All the elves were scattered throughout the forest, carrying out construction work. They were preparing to defend against the invasion of enemies. It was a plan to fortify the forest.
Although it caused some reluctance among the forest-loving elves, everything would be over if they did not protect it now. And the elves knew this well because they had experienced it firsthand.
They had been living through the tragic situation where the World Tree was dying, and recently, the village had been pushed to the brink of destruction by monsters. Therefore, the fact that they could survive and dream of a future was important to the elves.
Among the countless crises they had faced, there had never been a time like this. They had no choice but to become desperate. They would actively follow Evan and strive to prevent external intrusions.
Evan spoke to Helena, who was supervising the site.
“Helena, I’m counting on you. If anything happens, send a messenger bird immediately to contact me.”
“Don’t worry. As the chief of the elf village, I have protected this place well. The forest is coming back to life, and since we are preparing to this extent, it won’t be easily breached.”
Helena looked at Evan with a smile.
“Evan. Are you leaving now?”
At that moment, Ainis, who had returned from a patrol, waved her hand toward Evan. Evan gave her a simple nod.
“Something has come up that requires me to leave quickly. I will send these guys back here, and once the Magic Transmission Device is completed, we will be going back and forth often.”
He looked at Alan and Reynold, who were standing beside him. Since he couldn’t just send outsiders to the elf village, he would have to send Alan or Reynold, who were already with him.
“I understand. I’ll wait until you return.”
Ainis had an expression tinged with regret.
“Young Master. How will you find Rolten’s whereabouts?” Alan asked with a worried look.
The message from the messenger bird only stated that Rolten had gone missing near the border of the Earl’s Territory. Since he didn’t know the exact location, Evan began to contemplate, unable to answer Alan’s question immediately.
There were too few clues to find him. Honestly, starting now felt like chasing clouds, as if the search might be meaningless.
“How about taking Ainis with you? She has been in charge of scouting missions for a long time, so she will be of help.”
Then, Helena spoke to the pondering Evan.
“Pardon?”
Ainis also looked at Helena with surprised eyes. Evan looked as if he was wondering what she meant, but he soon grasped her intention.
‘Elves are said to be able to hear the voice of the forest.’
They were a race with excellent tracking skills. When Evan looked at Ainis, she was flustered and couldn’t say anything.
“I need your help.”
When Evan made the request, Ainis hesitated. She had left the forest a few times before, but she had never been to the world of humans. However, with the chief’s command and Evan’s repeated requests, she felt she couldn’t refuse.
***
Evan returned to Seiram with Ainis, who had newly joined them. As an elf, Ainis’s appearance was striking, so she kept her robe pulled down low. Of course, Evan did the same, hiding his face with his robe.
“Is this the kingdom of humans?”
Ainis was looking around frantically, seemingly shocked by her first encounter with the Sanctuary. Seeing the human world must be a fresh experience, and this was the Sanctuary of Bellium, which could be called the center of the Southern Region. Even humans were surprised during their first visit, so it must be even more so for an elf.
“Don’t be too discouraged by this. It’s only like this here.”
“……Ah, yeah..”
Evan moved his steps toward the Ignis Guild, where Ayra was. Normally, he should stop by the Holy Temple to report on the disposal of Yggdrasil, but it would take quite some time to move through the crowds from here. He was tired, and there was no need to report in person.
‘I can just send a letter with a suitable excuse.’
He would ask the Ignis Guild branch to handle it.
*Clatter!*
Upon arriving at the guild, he saw many mercenaries waiting in the hall to receive work. Passing them, Evan pushed back the hood of his robe. A guild receptionist rushed over immediately.
“Young Master, you’ve arrived.”
“Yeah. I’ll be leaving after a quick rest. Also, I have a letter to send to the Order, so please prepare it.”
“Understood!”
Evan led everyone to the second floor. In almost any guild, the second floor was prepared as lodging for people involved with the guild. Evan spoke to everyone as he walked toward the room where Ayra was.
“Alan, Reynold. You two take Ayra and return to the main house with Count Rozie. And I will write a letter. Deliver it to Marquess Darwen.”
He spoke about the concrete plans for the future. They had no choice but to scatter and perform their tasks here. They had to install a Magic Transmission Device connected to the Magic Tower in the elf village. He would leave this to Alan and Reynold, while Evan and Ainis would track Rolten’s whereabouts.
After Evan finished explaining the schedule, he knocked on Ayra’s door. A noisy sound was heard from inside, and then the door swung wide open.
*Clatter!*
Ayra was in an exhausted state.
“Yo, Young Master, you’ve arrived.”
“Yeah. More importantly, how did the work go?”
While Evan was fighting a bloody battle in the elf village, Ayra had been making a duplicate of Mars’s research.
“I barely finished it today.”
“I see. Let’s go in and talk first.”
Evan and his party entered Ayra’s room. Everyone was simply struck with awe. Evan was also slightly surprised. Ayra’s room was filled with piles of documents.
“No way. Did you really write down everything you saw then?”
Alan looked at Ayra as if she were a marvel. It was at a level that transcended human limits. Reynold scratched his head and stood blankly. Since he knew nothing about the situation, he could only watch.
“Alan, Reynold. I think you two need to do one more thing. Take these materials in absolute secrecy and hand them over to Marquess Darwen, and tell him I will visit him later.”
Evan was cautious, recalling the contents of the old notebook Mars had written. He didn’t know the full content yet, but it was obvious that whatever Mars had left behind would be dangerous. If it was Darwen, he might know the history related to Mars.
Evan turned his gaze to Ayra.
“I need to talk to you privately for a moment. I need to know a brief summary of the duplicate you wrote. I’d like to look through it myself, but I don’t have the time.”
Ayra nodded, and Evan led her to a corner to begin their conversation.
“Young Master. To summarize, it’s like this. It seems a person named Mars slaughtered over 10,000 humans to use as research materials for his goal. Other parts were like codes, so there was much I couldn’t understand. But circumstantially, the experiment he was trying to conduct was about a perfect being.”
“A perfect being?”
“Yes. He claimed that the existing world is unstable. Because everything is unstable, not a single perfect thing exists. So, he conducted experiments to create something perfect and tried to gradually make his own body perfect.”
“A perfect being…… It’s almost as if he were trying to become a god himself.”
“Yes. Among the alchemical symbols, the symbol for a perfect being, representing a god, was used frequently. I tried my best to interpret it, but I think it will be difficult.”
Evan could understand to some extent why Mars had acted that way. From the perspective of someone who had to keep experiencing the Destruction of the World, escaping that hell was impossible unless one became a god themselves.
‘He probably wanted a powerful force, just like those guys who destroyed the world.’
The rest of the content was in the domain of archaeologists or alchemists, so she said she couldn’t explain it.
“I understand. This is enough.”
Evan nodded as if satisfied. Then he prepared to move. He could hear the detailed contents through Darwen anyway. For now, finding Rolten’s whereabouts was the priority. Evan settled the situation and left a means of contact.
***
Rolten woke up with a groan. When he opened his eyes, he saw iron bars. It seemed he was imprisoned in a cell.
‘What happened?’
He recalled the moment before he lost consciousness. Even now, thinking back to that situation, he couldn’t believe it.
‘I clearly overwhelmed them with skill. How could they turn it around at the end?’
At first, he had easily taken down those who surrounded him one by one. But the atmosphere completely changed after they stood back up. They began to face his Aura Blade with a heterogeneous power, and he was gradually pushed back.
He tried various things to escape, but they showed abnormal movements, and he couldn’t get out of their grasp. It felt strange to consider them human.
‘Just who the hell are they? If they had that much power, they would have been well-known to the world.’
He knew the people of the Kingdom were suspicious, but the fact that such individuals were moving in the shadows was ominous. There wasn’t just one or two, but many of them.
‘More importantly, what should I do now? I need to get out of here quickly.’
Iron handcuffs bound his hands, and a mana control device was around his neck. He was in a state of being completely and helplessly subdued.
‘A mana control device like this only works on those below the intermediate Sword Expert level.’
Rolten smirked and tried to pull up his aura.
“Ugh!”
However, the mana control device flashed, and a strong shock was delivered to Rolten’s body. His use of mana was completely blocked.
‘Dammit. They can completely suppress my mana? I’ve never even heard of such a thing.’
Rolten tried to pull up his aura again, but it ended in failure. It seemed impossible to release the restraints right away.
“Hey, human. It’s useless.”
Then, a man’s voice was heard from a corner. Only then did Rolten realize he was not alone in the cell.
‘I couldn’t feel any presence……’
Rolten turned his head back. There was a boy with a frail body. No, looking closely, it wasn’t a person. It was a beastman who resembled a human. The beastman, like Rolten, was wearing a mana restraint around his neck and handcuffs.
“How did you end up here? Did they hunt you down?”
It seemed they had captured slaves illegally.
“That’s right. Humans attacked our village and took our kin away at random.”
Rolten frowned.
‘Were the royalty doing such dirty deeds behind the scenes?’
But Rolten soon shook his head. There was no reason for such skilled individuals to be involved in simple slave trading. The beastman spoke while mocking Rolten.
“You should just give up. This is a place you can’t escape from.”
He was a boy, but his eyes, which had lost hope, and his way of speaking, which suggested he was only living because he couldn’t die, were like an old man who had finished his life.
“To think I’d end up dying here despite being a fellow human. Humans are truly cruel.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Just as Rolten asked, narrowing his brow.
“Aaaargh! Save me!”
“Argh!”
Screams were heard one after another from outside. Rolten was startled and turned his gaze beyond the iron bars.
“Get used to it. It’s common here. I don’t know what those bastards are doing either. What’s certain is that we won’t make it out alive.”
The beastman only explained the situation cynically and pessimistically. Rolten’s eyes narrowed. He felt he needed to investigate the things being done here in detail.
‘If I can’t escape anyway, I might as well struggle.’
He was prepared for death.
He would think of a way to convey at least the information about this place to the outside world as much as possible.
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