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Green and black colored mana scattered all around the tree, indicating that the ritual was progressing smoothly. Elders from the Iron Tribe poured out mana that whirled around the tree and softly passed over the path of fire. Perhaps, influenced by that, the tree’s flames also swayed like the mana. At that moment, the tree’s mana that blanketed the castle trembled a bit.

Renu crumpled his face grimly. ‘Is it an intruder again?’

A couple of days ago—when their enemies escaped like dogs with their tails hanging low from their backs, there was an attempt to infiltrate the castle at the end of a battle.

‘It must be that bastard!’ Renu stroked his face down. He felt the bandage’s texture and the grotesque skin that was below it. He thought of the bastard who left him in a state like this.

‘I should’ve caught him then!’ Renu thought he should’ve captured that bastard and given him the same—no, tens and twenty times the amount of pain he felt. Renu would’ve burned that bastard up, cured him, burned him once more, and then, cured him again. And only if he did that kind of torture for dozens of years, a small part of the rage he felt in his heart would subside. But including the time trespassing inside the castle recently, Zich escaped from here and there like a rat.

‘I should’ve lured him deep into the castle!’ Renu regretted it—he could’ve captured Zich with a large number of troops, but it hadn’t been long since he had been injured. Renu wasn’t in the right state of mind and simply yelled at his men to capture the bastard. He ended up missing him.

‘I won’t miss him this time!’ He turned his body around. Then, he headed towards the ground. Renu had already commanded his soldiers to let Zich trespass into the castle for a bit if that bastard tried again.

However, one of the soldiers came up to Renu and reported an unexpected turn of events.

“…What?”

“It doesn’t seem to be that human from last time, Your Majesty.”

“What do you mean it’s not that bastard? Then, who is it?”

“That is…we don’t know either, Your Majesty.”

“…Are you joking with me right now?”

“O-Of course not, Your Majesty.” The soldier wasn’t completely out of his mind to joke with Renu whose already bad temperament had become even crueler ever since gruesome burns covered most of his body.

Thus, the soldier quickly explained, “That human revealed himself as soon as he trespassed the castle. And he was looking for you, Your Majesty. He asked us to call Your Majesty to sign a new contract.”

“…A contract?”

“Yes! He said that Your Majesty would know if I passed on this message! He didn’t seem like a normal trespasser, talking like that inside the castle.” After saying these words, the soldier bowed his head down low. Inside his headpiece, his face was soaked in sweat. He desperately wished that his decision to report about the trespasser wasn’t the wrong choice.

Renu fell into contemplation for a bit; was there a person who would say such words to him? But he didn’t think for long. Some people immediately came to his mind.

“…How did that trespasser look like?”

“I couldn’t see his appearance. His whole body was wrapped in a black robe…”

As expected, it was them.

“Bring him to me.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The soldier answered loudly without question and left Renu. Since he could leave the king’s side with his life intact, his feet felt very light.

Renu stood in the middle of the basement and waited still. Not long afterward, a person, surrounded by many soldiers, came down. Heavily cloaked with a deep robe, the man was a mysterious and suspicious figure, and all the soldiers accompanying him gave off an explosive feeling of nervousness. The robed figure and the soldiers stopped in front of Renu.

“You guys back away,” Renu commanded the soldiers.

The soldiers paid their respect to Renu and left the basement. Then, Renu spoke, “I didn’t think you guys would come to see me again.”

The robed figure searched Renu’s surroundings and asked, “Do you not need guards?” The robed figure asked in a grating voice. Like there was something wrong with his throat, the robed figure sounded extremely raspy.

After the soldiers who brought the robed figure to Renu left, there was no other soldier in the basement. It seemed possible to kill Renu this instant, but Renu remained calm.

“At the least, no one can kill me here.”

“That’s some confidence. I suppose it’s because of that power.”

The robed figure’s eyes looked towards the basement doors to where the fire tree was.

“If you are curious, try experimenting.”

“No thanks. I haven’t come here to fight you.”

“Is that so? Then, what did you come here for?”

“For cooperation.”

“Haha!” Renu let out a short burst of light laughter, but that was enough to express his twisted mocking.

“Cooperation? Why would I need to do that? Don’t you remember how I killed one of your companions because I didn’t need your organization’s cooperation anymore? No, just a couple of days ago, another one of your colleagues told me to do something as ridiculous as to obey you guys. He said your organization would not tolerate betrayals. Is that all you guys can do?”

“You are misunderstanding something, Renu Ent Draus.” The robed figure’s voice was lower. “We have already decided to crush you guys. In the near future, we will strike your heads off and soak the earth with your tribe’s blood.”

“…” Renu glared at the robed figure saying extremely offensive words.

“We’ll save that for the future.” The robed figure continued, “We are the type of people who cooperate with our enemies if necessary.”

“For what reason would we do that?”

“The allied forces outside of Mentis—aren’t they bothering you a lot?”

“Oh, you mean that?” Renu smirked. “Look here, you delusional bastard wearing a dirty rag, do you think we would be pushed back by those idiots outside?” Then, Renu raised both of his hands and said, “Fine, I will admit it. Our overall army is lacking in comparison, but so what? Time is on our side, and the island’s geographic terrain is a huge advantage for defense. Moreover, we have a method to fill in our lackluster forces. So, why do we have to accept your organization’s request for cooperation? Huh? Tell me.”

Clang!

Renu unsheathed the sword on his side and placed it against the robed figure’s neck. The sharpened edges of the sword slightly ripped the robe. “If you don’t give me an acceptable reason, I’m also going to kill you here.”

“…” The robed figure was silent for a while.

“…Hahaha!” Soon enough, a mocking laugh began to flow out of the robe. “If you are so confident, you should have just cut off my neck immediately.”

“…”

“Ah, I can roughly understand your feelings right now. You must think there is a secret reason why we are approaching you again after you already broke our cooperation and killed one of our comrades. Yeah, you’re right. We have our own reasons, but we are ready to give you our support again for our own benefit. But Renu Ent Dras—”

The robed figure spoke as if he was talking to someone pitiful. “If you were so confident, you would have immediately cut off my neck and gone your way. Despite your boastful words, you aren’t able to do that. I guess that’s just your limit. Even while you have such an almighty power in your hand, you are filled with fear. How pitiful you are, King of the Iron Tribe.”

Slide!

Renu’s sword moved closer towards the robed figure. “You must want to die right now!”

“You’re not going to kill me.”

Silence fell between them for a while.

“Well, fine.” The robed figure was the first one to break the silence. “My words were a bit too harsh. Anyway, we want to cooperate with you guys again. We will let you borrow some of our armed troops.”

“I said, I don’t need it.”

“Even when the Lake Tribe got the Lake’s Tear back?”

For a moment, the sword that Renu was holding wavered. “…What?”

“Wasn’t that one of the reasons why you guys betrayed us? I’m talking about the disappearance of the Lake’s Tear—of course, that must have not been the only reason. You guys didn’t immediately carry out this plan when the Lake’s Tear disappeared. No, did your Tribe actually use that period to prepare? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t change the fact that the Lake’s Tear is back with the Lake Tribe.”

“That’s not possible! You people said that a human stole it and ran out of this forest!”

“The Lake Tribe’s princess has returned with the Lake’s Tear.”

“Leona did that?” Renu heard that Leona had run away from home to find the Lake’s Tear. However, he thought that she would probably fail, or in the low chance that she did get it back, it would be after everything was over.

‘She returned back with it this fast?’

“So what are you going to do?” The robed figure asked again, “If they use the Lake’s Tear, you won’t be able to fully utilize the almighty power that is supporting your tribe’s lacking forces.”

Renu glared at him as if he wanted to hunt him down. “…What do you want?”

“Nothing.”

“Stop saying nonsense.”

“You might think it’s nonsense, but it’s true. To be more specific, there’s nothing you guys can do for us. We are going to get what we want in this war by ourselves.”

“Tell me what your organization wants!”

“I refuse!”

“Then this negotiation is over.”

“Then cut off my neck. If I don’t return, my organization will accept this as an automatic rejection.”

Renu tightly clutched his sword. His arm trembled so much that his sword also shook. His overflowing anger spread out to his surroundings. However, in the end, Renu dropped his sword. “…Tell me your plan.”

“Welcome to our side. Let’s begin our temporary alliance.”

Renu made a harsh expression at the robed figure’s greasy voice.

*   *   *

After the first battle was over, several days passed. The allied forces tried to recover from their losses and began planning to attack again. Their attack method was the same as before—except for one change.

Step!

A female elf stood in front of the lake. She was the Lake Tribe’s shaman, Romanne. She held a blue jewel in her hand, and with nervous eyes, looked across the lake and towards Mentis. The allied forces moved past her. The soldiers began moving into the boats and rowing them out.

It was the start of the second battle.

*    *    *

Like the last battle, the Iron Tribe glared at the allied forces from across the lake. However, the number of soldiers glaring at their enemies was significantly smaller than in the last battle. While the last battle did cause many Iron Tribe soldiers to die, the smaller number was the result of stationing reserve forces all over the island.

However, the fewer number of soldiers did not make much of a dent in the Iron Tribe army’s overall power since they had a secret weapon.

Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!

The fire shapes began moving towards the lake. Their fiery arms looked as if they were going to make large holes on the elves’ bodies, and their headless bodies looked as if it was going to shoot fire at any moment. The allied forces that were approaching the island gulped their saliva at the sight. However, they didn’t stop or turn their boat around.

Whoosh! Arrows flew past them. Like last time, the first attacks were done with arrows. A rain of arrows poured down from both sides. However, the fire shapes were quietly waiting near the lake; it seemed as if they were waiting for the allied forces to come within their perimeters.

Flash!

The next attacks were done with magic. Fireballs flew, wind whirled around, and water balls burst forth on both sides—even then, the fire shapes stayed still.

However, the moment the two sides came a little closer—

Whoosh!

The fire shapes moved. Flames spouted out from their heads and shot towards the boats. However, the fire shapes weren’t the only ones that had been waiting for this moment.

The Lake’s Tear that Romanne was holding let out a clear sound.