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chapter 80




“Thank you for accepting my request.”
Learning of his friends’ deaths was like prying open the wounds that Frey had tried so hard to cover, and the sadness that followed was daunting.
Nevertheless, it was something he had to confirm.
As Frey bowed in gratitude, Hruhiral shook her hand.
“I’m happy to help you, Lukas. No, it should be Frey now.”
“Call me whatever you like….Hruhiral, the forest will be noisy tonight.”
Frey informed her honestly.
He immediately noticed the grief that filled Hruhiral’s eyes, but he had no intentions of changing his plan.
He had already made up his mind.
Hruhiral sighed.
There would be many casualties that night, and it would leave a deep scar in the forest that would take a long time to heal.
For her, it was no different from watching her children get hurt. But there was nothing she could say.
Because she understood the fate of the man standing before her.
“Blessed be your path ahead…”
And more than that, she hoped that happiness, tranquility and good fortune would follow him.
Before Frey’s mind was utterly destroyed.
“Thank you.”
As Frey’s words left his lips, his surroundings began to blur.
It was a sign that he was leaving the Soul Space. Hruhiral’s face was covered in a bright light before her figure disappeared completely.
“…”
After returning to his body, Frey slowly opened his eyes. His body was cold and stiff as though he’d slept outside during the night.
Frey got up from his seat and looked at the sky.
The sun was just setting.
‘It should’ve been about half a day.’
It wasn’t exactly that long, but it should be around that time.
He could still feel the presence of watchers around him. Frey stretched before heading back to Syax’s house.
Creak.
When he opened the door, he found Ivan doing one-handed handstand pushups, his arm bending and straightening at a steady tempo.
When he looked closely, he realised that he was actually using one finger instead of his whole hand.
His entire body was being supported by one index finger.
“Two thousand eight hundred seventeen, two thousand eight hundred eighteen…”
“…”
For a second he wondered if he had misheard as the numbers he just heard far surpassed even his wildest imagination.
.
Seeing that his entire body was dripping with sweat, it seemed that quite some time had passed since he’d started his training.
[I met the woman called Camille. She said she would come when the sun had set completely.]
Ivan sent a message over to Frey without looking up or stopping his pushups. This showed that such an act had already become natural.
Frey also responded telepathically while pretending to not care about the bizarre spectacle before him.
[Good work. But it would be best if you stopped working out though.]
[Why? I’m now starting to feel a burn.]
[Because we’re going to deal with Oydin tonight. You’ll need to be in your best condition.]
“…”
Ivan’s rhythmic movement faltered for a moment.
Frey could instantly feel the battle lust that exuded from his body.
Taht.
Ivan applied force to his finger and shot up off the ground before flipping once and landing on his feet.
“I need to rest a little. There’s a stream nearby; I’ll go wash there.”
Then he went outside.
Frey watched him leave before heading deeper into the house.
Syax was sitting at a table mixing herbs. After a quick glance, he saw that she was mixing various medicinal and poisonous herbs.
“You were gone for a long time. What were you up to?”
“I was just doing some meditation nearby. I’m sorry, but do you have anything to eat?”
He was hungry since he hadn’t had anything to eat all day.
Syax stood up while saying.
“Wait here.”
After a little while, she came back with a bowl in her hands. Frey thought that it would be a salad similar to the day before, but he was surprised to find that it was a stew.
There was even meat in it.
“This?”
“I’m sorry about yesterday. It was my first time entertaining human guests…”
It seemed the plain salad that she’d left yesterday was not intentional.
Frey shook his head.
“It wasn’t bad.”
“I’m glad to hear. Ivan didn’t seem to like it.”
“He’s just an immature guy. It’s like someone complaining about having no side dishes. Just ignore him.”
“Hoohoo.”
Syax chuckled softly at Frey’s joke.
Frey sat at the table and took a sip of the stew.
It was delicious.
It seemed that she had learned to make stew very well during her adventures around the continent.
“It’s delicious.”
“Great. Are you going to rest tonight?”
“I think so.”
“I have some work to do. I will probably be back by tomorrow morning.”
“Alright. I’ll tell Ivan.”
“Please do.”
Syax left the house, and Frey returned to his room.
Then he blew the candles out, sat on the bed and started meditating.
It was unexpected, but Syax’s absence made Camille’s imminent visit much easier.
When the sun had set completely and moonlight settled upon the village, Frey felt something.
He slowly opened his eyes.
“…”
There was someone standing in a dark corner of the room. The person’s body, though blurred slightly by the darkness, had curvature that could only belong to a woman.
Frey spoke calmly.
“It’s been a while, Camille.”
She didn’t answer and instead stood there. Frey released the illusion of Kain on his face and showed her the ‘Frey’ she knew.
Only then did Camille step forward, following the sound of a quick breath.
She spoke in a confused tone.
“…it really is you, Frey. I was looking forward to meeting you again, but I never expected it to be in a High Elf village.”
“Likewise.”
Camille had a strange expression on her face.
“I heard rumors that you joined the Trowman Rings. Besides, the Phisfounder Armlets…”
“…?”
Camille, who had a strange expression for a while, eventually shook her head.
“No, I don’t think it’s something I should say here. Anyway, why are you here?”
“That…”
Frey briefly explained everything that happened up until that point.
Of course, there were some things that he kept hidden. For example, the meeting with Riki.
He couldn’t explain to the Circle that he’d made a temporary alliance with a Demigod, and an Apocalypse at that.
Camille’s expression became serious after hearing everything.
Especially when she heard that Oydin was the Apostle. At that moment, even Camille, who had experienced countless difficult situations, could not control her emotions.
“Is it really Oydin…”
“He appears to be the Queen’s blood relative.”
“That’s not exactly true. The relationship between Oydin and the Queen is a bit strange.”
“Strange?”
“Queen Snow was adopted by the Predickwood family.”
“Adopted…”
It was a word rarely used when referring to Elves.
Camille smiled bitterly since she also knew this fact.
“It doesn’t happen much in Elven society. But this time, it was unavoidable. The Queens from every generation are born from the Predickwood family. However, no girls were born in this generation.”
He didn’t know that the position of Queen was hereditary.
“So they adopted Snow?”
“Right. You met Queen Snow, didn’t you? You should’ve been able to tell that she is not a High Elf.”
“Indeed…”
Frey recalled Snow’s appearance.
Except for her white skin, none of her characteristics were that of a High Elf.
“She’s an Ice Elf.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of that.”
In addition to High Elves and Dark Elves, he knew of Wood Elves and Grey Elves, but this was the first time he’d ever heard about Ice Elves.
Camille nodded as though she expected as much.
“They’re not a race from the Great Forest. They’re a small group who live in the Frozen Lands in the far north.”
“The Frozen Lands in the far north…”
That was a place where only animals and monsters that had thick fur could live. He didn’t expect that there would be Elves living there too.
Camille continued with a serious expression.
“Oydin was a friend of Chief Reeves. I heard he had a lot of complaints when Snow was chosen to take the position of Queen. He believed that he would be able to communicate with Hruhiral.”
“I guess it wasn’t possible.”
“There has never been a case of a male Elf communicating with Hruhiral before. Oydin was very talented, but he couldn’t change history….Even if he was able to form a connection with Hruhiral, he would not have gotten the seat in place of Snow.”
“…”
“It’s already been a few decades since then. At that time, it was said that Oydin’s anger was enough to burn the entire forest down.”
Enough to burn the forest down.
This was an idiom that was often used by the Elves. Simply put, it meant he was extremely angry. If it had been anyone but Frey, the listener might not have understood what it meant.
“…then at some point, he just went silent. Since then, everyone believed he’d change as he became extremely hard working and did his best to benefit the Great Forest, even to the extent of becoming one of Queen Snow’s greatest aides.”
He must’ve become an Apostle at that time.
Camille mumbled under her breath before biting her lip.
Frey asked the thing that concerned him the most.
“Is Oydin strong?”
“Very strong.”
Camille answered assertively.
“Oydin is a Spiritualist. He has even managed to sign a contract with the Wind Spirit King. High Elves have naturally higher spirits than other Elves, and Oydin is extremely talented, even among High Elves.”
“…Spiritual Energy wouldn’t collide with Divine Power.”
This meant that he would be able to use the power of the Spirit King together with the power of Death.
This made dealing with Oydin several times trickier.
‘4,000 years ago, the Spirit Kings would never work with Demigods.’
If so, the Spirit King, who had an extremely acute sense of pride, would not lend its power to Oydin, who had become an Apostle.
“Camille, I’m going to attack Oydin now.”
“Right now? Aren’t you being too hasty?”
“No. Rather, now might be the best time.”
No matter what happened, Oydin would eventually learn about their presence.
Since they were outsiders who were here to hunt the necromancer, it was inevitable that he would not view them in a friendly light.
Therefore, the best time to launch a sneak attack was when he had yet to notice their presence in the village.
“…Alright. I’ll help you.”
“Are you sure?”
“You sent your partner to call me here to ask for it anyway. But I didn’t expect him to be the Magic Warrior King’s Successor. He’s really no joke.”
“What happened?”
“He provoked our young warriors. They couldn’t take the beating and came to find me, but I couldn’t even touch the hem of his shirt.”
It was as expected.
He wasn’t belittling the power of the Dark Elves, but they could not hope to defeat Ivan.
“That man is a monster. I don’t think even Chief Reeves would be able to face him in a head-on confrontation.”
Camille shook her head for a moment before she looked at Frey again and asked.
“So what would you like me to do?”
“Did you see the watchers who are looking over Ivan and me?”
“I did. It was embarrassingly easy to avoid their notice.”
It was less than he expected.
Even Frey hadn’t been able to identify just how many there were. As expected of a Dark Elf.
“Please knock them out. Only until sunrise. Can you do that?”
“It’s not difficult, but…”
Camille looked worried about something.
Frey immediately understood what it was that worried her.
“I will take full responsibility. If something goes wrong and the High Elves accuse you, tell them that you were blackmailed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologise. Just this much is already tremendously helpful.”
He meant it.
Camille was staying with the High Elves as a guest. There was no way she would want to be put in a difficult situation.
She had already hardened her resolve and decided to help. In particular, not just anyone would be able to get rid of the eyes watching him in a stealthy manner.
This point was especially important since the Elves had extremely sensitive vision and hearing.
This was something that only Camille, who had both stealth and skill, could easily accomplish.
“Then, please.”
“Leave it to me.”
Camille’s figure disappeared.