The blazing sunlight crawled across the leaves of the forest trees as they trembled.
It was not the wind that gave them the freedom to move, but the Beastmen below simultaneously chopping down their trunks.
Dozens of trees fell almost at the same time.
Bong, who had the largest body, carried five tree trunks at once. He walked leisurely while swinging his trunk.
His eyes narrowed slightly as the scorching sunlight greeted him the moment he stepped out of the forest.
The sounds of logs being cut and shaved echoed together with the pounding of hammers across the vast land that had been formed after the fierce battle a few days ago.
Bong fanned his face with his ears, each as wide as his face. Reflected in his eyes was Van, dressed in white clothes with a small towel wrapped around his neck and wearing a white safety helmet.
Van kept shouting at everyone to do everything according to the plan shown on the paper scroll he was holding.
He turned his head when he sensed something approaching. Van lifted his head as high as the sky to look at Bong, who lowered his own head to look at him.
"Oi, Bong!! Bring those over there..." Van pointed toward the opposite area where piles of logs were stacked.
Bong followed Van’s instructions without saying a single word.
Van nodded several times as he watched Bong’s back grow farther away.
"Ahh, I like workers who don’t complain much, hahaha—"
Van’s laughter immediately stopped when a gust of wind swept past him. Cheetah sprinted around the construction site while carrying a box of cold drinks, handing them out to everyone who was thirsty beneath the scorching sun.
"Oi, slow down, you damn cat!"
Van let out a sigh. He walked around the increasingly lively construction site, even though the laughter of children was absent there. He whistled while giving instructions just as he had seen in the paper scroll he always carried.
He didn’t forget to take pictures of every stage of building the houses that would become the settlement for the human survivors. He also repeatedly translated people’s conversations whenever they needed help because the language barrier was still a problem.
Van stopped at the edge of the construction site near the forest border. He stepped onto invisible hands to gain a higher view of the entire area, even though he could already fly.
Van nodded with a broad smile after comparing the illustration on his paper with the scene spread out before him.
His smile faded when the invisible staircase beneath him suddenly shook, startling him even though he could fly.
Van looked down with his heartbeat slightly increasing. Below, Dorn was chuckling while shaking the invisible staircase.
"So that’s how your power works?"
Van let out a sigh, dismissed the invisible staircase, then floated down until both of his feet touched the ground.
Besides Dorn, the Prince was also there to speak with Van, with the construction of the houses stretching behind them.
Van, the Prince, and Dorn stood side by side, watching the progress of the construction before them.
"How’s the progress? About when do you think it’ll be finished? I’ve already drawn the overall layout of the area..."
Dorn raised his head to look at Van, who stood on his left.
"Everything has been going smoothly these past few days... materials are plentiful... and yes, we’ll reinforce the houses and defensive walls using our own methods..."
Dorn explained various mechanisms, causing Van to repeatedly exclaim whenever he heard something new.
Meanwhile, on Van’s left, the Prince frowned and scratched his forehead because he couldn’t understand what Dorn and Van were talking about.
The Prince finally whispered to Van.
"My lord... what are the two of you talking about?"
Van shifted his gaze toward the Prince while pointing his thumb at Dorn.
"Ahh, he’s saying everything is progressing smoothly... he’ll use Pangea’s traditional methods to strengthen the houses and walls so they can withstand all kinds of seasons..."
The Prince nodded several times now that he understood what Dorn and Van had been discussing, but then Van felt Dorn nudge his leg, making him turn to the right.
Dorn pointed his chin toward the Prince while stroking his beard.
"What are the two of you talking about?"
Van let out a sigh. His face looked more exhausted than those below who were chopping trees and building house frames beneath the blazing sun.
Van explained to Dorn what he had just discussed with the Prince, but immediately afterward, the Prince asked again what he had been talking about with Dorn. The cycle repeated over and over until veins bulged on Van’s forehead.
He finally shouted and cursed at the sun now hanging at its highest point, using a language known only to him from the modern era.
"Ahhh, shit!! Why have I become the translator now?!"
Dorn and the Prince looked at Van with confused expressions. Their mouths even hung open as they spoke at the same time.
"What language are you speaking now?"
"My lord... is that the language of the gods? It sounded beautiful."
Van let out a sigh and forced a smile.
In the end, he unrolled his paper scroll and showed it to Dorn and the Prince. On it was a drawing of a large circle with many dots inside it.
Dorn and the Prince wanted to speak, but Van beat them to it by quickly explaining the same thing in two different languages.
"Take a look... this is the layout I drew... we’re going to build a tall, sturdy wooden wall surrounding the settlement so large animals won’t be able to get inside..."
The blank expressions on Dorn’s and the Prince’s faces remained fixed on the drawing Van had made. They did listen to what Van was explaining, but their attention was focused on the picture, which they thought looked rather bad.
Van smiled broadly and let out a sigh. His cheeks felt a little sore after explaining the same thing in two different languages.
"So? What do you think?"
Dorn patted Van’s waist as his response while sighing, while the Prince covered his mouth to suppress his laughter.
"I never expected that even a god would have weaknesses..."
In the end, the Prince could no longer hold it in. He burst into loud laughter. Dorn, after hearing the Prince’s hearty laughter, was eventually carried along and laughed as well.
Meanwhile, Van’s expression turned blank. He walked away without saying anything while Dorn and the Prince continued laughing together.
Van frowned as he looked at his illustration, which was nothing more than a large circle with many dots inside it.
"I think this is clear enough... they just don’t understand art... yeah, I can become much better after painting regularly for two million years, right?"
Van threw the paper away, and it disappeared before it could touch the ground. He whistled and resumed walking around the area while interacting with many people.
His walk came to a stop when he noticed a long rectangular wooden table connected to its benches. In the middle of the table stood the pole of a parasol, shielding it from the scorching sunlight that watched over the settlement’s construction.
Under the shade sat Elena together with several elf women who were combing and dressing her up.
Not far away stood Ryu, wearing a modern black cap that Van had given him.
Van walked over and sat across from Elena, while Ryu approached and sat beside Van.
"Lord Van... are there other colors for this cap? I mean, I’d like different colors that match my clothes when I return... there are, right?"
Van clicked his tongue.
"I already told you, don’t call me lord... and I’ll give you many more before you leave... yeah, just think of them as souvenirs."
Ryu smiled broadly and nodded. At the same time, Elena opened her eyes and looked at Van sitting across from her while the elf women continued dressing her up.
"What will you give me when I leave? Or do you want to come with me? Two million years is a long time, you know... being the Elf King for a few hundred years isn’t a problem, right?"
Ryu looked at Elena with a flat expression.
"Princess... how could you be called the Elf King when Lord Van isn’t an elf?"
Elena shrugged.
"So what? If I’m his wife, then I’ll be the future Elf Queen... it’s basically the same."
Van exclaimed in admiration and rested a hand against his cheek.
"Is this a proposal?"
Van chuckled as he crossed his arms.
"But sorry, I can’t. I still have many duties... I still have to go to Antarctica to monitor the gate that I’ve never seen before..."
Elena’s shoulders slumped.
"Come on... just a few hundred years... two million years is still a long time."
Van burst into laughter. He kissed his thumbnail, then raised his hand and pointed toward the sky with his index finger in gratitude toward the old man who had turned him into a better person.
Van let out a sigh as he looked at Elena, who was still not finished dressing up.
"By the way... what are you dressing up for?"
"I mean..." Van spread his arms as the noisy construction project mixed with the blazing sunlight, the chirping of overheated birds, and the endless cries of insects. "...we’re basically in the wilderness. Why bother looking even prettier?"
"Or is Pangaea not much different? I mean, lots of forests... Kalula sleeps in a cave." Van blinked once. "Elves don’t actually live in trees, right?"
Ryu burst into loud laughter while repeatedly hitting Van hard. He gripped Van’s shoulder with all his strength until Van winced, then whispered into his ear.
"Lord Van... you could be cursed by the World Tree if you speak carelessly."
Van swallowed nervously and gave an awkward smile.
"Good grief... don’t you know what they call me? They call me a god... there’s no way a god could be cursed, right?"
Ryu’s grip was stopped by Elena, who struck him with her fan.
Now it was Van who burst into laughter.
Their conversation flowed more naturally after that, and throughout it all, Elena still had not finished dressing up, while Van noticed the difference.
Van scratched his forehead as he began recalling every corner of his Sunset Space.
One of his eyebrows rose as he looked at Elena.
"Do you want to use makeup tools from two million years in the future?"
Elena blinked several times. With every blink, her eyes shone brighter, just like the elf women who were dressing her up.
Van chuckled as he took out five black makeup cases with drawers on every side.
"Here... this one is for Elena, and the other four are for all of you..."
Elena and the other elf women cried out in amazement and immediately opened each drawer one by one. They found all kinds of strange tools, and they also found a small mirror after opening the top compartment.
Elena’s frown deepened as she looked at the unfamiliar objects. She looked at Van.
"Do you know how to use these?"
Van stared at Elena for a long moment. He opened and closed his mouth several times. Everyone waited for his answer while memories stored in his mind slowly surfaced.
Memories of watching makeup product commercials at three o’clock in the morning.
In the end, Van nodded uncertainly.
"I... I think I do."
Van’s uncertain answer painted disbelief across the elves’ faces. Even Ryu, after seeing the strange tools, began doubting Van.
Van reached for one of the tools that looked like a pair of scissors.
It was an eyelash curler.
Van hesitated to try it because he was afraid his eye might come out. Fortunately, a gust of wind saved him.
Everyone turned to the right, where the gust of wind had come from.
There, Kalula descended from the sky with a pair of wings on her back.
She walked toward the table, and Van immediately showed a look of relief.
Kalula looked at the various strange tools and boxes on top of the table. She picked one of them up.
"What are all these?"
"Makeup tools..." Van chuckled. "Do you want them?"
Kalula frowned as she looked at Van, while Elena took the tool from Kalula’s hand.
"What’s the point of putting on makeup in the middle of all this?"
Van snapped his fingers with a smile.
"That’s exactly what I mean..."
Kalula brushed her long black hair.
"So, how is it? How long will the construction take?"
Van scratched his forehead and rubbed his chin as he tried to remember his conversation with Dorn and the Prince. But the more he remembered, the more irritated he became for some reason.
"Dorn said it might only take a few months for everything to be finished... but yeah, I think I still need to observe their lives for a few months until things become stable... maybe one year."
Van clicked his tongue and scratched his forehead as he remembered that he would have to be a translator for an entire year.
Everyone looked at Van in confusion because he suddenly seemed annoyed.
Meanwhile, Van pinched the air, causing a stack of books taller than the makeup cases to appear.
Van let out a breath to calm himself down, then looked at all of them with a smile.
"Well... since there’s still one year left, how about learning my language?"
"I mean, I’ll go crazy if I have to be the translator for thousands of people for a whole year... it won’t take much time. We’ll do it every night before going to sleep."
Everyone slowly looked away from Van. They had different heads, but they all shared the same thought.
They slowly moved away from Van.