"You read an old book about the Calamity?"
"Yes."
As with any game, in <FoS> too, the crucial information that runs through the setting is fragmented and scattered here and there.
It might be ancient script carved into old ruins, or it might take the form of a signpost standing alone in a danger zone.
Or, as I'd told Kazen, it might be sleeping in a corner of an old bookshop or general store in the Royal Capital.
'That was actually the case.'
The warning about <Wood Revenge>.
It was located in a root cave formed beneath a special tree that exists on this field.
'How did it begin?'
It definitely opened with something about the <Ash Moon> and the <Frost Sun>, but I decided to omit that.
It's lore only those who dug deep into <FoS> would know, so these people probably wouldn't either. The same went for the mention of the <Sun Worshippers> that followed.
Organizing my thoughts, I spoke from the part after that.
"……「From the heart of the forest a black tree shall rise, and their master, in the form of a lowly creature, shall lick the blue branch」."
Actually, in the section between, there was a mention of <sacrifices>, but I cut that part.
In a calm tone, I recited the latter part of the prophecy.
"「Until the forest's wrath is soothed, there shall be no door out, nor any road back」."
⁝
"「Those who plot escape shall be cursed: living, yet not alive; dead, yet not dead」."
The wording might have changed a little.
Even I couldn't memorize every single line written in the old book. It didn't much matter, as long as the gist got across.
"Is that the end?"
"Yes."
As with any warning written in an old book, most of it was vague talk, but surprisingly, people of this world would be used to this manner of speaking.
"The forest's master, in the form of a lowly creature, shall lick the blue branch."
As expected, the White Knight pinpointed exactly the section I wanted him to focus on.
I nodded and said.
"That part bothered me too. It's a guess, but isn't the black tree growing in the center just a form, with the true body elsewhere? It says a lowly creature, so it might be hiding in the form of a bug."
"You mean that to escape this Calamity, we must find and eliminate that lowly creature, or bug."
The White Knight murmured as if organizing the situation, then looked at me.
A cool gaze, as if to confirm the truth, but I had nothing to fear. Everything I'd just said was true.
"……"
My face is burning.
This guy—surely he doesn't have some skill for distinguishing truth from lies?
Just as I began to feel slightly uneasy, Laurent turned his gaze and this time took in the black tree.
'What is he doing?'
After about 10 seconds passed amid my puzzlement, Laurent opened his mouth.
"No particular bug-like form can be confirmed."
"……You just examined the tree?"
"Yes."
A hollow laugh escaped me.
'It's several hundred meters away.'
And the undergrowth is thick, too. What kind of eyesight is that?
"……It probably can't be confirmed by the naked eye alone. It's a guess, but it might be hiding with something like camouflage coloring."
With no other choice, I released one more piece of information.
Information I'd deliberately hidden, thinking that saying this much might draw suspicion.
"Then searching for it will take time as well."
"Right."
"And the search itself will not be easy."
Quick comprehension is a good thing, but somehow chills kept running down my spine.
Because even in a situation like this, he's someone who can't be fully trusted.
"As you say, there'll definitely be interference. Even you won't find the red Woodmen easy to deal with."
I didn't know Laurent's level, but even if this guy's level were 60 or higher, he couldn't hold off a group of <Woodman Avengers> alone.
"The red Woodmen……. You mean the Woodmen that look like unpleasant dolls?"
"You saw them?"
"Yes. They showed no immediate hostility, so we did not fight. They looked us over, then passed on by."
Seasoned, as expected. He knows that encountering a monster in the forest doesn't necessarily mean combat.
Of course, for me, it was a regrettable development.
'If that noble had been the sacrifice, things would have been a bit better.'
The White Knight is definitely a person to watch.
But as one bound by a knight's oath, it would be difficult for him to pull anything funny while he had a charge to protect.
At that moment, the young lady, meeting my eyes, frowned.
"I've been listening this whole time, and—hey. You there, commoner. Who are you to be ordering Sir Laurent around?"
"……"
Her name was Seigrena, wasn't it?
I thought the surname was longer, but I'd let it go in one ear and out the other.
Judging by it being a house I didn't know, it was probably a baronial family at most. Her attitude was practically that of a duke's only daughter, though.
"And what was that? Even you won't find it easy to deal with? Ha. Do the rumors of White Knight Laurent not even reach a commoner's lowly ears?"
I ignored the ornament's words without any particular reply.
"Grr……!"
At that, her face flushed even redder and purpler, but what did she want me to do about it?
Having entered the forest meant her status was that of a Delver too. And among Delvers, there is no high or low of station.
'It's a law the kingdom itself enacted, so even nobles can't say anything.'
There were several reasons this law came to be, but I had no room to go over them now.
Ordinary nobles have no reason to come to the <Forest of Eternity> in the first place, so it's not something they'd raise their voices over either.
"Insolent bastard……! Sir Laurent! Let's just drop this cooperation with these worthless people! I don't know about this Calamity or whatever, but we'd be fine moving on our own!"
"No."
"Ah. I-is that so? Then shall we……?"
The young lady who'd shouted so boldly shrank in an instant at Laurent's firm reply.
'Not a high-flying noble, then.'
If she were, she'd never have come to the forest in the first place.
Probably the third or fourth daughter in her family, or thereabouts?
Long pushed out of the succession race, with no support base and no faction, with nothing to her name but a well-groomed appearance.
'Whew. That much is a relief, at least.'
Better the White Knight as a conversation partner than a noble daughter who's clearly walled herself off from logic. Time bomb though he is.
Laurent looked at me.
"How much time remains?"
"I can't say for sure, but not much. The scattered Woodmen will soon swarm back."
"Are they currently pursuing another party?"
"Probably. And once they find them, they'll kill them."
At this, Laurent fell into thought.
"Those red Woodmen…… they passed us by without attacking. There must be some condition for them to attack."
"Right. The party being chased right now probably killed far more Woodmen than either you or us."
This was a little unexpected even to me.
Because I'd actually thought the White Knight's side was the party that had killed the most Woodmen.
'Not that strange, is it?'
Woodmen are weak monsters.
Markedly so, compared to other monsters of the same level.
Even a party with relatively weak forces can hunt them in bulk if they know the strategy.
"I have a proposal."
I said the most important part.
"Could you leave the search for the lowly creature to us?"
"To you?"
"Yes."
"Ha!"
The snort was from the greenhorn, so I didn't care.
The problem was that she wasn't the only one showing an uncomfortable reaction this time.
"What are we supposed to trust? Couldn't you be scheming to use us as bait and run?"
The spirit summoner, who'd been quietly listening, asked in a sardonic voice.
I nodded and said.
"「Until the forest's wrath is soothed, there shall be no door out, nor any road back……」. That's the passage from the old book I just recited—have you forgotten already?"
"How are we supposed to trust that? You could have altered the contents however you liked."
Hitting the heart of it out of nowhere. I hadn't actually altered this part, but I couldn't say that either.
Instead, I nodded readily.
"A reasonable guess."
"Your rebuttal?"
"None in particular. There's nothing to prove it with."
"……"
"But if all you do is doubt, cooperation itself can't happen in the first place."
"……I don't know what you're relying on to be so bold. Don't tell me you think your forces and ours are equal?"
The spirit summoner said in a voice full of disbelief.
Of course he would.
He wouldn't understand why a party of obvious beginners, carrying around a Lowest-Grade crystal, was putting on such nerve.
It didn't matter.
The one I needed to persuade wasn't him anyway.
"……"
The final decision-maker had kept silent through our argument without readily opening his mouth.
And as the surroundings gradually quieted and gazes naturally gathered on him, he declared.
"I accept."
"What?"
"S-Sir Laurent?!"
Murmurs rose around us.
Seigrena in particular looked ready to pop her eyes out with dissatisfaction.
"However, there is a condition."
"What is it?"
"We will mix our groups."
"……"
As I wondered what he meant, Laurent continued.
"Alon's words are not without merit. So would the problem not be solved if we mix our groups, so that neither side can pull any tricks on the other?"
Alon was the spirit summoner's name. And the meaning of what Laurent was saying…….
'He means to shackle each other.'
With one of ours on their side, neither party could easily run.
It was a bit uncomfortable, but there seemed no better solution in this situation.
"Fine. Then how will we mix?"
"Each side picks one."
He'd go this far?
Since I'd raised the idea, I'd assumed he'd lead the selection himself. Inwardly I was flustered, but Laurent's expression was serene.
Taking my eyes off Laurent, I looked over the other group as a whole.
'Their total headcount is five.'
The party composition: knight, warrior, rogue, spirit summoner, and lastly the ornament, Seigrena. Excluding the ornament, effectively four.
"……"
Honestly, whoever came would be of little help. Because finding the 'bug' comes down to persistence and luck more than a keen eye.
In that case.
"Does that person count too?"
Without much expectation, I pointed at Seigrena.
As the spirit summoner said, we could abandon the White Knight's group and run at any time.
But put another way, the same went for them.
In other words, if combat ability wasn't the criterion anyway, the person with the highest value as a shackle would be best.
"This insolent commoner bastard, how dare you, to whom……!"
"Very well."
"Sir Laurent?!"
Seigrena called Laurent's name for the third time already.
This time, she sounded a little close to tears, somehow. Laurent's face, on the other hand, remained serene.
"F-Father said, didn't he? That you must stay by my side no matter what, and protect me……! Are you planning to betray your faith as a knight now?"
"If what Kaindel says is true, the most dangerous place in this operation is where I will be."
"It's still just the entrance! And you could protect me in any situation, Sir……"
"My lady."
At the White Knight's calm voice, Seigrena flinched.
"That is not all Lord Walter said."
"Huh……?"
"I understand he said that in the Forest of Eternity, you are to follow my instructions."
"U-ugh……. But."
"I will rejoin you shortly, so please do not worry."
"……"
Seigrena, her face gone pale, nevertheless ended up nodding, even with a face full of dissatisfaction.
Laurent looked at me again.
"How long do you expect it to take?"
"Hard to give a definite answer."
"Looking at it as conservatively as possible."
"……About 10 minutes?"
In the game, the 'bug' had set spawn locations.
Of course, there were dozens or more of them, but it could be found in about 2 to 3 minutes.
'It won't be that easy now.'
Since I'd have to climb the tree and inspect the branches myself, it'd probably take at least several times longer.
"10 minutes. Understood."
Laurent nodded this time too without further comment.
"……Tch."
"No help for it, I suppose."
The rest of them seemed to have plenty of complaints too, but they mostly showed signs of accepting the decision of Laurent, their group's leader.
"Then who from our side?"
"Hm."
Laurent's gaze went back and forth between Kazen and Kria.
"If it's all right, may I join you?"
Laurent looked at the crossbow fastened to Kazen's wrist and asked.
"You know how to use a crossbow?"
"I do."
"Good. Let us do that."
Wherever you go, ranged damage dealers are favored.
Laurent's party was clearly weaker in rear support than front line, so he must have had his eye on Kazen with his crossbow from the start.
'Against Woodman Avengers, he'd struggle to pull his own weight, though.'
Still, better than Kria.
Since the situation seemed roughly settled, I shifted to the next topic.
"The moment we run over there, the Woodmen will swarm. Their numbers will keep growing. So……"
"You said 10 minutes."
Laurent said.
"I will hold out to the best of my ability."
Laurent could hold out fine. Barring any unexpected developments, that is.
"Whew."
After letting out a breath without meaning to, I looked at the black tree.
"Then, shall we begin?"