The root of the World Tree, a holy site of life.
Before leaving that room, Raniel took out a potion bottle and filled it with water flowing through the canal. One of the reasons for coming here was to obtain the essence of life.
Wiggle.
The roots of the World Tree swung uneasily, but ignoring the root’s movement, Raniel took out another potion bottle and filled it to the brim.
“Help me save the world already. It’s not like I’m going to wear out just by using this…”
There’s plenty to use.
Muttering this, Raniel managed to fill three potion bottles. This was part of the agreement with Orbel, so the roots of the World Tree merely swayed uneasily around Raniel.
What dwells in the roots of the World Tree are fairies and spirits that love the forest, and they couldn’t sense any ‘impure intent’ from the woman in front of them, so they silently watched.
“Whoosh.”
Raniel tied the fully filled potion bottles to her waist and threw open the door to the holy site. Just before stepping out, she took one last look at Kyle and Sara.
“Seriously.”
A light, carefree laugh.
With that smile, Raniel turned her gaze forward again. She had checked everything she needed to before getting busy. Now it was time to return.
To the stage she was meant to be on.
In other words, the battlefield.
*
“Did you have a good chat?”
“Yeah. It was a struggle to get away. They were clinging to me, asking me to stay just a little longer.”
Cardi shook his head slightly with a weary expression.
“What about you, Raniel?”
“What about me?”
Cardi pointed at Raniel’s face.
“You look a bit brighter.”
“I finally cleared all the things I’ve been thinking about for the past three years, thinking I should do it when I had time.”
She had seen her Master and checked on the state of the lazy folks sleeping around. For some reason, her steps were a bit lighter, and Raniel let out a long breath.
“Now I have to return to the battlefield.”
On the way out of Yggdrasil.
“By the way.”
Raniel, who had been walking ahead, turned around with a playful expression.
“How do you feel? You’re heading back to the battlefield.”
Centuries have passed, and now back to the battlefield.
It was something she could hardly imagine. As she contemplated the chance bestowed upon her, Cardi shrugged.
“Time is indifferent. I’m no longer a Great Mage or a Grand Magus.”
“But you still have the knowledge, right?”
Raniel smiled.
“I’ve already told Resti. A senior from way back is going to return to the Tower.”
The Ashen-Haired first master of the Tower, Armiel.
No mage in the Ashen Tower doesn’t know that name. A legendary mage and the one who laid the groundwork for the current Tower.
“Facilities will be sufficient, so at that place…”
“Yeah, at that place.”
Cardi continued her thought.
“That means you’ll just have to prepare for that day.”
Six months from now.
Waiting for the day when what they have built will bear fruit, Cardi will once again immerse herself in research. To fulfill the wishes she couldn’t achieve in the past.
‘And…’
To put a period on the research she couldn’t finish.
“I’ll be busy for a while.”
“You look more cheerful than someone who claims to be busy.”
Raniel pointed at Cardi’s face.
Cardi’s golden eyes were smiling with a relaxed expression, and the unique sense of resignation that usually lingered there was noticeably absent.
“I should be happy.”
Cardi smiled.
“Everything about this is like a miracle to me.”
Not a sneer, but a light laugh.
As Cardi walked, memories of the past flooded back. She reflected on the many paths she had walked. Could her past self, who made a contract in the northern Tower centuries ago, ever imagine this future?
‘No, she probably couldn’t.’
She would have dismissed it as a joke.
It’s an absurd tale.
She would have scoffed at the idea.
‘But those stories…’
Now bear the weight of reality.
Not by chance but entering the realm of inevitability determined by her own efforts. Cardi van Armiel smiled in satisfaction at that fact.
After chasing nothing but delusions for over a thousand years, the mage realized that what she had been looking at was not entirely an illusion. Something that exists in reality. A conclusion she could reach. Therefore…
“I have to put in the effort.”
“Yeah, give it your all.”
Raniel turned back around with a smile.
As the Ashen hair fluttered in the wind, Cardi’s gaze suddenly shifted to the potion bottles dangling at Raniel’s waist. She pointed at the potion bottles, which felt infused with the energy of the World Tree.
“But why did you bring those?”
“Because I have a use for them.”
Raniel playfully tapped the potion bottles tied to her waist.
“I’m going to give them to Kalt.”
“You mean that hunting dog?”
“Yeah. It seems like he’ll have to move around more. And well, he doesn’t have anything special, does he?”
He doesn’t possess the healing powers of a hero, nor the blessing of the Lord of Shadow Dragons, and he doesn’t even wield the First Holy Sword. In short, it meant he lacked proper means for rapid recovery from injuries.
“He might collapse soon, so I’ll have to prepare something good for him. I usually don’t do this sort of thing… but I felt I should for him. His eyes looked so baggy, you know?”
It’s like seeing a living zombie.
I’m worried he’ll collapse like that.
“Uh, Raniel.”
As she muttered this, Cardi glanced at Raniel and casually asked.
“…If you’re that worried, can’t you just reduce his workload?”
A quite obvious question.
But there was no reply.
Raniel merely fiddled with the potion at her waist, saying this without answering the question.
I hear this one has fatigue recovery effects too.
2.
“Oh.”
“Why are you suddenly feeling weak, bro?”
“I’m not sure. I suddenly feel chills. It’s not even cold out, what the heck.”
“Is someone cursing you or something?”
“Hey, who would curse me?”
Kalt chuckled lightly.
“I’m working this hard.”
On a pile of demon lord’s minions.
Sitting atop the corpses of the demon lord’s army, Kalt casually tapped the pile with his sword sheath. The silver-white blade was stained red with blood and flesh.
“Is everything sorted on your end, Karioth?”
“Looks like it’s gotten somewhat done.”
The Undying, Karioth.
The Holy Knight who ascended to the position of a superhuman pointed at the pile of demon lord’s corpses behind him, smiling wryly.
“Though I’m much slower than you.”
Both had ascended to superhuman status around the same time.
However, having been deployed on multiple operations alongside Kalt, Karioth felt a sense of unease. It was a discomfort aimed at Kalt the swordsman, feeling like he was something not quite right.
It’s not that the skill with the sword is solely determined by the years; Karioth had spent a long time swinging a sword. So he has a fair amount of confidence regarding weapons. Especially now that he has ascended to superhuman status.
But…
The swordsman lighting a cigarette on the pile seemed somehow different. Hunting Dog, Kalt. He became a superhuman at a young age and has survived encounters with calamities multiple times.
That young swordsman was somehow different.
When did he first feel that discomfort?
Perhaps it was the day he faced Kalt in their second mock battle. A mock battle to train their superhuman senses through exchanging blows. In the first mock battle, Karioth had clashed swords with Kalt for a decent amount of time.
Though he lost in the end, it wasn’t a crushing defeat.
A difference determined by a slip-up or a narrow margin.
Karioth thought he might be able to win the next time they fought. With that thought, days later, the day of their second mock battle arrived…
Clang!
Karioth lost in just three exchanges.
Although he didn’t use a tactic he was confident in, based on his undying nature, he never expected to suffer such a crushing defeat.
At that moment, Karioth felt uneasy.
Kalt’s speed hadn’t increased. It wasn’t that he improved his swordsmanship in just a few days. What decided the victory and defeat was something much simpler…
“You’re really unique to see, bro.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Karioth pointed his sword at Kalt.
“That monster you’re sitting on. The sandworm.”
“Oh, this?”
Kalt poked the corpse of the sandworm with his sword.
Green blood splattered splash, and Karioth continued.
“Didn’t you find that annoying in our last battle? Digging into the ground made it hard to catch them. That’s why it took so long.”
“Yeah, that was true.”
“But today, you smashed it the moment you saw it?”
Whatever trick he used against the sandworm, Karioth had clearly seen him slice it into pieces with just one swing. It was a scene that felt quite strange to witness.
“How did you do it, exactly?”
“The sandworm has habits, you see.”
Kalt exhaled a long plume of smoke and murmured.
“The moment it burrows into the desert, the moment it pops up, the reverberation of the ground overlaps. I observed that a bit in our last battle. When I looked closely, there were repeating parts. I made a prediction based on that this time.”
“….Really? I didn’t see any of that.”
“Well, it’s because my class is Tracker, isn’t it? That habit of trailing behind is still with me.”
If you just watch, you can pick up on things.
As Kalt responded like that, Karioth wore an incredulous expression. It shouldn’t be easy to catch the habits of a creature after just one fight. If it were that simple, the sandworm wouldn’t hold such a notorious reputation.
“Anyway, I really don’t want to fight them again.”
Karioth shook his head.
Yes, the essence of his discomfort was right here.
That swordsman, both a superhuman and a tracker, boasts an overwhelming success rate against any target he has faced at least once. He sees through the long-formed combat habits of his opponents, precisely targeting the gaps.
In one strike, he alters the trajectory of the blade.
In a spaced-out moment, he creates openings.
Karioth clearly remembered Kalt aiming at his neck in the third exchange. The chill in those eyes he couldn’t shake off.
Remembering that spine-chilling sight, he saw Kalt puffing on a cigarette, staring into the sky with vacant eyes, as if he felt disillusioned with the world.
“…Why do you look like a walking corpse, bro?”
“Karioth, I…”
There was no vitality in that voice.
Looking like he would take damage if a priest cast a heal spell on him. Rubbing his tired eyes, Kalt said.
“I have a senior I truly admire. Someone I really look up to…”
…I think I know who that might be.
“That person said that on the day I retire, they’d build me a structure in the royal capital.”
In Kalt’s hand was a letter.
“Join the 4th Front in Crempelia.”
A letter detailing the battlefield he was supposed to head to next.
“I’ll be off first…”
As Karioth watched Kalt’s staggering figure retreat, he clicked his tongue. The young man sure has it rough.
3.
4th Front, Crempelia.
“Hey, Lac.”
Saint Natida.
“We’ve known each other for a while now, right? We can call each other comrades, can’t we? At this point, we’re soulmates, you know? Right?”
Under the moonlit night.
“So what I’m saying is…”
She whispered softly.
“Shall we go out?”
