Chapter 208: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (1)
Chapter 208: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (1)
A strange memory burrows into the gaps of my hazy consciousness.
Like parched mud soaking up water, the scenery filled in rapidly. The stark white void of my vision began to take on texture and volume.
It was the beginning of a strangely vivid dream.
I felt the scorching sun, the lush forest, the chirping of birds, and a humidity so thick it felt suffocating. There was only one place on the entire continent with such a climate.
The Great Forest of the Southern Kingdoms.
It was a treacherous land, home to countless venomous insects, monsters, and the ruins of ancient evil gods. Deep within its heart, it was said that a 'Vampire' and the legion of demonic beasts she led were teeming.
Only two types of people lived here.
The population consisted entirely of practitioners who embraced hardship for the sake of their training and slash-and-burn farmers who had been driven out of society for various reasons.
However, no matter how forbidden or hostile the land was, safe havens always existed.
When those among the inhabitants—mostly the practitioners—formed a group, the location functioned as a sort of outpost. The Great Forest was simply too harsh a place to survive alone.
Furthermore, someone had to keep watch over the forest.
every demonic beast living in the Great Forest was exceptionally strong and cruel. If even a few of those monsters leaked out into the surrounding areas, a catastrophe was inevitable.
It would be an even greater disaster if the 'Vampire' rumored to reside in the deepest part of the forest ever decided to take a stroll outside.
Over the past few centuries, there had been countless attempts to subjugate the 'Vampire.' Yet, time and again, humanity was forced to drink from the bitter cup of defeat.
She was that powerful of a demonic beast—and a fiend.
To suppress her, one needed a powerhouse of even greater caliber.
The one who had taken on that role was the 'Great Witch,' often referred to as the State Preceptor of the Southern Kingdoms.
As one of only three Masters existing on the continent, the Great Witch had guarded the Great Forest for hundreds of years. Throughout that long history, she had mostly lived in quiet seclusion.
However, a person of the Great Witch's stature is like the sun appearing at night.
Her mere existence drew people to her.
Some came seeking the answers to riddles that only the Great Witch could solve.
Others sought her out of admiration, begging for a brief conversation, while some wished to become her disciples and live within the Great Forest.
The core members who maintained the safety zones within the treacherous forest belonged to this last group.
The Great Witch’s disciples, numbering in the dozens, formed a community where they received their master's teachings and guarded the boundaries of the Great Forest.
By nature, the Great Witch did not enjoy being in the spotlight.
Naturally, she rarely recruited disciples, but once someone was accepted, more than half of them would eventually return to the world having achieved greatness.
To become her disciple, one first had to reach her residence.
Finding the Great Witch’s home, tucked away somewhere in the Great Forest, was an adventure in itself. Nine out of ten people would either turn back or meet their end.
Despite this, countless people yearned to be her student.
Then, one day, news suddenly broke that the Great Witch was recruiting disciples for the first time in decades.
Hundreds arrived in the Great Forest, risking their lives to kneel before her. However, only about twenty were selected.
These were the chosen few who had overcome numerous obstacles and trials to earn the chance to be her disciples.
Among them, the one chosen as the First Disciple was, surprisingly, the Second Son of a Rural Viscount—a man with no particular strengths or weaknesses.
He was a man with black hair and golden eyes.
He was currently drenched in sweat as he stood before a block of wood. No matter how much he wiped his brow, he couldn't stop the flow.
In his hand, he held a hand axe. He had both hands wrapped around a handle meant for one, yet the man was struggling to split even a single log.
The man took a deep breath. He glared at the wood with a serious expression once more, then swung the hand axe down with all his might.
Clack!
With a sharp sound, a tiny splinter of wood flew off.
Finally, the man reached his breaking point.
"…Oh, for fuck's sake!"
With a curse, he slammed the hand axe onto the ground.
His ragged breathing revealed just how much he had been holding back. In truth, it was rare for an Academy graduate—someone who would be treated with respect anywhere else—to suffer the humiliation of being unable to chop a single log.
But the man had an excuse.
He soon let out a cry that was almost a scream.
"Why the hell are we using the World Tree as firewood?!"
That was the problem.
The log the man had been struggling to split all this time was actually a branch of the World Tree. It was a sight that would make the Northern Elves foam at the mouth if they saw it.
The World Tree, located in the center of the Great Forest, had branches stretching out in all directions. The site of the Great Witch's residence was one of the places where those branches reached.
True to its grandiose name, the 'World Tree' was considered a superior material.
Its leaves possessed powerful healing properties and were used as rare magical ingredients depending on how they were processed. The sap and branches were the same.
And yet, they were using branches of the precious World Tree as mere firewood.
With so many orphans starving to death across the continent, it was a deplorable waste.
As the man grumbled, an annoyed voice drifted over from beside him.
"Hey, knock it off… You think you're the only one struggling?"
The man’s golden eyes flicked toward the source of the complaint.
There sat a small girl, huddled in front of a furnace, desperately trying to start a fire with a fan.
Her eyes, framed by an impressive pointed hat, were hollow. It was clear she had been suffering for a long time.
Looking at those blue sapphire eyes, which were now becoming bloodshot, the man clicked his tongue.
"Do you really think staring at it like that will make it catch fire? It's not dry kindling; it's the World Tree."
"…I'm already pissed off, and a nobody like you is going to get on my nerves?!"
At the provocation, the small girl immediately stood up. She began to growl like a puppy with its fur standing on end.
"I-I'm an electric element specialist! This kind of thing should obviously be given to a fire element specialist!"
"Let's not make pathetic excuses. Do you think my primary weapon is a hand axe?"
At the man's blunt rebuttal, the girl simply trembled, her head bowed. When she finally looked up, her eyes were incredibly fierce.
Crackle!
The sound of an electric charge gathering echoed from the girl's small hands.
"You little piece of shit, seriously… I've been patient, but do you really think I'm a pushover, huh? Want me to fry you from your brain down to your very last nerve, you motherf—!"
"I'm telling Master."
However, the girl's terrifying threat was cut short by a single sentence.
At the man's nonchalant voice, the girl's body stiffened. Then, with a panicked expression, she began to stammer.
"Hey, hey, hey! Aren't you ashamed of yourself as a man?! 'I'm telling, I'm telling'—is that all you know how to do?!"
Unlike the girl, who was visibly flustered, the man remained indifferent. He let out a long sigh and shook his head.
"Does my pride really matter when it comes to establishing the hierarchy between disciples? It pains me, but it's time you accepted it. Junior Sister, from now on, you should call me Senior Brother and use formal speech…"
"Aaaah! I can't hear you! I can't hear you!"
The girl immediately covered her ears and plopped down on the spot. She kept moving her hands on and off her ears. To a casual observer, she looked no different from a child throwing a tantrum.
The man looked slightly fed up, but the girl was desperate.
She soon stood up, staggered over, and poked the man in the ribs with her elbow.
"N-now that I think about it, you said you were from the Academy too, right? Hey, kid. If I was your senior at the Academy, I'm your senior forever… Hmph, where do you get off trying to act like my equal?!"
"I'll tell Master exactly what you just—"
"…Aaaagh! Master, Master, Master! That's all you ever say!"
As the girl shrieked in peak frustration, the man fell silent.
His attitude seemed to say, Go ahead, say what's on your mind.
The girl did not pass up the opportunity.
"Honestly, aren't you annoyed too?! I came here to be a disciple and receive teachings, not to act like some maid! All I do every day is clean, start fires, and prepare meals!"
"Hmm," the man hummed, stroking his chin. He seemed to find her point somewhat valid.
Sensing this, the girl began to coax him in a low, suggestive voice.
"You feel the same way, don't you? I mean, fuck… what kind of psycho insists on using the World Tree as firewood? And making you chop it with a hand axe instead of your main weapon! Isn't this just harassment?"
Even so, it was unlikely that someone of the Great Witch's stature would do such a thing, but the man found himself slightly swayed by the argument. After all, he had been wasting his time for far too long.
Chopping the World Tree for firewood—and with a hand axe instead of a sword.
It was an instruction that was difficult to understand logically.
As the man's contemplative silence deepened, the girl grew more excited and continued to chatter.
"The way I see it, that old hag has lived so long her mind has gone a bit soft. Honestly, if you live in this suffocating place for hundreds of years…"
"If you live here?"
"You're bound to go crazy, or…?"
The girl, who was about to continue while giggling at the response, suddenly froze when she realized the voice asking the question belonged to a woman.
Her wide blue eyes slowly turned toward the back.
There, standing behind the man and the girl, was a woman.
She looked like a young girl in her mid-teens with black hair and pale green eyes, but her true identity was a monster among monsters who had lived for centuries.
One of the only three Masters on the continent, whom everyone respected and feared, calling her:
'The Great Witch of the South.'
The girl's face began to turn deathly pale. Regardless, the Great Witch simply exhaled a puff of smoke from the pipe in her mouth.
The girl managed to squeeze out a trembling voice.
"M-Master… I mean, this is… S-Senior Brother provoked me!"
"Don't make me laugh."
It was a desperate excuse, but the Great Witch merely snorted and snapped her fingers.
Flash!
The world turned white as a bolt of lightning struck the ground.
Crackle-boom!
The wildly jumping electrical discharge hinted at its devastating power. It was a level that even a high-ranking mage specializing in the electric element could not withstand.
A scream naturally tore from the girl's throat.
"Kyaaaaah!"
After screaming for a long time, the girl collapsed onto the ground. A pungent, burnt smell wafted from her body.
Despite this, the Great Witch's reaction remained utterly indifferent.
"…Tsk, what a drama queen."
Then, the Great Witch's pale green eyes turned toward the man. The man, who was still dripping with cold sweat, flinched just from meeting her gaze.
The Great Witch asked.
"Do you think so too?"
"…Pardon?"
Surprised by the unexpectedly mild treatment, the man could only ask back blankly.
The Great Witch seemed displeased by that. She tapped her own arm with her pipe and repeated the question.
"I asked if you think what you're doing is useless."
"W-well, you see…"
Unable to lie to his master, the man stammered, hesitating to answer. Seeing this, the Great Witch snorted again, as if she already knew.
With a snap of her fingers, the hand axe the man had thrown aside floated into the air.
"I'll show you just once, so watch closely."
It was around then that a sudden doubt took hold of me.
The dream was unusually long today.
It was so long that the moment the thought occurred to me, my consciousness surged upward before sinking back down.
Where am I watching this dream from right now?
My floating perspective descended. As my field of vision narrowed, the man gradually faded away. Soon, the only things filling my eyes were the Great Witch and the hand axe floating in the air.
My vision was synchronizing.
The man was me.