Chapter 91 – Chapter 91 ― Decision (2)
Episode 91 ― Decision (2)
The forest was so dense that even sunlight could not enter.
The temperature got even colder.
It had been a long time since I sweated just by running. He had to run with all his might to chase after the forest fairy.
It ran quite a bit.
The breath that was already exhaled mixed with the sweat, suddenly cooled and clung to the face like frost, then melted in the hot body temperature and flowed down again like sweat.
Roan found Lauca.
“… Lauca.”
I chased after her with all her might so that she wouldn’t stray from the range of ‘detection’.
Feeling the lack of oxygen he hadn’t experienced in a long time, Roan clenched his teeth and inhaled through his teeth.
Roan glanced at the long quest clock in the upper right corner. Until it was completed, he was disturbed to see that it was a watch that would float all year round, but it had its own use.
Compared to the clock here, which only displays the time, that quest clock shows milliseconds.
After breaking up with the West Blood Lord, you sprinted down for about 10 minutes.
Found, Lauca was standing there.
“Aina.”
Not wanting to provoke Lauca, who didn’t hear her own voice, Roan slowly approached her and called her name once more.
The red-haired forest fairy slowly looked back at the demon king with a sorrowful expression on her face.
A long ponytail fluttered in the winter wind.
The two got closer without saying anything to each other.
“Aina, maybe.”
Roan held her by the shoulder.
She didn’t mean to squeeze.
Fearing that she would run away again, I involuntarily strained Roan’s hand. Roan said, consciously trying to remove that power.
“To the forest… Do you want to go?”
Lauca seemed hesitant.
The sight of Lauca looking beyond the forest with unknown eyes made Roan nervous.
It’s like finding out that a tamed animal is about to run away.
What will she do if she really wants to get out of here.
Roan hesitated for a moment, but soon made up his mind.
Already, Lauca’s favorability rating is a plus. She will no longer think of colluding with the hero to kill the Demon King.
The intended purpose of preventing the hero’s allies has already been achieved. So even if Lauca runs away into the forest, it doesn’t matter.
But her feelings didn’t allow it.
“Aina.”
As if prompting for an answer,
Roan called her name once more.
Without letting go of Lauca’s shoulder.
Finally, it seemed that Lauca had made up her mind after a long time. She shook her head.
“No… I have nowhere to go back to.”
As if the words were permitted,
Roan put strength into his hands.
And Lauca’s light body moved as if Roan’s hand led it.
Roan hugged Lauca deeply.
“… Your majesty.”
Lauca, whose eyes were slightly startled, let out a light sigh. She seems to be anxious, like she is relieved.
After feeling each other’s body temperature for a moment, it was Lauca who removed her body first.
Riding out of her Roan’s arms, Lauca fumbled with her long ears a few times, as if shy.
“No matter how much I have no good feelings for my people… After all, hearing that kind of thing makes me cry a little. It was childish me.”
“Hmm.”
Lauca glared at Roan for a moment with an expression of ‘Are you agreeing with that?’ And continued her words.
“I’m second, because I have my family. I feel bad when I hear that I’m being selfish in a fight. Even though it’s a family I’ve never seen since I became independent.”
“When did you become independent?”
“150 years ago.”
Roan widened his eyes.
Lauca is about 200 years old.
Isn’t that close to others?
“I haven’t seen you for a long time.”
“Sometimes you won’t see them in your lifetime.”
Lauca looked at Roan’s expression, staring at her, and smiled.
“Yes, that is a normal forest fairy. If independent, it is a separate entity. There is no such thing as finding a family like a human being.”
Lauca smiled sadly.
“That’s why I was told that I was different from other forest fairies. I’m sure the other people of my country will laugh at me or say I’m weird.”
“Hmm.”
“Except for one. It did.”
Lauca’s heart, which is transmitted through ‘listening’,
Longing and sadness. A coalition that won’t happen.
And faint anger.
Only then did Roan realize why Lauca was enraged and destroyed his demon village.
After hesitating for a while, Roan asked.
“Is it the story of the same people who taught you to hunt?”
Lauca looked at Roan in surprise.
“Your Majesty remembers something unexpectedly trivial? Huh. That’s right. It was…”
And the demon village caught and ate the forest fairy, who might have been Lauca’s lover or her unrequited love.
As a result, the village was also destroyed.
The forest fairy sighed as she looked back on what had happened.
“If you start looking for the source of work, there will be no answers, but I still feel sorry for you, thinking that if Evirgio was a more prosperous place, something would have changed. Me too. Even my dead master.”
“I can’t help but regret the past. Is there still room to change the future?”
Roan answered cautiously.
It seemed that if Lauca stayed on thinking about her past, she wouldn’t be able to progress any further.
“Because this is an expedition to change that. Let’s move slowly Aina.”
“Yeah, the tombstone in the dark forest is not far from here, so let’s find out if the one we saw last time is also here.”
Roan grinned and followed Lauca.
As Lauca said, the tombstone was really not far away. It is about a 3-minute walk at a leisurely pace.
There is only one tombstone standing in an empty lot wider than the previously discovered Waypoint in Basel.
I was hoping it was because the waypoint was already visible in the game, but looking at it this way, it’s really alien.
As I approached the tombstone, I felt that my mana was slowly draining away.
“Hmm. Like you said, the phrases are really different.”
“Yes?”
As a result of receiving special training from Helen for several months, Roan was finally able to read all the ancient languages without stuttering.
It was difficult to read one line because the mastery level could not be raised quickly, but there were no words that could not be read if one took the time.
“Are you okay with magic power?”
“It’s okay to leak such a small amount of mana. If you don’t stay too long…”
Lauca was looking around her with a nostalgic expression.
After taking one look at the tombstone and Lauca, Roan moved to where the waypoint was supposed to be.
Standing in the forest, in a soft clearing with fallen branches of conifers, Roan activated a new magic he had learned through his practice.
It was a warming magic.
Roan and Lauca burst into laughter as the warm wind warmed their bodies.
“Ahaha, Your Majesty, suddenly?”
And a small light appeared from the other hand.
‘Starlight’.
And Roan doubted his eyes at the sight that followed. Lauca’s smile disappeared.
The small glowing light scattered like sand as if permeated by the warm wind and began to envelop Roan’s body.
And the light illuminated Roan’s feet.
The unique pattern of the waypoint began to appear, drawing concentric circles centered on where Roan was standing.
Finally, the waypoint was fully revealed. A huge stone slab floor with patterns engraved on it. It was much larger than anything Roan and Lauca had seen in Basel.
The warm wind carrying ‘starlight’ was still swirling around Roan and Lauca.
“This is great… 4Two wagons can fit three or four.”
“Hmm.”
Roan moved on.
I had researched the direction the moon would rise in advance, so now I was going to walk toward the mine.
But that wasn’t all.
“… Hmm?”
The ‘starlight’ that was still swaying in the wind, was carried forward in that direction when Roan moved.
‘Starlight’, which moved a much larger radius than the range covered by the original warming magic, reached the clearing beyond the waypoint.
Then, a pillar appeared.
“… Uh?”
Lauca, who had been staring blankly at them, let out a dazed sound.
He just didn’t open his mouth, and Roan also looked at the movement of ‘Starlight’ with a puzzled expression.
It was a circular pillar that was barely big enough for a few adults to run into.
It is well over 10 meters high.
It’s a structure that doesn’t exist in the game.
Roan, who was looking up at the pillar, suddenly moved his steps again as if thinking about something else.
The wind carrying ‘starlight’ changed its direction based on Roan’s body. And what appeared where his gaze landed was another pillar and a collapsed roof.
“Nonsense…”
Lauca unknowingly denied the sight he was seeing.
As a result, a majestic stone building centered on a round vacant lot at Waypoint appeared in ‘Starlight’.
Some of the pillars collapsed and the roof that was supposed to rest on them also collapsed, but the structure was still able to cover about half of the rain and snow.
It felt like a huge circular hall built around a waypoint.
Built along the curved wall is, of course, a large and angular structure. Just like a bus stop, it has only a roof, and instead of opening the front and back, there are walls on the left and right. Like a pedestal
It is such a simple shape, but the edges next to the walls and roof are decorated with delicate stone carvings.
The upper side is taller than a human being, so it is hard to see, but it seems to be mangle. There were no decorations on the edge of the roof.
And the round wall facing the structure was decorated with beautiful reliefs.
The figure of a woman who is scattered here and there, but vaguely recognizable by its shape. And it was a huge relief of her figure, with her numerous beings bent over her head and her waist, facing her.
“… Laurecia.”
With Lauca’s murmur, Roan finally understood the meaning of the sculpture.
“It’s the phrase on the tombstone.”
There are no buildings like this in the game. There was just a waypoint in a large clearing in the forest.
Roan carefully examined the shape carved on the wall.
The sculpture, which starts at Roan’s eye level, is of enormous size, extending all the way to the height that the two of them can see only when they tilt their heads. In terms of conversion, it looks like a 3-4 story building.
Goddess taking care of plants.
Goddess taking care of animals.
That bone-like thing over there is probably a person.
The goddess was delighted to receive something like an offering from them.
And.
“… This… , What?”
Lauca’s face hardened as she ran her hand across the wall.
Roan’s gaze was also fixed on what she was seeing.
Ugly form.
Even just looking at it, something with an ominous shape seemed to be hostile to the goddess.
Roan noticed what it was.
‘… It’s the final boss.’
The true boss of Saint Hero Electric. The opponent the hero has to face from the mid-to-late half after defeating the demon king.
Devil.
The wall containing the ominous contents is half destroyed, and the details are difficult to discern. The form of the devil was also crushed here and there, as if he was trying to dig it out.
Nevertheless, the ominousness of its shape remains.
“… Your majesty.”
However, Lauca, who was trying to say something, couldn’t get her words out in the end.
When I opened my mouth and threw out words, I felt as if the uneasiness contained in the painting hidden within the wall would come out into reality.
Even though it’s broken,
It was such an unpleasant sign.
The two of them looked around the circular structure for a long time with their mouths closed with complicated minds.
Except for the last piece, the space had an atmosphere of tranquility despite its large size. I’ve never been there, but would it be like this when I go to an art museum?
Large pedestals placed here and there — Watching the bus stop, Roan, who looked at all the paintings on the wall, opened his mouth to escape from the afterglow.
It’s a waypoint, so you can come back anytime.
“Let’s go soon, Aina.”
“… Huh.”
Lauca started following Roan’s footsteps.
Both Roan and Lauca walked, tracing their own memories. Roan’s memories in the game, and Lauca’s childhood memories.
Even though her mana was slowly being consumed, Lauca’s expression looked lighthearted.
I walked for about 30 minutes with a lighter heart than when I headed to the ruins.
And what appeared was the entrance of the mine.
It was a cave cleverly hidden by coniferous trees and rocky hills. At first glance, it is not obvious.
Roan, who found the cave, sighed in relief.
“Ha.”
“What? Your majesty.”
“Honestly, I was relieved.”
Lauca chuckled.
“Hmm, His Majesty is anxious.”
“Aren’t many people’s food at stake?”
After hearing Roan’s words, Lauca smiled and nodded his head.
“Ah. That’s right. That’s right.”
And Lauca started heading toward the mine with strides.
“Then, let’s finish quickly.”
“Aina, wait a minute… There is something inside.”
Something that takes ‘detection’.
Not weak
But Lauca laughed.
“Maybe it’s a bear, a wolf, or a wild boar in hibernation. Are you okay. I’ll catch that much. I want to deal with it as quickly as possible and go back, rather than standing here and my magic power is accelerating.”
When you bring someone to your hometown where you spent your childhood, there are times when you gain familiarity and confidence and act boldly.
Perhaps that was the basis for Lauca’s actions.
Roan started to walk into the mine, touching the angled ring on the end of Fiora’s handle to erase the vague anxiety.
