Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Audience with the Grand Elder
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Late at night. At that hour when wolves howled off in the distance all through the night, Luna slipped silently into Cain's room.
“Rabbit senior, you've arrived.”
There sat Cain by the light of a single small candle, with Zero beside him, both reflected in Luna's pink eyes.
“The young master is sleeping soundly, as always.”
Thanks to Adelrian, who wouldn't wake unless something extraordinarily loud happened once he was asleep, this was hardly the first such gathering.
Zero handed Luna a glass of carrot juice he'd brought ahead of time as she carefully lifted her chair slightly off the ground to avoid any scraping noise and sat down.
“So, today's talk is about that, right?”
“The golem.”
“Seniors. In my opinion, it's not your typical golem from the books.”
Your standard golem was a doll made of stone, wood, or earth. Depending on the maker's skill, they ranged from grotesque figures fit for a curse-weaver to perfectly sculpted statues.
But they all shared one trait: no self-awareness, just blindly following their golemancer's orders.
Tougher than humans, easy to repair, and modifiable to swap out their cores, they could even be resized at will—which made them ideal for construction sites, errands, or gatekeeping.
Combat golems were always in development, but there were issues. The golemancer had to manually designate friend or foe every time, and since they were built to be smashed anyway, ramping up their attack power just didn't justify the cost.
So combat golems were rare, usually just the obsessions of eccentric golemancers who made their own.
“Ancient ruins... with a golem inside.”
At Cain's words, Luna looked at him and spoke.
“One powerful enough to assist you.”
Even Zero, whose own strength had only recently come to light, knew Cain's dominance was unmatched.
Sure, in raw power alone, there were dozens or hundreds stronger across all races—but factoring in his age and growth rate?
Luna and Zero, who'd been by his side, knew it wasn't a joke when Adelrian had teased him about becoming the continent's strongest.
He was flat-out irregular. If he kept growing like this, anyone with eyes and a brain took it as a given that he'd get there—as inevitable as breathing.
So why was Adelrian looking beyond Cain, deeming something more necessary?
They hadn't asked outright, but from his offhand comments, actions, and purposeful movements, Cain, Luna, and Zero could tell.
“Lady Adelrian seems to be preparing for something massive. With Senior Cain here, what could she possibly need to prepare for?”
Anyone could see Cain was the future strongest—but not yet.
Was that why it wasn't enough?
Cain furrowed his brow ever so slightly and shook his head, almost too small to see.
“Even future me isn't enough.”
Whatever he was hiding so deeply, they couldn't know right now. But he'd promised: the moment Cain became the continent's strongest, Adelrian would tell him.
“So today's conclusion is the same as always.”
At Luna's words, Zero scratched his cheek.
“Getting stronger?”
“That's how we'll catch that ruins' master.”
Seeming to recall Valbus, Luna ground her teeth as she spoke, and Zero nodded.
“I hope I truly have the talent.”
No matter the process, it was Adelrian who'd led them out of that labyrinthine prison and shown Zero the sky.
“I want to get strong enough to help.”
“You will soon.”
They were about to meet the grand elder.
At Cain's words, Zero nodded with resolute eyes.
* * *
Neater brown hair, thanks to Luna's touch, and soft green eyes.
He looked like a man in his early twenties, but his face had the clueless innocence of someone who'd only learned about society from books.
I scanned Zero up and down before speaking.
“Put some grit in your eyes. No, forget it—just relax...”
Telling him to look fierce just made him look dopey.
He'd stubbornly refused the weird outfit Luna picked, so he looked decent enough now.
“Should I sweep the hair more to this side? Or push the bangs all the way back?”
Luna seemed more nervous than Zero, burning with determination to spruce him up somehow....
I waved her off to take it easy, but Cain glanced toward the door.
Seeing him like that, I couldn't hear anything, but it looked like our guide was about to arrive.
“Enough primping. Get ready to head out.”
At my words, Luna straightened her boots one last time, Zero took a deep breath, and Cain casually strapped his sword-form weapon to his waist.
Tap tap—
A light knock.
“It's Bahadi.”
“Come in.”
Truth be told, Bahadi, an elder himself, had no need to guide us personally—but given his prior blunder with me and the favors owed, here he was.
“First, before taking you to the grand elder, let me return this.”
Bahadi handed me the codex from his robes. Up to rank 3, it had no effects, so it looked unchanged.
A quick flip-through showed the page count still around 200.
But.
“Impressive.”
I grinned as I said it, and Bahadi replied in a flat tone that somehow brimmed with pride.
“You'll think so. It's only rank 1 spells, but with mana stones, a single page can be used infinitely.”
A revolution, plain and simple.
Someone might scoff “Just rank 1?” but for me, with magic missiles eating up over ten pages per fight, it was more than welcome.
And if rank 3 was this good, what about 5 or 7?
Impossible for now, but someday. Even if it just unlocked rank 2 spells without page limits....
‘Even cutting pages on parts shield—thirty at least—would be a win.’
Plus, the mana stones for rank 1 spells were designed to slot into the codex's spine, making swaps easy.
I couldn't hide my glee, grinning ear to ear as I stored the codex in my subspace.
“By the way, is it okay for you to come with us personally like this?”
At first, he'd come cautiously, and the next time we'd masked the meeting as codex reinforcement.
But if Bahadi personally escorted us to the grand elder, no elder colluding with the Evil God Cult could ignore us anymore.
That previous raid? Just a probe.
Those attackers weren't even in black clothes? In this dense green forest, black stands out. And during the day, no less.
They'd underestimated us that much. Tossing disposable raiders—not the traitorous elder's hidden elite, nor the cult's.
Aura users charging in sloppy black garb without proper camouflage in this forest.
The former proved how lightly they viewed us; the latter, that the Evil God Cult had real power.
Power to waste aura users as pawns.
“Things have gotten a bit tangled. It'll be better if you come with me.”
“Why, did the raiders we captured die? I told you to watch them closely.”
At my sarcasm, Bahadi let out a faint sigh and nodded.
“Their influence reaches further into this forest than I thought. Even the ranger guarding the prison is dead.”
His voice sank as he met my eyes squarely.
“So I'll take you to the grand elder. Please tell us everything you know.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
More aggressive than expected. At this point, they must have some plan so far along that exposing themselves wouldn't matter.
“Fine. Lead the way.”
I smiled casually on the surface while racking my brains inside, piecing together what I recalled.
I'd figured it was just the Evil God Cult poking into an elf-hidden ruin out of curiosity, triggering some accident.
Sneaking ancient magic tech from the hidden site, they botched something or activated the system—guardian golems emerged, dooming the Spirit Forest.
Starved of power for ages and rampaging, the guardians mutual-destructed against the elves' counterattack.
Not explicit in the original story, but from what I read, that was the tragedy.
‘Something smells off.’
Suspicious. Suddenly, it hit me: the cult knew exactly what this ruin was.
Not the ruin as the goal—the deaths of the elves living in this Spirit Forest.
That explained the sloppy raid on us, the assassinations without fear of backlash.
‘They're all dying anyway.’
If so, time was short. We had to enter the ruins first.
Bahadi hadn't mentioned anyone beating us there yet, so not immediate—but their boldness suggested soon.
‘Not elven complacency—the cult's action.’
Hard to say for sure, but three to five days.
“And after we meet the grand elder, you know?”
“The ruins.”
I answered Bahadi coolly.
“I hate adventuring with crowds, so I shelled out big for intel. The payoff? Your secret elven ruins. Even if there's nothing, I wanna check it out ASAP.”
Better to seem driven by idle curiosity and brag-rights than hint at real importance.
No need to tip them off and let them clamp down.
“We've shown plenty of goodwill. We even warned you about the knife at your throat without haggling—didn't we?”
Bahadi hesitated a moment before replying.
“Indeed. And we elves don't forget debts. The grand elder will keep that in mind.”
Bahadi led us deeper into the forest, to a house woven from vines and trees that seemed to grow into shape naturally.
Cain nudged my arm lightly with his fingertip—someone strong inside.
Signal to prep the codex.
I waved it off like no worries, but he nudged again.
“I've got a few of Valbus's artifacts on hand for emergencies.”
Mostly one-shots or low-rank defenses, but better than nothing.
I mouthed it silently, barely a breath only Cain could hear, and he gave a shallow nod.
Past elf warriors at the entrance and patrolling rangers, Bahadi strode to the deepest room and knocked.
“Grand Elder. It's Bahadi. I've brought them.”
“Come in.”
A neutral voice, age impossible to gauge.
Bahadi slowly opened the wood door tinged with green, revealing an elf man seated in a massive chair of coiled vines rising from the floor.
Ivory hair and gemstone eyes of green flecked with yellow. For a grand elder, he looked barely different from Bahadi.
Were all high elves like that?
Unlike the impassive Bahadi, his faint smile gave him an eerily doll-like quality.
“Pleased to meet you, Grand Elder of the elves. When can we head into the ruins?”
I threw in some wastrel flair, glanced around, dragged over a chair, sat, and smirked lightly. He replied slowly.
“I should have met you sooner. You want to enter the ruins? If you wish, we can go right now.”
Do it.
His eyes bored into me as he spoke, as if he'd realized something.
An uncanny feeling. Instead of demanding a guide, I murmured inwardly.
‘User's Eye.’