◈ Episode 159. Blessing (1)
America.
An emergency had fallen upon AAU’s Western Branch.
Branch Manager, Jim Joshua.
Even at midnight, deep in the night, the lights in the branch manager’s office did not go out.
Our boss isn’t the kind of person to do that……
“Overtime? Jim Joshua, of all people?”
Jim Joshua was the man who would ramble on about that damned work-life balance not only on Thursdays, when regular updates were scheduled, but even when emergency updates appeared.
And today, no less, was Friday.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been enjoying his Friday night on his private yacht. What wind had blown in to make him act like that?
“Katrina, what do you think?”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“I mean Jim. He’s not the type to do this.”
“The boss? Well, I guess it is strange.”
“Wow, what a flat, deflating reaction.”
Slurp—The man sucked on his straw and set his mind working.
There had to be a reason for it, surely.
“He went on a business trip to Korea, right? Both the Western and Eastern branch managers.”
“Yeah, they said it was a branch-manager-level meeting.”
“……
But isn’t that a little strange?”
“What is?”
“I mean, if it was a branch-manager-level meeting, they’ve been doing just fine with video conferences all this time. But suddenly, a business trip overseas? And across the Pacific to Korea, of all places? I’m asking if there was any reason for that.”
If he had to pick a reason, one thing did come to mind.
“……
Could it be because of Lee Hoyeol?”
Korea had Lee Hoyeol.
Lee Hoyeol, who had cleared the London dungeon rift.
But to be blunt, it wasn’t as though this was the first or second time Lee Hoyeol had cleared a rift like that. Was there really any reason to make such a fuss over it—to the point that a business trip wasn’t enough and Jim had come back to work overtime?
“Maybe he got chewed out at the meeting or something?”
“Who? Our boss? By whom?”
“No, by anyone. To begin with, he’s practically no different from someone who shows up to play from the moment work hours start, right? Maybe he just slacked off a bit and had to curry favor with the higher-ups……”
Tap-tap-tap—
Just as the topic was naturally about to shift into backbiting their superior,
the man’s gaze changed.
Katrina—so that was why she had been answering so soullessly.
“What is it? What are you hammering away at this time?”
“Oh, this? It’s nothing.”
“You always say it’s nothing. Let me see. I can look, right?”
Scrape—When Katrina pushed her chair back, the monitor came into full view.
To be precise, the photos displayed on the monitor did.
The man asked again.
“……
Wait, isn’t this London?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“What are you going to use all these photos of Aquariu oaks for?”
Before the Cataclysm, Arcana’s development company.
Thanks to AAU, the name of the tree had belatedly become known to the world. Katrina, who had been typing up not just photos but also information about the oak, shrugged.
“No, I’m not really planning to use it for anything.”
“You’re organizing it this carefully when you’re not even going to use it? What is it? I’ll keep it secret. Tell only me. What hypothesis is it this time?”
“Mm, fine. All right.”
Click—The typed section was dragged and highlighted.
The man tactfully read the words.
“Other than requiring a large amount of moisture, it has no notable characteristics…… Is having no characteristics its characteristic? Why did you even write down trivial information like this?”
“Because it’s clearly different.”
“Different? What is?”
“It doesn’t match the testimonies of London’s citizens.”……
Wait, now that he thought about it.
There was no need to open the internet and search through news articles.
For the past few days, news about London had been heating up the media, after all.
“Didn’t they say they felt something like warm vitality?”
“It wasn’t simply a feeling. It was a definite effect.”
“Right. They said a message appeared for players.”
Once he had thought that far, he understood why Katrina had been collecting photos of trees.
The man lowered his voice and whispered.
“So you’re saying this isn’t an ordinary Aquariu oak?”
Katrina nodded. ‘It’s not something to say at this stage, but.’ If it was a tree related to vitality……
At least in Katrina’s memory,
there was only one such tree that came to mind in the Arcana worldview.
The World Tree.
Of course, that didn’t mean the hundreds and thousands of Aquariu oaks that had bloomed in London were the World Tree. They simply shared one characteristic: vitality.
However, there was one more point of contact. ‘Lee Hoyeol himself.’ Hoyeol had a past of sprouting the seed of the World Tree.
Katrina thought seriously.
Was it right to dismiss this as a simple coincidence?
Above all, London’s Aquariu oaks had not grown on their own. They had bloomed through the power of Hiel, the spirit—Lee Hoyeol’s contracted spirit.
It would be difficult to simply call it coincidence and move on.
Of course, that did not mean there was evidence.
Nor was it as if she could straightforwardly ask Lee Hoyeol about it.
But just as it had been then, one fact was certain.
Now that the World Tree was involved,
“that race” would not remain still forever.
Katrina drove away the nuisance.
“All right, all right. Now please move aside.”
“No, so that’s it? What, you don’t have a hypothesis?”
“At the present time, there is nothing I can tell you.”
“……
What’s with that tone I hate hearing?”
If that race revealed itself in reality through a rift,
the repercussions would be hard to even imagine. Even back when Arcana had been nothing more than a game, mere hints about them had enough impact to set the world abuzz.
Katrina shrugged once more.
“Well, let’s chatter to our hearts’ content while we still can.”
“What’s with that meaningful line now?”
“Because I feel like a day is coming soon when we won’t have a moment to rest, even if we want to.”
“……
Seriously, saying such ominous things right before the weekend!”*
Time ought to be fair to everyone.
But to elves, who lived through eternal ages, time was merely something that flowed by. The Demon Eye that had risen in the night sky in place of the stars was the same.
Just as seasons changed with the passage of time, the night scenery had merely changed.
“How meaningless.”
Having lived for ages that seemed eternal, the elves’ emotions had dulled.
The demons that had burst out of the Demon World.
The lives of the Arcana Continent suffering under those demons.
In the eyes of the elves, that too was everyday life, no different from usual.
From their lofty vantage point, humans and demons were both inferior, with little difference between them. War was no different. To begin with, conflict had never ceased on the Arcana Continent.
“However, Mother seems to think differently from us.”
Sisley, the homeland of the elves.
Where their gazes turned stood the World Tree.
The World Tree, losing its vitality and collapsing.
It must be because she had sensed danger and scattered seeds throughout the continent.
Truly, it was incomprehensible.
“It is merely something that passes with time.”
Even before the World Tree, before their Mother, there was no humility in their eyes.
“You have grown weak, Mother of All Things.”
Around the World Tree remained the intense presence of wildness.
It was the aura of dragons, who enjoyed eternal ages just as they did. In order to scatter seeds, had she even reached out her hand to those insolent lizards?
The corner of the elf’s mouth twisted.
“We understand Mother’s will. But we cannot follow that will.”
Before the World Tree, the elves declared,
“Are we not too old to be swayed by your needless anxiety?”
That day, the elves rebelled against the will of the World Tree.
The crisis of the continent’s extinction?
What of it?
Whether an anthill was smashed or the king of the ants changed,
it had not the slightest thing to do with them.
As said, time was generous before them.
When they looked back someday, everything would have been meaningless,
nothing more than something that had passed.
Yes.
Emotions dulled from having lived for long ages.
What remained was only arrogance.
Dignity or nobility did not exist among the elves.
But the sight of her children going astray—
there was no way a mother would simply stand by and watch.
Even if her body was losing vitality and collapsing.
“?!”
They could immediately perceive the change.
The once-generous time had begun to flow. Fatigue accumulated in bodies that had never lost vigor, and mental strength that had not even required rest began to creak.
The elves sensed it instinctively.
“Damn it!”
The World Tree had taken back the “blessing” from them.
How could a mother abandon her children?
They could not understand it at all.
“Why!”
For her to have taken back the blessing
meant that she had bestowed that blessing upon someone else.
But no matter how much they looked around, they could not see them.
Even if they had defied the will of the World Tree,
there were none on the continent who could receive the blessing in their place.
Every last one of them was unqualified.
Before the collapsing World Tree, the elf cried out at the top of his lungs.
“Mother, do you perhaps pity humans? What difference is there between humans and demons? Their nature is no different from that of demons. The pain they suffer now is merely the karma they have accumulated!”
But no answer came from the World Tree.
“……
Foolish as we are, we cannot understand.”
Having been robbed of the blessing, they had lost eternal life.
They could no longer afford to be complacent.
It meant they could not remain in Sisley like this.
“We will find out who has taken the blessing from us. We will see with our own eyes whether they are qualified to hold that blessing.”
If they were not qualified,
then in place of the crumbling World Tree,
in place of their aged Mother, they would take it back once more.
That blessing, absurdly far beyond the station of such trash.
“You may trample as much as you like anything that stands in your way.”
The elves’ march to war.
Even within the eternity of ages,
something that had never once happened was taking place.*
……
A sudden chill runs through me.
Is it the aftereffect of walking around after getting drenched in rain?
I wondered if I was coming down with body aches. But I have the [Warmth] buff, so there’s no way.
It must be my imagination, my imagination. ‘Besides, I did just do something that could earn me some resentment.’ With the golden weekend just ahead, it must be as if a bomb had dropped on AAU. Even when I think about it myself, it was a nuclear-bomb-level declaration. An AAU Yusra Branch—no one would have expected that, right?
“Above all, harmony is what matters.”
[『Anomaly』]
The space of Anomaly, rifts.
Naturally, one must face anomaly with anomaly.
In truth, as for information about the Arcana Continent, there was already enough even now.
I had allies reliable enough to make my absence feel insignificant.
The Magic Tower.
The Lionheart Knights.
The Shadow Mercenary Corps.
The Explorers’ League……
From Arcana’s forces, too numerous to list in full,
to players, including the Great Alliance.
And by field of expertise, no less.
So I did not expect much from AAU.
To begin with, AAU had long since acknowledged its own limits.
What I wanted was simply information about the “Arcana Continent Chronicle.”
More precisely, information about the Arcana system. ‘The system does not lie.’ Whether I liked it or not, hadn’t I proven that fact with my life on the line? There could be no surer proof than having died on the Arcana Continent and revived in reality thanks to the [Title] system.
“Therefore, not a single thing can be neglected.”
For once, you’re right, Grandfell.
Not only for the Holy War,
but also to save reality from Arcana’s erosion, the system had to be understood accurately.
In that sense, the information held by AAU, Arcana’s former developers, would be of great help. ‘Honestly, there was no need to go as far as a Yusra Branch.’ But would this damned lofty pride of his ever choose the easy path?
“Only when you look from an equal position can you see things as they are.”……
But again, it wasn’t entirely wrong, so I couldn’t complain.
Suppose I received information through AAU.
The possibility that someone would send me distorted information?
There was more than enough of it.
Why, the looks they sent me during the meeting were still vivid in my memory.
If I had acted even a little naive, they would have spouted all sorts of bullshit.
But if I became just like them—AAU Yusra Branch.
In other words, if I became branch-manager level.
Then there would be no need to worry about that. The reason AAU, with the interests of countries around the world entangled within it, had been maintained until now was precisely thanks to mutual checks between branches. ‘Besides, I’ve made some allies in AAU too.’ Starting with Baker, the London branch manager.
There were people who had changed their minds because of Grandfell’s theory of pride.
Naturally, there was no justification to reject my proposal.
All things involve give and take.
I also intended to provide AAU with information about the Arcana Continent.
“Not only to them.”
No, more precisely, to everyone participating in the Holy War.
In reality, it was because of an exhausting pride that, being upright, hid nothing at all. Well, reasons could always be added however one liked. In any case, this was not the time to waste time like this.─Train your weakened body. (Repeat) ▲●Run 40 km (Success)●Push-ups 3,000 times (Success)●Pull-ups 2,000 times (In Progress)●Burpees 1,000 times (In Progress)
The increased physical training requirements!
In order to fill the daily training quota, I had reached the point where multitasking was necessary. What that meant was that even while exercising, I had to cram knowledge from magic books into my head.
Damn it, my vision is going dark before I even start……!
Had I known this would happen, I wouldn’t have invested points into [Strength] and [Agility].
But complaining would do no good.
As long as pride existed in my heart,
I would complete any physical training quest while drinking hot green tea.
So stop talking and start.
One, two……
“A magic circle. What an intriguing form of interference.”……
One thousand.●Burpees 1,000 times (Success)……
But what is this?
Not only did I finish the physical training, I even forced myself through the contents of the magic book.
Yet I feel no fatigue in my body or my brain……?
I wondered if it was because my stats had risen,
but this was not a change that could be possible just because a few stat points had increased. ‘There must be a reason……?’ Thinking that, I checked my status window and was horrified.[The First World Tree blesses you.]……
Wait, that absurd blessing was a permanent buff?