Chapter 226

A Game of Chicken (1)

"What a fucking shitshow."

Arnold, emperor of the Messiah Empire, spat out a vulgar curse.

It was fortunate that no one else was present. If anyone had witnessed it, they would have been horrified.

"Just when El Dorado finally seemed to be settling down, Alvenheim has become the new problem."

Arnold had also watched Elijah’s speech after it was uploaded to the Gallery.

It had received a flood of upvotes and landed prominently among the featured posts, so there was no way he could have missed it.

Naturally, Arnold’s reaction to it had been negative.

The situation had already been precarious, and she had effectively driven the final nail into place.

’At least it probably won’t pose an immediate threat to the empire...’

Two countries shared a border with Alvenheim.

One was El Dorado, which had recently suffered through a major crisis, and the other was Mountain, the nation of the dwarves.

Technically, Alvenheim was also closely connected to the Forest of Four Seasons, but it was best to disregard that.

Queen Elijah could not possibly be insane enough to march an army into the Forest of Four Seasons.

’Considering that she called the World Tree a gift from the gods, she is unlikely to invade El Dorado.’

Arnold analyzed Elijah’s speech in depth.

It might have looked improvised, but judging from her intonation, pacing, gestures, and other details, the likelihood of that was extremely low.

If it truly had been improvised, then her ability went beyond natural talent. It could only be described as catastrophic.

She had not only united the hopelessly divided elves but had even won back the hearts of those they had exiled.

It was still nothing more than a rumor circulating through the Gallery, but there were claims that even the dark elves liked Elijah.

’I can’t dismiss it as a mere rumor.’

To be precise, the dark elves disliked Alvenheim but approved of its queen.

After all, Queen Elijah had imposed strict restrictions against discrimination.

Furthermore, Alvenheim had achieved tremendous economic growth over the past several years.

When an unpredictable lunatic was also highly competent, one had no choice but to remain vigilant.

’I’ve decided to send an envoy, but... I’m not sure.’

There was her declaration of expansion under these circumstances, and then there was the Forest of Four Seasons.

A dragon capable of polymorphing had appeared there.

One could simply attribute that to the nature of the Forest of Four Seasons and move on. The problem was the dragon’s behavior.

A dragon—a race widely regarded as evil—had burned a World Tree sapling.

That had further solidified the World Tree’s standing, and Elijah’s speech immediately afterward only compounded the issue.

How would the elves react?

Arnold’s concern deepened.

’I should start by investigating the elves within the empire.’

There had recently been an increase in unusual behavior among the elves.

Admittedly, their strange behavior amounted to little more than planting trees, but it was still a problem.

Arnold did not know what the elven queen was plotting, so he had no choice but to watch for the time being.

’Information is crucial. If only I had something like orichalcum...’

With orichalcum, long-distance communication would be possible.

Unfortunately, the only person currently capable of providing any was Grylls.

Arnold had never made an effort to build a friendship with Grylls, so he could hardly appear out of nowhere and ask him for some.

Besides, he did not want to use that cursed username.

He would rather die than use it.

"Whew... I suppose I have no choice."

Arnold decided to summon Count Gorgon.

His only option was to obtain orichalcum through him.

He knew virtually nothing, so he had to scrape together every last piece of information he could find.

’I envy Father. What is he doing right now, anyway?’

Arnold suddenly found himself missing Robert.

Robert had completely withdrawn from politics and retreated to a mountain.

He had said that he wanted to enjoy the mountain air, so Arnold had been unable to stop him.

Then what was Robert doing in the mountains right now?

"Hmm. Sweet potatoes are surprisingly vulnerable to the cold? I didn’t know that."

He was enjoying life alone in the wilderness.

He had built his own house, diverted water from a stream just like Grylls, and even made a campfire.

It was an exceedingly humble life compared to his days as emperor, but for the first time in ages, he was able to experience "freedom."

As the saying went, no one was more relaxed than someone who had just quit his job.

’Should I ask that man for some soil?’

Robert was living after casting aside every burden he had carried.

***

It was the day after Banir left, and we began exploring in earnest.

I started by thoroughly examining the areas I had already explored.

On the first day, we visited the mandrake colony and the kangaroo cave.

The mandrake colony had already left Ludwig rather bewildered, but the kangaroo cave was the true highlight.

"Puohooo!"

"Puohoo!"

Kangaroos performed wrestling techniques on one another.

Spectators cheered while watching them fight.

And to top it all off, even outsiders were participating in a tournament.

Not a single thing there came remotely close to being "normal," so Ludwig remained confused for quite some time.

He might have grown accustomed to the Forest of Four Seasons, but only insofar as life at the shelter was concerned.

Naturally, there was still much he did not know about the forest itself.

"What do you think?"

"...#%##."

[He says this place is insane.]

Cain translated Ludwig’s words. He was currently serving as our interpreter.

I agreed with Ludwig. When I first saw this place, I had also cursed and wondered what the hell was wrong with it.

But in a world where there was already a gorilla who practiced martial arts and spoke like a human, the kangaroos were hardly that strange.

There were giant crabs and crayfish staging a monster movie by the lakeshore.

And if one followed the river upstream, it somehow opened into a vast ocean.

Not one thing about this place was normal.

That was the Forest of Four Seasons.

’If there are countless places even worse than this, then what the hell is this forest?’

The most absurd part was that this was considered a relatively safe region.

According to Banir, there were even places swarming with insects as large as one of her claws.

’Just imagining it is horrifying.’

I was glad that the insects there had not crossed over into this region.

Perhaps the climate did not suit them.

Or there might have been another reason.

After a full day of exploration, we returned, and the next morning arrived.

Today, we planned to travel downstream and visit the lakeshore.

It was an area where we might end up fighting.

’Ludwig has almost fully recovered, so it’s about time he fought too.’

Although he still limped, he had become completely accustomed to his mithril ankle.

Long journeys remained difficult for him, so he had no choice but to ride Largo.

Still, his skills were extraordinary, so there should not be any major problems.

"We’re having grilled crab for lunch today, so keep that in mind."

"Kkyuu!"

"Biik?"

Wonmo jumped excitedly when I decided on grilled crab for lunch, but Tyrano merely tilted his head.

Kkobong reacted the same way. He looked as though he would eat it but had no idea what it was.

’Come to think of it, neither Kkobong nor Tyrano has ever eaten grilled crab.’

They could try it today.

I wanted to eat it again myself.

Once we had finished all our preparations, we followed the river downstream.

The raging current gradually weakened, while the river itself grew considerably wider.

Ludwig looked around as though he had never imagined that such a place existed here.

SPLASH!

For the first time in a while, we saw a fish as enormous as a whale.

I was already accustomed to it and was about to dismiss it without much thought when—

[Hmm? Why is that here?]

Cain sounded puzzled, apparently recognizing the fish.

I had simply assumed it was a very large, whale-like fish, but it seemed there was more to it.

"Do you know what that is?"

[It is called a Torino, an exceedingly rare fish. I was told they grow no larger than thirty centimeters, even when fully mature. How strange.]

"Do you get anything special if you catch one?"

[Legend says that eating one grants a hundred years’ worth of mana. At that size, it would grant a thousand years’ worth.]

Let’s not get greedy.

There was no way I could catch that thing with a fishing rod.

Nor could I enter the water myself. Sharks lived in this river, after all.

Whatever else happened, I had decided to avoid entering rivers or oceans whenever possible.

I did not want to die.

Unless I could part the water like Moses, it would be impossible.

BOOM! BANG!

Before long, we arrived at the lakeshore.

Just as they had been last time, the giant crab and giant crayfish were still fighting furiously.

"You’ve never seen anything that big either, have you, Mister?"

Even when I asked Ludwig, he said nothing.

He merely stood there and watched.

However, the faint grin that soon appeared on his face suggested that he was enjoying the sight.

Whoooosh!

Then a fragment from one of the monsters came hurtling toward us.

It flew so quickly that there seemed to be no time to evade it.

But who was Ludwig?

The moment he saw it coming, he drew his sword.

Slash! Slash!

Ludwig neatly cut it into four pieces.

The fragments sailed past us and tumbled across the ground.

"L-let’s hurry and collect the crabs first! There are plenty of crayfish here too!"

"Understood."

While the monsters continued fighting, we hurriedly collected the scattered crabs and crayfish.

Fragments occasionally flew toward us, but Ludwig’s exceptional swordsmanship dealt with them easily.

[Hmm. I would like to test my strength against those creatures.]

"Stop talking nonsense."

I ignored Cain’s foolish remark.

With that, we completed both our exploration and our food gathering before returning to the shelter.

I had originally intended to collect only crabs, but we had obtained crayfish as well.

’Has the crayfish’s territory expanded?’

I could not be certain.

The mandrakes had also been fighting over territory.

One might wonder how mandrakes could have territorial disputes, but they truly had been fighting one another.

Their colors had been slightly different, but they both looked vaguely humanoid, so I had simply called them mandrakes.

’I should examine them more closely later.’

At the time, I had only given Ludwig a brief explanation before heading straight to the kangaroo cave.

Today, however, it would be better to eat lunch and then investigate them properly.

While I was at it, I could also teach Ludwig how to harvest mandrakes.

"Is it good?"

"Nyam, nyam! Nyam, nyam!"

"Crunch! Crack! Crunch!"

Wonmo and Tyrano happily devoured the grilled crab and crayfish.

Wonmo mostly ate the meat, while Tyrano simply chewed through the creatures whole.

I had cooked them in the oven, so they were technically closer to steamed than grilled, but the taste was all that mattered.

’I cleaned them thoroughly because I was worried about parasites too.’

They tasted excellent.

Strangely enough, there was no fishy smell whatsoever.

For dessert, I even made candied sweet potatoes before taking a short break.

I planned to browse the Gallery until my food settled.

’Come to think of it, everyone was making a fuss about the elven queen this morning.’

The elven queen’s address to the nation.

That single speech had set the entire Gallery ablaze.

From what I gathered, some people thought it was practically a declaration of war.

Personally, I did not believe a war would actually break out. It sounded more like she was presenting the future direction of her country.

The problem was that this direction closely resembled Britain during the age of imperialism.

The elves had already been causing incidents lately, and now they had declared their intention to expand.

’Will any of this affect me?’

Just as I logged into the Gallery with that thought—

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Notifications announcing the arrival of new messages sounded one after another.

Usually, I only received one notification at a time.

Most of them came from the Heavenly Demon.

But repeated notifications like these meant that several named users had contacted me.

I wondered what could possibly have happened for so many of them to message me.

’Let’sGrowTrees, Cheonggu Princess... and I’ll Become a Duke? I know all of them.’

At first, I did not think much of it and began replying to them one by one.

I started with Let’sGrowTrees, the person with whom I had traded the core last time.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Let’sGrowTrees, I got to the point.

[Wild Grylls: So, why did you contact me?]

[Let’sGrowTrees: Could you possibly give me some orichalcum? If you do, I can give you World Tree cigars and even underwear! I’ll also throw in another sapling while I’m at it!]

[Wild Grylls: ...Underwear?]

Let’sGrowTrees wanted orichalcum.

I did not have any on hand, so I postponed the matter for now.

[Cheonggu Princess: Do you have any orichalcum? I’ve run out of what I need for broadcasting.]

Cheonggu Princess wanted some too.

[I’ll Become a Duke: Pardon me, but do you possess any orichalcum? If so, I would like to trade you an item of equivalent value for it.]

And so did I’ll Become a Duke.

As I stared at the messages in growing confusion, another one arrived.

[Passing Dwarf: Hey. Can you spare a piece of orichalcum?]

[Wild Grylls: Why do you need it too? No, before that, let me ask you something. Does orichalcum have some hidden ability or something?]

[Passing Dwarf: ? No? I was just going to put it in my brewing machine.]

[Wild Grylls: Ah, fuck. What is going on? Fine, got it.]

What the hell was happening?