Chapter 106

"Too late? Then…"

Seojin almost snapped his head around to Jin, only to see the elf shaking his head.

"It's still faint. We're not too late."

"…That's a relief. Wait here. I'll go and tell Lord Shahav."

"We can head off first."

"Do you know where it is?"

Even Seojin had to depend on the map to get there. He wouldn't be able to bring the lord to the site if he lent his map to the two.

"Can't your friend help us?" Maya suggested an alternative.

"My friend?"

"You always have one around. We knew that from the start."

"Ah."

She was talking about Flappy. Seojin turned around and Flappy was totally caught off-guard.

"May? Yawl want may tuh guide them tuh thuh place?"

"Well, if you're okay with it."

"Hm…. Okay, Ah can do thet fahwar elves."

The air trembled faintly, freeing Flappy from her disguise.

"… An Elemental Spirit?"

"Wow, I don't even remember the last time I saw one of your kind. I felt like something was there, but…"

Both elves seemed very surprised, and Maya's reaction was particularly dramatic.

"You! Why didn't you tell me that you were a good man earlier? !"

"…I'm a good man because my companion is a spirit?"

"This spirit would be oozing darkness if you were evil. But look, how pure and… pure?"

Maya paused halfway as she began pointing at Flappy. She tilted her head slightly in confusion, which made Flappy frown.

"Whut? Nevur sayn uh spirit before?"

"I can't believe the brightness of this spirit. How could a human…?"

"What are you talking about?"

"No way… how could…?"

"Hey, whuts wrong with thus wun?"

Flappy looked at Seojin, but he kept quiet to try and get a grip on the situation first.

'She must have seen something else in Flappy. Something surprising…. what could that be?'

He concealed his ignorance and stared at Maya, pretending that he knew what she was pondering about. Maya soon asked him first.

"Have you ever been involved in The Prestige?"

"No."

"You're not lying… but how could that be? How many good deeds have you done to make this spirit shine so brightly?"

Good deeds. So, it seemed like Maya was surprised in a positive way as she mentioned good deeds and prestige, which lead Seojin to one conclusion.

'She's talking about Dharma Points.'

Dharma Points was the system that quantified the good deeds that a human did.

Dharma Points: 11,833

'…It's actually quite high.'

Seojin found the answer in a flash, as there was no other possible hypothesis.

'Can she see that through Flappy?'

She probably wasn't seeing the exact numbers; it was more like the brightness of the spirit was determined by the number of points. Something that only elves could see.

"…You got me."

Seojin decided to ride on the random tailwind.

"Got you? Did you hide that on purpose?"

"Why would I boast about the minor good deeds I've done throughout my life? I didn't expect that you'd be able to see that through my spirit. Elves truly are a marvelous kind."

"Why? I wouldn't have been as mean to you if I knew that from the start!"

"And that would render my good deeds meaningless, as it would imply that I solely did them for the sake of a potential reward."

"No, why…?"

"You would have known what kind of person I am if told you, and I only had goodwill, however…"

Seojin shook his head as if he couldn't accept it.

"You wouldn't have known about my abilities or how capable I am. The situation is too grave to rely solely on good intentions."

-Wow, you're not lying at all. You're really vicious. Really.

Seojin simply ignored Flappy's weird words of admiration.

"You wouldn't help me even if you knew I was a good man. You have your own faith to keep."

"…Yes, I'm sure I would."

Maya turned to Jin with surprised eyes.

"He's only telling the truth, Jin. I can't even sense the slightest falsehood."

Maya's guarantee made Seojin a perfectly good human being from that moment onward, and his words now carried a totally different weight.

"I wanted to help you."

"…You really meant that?"

"Yes. I didn't know everything from the beginning, but I gradually found out what was going on. You have suffered and endured everything up until now, and for what?"

"I remember what you said once, sir."

Jin was still polite, unlike Maya.

"You can bring the forest back. Do you have a plan?"

"No, but I have similar abilities to you. Salevania, your long-lost home and the origin of this continent's name, will return."

"…He means it."

His words struck them again, but with a different impression this time. Maya was shaking her fingertips, and even Jin, who was always relaxed, lowered his eyes with complicated emotion in them.

Jin licked his dry lips.

"We had a great misunderstanding of you, sir."

"We can fix it."

"No, we fixed it already, thanks to you."

Jin bowed his head. Next to him, Maya, who had only ever acted fierce, avoided his gaze with teary eyes.

"…I'm sorry, really."

"While I can't see the truth, I think that you two are sincere."

Flappy just snorted at the scene below her feet, but Seojin didn't seem to care and gave them a generous, understanding smile.

"Thank you for believing me. Let's move on now, we've got a lot to do."

"…Okay."

"That little soul must still be enduring the agonizing sleep. Follow Flappy. Flappy, would you?"

"Yeah, right, okay. Let's go, leaves!"

Maya and Jin's eyes widened momentarily upon hearing that.

"I haven't heard that expression in a long time."

"It's been over three hundred years. I'll be waiting, sir."

And with that, the two left, following Flappy. They'd find the site with a map in their hand, and Seojin could follow Flappy's signals later on. He went to Lord Shahav first.

"…A little elf? !"

"It's highly likely."

"How could that… ? You must be right. I'll have to hurry up. What should I prepare?"

"Is the equipment dangerous when digging?"

"It doesn't dig things, it removes them."

"…What?"

"Apparently, it isolates the space. The wizard said that it sort of vacuums the space itself, and…"

Oldman spewed some technobabble about how the machine blew a certain range of sand into the air.

"So, it's kind of like exchanging two spaces. If there's a mistake in calculation…"

"A terrible thing could happen."

Only then did Seojin realize why the author of the preview regretted his choice.

'He flung that little elf right into the air, along with the sand…'

Seojin felt goosebumps popping up on the nape of his neck as he looked back at Oldman.

"Is it possible, my lord?"

"I'll make it possible, by myself. "

"…By yourself, my lord?"

Oldman was relentless, even when facing Seojin's doubtful eyes.

"I'm the best in this land at handling the device," he added firmly.

"The wizard from Ironblood offered me the workforce, but I'm the one who designed it."

* * *

The preparations proceeded in a flash. Oldman, Lord of Shahav, constantly dictated, supervised, and controlled the situation himself. He only entrusted work to some of his most reliable aides in unavoidable cases, and he also arrived at the site faster than anyone.

"My Lord!"

"Maya, Jin. Why are you two… ? Oh, sorry, but I'm a little busy. This place is dangerous, so you two should head back to the village."

"My Lord, those two are-"

Jin interrupted Seojin.

"I'll tell him myself."

"Tell me? Tell me what?"

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you in advance, my lord."

Oldman was confused, sensing a serious mood that didn't match the young-looking pair.

"Jin, I don't have…"

"I'm an elf."

Oldman frowned and stared at Jin, waiting for him to elaborate.

"So is Maya. We're not sixteen-year-old humans, we're elves who have been on this land for hundreds of years."

"Huh… you're elves… what? You two are elves?"

Oldman tried to be polite on reflex, as he instinctively knew he couldn't dismiss it as a joke in this type of situation.

If that was true, they must have lived at least twice as long as Oldman had.

Jin untied his headscarf, revealing his pointy ears, forcing Oldman to discard his final doubts.

"Let's get to work first, my lord. Time is our biggest enemy."

"I see. Huh, what the…?"

Oldman headed for the equipment, his mind still not fully recovered from the shock. Seojin had thought that the tool they were using would look like a drill, but it turned out that it was a stack of glass beads the size of a fist, set on top of a wide sheet of paper. According to Oldman, the paper was used to set where to send the sand, and beads were used to set where to bring the air in.

"Is he doing it himself?" Jin asked Seojin.

"Yes, he was confident that he's the best."

"I believe him. He's not like any other human being."

Jin and Maya came along and watched the scene together. Jin had returned to his usual attitude, but Maya was still cautious, as if she felt she was still in debt to Seojin.

"Is there anything I need to do after rescuing the elf?"

"None. From then on, it's up to us." Jin affirmed.

Only they could save their fellow elf from the lack of life force, especially in such a dry place.

"What are you guys going to do?"

"If it was just the two of us, trying to save the elf would be risking our lives."

Jin laughed bitterly but with a strange sense of freedom.

"My friends will arrive in a minute or so."

Flappy understood what Jin said first, as she could detect things from quite a wide range.

-… All of those elves? That many?

Seojin also saw it with his own eyes a beat too late and understood. Dozens of people were running toward them, all young, which made it clear who they were.

'… The Guides of Shahav.'

Encountered Key NPC - Erde.

Encountered Key NPC - Taihi.

Encountered Key NPC…

At that very moment, system messages start to pop up one after another, and Oldman shouted,

"Here we go!"