20demayo Chapter 213: Peace is heartless.
Chapter 213: Peace is heartless.
The momentum of the enraged Laius was tremendous.Even Arendt stayed silent and stepped back, so that was the end of it.
In an instant, Laius took control of the conference room and finally dragged Grand Elder Altair out and made him sit at the head of the table.
Then he continued speaking in a very polite, courteous, and at the same time, threatening tone.
“You can’t change what happened in the past, but you have to take responsibility for what happens in the future. That’s the duty of a leader.”
To summarize, it was something like this:
“…All right.”
In the end, the elders of the Fog Forest Tribe raised their hands in surrender.
They decided to be honest about why they had arbitrarily blocked the port and to inform the other kingdoms that Jiklin had joined the evil cult.
And they promised to share with the other kingdoms everything that had happened in the Second Kingdom and hold a grand discussion about how to deal with it going forward.
Grand Elder Altair was only able to step down after dealing with everything and completing a proper handover.
Altair could no longer truly escape.
For him, it was a punishment worse than stepping down from his position as an elder.
“Please share all the materials that you have kept private. It will be of great help to the Caerleon Empire in its fight against the evil cult.”
“But that is…”
Someone barely moved their lips, but Laius simply dismissed it.
“Is there a problem?”
The elves quickly tucked their tails in at the eerie, subdued voice.
“…No.”
Only after Elder Polaris had finally decided to hand over the book he had brought with him did Laius finally calm down.
Arendt looked back and forth between the thoughtful elders, the spiritless Grand Elder, and Laius, whose expression remained unchanged, and made a disgusted expression.
‘…I forgot for a moment.’
Lately, he’s been sighing heavily with a sour look on his face, but Laius was definitely not someone to be taken lightly.
Laius was just, upright, and always made rational decisions.
His sore spot was his subordinates.
Laius had no choice but to give the order for his subordinates to head to the battlefield directly.
He reproached himself for that fact and took responsibility for each and every life of his dead subordinates.
‘And yet, he had to keep talking about things like an honorable death.’
He must have felt like vomiting blood.
And yet, the fact that he was not broken in the end was the reason why Laius could be the main character and the hero.
Of course, it was frustrating for the onlookers.
It wasn’t a very pleasant experience to realize that he was included in the protagonist’s sore spot.
“Arendt.”
Arendt, who had been lost in thought, suddenly came to his senses.
Laius, still looking displeased, was looking this way.
It took Arendt a few seconds to realize that it was his turn to speak.
Arendt just nodded and made a face of annoyance.
“Do I have to explain? I’m tired.”
“Stop complaining and come here.”
“Tch.”
Arendt grumbled and went to his side, placing all the items he had retrieved from Cheltan’s laboratory on the table at once.
.
The elders flinched as stacks of papers and boxes were dropped with a heavy noise.
Arendt stood awkwardly and spoke.
“First of all… it is certain that Cheltan tricked Jiklin. There were several pieces of data that were identical to those found in Jiklin’s laboratory.”
He picked out some of the materials and pushed them in front of the elders.
“There were several books on the alchemy of life mixing left in Cheltan’s study. Perhaps Jiklin happened to see them and became interested in them. Cheltan must have recognized Jiklin’s genius.”
So, Cheltan decided to raise Jiklin and send her outside.
A joint study between two people who became secret cultists began.
“I’ll just give you the basics. There was an alchemist who created ghouls in the Evil Cult, and after he died, a new type of ghoul began to appear. Do you understand so far?”
This was a story told by Arendt and his party at the banquet.
“That new type of ghoul was exactly what Jiklin did. All kinds of things came out.”
Things that came back to life after dying like a ghoul, things that were modified without actually dying, things that were made into humans, etc.
“I thought there were too many of them, but they were all born during the research process to create a homunculus. And there was a lot of information about how to create a homunculus from Cheltan’s lab…”
Arendt again selected a few pieces of paper and pushed them toward the center of the table.
“I don’t know if you’ll notice, but it seems like they’ve been working together, with Cheltan gathering data and Jiklin analyzing it.”
“Wait a minute, homunculus?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Jiklin created a homunculus with the spirit stones that she stole. Thanks to that, I almost died fighting it.”
The elders’ mouths dropped open at the speech that showed no consideration for the listeners at all.
Laius answered calmly.
“I didn’t tell them that much. It was uncertain whether we could cooperate with the elves or not.”
“Ah, that’s right. Then listen now. What Jiklin created was closer to a chimera than a ghoul, and I don’t know how she used it, but she succeeded in creating a homunculus with a spirit stone.”
“Ho, ho, homun… that was forbidden in ancient times… a monster that goes against the laws of nature… An elf…”
The elves were now almost soulless.
But Arendt had no mercy.
“It seems that the idea of creating a homunculus using spirit stones was first suggested by Cheltan. However, he lacked the ability, and the research could not proceed further within the Elven Kingdom. There was a shortage of materials.”
“Materials are…”
“There are so many humans that it wouldn’t be a problem to capture a few and use them as test subjects. But that’s not the case with elves.”
As soon as the scary words came out, the elder who had asked the question froze.
“And since it was such a closed society, it would have been difficult to avoid the eyes of other elves. There are limits to the experiments that can be conducted by capturing a few wild animals or monsters. That’s why Cheltan decided to send Jiklin away and steal the spirit stones.”
“…And did Jiklin join the evil cult?”
Polaris, who had barely come to his senses, asked with difficulty.
Arendt nodded blandly.
“Yes, I think Cheltan contacted the headquarters in advance. He said he would send one child, so please take her with them.”
In this way, Jiklin escaped from the Elf Kingdom and safely joined the Evil Cult.
“But Cheltan himself still remained in the kingdom. I can guess why he didn’t escape with them…”
Having said that, Arendt pulled out an old box.
The elves’ gaze naturally gathered.
When Arendt opened the box, a purple, fist-sized gem appeared inside.
It was a jewel that had been emitting a soft light in the cabin, but now it had grown cold, as if it had lost its life.
“Do you remember that pattern that suddenly appeared and disappeared on the kids?”
Several people nodded their heads in agreement at the question asked as if confirming.
“Perhaps this is the medium of a spell cast on the children. It is an unfinished product. It drains the children’s magic power and traps it in this jewel.”
“Steals magic power? Is that possible?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to steal their magic than to take their sense of self?”
Arendt shrugged at the surprised voice.
“From here on out, this is just my guess… it seems like this was probably an experiment to artificially create a spirit stone. They were slowly absorbing the magical power in stages, so that neither the kids who were having their magical power stolen nor the adults around them would notice at all.”
During class time when the children were gathered together or in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep.
He chose a time when the pattern would not be detected and activated it little by little to steal magic power.
Then, when his identity was in danger of being revealed, Cheltan became anxious and cast a spell to gather as much magical power as possible.
“Originally, he would have planned to finish it slowly and then leave. However, since the situation changed suddenly, he must have thought to gather his magic power and then escape. His words about harming the children were probably not just empty words.”
“…”
“Cheltan’s sorcery was crude and even incomplete, unlike Jiklin’s. If the sorcery was to go wild in that state, the children who became the hosts would definitely…”
They would have lost their lives in terrible pain due to the backflow of their rampant magical powers.
Arendt glanced at the Grand Elder, his voice trailing off slightly.
“I believe you understood without me having to say it. I’m sure Cheltan knew that too.”
“…”
Altair was staring blankly ahead with empty eyes.
“I guess we’ll have to investigate Cheltan’s hut a bit more to find out what else there is, so let’s leave the sorcery thing aside for now.”
Arendt, who had been looking away from him absentmindedly, opened his mouth.
“Are you by any chance acquainted with the dragon?”
“…!”
He brought up a topic that would be even more shocking to the elves.
In contrast to Arendt’s innocent voice, a silence flowed as if cold water had been poured over them.
The elders, with their mouths agape, looked as if their eyes might pop out at any moment.
It wasn’t much different for Sylvian and Zakar.
“…”
While Llewellyn and the knights behind him shook their heads, Polaris, who had become deep in thought, suddenly stood up from his seat.
“D, d, d, dragon? Why a dragon all of a sudden? No, wait, do we know each other? What do you mean!”
“What? Your reaction is quite intense.”
Arendt stepped back slightly and looked Elder Polaris up and down.
“Well… I guess there wasn’t much of a connection. If there had been a connection with the elves, I wouldn’t have been searching the Nephele Kingdom for some random reason.”
“Explain! Explain, Lord Arendt! Why is there a dragon suddenly appearing? Isn’t the dragon involved in this case? Surely that can’t be happening!”
Elder Polaris screamed.
Others seemed to feel similarly.
Arendt responded coolly.
“Don’t you know the saying ‘It’s the unexpected that kills’? And why are you acting like this all of a sudden? I already told you that Jiklin’s laboratory was discovered in the Dragon’s Lair.”
“Lairs and dragons are different issues! Abandoned lairs can be found at any time, but… wait, really?”
Elder Polaris looked at Llewellyn and his party in horror.
Instead of Arendt, Laius stepped forward and spoke plainly.
“The book that Elder Polaris brought into the kingdom.”
“…What about it?”
“Separately from this incident, we have been looking for that book for quite some time.”
Although Laius spoke calmly, the elves became more and more shocked.
Was it okay to say this bluntly?
Laius thought for a moment.
It seemed like too much of a shock to the elves, who were already weakened by the thought of fighting the Evil God.
A momentary worry crossed his mind, but Laius quickly changed his mind.
Since they were all on the same boat anyway, sharing information was a given.
Moreover, since the current owner was Altair, the stake was sufficient.
“It seems that the book is somehow the property of the dragon. Recently, there was an incident that involved contact with the dragon, and the dragon directly ordered Arendt to retrieve the book…”
.
The sound of something falling caused Laius to stop talking.
“…”
Grand Elder Altair had fainted and was falling backwards along with his chair.