The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

There were many things inside the building. There was armor in the display case, swords and shields on the walls, tools on the table, and a messy bed with a blanket and a wardrobe in one corner.

“Don’t look over there. The bedroom is on the second floor, but it’s tough to meet the quota, so I’m living downstairs to save time.”

She made an excuse, but it wasn’t in a particularly embarrassed tone. Katarina took off her bandana and shook her hair with a towel she had hung on a hanger. She seemed to have a fundamentally easygoing personality.

“Ah, just sit on the chair over there. If you have luggage, you can just drop it on the floor, so don’t mind.”

“You don’t seem much like a noble.”

“I wasn’t raised that way. Actually, my parents tried to raise me like a noble, but I didn’t follow. That’s why I’m working as a blacksmith. People who are coy or pretentious can’t do this job.”

Her fingers were calloused. Her forearms, revealed by her sleeveless shirt, were also firm, with the texture of her muscles visible. Darian had called her a craftsman, and indeed, the quality of the equipment in sight was outstanding, without a single flaw. Even though it was just a sample.

It didn’t seem like she was doing blacksmithing as a hobby with her noble status. Although blacksmithing was not an easy job to do as a hobby.

“Are you of dwarven blood?”

“Oh? You noticed that right away.”

“I just took a wild guess.”

She wore insoles in her shoes to increase her height, and her body was well-muscled. Her outstanding dexterity, her easygoing personality that suited the alcohol served, and the fact that she was from the City of Iron and Blood. It was enough to suspect her dwarven lineage.

Even if it wasn’t true, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Dwarves were a race that was a symbol of outstanding dexterity. It was enough to just say it was a compliment.

“They say there was a dwarf among my distant ancestors. The prestigious nobles of this city are all like that. In the old days, there was a theory that the ‘iron’ in the nickname ‘City of Iron and Blood’ was because of the dwarves, and they were a major component of this city. Ah, I wasn’t trying to talk about this.”

The woman, who had been rambling on, cleared her throat and changed the subject.

“I’m Katarina Morheim. You’re from Gellerg City?”

“I’m Allen.”

“You’re a contractor, right?”

“……”

“I also took a wild guess. Contractors have a unique atmosphere. You can’t hide it even if you try to deceive with that bright face.”

“I had no intention of hiding it.”

“This one is a mage.”

Her conversation was as self-directed as her easygoing personality. Sage answered with a slightly surprised look.

“……That’s right. I’m Sage Daleoper.”

“You seem to have been properly taught, so you must be from the Mage Tower. Is your school Juggernaut? Right?”

“Wow.”

「The World Tree is impressed.」

This was enough to be called a fortune teller. At the audience’s admiration, Katarina rambled on again.

“Blacksmithing is as important for its eye as it is for its dexterity. You have to know why a well-made thing seems well-made, and where a poorly-made thing went wrong, in order to improve. Uncle Gareth doesn’t know how hard and delicate blacksmithing is. So he comes whenever he has time and grumbles about when it will be finished and why it’s taking so long. He wasn’t like that in the old days, but maybe it’s because he’s getting old. I’ve really ruined my personality since I came here.”

She talked a lot. And yet, she had a simple charm that didn’t make her seem hateful. At my gesture, Sage looked at Katarina with narrowed eyes and then nodded. It meant that she was the person I was looking for.

Elliot’s acquaintance and a member of Greenwood, Simon Jackson.

“Simon Jackson.”

The moment I said the name, Katarina stopped talking. Then she readjusted her grip on the handle of the hammer she had been tapping on her shoulder like a massage stick.

“How do you know that name? You said you were a contractor, did you receive a request to kill me somewhere? You’re quite resourceful. I’ve never revealed my true identity while working under that name.”

“You don’t have to worry too much. I didn’t come to point a gun at you.”

I took out Elliot’s pendant from my pocket and held it out.

“Do you recognize this?”

“Ah, this.”

“Yes, it’s an introduction from Elliot.”

“Wow, how terrible.”

“……?”

Did I hear wrong? No. Katarina dropped the pendant and then crossed her arms and scratched the goosebumps on her forearms.

“I heard I could gain favor by showing this… did that cultist perhaps think he was the only one who was close?”

He was a person who lived in a drunken stupor and committed eccentric acts. What if it wasn’t that they were close, but that it was a one-sided claim of friendship? It wasn’t an impossible story.

“No, we were close. But it gives me the creeps. How did you know my true identity, and you sent someone at a time when I was debating whether to ask for help? I thought he was just a cultist, but he’s quite perceptive. Is that person really an apostle of God or something? I should have made a donation.”

“……I see that the airship was attacked because of you.”

“What’s that all of a sudden?”

The reason Frederic had attacked the airship was in her words. Katarina had tried to ask for help from an acquaintance in Gellerg City. She had recognized that the war situation was difficult to overcome with their own strength and had tried to borrow the power of an outside force.

Somehow, Frederic must have noticed such circumstances. A war that was practically over. It was a scheme to block the variable that could turn the tide of the war, even if it meant throwing a desperate move like an airship attack.

“No, did those bastards go that far?! They’re really going all out!”

“This time, they attacked Darian and us in the public district.”

“Shouldn’t we be calling Frederic the traitors, not us? You’ve had a hard time even before arriving in Brahms. But what should we do? We’re grateful that you came to help, but the war situation here is very bad. A person has to have some shame, so it’s hard to ask you to die with us…”

“I heard the rough story from Darian. And I didn’t come to help you.”

“What? You said it was an introduction from Elliot.”

“In the first place, Elliot doesn’t even know your true identity.”

The subject keeps going off on a tangent. I brought up the main point before it derailed further.

“I heard you’re a member of Greenwood. I came because I have something to ask.”

“……What, was that your business? Well, then it makes sense.”

Katarina’s atmosphere suddenly sank.

“You’ve come a long way. If it’s a member of Greenwood, there should be some in Gellerg City besides me.”

“It was a very secretive organization, so it wasn’t easy. It was a coincidence that I even got in touch with Elliot. I solved the code of the terrarium in the union and barely met him in District 2.”

“A terrarium…? Haa, if you solved that, it gets more complicated.”

Katarina wiped her face. A hint of self-loathing flashed across her lively face, and then she pointed to the ceiling.

“Follow me upstairs. Just you, not the mage next to you.”

“!”

Sage jumped up and blocked the way.

“No.”

I was also puzzled.

“Is it such a secret story that we have to do it in the bedroom? There’s no need to hide it from Sage.”

“The bedroom isn’t the important place. It’s because I have something to check.”

She went up the stairs leading to the second floor first.

“Prove that you are a ‘druid’.”

***

Katarina’s bedroom was messy. Clothes were scattered on the floor, and the drawers were all open, revealing their contents. In the midst of wondering if one could even live here, there was a path that was not blocked by junk, as if it had been frequently used.

Katarina led me along that path. At the end of the junk, I could see why Katarina had brought me here.

“This is…”

I had guessed it when she had mentioned the word ‘druid’.

「A fragment of a spirit’s cocoon has been discovered!」

“A spirit’s cocoon.”

“You recognized it right away.”

Katarina placed a fragment of a spirit’s cocoon in my arms.

“Hatch it. Right now.”

I glanced at her face. This woman, and Greenwood, how much did they know about druids? As far as I knew, the only class that could hatch a spirit’s cocoon was a druid.

“Why are you just standing there? Hurry up and do something with your hands.”

But it was impossible.

“This is a fragment of a spirit’s cocoon. You can only hatch it if you gather all the other fragments.”

“Okay, that’s a pass.”

Was the test just to see if I could recognize the fragment of a spirit’s cocoon? I stored the cocoon fragment in my bosom and said.

“You seem to know a lot about druids.”

“I don’t know much. It’s just that our Greenwood’s top priority is the search for druids.”

“Wasn’t your goal to collect spirit cocoons? I didn’t see any sign of you looking for druids.”

“Greenwood has arranged codes like the terrarium in various places. You, Allen, also came to find me thanks to that, so it was effective.”

“It wasn’t effective. There was no way to rendezvous at the address I found in the terrarium.”

All I had gotten from the apartment in District 2 was a disk. The fact that I had been able to find Katarina was the harvest of my deal with Elliot, that is, purely my own ability.

“Uh, that can’t be. Didn’t the princess tell you to come and find me?”

“I said I was introduced through Elliot. Who’s the princess?”

“The elf princess, the leader of our Greenwood.”

The elf princess. I had heard his speculation about the organization called Greenwood from Drexier before. That Greenwood was the surname of the elf royal family. It was the moment when the speculation was revealed to be true.

“Oh, no? I was scared for nothing.”

“Yes, you said your goal was to find a druid, so why was the atmosphere so subdued?”

“I thought the princess had sent someone because she was curious about the progress of my mission. I was at a loss for words, and I thought it was a big deal that she had sent someone like you to this dangerous place.”

“A mission?”

“Yes, the recovery of the spirit’s cocoon.”

As expected. It was no coincidence that all of Greenwood’s requests were related to the spirit’s cocoon. But the mystery was not solved at all.

“In the first place, why is your Greenwood collecting spirit cocoons?”

Centream had used the spirit’s cocoon to make circuits instead of hatching it. It didn’t seem to have a bad purpose, but… it was a part I had to hear.

“Seeing that you’re looking for a druid, you seem to want to hatch the cocoon, but is it to restore Mother Nature?”

Was their purpose the same as mine? Katarina poured cold water on me, who was full of anticipation at having found a comrade.

“No.”

“……No.”

“The princess seemed to have said something similar, but the purpose of us, the members of the organization, is a little different.”

“Then? Is there any other meaning to the hatching of the cocoon other than the restoration of Mother Nature?”

“There is.”

She said with the most serious expression and voice she had shown so far.

“By blocking the path to challenge transcendence, we can postpone the lifespan of this dying world.”

***

A thick shadow flowed from the high ceiling. The shadow that had fallen to the floor gathered like a puddle of water on a rainy day, and then a person’s face peeked out.

“So you were here?”

With a captivating voice, Bianca looked at the splendid bed decorated with silk and jewels.

“Hello.”

On the bed sat a girl in a dress full of frills. She was staring blankly at the suddenly appeared Bianca, holding a doll tightly in one hand.

“Our young lady is still playing alone gloomily. They say that when a person changes, it’s time for them to die. It’s good that you seem to be alive and well.”

“Did you come to see me?”

“Not me, but the boss. He told me to come and check if you were alive.”

“Ah, a work report.”

The girl hit her head with a blank face.

“I knew it. He even asked me to check on your life and death, so it couldn’t have been just out of curiosity.”

Bianca, who had grinned, patted the girl’s shoulder affectionately.

“Let’s hear it. What did the boss ask you to do?”

“He told me to persuade a few people.”

“So, does it seem to be going well?”

“Yes.”

The girl shook the doll.

“It will be over soon.”

It was a doll wearing a crown.

(End of Chapter)