#81
Elven Kingdom (1)
The dreamy atmosphere continued.
The fruits of the World Tree falling while being wrapped around countless wind spirits, and Cecily surrounded by all kinds of colorful shining spirits.
The world around her was a dizzying mix of howling winds, twinkling lights, rustling earth, and rapidly growing buds.
With such an enormous natural force concentrated around that place, the group that was close to her had no choice but to naturally retreat further.
Harris, who had been keeping his distance, could tell.
Before I knew it, countless elves were surrounding the area and looking this way.
‘I said that it’s not easy to see the High Elf’s eye-opening ritual. And Cecily’s appearance this time is also said to be a very long time coming.’
And as he felt the storm of natural forces raging in her direction, he suddenly realized one more thing.
‘Huh? Now that I think about it, this isn’t the time to just sit back and watch, is it?’
Harris concentrated and took a deep breath.
The fresh air seeped deep into my lungs.
Very nutritious air, full of natural power and spirit energy.
It was truly the perfect environment for training.
‘I can’t miss this opportunity!’
This time, with the unique skills strengthened, the avatar’s potential and growth speed increased significantly, so it was much easier to handle energy than before.
“Huh— Phew···.”
Deep breathing continued.
With his eyes, he watched Cecily’s eye-opening ritual, while his nerves focused on drawing the energy overflowing around him into his body.
Laforie, who had been watching her put the fruit in her mouth as if he sensed something strange, turned to look at her, but Harris, intoxicated by the density of the energy he had never felt before, had no time to care about such trivial things.
The moment when Cecily completely collected the fruit of the World Tree.
《The entity has achieved enlightenment by achieving the condition. It acquires the skill “Nature Affinity”.》
Harris was also able to achieve his own results.
“Phew···.”
As I looked at Cecily with a sense of satisfaction, I saw that she had already lost consciousness and was being carefully carried inside by a group of elves.
In her hands she held tightly a branch of the fresh World Tree, laden with fruit.
“This is the High Elf Guard. Since he has only just come to his senses, we need to keep him somewhere safe until he regains his senses.”
Lapori approached him quietly and added:
“Lady Cecily will remain asleep for a while. She needs time to stabilize her rapidly increased energy.”
“I see. Well, that would be expected, since I was in the middle of that tremendous flow of energy.”
“Harris is also amazing. I think I understand why the World Tree is keeping an eye on him.”
Sure enough, he seemed to have noticed what Harris was doing.
“Oh, it seems like a good opportunity.”
“How long have you been learning to control your temper to that extent? As expected, that’s… huh?”
He, who had been pouring out words of praise, suddenly stopped talking and looked at something behind Harris’s back.
He looked quite surprised as if he had seen something.
‘I didn’t feel any movement?’
Although I was in a state of heightened sensitivity, absorbing all the energy, I couldn’t feel anything.
Harris, who was momentarily shocked by Laforie’s reaction, quickly turned around and was able to face it head on.
A single tree branch floating in the air.
“······?”
It was a very fresh branch with green leaves hanging luxuriantly.
“Huh, it seems that the World Tree is really interested in Harris. He even prepared a special gift for you.”
‘gift?’
Upon closer inspection, I felt that it was filled with natural power, just like the branch Cecily had held in her hand earlier.
The only difference is that this branch did not bear fruit to begin with.
“The branch that the World Tree gives you is special. Usually, it is given only to the person in question when there is a special event, such as an eye-opening ceremony…”
And it is said that when processed into weapons or accessories, it has the same performance as a kind of holy relic.
It seemed to be a rare item that even high elves would not be able to easily obtain.
Harris carefully grabbed the branch floating in front of him.
Then, the energy inherent there became more clearly felt.
‘So that’s why I didn’t feel any movement.’
A feeling of naturally blending in with the environment, as if one were holding nature itself in one’s hands.
Even without that, the concentration of natural forces in the surrounding area was high due to the aftereffects of the ritual, so it was difficult to notice.
But then suddenly, I became curious about something.
“Then, did you also receive this from the World Tree when you opened your eyes?”
“Of course. I compressed that energy and made it into a pair of ornaments.”
As I looked at that emotional face, my heart suddenly became uncomfortable.
Harris glanced at the bracelet on his wrist and opened his mouth cautiously.
“Surely that’s not the bracelet?”
“Haha, that’s not it. I made it into a ring and used it to propose.”
Instead of the burden being lifted, I felt a subtle sense of regret.
But when I thought about it, the equipment made from the branches I was holding in my hands was more than just a bracelet, so it wasn’t a bad story.
“So you’re married after all.”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? It’s been a while.”
“But you’re not wearing a ring right now···.”
“I gave my ring to my daughter. It will be of more help to her now than to me.”
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As he spoke, Laforie smiled gently, like a father who loves his family.
‘···It looks good.’
As I watched him smiling happily as he thought of his family, a bitter smile came to my face without me realizing it.
“Mr. Harris, thank you for your hard work in coming here. Seeing you being acknowledged by the World Tree as soon as you arrived makes me feel good, as if I have done something worthwhile for the last time.”
“Is this the last one?”
“I’m getting close to retirement age. This trip to the Continent of Aeon was my last official schedule.”
Harris stared blankly at his face.
No matter how you looked at him, he was a handsome young man in his early 30s with smooth skin.
“Oh, of course, I won’t step down right away since we’re short on manpower. But I won’t be taking the lead in the front lines anymore.”
Perhaps misunderstanding Harris’ gaze, he blurted out something strange.
“I was relieved that a new high elf was born.”
“I see… That’s really fortunate.”
Of course, I didn’t do anything to point it out openly.
Because now he was also one of the elves of the same clan.
***
The Enamel Continent, where the Elven Kingdom was located, was less than a fifth of the Ion Continent they had come from.
However, in Outerica, the Ion Continent was not excessively large, and the Enamel Continent was not at all small.
And located to the northwest was the Elven Kingdom, the land of the elves.
‘It feels different from what I expected.’
Perhaps due to the influence of Earth media, elves have a strong image of being forest fairies.
There was a stereotype that vegetarians lived in trees, surrounded by nature.
‘It seems like civilization is quite developed here. There are a lot of street performances too.’
Of course, there were quite a few wooden buildings built on trees as in the first image, but there were just as many stone structures built on the ground.
‘It’s amazing that they all have an eco-friendly architectural style.’
When I first set foot on the Elven Kingdom and made my way here, I realized that this place had a lot of particularly sophisticated architecture.
‘I guess that’s natural since it’s the capital.’
It was natural, since this was the capital of the Elven Kingdom, ‘Drasha’.
The city, formed around a large world tree and where forests and civilization coexisted, had a strangely exotic feel.
And Harris was now inside a large building.
It was a building that was in harmony with a tree of such enormous size that it was impossible to imagine on Earth, although it could not be compared to the World Tree.
From the expansive stone buildings surrounding the root zone to the wooden structures climbing up naturally formed trunks.
This building, which is like a work of art, is…
“You said Mr. Harris, right? I heard you came from the continent of Ion with Lady Cecily this time. Is that true?”
“They said that it was absolutely not a place to live. I heard that Cecily was in a very dangerous situation this time···.”
“Oh, I heard that too. If Lapory hadn’t gone, we would have been in big trouble.”
Next to him, young elves chattered incessantly.
This was Drasha Academy, one of the educational institutions in the Elven Kingdom.
‘They are all older than me, but by elven standards, they are young.’
Their appearances varied from their mid-teens to early twenties, and Drasha Academy was a place where promising young talents from the Elven Kingdom who had passed their childhood gathered.
A place where those who grow up to become pillars of the country are educated.
Harris was truly on the elite course.
“Ahahaha… Yes, yes. Of course… Oh, I was fine. I had a lot of good colleagues. Yes.”
But now I just feel burdened by the excessive attention.
Since these people had only encountered the outside world through books and stories, their curiosity was completely understandable.
You’d want to ask him something, since he’s not just from another region, but has suddenly appeared across the ocean from a completely different continent.
Moreover, aren’t they now fellow trainees?
“I used to work as a mercenary. At that time, I didn’t know how to control spirits, so I mostly fought using my body···.”
It was a break right after the theory training, and it was a moment when Harris tried to unravel an appropriate episode to promote smooth interpersonal relationships.
bang-!
Everyone’s eyes turned in that direction at the sudden noise.
A blue-haired woman stood up from her seat, hitting the desk with both hands, and, unfazed by the gaze focused on her, raised her chin proudly and glared at me.
“It’s so noisy that I can’t concentrate. Could you please be quiet?”
Her words were addressed to everyone gathered around Harris, but her blue eyes were staring directly at him.
No matter how I looked at it, the look in his eyes did not seem friendly at all.
‘What’s that woman? Why is she looking at me like that?’
Even if you didn’t like the fuss that was made because of you, your reaction was a bit excessive.
While he was pondering for a moment why he was receiving such a gaze from someone he was meeting for the first time.
“Oh, I guess we were talking too much···.”
“Ahem… Sorry for being noisy.”
“Then Mr. Harris, please talk to me again next time.”
Meanwhile, those who had been gathered around Harris carefully dispersed to their respective seats while keeping an eye on her.
It was certainly more comfortable now, but I was incredibly flustered by the sudden turn of events.
‘That woman seems to be quite influential.’
I turned my gaze again and looked at the woman who had chilled the atmosphere.
Long blue hair that seemed to have been carefully groomed, sharp, upturned eyes, and an expression that seemed arrogant beyond haughtiness.
‘Well, no matter how you look at it, she is the daughter of a precious family.’
She was also a noble lady who seemed quite picky.
Since most of the elves I’ve met so far have had gentle personalities, it actually felt very refreshing.
And right after the training is over.
“Huh—”
As she passed Harris, she paused for a moment, turned her head, and looked him up and down.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on the bracelet on his wrist, but she soon snorted and left the classroom with a few companions in a dignified manner.
‘what?’
While he was feeling dazed, he heard stories about her from people around him.
Her name is Shapiron Silvesti.
As expected, he came from a fairly prestigious family.
Although there was no difference in status between elves except for the high elves, the influence of older families was bound to grow as their history grew.
What more so if it is a family that played a part in establishing the Elven Kingdom since the great migration to the Enamel Continent?
But among the information about her, there was one fact that Harris found surprising and unexpected.
‘This is really unexpected.’
Because that girl is it.
Because she was the only daughter of the high elf ‘Laforie Grandwood’, who was somewhat close to him.
