Chapter 578: Plants Are Very Useful
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 578: Plants Are Very Useful
There are two World Trees on this continent.
No, there were.
The blessed ginkgo tree, deep in the jungle of the continent’s southeast. That colossal World Tree, which grew by drinking the river dry and splitting the very earth asunder, stood tall for tens of thousands of years, gazing loftily down upon the world.
They say the jungle has no seasons, but the seasons were nothing more than the whims of the World Tree. If the World Tree decided to adorn itself in robes of yellow, that day became autumn. When countless ginkgo leaves blanketed the world to announce autumn’s arrival, a bridge of leaves would form across the Serpent River that split the jungle in two. That was the moving season for the beasts of the land.
In the age when Manguo prospered, the World Tree was the symbol of that brilliant civilization. The beautiful and blessed ginkgo tree.
It fell, consumed by hideous jealousy.
And at the opposite end of the continent, in the Great Forest of the northwest, the silent metasequoia that had sustained civilization became the one and only World Tree.
“The World Tree? Why the innocent tree?”
[The tree has done nothing wrong. However, I am interested in the despair they will feel when it falls.]
“The… druids of the Great Forest, you mean? Why them? Don’t they worship the same World Tree anyway?”
[Perhaps it wasn't the same World Tree. Not to them.]
The parrot, muttering emptily, seemed to have a story behind its words. This was another thing I’d have to read its mind for. No, wait, it seems to have a loose beak. Maybe I can coax the story out of it?
[…Huh. Walpurgis. What? Why? Did I say something I shouldn't have? Hmm? I talked too much?]
Aigoo. The Great Witch might be one thing, but the witch under her seems a bit sharper. The Great Witch, having regained her senses, spoke again with her usual arrogance.
[Knowledge is more precious than gold. If you wish to hear more, you will have to pay a suitable price.]
“What do you need? Should I tell you about the Divine of Tyr?”
[Uh, erm, hmm! That would be… barely acceptable!]
“Barely acceptable won’t do. Let’s just forget we had this conversation.”
[W-Wha? Why?]
“To be honest, I wasn’t that curious about your motives. What do I care if the World Tree on the other side of the continent falls? It’s not even certain you’ll succeed, and I haven’t contributed anything, nor will I.”
[Oh? Would you like to contribute?]
“Why would I, when I haven’t even heard the story?”
I'll just read its mind later and get the gist of it. As I waved my hand to shoo the parrot away, it flapped its wings and clung to my body.
[No. If you're on this ship, you have to suck it dry! King of Humans, let's make a deal! You must want to know why the World Tree was burned, don't you?]
“No, I told you I’m not interested. Was I being too subtle? I said it's none of my business.”
[B-B-But! The metasequoia is the World Tree of civilization! Those bastards in the Great Forest have no qualms about cutting down the very tree they worship to fatten the Empire! They're druids, yet they've become dogs of the Empire!]
“People can become dogs. I do sometimes, when I drink.”
[Hey!]
What a pest. How many times do I have to say I’m not interested?
‘…Wait. If it's about the Great Witch's circumstances, I'm a little interested.’
The Regressor, who had been listening quietly until now, silently signaled her interest. I thought she was just sitting there while the parrot messed up her hair, but she was listening in all gloomily. I guess I can’t really criticize the Great Witch.
‘The Great Witch is the one who scattered the Riders of Pestilence across the world, and at the same time... the one who devastated the Great Forest with the Green Death. It would be good if I could stop at least one of them.’
Riders of Pestilence? Green Death? More strangely intriguing keywords have appeared.
Hey, if it’s that important, shouldn’t you have known about it already and told me? Why are you trying to find out now?
Then again, if the Regressor had always been an enemy of Nevida and the Great Witch, she would never have had the chance to hear their stories. She would have been too busy fighting them.
This was getting complicated. If I were the only one who needed to know the truth, I could just read the parrot’s mind and keep my mouth shut. But if I wanted to let the Regressor hear the Great Witch’s story and dig for information, I had to get it through ‘legitimate’ means, not mind reading. That way, she wouldn’t doubt the source.
“In that case, would you care to arrange a meeting? For better or worse, we're in the same boat now. Let's hold a little get-together.”
[Yes! Excellent!]
“You arrange it. I’ll come to you.”
[You have to come! You have to!]
The parrot repeated itself before flapping its wings energetically and flying out the open window. The Great Witch… for someone who’s lived so long, she’s more cheerful than I expected. All the elderly people I’d met so far were either emotionless or rigid. Is it because she lives with animals?
Still, she was not a welcome visitor. The parrot was gone, but the Great Witch’s familiars were still holding their breath in every corner of my room, watching me. As I closed the door and, while I was at it, the window, the Regressor spoke with a groan.
“…Hughes. When you go, take me with you.”
“In your condition? I feel like your arm would fall off if you jogged lightly.”
“Still, I have to hear it. About the Great Witch. Because she’s…”
“Whoa, hold on. Watch what you say, Shei-ssi. You’re in enemy territory here.”
Most of your information is from your regressions. From this point in time, it's the future. If you start spouting information from the future, you’ll put the Great Witch on her guard. If Nevida is an insensitive but sturdy and powerful plant, the Great Witch is a sensitive and cautious beast. One slip-up and it’ll be irreversible.
“Urgh. But this is a chance. Maybe the Great Witch will… the plague…”
“Agh! Get a clue!”
Can’t you take a hint?! I clamped my hand over the Regressor's mouth and quickly glanced around the room. The Great Witch’s hidden surveillance… no, observation… no, voyeuristic insects showed no signs of movement. She had been controlling the parrot just a moment ago, so she probably wasn’t receiving sensations from the insects right now.
“Could you please be more careful about how you act? I might be one thing, but you, Shei-ssi, are just a prisoner. If you leak any unnecessary information, you might be forced to spill even more. Got it?”
“Mmph, mmph!”
“I’ll take that as a yes. From now on, please don’t say anything out loud that only you would know.”
Because I'll read it with my mind reading. Seeing that the Regressor had calmed down, I removed my hand. She gave me a displeased look but still conceded to my point.
“…I didn’t think of that. You’re quite sharp.”
“The weak have to be aware of all sorts of things. You, who have always been strong, wouldn’t know.”
“If I were truly strong, I wouldn’t be groaning here with a broken arm… I’m not strong either… I’ve always been weak. Weaker than the King of Sins, weaker than the Mage King, weaker than the Sword Saint, and… weaker than Nevida.”
The Regressor lamented her powerless state. She's actually kind of cute now that her confidence has waned and her venomous aura is gone. She has been a bit too on-edge until now.
“The fact that you can count down from the top already makes you plenty strong. What does that make me?”
“…You’re right. How did you survive?”
“It's kind of annoying how you're suddenly agreeing with me. How did I survive? By avoiding danger and running away! And you! You're always sticking your head where you're sure to die, yet you've somehow managed to stay alive!”
‘Though I've already died more than ten times.’
Exactly. This person would have been dead long ago without the ability to regress. You should bow to whoever gave you that power every single day.
“If you want to come to the meeting, you’d better heal that arm first. I can’t be seen with a walking filth-bomb that gushes blood every time you move.”
“It’s not that bad…! Uh…”
The Regressor was suddenly reminded of her own state and let out a miserable groan. She couldn’t lift a finger, and her clothes were stained with blood, sweat, and dirt. Though her skin had been reattached, it was stretched and torn, and a yellowish fluid was oozing out. She was in no position to argue against being called a filth-bomb.
‘Normally, I’d just clean myself with Qi Art… but I don’t even have the strength for that now. It’s all I can do just to maintain the Heavenly Counter Domain. I should at least wipe myself down…’
But with neither Qi Art nor the use of her hands, the Regressor had no way to clean herself. She groaned and continued her thoughts.
‘Do I have to ask someone? But Hughes is the only one on my side right now. If anyone’s going to do it, it would have to be Hughes…’
The moment she thought that, the Regressor shook her head with a ferocity that was hard to believe for someone so injured.
‘No. I’ll just endure it. It’s just a little uncomfortable. Just a little…’
But once you become conscious of something, it’s no longer a problem you can simply endure. The Regressor kept squirming as if something was bothering her. From her feet, the only parts she could move, up to her waist, she kept twitching and jerking.
‘Ugh. How can I ask him… to wash me! It’s weird! But there’s no one else I can ask…! The witches? No, as long as the Great Witch is here, all the witches are my enemies. I can’t entrust my body to an enemy, absolutely not!’
Her pride preventing her from saying the words herself, the Regressor pressed her lips together and glared at me. I could feel the immense pressure.
I mean, what am I supposed to do? Is this it? You don't want to ask me to wash you, but you want me to do it anyway? What a difficult person.
I was about to ignore her and start making today’s meal, but her gaze only intensified. At this rate, the back of my head was going to catch fire before the furnace did.
“If you have something to say, say it. Stop staring.”
“…It’s nothing!”
“If it’s nothing, then stop staring! Just focus on healing your body!”
“I can’t focus! My clothes are damp with blood, and my body is filthy!”
“Oh? You want me to wash you?”
“A-Are you crazy?! Who said that?!”
“Seriously, what do you want from me?!”
Ugh, what a headache. What am I supposed to do? I probably should wash her, but how do I get past that defensive barrier? Maybe? It probably won’t work, but should I give it a try?
“Shei-ssi. You’re a man. Men can help each other out, you know.”
Only then remembering her disguise as a man, the Regressor answered uncertainly.
“Ah, right. I was… right?”
“There now. Don’t be so shy. We have to help each other in times of need.”
“Uh, yeah. Thanks… no, wait! Stop! Get your hands off my clothes!”
Damn. Busted. Well, it would have been weirder if she hadn't noticed. The Regressor really has gotten weak. Unable to withstand her glare, I took my hands off her clothes and let out a sigh.
“Then what do you want me to do? Are you going to wear that for the rest of your life?”
“…Is there… another way?”
“What other way is there? So, let me get this straight, Shei-ssi. I'm not allowed to touch you. But you want to be clean. But you don't want me to see you. Is that it?”
“It’s not that…!”
‘…Well, that would be ideal!’
“Hah. You’re really something else. For a prisoner, you sure have a lot of demands.”
So many requests, so many complicated desires.
Sigh. Fine. The more difficult the wish, the more satisfying it is to grant. Even if it is a huge pain. They say you should grant a dead person's wish, so why can't I grant a living person's?
“…Forget it. Just leave it. I’ll do it myself when I’m healed.”
“And when will that be? What about me, who has to live with you in the meantime?”
I sighed and searched the room. In this natural chamber carved from the flesh of the World Tree, all sorts of multipurpose plants were growing. After rummaging around, I found some lush moss growing near the bathroom and tore off a large chunk. The moss was dry, yet soft as a towel.
It was a new species I’d never seen before, sharing only the classification of moss. This, too, must have been ‘improved’ by Nevida’s power.
“This looks like a type of moss used for washing. It’s dry now, but it should get damp if I add water.”
I filled a water pail made from a gourd shell, soaked the moss in it, and placed it at the Regressor’s feet. Then, I summoned the Tree of Genesis of the Divine and made the moss ‘grow.’
“If I leave it like this, the moss will grow and wrap itself around your body, Shei-ssi. That should clean you up, more or less. How about it?”
If anything, this was far more suspicious, but it was enough to overcome the Regressor's reluctance.
“…W-Well, I suppose that’s fine.”
“Well, it’s the moss washing you, not me. Whether it does a good job or not has nothing to do with me. So no complaining, alright?”
“Okay.”
As we spoke, the moss had already grown and extended its tendrils. Lacking a stem, the moss needed a support to grow on. The tendrils, searching for a support in the gourd pail, found the Regressor’s bare foot and wrapped around it.
‘Ah, it's cold. And wetter than I thought. It's growing pretty fast… This should clean me up nicely. Heuk?!’
At that moment, having found a support, the moss began to climb the Regressor with a ferocious intensity, as if competing with itself. The green moss slithered over her skin like a snake. Startled by the unfamiliar sensation rising from below, the Regressor cried out.
“W-Wait a minute. Hughes. This thing…!”
“I wouldn’t know. I’m going to take a nap.”
This is what you wanted. You would have complained endlessly if I had washed you with my own hands. Just bear with it.
“I-It's… going inside…! Hughes, wait! Get this off me, heek!”
“Zzz.”
I turned my back on the Regressor, who was gradually being buried in moss, and lay down on the bed. I thought her noisy fussing would keep me from sleeping, but perhaps I was more tired than I realized. Sleep came surprisingly easily.