Chapter 221 – 221. Advance Preparation (1)
A place where elder elves, including Regina, the highest-ranking elf queen in the village of the moon, gather to discuss important matters in the village,
The ‘Forest Corridor’ was the same place as the court meeting room for the head of the Moon Village and the Elf Queen to manage the village with many elves.
There, Eunhyun opened her mouth.
“For now, we also looked for the cause of the decline in the power of the World Tree.”
“… Can you find the cause?”
A young elf who didn’t know much about Eunhyun asked with a questioning expression.
I didn’t understand that they were showing respect to humans, but many elder elves, including the elf queen Regina, were showing respect to Eunhyun, so the younger elves just responded accordingly.
“After about a month of staying here, I directly investigated the condition of the World Tree.”
“In what way…”
I didn’t particularly want to disparage Eunhyeon and his two wives, but the talent to see the power of the world tree with the naked eye is a talent that only a few elves can have.
From the point of view of the young elf who did not know Eun-hyeon’s true identity, what Eun-hyeon was saying was as suspicious as the trickster’s candy coating.
I didn’t understand why the human who came to the village of the moon could find the cause that the queen and her elders, who had lived hundreds of years and had lived longer than they did, could not find.
No matter how much a human called Eunhyeon settled in the village of the moon before he was born and formed a relationship with the current elder elves, it was a difficult story for the young elves who did not have a chance to properly assess his abilities and values.
Ever since I was young, I had been tired of hearing stories about ‘a great human who was praised by the elves of my older generation, parents and grandparents in unison.
So, what kind of person are you, living in hiding until now, making an exception in the closed policy of not being involved with the world and humans, and sending unconditional trust?
“Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
Nodding at Eun-hyeon’s call, Eleanor stepped forward and placed the small box she was holding on the table in the center of the meeting room.
Click
“Huh!”
When I unlocked the lock and opened the lid of the box, I felt a thick spirit of death creeping up from inside the box, and several elves gasped and were surprised.
They were all elder elves who had experienced this aura in the past.
Clap!
To prevent her morale from escaping again, Eleanor promptly closed her box and quickly locked her lock, swallowing her breath as the nervous elder elves let out a belated breath.
“Whoa… What is this? How dare you bring such blasphemous energy into the realm of the World Tree…”
“Stop.”
“… Your majesty.”
Regina waved her hand to stop the elder elf who was questioning Eunhyeon with a sharp expression.
Regina also couldn’t unconditionally trust Eun-hyeon in this case, so she asked while looking at her with a firm expression.
“Teacher. Explain it to me please. For what purpose did you bring that unclean energy into the Lunar Village?”
“It is to convince the queen and all the elves here in her.”
Since there were many elves watching over Regina, who was in the highest position in an official, non-private place, Eun-hyeon used honorifics rather than familiar short words like before.
“… Convince?”
Regina, not understanding what she was trying to convince, tilted her head.
Eun-hyeon slowly got up from her chair and touched the lid of the box containing fraudulent products that Eleanor had placed on the table.
If something goes wrong, something will happen and the box itself will break and the elder elves, who were wary of the fraud inside, frowning.
“First of all, I will tell you one thing first because you are anxious. This chest of dishonest scams is safe.”
Caang!
“It never breaks.”
The elves shuddered at the sound of metal as they grabbed the box and dropped it to the floor.
“This box was specially constructed by me and my wife to seal this scam. It is designed and manufactured so that it is not easily broken even by external impact, so it does not break that easily.”
“Then, why did you bother to make such a box and bring it into the village of the moon and show it to us in the forest corridor?”
“I found this on the outskirts before entering the Lunar Village. There, I was able to discover the vehicle harboring this scam. Some elder elves seem to have already guessed.”
“Fraud… Medium…”
Putting the keywords suggested by Eunhyeon in her mouth, she thought of people who might have done this trick.
“No way… Dark Elves… ?”
“You’re right. It is the sorcery of ‘curse’, the special skill of Dark Elves. And this is the reason why the power of the World Tree was being eroded little by little.”
“Nonsense! Even curses and unclean energy cannot penetrate the barrier created by the power of the World Tree!”
“That’s why we installed something like this on the outskirts where the power of the World Tree doesn’t reach.”
“… ?”
“What the Dark Elves were aiming for was not directly hitting the World Tree.”
Eunhyun pointed her finger at the floor.
“… Earth?”
“Yes. This land where the World Tree that protects the entire village is located. And specifically, we are aiming for the entire ‘Town of the Moon’.”
“Ah…”
Regina remembered one fact and she sighed lightly.
Her own words that she said to her earlier.
-As the teacher said, the power of the world tree is gradually decreasing. As a result, all the spirits contracted with the blessing of the World Tree are losing their power. Furthermore… At the same time, even the land that was rich with the blessing of the World Tree is gradually drying up.
But if that’s the case where the cause and effect are the exact opposite of what you thought.
“As the power of the World Tree was being cut down, the land of this forest was not drying up. To be precise, the World Tree was losing its power as the land of this forest became dry due to the curse placed on it by the Dark Elves.”
It was a story close to a pun like ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg’, but at the point where the keyword ‘curse’ was presented first, the elves, including Regina, began to accept Eunhyun’s hypothesis credibly.
“Unbelievable…”
“How could this be…”
Obsessed with the stereotype of being protected by the World Tree, it was obviously the elves’ mistake that they failed to think of the idea of attacking relatively vulnerable lands from the outskirts of the World Tree’s territory.
“However, the barrier of the World Tree has the property of detecting the existence of Dark Elves at close range, even if it is outside the barrier. If it was the Dark Elves who installed this curse, how could it go unnoticed when it was installed?”
“There is no need for the dark elf who created the curse to carry the medium of the curse.”
“That means…”
Eunhyun, who was answering the elf’s question, looked at Regina and asked her.
“Queen. The day I first came to the village of the moon. Do you remember what I told you about the Dark Elves who were abducting humans from nearby villages?”
“I remember. Okay… If it’s ice…”
It is understandable that the world tree’s barrier did not respond if it was possessed by a human body rather than a Dark Elf body and directly moved and installed the medium of the curse.
“The reason the teacher bothered to seal the fraud and show it to us…”
“There are two reasons. The first is to convince the elves here. The second is to convince you that you shouldn’t get rid of this curse right now.”
“… Why?”
If Eun-hyeon’s argument is correct, it must be a dangerous curse that must be removed right now, but she is persuading her a second time that she shouldn’t get rid of it.
It sounds the same as letting go of something that is causing continuous damage to the Moon Village and the World Tree.
However, since it was none other than Eun-hyeon who was making this claim, an elder elf who knew him from 300 years ago asked Eun-hyeon about his intentions.
“As the Queen knows, this curse is dangerous. But you can’t pose a danger that can affect the entire village of the moon with just one curse of this level.”
“That means…”
“Not one, but several. It is also possible to speculate that there will be a very large number of mediums.”
“Then you have to get rid of the mediums containing the curse right now…”
Regina interrupted the young elf’s urgent muttering.
“The curse contained in the medium should not be done carelessly.”
“The Queen is right.”
After receiving Regina’s words, Eunhyun nodded in agreement with him.
He continued, clutching the artifact containing the fraud.
“When a curse is cast, the caster realizes that fact. In other words, it’s like letting them know that one side noticed the other side’s trick.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t just leave these curses eating away at this land and the world tree!”
When the young elf responded with a slightly frightened expression, Eunhyun smiled and pointed her finger at the artifact containing the curse medium.
“That’s why you sealed it inside the artifact and brought it. So that the caster who cursed it wouldn’t notice.”
“Ah…”
“My proposal not to destroy these cursed vectors does not mean ‘I will allow the Lunar Village and the World Tree to continue to suffer damage.'”
That’s why, without cursing them like this, they directly ‘suggested’ a way to avoid being harmed by crafting artifacts.
I realized that this was the second reason why Eun-hyeon introduced an artifact with sealed fraud.
“Teacher… You intend to launch a preemptive strike.”
The reason for persuading Regina and the other elves to go so far as to produce an artifact that could seal the curse without removing the curse was simple.
It was to launch a preemptive strike by taking advantage of the gap that made the other side not notice and misunderstood that the plan was going well.
“That is correct.”
Regina let out a small sigh when Eun-hyeon, who now thought she had the right to be a queen, expressed her feelings of joy on her face.
‘You have become very bright…’
After the death of Sylvia, the elf who had lived with Eun-hyeon for 10 years in the past, she remembered the time when Eun-hyeon left the village of the moon with a lonely face as if she had given up the rest of her life.
Perhaps it was she who healed her heart at that time.
‘It must be thanks to those two humans.’
She naturally shifted her gaze to the enchanted sorceress in a black-toned witch’s robe and the priestess in a pure white sacred priestly robe.
‘It’s really fortunate.’
While reassuring herself like that, Regina with a bitter smile soon asked her Eunhyun’s intentions once more.
“Sir, you intend to fight.”
“That’s right.”
“It won’t be any use if I dry it, right?”
“I have no intention of stopping you.”
Regina smiled at Eun-hyeon’s reply, who calmly penetrated her true feelings.
How could she stop her Eun-hyeon herself?
In a situation where the same situation as in the past is about to be created, now Eun-hyeon is trying to make a different choice.
For some reason, she couldn’t choose then, but she was irresistibly pleased with her act of choosing that option.
Knowing that it was Regina herself who pushed her Eun-hyeon towards that choice, Regina, who had her guilt about him, now felt great joy in her Eun-hyeon’s choice.
“From now on, I will order the Elven Guard to collect the medium of the curse that remains on the outskirts of the World Tree.”
“I will follow the will of the Queen!”
After the meeting in the Forest Corridor was over and the Elven Guards left the corridor to carry out Regina’s order, Eun-hyeon spoke again.
“Regina.”
“Yes?”
After the public meeting, Eunhyeon called her usual name again.
“I have a request for you.”
“Are you asking?”
“This is something that requires your recognition as the queen.”
After Eunhyeon said that, she took out a black bead from her bosom.
