The Forest of Silence must, in the end, move.
Dawn in Driandel, the heart of the Silva Empire, was always still.
The heart of the forest woke before the wind, and the trees silently embraced one another as they greeted another day.
Drian was looking down over the forest from her place atop the highest branch of the empire.
She did not open her mouth, but her gaze spoke of many things.
Since the day, several days ago, when the army of the Ignis Empire had approached close to the eastern border, Silva seemed to have regained its composure.
Yet an invisible wind was changing.
The direction of the leaves shifted subtly, and an unfamiliar current seeped into the once-quiet eastern path of the forest.
“Are you well today, Your Majesty?”
Beside Drian, Bramir offered his greeting in a low voice.
She slowly nodded.
Without a word, yet the emotion contained within was clear.
“It seems Nereia is coming.”
After a long while, Drian finally opened her mouth.
Bramir, too, had anticipated Nereia’s movement.
He spoke as if tense.
“Yes… I can feel the energy of water gradually rising from below as well.”
Drian quietly spoke while gazing at the light filtering through the leaves.
“I do not yet know what business she brings, but we will once again stand at a crossroads of choice in the heart of the forest.”
Bramir cautiously addressed her.
“Aqua must also know that Ignis took a small portion of our cores from us.”
“I suppose so.”
The Silva Empire and the Aqua Empire had already shared a border for a long time.
Because of that, they had no issue at all traveling to and from each other’s territories.
A short while later, a cool energy could be felt slowly approaching from the edge of Silva’s forest.
Today, too, ripples seeped into the quiet forest.
Within the mist that held the light of dawn, two shadows revealed themselves.
One was a sovereign bearing the stillness of the deep sea, and the other a warrior who rode the currents to gauge the battlefield.
Even as they set foot on Driandel’s sky path, they moved quietly, as though they were part of the forest itself.
This visit held a will that was gentle yet firm, so much so that not even the leaves around them were startled by their footsteps.
Drian remained seated in the same place.
Watching the blue energy draw near, she silently raised her right hand.
A short while later, Nereia and Levian reached the center of Driandel.
Nereia first gave Drian a slight nod in greeting.
Levian, who followed behind her, also bowed her head toward Drian.
Drian remained silent as ever.
However, her gaze lingered briefly on Nereia’s forehead, then moved down along her fingertips and the hem of her clothing, which flowed like waves.
Drian opened her mouth.
“The forest felt your footsteps.”
Nereia replied softly.
“And the sea has never forgotten the breath of the forest.”
At the single exchange of words between them, the wind in the forest trembled.
“Let us speak in detail inside.”
Drian turned toward the fortress, and Nereia and Levian followed behind her.
The forest’s sky path opened, and the deep waves seeped into the woods.
Inside Drian’s fortress, they entered the garden of council, formed by three enormous tree trunks intertwined with one another.
“As you already know, we share a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Nereia’s voice was low and calm, but the meaning within it was sharp and clear.
“Therefore, I believe sharing our energies is a current that was decided long ago.”
Nereia took out several small wave cores.
The dark blue wave cores shone upon the green forest with a blue light.
“We wish to provide our wave cores to your forest. And we, in turn, request the same number of life cores from you. That is the sole purpose for which I have come to you.”
Beside her, Levian added in a low voice.
“We are also aware of Ignis’s barbaric actions. They exploited a mutually beneficial relationship and dared to plunder cores from Your Majesty of the Silva Empire, and as you know, recently they have been committing unknown acts with the cores they stole. Should we not also respond to them quickly?”
Drian’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
Without a word, she moved a single finger.
At that signal, Silva’s retainers appeared and slowly filled their places.
Tarban and Bramir were expressionless, but both fully felt the weight of what they had just heard.
After a brief, heavy silence, Drian slowly raised her head.
“The energy of water and the energy of life help each other grow. That is an undeniable fact.”
Her fingertip traced the air.
Along its path, green lines bloomed in the air.
“We of Silva tend to move with caution, but we have no intention of going against the current.”
She looked at Nereia and said,
“Very well. We will also give you a portion of our life cores. We will be able to become seeds for each other’s growth.”
Nereia lightly closed her eyes and bowed her head.
With that one brief gesture, the tension surrounding them receded.
“That is enough.”
Tarban and Bramir also looked at each other and nodded silently.
Having obtained what they wanted, Nereia and Levian left the forest.
Even after Nereia departed, the moist air within the garden remained for some time.
Drian silently lifted her hand and stroked the grain of the forest.
At her fingertips, tiny leaf veins responded, swaying as if riding the wind.
Tarban cautiously opened his mouth.
“I did not expect Your Majesty to accept the exchange personally. In truth, we had been hoping for it ourselves, but…”
Drian answered serenely.
“Silva is not an isolated land. Even a tree will die if it looks only to the earth. It can grow only by drinking in the sky, water, and wind together.”
Bramir continued.
“Then is it time for us to move as well? The growth of the fortress that Your Majesty enacted has now been completed. Is it now the barracks’ turn to grow?”
Drian slowly shook her head.
“We do not yet need to move in haste. When the time comes, I will begin the growth myself, so there is no need to worry. However, our movements must spread slowly and naturally, like seeds. But…”
After a moment, she opened her mouth again.
“Now Silva’s roots are no longer ours alone. Even if we do not step forward, our energy will spread out into the world.”
At those words, the two retainers nodded at the same time.
The forest was still quiet, but at its center, a decision was clearly being made.
“Hmm.”
Drian looked down at the small number of wave cores Nereia had left behind.
They lay upon the table.
The waves, holding clear blue light, looked as though they were contained inside transparent beads like droplets of water.
Drian and her two retainers gazed at the wave cores for a long while.
Within them, a moist yet fierce energy rippled, as though tiny waves were flowing.
Bramir murmured beside her.
“Wave cores… This is my first time seeing such things. It seems Aqua grows its empire with these cores.”
Tarban added,
“And yet, they may possess the nature closest to life. Condensation, transformation, and circulation are much like the growth of the forest, after all.”
Drian spoke quietly.
“If the energy is too fierce, the forest becomes drenched, and if it is too weak, it cannot reach the roots.”
She extended her fingertips toward the core.
In an instant, the wave core glowed lightly, as though it had received the energy of trees.
“We can coexist.”
Drian spoke briefly, as if making a declaration.
Tarban asked Drian with evident interest,
“Could we perhaps grow our army with this core as well?”
She answered, still impassive.
“I cannot be certain yet. Growth is my role, but research into external substances is the role of the researchers. However, we can expect that we will soon welcome a new life.”
As she moved, she added briefly,
“Let us plant our seeds upon these waves.”
When Drian moved, the vines around her changed their forms on their own.
The lives of Silva already seemed to be preparing to welcome the new cores.
After the fortress completed yet another stage of growth, what Drian first carried out upon leaving the fortress was not the growth of the barracks, but the growth of the research institute.
It was her consideration so that Silva’s researchers could conduct research on the cores in a more improved environment.
Inside the research institute, the life core managers were all moving at once as well.
A place where mechanical equipment still did not exist, but where Silva’s wisdom gathered.
A place where biological structures made of stems and leaves, minerals and life force composed and transformed themselves as experiments continued.
When Drian entered the research institute, the chief researcher, Elona, cautiously greeted her.
Elona was holding a wave core in both hands made of tree bark.
“Your Majesty, the energy of water inside the wave core seems to have stabilized. We will now try grafting one of our fragments of life onto it.”
Drian nodded.
“What do you plan to do now?”
Elona took out a seed about the size of a small walnut.
Inside it was contained the core of Purewood, which grew only in Silva’s forest.
It was the energy of life itself.
“I intend to bring life into contact with this flow of energy. I will do it now.”
Saying so, she carefully brought the seed to the very center of the wave core.
For a moment, there was no change, but soon, within the core’s clear waterlight, a soft green radiance began spreading as if a sprout were breaking through.
Drian and Elona, as well as the other researchers, were watching the wave core intently.
The laboratory was silent as though everyone were holding their breath, and within that silence, the seed slowly spread along the ripples.
Elona spoke in a voice full of awe.
“The, the energy… it is not rejecting the waves. It seems to be accepting them as though they were originally part of it!”
Hearing those words, Drian smiled and closed her eyes for a moment.
“We do not need to harm others. We plant and wait. And when it grows, we live together.”
The first experiment was successful, and the research proceeded smoothly.
This was not research being carried out to prepare for war.
It was a method by which the two empires accepted each other, another cycle in which nature achieved harmony.
Meanwhile, far away in the western region, unlike the Silva Empire, the sound of commotion never ceased.
Even in the middle of the night, from deep beneath the land of the Metalum Empire, a heavy, dry vibration spread outward.
The sound of enormous gears interlocking, the friction of cold steel grinding against steel.
“The time will soon come.”
Oruma’s low voice echoed through his fortress.
His eyes were turned to the southeast, toward the burning zone that dyed the sky red even in the depth of night.