◈ Episode 259. You’ve earned the right to stand up.
The Tree of Good and Evil.
Ever since the class quest came up, I’ve felt a strange sense of discomfort.
It didn’t make sense.
The dragons, including Eunaxus, had apparently swallowed the seeds of the World Tree. They said they used their carcasses as nutrients to germinate the seeds.
Naturally, a question arose.
Then what about the seeds I found in the Predator Swamp?
[World Quest: World Tree Seed]
The continent of Arcana is in danger of extinction.
In the midst of a great crisis.
Sprout a new hope.
Germinate the World Tree Seed. (Ongoing)
1 World Tree Seed currently found / Unknown
1 World Tree seed currently sprouted / Unknown
The tree of good and evil was divided into good and evil.
The dragons devoured the evil fruit.
I was able to guess that the seed I sprouted was the seed of the World Tree that the Good Tree held. The question is, who sowed it on the continent?
I was curious about that, so I asked Eunaxus.
-“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.”
That’s what he said back.
This got me thinking.
Maybe the division between good and evil in the World Tree comes from…….
Maybe it was much older than I expected.
Why, I remembered the state of the seed I had found.
I could have mistaken it for a rock, let alone a seed.
It looked as if it had been beaten by the winds of time.
In fact, if it weren’t for the [Desire of Pure Knowledge].
I wouldn’t have recognized it as a seed either.
Who planted the seed of the World Tree.
The seed of the World Tree.
There was no way to know now.
Unless I found evidence.
It was all speculation.
But one thing was certain.
It was all the demon’s plan from the beginning, or whatever.
“The World Tree had been overrun by evil.”
With the World Tree’s relationship with dragons and elves severed, the demon sprang into action. Separate good and evil from the World Tree. First, it drove the good out of the World Tree, leading to the current situation.
Agentress didn’t take it well.
” ……There’s evil in my mother?”
He shouted.
“You speak nonsense, human. Sisley is our land. If a demon had stepped on it, we would have recognized its presence!”
I don’t blame you, elves.
Besides, you have to listen carefully.
Isn’t there evil in the World Tree?
“Agentress.”
“Talk to me, human.”
“Behind light, darkness always follows.”
“……what?”
“Where there is good, there must be evil on the other side.”
What is the real seed of the World Tree in the first place?
It is the seed of the tree of good and evil where good and evil coexist.
It is common sense that when you plant beans, you grow beans, and when you plant red beans, you grow red beans.
That means.
Even when the world tree is fine.
This means that good and evil coexisted within the World Tree.
The elves, including Agentress, still did not understand.
“How dare you disrespect my mother?”
It’s a sad sound to be insulted.
But I could not show my regret.
I continued nonchalantly.
“Nothing in the world is perfect. The World Tree is no exception.”
Grandfell, who always pursues perfection.
I didn’t expect such dignified words to come out.
After a pause, I added a reason.
“Because that is providence.”
Is it because I am so confident?
Agentress fell silent.
But only for a moment.
“Do not compare good and evil to light and darkness.”
Yes, it is actually a leap.
“Do you think my mother would have harbored evil in her body? My mother, the Mother of All. For the sake of all things, she would not have harbored evil…… in the first place!”
“……Pity?”
“For you still believe that greenhouses are right.”
“……!”
Greenhouse.
Agentress’s face went white at the sound.
He turns to look at his kin.
I see that you finally understood what I was saying…….
‘You were thinking about it too, weren’t you?’
Let’s think about it objectively.
In fact, I, Lee Ho-yeol, didn’t understand either.
I’ve had doubts since I checked the contents of the [Good and Evil] class quest.
Good is good.
I wondered if there was a need for good and evil to coexist in the world.
Of course, my doubts didn’t last long.
It was all thanks to Grandfell.
“I believed in the World Tree.”
To be precise, it was thanks to Granfell’s high pride.
“Just as a ray of light illuminates the darkness.”
“……?”
“As long as good exists, evil will have no choice but to fall to the ground.”
For Grandfell, evil is.
It was nothing more than an inferior thing that should naturally be wiped out.
To fear such evil, to deny its very existence?
It is beyond comprehension.
It’s something that never existed in the first place.
‘This is extraordinary. Really.’
Forming a consensus with the world tree.
It’s a pride that goes beyond filial piety……!
Well, I’m sure he’s not wrong.
But in this situation.
It may not reach anyone.
Agentress has been pointing that out.
“Providence? Ha! Look where we are now. Even now, when Sisley has become a land of demons, and my mother has been consumed by evil, as you say. How can you be so confident that good will always triumph over evil?”
I, Lee Hoyeol.
I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the heart.
Or, more accurately, I feel like I’ve peeked into a flower garden in my head.
‘Is it me who doesn’t know that?’
No, in fact, I know it better than anyone else.
It’s Grandfell pride.
That it is closer to unreasonableness than anything else in the world.
To the extent that I know the world superficially.
It was the pride of my middle school days when I had nothing to fear.
But Grandfell said.
“I’m confident.”
That’s why it’s unbreakable.
It doesn’t break.
I can move forward.
And in the end, I’ll realize that flower garden.
“I will.”
As usual, there’s nothing to be said for pointing out that I’m a good talker.
But if you’ve been watching, you know.
I have a pretty good track record of fulfilling my promises.
『For Granfell, the feeling of humility did not exist. Underestimations required proof, and overestimations had to be made real.』
The process may have been ugly.
Even in worse conditions than now.
I’ve produced results that even I couldn’t believe.
So.
This isn’t the time to make a dumbfounded face.
Agentress.
I blurted out shamelessly.
“Open the way, Argentress.”
To the place where the primodial evil took root!
*
I had thought it was just arrogance.
But now my head was spinning.
This was the realm of something beyond arrogance.
‘…… How can I be nonchalant in such a situation?’
Mother, the World Tree, is an existence from the beginning.
I can’t believe that such a mother would be controlled by evil.
She was consumed by her own evil…….
He desperately wanted to deny it.
Kuugh─
Agentress bit his lip.
‘…… It is possible.’
He and his kind had not fulfilled their mission.
It wasn’t until his mother was on the verge of withering away that he noticed.
It was only when the blessing was taken away that he went to see his mother.
‘Maybe we could have prevented it.’
Even if we are not of the same race.
If only I had fulfilled my mission…….
Agentress resented that fact.
That he could have made everything right, and he didn’t.
‘It is my fault.’
For eons.
To the point of beating himself up for something he’d never done.
That was why he couldn’t understand it.
How can that man maintain his composure?
Ttogak─
I could tell by the sound of his steps.
There was no fear in his straightened stride.
The primodial evil that consumed his mother.
That label alone.
It’s hard to believe he’s approaching something that makes him nervous.
It’s only natural to think so, isn’t it?
Dalkak─
In his hand he held a teacup of unknown origin.
‘Not even a lizard could do that.’
The man was doing something that even a dragon, hailed as the king of all things, would not do. Agentress suddenly remembered the man’s words.
-“I will.”
He asked himself.
‘…… What difference does it make if the man does?’
But then he clenched his fist.
‘No, nothing would change.’
The mother was already dead.
The green leaves had long since withered and fallen, and her body was as dry as firewood. Even if a man could drive out the evil that had consumed her, it would make no difference.
Also.
‘Our mistakes do not disappear either.’
They were wrong, but they had been wrong for a long time.
Perhaps the man was right.
Maybe everything has been wrong since the beginning of time.
Shhh.
Agentress looked at the man.
‘It’s miserable, Agentress.’
He laughed at himself.
The man truly did make him feel small.
Acknowledging his own inferiority.
Agentress found himself looking forward to it.
Maybe a man could really make things right.
However, the moment he faced the World Tree.
“……Mother?”
The expectations disappeared like bubbles.
They had traveled to the Arcana continent to find the whereabouts of the Blessing.
In the meantime, their mother was left alone in Sisley.
She was broken.
She could hardly be called the Mother of All Things.
She lay on the ground in misery.
“…….”
But Agentress said nothing.
Now that he knew it was all his fault.
He would accept any rebuke.
‘Laugh all you want, human.’
As he said, his hopes were gone.
Even if he is a man.
No one would have expected his mother to look like that.
There’s really nothing he can do about it.
Agentress stared helplessly at the devastation.
Ttogak─
“……?”
The man, Hoyeol, stepped forward.
Without a word.
Agentress ready to take any harsh words.
This was not the reaction he expected.
Agentress stared at him for a moment.
He stopped in front of the remains of the World Tree.
Then, slowly, he opened his mouth.
“The Exorcism Ritual.”
The words were unknown to Agentress.
However, the doubts did not last long.
Immediately, change began.
Shriek!
“……!!!”
The scattered remains of his Mother burned.
A broken pillar.
The trunk left behind.
Parched roots.
Broken and scattered branches.
Nothing was left, and the flames began to engulf it.
“Aah…….”
He could hear his own people agitating.
But Agentress could not move.
Because of the hierarchy of blessings?
No, not for that reason.
“Mother……?”
It was because the flames were green.
Like the leaves that his mother made bloom.
As if mourning the death of his mother.
It was because the green flame burned brightly.
Further on.
There was warmth.
After the loss of the blessing.
A warmth that hadn’t been felt since the loss of the blessing.
It was the warmth of compassionate care for all things.
It was a mother’s warmth.
But.
‘…… is not my mother.’
Agentress was not mistaken.
Mother is dead and burning.
So this warmth does not come from Mother.
Then whose warmth is it?
There was only one thing to look at.
It was Hoyeol.
His posture never wavered.
The only thing moving was his silver hair.
Agentress watched his back, and then spoke.
“Agentres finally understands his mother’s intentions…….”
A high perspective that looks over all things.
An aesthetic that sees beauty in the most trivial of things.
An unwavering sense of dignity in the face of devastation.
It is truly ‘something’ that embraces all of that.
It was.
It was the closest being to the World Tree.
.
.
.
I looked at the quest objective.
─Train your weakened body. (Repeat)
─Enter the land of the elves, Sisley. (Success)
─Confront the primordial evil that has taken root in Sisley. (Failed)
─Trace the primordial evil. (Ongoing)
The World Tree has split in two.
Thanks to this, the primordial evil that was trapped inside the World Tree disappeared.
I looked at the message and thought.
‘Maybe…….’
Was this also a planned story?
Why, like the class quest for the Archmage or the Dragon Knight.
It’s the canonical story of the Demon Hunter class quest.
I’m the last Demon Hunter to go through these trials.
To make me grow a little more.
‘Well, I guess we can’t know for now.’
So I can only do what I can.
The World Tree, which had been consumed by evil, was cremated through an exorcism ritual.
To track down the primordial evil as per the quest objective.
That is what I must do from now on.
So, once again, I must bear the burden alone.
If anyone asks.
I will answer ‘yes’ to that question as well.
At this moment, a message flashed.
It wasn’t just a quest message.
[The effect of the sublime causes a change].
[Hidden Piece, your relationship with Sisley increases significantly.]
[Hidden Piece, your influence in Sisley increases significantly.]
Whisper─
At the same time.
There was a sound in my ear.
Agentress knelt before me.
This is not an effect of [Hierarchy of Blessings]
It’s real, isn’t it?
The message in my head proves it.
[You have obtained command over the elf, Argentress.]
[Elves, 107 elves under Argentress]
[Current status: Waiting for command]
You have knelt before.
I’m not crude enough to get you kneel again, I’m not.
I opened my mouth to speak.
“You may stand.”
The answer came as a surprise.
“I’m not getting up.”
……Ah, I know what you mean.
You’re saying you’re truly reflecting, right?
Yes, I think it’s fortunate.
Better late than never.
However.
‘That’s it…….’
Everyone needs to get up now!
That’s this guy’s personality.
Because I’m impatient.
[You have acquired the class-specific skill, “Akshan’s Guardian Spirit”].
A reward from a class quest.
I had just activated my newly acquired skill.
So get up now, everyone……!
Otherwise.
“……?!!”
Akshan’s guardian spirit.
Awoooooo-!!!
Because it might go against the wishes of the ‘Akshan Wolf’.