Chapter 4 – The Slow Worm (4)
“Please, it’s true. Believe me.”
They were pleading as they stuck their necks out of the ground, repeating those words over and over. However, no matter how hard I listened, I simply couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Their clothes looked strange, and terms like ‘free city’ and ‘prohibited’ were all foreign to me. It was bizarre that they tried to attack me, but what they were saying was even weirder, driving me insane.
Looking at their faces, I couldn’t tell if they were lying, which only added to my confusion.
“Do you really not know about the Tower?”
“The Tower, the Tower… are you talking about the Tower of Genesis?”
The one clue I had was when I mentioned the Tower. While I might not know about the Tower of Catastrophe, I had never heard of the Tower of Genesis before. Nevertheless, finding a commonality in ‘Tower’ led me to ask about it.
“If the old tales I heard from grandma Yuba are correct…”
One of them glanced around nervously and began speaking. Just as the stories from grandma went, it was a hazy fairy tale or a myth.
“A giant tower that existed in the world collapsed, and the glorious myth vanished, marking the true history of this land’s beginning. Roughly, that’s the story.”
“I still don’t understand what you’re saying, but it seems the Tower has collapsed. So, it appears we’re outside the Tower, huh?”
I couldn’t dismiss their words as I subtly turned my body. The expansive open area behind me certainly appeared to be a relic of something that had existed long ago.
Moreover, the phrase I had seen before when trying to ascend to the second floor, indicating the Tower had ended, kept echoing in my mind.
‘No way.’
Even I thought it was a nonsensical story, prompting a hollow laugh. It made no sense that the world could fall apart while I was just stuck a little longer in the tutorial.
I had never heard that time moved slowly in the tutorial.
…Well, who would even spend more than a day in that easy tutorial?
That simply couldn’t be true. I had become this way for a reason and wasted time in the tutorial. It absolutely shouldn’t have happened.
All that I wanted to protect, everything I had aimed for, felt like it vanished in an instant.
“…!”
At that moment, a strong wave of fatigue engulfed my body.
I didn’t collapse dramatically like a CEO in a drama, but suddenly, my strength drained, my knees buckled, and I fell to the ground.
‘The spirit’s power is reversing…!’
It wasn’t only from the mental shock. I had no idea why it was happening now, but it was as if the connection with the spirits waited for me to realize where I was, expanding with the accumulated information crashing into my body.
Come to think of it, this place was different from the tutorial; it was a realm where spirits resided. Bigger and many more than those in the Tower. Naturally, this was home to the ‘real world’ spirits.
“Cough…”
I was glad to connect with them, but I lost control of my body under the overload of incoming information.
“Help! Let me go and kill me!”
“Save us! Someone save us!!”
The cacophony of screeching sounds near my head grated on my ears. It was infuriating, considering they were acting like I might bury them in the ground and let them die.
Yet, it was also true that I couldn’t move a single finger.
‘Let them go.’
I instructed the earth spirit I had been with since the tutorial to release them. I couldn’t be unconscious in an unknown place.
“I-I’m alive.”
“Cough, ugh!”
However, I didn’t release them without precautions.
The moment they were freed from their constraints and burst out of the ground, the earth spirit forced tiny stones the size of grapes into their mouths, shoving them down their throats.
With this, even the weakened earth spirit, due to my lost consciousness, could assert control over them.
“The earth spirit is watching you. The moment you try to harm me, the stones you swallowed will tear your body apart, shatter your brain, and pop out of your eye sockets, so be prepared.”
“W-what?!”
“Since you all seem to know nothing, let’s leave this place and take me to someone who might know…”
My strength gradually faded. If I just rested for a bit, I’d be fine, but it was the time that was an issue.
Even though they had attempted to attack me right after meeting, I had taken precautions for my life, so there was some value in using them.
Feeling the need to talk to someone more competent than these clueless fools, I told them to take me to their superior before my consciousness faded.
‘What should I do now…’
At that moment, I couldn’t gather my thoughts and felt utterly unsettled.
From the moment I was brought to the Tower, during the moment I received the Gift and transformed into an Elf, even when I endured the tutorial, basking only in sunlight, I had only thought of climbing the Tower, growing stronger, and saving the world.
I envisioned becoming a great hero, and one day, when I finally ascended from the Tower, I would stand proudly before my family and loved ones, regardless of my appearance.
But now, there were no family or friends left. Every enemy I needed to fight and every person I needed to protect had vanished.
All those resolves and determinations felt like worthless trash abandoned, leaving me to grapple with the intense void and emptiness that had come crashing down upon me.
“—!”
The last memory I had was of the earth spirit shaking me and the figures approaching my body.
Even if I woke up somewhere else, I couldn’t shake my pessimistic thought that it would be no different from now, and I closed my eyes.
*
“W-what should we do?”
“What do you mean, what should we do? Do you want to die a terrible death, spitting rocks from your eyes!?”
In the atmosphere that felt like a storm had passed, Hachi snapped at their foolish friend and carefully lifted the collapsed girl’s body.
Wrapping her in his outer clothing, he felt suspicious but believed her words wholeheartedly and trembled in fear.
It felt like a rock could burst out of her stomach at any moment. Although she was unconscious now, with the power she had displayed in subduing them effortlessly, it didn’t seem impossible.
“Let’s take her to the captain. We don’t know anything. We’ll just say we found her and try to get some money.”
Since he couldn’t refuse her command, but at the same time wanted the reward, Hachi’s method was simply to dump her onto his superior.
His friend nodded in agreement, saying it was a good idea.
“Hurry!”
Right after, the two hurriedly left the spot. They vanished through the outskirts of the forest, following the path they had come from.
The soldiers who should have been guarding the area were still unconscious on the ground. And as they entered the city through the back route they used.
A search party set out from the castle, racing across the city toward the prohibition. Since they had crossed paths like this, the search party had found no one at the scene.
“Is there a way to track their trace? A monster disguised as a human went into the city, and it could cause a major incident.”
“I-I’ll try, but I don’t know how it will turn out.”
At Renia’s words, who had only been able to find traces, Rakum scratched his head. With all the spells disabled and guards fainted, tracking was ambiguous.
‘The scent of rough men is masking other smells. It seems clear they went to the city, but…’
Renia, perked up with her ears and sniffing, bit her lip. Not knowing what it was, an urge surged within her that they must find them.
“These idiots… Why would the captain want to meet you!”
“I’m telling you, we got something incredible!”
While Renia was grinding her teeth, Hachi had returned to the city and was now presenting what he had in his arms to a menacing gang member.
“W-what is this?!”
The gang member’s eyes widened in shock as he peeked inside after lifting her clothing. They weren’t hiding it for no reason.
“Wait here a moment.”
He quickly darted inside to report the situation. After that, things progressed smoothly. The low-level Hachi and his friend were allowed into the organization’s inner circle for the first time.
“You found her in the prohibition? Now that you mention it, the city seemed lively a little while ago. You made it back just in time before the soldiers came.”
The man they met inside was someone they originally wouldn’t have dared to face. He looked at the girl Hachi was holding with keen interest.
“Take her and get lost.”
“T-thank you!”
He tossed them a purse of money as they finished the transaction. They ran out with silly grins, and they didn’t notice him gesturing to the subordinate beside him with an indifferent gaze.
There was no need for the earth spirit to take revenge. They wouldn’t last the night and would be buried as cold corpses in the ground to silence them.
“But isn’t this much for just one elf…?”
“She’s an elf found in the prohibition. And does this look like an ordinary elf to you? Idiot.”
As a subordinate remarked while leaving, he chuckled and approached the girl laid on the table.
“—?!”
The earth spirit, flustered, tried to protect her, but from the start, he hadn’t approached to harm her.
“This is a monster.”
In fact, his eyes trembled violently as he looked at her, who lay there quietly with her eyes closed.
