Chapter 121: Elven Chronicle

Chapter 121: Elven Chronicle

This… The subordinate gods of the Second Epoch were truly hidden dragons and crouching tigers. First there was Herabergen, the Dragon of Wisdom, and now Salinger, the God of the Undead. These were both major figures who ultimately became Sequence 0 and ascended to the divine throne. Of course, as for the Dragon of Wisdom, that still cannot be said with certainty. It can only be said that the possibility is fairly high…

Mm, there are also the God of Dawn, Badheil, and the Goddess of Harvest, Omebella. It cannot be ruled out that They both lived all the way to the Fifth Epoch and are living quite well… I wonder whether Tolzna, the God of Spiritual Objects, and Amanises, the Goddess of Misfortune, survived the divine war at the end of the Second Epoch, when the Creator of the City of Silver “reclaimed” authority. If They escaped, what roles did They play in the Third Epoch, or even the Fourth Epoch? After a moment of shock, Klein sighed inwardly.

Then, thinking of the betrayal by the Kings of Angels in the Third Epoch, he could not help grumbling to himself:

Guard against fire, guard against theft, and guard against subordinate gods!

At this moment, Justice Audrey, who did not know too much about the true names and authorities of those subordinate gods, did not experience any emotional fluctuations. She played one female elf after another in Shatas’s memories, constantly conversing with her, allowing her to speak on her own about the past events of the Second Epoch that she had experienced and known.

According to Shatas, in the chronicles of the elves, there were not yet concepts such as the First Epoch and Second Epoch. In the earliest, unknown number of years, everything was chaotic, dark, and mad. There were almost no written records left behind. Only when extraordinary races gradually gained a certain degree of reason and developed their own writing systems did living beings begin to have some understanding of history.

During that era, ancient gods successively appeared in the world. The sky, earth, sea, and underground slowly transitioned from absolute disorder into a certain measure of order. But apart from the ancient gods, who possessed both tyranny and madness, no one could clearly determine just how many years that stage had taken. They only knew that it had been a very, very long time. The great extraordinary races all called it the “Age of Sprouting.”

After the Age of Sprouting came the “Age of Fire’s First Light,” when the eight ancient gods opposed one another in divided factions. This was likewise extremely distant from the time of Shatas’s birth. She could only learn through her race’s chronicles that, at the time, “quasi-humans” fought against nonhuman races and resisted the pollution and erosion of devils and demonic wolves. Among them, humanity existed as the vassals—or even slaves—of giants, elves, and Sanguine.

The duration of the Age of Fire’s First Light varied in different records, but one thing they had in common was that it lasted less than a thousand years. This was because the nature of ancient gods was madness, tyranny, cruelty, and coldness. Many times, They were driven by instinct.

After the Sanguine progenitor Lilith, the Mutant King Kvastir, and Flegrea, the Demonic Wolf of Destruction, fell in a betrayal, the Age of Fire’s First Light ended. Wars became frequent. The world was damaged, and several hundred years passed without peace.

Because giants and dragons were comparatively powerful during that period, it was called the “Age of Twin Dominance.”

Only after the five great races formed a new balance, and the Northern Continent, Southern Continent, Eastern Continent, and the five great seas recovered a certain degree of peace, was Shatas born and raised in that era—until she entered Groselle’s Travels.

Among the histories she described, the two most important pieces of information were: first, that the Eastern Continent truly existed and was the location of the Giant King’s Court; second, that after the Age of Sprouting, the great extraordinary races had in substance developed their own civilizations. They were not completely irrational in the way later generations suspected. Of course, tendencies toward tyranny, cruelty, coldness, and bloodlust were widespread. They all seemed to have been at least half out of control. Only after the Age of Twin Dominance did new-generation elves and new-generation giants become comparatively rational and possess emotions, just like Shatas and Groselle.

“The Eastern Continent seems to be the Forsaken Land of the Gods… Was it abandoned during the Cataclysm?” Similar thoughts appeared simultaneously in the minds of Klein, Leonard, and Audrey.

All three were very interested in this matter. Unfortunately, Shatas had always lived in the Elf King’s divine court. Even when she occasionally left, it was only to patrol the seas. She had never gone to the Eastern Continent and lacked sufficient understanding of it.

Under Justice Audrey’s influence, Shatas’s dream began presenting the elves’ living customs and the origin of their language.

Among the legends this attendant of the queen had heard, the elven language had been created by the king during the Age of Sprouting. Each word’s appearance had been accompanied by the birth of one first-generation elf. However many elven words there were, there had been that many first-generation elves.

As for the elves’ living customs, they were not especially unified, but depended heavily on the surrounding environment. There was no doubt that elves who lived in the sea and elves who lived in the forest differed tremendously in all kinds of customs.

The things they had relatively in common were: belief in the king, who was an ancient god, and His queen; a love of making food with the blood of prey; widespread use of roasting as a cooking method—even sea elves would often come onto reefs and hold a “bonfire party”; closeness to nature; skillful use of all kinds of spices; reverence for the strong; and pride in acting faster than thinking.

Myth and reality are mixed together, making it difficult to distinguish what is true and what is false… The part about living customs has destroyed some of my earlier guesses… Klein’s expression appeared unchanged as he listened, while his mind rapidly analyzed every sentence Shatas spoke.

After clarifying those related matters, Audrey took the keyword “Western Continent” and had Shatas’s dream change, reflecting memories present in her subconscious.

That coral palace once again returned to the eyes of Klein and the others. Shatas followed behind the Queen of Calamity, Cohinem, arriving before a crystal window.

She glanced at the queen’s exquisite and intricate long dress, secretly looked at this “deity” who wielded calamity, and asked with some curiosity,

“Your Highness, are you looking west?”

For the elves, as long as they did not feel violent oppression, they would ask any question they had right there.

“Why do you think so?” Cohinem did not turn around, asking with an indifferent expression.

“I just learned of a legend. We elves originated from the Western Continent,” Shatas answered. “Your Highness, does the Western Continent really exist? Is it truly the birthplace of the first-generation elves?”

The corners of Cohinem’s mouth rose slightly. Her voice was somewhat ethereal as she said,

“The Western Continent may exist, or it may not.

“Every race needs to give itself a glorious origin, a homeland for the soul.

“Shatas, where is the homeland in your heart?”

“My homeland?” Shatas repeated the question, answering with some confusion, “It is wherever the King and Your Highness are. It is this palace. It is the forest to which this palace can lead, where my parents live…”

As she spoke, Shatas’s emotions gradually sank, becoming lost and melancholy.

Clearly, she had been infected by the corresponding memories inside her own subconscious.

She had entered the book and left her homeland behind for two or three thousand years.

“So, to you, the Western Continent does not exist. But to some elves, it is absolutely real.” The Queen of Calamity, Cohinem, calmly gave her final answer.

Shatas asked no more, because she suddenly remembered that the queen was not a first-generation elf.

This exchange left Klein even more confused and puzzled. Fortunately, from the Second Epoch to the Fifth Epoch, the Western Continent had possessed no sense of existence at all and did not involve any important secrets related to him. He was only learning about it in passing and had not held much expectation.

After ending the guidance of Shatas’s subconscious, Audrey, Klein, and Leonard directly left because it was nearly noon and there were no other nearby dreams to jump to. They appeared inside Mobet and Shatas’s bedroom.

Looking at the Fourth Epoch viscount—firmly entangled by the elf, with her hand and foot pressing on him, curled up in the corner of the asymmetrical bed—Audrey’s expression suddenly softened. With a smile in her tone, she said,

“They seem quite fine this way…”

“No, no, no. Having such a violent, direct, imaginative, and daring wife is simply terrifying! Only someone like Mobet would like and enjoy it…” Leonard, who did not have a poet’s talent but possessed a poet’s free-spirited tendencies, stuck both hands into his trouser pockets and shook his head seriously.

At this point, he whispered thoughtfully,

“On the other hand, a seasoned Thief truly would need a woman like Shatas to keep him in check. Mm… I wonder what kind of partners the others in the Old Man’s family liked…

“Sigh. They do not need our envy or opposition. This is simply the way they get along. Emperor Roselle once had a poem that said: Life is precious, but love is worth more…”[1]

Klein listened to the two discuss the matter. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He did not say that Shatas and Mobet had actually already died, that only at the final moment of death had they truly felt the love between them. The ones living here were merely copies created by the book’s world.

After leaving the couple’s home, the three of them walked toward Groselle’s smithy.

On the way, while passing a street, Klein saw Longzel, known as the “philosopher.” Justice Audrey also recognized him at a glance as a Loenese.

“Is that the soldier from over a hundred years ago?” Audrey slowed her steps and asked.

Klein remembered Longzel’s yearning for home, and the ashes he had placed inside a Backlund cemetery. After two seconds of silence, he nodded gently.

“Yes.”

Mr. World is feeling somewhat sentimental… He is like a great river that appears calm on the surface, with many undercurrents and whirlpools below… Audrey nodded almost imperceptibly and said,

“Can we enter his dream? I would like to obtain the potion formulas for Judge and Disciplinary Paladin.”

“No problem.” As Klein answered, he glanced at Leonard.

Leonard still had both hands in his pockets, but his eyes instantly turned deep and dark.

Longzel, who sat on a chair by the roadside, fell asleep immediately.

The next second, the three appeared inside his dream.

This was a bustling city filled with many wooden-structured houses. Almost all the pedestrians coming and going were Loenese.

The black-haired, blue-eyed Longzel stood outside a house, looking at it from a distance, not quite daring to approach. Only after an elderly woman wearing an old dress walked out did he excitedly go forward, spreading his arms, attempting to embrace her.

His embrace passed straight through the woman. There was no intersection between them.

Longzel stood frozen in place. In a wooden voice, he called softly,

“Mother…”

Audrey, who had originally intended to directly guide the dream, quietly watched the scene until it ended. Then she looked around and discovered that iconic large clock.

“Backlund…” Audrey pressed her lips together and turned her head, her gaze restrained as she looked at Klein. “They cannot leave the book’s world?”

“Too much time has already passed. If they leave, they will directly age, die, and even weather away,” Klein said in a tone like a silently flowing river. “I sent one of Longzel’s belongings back to Backlund.”

This… As a Spectator, Audrey keenly detected the cruel reality hidden behind those words. She could not help raising her head and looking beyond the dream—toward the place where Mobet and Shatas were.

Leonard had originally wanted to ask what item it had been, but after looking left and right, he kept silent.

Next, Audrey earnestly guided the dream. After obtaining the two potion formulas, she let Longzel return home and live happily together with his parents, brothers, and sisters.

This was a beautiful dream.

After leaving Longzel’s location, Klein, Leonard, and Audrey soon saw Groselle’s home.

This was the final stop of their exploration. After they obtained information hidden inside the giant Groselle’s subconscious, they would enter the collective subconscious sea of this book world from there and search for the secret behind this book’s existence.

[1] From “Freedom and Love” by the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi.