#250
Ganghwan Realm (2)
Drasha, the capital of the Elven Kingdom.
“Phew—.”
A deep sigh slipped from the lips of Cecily Grandwood as she left the royal castle located at its center.
‘Where in the world is he suddenly going…?’
It was because Harris, who could be called her peer, had given her a headache with his abrupt actions only a few hours earlier.
He had faithfully stayed by the World Tree’s side all this time in preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, only to suddenly request leave.
In truth, that in itself was not especially unusual.
No matter what position one held, everyone needed rest and time to themselves, so the other high elves had accepted it without much fuss and told him to go get plenty of rest.
The problem was that he had said he would not merely be leaving Drasha, but the territory of the Elven Kingdom altogether, and going to some unknown place.
‘…He didn’t say where, but somehow I don’t think it’s even the Enamel Continent.’
Naturally, the high elves, including Cecily, had tried to stop him.
A high elf was one of the few symbolic beings even within the Elven Kingdom. And among them, he was an important figure who had rapidly risen to become their greatest fighting force. How could they simply let him go alone to a place where who knew what threats might await?
But unlike his usual carefree self, he had been extremely firm, and in the end, they had no choice but to yield to his stubbornness.
‘We’ve eliminated threats like the lycanthropes now, and our defenses are fully prepared, so it’s true that there won’t be a problem even if he’s away.’
The time they agreed on was exactly ten days.
Harris, who promised to return within ten days, had used the forest path just a short while ago and left for some unknown destination.
“I hope nothing happens.”
She did not think a powerhouse of his caliber would easily come to harm anywhere, but with the world so unsettled these days, she could not help but worry.
How nice would it be if he just lazed around and photosynthesized as usual?
As she walked with that thought in mind—
A short distance away, she spotted someone lingering around the tree-covered hill where Harris usually idled.
‘Huh? Shapiron…?’
An elf girl holding a basket of snacks in her hands, her flowing blue hair swaying as though she had carefully dressed up, kept glancing around.
It was Shapiron Silvesti, Lafori’s daughter.
She had joined the delegation as well, and since they were also of similar age, they had naturally become fairly close.
‘Ah! Don’t tell me.’
Cecily had often seen Harris and Shapiron spending time together in passing.
Though it mostly consisted of her eating snacks beside him as he sprawled around, or the two of them bickering.
So she had naturally assumed that he had told her separately in advance…
But now that she looked, it seemed he had simply left without giving even her any warning.
‘No, what on earth was he in such a hurry for!’
As Cecily stood frozen for a moment like that, her gaze soon met a pair of blue eyes that had been looking around.
Shapiron opened her eyes round and bowed her head.
Seeing that innocent look only made Cecily’s heart feel heavier for no reason.
“Haa— Seriously, that man… Just wait until he gets back…”
Cecily sighed once more and slowly walked toward her.
Vowing that she would definitely give Harris an earful when he returned.
***
Danger level extremely high. Survival comes first.
He could not recklessly send just any avatar into such a dangerous world.
With unsummoning, they would not die under most circumstances, but going through trial and error like that would be a waste in itself, wouldn’t it?
‘Force is essential for gathering accurate local information and securing safety. If I have overwhelming power, there’s no need to suffer from the bottom up!’
Hans was busy holed up in the Immortal Castle, restoring his body and devoting himself to research, while Heinz II had his hands full managing both worlds.
Heinrich was in a situation where the entire continent’s attention was focused on him, and Harley still had quite a bit of work left in the south.
‘Which means the only idle one is Harris.’
Of course, even Harris was in a position where he could not be away for long, so after establishing the necessary foothold, he had to return to the Elven Kingdom.
The time he had been given for now was roughly ten days.
That was enough time to achieve the initial objective.
Somewhere in the Ganghwan Realm.
In the middle of an uninhabited mountain region.
Suuup— Haa—
“So this is the Ganghwan Realm… Not bad at all.”
Harris, who had taken his first step into a new world, took a deep breath and nodded.
It was not on the level of Auterica, where the World Tree existed, but compared to Earth’s filthy air, this place was practically a clean zone.
‘Environmental pollution is one factor, but the difference caused by whether or not there is energy spread throughout the world is also huge.’
Unlike Earth, a barren land of mystery where not a single speck of energy was mixed into the atmosphere, the air of the Ganghwan Realm contained this world’s unique energy, continuously circulating and purifying the turbidity of the world.
‘So this is qi. It feels strange.’
Because he was a high elf sensitive to nature and a powerhouse who had reached transcendence, he could clearly sense it.
Not only the difference in energy, but also that the composition of the atmosphere itself was distinctly different from Auterica or Earth.
‘Experiencing it directly makes it feel fascinating all over again. What exactly are Awakened, that they aren’t affected even by such vastly different environments?’
An independence that was not bound by the laws of each dimension, and a homeostasis that maintained one’s own inherent nature even within such an environment.
No matter how he thought about it, it did not seem like such traits would have appeared for no reason.
“Hmm.”
The blond, green-eyed nobleman with long ears tilted his head slightly and stroked his chin, then soon shook his head.
Now was not the time to ponder the secrets of such worlds.
‘What matters right now is that the experiment succeeded.’
Thanks to that, after achieving the second feat following “returning to Earth by his own power,” his 「Otherworld Transfer Formation Summon」 had been strengthened.
The transfer, which had been possible once every ten days by otherworld time, had now been sharply reduced to five days.
‘A special privilege that lets me cross back over to places I’ve passed through in another world.’
And that was the very key that had allowed Harris to cross into the Ganghwan Realm.
It was the result of Hans’s research being added to the vivid thought information extracted from Salma, a master of the Profound Realm, based on his memories.
‘So this is a place Salma passed through?’
At long last, after deceiving not only himself but even the world—
He had succeeded in twisting causality so that a place remaining in Salma’s memories would be treated as though he himself had personally visited it.
“Then, shall I begin the local investigation in earnest…?”
Harris looked around at the surrounding forest and trees and smiled faintly.
They were unfamiliar vegetation, all plants he had never seen before, but the refreshing energy they gave off was more than enough to satisfy him, who possessed 「Natural Assimilation」.
If it was like this…
“Come out, Pascal.”
Whooooosh—
His spirits would be able to play around quite comfortably from now on as well.
***
Yangheng Mountain, near Changsha, Hunan Province.
“Ptooey, damn it. Business is shot again today.”
“What can ya do? Things are how they are right now. With even the country collapsed, how many idiots are gonna be wandering around without fear?”
“Is this the time to be talkin’ so easy? At this rate, we’re all gonna starve to death! Shouldn’t we be moving somewhere else too?”
“Seems the boss is already wonderin’ where to move. Looks like he’s been thinkin’ a lot since Xiaohu Stockade couldn’t hold out and moved away not long ago.”
There was a group of five or six people gathered at the entrance to a mountain path one had to pass through in order to cross the mountain, whispering among themselves.
They called themselves the mountain lords of Yangheng Mountain, heroic men who chastised a corrupt world—but.
To put it plainly, they were just bandits.
“Ah, hey. Still no signal from the entrance? If we come up empty today too, the boss is gonna throw one hell of a fit.”
“Nothin’. Looks like today’s a bust too.”
“Phew, there aren’t even any merchant caravans these days. Wish some rich sucker would just drop outta the sky.”
“Keh-keh-keh— If you’re gonna spout nonsense, just lie down and sleep, man! From this clear blue sky, what could possibly… Huh?”
Right then, an unexpected situation befell them as they maintained the peace of the mountain in their usual friendly way.
“Eek?! Wh-what the hell is that? It’s coming this way…!”
Starting with the shocked cry of the one who had idly looked up at the sky and spotted something, the others raised their heads one by one, following his gaze, and before their eyes—
Whoooooosh—!
Amid a sudden, fierce gust of wind.
“Oh, I found people.”
A person abruptly dropped down from the sky.
Along with a carefree voice that somehow made one feel languid just by hearing it.
And the moment they faced him, the same thought spread through the bandits all at once.
‘…Is that really a person?’
It was only natural.
They could somehow accept the blond hair and green eyes.
Colored-eyed foreigners were rare in this land, but it was not as though they did not exist at all.
‘Are those human ears? And his eyes…!’
‘A… a monster?!’
But everything else about him far exceeded the reality they could accept.
A beautiful face that boasted perfect sculpted features, ears sticking sharply out on both sides, and star-shaped pupils within green irises.
Had he not even flown down from the sky with tangible wind wrapped around his body?
This was a strange occurrence that even they, who viewed the world with an open mind free of prejudice, could not easily accept.
“……”
“……”
The bandits quietly exchanged glances.
It was to ask each other’s opinions about this sudden situation, but in truth, what they had to do had already been decided.
“Aigoo~! What brings you all the way to such a humble place, Great Hero!”
The bandit with a large mole on his nose, who had wished for a sucker to fall from the sky, was the first to prostrate himself and cry out mournfully.
“For someone as noble as you to grace worthless wretches like us…”
“If, if there is anything you desire, anything at all…”
“My aged mother waits for me with only me to rely on…”
The bandits hurriedly followed after him, pressing their heads to the ground.
As befitting those who had survived all this time at the very bottom through nothing but survival instinct, it was a swift judgment of the situation.
Putting everything else aside, there was no way they would do something insane like thoughtlessly talk back to someone who had performed the miracle of manipulating wind and flying through the sky!
“Mm, you gentlemen understand quickly.”
Perhaps pleased by the sight, Harris, the stranger who had descended from the sky, nodded in satisfaction.
Satisfied that there was no need to resort to excessive measures from his very first encounter with the people of this world.
‘More than anything, I didn’t expect 「Xenoglossy」 to come into play here. I thought this was a dud, but it turned out to be a winning ticket, didn’t it?’
As he conversed with the locals here, he could naturally feel it.
「Xenoglossy」 was involved in every word he understood from them and every word that flowed out of his mouth.
It seemed the system’s automatic translation function only applied to the first dimension one had formally entered, and did not provide that service for dimensions entered without authorization.
‘If I didn’t have this, I would have wasted an enormous amount of time bringing Hans over again, learning a new language, and so on, wouldn’t I?’
With things turning out like this, his interest naturally began to return to the 『Random Miscellaneous Skill Acquisition』 through which he had obtained 「Xenoglossy」.
Of course, it did require the enormous expense of five hundred thousand points…
‘No, no. Let’s think about that later.’
The temptation of gacha began to creep up within him, but right now was the time to focus on the situation before his eyes.
“Then for now, would you guide me to your base?”
In truth, not long after spotting them from afar, he had also long since grasped the existence of a mountain stronghold nearby.
He had simply come to this side first because they were closer.
In other words, this was merely a simple formality.
“May… may I ask what business you have visiting such a humble place…?”
“Now, now! What are you saying, man! …Hehe, of course! Please follow this way! We will guide you there in the fastest and most comfortable manner!”
Sensing that the corners of Harris’s eyes had subtly lifted at the tactless question of one of his companions, the quick-witted bandit with the large mole revived the mood and immediately guided him.
It was truly fortunate that his mood, which had almost been spoiled, was preserved.
For them, of course.
And as was only natural.
After being guided to the mountain stronghold like that, he brought all the bandits under his control in an instant, and soon began interrogating them to gather information in earnest.
It was an event that occurred barely an hour after the mysterious master “Haerisu” revealed himself to this world.