Chapter 180 – Before the Lights Go Out -1-
Helpless.
To the point where it feels like it’s too much to get up.
However, it supports the ground with its trembling arms, stands up on two legs, and walks aimlessly.
I have to get out of this town.
Because of the natural disaster, not only this place, but the whole world must have been thrown into chaos.
A lot of people probably died.
That’s why I don’t think it would be too strange if someone found Lethe’s body drooping like a doll.
“…”
After accepting Lete’s death, will Kim Chang-mook become a low-level mercenary to Tallard like I did?
Or should I make another choice?
“Fuck…”
I collapsed at a reasonable distance from the village and looked up at the sky.
A sharp pain hits his chest and he is short of breath.
I only transferred Lethe’s soul, but with just that, I lost all my power.
No, it wasn’t just strength.
It was clear that this body, drained of all the energy of evil spirits, would not last that long.
But there are still things I need to do.
Can I make it
There was enough will and determination, but unfortunately, time was not enough.
“… Let’s do it.”
Since we had already made a different choice than before, this was a new quarter.
Closer to failure than success, closer to bad ending than happy ending.
* * *
Lethe’s body was found the next day and buried.
Kim Chang-muk left the village with a complicated and dark expression, and I dug up Lethe’s grave in the middle of the night and carried the body to Ria.
I smiled bitterly at Lia’s reaction, as if she had already forgotten me even though I had been visiting her for nearly 100 years.
Lia wraps up Lethe’s distraught corpse.
Normally, this should have been done after waiting two years, but I don’t have the time.
So even if I wanted to stand guard so that Leah could fully focus on absorption, I made fun of her legs.
Occasionally, he was injured by wild animals and monsters, but fortunately most of them were just abrasions, but now he was seriously injured.
“This is right.”
An arrow stuck in this forearm.
If you look closely at the shaft, you can see that the unique elven patterns are engraved.
The reason I was attacked by the elves was simple.
I was on my way to Rumyslind Kingdom to revive the World Tree.
However, even reaching the place where the withered World Tree was located was difficult, regardless of whether I could revive the body of an ordinary, insignificant human being scattered everywhere.
“I have warned you many times! Do not cross this boundary!”
A beauty that fits the word elegant.
“It was a plan to catch us and do something with the elves!”
I smiled naturally at him.
The voice that I couldn’t count, and which was close to a delusion after so many years had passed.
-Sue.
“I won’t let you do that… ?”
Neritiel Lumyslind.
Maybe it was her blessing that I met her now.
For her soon-to-be-dead, for me, I will never have a chance to face her.
The elf princess who approached me tilted her head and then opened her mouth.
“Oh, are you in a lot of pain… ? So a warning… I will treat you for now.”
Neri Rithiel, younger and more tender than the first time I met her, looks at me with her drooping eyes, feeling her guilt.
This untainted goodness and innocence always felt cozy.
“I need to draw an arrow… Ooh, don’t cry.”
Do I cry?
No way.
“Are you going to treat me?”
When she opens her mouth abruptly, Neritielle pats her ears and opens her eyes wide.
“For now, it is! Instead, you must promise me that you will never visit this forest again.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why? No way… So, do you really want an elf that much?”
Did I say something wrong
She tried to correct the story because it was a bit out of focus, but when she thought about it, she was at a loss.
Will she believe that she has come to revive the world tree, the source of the elves?
There’s no chance of that.
No matter how foolish your Rithiel looks now, she’ll turn into an angry lioness if you spit the story of the World Tree out of her mouth.
Tracing her faded memories, she relives her first meeting with her.
Of course, I was still in love with Neritiel, even though her bond was gone.
For her sake, she must revive her world tree.
It’s all for you.
Because it looks like I’ll have to use you to reach the World Tree.
“Neritiel Lumyslind.”
I made a decision about it.
* * *
‘Strange human.’
In order to prevent human intrusion, Neritiel searches the borders of the forest in the forefront.
It was not something a princess in a realm would do, but it was something she did herself.
It wasn’t particularly because of the ‘busty elf caught in the woods’ that she had read in her childhood.
Because he had to lead this kingdom someday, it was to experience the hidden side of things that would be difficult to grasp after reaching a high position.
But what is this human?
There was a momentary fluttering sensation on her fairly fair skin, but that was just about it.
For Neritiel loved her kingdom too much to bear her ill-will.
What puzzled her was this human gaze.
I couldn’t know the details about emotions because I was young, but I could grasp that there was longing and affection in those eyes.
‘Why… Are you looking at me like that?’
She thought she was crying because of the pain, but it wasn’t.
Although she moaned when she pulled out the arrow with her own hand, her man did not shed a single tear.
-Sue.
When I looked at his face like this, it felt a little burdensome to stare at myself with a soft smile.
“So… How do you know my name?”
“Well. You should take me to the kingdom to investigate.”
When her own name came out of her man’s mouth, Neritiel felt her hostility.
It was right to punish her immediately, but this was not a simple matter, so she decided to take her to her kingdom and investigate her first.
Neritiel, who was filled with such complicated thoughts, stood tall.
“Hey. However, there is something that has bothered me since before.”
“Yes.”
Looking back, it was like that from the beginning.
Looking at her man…
“Have we ever met, where have we met?”
It was because emotions that she couldn’t understand came to her and made her heart ache.
The various emotions she felt for the first time made her restless, and most of them stemmed from her sadness.
She was the first human I ever met.
She had driven away some humans from time to time, but this was the first time she had ever talked to her face to face like this.
Why does she feel this way?
“Sure.”
Neritiel tilted her head at the words that came out of her man’s mouth.
“Where did you meet? I’m sorry, but I can’t remember…”
Her words darkened the man’s expression for a moment, and then she returned.
But Neritiel did not miss that moment.
‘That person must be hiding something.’
Judging by that, she vowed to ask for some torture if her interrogation did not go well.
“I missed you a lot.”
-Kooung.
From her man’s lips, words that sounded like a confession came out.
Neri Rithel, who had stopped breathing for a moment, frowned and closed her eyes, trying desperately to recall the man.
However, she couldn’t remember anything.
“You are currently being escorted to Rumyslind Kingdom. You must have realized that my name and the name of the kingdom are the same.”
“Yes. I know.”
“Then please tell me. Hearing that from you, an unknown human being, would only make you uncomfortable.”
Neri Rithel fired at her, and her man clamped her mouth shut.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to swallow the words she wanted to spit out, but she couldn’t hide the tears that flowed down her eyes.
“… It’s arriving soon. If you don’t be honest with the interrogation, you might die.”
She swallowed her afterwords.
Now, she realized that she was worried about that human.
“More than that…”
Anyway, that person’s ulterior motives will all be revealed in the kingdom.
“What is your name?”
So would this be okay?
It’s something you can’t do anymore.
The name that came to Neritiel’s ears after making such a rationalization.
“Ed. That was the name.”
It was a name common among humans, nothing special.
* * *
It’s been three days since Ed detained a human in the kingdom.
That’s when things happened.
Whenever he responds to interrogation smoothly and answers quickly, he always runs away.
Neritiel was furious with him.
It was only yesterday that she had even said that she would even take care of her meals and provide a place to live in this kingdom if she wanted to.
“You must catch it!”
When the princess was angry, the king also became enraged and searched the area around the kingdom so thoroughly that it was a mess, but no trace of him could be found.
As the search continued, the next day they found
“Three, the world tree… !”
Once again, it was the world tree that began to breathe life.
All the elves danced and sang.
“Ed… ?”
However, the elf princess recalled her man’s face with suspicion instead of being delighted.
