Chapter 5
AFTER FLYING FOR SEVERAL HOURS, she arrived in the middle of a sprawling forest in the northeast of Grimdart. The coordinates he’d jotted down in the letter corresponded to a lake which was absolutely tiny compared to the surrounding woods.
“All right, I’m here. Now what am I supposed to do?”
The lake was probably only a little over three hundred feet from one side the other. Taking a quick look around, Mira didn’t notice anything that stood out to her, nor did she see anyone waiting. But considering how he’d specified that exact place, there had to be something there.
Since he’d gone out of his way to call her there, if she stayed put, he’d most likely come to meet up with her. Mira began roaming around the surrounding area to kill some time.
The forest that surrounded the lake was thick and dense. She hadn’t been able to tell from the air, but now noted that the trees there were huge, towering over thirty feet tall.
Furthermore, the foliage was so dense that the forest remained quite dim despite the midday sun blazing overhead. The sun had trouble reaching the northeast section, and so it was shrouded in even thicker darkness.
“Wow, you’re early. But I guess getting here wasn’t tough for a summoner. Sorry to have kept you waiting!” she heard a cheerful voice say as the man she’d been waiting for appeared.
With a gratingly overenthusiastic grin, Lastrada made his grand appearance. And for some unknown reason, he was dressed up like a prince.
“Why’re you dressed like that?” Mira said, raising an eyebrow at his attire. It didn’t fit at all with his usual aesthetic.
“I was told my other clothes didn’t have a positive effect on the children’s education…” he muttered dejectedly.
It seemed that Artesia had rendered judgment.
He said that he patrolled the forest in the past, dressed as one of his favorite masked rangers. Soon, the children all wanted to dress up like him. Since this was the kind of thing that could earn him a visit from child protective services, Artesia couldn’t turn a blind eye. If he insisted on conducting his patrols, they agreed that he’d at least be dressed in the attire Mira currently found him in. If the children were going to imitate him, it was better if they dressed up as royalty rather than mighty, masked rangers.
This just wasn’t his style. Mira chuckled to herself.
After catching her up, Lastrada led the way into the dark forest, where he said they could talk more in detail.
“Hrmm, I see. That’s a relief.”
Sitting atop the driver’s box in the wagon that her Guardian Ash was pulling, Mira asked about what’d happened after the situation they’d been in two days prior. Specifically, the one where she’d dressed up as a BDSM queen and questioned Rock, the guild master of Gillian Rock.
As soon as the Adventurers’ Guild Union discovered the heinous crimes that Gillian Rock had been committing, they conducted a follow-up investigation into the guild’s human trafficking activities. The investigation into the anti-hero and the silver-haired queen who’d uncovered all the information from Rock had been called off—their identities would forever remain a mystery.
Considering that she’d never be able to look her friends in the eye if they ever found out, Mira breathed a sigh of relief.
While they were chatting, she realized they’d entered an area so deep into the forest that not a single sunbeam penetrated it. Looking around her dark surroundings, Mira recalled something about the area near their present location.
We went straight north from where we met, huh? In that case, we must be in…the Black Forest of the Dead.
Places like graveyards and old battlefields were usually crawling with undead monsters. And yet, for some reason, this part of the forest was infested with even more undead than one of those places, leading players to call it the Black Forest of the Dead.
But as far as she could tell, what she was looking at was just a dark and surprisingly peaceful forest. Maybe she was remembering something wrong?
As she pondered this, Lastrada told her to stop. The only light illuminating the pitch-black forest came from their Ethereal Arts. Once the wagon came to a halt, A single ray of light shone down from above. It was a bizarre sight, almost as if a hole had opened up in the foliage above them. Straining her ears, she could hear a screeching noise that sounded like metal grinding against metal.
“What in the world is going on?”
Looking up at the area that’d opened above their heads, Mira spied a magnificent, sturdy-looking wooden lift.
“All right, hop on,” Lastrada said nonchalantly, guiding her toward the lift.
A ray of light and an elevator simultaneously appearing in the middle of a pitch-black forest? Dumbfounded, Mira led the wagon forward. The lift began to slowly rise, bringing them closer and closer to the window of light overhead.
What in the world was up there? Mira began getting more and more excited as she waited in anticipation for whatever was above. The lift didn’t stop, and the light seemed to remain far out of reach. Ever so slowly, they’d risen over thirty feet. But from what she could tell, they weren’t even halfway there.
“This thing goes up pretty high, huh?” Mira said, thinking out loud.
“Safety first,” Lastrada replied.
He said that monsters didn’t usually enter the nearby area, but now and then, some might get lost and wander over. Unwilling to take any chances, they’d come up with this solution.
But what kind of solution was this?
After a few moments of remaining stumped, the lift finally passed into the dazzling sunlight. Narrowing her eyes, Mira struggled to adjust as she took in the scene before her and gasped.
“Whoa… This is incredible.”
The scene that filled her vision was one crafted by human hands. After going up an outdoor lift deep in the forest, she’d come to a magnificent village.
Mira stopped for a moment to appreciate what she was seeing.
“All right, this way. Come with me,” Lastrada said, leading her farther in.
They were still at the entrance. They needed to go to the church where Artesia was.
Mira moved the wagon forward onto the floor of the treetop village, which looked like a grassy lawn. Somehow, it managed to firmly bear the weight of the wagon. She wasn’t sure about the construction, but it seemed quite sturdy.
Seeing how impressed Mira was, and in a particularly good mood himself, Lastrada explained how the treetop village had been designed with safety in mind. He elaborated on things like the lawn-like floor, which had been made by using the branches of the trees as a frame over which he wrapped multiple layers of special spider silk. They’d then covered it all with vines and other vegetation. The village also had a well-designed drainage system, so they could even plant fields.
The residents of the village lived in tree houses. From what she could see, all the treetops around her belonged to giant trees that were well over sixty meters tall. The residents had used those trees as foundations upon which to build their homes.
What surprised her even more was that they’d been designed by Artesia and built by Lastrada. No wonder they all had a handcrafted feel.
“Wow, you certainly did a fine job.”
Realizing that Lastrada had a hidden talent for carpentry, Mira began to be more and more impressed. The fact that all the houses were unique, with no two being exactly the same, reinforced the sensation of finding civilization in the middle of the sprawling wilderness. And yet, they somehow appeared to exist in perfect harmony, likely due to the whole place being wreathed in branches and leaves. The sun broke through the foliage as if it were smiling.
Mira looked up into the sky and saw faint white clouds. She realized that the upper part of the village was covered by spider silk wreathed in illusion magic.
The village was not visible from either the ground or the sky. It made perfect sense that no one knew about it.
“By the way, I realized this on the way here, but…shouldn’t the Black Forest of the Dead be right around here? It certainly didn’t seem to be,” Mira asked Lastrada about what she’d noticed as they went through the dark forest.
“You’re not wrong,” Lastrada replied, with a slight smirk.
They’d chosen this area precisely because no one would come close. Then to ensure the children’s safety, Artesia had purified much of the surrounding area and put up a holy barrier that was perpetually active.
“Perpetually…?”
“Yeah…that’s right.”
The undead monster-spawning land wouldn’t quickly revert to how it was pre-purification…but it would eventually return to being a place where undead souls lingered. So Artesia had to keep the barrier she’d placed around the entire place up and running. And while she was busy taking care of the children, she had also been polishing her skills as a cleric.
This must really be a safe place.
Convinced, Mira gazed at the village.
A short time later, her wagon arrived in front of the largest tree in the village. There, toward the center of the village, was a church.
Lastrada told her that the wooden and crudely built structure—the largest of its kind in the village—doubled as both a church and a school. The orphans inside would likely be working hard on their studies. The ones teaching these children were Artesia and other like-minded teachers who’d volunteered to help.
The children’s curriculum consisted of basic schooling in botany, biology, etiquette, chivalry, how to fight and dissect monsters, art, and even how to dismantle traps and pick locks. Thanks to having so many teachers, they were able to teach a wide range of subjects. Owing to Artesia’s unique charisma, the school was more educational than any of the proper schools in the surrounding area.
“All right! Next, we go this way!”
While Mira stood marveling at all this, Lastrada had gone into the church. Following him, Mira looked around the inside of the building.
Compared to Haxthausen Cathedral, which she’d visited the day before, the church was so rustic and austere that she wondered if it even deserved the name. It was shaped like a chapel but lacked any of the usual majestic feeling that churches had.
And yet, the idol that sat at its center had an arresting aura. There was definitely some sort of history behind it.
Mira looked around as they went through a door toward the back of the chapel and came upon a small hallway and staircase.
“Around this hour, she must be in there,” Lastrada muttered, going up the stairs in front of him. They were now in the area which served as the school.
Mira followed, still taking in her surroundings, which gave off the vibe of an old schoolhouse in the countryside.
They went up to the third floor and then to the room at the very end of the hall. Opening a door marked Angel’s Room and stepping inside, they found a woman holding a baby while making one of her best baby-pleasing funny faces.
***
The sound of the angelically smiling baby’s giggles echoed through the room as a speechless Mira took in the scene in silence. She’d never imagined that the first thing she’d see upon finally reuniting with this woman would be the cleric making funny faces.
“…Oh my, welcome back. So is that the girl?”
The woman quickly turned around, giving them a smile resembling that of a divine maiden. A mild look of surprise passed over her face when she glanced at Mira.
“That’s right!” Lastrada said as Mira walked over toward the woman.
“Long time no see, Artesia.”
The woman who stood before her, garbed in a simple robe and playing with a baby, was none other than Artesia, one of the Wise Men she’d long been searching for.
“I already heard about you from Rada. You really turned into a girl, huh? And now you go by Mira.”
Gazing at Mira with a rather curious expression, Artesia reached out her hand and patted Mira’s head, wearing a dreamy expression.
Mira backed away quickly, crying out, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
She had unwittingly strayed into the range of Artesia, who had boundless motherly love for all children.
“Listen here and make no mistake—I’m not a child!” Mira declared.
“Yes, of course not,” Artesia returned, smiling pleasantly. And yet, her eyes were smiling, too, as they remained fixed on Mira. It bordered on salacious…
She had to have heard about what’d happened from Lastrada. The fact that she was still looking at Mira like that meant that she was still a few cards short of a full deck. From Artesia’s perspective, Mira was now just another young girl who couldn’t escape her love.
The three of them went on to enjoy a nostalgic reunion, sitting around a small table and relaxing as they exchanged trivial banter.
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