Episode 232
“Wow…….”
“It seems bigger than I thought.”
At the dock behind Nephelis Island,
Hanbit and his party were looking up at a massive airship.
-Oh.
-Something like this existed?
-The Investigation Team’s class is intimidating.
-It looks damn expensive;
Viewers also reacted with surprise to the airship making its first appearance.
It was a specialized mode of transportation that even Hanbit had rarely seen before.
“How about that? It was made using a huge amount of floating stones.”
Charlotte pointed to the underside of the airship.
There, a massive bluish-white structure formed a single layer.
“They really managed to gather that many floating stones.”
“I had a deal to make with a dragon. I wonder where it went now?”
She spoke as if reminiscing about old memories.
The very few dragons that exist in the world.
Although they are fundamentally monsters, they were also subjects of interaction as a distinct species.
Though, they were certainly different from the primordial beings, the Black Dragon and the White Dragon.
“Is that the candidate?”
Just then, a crowd appeared from the side.
The gaze of the brown-haired man at the front was fixed on Hanbit.
“Rowald, so you came?”
“I’m not crazy enough to refuse the Captain’s request. I’d probably chop off your head with that sword.”
“I told you I wouldn’t!”
The man tapped his neck with his finger, while Charlotte wore an aggrieved expression.
Hanbit looked at the name tag floating above his head.
[Rowald, Commander of Exploration Unit 3 of the Investigation Corps]
A unit of the Investigation Corps exploring the unconquered restricted zone.
Most members were operating within the five divided exploration units.
Rowald was the man commanding that third unit. The
very act of leading such proud members set him apart from ordinary people.
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
Charlotte approached the other members standing behind her.
In the meantime, Rowald took a step closer and asked,
“You have a branch of the World Tree? Your face is so clean-cut that I don’t trust you.”
“Well, I don’t need to prove it to you, do I?”
“He’s just as unlucky as he looks. A face that inspires trust should be at least like that of a guy.”
Rowald turned his head and pointed to the side with the tip of his chin.
There stood a large man with a menacing face, wearing a bewildered expression.
“Are you making fun of my face again?”
“It’s a compliment, a compliment. I told you it’s a symbol of trust. It’s okay to look a little scary.”
“Please lower the corners of your mouth a bit before you speak.”
-Hahaha
-Is this a sitcom?
-Look how well he fills the audio.
-But honestly, he looks terrifying.
-Seriously, I thought he was a monster;
The men exchanging jokes were colleagues who had faced life and death together for years.
Needless to say, they were experts among experts when it came to exploration and combat.
'It’s Rowald who’s here this time.'
Recalling past experiences, the members accompanying the expedition changed with each period.
Since this was the first time they were going this early, and even traveling by seaplane, curiosity about who would come had persisted.
And Rowald was one of the perfect candidates.
Swoosh—
a mysterious red bow flickered behind his back.
It was Rowald's main weapon, an object akin to a demigod.
It was quite effective for dealing with the monsters on the treacherous sky path leading to the center of the ocean.
“Well, let’s just leave the bad luck aside. What about the branch?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to return it to the World Tree? Surely you aren’t going to abandon the greater cause just to keep it for yourself, are you? You’re a candidate for the investigation team no matter what.”
The wishes of Rowald and the rest of the investigation team were clear.
Filling the World Tree’s empty branch and proceeding with the investigation inside was their long-cherished goal.
Hanbit, meeting their suspicious gazes, spoke in a nonchalant tone.
“Where do you get the assurance that it will respond positively if you return it? What if it goes crazy and kills everyone there?”
“Why would the World Tree do such a thing? Don’t you know the sentence written there served as a guide for the world?”
A counterargument raised using reasoning similar to Charlotte’s.
At the time, he had settled for it and let it slide, but the truth was different.
“Was that sentence written by the will of the World Tree?”
“…What?”
Rowald looked puzzled at the tossed-out question.
Of course, he had no intention of giving up any more information right away.
“I’m just saying. There’s no harm in being suspicious, is there?”
“Someone else wrote that sentence? Who? How?”
“I wouldn’t know. It’s strictly a matter of possibility.”
“…….”
At the half-hearted answer, Rowald furrowed his brows slightly. He looked
frustrated, his doubts unresolved.
“What are you talking about?”
Just then, Charlotte returned after finishing her greetings with the other investigation team members.
Hanbit shrugged and said,
“He said he’d punch that annoying face if we didn’t return the branch to the World Tree.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
-??
-Something was added?
-What about the PR? The Black Dragon Channel.
-Just picked a fight. Haha.
At the sudden shift in the content, both of them widened their eyes simultaneously.
Charlotte abruptly turned her gaze and glared at Rowald.
“What do you mean?”
“No, wait a minute, Captain. That wasn’t the nuance I meant…”
“Black Dragon, go in first.”
At the firm command, Hanbit nodded and boarded the airship with the group.
It was quite a funny situation to hear Rowald’s desperate explanation faintly.
“Wow, it’s just like being on a regular boat?”
“There is almost no rocking.”
“Oh…”
The twins and Pingpong, having stepped onto the deck, were surprised by the sense of comfort.
Given the use of such a massive floating stone, it had to be regarded as something exceeding a top-tier cruise ship.
“You’ve been waiting, haven’t you?”
Charlotte arrived after finishing her conversation while they were looking around the seaplane.
In the distance, Rowald was staring at Hanbit with a serious expression.
“I apologize on his behalf. I won’t resort to threats or coercion again.”
“It’s alright.”
Charlotte offered her apology with a truly remorseful look.
Although the story was slightly exaggerated, Rowald felt it was better to draw a line beforehand.
Otherwise, it was obvious that he would be a nuisance the entire time they were on the seaplane.
‘He must be curious.’
Rowald could not take his eyes off Hanbit.
Although he was a man who spoke in a confrontational tone, he wasn’t the type to hold grudges.
However, the issue of his comrades’ safety was different.
If the World Tree, having taken over its branches, were to truly attack the surroundings indiscriminately,
and all the members of the investigation team were to die, it would be the absolute worst possible outcome.
She probably started weighing all sorts of possibilities to resolve that doubt.
“Then I’ll depart right away.”
*Crunch*
—Charlotte walked toward the center of the airship.
A large magic stone emitting a green light was embedded there.
*Swoosh*
—She placed her palm on the surface of the magic stone.
Immediately, a change occurred.
*Pow!
* *Rumble!*
The vibration of the airship echoed simultaneously with the burst of light.
It picked up speed in no time.
“Wow, it’s moving!”
Reacting immediately, Haneul hurriedly ran to the railing and surveyed the view below.
From the scenery matching the color of her hair to the clouds passing by at an increasingly faster pace, it felt refreshing.
“It will take about three hours to arrive.”
Charlotte, having removed her hand from the magic stone, returned.
Considering the considerable distance, it was an absurdly short amount of time.
Hanbit, taking her gaze off the scenery outside, looked around at the investigation team members on the airship and asked a question.
“Did you bring so many people because of that incident?”
The number of investigation team members aboard the seaplane was about 50.
While the World Tree was indeed important to them, that number was frankly excessive.
Was this, too, a change brought about by the incident in Sector 8-35?
“The exploration schedules overlapped, but that is the right objective. I don’t want to lose any more.”
Charlotte nodded in agreement.
For her, the deaths of the investigation team members were never forgotten.
That was why she had combined the scheduled exploration near the World Tree with the journey.
“Is Headquarters okay? It looks like they followed us all the way to Dusk.”
“It’s fine. Brother… the Vice-Commander should have returned by now.”
Charlotte answered while leaning against the railing.
Edwin von Sinclair.
He was the Vice-Commander of the investigation team and her own older brother.
Their relationship could not be described as good, even as a formality; to be precise, it felt like a burning, one-sided jealousy.
Whoosh—
the sound of the wind cutting through echoed, accompanied by a sudden silence.
The reason the impact felt was minimal compared to the speed was thanks to the veil of mana enveloping the airship.
It must be attributed to the effect created by Charlotte's astonishingly vast mana.
"Lord Black Dragon, but what is really going to happen?"
Nearly an hour and a half had passed, Haneul asked in a low voice.
There was no need to confirm that the question was about the World Tree.
"We don't know yet. It has a terrible temper and is a very capricious tree."
“…Fickleness?”
The World Tree and capriciousness.
They are words that don’t quite fit together, but it was a truly finicky tree.
It was a being akin to a person with multiple personalities.
Hanbit’s choice was bound to change depending on which personality emerged.
“Let’s check after we arrive. We have another problem right now.”
Whoosh—!
Just then, a different air current mixed around the airship.
“They’re here.”
Charlotte, who had been leaning against the railing, also sensed the anomaly.
At the same time, a group of shadows shot up upwards.
Ack—!
Screech—!
[Evil-tainted Wind Hawk (Lv.443)]
[Evil-tainted Black Beetle (Lv.446)]
[Evil-tainted Echo Raven (Lv.447)]
-Ouch;
-Look at the levels. Hahaha
-Damn big;
-Almost Tinkerbell level.
-Charlotte, ‘do it.’
A group of high-level flying monsters surrounded the airship.
The number had reached nearly 100.
“All squads, take your positions.”
Third Squad Commander Rowald quickly surveyed the battlefield and issued the order.
However, no one here needed to move.
“I’ll do it.”
Swoosh—
Charlotte drew her black and white sword and lightly stepped onto the railing.
Flap—!
Whirr—!
Sensing the killing intent, the monsters violently flapped their wings and rushed toward her.
And the moment they closed in all at once.
Whoosh—!
Charlotte’s sword lightly slashed through the air.
Swish—!
With a brief motion, a black line appeared in the void.
The heads of the 100 or so monsters that had been flying in were already severed from their bodies.
—Huh?
—??
—What did you do?
—You just slashed and it turned out like that?
—Did the sky split open?
—Crazy. Hahaha.
Everyone’s gaze focused on the black line drawn in the air.
A rift that did not disappear even though the monsters were dead.
The phenomenon, which looked as if the clear sky had been cut in half, could not help but appear fascinating.
“Is that the Captain’s swordsmanship…?”
“I’ve never seen it in person before.”
Many of the investigation team members also reacted with surprise at Charlotte’s swordsmanship.
It was a power difficult to witness unless one had been with them since the past.
“Wait.”
Just then, Charlotte quietly murmured.
Her voice did not reach the team members who were gasping in admiration.
Only Hanbit, sensing something was off, placed his hand on the hilt.
Whoosh—
A faint echo heard amidst the sound of the rushing wind.
It grew closer without them even realizing it.
Whoosh—
“This….”
“Could it be.”
The true nature of the increasingly strong resonance instinctively flashed through Charlotte and Hanbit’s minds.
Their voices burst out simultaneously.
“Down there!”
“Grab onto anything!”
Crash!
A tremendous impact struck, accompanied by a roar that echoed through the airship.
“Aargh!”
“Cough!”
The aftermath sent everyone standing on the ground flying into the air.
“Sylph!”
“I’ll grab it!”
Whoosh!
With the call, the Sylph wind grabbed the bodies of those rising.
Hanbit, gripping a pillar in mid-air, quickly moved to the railing.
And the moment he looked down with a sense of unease,
whoosh—!
He met the gaze of a giant sky whale.
