Translator: Yang_Wenli
After Tylene helped Joshua find Hachi, she got on a carriage and returned to the Hearthstone Tavern since Joshua needed to make arrangements for filming ‘Hachiko: A Dog’s Tale.’ Tylene didn’t forget about her job at the Voice of Norland or her duty to provide nourishment for the World Tree’s growth.
But, upon returning to the Hearthstone Tavern and opening the Mage Forum, Tylene was greeted with bad news.
‘Inquisitors from the Heresy Tribunal burned down the Blackwood Forest and massacred the innocent Blackwood Elves. The crimes of a bunch of cruel, merciless and indiscriminate murderers.’
When Tylene saw this post while signing into the Voice of Norland, extreme unease filled her heart.
With grief and fear still in her mind, she tapped open the post.
Even though Joshua put up a warning disclaimer that the contents were violent and gory, Tylene summoned up her courage and tapped into the post.
Sure enough, upon seeing the contents, Tylene received an enormous shock to her heart.
A forest enveloped by gray mist, tentacles emerging from the ground and her fellow elves being massacred. Seeing those photos, Tylene was unable to stand firm. She ended up sitting down on the chair in the Noiseless Room and began to calm her mind.
A group of elves that has lost their home like her were currently wandering in the wild.
When Tylene learned of this news from the post, she immediately became restless. Because of that, she typed out a message to Joshua.
‘Mister Joshua, is there anything that I can help them with?!’
‘Them? Are you talking about those elves? Farucci is over a thousand miles away from Norland. Tylene, I think the only thing you can do right now is to open up the Voice of Norland and offer them an elven epic to appease their hearts.”
Even though Joshua was at the filming site for ‘Hachiko,’ he still replied to Tylene very fast.
‘They’re able to hear my singing?’
Even though Tylene has been using the magic network for so long, she was still not proficient with typing on the virtual keyboard. It took her three minutes to type out a message to send to Joshua.
‘The Flower of Farucci Gallolei is with those elves that just lost their home. Her magic network is able to hear your singing.’
After hearing that message from Joshua, Tylene knew what she needed to do. Even though she would not be able to provide material aid to her fellow elves, she would at least be able to offer prayers to them.
Tylene picked up her harp, opened the Voice of Norland and began to sing and play an elven epic. It was a song called ‘Song of Home.’
.........
The power of his elvenkins... were weakening.
Elder Safran stood atop an enormous boulder as he examined the surroundings vigilantly. At the same time, he looked down to his clansmen that were setting up camps on the meadow below.
The Blackwood Forest has been burned down by the flames. It was not only their country that was destroyed, even the World Tree that they’ve relied on for survival was destroyed.
It was true that Elder Safran’s heart was filled with hatred and fury toward the Holy Church’s Heresy Tribunal. But, compared to his anger, Elder Safran was more worried about his people.
A total of thirty-three Blackwood Elves followed him and escaped from the Blackwood Forest. Among them, twelve were kids and three of those kids were newborn on top of that.
Although the World Tree didn’t perish, its powers gradually weakened after it became a seed. The weakening of the World Tree’s power also manifested itself on the Blackwood Elves.
Take for example, one of the three infants was infected with a strange illness. In the past, with the protection of the World Tree, very rarely do Blackwood Elves fall ill. But, the protection has since disappeared.
“Elder Safran, we... Where should we go now? Should we search for survivors?”
The elven priestess by the name of Oranka walked over to Elder Safran and looked to her clansmen with a deeply worried expression. She could clearly see how bewildered they were.
Having lost their home, the Blackwood Elves were homeless.
“Using the Earth Spirits, I’ve managed to reach Sigam. He had brought the majority of the survivors to the other side of the forest. There’s roughly a thousand people.”
A clay humanoid appeared on Elder Safran’s hand. That was what he used to communicate with the other survivors.
“Should we converge with Sigam and others?” The priestess appeared to be slightly hesitant.
“Sigam is an excellent leader. He will be able to lead our people to a safe shelter. But... I am not certain whether there might be inquisitors disguised among the people with Sigam.”
Elder Safran looked to the human girl who was seated on the other side of the meadow with a contemplating look on her face. Her elven bodyguard Flay managed to find Gallolei in the middle of their journey. With flay’s comfort, Gallolei’s state of mind finally eased slightly.
“If those intruders were to find out the existence of the Daughter of the Forest, we will end up paying too enormous of a price. Thus, before converging with our surviving people, I must find a safe shelter for the Daughter of the Forest.”
Elder Safran knew that the moment the World Tree dies would be the moment their Blackwood Elves would go extinct.
But, at a time when even the Protector of the World Tree’s whereabouts was unknown, Elder Safran was truly unable to think of what sort of place could possibly shelter the Blackwood Elves.
“Norland!”
Suddenly, at this very moment, Gallolei interrupted into the conversation of the two elves.
“Elder Safran, I hope that you can bring me to Norland!”
Gallolei stood up and walked over to them. There was a white pigeon in her hand. The pigeon carried an anonymous letter. From the handwriting of the letter, Gallolei recognized that it was written to her by her mother.
Madam Schroder mentioned in the letter that her father’s territory was no longer safe. It also listed multiple locations that could provide shelter to Gallolei. Apart from the locations where Gallolei’s relatives were, Norland was also listed among the places for shelter.
“Norland... that city is simply too far away.”
Elder Safran has been to Norland before. Even if he was to transform himself into a beast capable of flight, it would take him an entire week to reach Norland.
“But... that city is the place that could allow a World Tree to grow the fastest. Furthermore... it is also the safest place.”
Gallolei does not possess a friendly relationship with the relatives mentioned in the letter. In fact, it could even be said that their relationship was rather poor. Gallolei cannot trust that those relatives would be willing to shelter a bunch of elves.
As for Norland, the inquisitors have become notorious in that city due to the Mage Forum. Gallolei believed that as long as the Mage Forum still existed, they would receive absolute safety in Norland.
In order to persuade Elder Safran, Gallolei took out the leaf in her pendant.
“This is the leaf from the Frost Elves’ World Tree. But, shouldn’t the Frost Elves be...”
“They’ve not yet gone extinct. The final survivor of the Frost Elves by the name of Tylene received the help from a... kind person in Norland. With his help, the World Tree in Tylene was able to grow again.”
Gallolei did not immediately reveal Joshua’s identity. In order to persuade Elder Safran more, Gallolei opened the Voice of Norland. It just so happened that this was the hour where Tylene would sing.
When Gallolei amplified Tylene’s singing to the entire grass field, Elder Safran stood there shocked. The priestess was also shocked.
The Blackwood Elves that had just lost their home also turned to look at Gallolei. Hearing the singing coming from Gallolei, one of the young elves started to sing along to Tylene’s voice. Then, another elf joined in... Gradually, more and more elves started singing along. They stopped worrying about whether or not there might be pursuers after them and began to loudly sing along with Tylene’s singing.
As dusk fell, the elven epic ‘Song of Home’ resounded through the grassland.