145 – Soldier (11)

“I’ll give you what you want.”

These were the words of the Prophet while opening the portal to the Elven Forest to reach the World Tree.

Suddenly, what kind of nonsense are you talking about? Iva ignored it and tried to enter the portal, but the Prophet stopped her.

“Instead, listen to what I want.”

Eva frowned at her.

“What? Isn’t it natural that you help me?”

“That’s shameless…”

“Anyone can see that it’s an equal partnership. Hey. If you don’t help me, Layla will find out who you are.”

“Try that.”

The Prophet refuted coolly.

“I will also spread the news that the demon king candidate is alive to all those in power.”

“…..”

Eva ran her hand over her chin a few times in admiration.

A person who was thought to be a hogu is rebelling. Is it not easily dominated? It was very satisfying to see him struggling to find his humanity.

“Ah. Will it come out like that?”

But she didn’t have it easy. He crossed his arms for no reason and showed a relaxed attitude. Efforts are imaginary, but they have not yet been able to give up their superiority. Because there was an impatience hanging over him that was faster than the speed of his heart.

“Not a bad suggestion for you either.”

“What is it?”

The Prophet made the suggestion in a determined manner.

“After coming out of the World Tree, please burn it.”

**

Thinking about it again, it was such a strange statement. Would you ask me to burn the World Tree when your teacher is here? Isn’t that such an immoral idea? No matter how social it is, I don’t think this is it.

“…That the world would be in chaos? How?”

“Because it’s an eternal demon. It will make its surroundings eternal.”

The old man said as if he already knew.

” There is no distinction between night and day, no day passes, nothing dies, no growth, and emotions that will quickly volatilize will not disappear and will be attached to the heart. Nothing will open, will not rot, and will last forever.”

“Are you saying you’ve been through this before?”

“Of course. I’ve already seen it in the prophecy.”

Hmm, the old man laughed. It was absurd. If he knew that, he shouldn’t have warned his disciple in advance and sent me to this place. No, it would have been better if the Prophet’s identity had been revealed to me in the first place so that I wouldn’t use the World Tree as a solution.

In the end, I came again and the world became like this. It was complicated. No matter what I do, it only seems to go in the wrong direction.

“Besides, even if you don’t come in, it will be like this someday. Don’t feel too guilty.”

The chubby old man in front of me cut off my thoughts as if he had penetrated my heart.

Oops, I went in an unimaginable direction again.

Even if you try not to think negatively, guilt arises. If my butterfly effect was found out, I would surely be criticized, so it seemed like it was because I was afraid. My selfishness soon formed an altruistic guilt. Imagination is sometimes poison.

“When the time comes? Isn’t it just because I came that the World Tree is going to sh*t?”

“Even without us, the world changes drastically. The population, civilization, length of trees, and number of leaves. Little by little, like grains of sand piling up on the beach. Seeing the sandy beach that has grown so much one day, the devil, who wanted to create eternity, is enraged. It is arranged.”

The old man returned to his detached attitude in his life again. He was like a diseased branch on the verge of dying, and his movements were minimal. He moved the bare minimum of muscles and he started talking to me.

“That’s why most of my life I’ve been trying to stop this World Tree runaway.”

The old man who told me so smiled. It was a feeling like the embers of a extinguishing fire.

“By the way, what was the world tree like before I came. Time in the great forest goes by slowly. Hey, fool, how many years ago did it say that the battle between the hero and the demon king was held outside?”

“…A thousand years for sure.”

“Three thousand years have passed here. But these crazy elves have a strange concept of time. They count three days as a day. Then how did the elves survive the outrage until now?”

A chilly feeling ran through my back. Most of the bad things in the world have different reasons, but the solutions are the same. During the great famine, adults killed children and the elderly to reduce their mouths. In all major catastrophes, the weak always suffer.

“They adjusted the population by offering sacrifices. Who knows, but they figured out that if the population stayed the same as in the past, the world tree would reap its wrath. They sacrificed newborn babies and old people. Elves’ reproductive abilities, anyway. It’s not good, just kill a few people and you’re done.”

Huh, like the old man from before, a laugh jumped out at me too.

“But it’s a nuisance to manage like that every time. So the elves created a magic. They honor someone as a symbol of change and an homage to eternity, and by killing them, they draw out the power of eternity.”

A similar method to summoning the demon of death, which I saw once. My instinct gave a clear answer what it was.

“The Shaman of the World Tree.”

The old man nodded her head.

**

The Prophet still remembers.

When the news spread that Lila was being promoted to the World Tree Shaman for the first time, she didn’t know anything. She said that she should congratulate her later.

She was naive when she thought that being a shrine maiden was simply a great position.

“…Hey Prophet. Where are we going?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

She didn’t know then. She explained what the shrine maiden meant, and how these elves were able to spend their long lives peacefully and indolently.

“Are you kidding me?”

A ghastly voice. It was a murderous intent that could be conveyed in refined language.

“We’re looking for Eva… It’s no time to go along with your pranks… Be gentle and lead them to the World Tree…”

Wiz’s horse didn’t carry a sword, but she performed just as well. Cold sweat ran down her back as if she had been in a hot bath, and her lips were dry. It was scary. I wanted to at least bow down and ask you to listen to my teacher’s teachings.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that now.

“I can’t.”

“Why?!”

Inis, who met the Prophet for the first time today, also argued without backing down. Her manners were insignificant compared to the fever she was suffering from.

“Because I have to.”

That was a promise and a contract made with the demon lord candidate. If you get a year’s seal from the World Tree, then burn the World Tree.

I thought I would argue, but he accepted the offer with absurd ease. It was a moment of change from a one-sided cooperative relationship to a strict contractual relationship.

“Hey, don’t be a jerk, just be honest.”

Lilia stopped the Prophet and questioned him. Her eyes widened, her expression more ferocious than any wild beast in the Great Forest.

“Don’t show that you’re not social. Explain why this sh*t is happening and why you can’t bring this up.”

The Prophet put his chin on his chin and pondered. Where should I start talking? What can I say or what can I not say? For once, one thing was certain.

“I don’t know why the World Tree started running out of control. It’s strange to say that it’s a side effect of simply accepting a high-level being as a candidate for the Demon King. I can’t explain the cause…”

“Then why can’t I take Eba with me!”

Stella cut her off, placing a hand on an angry Lillia’s shoulder.

“Stop it. It’s useless to say more.”

Her eyes were extremely calm compared to the others.

“I don’t think I want to say it, but I can’t help it.”

It was like a clean corpse, free from soil and blood, that was formed in the midst of war. What should have been chaos was unnaturally decided.

“Let’s make a confession through torture.”

Stella grinned as she said that.

The Prophet’s pupils began to tremble greatly. Where did I go wrong? I looked back at my life history. I had to open my mouth, but fear prevented it from opening easily.

“No, me. That’s…”

“Huh? You think that would be nice too? Hey.”

“…If you’re going to do it, do it yourself. I don’t want to hear the screams of a man in a bad mood.”

“I think so even if you don’t tell me.”

No one stopped me.

“I… Will help.”

“…..”

Wiz agreed, but Innis turned away. It was the approval that looked around.

Those who were given the duty to set things right did the opposite without hesitation. The feelings didn’t go away. Continued since entering this elven forest.

Their hearts were filled with sticky injustice resembling the viscosity of blood. Nervousness, urgency, anger, sorrow, regret, envy, greed. Intense emotions that prompt people to act.

Emotions that volatilized and resurrected as quickly as they were intense were maintained as they were at first. Fixed forever. It was stuffed more perfectly than any other mummy and restrained their actions.

At that time.

“Here~ Mr. Layla!”

I heard someone’s loud voice. Thinking they were the elves who were chasing them, they took a wary attitude, but the people in front of them were not them.

“Hey, hehehe… Uh, sister…? No, senpai…?”

Lake and purple. Both were rare to see in Daesoorim. From the prophet’s point of view, they were the ones who shouldn’t have been seen.

“…Lyla?”

“Ra, il… La…”

Why? Why is she here? For a while, she even felt that question.

“Found the sinners!!!!”

The sky, which regained daylight from the sunset, was dyed black. The day still didn’t go well. It was the moment when the world tree made a change to prevent change once again.

Around the time when neither the stars nor the moon had risen yet, when an insect that was ashamed to show itself began to cry as it was ashamed of its timidity while hiding in the shadows.

A bright light like the sun of May New Moon enveloped them.

The midday light urged them to sleep.

Elves have superpowers. Instead of developing magic, she mainly studies how to use that ability.

The skill that put them to sleep was someone else’s ability.

It was the power they were proud of more than anything, given by the devil who now scatters disasters in the world.

**

“Old man, what do you want to say after all?”

“What is it?”

The old man closed his eyes and began to cross his legs. It was like they treated me like an annoying outsider. What kind of treatment is this for a noble person I met for the first time today?

“You idiot, why did I bring you here? Why did I bring you here when I knew the world tree would run out of control?”

There was silence for a while. There was no sound of nature, so it was very quiet. My heartbeat was the best noise here. No sound was heard from the old man. Really, no sound.

After a moment of silence, the old man opened his closed eyes again.

“…I’m going to give you a good opportunity. I’ll give you this good deed that I should have done.”

The corner of the old man’s mouth rose subtly in place of his heartbeat.

“I want to burn this world tree. I want to give you a chance to fix this world right.”

It was fresh bullsh*t.

A bullsh*t that sounds like Shinseon talking.

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