What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy? - Chapter 1281: Who Might Be Responsible?
Chapter 1281: Who Might Be Responsible?
“Do you remember what happened before you fell unconscious?” I asked one of the plant spirits that had recovered after everyone calmed down again.
She flew around in a circle while making a humming noise, “Hmm hmm hmm~ I remember that something felt a little off with me that day… Like I was more tired than usual which has never happened before… Then I just laid down to take a little nap and that’s all I remember, Apostle~”
I looked at the other plant spirits and they also agreed.
“I felt the same too, Apostle!”
“So did I, Apostle!”
“It was definitely weird! I didn’t even feel like playing pranks that day!”
Abarra seemed to pick up on what the last plant spirit said, “You didn’t feel like playing pranks? That’s something that goes against the nature of the spirit itself… In that case… Hmm… Could it be? Something or someone is affecting the Tree of Life directly?”
I turned to her, “What do you mean?”
“The plant spirits come from the Tree of Life. You could say that they are a part of the tree itself like the leaves, the branches and the roots but they have just taken the shape of a spirit. For them to feel drained like that, they might have been severed of their connection to the tree and had their divine energy parasitised.”
Hmm… So basically it’s like cutting off the branch of a tree and draining the sap out of them or something?
But the branch itself is still alive so if you were to plant it and take care of it… It might still grow back?
I dunno… I’m not an expert on plants or plant spirits to begin with anyway.
“The question still remains though… Who or what could have caused this?” I asked.
Abarra tapped the side of her cheek with her hand and it was only now did I realise that the lab coat seemed to be a little too big for her so the sleeves were longer than her arms, leaving the end of the sleeve flopping around as she did that motion.
It was quite cute.
“Recently during my research… I also noticed something strange going on with the Tree of Life as well…” She commented.
Instantly, my mind was thinking that it must have something to do with the people who were planning to destroy the tree or something so I swivelled my head to her.
“What kind of strange things are happening?”
“For one, I’ve noticed that the monsters around here have been getting just a little bit closer to the city. It may just be a coincidence but in the past when we had first started building up this city, we marked out the boundary that the Tree of Life would protect us from monsters. Recently I went to check on the boundary and I found some monsters had crossed it and there was even a nest within the boundary a short distance out from the city.”
“So… The protection of the tree is getting weaker?”
“That seems to be the case. And not only that… I have also noticed that some plants within and without the boundary have withered.”
I tilted my head, “I’m assuming that’s not normal?”
She nodded, “It’s like finding fish that have somehow suffocated floating along in the sea while you are out swimming. No plants should wither like that while under the Tree of Life.”
I considered what I know for a moment before I decided to ask her, “Do you know about a plot revolving around the Tree of Life?”
She blinked at me, “A plot? What plot? Is there someone trying to destroy the tree?”
That basically told me that she doesn’t know about it and I guess it would be unwise to involve others in this so I shook my head.
“I don’t know, I was just asking if you might know someone was targeting the Tree of Life since this sounds like sabotage…”
She frowned, “But who would be able to do something like this? The Tree of Life is something that was created by the god Drebann herself! To do harm to it would be challenging her and she would not stand for something like that!”
Well… I hate to break it to you… But the gods quite literally wouldn’t care if the tree dies… But that would probably shatter her world view so I’ll keep that information to myself.
Unexpectedly, the doctor suddenly swivelled her head to me to look at me with wide eyes, “Wait… Is that why you were sent here to us? Goddess Drebann sent you here as her favourite because she is aware that this is happening?”
Once again… I hate to break it to you but she knows this is happening but I was definitely not sent here by her… I’m only here literally out of pure coincidence… Sorry.
I shook my head, “Unfortunately, I am not some agent of goddess Drebann who would send me to deal with things like this so that is not the case… I’m not even aware that I was favoured by her until recently, to be honest.”
“That sounds like something I would really want to get into details about but I suppose this thing with the Tree of Life is more important right now. Now that you have mentioned it, looking at it from that perspective makes a lot more sense… Why the plant spirits fell unconscious, the draining of the divine energy, the weakening of the Tree of Life and even the withering of the plants… It all adds up now.”
Oh? Did she manage to figure something out herself?
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“At first, I thought that this might just be a natural phenomenon from the tree or even some mistake we had made as a race that was causing the tree to show such a decline. But if this is caused by some people who are trying to destroy the Tree of Life, then it all makes sense…”
Err… I guess I accidentally clued someone in on what is really happening right now… At least she doesn’t look like the type of person who would spread this around and then cause unnecessary panic.
“For you to say that much, I’m guessing you already have some kind of idea what might be happening?”
She started pacing back and forth, “Thinking about it logically, who would benefit from the Tree of Life being reduced to dust? We would lose our protection and our city might be overrun by monsters and other people who might want to harm us… There’s no doubt about it… It’s definitely Goddess Immana!!”
Oh… Right… I should have expected people like her to believe that it was Immana that would be behind this since they still think she has a grudge against them or something.
I cleared my throat, “Ahem… I do not think the gods are involved in this actually…”
She blinked at me and I thought she would try to argue her case but she nodded, “I see… If an Apostle of our own Goddess Drebann says so, it must be true then. In that case, I can think of two other parties who might benefit from this.”
“Who?”
“The more likely culprit would be another country seeking to occupy the forest for themselves. I would like to rule out the Nekinumi Kingdom since we are on good terms with each other… But if I’m allowed to guess, then the prime suspect would be Lehcarouc Kingdom since they had gone to war with our forest before. They were only stopped the last time because our forest managed to confound their troops when they reached the deeper areas and had to give up because of that. Maybe they believe that it was the Tree of Life’s doing and think that by eliminating the tree, they could open the road to conquest once again?”
Huh…
Honestly… If I was just some random person who is hearing this for the first time, I would say that this is actually quite a compelling argument and I might even believe it.
But since I actually know King Justinia personally, I don’t think that she’s the one behind this.
Because if she really wanted to take over this forest, she wouldn’t even need to do something as complicated as destroying the Tree of Life… She could just go to Mother and bargain with her to make use of our information network and gain access to the forest…
And that’s already not considering the fact that I know she doesn’t have any expansionist policies to begin with.
“What’s the second group that might be responsible then?” I asked.
She made a face, “I find the second possibility even less likely but this is the only other group of people whom I believe would benefit enough to encourage them attempting something like this.”
“And they are?”
“Illegal slavers.”
…
Wait, really? All that just to catch some Trasif slaves?
