Chapter 50
"Purity in the first tenet means exactly what it says: as long as you don't have intercourse, it remains intact. You're free to date the opposite sex or engage in physical affection."
Because of that loophole, I had badly misunderstood the Lucia of my first life.
I had cursed her for switching from one man to another while preserving her chastity.
It was a regrettable mistake.
Suddenly, the room fell quiet.
Celine and Lucia stared at me, listening intently.
I barely suppressed a laugh and continued.
"The second tenet is compulsory fasting. Gourmet meals are forbidden, and only simple food for survival is permitted."
—Don't even get me started. Back then, I chewed nothing but rations.
The wronged expression Lucia had worn in my previous life shimmered before my eyes.
It was the exact opposite of her current, curiosity-filled expression.
"The third is a ban on owning private property. The fourth is that you must always stoke your Sun Rings and maintain a desire for improvement. I don't need to explain what happens if you stop training, do I?"
"Hmm……."
"The fifth is honestly nothing. It's a ban on lying, but that's not difficult, right?"
"I know, right? So far, none of it sounds particularly difficult."
As I had said, Lucia's complexion remained unchanged.
That was just like Lucia.
—Up to this point, honestly, none of it was a big deal. If there had only been five, I'd probably still be serving as a stand for the Holy Sword.
"The remaining two are a little troublesome. The sixth is the loss of your right to sleep. You must always wake up when the sun rises at your sleeping place. If you oversleep because you're tired, you could die that very day."
"Gasp—"
Lucia sucked in a startled breath.
Sunrise usually occurred between five and eight.
Since it varied from place to place, the time she had to wake up was always different.
—Don't you know beauties need lots of sleep? Even now, thinking about it makes me go ugh…… Imagine thinking it was a dream where the ground had caved in, only to wake up and realize you'd been buried underground.
The one and only tenet Lucia had violated was the right to sleep.
The mere fact that she had survived that ordeal was proof that Lucia was the protagonist.
"People say the last, the seventh, is the worst of all."
"……What is it?"
"The Keeper of the Holy Sword sticks to you like a leech around the clock to monitor you. You need to assume you have no privacy."
—That crazy bitch. She even followed me to the bathroom! She'd be right beside me when I slept, too. What was she, a body pillow?
It was the Keeper's duty to monitor whether the tenets were being observed twenty-four hours a day.
When I asked why she had broken a tenet once, her answer was simple.
—That crazy bitch overslept too. She wasn't normal either.
Being created as the symbol of a goddess didn't make her perfect in every way.
"Big Brother. Can I choose the person who acts as that monitor?"
Celine stared at me with her eyes opened wide.
My head tilted to the side at the unexpected question.
"Of course not. But why do you ask?"
"……."
Celine subtly averted her gaze without answering.
I was about to ask what was going on when Lucia lightly nudged me in the side with her elbow.
"I guess it's okay if it means staying with Young Master around the clock. How cute."
Wow, she was ridiculously cute.
"I feel the same way, my soft, chewy rice-cake young lady. I'll use you as a body pillow to my heart's content."
"Nngh…… B-big brother, stooop……."
"Now that I know everything, I understand your reaction, Young Master. I don't think I'll ever touch the Holy Sword, either."
I replied while squishing Celine's cheeks.
"That's not a matter of personal free will. If I had refused the Holy Sword earlier, the Keeper would have beaten me senseless."
Lucia's eyes widened dramatically. Her expression asked how that could possibly make sense.
Of course, if you never forged a Sun Ring in the first place, you were excluded from consideration as a candidate, but I didn't bother mentioning that.
Even if she knew, it wouldn't matter much.
Lucia had forged her Sun Rings knowing all of that, and had undergone the qualification test under near-coercion.
With the thought, 'Could it really be me?'
"Don't worry. Apparently, there hasn't been a master for nearly three hundred years. Surely you can't possibly be eligible, Adjutant."
"Thinking that makes me feel relieved. Phew……."
Look at her.
She didn't even suspect that it could be her.
***
There were countless things an expedition member needed to possess.
If I had to name just two, they would be the mental strength to withstand Fear and personal martial prowess.
With demon beasts swarming everywhere, they should at least be capable of protecting their own lives.
The pass rate for the first interview was nearly eighty percent.
They had come risking their lives, so they were at least good enough to meet expectations.
The second was a sparring interview.
I was certain that testing them directly in combat was the most reliable method.
Those who passed the second test were accepted.
After that came squad assignments and the division of specialties.
What was each person's specialty in the field? What level had they reached as warriors? Did they possess the discipline to obey orders immediately?
The Ashen Forest expedition had unique characteristics unlike those of ordinary field operations.
Since they would have to break through on foot without warhorses, a system that functioned like clockwork was essential.
Before the second sparring interviews, I divided the interviewers into four groups to make the screening more efficient.
Fortunately, Cardenos's training grounds were divided into Training Grounds One through Four.
"Elder, you take charge of the knights. Handpick only those you think are good enough to pass."
"There won't be many passers. Is that all right?"
"I trust your instincts, Elder. Also send several of the outstanding passers to Training Ground One."
There was no one better suited than a Sword Master to test the knights' fundamentals and fighting spirit.
Admiration shone in the knights' eyes. They seemed to think it would be an honor to cross swords with that Sword Master.
Their admiration would shatter once they actually crossed swords with him.
Hendrickson led the knights toward Training Ground Two.
"Julian. You take charge of the mercenaries and barbarians. Regardless of victory or defeat, just handpick anyone useful."
"Understood, Young Master. How many should I sort out today?"
"Do only as many as you can without overexerting yourself. We've got plenty of time. Don't rush; go at your own pace. Send any promising passers to Training Ground One."
Julian was, in his own way, the male lead of a romance fantasy.
He was not yet a fully realized knight, but he possessed enough martial ability to handle mercenaries and barbarians.
I had heard that he had recently forged two Sun Rings as well.
Julian led the mercenaries and barbarians toward Training Ground Three.
"Lady Lucia, I apologize for imposing such a difficult task on you."
"What are you saying? I'm your adjutant, aren't I?"
"…Yes. Lady Lucia, take charge of the fallen nobles and noble scions who have left their families. You may use magic or the sword. Just don't injure them. Send any useful passers to Training Ground One."
Lucia had mastered both magic and swordsmanship.
To be honest, I was not worried about her in the slightest. I was only worried about the interviewees who had to face Lucia.
Lucia took the nobles toward Training Ground Four.
Hendrickson, Julian, and Lucia.
The fourth and final interviewer was me.
The warriors who had stubbornly insisted on fighting me remained in Training Ground One.
My interview was not one where I chose my opponents; the opponents chose me.
Bellutak and Bural-tak were among them. They must have been desperate to fight me.
I stood on the dueling ground with my longsword resting diagonally across my shoulder.
There were about six hundred people remaining. I would simply have to pick out the gems among them.
"I will select the elite few who will be selected for the vanguard from among you."
The instant those words left my mouth, the warriors' expressions changed noticeably.
They cast fierce glances at those beside them, engaging in a battle of wills while pretending not to.
Volunteering for the vanguard was practically the same as declaring that you wanted to die before everyone else.
"Those selected for the vanguard will receive three times the pay. On top of that, they'll enjoy limitless honor and glory."
The crowd began warming up in earnest.
The sounds of cracking joints and flexing muscles mingled as they loosened up.
The expedition's organizational framework had already been laid out in my mind.
A shield unit that would serve as the anvil protecting the main force, a mobile strike unit that would serve as a fluid hammer, and a scouting unit that would be the expedition's eyes and ears.
'There's no need to recruit scouts separately.'
The old natives of the Ashen Forest would be arriving soon.
I planned to add rangers to the scouting unit, with the old natives leading the way.
More important than that was the vanguard at the front line.
Berserkers who possessed the aggression to throw away their lives, yet could still follow orders.
Honestly, the latter part was not difficult.
Anyone would learn to obey after being beaten to a pulp. Everyone had been that way in my first life.
"Kahaha! The time has finally come for us to step forward, Bellutak!"
"Bural-tak! My brother! A glorious battle awaits us!"
"Ah. You two are confirmed for the vanguard."
Both their gazes turned toward me at once.
"Th-that can't be!"
"Ghk……."
They were berserkers with nothing in their heads but battle.
They were absolutely not despairing because they had been selected for the vanguard.
"Then we can't fight!"
They were merely disappointed that they could not spar. They were the same fools as ever.
Whoosh!
I swung the longsword resting on my shoulder through the air.
When the tip of the sword pointed toward them, the barbarian brothers' eyes changed.
Those two were the ones to watch out for.
Disobedient bastards needed to be kept on a leash.
"You're first. Grab your weapons and come up together."
***
At the southernmost edge of the Empire lay the Great Forest (大樹林).
The elven tribe lived in seclusion there, cut off from the flow of the world.
Because of their isolated way of life, they had learned about the Ashen Forest expedition a step late.
"……You're preparing an expedition to the Ashen Forest?"
Ariel, the priestess who spoke for the voice of the forest.
At her question, a white-haired elder elf nodded heavily.
"That's right. I hear the Grand Ducal House of Cardenos in the West is gathering an expeditionary force."
The moment she heard that answer, Ariel issued an order without delay.
"We must prepare to leave for the West at once."
The number of humans in the expedition and the likelihood of successfully conquering the forest were not important to them.
Only one thing mattered.
For the first time in hundreds of years, the gates of the Ashen Forest were opening.
It was an opportunity that would never come again.
At the priestess's command, hundreds of elves armed themselves.
Their quivers were filled to the brim with arrows.
The force that moved the elven tribe was entirely different from that of the human army.
Not the desire for a fortune or hunger for honor, but a noble, desperate yearning.
Only the desire to reclaim their lost homeland and trampled ancestral lands drove them forward.
"Priestess, we don't know whether the humans will accept our demands."
Several elven elders voiced their skepticism.
Without replying, Ariel folded both hands before her chest.
She carefully stroked something she kept tucked against her breast.
A small crystal that emitted a soft, dusky green light.
It was the 'World Tree's Seed,' which had maintained its original form without germinating for hundreds of years.
"If it's there, we can make the Divine Tree bloom again."
The Ashen Forest.
Though it was now called a demonic realm crawling with terrifying demon beasts, long ago it had been the elves' glorious homeland.
But then the demonic energy and ash left behind by the Demon King's remains swallowed the forest.
The elves had no choice but to flee south in tears, as though driven from their homeland.
'The humans won't be friendly…….'
What the elves wanted was the 'purification' of the forest.
The Western humans, on the other hand, sought its 'development' in pursuit of the forest's resources.
Purification that saved lives versus development that exploited nature.
The two sides' goals ran along parallel lines that could never mix, like water and oil.
"Priestess, please reconsider this one more time……."
"They're humans. They'll obviously try to use us as slaves. Please reconsider."
"That's right. What's more, the human in overall command of the expedition, Astin, is a villain even his own people cannot stand."
A deep furrow formed between Ariel's brows.
Astin, the Grand Duke's eldest son.
Having heard his reputation, Ariel believed the road ahead of them would be arduous.
If even his fellow humans recoiled from him, just how arrogant and high-handed must he be?
There was no point hoping he would be a compassionate person who understood the elves' circumstances.
If they could reclaim their homeland and make the World Tree bloom, they were willing to endure the humiliation of surrendering the forest's rights.
But how unreasonable would the demands this human named Astin force upon them be……?
Not content with using them as slaves, he might eventually try to exploit even the World Tree.
"……It can't be helped. If it's to reclaim our homeland."
Ariel had lived through a thousand long years.
The sight of her homeland overlaid her vision like a phantom.