Chapter 181

I Married the Dragon I Killed

Chapter 181: Grand Chief

Grand Chief
Chapter 181. Grand Chief

The stairs that had been gently ascending the World Tree came to a stop.
They stopped at an altitude even higher than where the aerial carriage had reached.
Contrary to the expectation that harsh, cold winds would blow in a place higher than the mountains, calm and warmth prevailed.
Rize gestured toward the entrance.
At that, the wood grain of the World Tree moved elastically as if turning into hundreds of strands, parting open.
A long corridor leading inward greeted them.
— If you follow this corridor, you will arrive at the place called the Mother’s Heart. The Grand Chief awaits you there.
Rize clenched both hands into fists and cheered energetically.
— I will wait for you here. I hope you have a pleasant conversation!
Once the outer entrance closed, Ferda brought up the difficult topic.
— Are High Elves originally this energetic?
Erika shook her head.
— Not even close. If they were even half of half of that child Rize, wouldn’t they be far more pleasant?
— I see.
— It feels like a pretty person with two eyes living in a village of one-eyed people, you know?
Erika made Ferda understand, while simultaneously showing her disgust toward all High Elves.
They walked through that long corridor and arrived at the deep part where the Grand Chief was located.
The deep part inside the World Tree, the dwelling of the Grand Chief, was a place worthy of the name Mother’s Heart.
There was a luxury inside the World Tree that not even an ancient Magic Tower would dare imitate.
Pure mana, dense and bright enough to illuminate the interior, was positioned on the ceiling.
That was not all.
Thin, white threads, like a lake, swam in that blue light.
Ferda knew what they were.
It was an object any mage would naturally know.
“Threads.”
When mana condenses and condenses further, it takes the form of thread; an object that cannot be obtained even with money.
With just one of those threads there, 5th-circle magic could be easily cast; if strands were gathered to form a thick thread, magic up to the 7th circle could be unleashed.
Hundreds, thousands of those strands swam using the ceiling as a lake.
Beneath those thousands of strands, an old man sat in meditation.
A petite old man with drooping white eyebrows.
Yet, he possessed the control to handle thousands of free-spirited threads.
— It has been a while, Grand Chief.
Erika greeted first.
It was a tone often used in psychological warfare.
The Grand Chief nodded.
— Blessings of the Earth. The day has come when the Descendant of Water enters the Mother’s embrace.
— There is no need for you to find it strange. What need is there for us to be on bad terms?
— You have requested a meeting since last winter; did you have busy matters?
— Not busy, just an annoying matter I wanted to finish quickly, you know?
One’s breath is instinctively taken away.
It was felt that Erika truly detested High Elves.
Fortunately, the Grand Chief did not seem to mind Erika’s attitude.
Perhaps there was a reason he could not care.
At that moment, a single thread passed before Ferda, who was seated.
Ferda unconsciously followed that thread with his gaze.
— Isn’t it wonderful?
The Grand Chief asked, looking at Ferda.
— Indeed.
Ferda replied reflexively.
If he had to answer whether it was truly wonderful, Ferda would shake his head.
The moment he saw those threads, Ferda felt his Shadow Circle rotate.
The reason he had killed High Elves and burned the World Tree was that he coveted those hundreds of threads.
He absorbed thousands of threads, killed many people with the power of those threads, and killed Valdrova.
Since it was only unearthing a painful past, Ferda looked away.
The Grand Chief also tried to get to the point.
— Now, let us speak of the reason you came here.
— Let us do so.
Unlike the immensely vast room and the abundant mana, the interior was extremely frugal.
Only objects made by weaving pure tree trunks, without a single place adorned in gold like dragons or human nobles.
— Regent-nim, that object, please…….
Erika spoke looking at Ferda, and Ferda took out the notebook he had kept in the box and held it out before him.
— Mmm…….
The Grand Chief let out a groan, waving his finger toward the notebook.
At that, the movement of the threads floating in the sky ceased.
Following the Grand Chief’s will, the threads gathered and took the shape of a hand.
That hand stroked the cover of the notebook like a book in braille.
— This is…… Linne’s handwriting, that child’s, is it not?
The Grand Chief recognized it just from the letters embedded on the cover.
The fingers turned the pages, scanning the letters.
He muttered as if tracing faint memories.
— Linne…… yes, since that child was alive, you must have come looking for her.
— Did you not know she was alive until now?
— When I probed the minds of the Dark Elves who set foot in the Demon Land, I clearly saw everyone die. So I thought she was certainly dead.
But the Grand Chief was mistaken.
— But I overlooked too much. That child had the ability to escape the shackles of the High Elves, so naturally, she should have also been able to escape the minds of the Dark Elves…….
The white hand did not stop turning pages.
The Grand Chief took a painful breath and then exhaled it again.
— Linne, in the end, seems to be trying to seize another opportunity by trampling on the deaths of her clan that followed her.
Ferda could not discern what emotion emanated from his final words.
Was it pity,
Or long-hidden anger.
While muttering and tracing the past, the white hand scanned to the last page and closed it.
— I have confirmed all the contents. I can also clearly feel what plot Linne is hatching.
Life returned to Erika’s face.
The Grand Chief stroked his beard, rocking his body while nodding toward the rocking chair.
— If I may.
— Speak.
— Did you bring the black liquid spoken of in this diary?
— Yes. I brought it hoping you would examine it.
Erika rolled one of the brought ampoules across the floor.
The Grand Chief pointed at that ampoule, and a thread turned into a hand and held it.
The white hand inserted a finger inside the ampoule, and the Grand Chief showed a certain reaction.
— ……I see.
It was a look as if an annoying part had been completely resolved.
— Descendant of Water, pardon the impertinence, but knowing this content, what will you do?
— Naturally, I must respond.
Erika answered.
— If they can create a substance similar to Godwin’s blood and manufacture demons, it means a substance to counter them can also be created.
— Of course that would be so.
The Grand Chief made a subtle reaction, letting out an “Mmm…….
Seeming to think nothing would come of it, Erika persuaded the Grand Chief more aggressively.
— I do not know if it is recorded in the contents, but that Dark Elf Linne is creating new demons right now.
— That is correct.
— Recently, she is attempting to plunge the Serdes Continent into chaos by deploying copies called Dopplers.
— That is also correct.
— There is no doubt that they are attempting mass production of something similar to Godwin’s blood. If demons begin to spawn, the tragedy of the Dragon-Demon War will happen again, and…….
Erika lowered her voice and warned.
— At that time, not even this World Tree will be prevented from burning.
Just as dragons are everything to Dragon Scions, the World Tree is everything to the High Elves.
They were words equivalent to losing one’s life.
The Grand Chief listened to those words and pondered deeply.
— The Dragon-Demon War is a tragedy we must not repeat.
They knew the pain they had caused before the Dragon-Demon War.
— I too, it is obvious that I wish to help.
— Then—.
— But there is a condition to help.
The Grand Chief averted his gaze as he uttered those words.
His gaze fixed clearly on Ferda, who was sitting next to him.
— I wish for this conversation to be only between the two of us, Regent Ferda. Would that be alright?
Erika’s eyebrow twitched.
— There is no way that is acceptable, right?
Erika could not allow it.
Of course, since these were the objects Ferda had brought, he held the authority.
But those who had been researching the black liquid until now were Erika and the descendants of Iorga in her tower.
Being excluded like this hurt her pride.
— I also have an obligation to know. As a protector of this continent and as a hero of the Dragon-Demon War.
— I know it is a moment where the name of Descendant of Water is involved. But this matter is a separate issue.
The Grand Chief did not yield an inch without compromise.
— Then let us do it this way. Since you said this matter is important to Regent Ferda…—
Therefore, Erika chose to involve a third party.
— Let Regent Ferda decide. How about that?
— Of course, that method also exists.
The Grand Chief raised his hand cautiously.
Erika sensed something from that action.
— What is th-?
She immediately tried to prepare a countermeasure, but it was already too late.
A single white thread, positioned behind her, touched Erika with a light tap.
Erika vanished from that spot in an instant.
— …However, I will not allow it.
He muttered those words that would not reach Erika.
Now only the two remained in that vast space.
Ferda, who had not spoken a word since sitting down, silently observed the Grand Chief.
— Please be at ease. I did not harm Tower Master Erika.
— I already know you teleported her outside.
Ferda was always calm.
What intrigued him was a single thing.
— Is there perhaps a reason why Tower Master Blue Eye-nim would become a third party?
— Of course. Since the story will likely take a personal turn.
Ferda felt doubt at those words.
What personal matter could there be in dealings with demons?
— Let us first speak of this black solution.
The Grand Chief’s white hand lifted the ampoule containing the black solution he had left.
— Tower Master Blue Eye must surely have thought this object was similar to Dragon Blood.
— That is right.
— But it is only similar, not Dragon Blood, and she must have thought it was an object she could not understand. So she must have thought it was related to the blood of the High Elves.
— That is right. Is that content recorded in that diary?
— No. It is just that, since the Tower Master came all the way here, I simply assumed there was nothing else.
He is a mind reader.
Or is Erika unexpectedly simple?
— To begin with the conclusion, this black liquid was indeed created with the ability of the High Elves.
— Is there a special ability of the High Elves?
— Unlike humans, Elves have the ability to communicate with their kin. Among them, the minds of High Elves are connected as one.
— That is right.
— That mental network is not simply sharing thoughts. It is bringing all the information they know, interpreted in the Elven language. To explain it better… it can even bring information that the person themselves does not know.
An ability to know everything about the other that the other does not know.
Perhaps because he is a mage by nature, just hearing it made him covet it.
As if reading Ferda’s thoughts as well, the Grand Chief added.
— Not everything is good. Because everything is shared, they become sensitive to what cannot be shared.
— Is that why that old man acted brusque?
— That is right.
Ferda remembered the face of the old man who thought of rejecting them.
He understood, but he did not want to forgive easily.
— Linne obtained information from all the races of the Serdes Continent using the ability of the High Elves.
Now it was known why such an experimentation site existed in the north, why many races were imprisoned.
It was to analyze all the cells that made up their bodies and develop drugs optimized to fuse with existing demonic information.
— Can all High Elves use such an ability?
Ferda asked cautiously.
The Grand Chief shook his head.
— A mind is like breathing from birth and the heartbeat. Severing and connecting at will is something that not even I, the Grand Chief, can do.
— Linne was able to do that?
— Yes. That is why she was able to betray us and become a Dark Elf.
If she had not been able to do that, Linne’s plan would have already been discovered, and they would have responded swiftly.
That only Linne could use it was a blessing in the midst of misfortune.
— Wait a moment.
Ferda recalled an ominous thought.
— Then, being able to create this object similar to Dragon Blood… does it mean she connected minds with Godwin and obtained that information?
Being able to create Dragon Blood used in Ascension Rituals means obtaining Dragon information.
Did Linne understand everything about Dragons?
— Unfortunately, that would not have been possible.
The Grand Chief affirmed.
— No matter how we classify superiority, we are mere creations formed from the earth. But Dragons are creations formed by gods. To understand them, the Language of God is needed. No matter how excellent the language of the High Elves is, it remains within the Language of Earth and can never interpret those made with the Language of God.
The Grand Chief concluded.
— Therefore, this black liquid is also that of a creation formed from the earth.
— Are Ascension Rituals possible even without Dragons performing them directly?
— Dragon Scions are not, but the form of demons is.
A creation of this earth that was not Godwin, but held as much influence as Godwin.
Upon thinking about it, only one came to mind.
— This black solution here is made from the mana possessed by the man called the Demon King.
Demon King.
Godwin’s name is so immense that he seems small, but he was also a man of considerable infamy.
That the Far East turned into Demon Land was a feat he achieved alone.
Although he cannot compare to Dragons, he too possessed sufficient power and ability to be called a calamity on the continent.
— I understand.
Although he did not know the detailed circumstances, the context was clearly grasped.
It was resolving all the parts Erika felt curious about.
Listening to such a story, Ferda could not contain this question.
— Is there a need to have such a story only between the two of us?
Summarizing all the content, the substance that mimics the Demon King’s mana using the characteristics of the High Elves’ mental network is this black solution.
There seemed to be no reason to keep this work of simply revealing information a secret.
— The story from now on is precisely what only you, Regent Ferda, must hear.
The Grand Chief pointed at Ferda with slender, knobby fingers.
Precisely the lower danjeon.
Ferda’s Red Circle.
— That Demon King’s mana is also inside your body.