Chapter 217 – FOREST OF ETERNITY (1)
[It’s alright. I was born to be forgotten anyway.]
“No, that’s not it!”
Cordelia spoke in apology as she held Moonlight, but Melissa remain unmoved.
[Come to think of it, even in the facility of the Snow Queen, I was abandoned by my old masters. I’m used to being abandoned.]
“Why are you saying something so sad… and I didn’t abandon you, okay? I just forgot you for a while, okay? I did come back to you, right?”
[After one day.]
“I’m sorry…”
Cordelia’s words trailed off as she made a long face and sucked in her lips.
Because she was really sorry for what she did to Melissa.
She thought to herself that she had been too indifferent.
She had implanted Melissa in Moonlight and completely forgot about it afterwards.
Cordelia certainly had an excuse.
After Cordelia had inserted her in Moonlight, Melissa did not answer for a while, even though Cordelia kept calling her. The performance of Moonlight did improve, but Cordelia became anxious because Melissa was not answering.
‘And I eventually forgot about her…’
Since there was no answer for more than a month, she got used to Melissa not answering, and in the end, she completely stopped talking to Melissa.
When she began working as Pink Bomb in the royal capital, she never used Moonlight due to various circ.u.mstances, so she completely forgot Melissa’s existence.
‘And then I called her again because I needed her help.’
Even Cordelia felt that it was too much.
It was no different to completely treating Melissa as a tool.
If Jude had treated Cordelia this way… she felt terrible from just imagining it.
[Uh, ah… A-are you crying?]
“No… I’m really sorry…”
When Cordelia’s eyes reddened, Melissa was suddenly fl.u.s.tered and nervous, or to be exact, she let out sounds that revealed her restlessness before she quickly said.
[That, uh, um! Okay, just don’t forget about me anymore, okay?]
The coldness in Melissa’s voice before was gone, and her voice had become very gentle. Cordelia then opened her eyes and hurriedly nodded.
“Ye-yes! I will never forget you.”
[Okay. Let’s not talk about this anymore then.]
“T-thank you, Melissa. I’ll treat you well.”
[Yes, I’ll trust in you one more time.]
“Yes!”
Cordelia widely smiled and kissed the gem section of Moonlight. Melissa couldn’t really feel it, but she began to cough for no reason.
And there was one person who was watching their entire exchange.
‘It’s quite heartwarming.’
Jude warmly smiled like a dad watching over the two as he nodded his head. When Cordelia felt Jude’s gaze, she became shy and asked him.
“W-why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, I just thought that it was heartwarming.”
Fufufu.
Jude warmly smiled again, and Cordelia felt like she was getting gooseb.u.mps even though she had bean pods in her eyes when she saw Jude.
“Stop laughing like that. You sound like a pervert.”
“Fufufu.”
But Jude laughed again, and Cordelia was filled with a desire to hit Jude.
“Anyway, let’s continue our business before leaving.”
“Huh? What else are we going to do?”
“Because we need to clean up Mount Damos.”
Jude gave an ambiguous answer before he stepped towards the Aggro Generator.
***
The night pa.s.sed, but traces of the fight still remained.
The villagers were usually reluctant to approach Mount Damos, and they became even more cautious when loud sounds resounded in the mountain because of the nearby monsters that were annihilated from the incident before.
“What about the mountain animals?”
“They’re not coming because they’re scared of the monsters’ smells.”
Naturally, the animals would gather after smelling the rotting corpses some time later, but it was not that time yet.
“Okay, then I’ll leave this here. Cordelia, please.”
“Yes.”
While Jude placed the remains of a fake aggro device made of spare parts in a suitable location, Cordelia stared at the remains of Gamorr Khan’s body, or to be exact, the Vorg’s body that Gamorr Khan had used as his host until now.
Unlike the other corpses, Gamorr Khan’s corpse had completely become powder perhaps because he had left that body.
“Well… If we bury it, no one will be able to tell, right?”
[I think so too.]
As soon as Melissa agreed, Cordelia dug the ground with magic and buried most of the powder in the soil.
“Are you done?”
“Yes, pretty much.”
Cordelia approached Jude after she used magic to fill the hole.
“Is this really going to work?”
“As I said before, we don’t have to create a perfect story. This is a good enough and believable story. Rather, it’s more realistic to have some loopholes.”
At the words of the skilled scammer, the prospective scammer nodded her head, and Melissa was feeling complicated at the scammer couple’s behavior.
Jude’s scam – no, his plan was as simple as always.
On Mount Damos, the Black Hand Mercenaries led by Gamorr Khan were wiped out after a fierce battle against the monsters.
It was true up to this point.
It was true that Gamorr Khan fought against the monsters on Mount Damos.
‘Mix the truth with some lies.’
That was one of the basics in making a compelling story.
And what Jude added to the story was as follows.
“A battle broke out because Gamorr Khan failed to control the monsters of Mount Damos with a monster attracting device.”
The evidence was the half-broken Aggro Generator lying in the middle of the battlefield.
“Jude and Cordelia were pa.s.sing by and discovered Gamorr Khan’s atrocious plan. Gamorr Khan had already lost his troops in their battle against the monsters, so he fled.”
“Wait, we pa.s.sed by here?”
We didn’t use a road but pa.s.sed by Mount Damos itself?
“We can say that we stopped by the mountain to fight the monsters for the sake of our residents.”
“I see.”
And this was also true.
After getting Ultimate One, they had tried to wipe out the monsters to some extent.
“Moving on, in order to pursue the fleeing Gamorr Khan, Jude and Cordelia set out on their way again, leaving only a letter that gave a full account of the events.”
While explaining on what happened in Mount Damos, it was a story that would give Jude and Cordelia a legitimate reason to hurriedly leave the place rather than remaining and cleaning up the fief.
‘Because Gamorr Khan is just an average-sized Vorg if you exclude the necklace and Grand Order.’
Moreover, his body was burned, so even if an acquaintance came, it would be impossible to verify his ident.i.ty.
“And that would be how we can naturally explain having Ultimate Five.”
“Won’t the Black Hand Mercenaries become hostile to us?”
“It’s an organization that would become hostile to us when we fight Malekith anyway, and they’re also far in the south.”
“That’s true.”
Cordelia clapped her hands and then looked at Moonlight, clearing her throat as she puffed up her chest and said.
“Did you see that? That’s my Jude.”
[Uh… yes.]
He’s an amazing scammer.
While Melissa held back from saying her thoughts, Cordelia read Jude’s letter to the villagers.
“I like it. It feels like we’re telling our residents that we care about them.”
“They’ll really like it. We told them that they could take all the monsters’ parts.”
In addition, they could enter Mount Damos from now on, so from the perspective of the villagers, it was like they hit the jackpot.
“Oh, you’re right. Anyway, what about my notice?”
It could become a problem if the notice was found.
When Cordelia looked around, Jude grinned and took out what he had hidden in his pocket.
“I’ve already recovered it. Destruction of evidence is one of the basics.”
“Oooooh.”
A special powder was spread on the notice, so it was possible to track its location with a single magic even in this messy place.
“See that, Melissa? That’s my Jude.”
[Uh… yes.]
Destruction of evidence is a crime.
As Melissa held back from saying her thoughts again, the black-hearted Jude and the newly black-hearted Cordelia looked at each other and smiled before they began to go down the mountain together.
***
When the mayor of the village near Mount Damos was reading the letter from Jude and Cordelia with a surprised face, the two were running along the mountain path while in a ‘merged’ state like always.
‘Well, I feel like I’ve gotten used to her strange words.’
Because at some point in time, ‘carrying her on his back’ became called as ‘merging.’
Anyway, Jude stopped for a while as he fixed Cordelia’s position before he spoke.
“Let’s decide our course again at this point.”
“Don’t we have to go southwest from here since there’s a branch of the Guardians of the Holy Cross there?”
The branches of the Guardians of the Holy Cross were usually located deep in the mountains, but the branch the two were heading to was different.
This 300-year-old branch of the Guardians of the Holy Cross was in the trading city of St. Crute, located at the entrance to the southern region between the border of the central and southern regions.
“It’s a case wherein a village was formed in the place of the original branch, and the village grew, becoming a trading city.”
“I know that.”
“Yes, but I thought that I have to explain it anyway.”
Jude had a bitter smile before he continued.
“Anyway, if we want to go from here to St. Crute, we have to use the Senez Ca.n.a.l or cross the Kanos Mountains that’s connected to Mount Damos.”
“Yes, that’s the usual route, right?”
“It’s the usual route.”
Jude smiled and Cordelia asked as she hugged Jude’s neck.
“What is it, what is it? Is there another secret route that only you know?”
“Well…something like that.”
It was actually the route that Valencia had taught him last night.
Jude fixed Cordelia’s position and turned to the south as he said.
“You do know that if you go straight down here, you’ll see the Forest of Eternity, right?”
“Yes, but that’s the forest of the elves.”
Unlike the dwarves who lived and did business with humans, the elves in the Sälen Kingdom totally avoided contact with humans.
The Forest of Eternity now was even sealed with a powerful barrier magic developed during the era of the magic kingdom, Magellan, so it was no different from the realm of demons for humans because once they step inside, they could no longer come out.
“In the game, one could only enter after the fall of the Sälen Kingdom, right?”
“Because the elves were also attacked by the demons.”
In the midst of the destruction of the southern region after the northern and central regions of the Sälen Kingdom, the elves who had been consistent with their seclusion policy eventually had to face the demons alone and were defeated.
“The last king of the elves went mad and became an undead.”
“I remember him. His name was Kelthur. In the background setting, he inherited the throne after four months… he must be a prince now, right?”
“Probably. He’s the first in the line of succession or something like that.”
In any case, that wasn’t what mattered now.
Now that the northern and central regions were in good shape, the Forest of Eternity would not fall if the southern region’s collapse was completely prevented.
“Can’t we get help?”
“They won’t help because they still secluded themselves even when the country was being destroyed. And also because of the n.o.bles in the south.”
“I see. Anyway, why the Forest of Eternity? Is there a way for us to go through the barrier?”
“Yes.”
It was actually a path around the outside of the Forest of Eternity, but even with that, they would be able to reach St. Crute faster than any other route.
“Wow… How can you keep it to yourself? You didn’t post it in the ‘Legend of Heroes Guide’ website?”
“It’s the reason why I’m first place, remember?”
His words were quite annoying, but for some strange reason, she didn’t hate it.
Cordelia hugged Jude’s neck and said.
“Anyway, let’s hurry up.”
“Yes, Madam.”
After he firmly secured Cordelia’s position, Jude began running towards the south.
***
The Forest of Eternity looked like a mysterious place.
Large trees that were around 10 meters tall were lined up like walls, and a thick fog spread throughout the day, making the surroundings hard to distinguish.
“Hey, do you really know the way? Can we go out when we go in?”
When Cordelia asked with an anxious face, Jude nodded his head.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? Wait, I thought that you’ve been through here?”
“No, I mean… wait for a while.”
The awkwardly smiling Jude broke two flowers blooming nearby and chanted the spell Valencia had taught him.
“Good, here.”
Jude put the red flower in his waist, and put the remaining white flower in Cordelia’s hair.
“What is this?”
“It’s a sign. With this, the forest will recognize us as elves… or to be exact, as inhabitants of the forest.”
“Then, we won’t get lost here?”
“Yes.”
Probably.
Jude held back from saying his last thought and turned around as he began walking. It was not that he didn’t trust Valencia, but the atmosphere of the forest was so terrible that his heart was pounding.
Cordelia was also wary of their surroundings, and she hugged Jude’s neck tighter than usual.
After 10 minutes.
In order to not provoke the elves, Jude walked along the border of the forest, but at some point, the two simultaneously looked at one place.
Because Jude perceived it with his sharp senses while Cordelia with her animal-like instincts.
“That way.”
“It’s coming.”
Cordelia jumped off Jude’s back and closed her eyes as she listened to the sounds.
She figured out the situation as if she was really like a wild animal.
“I can barely hear footsteps. It’s a very light step. But they’re being chased. The pursuers are running wildly. Their number is at least seven, I think?”
When did she develop such a skill?
Jude turned to the direction Cordelia had pointed instead of asking her.
Cordelia said afterwards.
“They’ll get caught soon if we don’t help.”
They were in a situation where they didn’t know on who was being chased or who was chasing.
But Jude and Cordelia began running in the direction of the sound they heard.
If the person being chased was on the good side, the two would help that person, but if the person was on the bad side, the two would capture that person.
It was a very simple logic.
Naturally, they had a choice of pretending to not know and just pa.s.s by, but that was impossible for the two.
Because it was the habit of rotten waters on not to miss an incident when it occurs!
“Is anyone there! Help!”
The voice of a woman sounded crystal clear and urgent.
Jude and Cordelia’s speed became a little faster.