volume 3 - Chapter 189 (1/2)

Chapter 189 – The final moment (5)

The forest was peaceful. Brendel tried hard to maintain that silence, gently pus.h.i.+ng away obstacles and vines. Even the birds were content to stay and watch his group as they made their way closer to the World Tree.

The lush greenery was very different from the Dark Forest’s atmosphere. Looking past the layers of greenery was a view of a broad basin, its center looked almost as though a finger had pushed down the earth to form it. The mountain range had surrounded this area and prevented violent winds from reaching it.

The World Tree was also in the middle of the area. Its roots expanded in all directions and caused the ground to be uneven, with a few extending all the way to the cavern.

[Andesha and her ally must have traveled on one of the roots. If I follow some of the roots’ paths, they actually lead to interesting positions that’s difficult to access if one travels on the ground. Hmm, but we can’t follow too closely since she’s a half-Druid. We will get detected all too easily if she tracks us.]

Brendel studied the area for a while, before he suddenly caught sight of a few artificial marks on broken stone fragments that were half-buried in the ground. He then led the girls to a small path overgrown with vegetation. Even though time had hidden the secrets in this place, the youth was certain that he needed to investigate the place.

There were four ma.s.sive ancient trees with overgrown vines and bushes around the area. Two white boulders were hidden behind dull green flora, and through the gaps, he discovered carved marks there were like letters, though most of them were corroded and unreadable.

[These letters look like they are from the Silver Lineage. Not the Elves or Wizards, naturally, but another race closely related to the forest. So someone ruled over this place, at least during the time when the Dragon of Darkness was still around.]

Brendel tried asking Medissa through his mind whether she knew anything about Valhalla, but the Silver Elf princess stated she did not.

“Valhalla existed long before we did, my Lord, outdating the Silver Elves, the Mist Elves, and the Moon Elves. These three Elven bloodlines are the main Elven bloodlines of the Silver Lineage, dating all the way back to our Ancestral Elven King Ljosalfheim, even before the Dragon of Darkness appeared.” She said.

It was just as Brendel had a.s.sumed. The Twilight Dragon in the continent was a fuzzy symbol in the Twilight Battle. Though the ordinary citizens in this era knew of the monstrous being’s name, it was just a dead G.o.d amongst the stories of the G.o.ds in the past.

Even in the game, there was really no quests or lore about this primeval dragon, and the gamers only had to deal with the evil cults who would put the name of Twilight or Chaos in their deeds.

“Am I wrong, or are those letters?” Faena asked in a tiny voice.

Since she did not dare to return on her own, she decided to openly follow the youth. He was not a sycophant like the other n.o.bles around her and even bullied her all the time, but at least he did not physically threaten her.

“Urgh, stop bothering me and think on your own.” Brendel snapped.

“I recall that the last time someone from Aouine who attempted to claim the Wilderness was approximately two centuries ago, Lord Roman from the Vieiro family, also known as the last Pioneer Knight. The historical reports stated that the Dark Forest used to be bigger, and the entire south of the Randner region was corrupted and lordless. No civilization had touched it before……”

Faena spoke as though she was reciting a textbook, then she pointed at the carvings.

“But if these carvings are actually letters of a civilization, then it proves that the Loop of Trade Winds is a land that was lost to the Wilderness. The Dark Forest was not always part of the Wilderness formed by Chaos, therefore the books are wrong….. W-what? Why are you looking at me like that, my grades in history are excellent! I even received an award from Grandmaster Mahaein!”

“The famous dwarf who can decipher the contents that belong to the Poem of Skies?” Brendel asked.

“A portion of it. Also, even though Grandmaster Mahaein is a Dwarf, he’s a citizen of the Kirrlutz Empire.” Faena was proud enough to raise up her chin and started bringing out her status.

“No, don’t tell me, he’s the one who wrote what you just recited. What kind of historical nonsense is that dwarf writing…… Doesn’t he know that the Druids were living here before the Aouine kingdom was founded? What did he mean by the south of the Randner region was corrupted and lordless?” Brendel smirked and said sarcastically.

“You are the one who’s spouting n-nonsense! The Druids don’t have any interest in being the lord of a land!”

“Unbelievable. Does the Empire dare to use this excuse and drive away all the Druids from their borders? I should congratulate you now since your borders are going to expand yet again!”

“Y-you……”

The real reason why Brendel was annoyed, was how the Kirrlutz Empire included Aouine’s history in their reports. Kirrlutz’s citizens had never regarded Aouine as a kingdom, instead, they treated it like an overseas province, and it was especially so amongst the n.o.bles who supported the Imperial politics.

Naturally, this arrogance annoyed the gamers in the Aouine Kingdom.

Brendel was not keen on bullying a spoiled girl, but he wanted to kick her down before her conceited nose touched the sky. After saying his fill, he turned back to the path.

[The four trees and the two boulders with carvings on them. These things make up a marker to denote a certain area of a ‘city’, though I can’t tell what this place is for.]