for the rest of your life, but you're invited. You may go in."

To Katarina's question, Klein replied, as if to reassure her. However, it worked less at reassuring Katarina, and more at making her more anxious.

I ran my hand through the fog a few times before walking into it.

After crossing the fog, what was visible was the huge World Tree.

It was so large that just looking at the cross section of the World Tree filled my field of vision.

Looking away from the World Tree, I could spot countless elementals roaming the air. Walking down the trail, I soon saw a handsome male elf sitting in front of the table.

The elf was wholly different from the ones I had seen so far.

He… gave off a sophisticated and elegant atmosphere.

"Cloud? You okay?!"

Katarina's panicked voice was heard from behind.

"It's okay, come in."

Shedia was the first to react after hearing my words. Hopping through the fog, the first thing she saw was the World Tree, leaving her eyes widened.

After that, with a probing look, came Katarina. Her reaction was also not much different from Shedia's.

"Welcome. I was waiting."

The Elven King smiled.

""

"I am honored to have you waiting for us. May I ask why you have called us?"

"The Hero of this age is impatient, I see. Come, sit down. It's never too less time to talk over tea."

I let out a small sigh as I the Elf King offered me a seat across him.

"I see. Sit down guys… hey, what are they doing?"

I asked, looking at Katarina who was struggling, surrounded by over-enthusiastic elementals.

"I don't know either. They suddenly came, clinging to me…!"

She pushed away the touchy elementals.

However, the number of approaching elementals was too many for her to push away with both hands. Before long, she was buried under elementals.

Seeing the chaos, the Elven King remarked in a surprised voice.

"It's amazing."

"What do you mean?"

"Mostly, elementals do not like humans. That's why humans have a low sensitivity to elementals. But this lady is different. Even though she is a human, her sensitivity to the elementals is surprisingly high."

Now this wasn't the time to drink tea leisurely. After saying that, the Elven king stood up from his chair and blew a whistle. The elementals surrounding Katarina quickly dispersed.

I approached her.

"You okay?"

"No… I'm not okay…"

Her hair was like a wild bush, dirt on one side of her face, and parts of her body were soaked wet as Katarina answered with her blackened face.

Shedia looked over with envy, then stretched out her hands towards an elemental.

The elemental fled far away.

"…"

Shedia pouted as she looked down at her own hands.

I left her alone and looked at Katarina again.

'Fortunately, there are no scorched wounds.'

It seem that the fire elemental controlled its heat.

"My lady, what is your name?"

The Elven King approached and gently asked Katarina her name.

"Me? I'm Katarina. Why?"

"Katarina, you have the rare talent of an Elementalist."

"Elementalist..? What in Goddess' name is that?"

"I cannot let her talent go to waste."

"Hey… what is an Elementalist?"

"Unfortunately, the elementals here cannot leave the World Tree by virtue of the contract. Still, it's not like there's no way. There are still some ancient elementals that didn't make a contract with the World Tree."

"Excuse me?"

"Follow me."

"Excuse me?!"

The Elven King swept his steps toward the World Tree.

I also took Katarina's hand and pulled her up.

"Let's go."

"Help me, Cloud. What are these Elves? What is an elemental, and what the heck is an Elementalist?"

"Is that important now? He said he would make you an Elementalist. Let's go before he changes his mind."

"Heck, but what is an Elementalist?!"

"How do I explain Elementalist when you don't know elementals? Just close your eyes and become a hosh-whosh Elementalist. Then you will find out by yourself."

"To do something I don't even know?"

"If you don't know, just follow me. Yes? Am I going to pull you into something harmful?"

Katarina squinted her eyes and looked at me.

I know that gaze.

""

The gaze of ordinary people before they fall in for something.

Alright, not a great example but the best I can do now.

As I tightened my hold so as to reassure her, she reluctantly followed.

The Elven King brought us right up to the base of the World Tree. He flicked his hand once towards the ground. A big hole appeared in the ground as if he had used a giant shovel as he floated off down into the hole.

"OMG..?"

Katarina was shocked at the feat.

Shedia was also slightly startled as she looked at the heap of dirt.

It was only natural, for the clod of soil was taller than most of the skyscrapers.

"Don't be too surprised. After all, he's the king who represents a race. This much is natural."

"Why isn't the king of our kingdom capable of such feats?"

"You can't put humans and elves, who live thousands of years on the same line."

"H-Hell, thousands of years…"

"Learn being surprised. You're going to see a lot more than that in the future, so what are you going to do then? Oh, let's get going."

Where the Elven King had dug, there was a staircase.

He went down first and we followed, but there was another stone gate at the bottom of the stairs. The Elf king opened his palm gently.

Then another staircase appeared beyond the opening gates.

"Down here are the ancient elementals who refused to sign a contract with the World Tree. Katarina, since you have a high sensitivity to the elementals, you may form contracts with all four elementals. Make the contract, then come catch up with us outside."

Listening to the Elf King, Katarina looked over at me.

"Cloud. If I'm going to be with you in the future, it won't do good if I remain as I am right now, right?"

"You cannot participate in my fights even now."

She frowned.

"Couldn't you have made it less hurtful?"

"It is a matter of life and death. Clumsy kindness is worse than literally nothing."

"And you still brought me…"

""

Catarina grunted, pouting her lips.

I said looking at her.

"If you really don't want to travel with me, I'll send you back. You came to travel with Cloud, not with the Hero Cloud."

Katarina stared straight into my face, and then she let out a deep sigh.

"Goodness. Even if I go back, I won't be able to live without you. So even if I don't feel like it, I'm not going back without giving it a chance. I will be back."

She swayed her shoulders and ambled for the stone gateway.

"It might be dangerous, take Shedia with you."

I looked over at Shedia with eyes wondering if she agreed. Shedia nodded her head curiously. When the two women entered, the stone gates closed.

I looked at the closed stone gate and asked.

"It's safe, right?"

"Don't worry. They can be a bit eccentric, but they're not bad-natured children. At the very most, it would be some pranks."

"I hope that is true."

"It's true, I assure you. Let's go upstairs."

The Elf King came up the stairs and invited me to sit down at the table.

"Which one do you prefer, black tea or green tea?"

"Black, please."

"Sure, then."

As soon as the Elf King snapped his fingers, elementals floating in the sky came down to brew me tea.

The water elemental absorbed the black tea leaves of a wood elemental, the fire elemental heated the mixture and the wind elemental stirred it. The finished black tea flowed into a teacup and was placed in front of me.

What the f*ck!

That was so…. natural.

Why are you guys so proud again? Your friend was turned into black tea.

Oh, the woody is alive.

I accepted the black tea with shaking hands.

Should I drink this, or not?

'If I drink this, I'm afraid of wooden claws worming out of my stomach.'

A whole new type of elvish assassination.

Just when I was in deep contemplation.

"Hero, why do you think I invited you?"

"I don't know that, that's the reason I asked when I first saw you."

"Because I'm interested in you. There is one thing I really want to ask you. Can you answer that?"

"That depends on the question."

"Is that so… Okay. Then…"

"And before you ask."

I cut off the Elf King.

I said looking him dead in the eye.

"I'm the only one left here, so you don't have to hide it anymore. No, I hope you don't hide it. Talking to fake dolls is a little unpleasant."

The Elf King opened his eyes wide. He suddenly burst off laughing as if I had triggered some funny joke.

"Since when did you know?"

"I knew the instant I saw you."

"You're a good child."

The Elf king who was drinking tea across me instantly turned into a statue made of twisted tree trunks.

"A strange child too."

A graceful voice followed.

When I turned my head in the direction from which the sound came, this time a beautiful elf was looking at me with her hands behind her back.

"What do you mean strange?"

The World Tree smiled.

"You have unusual eyes. Eyes show me the inner side of intelligent life. And I see the inside of you."

"What do you see?"

"Chaos."

The World Tree cut it right to the chase.

"Your inner side, which my eyes see, is full of darkness and twisted as much as possible, in any semblance. It feels like an endless abyss, swirling. You are a broken man. Too broken.."

Enthusiasm was flashing in the voice of the World Tree.

"Even in that twisted abyss, light and goodness clearly exists. Yet, they do not affect each other as if they are in a different dimension from the bottomless pit. I've never seen a creature with such an inner world in my entire life. You're broken but not broken. I am so curious and perplexed about you."

The beautiful female elf instantly turned into a piece of tree trunk.

"So tell me."

An elf in the shape of a small girl pulled my arm.

"How is that possible? How did that happen?"

The child's eyes were full of curiosity.

What should I answer to appease the curiosity of this old tree?

I thought about it, but nothing came to mind.

So I just told the truth.

"It's just because without that… there's nothing left."

You can read fully translated chapters, including the last chapter, for $20.

p(a)treon.com/Daoist02