The Golden Rule Knights Assemble

“What if more than thirteen wish to join?”

“Then we cut them down. And the one who decides who stays is the captain.”

“Indeed. Understood.”

The Giant of Extinguishing Evil nodded.

I looked around at the gathered throng and spoke.

“From this moment, gather around the one you wish to follow.”

“Yes. It shall be done.”

The first to answer and step forward was, of course, Albino.

“Hmm. The formation looks a little strange, but…”

Raiga took his place next.

Before long the crowd began splitting cleanly into seven groups.

The Star Guardians following the Giant of Extinguishing Evil.

The beast group following the White King.

The human group following Kasim, the Radiant Transcendent.

The elf group following Auryll.

And nearly everyone else flocked to me.

Albino, Raiga, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the One-Horned Lord and Two-Horned Lord, Serengeti, Saintess Seia, Hudson, Isaac, Valte, and Priest Andrew. Those ten are locked in.

Including myself, that already made eleven.

Only two slots remained.

Yet nearly twenty had crowded before me.

Ancient Phoenix Al Raum and the Guardian of Light have such ambiguous identities that no one seems willing to follow them.

Even I would not have gathered around those two.

I weighed my choices carefully—whom to fill the last two places with.

I had not named them captains, yet figures of comparable caliber stood in abundance.

The standard for choosing captains had never been mere strength or honor alone. What mattered more was whether they could blend with me—or not.

Those two will do.

The rest would have no choice but to follow the Ancient Phoenix and the Guardian of Light.

I selected the two finest among them, and at last the preparations to enter the dungeon were complete.

They must have been told never to make an enemy of him.

The final name no one had expected.

The Elf Queen, who had naturally assumed she would be called, fell into panic.

Five names had already been spoken.

She had been certain that no one but herself could stand equal to them.

And it was not only the Elf Queen who reeled in shock.

Auryll herself, and every other elf present, wore the same blank expression.

They look utterly flabbergasted.

I smiled inwardly.

The reason I had chosen Auryll, shattering every expectation, was not simply because I knew her.

Of course that played a part, yet a far more important reason existed.

Because the concentrated power of the elves is the most troublesome of all.

Among the ‘groups’ that had come seeking this World Tree, the elves alone arrived as a collective.

Once competition between groups began, the race that would demand the most attention was unquestionably the elves.

With their queen at the center they moved as one body—an extremely difficult opponent.

Moreover, they were the race that had received every possible blessing from the World Tree.

Perhaps for that reason the average combat power of the elves was high.

The high elves gathered here possessed an average force of Level 14.

I had never before seen a fighting force this powerful.

Even after suffering considerable losses in the war against the dark elves.

Yet having endured war also meant that hierarchy had become all the more critical.

And among the elves present, the one of lowest rank was Auryll.

“You mean we must follow a mere elf?”

The reaction I had expected.

Of course they voiced their discontent.

Elves who had clustered tightly around their queen.

Nothing could wound their pride more than having to follow an ordinary elf.

A male high elf asked the question, yet it might as well have come from the queen herself.

So I answered indifferently.

“If that displeases you, simply follow one of those I named earlier. Provided, of course, that they accept you.”

Would they truly be able to follow another race, another being?

Never.

Elves who maintained no contact whatsoever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with foreign lands or foreign races.

They would either follow Auryll, or abandon entering the dungeon altogether. Those were their only two choices.

Still more flustered, another high elf protested.

“Druid of the Golden Rule. Auryll’s qualifications do not surpass those of Her Majesty the Queen.”

He spoke with the utmost courtesy, yet thorns were embedded in every word.

It meant Auryll’s honor could not be compared to the Elf Queen’s.

The World Tree itself had verified it, so the statement was not wrong.

However.

“This is not a place that weighs the World Tree’s verification. This is a place that weighs whether I acknowledge someone—or not.”

“B-but you clearly said ‘honorable’ ones—”

“My acknowledgment is honor.”

“……”

The high elf who had been arguing shut his mouth tightly.

It meant that nothing was more honorable than my recognition.

That my acknowledgment mattered more than the World Tree’s verification.

And that the Elf Queen had failed to receive my ‘acknowledgment’.

“By what… standard exactly…”

When the high elves continued muttering in disbelief, Great Elder Albino, unable to watch any longer, stepped forward.

“Are you now doubting the Druid of the Golden Rule?”

“Th-that is not so. Merely…”

“Do the elves intend to make an enemy of the druids?”

“……!!”

Every elf who heard those words recoiled in horror.

Druids and elves existed in a symbiotic relationship.

Those who create the forest, and those who tend it.

Yet the role of ‘tending’ could be entrusted to other races.

The dryads, for example.

Dryads who lived alongside the forest likewise knew how to manage it.

Therefore the elves could never afford to oppose the druids.

Albino turned a face full of wrath toward the Elf Queen.

“Since before the appearance of Ruin, the druids have always respected the elves. The elves have carried out the immense duty of caring for forests across the entire world and protecting the greenery and the World Trees. Yet the elves of today have become corrupted. They gather only in the Primeval Forest and pay no heed to any other woods.”

“…As you say, nothing is more important than guarding the World Tree.”

“Tsk.”

“……?”

Albino clicked his tongue and shook his head.

A clear attitude of contempt.

Yet Albino’s reaction was only natural.

“The previous Elf Queen possessed spirit, yet the current queen is pathetic. Now I understand why the Druid of the Golden Rule did not call your name.”

“Albino… even if you are a legendary druid, I cannot simply let those words pass.”

“You cannot let them pass?”

Ssshk.

Albino took one step forward.

And then—

CRAAAAACK!

Albino’s body swelled. His horns grew longer still.

At the same time flames roared across his entire form.

Wings of pure fire unfurled more than ten meters wide, and in one hand he now gripped a long spear of the Fire Demon.

An overwhelming presence.

If a god of fire existed, this would be its visage.

Immediately afterward a number floated above his head.

…It was not merely his appearance that overwhelmed.

A legendary druid who had existed since before Ruin.

Here was the living proof of why he had been called a ‘legend’.

…Level 18?

Even so, it defied comprehension.

Even accounting for the overall rise in the world’s combat power after the Great Expedition, the level was excessive.

It was not entirely beyond understanding, however.

Eons of time.

He must have whipped himself relentlessly for the sole purpose of killing Ruin.

He must have crossed countless lines of death so that he would never again flee from Ruin.

An apex predator with almost no equals across both the Abyss and the continent.

That was Albino—Great Elder of the Palga and Great Chief of the druids.

The true form restored to him by the World Tree of Honor was truly wondrous.

“……!!”

“Ugh…”

It was not only the Elf Queen who was dominated and suppressed by Albino’s rank.

Most of those who beheld him groaned and swallowed hard, drawing up their own power to protect themselves.

Countless others took a step back, lips trembling.

Curious.

Yet unlike the others, I felt almost no effect.

Albino had completely blocked every trace of his power from reaching me.

Of course that was not the reason I found it strange.

Albino’s Unique Authorities.

They were absolute privileges bearing the nature of ‘indestructible’.

Approach itself was impossible; even the very desire to oppose him was erased—the authority of an Absolute.

And I could cut those authorities down.

Just as I had once cut through the barrier protecting a sacred domain.

Yet what struck me as even more curious was the ‘level’ displayed afterward.

Even things that carry the nature of ‘Forbidden’ possess levels.

And those levels were distributed at an extraordinarily high range.

In other words, Martial God’s Mind Sword could sever and destroy anything of a lower ‘Forbidden’ nature according to sword mastery and level.

…But why can I see Albino’s level at all?

The reason every one of Albino’s levels was visible remained puzzling.

Ordinarily the strongest beings, Albino included, concealed their levels.

In truth, only about half of those present here had levels visible to the naked eye.

They blocked observation through equipment, tools, skills, or traits that even Hidden Traits could not easily pierce.

The problem was that Albino’s level, invisible until yesterday, was now on full display.

It is not the effect of trait evolution. If it were, I would have seen it long ago.

Had the phenomenon arisen when the High Druid’s Hidden Trait evolved into Druid of the Golden Rule, it would have appeared immediately.

If it was appearing only now, the cause had to be entirely different.

Perhaps it was connected to the attitude he was currently showing me.

Something similar had happened before.

Hudson.

When that fellow had laid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bare his entire self to me at the casino.

At that moment I had been able to view Hudson’s complete information.

…Albino trusts me completely?

In other words, Albino had begun to believe in me.

That I was the god of the druids.

That I was the master who would lead him—he had finally, firmly acknowledged it.

Probably the influence of this place.

If one treated the role as a mere façade, the pretense would show.

Everyone gathered here could distinguish that much.

Unless one thoroughly brainwashed oneself into believing this was a supreme being that must be protected and worshipped with one’s life, discovery by every race-lord present would only be a matter of time.

Whatever the reason, it was a welcome development.

Proof that the Palga and the druids now followed me in earnest.

Albino then unleashed a presence like that of a malevolent god and spoke.

“Have you never heard from the previous queen that one must never make an enemy of a ‘druid’?”

“Th-that form…”

“Especially a ‘druid’ who stands close to a ‘World Tree’—you were told never to oppose such a one, were you not?”

“……”

The Elf Queen squeezed her eyes shut.

Because the words were true.

To be precise, she had heard the legends concerning ‘Albino’.

—‘Albino’ is the one closest to a High Druid.

—When all seven World Trees shine brilliantly, ‘Albino’ becomes a legend.

—The elves must never make an enemy of ‘Albino’.

Records left by the previous queens.

She had most certainly seen Albino’s name there.

All druids were powerful, yet among them Albino was called a legend.

No one knew why he had suddenly vanished.

Who could have imagined he had been guarding the World Tree of Honor in this very place?

“……I offer my apologies, Druid of the Golden Rule.”

“Y-Your Majesty…!”

The Elf Queen bowed her head.

The high elves who witnessed it recoiled in shock, yet in that instant Albino’s wrath subsided.

Because she had correctly recognized to whom the apology should be directed.

Had she apologized to Albino himself, he would only have been disappointed.

The Elf Queen continued.

“I harbor not the slightest intention of opposing or doubting the druids. Elves and druids have been companions since the very beginning. Likewise I have no thought of questioning the choice of the Druid of the Golden Rule. Therefore, I beg you.”

Earnestly.

With desperate sincerity she bowed her head once more.

“Please grant us permission to enter the dungeon of the World Tree.”

The elves who dwelled in the Primeval Forest.

Had the Elf Queen who reigned at their pinnacle ever pleaded so plaintively toward anyone before?

Even when she learned of the appearance of Randolph, Master of Greenery who had cleared the Rift Tower, she had merely dispatched Elder Aruwen.

She was a being who commanded others, never one who made requests of them.