Chapter 179
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Berlin, Dark Elf Kingdom - 3
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“Hmm… you said you came from the Rome Gate?”
Lee Hyun-wook’s party, polymorphed into dark elves, was being questioned at a checkpoint in the Dark Elf Kingdom’s ‘Terminal’—a vast space lined with dozens of portal generators.
“Yes, that’s correct. Five of us in total.”
A dark elf sat behind a magical iron grate, examining the entry passes they had handed him. Argenti Arkum, the second prince’s royal knight, was answering on their behalf.
The passes seemed to be in order, and he hadn’t noticed their polymorphs. He closed the passes, but his gaze remained aggressive.
“Ahem! How dare you think of visiting without any prior notice? Don’t you know you need to get approval at least a week in advance to use the gate?”
“Ah, about that…”
“And during a time of war, no less! You must know how reckless this is, don’t you?”
“…We apologize for not reporting in advance. We had urgent business here.”
With the kingdom at war, security was on high alert, and armed soldiers were everywhere. If their disguises were discovered here, or even if they were detained for procedural issues, it would become a massive headache.
This race also seemed to have a clear hierarchy, as the terminal keeper crossed his arms arrogantly and began to lecture them with practiced ease.
“Hey, gatekeeper, when I ask a question, you’re supposed to give me a reason, aren’t you? Is this your first time passing through a terminal? Tsk, tsk. You’ve lived in the human world for so long, you’re starting to pick up their shamelessness?”
The royal knight leaned forward slightly and whispered in a low voice.
“Excuse me, but… do you know a Lord Sus Bufo?”
The name must have belonged to someone of high rank, as the terminal keeper’s eyes widened reflexively.
“Hm? Of course, I know him! The administrator of the Seventh Forest, isn’t he? I thought he was out fighting the war against the humans?”
“Yes, well, his lordship is quite fond of a human drink, a high-quality Italian wine. He said he plans to throw a party after this battle and asked us to procure some rather rare wine in advance.”
As he spoke, he pointed to a small iron box nearby.
The terminal keeper shot up from his seat, nodding repeatedly.
“Ah, so that’s what this is about!”
He was so quick to accept the story because Sus Bufo, a high-ranking official, was famous for his love of human food.
“Yes, that’s the situation. Haha… I apologize for the trouble.”
“If it’s an order from the administrator of the Seventh Forest… Ahem, right, I’ve been wasting your precious time without knowing the circumstances! Still, if you’re caught bringing in goods from the human world in times like these, it’ll be a headache even for him, so you’d best be careful!”
Thus, with the plausible lie Argenti Arkum had prepared, they were able to pass through the checkpoint.
“Wow, dark elves are no different from humans. Just drop a big name and you get a free pass…”
“It reminded me of getting checked at the guard post when I was returning from leave.”
Kim Se-hee and Park Jun-mo each offered their impressions.
They left the terminal and walked down a long corridor for quite some time, soon arriving at a vast space called the ‘Plaza.’
“This is the heart of our kingdom, connecting to almost everywhere. If any trouble arises and you need to escape, you will have to pass through here. As such, security will be tight.”
The second prince explained.
Indeed, countless dark elves were coming and going, giving it the feel of a central transit station in a metropolis.
Thick roots, which seemed to sprout from the ground or descend from the ceiling, stood like buildings, and it appeared they were hollowed out and used as structures.
Glowing flowers bloomed from the ceiling, filling the entire underground space with a soft, white light. If not for the anxiety of being in enemy territory, it was a mystical scene, like a fairy village from a storybook.
However…
“Hey, isn't that… a person?”
Park Jun-mo suddenly whispered in a shocked voice.
“Huh?”
And indeed, there were humans among the crowd of dark elves.
With shaved heads and dressed only in rags, they walked in a single file, their hands bound by what looked like green vines.
Dark elves armed with weapons stood guard around them, suggesting they were slaves.
‘They must be the citizens who failed to escape Berlin during the Third Wave.’
Those who couldn’t leave this land when the disaster struck, and even when Berlin began to transform into a green hell because the disaster couldn’t be stopped.
‘And they’re probably being used as farm slaves.’
Guardian would later estimate their numbers to be as high as thirty to forty thousand.
But with no way to rescue them, they were fated to live out their lives as slaves to the dark elves.
“What… what is that? Are they capturing humans and using them as slaves?”
Kim Se-hee asked, her voice sharp. The two dark elves wore expressions of shame.
“…There’s nothing I can say.”
As if making an excuse, he explained that when the royal family ruled, their quality of life was better than it was now, claiming the hostages were treated with the utmost respect back then.
That was likely not a complete lie. The Dark Elf Kingdom had intended to pursue a friendly path with humanity, so they would have been treated more like hostages than slaves.
But with the Villain’s interference, the ‘Great General’ seized power, and everything went wrong.
“…Let’s keep moving for now.”
“Ahem, this way.”
Lee Hyun-wook didn’t let such things affect him. He had spent his entire past life watching humanity fall into far more miserable states.
The crowd gradually thinned, the ceiling lowered, and the light began to dim. It meant they were heading toward the outskirts.
“This is the residential area. My friends will be waiting for us.”
“Are you sure we can really trust them?”
Kim Se-hee asked. She seemed to have grown distrustful after seeing the human slaves. The second prince frowned, his feelings hurt.
“They are people who would lay down their lives for me. And I would do the same for them.”
“Hmm, that’s usually the kind of relationship where betrayal happens… I guess it makes for a better plot twist?”
After walking for some time, Lee Hyun-wook sensed footsteps following them.
He couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe, but deep in enemy territory, he had no choice but to be on high alert.
The two Failnaughts at his waist began to tremble.
And just then…
“—Your Highness, over here.”
Robed figures were waving at them from an alley.
***
“…For now, I must say that storming the ‘Throne Room’ where the Great General is staying would be a suicide mission.”
A female dark elf spoke as she offered tea to the group.
Her name was Lilium Fide, once an official in the Royal Household Department and a friend of the second prince.
She and the other ‘loyalist’ dark elves gathered here had just heard Lee Hyun-wook’s plan and were reacting negatively.
“Right now, virtually all the forces left to defend the kingdom are gathered there. That’s because the Great General is controlling the ‘Baingard’ through the throne. The defenses are tighter than ever. It would be harder to breach now than during peacetime.”
The second prince nodded in agreement with Lilium Fide.
“Yes, even if the entire army has been deployed to the front, he would defend that place tenaciously… He hasn’t completely eliminated the loyalist factions who wish for the restoration of the monarchy…”
Lee Hyun-wook had been aiming for the moment the place would be empty, but instead, the security around his primary target had been tightened.
‘Right, I expected this to some extent.’
Though he hadn’t told the others, Lee Hyun-wook had been using his Fly Eyes to scout various parts of the Dark Elf Kingdom.
He had concluded that even with so many troops gone, the central area was defended far more thoroughly than he had anticipated.
Lee Hyun-wook was lost in thought.
‘No matter how stealthily I infiltrate, this is enemy territory. And the trickiest part is that the Green Wave is growing on every ceiling, wall, and floor.’
The ‘Green Wave,’ the tide of man-eating vines he had faced in Yggdrasil City, was the very material from which this city was woven.
In other words, one small mistake could get him captured in an instant. He would be like an insect flying precariously through a spider’s web.
‘So, in case something goes wrong, to prepare for the aftermath… I need to improve the situation to allow for the stealthiest infiltration possible.’
He needed a shocking event, something that would lure the forces guarding the ‘Throne Room’ outside.
That would be…
“A rebellion…”
“—Excuse me?”
At Lee Hyun-wook’s words, everyone turned to look at him.
“If a rebellion were to break out within the city, wouldn’t some of the troops from the Throne Room be dispatched to suppress it?”
Lilium Fide nodded at his question, but her answer was not an affirmative one.
“…Ah, I see what you mean. But the majority of the loyalists who advocated for the restoration of the monarchy are currently imprisoned. While we might be able to shake things up with a coup, that alone wouldn’t be enough to draw out the forces from the Throne Room. We would need a much larger disturbance, which is impossible right now.”
Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.
“No, not loyalist dark elves… What if a significant number of troops were to rise up? Say, on the scale of several thousand.”
“Hmm, surely you’re not thinking of… using the humans?”
The second prince asked, having caught on to something. Lee Hyun-wook nodded.
“The human prisoners held here—a good number of them would be able to fight if they had weapons.”
After all, a considerable number of them would have been captured while fighting the dark elves. And since then, others might have experienced an ‘Awakening’… There had to be at least a few hundred combat-class Players among them.
And Lee Hyun-wook had hundreds of Player-exclusive weapons, and furthermore, he could summon a multitude of minions using the Iron Golem cores.
Thus, he could orchestrate a proper rebellion.
“If we free them and cause a disturbance, would the soldiers guarding the Throne Room be mobilized?”
Lilium Fide pondered his words for a moment before shaking her head.
“Hah… That is absolutely, utterly impossible.”
She pointed out the window, toward the ceiling.
About ten meters up, plant stems could be seen writhing near the ceiling, like wiring or pipes embedded in a building.
That was the ‘Green Wave.’
“The biggest reason they cannot rebel is because there are plants all over this kingdom that can be controlled by the power of the ‘throne’.”
In other words, the moment a rebellion started, plants would shoot out from the ceilings and walls like tentacles and restrain everyone.
“But what if… there was fire?”
Lee Hyun-wook proposed another alternative.
Fire. It was something that could not be found anywhere in this Dark Elf Kingdom.
Since the entire place was made of plants, a fire could spread uncontrollably. For that reason, the dark elves didn’t even cook with fire, instead relying on the natural luminescence of plants for light.
Lee Hyun-wook continued to explain.
“If the rebels get their hands on fire, wouldn’t the Green Wave instinctively recoil? Of course, it would be a problem if a Forest Spiritmancer stepped in and forced it to move… but most of the Forest Spiritmancers are at war, and the rest are guarding the Throne Room. The point is to make them come out.”
The Green Wave Lee Hyun-wook had witnessed before had been controlled by Flos Ruber, a boss monster known as the Forest Administrator.
That was why it had displayed such power that it couldn’t be stopped by ordinary flame magic.
But this naturally growing Green Wave could likely have its movements restricted by simple fire.
However, as Lee Hyun-wook repeatedly offered counterarguments, Lilium Fide’s expression soured slightly.
Though she was helping with this plan as a friend of the prince and a loyalist, her animosity toward humans and the concept of rebellion didn’t seem to sit well with her.
“Hah… Of course, we are prepared for fire. Our city is not that careless.”
She went on to explain that throughout the underground city, water-retaining plants had taken root, acting as a sort of sprinkler system.
She then looked at the second prince with an exasperated expression, as if asking if these humans could truly be trusted.
“Ah… but I think we can handle that!”
The one who spoke was a young dark elf sitting in the corner.
He raised his hand with an innocent expression, but contrary to his naive appearance…
- Dark Elf Elite Spiritmancer (LV: 61)
He was an ‘Elite’ among the ‘Forest Spiritmancers,’ who were considered the best of the best among the dark elves.
In other words, if this fellow leveled up more, he would become an ‘Elite Monster.’
The second prince chimed in to support him.
“Yes, if a few Forest Spiritmancers gather, they should be able to control the fire-suppressing plants in the slave quarters and prevent them from spraying water even if a fire breaks out. Lilium, how many Forest Spiritmancers can we mobilize?”
With the second prince backing the idea, she blushed, cleared her throat, and spoke.
“Well… as this human mentioned earlier, most have been conscripted, so there are very few left in the kingdom. Off the top of my head, maybe five or six…”
“Good, that’s enough. I, too, have some skill in forest spiritmancy. If I join them, we should be able to control the ‘water line’ and allow the fire to spread. And if a fire breaks out, they will surely take it as a serious matter and dispatch troops from the Throne Room…”
He turned his head to look at Lee Hyun-wook.
“If, as you say, we can draw out the forces from the Throne Room, can you enter with that magic helmet of yours and… assassinate the Great General?”
Lee Hyun-wook picked up the teacup that had been placed before him and nodded as if it were a matter of course.
“Well, if I had my way, I’d like to just blow away those troops along with the Throne Room, but that might destroy the throne itself, right?”
“…What did you say? Blowing up the entire Throne Room? Isn’t that taking the joke too far?”
Once again, it was Lilium Fide who took issue.
“I wonder if you know how important this is to us. This is not a game!”
Lee Hyun-wook didn’t react, simply taking a sip of his tea.
But it was the second prince who stepped in and rebuked Lilium Fide.
“Enough—Lilium Fide, I suggest you restrain yourself. From what I have observed, this man is not one for jokes, and what he just said was not a joke.”
“…Excuse me? Are you saying this man truly has the power to annihilate the Throne Room in a single blow?”
The second prince nodded at her question.
“Because it’s the truth. If we want to get our city back safely, we must follow this man’s lead.”
“…”
“Keep that in mind, and I’d like you to reconfirm the necessary preparations for the rebellion.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
And so, the plan for the uprising was set in motion.
***
In truth, life is despair. Happiness is but an ideal, and the pursuit of it is a series of sufferings.
It was a cliché nihilism that any human living a hard life might have entertained at some point, but for the humans living in the ‘Slave Quarters’ of the Dark Elf Kingdom, it was gospel.
Somewhere in that place, inside a damp cavern lit by a yellowish glow, humans in rags were gathered around a crude table, talking.
The meal had just been distributed, so they were chatting after eating.
But today, the atmosphere was particularly grim.
“I—I really can’t take it anymore! Since the war started, the workload has become too intense!”
A scrawny man shouted, clutching his head.
“…At this rate, I’m going to die!”
Among the human slaves, the ‘Players’ were subjected to especially grueling labor.
They were taken to the dark elf orchards and forced to supply mana to the fruit.
It was a horrific task that didn’t kill them quickly but rather drained their life force slowly and painfully, like having their very blood sucked away.
“Sob—I really just want to die!”
The man was half-mad from the agony.
Eventually, other men calmed him down, took him to a shabby room, and laid him down.
An old man who had been watching the scene sighed.
He was the eldest in this cavern and had served as their spiritual anchor. But for some time now, his face had been clouded with shadow.
“Lately, I find myself thinking I just want to die too.”
“What? Grandpa, don’t say that. You always told me to have hope, that humanity always finds a way!”
A young boy offered the old man a shriveled piece of fruit.
But the old man waved it away.
“Haha… how many years ago was that?”
“Uh, well…”
“It’s been too long. This cycle… holding onto hope is starting to feel as ridiculous as reminiscing about my youth, chasing after impossible dreams. And I feel like I have no pride left in humanity.”
It had already been six years since they were captured in this underground city of the Dark Elf Kingdom… they were too worn out to hold onto hope anymore.
“But I heard recently that the dark elf forces have all pulled out… Could it be that a rescue operation has finally begun?”
This time, a young woman asked the question.
She was holding a newborn baby.
“I still want to believe. That… that someday we’ll be able to get out. And I’m going to make sure my daughter gets to enjoy the sunlight.”
Perhaps because of the guilt she felt for having a child in this underground prison, she couldn’t seem to give up hope.
But the others were not the same.
“No, I’m sorry, but… during the last harvest, I overheard the guards talking. It sounds like we’re the ones being conquered.”
“What… what did you say? So… not just Berlin, but all of Germany is falling?”
“Not just Germany, all of Europe. Maybe even the whole world… Just like the old man said, what pride in humanity? We’re finished.”
At those words, sneers and groans rippled through the cavern.
Being trapped here was terrible enough, but what twisted the knife deeper was the news that all of humanity was being violated.
It was akin to being a prisoner of war and hearing that your homeland was being invaded.
In other words, it was the most despairing news possible.
“Damn it, these goddamn pointy-eared bastards…”
Finally, a man spat out a furious curse. He had recently watched his friend get executed, and his anger was boiling over.
“Damn it, even if I die, I’ll make sure to kill at least one of them—no, maybe two—before I go!”
“Hey—calm down, your voice is too loud. If a guard hears you, we’ll all be punished. Remember that.”
“Fuck that, how long are you all going to live like this? We’re going to die anyway, isn’t it better to die fighting? We’re still Players! Can’t we just fight back, for once?”
However…
*Step—step—*
Footsteps echoed from the darkness at one side, and the people clamped their mouths shut, turning their gazes in that direction.
*Step—step—*
But they weren’t too tense.
This was a deep part of the slave quarters, so guard patrols were rare. That was why they had been able to speak so freely.
But then…
“Gasp!”
They shot up from their seats in shock.
“Uh, uh… a g-guard?”
A dark elf was standing there.
“Uh, why are you here…”
And a dark elf in this place could only be one of the cruel guards. If he had heard their treasonous talk… they were as good as dead.
Given the current atmosphere, they could be executed on the spot. The woman holding her young daughter turned deathly pale and trembled.
“N-no… please…”
But the dark elf’s face showed no anger.
Instead, with a strangely welcoming expression, he looked over each person one by one and…
“Excuse me, is this the human residential area?”
He asked. Everyone could only stare back with blank expressions.
What in the world was that question?
“…”
A long silence followed, and the young man who came to his senses first nodded his head repeatedly.
“…Uh, uh, yes! It is, sir guard!”
The dark elf then looked up at the ceiling and shouted.
“Yes, this is it! You can come down now!”
*Creeeak—*
A sound rumbled from above. The people looked up one by one… and saw the Green Wave that formed the ceiling writhing and parting, and someone descending from the opening.
*Thud—*
A total of six dark elves landed from the ceiling.
One of them walked forward and stood before the young man.
“I’d like to meet the leader here.”
For a moment, there was silence.
Once again, the young man was the one to answer.
“A l-leader… Slaves wouldn’t have something like that, would they? Haha! We know very well that forming private organizations is forbidden, and we always keep that in mind!”
At his answer, the dark elf looked at the one standing at the very back.
“Can you dispel my polymorph for a moment?”
“Hmm, it’ll take fifteen minutes to reapply. Are you sure?”
“I think it’s necessary to explain the situation to these people.”
*Wooooo—*
In that moment, a black light shimmered over the dark elf’s face, and…
“…Huh, he’s… he’s human?”
It changed into the face of a human, an East Asian man.
“I unintentionally overheard your conversation just now. So I don’t know if this will be much of a comfort, but…”
He stepped forward, placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder, and spoke in a low voice.
“…On behalf of humanity, I’ve come to rescue you.”