Chapter 266: To See the Sea (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 266: To See the Sea (6)
There was a time he had stepped inside a rainbow.
He’d done it out of pure curiosity, wondering what it would be like. Looking at a rainbow from the outside, you could see every color imaginable. So, he reasoned, if he looked at the world from inside a rainbow, wouldn't it be filled with only beautiful colors, free of any darkness? With that thought, he had sought out the end of a rainbow and stepped inside, only to be disappointed. That was the kind of day it had been.
Swoosh—
The roar of rushing water echoed as a fine, misty spray splashed against his face. In the plume of the waterfall cascading down the cliff, two rainbows hovered.
I must have been about his age.
Recalling the distant memory, Calian let out a soft chuckle.
He had spotted Franz. While his silvery-white horse drank from the clear, cold stream, Franz had glanced around for a moment before walking toward the end of one of the rainbows.
Everyone thinks the same thing at that age.
Calian briefly considered calling out, Brother, you’ll only be disappointed if you go in there, but decided against it.
It felt like the first time he had seen Franz curious about something other than the meaning of his own name, the exact length of Lucy’s waist, or matters concerning Bern. So, Calian let him be.
Whether the boy—who looked like a barley sprout starved of sunlight—was met with disappointment or a new memory, Calian figured it would still be better than anything he had accumulated inside the royal palace.
So, in the end, it’s all His Majesty’s fault.
Not only had he named the boy Franz, of all things, but he had never taken him outside the palace walls, nor had he allowed a single cat into that vast estate. As a result, he had created such a high-maintenance child.
To make matters worse, once they returned, Calian would have to look after that "corn silk" of a cousin, who was bound to be even more of a handful than this barley sprout. And come to think of it, Calian was the youngest of them all.
Ah.
Suddenly, he craved a drink.
"You're not listening to me, are you?"
"I am. You want to make a deal. I'm thinking about it."
Responding to Siona, Calian tore his gaze from Franz, who now stood inside the rainbow, staring at his open palm. Instead, his eyes fell upon the absolute madmen who had waded into the valley stream and were currently breathing fire.
"...Why on earth are they trying to set fire to water?"
"I thought you said you were thinking."
"I am thinking."
Calian ignored Siona's pointed look—one that clearly said, And you're not strange for understanding what they're doing at a glance?—and forced his eyes away from the mages and toward the knights. He saw them resting against tree trunks or sitting on rocks. Their clothes would get soaked, but since the fire-breathing lunatics would dry them off anyway, they seemed to be relaxing however they pleased.
At least it was a relief that some of them were sane.
If not for the knights, Raven would have been the most rational one here.
"You see, there are three things I dislike."
Glancing once more at the prince standing inside a rainbow and the mages shooting fire into the water, Calian spoke, stroking Raven's neck with exceptional care.
"Elves. Fighting elves. And making deals with elves."
Having said this, Calian looked at Siona with a bright, beaming smile.
"So, when an elf who just pointed a sword at me comes asking for a deal, do you think I'm going to like it or hate it?"
"You seem to have forgotten that before I am an elf, I am a warrior of the Great Desert."
"Ah. And I also happen to dislike the Wolves of the Great Desert, Wolves of the Great Desert following me, and Wolves of the Great Desert attacking me. You check several of those boxes yourself. Now, do you think I'd like that, or hate it?"
Siona fell silent for a moment.
She didn't particularly care about being spoken down to by a prince who looked at least twenty years younger than her. Social status aside, they were of entirely different races, so it wasn't something she minded.
Thus, Calian simply continued to speak to her informally.
He figured he was entitled to at least that much, considering she was the one who had attacked him with a sword first.
"I can find the hidden elf city myself, no matter how long it takes. And I can't accept giving you my information and the pebble in exchange for some vague promise to investigate Zeon together."
Her proposal was that she would help them find the elf city and share the results of her investigation into Zeon. In return, she wanted the information Calian had gathered and the black pebble in his possession.
Siona, having spotted the campfire lit by Calian's group on her way out of the elves' city, claimed she had sought him out to propose this. Upon meeting him, a sudden competitive urge had prompted her to pick a fight first, but her original purpose remained unchanged.
The moment the word ‘deal’ had left Siona’s mouth, Calian had immediately stood up, eaten breakfast, and set off again. It was only when they came across the stream flowing beneath the waterfall that they paused to let the horses rest.
With a smile still lingering on his face, Calian continued.
"You also haven't explained how you knew I had that stone, or how you knew I was pursuing Zeon."
"I cannot speak on that because I, too, cannot fully trust you. And the reason I am proposing a deal is because I do not wish to take it by force. Surely, that needs no further explanation."
"You have a strange sense of humor, Siona."
His soft chuckle was drowned out by the roar of the waterfall.
Calian's eyes turned cold.
"Take it by force? I spared you because you already looked like you were in pain. You know that as well as I do, so why say something so foolish?"
Siona nodded without much of a reaction.
This actually surprised Calian a little.
In truth, Calian couldn't see Siona's aura right now. And when Siona had first seen Calian, she had described him by his 'black hair and red eyes.' She had recognized him by his appearance, not his aura.
This meant only one thing.
Their auras were either identical or so similar that neither of them could perceive the other's.
However, Calian hadn't noticed Siona's approach until he heard the bell she had rung on purpose. Siona, therefore, must have been aware of the same fact.
"Indeed. I misspoke."
"You're quick to admit it."
Still, he found it unexpected that she so readily acknowledged he had spared her. After all, a certain unpleasant elf he had encountered in the past had refused to swallow his pride.
"This is a matter concerning the Great Desert. As you likely know, the power held by the group known as 'Zeon' is unusual. A tribal chief of the Great Desert with whom I have ties asked me to investigate them. Not long ago, the bastards I was tracking attacked your subordinate and were killed by you. When I examined the corpses you buried, I found that all of their hearts had been split open."
"...The ones who attacked Sir Hertz?"
He recalled killing the men who had ambushed Arsen in the forest and burying them before Alan arrived. He had done so because he knew Alan would worry even more than he did if he saw them.
It seemed Siona had dug up and examined those buried corpses.
"Yes. Then, a month ago, I encountered other members of Zeon here and fought them. I killed one, and something similar came out. If I had remembered the ones you dealt with, I wouldn't have pierced his heart, but I didn't think of it at the time, so the stone shattered along with it. It's been over a month since I lost their trail, and finding it again won't be easy. That's why I thought it would be better to share information with you."
In the end, she needed the stone for the same reason he did.
This was actually welcome news for Calian. He already had several of the black pebbles anyway, and if the Great Desert conducted its own investigation, they might uncover different information.
However, there was one problem.
"And why should I trust you?"
"You may not know this, but elves do not lie. The Mother Tree dislikes falsehoods."
When he said he disliked elves, she claimed to be a warrior of the Great Desert. When he said he couldn't trust elves, she claimed she wouldn't lie because she was an elf. Calian frowned, suddenly reminded of a certain someone who freely hopped between being a prince and a vice-commander whenever it suited him.
Staring at Calian, Siona couldn't think of any other way to earn his trust. After humming in thought for a moment, she spoke in a serious tone.
"If even that is not enough, then I suppose I must fight to take it—"
"By any chance, do you use magic in addition to your sword?"
She's so combative, she almost feels like a mage.
Seeing Calian chuckle at the thought, Siona spoke again.
"I know it is a dangerous object. Even if it falls back into their hands, would it make any difference? In that case, wouldn't it be better to investigate together?"
Tapping Raven's saddle, Calian thought for a moment before speaking.
"I'll agree to exchanging any information we uncover from now on. But as for handing over the stone, I'll need time to think."
Calian pointed his finger at the bell hanging from Siona's sword.
"I'm still not sure if carrying that around is a sign of confidence or arrogance. And there's no guarantee you won't use the stone's power for the wrong purposes."
Siona furrowed her brow.
As if to say he didn't care, Calian tilted his head slightly and added, "Guide us to the elf city. It doesn't look like you have much else to do, so lend us your strength until this matter is resolved. If I'm satisfied with your performance, I'll give you what you want. How about it?"
Siona briefly weighed the pros and cons: tracking down the bastards' trail again to get a stone versus following Calian around for a few days to get one. Then she spoke.
"Fine. I will do so."
"Good."
Having thus entered into his second deal with an elf, Calian added a final remark as if it were a matter of grave importance.
"Ah. If you happen to be fond of grass, you'll have to take care of your own meals. I'm not responsible for that."
Siona nodded.
She neglected to mention that she'd been raised by a warrior of the Great Desert since a childhood she couldn't remember, and that grass was scarce in the desert. As a result, she was an elf who quite enjoyed meat.
*
Listening to the rustling of the grass, Calian spoke.
"Congratulations."
"For what?"
"Thanks to Siona, we should be able to return to the royal palace a bit sooner."
He said this because, at the very least, the time they would have spent wandering around looking for the elf city had been cut short.
Nodding in agreement, Franz watched Siona walking far ahead before speaking.
"Don't you think she's trustworthy?"
Calian looked at Franz with the expression he usually wore when hearing something utterly incomprehensible. Franz elaborated.
"She could have taken our companions hostage and threatened us, but she didn't."
"Are you referring to what happened at dawn?"
Franz nodded.
Instead of taking the Valkan members or Franz hostage, she had approached them openly, picked a fight, and then stated her business. Franz was suggesting that such a direct personality was worth trusting.
Having Siona with them would be advantageous when they went to speak with the elves. Thus, Calian's reluctance to join hands with her, bickering for so long, seemed unlike him. Hadn't he allied himself with the sly Randel, and even with Franz, without much suspicion?
"She couldn't have threatened me. The moment she reached a hand over my fence, she would have died."
Franz let out a dry chuckle.
What incredible confidence.
"It's because she's an elf. I've realized that not every elf in the world is like Hina."
"But it also means there are elves like Hina out there."
Of course, Hina was a half-elf.
"Have you learned how to lecture me now?"
In any case, Calian understood Franz's words to mean that since there were elves like Hina and Sia, he didn't need to distrust all of them.
"Understood. I will look and think without prejudice."
"Good."
Calian nodded with a chuckle, then asked a question.
"Brother, what color were you trying to see when you went inside?"
"What color?"
"The rainbow."
"I wasn't looking for a color."
"Then why did you go in?"
"To check something."
"May I ask what you checked?"
"No."
"Okay."
Since he had no intention of prying, Calian nodded without regret and looked ahead.
"To check that I wouldn't be stained."
Franz spoke to his younger brother, who hadn't asked a second time.
"Haven't you lived your whole life checking for that?"
"Because I wasn't sure."
Calian, who had gone to the trouble of wiping away the grass stains that Franz had been trying to rub off all day, spoke up.
"Even if it's surrounded by a field of grass, a pea is still pea-colored. It won't get stained."
"And since you're surrounded by a field of grass, you're barking quite freely, little brother."
"My bark is always worse when I'm outside."
They failed to notice Needlen, who was riding behind them, wearing a thoroughly bewildered expression as their enigmatic conversation flowed so naturally.
Or rather, they simply didn't care.
Since Calian was likely the only one who understood that Franz had just confirmed he was still himself despite living surrounded by the flashy Brissen family his whole life, there was no need to check others' expressions or cast Silent magic.
"We're here."
As they bickered along the way—one side enduring and the other barking—Siona's voice rang out.
Before they knew it, she had stopped at a certain spot and was waiting for them.
Nodding, Calian was the first to approach Siona, while Needlen took Calian's place in front of Franz.
Siona stepped onto a specific patch of ground in the forest. Then, she vanished before their eyes.
Having experienced this before, Calian followed without hesitation. Needlen and Franz went next, followed by the rest of the Valkan members.
"Ah."
A short gasp escaped someone's lips.
It was an exclamation of both admiration and wonder.
"How fascinating. The village we found last time was nothing like this. A city is truly a city."
Calian shared his impression, but no one else spoke. It would be more accurate to say they were all at a loss for words.
It brought to mind crystal glasses on a banquet table, or chandeliers that sparkled with rainbow hues under magic lamps.
In the distance stood a tree that radiated light in all directions under the transparent sunlight. It was a tree so massive that its perimeter seemed to rival that of the entire Kairis Royal Palace. The elves' city, built in and around that tree, lay before them.
And behind it…
"...The sea."
An endlessly vast sea stretched out to the horizon.
"Yes. In the end," Calian, who had entered a forest only to find himself facing the ocean, replied to Franz's quiet words. "we did come to see the sea."
Like stepping into an imaginary rainbow.
Like taking a single step in a forest and entering an entirely different world.
After staring at the beautiful sight for a long moment, Calian spoke.
"By the way, how on earth do we burn that down?"
They said it was a tree, so I thought it was just a tree.
Forget the sea. That thing is nothing like any tree I've ever known.
At his words, which proved he hadn't forgotten his original purpose for a single moment, Franz—who had just told him to abandon his prejudice—let out a chuckle. The knights stroked the hilts of their swords with grim determination, while the mages, including Needlen, fell into deep thought.
A group of elves approached from not too far away.
Calian's red lips, now fully prepared to bark properly, curved into a deep smile.