ch69

This particular covert mission was never meant to be public knowledge.

Given that both he and Gal were rather conspicuous, they needed to return via back roads, not the main thoroughfares.

“After hearing it from the kids, I wasn’t sure… You’re alive?”

“Did you wish for your master’s death?”

Dubhe, whom he’d summoned outside the Pohellen fortress walls with a secret Thieves’ Guild signal, stared at him as if he’d seen a ghost. He chuckled.

“No, it’s just, isn’t the world a dangerous place? If someone goes missing under suspicious circumstances and doesn’t turn up for six months, wouldn’t you assume the worst? Especially considering how un-Mana-safe the outside world is.”

Dubhe scratched his head as he replied.

Startled by the dandruff showering down as he ruffled his hair, he took a step back, but Dubhe continued, unfazed.

“Well, honestly, I figured you were the type who couldn’t be killed even if you were murdered, so I suspected you were still around. But this Elf fellow here?”

“…Just think of him as part of the group.”

Dubhe directed his question at Gal, but Gal seemed uninterested in Dubhe, his gaze sweeping over the fortress walls.

With a rare serious expression for Gal, he muttered things like, “This is…” and “How did these monkeys…”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just that lately, I’ve been seeing Elves, who are usually shrouded in mystery, quite often.”

“…? You’ve seen other Elves besides me?”

“Those big, burly types.”

“My brothers.”

“…Your brothers came back as a group not long after your brothers returned, beaten to a pulp and whining about you, to tell us the news.”

“Watch your mouth. And a group, you say? How Mana came looking for me?”

The Elves, who had to manage vast forests with a relatively small population, were chronically short-handed.

Eighteen years wasn’t enough time for the next generation of Elves to mature, especially considering how precious every hand was to them.

Therefore, it was difficult to commit a large number of personnel.

Still, it seemed they had acted as soon as they noticed he was missing, either through the Mother’s Branch or Saras’s talisman.

He felt a little embarrassed, but also proud.

‘Maybe twenty or so came. The leader would probably be Pallas or Elmoni, right?’

He estimated that was the limit they could dispatch without upsetting the balance.

“Three people who looked like your brothers came with about eighty others, I think.”

“Eighty!?”

And three of his brothers, on top of that.

It was far more than he had imagined.

It was almost a third of the Elves’ total fighting force.

‘…This is a more serious situation than I thought.’

The ticklish feeling in his chest, brought on by the thought of his brothers’ concern for him, vanished, and cold sweat trickled down his back.

He felt like a child who had done something terribly wrong and was terrified of being punished when he got home.

‘…Or was it really that big of a deal?’

He figured he would have reacted similarly if one of his siblings had suddenly gone missing outside.

But that was beside the point.

“…Are the Elves still in Pohellen?”

“Yes. They arrived around last autumn and said they’d stay until this spring before moving on, so they should be leaving soon.”

‘…I suddenly don’t want to go back to Pohellen…’

He didn’t know which three of his brothers had come to search for him, but he was sure to be subjected to a barrage of nagging.

But he was a grown adult who had made up his mind; he couldn’t not go home just because he was afraid of being scolded.

He sighed and said to Dubhe,

“Anyway, I need to return to the Great Temple. Can you guide me there as discreetly as possible?”

◈ ◈ ◈

Following Dubhe, he returned to the Great Temple through a secret passage in the waterway.

Unlike him, who had suppressed his aura as much as possible, Gal had no intention of concealing himself at all.

As a result, the Elves staying at the Great Temple sensed his presence and rushed out.

And the result was the current disaster.

“I know what you’re thinking, but calm down. There’s a slight misunderstanding… or rather, I need to explain the situation.”

“Is this the bastard who attacked you?”

“…Yes, but I need to explain.”

“Strange. Araya. I get the feeling you’re defending that deer-boned wretch who’s the root of all our problems.”

“Is it strange for what is mine to care for me?”

“Gal! Can’t you just shut up? You’re making the situation even weirder.”

Pallas’s head snapped up as he glared at Gal with murderous intent.

If Pallas had reached the pinnacle of righteous anger, Gal’s body would have been torn to shreds a thousand times over.

But that wasn’t the only problem.

“Hmm. I thought he was supposed to be a giant lizard, but why does he look just like us?”

“Saras… Anya.”

So, the two who came with Pallas were Saras and Anya.

Anya looked uneasy, but Saras was smiling.

That wasn’t good.

Anya was hard to read, but Saras’s eyes, hidden beneath her usual languid voice, were as fierce as could be.

Pallas was straightforward, but Saras, in times like these, was impulsive and serpentine.

He might have been stronger than her since childhood, but he was always the one who got the short end of the stick when he angered Saras.

Her gaze passed over Gal’s face, landed on him in Gal’s arms, and she smiled sweetly.

“Oh, Araya. You’re well? You threw away the branch Mother gave you and the talisman I gave you, and now you’re with a handsome man? Your sister was so worried about you for the past six months.”

He could feel the anger hidden beneath her smiling face, so he could only respond with an awkward smile.

“So?”

Saras stood slightly behind Pallas, tilting her head as she looked at Gal.

He could tell from the fact that Saras, who wasn’t usually one to step forward, was positioning herself behind Pallas, that she was considering going into battle at any moment.

Forest Keepers were already slowly moving to their designated positions around the Great Temple.

“What brings you here before us?”

Gal, unfazed by the murderous aura around him, calmly opened his mouth.

“Do I need to explain that?”

“What?”

“Don’t test my patience, Elf. The only reason I’m tolerating your ridiculous attitude is because you are Araya’s kin, as I said before.”

“Ha. You’re more impressive than I thought.”

Saras made a dumbfounded expression and slowly began to step back.

But no one here was foolish enough to think that Saras was retreating because she was afraid of Gal.

Gal’s eyes began to change as Saras’s heart began to throb and she entered a battle stance.

“An insect hastens its own demise.”

“I don’t know how Mana confidence you have, but did you know that beings like you have already fallen twice in this star’s history? And if I had to guess, today will be the day we write that third chapter.”

“Wait, wait, there’s no reason to go this far. This isn’t the time for us to be fighting each other!”

“Araya. Come here.”

“…Saras!”

“That’s an order. I received full authority over this matter from Demis.”

The smile had vanished from Saras’s face.

“I don’t know what’s happened to you, but this Gal Dragon is a dangerous being. We need to deal with him when we have the chance.”

“How dare you utter such presumptuous nonsense, Elf. Do you really think you can harm me? How laughable. I wouldn’t think your intelligence was so low as to not know the difference in power. Why don’t you act your station, like that Elf over there who’s trembling?”

Gal said, looking at Anya, who was clutching her staff tightly and trembling. Anya’s eyes darted around nervously as everyone’s attention turned to her.

“Arrogance is the surest path to destruction. Most don’t realize it even at the end.”

Saras replied expressionlessly.

Gal chuckled eerily and snapped his fingers.

The Forest Keepers took it as a mere provocation and sharpened their killing intent, but the High Elves saw it differently.

Saras’s reaction, in particular, was dramatic.

“…Impossible!”

“I looked into it outside, but it’s truly absurd. Do these monkeys know what they’re doing? The atrocities committed by the big monkey hundreds of years ago seem like child’s play in comparison.”

Each time Gal snapped his fingers, small tremors began to reverberate throughout the Great Temple.

“So, this is why you were so confident in front of me? But how foolish. In front of one who is complete, a true and genuine punisher, you are like baby birds who have just hatched from their eggs, chirping with things that are beyond your station… It’s utterly comical. I didn’t know you were so confident in your ability to manipulate Mana. But at least you should have intercepted me before I reached this place in this state.”

“…Kugh.”

Saras’s expression broke, and cold sweat trickled down her forehead.

Pallas also sensed that things were taking a turn for the worse and stepped between Gal and Saras.

Gal’s pupils narrowed into vertical slits, and a chilling aura began to emanate from him.

“You mistake power beyond your station for your own -Guh-Cough-!”

“That’s enough.”

The situation was about to explode.

He had used all his strength to push away Gal, who was holding him with one arm, causing Gal’s chest to cave in as if he had taken an Iron Mountain Lean head-on in the past.

He glared at Gal with a pathetic look as Gal clutched his sunken chest and coughed up blood.

But he didn’t really care.

In the first place, such an injury was nothing to Gal, who wasn’t even human, and he would always ignore any amount of shock and force his way through.

“I left you alone for a moment, and you’ve turned everyone into enemies. Can’t you grasp the situation? Who benefits the most if you fight my brothers right now?”

“Araya…you…!”

“I know you’ve become socially inept from living alone in the northern corner, but I wish you’d think about the situation a little. Saras, I wish you’d stop too. Even with this much force, we won’t come out unscathed if we fight Gal for real.”

“Araya.”

『Saras. There are circumstances on our side too. We’re practically running away from the north.』

He interrupted Saras and conveyed his words through telepathy.

Saras’s eyes widened in surprise at his words that he and Gal had run away.

‘I’ll tell you properly later.’

She made a troubled expression, nodded, mouthed the words, and withdrew her aura.

“…Saras?”

Pallas, who had been ready to pounce at any moment, questioned Saras when she suddenly dismissed the surrounding Elves.

“Stand down for now, Pallas.”

“…”

“That’s an order.”

Pallas seemed to realize that a fight wasn’t going to break out.

But Pallas ignored Saras’s words and took two steps towards Gal, who was sitting down after being struck by him.

“Get up, deer bones. Are you going to act like you’re dying just because you were hit by a girl?”

It wasn’t something to say to someone whose chest had caved in and coughed up blood, but perhaps those words touched Gal’s pride?

After moving his lips once, Gal, who had completely recovered, stood with a blank face as if the previous disgrace had never happened, and stood less than two finger-widths away from Pallas, who was looking at him with a murderous expression.