[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
Chapter 65
“Is the voice I’m hearing truly Deluna?”
[…No, I misspoke. I am not Deluna. I am rely a fragnt of the World Tree’s will.]
Hearing the words again, Kaylen cald his startled heart.
‘…Right. Just as she transford into the will of the World Tree, I am no longer Emperor Ernstine but Kaylen. The connection between us is all but severed.’
As he gathered his thoughts, the World Tree’s will posed a question.
[Even so… I am curious how you recognized Deluna’s voice.]
“I am a descendant of Emperor Ernstine and inherited his legacy. Among that inheritance were remnants of his mories.”
[I see… I thought he, no, Deluna, would be despised.]
“I’m not sure why that mory remains, either.”
Kaylen said no more after that.
The mory of Deluna’s voice.
Had he, perhaps unconsciously, longed for her? …
But Kaylen didn’t want to admit such a thing aloud.
[…I apologize for the personal question.]
A brief silence fell until Eldir, who had been lying unconscious, slowly stirred.
“Hah… A descendant of the Dragon God’s Blade? Unbelievable.”
Eldir, now wearing his eyepatch again, shook his head in disbelief.
“To think you found the Emperor’s legacy that even lvria couldn’t uncover…”
“lvria?” Kaylen frowned.
The na was one Eldir used to refer to his sword.
But for Kaylen, it wasn’t the first ti he’d heard that na.
‘When I first heard it, I thought it was a coincidence. But could it really be…?’
In response to Kaylen’s inquiry, Eldir answered.
“You don’t know? She’s the daughter born between Emperor Ernstine and the High Elf, Deluna. And… she’s the wife who abandoned and ran off.”
“Your… wife?”
lvria.
She, the daughter of Deluna and Ernstine, was his most cherished child.
Born a half-elf, Kaylen had assud she wouldn’t have lived until now…
So he had dismissed the na of Eldir’s sword as re coincidence.
‘She married this kind of guy?’
The sweet daughter who had once declared she’d stay by her father’s side forever?
With this drunkard layabout?
Kaylen’s expression montarily stiffened, then forcibly relaxed.
Since he didn’t know lvria personally, he had to conceal his reaction.
“Why did your wife leave you?”
“She said… sothing about going to find her father. Haha…”
“What?”
“She didn’t believe Emperor Ernstine could have disappeared like that. lvria was always chasing his traces.”
Kaylen thought of lvria.
In the imperial palace, after losing her mother, the young half-elf girl had no one to rely on but her father.
Ernstine, feeling pity for her, always kept her close.
However, the Emperor’s many children grew jealous of her instead.
They envied that their father favored one daughter so deeply.
‘lvria never tried to get along with the other children either.’
“I only need my dad!”
The daughter who always lived by those words.
Even so, Kaylen had thought she’d soday et a good man and marry.
Yet, of all people, she ended up with soone like this.
‘Even after getting married, she should’ve forgotten about her father and lived well...
Why get married and then leave her husband to search for him?’
Kaylen glared at Eldir.
Surely it was because this man didn’t treat her well.
To think this kind of man was his son-in-law.
Unacceptable.
“Why are you looking at like that?”
“You let your wife leave ho? And you didn’t stop her when she said she was looking for her father? What kind of husband are you?”
“…Sigh.”
Even under Kaylen’s rebuke, Eldir let out a long sigh and seed unwilling to continue the conversation.
At that mont, the World Tree’s will addressed Eldir.
[Eldir, tell him the truth.]
After hesitating for a mont, Eldir finally spoke.
“She didn’t really leave to find him. It’s true lvria was heavily dependent on her father. But after marrying , she was trying to settle down in the Fairy Forest.”
“Then why?”
“Everything fell apart… when the Hellier clan appeared.”
“…?”
“Yes, the royal family of the ier Empire, who had pledged themselves to the Demon Realm.”
Hellier.
A na forged by attaching “Hell” to ier.
Kaylen recalled the Demonkind’s legacy.
A force that redefined the use of Infinity’s power.
Sothing only the ier clan could create.
‘So, so of their descendants truly allied themselves with the Demon Realm. Hellier…’
While Kaylen mulled over the na, Eldir continued, his expression deeply contorted.
“They attacked our clan, riding drakes.”
Just as the Black Anvil Dwarves were annihilated,
the Elves faced an invasion by the dragon legion.
But unlike the fall of the Black Anvil Dwarves, this ti, sothing was different.
—“Lady lvria, please co with us.”
The Hellier clan, arriving on dragon-back, had a specific purpose.
“I resisted alongside Elbon Guard with all my might.”
Eldir rubbed one of his ears—
a reminder of the grueso injuries he had sustained, with one eye gouged and one ear severed.
A testant to his desperate struggle against the Hellier clan and their dragon legion.
“But the power gap was insurmountable.”
To take lvria willingly,
the Hellier clan refrained from outright massacring the Elves.
Instead, they razed the forest with overwhelming force, cutting ears as an example.
—“Lady lvria, if you refuse, we will have no choice but to act. Don’t you wish to find Emperor Ernstine?”
The Hellier clan’s ultimatum.
In the end, lvria stepped forward of her own volition.
—“Fine. I’ll go. To find my father.”
She claid it was to see her father... but…
—“Just don’t harm the Elf clan. If you do, I’ll die here as well.”
—“Hmph. Are you making demands now?”
—“You caused this commotion because you need , didn’t you?”
—“Very well. As long as we take Lady lvria, the other Elves are of no consequence.”
In truth, to protect the Elves, lvria willingly left.
“Haha… ever since that day, I can’t live without drinking.”
Whip.
Eldir’s hand habitually reached to his left, instinctively searching for a bottle of liquor.
When his grasp found only air, he scratched his head sheepishly and chuckled awkwardly.
“Damn, it was expensive. Gone now.”
“Sigh.”
Kaylen sighed deeply at the sight of his son-in-law, who had failed to protect his daughter and degenerated into a hopeless drunkard.
Without a word, he tossed the sword nad lvria at Eldir.
“Take it.”
“Oh? This sword… it’s well-crafted.”
“I can’t wield a sword that bears my daughter’s na.”
“Haha… thanks.”
“More importantly, what exactly is the Hellier clan?”
“They were clad entirely in black armor, so I couldn’t see their faces. But one thing was clear... they were on a completely different level. Each one possessed power comparable to that of a high-ranking demon.”
Kaylen frowned.
Were they using the sa thods that Royen had fallen victim to, derived from the Demonkind’s legacy?
If the entire clan had turned into demons and arrived riding drakes, even the Elves wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“Was there no information on them after that?”
“Haha. After? After the Hellier invasion, we were too busy defending against monsters pouring out of dungeon portals. Eventually, we migrated to the human kingdom.”
Even settling in the human kingdom hadn’t been easy.
It had taken countless struggles to get the Tower of the Fey back on track.
By the ti they were properly settled, too much ti had passed.
“We couldn’t gather any information about the Hellier clan. And, of course, there’s no news about lvria either.”
“I see.”
Even the Fairy Tower didn’t have much on the Hellier clan.
Still, the na “Hellier” was a lead.
A ier royal family allied with the Demon Realm.
The reasons were unclear, but...
‘It might be connected to .’
Kaylen speculated there must be a reason the Hellier clan was using Ernstine’s na.
He resolved to uncover the details gradually.
As these thoughts began to settle, Eldir spoke again.
“Haha. I shouldn’t have brought up lvria... Tch. I need a drink.”
The forr Sword Master of the Elves had reverted to a lazy drunkard.
Watching him smack his lips in longing for alcohol, Kaylen felt sothing boil inside.
The man who took his cherished daughter away... had beco this.
He wanted nothing more than to kick him.
But he held back, barely.
‘I must restrain myself. I am no longer Ernstine—I am Kaylen now.’
But still…
“Oh, looks like the bottle broke here,” Eldir muttered, crawling on all fours toward the shattered liquor bottle.
“If I can just get a few drops…”
Using the power of wind, he levitated the remaining drops of alcohol from the broken shards. But that was the final straw for Kaylen.
Is this the man who took my daughter?!
Ssshhhhhhh—
For a brief mont, wind mana gathered at Kaylen’s foot.
BAM!
“Gah!”
Eldir flew through the air, crashing into the ground.
“W-what’s wrong with you?!”
Crunch.
Without replying, Kaylen stomped on the shards of the broken bottle, grinding them into dust.
“W-why are you acting like this?” Eldir stamred.
“Do you know who Emperor Ernstine cherished the most?” Kaylen asked coldly.
“W-what?”
“Your wife, lvria. After her mother left when she was young, the Emperor always felt a deep sorrow for her.”
“Well, you sure know a lot about it,” Eldir retorted.
“That’s because I inherited his path.”
Kaylen delivered a few more crushing stomps to the remnants of the bottle before speaking again, his tone slightly calr.
“I understand you fell into despair after Hellier took your wife.”
“But, are you not going to get her back?”
“…What do you know?” Eldir muttered bitterly.
“Of course, I don’t know every detail. But I do know this—your sword as a Sword Master has rusted.”
“Tch…”
Eldir’s face twisted as he recalled how utterly he had been defeated earlier.
One strike.
One strike had shattered him completely.
Even when he prepared to use his “last resort” by activating all his Guardians, a sense of dread had lingered in his heart.
No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Ha. Talking big just because you lucked into the Emperor’s legacy.”
“Tch. A Sword Master who’s lived for centuries, defeated by a 19-year-old boy—don’t you think it’s ti for so self-reflection? Have you even trained with your sword?”
“Shut up.”
“Or have you dismissed the sword entirely, thinking it’s useless compared to the ‘evolved’ mode of your Guardians?”
Eldir remained silent.
He couldn’t deny Kaylen’s words.
He had pride in becoming a Sword Master, but he had seen the limitations of the sword.
Even as the greatest swordsman among the Elves, he couldn’t stop a single mber of the Hellier clan.
I haven’t wielded my sword in ages, he thought.
lvria, his sword, had long since beco a re staff, rarely used in its true form.
It was only natural—no matter how much he trained, it felt aningless.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t improve.
Compared to the overwhelming power of the Hellier clan, his efforts amounted to nothing.
In the end, he had clung to other forms of power, letting go of the sword.
And yet…
In the path he thought had reached its limit, he witnessed a new horizon today.
From a 19-year-old human boy, no less.
“Eldir, becoming a Sword Master isn’t the end of the path. It’s rely the starting point for a greater journey. Right now, you’re just standing at the starting line.”
As Eldir silently gazed at his staff, the World Tree’s will intervened in their conversation.
[That’s not true. He once dedicated himself tirelessly to retrieving lvria. However…]
[After the world’s mana density thinned… he couldn’t find a way forward no matter how hard he tried.]
So that’s it.
When mana becos scarce, even a Sword Master would find it hard to progress.
[But now, there is hope.]
The World Tree’s will shone its light upon Kaylen.
[Descendant of the Dragon Sword God, I beseech you. Show Eldir the way.]
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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