Chapter 94: Chapter 117 - When the world tree blossoms (2)
Eyes clouded like white mist.
Green eyes barely retaining their color looked closely at Alicia’s amber stone.
"You were a precious guest."
A smile began to form on the old elf’s face as he recognized the landscape contained within the amber stone.
The eldest of the elves.
Long ago, Old Geronimo, who survived the tumultuous era, was able to recover a very ancient mory through the amber stone brought by Vlad.
"Where did you get this amber stone?"
"I heard it’s a relic of the Hainal family."
The elder’s gaze turned pleased as it t the boy’s blue eyes.
Indeed, he was a precious human guest whom he hadn’t seen in a long ti.
"Ha-nal, Hai-nal, right?"
The old tree’s eyes, recalling the greenery of the past, trembled.
With the weakened energy of old age, it wouldn’t have been easy to unearth mories accumulated over many years.
"Sword Master."
However, there are nas that cannot be forgotten, no matter how many mories lie buried under the weight of ti.
People whose every step beca history.
The current era was built upon their footsteps.
"...It seems one of the knights who followed you had that surna."
August stood silently behind Vlad, listening quietly.
Thus, without further ado, holding his breath.
For a knight who had dedicated his entire life to the empire, hearing the footsteps of the founding king must still be a deeply moving experience.
"I want to know where the maple is here, Great Elder."
Old Geronimo opened his closed eyes upon hearing a voice coming from in front of him.
Blue eyes that can be clearly recognized even with clouded vision.
The young knight’s seriousness was evident from the clenched fists he held unconsciously.
"Do you want to know where the maple is here?"
"Yes. That’s right."
The bright blue eyes were like starlight.
It felt as if the possibility that had finally taken shape was writhing inside him.
"How did you know the landscape contained here was a maple?"
"...Yes?"
But as bright as it may be, how could they glimpse a world that would not have been allowed to humans?
Faced with the Elder’s sudden question, Vlad was left completely breathless.
"..."
There are also excuses I’ve thought of just in case.
However, in front of the elder elf before him, he felt sohow he shouldn’t bring out lies.
It was a warning that didn’t co from experience or knowledge, but only from instinct.
"Well, what does it matter?"
The elves eyed Vlad warily, unable to respond with his mouth shut.
However, the elder simply closed his eyes again with a slight smile as if nothing had happened.
Geronimo was soone who knew very well that the reality seen before him was more important than each and every small flaw.
"...The maple that was carved inside was on the west side."
"Is it the west?"
Finally, the elder’s response is heard.
Vlad was so excited by the answer that he unconsciously asked with a suppressed voice.
"Yes. West. A place with the greenest forest on the continent."
However, Vlad felt sothing strange upon hearing Geronimo’s words.
"Is there such a forest in the west?"
To the west, there was only a long wasteland.
In the western part of the empire, full of rough soil and dry winds, there was no green forest as the elder spoke of.
"There was."
At Vlad’s question, a wrinkle appeared on the old tree’s face.
It was a wrinkle that looked like a deeply engraved wound.
"Our forest that existed long ago."
A landscape he had dread of.
However, there was a mory of that day that was painful to even recall.
There was a field of wheat filled with golden light.
Wheat plants swaying their heads here and there with the wind, and a vast forest whose end was unknown.
Children playing in the red twilight.
And there was a red maple dominating all of this from the top of a low hill.
There were scenes like that.
"Before the dragon burned it."
The most perfect dragon.
A cursed being that burned all of this with a single breath.
His eyes trembled wildly as he wandered through the now burnt mories.
"So..."
"How can I find sothing that no longer exists?"
It seed as if black ash flowed from the elder’s mouth as he spoke of old mories.
"Much ti has passed since everything was reduced to ashes."
An autumnal scene captured in a yellow amber stone.
The things that were engraved there were now nothing but burnt mories, like a pile of ashes.
The young knight’s eyes throbbed constantly as he searched for sothing that no longer existed.
***
Inside the room provided by the elves.
There, Vlad sat against the windowsill, looking outside.
Elven forest. Ausurin.
It was said that the green light stretching to the eastern end is connected to the blue sea he had never seen before.
"Then I’ll go look at the thujon leaves."
August, with a gray hood, didn’t forget the purpose of coming here.
A closer look at the origins of absilon.
Only solid and unavoidable evidence can stop the madness unfolding in the Empire.
"Did they tell you to be here?"
"Tell them I was here."
Vlad owed his life to August and, in return, led him to the elven forest, where humans couldn’t easily enter.
Therefore, August’s current actions were like his inherent rights that Vlad couldn’t dare to restrict.
"The atmosphere seed sowhat chaotic."
"Don’t worry. It’s sothing I’ve done many tis in the past."
August, who had assured him not to worry because he would return silently without being seen, grabbed the window fra instead of the door and looked at Vlad.
"Your master seems to be soone related to the imperial family after all."
"...Is that so."
"That’s how I see it."
When Vlad heard those words, he let out a deep sigh.
An imperial sword said to have kept its original art.
And now also the landscape of Elvenheim, the elven forest that burned a long ti ago.
Now, not out of contract, but out of pure curiosity, he began to wonder who the voice was.
"The founding king, Frausen, voluntarily resigned his position as emperor and beca the lowest person."
The lowest.
Knights who discarded all the titles they had accumulated so far and prepared for retirent by completing tasks they couldn’t perform as a single person.
Their glorious beginning was none other than the founding king, Frausen, the king of knights.
"Just as the beginning of the legend, the ending is also mysterious and unknown.
"I thought that perhaps you were the person connected to Mr. Frausen’s unknown ending."
The end of King Founder Fraussen was an honorable retirent.
However, there were only rumors about Frausen’s last days, the lowest of the low, and no one knew for sure.
If you listen to the words of the elves, wouldn’t the young knight currently sitting on the windowsill, dejected, be a trace of that glorious end?
"What will you do next? The trail is lost here."
"It’s wrong. In my opinion, this is just the beginning."
August put his feet on the windowsill where Vlad was sitting and looked down with a smile.
The ground seems very far away.
The increasingly dark surroundings obscured August’s vision, but he didn’t hesitate.
To find the truth, sotis you have to strive in the darkness.
"Now is the beginning?"
In response to Vlad’s question, August put on his hood and put his feet on the window fra.
"If your master was the one who followed in Master Frausen’s footsteps, then you can follow his footsteps."
If you don’t know the ending, start from the beginning.
Vlad’s master was strongly connected to the footprints of the sword master, so if you follow Frausen’s last footsteps, you’ll eventually uncover your master’s identity.
"I heard that no one knows what happened to Mr. Frausen in the end?"
"Humans are like that."
August looks at Vlad with a smile.
The sunset was forming on his hidden face.
"But the elves might know."
With those words, August jumps outside as dusk falls.
Vlad was surprised to see him fall with his hood fluttering.
"He’s not even a cat."
As he was a forr pickpocket and thief, his agile movents were even more recognizable.
The old knight landed on the ground without a sound and soon naturally moved away as if nothing had happened and disappeared into the elven forest.
"...So I guess I’ll have to stay here a little longer."
Vlad is left alone in a room without Goethe or August.
In the silent room, Vlad rested his head on his knees and lost himself in his thoughts.
"I said I definitely saw it."
The voice said he definitely saw a scene inside the amber stone. However, his mories were confused and uncertain, so maybe he didn’t see the voice in person, but saw it through the amber like himself.
Saying he saw it in person was hundreds of years ago, so the ti zone wouldn’t be correct.
"What did you really do?"
It would be easier to maintain the 7-year contract with Joseph.
The more he followed the footsteps of the voice, the more he felt like he was blocked in front of the huge wall of a castle.
Knock Knock.
"...?"
As Vlad pondered for a mont, a knock on the door reached his ears.
"Excuse ..."
Click-
The door opens carefully even before indicating to enter.
The white-blonde hair was clearly visible through the small open door.
The girl of unknown identity who dragged him into a fantasy world.
"Do you have a mont?"
The girl, who only peeked her head into the room, smiled as soon as she recognized Vlad.
As if we had known each other for a long ti.
***
I wanted to ignore it if possible.
There were warnings from the elves not to go out.
However, there was a strange firmness in the girl’s words that was hard to refuse.
Just like the eyes shown by the eldest of the elves.
"Where are we going now...?"
"Are you scared?"
Unlike the girl who smiled cheerfully, Vlad’s expression was stiff.
It was inevitable that the two elves who still followed the girl looked at Vlad with indifferent expressions on their faces.
"I want to show you sothing."
"What do you want to show ?"
Vlad decided to act as cautiously as possible.
From the first ti he saw her, he knew she was an unusual person, to the point that she even had to drag an escort with her.
The girl smiling cheerfully as if she were excited must be a girl who holds a high position in the world of elves.
"That amber stone."
"Amber?"
"Yeah, that."
Said the girl, pointing her finger at Vlad’s sword.
"Yes, that! I’m really looking forward to showing it to you."
Looking at the girl who still hadn’t correctly stated the subject, Vlad sighed softly to himself.
"She wants to see her mom. Has she never seen her mom since she was born?"
"Mom?"
Incomprehensible words.
The words were so disorganized that it seed like sothing was missing, but the girl’s eyes didn’t waver in the slightest.
"...Who is he?"
In response to Vlad’s question, the girl began to point to a specific place without saying a word.
The end of the direction she pointed.
There was a huge maple tree with green leaves that had not yet turned color.
"World Tree?"
After checking where the finger was pointing, Vlad turned his head and looked at the girl.
"She really wants to see her mom."
"..."
Although it was a word he couldn’t understand in his head, it touched his heart.
Perhaps it was because of the girl’s attitude as if she were talking to a person, but when he looked at the World Tree again, it looked different.
The branches of the green maple seen in the distance trembled.
It was as if it was beckoning him to co closer to it. Like that.??
____
Join the discord!
sdsc.gg/indra
____
Reviews
All reviews (0)