When the flowers of the World Tree bloom (2), the
snow is cloudy and looks like a pure white fog.
Green eyes, barely maintaining their color, were looking closely at Alicia’s amber.
“…You were a distinguished guest.”
A smile began to form on the old elf’s face as he recognized the scenery contained within the amber stone.
The elder of the elves.
Old Geronimo, who survived the Troubled Times, was able to recall a very old memory through the amber stone brought by Vlad.
“Where did you get this amber stone?”
“I heard it’s a Hainal family heirloom.”
The elder’s gaze became pleased as he met the boy’s blue eyes.
He was indeed a precious human guest whom I had not seen in a long time.
“Hainal, Hainal…”
The eyes of the old tree, recalling the greenery of the past, trembled.
With the old man’s weakened energy, it would not have been easy to uncover the memories that had been piled up over many years.
“Sword Master.”
However, there are names that cannot be forgotten no matter how many memories are buried under the weight of time.
People whose every step they took became history.
The current era was all built on their traces.
“…It seems like one of the knights who followed him had that last name.”
Auguste was standing quietly behind Vlad, listening quietly.
Just like that, holding your breath.
For a knight who has devoted his entire life to the empire, hearing the traces of the founding king must still be a heart-pounding experience.
“I want to know where the maple tree is in here. Elder.”
Old Geronimo opened his closed eyes at the sound of a voice coming from in front of him.
Blue eyes that can be clearly recognized even with hazy eyes.
The young knight’s earnestness was evident from the fists he clenched without realizing it.
“You want to know where the maple tree is in here?”
“yes. That’s right.”
The sparkling blue eyes are like starlight.
It felt as if the possibility that had finally taken shape was writhing within him.
“How did you know that the scenery contained here was a maple tree?”
“……yes?”
But no matter how shiny it is, how did we get a glimpse of a world that would not have been allowed to humans?
At the Grand Elder’s sudden question, Vlad was completely out of breath.
“…….”
There are also excuses I have thought of just in case.
But for some reason, I felt like I shouldn’t lie in front of the old elf in front of me.
It was a warning that came from neither experience nor knowledge, but only instinct.
“Well, what does it matter?”
The elves look suspiciously at Vlad, who is unable to answer with his mouth shut.
However, the old elder simply closed his eyes again with a faint smile as if nothing had happened.
Geronimo was a person who knew very well that the reality seen right in front of him was more important than each and every minor flaw.
“…The maple tree carved in here was on the west side.”
“Is it the west?”
The elder’s answer is finally heard.
Vlad was so excited by the answer that he unconsciously asked in a suppressed voice.
“okay. West. “A place with the greenest forest on the continent.”
However, Vlad felt something strange as he listened to Geronimo’s words.
“Is there a forest like that in the west?”
To the west there is only a long wasteland.
In the western part of the empire, full of rough soil and dry winds, there was no such thing as the green forest the old man spoke of.
“There was.”
At Vlad’s question, a wrinkle appeared on the old tree’s face.
It was a wrinkle that looked like a deeply engraved wound.
“Our forest that existed a long time ago.”
A landscape I had dreamed of.
However, there was a memory of that day that was painful just to recall.
There was a wheat field full of golden light.
A large forest where you don’t know where the wheat, which turns its head here and there depending on the wind, ends.
Children playing along the red-colored twilight.
And there was a red maple tree overlooking all of this from atop a low hill.
There were scenes like that.
“Before the dragon burns it.”
The most perfect dragon.
A cursed being who burned all of this with just one breath.
His eyes were shaking dizzyingly as he wandered through now burned memories.
“Then…”
“Now how can I find something that doesn’t exist?”
It seemed as if black ash was flowing from the old man’s mouth as he spoke of old memories.
“It’s been a long time since everything burned down to ashes.”
An autumn scene captured in a yellow amber stone.
The things that were engraved there were now nothing more than burnt memories, like a pile of ashes.
The young knight’s eyes were constantly pulsing as he searched for something that did not exist.
※※※※
Inside the room given by the elves.
There, Vlad was sitting against the window sill, looking out.
Forest of elves. Aushurin.
It was said that the green light that extends to the eastern end is connected to the blue sea that I have never seen before.
“Then I will go look at the leaves of the thujon.”
Auguste, wearing a gray hood, did not forget his purpose for coming here.
A closer look at the origins of absilon.
Only inescapable and solid evidence can stop the madness unfolding in the Empire.
“They told me to stay here?”
“Please tell me there was.”
Vlad owed Auguste his life, and in return, he led him to the elven forest, which humans could not easily enter.
Therefore, Auguste’s current actions were like his inherent rights that Vlad could not dare to restrain.
“The atmosphere seemed somewhat chaotic.”
“do not worry. “It’s something I’ve done many times in my past.”
Auguste, who had told him not to worry because he would come back quietly without being seen, grabbed the window frame instead of the door and looked at Vlad.
“As expected, your teacher seems to be a person related to the imperial family.”
“……is that so.”
“That’s the way I see it.”
When Vlad heard those words, he let out a deep sigh.
An imperial sword that is said to have maintained its original form.
And now the scenery of Elvenheim, the forest of elves that burned down a long time ago.
Now, not because of a contract, but out of pure curiosity, I was starting to wonder who the voice was.
“The founding king, Frausen, voluntarily resigned from his position as emperor and became the lowest person.”
The lowest.
Knights who throw away all the titles they have accumulated so far and prepare for retirement by completing the tasks they could not accomplish as just a single person.
Its glorious beginning was none other than the founding king Frausen, the king of knights.
“Just like the beginning of the legend, the end is also mysterious and unknown. “I thought maybe you were the person connected to the unknown end of Mr. Frausen.”
The end of the founding king Fraussen was an honorable retirement.
However, there were only rumors about the last days of Frausen, the lowest of the low, and no one knew for sure.
If you listen to what the elves say, wouldn’t the young knight currently sitting on the window sill dejected be a trace of that glorious ending?
“Then what do you do? “The clue was lost here.”
“It’s cut off. In my view, this is just the beginning.”
Auguste put his feet up on the window sill where Vlad was sitting and looked down with a smile.
The ground seems so far away.
The increasingly dark surroundings obscured Auguste’s vision, but he did not hesitate.
In order to find the truth, sometimes you have to push yourself into the darkness.
“Now is the beginning?”
In response to Vlad’s question, Auguste put on his hood and put his feet up on the window frame.
“If your teacher is the one who followed in Master Frausen’s footsteps, then you can follow in his footsteps.”
If you don’t know the end, just follow from the beginning.
Vlad’s teacher was strongly connected to the sword master’s traces, so if you follow Frausen’s last traces, you will eventually be able to find out the teacher’s identity.
“I heard that no one knows what happened to Mr. Frausen in the end?”
“Humans are like that.”
Auguste looks at Vlad with a smile.
The setting twilight of the day was forming between his hidden face.
“But the elves might know.”
With those words, Auguste jumps outside as the dusk falls.
Vlad was surprised to see him falling down with his hood fluttering.
“It’s not even a cat.”
As he was a former pickpocket and thief, his agile movements were even more recognizable.
The old knight landed on the ground without a sound and soon walked away naturally as if nothing had happened and disappeared into the forest of elves.
“…Then I guess I’ll have to stay here a little longer.”
Vlad is left alone in a room without Goth or Auguste.
In the quiet room, Vlad leaned his head on his knees and lost himself in thought.
‘I said I definitely saw it.’
The voice said that it had definitely seen a scene inside the amber stone.
However, his memories were unclear and uncertain, so perhaps he did not see the voice in person, but rather saw it through amber like himself.
To say that I saw it in person in the first place was hundreds of years ago, so the time zone would not be correct.
“What did you do? really.”
It would be easier to keep the 7-year contract with Josef.
The more I followed the traces of the voice, the more I felt like I was blocked in front of a huge castle wall.
Knock knock.
“……?”
While Vlad was thinking for a while, a knock on the door reached his ears.
“Come in…”
The
door opens carefully before even telling you to come in.
White blonde hair was clearly visible through the small open door.
An unknown girl who dragged herself into a fantasy.
“Do you have a moment?”
The girl, who only poked her head into the room, smiled as soon as she recognized Vlad.
As if we had known each other for a long time.
※※※※
I wanted to ignore it if possible.
There were warnings from the elves not to go outside.
However, there was a strange stickiness in the girl’s words that was difficult to reject.
Just like the eyes shown by the elder of the elves.
“Where are we going now…?”
Unlike the girl who was smiling brightly, Vlad’s expression was stiff.
It was inevitable that the two elves who were still following the girl were looking at Vlad with an indifferent look on their faces.
“I want to show you something.”
“What do you want to show me?”
Vlad decided to act as cautiously as possible.
From the first time I saw him, I knew he was an unusual person, but to the point where he even had to drag an escort with him.
The girl who is smiling brightly as if she is excited must be a girl who holds a high position in the world of elves.
“That amber stone.”
“Amber?”
“huh. that.”
The girl said, pointing her finger at Vlad’s sword.
“Yes, that! “I really want to show you.”
Looking at the girl who still didn’t say the subject properly, Vlad sighed softly inwardly.
“He wants to see his mom. “He’s never seen his mom since he was born?”
“mom?”
Incomprehensible words.
The words were so disorganized that it seemed as if something was missing, but the girl’s eyes did not waver in the slightest.
“……Who is he?”
In response to Vlad’s question, the girl started pointing to a certain place without saying a word.
The end of the direction she points.
There stood a huge maple tree with green leaves that had not yet colored.
“World Tree?”
After checking where the finger was pointing, Vlad turned his head and looked at the girl.
“I really want to see my mom sometime.”
“…….”
Even though it was a word that I couldn’t understand with my head, it touched my heart.
Maybe it was because of the girl’s attitude as if she was talking to a person, but when I saw the World Tree again, it looked different.
The branches of the green maple tree seen in the distance were shaking.
It was as if he was beckoning me to come over. Just like that.
