◈ Episode 297 World Tree Expert (3)
“What is that?”
Chris asked that, but neither Rudger nor Bellaluna could give an answer.
Because they didn’t know either.
At first, I thought there was someone above the root.
Either the Liberator, or the Warlock, or both.
Considering this place now, it wouldn’t be strange if anyone was there.
But it wasn’t a person.
Otherwise, when Rudger looked around through sound magic, he would have to know that there were people.
‘Certainly nothing was detected by sonic waves. The only thing caught was the root of the World Tree. If someone predicted this and hid in advance, I have nothing to say.’
Perhaps not.
That means that the silhouette above the root is not a person.
Besides, I watched with caution, but I didn’t see any signs of moving in this direction.
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be moving. If that’s the case, we can go a little closer and check it out.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“Isn’t it always dangerous since you came here anyway?”
“Do you think it is more dangerous?”
“That’s something to take into account at the time of coming.”
“That makes me speechless.”
The two people who grumbled but unified their opinions, or even Bellaluna, three.
She didn’t even think of refusing because of her overflowing curiosity.
Eventually, the three of them, who agreed to go closer, slowly approached the root.
As I got closer, the blurry appearance of the roots became clearer.
And I was able to know the identity of the silhouette near the root.
“This….”
Chris slurred, and Ludger narrowed his eyes. Bellaluna opened her mouth.
What I thought was a person was something that came out of the roots.
something.
I literally had no choice but to put it that way.
It looked like a human with arms stretched anxiously into the air, and even with the knowledge and experience of the three people, they had no idea what to call it.
“You look pretty bad. It’s like someone struggling to get out of their roots.”
“I agree. I don’t think that’s the case at all.”
A root in the shape of a human upper body reaching out into the air without eyes, nose and mouth.
While the two were thinking that way, Bella Luna stared at them with a non-trivial gaze.
“Can I touch you? It won’t move suddenly, will it?”
“Are you scared?”
“what…! It’s just to prevent any unforeseen incidents.”
“It won’t happen anyway. If something like that was going to move, it would have moved in the first place. Or they would have moved now as we approached.”
“hmm.”
“From here on, it’s your turn.”
Rudger knew there was nothing he could do about the situation.
The reason Chris and Bellaluna were brought was because they were experts who knew something about the plant called the World Tree.
Chris was the young head of the Bennimore family, a magical family that made drugs, and Bellaluna was an elf with a deep knowledge of plants, even though she was kicked out of the village.
Rudger also had his own knowledge of pharmaceuticals, but he was lacking in front of these two.
That was what Rudger himself admitted.
“I will reinforce the boundaries around me.”
Chris nodded and went towards the root of the world tree.
He took out the tools he had prepared and calmly began collecting samples of the World Tree.
Bellaluna also stroked the surface of the World Tree and checked here and there.
Before long, Chris put his hand on the World Tree and it created magic.
Rudger watched the scene silently.
‘There was magic like that.’
A line of green magic extending from Chris’s hand penetrated the World Tree.
It was analysis magic used by magicians specializing in pharmaceuticals.
I’d heard of Rudger too, but this was the first time I’d actually seen it.
If you want to learn it, there is nothing you can’t learn, but that analysis magic was literally only for analyzing what kind of characteristics plants had, so it was not very useful.
It was entirely up to the user how to collect the characteristics and information and use them.
So even if you learned magic, if you didn’t have knowledge about herbs, it was virtually no different from a pearl necklace around a pig’s neck.
Eventually, as if the analysis had been completed, Chris removed his hand from the root of the World Tree.
“Did you find out anything?”
At that question, Chris shook his head with a slightly embarrassed face.
“I’ve found out about the properties of the object, but I don’t know anything definitive.”
“Is it because he’s not alive?”
“If that’s the reason, that’s the reason, but someone intentionally blocked the information.”
Rudger asked in surprise.
“Is it possible to block information?”
“surprisingly. This is the first time I’ve actually experienced it.”
“That doesn’t sound like a common occurrence.”
“Most organisms store information inside their bodies. Like the brain of a human head. It’s the same with plants. The root is in the root, and once stored information remains even when cells age and die.”
“okay.”
“Especially if it’s a giant plant the size of a world tree, the amount of information it contains must be enormous. People like me can read that information.”
“Then, it means that it is also possible to block information in reverse.”
“okay. That means there are more experts besides me here.”
Rudger guessed who it was.
It’s probably the work of the bioengineering black magicians that Hans said.
When Rudger hinted at the fact, Chris nodded as if he understood.
“indeed. For the bioengineering black magicians who created the chimera, it wouldn’t be impossible. The chimera they created right away must have been made by mixing the sap extracted from the World Tree.”
“Then, is there anything more to find out?”
“Unfortunately, this is the limit of my ability right now. I have no face.”
Chris openly admits his inadequacies.
Being stubborn here didn’t make it impossible.
If so, the role of the analysis team would have ended here.
It was at that time that I was thinking about going back since there was nothing more to do.
“excuse me….”
Belaluna, who had been looking at the World Tree a while ago, stood like a ghost between the two of them, wondering when the hell would come.
“What is it?”
“I found out something.”
“….”
“….”
At Bellaluna’s words, Ludger and Chris looked at each other at the same time.
Their eyes turned to Bellaluna again.
“What do you mean?”
Chris asked in a slightly expectant voice.
“The roots are dead, but there is still a tremendous vitality inside. It seems that black magicians pluck them out and use them.”
“Is there more than that?”
“yes. There is a figure of a person sticking out there. I don’t think that’s anything out of the ordinary.”
“Isn’t that normal?”
At Ludger’s question, Bellaluna nodded and spoke in a quiet voice.
“yes. It’s something fundamentally different from the World Tree. I tried to come out like that, but it seems like it was because of the repulsive force.”
“But it didn’t come out.”
“It’s clear that the people who injected it forced it out. But I can tell. That thing is still trying to get out.”
The three people’s eyes stayed on the form of a person who had grown from the tip of the root.
I don’t know what that is, but the words that I keep trying to get out came creepy to me.
‘this. No matter how you think about it, it doesn’t seem like an ordinary thing.’
As Rudger was thinking about that, Chris couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.
“Rather than that, how did Lady Bellaluna know that?”
‘Lady Bellaluna?’
What is it?
Now you put such modifiers in front of your name.
“…That’s because I’m an elf. Elves can communicate with the World Tree and instinctively feel the genetic information of plants.”
“You mean information blocking?”
“Those normal humans have a hard time doing that, but as an elf I can do it.”
Bellaluna nodded with a sigh.
Rather than saying it sincerely, he seemed proud of coming up with an excuse that made him understand immediately.
At that, Chris stroked his chin as if it were strange.
“Ugh. From what I’ve heard, even if you’re an elf, it’s not easy to read the information on the World Tree.”
“Yes yes? to whom? Who said that nonsense… ….”
“I heard from Mr. Vierano. Do you know Mr. Vierano Dentis?”
“…!”
Bellaluna’s reaction to the name was intense.
A name everyone knows.
In fact, it was a name that Bellaluna, an elf, could not have known without knowing it.
The Dentis family has boasted of prestige enough to be counted among the elven families since ancient times.
Rudger felt something strange there.
‘wait for a sec. No matter how much an elf is, reading the information on the World Tree is not allowed, and even that behavior is close to hypersensitivity.’
Although he wanted to, he tried to deny it, but Rudger’s mouth naturally let out the question he had in mind.
“no way. stealthily…Have you tried it?”
“…!”
Bellaluna stares at Ludger with her eyes wide open.
He kept his mouth shut, but his actions said it all.
‘Really?’
Bellaluna Petana.
An eccentric elf kicked out of the elf village.
At first, Ludger thought that the reason she was wandering outside was because of the discrimination against the elves due to their tight social nature and intolerance of strange things.
However, it turned out that there was a hidden story behind it.
That’s a very serious reason.
Bellaluna violated a taboo that was not allowed and was kicked out of the village.
Also, the taboo of contacting the world tree.
Besides, if it came into contact with the world tree, it would not be a small village, but an elven kingdom centered around the world tree.
“Contact of the World Tree…. Oh my God, it was.”
Chris nodded as if he understood.
He also had a story to tell.
“Elves have a fixed class even within their society. There is also a strict rule that among powerful families, those who are not in charge of the central root must never come into contact with the World Tree.”
Human academia concluded that the world tree was just a type of ancient plant that existed a long time ago.
However, the elves were still busy worshiping the World Tree, calling it a divine tree.
Of course, they had no choice but to react extremely sensitively to an unqualified person touching the world tree.
I would have understood it if Bellaluna had said that she was actually from a powerful family but was hiding her identity.
‘Looking at that cold sweat reaction, it doesn’t seem like that. Did an ordinary elf, who was not allowed to, really touch the World Tree?’
More than that, you’ve got a life attached to it.
Or did the elves just drive them out of mercy?
“So how many times have you touched the World Tree?”
Rudgar asked, and Bellaluna answered in a small, crawling voice.
“twice….”
“Not once, but twice?”
“No, three times….”
“….”
“Four times…?”
Rudger closed his eyes.
Even Chris, who would think that Bellaluna would be beautiful even if she chewed on an insect, looked puzzled, wondering if this was a bit too much.
At this point, I was amazed at how Bellaluna was still alive.
“It’s okay! It only happened once!”
“….”
“….”
In other words, Bellaluna was kicked out of the elven village not because of her unique bizarre disposition.
Exactly, I wasn’t even given the qualifications, but it was because I contacted the World Tree and read the information.
In terms of Earth, it is like a soldier entering the top secret information room of the highest command and viewing the contents.
Rudgar glared at Bellaluna intensely with wide-eyed eyes.
The unspoken pressure of why such an important story has not been told until now.
Bellaluna couldn’t bear to meet those eyes and shrugged her shoulders and slightly turned her head.
Rather, it was Chris who reacted to Ludger’s actions.
“Why are you staring at me like that? Even though Lady Bellaluna did something wrong in the elven society, this is a strictly human society. I don’t have the right to say anything wrong with that.”
‘That’s because it’s an irrelevant story.’
With Bellaluna, there was no way to know if other elves would appear at any time to find the traitorous elf.
I still have a headache because of the Black Dawn, but when elves are added to it, it becomes quite annoying.
‘It would be fortunate if it took only one time and ended up being kicked out with that.’
Seeing Bellaluna’s behavior, there must have been something else hidden and unspoken.
Perhaps thanks to Chris’ protection, Bellaluna gained courage and spoke out again.
“That’s right. Besides, I am reflecting enough. What is more important is the present, not the past.”
“…As far as contact goes. If so, what do you see as something that is trying to get out of there?”
Rudger pointed to a human figure protruding from the roots.
When Rudger said he would let it go, Bellaluna replied with a little excitement.
“I’m not sure, but it’s absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Even though the World Tree is dead, its vitality is truly amazing, and looking at these traces, it tried to escape rather than being buried in its vitality.”
“So do you think it will move now?”
“That’s just a trace. Traces of the power contained inside trying to flow out. It won’t move.”
“then….”
“yes. That odious power that can be said to be the true body is still dormant at the root of the World Tree. And the Liberation Army and Warlocks are trying to deal with that.”
uneasy power.
At those words, Rudger narrowed his eyes.
Bellaluna was by no means weak enough to attach that word to anything.
If she said that, it was a truly unusual power.
Belaluna, who had been saying that, opened her mouth as if she had suddenly come to mind.
“Come to think of it, there is one thing that vaguely comes to mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is said that such a similar power existed before. Compared to that… …No, it’s almost exactly the same.”
“Do you know what that power is?”
“yes.”
Bellaluna nodded with a heavy face.
“That’s the devil’s power.”
Rudger and Chris held their breath at Bellaluna’s words.
devil.
A name that exists only in mythology and has now remained only in legend.
It was then that Ludger, who was calmly organizing his thoughts, opened his mouth.
“How else did you know that? That’s not something you would know from contact with the World Tree.”
“….”
Bellaluna closed her mouth at that question.
Rudger’s eyes narrowed.
“…Could it be that you saw that secretly?”
Bellaluna’s cold sweat increased even more.
Rudger sighed inwardly.
I called him a world tree expert, but he was a habitual offender who contacted the world tree without permission.
