Chapter 133
Chapter 133. The World Tree (2)
The penguin looked at Yul and rose to its feet. Its body was long, nearly as tall as an adult human male.
“You look different from the other northerners.”
The penguin, dressed in a pitch-black long coat, had its face completely concealed behind a beaked mask, making it impossible to see inside.
However, a sharp glint of light shone through the gaps in the mask.
“Are you planning to cross the river?”
“Yeah. Who are you?”
“Gilsefnodo.”
“I’m Yul.”
“Get on.”
At his invitation, Yul lightly stepped onto the ferry. The moment he boarded, the small boat began to move on its own.
“Is this your boat?”
“It is. It is because I have taken a vow never to touch water.”
“A penguin took a vow never to touch water?”
The figure turned its gaze from within the beaked mask toward Yul.
“All penguins born in the Orphanage of Silence take such a vow. And they must go out onto the battlefield and display their martial achievements. That is how they repay their upbringing.”
“Are you a knight?”
“That’s right. More precisely, I was. After losing my nation and homeland, I am now nothing more than a wandering shaman.”
Yul didn’t know through what process he had come to master magic.
But it was clear he had lived an extraordinary life, one filled with hardship and stained with blood.
“Hmm. Why did you come here?”
“Why did you come?”
“Just happened to?”
“So did I. Everything is a question, and nothing can be known. I am merely a creature in the sea of doubt, chasing a light that does not exist.”
Speaking like some kind of monk, the penguin pointed toward the World Tree standing in the distance.
“If you go to that tree, you might find an answer. That’s why I came.”
“I see.”
“And you?”
“I came to check whether the World Tree has collapsed. But it looks more intact than I expected.”
If it really was fine, then Yul’s hypothesis—that the collapse of the World Tree affected the sea elves—might be wrong.
“You can’t know anything before you go.”
As Yul stepped off the boat, he noticed the penguin retrieving a weapon. He stored a flail with a chain on the belt at his left waist.
When Yul followed him off the ferry, the small boat shrank down into something the size of a tiny dinghy.
“Is that magic too?”
“It is magic once used by giants. It was restored by the Sorcerer King.”
“Really? Who do you mean by the Sorcerer King?”
“……”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he simply trudged forward.
They were strangers heading their own ways, yet since their destination was the same, an inexplicable companionship had formed.
And they had already confirmed there was no hostility between them.
The penguin, Gilsefnodo, did not waddle as penguins usually did—he walked properly. In fact, he seemed even faster than Yul.
Soon, they arrived near the World Tree. As Ryollo had said, Yul looked for the reclusive frost elves, but none could be seen anywhere.
“What happened here?”
“Look over there.”
“…!?”
There, the frost elves were trapped inside blocks of ice. Gilsefnodo approached one and brushed the surface with his hand.
Through the gaps beneath the snow that had covered it, the frost elves frozen inside became visible.
“They’re all dead.”
“……”
Step. Step.
Yul tightened the fur coat he had received from Ryollo’s tavern and moved ahead, following the penguin.
Gilsefnodo moved like a nimble ranger, weaving here and there while checking the frost elves frozen in ice as he advanced toward the World Tree.
“Each ice block is large enough to hold several people.”
“Hey, Gilsefnodo. Do you think this is magic?”
“It seems so. There are no signs that the frost elves resisted at all.”
“Then it must have happened so quickly that resistance was impossible.”
They remained exactly as if they had been going about their daily lives.
Some were dressed for hunting, carrying large bows on their backs, while children stood frozen without any change in expression.
Yul arrived beneath the World Tree. And from its base, he saw that the tree was gradually ‘freezing.’
The base was being dyed with frost, slowly turning pure white.
For a massive oak tree that has surpassed the limits of a living creature to survive, the power of magic is absolutely necessary.
However, no magical power could be felt from the World Tree. It would collapse as time passed.
“It really is dead. It only looked fine on the outside.”
Yul asked Gilsefnodo.
“Why do you think the World Tree ended up like this?”
“It may have been attacked by something. And perhaps something was done from inside the tree. A creature this massive is difficult to kill otherwise.”
What exactly had been done was unknown. Even Gilsefnodo, who suggested it, likely didn’t know.
“But one thing is certain, unless it was a being with divinity, it couldn’t have killed something this large.”
At the very least, the enemy was a being possessing divinity. Like that stag covered in antlers Yul had encountered in the Arctic.
Soon, the sun set. Naturally, Yul decided to set up a simple campsite in the now-empty frost elf village.
‘Ever since crossing the boundary, I feel like I’ve been seeing ruins like this more often.’
That probably meant this region was just that dangerous.
Gilsefnodo went out to search the surroundings a bit more, then returned and said to Yul.
“There is a place on one side of the World Tree where you can enter inside.”
“Inside the tree?”
“Yes. It was artificially made. I plan to explore it tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
Yul lit a campfire. Though the wood was damp, he had received a simple artifact from Lucian—something like a lighter that could ignite fire.
“A peculiar item. Is that a tool that manifests magic?”
“That’s right. It’s called an artifact. Something developed by humans.”
“Are you humans from the East?”
“Oh, you know about that too?”
“Humans who are not northerners would occasionally disembark from ships and sell goods. So they’ve come to create items like this as well.”
After staring at the lighter with interest, he suddenly pulled out a massive fish from his mouth.
Then, skillfully making a skewer from a branch, he began roasting it over the fire.
“…?”
“…?”
“You just pulled that out of your mouth…”
“What’s the problem? Penguins have a pouch inside their mouths.”
“…!!”
Apparently, penguins have a separate storage stomach. They store food inside without it spoiling and take it out when needed.
“The food doesn’t spoil, but if I put things like metal in there, it makes my stomach ache.”
“That’s amazing. It’s my first time traveling with a penguin.”
“Do you need some?”
“No, I’m good.”
After hesitating for a moment, Yul took out some tough, dry jerky and ate it instead. At the very least, he didn’t want to eat something that had come out of a penguin’s stomach.
As he chewed on the jerky, Yul spoke to this peculiar companion.
“Until when do you plan to wander this place?”
“Until I find an answer.”
“Specifically, what answer are you looking for?”
Gilsefnodo slightly lifted his beaked mask and looked at Yul. Their eyes met.
“Why was our species born this way? The gods gave us the technology to build furnaces and massive walls, yet why did they not give us the means to save one another? Why are we so inclined toward slaughter and aggression? Why can we not stop the hatred and war directed at each other? And where, exactly, is our king?”
“That’s… a comprehensive problem.”
“I thought it was an answer I had to discover myself, through hardship and adversity. That is why I came this far north.”
He placed the roasted fish back into his mouth. This time, perhaps into the storage stomach.
A will that moves while grinding itself down. Maybe it was fine to tell him one thing.
“There’s one thing I can answer. I know the whereabouts of your king.”
“What!? You know where he is?! Where did he go?”
Gilsefnodo, who had been about to pull out a second fish, abruptly stood up.
“Both Adol and Crocken ascended to the moon together, riding a massive pillar of water on the day the Heaven and Earth Resonance occurred.”
“…The moon?”
“Yes. They said the rest would take care of the kingdom on their own and left.”
“Haha. Hahahaha. Hahahahahahaha!”
Gilsefnodo burst into wild laughter, unlike anything he had shown before.
“They said to take care of it ourselves? Without a center, that was impossible for us. They abandoned us and ran away!”
Yul shrugged. The reaction was more intense than he had expected.
“At the very least, they should not have gone there. Or at least one Sorcerer King should have remained to bring the Arctic under control!”
“In conclusion, it does seem that way.”
Gilsefnodo trembled, unable to contain his fury.
“There are things they used to spout at will. They said the Sorcerer King would save the penguins! But wasn’t that just a tyrant with power? Neither Adol nor Crocken can be trusted…!”
“……”
Gilsefnodo, who had been laughing like an exploded bomb, suddenly fell silent like a depressed madman.
“Let’s sleep.”
“See you tomorrow.”
The next morning, as soon as Yul opened his eyes, he saw Gilsefnodo already rising.
“What is it?”
“I couldn’t sleep at all. I kept thinking that I was circling endlessly, chasing nothing but an illusion.”
“So you’re thinking of going back?”
“Yes. I found my answer. It is ‘rage.’ I will slaughter them all and become the Sorcerer King myself. If a Sorcerer King is the symbol of a tyrant? Then I shall become the new Sorcerer King and open a new order.”
Yul saw the madness flashing in his eyes.
Perhaps he had explained the king’s whereabouts too lightly.
His will had not been as firm as it seemed, and his convictions might have been worn down by blade-like hardship.
But if that was fate, it could not be resisted. The answer he found did not come from Yul.
He had simply found his own answer within Yul’s words.
“I’ll stop exploring the World Tree.”
“Right. Is this where we part ways?”
“If we meet again, I will be the Sorcerer King, Yul. Otherwise, I’ll be dead somewhere like a wild beast.”
“I wish you fortune.”
“To you as well.”
It had only been a brief encounter, but the penguin left a strong impression. If he succeeded and became the Sorcerer King, he would be a different kind of king from those before him.
It wasn’t impossible. If he returned, he might truly become the Sorcerer King and rebuild the kingdom.
Leaving him behind, Yul searched for the opening in the World Tree.
He entered alone. He had expected it to be pitch dark, but blue moss-like growths emitted light, illuminating the passage clearly.
‘The moss hasn’t been eroded by the ice. That means the target was selectively attacked.’
That confirmed his deduction. This phenomenon of everything turning into ice was not natural—it had been artificially frozen by someone using magic.
“It’s incredibly deep.”
Elves must have lived here as well. They had all been turned into blocks of ice.
Deeper, deeper inside he went. And within, he saw countless elves.
These ones seemed to be survivors of the first attack, judging by their resolute expressions as if they had been fighting while on guard.
They appeared to have been reaching out toward their surroundings, as if maintaining a massive magical barrier.
The reason it was in the past tense—
—was because they too had become frozen statues, their hands still outstretched into the air.
The magical barrier that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of such mages had created here had long since vanished.
At this point, it could be said that this place was something the frost elf race had protected with their collective will.
What in the world were they trying so desperately to protect?
That answer revealed itself as he went further inside.
Continuing deeper, he began to see frost elves of higher status.
Among them, an old elf who seemed to be the eldest was shielding something with his body.
It was something strangely full of life—
A very small piece of mistletoe.
“I can feel an immense power from it.”
A faint divinity emanated from the mistletoe. This was the branch of the World Tree that they had tried to protect with their lives.