Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 83

Matana couldn’t believe her eyes.

She had prayed desperately for help, and someone had actually come to her rescue.

As the figure turned to face her, tears streamed down Matana’s face.

“Oppa!”

Summoning her strength, Matana pushed herself up and ran to Nemitz, embracing him tightly.

“Oppa! Waaaaah… I was so scared! Waaah…”

“It’s okay now, it’s okay now.”

Nemitz held his beloved sister close.

“This place is dangerous. Let’s go somewhere safer.”

“Okay!”

Nemitz carried the limping Matana to a spot he had scouted out beforehand.

Located on a steep hill near the edge of the Elven forest, it was relatively safe from large monster attacks.

Moreover, it had a spring nearby and several fruit trees, making it an ideal place for the two mothers and daughter to live.

Nemitz gently set Matana down and climbed a tree, infusing it with mana to create a small house.

This was a power unique to elves.

Matana, being an elf herself, could also use it, but she wasn’t as skilled as Nemitz. Skill in this area required considerable practice.

After helping Matana into the treehouse, Nemitz carefully laid her on the bed and gathered water and fruit, storing them in a corner.

Then, he approached Matana, took her hand, and said,

“I’m always on your side, you know that, right?”

“Yes! Oppa!”

Despite her pain, Matana was cheerful.

Seeing his sister like this pained Nemitz. As he always did before bed, he kissed her forehead.

On her forehead was the brand of the outcast.

“I have to go back now. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

At the mention of his leaving, Matana grabbed Nemitz’s sleeve tightly.

“Can’t you stay?”

“I need to go back now so I can come again tomorrow. It’s safe here, so rest comfortably. Okay?”

“Oppa, don’t go… Oppa, don’t gooooo.”

Matana burst into tears.

“Don’t cry. I’ll definitely come tomorrow. Do you trust me? I promise in the name of the spirits!”

“You have to come! You have to come see Matana!”

“Yes, I understand. I’ll definitely come.”

“Uncle, bye-bye!”

Matana waved Green’s little hand, who was in her arms, at Nemitz, and Green smiled brightly at him.

However, Nemitz’s gaze towards Green was cold.

He couldn’t bring himself to see the child as his niece.

To him, the child was nothing more than the offspring of the Orc who had stolen his beloved sister.

“I’ll come again tomorrow. Take care.”

Nemitz left the house and sprinted towards the village.

His heart was filled with a dark rage. He hated everything.

He wanted to kill all the Orcs who had brought his beloved sister to this state, and he loathed the beast’s child who was smiling in Matana’s arms.

He resented the council of elders, his mother, everyone who had driven his beloved sister out of the village.

From that moment on, Nemitz’s personality began to change, little by little.

25. Uninvited Guests in the Night

Jikyon and Elrika came to find Kang Chan the day after they transferred.

The conscripted soldiers, who were resting, were startled awake when Jikyon and Elrika suddenly opened a spatial gate [a portal through space] in the middle of the night and burst into the tent, some even falling over in surprise.

It was no wonder they were shocked when such celestial beauties suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

Jikyon and Elrika were just as surprised as the soldiers.

“Huh! What is this? Is this really the barracks?”

The tent, which resembled a refugee camp, was filled with a terrible stench, and emaciated soldiers were packed tightly together.

“Oh? You’re here?”

“You’re staying in a place like this?”

“Why? It’s cozier than you think.”

The conscripted soldiers were surprised yet again.

The celestial beauties might be sleeping in their barracks.

They began to carefully tidy up their surroundings, without being told to do so.

Jikyon, watching them, called out to Elrika.

“Hey, kid!”

“Yes.”

“Go outside and build a house.”

“Huh?!”

“Elves can build houses as long as they have trees.”

“W-Well, I’ve never built one before…”

Building a huge house, not just a small tool, consumed a tremendous amount of mana, so she, still young, had never built a house before.

“Then… are you going to sleep here?”

Jikyon pointed to the grimy soldiers who were subtly cleaning and asked. Elrika shouted loudly, as if she had suddenly come to her senses.

“I’ll try! It’s my first time, but I feel like I can do it!”

“Of course, you have to. Let’s go right now.”

As Jikyon and Elrika fled the barracks, the cleaning soldiers wore very regretful expressions and rushed to the entrance, following them.

This caused a commotion at the entrance.

“Hey, aren’t you coming out? Get out of the way! I said move!”

Pibro was the most frantic.

He was desperate to catch even a glimpse of the elves’ beauty. But everyone else was just as desperate, so there was no room for compromise.

Elrika, who had come outside, slowly took a deep breath and tried to touch the huge tree right next to the barracks, attempting to communicate with it in the ancient language.

But soon, a scream erupted from her mouth.

“Kyaa!”

“What’s wrong?”

“T-This tree has drunk too much blood…”

“Is it wrong for a tree to drink blood?”

Jikyon often squeezed the blood of other races and gave it to the trees as fertilizer, so she wondered if that was a problem and questioned Elrika’s words.

“No, it’s not just because of the blood…”

“Then?”

“This tree is full of the souls of soldiers who died bleeding. If a tree like this gets old, it can become a Destri [a malevolent tree spirit] that harms people.”

“Then should we burn it down and plant a new one?”

As Jikyon tried to burn the tree, Kang Chan stepped forward.

“Instead of that, leave it to Exorcist Loki.”

Loki asked back at Kang Chan’s words.

“Exorcist? What’s that?”

“Since when did he become an exorcist?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later.”

Kang Chan passed Jikyon and took Loki to the tree.

“Loki, come here and just hug the tree for one minute.”

“Like this?”

“Yes.”

As Kang Chan put Loki on the tree and quietly watched for one minute, Jikyon snorted as if he was pathetic.

“What is this? It’s stupid.”

“Just watch quietly.”

“……”

After one minute, Elrika spoke to the tree again. Then her reaction was quite different from before.

“Oh? It works! I can talk to the tree! The tree says that all the souls of the dead soldiers have run away.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

Jikyon was shocked to hear that the resentful souls of the dead soldiers had fled.

Kang Chan nodded as if he knew it would happen.

“I knew it…”

Now everything was clear.

The strongest monster, Loki, who made even ghosts run away in fear, was a walking exorcist.

Loki, who had suddenly become an exorcist, was just bewildered, not understanding the current situation well.

“Then I’ll start now…”

Elrika, who was able to talk to the tree thanks to Loki, began to speak to the tree in the ancient language and build a house on it.

As the tree slowly transformed into a house-like shape, exclamations burst out from the mouths of the watching soldiers.

“Wow!”

“H-How can such a thing happen!”

“S-She’s a goddess.”

Elrika’s appearance, wrapped in dazzling light, was like a goddess to the soldiers, so they stared blankly at her.

However, as time passed, Elrika’s face became paler and paler.

It was too much for Elrika’s mana, who had not yet become an adult, to build a house alone.

Then Jikyon smiled wickedly.

“Hoo, so that’s how you make it. It’s a very interesting technique.”

Jikyon, an Ancient-grade Green Dragon, immediately understood how Elrika was changing the shape of the tree.

Soon, Jikyon approached Elrika, put her hand on her back, and began to infuse her with mana.

“Huh! Lady Jikyon!”

Elrika was embarrassed when a tremendous amount of mana suddenly poured into her. Jikyon ignored Elrika’s words and continued to infuse her with mana.

Then, the tree, which had been changing into a house, began to grow at an incredible speed, different from before.

Jikyon began to create the living space she wanted, using Elrika as a medium.

“Look closely! This is the scale of a dragon! Ahahahahaha!”

“Huh! Jikyon! This is too big!”

Jikyon’s work, which combined even other surrounding trees, continued to grow, pushing away the conscripted soldiers’ tents. The completed house was so large that it could be called a mansion.

“Whew~ This is pretty much to my liking.”

“……”

Elrika looked at the house she had made and couldn’t help but be shocked.

She had never seen a house of this size even in the Elven Forest.

Even if they tried to make it, all the elders would have to rush in to help; it was that huge.

Kang Chan shook his head at the huge five-story wooden mansion that had been illegally built in the barracks, and thousands of conscripted soldiers poured out with their weapons.

Soon, they screamed as they looked at the huge wooden structure in front of them.

“What’s going on? Huh! What is that?”

“No! Where did that come from!”

“Is it the enemies’ doing?”

The thousands of conscripted soldiers were very nervous and quickly formed an attack formation.

But Jikyon, who had no interest in them at all, was only immersed in the work she had created.

“It’s cool, isn’t it?”

“Jikyon, there’s no need to build it so grandly, is there?”

“Why? What’s wrong with it being big since we’re building it anyway? We’re just going to use it for a while and throw it away.”

“Then what are you going to do with our collapsed barracks?”

“Why? You can live here with us, can’t you?”

When Kang Chan pointed to the 50 conscripted soldiers who were hesitating like homeless puppies, Jikyon’s face crumpled.

“What? Are you saying we should bring those dirty things into my house?”

“You destroyed their house.”

“We can just rebuild that kind of thing.”

Jikyon had no intention of bringing the dirty conscripted soldiers into her house.

Soon, Jikyon restored the destroyed tent to its original state in an instant with dragon language magic. Then she smiled at Kang Chan as if to show off.

“Okay?”

Her heart, building a huge five-story mansion where hundreds of people could live and not trying to let anyone in, was indeed worthy of a dragon’s heart.

“I can’t stop you.”

“U-Um…”

“…?”

When Kang Chan turned his head to the person who called him, a regular army officer who commanded the conscripted soldiers was standing awkwardly in front of Kang Chan.

“Kang Chan-nim [a Korean honorific], I’m sorry to interrupt you, but who are those people?”

Even the regular army commander, the highest-ranking officer in the unit, used extreme honorifics to Kang Chan.