The High Druid's Slave
To think that an elf would lower her head to a mere human!
And not just any elf—an elder of the elves, no less.
Yet Aruwen paid no attention whatsoever to the other elves’ reactions. Instead she spoke with an even more devout expression.
“Please, forgive Auryll’s mistake. If you would only grant us that much, I shall offer even my own neck, Lord Druid.”
“······!”
“······ Druid?!”
The elves who heard those words could only stare in disbelief, utterly stunned.
Of course they were. A druid!
They were the absolute pinnacle of nature-aligned races, legendary beings long believed to have vanished from the world!
“Hmm.”
The man showed no particular reaction to Aruwen’s words. He merely regarded her with an unreadable gaze.
Ah!
Only then did Aruwen realize her mistake.
This man was no ordinary druid. The miracle he had displayed was something far beyond that.
“Could it be······ that you are a High Druid?”
A High Druid!
The leader who commanded all druids. He, too, was said to have fallen while standing against Ruin itself.
One who commanded the Great Nature and coexisted with all creation—that was a High Druid. The man before them might well be a High Druid who had vanished in the unfathomable distant past.
Every eye locked onto his lips.
A moment later the man shrugged as if it were nothing and opened his mouth.
“That’s right.”
“Ah······!!”
Aruwen dropped to one knee at once. She had realized that simply bowing her head in apology would never be enough.
A druid—and a High Druid at that. The mistake they had committed was not something that could be settled with a single life.
Moreover, for a High Druid to possess such vast desire was hardly strange. It was said they could interfere with all creation beyond nature itself. One might even call them the very incarnation of desire.
After all, nothing in this world was more desirous than the Great Nature.
“I-I am sorry. I failed to recognize you.”
“You said you would offer your neck?”
“If that is what you wish······!”
Aruwen nodded with resolute eyes.
A High Druid was one who could commune even with the World Tree. Perhaps he could solve the problem of the World Tree that was now withering away. Her own neck was a small price to pay.
“E-Elder!”
Auryll, too, snapped fully awake.
“This was my mistake! If a neck must be offered, take mine!”
“Be silent, Auryll. The fault is mine for failing to stop you properly.”
“Please, I beg you! The Elder has done nothing wrong!”
Auryll also dropped to her knees before the man. It had been her sin for rushing out the moment she saw the undead. That same hot-blooded nature had kept her from harmony with nature, delaying the growth of her leaves.
“Please, take my neck instead of the Elder’s······!”
“I will offer my neck!”
The elves who had come with them all rushed forward without exception, clamoring for their own necks to be taken.
It was a sight so rare it bordered on the absurd. Elves one might never meet in a lifetime were, every last one of them, begging forgiveness before a human.
What now.
······As things took an unexpected turn, I stroked my chin and considered how to handle them.
My hidden trait, High Druid of Great Nature, seemed capable of accelerating their growth. That was why the elder herself had dropped to her knees.
Still, I could not simply forgive them without any price. Nor could I actually take the neck of the elder whose name Andrew had cried out so desperately.
Better to extract practical benefit.
I raised Winter and set the blade against Auryll’s throat.
“I shall show mercy and punish only the one who committed the mistake. Offer up your neck—your life.”
“Gladly······!”
Auryll trembled yet accepted. This disaster had begun because of her. If the man was a High Druid, he stood at the absolute peak of nature-aligned beings. Any who belonged to nature had no choice but to follow such a leader.
Auryll squeezed her eyes shut.
Yet the words that followed were nothing she had expected.
“Since you have offered your life, become my slave.”
“············?”
Slave?
For a moment Auryll wondered if she had misheard. But with an elf’s keen ears, mishearing was impossible and she knew it.
A slave.
A thrall. A possession. A being stripped of every right and freedom, reduced to little more than an object.
She would rather die than be worked as a human’s slave. Especially Auryll, whose pride as an elf reached the heavens. Even if the other party was a High Druid, simply following and becoming a slave were entirely different matters.
“······Yes. If that will soothe your anger.”
“E-Elder······?!”
But the answer came not from Auryll—it came from Elder Aruwen.
Auryll. Nod.
And that look in her eyes. It meant she was to become a slave if that was what it took to keep her life.
Auryll looked back and forth between Elder Aruwen and the man in a daze.
Ahh······.
Her mind went blank. Becoming someone’s slave was worse than death. Yet if she refused, the Elder’s neck would fly first.
Die together, or become that man’s slave.
Auryll squeezed her eyes shut.
“I······ will······.”
“Will what, exactly?”
A confirmation that might as well have been a finishing blow. Auryll shot Elder Aruwen a resentful glance. But there was nowhere left to retreat. After all, she was the one who had thrust a blade at him without warning.
“Your······ slave······ hic!”
Elves are a rare race. So reclusive that almost nothing is known about them, and the way they commune with the World Tree remains a complete mystery. Most people do not even know what the World Tree is in the first place.
The World Tree is one of the roots that support the continent floating in the sky.
But I know. I know that the World Tree is one of the foundational artifacts of the world. The two goddesses raised and connected the continent that had sunk into the Abyss, yet that alone could never have kept it aloft.
The World Tree is one of the roots that hold up the risen continent.
So the elves who protect the World Tree can be considered to be supporting the continent itself.
That was something I only learned near the endgame while playing as Wilhelm. Learning it only at the endgame meant it was that important.
The elves might be connected to the final content.
That was why there was no need to make enemies of them. Keeping things as friendly as possible while using Auryll as a slave to dig into their secrets was the wiser choice.
Final content.
The story I had never experienced—or that had never been updated—after Wilhelm’s death. The idea that “what had been stopped” began moving again after Wilhelm died felt like the story of this update.
When the last gamer’s character—Wilhelm—died, content that had never existed began to update.
Back in my gamer days the concurrent user count was always either 0 or 1. It stayed at 1 whenever I logged in, but that was because every gamer had already become a player. That itself might have been the factor locking the updates.
Just as the Demon King had been killed yet never truly killed, perhaps a lock had been placed on the gamers’ characters so that the update would only proceed once everyone had become players.
Because I played as Wilhelm longer than expected, the update was delayed······.
It had been a complete non-update. For a long stretch, no content of any kind had appeared.
But everything changed after I became a player. At last every gamer awakened as a player and things “began.”
The Heaven Destroyer and the Rift Tower never existed originally, after all.
Things that had never been were appearing, and beings that had never existed were popping out. Level caps were expanding and even stronger figures were emerging. What else could that mean?
Wilhelm’s death had pulled the trigger on the update.
Moreover—
The Primeval Forest and the elves may have existed only in the story until now, and may never have actually existed at all.
······Their sudden appearance was far too strange. In all the long years I had played I had never once seen an elf. No one had ever entered the Primeval Forest either.
There weren’t even any connected warps.
Any place that truly existed would have at least three warps linking it somewhere, yet there had been nothing of the sort. Even if the World Tree was a root supporting the continent, the above “rule” was an indispensable element that the sky continent had to obey.
Yet it had only been mentioned near the endgame—and even then only regarding the World Tree itself, never the elves or the Primeval Forest.
No matter how I looked at it, it was strange. Of course one could argue it was connected to cities I simply did not know.
But even the Goddess’s Map had no connected warps.
I knew the name of every city and every warp connection point. I possessed the item known as the Goddess’s Map. On that map, which displayed every existing city and warp, there was not a single warp point linked to the Primeval Forest.
······It was newly updated this time.
So what if it truly had been “updated”? What if it really was connected to the final content?
I have to claim it first, no matter what.
I had to seize the initiative. Absolutely. This might even be an opportunity heaven itself had granted me.
“······Lord High Druid. Would you not climb the Rift Tower together with us?”
Inside the castle, seated in a splendid reception room, Elder Aruwen asked with a grave expression.
The business that had brought her to me was apparently related to the Rift Tower.
I lounged in the seat of honor and spoke at my leisure.
“Is there a reason I must climb the Rift Tower with you?”
“We will be of help.”
“Of help? Those who cannot even approach my side?”
I let out a short laugh. Elder Aruwen was barely holding herself together, but the other elves were standing far away, only able to look at me from a distance. How was I supposed to clear the second floor with people who could not even come close?
I had barely cleared the first floor with what amounted to bug-level play. Without the Heart of the Eternal Lord and the infinite copying of Indulgences, clearing it would have been nothing more than a dream.
Slurp.
I crossed my legs leisurely, lifted the cup, and drank my milk tea.
Aruwen bit her lip lightly and spoke.
“···We elves can see ‘desire.’ Lord High Druid’s ‘desire’ is simply so vast that we cannot easily approach, but given time it will be fine.”
Desire. Desire, was it.
I did not think the desire I possessed was particularly larger than anyone else’s. I had no idea what they were seeing in me, but it did not seem to be mere desire alone.
At any rate—
“You want me to invest time when I have none? The risk is far too great. There is nothing in it for me.”
The second floor of the Rift Tower opened in a mere sixty days. Telling me to wait and see whether these people could adapt by then was nothing but a waste of time.
“What do you desire?”
What did I desire? There was only one thing I wanted.
“The warp points connected to the Primeval Forest.”
“······Pardon?”
“Tell me. Which cities is the Primeval Forest connected to?”
At my question Aruwen’s expression hardened like stone. Yet confirming this one point would make everything clear. Reclusive elves would never increase the number of warp points.
“Th-that is something I cannot······.”
“Cannot say? Then this deal never happened.”
I pressed hard. The fact that they had sought out Basrak Forest the moment they cleared the Rift Tower and come looking for me meant the elves were the ones in a hurry. Or perhaps the Rift Tower itself was the starting point of content connected to the elves.
Either way, I was not the one who needed this right now.
Aruwen kept her lips tightly shut and continued to deliberate. How much time passed like that?
“······Altemia··· it is.”
“Altemia?”
“······Yes.”
“Hmm.”
I set the cup down and stroked my chin. This, too, was unexpected—because I had never heard the city name “Altemia” before.
So this is a new city as well.
Land that had yet to appear. As expected, the elves seemed connected to the new content. The way they casually spoke names I had never known only confirmed it.
“And? It can’t be only Altemia.”
“···Mount Balmang, Palantir.”
Half in resignation, Aruwen continued listing the names. At least one of them was familiar.
Mount Balmang!
That was a place I knew. Yet Mount Balmang had never possessed a warp point connected to the Primeval Forest.
Something that had not existed had come into being.
Now I was certain.
···New content is being updated!
And at tremendous speed. The schedule that had been delayed all this time was pouring down like a monsoon.