Unexpected Harvest
It was a miracle.
A warmth that would never again bring happiness.
Sadness melted away with the recovering body.
From some point onward, it was a taste I had forgotten.
"Why were we losing this taste?"
It was clearly the first World Tree fruit ever tasted.
Yet somehow it felt strangely familiar.
Like home-cooked food tasted for the first time after a long stint away from home while traveling.
That was when it happened.
"Do you even know what it means to live by force?"
A man whose pupils were shaking anxiously clenched the fruit tightly.
"Is it even okay for us to eat this? Do we even have the right to do this!"
Black veins of demonic corruption erupted on the neck of the grieving man.
"Didan!"
Belianus called out to him, as if recognizing him.
But Didan shouted while looking around.
"I committed a crime. I survived by eating the flesh and blood of my own kind. What is there for a filthy creature like me to do!"
Those words stirred guilt in some of the surviving elves.
Belianus clenched his fist, sending a sorrowful gaze.
He was a high elf noble praised among the high elves.
If nothing else happened, he would have lived in the capital being honored for his nobility.
But now, the image of that past no longer existed.
A haggard, withered face.
Eyes filled with bloodshot rage.
Unmanaged long fingernails digging into the flesh.
Rune stared straight at Didan.
"There is nothing wrong with this."
A calm, indifferent voice continued as if nothing special.
"Someone told me that you all wanted to live."
Tap tap.
Rune walked toward him.
Like the Red Sea parting, the elves stepped aside a little.
His appearance was clearly young, but an unaging face that had seen many things for a long time.
And the firm will in his gaze naturally moved the elves' steps.
Amid the gazes of many elves, Rune spoke.
"It would be more painful and shameful than death. It would be embarrassing before the heavens, humiliating, and sinful."
Tap.
A single drop of golden juice flowed down the elf's hand.
An exquisitely trembling droplet hung precariously at the fingertip.
"Before the World Tree that watches this world, are you planning to give up your life?"
Rune's gaze never left Didan for a single instant.
"C... Ugh!"
The elf with sunken cheeks blinked his eyes wildly.
The moment he faced Rune's deep, red eyes right in front of him, his body trembled.
'What kind of child's body... that kind of aura.'
It was not the Dragon Fear he had heard about in rumors.
Just a powerful will felt through the eyes.
The boy with black hair and ruby-like red eyes opened his mouth while looking at Didan.
"By saying you want to die now, you're not facing the guilt of living and cowardly escaping, you're just planning to kill yourself."
The World Tree that formed a fruit for the elves, and the small boy with his back turned to that tree.
The elf Didan was swept up in the impulse to throw the fruit in his hand at that face.
Unable to suppress his agitation, Didan spat out the words in a growl.
"Because of the crime I committed while not being myself, you know how much I've ruined myself!?"
Even if it meant crushing that seemingly calm face, even if it meant cursing at the World Tree, he wanted to prove it.
How much agony and madness the guilt-ridden man was in.
Rune read the malice clearly and recited:
"Die... it's easier than enduring it while alive."
He had no intention of sympathizing with that twisted will.
'This was clearly one of the results Lepanon wanted.'
Killing elf kin as a demon or giving up one's own life.
It was all a conclusion that the demon Lepanon wanted.
'The author's neck... the Dark-Stained Scent Box and the demon's malice are fighting.'
Rune looked intently at Didan's neck where the black veins had risen and took a small breath.
"Eat that fruit. At least, it was something the tree that gave you life gave you."
"Hah! Do you think even one fruit like this will change my thoughts?"
Even with the sarcasm mixed in, Rune calmly nodded.
"Eat it."
Didan shook his hand.
For some reason, he couldn't reject the words.
But the thoughts swirling in his head painfully whispered of his sin.
"S-Silence! By showing that eating it does nothing, that's all!"
Crunch!
Didan with fangs still in place bit into the fruit.
Juice dripped continuously.
"..."
A deep affection he had never felt even once in his life.
Could he experience such a feeling again in his life?
A sense felt throughout his body that if blessed, it would be this kind of feeling.
He devoured the fruit as if entranced.
The sticky things that had been stirring his head disappeared without him being able to do anything.
"Ah... um."
The eyes filled with thick hatred gradually cleared.
"I... I..."
Didan raised his head to look at Rune, then looked up at the World Tree behind him.
The World Tree that had regained its light shone white, forming fresh fruits there.
Thud!
The man who had eaten the fruit mindlessly collapsed to his knees helplessly.
Life force and blessings with no conditions or costs filled his body.
If a newborn baby was loved unconditionally, this was the feeling.
He gazed at the great divine tree.
The World Tree's will, clearly felt, cleansed the wild, savage heart that had been sharpened by slaughter.
"Huu... Hweee."
The swollen landscape swayed, and tears flowed as it cleared.
"Hua... um..."
Didan started sobbing with choking sounds.
The other elves could not stop their tears.
Rune looked around and nodded at Belianus.
'I think it's time to wrap up.'
Belianus, reading Rune's intent, captured the landscape that had become a sea of sorrow and weeping.
Now was the time to say goodbye to the time that had been sad and terrifying.
"We must comfort our king and our siblings' tragedy and grieve sufficiently. And..."
Belianus, voice choked, paused briefly, then formed each word one by one.
"Now, let us live comforting and consoling each other's hearts."
Elves falling down and writhing as if fainting while weeping.
Those who bowed their heads quietly while swallowing their anger.
The funeral for the dead elves and the Elf King ended like this.
***
Rune, wearing the rabbit mask that exerted excellent stealth effects, arrived at the waiting room where they had pre-arranged the meeting.
Heungmi and Dullahan were already there.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Yeah! Thank you too, Rune-nim!"
Clank!
Dullahan removed his helmet and greeted.
Before Jed could speak, Rune spoke first.
"Having absorbed most of the malice in the World Tree, it was tough work."
With that, he could safely form the fruit.
At those words, Heungmi's eyes sparkled as she grinned.
"Lan and I had fun, but I heard Mr. Jed got really fussy!"
Heungmi stuck out her tongue in a meong way.
"Ah, Heungmi-nim. I am more delicate than you think! This malice is extremely dangerous even if it just pokes me a little! How surprised I was that I was acting like a snake with its tongue out to try to do something to me! Hu. How disgusting that kind of aura was, I had never seen it in my life."
In reality, poking a little malice didn't hurt that much.
In short, Jed's words were too exaggerated.
'Even then, it was probably just the feeling of a disgusting bug touching my arm.'
The pearl ornament that purified perfectly made by Rand, and Dullahan wouldn't have risked directly placing a weapon against the malice.
Rune threw out a prediction.
"You opened your senses out of curiosity and almost got caught in a real trap?"
Jed let out a groan at Rune's words that sounded obviously true.
"Kuh-hek! Ah, I'm dead from hearing Rune-nim's words!"
Rune glared at Jed who was about to cross the river out of uncontrollable curiosity and sighed.
'Correct answer.'
Anyway, the result was that Rune was satisfied.
Heungmi and Dullahan, who absorbed the malice well, had grown stronger, and the World Tree fruit was plentifully obtained and stored in the spatial pocket.
No matter how much Rune was a dragon, opportunities to directly touch the World Tree were never common.
'Unexpected harvest.'
Even the World Tree fruit was far superior to any ingredient Rune had seen so far.
A smile naturally formed.
"Ah! Rune-nim's mouth corner is going up like this!"
Heungmi grabbed the corner of her mouth with both index fingers.
Rune nodded.
"It's good."
Moreover, what Rune obtained was not just the World Tree fruit.
He would obtain the white-revived branches and leaves of the World Tree and the overflowing tree sap.
'The Seal of the Forest was really useful.'
The growth ability of the seal could make even cut branches of the living World Tree regrow.
Not only the divine tree, the World Tree, but also precious herbs, herbs, grasses, wheat, and more that Rune would obtain in the future.
This was a more incredible cheating power than replicating gold.
'Because I can handle the Water Seal and the Light Power and Resurrection Authority together...'
There was no separate walking forest or grain field.
The thought of it falling into his hands made Rune's dragon heart throb.
He might occasionally visit the elf village under the pretext of World Tree management.
The elf village now resembled Rune's farm that no longer existed in the world.
'The problem is that the elves' lives from now on.'
Rune thought that this matter ending well was thanks to the Dark-Stained Scent Box.
If it weren't for the convenience of not having to persuade the large crowds one by one, even if he had saved the World Tree, elves like Didan would have appeared more.
'It won't be permanent effect... but just not burying in the present sadness is a blessing.'
After this, the elves would have to overcome it, as Belianus advised.
That was when.
While looking down on all the elves from the World Tree branch, Heungmi asked.
"Looking down from the tree, everyone looked so sad. Now, everyone will be fine, right?"
She had been watching their appearances without descending from the branch, as she had instructed not to descend in case the elves made reckless actions.
Rune answered.
"For a while, it will be like that. Later, they will live on their own."
"When I saw them grieving like that, it felt weird."
Heungmi pressed the ruby brooch holding the spirits tightly with one hand.
"It hurts a little here."
Heungmi, slightly folding her fox ears back, looked at Rune.
"It's really sad. I hope it doesn't hurt."
The young fox spirit touched her chest and drooped her tail.
Rune was lost in thought for a moment.
'I think some education is necessary.'
Rune crossed his arms, thinking it would be better to say something.
"Life is not without pain. Sometimes, hard-to-heal wounds appear."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Heungmi blinked her eyes and let out a hmph, a disappointed humming sound.
Rune looked at such Heungmi for a moment and continued.
"When that happens, think about what you can do for them, and find the method. Then, when someone around you is in pain, you can help."
Just as the Imugi, who had been regretful in his Imugi days after Baekmi's death, had regretted.
'That Baekmi kid's sad thing comes to mind.'
If the Imugi-era Rune had been more skilled, he could have paid more attention to the kid who was upset.
"I understand!"
Heungmi answered briskly and pricked her ears again.
And then, as if something occurred to her, she turned her head.
"Oh, right, Rune-nim! When is Mr. Perdikion coming?"
"?"
Perdikion carrying the box, at this point he should have finished his work and started to return soon.
"Speaking of which, it's a bit late... ."
A sinister feeling crept in.