Chapter 58
Chapter 58
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Noble Among the Elves
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Leyzon had become a noble among the elves in an instant.
Leyzon once again felt that in this world, power was everything.
'Truly, what an unreasonable world.'
But what could he do about it?
The one with power was him.
Leyzon smiled faintly.
Those who possess power must use it accordingly.
"I came looking for the home of an old acquaintance of mine, and here someone is, trampling it with mud-caked boots."
The way one speaks can change more images than one might think.
So Leyzon deliberately infused his words with pressure.
"Th-that..."
The elf search captain, Gid Agrasil.
He showed clear signs of panic.
It seemed he hadn't imagined the Poison Spider having such an acquaintance.
Leyzon didn't know much about the relationship between the elves and the Poison Spider.
But one thing was certain.
It was anything but friendly.
'Personally, I rather like the Poison Spider.'
Starting from the fact that they shared the same Poison Necromancer class.
She had readily handed over two A-rank skills.
Not to mention, she was diligently researching the manuscript copies right now.
'Am I supposed to let someone interrupt my copyist researcher?'
Leyzon was the type to repay what he received.
"So."
Leyzon grinned.
"What business do you have with my acquaintance?"
If it was some nonsense purpose, he'd show them the consequences personally.
As proof, a red shadow slowly rose behind Leyzon's back.
"W-we've come to request a legitimate eviction!"
Gid instinctively trembled but somehow managed to shout it out.
Leyzon looked at him with indifference.
'He must have judged that telling the truth is better than clumsily hiding it.'
It's better than getting caught later and ruining everything.
Sometimes, honesty is the way to go.
And in fact, this was the right call.
"If it's legitimate, then I can hear the explanation too, right?"
Gid swallowed hard.
But despite Leyzon's warning, Gid didn't back down.
"You, as a noble, must know this well since you're a Necromancer too."
Know what?
"The Curse King of the Lowlands—he's been moving from the west toward the World Forest lately."
But upon hearing the next words, Leyzon paused for the first time.
Seeing this reaction, Gid continued, thinking he'd understand.
"The Curse King is heading toward where the Necromancers are."
"The reason the Imperial Army has been spotted near the World Forest lately is because they've realized the Curse King is pursuing Necromancers."
The Imperial soldiers who had appeared in the sunflower fields on the horizon.
It was a remote area rarely frequented by people, making it hard to run into Imperials—but that explained it.
"If this continues, the Curse King will enter the World Forest."
Gid squeezed his eyes shut.
If the Curse King entered the World Forest, the forest would be doomed.
His curse would burrow into the roots themselves.
Then the elves living in the forest would have to abandon it.
That's why he had come to request the Poison Spider's legitimate eviction.
"Until now, we've allowed Nia to stay in a part of the forest without restrictions."
"Even though she broke the elves' taboo by learning Necromancer magic."
"We turned a blind eye because we knew her circumstances."
Niafrineu— the Poison Spider's real name.
The elves had indeed shown her considerable consideration.
"But the entire forest is in crisis now. Since the Curse King is hunting Necromancers, we can no longer allow her to stay."
Gid spoke with desperate urgency.
His eyes held worry that even Leyzon might not understand.
Facing his earnest gaze,
Leyzon slowly covered his mouth.
And for good reason.
'That's my pet.'
The Curse King coming from the west.
That's my kid.
Leyzon let out a short sigh.
'More importantly, why is that guy hunting Necromancers?'
He couldn't understand why the Curse King was after Necromancers.
Perhaps.
Syria voiced the exact same thought as Leyzon.
It had been a long time since Leyzon last saw the Curse King.
So he couldn't be certain,
but if he was hunting Necromancers, nothing else came to mind.
'If he's really chasing Necromancers just to find me...'
Then the reason for evicting the Poison Spider would be Leyzon himself.
He'd unwittingly caused trouble.
"......Where is the Curse King right now?"
"Not far from the World Forest. It'll be soon."
A complicated expression crossed Gid's face.
"The other elves are preparing to evacuate for now."
The Curse King invading the forest was all but confirmed.
So they had prepared for evacuation.
Clunk—
At that moment, the Poison Spider opened the door and stepped out.
She had been focused on copying the manuscripts.
Thus, she only now realized the elves had arrived.
Seeing the elves facing off against Leyzon, the Poison Spider's face went pale.
Worried that the elves might have committed some rudeness,
she flailed and rushed in front of Leyzon.
[Th-this, these people...]
Leyzon waved her off dismissively, as if it was nothing to worry about.
He understood the situation.
And he understood how to turn it to his advantage.
"If I deal with the Curse King, can you guarantee that she'll be able to stay here from now on without issues?"
Gid looked shocked at Leyzon's question.
"Y-you can really stop the Curse King?"
"I'll have to try. In exchange, I need time to prepare. I'd like the elves' cooperation on this end."
"If you can stop the Curse King, we'll do anything!"
Leyzon's lip curled suspiciously.
Anything, really?
Noticing this, the Poison Spider looked at Leyzon with unease.
No matter how she looked at it, Gid had spoken carelessly.
But Gid had no time to be picky about methods.
His hometown was about to be destroyed.
What couldn't he do?
"First, let's head to the elf village. I want to check if there are items there that I'll need to face the Curse King."
Equipment farming after so long.
The Curse King.
Forty years ago.
He earned that name because of one incident.
On a day when the storm raged fiercer than usual.
In the Empire's western frontier city.
Nosys.
The city vanished without a trace.
Only two survived from Nosys.
And even they went mad, dying not long after.
After obliterating Nosys, the Curse King continued living in a rundown house in a remote corner.
Several Pioneers were dispatched to subdue him.
Among them were skilled ones who called themselves heroes.
But they all failed to overcome the curse and met their ends.
Fortunately, the Curse King never left Nosys.
The Empire's response was oddly lax too.
They only sent small knight orders a few times.
Never attempting to subdue him directly.
Thus, Nosys was abandoned, untouched by human feet.
Before long, it became a restricted zone.
Time passed, and people gradually forgot about the Curse King.
At the entrance to such a Nosys.
An herbalist emerged, pushing through unmanaged overgrown weeds.
The sky today was unusually dark.
Rumble!
As if his luck was bad, thunder rumbled from the heavens.
"Tch, struck out today. Better head back early."
As he hoisted his herb sack,
At the path to Nosys.
Someone was trudging out, step by heavy step.
Barefoot, without shoes.
Blood-red hair hanging long enough to cover the face.
Her tattered red clothes exposed her body,
but the gaunt frame peeking through was even more chilling.
The herbalist instinctively stepped back.
An indescribably foul sensation wrapped around his entire body.
"H-hey, who are you? That's Nosys. You know you're not supposed to go in, right?"
Someone emerging from Nosys?
Thinking the man mad, the herbalist urgently called out.
Rumble—
Thunder echoed again.
Despite the herbalist's shout, the footsteps didn't stop.
And soon,
As the distance closed, the herbalist realized one fact.
The clothes he thought were red.
They weren't red cloth.
Long-dried blood had soaked in,
turning the fabric itself blackish-red.
His instincts screamed.
That's not human.
And in Nosys, there was only one non-human existence.
"Gasp, eek!"
Finally realizing who it was, the herbalist fell on his butt.
The Curse King.
The perpetrator who massacred Nosys.
He had emerged from Nosys.
Thud, thud—
The Curse King kept walking.
The herbalist flattened himself on the ground.
He thought himself already dead.
But the Curse King showed no interest in him.
He simply passed by.
"Hah, huff."
As the Curse King moved away, he finally exhaled the breath he'd held.
"Th-the Curse King."
Standing up, he shouted.
"The Curse King has left Nosys!"
The news spread like wildfire.
The Curse King, emerging from Nosys after decades.
The Empire's west plunged into instant chaos.
Soon, one piece of news about the Curse King spread.
The Curse King was targeting Necromancers.
Necromancers already persecuted by the Empire.
Even villages that had sheltered them out of human compassion now drove them out.
This included the elf village in the World Forest.
They sought to evict the Necromancer living at the forest's edge.
Niafrineu Agrasil.
Until a certain Necromancer stepped in to block them.
"Th-that's a sacred treasure of us Agrasil elves!"
In the Agrasil treasure vault, after all elves had evacuated.
The elf search captain cried out with a tearful face toward a half dark elf.
The man just grinned nonchalantly.
"I know. That's why I'm using it. You want to stop the Curse King, don't you?"
The man, who kept smiling throughout,
The Necromancer who claimed to be Niafrineu's acquaintance was looting the elf tribe's treasure vault.
All under the pretext of stopping the Curse King.
"Why? If Yggdrasil gets wrecked, all this stuff becomes meaningless anyway."
Search captain Gid was struck speechless.
He was right.
The Agrasil elves' sacred treasures were paramount only as long as Yggdrasil in the World Forest endured.
After all, they were all made from Yggdrasil's branches.
Leyzon picked up a white branch wrapped in a pure light.
It looked like just an ordinary white stick, nothing special.
'But this is legendary equipment.'
Unlike unique items with limited quantities,
This was one-of-a-kind in the world: legendary equipment.
[World Exclusive][Legendary]Restrictions:Ascension: None The branch imbued with Yggdrasil's life does not lose its power even when dropped to the ground.
[Special Effect]
— Activates special skill 'Primal Life'.
[Primal Life]
Plants sprout at your feet, activating the domain.
— Stamina recovery: 100% reduction
— Mana recovery: 100% increase
— Earth/Plant magic attack power: 100% increase
— Plants attack enemies entering the domain.
Cooldown: 60 minutes
'It's endgame gear for earth/plant mages normally.'
But Leyzon was confident he could use it more efficiently than them.
'An item you have to go through quite a complicated route to obtain.'
Thanks to the Curse King, he'd gotten it easily by chance.
Leyzon chuckled happily.
"N-Niafrineu."
Gid turned to Niafrineu, aka the Poison Spider, with a pleading face.
Begging her to rein Leyzon in.
But the Poison Spider quietly shook her head.
Sorry, but she had no authority to stop him.
Leyzon's eyes were already gleaming with farming fever.
Impossible to stop now.
Rumble!
At that moment, dark clouds gathered over the forest sky.
Gid's face went deathly pale upon seeing them.
Those clouds meant the Curse King was right around the corner.
Meanwhile, the Poison Spider quietly gazed at Leyzon's back.
She couldn't fathom what his true purpose was.
But there was one fact she knew.
'Leyzon-nim is a friend of the Abyss.'
And the Curse King was an undead of the Abyss.
Was this a scripted play between the Abyss?
Or did he have some other goal?
Or perhaps.
'That person is truly.'
The Abyss itself.
It was beyond her knowing.
And something she shouldn't pry into.
The Poison Spider quietly resolved herself.
'If I want to live, I need to know my place.'
Just keep my mouth shut.
She was good at social life.