The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

I stopped in front of the door and scanned my surroundings. The surveillance camera installed in the hallway was capturing me in its lens. The lock on the door was a state-of-the-art facility that read the mana pattern of a card key. The rent for a few months here could probably buy a house like the one I was living in now.

The request that Greenwood had left with the alliance was a homework assignment with no known due date. It was an excessive splurge of money to wait for a guest who might not even come.

‘Are they trying to show off their noble status?’

Well, the person presumed to be the founder of Greenwood is a royal of the elves. If you think of it as a villa owned by the royal family, it might not be such an over-the-top expense.

‘I’ll know once I meet them.’

I had many questions for Greenwood. Enough to come here in person.

Knock, knock, knock!

I knocked on the door. Ten seconds, thirty seconds, a minute… There was no answer.

‘I thought it would be something like this.’

Greenwood probably meant for me to send a letter to the address. It was something I could guess from the location of District 2, where access for ordinary people was restricted. But now that Greenwood had stopped all external activities, it was uncertain when I would receive a reply to my letter. It was not in my nature to wait anxiously for a reply that might not even come.

“Beta.”

The moment I gave the signal, the hallway fell silent. It was the effect of disabling the security system on the 30th floor. The lock was a separate system from the apartment’s security system, so it was still working, but that wasn’t a problem.

Bang!

I could just force it open. I tore off the broken lock and twisted the doorknob. I entered without hesitation.

“……”

The interior, as befitting a luxury apartment, exuded wealth from its structure and interior design. Since only one household resided on each floor, the interior was quite spacious. The terrace connected to the living room, which was carpeted, had its middle door wide open, and the cold wind unique to high-rise buildings was blowing.

But there was something a little strange.

‘There are traces of someone having lived here.’

Although there was dust in every corner, a deserted house where no one had set foot has a different feel. And this sour smell that clung to my nose, as if it hadn’t been fully ventilated.

The moment I noticed the sense of unease, my body reacted before my thoughts.

I took out my gun from its holster and aimed it right next to me.

“……Wow, you reacted to that.”

It was getting close to evening. In the shadows, pupils that were long and slit vertically shone yellow. They resembled those of a reptile rather than a human.

“Who are you?”

“That’s what I want to say.”

A strong smell of alcohol was mixed in with the breath he exhaled. It was the identity of the sour smell I had smelled in the room.

“The great one said to treat guests as family. But are you a guest? Guests don’t usually break down a locked door to come in.”

“Then you should have answered when I knocked. If I had known there was someone inside, I wouldn’t have done this.”

“Ah, is that how it is? Hmm, then this is my fault. I’m sorry.”

It was a conversation that didn’t seem to fit together properly. Rather than being playful, it was more like he was just playing along without thinking. The way he was smiling even in a serious situation was the epitome of a drunkard.

“Then what business brings you here, guest?”

“First, let me confirm one thing. Is this Greenwood’s rendezvous point?”

“Ah, so you’ve come to the right place. You should have said so.”

Only then did the other person remove the blade he had been holding to my neck.

‘……’

Of course, he was no ordinary person. I had thought it was an ordinary longsword, but its appearance was unique. A chain attached to a long, circular body. It was a small chainsaw.

“Come to think of it, I think I was asked to deliver something if a guest came here, or maybe not. Please wait a moment.”

In the meantime, I observed the other person. He was on the short side. Combined with his youthful impression, he was probably a young man who had just become an adult. His plain attire resembled the habit of a monk, made of a single piece of cloth. He wore a luxurious belt around his waist, and a pendant with a crest resembling an animal hung long.

Overall, it was an attire that reminded one of a devout believer. If he hadn’t been dead drunk, I would have been mistaken.

“Ah! I remember!”

While I was guessing his identity, the man smiled brightly and rummaged through a drawer in the living room.

“Here, I was asked to deliver this.”

An item in a cloth envelope. It was a floppy disk.

“Do you know what’s on this disk?”

“Do not covet what belongs to others. Greed brings disaster, so be wary and refrain.”

“You could have just said you don’t know, but you talk a lot.”

“It’s a habit.”

“You must want to claim to be a devout believer.”

Religion also existed in the world of FP. The drug brokers, including Bordon who sold drugs, could be said to be proof that there were religious people. In other words, most of them were cults, and their influence was weak.

“I know what the crest of that animal is.”

“……Were you a member of the order?”

The man smiled brightly. All the muscles in his face relaxed and loosened, expressing a great deal of welcome.

“The great one said that a chance meeting makes life shine, and I never thought I would meet a brother in a place like this.”

Those who share the same faith tend to let down their guard. The fact that many religions call their fellow believers brothers and sisters stems from that principle.

“No.”

If I wanted to continue the conversation, it would be easier to gain intimacy by pretending to be a fellow believer, even if it was a lie. But for the guy in front of me, it was the opposite.

“What brother in a cult that you founded and you alone believe in.”

It was a lie to test me. One of his eyebrows twitched slightly on his brightly lit face. He seemed disappointed.

“Then how did you recognize the crest of the order?”

“It’s because we’re in the same line of work.”

A habit of quoting scriptures of unknown origin, an attire like that of a devout believer, and a unique weapon called a chainsaw. It would be strange not to recognize such a unique character.

“Elliot, the Prophet of Blood.”

It was a name that would have been heard at least once if one had picked up rumors about the industry. Even if not, his notoriety was famous among the users of FP. This was the first time I had met him in person, but I could recognize him because stories about him had flowed like a meme in the community.

“A crazy cult contractor.”

They say that while believing in a suspicious cult, if you test the other person and they lie, you suddenly swing a chainsaw. It’s an incomprehensible action, but it was wrong to try to understand a crazy person in the first place. In the game, it was fine because he was just treated as an event character. But now that it was reality, it felt different.

“……”

The smile is not necessarily an expression of goodwill, it’s just a prejudice. I felt a thick killing intent melted into his bright smile. The reason he seemed disappointed was probably because the pretext to kill me had disappeared. He was like a psychopath villain who would appear in some foreign comic.

“Why are you with Greenwood?”

“So you were a colleague in the same line of work. What’s your name?”

“Allen.”

“Yes, Allen. You seem to have a lot of questions. Fate is decided by heaven, so just sending you away like this would be against the teachings of the great one.”

Elliot packed his bags, which seemed to have been prepared in advance, from a corner of the living room.

“Let’s move to a place where we can talk quietly.”

***

“You’ve brought a precious guest.”

Cromwell said, putting down his glass. The glass was full of a transparent liquid. Elliot, with a gentle smile on his lips, swirled the glass and smelled it.

“This scent is the 30-year-old Dohongju from Araksa.”

“……It’s the Blue Essence from Oasis.”

“It doesn’t matter what kind of alcohol it is. In the end, as long as it gets you drunk, that’s all that matters.”

As expected of a cultist, his experience as a drunkard was also a cult, a shameless reply. In the first place, Cromwell hadn’t even hidden the bottle. If I hadn’t known his identity, I would have thought he was a heavenly madman.

“Then let’s talk comfortably.”

Cromwell handed over a whole bottle of alcohol and then left. It was a clean room that reminded one of a conference room in a large corporation. It was a room that Cromwell used when he met clients or had secret conversations. The reason he had given it to me was not only because I had become that close to Cromwell, but also because Elliot was that famous of a contractor.

‘He must have thought that the more connections he had with skilled contractors, the better.’

Elliot was a skilled person that it was not strange for Cromwell to show interest in and try to gain favor with. Although I had made quite a name for myself recently, it was true that I was a notch below Elliot.

That’s why a question had arisen.

“First, I want to confirm whether you are a member of Greenwood.”

Of course, I hadn’t expected to meet the owner of Greenwood, the royal of the elves, at the scene. I had thought that if I was lucky, I would meet a subordinate or a representative. The existence of this crazy contractor was far beyond my expectations.

“That’s right.”

Elliot answered as if he had been waiting. Of course, I didn’t really believe what a drunkard who smelled of alcohol said.

“Is there a reason for a contractor like you to be under Greenwood?”

Greenwood is an environmental organization. The identity of the organization was like that from the beginning, and their actions of trying to recover the spirit’s cocoon and spirit beasts, just like me, a druid, proved this.

“You don’t have to think too complicatedly. It’s because I share the same will as Greenwood.”

“You?”

I frowned.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s nonsense.”

Greenwood’s purpose was similar to mine. It was hard to explain exactly what they were aiming for, but it was certain that it was a direction that would help my goal of restoring Mother Nature. On the other hand, Elliot is a cultist. It was a combination where you couldn’t find a common denominator.

“……No, is it a request?”

I had thought wrong.

“That’s right.”

Elliot is a contractor. The fact that he shared the same will did not mean that he was a member of Greenwood.

“A high-level contractor can choose their requests, and sometimes they can even lead the requests themselves. Our interests aligned. It must have been the guidance of the great one.”

“A mere environmental organization and a high-level contractor?”

“You also came to Greenwood because you wanted something from them, didn’t you?”

If he said that, I had nothing to say. But I had the circumstance of knowing that Greenwood’s actions were related to the spirit’s cocoon. Did Elliot also know this?

“Do you know what’s hidden behind Greenwood’s request?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Elliot blinked his eyes as if he had heard it for the first time. If he was aiming for the spirit’s cocoon and spirit beasts, he was a competitor to me. Was it an act to hide this?

“If something like that exists, that must be the goal you pursued Greenwood for. The reason I joined hands with Greenwood is different.”

It didn’t seem like an act. It seemed I had been thinking too much.

‘The fact that Greenwood’s request was aimed at the spirit’s cocoon is something only I know.’

The first request I had received from Greenwood was to exterminate the goblins in the slums. The next was to raid the Dilipercy production factory. If I hadn’t been a druid, if I hadn’t had the World Tree in my body, I would have never guessed that the request was related to the spirit’s cocoon.

It was natural in a way that Elliot didn’t know the inside story of the request.

“Then there was no need to bring me here. You don’t know anything, do you?”

The relationship between a contractor and a client was strictly business.

“That’s not it. It’s been a considerable amount of time since Greenwood and I have been working together. I know quite a lot.”

When I had visited, he had said that he had been asked by Greenwood to deliver a floppy disk. Since he had said it was a request, it probably wasn’t a formal request, which meant they were close. Well, to be able to live in a luxury apartment in District 2 and drink alcohol, it might not have been a typical client-contractor relationship.

Did he mean that their interests aligned in that way? In any case, he would know more about Greenwood than I did.

“First, please ask. I will answer to the best of my knowledge.”

Elliot is not a member of Greenwood. He probably doesn’t know about the internal affairs. So, there wasn’t much I could ask him.

“Who is the owner of Greenwood?”

“I’m embarrassed to say this as my first question, but I don’t know that either.”

Of course.

“Is there a way to meet the owner of Greenwood?”

“The great one said that fate is like a sparkle, you can’t catch it, it just comes to you. If fate allows, you will be able to meet. Just like I did.”

“Do you know why Greenwood suddenly stopped its activities?”

“I wonder. I was also in a difficult situation. But the great one said that trials are like tempering, so if you endure and wait, good fortune will come.”

“Is there a place to rendezvous with Greenwood other than the apartment in District 2 where you were?”

“Well, they were the ones who made the rendezvous, so I don’t know if there are other ways.”

“……”

I glared at the guy with a smiling face.

“What the hell do you know?”

(End of Chapter)