[An Unpleasant Memory]
The earth spirit walked ahead with a cookie in one hand.
Hans watched its back with an uneasy expression.
“Is this really right?”
“What is wrong now?”
“I feel as though we have become bad adults.”
“We are simply paying a cookie as compensation for labor.”
“You are confessing to child exploitation.”
Confessing?
Look at the earth spirit opening a tunnel ahead of us. It was happily munching the cookie.
“Did I summon the child to a professor’s office? Did I urge it to enter graduate school? I did not force it to do anything it did not want to do.”
Kanibara giggled beside me.
“It did follow as if it had been enchanted. Maybe I should try that when recruiting graduate students.”
“That is not a bad idea.”
“If an abnormal number of spirit students apply, the teaching-assistant office of Lewis will be the first place inspected.”
“Hmph. I never force anyone. They will all come in on their own feet.”
As if proving me right, spirits drawn by the scent of cookies joined us one after another.
“The spirits seem to like them especially,” Elaine said, examining the cookie I had given her.
But it was just a cookie to an elf. The bonus effect applied only to spirits because it was an Affinity Item.
Elaine returned the cookie and took out her World Tree Amber instead.
“Sniff! Hehehe.”
Her expression melted as she pressed her nose to it and inhaled. The spirits who took a bite of cookie also wore blissful smiles.
Hans gave me a suspicious look.
“Is it really harmless? It looks as though something dangerous is in it.”
“I said it is harmless. Probably.”
There were no forbidden ingredients in it. The item’s effect was just strong enough to make even me suspicious. Elaine had regarded me favorably from the start, but spirits who had met me only today were listening to me unusually well. These were the same spirits who normally bolted like untamed foals whenever one looked away.
‘Is there a reason, or is it just coincidence?’
While I was lost in thought, Kanibara poked my side.
“An underground passage. Does it not remind you of old times?”
I reflexively frowned as I remembered searching underground for demonfolk.
The passages were usually cloaked in the sticky smell of blood. Filth and unknown chunks of flesh made the floor slimy, and darkness swallowed even torchlight.
“Do not compare them. It is insulting to compare that peaceful atmosphere with this.”
I looked ahead to shake off the unpleasant memory.
A fire spirit lit our way with swaying flames. A wind spirit kept the tunnel from becoming stuffy. Earth and water spirits worked together to open the passage smoothly.
“This is basically being inside a fairy tale.”
Kanibara nodded. “Yes. This sort of adventure is not bad.”
“That is unusual. You prefer smashing things to pieces.”
“I only like smashing bad people.”
Kanibara wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
“Travel is best when it is peaceful and leisurely, right?”
“You really do know something for a former mercenary.”
“Should we go on a trip during vacation?”
Kanibara’s eyes slid toward Hans.
“No.”
Hans refused at once.
“Why? Lewis cannot stay at the academy forever. He should get outside and feel the wind sometimes.”
“Until we are certain that the Underworld’s magical beasts have gone quiet, we must be cautious about safety.”
“It will be fine. I will be with him.”
Kanibara smiled confidently.
“We just have to tear apart whoever comes, Demon King or not.”
Since she could actually do that, Hans could not refute her.
“Fine. I will be generous. If you worry about guards or protocol, we will go secretly.”
“That would be even worse!”
Hans shrieked in alarm.
“Please do not. The Special Affairs Bureau and the Empire would be turned upside down.”
Seeing him, I grinned.
“Then whenever we are stressed, should we suddenly disappear on a trip?”
“Pwease do not do it....”
“Do not do it? Why? We will. If we leave secretly, what can you do?”
The spirits burst into giggles at my taunting.
Our peaceful adventure continued amid idle chatter, until we found a large, pulsating sphere.
“That seems to be the source that made the seeds planted at the academy grow so rapidly,” Elaine said, extending the World Tree Staff toward it.
It looked like a thoughtless action, but—
Hummm—
When the sphere and the staff drew close, they faintly resonated.
“Huh? Why?”
Elaine’s face colored with confusion.
“If a World Tree Branch resonates...”
“Does that mean the World Tree’s power intervened?” Hans asked.
Kanibara placed a hand on Elaine’s shoulder and grinned.
“Caught you, little culprit.”
“It was not me! Really!”
Elaine shook her head hurriedly, looking at me with tears in her eyes.
“Why are you teasing a child?”
“Haha! It was a joke.”
I comforted Elaine and sent the spirits back. Their part was over; there was no need to entangle them in a troublesome affair.
“So do we just remove this?” Kanibara asked.
“It appears that we should. The forest will not vanish otherwise,” Hans said.
“Then I can just slice it apart?”
“A considerable power is condensed in it. Is that safe?”
“I will suppress it.”
Kanibara rested a hand on her curved sword, radiating the confidence of the Gray Storm.
“Still, let us leave it for a few days,” Hans said.
“Why?”
“Should we not investigate why it is here and whether it has any other effects?”
Kanibara removed her hand from her sword, as if the wind had left her sails.
“You have become too thoughtful since becoming a bureaucrat.”
“It cannot be helped.”
“That is why your skill has stagnated.”
“A bureaucratic organization advances through the power of the group rather than individual strength.”
As the two turned to leave and call additional personnel, I could not move. My eyes kept returning to the sphere.
‘Is simply destroying the energy sphere really the quest objective?’
Probably not. If it was, the quest would not be [S. Forest of Will]. It would be [Academy Restoration] or [Academy Recovery].
And the sphere gave me a strange sensation, as though it were pulling my hand toward it.
When I reached out without realizing it—
“...!”
Memories snapped into me in broken pieces, like photographs.
[Your Majesty! Are you truly going to hand this kingdom to the demonfolk?!]
In a dark hall, a knight shouted at an old man wearing a crown. The king turned away and ignored his loyal counsel.
[Draw your swords! We will destroy the demons who have blinded His Majesty!]
In muffled darkness, blades clashed and sparks flew. For an instant, the twisted faces of knights appeared in the flash.
They fought with all their strength, but one after another, they fell to the demonfolk.
The knight commander swung his sword to the end.
[Teruna! Protect Skadivia, and this continent...!]
But he too fell beneath the hand of a white-haired demonfolk. The king stared blankly down at his corpse.
[Is this enough?]
[Yes. As agreed, we will take the life force and turn the shells into enhanced soldiers. Is there anything else you desire?]
[Hand over the enhanced soldiers as promised. The pressure from the Afernia Kingdom grows by the day.]
The Skadivian king’s face was vacant. The white-haired demonfolk mocked him.
[Such life force, pulsating with a virtuous wavelength. You are quite something to cast aside knights like these.]
[Virtue is useless. Strength is what matters.]
[Very well. I will let you possess the strength you desire.]
The demonfolk’s cruel smile made bile rise in my throat.
“Lewis?”
Kanibara grabbed my shoulder.
“What is wrong?”
Her voice was full of concern. I swallowed the sour saliva in my mouth.
“I think the Underworld bastards planted this.”
Hans and Kanibara went cold.
“How do you know?”
“Its memories came into me.”
Hans did not ask whether I was telling the truth. He immediately tried to leave the tunnel.
“I will summon Special Division 4 at once—”
“No. Wait.”
I stopped him.
“They did plant it, but I do not think they intended to trigger it now.”
Unlike the original story, there was no Nest to grow by absorbing its life force. A forest had grown instead.
‘Did the World Tree awaken the sphere on purpose?’
If so, the title [S. Forest of Will] made some sense. Perhaps the World Tree pitied the will left by the knights within that life force, while also preventing the catastrophe the demonfolk intended.
Kanibara agreed. “Right? The World Tree awakened this in the first place. Have the demonfolk not simply wasted their effort?”
“That is true. Things clearly have not proceeded as they intended,” Hans said. “If this were their plan, it would not have ended with a forest growing, and a further attack would have followed.”
If the World Tree had not awakened the sphere and events had proceeded as the demonfolk planned, something awful beyond imagination would have happened. There would have been many victims, and the three races who had only begun to unite would have been torn apart again.
Then I understood why Teruna gave me this quest.
No, I knew for certain. There was no need to spend SP to read it.
[Teruna! Protect Skadivia, and this continent...!]
The knight commander’s final prayer passed through my mind.
“Tsk. Damn Teruna. Now He is even passing off leftover work.”
“You blaspheme habitually now. What are you unhappy about this time?”
“I will straighten it out with Him one-on-one later. Move aside for now.”
As I took my tarot deck from my waist, one card flew out as though it had been waiting.
Major Arcana 14, ‘Temperance.’
It was a card that avoided extremes and found balance. Its power could control the sphere that poured life force outside like a waterfall.
“What are you doing?” Kanibara asked, her gaze on the card unfriendly.
“I will make the condensed life force flow out slowly. At the same time, it will absorb the excess life force aboveground and establish balance.”
Then no matter how much elves and spirits ran around, the forest would not grow larger. Nor would it wither. As long as elves and spirits continued attending the academy, the forest would retain its present form.
The forest that arose at the academy would become, merely by existing, a space symbolizing the harmony of the three races.
Kanibara did not ask whether it was possible. She simply looked me over with displeasure.
“You are not overdoing it?”
Honestly, it was a little troublesome. I could destroy the sphere and return the forest to normal, and it would probably not cause much trouble. The Sub Quest could fail. It did not look as though a great reward was at stake. This time it would probably give only one hundred SP again.
But—
“I am doing it because I want to.”
The knight commander of Skadivia overlapped with the comrades who fell on the battlefield, the companions who had supported my shoulders and pushed my back for ten years.
“Then that is enough.”
“Lady Kanibara, Lewis’s body is—”
“He says he wants to. Do not stop him.”
Hans hesitated before nodding and stepping back.
A bright light appeared underground with the emblem of a scale.
“Achoo!”
Shortly after, my cold evolved into influenza.
‘Ah. I want to go home.’
And, as expected, the quest-clear reward was meager.
**[S. Forest of Will Complete!]**
**[You have acquired 100SP.]**
You terrible Teruna.
Teruna is bad.
***
Late that night, a group in black cloaks left the academy.
Just as Hans, who had watched them until the end, was about to move—
“You are already moving?”
Kanibara’s voice came from behind him.
“Yes. Even if the plan failed, we have confirmed that the Underworld reached into the academy. We cannot treat that carelessly.”
“You will not find anything by moving immediately.”
“Then I will search until something turns up.”
Cold light flashed through Hans’s narrowed eyes.
Kanibara did not stop him.
“Lewis mentioned Skadivian knights, did he not?”
“Yes. I plan to begin there. If we investigate people from Skadivia, something may turn up.”
“Also keep Baal’s side in mind. The demonfolk active in Skadivia long ago were under Baal.”
“Baal... Understood. Thank you.”
Kanibara had led the punishment of the Skadivia Kingdom when it joined hands with the Underworld. Her words were trustworthy.
“All right. Good work.”
“And you?”
“I will take walks around the area for a while.”
Perhaps she really was going for a walk; even in the middle of winter, Kanibara’s clothes were light.
But Hans could almost see a raging storm coiling around her.
“When Baal learns his scheme has already failed, he will get excited and thrash about even more.”
Kanibara’s eyes lowered.
“If I take a walk, I might catch something.”