CH 88.1

Just when Shedia smiled brightly to the confirmation we were going to see the World Tree.

“The King invited them?”

“You mean, these intruders?”

The elves asked, incomprehensibly, but a Ranger shook his head.

“He’s a Hero, not an intruder. Set your words right.”

He bounced off the complaint. Scores of conversation balled between the elves and Rangers, but ultimately, it seemed Rangers ranked higher in authority.

Meanwhile, there was another person who was shocked by the Ranger’s words…

“Hero..?”

It was Katarina.

She looked incredibly like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

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“Cloud…. what are they saying? You’re a Hero?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I am a Hero.”

“…don’t kid with me.”

“I’m not kidding.”

Katarina’s eyes quivering.

“Well, then I’m not traveling the continent like normal people do, but I’m following the journey of a Hero who’s on a quest to defeat the demon king…?”

“Answer!”

When I nodded in affirmation, Katarina chuckled, somehow dangerously as if she had lost her mind.

“Cloud, I will go back and become the best dancer. Let’s meet again after defeating the Demon King someday.”

She naturally took the angle to run away.

I caught her, chuckling, gave her a deep kiss and said, parting our lips.

“Ha ha, I can’t let you go.”

* * *

After injecting Katarina with the reality of the unachievable, we followed the Rangers.

They walked us through the woods for a while and then they led us into a cave system under a cliff.

“…why do we have to enter a freaking cave?”

Katarina muttered in a weak voice.

Well, she was still trying to get over the shock.

Anyway, talking about weak…

Back in the days, if I had revealed I was a Hero, the guys who fought me in the tournament back in Alitia would have quit that instant, jumping out of the ring.

As I clicked my tongue at the weakness of things these days, we reached the end of the cave before we knew it.

Exiting the cave, a beautiful scenery unfolded that was incomparable to the forest f**kery from before.

A large tree — World Tree — sat right in the center.

A white wall surrounded the World Tree and an antique palace sat under it.

Not to forget the jade-colored fresh fields stretching across the palace.

“Wow…”

Not only Shedia, but Katarina also was mesmerized by the scenery.

The Rangers gave the two women time to admire.

They pretended to be reticent, but their wooden faces cracking down behind their masks showed pride.

“Please, come. Our King awaits your presence.”

They ushered us into the palace.

The white walls exuded more grandeur the closer we got.

It reached its climax when we reached the gates.

The palace gates, made of the very same material as the castle walls, looked very sturdy.

‘There are dozens of defense magic formations alone.’

An unbelievable amount considering that only five defense magic formations were engraved on the gates of the Capital of Prona.

As I was looking at the magic technology applied to the gate, someone came out through the open gate.

It was a female elf with her hair braided in a tail.

She did some quick chat with the leader of the Rangers who was leading us.

“Klein, you are here. Are they those people?”

“The Hero and his companions. I’ll take them to where the King is.”

“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”

After gaining clearance from the female elf, Klein led us into the palace.

The inside of the palace was all white, as if it were designed by a patient with mysophobia.

If it weren’t for the colorful patterns engraved here and there, you could think of it as a place made to torture people’s mind.

As I was looking around the palace, Katarina tugged at my seam.

“Hey, Cloud. Those people over there… No, the elves are looking at us and whispering something, they give me a bad vibe. What do you think they are talking about?”

Looking in the direction she was pointing, I saw elves dressed in luxurious clothes that imperial aristocrats would wear. They gathered among themselves, looked at us, and whispered and squabbled.

I didn’t try to overhear their conversation using the Behemoth’s Glyph.

Just by looking at their expression, you could tell it was nothing good.

“Racists, you can find them anywhere actually. Here, they are hating people with short ears — us.”

“Uh… are ears really that important?”

Katarina asked in a puzzled tone.

“They are like that. Someone gotta be on the lower end of the scale, right?”

“Ah, it’s like that.”

Convinced, she nodded her head.

Then she made a pouty face.

“That means we’re not welcome.”

“Better than being riddled with arrows.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Please maintain silence. Soon we will arrive at the place where the King is.”

Klein cut short of our conversation.

We walked in front of a stone gate with a huge wooden inscription engraved on it.

Klein got down on one knee toward the stone gate.

“King. I brought the Hero, Cloud, and his companions.”

Krrrr!

The stone gate opened, revealing the expanse of white mist blocking the door.

“Come in.”

“This… means we can go in, right?”

“Yes. If you go in without the King’s permission, you’ll be lost in the woods for the rest of your life, but you’re invited. You may go in.”

To Katarina’s question, Klein replied, as if to reassure her. However, it worked less at reassuring Katarina, and more at making her more anxious.

I ran my hand through the fog a few times before walking into it.

After crossing the fog, what was visible was the huge World Tree.

It was so large that just looking at the cross section of the World Tree filled my field of vision.

Looking away from the World Tree, I could spot countless elementals roaming the air. Walking down the trail, I soon saw a handsome male elf sitting in front of the table.

The elf was wholly different from the ones I had seen so far.

He… gave off a sophisticated and elegant atmosphere.

“Cloud? You okay?!”

Katarina’s panicked voice was heard from behind.

“It’s okay, come in.”

Shedia was the first to react after hearing my words. Hopping through the fog, the first thing she saw was the World Tree, leaving her eyes widened.

After that, with a probing look, came Katarina. Her reaction was also not much different from Shedia’s.

“Welcome. I was waiting.”

The Elven King smiled.

“I am honored to have you waiting for us. May I ask why you have called us?”

“The Hero of this age is impatient, I see. Come, sit down. It’s never too less time to talk over tea.”

I let out a small sigh as I the Elf King offered me a seat across him.

“I see. Sit down guys… hey, what are they doing?”

I asked, looking at Katarina who was struggling, surrounded by over-enthusiastic elementals.

“I don’t know either. They suddenly came, clinging to me…!”

She pushed away the touchy elementals.

However, the number of approaching elementals was too many for her to push away with both hands. Before long, she was buried under elementals.

Seeing the chaos, the Elven King remarked in a surprised voice.

“It’s amazing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mostly, elementals do not like humans. That’s why humans have a low sensitivity to elementals. But this lady is different. Even though she is a human, her sensitivity to the elementals is surprisingly high.”

Now this wasn’t the time to drink tea leisurely. After saying that, the Elven king stood up from his chair and blew a whistle. The elementals surrounding Katarina quickly dispersed.

I approached her.

“You okay?”

“No… I’m not okay…”

Her hair was like a wild bush, dirt on one side of her face, and parts of her body were soaked wet as Katarina answered with her blackened face.

Shedia looked over with envy, then stretched out her hands towards an elemental.

The elemental fled far away.

“…”

Shedia pouted as she looked down at her own hands.

I left her alone and looked at Katarina again.

‘Fortunately, there are no scorched wounds.’

It seem that the fire elemental controlled its heat.