Chapter 76

The secret technique that the priestesses spoke of was more effective than I had thought, and after leaving Gal in another room, I headed towards the room where the High Elves were gathered.

“Haha! Wow, I really thought I was going to die while messing around! What the heck is that? That’s just ridiculous.”

“Saras, this is not the time to laugh.”

“It hurts! I’m sorry! Sorry! Anya!”

The noisy sounds could be heard from the threshold.

As I entered the room, I saw Palas sitting cross-legged with a frown, and Saras laughing heartily. Next to Saras, Anya was pinching his side or hitting him with her staff.

“Araya, you’re here? Is the story finished?”

“Ah~~ra~~~ya~~~”

Saras, who was being scolded by Anya, smiled and greeted me as I entered the room.

Anya, who was scolding Saras, quickly turned her head and, upon seeing me, jumped into my arms.

Of course, due to her body shape, it ended up looking like I was the one being embraced.

“…Anya, I can’t breathe.”

Anya’s good-heartedness was crushing my breath gently, but my sister, knowing that I wouldn’t die from a lack of breath after a while, expressed her intense affection for her long-lost younger sibling.

‘…It has been a while.’

Feeling guilty for causing Anya, who is soft-hearted, heartache, I gave up resisting and surrendered my physical autonomy to her.

After a long, warm hug ended, I looked up at Anya, who had tears welling in her eyes.

“Why are you crying after such a long time?”

“…You idiot. Fool. It’s because of you. You’re always in dangerous situations. You just completely disappeared.”

“I’m sorry. But I’m fine and healthy.”

“…Are you really okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m really fine.”

“…Huh?”

As Anya looked at me with a frowning expression, seemingly astonished by something she saw, she tilted her head.

“…Huh? Huh?”

Leaving Anya, who was making a strange face and repeatedly saying, ‘Huh? Huh?’, I turned my gaze towards Saras.

Saras was still smiling with his eyes squinted and waving his hand.

Unlike his oppressive and stiff demeanor when we first reunited, he now radiated a languid atmosphere.

But if you asked me which was his true self, it would be the latter.

He wasn’t as arrogant as Gal, but his true nature was that he took things easy when they weren’t of primary interest, just like now.

“Honestly, it seems like you’ve been doing quite well for someone I was worried about.”

“…Don’t even mention it. It was an extremely humiliating time.”

“Even so, just being alive against such a monster is already lucky.”

Saras took a snack placed in the center of the room and mumbled as he spoke.

“Considering that, why did you pick a fight with Gal?”

“So! To be honest, from what I heard, he seemed dangerous, so I was planning to kill him; instead, I almost ended up dead! I really didn’t expect him to be that absurd. It was completely out of my assumptions.”

“You didn’t act like yourself, and if you had made a mistake, everyone would have been involved.”

“…I’m reflecting on it. I was just scolded by Anya a moment ago. I never thought my trump card would be nullified as soon as it started…”

“That part is true; Gal is an outlier. It wouldn’t be fair to blame only you. I’ve experienced the same.”

“How can you be unscathed after being attacked by such a monster?”

Saras asked, genuinely curious.

I shrugged and replied.

“I wasn’t perfectly unscathed, but I was lucky.”

If it weren’t for Gal’s whims, I would have surely died.

After that, the conversation with Saras went on for quite a while, filled with not much substance.

As I forced the conversation to end, Palas, who hadn’t moved from his crossed-legged position, was looking at me with a pouty face.

Since I entered the room and he hadn’t spoken a word to me, his expression was slightly sullen.

He could have started the conversation himself.

“You look much better than the last time I saw you, Palas.”

“…You’ve grown stronger.”

“Of course. I’m going to grow stronger until the day I die.”

“…I thought I had caught up to a certain degree.”

“Hehe. It’s not that easy to catch up.”

Palas fidgeted a bit and then, as if having made a decision, opened his mouth.

“Has that guy done anything severe to you?”

“Well… We fought once at first, but after that, I just managed to get by. It’s okay.”

“…That guy was saying some strange things earlier.”

“…Just consider it as an unavoidable circumstance for both sides. Regardless, it wasn’t a bad situation. Just look at the clothes I’m wearing now; they took a lot of effort to make, right?”

“…Huh.”

Palas said with a slightly painful expression.

“…He was an overwhelming figure that reminded me of mother. I was worried you might have been captured by that guy and ended up in a terrible situation.”

“Did you pick a fight with him knowing that?”

“…Because I’m your brother.”

He turned his head away as if he felt embarrassed after saying that.

Seeing Palas turned red like a ripe fruit, Anya looked at him with a satisfied expression, while Saras feigned nausea, making a disgusted face.

While the four of us were chatting and catching up after a long time, I finally got to the main topic.

“Can you help me out a bit?”

“Did you talk to that succubus girl?”

“You heard about it?”

“Well, why do you think we have big ears? It’s so we can hear the sounds of the world.”

Saras perked his long ears up.

“Is that Orcus really that dangerous? Is it something we need to get directly involved in?”

The nature of the energy that had flown in from the east, one of the reasons I had left the forest, had already been reported to the Elven Road.

However, since the history of the Eastern Continent was a long story to convey all in detail, other brothers only had the vague knowledge that there were conflicts in the Eastern Continent and that the two Elder Roa that originally existed there had died.

I began to talk about the history of the Eastern Continent I had heard from Alia.

Palas listened indifferently while doing some light training, but the curious Saras and the storytelling Anya listened intently to the history of the Eastern Continent with sparkling eyes.

And even about Algul, who seemed to have overcome the curse of Ul Kanadiel.

When all the explanations were finished, Saras nodded with a slightly serious expression.

“Indeed, if it’s to that extent, it makes sense for us to take action. Nature can struggle to recover when it is completely destroyed.”

“Will you help?”

“Don’t ask if you already know. Mother made us to do things like this in the first place.”

Saras sighed and grumbled, “This is such a hassle.”

“So, have you thought about how you would help? Should we just handle everything ourselves?”

“I’ll take care of Algul, so Saras and Palas, you take care of those three Stygian agents that follow Algul. I don’t think the forest guardians will have any trouble handling them, but if we’re not careful, there could be casualties. The forest guardians can just deal with the rest of the ordinary Orcus.”

“Huh? What about Anya?”

“…? Anya needs to stay here. There’s no way Anya can fight.”

Saras chuckled, shaking his shoulders at my assessment of Anya, and Anya, feeling ignored, puffed her cheeks.

As I panicked to comfort Anya, Saras dabbed his eyes with his finger.

“Well, you might think that way since you haven’t known anything since that incident a long time ago.”

“…What do you mean?”

So many things I could guess, but it became a contradictory situation where I had no idea.

“Rather than explaining, you’ll see for yourself later. It will be the first time Anya experiences it for real, considering her care for you.”

“…It’s a life-or-death battle. I can’t take Anya to such a dangerous place with such a vague assessment.”

“Anart is not an issue.”

“Yeah! I’m a super dangerous woman!”

When Palas stepped in to back Anya up against my concerns, she confidently agreed.

I acknowledged that it was somewhat dangerous.

For the men.

“…Whatever happens, I’m sure the other forest guardians will be fine.”

“Is that Algul the leader of the enemies?”

“Huh? Um… It seems the surface leader over there is human, but the actual leader can be considered Algul.”

“Then I’ll take care of that guy.”

“…Why suddenly?”

“Gal Dragon. I somewhat gauged his strength. No matter how strong you are, you wouldn’t have come out unscathed after fighting that guy. You’ve definitely become stronger since the past, but there’s something about your fundamental aspects that feels hazy. I don’t sense the sharpness I used to feel from you much earlier. You’re not in a complete state, are you?”

“…”

Perhaps it was because I had achieved the Union of Spiritual Bodies and entered Harmony.

God. It seemed I was really aware that the energy from my upper dantian was scattered and had not yet recovered.

While I was pleased that Palas had reached a higher state, I was troubled by how sensitive he had become.

I forced a bitter smile.

“We’re not desperate enough to have the injured push themselves, so I’ll take care of Algul. You handle the other one.”

I looked at Palas’s stubbornly hardened face.

Yet within that expression, his eyes frankly conveyed his concern.

“It’s true that I have some injuries, but it’s been a long time, and I’ve recovered quite a bit. You don’t need to worry that much.”

“It’s a matter of life and death. It’s not enough to be careful.”

“Being completely prepared for every situation is just an ideal.”

“But-”

“It’s true that I’m not in perfect condition, but even so, can you defeat the current me?”

“…”

“That’s an overbearing concern.”

I might have been a little harsh to Palas, who was worried about me.

However, Palas, laden with the debt of the past, tended to be overly protective of me.

Even so, I wasn’t a delicate plant in a greenhouse, nor was I weak enough to need protection.

On the contrary, I could be the one to protect others, like Palas and other elves.

“Moreover, my position here matters, too. Considering the position and symbolism I hold, it makes sense for me to confront the enemy’s leader.”

Palas stared at me with a complicated expression and after contemplating for a while, sighed and raised the white flag.

“Huh… I understand. I’ll go with that.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“But once this is over, let’s return to the Elven Road for now.”

“What?”

I furrowed my brow at Palas’s words, but he spoke firmly.

“The original purpose of you leaving the forest has already been fulfilled, and you’ve been outside for too long. You’re a High Elf leading us elves, not a human.”

“…That’s…”

“The connection with humans should not rest on one elf bearing all the burdens, but other elves will also share that burden to some extent. Now, even this title of the Goddess of the Migratory Belief is maintained with the idea that other High Elves or equally qualified elves take turns through Alia. If not, someone like you will have to live their whole life in the Human Territory as a Goddess.”

---