In the form of an owl, Elder Safran descended from the sky and landed in a forest bordering Norland.
After traveling for twelve days, they’ve finally reached Norland’s border. Elder Safran decided for the group to rest and reorganize themselves before entering Norland.
“Unbelievable.”
Priestess Oranka transformed back into her humanoid appearance from that of a purely white owl and descended onto the ground. The very instant she stepped foot onto Norland’s soil, she let out a gasp of exclamation.
“The Holy Tree Narushi is absorbing new nutrients... The quantity far surpassed that of the Blackwood Forest.”
Priestess Oranka arrived before Gallolei. Back when they were still in Farucci, she was already able to sense the faith energies coming from all over Farucci and gathering at Gallolei’s body to provide nourishment for the World Tree within her body.
But, the nutrients the World Tree was able to absorb back in Farucci was simply too sparse. But, upon arriving in Norland, the quantity increased many folds all of a sudden...
“Daughter of the Forest, could it be... believers of the Holy Tree Narush are present in Norland too?” In the end, Priestess Oranka voiced a question that she felt to be impossible.
The faith energies coming from Norland and gathering on Gallolei was simply too pure. Normally, the World Tree will only be able to receive faith energies of such quality when the Blackwood Elves offer prayers to it.
For such a situation to occur, the only possible explanation would be that there were hundreds or even thousands of people offering prayers to Gallolei in Norland.
“Hmm... I think it’s most likely because the box office for ‘Léon: The Demon’ has been pretty good recently.”
Gallolei could only view the faith energies as the happiness felt by the moviegoers. After watching a movie, it was only natural for many of the audiences to like the lead actress. Their feelings of fondness and admiration were then gradually absorbed by the World Tree.
Even though many of the people in Farucci have heard of the ‘Flower of Farucci’ before, it has been a long time since Gallolei last performed in Farucci. As such, the ‘faith’ the people of Farucci had for her would naturally be much lesser.
Their faith was simply incapable of being compared with Norland’s faithful fans. Oftentimes, faithful fans would re-watch a movie they enjoyed multiple times.
“Daughter of the Forest, you mean... what you’ve gone through in the past?”
Priestess Oranka has seen the movie too. She even discussed with the Brass Dragon about serious issues like how destructive the magic craving crystals were toward one’s body.
“I’ve already told you that it’s a fictional story and not what I’ve experienced in the past,” Gallolei couldn’t remember how many times she has explained things to this old elven priestess.
“My apologies, I was joking with you. Daughter of the Forest... I think your decision to guide us to this city was the correct one.”
After traveling for so long, Gallolei finally saw a heart-felt smile on Oranka’s face. After all, Oranka was able to see hope from how quickly the World Tree was growing inside Gallolei.
“There’s a human village ahead. Daughter of the Forest, should we stay in the village for the night?”
Elder Safran also became very hopeful toward the future because of the World Tree’s growth.
It was not wrong to come to Norland. Elder Safran firmly believed in that. He was already looking forward to meeting the artist Gallolei spoke of.
But, Elder Safran did not relax his guard just because of that. They’ve encountered too many mishaps on their way here. They were attacked by human bandits and also encountered magic beasts hiding in the forest...
The reason why Elder Safran decided to descend in the forest near the human village was so that they could avoid those dangerous elements.
“I wish to check out that village...”
Gallolei took a glance at her elven bodyguard’s backpack. The backpack was filled with fruits. For the past half month, Gallolei has only been eating fruits and vegetables.
While elves might be fine with eating only fruits and vegetables, humans were omnivores... In order to maintain her figure, Gallolei knew that she needed to maintain a nutritional balance.
“Please wait... Daughter of the Forest!”
Elder Safran suddenly stopped Gallolei. He swept his gaze all around the forest. As a druid, his sense of hearing was far superior to ordinary elves.
Using his sharp hearing, Elder Safran could hear something enormous was approaching them.
Elder Safran was unable to determine what was approaching them. It sounded like a giant-sized orc. But, its footsteps were not boorish like that of the orcs.
When Elder Safran was planning to transform back into an owl to bring Gallolei away, it was already too late.
A teleportation formation composed of dark green flames appeared on the other side of the forest. A creature over two meters tall slowly walked out from the teleportation formation.
Sin... Sin Demon?!
Elder Safran immediately recognized what that creature was.
As the Blackwood Elves rarely interacted with demons, their knowledge about the demons were all from the rumors spread by the Holy Church... It was through an ancient book that Elder Safran read the details about the terrifying Sin Demons.
‘The Sin Demons are the vanguards of the demon’s invasion army. They are extremely cruel and violent. Their dark green flames could easily burn a person’s flesh to nothingness...’
Now that Elder Safran thought about it, that ancient book must be written by the Holy Church.
The Holy Church was the arch-enemy of the Blackwood Elves now. As such, Elder Safran was unwilling to believe in his arch-enemy’s declarations.
But, the outward appearance of that Sin Demon was simply too imposing.
Elder Safran did not immediately show hostility. Instead, he decided to attempt to communicate with the Sin Demon.
When Elder Safran was pondering about how to communicate with the Sin Demon, a little girl suddenly appeared on the Sin Demon’s shoulder.
Human? Elder Safran took a glance at the little girl on the Sin Demon’s shoulder. No matter how he looked at her, she looked like an ordinary human girl. There was no trace of magic power to the little girl at all.
Such an ordinary girl couldn’t possibly be able to enslave a Sin Demon.
Furthermore, their relationship doesn’t seem like that of a master-servant either.
“Big Cat, are these bad people?”
“No, they’re not bandits. They seemed like lost travelers. They’re also elves.”
The Sin Demon lowered himself to examine Elder Safran.
“We came from the Blackwood Forest located in Farucci. We are en route to Norland. We hope to be able to lodge in that village for the night.”
Even though Elder Safran had no idea how that little girl managed to be on the shoulder of a Sin Demon or how she had such a close relationship with the Sin Demon, Elder Safran still didn’t lower his guard.
Fortunately, the Sin Demon was not brutal and vicious like the Holy Church described. At the very least, it possessed intelligence and was capable of communication.
At this moment, Gallolei walked over from behind the elves. Elder Safran didn’t have the time to stop her at all. Just like that, the Flower of Farucci walked over to the Sin Demon.
“Zenarth, I need to enter Norland to see your master.” Gallolei recognized the Sin Demon. He was none other than the demon prince in ‘Beauty and the Demon.’ In that performance, he had captivated the hearts of countless young ladies.
Gallolei has been pondering why she has never encountered this Sin Demon again after that one meeting...
To her surprise, the Sin Demon has been at Norland’s border the entire time. Furthermore, he even had a... sweetheart?
Gallolei took a glance at the little girl sitting on the Sin Demon’s shoulder. She was looking at her with full alert.