Chapter 48 : Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Click, clack, click, clack.
The woman who had slowly entered the meeting room, guided by Reina, threw off her robe.
Dazzlingly bright silver hair, beauty so striking that she could be mistaken for an Elf, and clear, shining silver eyes.
“Young Lord, even if you bring an Elf instead of a Dark Elf, as long as she is a member of the Ducal family……”
The marquess, thinking she was an Elf, frowned and raised his voice at Ian, but the woman who had entered the room opened her mouth.
“I am rarely permitted to go outside, so please excuse my intrusion.”
At her melodious voice, like rolling beads, everyone naturally paid attention to her words.
“I am Shendelzar, who, though humble, represents the will of the God of Light.”
The marquess looked at her with a bewildered expression.
While he was contemplating why a priest who followed the God of Light would come to a meeting room in the Reime Kingdom, Ian, who had approached her, patted her on the shoulder and said.
“As I said before, what’s important isn’t who you serve, but that you are a Sai……”
Just as Ian was about to introduce her as a Saintess, Shendelzar quickly cut him off.
“Ahem!
I!
represent the will of the Holy Spirit and represent the Holy Empire.”
After a small bow, she raised her head and looked at Ian.
* * *
From the moment I received the prince’s letter, I had been contemplating the joker cards I could use.
I had to prepare someone who was higher than or at least on par with Prince Trimia, so my only options were Count Mogul and the Saintess I had coincidentally met, Shendelzar.
After contacting her morning and evening for a full three days, Shendelzar, weary of my near-obsessive requests, reluctantly promised to attend.
Of course, the promise that I would personally visit the Holy Nation after everything was settled seemed to have moved her heart.
“Marquess, you would have no choice but to believe the words of Shendelzar, who represents the Holy Spirit and the Holy Empire.”
Unlike the beaming Ian at the timely arrival of Shendelzar, the meeting room was filled with silence.
To represent the Holy Empire meant that she was an existence comparable to the Pope, but not only had they never heard of such an existence, but the fact that such a person had come to another country alone was also hard to believe.
“Young Lord, I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but……”
As the marquess, who had swallowed hard, opened his mouth, Ian looked at him with a sly smile.
“I know what the marquess is worried about, but who would dare to lie about representing the Holy Empire in front of a marquess and prince of a nation?”
At Ian’s words, the marquess also bit his lip and said.
“Even if she represents the Holy Empire, how can she prove what happened here?”
“Of course, she can’t.”
Ian playfully made the sign of the cross and said.
“Unless, of course, a higher being were to do so.”
Wasn’t the battle of connections ultimately a battle of who could bring the person of higher status?
There was no way a human higher than the will of God could exist.
Shendelzar, who had been looking at the confident Ian with a dumbfounded expression, said quietly.
“Um, the gods wouldn’t get involved in something like this……”
There was no way the God of Light would use his power to answer a mere dispute between domains.
If he had the ability to discern the truth, the Holy Empire wouldn’t have become so corrupt.
“Ah, I am well aware that the God of Light does not concern himself with human affairs.
However, the incarnation of the divine would know.”
As Ian looked at Akasha, she took out a small branch, the size of a finger, from her bosom.
“Everyone may know the story that the World Tree only speaks the truth, but this will be the first time you see the World Tree.”
Today’s joker card was not Shendelzar.
She was just the most appropriate tool to use the joker card.
The one who knew the Elven forest better than anyone and had naturally leaked information to move Obsol was the World Tree.
Then, all I had to do was ask the World Tree.
Who was the person she saw in the western forest.
Of course, if she were an Elf who held the World Tree sacred, she would never have taken out a branch of the World Tree for something like this, but the Dark Elves who had forsaken their god were different.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
The marquess, who couldn’t guess Ian’s intentions, asked him.
“It is said that the World Tree, which has led the Elves for a long time, has sometimes lent its wisdom to humans.
It was believed that the World Tree, called the mother of ten thousand trees who watches over all forests, was as wise as the time it had existed.”
No matter how I thought about it, she seemed to be nothing more than a half-god with a voyeuristic streak, but what the people of this continent thought was not important.
“I will ask the World Tree in this place.
Whether that Treon over there was indeed in the western forest.
Akasha.”
“Yes.”
As soon as Ian finished speaking, Akasha broke the branch she was holding.
As if breaking a branch picked up from the street, without any long-standing sacred ritual or offering.
Soon, a bright light poured out from the broken branch.
Piiing!
The light that poured out in an instant gathered on Akasha’s body, and a deep green mana settled around her.
The descent of a demigod in Akasha’s body.
The mana in the air pressed down on their entire bodies, as if commanding them to bow.
“Kugh!”
One by one, those who were sitting fell from their chairs under the sudden pressure and knelt, looking at Akasha with bewildered eyes.
“……”
The demigod’s blatant displeasure spread through the air, and the air around them stirred according to her will.
In the meeting room where everyone was bowing as if worshiping a god, only Shendelzar, who had hastily raised her divine power, and Ian stood tall, facing the incarnated demigod.
* * *
‘Just as you’d expect from a fanatic, her entrance is just as unpleasant, tsk.’
I had already drawn out all the mana I could, and it felt like my blood vessels were burning.
It was a presence and an aura worthy of being called the god of the Elves.
‘Still, she’s just a bastard who abandoned the Dark Elves who believed in her.
How can a god who abandons her followers be called a god.’
As I stubbornly endured against that presence and aura, I saw Akasha’s eyes, which had turned black, slowly move and look around.
“...You are not my children.”
An emotionless, dry voice.
Nevertheless, the overwhelmingly high presence pressed down on the soul, commanding it to worship.
The legs that were holding me up on the ground trembled from the aura she exuded.
The World Tree, who had only incarnated by breaking a finger-sized branch, was a being of far greater power and majesty than I had thought.
“There is also a child of the God of Light……”
My mind grew hazy from the immense power contained in each and every letter that came out of her mouth, and I hastily bit my lip until it bled.
I could not lose the initiative any longer.
The most important thing in this plan was not to let that fanatic say whatever she wanted, but to make her say only what I wanted.
The World Tree was a god who observed all forests.
It was highly likely that she was completely unaware of the affairs of the city far from the forest, and even where this place was.
Since she had incarnated using Akasha’s body, she would be thinking that she was somewhere near the western forest.
I had to end this unpleasant descent before she grasped the exact situation.
By the time my mouth was filled with blood, the trait 『Desire for Blood』 was activated, and as I did not bend my will even in the face of the immense power, the 『Struggle Desire of the Giant King』 was activated.
Nevertheless, it was not easy to open my mouth in front of a being who had reached the level of a god.
Even if it was a clone that was not even a speck of her true self.
I forced myself to overcome the nauseating pressure and opened my mouth.
“According to the ancient oath……”
“Hng……?”
Then, the World Tree looked this way with interest.
Her black eyes, which looked more bizarre than sacred, curved beautifully.
Ignoring the unpleasant gaze, as if looking at a toy, I forced my lips to move.
I had not expected her to be so overwhelming with just her presence alone, so I had no particular preparations.
If I made a mistake now, the handling of Obsol would not go according to plan.
I had to somehow keep my mouth moving.
“I offer your body and demand the truth, so please tell me only one truth.”
The World Tree, who smiled slightly at Ian’s words, opened her mouth.
“You are a truly bold human, the likes of which I have not seen in a long time.
Ask.”
As soon as her permission was granted, the force that was pressing down on my body disappeared.
Only then did I extend my hand and point at Treon, who was crawling on the floor.
“Have you ever seen that man over there, in the territory of the Moner family called the western forest.”
At Ian’s question, the World Tree, who turned her head slightly and looked at Treon as if he were an insect, moved her will and pressed down on Ian once again.
“I am a being who has existed since the birth of the continent and the parent of all Elves.
I have led countless kingdoms to prosperity.
Do you mean to say you called me for a question like this?”
She did not know who Treon was.
There was no way she, the god of all Elves and the master of all forests, would be interested in a single human.
However, the World Tree felt a faint anger that her branch, her own body, had been broken to find out such insignificant information.
Grind!
Ian’s one knee buckled under her aura.
The World Tree’s black eyes, looking down on Ian as if she would no longer tolerate a human standing before her, sank coldly.
Akasha had said that it took a whole month to face the truth because the World Tree was enraged.
Every time Akasha and the other Elf priests tried to ask the World Tree a question, the World Tree had rampaged like this and induced them to ask other questions.
However, the incarnation of the World Tree was a contract mediated by her body and an oath that had existed since the dawn of the continent.
“I, I have already paid the price.
According to the oath, please lend me the wisdom of the World Tree.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the pressure that was crushing his entire body disappeared, and the empty and nihilistic gaze of the World Tree, who had borrowed Akasha’s body, was directed at Ian’s eyes.
“...You are an interesting human.
Yes, that child was in the western forest.
However─”
Clap!
Before she could say anything else, Ian clapped his hands and opened his mouth.
“Thank you for lending us your wisdom, O Mother of Ten Thousand Trees.”
A clear dismissal.
She was a snake-like god who had led the Dark Elves with lies for hundreds of years.
No matter how much the history of the continent and the Elves praised the World Tree, she was a demigod who had abandoned her followers, an evil god.
The restriction of only speaking the truth might also be a device to more easily manipulate the Elves and humans of the continent.
So I had to stop her from saying more.
‘To think that a finger-sized branch wouldn’t have much power…….’
As I was blaming my past self for being complacent and making a sloppy plan, I heard the World Tree’s cold voice.
“You are an interesting child.
The forest will be watching you.”
With those words, Akasha’s body collapsed as if crumbling.
‘Ha, just as you’d expect from a peeping tom.’
It was a threat filled with malice, but I was not the least bit scared.
If the World Tree had that much power, she would have been mentioned in some way in the game.
‘No, before that, you would have killed the Dark Elves with your own hands.’
Seeing as how a god-like being had been using the hands of others to hunt the Dark Elves, it was certain that the World Tree could not run rampant on this land as she pleased.
‘There’s something more important than that right now.’
There was no need to pay attention to the words of a piece of firewood that would be burned someday.
Thinking that, I turned my head and looked at Shendelzar.
She, who was covered in divine power and sweating profusely, collapsed on the floor as if it was all over only after Akasha fell.
“Now.
Lady Shendelzar, was the person who was just in Akasha the World Tree?”
“...What?
Is that even a question right now……”
“Ah, of course, everyone in this room felt it, but if Lady Shendelzar wasn’t here, there would have been someone who would have claimed it was a fraud by the Moner family.”
I slowly turned my head and looked at the marquess, who seemed to have half lost his mind.
The joker I had prepared seemed to have worked properly, as saliva was dribbling from the marquess’s slightly open mouth.
“Marquess, as the World Tree has acknowledged, Treon was in the western forest.
He wouldn't have gone to a place with only demonic beasts, not Lier, to camp, so as you said, we can consider it a clear invasion, right?”
At Ian's question, the marquess's unfocused eyes shook violently.