-Not Just Her Homeland
Long ago, on that day, a strange and chilling ritual was being held in the forest.
The dark mage said the druids had to be offered as sacrifices. He claimed it was to strengthen the power of the World Tree, but that was not the truth.
The dark mage bound the druids so they could not move and then sucked their energy into himself. He converted the druids’ life force into pitch-black dark energy and greedily swallowed it down.
Cheon Danbi, watching the scene from a distance where she was hidden, was terribly afraid.
She knew that something that must never happen was taking place, but her whole body had gone rigid, and she could not move. She could not stop it.
In the end, the young Cheon Danbi ran away.
The forest cried. It thrashed and groaned, crying out. The forest told Cheon Danbi to run, quickly.
In a daze, she escaped the forest and rushed into a cave at its edge. She curled up tightly and hid.
After she had been trembling there in fear for a long while, a hand gently shook the young Cheon Danbi’s shoulder.
As it turned out, that cave was where the dwarves who had first immigrated to Korea had settled.
The dwarves asked in gentle voices, Are you lost? Where are your parents?
But Cheon Danbi could not answer anything. Then the dwarves asked nothing more and simply held the child close.
“Ah, what’s with me? Why am I thinking about the past so much today?”
Cheon Danbi shook her head to clear it.
It seemed it had been quite a long time since she had recalled that day. She wondered if it was because of the wind. Or perhaps because the presence of the World Tree felt especially strong today.
Maybe her subconscious was stirring at the premonition that the day of all-out war with Samir was drawing near.
Before she knew it, Cheon Danbi was gritting her teeth as she went deeper into the forest.
Then she sensed a presence some distance away. It was near the World Tree. Someone was approaching the World Tree from a different direction than Cheon Danbi.
‘No, is it not just one person?’
The presence was extremely subtle, but Cheon Danbi could clearly make it out. In Neo Forest, her senses became sharper than usual.
At that moment, the movement over there stopped. It seemed they had sensed Cheon Danbi’s presence as well.
Cheon Danbi stood still, even holding her breath, and quietly searched her surroundings.
“Miss Cheon Danbi?”
Unexpectedly, a voice called her name. Then the other party immediately revealed themselves.
It was the elf Freyja. And behind her, a group of elves gradually appeared.
“Assemblywoman Freyja?”
Cheon Danbi approached the elves.
“So Miss Cheon Danbi heard the resonance of the forest as well.”
“Ah, yes……”
“That’s why we elves came too. It may be the middle of the night, but we can’t miss a sign like this. We were planning to come greet the World Tree soon anyway.”
Freyja spoke with easy warmth. There was no particular sense of authority from her as a member of the National Assembly, nor could one feel any distance from her as a different race.
If anything, there was a sense of intimacy. Perhaps because she knew Cheon Danbi was one of Oudin’s team members, Freyja treated her as being on the same side and spoke without reserve.
No, perhaps it was an even deeper intimacy than that.
The elves had also heard the resonance of the forest. They had heard the call of the World Tree.
Judging by the way she asked whether Cheon Danbi had also come after hearing the forest’s resonance, Freyja seemed to know that Cheon Danbi was a druid.
That much, she could understand. On the previous Earth, there had been no race called elves, so the only people with such senses had been druids.
But now, there was a race called elves. It was only natural that people with similar senses could perceive one another.
But wait, Freyja is a member of the National Assembly. Did an assemblywoman secretly lead elves into Neo Forest in the middle of the night? Or did she get permission in the meantime?
Cheon Danbi decided to ask what she was curious about outright.
“But did you receive permission to enter at this hour?”
At that, Freyja opened her eyes wide, then shook her head and burst into laughter.
“No. We slipped in quietly. Didn’t Miss Cheon Danbi sneak in too?”
“Yes, well…… I did too.”
“It’s the middle of the night, after all. The people at the Bureau need to rest too. Though, with things the way they are these days, I don’t know if they can rest just because it’s night.”
As Cheon Danbi merely nodded, Freyja and the elves came right up beside her.
“Come on, let’s go closer to the World Tree together.”
“Let us all awaken the power of the World Tree.”
“That’s all right, isn’t it?”
Cheon Danbi was slightly surprised by the elves’ unreserved attitude. The sudden wave of closeness even made her feel dizzy for a moment.
A unique energy flowed from the elves. Before she knew it, that energy seeped into Cheon Danbi.
It was unfamiliar and alien, yet somehow intensely intimate.
Unexpectedly, Cheon Danbi thought it felt like home. It felt like a memory faintly seeping into her. A feeling of longing and gladness welled up inside her.
‘Have I never been this close to elves before? No, that’s not it. They’ve come to the shop as customers too, so I’ve met them plenty of times……’
Even so, the sense of closeness felt unusually strong today. Perhaps it was because of the World Tree.
In any case, at this moment, the elves, who were of a different race, felt even more familiar to Cheon Danbi than humans did.
Perhaps the elves felt something similar, because they kept looking at Cheon Danbi. And so, all together, they approached the World Tree.
Standing side by side before the World Tree, the elves and Cheon Danbi said nothing for a while. They simply gazed at the World Tree with reverence.
Cheon Danbi opened all the senses in her body wide. A gentle sensation, like warm water flowing, wrapped around her entire body. The energy of the World Tree seemed to enfold her warmly, understanding and comforting her.
She had long since forgotten the cold and fierce wind outside the forest. This was an entirely different space.
‘World Tree……’
Before she knew it, Cheon Danbi had taken a step forward and was caressing the World Tree. An indescribable emotion surged over her.
After one wave of emotion had passed, she slowly looked up at the World Tree from bottom to top.
But upon closer inspection, water was truly flowing down the trunk of the World Tree.
Clear, transparent water flowed slowly, gathering here and there into droplets. It was like tears shed by the World Tree. Was it grieving because it already knew of the darkness that would descend upon this world?
Cheon Danbi abruptly spoke. This time, she felt that she had to comfort the World Tree.
“Don’t cry. It will be all right. We will be all right. We’ll drive away all the black energy.”
Murmuring like this, she caught the tears flowing from the World Tree in her palm.
“Do you think they are tears? I’m sure they are not. They must be the blessing the World Tree is giving us.”
Freyja said from beside her.
Before she knew it, Freyja and the elves were also caressing the World Tree, wetting their hands with the droplets flowing down the trunk.
“Ah……! A blessing.”
Cheon Danbi’s heart grew much lighter.
The World Tree was not shedding tears. It was bestowing a blessing upon those who understood and communed with it.
When she thought of it that way, an even warmer energy lingered around them.
“I should take some of this water with me. I have to share the World Tree’s blessing with the others too.”
Cheon Danbi took out a leather pouch and filled it with the water flowing down the World Tree.
“That’s a wonderful idea. You’re going to make potions with it, aren’t you? You truly are amazing.”
Freyja smiled brightly at Cheon Danbi.
“Amazing? Not at all. What have I done? You elves are the ones who are amazing. You’ve been fighting at the front without sparing yourselves all this time.”
Though the words came out suddenly, they were Cheon Danbi’s true feelings. She had remembered that many elves had been sacrificed in the battles against the dark mages.
It must have been truly heartbreaking, yet Freyja showed no trace of that. The elves looked as cold and solid as glaciers.
“Of course we should. This is now the land where we live, after all. The ones who are truly amazing are humans. Humans sometimes have such a strong sense of ownership that it feels almost excessive. It was always humans who stood at the front. Miss Cheon Danbi, you know that well.”
At Freyja’s words, Cheon Danbi nodded without thinking.
What came to mind this time was Oudin. Freyja was probably speaking with him in mind as well.
The human mage Oudin, who always stood at the front, and his team members, the mages. Thinking of them filled her with pride, and in that sense too, Freyja was right.
Yes. Humans had thought of this land as theirs, and so they had believed they had to take the lead in protecting it.
But it seemed humans were not the only ones who thought that way.
“But we elves have a strong sense of ownership too. Maybe we should fight even harder. We are a long-lived race, so we will be living on this land for a very, very long time.”
At the words of an elf standing behind them, everyone burst into laughter. Cheon Danbi laughed cheerfully as well. Even the World Tree lightly shook its leaves. It was not the wind. It was laughing with them.
“Now, shall we offer our energy to the World Tree?”
Freyja said.
People giving energy to the World Tree? Not the other way around?
Cheon Danbi found it strange, but she thought it must be the elves’ way of expressing things and waited quietly. Then she followed what Freyja and the elves did.
The elves joined hands and surrounded the World Tree. They included Cheon Danbi as well. Then they slowly began to circle the World Tree and sing.
Their voices were clear and limpid. It sounded like the wind, and also like blades of grass swaying in a field. No, was it the sound of flowers blooming? The sound of a deer gliding through the undergrowth?
Cheon Danbi could not understand the lyrics. It was the language of the elves’ homeland, and for some reason, the automatic translation system did not activate.
‘Even if I can’t understand it, I feel like I know. What they’re singing about. It’s a song about the World Tree, about Mother Nature, and about the land where we will live. A song praying for peace.’
Though there was no doubt that they would have to endure a tremendous battle in order to bring about that peace, what they wished for was still peace.
An even gentler, warmer energy filled the World Tree and the space around it.
Cheon Danbi could feel it. The elves were sending their own energy toward the World Tree, but the World Tree was not simply receiving that energy as though it were only natural.
The elves and the World Tree were exchanging with one another. The energy flowing back and forth created one enormous current.
A feeling that could only be described with the word blessing. And one druid was embracing it in its entirety.
‘Ah, it really feels like I’ve come home……’
Not just to her homeland, but to a home where all her family and relatives were waiting. Tears streamed down Cheon Danbi’s face.
When she looked up at the sky, the moon was shining. The eastern sky had already begun to hold the light of dawn.