Atop a Tree That Reaches the Clouds (17)

At the end of my long journey through Fusang—or rather, the long journey since I left the Kingdom of Rudoria—I finally arrived at the foot of the Fusang Tree, a colossal tree that reached all the way to the heavens.

Ah, no—the actual base is covered by a gigantic lake formed from water flowing out of the Fusang Tree, so technically, I arrived at its shore.

I left the road, passed through the town of Chinju, slipped past the eyes of the patrolling forces, and made my way here.

Hiding from the winged folk patrolling the skies was genuinely difficult.

Fortunately, their night vision wasn't very good, so it was harder for them to find me when I traveled at night.

"Fusang Tree."

I called out the tree's name.

At once, the ground began to tremble, and waves rippled across the surface of the lake.

Even beneath the moonlight, I could clearly see a gigantic black shadow rising from the water.

It was one of the Fusang Tree's roots.

The root split the earth and the water as it emerged before me, and I climbed onto it.

I could walk across the surface of the water by borrowing the water spirits' strength, but since the tree was kind enough to carry me, there was no reason to refuse its kindness.

Still, being carried by a root this enormous was a first for me, and when it abruptly shifted and lifted me, I was honestly a little frightened.

The root raised me higher and higher; then a branch came to meet me.

Once I transferred onto the branch, the root descended and sank back into the water, while my body continued rising into the sky.

No, seriously, that's a little too fast.

Scary, scary, scary.

A giant tree moving must have been an incredibly mystical sight, but I was crouched down and clinging to the branch beneath my feet. I had no room to enjoy it, nor was it a scene worth painting.

Yet as I was being lifted by the branch, I suddenly realized something.

The lake at the foot of the Fusang Tree formed the boundary between the human and oni territories, south and north.

Because the lake was so large, the stretches of land through which a great army could pass were limited, so by concentrating their defenses there, the two sides kept their territories divided.

One reason the war between humans and oni had reached a stalemate—or, put another way, one reason the balance was maintained—was found in a place like this.

Carried from lower branches to higher ones, transferring from one to the next, I was taken steadily higher.

Before long, the tree pierced the clouds and carried me above them.

Had it been daytime, I might have had the leisure to enjoy the view, but at night it was frightening, and quite cold.

Even so, the moon, which seemed a little larger now that I was closer to it, was astonishingly beautiful.

It was beautiful enough to make me feel that the journey to this land had been worthwhile just for the chance to see it.

Eventually, I was carried to a hollow in the trunk at the very top of the Fusang Tree.

It was almost like... well, this was an utterly absurd thought, but it looked like a chair to me.

A huge chair where the true giant—said to live above the clouds—would sit.

So I sat there and looked around—though, given my size, I couldn't possibly sit properly in it, no matter how hard I tried.

Then the branch that had carried me there moved and dropped something beside me with a heavy thud.

It was a gigantic fruit.

Each individual bead was about the size of my head, and the fruit as a whole was larger than I was.

Setting its size aside, it looked remarkably similar to a mulberry.

And the power I sensed from the fruit was on par with Apua and the immortal peach.

In other words, the Fusang Tree was indeed a sacred tree of the giants.

I pulled one of the beads from the Fusang Tree's fruit and bit into it, and the cold that had left me trembling receded.

I wolfed down a single bead that should have been too large to fit in my stomach.

The cold was completely gone.

My body felt warm, and I was even overcome by a pleasant drowsiness.

Ah, so that's what this was.

Apparently, the Fusang Tree wanted me to take a little nap here.

Well, I had been traveling inconspicuously ever since leaving the Central Capital, and after passing through Chinju, I had been sneaking around to avoid being found, so fatigue had built up in my body.

Getting some peaceful sleep for a while certainly wouldn't be bad.

I lay down, closed my eyes, and at once my consciousness sank to the bottom—yes, it fell out of my body and sank into the Fusang Tree.

In my dream, I became a single tree.

A great tree planted by a giant's hands and raised under its protection.

Eventually, the giant returned to the world above the clouds, and the great tree grew as though pursuing it, eventually becoming the Fusang Tree, taller than the clouds.

The giant rejoiced in the Fusang Tree's growth and came to visit from time to time.

Whether those visits came once every few decades or once every few centuries, the tree's sense of time could not tell.

Whenever the giant came to visit, it would sit on the Fusang Tree and look down upon the world below.

That was why the Fusang Tree also began paying attention to what lay below, rather than only looking upward.

There were many small people living on the ground, and strangely, they were always fighting.

The giant said,

"They regulate their numbers by fighting, hone themselves through fighting, and move forward. Because you provide the water that nurtures life, they are prosperous, do not perish, and are filled with the strength to fight."

It was difficult for the Fusang Tree to understand.

Still, the giant must have expected something from the small people on the ground.

It had prepared the Fusang Tree and even arranged the environment on the ground to make it easier for people to live there.

For that reason, the Fusang Tree continued watching over the small people below.

When would the giant come to visit it next?

The tree eagerly awaited that day.

Before I knew it, the world around me had grown bright.

The sun, risen into the heavens, was dazzling.

I plucked another bead from the Fusang Tree's fruit and ate it.

The sweetness and tartness were both mild, making it easy to eat.

As before, somehow it all fit in my stomach, but I no longer felt sleepy.

The fatigue had completely left my body as well.

When I finished eating, a large seed about the size of a clenched fist remained, so I put it away in my pack.

The dream the Fusang Tree had shown me earlier was probably a memory of the tree itself.

In it, I met a giant and watched over the land of Fusang as well.

Apparently, even the Fusang Tree did not know what the giant was thinking.

But I could tell that the giant had at least a rough grasp of what was happening on the ground and of the state of Fusang.

In other words, to the giant, the oni were likewise a kind of people living in Fusang, and thus among those the tree ought to watch over.

I had seen many parts of Fusang, but I still could not decide whether to regard the oni as people or as monsters.

If I set foot in oni territory, it would turn into a fight to the death, so I had no way to meet them and hear what they had to say.

Of course, I had all sorts of feelings about the oni, but I no longer thought that their existence was unnecessary for Fusang.

Precisely because there was conflict with the oni, Fusang held together and continued to develop in all sorts of ways.

Then this time, I would respect the giant's thinking while also trusting the people of Fusang.

The giant's perspective was transcendent, and not necessarily a benevolent one.

At least, I had seen the people of Fusang and knew their strength.

I would lay no hand on the humans, the oni, or this island where the Fusang Tree grew. I would simply leave.

My coming all the way here had not been a wasted journey.

I had eaten meals, drunk sake, witnessed a culture in which all sorts of things blended together, and met people.

And finally, I had seen this tree, climbed it, and learned with certainty that the giants truly existed.

If giants truly existed, then the White Lake Airena sought ought to exist in their world as well.

Perhaps if I waited here for a few decades, I might even meet one of the giants, but I had no particular need to do that this time.

Even if the Fusang Tree provided me with food, this would be a boring place to wait around in.

I already had more than enough stories to tell at Kaeha's grave.

"Vinung, Fos, Nurus, Un, Zam."

I chanted the spell for levitation and jumped down from the top of the Fusang Tree.

I was heading back to the Kingdom of Rudoria, in the central part of the continent—a place I was almost beginning to miss.