Meeting Lapis after investigating how to break the curse on Lobelia had been a fortunate mistake.
“So once you’re done with the Third Princess, you’ll get started on my matter. Wrap it up quickly.”
Meeting Deus had simply been a mistake. What a shameless old man.
Of course, Lapis wasn’t without her issues either.
“I’ll help Lobelia unleash her full power. It’s not something she can do by her own will anyway.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“People tend to show strength they didn’t know they had when faced with imminent death.”
“So you’re saying you’ll beat her up. Are you sure that’s really okay?”
“Of course.”
Can I really trust her?
I have no choice but to be wary, since I have no idea what she’s really thinking. She’s the one who calls me a shell, not even recognizing me as a person. Even the kindness she’s showing me now…it’s not directed at me.
“I will put Lobelia in danger, but she won’t die. After all, no one in this world knows death better than I do.”
“……”
“Of course, she’ll be pushed to the brink of death, and to survive that, she’ll need the Fruit of the World Tree. Because in this world, only the World Tree’s power can restore the soul.”
She had a point.
Considering how Tillis tried to sway me with a World Tree leaf, it seemed believable. That fool wasn’t capable of such an intricately crafted lie, so the power of the World Tree must be real.
Of course, the fundamental problem still remained.
“Does it have to be the fruit?”
“Well, since we’re using it on a person, yes.”
“I see.”
The real issue was whether I even had a fruit of the World Tree.
On the day Tillis died, I obtained a sapling of the World Tree.
Cattleya had said it was growing rapidly, day by day… but could it have borne fruit already?
I’d have to check that myself.
I couldn’t afford to wait for the fruit to ripen.
If waiting were enough to solve things, I would’ve just waited for Lobelia to grow stronger. But time was running out. We needed to speed things up.
“Are we done with that topic now? Then let’s talk about what to do with the other me.”
“……..”
This old man Deus really only cares about himself.
***
Now that I had found a solution to the curse,
I headed to the Misfits’ hideout.
“Oh, teacher. Your arm is starting to look less and less human.”
“And your eyes are starting to look less and less human too, Helena.”
“Ahem!”
The prophet’s powers were growing stronger by the day.
Helena had reached a point where she could now perceive the essence of things.
At this point, you could call her the second prophet and no one would question it.
“What brings you here today?”
“Do I look like the kind of guy who only shows up when he needs something?”
“Yes.”
“You’re right. Call Dietrich for me.”
“Got it!”
Helena trotted off toward the backyard.
I figured it’d be awkward to just stand around, so I followed after her.
“Whew…”
As soon as I stepped into the backyard, I saw Dietrich swinging his sword.
He was already strong, and yet he kept on training.
Just how strong was he planning to become?
“Oh? Isn’t it the senior himself? What brings you here today?”
“……”
Weird…
Was I really that distant with the others?
I mean, I came by plenty of times. When I was training Helena, for example.
So why do they talk like I’m always a stranger?
“You’re the one in charge of the World Tree sapling, right? I want to take a quick look.”
“Ah, understood. Just a moment.”
Still in the middle of his sword practice, Dietrich nodded and moved to get ready.
He set down the blade he’d been using and brought out a rough-looking steel sword from the shed.
“Let’s go.”
And with that, we followed Dietrich deeper into the forest.
“By the way, you’re really putting in the work with your training, huh?”
“Well, I don’t have much else to do now that I’m a fugitive.”
“Ah.”
He must’ve been bored.
I should’ve realized that.
Helena probably had a lot to learn, and Jeff and Melana were likely too busy flirting.
That would leave Dietrich with nothing to do.
He must be feeling restless too.
I should come up with something he’d enjoy soon.
“Ah, we’re here.”
“Oh, this is the place?”
The place Dietrich led me to was filled with lush green vegetation.
But there wasn’t a single tree in sight that looked like the World Tree.
Of course, that made sense.
How could you possibly hide a tree that would one day grow as huge as a mountain?
They say if you want to hide a tree, hide it in a forest. But even that has its limits.
To hide something of that size, you’d have to conceal its very presence.
“Heave-ho!”
Dietrich swung the steel sword he had brought into empty space.
Slice!
A flash of sword energy, tinged with all sorts of colors, tore through the air.
Then, like a stage curtain being pulled away, the space itself seemed to fall apart.
“You’ve really mastered the use of Trace.”
Dietrich’s special ability: Trace.
He’d used it to hide the World Tree.
More precisely, he had preserved the previous appearance of this place as a trace, overlaying it like a blackout curtain.
Because it looked like untouched nature, no one would notice anything out of place from afar.
“But how do you close this back up?”
“Well… I’ll probably have to run around again with my sword.”
“Ah…”
The traces Dietrich could leave were limited to the paths his sword had taken.
Which meant, to cover this huge tree again, he’d have to run around the entire area swinging that sword.
All I did was ask to see the World Tree, and now Dietrich was going to end up running around all day.
“…I’ll try to finish up quickly.”
“Hey, no need to rush. I’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”
Seriously, I really needed to find him a hobby he could enjoy.
***
Long story short, no fruit of the World Tree had grown yet.
But instead, if you could call it that—
“Well, you’ve been off wandering around quite a bit without me, haven’t you?”
I found a mysterious little brat sitting on one of the World Tree’s branches.
The moment I saw her, I rubbed my eyes and looked around.
Apparently, no one else could see her.
Everyone was too busy marveling at the majesty of the World Tree.
All right. Let’s turn back and look again.
“You are listening, right?”
“……”
“What the heck.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose for a moment.
Was I just tired?
Or had I finally lost my mind?
“…Why are you alive, Tillis?”
Sitting on the branch was Tillis who should’ve been dead.
But that just didn’t make sense.
I had witnessed her end. I didn’t see her corpse, sure, but… she definitely died.
So whoever was in front of me, it wasn’t Tillis. For starters, the age didn’t match… and more than anything, the vibe was completely different.
“I’m not that girl.”
“Then…”
That meant the person in front of me just looked like Tillis.
But elves no longer existed in this world.
And if someone else had made contact with the World Tree guarded by Dietrich, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been noticed.
Lastly…
A being that even the Prophet’s Eye couldn’t detect?
“Are you the World Tree?”
“That’s right! I’m the great World Tree!”
Well, one thing was clear. Tillis had definitely left an impression.
She only said a few sentences, but ignorance practically radiated off her.
Whatever happened, I didn’t know how… or why I was the only one who could see her…
“Do you have any fruit?”
“Not yet.”
“I see.”
I turned around.
Time to go home.
“Wait! Where are you going? Don’t you want to ask me something?”
“No, I don’t.”
“What?!”
I mean, there are people out there who claim they’re Hell itself. So of course someone could claim to be the World Tree.
Besides, with the power to heal souls in every leaf, it wouldn’t be strange if the tree had a soul of its own.
“Dietrich, close it back up.”
“Yes!”
“Waaiiiit!!”
Persistent, aren’t we?
“What is it?”
“You said you needed the fruit.”
“You said you didn’t have any.”
“I will soon!”
“And when exactly is that?”
“…Sometime soon.”
The way she avoided my eyes, she definitely knew when.
Not telling me means…
“Are you bored?”
“……”
She must want me to come back and visit again.
Too bad I don’t have the time. I already have too much on my plate. Now I’m supposed to look after a newborn World Tree, too?
“From the looks of it, you can’t even wander far from the tree…”
Twitch!
The World Tree flinched.
I had no idea why she was trembling like she’d just been caught doing something terrible.
“I guess you would be bored.”
“Th-Then…”
“I’ll come back. When the fruit appears. So…when exactly will that be?”
“It’ll grow in a week!”
“Ah, great. Take care.”
Haah. More trouble piling up.
Strange things just keep popping up. And not the usual kind of strange. These are on a whole different level.
Prophets, judges….those were at least people I’d heard of.
But now?
Starting with that mysterious power called sorcery, the truth about the Demon King, a living, breathing hell, a beast god….and now the World Tree is talking to me?
How many damn secrets does this world have?
Actually, no, I know why. It’s because the Empire burned most of its historical records.
Still, even accounting for that, this is just too much.
At this point, I’m seriously starting to wonder if I’ve gone insane.
“Let’s just pretend I didn’t see that.”
Still unable to fully let go of my normal-person mindset, I decided to shut my eyes.
***
I returned to the Cradle.
I couldn’t even remember how long it had been.
At this rate, I was more of a traveler than a student.
“Is the semester over already…?”
Even though I’d finally come back, there were hardly any people around.
Some students must’ve died in the barbarian war, and others probably went home for the break.
With all the aftermath to clean up, it had been a while since I’d seen anyone’s face.
I wondered how Raven and Ollie were doing. Hopefully still alive.
“Well, first…”
I headed to the administration office to check for any announcements.
Thankfully, there hadn’t been any exams while I was off at the Veldani Mountains.
Given the situation, there were no finals or class placement tests this time around.
They probably just used our grades from the past year to determine our next class.
Which made sense, considering all the field training and whatnot we’d done.
“Oh.”
I clapped my hands as I looked at the new class list posted on the board.
[3-4]
……
……
……
Johan Damus
Yuna Hermod
……
……
The blatant ranking system from A to F was gone.
Finally, they were coming to their senses!
“So… does that mean there’s no S-Class either?”
In the past, classes were divided based on grades, but now that they’d abandoned that system, it was only natural to wonder what had happened to the former S-Class students.
“Hmm, right… right.”
I nodded as I checked which classes my acquaintances had been assigned to.
To put it simply, here’s how it turned out:
[3-4]
Lobelia Vicious Von Miltonia
Ariel Ether
Stan Robinhood
Emily Robinhood
“I really have changed, huh.”
It didn’t even surprise me anymore.
It was like they’d gathered all the troublemakers into one class.
Compared to how hard I tried to avoid S-Class last year, I guess I’ve finally come to terms with reality.
Still, this class roster almost feels malicious. Like they deliberately lumped all the problem children together.
It stings a little to be in the mix… but I’ll just assume they didn’t want to separate me and Yuna.
That’s probably what it was.
Ugh, I sound like some doting old man.
Even so, how could they throw a model student like me into a cage full of wild beasts?
“Johan!”
Just as I stood there staring bitterly at the board, I saw Yuna running toward me from a distance, waving enthusiastically.
Looks like she managed to escape from Olga Hermod.
“Johan, I’ve been thinking.”
“You? Thinking?”
“……”
She gave me a pouty glare. It had been a while, and honestly, it was kind of cute.
“So? What were you thinking?”
“I thought… we can’t go on like this.”
“Yuna….”
What does she mean, we can’t go on like this?
“It’s always been like this. When has anything ever gone smoothly for us?”
“Not that.”
“Oh, that’s not it?”
I’d assumed she was talking about the mountain of unresolved issues: the Deus incident, the World Tree, Lobelia’s situation, Lapis’s identity, the Demon King’s soul residing in my body, the great sage’s trail, and all the other problems still hanging over our heads.
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