Chapter 9 – 009. The Ghost of the Divine Tree (2)
When Innis finished talking, his body trembled just thinking about whether his memories of that time had become traumatic.
Afterwards, he thanked Innis and at the same time delivered a pocket containing silver coins containing a suitable example.
Innis refused to accept the bag of silver coins.
To begin with, she was a girl from an aristocratic family, and she didn’t need her pocket full of silver coins.
On the contrary, she said thank you and left the library, saying that she had been comforted a little by not denying her story, listening to it until the end, and thinking about it seriously.
Eunhyeon and Illyana, with only the two remaining, exchanged opinions about the eyewitness account that Innis had told them about.
“The headmaster of Aether and the professors of magic all concluded that the eyewitness saw something.”
“It must be because there is a basis for it, right?”
“I searched the entire school, including the search magic, but I couldn’t find any traces of magic being used, let alone a corpse. If a truly magical phenomenon has occurred, it proves that they have not been able to find it. Would those proud noble wizards admit that?”
Snorting, Illyana made fun of Aither’s principal and magic professors.
The best group in the category of a group of wizards in the kingdom is the ‘Magus’, the kingdom’s court magic division.
In addition, all of Aether’s principals and professors have retired after playing a role in the ‘Magus’, the court magic division of the kingdom of Pernias, or they are a collection of aristocratic elites with similar skills.
Even though they searched so far, no clues came out, but if clues or traces come out all of a sudden, it proves their incompetence.
Despite being the same wizard, it seemed that there was a strange conflict between Illyana and the wizards in this country that Eunhyeon was not aware of yet.
For some reason, Eun-hyeon was worried, but Eun-hyeon did not ask Illyana about it.
“What do you think?”
Eunhyun asked Illyana.
“Well… First off, I’m not sure what to say. In the first place, I’m not good at this type of magic. You know this better than I do.”
“I just need to know. It’s natural to seek advice from experts to increase your credibility.”
“Joy.”
Illyana smiled as if Eunhyeon’s praise wasn’t that bad, and she drank the tea Eunhyeon brewed.
“I’ll go and see you then.”
“Aether?”
“I want to see the site once in person.”
“Oh~. Okay. Also, go see Leod once. For now, their knights are tracking down my brother who is on the run.”
“It is. What.”
“I’ll keep in touch with Leo.”
“Okay.”
“Huh. Good job then.”
Illyana waved her hand and saw off Eun-hyun as she left the library.
Eunhyeon thought it would not be a bad idea to investigate whether it was real or an illusion.
As soon as the destination was decided, she went straight to school.
It was close to midnight when Eunhyeon arrived at school, just in time for the next day.
Even though there was no sun, she could see the bright school building illuminated by the moonlight.
She walked closer and inspected the outside of the school. Even though it was late, the school gate was not closed.
She laughed out of embarrassment at the thought of how the management was so lax when the gate was not locked.
“Does this school not have a sense of security? Well, I’ve said enough for a little girl to sneak in.”
Even private companies, such as the famous grand corps in the capital, are concerned about leakage of confidential documents or internal information, so it is basic to strengthen thorough security.
The security level of public institutions operated with the national budget was lax.
Illyana’s magic library, which is operated with the royal family’s budget as well.
‘Mervis’ was a place where many valuable collections of world knowledge were stored.
Therefore, since it was thoroughly protected by the magic of Illinaa, the Librarian, I never particularly cared about the security of other public institutions.
She thought she would have some level of security in place, even if it was worse than her, but she was left completely defenseless.
I wondered if the educational institution representing the kingdom could be like this.
“Well, it’s none of my business.”
Thinking that thanks to Eun-hyun, she could have sneaked in like this, she confidently opened the gate and entered the school.
“Uh?”
While she was walking through the main gate towards the school building.
Eunhyeon stared at the beautiful garden decorated with flower beds.
The first thing that caught Eunhyeon’s attention was the huge tree standing tall in the center of the flower bed and wooden bench.
Although there were some that were very tall for a normal tree.
The most mystical sight was that glowing green lights were floating around the tree and hovering around it.
Only in the center of the tree were bright green lights.
“Mana like this… But mana that is dense enough to form like this.”
Eunhyeon saw the green mana flying around the tree like fireflies, and she recognized the tree’s identity.
“Right. Is this the ‘Tree of Hope’?”
The anecdote about the ‘Tree of Hope’ in Aether is quite famous.
It is said that many students are looking for the tree because of the rumor that it will come true if you make a sincere wish.
It was just a story that most of the children who wanted to date other than wanting to become a strong knight or wizard were looking for fun.
Since the old aristocrats who are currently leading the country also entered and graduated from this school, the ‘Tree of Hope’, which has stood firm since the foundation of the school, has been treated as a specialty of the school and the country.
Rumor has it that if you make a wish on a tree, it will come true.
Eunhyeon thought it was a common superstition that could be found everywhere.
There is a large fountain in the square in the capital of Pernin, and there is also a superstition that if you throw a fairy tale into the fountain and make a wish, it will come true.
Most of them were wishes for prosperity in business, health for family members, or for the fulfillment of a love affair with a loved one.
I don’t know what kind of causal relationship there is between throwing fairy tales and making wishes come true.
However, Eun-hyeon knew the secret hidden in this tree.
The cause of the establishment of this school in the first place is because of this ‘sacred tree of Fernias’.
The reason why the school building was renovated whenever it fell behind and kept the long history and context of more than 200 years was because the royal family wanted to hide the true identity of this ‘divine tree’ from the continent.
Because it was a secret handed down only to members of the royal family.
Except for the royal family of Pernias, no one in the kingdom knows the secret of this divine tree.
The only exception was Eunhyeon.
Eun-hyeon was immersed in emotion, perhaps because she had personally confirmed the identity of the divine tree she had only heard about.
In all his long life he had never seen this sight.
It was the moment I was about to indulge in the thought of exploring this mysterious phenomenon.
“Hmm?”
Eunhyun felt a gaze looking at her from somewhere.
But he was not human.
Feeling the energy of something other than human, Eunhyeon quietly closed her eyes.
He immediately unleashes a large amount of magic power that covers the entire school centered on himself.
Wheein!
It was ‘sensing’, a technique that allowed Eun-hyeon to deploy her magic centered on herself and grasp everything within a certain range.
It wasn’t magic, but it was a sensing technology that could produce a similar effect using magic using the principles of radar and ultrasound.
It adopts the principle of determining the direction, distance, speed, etc. Of a detected object by shooting electromagnetic waves or ultrasonic waves into the air and then measuring the reflected waves that bounce back when it hits an object.
It was thanks to this sensing technology rather than the authority of the apostle that Eunhyeon was able to take the upper hand in the early stages while facing tens of thousands of demon beasts in the imperial palace of the Mirvabilla Empire 20 years ago.
Spreading this sensing technology in all directions, he was able to accurately grasp the behavior of the monsters rushing at him, and he could see through all attacks as if he had eyes behind him, and the flow of thoughts accelerated by ‘Thought Acceleration’ was able to detect all attacks of the beasts that he saw through. Showed a new spirit corresponding to
It wasn’t the power she received from an apostle, but her own skill that Eun-hyeon herself made with heart-wrenching efforts.
It took about 3 seconds to spread the detection across the entire school, and then about 2 seconds for all the facilities and structures in the school to analyze all the information transmitted to the brain.
And something other than the person looking down on him from the roof of a building in the distance.
Eun-hyeon, who caught that information, smiled in repentance.
He turned and raised his face towards the rooftop where the something was.
Their gazes met, and something startled and trembled, and Eunhyun laughed and murmured.
“Found,”
◆ ◆ ◆
The first thought I had when I saw the man was curiosity.
Dazzling silver hair in the moonlight and a beautiful appearance.
He was a very young looking man in his early 20s.
His appearance was that of a commoner rather than an aristocrat, as he did not wear luxurious jewels or accessories.
Neat fabrics and neat-looking clothes made the man’s appearance shine even without wearing jewelry.
Before long, the man who felt his gaze turned his head towards him, and ‘it’ and the man met eyes.
‘It’ was overwhelmed by the bright red eyes reminiscent of dark blood, and quickly ran away.
Walls did not stand in the way of ‘it’, and it rose vertically, passing between buildings and rapidly ascending.
“It” Went up to the roof in an instant and felt relieved that it would be safe now.
And when you try to move your gaze to the man to observe him again.
Wheein!
Suddenly, the energy around the tree began to fluctuate.
In an instant, unknown magical powers raged and gradually expanded the range and began to take over the entire school.
I felt a creepy feeling at the magical power covering me.
‘It’ was immediately able to recognize who the owner of this magical power was.
The moment I looked again at the man standing next to the tree.
The man was already staring at the rooftop he was on.
However, the words were not heard by ‘it’, which was too far away.
I could see the mouth of ‘it’ as it smiled contentedly and said something.
I was certain that he had said ‘I found it’.
[Yes… !]
As soon as our eyes met, I felt a chill.
Until now, no one had seen him or heard him when he spoke to him.
He tried to touch the students walking around the gardens in broad daylight, but he felt nothing.
He didn’t recognize the ‘existence’ that no one called himself.
How did that man recognize himself?
In the eyes of ‘it’, the man was a strange person.
It was from dawn that he felt strange.
When the man who suddenly appeared at dawn saw the tree of wishes for the first time, he looked at the tree and made an admiring expression.
Afterwards, the fact that the man who felt his gaze noticed him was a fact that he had not always hoped for.
However, even though the thing that I so wished for happened to ‘it’ now, the emotion of joy did not arise.
The emotion that “It” Felt was fear, not joy.
Because, the reason was because of the man’s magical power that wrapped around his body.
The mana developed by the man began to surround him in an instant, and the feeling of ‘it’ changed from terrified to astonished at the sensation of digging into every nook and cranny of his components.
‘It’ instinctively sensed the danger and tried to fly straight into the sky to escape, but the man acted faster.
“Don’t go.”
‘It’, which was planning to run away through the sky, stiffened its body at the sound of a voice.
Then, trembling, I looked back and there was already a man standing by the door on the roof.
As soon as ‘it’ saw the man, the first thought was ‘how?’.
With a confused expression on his face, ‘it’ looked back again.
I looked at the tree of hope in the center of the school below, but the man was still missing.
He suspected that they might be twins, so he checked.
It would take 10 minutes to get from the tree in the garden to the roof of the building he was in, even if he ran nonstop.
It took about 5 seconds at most before the man decided to find himself and make up his mind to escape to the sky.
It’s really ridiculous, but I wondered if he had jumped from the tree of wishes to reach the rooftop.
But then he couldn’t have missed it.
If it appeared from the door on the roof.
Does that mean that the man climbed in just 5 seconds what took him 10 minutes to climb?
That’s nonsense too.
No, neither is unrealistic and nonsensical.
I thought I had to run away right now to run away, but ‘it’ gave up on running away.
Because he thought he would be caught again, he immediately gave up the possibility of escape.
“Erin Hersha.”
At the sudden mention of the name, ‘it’ made his body tremble.
“Right?”
Seeing the man’s face tilting his head as if he didn’t know why he was making such a nervous expression, he asked, ‘that’ for some reason, but his energy was drained, and he nodded in affirmation.
“Huh…」
‘It’ gave up and revealed its identity.
