The Disciple Seriously Contemplates
“I-I'm sorry.”
“I-It's fine. Hahaha.”
I laughed awkwardly. Fortunately, no tragedy had occurred. It had truly been a close call, but somehow I managed to hold it back. I had preserved my dignity as a human being. Even thinking about it now, I couldn't help but feel it had been an intensely hard-fought battle…
That said, did that mean there were no problems left?
Not quite.
Now she just looks adorable.
The way she flushed and fussed with her hair was far too cute. Until moments ago the distance between us had felt vast; now it had collapsed all at once, and I had completely lost control of that sense of distance.
Get a grip. She's a being close to a god. Getting tangled up with her in any strange way won't end well.
For a mercenary, the most important thing was never forgetting one's place. In that line of work, every kind of tempting hand reached out. The idiots who started thinking they were somebody special grabbed those hands—and died for it. Just like fools who fell for a succubus's lure and had every last drop of their vitality drained away.
Snap out of it, Jade. Remember what happens when you forget your place. You can't afford to end up like that. You have a duty to wait for the disciple who's coming back. If you can't even manage that, do you have any right to live? Get a hold of yourself!
Fortunately, it worked.
The dizziness finally settled.
As always, the lessons life had taught me never failed to help—so long as I didn't forget them. Whatever else might betray you, the hard-won lessons you'd built up over a lifetime never would.
The World Tree marveled.
I made a bit of a mistake there… but it seems there was no real harm done?
A meeting inside a dream-world was, in the end, contact between souls. And the quality of the World Tree's soul was naturally on an entirely different plane from that of an ordinary human. No matter how brilliant Jade's soul might be, so long as it remained a human soul, direct contact with hers would inevitably subject it to the overwhelming influence of her own. Side effects were only to be expected. He might grow as woozy as if he were drunk, or the desires buried deep in his soul might be stirred—perhaps even an explosive surge of desire toward the opposite sex.
Given that the World Tree appeared as a captivating elven woman, it would have been no surprise at all if such desire had erupted. Yet Jade seemed completely fine (he was not fine at all). The World Tree nodded to herself, deciding once again that a brilliant soul truly was something special.
Hmm? Why do I feel a little… disappointed?
If Jade had come through unharmed (he had not), wasn't that a good thing for her? If his desire toward the opposite sex had exploded here, she would have been in a difficult…
Huh? Is that actually a difficult problem? Wait…?
It was clearly a difficult problem… so why didn't it feel difficult?
The World Tree fell into confusion.
It was definitely something that ought to be troublesome—no matter how she looked at it, it was a troublesome problem. So why was she feeling this way now?
“World Tree?”
“Ah! Yes?! What is it?”
“I thought we should get back to the main topic.”
“Ah. Yes. Of course.”
She had arranged this conversation in the first place so she could bestow a blessing on Jade… so why had she ended up crying in his arms? The World Tree's face flushed again. She still couldn't calm down. Her heart refused to settle, and this feeling was completely new to her.
It was nothing like fear or dread. As an omniscient being, the World Tree naturally knew everything; she understood, as knowledge, exactly what was happening to her. She had known it only as knowledge, never having experienced it herself… but in this moment she could not help realizing that she was no longer merely knowing it—she was experiencing it.
Th-that can't be right? Eh? Wait? Isn't this strange? Well, I have emotions too, so it wouldn't be odd for something like this to happen to me… b-but I've lived for so long! It's never happened even once until now, and all of a sudden? That doesn't make any sense!
Because of her omniscience she had always known everything, and so she had never once experienced “being lost.” Now, for the first time, the World Tree was panicking because she did not know the answer. Strictly speaking, it wasn't that she didn't know the answer—it was that she knew it and simply could not accept it.
“World Tree?”
“I-I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me at all.”
People who say they're fine are almost never fine…
Jade thought as much, but he was keenly aware that he was the subordinate party here, so he simply kept his mouth shut.
“Ahem. In any case, it's time I gave Jade what he needs.”
Hm? Dropping the ‘Mister’? So she's decided to just use my name?
Earlier she had definitely called him “Mister Jade,” yet now she was using his bare name. It piqued his curiosity, but asking about it would only drag them further from the point, so Jade quietly let it pass.
“How about a Fruit of the World Tree?”
“…I've only ever heard stories, but isn't that an incredibly precious thing?”
“Precious, yes. In my long life, fruit has set only about five times. Back in the days when dragons still lived, they even invaded just because they were curious about the taste and effects of my fruit. They never managed to break through my barrier, of course, so they failed.”
“…….”
Should he be astonished that the World Tree's barrier could not be breached even by dragons? Or astonished at the Demon King's power, which could pierce that same barrier? Or astonished at the World Tree's sheer generosity in offering something so precious—something even dragons had failed to obtain—to a mere human like him?
Jade never found an answer. Halfway through he realized the wisest course was simply to stop thinking about it.
“Anyway, it's extremely rare, isn't it?”
“But it is the most precious spiritual elixir in this world.”
A spiritual elixir.
Whether warrior or mage, anyone would go wild and scramble for such a treasure. There had been a time when Jade himself would have said that just getting a look at one would fulfill his life's wish. If word spread during a war that a spiritual elixir had been found, it was no exaggeration to say that friend and foe would become indistinguishable. Even a low-grade elixir could fetch a mountain of gold if sold. Of course, the moment rumors of possessing one got out, you had to watch your neck…
In any case, a spiritual elixir—and the one called the most precious of all, the Fruit of the World Tree—was naturally beyond precious. It would not have been strange for an emperor to strip even his hidden reserves bare to obtain one. And yet…
“In my current condition, a spiritual elixir would be far too wasteful.”
“…? It's going into Jade's body, so there's nothing wasteful about it. Just eat it.”
“No, no. I'm fine. Really, I'm fine.”
It wasn't that Jade disliked spiritual elixirs, of course. But eating one now would be meaningless. To fully make an elixir's power his own required aura… and Jade no longer had any. He could try substituting Natural Mana, but the amount he could handle was so small that most of the power would simply go to waste. Eating it would make his body a little healthier, yes, but the return for the cost was far too meager—that was the real problem.
Besides, if too much energy floods in all at once, it could cause a reverse-flow backlash…
Countless nouveau-riche fools who had never properly trained aura or mana had ruined their bodies by carelessly swallowing spiritual elixirs. Adding Jade to that list would not have been surprising.
A low-grade elixir he could probably handle even now, but the greatest spiritual elixir in the world? He had no confidence he could endure it. In short, he had refused after a realistic assessment.
“…Then there's nothing for it.”
Fortunately, the World Tree gave up.
Jade breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that he was dealing with someone who could be reasoned with.
“Then how about one of my thousand-year-old branches?”
“…It looks extremely precious just from a glance…”
“Heh heh. It's not that precious, really.”
Jade was not fooled.
And in truth, it was extraordinarily precious.
A treasure so rare that great mages would say a single glimpse would fulfill their life's wish.
…She only needed to give me a blessing…
Jade could not understand how things had come to this.
…In other words, that was it.
He was a man with many sins. And men with many sins never realize how many they have. Jade was no exception.
“…….”
“…My lord, it will be over soon. You need not worry so much.”
“…….”
The great mage William was in agony. His lord was radiating a chill colder than the northern winds, and standing beside her was pure torment. When a superior was openly in a foul mood, no subordinate could possibly feel cheerful—and being a great mage did not exempt one from that thoroughly egalitarian principle.
Crunch!
While the Hero poured out freezing air and the great mage beside her walked on eggshells, the elf Riel was cheerfully chewing some fruit she had somehow obtained.
“Nom nom.”
“…Elf, can you even swallow that?”
“It's tasty, though?”
“…Is that so.”
He had meant it as a jab, but she answered with pure, innocent eyes, completely missing the attack. William decided he would simply ignore her.
“She's just talking with Mother for a bit—why is she radiating that much cold?”
“…….”
An elf who regarded the World Tree as a parent would naturally trust her completely and feel no worry at all…
Even I keep thinking ‘surely not’… but how much must my lord be fretting…
The World Tree falling for a human?
Something out of old myths couldn't possibly happen in reality, right? He wanted to dismiss it that way, but…
If it's Master, who knows…
Just looking at his own lord, she was the last person who would ever give her heart to anyone. She seemed further from love than anyone alive, the sort who would never offer such feelings to a single soul. And yet the man who had made even her feel love—and thoroughly stolen that heart—was Jade. …Though he himself had no idea. In any case, William, whose own past was rather colorful, had concluded that Jade possessed some kind of demonic charm he himself was unaware of.
And that demonic charm… just maybe… might even reach the World Tree. The possibility was not zero—and that was what made it terrifying.
That was when it happened.
“It's breaking.”
Sera spoke, and the World Tree's barrier shattered.
In an instant Sera's body vanished; she reappeared before Jade, laid him down, and began examining him with frantic care.
Even if she's in a hurry… to pour in that much aura and pull off something close to spatial leap…
The astonishing feat his lord had just performed left William momentarily frozen in shock.
Soon the World Tree reappeared in her soul form.
—Sorry it took a little while. Our talk ran long.
“You didn't do anything that would harm Master's body, did you?”
—Of course not. I even gave him a gift.
Sera immediately spotted the wooden ring on Jade's finger. She had no trouble reading the power radiating from it.
“You granted him your protection.”
—It will help Jade more reliably than a simple blessing.
The Protection of the World Tree.
It appeared without fail in every legend and myth connected to the World Tree—stories of the World Tree bestowing her protection upon a hero setting out to save the world. Sera herself had received it several times. It was perfect for Jade as he was now.
Perfect… and yet…
“You always made it a necklace.”
The World Tree had always granted her protection in the form of a necklace. Never once had she used a ring!
—I just felt like making it a ring this time?
“And why are you calling someone else's master by name so freely?”
—He said it was fine to use his name.
“And why that finger for the ring…”
But Sera could not continue.
Peck!
She had just witnessed a scene she should never have seen.
—While I'm at it, I might as well give him a blessing too, right? Heh heh.
“…Something that works just fine by holding hands—why did you have to soil someone else's master's forehead with your lips?”
—Hmm. Secret ♥
With those final words and a meaningful smile, the World Tree vanished on the wind.
Crack!
“…….”
William heard an ominous sound but pretended he hadn't. Acknowledging it would almost certainly be disastrous for his mental health.
“…William.”
“…Yes, my lord.”
“…Should I lock her up?”
“…….”
There was no subject.
But William could not bring himself to ask “Whom?”
He simply looked, with a gaze full of complicated meaning, at Jade, whom Sera was clutching tightly. And in that brief span Sera had already switched the ring the World Tree had placed on Jade's finger to a different finger. She had used so much aura that William hadn't caught even a flicker of the movement.
…His lord must have been in quite a hurry.
William decided that was all he needed to think about it.