Chapter 98
98. Eleanor
The alliance of the three great factions and the raid preparations went very smoothly.
Though the kingdom soldiers and high elves grumbled at each other relentlessly, it only lasted a short while.
They realized how serious the situation was when they saw the serpent dragon that seemed ready to swallow the world, along with the lesser monsters appearing around it.
That this was no time to glare at one another and stand opposed—that if they didn’t do something about that serpent, the world really would end.
Of course, personal feelings were still a problem, but they would not be splintering apart in the face of a massive crisis.
Anyway, there was one hour left until the world boss resumed activity.
Several fortifications were set up a short distance from the fortified dark elf village. Each fortification was assigned its own weapons.
About eighty magic cannons, maxed out by pouring in every last enhancement material and bit of gold I had in my inventory.
About twenty makeshift mana cannon emplacements built with high elf arcane magic.
About fifty dark elf war machines, ballistae. I had applied double attribute enhancement to every single one of those weapons.
On top of that, I maxed out every weapon and piece of gear left over in my inventory and handed them out to all the troops.
The armor and weapons additionally crafted by blacksmiths like Erwen were also distributed to the right people, raising our overall strength.
Naturally, every one of those weapons also got double attribute enhancement, and I handed out consumable potions to each person as well.
That turned me into a beggar.
Even the enormous stockpile of resources in my inventory started to look thin once I committed to arming an army.
All that was left in my inventory now was the potions for this battle and a couple sets of switching gear.
With the mindset that if we lost here, it was over anyway, I invested every resource I had.
“Good grief, I finally get to rest. If you made me do this twice, I’d rather die.”
As I checked the equipment, Erwen, who had been hammering nonstop this whole time, let out a groan.
“Then rest up. Win or lose, there won’t be a next time.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true.”
“Eleanor is fighting, right?”
At my question, Erwen slowly nodded. During the raid preparations, Eleanor had scarcely shown herself.
Of course, that didn’t mean she had been shut away alone in the castle. I had caught glimpses of her here and there.
She had even dug old dark elf rites and arcane magic out of the library and passed them on to the mages.
She had also been in the field, using her leadership to keep the raid preparations moving briskly.
I had only watched from a distance, but Eleanor, acting out of duty and responsibility, truly looked like a queen.
But for some reason, I hadn’t seen Eleanor’s usual self at all. It felt like her mind were elsewhere.
“So it seems. Since the battle preparations are nearly done, why don’t you go see her?”
Erwen, who had been quietly watching my expression, suggested it. After a moment’s hesitation, I nodded.
Whether the raid failed or succeeded, this would probably be my last time seeing Eleanor.
**
As I entered the royal castle, I saw Eleanor standing by a shaded window, looking outside.
Eleanor, who had been gazing out blankly with clouded eyes, soon sensed my presence and turned her head.
“I came by to see if you were ready.”
For some reason, I said it like I was making an excuse. Eleanor smiled faintly and nodded.
“Heh heh, were you worried about me? As you can see, I’m in top condition. I feel like I could take on anyone and not lose.”
Eleanor was fully armed, with sword and staff at her side, armor on, and a cloak over it.
I heard she had taken out all the dark elf treasures, and sure enough, the mana radiating from her was intensely strong.
However, strangely enough, I could feel violent turbulence in her mana. It was similar to the tremor in my own mana when I meditated.
“So that’s what you were preparing on your own? Your mana has grown tremendously.”
“Of course. No matter what anyone says, it’s an amazing treasure made from a fragment of the World Tree.”
It was a bit jarring, considering the World Tree was actually a gigantic parasitic plant that sucked the star veins dry, but that sort of thing didn’t matter now.
“Actually, that wasn’t all. I’d been digging through some old records.”
Saying that, Eleanor took a small book from inside her robes.
“Now that I’ve read it again, there were quite a few passages that read differently, wouldn’t you say?”
After learning the truth about the World Tree and reading them again, Eleanor said there were meaningful passages in the records left behind by our ancestors.
Using those passages as a basis, she researched the World Tree further and said she had reached a new kind of magic.
With a faint smile, Eleanor boasted of her confidence in the raid, and though her eyes still lacked starlight, there was something subtly different about them.
That was when Eleanor suddenly lowered her voice and, with a grave expression, said.
“And I also found out there was another path, surprisingly enough.”
The wavering mana grew stronger. Eleanor walked up to me and held out her hand.
“Won’t you leave with me?”
A faint starlight flickered once more in her blurred eyes.
**
Eleanor’s starlight, which had grown fainter day by day, was the dreaming gaze she had possessed since childhood.
“That serpent’s goal is to devour the World Tree and leave for another star by using other people’s lives as fuel. Its goal isn’t necessarily destruction.”
It gleamed brightly, gazing toward some faraway place. Eleanor’s words went on.
“And I’ve also finished my own preparations. That thing will probably destroy ninety percent of the world—but I’m preparing to live on the remaining ten percent.”
“Shadow teleportation is my greatest specialty. If we flee to the far side of the star, we can avoid the battle’s aftermath.”
“The two of us will live there together. We’ll build even a small house... Ah, of course there’ll be plenty of inconveniences.”
“But still, overcoming those is what love is. We have magic, so most things can be managed somehow. I’m confident.”
“Of course, since you’re human, you’ll walk a different span of time than the elves. At most, you’ll live a hundred years.”
“But that’s fine. In a world where the star veins have dried up and the World Tree has left, even elves won’t live all that long.”
“Of course, I’ll live a few hundred years longer than you, but if I can savor the hundred years I spent with you, I won’t be lonely.”
“And even if you were to leave—half-elves are on the long-lived side. If we have a child within a hundred years—”
I raised a hand and cut Eleanor off there.
“Hey, hold on. What are you even—talking about?”
I was so flustered it was almost frightening. What on earth was she talking about?
Eleanor was a queen who grieved the deaths of her kin. A queen who led her people with responsibility. At least on this ninth floor.
If she were someone who could say, “Forget the fight, let’s run away,” she would have done that a hundred years ago.
“What about here? If you leave that serpent alone, everyone will die. What about your people?”
I deliberately kept myself as calm as possible and spoke as evenly as I could.
“Ah, you mean the people?”
But at Eleanor’s next words, I could no longer stay calm either.
“Isn’t it fine? That sort of thing.”
Those were not words Eleanor could have said.
**
The decision was instant. I immediately drew my sword and aimed it at Eleanor’s neck.
“You’re not Eleanor.”
“Ah, of course.”
“What the hell are you?”
Then Eleanor laughed. She didn’t seem to care at all that there was a blade at her throat.
“Indeed, I’m not Eleanor. The elves over there aren’t my people either, and this castle isn’t mine.”
In Eleanor’s wildly laughing eyes, the starlight faded once more.
“How could a hollow doll with no soul be my people?”
The thunderous voice echoed through the castle.
“What?”
I could no longer point my sword at her. My mind refused to work properly.
After a brief silence, Eleanor brushed the tip of my sword aside with her hand and stepped closer.
“The dark elf sorcery... seems to have been stronger than I expected. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain this.”
“Through dreams, I glimpsed beyond your memories and impressions.”
“I saw the world you lived in, and the model world called the Tower of Trials.”
At those words, I remembered Eleanor’s condition worsening day by day as she slept beside me.
“I saw what you were like before entering the Tower, and I saw you running wild in a frenzy after losing your mother.”
“After the quest was cleared, I saw us turn into dolls—and I saw all the fear and pain we caused you.”
“And then I looked back on my own past again. Looking at it again, it all feels like a hazy memory.”
And the strange dreams I occasionally had, with dolls appearing in them, as I slept beside Eleanor each night.
“I spent my whole life longing for freedom and dreaming of heading toward a distant world—but I was a slave, and a doll.”
The starlight that dwelled in Eleanor’s eyes was a desire born from the instincts of the dark elf she had inherited.
It was fierce curiosity, a longing to go beyond the forest and see a wider world.
It was also the flame in her heart that wanted to break free of her born status and position as a princess and live freely.
“Always, always...”
The dry eyes of the Eleanor who had lost all of that looked strikingly like mine.