#216. World Tree (4)
—
Beyond the clouds.
What could be on the island above?
If one could reach that place, perhaps they could gaze down upon the world, full of unanswered questions, all at once.
And perhaps they could look up at the unblemished sky without anything blocking their view.
His heart pounded.
His breath grew hot.
The emotion overflowing in the boy’s heart was a vivid green curiosity.
Resonating with him, green mana from the jewel poured down like a waterfall onto the soil where the seed had been planted.
And then, shortly after—
Crack—!
A sprout poked its head through the earth.
Growing, growing, and growing again with the gestures of life’s stirring, it swiftly passed through its infancy and youth to reveal a truly colossal form to the world.
“My goodness…!”
“Wh-what… is such a thing even possible?”
The overwhelming speed of growth forced everyone nearby to step back, stunned.
The elders, who had raised their heads in awe, saw a towering tree that rivaled even Rael Row’s height.
“I can’t believe my own eyes. That such a massive tree could exist in this world…”
“Look at the thickness of the trunk. Even if dozens of dwarves joined hands, they wouldn’t be able to fully encircle it.”
The stream of amazement was endless.
Thousands of branches shot out like bolts of lightning, covered in lush, translucent green leaves.
They shimmered under the faint sunlight, swaying gently, and the light that filtered through them rained down on the ground, magnified many times over.
There were no dark shadows cast.
Rather, the surroundings grew even brighter than before.
While everyone was left speechless by the surreal sight—
Tap.
The boy who had caused the miracle stumbled and lost his footing.
The girl quickly caught him.
“Are you okay?”
“…I’m fine. Veronica, let me go. I think I can still inject more mana into the World Tree.”
“You don’t look fine at all… You look completely exhausted.”
“I don’t even have something like facial expressions.”
“I can tell anyway.”
Ray struggled to slip out of Veronica’s arms.
But his body was completely drained, and he couldn’t even lift a finger.
Though he himself hadn’t yet realized it.
“Veronica, did you use enhancement magic? No, even that wouldn’t be enough for this strength. You must’ve been secretly doing a lot of strength training when Philip and I weren’t looking. Now that I see you, your arms look a bit thicker too.”
“Ray, are you asking for a death wish?”
At that moment, Grine approached and said,
“I agree with Miss Veronica. I think you should rest for now. You used the mana of the Life Stone for a full five minutes — and at an output that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of.”
“Five minutes? It only felt like thirty seconds to me.”
Grine smiled.
“That just means you were incredibly focused. So much that even your sharp sense of time became distorted.”
Ray was bewildered.
He wondered if they were lying, but when he checked the clock, it really had been that long.
“Thank you. Truly, only you could have accomplished this, Ray. I’ve never seen a World Tree with such a strong vitality before. I couldn’t even have imagined it. It’s beautiful, and astonishingly wondrous.”
Though her expression didn’t change much, Grine’s heart was overflowing with emotion.
Meanwhile, the dwarves brought over a long bench.
Veronica gently laid Ray down, using her lap as a pillow, and with a satisfied expression, she stroked his white hair.
“Ahh, how nice it is when you’re this quiet.”
“…”
It all happened so fast that he couldn’t even resist.
Turning his head to the side, Ray continued his conversation with Grine with a stern, serious face.
“I think it’s too soon to be thanking me. You said the World Tree in the Last Forest is large enough to cover an entire sector. But the one we have now still seems much smaller than that.”
“Yes, it’s much smaller. But I think it’s enough for us elves to make a new start.”
Ray looked skeptical.
“How many elves are in the Last Forest?”
“About 300, maybe? I’ve never done a precise count, but it should be about the same as the dwarves of Rael Row.”
“I can still make the World Tree grow bigger.”
“Well, it would be nice if it could grow more, but… we’ve already received so much help. I don’t want to burden you to the point it harms your health.”
“I’m just a little tired. I’m not hurt or anything. If it were mana from the atmosphere, maybe, but the mana from the jewel is extremely pure. I’ll be fine after a short rest. Right, Veronica?”
“You look like it, but still…”
Veronica’s lips pouted in dissatisfaction.
*
Swoooosh──
That afternoon, black rain began to fall.
A place where the black clouds were thinner than elsewhere.
But even so, the rain wasn’t something that could be taken lightly.
“……”
At the watchtower atop Rael Row—
Isra stared out at the world, where figures appeared and disappeared behind the falling rain.
Then—
“When do you think it’ll stop?”
“…!”
Startled by the voice behind him, he turned around in a panic.
Seeing Ray appear from the door leading inside, he sighed in relief.
“Ah, it’s just you.”
“I hope it stops as soon as possible.”
Ray came to stand beside him, gazing out past the railing.
Isra, still staring at Ray for a moment, turned his head forward as well.
“Yeah, it would be nice if it stopped soon. No one likes black rain. It’s gloomy, grimy… It just sickens the earth. Well, at least without the sun we can take off our helmets and coats.”
“Honestly, I don’t care much. Veronica hates it, though.”
“I’ve been wondering for a while now.”
Isra’ voice grew serious.
“Is she your girlfriend?”
“Girlfriend?”
Ray answered easily.
“Yeah. She’s a girl. And a friend.”
“…No, no, that’s not what I mean. Are you *dating*?”
“We’re dating as friends.”
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? I mean *romantic* love!”
“You’re asking if Veronica and I love each other?”
“Yeah, you idiot.”
Ray sank into thought.
Love — an emotion he had never been able to grasp clearly, even after observing the vessels of countless people.
Its silhouette and color always shifted.
Sometimes it looked like red anger.
Sometimes like yellow joy.
Sometimes like pink longing.
Sometimes like white worry, like snow.
…No.
In fact, he couldn’t even be sure if those were truly love.
It was only through a process of elimination that he concluded that the one emotion he couldn’t pair with any color must be what people called “love.”
Thus, the boy had no idea what the true nature of love was—and suspected, with high probability, that it was an emotion he might never truly understand.
Ray opened his mouth.
“I don’t really know.”
“Your own feelings?”
“Mine. Veronica’s. Both.”
“Are you stupid? It’s obvious that Veronica likes you.”
Ray thought for a moment and said,
“That’s true. Veronica likes me.”
“Exactly. Even an outsider can see it.”
“And I like Veronica, too.”
“Then you’re… no, no.”
Isra almost got dragged into Ray’s peculiar way of speaking.
“The ‘like’ you’re talking about is just simple fondness, right? Like ‘I like beef stew. I like jerky. I like Veronica.’ That kind of feeling.”
“There are different kinds of ‘liking’?”
“There’s the kind of liking that means *love*!”
“I have no idea what love even is.”
Isra twisted his body in frustration and eventually let out a deep sigh.
“I was hoping to get some advice if you were dating. Guess that was a bad idea. My mistake for even trying.”
“Advice?”
The conversation continued.
After helping Ray repel Vicious, Isra’ reputation had skyrocketed.
He had started mingling with others his age in Rael Row, and recently, among them, there was one girl he was growing closer with.
“That’s why I’ve been diligently taking those growth pills you gave me. Two pills a day. Trying to look even a little bit better. What do you think? Don’t I look taller than last time?”
Maybe a little.
About a thousandth of a centimeter.
“You’ve grown a lot. A little more and you’ll touch the sky.”
“Really? Right?! I’m still in my growth phase! And with the pills too, there’s no way I won’t grow!”
Even without the pills, Isra was considered fairly tall for a dwarf.
Just by eye, he seemed around 162–163 centimeters.
“If you really need advice, I’ll introduce you to my friend Philip later. He’s the complete opposite of me—he’s great with social stuff.”
“Hmm, if you’re recommending him, he must be impressive.”
A short silence fell between them.
Then Isra spoke up again.
“You were incredible earlier. Not every magician can wield such enormous power, right?”
“Probably not.”
“To be honest, before meeting you, I subconsciously looked down on magic. Dwarves believe in the supremacy of technology, and I grew up in that environment. But seeing what you’ve done today… I realize now that magic might have far greater possibilities than technology.”
Isra’ gaze turned outward.
Rael Row was situated right next to the World Tree now.
The World Tree had grown even larger, and from the watchtower, the vast branches and leaves could be seen up close.
Swooooosh──
Patter—! Pat pat pat—!
“Look at that. The branches and leaves are like a giant umbrella blocking all the rain. And they’re completely unscathed. This is something our technology in Rael Row can’t replicate yet.”
As Isra marveled, he eventually returned to his original topic.
“That’s why, from now on, I want to develop technology that integrates magic…”
It was a sincere reflection on outdated values.
Isra spoke at length and with seriousness—but Ray, meanwhile, was thinking about where they should head next, how to deal with the Doctor, and what to have for dinner, not listening at all.
Then Isra said,
“Hey, I think the rain’s stopped? I don’t hear it anymore. And the weather looks a bit brighter.”
Ray lifted his head.
Through a small gap in the leaves, he could see a clear blue sky.
And the underside of the floating island, appearing like a tiny dot.
But only for a moment.
The small scene was soon swallowed up by the black clouds rushing in.
‘…Those clouds must have come from other areas where it wasn’t raining.’
Despite pouring all that green mana into the World Tree, it still hadn’t reached the clouds.
Feeling a surge of impatience, Ray muttered to himself,
“…I need to make it taller. So it can touch the sky.”
Hearing that, Isra stared blankly for a moment, then made a deeply conflicted face.
After a fierce internal struggle—
He pulled out the bottle of growth pills from his pocket and offered it.
“Uh… want me to give these back?”
