Chapter 356 – Thousand Years of Promise, Thousand Years of Waiting

“Help… Mother.”

It wasn’t a half-playing joke, but a rather serious appeal.

At this, the circulating life stopped for a moment, and then she screamed while scratching her head.

“Ugh! All right! It can’t be done! If you do! There is no reason to resemble him, but how can he be so similar to Fafnir…”

Come to think of it, Fafnir, whom I saw in my memory, also forcibly pushed an unreasonable request to the circulating life.

As I was scratching my head with a little embarrassment, the circulating life continued with a sigh.

“But right now it is impossible. The current time distortion is to prevent intruders after all. If you use it as it is, you will have mental problems. We need time to finalize that part.”

“How long does it take?”

“It won’t take much. 10 minutes at most? In the meantime, say hello to your friends. … It might take a few days for us, but it might take years for you.”

“Thank you.”

The circulating life that nodded lightly, let out a sigh, and moved away. Sitting in a chair and quietly closing your eyes seems to have entered into adjustment.

The moment I looked at it for a moment and turned my head.

“Sit there for a minute, sir.”

“You? Do you know what you just said?”

“Uh, um…”

I expected it, but it’s a stronger reaction than I thought. I glanced at him and slowly ran away.

“Where are you going, Master?”

“Huh, junior. Let’s talk for a minute.”

He was caught by Iris and Fay and forced to sit in a chair.

The others didn’t say anything, but they were looking at me with sharp eyes, probably feeling the same way.

I looked at the place where Milone and Nariel were, just in case…

“… Her Highness the Queen. It seems that you can check the situation outside from here.”

“Well, that’s great! We’ve put down some rough guidelines, but something could happen in between!”

“Yes. Even if contact using magic tools is impossible, you can check directly like this, so if something unexpected happens, you should be able to go down immediately.”

“Then… We’ll have to keep an eye on it here to see if there’s a problem or not.”

“Indeed it is.”

As if they didn’t want to get involved, they slowly turned their heads away and started a dirty conversation.

Huh. I didn’t even expect it from the beginning. Really?

While tongue-in-cheek. Elisha cupped her face with both of her hands and made her look straight at herself.

“You. You asked us to risk our lives. But again, are you willing to sacrifice yourself? You don’t even know what it feels like to convert life force into magical power?”

“It doesn’t matter if you know how it feels or if you don’t. It’s something you have to endure anyway. Is there no other way? Even if the chairman or Lord Havel came running right away, it would be too late then.”

“I mean that… !”

“And. Asking for your life is not something you just say. No matter how much mana I collect and come back, if the ugly prosperity is completely released or Yggdrasil collapses, it will really be the end. So buy me some time until I come back. Please slow down the unsealing speed even just a little, and protect Yggdrasil from collapsing even just a little bit. It won’t be easy now that I’m off the front lines, but it’s necessary.”

“…”

It is true that right now, the ugly prosperity cannot capture Yggdrasil, and it is still only an arm.

But how long can that be?

In the words of circulating life, it was said that a few years would not be enough.

No matter how much time distortion is at stake, since the time to stay is long, the time that flows in reality will also be longer.

Someone has to keep interrupting the ugly flourish.

It doesn’t matter if I can’t inflict a single wound, so I stop those who want to sacrifice themselves, stop the cultists, and break down the birth chamber even a little to slow down the speed of birth.

It was something I could never do, being confined inside the World Tree.

“And it would be dangerous, too.”

“… I know what you mean. But apart from that, I have no choice but to ask questions.”

“What?”

“Why do you have to suffer like this?”

“Uh?”

It’s something I’ve never really thought about.

If I don’t step out in the first place, this world will perish, and I and my women will die too.

That’s why it’s a topic that I haven’t looked into deeply. Protecting me and protecting my people was such a natural thing.

But Elisha seems to have a different opinion.

“I know when you were still weak. The moment when he somehow tried to win in sparring even though he only knew one low-level magic, the fact that he won the victory by being covered with scars against a cultist one level above himself, the fact that he overturned a battlefield so unfavorable that it would be foolish to attack even if he pretended to be. Appearance too. I remember everything.”

I guess so. The one who had been by my side for the longest time was Carla, but Elisha also fought by her side for an astoundingly long time.

“You did a great job that everyone said was impossible. You prevented the academy’s attack, cleared many hidden dungeons, announced the existence of a hidden spy, blew away half of the undead army prepared for war, and saved Solaris and the righteous Gwangmyeong from the brink of collapse. “

Elisha spits out her words as if she is wasting her breath. After saying this far, she let out a breath she had been holding back.

“Whoa… I know. That you were created to defeat evil spirits, and that you were born with that kind of talent. I know it well now. But.”

Elisha gently removed her hand from holding my face, and gently ran her fingertips from forehead to cheek.

“But why did it have to be you? I can’t help but feel that way.”

“… I know. Why was it me But what is certain is that the world will perish without me.”

It wasn’t Elisha who answered those words, but Iris, who was holding my shoulder next to her.

“In a world where the owner must sacrifice to continue, there is no need for that. It will be ruined.”

“What… ?”

In a very resolute tone, a stupid voice flows without my knowledge.

Helena and Solari also flinched, but they took a step back on purpose, probably because they thought it was not something they wanted to intervene in now.

In response, Iris lightly nodded her head to express her gratitude, then stood next to Elisha and opened her mouth again.

“Elisha said that if the owner made a choice on her own, she would be with her even if it led to her death. However, I think differently.”

“Different?”

“Yes.”

Iris, who nodded her head once, clasped my hand tightly and said.

“Isn’t that enough now?”

“…”

“If the owner is willing to sacrifice himself because of the duty he was obliged to do from birth, regardless of his will… I’ll say it again and again The owner said he had done enough.”

“…”

“Master, you can be happy now. Even if the world were to perish, it would have perished because it was time to perish. It’s not the owner’s fault. Even if you take refuge in the evil spirit, you just struggled to survive. No one will dare to point a finger at you.”

Iris, who had said that far, continued her words in a slightly weeping voice.

“I am… I am different from Elisha. Different from others She vowed to revive Alfheim again with her elemental magic, but in the end, Nara was the only fool who got her hands on elemental magic. No matter what I say on the surface, I abandoned the purpose of the past 300 years with my own hands.”

“That…”

“But, that’s why I don’t want the owner to suffer. It’s okay if I die, but I don’t want my master to die. My owner… No, my companion is more important than the whole world!”

Even if the world perishes. Even if the mind is polluted by the energy of evil spirits.

Iris sheds her tears, saying that I will always be her first priority.

She looked at him for a moment and then slowly wiped away the tears. The warmth I felt at her fingertips made me unknowingly laugh out loud.

“Why, why are you laughing, master of Genga? I was serious.”

“Know. It’s just that Iris and you and Elisha seem to be mistaken about one thing.”

“… It’s an illusion. What do you mean?”

“I am not fighting for some great cause. Not even a sense of duty. Of course, at first I just fought to survive… Not anymore.”

“Then what makes the owner overbearing?”

“Simple. Did you promise?”

He raised his little finger and shook it gently.

“A thousand years.”

“… Ah.”

It is often said that a couple’s oath is 100 years old. For most races with a lifespan of at most 100 years, it is a romantic word that promises eternal love.

However, 100 years is a long time for the long-lived elf, but it was not at the level of being the whole of life.

That’s why it was created in about a thousand years.

This time, someone voluntarily uttered the words of the oath that Elisha and Iris had half-squeathed.

“Half of a soul, a pair of wings, intertwined roots are another name for us. I engrave here an oath that will not fade even after a thousand years.”

“…”
“…”

I shrugged my shoulders at Elisha and Iris, who were at a loss for words and stared blankly at me.

“No matter how much time passes in the Distortion, it’s not much compared to a thousand years, right?”

I sincerely think so.

The reason I fight now is not to survive, but because there are people who want to live happily together.