Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Truth in the Burned Forest
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In the completely burned forest.
Leyzon listened to Sylvriel's explanation about the voice from the sky that she had heard.
That night, a voice had suddenly echoed in her mind.
The moment she heard it, Sylvriel felt an overwhelming urge to move.
The place she had ultimately followed it to was here.
The site of the elves' mass suicide.
"The voice from the sky told us to bring everyone here who had any connection to the dark elves in the past."
Leyzon checked the list of the dead.
"Gideon."
"...Yes, all of them had some kind of tie to the dark elves, each in their own way."
Sylvriel's son had married a dark elf.
The others were the same— all linked to dark elves somehow.
Leyzon voiced his doubts.
He couldn't understand why they had suddenly gathered people connected to dark elves.
"Right after we assembled the elves, a figure appeared before us."
Leyzon's eyes sharpened.
This could be the same person who had killed even the Judgment Lord.
"Tell me more about this figure."
"They hid their appearance almost completely, so describing their looks wouldn't mean much."
One thing was certain—they didn't seem very old."
Elves were a long-lived race.
As such, they could easily gauge others' ages from the habits they picked up in youth.
"After gathering us, they asked if we knew anything about half dark elves."
"Asked about half dark elves?"
Leyzon echoed without thinking.
The situation made no sense.
But as Sylvriel continued, Leyzon's expression shifted.
"They were searching for a specific individual. It felt like they intended to eliminate anyone connected to him."
Sylvriel spoke reluctantly, as if even voicing it was distasteful.
"The one they were hunting was the Abyss—the world's most dangerous necromancer."
Damn it.
Leyzon barely swallowed a curse.
The one who killed the Judgment Lord and drove the elves to mass suicide...
They were looking for Leyzon himself.
'No wonder digging into this felt off.'
His instincts had sensed the danger and pulled him back.
'The elves' mass suicide was all to find me.'
Unintentionally, he had twice become the root cause of the Agrasil tribe's survival crisis.
Leyzon found it absurd.
"To me, they seemed almost mad, obsessed with something."
Sylvriel continued, unaware that Leyzon was the Abyss.
"Syria, Eden."
"No signs of anything, nya. No unusual traces either."
"Same here, nya."
He had called them just in case it was a trap set by that figure.
But both shook their heads, confirming no traps.
To Leyzon's eyes as well, this was just a completely burned forest—nothing more.
Of course, Leyzon's arrival at the World Forest hadn't been anyone's design either.
It was pure coincidence, circumstances aligning perfectly.
'...Was it really coincidence?'
A uneasy feeling stirred, but he set it aside.
The figure had simply questioned the elves, set the forest ablaze, and left.
Perfectly timing their paths to cross with Leyzon's.
'What the hell is this guy?'
He had no clue who the target was.
Given his past actions, enemies abounded in this world—far too many.
'And their opponent was someone who killed the Judgment Lord.'
That fact complicated his thoughts even more.
"Right after sharing all the information, the voice from the sky rang out again."
It commanded us to end our own lives by slitting our throats."
Sylvriel replied with a crestfallen face soon after.
His eyes finally reflected a clear understanding of his own death.
Yet, true to his long-lived nature, there was no despair in it.
Elves who had lived so long already accepted death as inevitable deep down.
Sylvriel was elderly even among elves.
It was only natural.
The other elves who suicided with him were much the same—mostly advanced in age.
The only tragedy was his relatively young son dying alongside them.
"You seem unperturbed by Silyel's death, yet mourn your son's."
Pirshiran read Sylvriel's intent and spoke sharply.
"Haha."
Sylvriel let out a hollow laugh.
"My son left of his own accord. Wherever he dropped dead, it was his fate."
Pirshiran bit her lip, emotions surging as she watched him.
"...It's for the best, then."
Black tears streamed from her eyes.
"Knowing you're the steadfast elf you are, I realize leaving with Silyel back then was the right call."
Even if it meant getting caught up in the dark elves' doom, he had to leave this place.
Sylvriel fell silent.
Both carried wounds too deep for words.
"Sylvriel, did the elves simply obey the command to die without question?"
Leyzon steered the mood back to the main topic.
"We had no choice. We were utterly compelled to do it."
The elves had taken their own lives.
Leyzon frowned at this.
Mind-control skills certainly existed in this world.
If it had only affected the elves, he might have suspected as much.
But the dead weren't just elves.
The Judgment Lord's death preceded this.
'A force compelling even the Judgment Lord to die.'
No known mind-control skill wielded that much power.
'...Not a skill.'
Leyzon had witnessed world-spanning abilities through the ossuary.
If the heavenly revelation matched that, forcing the Judgment Lord to suicide was possible.
'But.'
There was one oddity here.
The Judgment Lord hadn't suicided.
He had been murdered.
'Elves suicided, but why murder the Judgment Lord?'
This tangled Leyzon's mind further.
Why suicide the elves but not the Judgment Lord?
Leyzon pondered deeply.
Then he shook off the complexity.
'Overthinking will bog me down.'
Complicating things could be poisonous.
He wouldn't repeat the ossuary's mistake of excessive caution.
Don't overinterpret the foe's intent.
View it more simply.
'Did they want the Judgment Lord to die by his own hand?'
The Judgment Lord had slain countless based on prophecies.
Many would harbor grudges.
One such person killing him made sense.
Yet they wielded a coercive force strong enough for even the Judgment Lord.
It was strange for someone with such power to hold a past grudge.
'Perhaps an incident with the Judgment Lord before gaining that power.'
The heavenly revelation might be a recent acquisition.
One more clue narrowed it further: hunting the Abyss.
'Someone with a grudge against the Judgment Lord, now hunting me.'
The killer had broadcast the Judgment Lord's death world-wide.
A clear warning to someone.
Today's events pinpointed who.
'The target of that announcement was me.'
Leyzon pressed his chin thoughtfully.
Why publicize the Judgment Lord's death to him?
Warnings like this usually meant "You're next."
A warning to the Abyss.
Meaning they held the same grudge against Leyzon.
'Sylvriel said the figure seemed young.'
Leyzon pieced it together step by step.
Finally, all clues converged, and he slowly raised his head.
His gaze fell on the burned forest.
He had seen a similar scene before, in Saha Village.
Leyzon also recalled an incident tying him to the Judgment Lord.
The old dragon and the evil dragon.
Leyzon had wounded it; the Judgment Lord finished it.
Someone who might grudge both in that process.
All evidence pointed to one figure.
The young dragon, Nermakadia.
The dragonkin survivor taken in by the old dragon out of pity.
It's him.
A conclusion drawn from keen deduction and precise memory.
Leyzon left the finished Sylvriel to Pirshiran.
He stared at the forest with a troubled expression.
"That brat we saw back then did all this?"
Syria stood beside Leyzon, looking incredulous.
Nermakadia was the young dragon Leyzon had personally punished.
Thus, Syria and Eden remembered him too.
"Yeah. Until I see him myself, it's circumstantial—but it fits perfectly."
"I just can't imagine that kid having this kind of power."
Eden gazed at the charred Yggdrasil.
Nermakadia did wield fire.
But none of the three who faced him then believed he could unleash a blaze this massive.
"It's possible."
But Leyzon knew it was.
"Just infuse him like Leon."
The talent infused into Leon from the White Lion Knight Commander.
Infuse Nermakadia with something similar, and it's feasible.
The imperial family managed talents freely anyway.
Given materials, they could forge warriors anytime.
"Sure, that part tracks."
But Leyzon's concern lay elsewhere.
"The heavenly revelation, though—that's clearly a different power."
Everyone values their life above all.
A force making them discard it without hesitation.
Power beyond all norms.
'What kind of force is it?'
Without knowing, he couldn't rashly hunt Nermakadia.
If Leyzon or his undead fell, it was over.
Leyzon shook his head to clear his mind.
Fortunately, someone nearby could answer.
"Pirshiran, time to head back."
"Ah, yes. That's enough from here."
Pirshiran lightly kicked Sylvriel aside.
"Wai—t."
Then, Sylvriel, collapsed on the ground, called out to Leyzon.
"Cough... Who's the High Elf now?"
Curious about that, huh?
"Silea High Agrasil."
Sylvriel fell silent at Leyzon's answer.
"...I see. Looks like the elves won't go extinct after all."
With those final words, he dissolved into smoke and faded away.
Obsessed with elves to the very end.
Pirshiran watched quietly before turning to Leyzon.
"Feels refreshingly closure."
"If we need more, drag him back and beat it out again."
"Heh heh, might just do that. I'll head out now."
"Yeah, good work."
Pirshiran exchanged farewells with Leyzon and departed.
Just as Leyzon turned to leave.
He sensed a presence approaching from afar.
There, Silea approached, flanked by elf warriors.
The elf warriors were fiercely on guard in the World Forest.
A High Elf had suicided here recently, after all.
Natural caution.
"Have you finished talking?"
She came to greet him personally?
Leyzon nodded as he regarded her.
"Yes. The suicides and fire were the young dragon's doing."
He omitted that the root cause traced to himself.
Search leader Gideon wisely kept silent too.
Speaking carelessly here might irk Leyzon—who knew what he'd do.
He had that much sense.
"Young dragon..."
Silea mulled it over briefly before lifting her head.
"Noble one."
She corrected herself mid-sentence.
"No—Abyss."
Her sea-blue eyes locked directly onto Leyzon.
She had already guessed he was the Abyss.
Thus, she intended to speak to him as such, not as a mere noble.
"Might we speak alone?"
"Lady Silea?"
"No!"
The elf warriors cried out in alarm.
But Leyzon smiled easily, as if it were no issue.
"Sure."
At his word, shadows erupted from the ground in unison.
The elf warriors rushed to protect Silea, but too late.
In an instant, Leyzon pulled her into shadow space.
He casually brought Silea along and stepped forward.
Then sat on a shadow chair that rose from the floor.
"So, what does the High Elf wish to say?"
Leyzon smiled, facing her as the Abyss.
Behind his mask, his ash-gray eyes gleamed coldly.
He hoped it would be useful information.