Chapter 216
When I told Nock-san I really wanted the Gift【World Alliance】, he readily agreed, saying, "Then shall we go look for it?" I had braced myself for him to say, "It's unusable anyway," though.
But when I asked him where he had hidden it, his expression changed.
"Y-you hid it in a Wikachou egg of all things?! What were you thinking?!"
"Eek!"
Nock-san yelled at him, and Punta-san fled to the corner of the hut, clutching his head.
"Don't run! I've told you over and over not to go near there—"
"W-wait a second."
I held back Nock-san, who looked ready to punch him.
"Wikachou... what are those? I've never heard of them."
"..."
Nock-san looked utterly exasperated, but he explained.
He did so on the understanding that he would not stop me if I still chose to go.
I concluded that I should obtain the Gift【World Alliance】, even at the risk of danger.
Nock-san told me about all sorts of dangers, but I judged that there would be no problem as long as I did not mess up.
The Gift【World Alliance】—a special Gift rated above eight stars and containing the word "Alliance"—was something I wanted to examine so I could confirm its ability.
Naturally, Nock-san did not know I had sixteen Skill Holders, so he said,
"—What an eccentric notion!"
He sounded exasperated.
"You are free to go, Guardian, but I cannot allow you to take the High Elf-sama."
He went on.
His feelings were understandable, and if I forcibly took Asha along, we might not even be able to secure Punta-san's cooperation. So I persuaded Asha and decided to go with just Punta-san.
It was around noon.
I set out from the Dark Elf settlement with Punta-san. Asha watched anxiously from the treetops, but the Dark Elves shouldn't harm her. I hoped she could wait there without worry.
"You... are a strange person, aren't you? Wanting to go to the Wikachou's nest after hearing how dangerous it is..."
"Even if you call it a nest, there are only eggs there, right? Besides, Punta-san actually came back safely."
"That's true, but..."
"Could that be a Wikachou?"
We walked through land where withered trees grew sparsely. The area seemed low in nutrients, and many trees stood dead—but others had carefully absorbed what little nourishment they could find and somehow managed to survive.
Nature was tenacious.
I pointed toward two birds visible beyond those branches. Their small silhouettes glided through the sky side by side.
"I can't see them... Were they a flock?"
"No, there were only two."
"Then they must be Bankachou. Blue Bankachou are devoted, while red Wikachou are fickle."
The two types of bird had exactly the same silhouette; only their colors, blue and red, differed.
Or perhaps they weren't two species at all. Maybe they were the same species.
From what I heard, Bankachou choose a single mate for life, live together as a pair, and build nests and lay eggs just like ordinary birds.
Wikachou, on the other hand, form flocks, mate with many members of the opposite sex, and lay huge numbers of eggs.
Since no one knows whose offspring each egg is, something like an "egg depot" comes into being.
"It's around there. The 'egg depot.'"
After two hours of walking—we had stopped to eat along the way, so we had not made much progress.
"It's fairly close to the settlement."
"The 'egg depot' is abandoned once the six months it takes the eggs to hatch and become able to fly have passed, so everyone in the settlement stays away from it during that time..."
"I see."
The place was somewhere east of the Holy Capital Kurvanyu. It lay at the foot of a mountain, in a deep depression completely surrounded by giant trees. Grass grew thickly all around, making it difficult to see very far.
"Whoa... seriously?"
I couldn't help blurting it out.
"Egg depot" was an apt name. There was no better term.
There were well over a hundred milky-white eggs there, each large enough to encircle with my arms.
Some lay directly on the ground, some were stacked, and others had fallen over and cracked.
(These things are going to get insanely huge once they grow...)
The blue Bankachou I had seen earlier in the distance had been far enough away that it hadn't seemed threatening.
"Be careful. If you disturb an egg that is still alive, the flock will come flying."
That was the "danger" Nock-san had mentioned.
Wikachou leave their eggs unattended once they have laid them, but if anyone hurts or cracks one, the whole flock apparently attacks.
I had no idea how they checked the condition of their eggs, though.
Apparently, even if you ran, they would pursue you to the ends of the earth.
Once in the past, a hungry Dark Elf had tried to take an egg home, only to break it and be pursued by a flock of Wikachou. The flock was about to follow them all the way to the settlement, so the Dark Elf fled toward an area with no settlements—and never returned.
"You hid it here?"
"Well... I thought that once the eggs hatched, I could come back and get it at my leisure..."
"But it's a Gift with no practical use, right?"
"It's pretty to look at."
I see. Maybe I could use it as a room ornament... Though it would probably look like a tasteless piece of indirect lighting.
"Besides, about half the eggs are empty. I think the female Wikachou lay empty eggs to attract the males and show off."
"Uh-huh."
"Isn't it fascinating? The romantic maneuvering of birds."
"Uh-huh..."
He had suddenly come to life.
Punta-san must have had some strange hobby that no one else understood—researching Wikachou, of all things.
Maybe he hid the Gift here because he wanted to conduct an experiment of sorts—like burying a stone in the snow and wondering what it would look like after the snow melted.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have approached a place he knew was dangerous.
"So which shell did you hide the Gift in?"
"Ah, yes. Over there."
As he spoke, he moved closer to the "egg depot."
"The strange thing isn't just that they lay empty eggs. Both Wikachou and Bankachou have a certain proportion of the other species' chicks in their eggs. Even among these hundreds of eggs, there are Bankachou chicks."
"So I've heard. Is it for the survival of the species?"
By maintaining diversity, they can adapt flexibly to changes in their environment.
The evolution of living things.
"Exactly! And then the Wikachou—"
"Um, Punta-san. The eggs are right in front of us now."
We had come close enough to touch the nearest egg simply by reaching out.
Seen up close, they looked like supermarket eggs enlarged to enormous size. Punta-san had said that some were empty, but 【Omniscience】 identified every one of them as the same "egg." You couldn't tell by looking.
"Ah, um... The one I found had a shell that had split very neatly, and it was empty inside. So when I put the shell back over it, the pieces fit perfectly."
"Yes. Which one?"
"Let's see..."
Punta-san's gaze wandered.
"..."
"..."
"...Punta-san?"
"..."
When Punta-san looked at me, he wore an ingratiating smile, with cold sweat beading on his face.
"Uh, heh-heh... I can't remember which one it was..."