Chapter 149 – Nuia (２)

“Is it you?”

Amalta raised his spear.

But the old man who stepped forward raised both hands, as if bearing no hostile intent.

“What’s your angle?”

Even at Amalta’s question, the old man remained silent for a while.

Amalta, sensing no killing intent from the old man, chose not to press the attack further.

And then, after a moment.

“First…, could you tell us who you are?”

“That’s something we should be asking.”

“….”

Neither side could afford to reveal their identity carelessly.

After all, they were meeting complete strangers.

“I am….”

That was when.

“Don’t!”

Someone else burst out of the darkness.

This time, it was a girl.

A girl who looked to be around her mid-teens.

“Lira!”

The old man shouted.

But the girl didn’t stop.

“I’m sorry. We were wrong. Please forgive us!”

The girl cried out.

“We attacked because we thought you might be bad people. But… you’re not bad, are you?”

“….”

Gijun and Klaim exchanged a quick glance.

And then.

[I think I’ve found them.]

Libre said.

[It’s them! They’re still alive!]

Libre called out, sounding delighted.

At those words, a smile crept onto Gijun’s lips.

“Amalta.”

Gijun stepped up beside Amalta.

“I think you can stop now.”

“…Hm.”

At Gijun’s words, Amalta nodded and lowered his spear.

“We entered this land to fight the Lord.”

Then Gijun spoke.

Now that he knew these were the ones he’d been looking for, there was no reason to hide his identity or stay on guard.

“…!”

“!!”

At Gijun’s words, both of their eyes went wide.

“R-really?”

The girl asked, and Gijun nodded.

“That’s right.”

As he said this, Gijun cast Fireball.

Whoooosh!

Light streamed from the Fireball.

A brilliant light.

“Kgh…!”

“Ugh!”

The moment they saw the light, both of them hurriedly shut their eyes.

Their skin began to flush red.

Pfft-!

“…Sorry.”

Startled, Gijun canceled the Fireball spell.

He hadn’t expected something this small to cause them such pain.

“…No, it’s fine. Our bodies have never been exposed to light….”

“So that… is light.… It hurts, but it’s so warm.”

The girl, Lira, spoke.

“Yes. That is what we call light. What we lost. What we have been striving to find.”

The old man’s face was turned vaguely toward the empty air as he said this.

Perhaps this quest for light was a duty handed down long ago, a kind of obligation.

“If you would… follow me.”

The old man spoke then.

Gijun and the other three exchanged glances and nodded.

*

“Wow… truly… amazing.”

Lira let out exclamations again and again.

She kept pestering Gijun to use Fireball once more, and after receiving the old man’s permission, he cast it for her again.

At first, Lira couldn’t even open her eyes, but as time passed, she was growing accustomed to the light the Fireball emitted.

“That’s likely the first time you’ve seen light that strong, but we don’t live entirely apart from light ourselves.”

That much was evident.

As they moved, the old man took out a small ore to light the way.

The ore was glowing.

Naturally, it was a very faint light, but even that seemed more than enough for the old man and Lira to see ahead.

After walking for roughly an hour like that,

they stopped.

“This is it.”

The place the old man had led them to was a small village.

A truly tiny village with wooden houses and a little spring.

And standing at the village entrance were strapping young men.

They held weapons with tense postures and looked at Gijun and the other two with wary faces.

“There’s no need for that. They are not our enemies.”

Only after the old man said this did they lower their guard.

“Please, come inside.”

The old man led the three of them again, walking into the village.

They followed behind, surveying the settlement.

There were quite a number of people inside.

Though, to call them people—their appearance was distinctly alien.

Black skin and sharply pointed ears.

Seeing that, a race came to Gijun’s mind.

Looks like Elves.

Elves, as Gijun knew them.

But their skin was dark.

Then… Dark Elves?

Dark Elves, of all things.

Elves alone were surprising enough—he never thought he’d lay eyes on a Dark Elf.

Yet something was different from the Dark Elves he’d imagined.

The old man and the girl Lira weren’t the least bit aggressive; on the contrary, they seemed quite gentle-natured.

Well… that’s just my prejudice.

True enough.

He’d never actually seen a Dark Elf in the first place.

And on top of that, it wasn’t even certain these people really were Dark Elves.

“I will escort you inside.”

And so, after a moment,

they arrived before a small house.

“This is my home.”

the old man said.

Gijun studied the house.

Still, among the houses in this village, it was the largest.

The thought crossed his mind that this old man might very well be the village chief.

In any case, the three of them followed the old man and Lira through the doorway and into the house.

‘Dark in here, as expected.’

The interior was just as dim.

A few of the same ore crystals the old man had used hung from the ceiling, their faint glow the sole source of light inside.

To Gijun, the light was so weak it barely registered, yet the others seemed to find it perfectly adequate.

“Lira. Bring the tea.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

At the old man’s words, Lira moved off somewhere out of sight.

“It’s humble… but please, sit.”

The three of them each took a seat at the chairs arranged around a round table.

Then the old man spoke.

“We are a race that has long hidden here. We call ourselves Nuia.”

Not Dark Elves, as Gijun had suspected.

“Nuia…”

Amalta rolled the name on his tongue, savoring it.

“I see. So you’re the Nuia.”

It seemed Amalta recognized the name.

“You know of us?”

The old man seemed genuinely startled that Amalta was aware of their existence.

“Yes. Up above, there was an old legend. It said there was another race, kin to the Puroo, the forest folk.”

“…!”

The Puroo.

Gijun knew of them.

Hadn’t he first obtained a fragment of the Heart in their forest?

‘To think the thread would lead here.’

Gijun couldn’t help but be astonished.

Who would have thought that here, in this deep darkness, he’d hear talk of the Puroo?

At any rate, Amalta’s words made the old man nod in reply.

“…That is correct.”

“So. My memory served me right. It was a tale I’d heard from my own grandfather, an old legend. That the Nuia, brothers of the Puroo, left the forest and entered the underground, and in doing so, their skin turned black.”

“Indeed.”

“Hah… I’d always thought it just a legend, not a real story. Living long enough sees everything, I suppose.”

The old man gave a bitter smile.

It didn’t seem to be a tale he was glad to revisit.

Well.

No surprise there.

They’d ended up trapped down here, after all, and now they were under threat from the Lord.

“Of course, these are matters of a past I never witnessed myself, but we too were once beings of the surface, long ago. Yet our ancestors came down into this underground. It was to divide the roles with the Puroo.”

“Roles?”

“The Puroo were to safeguard the treasures of the surface, and we were to protect the treasures of this underground.”

“…Treasures?”

“Yes. A treasure left behind by the gods in the distant dawn of time.”

“…!”

In that instant, Gijun knew.

[They have another Heart.]

Libre seemed to have realized it too.

What they held was another fragment of the Heart of the Ancient God.

Of course, nothing was certain yet, but the Puroo had guarded a Heart, so—

These people were surely guarding a shard as well.

“But a problem arose. While we were guarding it, they began their conquest of this underground.”

“You mean the Lord.”

“Yes. We resisted them again and again. In the end, we protected it, and the God fell into a long slumber alongside the evil. Our ancestors celebrated their victory—they had prevailed, and they had safeguarded the treasure the God left behind. But… now they are beginning to stir again. We are in grave danger.”

From here, Gijun already knew the story.

“And that was when you arrived. I apologize again for our earlier rudeness. As I said, we are in danger, always on guard. The whole village is on edge.”

“I understand.”

Gijun said.

Klaim and Amalta nodded as well.

The attack moments ago had been jarring, but given their situation, it was understandable.

If he were in their shoes, Gijun would have done the same.

Wasn’t constant vigilance and caution only natural?

Just then, Lila returned.

“Please, have some. It’s tea.”

She set a cup down in front of each of the three men.

Then she moved to sit beside the old man.

“Grandfather, you should drink too.”

“Thank you, child.”

The old man accepted the tea Lila had brought.

Gijun inhaled the aroma.

It smelled wonderful.

A calming sensation washed over him.

“Please, drink.”

“Yes.”

Gijun took a sip.

“…Delicious.”

“The fragrance is lovely.”

Amalta and Klaim both let out exclamations of appreciation for the tea.

Lila smiled, looking pleased.

“Let us return to the main topic.”

After savoring the tea for a moment, the old man spoke again.

“There is one greatest problem I have not yet mentioned.”

His face turned serious once more.

“The treasure… we have lost it.”

“…What?”

“What?!”

It was a shocking statement.

The treasure—the fragment of the Ancient God’s Heart—had been taken from them.

Had the Lord already seized it?

“Did the Lord take it?”

At Gijun’s urgent question, the old man shook his head.

“No. Though the Lord has awakened, he has not yet begun to act in earnest. And just recently, for reasons unknown, the Lord and his servants completely vanished from this area.”

“….”

Gijun knew the reason.

It was certain that the Lord had retreated after being struck by Gijun during the Celestial Castle Raid.

Regardless, the important question remained: who had taken the Heart fragment instead?

“Then who the hell took it?”

The old man answered Gijun’s question.

“…Our own brothers took it.”

“…Brothers?”

“Yes. We Nuia are now split into two factions. Ours is one; the other is those who seek to enter under the Lord’s command. In the end, they pressured us by force, and they are now taking the treasure to the Lord. To offer it as a bribe and gain entry into his service.”