Chapter 115. What? How? Why?
The next day, someone knocked on Helion’s room. While knocking, they shouted in an extremely awkward-sounding human language. “Good morning, I am here to bring you to Ghiana.”
Helion, who had just woken up, became a bit embarrassed and opened the door.
The moment he opened it, Helion saw a young elf standing in front of him.
Because the elf in front of him looks a bit androgynous, Helion took a moment to see the Adam’s apple on their throat. “Please wait a moment.”
The elf looks a bit confused after hearing Helion’s words. He read his note while repeating another sentence in awkward human language, “Good morning, I am here to bring you to Ghiana.”
Helion realized the elf didn’t actually understand human language. Instead, the elf is only reading a note that Ghiana probably gave him.
When he realized it, Helion pointed at the bathroom inside his room.
The elf looked confused. It took a few more motions from Helion before the elf understood he wanted to take a short bath.
Leaving the elf, Helion entered the bathroom.
He has used the bathroom yesterday, seeing that water can flow from every room, Helion is still amazed.
Although the Temple and other human settlements also have water systems, they aren’t as thorough as the one the elves had. It’s usually only used in public bathhouses or important figures’ residences.
Once he’s done bathing, Helion wears the clothes that have been prepared for him and follows after the elf.
While waiting for him to finish bathing, the elf somehow got several pieces of bread on his hand and is currently busy nibbling on them. He looked at Helion while grabbing Helion’s hand before placing a piece of bread on it.
Helion nodded to say thank you.
Both of them quickly exited the inn-like building where Helion stayed. After a fifteen-minute walk, they arrived in front of a building near the center of the city.
After entering the building and making several turns, Helion soon spotted Ghiana. She was dressed in a pure white robe while intently writing on a stack of papers.
Seeing Ghiana so focused, neither he nor the elf who brought him came forward to greet her. Both of them waited for half an hour before Ghiana stopped writing and looked at them.
“Hmm? Did you wait for long? I apologize, I am too focused on writing my notes.” Ghiana spoke in human language.
“There’s no need for an apology. After all, I am extremely grateful you are willing to teach me human language.” Helion smiled.
“Then, let’s get started immediately.”
Under Ghiana’s teaching, Helion took a year to become mostly fluent with the elven language. During this time, Ghiana is also deepening his understanding of the human language and human territory from Helion.
Even though Helion has become fluent in the elven language, he still hasn’t left and decided to study further under Ghiana instead. Especially after he came into contact with the elves’ internet and learned that Ghiana is the one who created it. He even willingly called Ghiana ‘teacher’ just like the other elven researchers and students.
While experimenting on some magical plants and magical animals as usual, Helion saw Ghiana busy writing notes.
He has been curious about what kind of notes Ghiana is writing. Now that he felt they’d gotten closer, Helion finally decided to fulfill his curiosity and asked, “Teacher, what are you writing about?”
Ghiana stopped and raised her head, “It’s my hypothesis on how to advance the plant-based internet I created.”
“With this, the future generation can have several possible research directions and won’t need to start from ground zero. Although I’ve promised the creator not to spread and advance the knowledge from my homeworld for the next hundred years, he never mentioned I couldn’t leave clues.” Ghiana slightly shrugged while slightly smiling in schadenfreude.
“Teacher, you’ve met the god of creation?!” Helion asked in surprise. “Is he actually a real god? Or is he also similar to the god of alchemy?”
He already knew Ghiana and her daughter came from another world. But this is the first time she has ever mentioned anything about meeting the god of creation.
Suddenly being bombarded by several questions, Ghiana replied one by one, “Well, the god of creation should be a real god. Both Elisa and I had seen him before we got reincarnated to this world.”
Ghianna added, “I think among the books the god of alchemy has sent, there are also several feats of the creator recorded. Among them, the most unbelievable feat is creating the mountain range in the south several centuries ago.”
“While we’re talking about the god of alchemy, I think he got his god complex from trying to copy the god of creation. You know, just like how children like to copy their parents.”
Helion became speechless at Ghiana’s casual explanation.
Ghiana didn’t stop talking, “The creator god also could give incredible fruit capable of extending lifespan, which is why I could live for so long. But honestly, even after so many benefits, I’d rather the creator isn’t real.”
“Why?”
“He gives off an unreliable feeling. My daughter became a tree thanks to his oversight.” Even though several centuries have passed, Ghiana still gets angry every time she recalls this. So, she stopped talking.
After hearing Ghiana’s words, Helion froze, his mind overloaded from having his worldview shattered multiple times. The two of them then fell into an awkward silence as they went back to studying the magical plants as usual.
After the conversation about the creator ended in awkward silence, Helion went back to his daily life in the city. He woke up, ate breakfast, and then headed to Ghiana’s laboratory to research magical plants or read books in the elves’ library. Occasionally, he also traveled to other places and even visited a few dwarven cities.
As several years passed by, Helion’s 91st birthday arrived. Following his sudden urge to visit Ghiana’s laboratory, he woke up, took a short bath, and walked toward the road he had become accustomed to.
Soon, he arrived at the library. But unlike before, Ghiana could no longer be seen in the lab.
Two years ago, she fell ill and hasn’t recovered so far. Ever since Ghiana fell ill, Helion spent less time visiting the laboratory. Even when he visits, he’ll mostly come to check on Ghiana, who lives in a room in the laboratory.
Except for that, he’s been busy spending time outside researching his magic.
Today, he arrived at the laboratory not only to visit Ghiana, but also because he had made up his mind to tell her his research on magic that he had kept secret.
Helion slowly walked toward a room and knocked. Upon hearing a reply, he entered and saw Ghiana had woken up.
Watching Ghiana, who has many deep wrinkles on her face, Helion spoke, “Teacher, actually, I’ve long since invented something I called magic…”
Ghiana silently listened as Helion presented his research on magic.
“Teacher, you’re not surprised by my research?”
“*Cough*Well, this is a world with a superpower like blessed power and existence like the creator god. Why should I be surprised by some magic spell? *Cough* Not only that, I’ve also seen you occasionally using power from other elements. So, it didn’t surprise me at all.*Cough*”
Helion looked at Ghiana, who had been coughing nonstop.
After helping her to drink a cup of water, Ghiana continued, “I don’t know why you’re suddenly telling me all this now, but you should do whatever you want with that magic or whatever. That’s something you’ve researched by yourself. I have no right to tell you what to do with it. Go teach some students or create an army if you want. But don’t involve the whole elven race for your personal revenge.”
After living together so long, Ghiana knew about Helion’s hatred for the god of alchemy. Personally, she isn’t against it, but she doesn’t want the elves and Elisa to get involved with the mess.
“Now, leave. I need to sleep.” Ghiana shooed Helion away as she slowly lay on her bed while coughing.
“Thank you for everything. Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to research magic this deeply.” Helion bowed to Ghiana and left.
Ghiana looked at Helion with a weird look. Once Helion left, she sighed, “What a coincidence for him to arrive now out of all time.”
Perhaps because she’s a powerful blessed, Ghiana actually could feel her time had come.
Looking at a familiar flower that suddenly grew from the wall of her room, Ghiana softly muttered, “Sigh… I actually don’t want you to see me in this state.”
Still looking at that flower, Ghiana slowly closed her eyes, “Goodnight. May you live a long, fulfilling life, a life so beautiful you can slowly forget about all sadness.”
By the time she finished speaking, Ghiana’s eyes had closed and her body stopped moving.
The flower on her wall slowly crept toward her. It reached her nose, and when it couldn’t sense any breath, it moved closer to check the heart that had stopped beating.
With Ghiana’s death, tremors rippled through the city. With the city center as the epicenter, the earthquake spread outward, shaking half of the elven forest.
Although her main body is a tree, Elisa actually represents the elves’ magical forest. Especially now that she has reached Level 4, Elisa’s will could reach most of the elven forest.
With her grief, the tree at the center of the city rustled noisily. At the same time, the whole forest fell silent. Whether it’s the elves, animals, birds, or insects, everything and everyone could feel the forest’s sadness amidst the quaking ground.
Most elves panicked from the sudden disaster, but those who realized what most likely caused such a change went toward Elisa’s tree body.
Once they stand in front of Elisa, everyone’s ears are filled only with the massive tree’s rustling sound.
It took Elisa a long time to calm down. Before the elves could try to comfort her, Elisa dismissed them. “Ghiana has died. Please leave me alone for now.”
The elves who got kicked not long after arriving looked at each other. At last, the governor who took after Niel’s position spoke, “Then, we shall handle elder Ghiana’s funeral.”
“Alright.” A faint sound came from Elisa.
With Elisa’s agreement, the elves left. Before they left, all of them heard Elisa’s words.
“Bury her near me. This time, I shall protect her.” Elisa spoke before falling silent once more.
***
In the Divine Space, Cedric fell silent as he watched Ghiana breathe her last.
For her contribution and for the sake of Elisa, his strongest hero, Cedric has given Ghiana several lifespan fruits to extend her lifespan. Even so, she still ran out of lifespan.
Watching Elisa grieving, Cedric wanted to cheer her up, but seeing her asking to be left alone, Cedric decided not to bother her for now.
Instead, he silently watched Ghiana’s funeral procession.
With the internet the elves had created, the news of Ghiana’s death immediately spread throughout the land. Even some dwarves had caught wind of the news and arrived for her funeral procession.
With Ghiana’s death, the whole Northeast part of the Crystal Cube world is filled with a somber mood.
Cedric also lost the mood to continue creating new species. He sat on a chair, watching as Ghiana’s body was buried in the ground near Elisa. In his hand, he held a glass of alcohol.
Even though he couldn’t get drunk, he still felt the urge to drink.
While Cedric is feeling melancholic, he suddenly pauses as several screens appear in front of him.
[Warning! The density of Negative Energy within your world has reached a dangerous degree! A Demon King will be born in your world.]
After reading one of the screens, Cedric spurted out the alcohol he had just drunk.