Chapter 82
[World Tree Manager Baek Do-woon cannot enter Yggdrasil.]
[The current Manager is too weak to enter Yggdrasil.]
"What the hell?"
I frowned and glared at the message window.
Too weak to enter? Was this some kind of joke?
Just then,
"Y-yes?"
Regina looked at me with a bewildered expression.
She seemed to think she might have made some mistake, and her face had gone careful and tense.
I must have startled her by scowling and cursing.
Dammit. Regina hadn't done anything wrong at all....
I lowered my head and apologized.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't talking to you, Regina."
"Then what was it about...."
Regina asked as she returned to the Sanctuary.
I let go of her hand and pointed with my chin toward the outside of the Sanctuary.
"I can't get across."
"Ah. I thought that was strange too. You really can't get out at all?"
"As of now, no. I can't."
"That can't be right...."
As she spoke, she reached toward the dimensional barrier.
Regina's pale hand passed naturally back and forth through it.
By contrast, my right hand couldn't get through and was stopped cold.
The sensation was like pressing my palm against a wall.
[World Tree Manager Baek Do-woon cannot enter Yggdrasil.]
Only that message window appeared again.
Too weak to enter, huh....
I thought I had gotten stronger too, after two rounds of Pruning and the growth of the sprout.
Apparently I still wasn't strong enough to cross into another dimension.
Well, that made sense. The other side was dangerous enough that the Demon Race had turned the elves' forest into a wasteland.
It wouldn't let just anyone survive there.
Still, if I got stronger than I was now, that would solve itself.
Then the condition blocking my entry would naturally disappear.
"...Ah."
"What's wrong?"
"Why don't we try it the other way around once?"
"The other way around?"
"Yeah. You go to the dimension I live in."
"I-I'd like to try!"
Her eyes lit up as she answered.
The dimension where the World Tree Manager lived.
She must have been intensely curious about it.
I held out my left hand toward her.
She extended both hands and took mine.
There was a warmth in an elf's hands that didn't differ much from a human's.
I picked up my smartphone and pressed the button to leave the Sanctuary.
[Another-dimensional presence has been detected near the Manager.]
[You cannot return.]
"Damn it...."
"It doesn't work?"
"No. It doesn't."
"Oh...."
Regina slumped her shoulders.
Her two hands, which had been resting on mine, dropped as well.
Judging by how disappointed she looked, she had really been curious about another dimension.
Should I not have suggested trying it?
"Hmm...."
As I drew my hand back, I looked beyond the barrier.
Patria wanted me to go outside.
No, more precisely, he wanted me to see something outside.
What had he wanted me to look at?
All I could see beyond the Sanctuary was a vast stretch of barren land.
"It's contaminated."
"Contaminated?"
"Yes. There used to be a forest here. A forest that stretched on forever...."
"A forest...?"
A forest that stretched on forever?
The world outside the Sanctuary didn't look like a place where a forest had ever existed.
The ground was so dry and cracked it looked as though it had split apart. Not even a single tree could grow there, let alone a forest.
According to Regina, this was what happened when corruption spread.
I didn't need to think long to guess who had spread that corruption.
"The Demon Race."
"Yes, that's right. That's exactly what those bastards did."
Regina bit her lower lip slightly.
Even so, she went on.
"It's not just this place. The Demon Race is contaminating the entire continent. The elves' forests, the dwarves' mines, the humans' grasslands.... All of it."
"...."
"So many of those captured were forced into vassal contracts and became slaves to the Demon Race...."
Vassal contract....
Crowd was definitely an organization made up of people who had entered into vassal contracts with demons.
Looking at how intoxicated they were by power, it probably hadn't been forced.
They must have made those contracts of their own will, in order to gain tremendous power.
"...Now I understand what Patria wants from me."
He wanted me to understand that their situation was far from ideal.
He wanted to ask me to help them because they were in a desperate bind.
One thing I still didn't understand was why he, the elder of the forest, hadn't come himself.
He had brought along Regina, who looked the youngest among the elves.
Why?
When making a request like this, the one at the top should be the one to step forward.
The one at the top?
"Could it be...."
I looked at Regina.
Memories of when I first met the elves came back to me.
When Patria had stepped forward, the other elves had fallen back only after she did.
And one more thing.
Why had the previous Manager given the fang necklace, the key to the Sanctuary, to her?
She had been watching me, and when our eyes met, she gave a small smile.
Then she brought her hands together and bowed slightly.
"I should have introduced myself properly, shouldn't I? I am Regina Reditus, the First Leaf of the Reditus Forest."
"Huh...."
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to deceive you...."
"It's fine. Being cautious is only natural."
"Thank you for understanding."
"Oh, then what am I supposed to call you? Your Majesty?"
"What? Oh, no! Regina is fine. Please just call me Regina, like you did before."
I couldn't do that.
She was the leader of an entire race.
How was I supposed to call her casually?
The safest thing would be to put a polite honorific after her name, just like I had with Patria.
All at once, she folded her hands politely and bowed deeply again.
"Regina, First Leaf of the Reditus Forest."
"Why are you...."
"I ask this favor of the World Tree Manager."
"A favor?"
"Please allow the elves of our Reditus Forest to tend to the World Tree."
Huh?
That was not the request I had expected.
I had thought she was going to ask me to fight alongside them against the Demon Race.
I hadn't expected her to ask to be allowed to tend the World Tree.
"We elves are children of the World Tree. That means our bodies are like trees."
That was what Patria had said when he explained Nemosoro.
"As the World Tree grows, we gain strength as well."
"Ah...!"
So Regina and her people were in the same situation I was.
Just like me, the more the World Tree grew, the stronger they would become too.
It was a relationship of mutual life and death with the World Tree.
That was the kind of thing I had expected from elves.
And one more thing.
I liked their mindset of growing stronger on their own and fighting their enemies themselves.
"...."
While I was admiring that, Regina waited silently for my answer.
The fingertips of her hands, folded politely together, trembled a little.
She was probably worried I would say no.
I was planning to allow it.
I had to keep growing the sprout anyway, for my own sake too.
And now I had elves, experts in cultivating plants, offering to help?
That was like having a pumpkin roll into my lap with the vine still attached.
There was no way I would refuse a request like that.
That said, as the one being asked, I was in a position to ask for something in return.
I should use whatever I could use.
"If you do one favor for me."
"W-what is it?"
Regina straightened up and asked.
Then she hurriedly added,
"Anything I can do, I'll do it!"
"Altera-Shonem."
"Huh?"
"Please teach me Altera-Shonem."
Regina frowned.
She tilted her head, then asked cautiously,
"...You'd be satisfied with just that?"
Just that?
Magic that turned trash into fertilizer.
That was the greatest magic in the world.
Do they not realize how badly our country is struggling because it can't process its garbage these days?
There were even people suggesting they dump it into unpopular gates.
For the elves it might be no big deal, but for humans like us, it was the kind of magic everybody would want.
"If you teach me, I'll allow you to tend the World Tree."
"If that's all, I can teach you right now!"
"Then it's settled. Please take good care of our child."
"Our child.... Yes! I'll put my whole heart into it!"
Regina answered, clenching both fists in determination.
She was adorable.
"Well then, shall we head back?"
"Yes!"
Having gotten what she wanted, Regina answered brightly.
Then she walked ahead like a guide.
Before following her, I looked back once beyond the dimensional barrier.
The ruined Yggdrasil came into view.
Honestly, whether it was this world or that one, dealing with those Demon Race bastards was the same kind of misery everywhere.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Hello, viewers of Hunter Together! I'm Gong Cheol."
Gong Cheol, with his short hair, bowed toward the camera and greeted the audience.
He lifted his face again with a smile on it, but the corner of his mouth twitched with tension.
It was obvious he wasn't comfortable.
That was only natural.
He was an employee of the Hunter Association, not a professional broadcaster.
He definitely wasn't the kind of person who could host a live broadcast through Watcher Cast.
The reason he was doing it was simple enough.
He was the youngest member of Hunter Management Team 2.
In any organization, the lowest-ranking employee had to do what he was told, if someone higher up ordered it.
That was, unless he handed in the resignation letter he'd been hiding under one corner of his office desk.
Gong Cheol looked toward the team leader standing beside the camera.
Team Leader Kang Min-jae was grinning as he gave him a thumbs-up.
Gong Cheol thought that carefree expression looked irritating as hell when it wasn't his problem.
"Everyone, did you hear the news? A new high-grade potion has come out."
The broadcast lines came fairly smoothly from Gong Cheol's mouth.
No matter how annoying the team leader was being, there was nothing he could do about it.
All he could do was keep the script going.
"The newly released potion was made by Crystal Workshop, and it's been a huge issue among A-class hunters lately. Apparently the taste is extremely distinctive."
"Unfortunately, our Association couldn't get any because the potions sold out in no time at all."
"So! We brought in someone who bought the potion and actually drank it!"
"She is none other than the A-class hunter, Jung Ha-seol!"
As he said that, Gong Cheol gestured to his side.
The camera shifted slightly, revealing a woman with her hair neatly tied back.
She bowed her head, fidgeting with her fingers like someone who was nervous.
"H-hello! I'm Jung Ha-seol!"
"Hello, Ha-seol. This is your first appearance on Hunter Together, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes. That's right!"
"I heard you've tried both kinds of potions. Is that true?"
Gong Cheol kept an awkward smile in place as he continued the questions.
He was nervous too, but he was trying not to show it as much as possible.
He was doing it to be considerate of Jung Ha-seol, the guest.
"Yes. I didn't drink all of them, just a sip from each."
"I see. They say the taste is extremely distinctive. Is that really true?"
"Yes."
"...."
"Um, what... did it taste like?"
Gong Cheol kept his awkward smile in place.
Then he carefully asked the question.
Jung Ha-seol realized her mistake and quickly replied.
"A-ah! Um, it tasted like s-p-i-r-i-t-w-a-t-e-r! It tasted like pine water."
"A potion that tastes like pine-leaf tea. That's interesting."
"Y-yes."
"Then what did the mana potion taste like?"
"The mana potion tasted like... um, mint chocolate."
"Pardon?"
"It was delicious."
...What the hell did she just say it tasted like?
I stared blankly at Jung Ha-seol.
She lightly licked her lips.
The chat window burst into flames.