In the beginning, there was a white tower whose origin and date of construction were unknown.
Its height was such that it seemed to touch the sky, making it impossible to see the top, no matter how high one looked.
People referred to it as ‘the Pillar of the World’, ‘the White Tower’, and ‘the Tower of Creation’, and although no one explicitly stated it, upon seeing the tower, people reportedly understood.
‘Those who climb the tower can become gods.’
However, climbing that tower was close to impossible.
The wisest, the strongest, the most brilliant commanders, and the greatest kings.
In the end, everyone failed, cursing the being that imposed that trial as they perished.
At last, the moment they turned their gaze away from the temptation of fruits that none could obtain,
there was a small vine climbing up the tower’s wall.
——–
On the first morning in Beriton, fortunately, the weather was quite nice.
The bright sun poured warm light through the window, and Luke felt naturally awakened by that sunlight.
Maybe due to the slightly high temperature, Luke felt relaxed. After stretching, the first thing he did was open the refrigerator to check if the two remaining tacos were well.
Probably not.
Thinking so, he turned his head to the side, where a blue spirit was smiling at him.
“Looks like you had a good meal.”
– Yes, it was delicious!
“Then that’s good to hear.”
The reason he deliberately left some food was for Py, who had followed him.
Fortunately, it seemed the taste matched the spirit’s palate as well.
“Now then, don’t forget the promise we made to go to the hospital together after this trip, alright?”
– Yes! If I’m going with Ere.
“That’s right. You’re so sweet.”
Luke knew he shouldn’t just indulge her, but he couldn’t help it.
After all, it was a spirit that had only recently come into the world.
Every taste and sensation must be new to her; he couldn’t quite recall what it felt like to exist as a spirit.
In reality, Luke was also quite interested in what results would come out of Py’s physical examination.
Manipulating magic to exert slight influence on reality and acting through a body that was directly crafted were two significantly different things.
Based on what Luke had observed so far, if he were to theoretically analyze the principle behind Pyris’s incarnation, it would not be fundamentally different from a god descending into the material plane.
Perhaps it involves creating a vessel capable of receiving stimuli from the material dimension and dwelling within it.
Thus, Py’s incarnation appears to take on a different name.
Essentially, ‘it’ is not Py herself.
……Isn’t that a rather familiar concept?
‘It’s just like a game.’
The common aspect is that an entity from a higher dimension interferes with the lower dimension and enjoys the play.
In that process, they could use their own name, or to distinguish it from their actual identity, they could give a new name.
Hence, Py added ‘Lis’, a word indicating a slightly lower existence, to her own name.
While the principle may be as such, the question that arises is this.
The body Py uses for incarnation was excessively well-crafted.
How could something of such high quality be shaped without even knowing whether she had created it?
Isn’t it strange to have made it without that knowledge?
There’s also the part where it somewhat resembles her current form.
Luke found himself wanting to research this actively, but the problem was the promise he made to Yerna not to harm himself.
He couldn’t lie to her.
‘Lacking the necessary equipment as well.’
Until now, he had mostly used magic sight to replace most observation equipment, but this case was significantly different.
Py’s body undoubtedly included magic, but it was a real physical body, not merely a machine woven from magical circuits.
Using magic sight, he couldn’t observe beyond seeing the flow of magic in an ordinary person.
Just because magic was involved doesn’t make it the same.
After all, mana is the substance that constitutes everything.
Thus, the curiosity grew.
To what extent is Pyris’s body ‘human’?
And what on earth are the ‘commonalities’ with himself?
If one were not curious, they wouldn’t be a mage.
However, there was something more important remaining at the moment.
As Luke pondered such thoughts, he finished preparing himself and finally flung the window open, looking down at the scenery of Beriton bathed in that bright sun.
The scenery of Beriton under the bright sun showed a vastly different appearance from the time when nothing could be seen in the midnight.
“That….”
Perhaps staying on a slightly higher floor made the sight of the World Tree far too clear.
A gigantic tree that soared to the sky, higher than the clouds.
At its base was a similarly enormous, white adorned door, and beneath it was a vast tunnel passing through the trunk, with roads spreading like the roots of the tree, where numerous buildings were constructed, hanging like fruits or leaves.
However, could it be that 5000 years was indeed sufficient time to alter even the World Tree?
The World Tree was deeply split, exposing the white tower that it originally harbored inside, while another colossal tree wrapping around the World Tree grew in stark contrast, barely looking like an intact tree.
They called that tree ‘Gleipnir’, didn’t they?
It was said to be an artificial plant that was parasitized to save the dying World Tree.
Yet still, Luke found that change satisfying.
“Hahaha, World Tree. Have you too become a chimera?”
There was somehow a sense of kinship in that sight.
No matter how much he had changed, it was still Luke Irushi.
No matter how much the appearance had changed, it was undoubtedly the World Tree from 5000 years ago.
Then, a pleasant breeze wrapped around Luke.
It was Py.
– Are you looking forward to it?
“Of course! Aren’t you excited? The World Tree, which was present 5000 years ago, has changed so intriguingly. Don’t you immediately feel like rushing over to check it out?”
It was truly fascinating.
Five thousand years ago, he had given little thought to the World Tree, but now he felt so warmly towards it!
Py looked at that Luke and murmured softly.
– Yeah, Ere is indeed Ere.
“…Py, is it not an insult to refer to Ere as Ere?”
———
The children gathered in the hotel lobby.
After briefly taking attendance, Emma recited the day’s agenda.
“Alright, first, we will have breakfast and then visit the Beriton History Museum!”
Unfortunately, the visit to the World Tree was almost the last item on the list.
Luke thought about sneaking away right to the World Tree, but that would surely inconvenience the other children.
Well, seeing the World Tree’s appearance would somewhat satisfy him, so he thought the history museum wouldn’t be so bad.
Perhaps he could uncover something about the history preceding the ‘Forgotten Battle’ that he couldn’t obtain from searches or books.
As he listened to Emma’s schedule explanation and looked around, Luke spotted Shirud with a tired expression.
“Shirud? Did you not sleep well last night? Why do you look so worn out?”
When he lightly tapped Shirud’s shoulder, his visibly surprised reaction made Luke frown, and then Shirud sighed and spoke upon seeing Luke’s face.
“Oh, it’s you, Luke.”
“Yeah, it’s me. Why are you so surprised? Is something going on?”
As Luke spoke, he suddenly noticed the deep scratching marks on Shirud’s cheeks and arms and hardened his expression.
“Is it that a friend in your room is bullying you?”
“Not exactly… It’s because of bugs.”
Shirud lamented.
He said that it was already hard to sleep, but the buzzing of insects around his ears all night was so annoying that he had to take a drug to erase his emotions, he lamented to Luke.
But what could be done? Warm weather inevitably comes with bugs.
“I got bitten by mosquitoes twice. Ugh… This is why I dislike Beriton.”
The marks from his scratching were probably those.
“Aha.”
Luke nodded in relief.
As long as it wasn’t bullying, that was a relief.
At that moment, Mary tilted her head beside Luke, looking puzzled.
“Uh? I didn’t see any bugs. That’s strange. I wasn’t bitten by a single mosquito.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Luke, right?”
That would probably be the case; if he didn’t pay attention, dragons would spread terror among other races.
Certainly, no crazy mosquito would consider sucking blood by attempting to penetrate through Dragon Pier.
However, since Mary had shared the same bed with him, it wouldn’t make sense for her to be bitten.
Luke nodded once and then carefully examined Shirud’s cheeks and arms before asking,
“Shirud, is it very itchy?”
“Yeah, it’s ridiculously so.”
“Let me take a look.”
Luke brought a finger to his mouth, wet it with his tongue, and applied it gently to where the mosquito bit and the wound.
As expected, the saliva of a chimera mixed with dragon and demon was already quite an excellent magical material, and an enchantment to alleviate itchiness was easily accepted.
To confirm whether it worked properly, Luke took a slight look using magic sight and could see that the effect seemed to have worked.
Luke smiled at Shirud with satisfaction and said,
“You should feel better now. If you need a fatigue recovery medicine, just tell me. I’ll bring it from the room… For now, let’s head to the dining hall first.”
“…Uh.”
For some unknown reason, Shirud suddenly froze, and his reaction disappeared.
Luke thought, wondering if Shirud wasn’t particularly hungry, turned to Mary and asked,
“Mary, where’s the restaurant?”
“….”
However, Mary’s reaction didn’t seem to differ significantly.
Mary covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide open, alternating her gaze between Luke and Shirud, silently screaming.
Luke’s gone wild again!
Isn’t this basically an indirect kiss?
“Mary? Did I mess up somehow…?”
But Luke’s surprised reaction was genuine.
Ah, so Luke truly did those things without any thought whatsoever.
This isn’t good.
If he didn’t seriously advise him…
Mary approached Luke with an extremely serious expression, placed her hand against his ear, and whispered softly.
“Luke, if you keep doing that with a boy, you might actually end up having a baby.”
“…What on earth are you talking about?”
Shouldn’t he have clearly explained the process of having a baby yesterday?
Luke buried his face in his hands and groaned.
‘Renie, what on earth should I do?’
