CHAPTER 87

087 - Not So Peaceful

As his soul trembled, the King of the Dark Elves staggered. He covered his mouth and stumbled backward, gagging in agony.
“M… Mother…”
He called out in a pitiful voice, but no one answered. The black root was stuck fast to Jinwoo, showing no intention of leaving.
The distance between him and Jinwoo wasn't great, but it wasn't close either. Yet right now, that distance seemed so vast it would take hundreds of years to cross.
‘Words…’
Now, he couldn't even form words. It wasn't just because of the soul tremor.
The emptiness that came from being abandoned by a great being. The terror that came from a solitude as dark as the abyss made it impossible for him to even open his mouth properly.
How could he have ever predicted such a future? He had believed himself to be favored by his Mother above all others.
He had even thought that if a day came when he lost that favor, he would be blinded by intense jealousy and would surely kill the one who took his place.
But now that it had happened, neither jealousy nor killing intent, nothing, arose within him.
Before the emptiness he now felt, emotions like jealousy or bloodlust were far too vibrant.
“You there. You were called the King of the Dark Elves?”
“…”
The being that had caused this emptiness was looking at him. While basking in the full blessing of Mother World Tree.
The sight was so blinding he felt his eyes would burn, but he couldn't turn his head away. With a trembling body, he looked at his opponent.
“First, how about you get rid of those ogres over there.”
A command given to the defeated. They hadn't even fought, but the man had no energy left to resist.
“They have already retreat… retreated.”
Jinwoo looked at Rona. With the soul tremor gone, she had already recovered her normal condition.
She was still just as bewildered, to the point of forgetting to breathe, but she knew what she had to do now.
A white light formed in her hand, gathering information from the outside.
“It’s true. The ogres have retreated, and the Lord is busy cleaning up the aftermath.”
Jinwoo looked back at the man. Now that the immediate problem was solved, the most important matter remained.
When he opened his hand, the black root coiled around his arm played upon his palm.
“About this Erosion… don’t tell me you’re the culprit?”
“Culprit…?”
“I’m asking if you caused this Erosion.”
His usual self would have given a vague answer and enjoyed his opponent’s reaction. But now, having lost all will and energy, even the act of telling a lie was too burdensome for him.
“N-no… it was not me.”
He kept trying to slip into formal speech, but with his last remaining bit of stubbornness, he corrected himself. He was at least aware that his opponent was a human.
The more he did so, the more pathetic he himself became.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo did not doubt his answer. To be precise, it was what he had expected.
“Right, I thought so.”
“?”
The man looked at him quizzically, but Jinwoo had no intention of explaining.
‘He doesn't have a Black Flame like the Monarchs, nor does he seem to handle Erosion properly. There's no way he could have caused the World Tree to be Eroded.’
It was a simple matter of logic. The World Tree was a great tree of the Spirit Realm, and judging by its standing within the Gate, it was a being on par with the Monarchs.
To inflict Erosion on such a being, one would need to be able to handle Erosion at least on the level of a Monarch.
The King of the Dark Elves was far from being a Monarch; he didn't even possess a Black Flame in the first place. The only Black Flame here was the one possessed by the World Tree's root.
‘Can I kill him?’
Jinwoo closed his eyes and asked the black root. The question was not for the root but was transmitted through the glass bead to the God of the Moonlight Forest, conveying her will.
[The God of the Moonlight Forest hesitates.]
There was no command not to kill. But there was no answer to kill him, either. It meant she was contemplating.
Hesitating in this situation could be taken as her leaving the choice to him.
Jinwoo raised his sword.
“A-are you going to kill me?”
“If you’re going to resist, then try.”
“I…”
The King of the Dark Elves hesitated.
He had no lingering attachment to this life. It was a life he could have thrown away at any time for the sake of Mother World Tree.
So, to be killed by an apostle favored by that same World Tree, wouldn't that also be a fitting end? He thought so.
“I was attacked by Dark Elves in the Gate once. And there was an attack on Velen Village just recently. Do you normally go around attacking places like that?”

"Because that is the path for the Mother World Tree."
"By collecting souls and offering them to the World Tree?"
"Of course."
Jinwoo asked the question. He asked the World Tree herself if that was truly what sustained her.
[The God of the Moonlight Forest denies it. The fate of a Spirit Realm soul cannot possibly be changed by a mere few hundred or thousand souls from the lower world.]
Right. The phenomenon of Erosion couldn't be so trivial that it could be solved by that. If it were, why would he be going through all this trouble?
‘…Huh? Trouble?’
The thought that had passed so casually snagged in his mind like a splinter. He knew Erosion wasn't easy, but had he really gone through that much trouble?
Of course, there had been a few dangerous moments, but the thought that just crossed his mind seemed to contain a much deeper span of time.
In any case, the guy in front of him was the priority.
"You might not believe this, but the World Tree says no. She says it's not helping, so you should stop."
"What…?"
As the king reeled in shock, Jinwoo plunged his sword into the man's chest.
Normally, he would have pierced the flame in a single strike, but this time, he wasn't aiming for the flame; he simply stabbed the man's chest.
And into that wound, the power of the World Tree flowing from the glass bead was implanted.
'You can place one or two bindings, right? Tell him to stop stabbing people everywhere under the pretext of offering you souls. And it would be great if you added a clause about not messing with me.'
[The God of the Moonlight Forest nods.]
The World Tree's energy, flowing through Jinwoo's sword, constricted the Dark Elf King's heart.
Bound by a strong chain, it pulsed in time with his heart, engraving the World Tree's will—no, Jinwoo's will—upon it.
If he defied it, the pulsing would stop, and his heart would be squeezed until it burst.
"Ah, aah…"
Yet, even as the binding was being placed, the king looked utterly overwhelmed with emotion.
The void was being filled. His unstable existence, like a newborn chick that had lost its mother, became somewhat normal with just the small amount of energy that entered him for the binding.
"Thank you, thank you. Thank you for bestowing even a small part of Mother's touch upon me."
Jinwoo scowled at the sight of someone weeping with gratitude toward the person placing a curse on them. It was like looking at a madman, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling. What a creepy guy.
"If you understand, get going. The binding won't break just because you get farther away, so don't even think about running."
"How could a son cast away his mother's touch! Until the day this life ends…"
"Just get lost."
"Yes, sir!"
It was almost better when he was speaking informally like he did at first. Jinwoo shooed him away with a wave of his hand, and the Dark Elf King pulled up his hood and vanished into the shadows.
So he had a skill like that, too… He dressed like a priest, but his techniques were just like those of an assassin, like Kurenai Masato.
‘Alright, now…’
All that was left was Rona, who looked like she had many questions but couldn't bring herself to ask. With the ogres all dead or retreated, elves were beginning to return to the territory.
"Let's get out of here before we're spotted. We don't need to infiltrate the royal palace anymore, but we won't be able to talk freely inside the territory."
After giving Rona a rough explanation, the only thing left was to ask the World Tree about the situation on the 3rd Floor.

Ionia Elea. The guardian of this forest and the head of the Elea family.
Having dealt with the sudden ogre attack, she remained in the forest to assess the damage.
Though the battle was short, many elves had been seriously injured. She used Nectar generously to give them first aid before sending them all back to the territory.
Not only that, but the forest itself had been heavily damaged. Thanks to the Mother World Tree's blessing, the trees grew very quickly, but it would still take a considerable amount of time to recover.
‘Just who would do something like this…!’
Ionia was furious. The ogres' actions were clearly unnatural.
They were a species that didn't typically move in groups, yet they had attacked as a pack. They had also displayed strength far greater than that of ordinary ogres.
It was a phenomenon that could never have occurred without someone's malice behind it.
Who? A rival family from a past power struggle, a political opponent, or someone holding a grudge against her family.
Unfortunately, there were countless suspects. So many that it was difficult to narrow it down to one.
Just then, as her head began to ache, the answer appeared before her all too easily. The Dark Elf King emerged abruptly from the shadows.

"You…!?"
His appearance was so sudden that even Ionia was startled. But she was the head of a family who had ruled for ages. She quickly composed herself and swung her sword.
Swoosh—
However, her blade passed through the man's body as if he were a ghost.
"Tsk, an illusion."
The real body must be elsewhere. Swinging her sword at an illusion was useless.
Seeing Ionia raise her sword and scan her surroundings, the Dark Elf King spoke.
"I did not come here to fight. I came to deliver the will of the Mother World Tree, according to His command."
"…!"
She wanted to dismiss it as nonsense and drive him away, but now that he had invoked the name of the Mother World Tree, she couldn't.
It was true that the Dark Elves had been at odds with them for ages, but they were undeniably a clan of elves who also served the World Tree.
He wouldn't utter such nonsense in her name.
"The Elea family has hunted its fair share of humans and dwarves, has it not?"
"…Was that not a small deed we could do for our withering Mother World Tree?"
"He said that such acts are not helpful at all, not in the slightest, and that you should stop immediately."
Ionia's eyes narrowed, and her grip on her sword tightened.
"Who is this 'He'? For a king like you to use such extreme honorifics."
"I met him in your territory. The Apostle, who receives the Mother World Tree's favor all to himself."
"An Apostle!? Who?"
"Ah, I didn't get his name. Come to think of it, I don't think I introduced myself either…"
"Cut the chatter and just tell me who it is! Don't tell me the Queen has left her tower?"
"No. He is a human with black hair."
Ionia's expression turned icy. Unable to restrain herself any longer, she swung her sword. As before, the blade passed through him, but it didn't end there.
Her mana scattered the king's mana, erasing the illusion like smoke.
"You've fallen, Dark King. I knew you were a suspicious one, but I thought we at least shared a love for the Mother World Tree. It seems I was mistaken."
"What do you mean?" he asked, even as he was dispersing like smoke.
Ionia's reply was concise.
"The one who receives the most favor from the Mother World Tree is Her Majesty, the Queen. If an Apostle were to exist, it could be no one but her. To say nothing of a human."
Scoffing, Ionia watched the fading illusion. The illusion fell silent, as if this was no fun, but at the same time, as if it had expected this.
"You people never change."
With those final words, he disappeared.

For the next half a day, they did nothing but travel.
Since there was no longer a need to go to the royal palace, they had no specific destination. They simply traveled for half a day with the sole purpose of getting away from the Elea territory where the incident had occurred.
Once he felt they were far enough away, Jinwoo and Rona found a suitable spot by a stream.
He pitched his usual tent on the bumpy gravel and started catching fish. Being with Rona like this suddenly reminded him of the old days.
"You brought me the fishing net and the fish I left behind."
"When we first met? Yes, that did happen."
"At first, I thought you were just toying with your captured prey."
"That's harsh. I followed you as quietly as possible so I wouldn't startle you and left them there while you were sleeping."
It was the "quietly" and "secretly" part that was actually terrifying… but he decided not to mention it.
He explained to Rona that the reason the World Tree followed him was because of what happened on the 3rd Floor.
He told her he had nearly 200 million contribution points with the God of the Moonlight Forest, and that was why he was so favored.
She had been surprised to learn that the God of the Moonlight Forest was the World Tree, but she was just as shocked by the 200 million contribution points.
—Two hundred million… It's not that you're favored because you have 200 million contribution points, but that you have 200 million points because you're favored, isn't it?
He was surprised that her astonished words had actually hit the nail on the head.
But the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, was always a tricky one. He managed to talk his way around it, and she seemed to understand somehow.
Though, of course, she probably wasn't completely convinced.
‘For now…’
It was time to achieve the purpose for which he had come to this world. The reason the 3rd Floor was closed. If someone had closed it, who was it? And what was the current situation on the 3rd Floor?
[The God of the Moonlight Forest requests the protection of her temple and sacred artifact.]
…It seemed things weren't exactly peaceful.