“I lived, but I didn’t feel like I lived…”
Time passed, even if she did not die, and she rose to her destined place as a Great Elder. And when she went underground to tend to the Prasti for the first time since she swallowed them, she found only four pieces of Prasti. It was then that she realized.
Where had the first one she had swallowed gone? She had eaten it, and through it, she had given birth to a child. If the child had died, surely the Prasti would have unsealed itself and jumped out on the spot.
But the world was still as if her tragedy was nothing.
From that moment on, that fact became her light.
“I realized that the child was alive.”
Asha held back her tears. Particles of the emotion that Raenka had felt when she first realized her child might be alive washed over her. Disbelief, fear, joy, and elation in the face of a miracle.
“I was frantically searching, thinking that all I needed was to be alive. … It wasn’t.”
And the raw hatred swelled slowly.
“The last trace of my child was the news that he would have been taken to a slave market by human kidnappers.”
“Yes… but you went to war? It doesn’t mean that humans are the only ones who die in war! You elves…”
“Elves are no different, they knew I was looking for my child and they didn’t tell me, they knew all along, and yet they deceived me and threw my child out in the world!”
How could they throw a child she had never held in her arms out into the world?
She knew from the beginning that the Noctis Elves had not been pleased to see her with humans from the beginning. She knew how bad it would be for the next Great Elder to have a mixed-race child.
But they hadn’t told her the child was alive, even as they watched her struggle with the grief and despair of her loss.
Sticking to the story that the child died and buried him in the ground, they just watched her cry in front of a fake tomb with no body.
From the moment she learned that the child might be alive, Raenka gathered the kindling of her hatred for the elves and lit it when she could not find the child who had been taken to the slave market.
War was a very good tool.
Very well, I will throw you out into the world. I’ll float you into a river of bloodshed, she thought and swallowed the Prasti again. She vowed that as she died in this horrible hatred, Prasti would blossom.
“Everything was going so well… and then, of course, I noticed… because I ate Prasti.”
“What…”
<That the Great Spirit had now decided to make a pact with a human.>
Suddenly, Raenka’s speaking voice changed. It was not a human voice, but a strange sound as if blowing a broken flute.
<Haha, Great Spirit, now?>
Phoebe and Kairos’ feathers ruffled even more wildly.
<Isn’t it unreasonable that because I’m a Noctis elf, and he’s a human, that my child, who would’ve never been born, was born and blood was shed like this, and now… now you’re finally going to create a world where everyone can get along?>
She hated the humans, she hated the Noctis elves. And now she had come to hate the spirits, who are one step too late.
So, just before the human soul that would connect with the Great Spirit was born, she sent it away so that the Great Spirit could not influence the human realm, and she planted a Prasti in its shell to call forth another soul. The power of Prasti made it possible.
The world could never unite, and spirits and humans must live forever apart.
Just as her life had been.
<It wasn’t easy for me, either, since I touched your soul and slept for nineteen years straight. I wonder how the hell I ever got back to the real world…>
“Is that why you spread Prasti around, just to ruin the world?”
The reason Asha kept failing to find the source even as she purified the Prasti shards was that she was unclear about its intentions and purpose.
<Yes, you’ve ruined them all, but at least you won’t be able to ruin one completely>.
Asha glanced at the table between herself and Raenka. The pavlova, was lying on its side like a bristle of barley. Anti-war milk tea that had cooled down. Both were carefully made by her.
“If I feed her a bite and stop the growth of the Prasti she ate…”
<Uh! She’s trying to bloom the Prasti she swallowed!>
“What?! Now? Just like this? Why, no, how can something you swallow bloom…”
<Why do you think I’ve talked about the past?>
At that moment, a black root shot up from the floor behind Karnov and Asha, aimed squarely at Asha, distracting them both and buying time to strike.
The moment Karnov reached out and tried to close the time of the approaching roots, Kairos flew up in a hurry.
<Winding Prasti’s time to destroy them will not work!
“What?!”
Asha stared at Kairos, more surprised than Karnov. Rather than question him, Karnov gave up on his elemental powers and quickly drew his sword and began to cut down the roots himself.
<The lifespan of a tree grown by Prasti is not something that can be measured in human years.>
Kairos said in a sad voice. Hearing that, Asha calmly glanced back and forth.
The incoming roots from behind were being steadily defended by Karno, and in front of him sat a gnome with bark sprouting from his skin.
<Peach, be careful, eh?>
“Asha, be careful…”
“Yaaaaaah!”
Having made up her mind, Asha let out a battle cry and launched herself forward.
<You fooooool!>
Asha grabbed a plate of the pavlova that was lying nearby and was about to shove it in her face when a branch snagged her ankle. Another twig then wrapped around her hand.
It took only a blink of an eye for the pavlova to fall to the ground with a thud. Asha cried out in frustration.
“Just one bite!”
“Is this the time to say that?!”
As soon as the pavlova fell to the ground, Karnov, who ran from behind, sliced the stem that had strangled Asha and finally blocked it from reaching for Asha’s heart with his arms.
Raenka, who looked at Asha’s unexpected behavior, smiled.
<It’s too bad. I wish I could kill you with this. Then this time the earth will lose the protection of the Great Spirit and fall back into the abyss…>
It sounded as if she was saying that she couldn’t do that now, but at the same time, it didn’t matter.
“This kind of violent fighting scene was never in my life plan, so why did it end up like this…”
<Even a mildewed peach has to go through hardship to become strong>.
“You said it would only get moldy…”
<Ka, Karnov. Do something!>
<Why are you doing this to my child? My child is more than capable of fighting!>
<Is this the time to brag about your kid?!>
Phoebe, who had desperately called for Karnov’s help, was swatted aside by Kairos for the first time, weakly chirping in defeat. Asha, now cradled in Karnov’s arms as she sat on the ground, sighed and looked up at Raenka.
Raenka’s toes, sitting on the bed, were already turning into obscure tree roots, and her hanging arms could no longer move, as she was half-buried by a wooden pillar that had begun to wrap around her body.
━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━
Due to the dust that rose greatly, Raenka‘s residence was hard to see.
“Your Highness! Your Highness the Princess!”
Evan shouted urgently. He couldn’t understand why the building had collapsed when they were supposedly just talking. At the same time, the elves and Tarjei rushed over.
“Lady Raenka!”
“Great elder!”
“What on earth is happening?!”
“Asha! Asha, can you hear me?! Asha!”
The dust was so thick that it seemed to be imbued with some other power, preventing the elves from entering. Evan waved his hand desperately.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
Strangely, the dust dispersed as his hand moved. Evan rushed inside as the path cleared. At that moment, a voice could be heard from within the thick dust.
<…Yes. I wished this would kill you.>
Evan had heard this kind of voice before. It was the voice he heard every day when he was a slave, before being saved by Karnov and brought to the capital.
A voice filled with resentment, anger, sorrow, and hatred. As the dust slowly cleared, the figures of three people became visible.
In the place where the walls had all collapsed, only the area where the three people stood remained intact, forming a circular shape. To be precise, there were two people and… a rapidly growing tree.
Asha, protected by Karnov, holding his right hand, and in front of them, a strange figure. The tree trunk had the form of an elf carved into it, looking eerie. What had initially appeared as just branches through the dust cloud was now growing rapidly.
Above, dark clouds were gathering ominously. The sense of foreboding was undeniable. But as soon as Evan spotted Asha, he rushed straight towards her.
“Your Highness!”
“E, Evan? You shouldn’t come here!”
“Your Highness, are you safe?!”
This time, Evan did not heed Asha’s words. Despite scratching his cheek on the collapsed wooden debris and fragments, he pushed through and entered. As soon as Asha saw Evan, she quickly pulled him in and wrapped him in her cloak.
“Evan! Why did you come here?!”
“Why? He came for you, of course.”
Karnov wiped the sweat dripping from his chin and spoke sharply. Asha quickly apologized.
“Karnov, I’m really sorry… I thought it might work…”
“I thought my heart would stop.”
“If Your Highness did something again…”
Asha quickly shook her head. Since Raenka woke up after 19 years of sleeping, she thought she could overcome it with full force.
There were clear marks on Asha’s right hand and left ankle that were gripped by branches. Asha bit her lips and looked up at the growing tree.
“What do we do about that elder now?”
“…Elder? That tree is really the elder…?”
Evan blinked. Asha nodded as she watched Evan’s mood. Karnov breathed.
“Kairos said that me speeding up time wouldn’t work.”
Phoebe and Kairos nodded side by side. Raenka, having failed to kill Asha, seemed to have no other methods left and closed his eyes calmly, as if knowing they had no other options. The tree branches grew and black leaves sprouted at a visible pace.
“Why can’t we speed up time?”
<That would only hasten the darkness the tree will summon. The end for the tree of sin would be the end of this world.>
“Then what do we do now? Can’t I forcefully purify it? Maybe with some fertilizer… or something tasty…”
<…>
<…You can’t make enough fertilizer for a tree for the rest of your life.>
“A pastry chef by day… a leader in the fertilizer industry by night.”
At that moment, a strong wind blew, sweeping away the dust and fragments of darkness. Evan squinted and looked back at the tree.
<How did you get in? Is that your knight? An honorable dea…>
And at the same time, the air in the area stopped. As if a thin crack in a plate was spreading, the terrifyingly growing tree magically halted. In that briefly cleared air, Raenka opened his eyes and recognized Evan.
<…How…?>
