Chapter 54
As she'd noticed then as well, the boy's body was very small and light.
Vieta carried Ugo piggyback and hurried back to the base.
"Why is there an elf?"
"Don't tell me you did this to him?"
The knights standing guard near the unit greeted her with startled expressions.
Since a maid who had gone to dispose of the trash had suddenly appeared carrying an elven boy on her back, they could hardly help assuming that something had happened.
While Vieta was arguing with a knight, First Knight Commander Allos emerged from the crowd, apparently having already heard the news.
“What happened?”
“He's injured. I found him in the bushes near where I was burning the trash.”
“Inform His Highness at once. And bring a priest.”
At Allos's order, two nearby knights hurried away.
A short while later, a priest with a deeply furrowed brow appeared, breathing heavily, and let out a groan the moment he saw Ugo.
"He'll be dead soon at this rate."
As the priest approached Ugo and began muttering a prayer, warm light burst from his hands, and Ugo flinched with a groan.
“First aid is complete, so let us go to my tent.”
Vieta followed the priest.
Several knights tried to take Ugo from her, but Vieta refused every one of them.
Upon reaching his tent, the priest took out a large linen sheet, skillfully spread it across the floor, and pointed at it.
It was a request for her to lay him there.
Vieta lowered Ugo very slowly.
Ugo's body, lying on the floor, was blue all over and looked like a corpse, turning Vieta's face deathly pale.
The priest took out some holy water and a mana stone required for treatment, then returned to Ugo's side.
“No bones are broken.”
But something else was clearly wrong.
The priest kept muttering under his breath as he put a magic stone that amplified the healing effect into the holy water and shook it.
When a faint golden light began to suffuse the holy water, the priest sprinkled it over Ugo's entire body and began praying to the goddess.
Seeing Ugo's discolored body gradually regain its original color amid the bright light, Vieta could tell that the priest's skill was not bad, but she was still consumed by anxiety.
“What is the matter?”
While the priest was treating Ugo, Blanc and Fulcare appeared in his tent.
The moment they saw Vieta sitting on the floor with tears glistening in her eyes and an elven boy lying as though dead, their expressions hardened like stone.
“Ugo was holding this, Your Highness.”
Since she was wary of the priest's reaction, Vieta belatedly added the honorific to the end of her sentence.
Blanc nodded, and Fulcare picked up the heavily soiled letter from Vieta's hand.
“…An elven seal.”
When Fulcare brushed the mud and ash from the outside of the envelope, a symbol representing the World Tree appeared.
Blanc took the letter from Fulcare, put on his glasses, and examined the symbol closely.
The elven emblem was characterized by three dots positioned around a World Tree.
The position of the dots, the number and angles of the leaves, and so on.
Unlike the one Iseria had shown them, this was unmistakably the chief's emblem, without a single discrepancy.
“Unlike the one we saw last time, this is definitely the chief's seal.”
Blanc said this as he folded his glasses with one hand.
Fulcare gave Blanc a questioning look, apparently not understanding what the Crown Prince meant, but
Blanc raised his index finger and brought it to his lips.
Fulcare nodded quietly, and Blanc turned his gaze from him to Vieta.
Realizing what Blanc meant, Vieta subtly shook her head.
She meant that she would stay beside Ugo.
“Then... you are to come find me with the elf once the treatment is finished.”
So as not to disturb the priest's concentration, Blanc and Fulcare, having finished what they came to do, left the tent without hesitation.
Much later, the priest let out a long sigh and lowered the hands he had been holding up.
Ugo's mottled body had returned to a white, porcelain-like color.
“He should regain consciousness shortly.”
The priest rummaged around inside his robe, took out an herb, and placed it in Ugo's mouth.
“It's an herb that helps restore one's strength.”
The priest even added an explanation for Vieta's benefit.
"My work is done, so I should eat something."
Perhaps using more divine power than expected had made him hungry, for the priest clutched his stomach with one hand and left the tent.
“Ugo….”
Though their first meeting had not been pleasant, he was still a young and adorable child.
Hoping Ugo would wake soon, Vieta carefully massaged his slender limbs.
A short while later, with a groan, the eyelids covering his verdant eyes slowly lifted.
After staring at the tent's yellowish ceiling for a moment, his eyes rolled around and settled on Vieta.
“Vieta?”
“Are you all right?”
Ugo's green eyes widened to the size of lanterns, and he suddenly threw himself into Vieta's arms.
*
Having been assigned a private tent, Vieta moved Ugo into her tent.
Originally, she had planned to take him to Blanc and Fulcare as soon as he woke, but he kept looking around and trembling, making his condition seem unstable in many ways.
Thanks to Ugo's refusal to leave her side, Vieta was assigned a private tent despite being a maid.
The soldiers guarding the tent moved away, and Fulcare entered after casting a soundproofing spell.
“How's the little one?”
In his hands was a bowl of soup with warm steam rising from it.
Holding Ugo in her arms, Vieta shrugged.
“His name was Ugo, right? How is he? Do you think you can eat?”
Fulcare held the soup out to Ugo.
After sniffing it for a moment, Ugo nodded, pulled away from Vieta's arms, and picked up the bowl.
Then he began sipping the soup very slowly.
Fulcare waited without a word until Ugo had emptied the entire bowl.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Vieta moved the bowl Ugo had set down to one side.
Perhaps eating something warm eased his tension, because Ugo no longer burrowed into Vieta's arms.
“…Can you tell us what happened?”
Unlike usual, Fulcare's voice was low and heavy.
Seeing a child who should still have been in his parents' arms wandering alone in such a sorry state could not possibly mean anything good.
And from this point on, he would have to delve into the child's painful memories.
At Fulcare's words, Ugo's large eyes darted restlessly from side to side.
“Ugo, it's all right. Nothing's going to happen.”
Vieta draped a blanket over Ugo's shoulders.
Ugo gripped the edge of the old brown blanket tightly with both hands, then slowly opened his mouth.
“The mages attacked us.”
They had heard only the first sentence, yet Fulcare's and Vieta's faces had already gone pale.
***
Ugo had been on his way back to the World Tree with his parents, guided by the messengers.
He had wanted to remain in the Empire,
but after hearing various news from the World Tree—especially that the Empire had burned the elves—his parents had decided to return to the World Tree after much deliberation.
Six elves in all, including Ugo's family, were riding in the wagon.
To prepare for any unforeseen attack,
the day before yesterday, disaster befell the wagon as it slowly headed toward the World Tree under the messengers' escort.
An elf dressed in a green-and-gold uniform suddenly leaped into Ugo's family's wagon.
“Aaaah!”
Seeing one of their own bleeding from head to toe despite his fine clothes, the elves screamed and leaped out of the wagon, which rocked with a splintering crack.
Not knowing what was happening, Ugo huddled in a corner. Then a messenger held out a hand to him.
“T-this... I... have to….”
The life was rapidly draining from the blood-covered elf's eyes.
Faced with the dying elf's desperate plea, Ugo instinctively took the object wrapped in white leather from the messenger's hand and tucked it into his arms.
“Ugo, come here.”
Perhaps she had struck her head when the wagon collapsed, because Ugo's mother was bleeding from the head.
Driven by maternal instinct, she grabbed Ugo and pulled him into her arms.
“…Where's Dad?”
“He'll be back soon.”
Though his mother's expression looked somewhat uneasy as she said this, Ugo said nothing and buried his head in her warm embrace. His heart, pounding with anxiety, seemed to quiet a little.
It hadn't even been a minute later.
Ugo felt his body being pushed out of the wagon.
“Ugo! Run!”
Terror filled his mother's eyes.
Ugo realized that his mother was the one who had pushed him out of the wagon.
“M-m….”
Before the boy could say anything, pain surged through his entire body.
Ugo's body was mercilessly hurled onto the rough dirt.
Every time he rolled across the ground, sharp, jagged stones scraped the tender elf's body viciously.
Soon afterward, a fireball that came flying from somewhere fell onto the wagon.
With a booming crash, Ugo saw his mother, engulfed in flames, soar into the air.
“M-Mom!”
Ugo's eyes trembled violently at the sight.
He tried to run toward where his mother had fallen on trembling legs, but after just a few steps, Ugo collapsed on the spot.
It was poison.
A poison often used among elves had been scattered around the wagon.
“N-no….”
Someone was approaching the wagon.
Ugo tried to move, but his rigid, paralyzed body would not obey him because of the poison.
Just as he gave up on everything and closed his eyes, Ugo's body flew through the air again.
“Run.”
Ugo lost consciousness as he watched the elf face the attackers in his place.
*
“It must have been wind magic.”
Fulcare continued, stroking his chin.
“They created a gust in an instant and blew Ugo away. It worked because Ugo's body was so light.”
Ugo nodded.
Judging from that reaction, it seemed he still did not know what had happened to him at the time.
“Ugo, do you remember where that place was?”
There might not be any survivors, but they had to recover at least a clue.
“It was my first time returning to the World Tree….”
Ugo shook his head from side to side, then soon began trembling all over.
Seeing this, Fulcare felt as though he were torturing Ugo and could not bring himself to ask any more questions.
“…Yes, it must have been hard, but thank you for telling us. Get plenty of rest.”
Fulcare nodded to Vieta, then left the tent.
Vieta approached the terrified Ugo and wrapped her arms around his violently trembling body.
“Vieta, my mom and dad are dead, right?”
As Ugo burrowed into her arms and asked the despairing, grief-filled question, Vieta bit her lip.
***
After asking the priest for sleeping pills and a sedative and giving them to Ugo, Vieta headed for Blanc's tent while he slept.
“I have something to tell His Highness about the elven boy.”
The soldiers silently opened a path for Vieta, and she entered Blanc's tent.
"Vieta?"
"Captain, you're here?"
“Where are those bastards?”
The moment Vieta entered the tent and spat out those harsh words, Blanc and Fulcare were briefly rendered speechless.
Eventually, Fulcare came to his senses and barely managed to speak.
“We don't know yet.”
“So?”
“We'll investigate after entering the World Tree. This is elven territory, so it would be much better to get the chief's help.”
Blanc held out a piece of parchment to Vieta.
What he held out was the chief's entry permit they had been waiting so long for.