The Tin Knight-Chapter 81: The Tin Knight and The Land of Deep Green (11)

With a clank, the Tin Knight leapt down from the tree and landed near the trio.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ declares the raid is over!]

“...Yes. It seems to be truly over.”

Dorothea gazed at the tree.

Although the split tree still exuded immense mana, there was no sense of will or intelligence to wield it.

Adelaide, her body stained with the blood of magic beasts in various places, spoke in a puzzled voice, “Hmm, what was it in the end? Why did it attack us? And what exactly is this tree, I don’t understand any of it?”

Sophia answered, “Well, now that we’ve defeated it, there’s no way to confirm—oh?”

Sophia trailed off.

She narrowed her pink eyes, then corrected her previous statement, “No, it seems something still remains.”

Following Sophia’s guidance, the group moved forward.

The tree split in half.

Seeing what was between the roots buried in the ground and the trunk that had grown above ground, Adelaide blinked in surprise.

“...A house?”

That was right.

It was a house.

Although only a ruin remained due to the long passage of time, there was clearly an artificially constructed structure there.

Broken walls. A collapsed roof.

Two corpses lying fallen, overlapping each other in the center.

There was no one alive there.

There was no sign of the main body of the monster that had threatened the group.

This was already the home of those who had ended, who had died.

While everyone was at a loss for words at the unexpected scene, Sophia grasped the hands of her companions.

Transmitting wine-colored mana to the group, she said, “Let’s check. What is this place? What exactly happened to the father and daughter who had barely reached their own paradise?”

One, two, three.

Red mana settled into the eyes of the group.

They reached out towards the fissures that had appeared above the two corpses.

***Once upon a time, in a past not so distant, yet not so near.

In a deep forest untouched by human feet, there lived a kind father and a cute daughter.

Although the two had to lose many things before arriving here, now it was alright.

Here, there were no people who cursed them. Here, there were no people who glared at them.

The small but cozy cabin was a peaceful paradise that the two had barely managed to obtain.

Feeling the warmth they had gained, the daughter was happy.

And just as much, the daughter felt sorry.

The daughter knew that she was a monster.

Although the father told her many times that she was simply different from others—everyone except the father called her a monster.

To protect her, the father had to give up everything.

Feeling so sorry about this, the daughter wept silently.

Although she was still weak and lacking and couldn’t do anything in return now, she vowed that when she grew up, she would definitely make her father happy.

To such a daughter, the trees of the forest spoke.

[Child, child. Child born of the shade.]

[Dryad born from trees, living in harmony with the forest.]

[Unlike your kin, who have been tainted by evil, there is no wickedness in your heart.]

[Unlike those who were driven out of this place in ancient times, your heart is full of kindness.]

[We wish there were more children like you. We wish more children like you would live among us.]

[Please accept our gift.]

There were always luscious fruits around the cabin where the father and daughter lived, and no creature living in the forest sought to harm them.

It was truly a strange phenomenon, but the father simply thought that the tools received from the witches were more effective than expected, not realizing it was the result of the forest showing favor to his daughter.

For quite a long time, happy days passed by.

And as if to say that this happiness was too much, misfortune arrived.

The father fell ill.

The daughter diligently nursed her father, but his condition did not improve.

The daughter, who was not human, became healthier just by being in the forest, but the human father did not have such ability.

To save the father, human medicine was needed.

The daughter made a firm resolution and left the forest.

Although the trees tried to dissuade her, saying it was dangerous, it was unavoidable to save her father.

Tightly covering her green skin with cloth, the daughter slipped into the streets of humans.

In exchange for precious herbs and fruits gathered from the forest, the daughter was able to obtain medicine for her father.

Sometimes there were those who suspected the daughter, but after smelling the sweet fragrance emanating from her body, everyone’s eyes became hazy, and they showed kindness to her.

Having successfully obtained the medicine, the daughter left the streets and headed towards the forest.

Thinking that this would save her father, the daughter’s steps gradually quickened.

She never noticed someone was following her.

The first thing the daughter discovered upon arriving at the cabin was the sight of her father, trembling, preparing to go out.

Knowing that his daughter had gone outside the forest, he was trying to force his ailing body to move.

Seeing his daughter return home, the father embraced her with emotion.

The daughter felt troubled by her father’s recklessness, but also felt a lump in her throat at his thoughtfulness.

The two embraced each other, quietly shedding tears.

It was then that the trees of the forest screamed.

They warned the daughter that she needed to flee quickly.

Only then did the daughter realize something was wrong, but it was too late.

Squelch.

A sharp sword pierced through both their chests.

Red and green blood mixed—flowing together.

The father’s eyes widened in horror.

He tried to convey something to his daughter until the very last moment, but the blood that welled up and overflowed blocked his last words.

Embracing her father’s gradually cooling body, the daughter collapsed to her knees.

The sudden intruder, without leaving a single word, beheaded the daughter.

The daughter’s head, floating in the air, with wide-open eyes, confirmed the appearance of the intruder.

The intruder was clad in white light, wearing pure priestly robes.

The beautiful emerald blade was stained with the blood of the father and daughter.

As if it was filthy, the priest made an unpleasant expression.

That fact blackened the daughter’s heart.

Towards the daughter who, with only her head remaining, was shedding bloody tears unable to even meet death, the intruder approached.

He raised the emerald sword and struck down upon the daughter’s head.

Again and again. Thoroughly, as if to erase even the slightest possibility of survival.

Only after the daughter’s head had been mashed beyond recognition did the intruder in priestly robes withdraw his sword.

After the intruder left, only the corpses of the father and daughter remained in the cabin.

As if lamenting this sight, the forest howled.

The daughter, who had already lost her head, no longer had the intelligence to give rational commands.

The tree spirit who had lost her father and been brutally murdered no longer possessed the same purity and goodness as before.

Grudge, resentment, venomous hatred.

Anger, revenge, lamentation.

All those emotions, all that despair, settled in the blood and brain matter and seeped into the ground.

So that no one could approach.

So that no one could harm them.

A desperate revenge against the emerald sky, against the humans who had taken her father.

The plants embraced the will left in that blood.

They overlapped their bodies with each other, wrapping the cabin where the bodies of the father and daughter rested with their own.

Eventually, they transformed into one giant tree.

A king ruling the forest was born.

***“...That’s too cruel,” Adelaide murmured softly, covering her mouth.

Dorothea had an uncomfortable expression, and Sophia also closed her eyes in mourning.

Even the Tin Knight, perhaps feeling it inappropriate to act as usual in the current situation, scratched the back of his head, making creaking sounds.

After exhaling a short breath, Dorothea opened her mouth, “So, the ‘Ruler of the Garden’. In other words, the enemy we just fought and defeated wasn’t the father who built this house, nor the daughter called a monster, but the plants that absorbed the residual thoughts and went berserk, right?”

Sophia nodded.

“That seems to be the case. The animals influenced by the forest moving according to an extremely simple command of ‘just repel outsiders’ without a clear command structure would also be due to this influence. After all, the being called the king wasn’t in a state capable of complex thought.”

Adelaide cautiously asked, “Then we didn’t disturb the peace of the two, did we?”

“Not really. For now, at least.”

“Huh?”

At Dorothea’s seemingly implicative tone, Adelaide reflexively asked back.

Dorothea shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, it’s just that ‘we hit first and then found out it wasn’t the case’, but there was plenty of possibility that what we just saw was really the end of that father or daughter.”

“Ah, aah.”

Adelaide’s face turned pale.

For someone as sensitive as her, just the fact that she had almost become an accomplice to the culprit who appeared in the flashback seemed to be a tremendous shock.

Towards such an Adelaide, Dorothea snorted.

“Have you finally realized that who you’re traveling with isn’t some party of righteous heroes, but a witch and her gang?”

“Ugh, uugh.”

Watching Dorothea and Adelaide, the Tin Knight subtly turned his head to the side and asked Sophia.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if that’s possibly meant to be comforting!]

“Hmm, that’s right. If we had to interpret it, could it be something like ‘I’m the one responsible, so don’t worry about it’? How cute.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ marvels that he thought only Dorothea’s fashion sense was old-fashioned, but her personality is just as old-school!]

“Hey, you two! Shut up before I bury you both in the ground! Don’t interpret things on your own!”

Dorothea got irritated.

Although her face didn’t explicitly turn red, her hands were trembling.

Even Adelaide looked up at Dorothea with a strangely moved expression saying, “So that’s what it meant...!” but when Dorothea glared at her with terrifying eyes, shadowing her face, Adelaide let out an “Eek!” and distanced herself.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what about the culprit who appeared in the vision!]

“W-well? Do you two know?”

As if trying to avoid Dorothea’s glare, Adelaide quickly responded to the Tin Knight’s question.

Dorothea and Sophia briefly exchanged glances before answering.

“Since they used holy magic, they must be from the Kingdom of Heaven, right? Probably. Well, there are odd ones like Sophia too, so I can’t say for certain.”

“Either they descended from the heavens on a mission, or they’re eagerly accumulating merits to be sent up to the heavens. I think it’s one of those two.”

A question mark appeared over Adelaide’s head.

The Tin Knight said.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests a simple and clear three-line summary!]

“Even if you say that, I don’t know much either. At best, all I know is that they’re related to important people in various countries, they live in a kingdom above the sky, and occasionally they find outstanding holy magic users on the ground and take them to them up there.

“Other than that... They possess tremendous power and authority. They enforce various ‘disciplines’ as rules, and punish those who don’t follow them. They’re troublesome people. Originally, even trying to know details about ‘heaven’ itself is one of the taboos, so there’s almost no related information.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that if they’re not pretending not to know while actually knowing, that’s enough!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ declares that they seem like some ominous masterminds, so we can just fight them later, right?]

“No, I particularly don’t want to fight such monsters.”

Although Dorothea coldly cut off the Tin Knight’s words, her tone was strangely indifferent.

She swung her left wrist counterclockwise twice, summoning a birdcage.

As the waves emanating from the birdcage with a dong, dong spread around, several souls floated up and revealed themselves.

Instead of offering contracts to them as usual, Dorothea swung her wrist clockwise twice, returning the birdcage to a ring.

The souls circled around Dorothea for a moment as if puzzled, but soon disappeared with a white light cluster.

Among them was a green soul with a color slightly different from the others, and another soul stuck closely to that soul.

Amidst the souls becoming light and attaining enlightenment, Dorothea murmured softly, “—Well, if necessary, we’ll have to fight them inevitably.”