༺ Sun – Claiomh Solais (6) ༻
Next morning, we witnessed an oak tree that quite literally reached the heavens. Each and every one of its branches were thicker and longer than thousand-year-old trees as they all reached out to the sky.
“U, uahhh…”
Alicia had already been impressed by the 10-meter-tall oak tree. After seeing it reach all the way to the sky, she even seemed a little horrified by it.
『ᛊ』 — Sowilo
I carved a rune on the ground as the rune of the sun immediately emitted light. Rune Magic wasn’t a very efficient way of using magic but…
– Suruk…!
My body rapidly absorbed the aura bursting out from the ground. The AOE mana regeneration field was also working properly.
“W, what in the world happened?”
“This is the true might of a veteran player.”
“Sorry?”
There were a few hardcore fans of the game that even went through the source code to analyze the game.
After acquiring the Yellow Gold Mandrake and the White Silver Mandrake using the god of the lake hidden piece, a few of those hardcore fans wondered if this would connect to other hidden secrets or not.
Lo and behold, to their surprise, there really was an item that was related to the Yellow Gold and White Silver Mandrakes!
One of them was the Mandrake Fertilizer. It was something that could only be made by mixing a bunch of special materials along with a unique dirt, a very potent fertilizer that was overpowered in the ‘farming content’.
‘I wasn’t expecting it to be this OP though.’
I did test it a few times on the way here. Using a little bit of the golden fertilizer, we tested it on a few different plants and we even proved its usability by using it during the oak tree and mistletoe trial but… I still wasn’t expecting it to be this powerful.
The oak staff that sucked in all the nutrients from the remaining fertilizer was as tall as the sky and was literally touching the heavens.
“I do not know how you managed to do it, but nonetheless, you have done a magnificent job.”
Uzkias remarked in awe while looking at the oak tree that was as tall as the heavens.
The oak tree that was being grown by one of the strongest druids, Dumnorix, was barely reaching 300 meters in height.
Compared to that, ours was at least 1 kilometer tall already, and besides, it was still in the process of growing in real-time and it probably wouldn’t take that long until it would actually reach the heavens.
“Hmm. If you are going to depart now, let me give you my final advice as the Sage of Findias.”
“Please do, sir.”
“As I have said before, the Solar Eclipse will be coming soon. That will be the weakest moment of the Sun, and will be the only instance where you would be able to lay your hands on it.”
In other words, the Sun, Claiomh Solais was only obtainable during the Solar Eclipse.
‘Are there no restrictions after you obtain it once?’
In the last iteration, it used to be in the possession of one of the King’s subjects, the King of Beauty, Eochaid Bres1 Eochaid Bres: Previously Ohad – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bres, and he had been using it regardless of whether it was the Solar Eclipse or not.
“Everything is now in your hands, young hero.”
With those last words, Uzkias went back to his house as if he had done everything that needed to be done.
“Mr. Korin. Are we setting off immediately?”
“Yeah. It won’t end in just a day or two. We need to grab some rations and clothes before we start climbing it.”
“Uhh, I will go tell Sister to get ready.”
What was unfortunate was that my strongest members weren’t ready yet. I roughly knew how to obtain the Sun, but the problem was the Sky Titans protecting it, as well as things I was unaware of.
It would have been reassuring to have Hua Ran and Marie with us, but… if the two of them didn’t arrive in time, we would have no choice but to set off by ourselves.
“We need to depart in a week at the latest. Hopefully they’ll come by then.”
****
Night.
Under the moon, Alicia was swinging her sword.
While waiting for Marie and Hua Ran to arrive, she learned the sword from the Sword Emperor during the day and repeated what she learned at night.
Her plan was to continue it until Korin said it was time to leave.
“Haa… Haa…!”
Ever since the Sword Challenge, Alicia had broken away from laziness and began to seriously train in the way of the sword, but that was not because she was sincerely intrigued by the sword.
She was more focused on following Korin Lork to the training rooms and spending time with him while training together. This was the first time she was training for the sole purpose of increasing her skills with the sword.
It reminded her of her childhood days, back when she chased after the steps of her older sister and got absentmindedly absorbed into swordsmanship.
Alicia had never been so immersed in the sword ever since she first cut a person. As someone who was afraid of herself using the sword, she wasn’t used to this feeling.
“Haa…”
Her entire body was drenched in sweat. Despite her trembling hands, Alicia desperately held onto her Demon-Slaying Sword while wiping the sweat off of her forehead.
Right when she was about to continue swinging her sword, a cold voice reached her ears from behind.
“Stop there. You will simply end up ruining your body.”
“…Sister.”
Lunia Arden —her older sister from another mother— walked up to her while giving her a bottle of water.
“Training is about forcing yourself to your limits and slowly exceeding it over time. Any more than that right now for you is torture, not training.”
“…Okay.”
Alicia agreed and sat down on the chair that Yuel left for her.
“Have you had dinner?”
“…Not yet.”
Hearing that, Lunia picked something up from her pocket and tossed it at her. Without even seeing it, Alicia knew what it was.
Honey bomb candy. It was Alicia’s favorite candy that was so sweet that it numbed your tongue.
『You carry that around the whole time. Do you like it?』
『Yes… Sister. I love it.』
『I see.』
Looking back, that was probably when Lunia started to carry these candies around in her pocket.
Remembering that tickled her heart in a pleasant manner, but it also put her mind in dismay. She had been having a myriad of contrasting emotions whenever looking at her older sister these days, ever since she returned home for the winter holiday.
“Sister. Do you like Mr. Korin?”
Huh?
Alicia was surprised after saying that. Why did I say that, she asked herself. That came out of nowhere, didn’t it?
“L, like, I mean…”
“Well, he is not a bad man.”
“Sorry?”
Seeing the shivering eyes of her younger sister, Lunia floated a rare smile on her lips.
“Objectively speaking, he is an outstanding man, whether it be appearance or talents.”
In the quiet secret lands of the druids, Lunia’s voice reached her ears all too well. Alicia wanted to say something back, but her lips refused to part.
She hesitated and tried to look for the right words to say, but in the end, the only thing that left her lips was a half-assed complaint.
“Y, you can’t decide marriage just from…”
“Naturally, I too am a lady myself. I would not have asked for his hand in marriage just for external reasons.”
“T, then…”
“He is a kind-hearted man. If it is him, I am sure the marriage life in the future will fare smoothly. He is someone who will try his best to satisfy his wife.”
“B, but…”
Alicia felt the need to say something back. Even though she didn’t know why, she had the urge to say something, and…
“Your ‘age’ gap is quite big as well…”
She unconsciously put emphasis on the word, ‘age’, as a sharp look immediately appeared in Lunia’s eyes.
“It is true that there is some difference in experience, but that is precisely why I have abundance in things that he would not be able to experience from young ones.”
“I, I wonder if that’s true.”
After that, the two sisters silently gazed at each other without saying anything else. Strangely enough, Alicia used to be so intimidated by Lunia that she couldn’t even look into her eyes for an extended period of time, and yet here, their eye contact lasted more than 10 seconds.
Their eyes were so fiery that they were even giving off sparks. Anyone seeing it would have screamed out loud in shock.
Despite seeing that rare side of her younger sister, Lunia inwardly gave a sneer.
It was clear that she didn’t want to have him taken away – Lunia long knew about the nature of the emotion she had for Korin. However, Alicia wasn’t explicitly revealing it. In fact, she would have done something already if she even knew about it.
Alicia had yet to even realize the nature of her own emotions. Otherwise, there was no way something trivial like this was the only objection she would give despite hearing about his engagement.
Lunia was someone who had to immediately lay her hands on something she decided to have, or at least try to. Therefore, the fact that Alicia wasn’t even aware of the emotion she was feeling for the first time in her life was so naive of her that Lunia couldn’t help but look down on her and sneer.
That naivety and indecision was Alicia’s shortcoming.
Lunia felt the need to provoke her regardless of how cheap it may sound.
Fights had to be fair. Since that was her lifelong conviction, Lunia wanted to make her younger sister stand on the starting line at the very least before the start of the battle.
She had to stand at the same starting point as her and set off with the same flare signal. There, Lunia would come out victorious and gaze down at her younger sister with triumphant eyes.
Telling her, that she lost;
And that he was taken from her.
The wine in that chalice of victory would most certainly be the sweetest of them all.
“He has already agreed that he and I will have an engagement ceremony after this is over.”
Even though that was a false engagement tied by a contract, Lunia didn’t bother revealing that.
“T, that can’t be…”
Oblivious to all the inner workings of their engagement, Alicia was enveloped in an overwhelming sense of defeat.
At the same time, her mind brought her back to the illusion she saw when first entering the secret lands.
『Brother-in-law… Sister is not coming home tonight.』
She recalled that treacherous act that she had fervently denied while screaming to herself. And then, she ended up imagining that delusion that should have been forever kept a secret.
If that same situation were to unfold, would she do the same thing?
Why was it that she couldn’t say no to that straight away?
****
Marie went past the Arden headquarters in the East and headed straight to the border. In order to meet Korin as quickly as possible, she rode the Hresvelgr and relied on Doggo’s senses to fly through the mountain range of demonic beasts.
“Doggo. Where is daddy’s smell headed?”
“Woof! Woof woof…!”
Doggo pointed at a direction with its long hands as Marie quickly pulled the reins of the Hresvelgr to slightly modify the direction.
In the middle of a long flight, a sudden thud echoed across the mountains all the way to the sky she was in.
– Kwaang! Kwang! Kwaaaang…!
“W, what is that?”
Hearing that horrendous noise of nature being destroyed, Marie turned her eyes and was baffled by the unbelievable sight.
– Kwang! Kwagang! Kwaang…!
Something was racing through the forest in a straight line.
There were no paths in the woods. Roads weren’t developed and traveling through an ocean of trees was supposed to be extremely tiring.
However, that thing that was running through the forest was speeding in a straight line as if it was running on a wide plot of barren land. Everything in its path was being destroyed.
“H, Hua Ran?!”
The one crushing through the hundred-year-old trees with their bare body was a small girl wearing nun clothes. There was only one person she could think of that could pull that off.
“W, what is she…?!”
It was then. In the middle of her non-stop dash, Hua Ran looked up at Marie’s eyes. Their eye contact, however, lasted only a split second.
“Huh? She… disappeared?”
Hua Ran suddenly vanished from her sight in the blink of an eye, but that was when something else entered her sight which grabbed her attention even more.
At the end of her gaze was an enormous tree that was so tall it was about to reach the sky.
“I, is that it?”
That was also in the same direction as the place Doggo was pointing at, as well as where Hua Ran disappeared. It was an incredibly large tree so Marie decided to look for Hua Ran for starters and landed on the ground.
“Hmm… Daddy is nearby, you say?”
“Woof!”
Her argument was supported by Doggo’s bark. Marie turned to the Hresvelgr and said while feeding it a bag of potatoes.
“For now, stay in the sky and follow us from behind. I will call you if something happens.”
“Krrrhk…!”
The large eagle, Hresvelgr, understood human language and flew up into the sky.
“The place where Hua Ran disappeared is…”
Relying on the enormous oak tree as a landmark, Marie began searching the forest. After taking a few steps forward, as soon as she arrived at the place where Hua Ran had disappeared…
————
“Huh?”
Everything suddenly turned dark.
Or did they?
When Marie dizzily came to herself, she was sitting inside a chapel.
“The bride and the bridegroom just graduated from the Academy, right? I heard they did the deed during enrolment!”
“Oh my oh my! Was it a shotgun marriage? Just what I would expect from such a wonderful couple! Hohoho!!”
“Hnn?”
A peaceful melody from the organ was echoing across the chapel with kids dozing off.
Unlike the calm and simple performance, the chapel was fancy and well-decorated. It was rare for chapels to be decorated like this, considering how religions usually talked about frugality, harmony, and mercy.
This was something that could generally only be seen at sacred chapels like the Grand Chapel of Zeon.
Thanks to that, Marie realized that she was in someone else’s marriage.
“The bride will now be entering.”
Along with the sonorous voice of the priest, the large main gates of the chapel opened as the bride then walked in. The wedding dress of the bride had a white background with fancy golden strings and hundreds of embedded diamonds.
That was the wedding dress of her dream. At times, she used to imagine wearing a dress like that and walking down the red carpet of a wedding hall with a specific boy.
“Ugh… Whose marriage was this again?”
In the middle of her attempt to remember what she had forgotten, Marie was shocked after seeing the bride.
“Hua Ran?!”
The bride was walking in with a flushed and embarrassed look on her face, and was led down the red carpet by Josephine.
“Wow, so pretty.”
“What a beautiful young lady.”
The old ladies sitting next to her were giving Hua Ran compliments, and created a fuss while saying both the bride and bridegroom looked wonderful.
However, none of that reached her ears.
“A, ahaha… Hua Ran is getting married, huh? W, why did I not know about this? Ahahahaha…”
She was hit by an incredibly ominous feeling.
Who was Hua Ran? She was like a boulder who always had an indifferent and carefree attitude to whatever happened in the world, was she not?
Who would a girl like that get married to with such an embarrassed look on her face, one that had the same shade as the red carpet beneath her feet.
There was only one person she could think of.
“I, it can’t be… There’s no way. Surely…”
“The bridegroom will now enter…!”
The priest’s voice, however, mercilessly trampled on the girl’s wish as the boy appeared from behind the opened doors of the chapel.
Wearing a classic southern-style suit with obsidian buttons and a luxurious watch on his wrist, the boy nervously walked inside.
After arriving next to the bride, he received her hand from the bride’s guardian as the two of them walked to the hosting priest of the ceremony.
“——–”
Light shone through the stained glasses on the ceiling and the walls, brightening up the bride and the bridegroom as if blessing their future… and Marie sat there blankly watching the two of them.
All she could do was vacantly sit there and watch them.
………
……
…
There were two people who looked extremely happy and harmonious.
Anyone looking at the two of them would smile from how wonderful they looked together, but that did not apply to Ran.
“……Oppa.”
A boy was giving a wide smile to the girl with water-colored hair who did not even bother trying to hide her flushed cheeks. Facing each other with deeply affectionate eyes, they smiled brightly like fools.
It was clear from their eyes that they loved each other a lot.
Seeing them cherish each other like lovers, Ran bit her lips.
“…We lost.”
He was taken from her.
He was stolen.
Ran knew that wasn’t the right way to think about it, but she couldn’t stop herself from coming up with such negative thoughts. She couldn’t help but find it very unfair.
Even though she had everything;
A happy family, wealth, and status… Compared to that, all she ever had was her oppa, and that was the only person she had ever wanted.
She had everything, so why couldn’t Marie give him to her at the very least?
Ran couldn’t stop those greedy thoughts and complaints. She was too young and inexperienced to hide and settle those negative thoughts.
In the end, her jealousy and hatred even headed toward the one she loved.
“It was my first time though…”
It was her first time giving her heart to someone, and it was also her first time touching a boy’s hand.
“He took all of my firsts…”
So… why aren’t you with me?
I gave you my everything, and can give you everything… So why did you throw me away, oppa?
She felt upset, sad, frustrated, and clueless from that sense of betrayal.
The ideal image of happiness in front of her was at the cost of her own happiness.
****
Uzkias, the guardian of Findias, curiously asked while gazing at the two girls that had been taken to the town hall.
“So, did you say they had been like that for a ‘few days’?”
“Yes, sage.”
There were two more outsiders who visited the secret lands of Findias, who lost their consciousness after coming in contact with the illusionary fog surrounding the city.
Normally, they would have sent them back for being unable to beat their illusions, but they couldn’t dare do that to those girls.
………!!!
A frightening aura was being emitted by them. The outburst of energy from their unstable emotions were so immense that they were blocking anyone from touching them.
“They weren’t like this when we first brought them here though…”
“I wonder what they are seeing in their illusions.”
The druids of the secret lands were appalled by the ridiculous amount of their aura and mana. The emotions of these transcendent beings were threatening to break the barriers of the city.
“Haa… At this rate, they are about to create cracks on our barrier. I will personally go into their illusions and guide them outside.”
“Do you need our help, sir?”
“No. I will divide my consciousness into two to lead both girls out at once.”
Interfering with another’s mind was a very risky task. Using the hidden technique of druids, Uzkias separated his consciousness into two and entered the illusions of the two girls.
『……What?』
After entering the illusions of the two girls… Marie Dunareff and Hua Ran, Uzkias was utterly shocked.
『What has the world come to? How could these young girls be so…』
One thing was certain, the two girls were soon to wake up from their illusions without Uzkias having to guide them out.
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