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Chapter 47
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“Are you planning to destroy Elium now?”
“With all this fine wood lying around, how much longer are you going to leave it unused?”
The conflict between elves and dark elves has existed since ancient times.
Dark elves are artisans who refine natural materials, whereas elves prioritize protecting nature itself.
Dark elves had no choice but to utilize resources outside of Elium to develop their skills.
This made them well-known even among humans and other races.
However, as the light of magical engineering began to illuminate the world,
the dark elves’ techniques gradually faded into the shadows, just like their skin.
“…This isn’t helping.”
“That’s right. All they think about is destroying the grace of our Mother.”
The dark elves increasingly spent their time idly within Elium.
They could not even manage the World Tree.
Since they were naturally unable to handle mana well, they couldn’t care for the World Tree, which breathes the world’s mana.
As the dark elves became idlers, the elves began to ignore and discriminate against them more and more.
This disregard and oppression fueled the dark elves’ growing resentment.
They even came to resent the World Tree that had created them this way.
Even though they were born from the same Mother, the dark elves and elves were entirely different.
The elves had clear white skin and radiant platinum hair.
The dark elves had bronze skin and jet-black hair.
While both races were beautiful, the contrast between black and white was striking.
The most significant difference was that dark elves couldn’t handle mana.
The elves looked down on them for not being able to breathe in harmony with their Mother, the World Tree.
Of course, the dark elves had no choice in how they were born.
“Our Mother, huh… to us, it’s just a big tree.”
This was what one dark elf muttered one day.
Of course, he likely didn’t truly mean to insult the World Tree.
Children often complain about their parents.
But the elves reacted differently.
“What did you just say?”
An elf, glaring fiercely, spoke up.
“Ah, no…”
The dark elf hesitated, startled.
But soon, anger welled up inside him.
He couldn’t understand the elf’s murderous glare.
Every day, they discriminated against him, calling him inferior for not being able to commune with the World Tree.
The dark elves’ skills were always ignored, treated as destructive tendencies to harm nature—a long-standing insult.
The dark elves were simply born that way.
And it was none other than the World Tree that made them this way.
He could no longer endure the oppression he faced in Elium.
“…Did I say something wrong?”
“What?”
“If it’s true that our Mother created us, shouldn’t you be blaming her? Who’s the one who insults us every day and treats us as inferior?”
“Are you insulting our Mother now?”
“No, I’m just saying you’re ridiculous. Your hypocrisy is disgusting!”
Their voices quickly grew louder.
At the sound, other elves and dark elves began to gather.
“What’s going on, brothers?”
“That man dared to insult our Mother. As her son, how could I…”
“Insult our Mother? I only stated the truth. If I insulted anyone, it’s you. You’re the ones who discriminate against us and treat us as inferior even though we’re all children of the same Mother! You act all high and mighty because you were born able to handle a little mana! Yet, you still live off the fruits of the forest!”
“That’s a grace our Mother has allowed us! It’s not the same as cutting down trees for wood!”
“Did our Mother say that? That’s just your self-righteous interpretation! You hypocrites…!”
“What did you just say?!”
A small argument quickly escalated into a larger conflict between the two races.
The elves were enraged, claiming that the dark elves had insulted the World Tree.
The dark elves’ long-simmering resentment toward the elves erupted.
The conflict grew even larger, eventually leading to a war between the two races.
The dark elves, unable to match the elves who could wield magic, were ultimately banished to what is now Dihelium.
Banished to Dihelium, the dark elves had to fend for themselves.
Instead of eating fruit, they had to hunt.
Due to Dihelium’s lack of resources, they had to trade with humans.
Thunk!
It was after this that Kilia was walking to a nearby city to purchase goods.
Someone shot an arrow at her, which landed right at her feet.
“Go back, apostate. Do not let your filthy feet tread on the grace of our Mother.”
It was a group of elves passing by.
Seeing them, Kilia’s anger surged.
“What grace of our Mother? You disgusting bastards.”
Although there was an Elium nearby, it wasn’t within the forest’s territory.
The encounter was clearly just an excuse to attack the dark elves.
Even after that, dark elves continued to face threats whenever they encountered elves.
This only deepened the dark elves’ hatred for the elves.
The World Tree never spoke or conveyed any intentions.
The dark elves thought the elves’ self-righteous beliefs and hypocritical behaviour were absurd.
The history of suffering dark elves had endured made it impossible for them to love either the elves or their so-called Mother, the World Tree.
“…This isn’t working. No matter what we try, this prison won’t open. The blocks it’s made of are indestructible.”
The room where they were trapped after being chased by the piglins.
According to the books, this was likely somewhere within the Nether’s Piglin Bastion.
“There was nothing like this mentioned in the books…”
The books they had read in the library didn’t mention anything about piglins acting like this.
Nor had they ever seen monsters intentionally destroy the portal they came through.
“Sigh… Just my luck.”
Kilia shot a glare at Riana before logging out of the game and logging back in again.
“…The only ways to escape here are either to die or wait for someone outside to rescue us.”
Even after reconnecting, their location remained the same.
If they died, they could respawn at a set location, but there was no need to go that far.
All they needed to do was log in and ask their teammates in real life to come rescue them.
If enough people came, they might be able to deal with the hordes of piglins.
Both Kilia and Riana logged out of the game and returned to reality to call for help.
Then, after some time, they logged back in and found themselves back in the prison.
“My teammates will come to rescue me soon.”
“…Same here.”
Even if their teammates managed to cross into the Nether, it was uncertain how long it would take them to fight through the piglins and reach the prison.
To escape at the right moment, they had no choice but to stay logged in.
The awkward silence lingered in the empty prison.
The two of them sat on the floor without saying a word for a long time.
Occasionally, they could see piglins wandering outside the iron bars.
“…You people. Are you dark elves?”
The first to break the silence was Riana.
She had been listening to their conversation and had guessed that they were dark elves.
“You figured that out fast. Typical clueless elf.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“This? You’re the ones whining pathetically because you can’t accept your loss.”
“T-That’s…”
Riana was momentarily at a loss for words.
She couldn’t argue back because it was true.
“And what about before that? Destroying the World Tree—was that something all the dark elves conspired to do together?”
“Typical elf, ignoring anything inconvenient and only saying what suits you.”
“……”
Riana was hit hard again.
Kilia, familiar with elves, knew their patterns of speech and thought processes all too well.
“…I made it myself. Unlike someone who needs their entire race to work together just to build a single tree, we can handle something like that on our own.”
“Ugh…”
“The second wager, though—that one involved my kindred because I asked for their help.”
“So, why did you do it? What exactly do you people think of the World Tree?”
Kilia stared at Riana with weary eyes.
After a moment of silence, Kilia finally spoke.
“What do you think? It’s just a big tree.”
“You…!”
“A ridiculously massive tree. Even the Tower Masters of Trinity couldn’t destroy it. A tree that purifies all the world’s mana. And we were born from its roots.”
Riana looked at Kilia in stunned silence.
She hadn’t expected her to speak in such a way.
She had always thought dark elves simply hated the World Tree.
“That’s all. If you call it Mother, then it’s Mother. If you call it a big tree, then it’s just a big tree. Sure, you might receive its grace without any filter, but that’s not the case for everyone.”
Her expression wasn’t one of simple hatred toward the World Tree.
“Of course, you’re still disgusting little prudes.”
“P-Prudes?”
“Yeah. That’s what the players in COL call your kind. Guess you acted so stiff and uptight that even humans gave you that nickname…”
Meanwhile, the expression Kilia wore when looking at Riana was clearly filled with disgust.
She really seemed to detest elves.
Riana, possibly feeling guilty, couldn’t respond either.
“…Huh?”
As Kilia looked around the room again, leaving Riana aside, she noticed something.
“What’s this? A lever base?”
It was a lever base where a stick could be inserted to turn it into a functional lever.
Kilia inserted a stick and pushed it.
Rumble…
A hidden door in one of the prison walls opened.
“There was nothing on the wall before…!”
“It must be a door that only opens with this lever.”
When she let go of the lever, the door closed again.
The lever wouldn’t stay fixed in place when the door was open.
“To keep the door open, someone has to hold the lever.”
Even using blocks or other devices, the lever wouldn’t stay fixed.
In other words, someone had to hold the lever for someone else to escape.
“If you want to leave, go ahead. I’ll wait here.”
“I’m staying too.”
However, there wasn’t any particular reason to escape through the door.
Both of them decided to wait for their teammates.
But shortly after, they were summoned back to reality.
“It’s not possible?”
“I guess we’ll just have to die or something…”
The dark elves told Kilia that rescuing her wasn’t an option.
There was no entrance from outside, and the walls couldn’t be broken.
There really was no solution other than dying.
“Got it for now.”
Kilia logged back into the game.
It seemed Riana had heard the same thing from the elves.
“Are you planning to die?”
“No. If we’re going to die anyway, isn’t it better to try escaping through that passage?”
In a situation where they either had to escape or die, Kilia decided to use the path she had discovered earlier.
Riana had the same thought.
“I was thinking the same.”
Only one person could leave at a time. Someone would have to hold the lever.
“Why don’t you just die?”
“No way.”
“I don’t want to either. Actually, hold on. Maybe I can find a way to secure the lever. Come here.”
At Kilia’s words, Riana walked over to the lever.
Following Kilia’s instructions, Riana held onto the lever.
“Now, while one person holds it like this, if I use this block…”
Kilia began tinkering with various things to try and secure the lever.
Dark elves were naturally skilled in such handiwork.
Knowing this, Riana obediently held the lever as instructed.
“Now, if I do this…”
Kilia swiftly put something together.
“Is it ready now?”
“That’s right. Now, all I have to do is… Now!”
“What?!”
Pretending to be working on something, Kilia suddenly leaped through the open door.
She disappeared beyond the passage.
Riana, startled, let go of the lever and ran, but the moment she released the lever, the door slammed shut.
-Hahaha! Stupid elf prude!
Kilia’s laughter echoed from beyond the wall.
Realizing she’d been tricked, Riana pounded the wall in frustration.
Meanwhile, Kilia, having dashed out through the secret passage, found herself…
“…Huh?”
…facing a dozing piglin.
She grabbed the prison key from its grasp.
Kilia turned to look back at the prison where Riana was still trapped.
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