#215. World Tree (3)
—
Throughout their journey across the wasteland, attacks by the homunculi continued without pause, day and night.
“One on the left! It’s going to crash!”
“Confirmed!”
KWAANG─!
The homunculi relentlessly rammed their vehicles into the bus.
Though they often failed to inflict serious damage—sometimes even overturning and burning themselves instead—there was not a trace of fear of death in their vessels.
Only two emotions were discernible in them:
Blood-red rage.
Pitch-black malice, thick as oil.
“Where are they coming from so endlessly? From the way they act, it’s like their sole purpose is to sacrifice themselves just to slow the bus down, even a little,” Grine said.
Ray agreed.
‘These homunculi… they’re like bullets.’
From the beginning, they were disposable weapons, created to set themselves ablaze and damage the enemy as they perished.
KWAANG─!
“…….”
Veronica watched silently, her expression complicated, as another vehicle engulfed in flames disappeared into the distance.
Having journeyed alongside Ray for a long time, she had grown somewhat accustomed to the deaths of people.
However—
KWAANG─!
It was difficult to remain indifferent when witnessing such an unending succession of lives being extinguished.
Artificial lifeforms called homunculi.
They were highly likely to be such, but outwardly, they still resembled humans.
Seeing the sorrow and confusion flickering in the girl’s vessel, the boy asked,
“Are you alright?”
“…I’m fine.”
Though Veronica’s expression was dark, she did not retreat.
The mansion, too, had fallen into a near-constant state of siege, almost resembling a war zone.
There was nowhere to flee, and she instinctively understood that similar situations would repeat countless times going forward.
At that moment, Curiosa, who had boarded the bus via the spatial corridor, descended to the first floor.
“Damn it! That mansion—why the hell is it in such a remote place? No buildings, no people, nothing around. No wonder those homunculi, those bug-like bastards, are swarming in without hesitation.”
“If it gets too much, go seek out the Church. If you ask for help from a priest named Solite, they’ll surely lend a hand,” Ray suggested.
“Hmph, help? I don’t need that. Not when *I’m* around. Even the brats in the mansion are proving more useful than expected. It’s just a little annoying how many of them there are.”
Scoffing, Curiosa rattled a handful of crimson stones she pulled from her coat.
They appeared to be spoils taken from the fallen homunculi.
“See here. My loot.”
“Doctor, where do he get so many of these red stones?” Ray asked.
“Maybe he don’t *get* them at all,” Curiosa replied smugly. “Isn’t it impressive?”
“You’re suggesting he *produce* them?”
“You’re quick on the uptake. Impressive, isn’t it?”
“Sure, it’s impressive—gathering this many trophies from fallen enemies,” Ray said, even clapping for effect.
Pleased by Ray’s reaction, Curiosa continued explaining.
“The Doctor recruited the current executives more than twenty years ago.”
“The burned building in the photo on your hut’s wall?”
“Yeah, that’s the Shenris Orphanage, where the executives lived when they were young. Even back then, the Doctor had a massive supply of crimson stones. If you behaved well, he would hand you one as a reward. We always wondered how much he had. Was his pouch connected to an endless space or something?”
Production rather than supply.
It was a plausible theory.
Crimson stones weren’t something found on the open market.
Moreover, in all the sectors they had traversed, there had been no mention of mines producing red gemstones.
“The Doctor is the most unfathomable person I’ve ever met. It wouldn’t be strange at all if he were mass-producing crimson stones using some unknown technology.”
“Given that he uses ancient script, he might even be a person of a bygone era,” Ray added.
“Could be,” Curiosa agreed. “Maybe he’s just a guy with a lot of knowledge, like me. But still, the possibility you mentioned can’t be dismissed. If he’s from the ancient times… damn, the thought he might not even be human gives me chills.”
Curiosa reached out from under her cloak, miming wiping her mask.
“Why is he so wary of me?”
“Hmm, to be fair, the Doctor *does* seem to be acting like someone with a guilty conscience.”
Curiosa began ticking off the facts she had gathered about Ray.
“He knows about you. He stays out of direct conflict, almost like he’s afraid of you. He tried to cover up ancient records in the ruins’ tower. It’s classic behavior of someone scared their wrongdoings will be exposed.”
“Scared of being found out?”
“Yeah. It’s a childish kind of psychology, really.”
At that moment, all enemy vehicles pulled away from the bus.
With a brief respite, Veronica and Grine moved closer to listen in.
“Curie, may we listen too?” Grine asked.
“Is it about psychology?” Veronica added.
The sudden attention flustered Curiosa a little, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“Hmph, it’s nothing special, but since everyone wants to hear, I’ll tell you. It’s from when I lived at Shenris Orphanage as a kid. Back then, I was famous as the Cookie Slayer.”
“The Cookie Slayer?”
“Yeah, no matter where the headmaster hid the cookie jars, I would find them all and bring about their end. But afterward, I was always filled with regret. I knew the headmaster would punish me.”
“So what did you do?”
“I tried to cover it up. I’d hide the broken jars, bribe witnesses, and delay the discovery for as long as possible. Of course, it always ended in disaster.”
Now, Curiosa said, she thought differently.
Maybe she should have just confessed every time she did something wrong.
“And if you had?”
“I’d have been punished less harshly. At least I wouldn’t have lied. What feels like a catastrophic mistake to a child often looks trivial to an adult. Anyway, that’s the feeling I get. Like the Doctor is hiding some enormous mistake.”
Veronica raised her hand.
“But the Doctor isn’t a child, right? From what you’re saying, he’s probably really old.”
Curiosa shrugged.
“Then the mistake must be huge. So big that even if he confessed, forgiveness would be impossible.”
*
*
*
At some point, the homunculi stopped appearing.
“Have they run out of troops?”
“Or maybe they’re retreating temporarily to change tactics.”
The exact reason was unknown.
Regardless, they were relieved that nothing would delay their arrival anymore.
WUUUUUNG──
After passing through a massive distortion field spread across the wasteland, they spotted Rael Row at a standstill inside.
The elders, led by Parun, spotted the bus and hurried toward it on their short legs.
Thick helmets and cloaks covered their faces and bodies, protecting their skin from even the faintest sunlight.
“Haha! I told you, didn’t I? That they would return! Ray! You may be too young to understand the ways of the world, but surely you know the eternal truth: one must always keep their promises—”
Parun, excitedly lecturing about age, locked eyes with Grine.
The eyes of the 224-year-old elf narrowed dangerously.
“Age, you say?”
“Ahem.”
The 184-year-old dwarf quickly averted his gaze and addressed Ray again.
“Forget the age talk. As you get older, you start talking nonsense… Ah, I didn’t mean *you*, Grine. Anyway, Ray, I never doubted you would keep your word.”
“Because a promise must be kept.”
“Exactly, exactly.”
It was only natural that the elders were so elated.
Ray held the electrostone that powered Rael Row.
Had Ray broken his promise and not returned, Rael Row would have been doomed to wander the wasteland until the stored mana eventually ran out.
After shaking hands with the elders, Ray looked up at Rael Row.
At the top, in the watchtower.
A silhouette was visible.
Though the face was obscured by a helmet, Ray sensed the figure was looking straight at him.
The helmet dipped slightly.
Ray also dipped his head slightly.
After exchanging the brief greeting, Ray turned back to the elders.
“How’s the soil? It looks good from what I can see.”
Veronica chimed in beside him.
“Right! I’ve been collecting soil samples from outside the sectors, and this is by far the best I’ve seen! There’s barely any black rain staining, and there are traces of recent plant growth everywhere!”
Veronica was genuinely delighted.
A large quantity of white mana gathered in a corner of her vessel—and after observing it briefly, Ray recognized the emotion.
‘Worry.’
A pure concern for the future of the dwarf race.
Maybe sensing that sincerity, the elders’ attitude toward Veronica grew noticeably more respectful.
“Indeed, beautiful young lady,” one said. “We’ve already measured the soil’s nutritional state with our equipment, and the results were astounding. In all our years wandering the wasteland, we’ve never found soil this fertile.”
Veronica whispered excitedly to Ray,
“He called me beautiful…!”
“By dwarf standards, that means you’re very efficiently built.”
Veronica’s eyes turned square as she reached out to pinch Ray’s arm.
While Ray easily fended off the attack, Parun continued speaking.
“We investigated the area thoroughly and found only one possible reason for the soil’s richness.”
Parun looked up.
Everyone followed his gaze.
Above the top of Rael Row, stretching vertically into the sky.
Above that, the clouds were visibly thinner than elsewhere.
“The sky we know is always shrouded in clouds—dim sunlight, gloomy vision, constant black rain. But as you said, Ray, here, the clouds are noticeably fewer. It’s as if an invisible force is preventing them from forming. Naturally, less black rain falls, and the soil remains intact.”
One of the other elders, who had been nodding as he listened, spoke up.
“We have concluded that this underground area can serve as a sufficient foundation. That is, if you and Miss Grine’s claim about the World Tree is true — that planting it here can permanently maintain the current state.”
The soil beneath the Sky Island was likely to be in better condition than elsewhere.
It was fortunate that this aligned with their initial predictions.
Ray parted his lips to speak.
“It’s probably because of the island positioned above, beyond those clouds. That’s why there’s so little cloud formation in this area.”
On the night when the mana storm devoured all the clouds in the sky and the stars shone brightly—
What the boy saw was an island floating far away in the night sky.
Its speck-like size made him realize just how vast the distance between here and there truly was.
‘There was definitely mana there.’
Even so, the boy had clearly observed it.
He had seen colorful mana encircling the island, blocking the approach of the black smoke, almost as if protecting it.
“……”
And now, the boy gazed up at the sky, blurred and obscured by clouds, and thought to himself.
Perhaps what the Doctor truly intended to hide—
‘…might be up there.’
The Doctor knew his destination.
The homunculi seemed to be trying to prevent them from reaching their next destination.
At first, he thought they were trying to stop him from reaching Rael Row.
But he soon reached a different conclusion.
‘Rael Row doesn’t have any significant records of the ancient era.’
The dwarves, who viewed history as inefficient, had erased all historical documents.
And most of the oral traditions had been forgotten as well.
If the Doctor’s goal was to conceal something from the ancient era, Rael Row would not be the place he would need to block.
Then why had the Doctor unleashed homunculi to interfere with this journey?
His line of thought naturally returned to one place.
‘The island floating high in the sky.’
Something was up there.
And the Doctor simply did not want them to get any closer to it.
Thinking that way made the Doctor’s recent actions understandable.
Afterward, preparations to plant the World Tree proceeded quickly.
There were three necessary items.
“These are the two vials of potion we found in Binjin’s vault. According to the note written in ancient script, they’re supposed to greatly accelerate plant growth.”
The first was the two vials of growth enhancer that Ray had intentionally saved.
“Normally, this device is used to promote the growth of edible plants that spread their roots underground, but it should still have some effect on plants that grow upward toward the sky.”
The second was an electrode device developed with the dwarves’ own technology.
“And this is the best-quality seed I have.”
The third was the World Tree seed that Grine possessed.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle—
The potion was generously poured over the soil where the seed had been planted, and the activated electrode device stimulated the surrounding ground.
“We didn’t have three ingredients — we had four.”
Grine, looking down at the soil, turned to someone and said.
“It’s you, Ray.”
A green gemstone was handed over.
From the green gemstone placed in the boy’s hand, a massive amount of mana poured out, seeping into the soil.
Soon after—
Crack, crack, crack──!
The World Tree began to sprout at an incredible speed, revealing itself to the world.
In that moment, the boy was already thinking of one possible method to ascend to the Sky Island.
—
