So This Is What the World Tree Tastes Like (2)
Duke Kailan had left the elves' punishment entirely in my hands.
I had wondered, at first, why the duke himself should have any right to punish them or claim compensation. But I was a citizen of Silbaerin and its honorary quartermaster, and I had been kidnapped. Harm had fallen on its ruler as well, and so a share of that right—not as much as mine, but a share—had been granted to him.
For his compensation, Duke Kailan had the audacity to demand a hundred kilograms of every kind of crop they grew. There was no way to haul it all off at once, of course, so this too would be entered in the ledger and called in when needed.
The elves harvested their crops by borrowing the World Tree's vitality, and a volume like that was anything but small. It almost seemed worth worrying whether the World Tree might grow thin.
"Yes... I understand. Take them whenever you wish."
"Hm. You have my thanks."
Trea and Elioren, hearing the proposal, agreed without a word of objection. Or rather, it wasn't that they had no objections—the shock had simply left them unable to think of anything else.
Just as the final agreement was about to be sealed, Trea asked a question.
"Sir Jinwoo. Do you truly mean to... partake of the World Tree? If you wish it, I can offer you other rare fruits instead."
"No. I'm not trading."
"Khhk..."
Trea, Great Elder of the elves, let the stifled sound slip from her like a lament.
What was I supposed to do? I was curious. Whether the World Tree bore fruit, or whether it had no fruit to speak of and only sap running through it—and whether any of it could be eaten.
I didn't fully grasp the principle behind that vitality, but I knew it was an extraordinarily mysterious power. A tree with a power like that dwelling in it—surely eating it would do something?
When I refused to budge, Trea sighed.
"Haa... Very well. The first time is the difficult one. From the second, the shock is at least a little easier to bear."
"Sorry? A second time?"
What was that supposed to mean? Had someone besides me tried to eat the World Tree? Had another human visited Nuardel before me? Or maybe someone had slipped in and tasted it in secret.
"Yes. She stands even now before your eyes. 'The first elf ever to eat the World Tree.'"
"Uh... don't tell me—"
From the way the conversation was going, she wasn't talking about herself or Elioren.
I turned my gaze to the three elves standing behind me. Seiran and Veila awkwardly avoided my eyes. And one elf who couldn't even lift her head, her ears flushed a furious red.
"Iseria. You actually did?"
"Uuuugh... that's not exactly the important thing right now..."
Iseria went scarlet and twisted her signature twin tails around her fingers.
Wow. Not a human—an elf. A young lady from a fairly distinguished house, no less, eating the World Tree? That wasn't on the level of wandering the sample counter at a big-box store and snagging a bite or two of meat.
This time it was my turn to be struck speechless.
"Yes. Well... as she says. A lapse of the past. And she has paid the full price for it."
"The price?"
"Yes. I administered the punishment myself. Five hundred strokes of the switch..."
"Ah, Great Elder! Please!"
Iseria, who had apologized for the crime and accepted her punishment with perfect composure, shouted for the first time.
Yeah. That was definitely one for the black-history books. Elioren couldn't bring himself to raise his head either.
She had used the word price. Did that mean eating the World Tree was illegal? Nuardel was a rough-and-ready society whose laws had never been properly set down. Harming the only Sacred Tree in a world like that was, morally speaking, an uncomfortable thing to do.
"Is it illegal, then? Something like that?"
"No... Nuardel has no properly established law, but by common sense, it is an impious act..."
"Ah."
Trea answered with sweat beading on her brow.
Even so, I could yield on everything else. Not on the World Tree.
From the moment I had opened my eyes in Nuardel to the very air of this council chamber, a faint fragrance had kept making itself known. At first I had taken it for nothing more than the clean breath of a green forest, the smell of grass—but the longer I breathed it, the more I realized it was something else.
Wherever living things dwell, waste is inevitable. Byproducts of life, spoiled crops from the fields... and waste like that inevitably gives off a stench. And yet, for some reason, I had no memory of smelling anything unpleasant in Nuardel. Even when I approached a deep pile of straw, all I caught was that peculiar warm, musty softness—not a trace of rot. Only the straw's gentle warmth remained, while a fresh scent I couldn't name drifted faintly through the air.
I turned toward the window and looked out at the colossal tree rising beyond it. The majesty I had felt on the first day was still vivid. The World Tree, visible from anywhere in Nuardel. The closer one drew to it, the thicker this mysterious green fragrance became.
The scent was surely the World Tree's own. A superb deodorizing power that left only an ingredient's inherent flavor and erased every stray odor besides. I had said I wanted to eat the World Tree, but this was what I truly wanted—an unbeatable culinary deodorizer that killed off every last off-note.
I saw that possibility in the World Tree. Which meant I wanted to taste it at least once, if only to be sure.
When I began to visibly agonize, Trea spoke.
"Damaging the World Tree's living wood would be difficult, I think—even for you, Sir Jinwoo."
"Ah... right."
"In its place, I can give you the World Tree's sap, and leaves that have fallen of their own accord."
"Oh—really?"
"Yes. They have already parted from the wood, so it is of no great consequence. The World Tree itself rather encourages their use."
Nice!
I cheered inwardly. Every matter was settled, so there was no need to keep frying jeon. I shot up from my seat.
"Let's go to the World Tree."
And quickly. The anticipation was killing me.
Once we left the council chamber, Trea and I headed straight for the World Tree.
The Sildiel estate already lay near the heart of Nuardel, and from there we had to press even deeper into the core. The road was no small matter either. It wasn't that the path was poorly kept, or that it was some forest trail—layers of barrier magic, set by the elves to protect the World Tree, lay in wait along the way. Thicker still than the Vert Veil spread across Nuardel's border, the World Tree's own barrier had been laid over everything.
How did Iseria ever get through this?
The security was enough to raise the question on its own. The World Tree's inner sanctum, high-order wards stacked one upon another. Aside from me, who was here to receive compensation, Arthur, Kailan, and even Elioren the elf had been unable to come along. Without special business, not even a family head could come and go as he pleased. Setting that aside, Elioren had no choice but to go the other way and mind the three rookie criminals of his house.
Arthur and Kailan weren't even parties to the matter. They were human, so of course they couldn't enter.
"Take care not to fall behind. You may lose the path in a moment."
"Hhk—yes!"
I snapped to attention at Trea's warning. Fog lay thick over everything, and strange woody vines sprawled out in every direction... thoroughly unsettling.
I walked on with a tight grip on the hem of her robes, and the gloom around us flooded all at once with bright light.
"Whoa..."
"We have arrived. The Sacred Tree of the elven people—the World Tree."
"A baobab?"
"Pardon? What did you say?"
"Ah, I said it's incredibly beautiful."
The biggest tree I had ever seen in my life was a baobab at an arboretum. My limited experience was what had dragged the baobab to mind, but at this scale it was more like those posts that went around the internet—hundred-million-year-old world-boss sequoia.jpg. The photos made them look absurdly huge. Even so, this World Tree seemed larger.
Its girth approached half the Sildiel estate, and it stood as tall as a Gangnam skyscraper. What defied belief even more was that, for all that overwhelming bulk, countless branches still spread from it. Grown long and narrow like a cedar, it might have endured. The World Tree was closer to a zelkova, glittering as it opened wide.
At that height the surface catching the wind would only grow broader—terribly dangerous. If a tree on this scale snapped in a typhoon, wouldn't that be Nuardel going offline for good, effective that very day?
"Wow... yeah. This is the kind of being that could give you a faith you never had."
"Heh. I am glad you recognize it."
But I soon set the worry about safety aside. With every sort of security magic hung upon it, I doubted a little wind would get through. I simply marveled at the World Tree's majesty. Look upon a vastness of nature that steals the breath, and you can almost believe you've shrunk to the size of an ant. This was exactly that. My chest swelled.
A fine sight. I'd file it away somewhere in my head.
Then I spoke to Trea about what I had actually come for.
"Lady Trea. So the sap and the leaves—what should I take?"
"The leaves, I shall give you from what we have gathered. For the sap, this way."
Trea stepped into a hut used as both a resting place and a storehouse and brought out a beautifully worked glass bottle, clear and about a handspan long. I followed as she walked on with familiar ease.
"Do you see it there? The sap is flowing."
"Ah, I see it."
"Yes. If you would wait here a moment..."
"No. I'd like to collect it myself."
"Pardon? Ah... very well. Do be careful."
Bottling sap wasn't difficult, and I wanted to do it myself if I could. I might never come this close to the World Tree again. And more than that... you never knew.
If I touch the World Tree, will it register in the Mana Market?
The Mana Market refused to handle anything that wasn't classified as an ingredient. I used it often because it was useful, but I hadn't the faintest idea what it actually was. I wasn't about to start researching magic, so I probably never would. Even so—could this ability, which already transcended the common sense of another world, register the World Tree itself?
It was an irreverent thought, but if by some chance it did, planting a second World Tree might even be possible. I had no intention of making money off it, and no intention of living in luxury beneath its shade.
I'm just... curious.
How was I supposed to hold that back?
I stepped onto the enormous roots breaking the surface of the ground and approached the place where the sap flowed. Careful footsteps, and a thrill that set my heart pounding. At last I reached the trunk where the sap ran.
Wooooong—
Was this low hum a hallucination born of my nerves? Or the voice of the being called the World Tree?
I set the bottle exactly where the sap wouldn't spill, and laid my other palm against the World Tree.
Crackle—!
"Gah—?!"
A sharp pain, the instant I touched it. A shock a little more numbing than static—I nearly dropped the bottle.
What? Is it rejecting me?
No ingredient I had ever registered in the Mana Market had reacted like this. Either it sank in and registered, or there was no response at all.
In the moment my head reeled with bewilderment, a message rose before my eyes.
This item cannot be registered yet!
A short line, set down with mechanical indifference. The same format as the status windows I was used to seeing. And yet—
A chill raced up my spine. Goosebumps broke out over my whole body.
If it says "yet"...
I can register it? The World Tree?