Chapter 62
The World Tree had sprouted.
No, it had grown beyond that.
It had unfurled leaves from its branches and was breathing out fresh, vibrant mana.
That fact alone brought an astonishing change to Priella.
Even carrying rebar so heavy that it felt as though it would break her back.
Even hauling bricks all day beneath the blazing midsummer sun.
Even getting chewed out by the troll foreman for not finishing the work properly.
None of it felt as painful as it had before.
She found herself smiling for some inexplicable reason.
“I’m sorry. I’ll work hard.”
“…Auntie Priella, did something good happen? You’ve been grinning all day.”
The troll foreman in charge of her even asked her about it separately.
It was something that surprised even her.
Perhaps because of her elven pride, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, whenever she was cursed at, it showed plainly on her face.
But now, that no longer happened.
The hope that the World Tree could grow again.
Just confirming that tiny hope with her own eyes had changed her this much.
It was all thanks to Kim Mincheol.
Whenever she thought of him while wiping the sweat from her brow at the worksite, deep relief seeped into Priella’s heart.
‘Thanks to Mincheol…….’
The World Tree has been reborn.
Who could ever have imagined it?
That the World Tree would come alive again at the touch of human hands.
Even she had never imagined such a thing.
‘He’s an incredible man.’
What sort of power could possibly be contained within that gentle smile of his?
She wanted to hurry to his home and see how much the World Tree had grown.
How much more had it grown?
Had it put forth blue leaves by now?
Still, it was probably a little too soon.
Dozens of times a day, those blue leaves shimmered before her eyes.
She wanted to run over and check on it right away.
But on the day she had dressed up and gone to the convenience store.
Ever since she encountered Lich Belarus there, Priella had been unable to bring herself to suggest going to see the World Tree.
Belarus, who had bestowed dark flames upon the World Tree.
The day the World Tree of her once-glorious homeland forest had burned helplessly.
The sight of Belarus gazing at the burning World Tree with glowing red eyes kept coming back to her.
It kept surfacing in her mind and holding her back.
That was why she had been unable to suggest going to his room that day, and the same was true now.
She was afraid that the misfortune from her past clinging to her might somehow spread to that tiny, precious life that had only just begun to sprout.
She had to settle for meeting Kim Mincheol briefly on her way home from work and breathing in the scent of the forest clinging to his body.
That was how it had been.
-I heard that a new hunter named Kim Mincheol cleared the seventy-fourth floor in record time. Apparently Sonya dropped to second place in contribution this time.
-Can we consider this the birth of a new Hero?
-I don’t know.
A dungeon raider with the exact same name as Kim Mincheol had appeared.
Worried that Mincheol might be in danger, she ran to the convenience store as soon as work ended.
As far as she knew, Mincheol was an ordinary person without even a proper ability.
If he were attacked simply because he shared someone’s name, he would have no way to defend himself.
Therefore, she had to protect him.
That was the only way she could protect the World Tree.
That was why.
It wasn’t because she had any ulterior motives.
She had been so relieved to see that Mincheol was safe and sound.
Meeting the fallen angel Gabi there had been unexpected, though.
Somehow, she ended up eating fast food with them, burning with competitive spirit at the arcade, and enjoying the amusements of life in Taepyeong City.
‘How long had it been since I’d had this much carefree fun?’
She had not done anything like that even once since settling in Taepyeong City as though being pursued.
A queen who had to take responsibility for the future of her people.
The other elves merely worshiped her as their queen; they were not people she could play pranks with or enjoy amusements alongside.
Nor was there anyone from another race whom she could call a friend.
In Taepyeong City, she had always been alone.
She had thought she was used to being alone by now.
It had been fun.
Arguing childishly with Gabi, marveling at human food and laughing and chatting with Mincheol throughout the day.
So this was how enjoyable it was to play together.
It was too disappointing a night to simply turn around and return to her studio apartment.
‘If I feel this way.’
She thought it would surely have a positive and beneficial effect on the World Tree as well.
That was why she had come over, almost using it as an excuse.
Sway, sway.
In the room without even a breath of wind, the World Tree moved its branches on its own.
It meant that it possessed enough vitality to move by itself.
It had not even been a month since Kim Mincheol had made the World Tree sprout.
And already, it had grown this much.
“It’s faster than I expected, but……”
If it was now.
If it was now, after spending such a pleasant day.
She would be able to bestow the queen’s blessing upon this tiny life.
Having finished her thoughts, she closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.
The power of the verdant forest surged up around her.
***
“Huh? Ms. Priella?”
Wind began to blow around Priella, who had suddenly closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.
Even I, who knew nothing about what was happening, could feel that something was different as a fresh, vibrant energy welled up from her.
I was just about to approach her reflexively, startled and wondering what was happening.
“You mustn’t interrupt her right now.”
Gabi’s hand suddenly shot out and grabbed my shoulder.
When I turned around, the usual playfulness was absent from Gabi’s face.
She slipped her cracked smartphone into her pocket, then gestured toward Priella with eyes devoid of laughter.
“It’s a queen’s blessing. A blessing given to forests, natural objects, or elves. It’s a sacred ritual that protects them from outside dangers so their members can grow properly.”
“Ah……”
“I never thought I’d see this again.”
I turned my head back toward Priella.
The fresh green light shimmering from her body filled the room with the scent of the forest.
As the green light grew more intense, a strange illusion began to overlap with what I saw.
Over her rough work clothes.
The hem of an elegant pale-green silk dress was being sketched over them like a heat haze.
It resembled the dress she had worn when she came to our store that day.
For a moment, I saw the noble elven queen who had protected her people in a sacred forest.
Not the elf at a manual-labor worksite covered in dust.
I suddenly remembered the day she had come to the store wearing that dress.
Perhaps she had worn that dress in order to bestow today’s blessing.
“…Wow.”
Even Gabi was silently staring at the scene with her mouth slightly open.
Fwoooosh-!
Before long, the green mana extending from Priella’s fingertips wrapped around the World Tree in the flowerpot.
At that moment.
“……Huh?”
The surroundings changed.
Massive trees towered upward as though they would pierce the sky.
Warm golden sunlight streamed down in broken patches between the leaves.
And I saw countless elves strolling beneath that light.
They were not elves whose spirits had been tainted by the city, like the ones I had seen at the convenience store.
They were splendid elves brimming with the power of the forest, their faces full of laughter.
Silk garments woven from the fibers of the forest instead of work clothes.
Harps and panpipes instead of cigarettes and alcohol.
It was an elegant beauty, as though a Western masterpiece I had seen in an art museum or a banquet of nymphs from Greek mythology had been brought to life.
Was this the memory of the forest that Priella had possessed before being driven to Taepyeong City?
Without even daring to breathe, I walked through the forest in that vision.
And at the very heart of that radiant forest.
A gigantic World Tree stood.
The source of the life and nature that made this forest possible.
Someone stood before the enormous World Tree.
“Ms. Priella?”
No, it wasn’t her.
Her hair was not that green.
A woman with pale-green hair flowing lushly around her gazed at me while wearing a crown woven from the World Tree’s branches.
A benevolent smile.
Along with it, a voice rang out inside my head.
-Please keep taking such good care of it, just as you are now.
A sacred, dignified voice.
A kind and warm voice like the whisper of leaves swaying in the wind.
-Kind one who cared for our sprout. May the blessing of the forest accompany you on your path.
Sway.
The wind blew once more, and the vision of that lush greenery gently scattered away like snow melting in spring.
……
When I came to my senses, I was standing once again in the middle of my familiar studio apartment.
Cool, refreshing air filled the room.
Priella, having withdrawn her power, still had her eyes closed.
And the World Tree had grown by about a handspan.
And Gabi, who had watched the scene beside me,
“Did you just visit the forest?”
was grinning as though she knew what I had seen.
“What was that just now?”
“It was the elves’ paradise. Or should I call it the World Tree’s cradle? A place that doesn’t exist in reality, like a heaven where elves whose lives have run their course go.”
……
The elves’ heaven?
“How do you know so much about it?”
“I used to be an angel, after all. I know everything there is to know about this sort of thing.”
“Mincheol, did you see Yggdrasil?”
At some point, Priella had opened her eyes and was looking at me.
“I saw a place filled with forest. I think I saw an illusion of many elves……”
“Was my mother there?”
“Your mother?”
“She must have had blue hair and worn a crown of thorns.”
She meant the woman with the old-fashioned air whom I had seen at the end.
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“I see……. That’s a relief. She’s still alive. She still hasn’t abandoned our people.”
Priella’s long ears drooped as she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you saying Yggdrasil is the elves’ heaven?”
“That’s right. Just as the people of Taepyeong City have a heaven, we have Yggdrasil. It’s a sanctuary that only elves blessed by the World Tree can enter.”
Priella continued speaking as she gazed fondly at the World Tree, which had grown another handspan.
“The World Tree is the only passage connecting the land where we live to Yggdrasil. Without the World Tree, the elves would wander this place forever.”
“Ah……”
So that was why the elves clung so desperately to the forest and the World Tree.
Now I finally understood why Priella had fallen into such despair when Lich Belarus burned the World Tree of her homeland.
The path to salvation for her people’s souls had been severed.
“Mincheol, thank you. Truly, I don’t know how I can ever repay this kindness……”
“Just come to the convenience store often. You can repay me by buying lots of things from our store.”
“Is that, is that really enough?”
“Of course. And whenever you come, stop by to see the World Tree from time to time. It isn’t fully grown yet, after all. I’m sure it will need plenty of elven care.”
At those words, Priella’s face turned bright red.
“Th-that’s a little too f-forward, i-isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
Gabi, who had been watching from beside us, narrowed her eyes at me.
“I’ve thought this for a while, but Mr. Mincheol really has the look of a man lucky with women—or rather, plagued by them. Flirting so subtly while pretending not to know anything.”
Flirting?
Ah.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“I-I know! I know that much too. You just mean I should come see the World Tree. Th-then~. I-I know what you mean, I do.”
“You sure are pretending to know everything when you know nothing.”
“Hey! Chicken pigeon!”
Priella grew furious at Gabi’s sudden remark.
I was glad that Priella seemed to have regained her spirits.
Priella had been strangely down ever since meeting Belarus.
It had been obvious enough to notice.
But she seemed to be doing a little better now.
“Ms. Gabi, you should come visit from time to time too.”
“Pardon?”
“It seems Ms. Priella likes being with you……”
“Absolutely not!”
“Ugh, I don’t like that either.”
Hmm.
Had I been mistaken?
The two of them seemed to click pretty well.
“But is this really okay? The World Tree has grown so much that this flowerpot probably won’t be remotely large enough anymore.”
At Gabi’s observation, Priella and I turned our eyes toward the flowerpot.
Sure enough, the World Tree had suddenly grown so much from the blessing that the plastic flowerpot I had bought could barely contain it.
“I’ll have to buy a new one.”
“I shall look into it.”
“Will that be all right?”
“That’s what I saved the money for. The members of my people should be managing it well. I’ll bring back the most luxurious one I can find.”
And so Priella spent some time admiring the World Tree before leaving.
“We couldn’t even talk properly today because of an intruder. How about going to a PC bang together next time? I think Mr. Mincheol and I have similar tastes in games, or perhaps we could even…… Ah! Let go, let go! My neck is stretching~!”
“Let’s go. Don’t bother someone who has work tomorrow.”
“Aaaah! Violent elf~~!”
Gabi had been trying to subtly stay at my place, and I was dragging her away by the back of her neck as I spoke.
They really did seem to get along.
***
The next day.
-Human youth, it has been a long time. Have you been well?
“Hello.”
A lich wearing a suit came to the convenience store.
Belarus, with silver-framed glasses perched on his skull, gazed at me with glowing red eyes.
It was a gaze that sent chills down a person’s spine.
And yet there seemed to be a strange gentleness mixed into it, making it contradictory.
-I believe I asked you to visit our company when you had the time, but I heard nothing from you. So I came to see you myself.
“Ah……”
I had forgotten.
I had completely forgotten bickering with his company’s employees at the auction I had attended with Lumina.
I had also forgotten that he had told me to visit Endless Corporation because he would prepare a gift for me.
Everything had slipped my mind.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been too busy.”
There had simply been too many things going on, and I had forgotten all about it.
-Hehe, it’s quite all right. The time of living beings is far more valuable than that of the dead. Living a busy life is valuable for that very reason, is it not?
Belarus moved his jawbone with a clatter.
-Then could you spare me a little time? I came here to repay you for what happened at the auction that day.
“Ah, yes. That’s fine. I have plenty of time right now.”
-I see. That is a relief.
Belarus adjusted his glasses with one finger and took another step toward me.
Saaaah.
I felt as though the black aura rising around him had grown a little denser.
-Then, before I give you your gift, there is one thing I would like to ask you.
“What is it?”
-Are you still in contact with Ms. Lumina?
“…Pardon?”
-I believe our company has obtained some information regarding Ms. Lumina’s head.
Clatter.
Belarus’s bones moved.