Translator: Yang_Wenli
Night. Farucci’s Mansion.
With Gallolie having returned to Norland, Joshua returned the key to Farucci’s Mansion to her.
Together with the Blackwood Elves, Gallolie settled in the Farucci’s Mansion. By the time they’ve finished settling, it was approaching night. Priestess Oranka seated herself in the indoor garden all alone.
“Are you still thinking over the matters from this morning?”
Elder Safran walked out from a shadowy area within the garden. Light green runes were overflowing from his hand. A thorny seed appeared in Elder Safran’s hand. The seed fell onto the ground and quickly blossomed into beautiful flowers.
This was a method the Blackwood Elves used to set up detection perimeters. Should any stranger pass through this area covered by the flowers, the flowers will warn Elder Safran.
Even though this mansion was Gallolie’s possession, the Blackwood Elves were still incapable of lowering their guards as they’re still in a human city.
“By famous, does that human mean for us to become prestigious among the humans?”
Priestess Oranka looked at her palm. In her palm was an originium crystal emitting a faint white light.
That was a small gift Joshua gave Priestess Oranka and Elder Safran before seeing them off — originium crystals that contained the system for the magic network.
Joshua explained the originium crystal as ‘the intermediary that will establish a connection to the Frost Elves’ World Tree.’
“It’s admiration. It’s the same feeling we have toward the Holy Tree Narushi,” Elder Safran corrected.
“Is... that possible?”
Priestess Oranka did not refute the possibility that the World Tree could accept human’s beliefs. Besides, it was a matter of life and death for their race right now. As long as they’re able to quickly speed up the growth of their World Tree, she would gladly accept the belief regardless of who their sources might be.
“To have humans admire an elf...” Priestess Oranka voiced what she was truly worried about. “Humans have always held hostility toward us. This holds true whether it be Farucci or this city.”
While the relationship between humans and elves was not at a point of being enemies, there still existed a barrier. The elves were distrustful of the humans and firmly believed that humans continued to hold some sort of hostility toward them.
With a situation like that... Priestess Oranka felt that it would be an impossible task to make humans admire an elf.
“Oranka, the originum crystal you’re holding in your hand will be able to answer your question.”
As Elder Safran has been in constant interaction with the humans, his opinion differed from Priestess Oranka. Thus, when Joshua handed the originum crystal to him, he was overcome with curiosity and ended up crushing it in his hand.
The world that appeared before his eyes, the world of the magic network, gave Elder Safran a shock he hasn’t felt in a long time.
“To establish a connection with another World Tree?”
Priestess Oranka was hesitant. As the most faithful attendant of the Holy Tree Narushi, she felt like it would be an act of betrayal for her to establish a connection with another World Tree.
“Gallolie, the person the Holy Tree Narushi is lodging in, has long established a connection with the other World Tree. Oranka... that Frost Elf is also our kin,” said Elder Safran.
Priestess Oranka seemed to be swayed by those words. She was also very curious as to how the growth of another near-dead World Tree has been. Furthermore, she was also very curious about the ‘other world’ Gallolie mentioned before.
After a moment of hesitation, she was convinced by Elder Safran and crushed apart the originum crystal.
A vast amount of order runes transformed into light and poured into her body. When Priestess Oranka opened her eyes again, a strange interface appeared before her eyes.
But, she did not feel any connection with another World Tree. No... she felt it. It was right before her eyes.
“This is a world constructed by the Frost Elves’ World Tree.” Elder Safran walked over to Priestess Oranka. He began to instruct her on how to navigate this new ‘world.’
After being taught by Elder Safran, Priestess Oranka tapped open the Voice of Norland. Then, the elven epic she was so very familiar with slowly sounded in her ears.
“This... is the singing of that Frost Elf?” Priestess Oranka recognized Tylene’s voice.
“Correct. This special magic uses the World Tree as the medium and connects everyone together,” Elder Safran pointed to the ‘listeners’ listed on the lower right corner of the Voice of Norland.
There were over twenty-seven thousand active listeners...
“There’s this many people listening to the elven epic sung by that Frost Elf?!” A tone of disbelief was present in Priestess Oranka’s voice.
Elder Safran nodded, “Through the link established by the World Tree, the humans would be able to listen to that Frost Elf’s singing by opening the Voice of Norland in their very homes.”
“Over twenty-seven thousand humans... even at the peak of our race, we’ve never numbered that many people. That World Tree was able to obtain this many people’s... blessing every night?”
Priestess Oranka was feeling disbelief. After all, only those that felt admiration toward the World Tree would be able to provide nourishment for the World Tree. She doesn’t believe that there would be that many humans feeling fondness or admiration for an elf.
Elder Safran didn’t answer that question. Instead, he instructed Priestess Oranka to enter the Mage Forum and then to the Voice of Norland sub-forum.
Priestess Oranka skimmed through the posts on the sub-forum. Besides some discussions about some sort of ‘magic lamp,”glass slipper’ and strange stuff like the ‘prince increase of certain items on the Alchemic Marketplace,’ the remainder were all praising the Frost Elf.
‘Everyone, does anyone know when Miss Tylene’s new song will be released?’ Posted by: Ancient One.
‘Miss Tylene’s singing has cured the insomnia that I’ve suffered for years!’ Posted by: Deepcave Miner.
......
Priestess Oranka did not tap into any posts. But. just skimming through the titles, she started feeling extremely complicated. She was also someone who could sing elven epics. She was even confident that her singing of the elven epics would be even better than that young Frost Elf...
But, to her dismay, the World Tree she served would not be able to receive the ‘blessings’ from those people.
Priestess Oranka exited the Voice of Norland sub-forum. When she saw a post on the front page, she tapped into it without any hesitation.
That post began with ‘The inquisitors of the Holy Church’s Heresy Tribunal had burned down the Blackwood Forest...’
She began to skim through the contents of the post. With every photo she saw, her fists clenched tighter. Uncontainable anger and hatred filled her heart.
Those photos on the post had clearly recorded the scenes of her kins being slaughtered by the inquisitors!
Those painful memories flashed through her head repeatedly. In the end, they were transformed into surging rage.
When Priestess Oranka finished reading the post and scrolled down, she suddenly discovered... she was not the only person feeling such anger toward the wicked conduct of the Heresy Tribunal.
‘Exactly what is the Holy Church Heresy Tribunal attempting to do here?! Why would they point their blades at the innocent elves?!’ Replied by: Blackiron Longsword.
“A catastrophe... this is not merely a catastrophe that befell the Blackwood Elves, this is also a catastrophe for us humans... We cannot allow those indiscriminate murders to continue to act so willfully.’ Replied by: Ash-colored Owl.
‘Blackwood Forest! My hometown is by that forest! I think I need to return to Farucci.’ Replied by: Wandering Bard
‘What happened to the elves? I saw children in those photos... Are they safe?’ Replied by: North-south Trader
Priestess Oranka read the comments in silence. In the end, she was once again unable to contain her tears.
On the Mage Forum, a group of unknown strangers were showing concern for her race’s safety. Yet, she has continued to hold prejudice toward the humans.
“At times, there’s really no difference between humans, elves or... even demons,” said Elder Safran.