Harley, who had created a warm atmosphere with a gentle smile full of sincerity and a soft pat on the shoulder, nodded in satisfaction.
‘I knew it was a good idea to come. That aside, this man has quite a knack for getting by.’
His arrival here now was by no means a coincidence.
No matter how much Harley had wandered through the south, where contact with the outside was difficult, his eyes and ears were already spread across the continent.
Naturally, he had also been checking the situation of the Mercenary Guild on a regular basis.
‘And the south has been more or less wrapped up just in time.’
Thanks to that, Harley was able to set a date for his visit before it was too late, and the guild was naturally able to avoid a storm that would have thrown it into great chaos in many ways.
If this wasn’t a win-win, then what was!
‘It’s good for both sides. Yep.’
They had avoided a disaster that would have been rife with destruction and bloodshed, and he had spared himself needless trouble as well.
It was the very picture of a happy ending.
‘Of course, I’ll still have to keep checking in case they try some other trick behind my back.’
In anything, preventing trouble in advance was always better than cleaning it up after it had already happened.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take this chance to firmly imprint his superiority on them.
“Pahahahat—! On a day like this, you’ve got to tear into some meat! I’ll treat today, so let’s all go have a meal together! Now, where’s the best place for meat around here?”
At that, Harley shouted cheerfully, like a department head suggesting a company dinner to build camaraderie.
After all, wasn’t sharing a meal the best way to strengthen relationships?
“Ahem.”
“Mm, well…”
“We still have training today…”
“…I’m on a diet.”
But as expected, perhaps, the reaction to his suggestion was not very good.
With the exception of Patrick, the guild’s high-ranking members all subtly averted their gazes with burdened expressions.
Like employees who simply wanted to clock out early.
Anyone could see it was an expression of refusal, but Harley, who did not concern himself with reading the room, slowly crossed his arms and furrowed his brow.
“Huuuh? Don’t tell me you dislike meat?”
As if displeased, the muscles in his arms writhed roughly like separate living creatures.
As though no such person could possibly exist in this world.
As though, even if they did, he would not tolerate them.
“…Of course not. I was merely trying to recall the place in Drakal with the best meat. I have just thought of somewhere with both high quality and generous portions, so I shall guide you there.”
“Hohoho, I merely felt bad eating without my subordinates. I can have a few pigs slaughtered separately and sent to them.”
“Ahem, a warrior who dislikes meat is no warrior at all. Eating well is also part of training…”
“Hohoho! For a healthy diet, one must partake of meat from time to time as well.”
Thanks to Harley the mood-maker’s outstanding efforts, the air around them once again grew warm and harmonious.
Nodding in satisfaction, he soon took the lead and strode confidently out of the guild building.
And following Patrick, who immediately stuck close beside him and kept bowing obsequiously, the guild’s high-ranking members began to move sluggishly, glancing at one another.
It might have seemed as though these people, said to be among the strongest on the continent, had submitted far too easily after merely facing him, but there was a perfectly reasonable reason why they could only react that way.
‘…For now, I’ll lower myself as much as possible. There’s still a chance. Even the first Mercenary King, who had reached the realm of transcendence, died in the final battle against the Immortal King. If that man ends up the same way…’
‘This is hopeless. Claven has already been completely swallowed up. Should I change course?’
‘Fuck, what the hell is that? Is he even human? No, they said he was a dragonkin, didn’t they? It feels like I’m facing some kind of colossal monster!’
‘Tch, I shouldn’t have come. I should’ve just sent some suitable underlings. …But to think the Immortal King wiped out not only dragonkin like that, but even dragons. Just what kind of monster is he?’
Harley had grown so used to it by now that he was not even conscious of it, but ever since he had seized the “Seed of Madness” from the Revolutionary, he had been steadily absorbing the madness spreading throughout the world.
It was the essence of an unclean power risen from the abyss, like the “Immortal Heart” that was the source of the Immortal King Hans.
No matter how much lower in rank madness was compared to death, it was still a power that living beings could not recklessly handle.
So it was not especially strange for powerful individuals with developed senses to overreact.
“Friend! Didn’t you say you’d guide me somewhere good? Lead the way!”
“Ah— yes. This way, please.”
To put it simply, as people who had survived for a long time in the harsh world of mercenaries and reached a high level, their survival instincts were stronger than their competitive spirit or pride.
“Oops! Come to think of it, I forgot to bring money! What should we do…”
“…Today, allow me to treat you. Meeting Lord Harley, a hero who represents mercenaries, is a great honor.”
“Ooh! This friend has a truly admirable mindset! Let’s get along from now on! Khahahahat!”
“Ha, hahaha…”
Strong enough that he could only let out an awkward laugh, unable to object to the very man he had dismissed as a barbarian mere moments ago.
That day, Drakal’s meat specialty restaurant, “The Ogre’s Table,” recorded its highest sales ever, and every last piece of meat was sold out.
And Claven, who had dreamed of becoming the Mercenary King, quietly closed his eyes while holding a bill that should never have been produced from a single meal.
Desperately rationalizing to himself that he had gotten off cheaply with this much.
***
A space filled with clear air.
The refreshing energy that filled the surroundings whirled violently.
Whoooo—
But the one at the center, as though in the eye of the storm, did not move in the slightest and merely focused on something with his eyes half-closed.
Unlike the outside, which surged wildly, his blond hair fluttered softly as if stirred by a breeze; emerald irises and golden pupils were partly veiled beneath long eyelashes; his skin was smooth and lustrous like white jade.
All those elements combined with features so harmonious they seemed to have been crafted stitch by stitch by a master artisan, further highlighting the mystery of his existence.
Then, at some moment.
At the same time as the storm swirling around him stopped, his long ears twitched several times.
Soon, his eyelids slowly opened wide, clearly revealing the star-shaped pupils that had been hidden beneath them.
“…Done.”
Along with a languid voice like a whisper, he—the high elf Harris Granwood of the Elven Kingdom—slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
He quietly looked up at the being floating in the space before him.
Splash—
Shaaak—
Each time the blue, amorphous being twisted its body, the sound of clear water flowed out.
Harris admired it for a moment, then slowly reached one hand toward it.
And after the contact and communion that followed…
“…From today onward, you are ‘Liter.’”
He smiled softly as he watched the stream of water coil around his whole body like a snake, traveling along his arm.
With this, it was the third additional contract he had made since returning from the Ganghwan Realm, and the seventh if including the spirits he already had, so he could not help but be satisfied.
‘As expected, the effect is certainly undeniable.’
The unexpected harvests he had obtained, the “Muyupal-gwae Secret Art (Revised)” and the “Natural Body,” had greatly expanded his affinity with nature.
Even among high elves, each individual had attributes that suited them best, but the Muyupal-gwae Secret Art, which pursued harmony with all things, had helped him break free even from those restrictions.
‘The violent tendencies that were a side effect of the Ganghwan Realm also disappeared cleanly once I returned to Auterica. …Though I do feel like I’ve become even more troublesome than before.’
That was a problem he had to accept, since his level of assimilation with nature had risen even higher.
In any case, thanks to that, following the lightning spirit Watt, the fire spirit Kali, the wind spirit Pascal, and the sound spirit Decibel—
He had been reborn as an all-purpose spirit master capable of handling the earth spirit Hectare, the light spirit Lumen, and the water spirit Liter as well.
‘The new spirits are growing quickly too. Not only did they evolve into lower-grade spirits the moment we contracted, but Hectare, the first among them, is already on the verge of becoming upper-grade.’
Ordinarily, common sense dictated that spirits and spirit masters grew together, but that common sense did not apply in a situation so riddled with exceptions as the present one.
To begin with, his very existence was an irregularity, so perhaps it was a little late to say that now.
“…You really succeeded again this time. Just where did you go and what did you do to make something like that possible?”
As Harris was immersed in such strange emotions, a woman’s admiring voice came from behind him.
There, an elf girl with blue eyes and blue hair, Shapiron, was crouching on the floor with a snack basket woven from tree branches held in her arms.
“Mm, I suppose I gained a bit of enlightenment… There’s no way to explain it. I just found myself able to do it somehow.”
“…The world really is unfair…”
At his vague answer, she pouted and muttered a small complaint.
When Harris first came to the Elven Kingdom, he had been nothing more than a beginner spirit master who handled a single lowest-grade lightning spirit.
She, on the other hand, had already been an honor student capable of handling even an intermediate-grade spirit.
‘That was how it was…’
But then his spirits evolved again and again as if they had eaten something good, and Harris himself additionally succeeded in forming bonds with spirits of fire, wind, and even sound.
Even her father, Rapori, only handled spirits of three attributes like ordinary high elves!
‘And now he has seven, of all things.’
She had heard that the current queen, who handled five attributes, was already an extremely exceptional case, yet seven was at a level that could be called unprecedented.
And from the way he spoke, it did not seem as if he would stop here either!
‘I still only have one upper-grade spirit…’
In truth, being an upper-grade spirit master at her age was already more than enough to be called genius.
The Forest Keepers, the pinnacle, were only one stage above her at highest-grade.
Of course, the fact that she could still only handle one attribute was a weakness, but she was already strong enough to be treated as an elite force if she graduated right away.
‘…And what good does that do me?’
But merely that much was nowhere near enough to satisfy her.
The one she had come to use as a sort of standard for comparison was so overwhelming that even that felt woefully lacking.
All the more because she had once even thought of him as a rival.
‘Can I really become a high elf?’
A sigh slipped out before she knew it.
Just as Shapiron was wallowing in misery and shrinking in on herself…
Tap—
Someone’s hand gently came down on the crown of her head.
Startled by that, she sharply raised her head and blinked several times when she saw Harris quietly averting his gaze.
She had never expected him, who almost never approached others first and spent most of his time listlessly, to act like this.
But the one who was truly troubled by the situation was Harris himself.
‘…What am I supposed to say at a time like this?’
He had stepped forward lightly because he felt sorry that she was growing dispirited by comparing herself to a case as far beyond standard as him, but having lived a life that was very far removed from comforting others, he had no idea what he was supposed to do next.
No matter how he thought about it, if he tried to encourage her in this situation, wouldn’t it only come off as condescending?
‘Wait, I heard women don’t like it when you touch their hair.’
After he remained frozen without saying anything for a while.
Recalling something he had picked up from somewhere, he realized his mistake and hurriedly removed his hand from her head.
His awkwardly raised hand, his eyes wavering as they lost their destination, and even the awkward smile on his lips as if he wanted to escape the situation.
No matter how one looked at him, he was not the image of an unapproachable absolute being, but simply a young man clumsy in human relationships.
“Pfft!”
At that awkward sight, Shapiron, who had been crouching and quietly looking up at him, burst into laughter without realizing it.
‘…He’s become kind of foolish.’
For some reason, continuing to wallow like this felt pointless.
It was not as if this resolved the worries she carried, but it was also true that her heart felt lighter for some reason.
At that, she wriggled a little, placed the basket she had been hugging beside her, and looked up at Harris again.
“…I brought snacks. Would you like some?”
“…Sure.”
In truth, she was just as clumsy in human relationships as he was.
***
A certain uninhabited mountain region.
Crack—
Somewhere there, an alien noise rang out.
Its source was a thin fissure that had formed in empty air where there was nothing.
With a small rupturing sound, it gradually widened its domain—
Crackle!
Soon, a portion broke away, creating a small hole in the air.
And from that point, the fissure began to rapidly grow in size.
Craaaack—
But only for a moment. The fissure that had continued to expand paused briefly, then stopped moving altogether.
Wuuung—
Soon, under some kind of force applied from outside, its domain slowly began to shrink again.
The space began to restore itself in an instant, as if a bug were being fixed in real time.
The fine lines spreading like hairline cracks disappeared, and the thick lines that had been growing faint soon vanished as well.
Now, all that remained was a single coin-sized hole at the center.
Even that was being filled in from all sides, gradually shrinking.
In the midst of that situation—
“…A pity. Was it a little insufficient?”
Someone’s voice drifted from beyond that space.
A man’s voice that was impossible to pin down, faint yet distinct, strong yet seemingly frail.
“Still…”
It came from beyond the hole that had finally shrunk to the size of a needle’s eye.
“This is the last time.”
Leaving only those words behind, the fissure disappeared completely, and the place sank into silence.
The quiet mountain had grown still, as if nothing had ever happened there.
—The calm before the storm was coming to an end.