Chapter 222 – The Last Forest (Four)

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Beings who cannot control their emotions due to the Curse Seals engraved on their bodies by the Doctor.

The swollen, bursting emotions of obsession filling their Vessels made it impossible to assume they were any other being.

Ray maintained his distance as he responded to the other’s greeting.

“Hello. What are you doing here?”

“I’m watering the flowers. There are many children here who need my care.”

It was literal.

The woman was creating droplets from the abundant water-elemental mana in the air and sprinkling them over the flower bed.

Ray posed a probing question.

“The flower bed looks very large for one person to handle alone. Why not ask for help from the other Elves in the village? Since it’s a task of tending the forest, I doubt anyone would refuse.”

Instantly, the smile vanished from the woman’s face.

“These are my children. I can’t entrust them to anyone else’s hands.”

The cold voice and sharp expression evoked a momentary chill.

The emotion of obsession contained within the Vessel was beating fiercely.

‘Obsess.’

Ray felt certain of the other’s identity in that moment.

He recalled his conversation with Curiosa.

「To be honest, I don’t remember much. The only time we spent together was the few years at the orphanage before we were each taken to our Laboratories. But there’s one definite thing I remember about Obsess, and that’s that she was incredibly greedy.」

「Greedy?」

「To be precise, she was very possessive of her belongings. She would never lend out even the most trivial item and would hide things away tightly.」

Curiosa added, revealing a boiling anger.

「Thinking about it now, I suspect the Doctor identified and amplified each of our Executives’ prominent emotional flaws. Looking back, all the experiments the Doctor performed on me were related to things that stimulated curiosity. Kehehe! Kuhahaha!」

Curiosa suddenly burst into laughter.

Ray, whose ability to read the subtleties between actions was lacking, couldn’t discern what kind of laughter it was.

However, within the Vessel of the monster cursed with curiosity, sorrow was undulating.

“…….”

Ray snapped out of his thoughts.

Anyway, based on the information, the person before him was likely Obsess, who had shown a strong possessiveness over her belongings since childhood.

That emotional trait was now amplified hundreds of times due to the Curse Seal.

“I’ve never seen you in the village before. Do you live separately?”

“Correct. Not all Elves live in the village.”

Obsess had instantly returned to her cheerful smile. Watching her, Ray thought.

‘…The most reasonable assumption is that she entered the forest ahead of time, targeting me.’

It had been quite a while since the Homunculi attacks stopped, but he didn’t think the Doctor had completely withdrawn.

It was certain he would send strong individuals like Executives to cause trouble.

But for that.

‘Obsess’s Vessel… I don’t see any particular hostility or wariness.’

On the contrary, she harbored a strong curiosity, interest, and goodwill towards him.

While it was true that Executives were beings whose actions were hard to predict due to their unstable emotions, right now… he really couldn’t tell.

Then Obsess asked.

“Hey, have you ever raised plants before?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Then, could you take a look at this sprout here? I’ve been watering it for days, but it just seems to be wilting.”

“…….”

It was dangerous to attack recklessly when he hadn’t yet gauged her full strength.

Ray, who had closed the distance by only a few steps, said firmly.

“I’ve heard you shouldn’t go near people you don’t know well.”

“Oh my, who did you hear that from?”

“A friend.”

Ray recalled the brown curly-haired boy likely buried under piles of documents in the Sector.

“Hmm, such advice is usually heard from parents, not friends. Do you not have a mother, by any chance?”

“……?”

The unexpected direct question momentarily flustered even the boy.

What is this? Should I get angry?

He thought it might be an insult using his lack of parents, but seeing the other’s unwavering emotions, he realized it was a genuine question.

Even if it had been an insult, it wouldn’t have been a big blow.

“No. I’ve been alone since I was very young.”

“I see. You seem like you’re not even an adult yet. How pitiful.”

Strangely, it felt like talking to an ordinary woman, not an enemy.

A woman smiling happily while watching her children playing in the distance.

…The kind of woman you could see anywhere.

The boy, pondering deeply, found a three-letter word that fit that feeling.

“I’m Saya. Now that you know my name, we’re not strangers anymore, right?”

“…….”

What kind of trick is this?

The moment he thought that, mana shimmered in the woman’s eyes.

A deep flesh-colored, beige mana.

The primary elements were Bewitchment and Domination.

It was the reason Ray hadn’t let down his guard of vigilance.

Regardless of the opponent’s magical level, affecting the mind was the characteristic of Bewitchment-type Magic.

‘…If I get bewitched, I’ll become a puppet moving according to the other’s commands.’

The important thing was mental fortitude.

The more psychologically healthy a person usually was, the lower the probability of being affected.

Conversely, it was a magic where the probability skyrocketed for those harboring a lot of anxiety.

Ooooo──

The focus in the boy’s eyes, gazing at the woman’s eyes, began to blur gradually.

Soon, it completely loosened, and he looked dazed.

“Come, come here.”

The boy shuffled his steps and fell into the woman’s embrace.

The woman stroked the boy’s head with an affectionate hand and asked.

“What’s your name?”

“Ray.”

“Ray, yes, Ray… A very wonderful name. Very wonderful….”

“…….”

Listening to the woman’s faint voice, Ray kept his wits about him.

He had resisted the Bewitchment Magic without issue.

He was only pretending to be affected.

He was prepared to respond immediately if the other sensed something amiss, but she showed no sign of noticing.

‘The missing village children… Obsess is highly likely to be the culprit.’

The mana fragments he had attached to the children were found nearby.

Also, if she used Bewitchment Magic to turn someone in the village into a puppet…

Then it would be possible to sneak the children away, evading the Elves’ eyes.

However, he couldn’t know where all those children were now.

“…My own. My own children.”

The woman released the boy from her embrace, muttered, and then shifted her gaze to a small sprout growing from the ground.

“You said you’ve raised plants before. Could you perhaps take a look at this little one’s condition?”

The sprout was soaked through with water, its head drooping.

What is this.

If you do this, even a cactus would probably die from overwatering.

“It seems you’ve given it too much water.”

“Too much?”

“If you give it this much water, the roots are prone to rot. To know the exact condition, you’d probably need to take it to someone knowledgeable and ask.”

Ray reached his hand towards the sprout.

Then, Obsess hastily pulled Ray back, embracing him and stopping his action.

“…No. No one can take my child.”

“…….”

Slipping subtly out of the embrace, Ray observed her Vessel.

The emotion of obsession, swaying uneasily.

‘Next, regarding the Rings…’

The 1st and 2nd Circles were normal.

Although flesh-colored mana was predominant, other colors were still somewhat harmonized.

However, the 3rd and 4th Circles contained nothing but flesh-colored mana.

In other words.

It meant that when she constructed her 3rd Circle, probably at a time much younger than now, some event must have occurred that intensified her obsession.

“I won’t take the sprout. So, you don’t need to be so anxious.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But… haven’t you raised plants before?”

“I have.”

“What kind of plants did you raise?”

“Raised… raised…? Hmm? Wasn’t it plants…?”

Obsess furrowed her brow.

Repeating the same words, she seemed extremely confused before giving up and saying.

“I have a feeling I cherished and raised something… but I can’t quite remember what it was.”

“Anyway, no matter what plant it is, you shouldn’t give it too much water.”

“I didn’t give it water.”

“Then what?”

“I gave it love.”

“Too much love isn’t good either.”

He didn’t really know much about the emotion called love, but he said it anyway.

Because the rule of the world was that too much of anything is not good.

Over three days, Ray visited Obsess in the flower bed.

“Come here, my good child.”

Each time, the woman would embrace the boy and stroke his head.

As if performing some sacred ritual.

As if he were her real child.

“…….”

Within the warm touch, the boy never let down his guard of tension.

Because the opponent’s extremely unstable emotions could explode at any moment and create a dangerous situation, which wouldn’t be surprising.

Ray cautiously posed questions, hoping to find out the whereabouts of the missing children.

“Children are disappearing from the village. One by one, every two days.”

“That’s because the children left the village on their own. With every Elf in the village being both a mother and a father… The children must have been unhappy. It’s the age when the desire to monopolize something is strong. The children must have wanted a mother of their own. So they left the village to find someone who would become their new mother. Huhu.”

It was a statement completely ignorant of the Elves’ emotional spectrum, which lacked possessiveness.

Ray didn’t refute the statement to avoid provoking Obsess.

However, from the tone that seemed to know all the circumstances, he became convinced once again that there was a collaborator within the village.

‘…Obsess.’

What exactly is she scheming?

What does she plan to do with the children she’s taken?

He asked many probing questions but gained no meaningful harvest.

What was certain was that first, the safety of the missing children had to be secured before any further response could be made.

‘Obsess doesn’t seem to have moved directly. It’s highly likely the solo act of a collaborator following orders. The best course would be to tail the collaborator and find the hiding place of the children.’

But finding the collaborator wasn’t easy.

The suspect pool was every Elf in the village.

Moreover, Bewitchment Magic affected the mind, leaving no mana traces, making it impossible to distinguish visually.

…One person? Two?

Perhaps an even greater number.

Walking through the village, he persistently, secretly cast his gaze upon every Elf.

And at a certain moment.

He reached one conclusion.

A small room inside an ancient tree.

Gwendel and Ray sat facing each other across a table.

“You said you had something to say?”

“About the missing children. The Elves in the village seem very worried.”

Gwendel’s face, which had been wearing a calm smile, darkened.

“That’s only natural. Children, young lives, are like the sprouts and treasures of the forest. There’s much worry. But… the ones most worried would be the biological parents. Even though we treat all children as our own, the child born from one’s own womb is bound to be more special.”

Gwendel used Grine as an example.

“No matter how old she gets, she’s always like a child, and it’s worrisome. When Grine took on a mission and left for the outside world, that feeling was even stronger. I went outside the forest every day, gazing at the wilderness, waiting. Wondering when this child would return.”

“You went outside the forest every day?”

“I probably didn’t miss a single day. It’s truly a relief she returned safely.”

Ray nodded as if he understood.

“There’s someone I suspect as the culprit.”

“Who is it?”

“The World Tree.”

Gwendel was silent for a moment.

Soon, she spoke in an uncomfortable voice.

“I don’t know what led you to such a thought, Ray, but the World Tree is not a being who would do such a thing. Of course, it’s true that public opinion in the village towards the World Tree is worsening… but all life in the forest can be said to be children of the World Tree. In other words, the World Tree is the parent of all life in the forest. Where in the world is there a parent who would do such a thing to their own child?”

“…The World Tree couldn’t possibly be the culprit. You would naturally think that.”

Ray met Gwendel’s gaze directly and said.

“Because you are the culprit who took the children away.”

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