“How did you use magic? I thought it was impossible to cast anything inside Cherny.”
“It’s thanks to that old knife-ear. He trashed the West Gate guards while breaking into Cherny, and he punched a few holes in the city walls while he was at it. A mage of my caliber doesn’t miss a gap like that. Though, my head is still spinning from forcing mana through an anti-magic aura.”
“You were lucky.”
“If I were lucky, I wouldn’t have been caught up in this shitty mess in the first place.”
“……”
“I swear, every time I’m with you, I get dragged into the most god-awful situations.”
Audrey had hit the nail on the head.
I looked around, feigning ignorance. Although we weren’t in the central district of Cherny where we’d started, the surrounding buildings still bore the distinct architectural style of the Blade City. We were still within the walls.
“Where are we?”
“The outskirts. We’re almost at the wall.”
“Do you know which gate we’re near?”
“No clue. I just ran blindly. Well, actually, that old man was the one leading the way. You’re not going to nag me if we took a wrong turn, are you? I’ve done my part.”
“…Why are you acting so defensive?”
I turned my gaze from Audrey to Tom.
Tom spoke up.
“We are heading toward the East Gate.”
“The East Gate? Wouldn’t the West Gate be better if we’re trying to get out? From what I heard, the guards there were decimated. If the security is lax, we could slip out without an inspection.”
“That is true. However, there is no need for that, is there? We have already completed all the legal procedures to cross the border. Furthermore, if we leverage our connection with Sir Bermartin, the guards of Cherny are allies, not enemies. Very reliable allies at that.”
“Ah.”
Tom was right.
“Additionally, if we exit through the East Gate, we can immediately rendezvous with the people we hired in advance. Going through the West Gate would require a tedious detour over a significant distance. In a critical situation like this, wasting time or spending too long in transit is ill-advised.”
“You’re right.”
I nodded, convinced. As we hurried along, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“Lady Audrey.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you know anything about the old elf who attacked Cherny?”
“I do. High Elf Nadine.”
High Elf Nadine. So Audrey knew about him as well.
“He’s one of the oldest beings on the continent. And one of the most difficult to deal with.”
“Is he strong?”
“He is. But the reason that old knife-ear is so troublesome isn’t just because of his overwhelming power.”
“Then why?”
“High Elf Nadine is immortal. As long as the World Tree stands, he will keep coming back to life no matter how many times he dies. He’ll just be reborn in the crystal-clear springs of the oldest forest.”
“……”
“Because of that, everyone avoids fighting him. That spiteful old man never forgets a grudge once he holds one. Not after hundreds of years, not even after thousands.”
A being that doesn’t die and never forgets a grudge. It sounded terrifying just hearing about it.
“But why do you ask?”
“I heard the reason why High Elf Nadine attacked Cherny.”
“The reason?”
“He suspected that Ian Chervil is the eye of the whirlwind throwing the continent into chaos. It seems the elves were caught up in Ian Chervil’s whirlwind as well, and he was furious about it. He said he came here to judge those who committed wrongs.”
Indeed. The old elf had said he personally traveled all the way to the Iron Kingdom to hold them accountable. His words hadn’t felt like a lie.
“Is there any way we could use him?”
“Use him?”
“Yes. Isn’t there a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?”
Audrey let out a short, dry laugh at my suggestion.
“Forget it.”
“Pardon? Why…?”
“The only things that old knife-ear cares about are the forest and the fairies. Every other emotion has been worn away by the passage of eternity. If it meant protecting the fairies, that old man would probably offer up the entire continent as fertilizer for the World Tree. Yeah, he’s exactly that kind of person.”
“……”
“Did I never tell you?” Audrey glanced at me. “Every transcendent being on this continent is broken in some way. If you want to survive in the wider world outside the Iron Kingdom, you must never forget that. Never.”
Broken in some way.
Those words resonated with me. I nodded and replied.
“So you were a transcendent being as well, Lady Audrey. That explains why you’re so severely broken. I honestly thought you were just born with that personality, so I kept thinking some bad things—”
“Shut up,” Audrey said flatly.
Regardless, her words caused me to immediately scrap the plan I’d briefly entertained. A fairy who viewed everyone except his own race as fertilizer? There was no way I could be friends with a senile old elf like that. Absolutely not. As I muttered that to myself, Audrey whispered.
“But I’m getting a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling? Why is that?”
Unease? Why? From my perspective, things seemed to be going smoothly.
Audrey finally spoke.
“This attack by Nadine is likely a warning. A powerful warning to Ian Chervil for touching the High Elf’s pride. He’s indirectly saying, ‘I am a being who can appear right in the middle of your capital.’ According to my sisters, that’s a tactic High Elves use often. Because no matter what happens to them, High Elves don’t die. Not as long as the World Tree exists.”
“……”
“But there’s no way the warning ends here. Nadine wouldn’t just want to warn Ian Chervil; he’d want to let the other nations of the continent know that he’s stepped forth. To reveal that the true evil destabilizing the continent is Ian Chervil, to clearly demonstrate the Forest’s Wrath, and to declare his emergence into the world.”
Audrey placed a hand on her chin and let out a low hum of thought. Her performance during this crisis had been remarkable. Despite the unannounced danger and the difficult environment, Audrey had perfectly fulfilled her role as a mage. She had saved me from a desperate situation and pulled every single member of the party out of harm’s way. No one would have blamed her if she’d acted arrogant, yet instead of boasting, she was feeling uneasy.
But for some reason, I understood her anxiety.
“That’s why I’m worried. From what I’ve heard from my sisters, there isn’t a fairy more tenacious than that old man. Yeah, there’s no way that knife-ear would stop here. Surely, there’s something more—”
Because, in truth, my life never had a habit of going easy on me.
Ever.
“—waiting for us…?”
“……”
The group, which had been moving forward, came to a halt. The East Gate was just ahead. Or rather, what used to be the East Gate was there.
“Descendant of Steel.”
“Yes.”
“I swear, every time I’m with you, I get dragged into the most god-awful situations.”
“…I admit it.”
The guards who should have been defending the East Gate were all sprawled across the ground. Their bodies had been crushed like dough, and around them lay the shattered remains of the Steel Legion soldiers. In the midst of the scattered blood and flesh stood a massive monster. A creature made of rock and vines, looking like a walking mountain.
“You. Have. The. Absolute. Shittiest. Luck. Of. Any. Human. I. Know.”
“Thank you for the compliment. But Lady Audrey, instead of stating the obvious, wouldn’t it be better to tell me exactly what that thing is?”
Behind the monster, where the sturdy city walls should have been, there was nothing. The walls, which were saturated with the Authority of Anti-magic, had been brutally demolished. As I stared at the hollow landscape, I heard Audrey’s voice beside me.
“It’s a Spirit King.”
“A Spirit King…?”
“Yeah. Gaia, the Earth Spirit King. A being that only chosen elves can summon.”
The monster—the Earth Spirit King Gaia—moved its eyes slowly. Eight eyes, glittering like obsidian, soon locked onto us.
“By another name… The Avatar of Destruction.”
*
Sherizik crouched down and placed her hand on the soil.
“It’s not just here. You said a hole was punched in the West Gate? It seems every gate except the North Gate has been destroyed. I can feel a powerful surge of spiritual energy.”
Indeed, Sherizik was versatile. She was an Orc warrior, but at the same time, she was a shaman who had inherited the blood of the great Orc Shaman Sherdic. The claim she’d made when joining the party—that she could serve as a ‘guide’—had been no lie. While Audrey’s magical abilities were fluctuating, Sherizik’s shamanistic senses, which were unhindered by the anti-magic walls, were proving invaluable.
“Damn it, I knew it. There was no way that old knife-ear would be satisfied with just infiltrating and giving a warning. He showed himself in the heart of the capital and flaunted his presence by blowing away the city walls.”
“I suppose so. From the Iron Kingdom’s perspective, this is quite a nuisance.”
“Is it because damaging the walls is a major blow to their prestige?”
“Losing face is certainly a problem. But there is a much larger issue at hand.”
Tom explained the gravity of the situation.
“The Iron Kingdom is in the midst of a long war. And their opponent is the Machine Empire. Without the anti-magic walls surrounding Cherny, the Machine Empire can infiltrate the capital at any time. They possess the most advanced magical engineering technology on the continent, after all. Striking key strategic points via warp gates is their notorious specialty.”
“Ah.”
“Of course, the Machine Empire won’t just invade out of the blue. But the fact that they could pose such a threat at any moment is a significant burden for the Iron Kingdom. Although there haven’t been any major battles recently, the bad blood between the Machine Empire and the Iron Kingdom is well-known throughout the continent.”
He was right. The Iron Kingdom and the Machine Empire were bitter rivals. That was a fact known to everyone.
As I nodded, Sherizik looked at me.
“It seems the situation will be similar even if we head to another gate.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose my luck wasn’t uniquely bad. It means this would have happened regardless of which gate we chose…”
“That is not the case. While there are Great Spirits at the other gates, there isn’t a Spirit King. Only the East Gate has the Earth Spirit King. This happened simply because your luck is bad.”
Sherizik spoke with blunt certainty. I let out a long sigh.
“How long will it take to reach another gate?”
“At least twenty minutes, Young Master.”
“Just enough time to get caught up in the chaos unfolding in the center of Cherny.”
She said the other gates had spirits weaker than a Spirit King. A dangerous but fast path, or a safe but long detour. A choice had to be made.
That was when Audrey spoke.
“We don’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“That old knife-ear called upon the World Tree. It’s the most powerful threat a High Elf can muster. Soon, the core forces of the Iron Kingdom will appear to suppress Nadine. But the brief window of time before they arrive is too dangerous. If we want to be safe, we have to get outside the walls as quickly as possible. The World Tree is… far too dangerous.”
I thought for a moment after hearing Audrey’s words. Then, I asked.
“The Earth Spirit King—is it strong?”
