Chapter 16
Ratatatat—
“….”
To either side of me, and up in the trees.
Four elves in all appeared, aiming their bows at me.
Why?
No, more importantly, how are there elves in here?
They said they’d all returned before I went in, didn’t they?
“Wait, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I’m here at the queen’s request!”
As I spoke, I pulled out the seal BountifulHarvest had given me, telling me to show it if anything went wrong.
But they—
“■■■ ■■?”
“■■ ■■!”
—spoke in a language I couldn’t understand.
Then they glared at the seal I’d held up.
“…What’s going on, dragon?”
Beren had caught up with us by then. Seeing the situation, he asked me.
“How should I know?! I’m wondering the same thing!”
“■■■ ■■■■■?”
“What…?”
The elves still had their bows aimed at me.
I kept hold of the elf I’d grabbed as I studied the others.
That was when I noticed a few things.
For one, their clothes were different from those of the elves I’d seen on Earth so far.
They wore primitive-looking outfits, almost as if they were woven from leaves.
The second thing was that they were all armed with bows.
As I’d seen earlier, Earth’s elves could use guns.
Unless they were for decoration or used by a specific Awakened, bows were no longer used in combat.
“■■■ ■■■■!”
Their gazes shifted to Beren.
“What are they saying?”
“I don’t know either. They seem to have a proper language system, but…”
“It’s different from ours.”
That was what Beren said.
“B-But the language barrier disappeared after the Gate phenomenon, didn’t it…?”
Ha-eun said cautiously from behind us.
There was a reason we could communicate with other races, like elves, without any trouble.
It was an effect caused by the Gates.
The Tower of Babel effect.
Because of it, since the Gates appeared, people on Earth had been able to understand one another even when speaking or hearing different languages.
But despite that effect, we couldn’t understand a word the elves in front of us were saying.
“…Is there no translation spell?”
“There’s no way something that convenient exists…”
- Why not?
- Can’t a dragon even do that?
Do they think dragons are linguists or something?
If that were possible…
Uh, wait a minute.
It doesn’t have to be magic, does it?
“Now that I think about it, I feel like I had something that convenient.”
- ?
- Now you remember?
- I knew I could count on the bossㅋㅋ
Ah, but it’s in my bag.
And if I let go of this elf, they’ll probably attack again…
“Beren, could you—”
Shing—
“Understood.”
“■■!”
“No, no, no! What are you doing drawing your sword already?!”
Beren’s sword was at the elf’s throat.
Fortunately, the other elves only pulled their bowstrings tighter. They still hadn’t fired.
Good grief…
I hurriedly rummaged through my bag and pulled out one of the treasures I’d brought.
[Fragment of Hermes]
A treasure that helps translate languages.
I hadn’t used it since returning to Earth, because the language barrier was no longer a problem.
Still, it was small, and I’d kept it on me just in case. Looks like it’s coming in handy now.
Of course, it does consume quite a bit of mana… but being able to communicate is what matters.
“Ah, can you hear me?”
I spoke with the small fragment held in front of my mouth.
When the elves started to say something, I hurriedly held it up to my ear.
This is still inconvenient.
It would’ve been easier if I’d restored the fragment properly.
“…! Who are you? Why are you in our forest?”
“Are you a dragon?! Those horns and tail! You look like that crimson one!”
“All right, calm down first. We’re only here to explore this Gate at the elf queen’s request.”
“Queen? Gate? What are you talking about?!”
Hmm… They really don’t seem like ordinary elves.
They don’t know the queen exists?
“Let the hostage go!”
“Damn… those lizard bastards…”
“And who’s that elf next to you? A traitor?!”
“We have to kill them immediately! At a time this chaotic…”
Ugh, this is giving me a headache.
Could you speak one at a time so I can actually understand you?
[Withdrawal 300,000 won - Details: Item usage fee]
Damn, this thing’s chewing through money fast, too.
“Wait, let’s talk. Just talk. I was sent by the Elven Holy Kingdom.”
“The Holy Kingdom?”
“We have to kill them! That’s an excuse they just made up on the spot!”
“I-I don’t matter. Please, for the future of the elves…”
But there was no sign the conversation would get anywhere.
And just as the hostage, apparently prepared to die, seemed to reignite the fight…
Swish—
Beren sheathed his sword and grabbed another one at his waist.
He looked ready to draw it at any moment and cut down the elf in front of him.
“…The Moonlight Blade?”
“No, the shape’s slightly different. Is it a replica?”
But the elves’ attention was focused on the sword, not Beren.
Seeing that, Beren gripped it more firmly and said,
“…Bena?”
“No, wait. More importantly, isn’t that sword an artifact?”
“It is.”
“They recognize it?”
“….”
Damn, this is frustrating.
At this rate, we really are going to end up fighting.
How am I supposed to explain it to BountifulHarvest if I kill an elf?
“This guy’s the Elven Sword Saint, or whatever. You know him?”
“How dare that reptile insult us again!”
“The only Sword Saint is Lord Kairan!”
…Kairan?
Huh?
No, wait a second.
“Wait, wait. You said Kairan?”
“That’s right! Our rightful king and the chosen representative of Etherian!”
…That was a mouthful.
As far as I knew, people with too many titles tended not to live long.
Anyway, that wasn’t what mattered.
Those elves were calling Kairan their king.
But… she’d lived at least ten thousand years ago.
She wasn’t even from Earth.
Putting everything else aside, even if Kairan really was their king…
Since she was a woman, they should’ve understood if I called her a queen, shouldn’t they?
“…A king? Wasn’t Kairan a woman?”
“You bastard…”
“…Wasn’t she?”
The painting yesterday had definitely shown a woman.
Had I gotten it wrong?
Well… the elves would know better than I would, but…
“…If you mean Hero Kairan, then yes, she was a woman.”
That was what Beren said.
What was going on? Which one of them was right?
That was when, while I was still trying to make sense of the situation…
————!!
A gigantic roar suddenly rang out from the sky.
- ?
- What now?
- Sounds kind of like the boss’s roar from before, doesn’t it?
“Damn it!”
“So they were trying to keep us occupied!”
A huge shadow stretched over us.
I looked up at the sky.
“Oh…?”
The shape of a dragon appeared in my eyes.
Scales of a terrifyingly deep red.
A massive body, clearly visible even from high in the sky.
And the fierce rage I could feel from it.
Squeeze—
“G-Goldie…”
Terra must have felt its presence, too. Trembling, Terra pressed close to me.
First of all, there was nothing like that on Earth.
If there had been, I would’ve noticed somehow.
Let me sort this out for a moment.
The elves in primitive clothes in front of me, and the king and representative they’d mentioned, Kairan.
And now, an enormous, unidentified Red Dragon had appeared.
It was hard to believe, but all of it pointed to one conclusion.
Could that thing be…
The dragon said to have burned the World Tree?
[Conditions have been met.]
[The Gate’s collapse is beginning.]
But still…
“It’s lower-ranked than me, isn’t it?”
I think I can take it.
***
Unlike last time, we were flung out of the Gate as if we’d been abruptly expelled, then headed back to the Holy Kingdom’s castle.
We were about to tell them what we’d seen when—
“I was watching. Here, take this first.”
BountifulHarvest handed me a Coke, then spoke with a grave expression.
But why a Coke…?
“First of all… We didn’t see anything like that when we explored the Gate.”
“It might have been the effect of my special ability.”
“And the people we saw through the screen were definitely elves, but…”
She said she didn’t know anything about their language, either.
But as for the enormous Red Dragon I’d seen…
BountifulHarvest spoke with certainty about that.
“We compared the dragon on the broadcast to the one who fought Hero Kairan in the myths. There were many similarities.”
A dragon like that wasn’t something you saw every day.
It was practically impossible for two of them to exist at once.
And since it had appeared inside an unusual Gate, BountifulHarvest offered one possible theory.
“Could the Gate have recreated the day Kairan beheaded the Red Dragon?”
The odds were low, but… it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
Gates were an unknown phenomenon, and nothing about them had been properly explained.
Especially this time, with a green Gate even stranger than usual.
It wouldn’t be surprising if anything happened.
Of course… a theory was still just a theory.
“Ha-eun, do you know anything?”
“I-I don’t really know, either… Um… my older brother might know…”
As Ha-eun said that, Ha-eun avoided my gaze.
It didn’t seem like Ha-eun was too keen on that idea.
Then let’s put that aside for now.
Let’s start by sorting out what we can figure out right away.
“About that Kairan. The elves said just now that Kairan was a man. Do you know anything about that?”
“The myths say that Kairan was a woman… We don’t know much beyond that, either.”
If you thought about it, there were all sorts of things that didn’t add up.
“If it’s showing us the day the World Tree burned, then it’s very different from the records we have now, no matter how I look at it.”
Not a queen, but a king.
Not a hero, but a representative.
Not the Holy Kingdom, but Etherian.
And they recognized Beren’s artifact, the sword called the Moonlight Blade.
“We’re searching through the records that remain, too. But…”
“It won’t be easy, after ten thousand years—and for a race that’s crossed worlds.”
“That’s right. And… our contract with you is now complete, Goldie.”
As she spoke, the elves standing behind her handed me a capsule.
Our contract had been to explore and clear the unusual Gate, so technically, it ended here.
We’d already cleared the Gate, and it had disappeared from that location.
We’d also learned important information inside it.
From here on, it was really up to the elves to deal with it.
But…
“You didn’t think I was going to back out now, did you?”
“….”
“Bring me the contract. If you tell me to leave now, I don’t know what I might do.”
I’d seen an Ancient Red Dragon with my own eyes.
It looked like something huge was about to happen, and they expected me to stay out of it?
Absolutely not.
There was definitely an even bigger treasure waiting for me.
And then there was the message that had appeared in the Gate earlier.
[You take another step closer to the truth of the World Tree.]
Status windows didn’t lie.
If I was getting closer to the truth, then I really was making progress.
Whether it was something good or bad.
“Terra, can you process this?”
“This is so… It’ll take t-time, but it’s definitely possible!”
“So you can do it?”
“Yes! I’ll do my best!”
“All right, all right. If it works out, I’ll share some with you, too.”
Good. It would take some time to process the claw fragment into a treasure.
I could deal with the World Tree problem in the meantime.
“I’ll set the first condition in the contract. I’ll own any byproducts we find while resolving this. And…”
Since we’d have to go back into the Gate anyway, I’d be taking those byproducts.
In return…
“I’ll restore the World Tree completely.”
At that, BountifulHarvest’s expression turned complicated.
And at that moment…
Creeeak—
The reception room door opened carefully, and Narsil, who hadn’t been around until now, came in.
And was fate really playing a joke on us?
“…A new green Gate has appeared to the northwest of the castle walls. Its rank is still unknown.”
She announced the appearance of another unusual Gate.
“Narsil.”
“Yes.”
“Could you bring me a pen and a piece of paper?”
It looks like things are going to get pretty interesting from here on.