"Sir Laurent."
"What is it?"
"Do you truly trust that man?"
Laurent raised his head at his companion's words.
"A strange question, Alon."
"Is it? I simply cannot bring myself to trust him. That man Kaindel is certainly hiding something."
"Is that intuition?"
"……Well, yes."
Alon the spirit summoner shrugged.
"Intuition is important. All the more so in a place like this, at a moment like this."
"Then……"
"But in a situation like this, there is something even more important."
"What would that be?"
"Sensing the other party's sincerity. Whatever else, I sensed a desperate heart in that man Kaindel. A heart that does not wish to die."
Alon snorted.
"Isn't that a mindset every living creature has?"
"It is. So what matters is what action a cornered person takes. Kaindel seemed quite level-headed even in this situation. I did not get the impression of someone spouting lies out of fear. Seeing that, I judged him trustworthy for now."
Laurent's gaze went past Alon's shoulder.
"Is that not so?"
Kazen swallowed dryly.
"……That's right. Mr. Kaindel is an amazing person. He knows the forest well, and he's always made only quick and accurate judgments. If not for Mr. Kaindel's help, by now we'd be—"
"Anyone listening would think he was a veteran Delver who goes in and out of the forest's deep regions."
Alon cut Kazen off with a sneer.
"There's nothing more unsightly than bumbling amateurs who barely loiter around the entrance puffing each other up."
Kazen gritted his teeth.
"……I'm certainly a beginner as a Delver, but my eye for people isn't worthless either. Mr. Kaindel is special."
"Special? Haha. The longer someone's done this work, the less they use that expression. You can say that only because you've never actually experienced a special person."
Saying so, Alon turned his gaze to the White Knight.
Laurent understood the meaning of that gaze, but cautioned his companion in an even tone.
"That is enough, Alon."
"Dear me. Was I a little too much?"
"The forest must not be underestimated just because it is the entrance. For one, it is clear that this Calamity itself is a situation we have never experienced."
"That is true."
"For now, I would be grateful if you would respect my judgment in forming an alliance with them."
Alon shook his head comically.
"If you say so, Sir Laurent. I'm ashamed to have only made the atmosphere strange for nothing."
"No. It was necessary."
Laurent truly thought so.
Because he knew well that discontent like this quietly condensing was the most dangerous thing.
At least the accumulated discontent had been vented once through Alon's voice, so the discomfort in the others' hearts should have faded to some degree as well.
WHOOOO—
At that moment, a wind blew in. A warm wind, ill-suited to the forest's atmosphere and, above all, to the season.
"……"
Alon blinked his eyes and listened to the spirit's whisper.
"Sir Laurent."
"Yes."
At his companion's signal, the White Knight drew his sword.
"All hands, prepare for battle."
***
After sending the signal, I sprinted at once. When I checked behind me, Kria and Seigrena were keeping up fairly well.
She runs well for a noble…… the thought crossed my mind, but was I looking down on her too much?
RUMBLE-RUMBLE……!
The moment that idle thought crossed my mind, the whole ground shook, and numerous vines emerged from beneath the surface.
"Agh!"
At that instant, there was a tumbling crash and Seigrena fell. It seemed her leg had caught on the growing vines.
"Wh-what are you doing? Hurry up and help me up……!"
"……"
"Are you listening? If you're thinking of abandoning me here……"
She's throwing every fit in the book.
I grabbed Seigrena by the scruff of the neck and hauled her up, saying.
"Why are your clothes so big? And what's with that glove? Why are you only wearing one?"
"Sir Laurent gave me this…… no, wait, what business is it of yours what I wear?"
"Can't you see we're being held up because of you? If you're on your feet, shut up and run!"
I ran, swinging the scythe.
The vines were tough, but not beyond cutting. Because they'd only just burst out from underground and hadn't properly hardened yet.
"H-hey, commoner! Something's strange!"
Strange?
"Th-the vines are clinging to my legs like they're alive! U-ugh. It's disgusting……! Hurry up and get them off!"
"Goddamn……. Deal with it yourself!"
We were being held up far too much by mere vines.
Laurent's side might have already begun engaging…….
'I should consider the timer already started.'
Meaning, 10 minutes from now.
Ignoring Seigrena's whining and continuing to sprint, we finally managed to reach the black tree.
"The tree. Can you climb it?"
Two different answers came back to my question.
"How could I do something so vulgar?"
"I can."
I suppose that's a relief, at least. I'd considered the possibility that neither could. If so, I'd been planning to throw them up.
"Kria. Go to the spots I tell you and look for a 'blue branch.'"
"A blue branch? I don't see anything like that……."
"It'll be mimicking. When someone gets close, its color will show. It's sensitive to body heat."
With Laurent absent, I gave the information more concretely.
Fortunately, Kria, who'd seen this side of me often, nodded without any particular suspicion.
"Understood."
"I'll tell you the locations. You'll have to memorize them in one go—can you manage?"
"Yeah."
"Good. And as for you……"
I looked at the white elephant and said.
"From the base of the tree, check every branch within reach. That should do."
"……"
Seigrena, with a sour expression, reluctantly tucked her chin a fraction.
Her eyes were attached properly, so she could manage this much.
With no time to confirm, we climbed the tree at once.
"Sylph."
WHOOSH.
Correction. I alone climbed the tree. Kria's body floated up, drifting faintly in the air.
Slightly dumbfounded, I asked.
"You could carry people too?"
"Originally I couldn't……. But since coming to the forest, my bond with the Sylph has deepened."
So as her level rose, the skill level rose too.
Judging by the look of it, though, Kria's weight seemed to be the limit.
"Then I'll leave the upper section to you. You remember the spots I mentioned earlier?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Hurry."
At that moment, from far off, the faint howls of Woodmen could be heard.
'Has it started?'
How long could Laurent hold out, I wondered?
Thinking about it now was meaningless.
Suppressing my impatience, I quickly checked the places where the 'blue branch' had been in the game.
'Not here.'
The hope that, with heaven's luck, I might find it on the first or second try…… vanished in an instant.
I'm not that lucky a bastard to begin with, and even less so in decisive situations like this.
'The places where the blue branch is found number twenty-seven in total.'
Nine in the upper section Kria was handling.
Twelve in the middle section I was handling.
And lastly, six in the lower section within Seigrena's reach.
'Dammit.'
Not here either.
Already the tenth, and still no blue branch, no forest's master in sight.
How much time has passed?
It felt like 5 minutes had already long gone by. Anxiety had made my palms damp.
"H-hey, commoner!"
Seigrena's voice snapped me alert.
"What? Did you find it?"
"There's fruit at the end there! Could that be the lowly creature?"
"……"
As if.
Irritation flared for a moment, but come to think of it, I hadn't explained about the fruit to them.
Because it was a matter connected to the sacrifices.
"I said a branch. Does that look like a branch to you?"
"You never kno…… hey! Don't ignore me!"
Letting Seigrena's shout go in one ear and out the other, I thought.
Surely I won't end up finding it at the very, very last…….
That thought became an ominous certainty after I'd checked every location in the middle section.
'Not here.'
Not in the middle section. The bottom was narrow in scope, so it would have been fully checked long ago, and now only one remained.
"Kria! Did you find it?"
A reply came quickly from above at my shout.
"I don't think it's up here……?"
"What? Did you properly—"
Did you properly search…… the words rose to my throat, but I forced them down.
Kria's work is on the thorough side. Kazen, maybe, but she'd never once shown carelessness in a task she'd been given.
'Did I miss it, then?'
That can't be……is not something I could say with certainty. But there was no time to search again from the beginning now.
"Commoner!"
Just then, that ear-piercing voice stabbed in again.
"What now?"
"What kind of attitude is that toward a noble? In the kingdom, you couldn't even look at……"
"Enough—get to the point. There's no time."
"……Hmph. There's another strange thing here."
That 'strange thing' of hers.
"If you're going to spout nonsense again—"
"A branch, I mean! I found one!"
"What?"
Seigrena reached her hand toward the branch—
And at that moment, the branch squirmed and its color changed.
"Look! It's right this time, isn't it? Not nonsense, is it? The color's a bit different, but it's a special branch!"
Seigrena, triumphant, then tilted her head with feigned puzzlement and asked.
"But it doesn't particularly look blue, so what do I do with this?"
Groaning, I looked at the branch's color.
"……An ash-gray branch?"
What's this now?
I racked my brain desperately, but nothing came to mind. Meaning a situation had arisen that even I didn't know about.
'Tsk…….'
I felt a curse coming on.
"What do I do? Just cut it? Or……"
"Wait a moment."
"What? Hey! Can't you see Sir Laurent is fighting right now? Is this the time to take it easy?"
I could see it perfectly.
I also knew that even the White Knight couldn't hold out long.
'Less than a minute left now?'
I didn't know. Maybe the situation was far more pressing than that.
But a rushed judgment born of urgency is not allowed. That's the worst move of all.
"Whew."
I exhaled the heat in my head with a sigh.
A blue branch and an ash-gray branch…….
What's the difference? Were there no other hints? Maybe there's something I'm missing.
'Dammit.'
For now, I don't know what it is. If this is <FoS>, there should surely be a clue, but nothing comes to mind.
"Hey! I'm just going to cut this, okay?"
Amid that, Seigrena spoke to me again.
Irritation surged at how she still hadn't grasped the situation.
"Cut it rashly and then what? The color's different, for starters."
"So what if the color's a little different? Is the effect going to come out the complete opposite when it's cut? Besides, at this rate we'll all die anyway, so we have to do something!"
Those words brought me slightly to my senses.
Of course, it wasn't that I was swayed by that logic-free jab—one word had caught in my head.
"The opposite?"
When I heard that word, something came to mind.
「At last the Ash Moon was driven out, and the Frost Sun rose full」
What flashed through my mind was the old book's opening passage.
A part I hadn't particularly mentioned to Laurent, since it was abrupt and stood alone, disconnected from the rest.
And the old book had described the Woodmen as <Sun Worshippers>.
'Trees and the sun…….'
I know this isn't the time. But I frantically continued my reasoning.
First, trees.
To a tree, what is the sun?
Naturally, the mother of all things, and an object of unceasing worship. Because no tree that can live without the sun can exist.
'Then what about the moon?'
No need to think about the moon's astronomical properties or its effects on ecosystems. What to focus on in the vague words of an old book like this is the symbolism.
"The opposite of the sun……."
Suddenly, the Woodmen's characteristics came to mind too.
These things barely move at night, but put the other way, there were times they did move. When I played the game, I'd taken it for a random event determined by RNG, but what if that wasn't it?
'What if they could only move on nights when dark clouds hid the moon.'
……At last the Ash Moon was driven out, and the Frost Sun rose full.
Not that it literally happened. That was probably a metaphor for a struggle between worshippers.
In other words—
What the old book's contents mean is that long ago, there existed certain beings that stood in opposition to the Woodmen.
'Could it be?'
A certain possibility crossed my mind.
I was certain of nothing, but there was no more room to deliberate. Now was the time to trust the minimum grounds and go for it.
"Hey! Say it already! What'll you do if Sir Laurent gets hurt at this rate?! This stupid branch, let's just break it first and—"
"The opposite."
"What?"
"Not break it—we have to protect it."
The branch is probably an allied object.
I don't know for sure, but perhaps it's something like a parasite eating away at this enormous tree?
'In that case…….'
I revise the information.
From now on, protecting this branch is the top priority.
Because that must be the new strategy for <Wood Revenge>.