Chapter 183
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The High Elf Elder took Ferda and Erika to a prison beneath the World Tree, where bars woven from roots enclosed the cells.
In the secluded world of the elves, prisoners were rare, so the place was practically empty except for them.
“What do you intend to do with us?”
Erika asked the Elder.
“What do you think? That human finally caused the very incident we feared.”
The Elder jerked his chin toward Ferda.
Now that he had an excuse, it was irritating to see him drop all pretense of courtesy.
“If you imprison us before even determining the truth, isn't that the same as declaring that you want a fight?”
“The Grand Chieftain is in critical condition, Tower Master. You understand that we cannot simply sit on our hands.”
“……”
High Elves were akin to the nobility of all elves, and the Grand Chieftain was like their emperor.
In other words, their emperor had fallen into critical condition for no apparent reason.
That was why Erika and Ferda had followed quietly.
“Wait here quietly until the Grand Chieftain regains consciousness.”
The High Elf Elder turned and walked outside.
They took no further measures.
Even though two mages were imprisoned—and one was a formidable member of the expedition that had saved the continent—they were not bound or restrained separately.
It was not out of noble courtesy; there was simply no need.
Whenever they released mana to draw a magic circle, it was immediately sucked away somewhere.
The roots forming the prison were absorbing it like nutrients.
Erika grasped the bars with one hand.
She wanted nothing more than to smash through them and leave, but doing so would only put them at a disadvantage.
“Haa……”
Erika sighed.
Then she cast a sidelong glance toward Ferda.
Ferda sat quietly without saying a word.
“Haa……”
“……”
“Haaaaah!!!”
“……You're noisy.”
“Haa? You think I can be quiet right now? Look at this situation!”
Erika folded her arms and glared at Ferda.
“Now tell me. What happened between you and the Grand Chieftain?”
“……”
The furrow between Erika's brows narrowed.
“Regent. I don't know what happened, but the High Elf Grand Chieftain is dying after being with you. If I'm going to defend you, I need to know what happened. Do you understand?”
Ferda wondered how he should answer.
For now, he answered in a way that revealed as little information as possible.
“The Grand Chieftain was interested in the mana I possess, so he examined it.”
“Your mana?”
“Yes.”
“If it was because of the Regent's mana……”
Erika suddenly realized something.
With her face bright red, she asked cautiously,
“Don't tell me you nearly gave that old man a death by ecstasy……?”
“……It wasn't anything like that.”
Even by her own standards, she really was like a girl going through puberty.
Perhaps she realized herself that she had gone too far, because she hastily changed the subject.
“There definitely was something different about Regent Ferda's mana.”
“He let out a rather undignified scream.”
“Yes, it just felt so sudden that it startled me, and I absolutely had no other intention. The conversation went somewhere strange. Shall we focus?”
She rambled on, then worked herself up all by herself.
“Regent Ferda's mana is certainly strange…… but there is no way that old man was completely helpless…… If it shook the World Tree, he must have done it of his own will……”
Erika was right.
Ferda recalled the Grand Chieftain's eyes.
He had looked at Ferda with a face overwhelmed by terror.
‘How could this……?’
What had the Elder seen to make him say that?
No, in truth, Ferda could guess what he had seen.
His own figure, filled with rage and hatred.
He simply did not want to believe that the Grand Chieftain had seen him that way.
‘Did I make a needless move?’
The Grand Chieftain had brought it upon himself, but Ferda had created the pretext.
Impatience always made people act rashly.
Since that rashness had ultimately led to this result, it was Ferda's fault as well.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“Will you answer me now? I mean, tell me exactly what you did.”
Erika narrowed her eyes like an axe and demanded an answer.
“How much do you know about the Demon King, Tower Master?”
“Are you answering a question with another question? I don't like that.”
“It is related.”
Though her expression showed her displeasure, she answered.
“Not much. I know that he appeared out of nowhere and became Godwin's descendant. And that he was the first to try to rule the world in the form of demonkin…… That's about it.”
“I see.”
“If I can enter the Far East, I might be able to investigate him properly from that point on. So what does that have to do with this?”
She had answered him sincerely, so he could answer her in return.
“I cannot answer that question.”
“……Are you kidding me?”
“It is for both our sakes.”
Erika glared at Ferda as if she found him distasteful.
Her resentful eyes bored into him before she puffed out her cheeks as hard as she could.
“Ah, seriously……! You're really bringing out my temper!”
“……”
“Why is everyone treating me like this lately!? I'm the Blue-Eyed Tower Master! I was personally favored by Lady Iorga!! Why do I have to suffer this humiliation!?”
“……”
“Damn it! I just want to cry!”
“Please do not cry.”
“Why? Because it would be a nuisance?”
“Yes.”
Ferda covered his ears.
Erika glared at him.
“Oh, is that so!? Then I'll just pour out all my grievances right here!”
“……”
“I'm really going to bawl my eyes out! I'll let my tears and snot run all over the place!”
“P-please don't……”
As she shrieked, someone joined their conversation.
When they turned their heads, someone was standing beyond the wooden bars.
It was Lize.
Erika's restraint, which had almost completely snapped, barely returned.
“Are you all right?”
“……Do I look all right to you right now?”
Erika answered gruffly with an awkward expression, and Lize lowered her head.
“I'm sorry. Your father was attacked, after all, and Mr. Ferda, who was with him, was the most likely suspect, so this was unavoidable.”
“Fine. Just tell me what happened. What's the atmosphere like over there right now?”
“First of all…… everyone is extremely worried because the Grand Chieftain is in critical condition.”
“They must be furious at Regent Ferda.”
Erika put particular emphasis on the name Ferda.
Lize quietly nodded.
“But fortunately, the Grand Chieftain regained consciousness for a brief moment.”
“Then the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”
Erika thought everything was over.
But Lize shook her head.
“No. Father did not reveal his condition and left me a message.”
“What message?”
Something was unusual in Lize's eyes.
In a barely audible voice, she said,
“He ordered me to secretly take you both outside.”
Erika frowned when she heard that.
“Wait a moment. Isn't that telling us to become fugitives?”
“It seems…… that is the case.”
“The descendant of Iorga fled from the elves. Is he planning to humiliate us even if it has to be in that way?”
Lize wore an uneasy expression as she tried to persuade her.
“Please. He earnestly asked that this be carried out in secret.”
“You can spare me the request. I came here asking you to bring the High Elf journal and translate it. I can't leave without getting anything out of this.”
“He said that you would say that, actually……”
Lize furtively opened the bag she was carrying.
Inside was a mass of papers, all piled together in no particular order.
“He also told me to give them to you when you left the World Tree.”
“That old man……”
Erika disliked how he was still acting as if he had her dancing in the palm of his hand.
“Are you sure about the contents?”
“I haven't read them, so I'm not sure myself……”
“What if there's nothing in there and we've been tricked?”
Erika was thoroughly sulky, clearly determined not to follow the Grand Chieftain's wishes.
In the end, Ferda took Lize's side.
“This is hardly the time to be choosy. Why don't you go?”
“Isn't all of this your fault?”
“Yes. It is. But we can obtain what we need and avoid an unnecessary clash, can't we?”
Ferda believed the Grand Chieftain had not given that order without reason.
Erika folded her arms, bit her lip tightly, and ruffled her hair.
“Aaargh! Fine! If we can find out everything we need anyway! Let's trust him!”
“Th-thank you! I'll open the door.”
Lize inserted a wooden key and opened the prison door.
Only after the door opened did a question occur to them.
Ferda asked her, just in case,
“But Secretary Lize, aren't you a High Elf?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then won't everyone learn about this situation immediately?”
High Elves were a race that shared a single mind.
The High Elf Elder had locked them up, so even if Lize secretly let them out now, it meant they had already been discovered.
“I am a High Elf, but……”
She scratched her cheek as she answered.
“I was born unable to connect my mind with the others.”
* * *
The interior of the World Tree was shaped much like a magic tower.
It could not be otherwise, since magic towers had originally been modeled after the World Tree.
The World Tree was the ideal form for the efficiency and convenience of all magic.
Mana condensed to an extreme degree shone white and served as illumination, while green moss and vines that had grown in that light clung to the walls.
Tree trunks became stairs and ground, creating places to set foot inside.
They cautiously climbed those stairs.
The waterfall flowing down from the crown of the World Tree was astonishingly still, rather than raging.
“It's quiet.”
Ferda said it unnecessarily.
“I know, right?”
Erika answered just as unnecessarily.
“That's because no one normally comes this far inside.”
Lize told them there was nothing to worry about.
Ferda and Erika exchanged glances.
No matter how they thought about it, her certainty seemed suspicious.
“There's something I'm curious about.”
“Yes!”
“How did you get down here?”
Erika asked her, still unable to shake her suspicions.
“I came down as carefully as possible while reading the presence of those around me.”
“You came down trusting your instincts?”
“Yes! I may look like this, but I'm actually good at hiding things!”
“……”
Suspicion turned into certainty.
Erika stopped hunching over awkwardly and looked up as she shouted,
“Stop hiding and come out!”
At her words, the previously deathly silent interior instantly filled with signs of life.
They were Wood Elves wearing Elven-made armor.
More than a hundred Wood Elves surrounded them in an instant, eliminating every blind spot.
Lize could not hide her consternation.
“Huh? W-wait…… how……”
“How? What a stupid question.”
A familiar voice rang out.
The High Elf Elder emerged among the Wood Elves.
His eyes were steeped in revulsion.
They were not the eyes one should use to look at a fellow member of one's own kind.
“Did you think that no matter how stealthily you moved, you could evade the eyes of elves who have spent their entire lives serving this World Tree?”
A secret escape had never been possible.
It was enough to make one sigh.
“What is in that bag?”
At the Elder's question, Lize instinctively hugged her bag to her chest.
Whatever was inside, it was undoubtedly important.
“As your Elder, I command you. Bring that object here at once.”
“Th-this must be delivered to Regent Ferda and Tower Master Erika. It was the Grand Chieftain's direct order.”
“The Grand Chieftain has fallen into a coma. We cannot hear a word from him through the mind we share, so how could you have heard that from him?”
“He told me directly.”
“Don't be ridiculous!”
The High Elf Elder thundered.
“We rule over all elves because our minds are one! Do you really expect me to believe that he went to the trouble of telling you, who cannot even connect your mind, something so important!?”
Lize trembled, apparently frightened.
Even so, her mouth did not stop.
“As you say, I cannot connect my mind with the others. But I am only telling you the facts, Elder.”
“I do not believe you.”
The Elder pointed at Lize, then gestured toward the ground at his feet.
“If you wish to prove your loyalty to me, bring that object here at once!”
“You keep overstepping your bounds, Elder.”
It was Erika who said this, not Ferda.
“I've told you several times that this is none of your concern, and the Secretary is acting on the Grand Chieftain's message. If you ignore the Grand Chieftain's message, how is that any different from ignoring tradition and authority?”
“You speak so carelessly because you do not know us, Tower Master.”
“……Carelessly?”
“Return to the prison while you still can! If you go back obediently, I will take it into consideration, Chief of the Iorga line.”
Crack—.
The sound rang clearly in Ferda's ears.
Something hard and tenacious shattered miserably inside Erika's head.
At once, highly condensed mana began to ripple around her.
“Hoo……”
What burst from her mouth was—
“Hoohohohoho……!!”
A laugh like someone who had lost her mind.
“These people, those people…… Whenever I mind my manners, they alwaaays think I'm an easy target, don't they?”
Erika swept her hair back and looked up at the Elder.
Her clear blue eyes, like a river, had lost their light like the eyes of a rotten fish, while the corners of her mouth pointed unnaturally toward the sky.
She began muttering like Echidna.
“Yeah, what good is reason? When there are bastards who keep plucking my nose hairs and kicking me in the ass, I ought to just tear them limb from limb……”
Erika brought a hand to her waist.
What she pulled out was a small water bottle.
“I've been way too nice all this time, haven't I?”
She flung the water bottle she had been carrying into the World Tree's waterfall.
Plop—.
A deep resonance sounded amid the roar of the falling water.
At the same time, the sound of the peacefully flowing water stopped.
It was astonishing.
The falling water had stopped as though it had frozen in place.
Water refusing to flow according to nature meant that it had been brought under someone's control.
At that very moment, Erika was controlling the World Tree's water.
Rumble—.
A tremor traveled upward from the floor.
The tranquil spring rippled, then danced wildly, and five streams of water shot into the sky.
Roarrrrr!
They rose as though intertwining with one another, then gradually carved themselves into a fixed form.
Their heads that had been pointed toward the sky began to take the shape of dragons, as if shedding their skins.
The five streams of water became five water dragons.
Erika stepped onto one by treading on a water dragon's head.
The water dragons carrying her rose gracefully into the air.
Unlike the graceful dragons, a deep shadow fell over Erika's face.
Beneath that shadow was a savage smile.
Erika lightly waved a hand and said,
“Shall we turn this place inside out?”
The streams of water let out ferocious roars and flew toward the elves.