Chapter 70

I have waited long enough. I will update daily until the final chapter of Chapter 3.

Merry Christmas!

A raindrop fell into the deep forest.

The single raindrop splashed upon hitting the ground, and soon after, the sound of light rain continued.

Amid the misty rain enveloping the forest, a group dressed in green advanced at the edge of the woods.

The visibility in the forest, covered by overcast skies, was poor, but the man leading the group thought this was advantageous. The rain that concealed their footsteps and figures was more than welcome.

Of course, victory was possible even without such a surprise attack. He truly believed that there was no way they could fall behind. However, the thought that it was better to be doubly cautious led them to choose a covert operation.

After all, what was about to take place was a battle that would stake the honor of their nation—no, the pride of their race. They were here as representatives of all their kin living in the Great Tree Sea. At least, the man believed so.

It must have been the same on that day, the man thought.

As he advanced, the image of the proud hero of the Noblewood Elves came to his mind.

The image of Salawin Welt Nobleleaf, the Hunter Leader, leading the vanguard, the elite among hunters, to establish a bridgehead in preparation for the battle against humans.

Given the unanimous mission bestowed upon him by the Elder Council, the hero must have carried out a swift urban assault without letting his guard down, meticulously avoiding any carelessness.

But why did it end up like that?

Why did they have to resort to such measures?

Even now, he could not fully understand. However, what he had to do was clear. The man suppressed his boiling emotions and continued the march, maintaining a calm demeanor on the surface.

"Stop there, Elves of Noblewood."

Suddenly, a voice was thrown at the group dressed in green.

The man at the head of the group, who had stopped, pushed back his hood and fixed his gaze on the source of the voice.

His exposed eyes, filled with a dangerous, intense light, met the speaker.

"You are the 'Taint' of Lastwood... How did you notice our presence?"

"Thanks to a well-meaning informant. They reported that a suspicious group was approaching the city. ...Judging by your appearance, there's no need to ask, but I will give you a warning."

Standing alone before the group exuding a killing intent, the speaker—Wenri, the former Warrior Leader of Lastwood—consciously maintained a firm tone.

"Beyond this point lies our nation, Lastwood. There is no reason for you to be here unless you have business with our city. Yet, you stand here, fully armed, and I must question your intentions."

One of the Elves rushed to the man who was questioned.

The man, having been informed of the woman's identity, answered with a sneer, his contempt evident.

"Are you questioning us, a mere Warrior Leader?"

"Do you need qualifications to question a suspicious group?"

"Nonsense. If you wish to speak with us Elves, you should at least bring the Queen. That is the minimum courtesy befitting your station."

The derogatory words about Half-Elves were a pure expression of his thoughts.

The man had no doubt about his words. He was merely stating what he believed to be obvious. In his view, Half-Elves did not even have the right to speak to Elves, and by not bringing the Queen, they were showing a lack of respect.

Wenri, understanding this, felt a surge of righteous indignation.

"Is this... Is this the words of those who would abandon their envoys? It is hard to believe that these are the words of lawless ones who responded to an outstretched hand of peace with blades!"

"Silence! Do you know how much humiliation we endure just by speaking with the likes of you!? Do you lack the intelligence to understand our feelings!? Then commit seppuku here and now! That is the courtesy you 'Taints' should show us!"

"There is no such courtesy! What do you think we Half-Elves are!?"

"Filth! You are nothing but a 'Taint' that defiles the forest and the Elves by your mere existence! How many times must I say it!? How many times must you be told to understand!? What else could you be besides that!? Born unwanted, accepted by no one, living in fear of the abyssal beasts, what else could you be—no."

The man, who had been raging, suddenly became calm, as if doused with cold water.

Remembering a certain fact that he had almost forgotten in his overwhelming anger, he began to tremble with a suppressed laugh.

"...Yes, yes, that's right. You had another important role. To serve as sustenance for our great wish of Noblewood—to breed as food for the fairy dragons, a role fitting for Half-Elves."

"...You still... You still do such things—!"

"There is no 'still.' It has been decided since the beginning. That is why we allowed you to settle in a corner of the forest. We tolerated your arrogance of living in a corner of the Great Tree Sea for decades. To turn against us and fulfill your role at the harvest time is the height of insolence!"

The man said that they had deliberately overlooked the Half-Elves settling in a corner of the forest for that purpose. Despite the extremely harsh environment near the Abyssal Forest, they had allowed them to live as part of the Great Tree Sea to breed them as food for the fairy dragons when they would be resurrected. And he stated without hesitation that Half-Elves were nothing more than livestock for the fairy dragons.

No dissenting voices rose from the over a hundred Elves standing behind the man.

For the Elves of Noblewood, this was a straightforward fact, an unshakable value, and a common sense that should naturally exist.

The irreconcilable difference in values and opinions.

Wenri, hearing this without hesitation, was left speechless, unable to muster the energy to argue or even protest. She could only stand there in a daze.

Interpreting her silence in his own way, the man nodded in satisfaction.

"But, it's fine now. You no longer need to fulfill your role as sustenance. It was a mistake to include the 'Taints' in our plan. Even sages make mistakes. So, let's be honest. It was a mistake to try to breed low-quality livestock as food for the fairy dragons."

"...At this point, what are you—"

"The Half-Elves, the 'Taints,' were not enough to revive the fairy dragons. That's why a great calamity occurred. An impossible tragedy was reported. Do you understand how I felt when I heard that the fairy dragons had decayed, the vanguard had been caught in the aftermath, and the hero entrusted with the mission—Hunter Leader Salawin—had been returned to the forest by the 'Taints'? How can you understand!?"

Ignoring Wenri's bewilderment, the man poured out his feelings. His voice grew heated and finally erupted in a scream.

"Yes, that's right! You are no longer needed! There is no reason for you to live! Even without such inferior sustenance—our guardian dragon has achieved complete resurrection—!!"

Like a commander possessed by fever, the man raised his arm.

At the same time, a high-pitched scream echoed.

A distinctive roar, heard two months ago in the outskirts of the capital that had fallen to the enemy, shook Wenri's eardrums.

Then, in the misty rain covering the forest, the figure of a dragon with wings appeared.

In front of Wenri's wide-eyed gaze, the guardian of the Elves, the 'Fairy Dragon,' appeared, said to be left by the gods for the Elves.

"———"

Instantly, Wenri's consciousness turned blank.

The guardian dragon of Noblewood was the archenemy of Lastwood. Seeing it again would be shocking. However, that was not the only reason her thoughts turned blank.

Because Wenri knew. She had been informed of this information in advance by Camilla, who had launched an information war against Noblewood with the full strength of the Sixth Legion. Noblewood had once again brought out a relic from the past.

So, she had been prepared. She had known that she would have to face the dreaded dragon again. Yet, what left Wenri in a daze, despite her preparation, was the body of the fairy dragon she was now seeing.

The fairy dragon Wenri knew—the one that had attacked Lastwood in the past—had a body that was sickly thin. It was a winged dragon with a body that seemed to be made of skin and bones, with only a thin layer of flesh. That was the fairy dragon she knew.

But what about the dragon now hovering before her?

The sickly thin body had transformed into a massive, robust form. The skeletal frame had become a heavy, imposing body.

The thin hind legs, which seemed unable to support its own weight, had become more than twice as thick and strong as she remembered, with no trace of the emaciated appearance. The dragon before her was so majestic and powerful that it almost seemed to be a different species.

The moment she saw it, Wenri realized.

This was its true form.

The majestic appearance she was now seeing was the fully restored form of the fairy dragon, as described in Elven mythology, which she instinctively understood as an Elf.

—There were six of them.

A group of six fully resurrected fairy dragons was gracefully flying in the sky of the Great Tree Sea.

"......Are you... Are you sane?"

Forgetting her role as a representative of Lastwood, Wenri groaned.

Once, her fellow Elves had become food for the dragons. Though the Elven blood in her veins was thin, it was as if they had made up for it in numbers, with countless Half-Elves being offered as sacrifices. The number of comrades who had been sacrificed was not just a hundred or two hundred. Wenri, who had inscribed the names of her fallen compatriots on tombstones, knew this fact well.

Yet, even then, the dragon at that time had a body that was nothing but skin and bones. Now, seeing the complete form, she understood that it was far from its true form, an incomplete and emaciated body.

Then, to fatten six fairy dragons to this extent, how many—no, how many thousands or tens of thousands of purebloods must have been offered?

"—We abandoned our sanity long ago."

The man said this as if spitting it out.

Under the sky where the dragon swarm danced, the man, with a mad glint in his eyes, continued his words.

"Yes, that's right. We have been mad for a long time. Since a hundred years ago... When the beautiful queen, defiled by the ugly humans, fell into despair and took her own life—since a hundred years ago, when we were defeated by humans and suffered the worst humiliation, we abandoned our sanity!"

They had etched it into their minds.

The beautiful queen, whose face was distorted by hatred, deteriorating day by day. And the tragic end of the beautiful queen, who could not bear the humiliation of being defiled by humans and sought refuge in death, was firmly imprinted in their eyes.

That is why Noblewood, as a whole, embarked on a path of revenge.

However, if they had launched a war immediately, they would have been defeated again in the wilderness. On the other hand, if they waited too long, the humans, who far outnumbered the Elves in reproductive capacity, would grow stronger, and the opportunity for revenge would be lost. At least, if Noblewood were to challenge the human alliance alone, there would be no bright prospects.

They needed power. Overwhelming power. They sought the kind of violence that could crush the enemy without giving them a chance to fight back.

Of course, such power was not something that could be obtained immediately, even with personal training. In the midst of their suffering, unable to find a solution, someone casually muttered:

"There's no problem. The Elves have a guardian dragon bestowed by the gods. All we need to do is release its seal and make it the vanguard of our revenge."

It was a sweet whisper.

There was resistance to burdening the fairy dragon, which was meant to protect, with the task of revenge. However, the overwhelming hatred for humans overcame the hesitation. The Elves of Noblewood followed the whisper and began to work on releasing the seal of the fairy dragon, which was sealed in a ruin.

Thus, they mobilized the priests confined in the great tree and, as a clan, clung to the ruin, working tirelessly to release the seal of the fairy dragon as the agent of their revenge. Everyone worked together, exhausting all means.

All for the sake of avenging that day's humiliation.

To burn away that hateful past and avenge the deceased queen.

—But.

"Our righteous cause! The plan we endured a hundred years of humiliation to establish was shattered in a single night! And by the despicable 'Taints'—!!"

It was unforgivable. It could not be accepted.

If they had been stopped by Elves from another country who preached harmony with humans, it might have been forgivable.

Even if they had died in the wilderness, exhausted before completing their mission, it might have been acceptable.

But, the ones who thwarted their plan were the 'Taints.'

And the wandering 'Traveler' who helped them.

How could they accept that their plan was shattered by a group of 'Taints' who had lived miserably in a corner of the forest?

"We will complete our revenge this time. ...But first, you. We will purge the 'Taints' and use their blood as a sacrifice to signal the start of the war, and sweep away the despicable humans! That is the only path we should take!"

The hunters standing behind him took up their weapons.

They were among the few exceptions among the people of Noblewood who were not offered to the fairy dragons.

The hunters, who were considered to be on par with the vanguard, looked at Wenri with eyes that harbored a beastly nature.

"Hand over the foreigners who helped you! We know. We know the existence of the culprits who assisted you and, through despicable means, took the lives of the fairy dragon and the Hunter Leader—my brother, Salawin Welt Nobleleaf! If you try to hide them, we will search the entire area and turn it to ashes until we find them all!!"

To demonstrate that this was not a threat, the man—Acting Hunter Leader Selwin Welt Nobleleaf—pointed his left hand at one of the fairy dragons hovering in the air. The giant dragon responded with a high, powerful roar, lighting up its wings with green magical light.

At that moment, Wenri recalled the plan she had been told about. This was probably the best time to call 'him.'

As she was about to send the signal as agreed, the actions and words of 'him' flashed through her mind. She hesitated, wondering if it was really a good idea to call someone so carefree and lacking in combat ability, and if it was really wise to entrust their fate to him, more than anyone else.

But it was too late to change the plan now.

The time she spent hesitating was only a moment.

Wenri, having made up her mind, took a deep breath to speak the signal words—

"Hey, called and here I am! I'm Robin, the 'Traveler' who visited Lastwood! Nice to meet you, folks of Noblewood!"

—A cheerful, air-headed child, as usual, burst out without reading the atmosphere.

The small figure, emerging from the bushes, spun around once between the two opposing sides and struck a pose facing the Acting Hunter Leader, adding a peace sign for good measure.

Wenri, seeing this clownish behavior, was speechless, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

Thus, the tense atmosphere froze for a few seconds—

"—Who are you?"

Selwin's voice, dripping with a terrifying calm, broke the silence.

All the emotions that had distorted his face with hatred had vanished.

To anyone who saw it, it must have seemed like the calm before a volcano erupted.

"Didn't you hear? ...Oh, right. Elves look older than they are. Maybe you're hard of hearing?"

With a naive question, the small figure, Robin, tilted his head. This might have been endearing in a different context, but here it was completely out of place.