..n, Zen?
I snapped out of my thoughts. It was the following day after I spoke to an actual Cosmic Being directly. We were waiting inside the Elemental guild, awaiting the Elementalist to speak with me. Rose tagged along with John, whom I was surprised wanted to be present for that audience.
I shuddered at the thought that I actually spoke to a God. John told me he couldn't hear anything when the God Of Deception showed himself. He said that everything was completely silent and he thought I had fallen asleep or something. I only informed him that I had solved the riddle that Pietro told me, but I kept silent about my communication with a Cosmic Being. I needed to ensure that only the person I trust knows about my discussion with the God Of Deception. Safe to say, only Rose was qualified to know, for now. She certainly checked my temperature when I told her about it, thinking I was losing it.
"Are you okay? You were sort of zoning out earlier," asked Rose.
"I'm fine. How much longer do we have to wait? It's been a while since we waited," I complained to John.
"Um, I'm sure it'll be soon. Just wait a while longer?" he smiled awkwardly.
I thought he said it sounded urgent from the Elementalist. But we had been waiting for about 15 minutes now, and we're still waiting. The whole guild seems to be in a hustle, as their members were rushing about constantly, as though they were preparing for something. Just then, we heard the footsteps of someone running closer to us. Is a messenger finally coming to inform us?
As we stared at the direction of the incoming footsteps, we were surprised to see the Elementalist himself was running towards our direction. A guildmaster running? Things must be dire.
"My apologies, I rushed over as soon as I could. Come, right this way, we can discuss in private," he gestured us to follow him.
***
"My apologies once again for the wait, Master Zen," he bowed to me.
He brought us to a meeting room that was relatively quiet. No one was inside or near this room at all. Not even guards were posted outside to prevent unwanted guests from coming in. It seems like we will be discussing something that is extremely confidential.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it. However, please stop calling me Master. I don't deserve to be called that," I explained.
"Nonsense, a man such as yourself who has achieved greatness is well deserving of such a title. But I'm going to be blunt, I need your help in my upcoming endeavour," he bowed once again.
"I need to know what it is before I decide. Do explain what help that you need with," I informed him.
"We—the elves from the elven forest— had been sending us startling reports about some unusual activities that had been occurring lately," he sighed as he placed his hand on his forehead.
"And what did those reports state? Don't leave us hanging now," I asked him.
"There are—bugs attacking them at an unusual rate," he stuttered to finish his sentence.
I shook my head vigorously and blinked a couple of times as I realised what he had just told me. Bugs? Is he for real?
"I—I'm sorry, did you really just say bugs? H—how am I supposed to help you with that? You should be calling the exterminator or something instead of me," I explained to him.
"Allow me to explain things more clearly. In the elven forest, whether it is animals, insects, or plants, all of them co-exist with the elves. We are friends of the forest, and it knows this very well as we help to nurture it. Nothing from Mother Nature attacks the elves when it knows we cohabit with her. Until now," he explained his side of the story.
"So—you're saying that something spooked the bugs into attacking the elves, and you need my help to figure out what is stirring up the bugs? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm really the right person for the job. And besides, elves don't allow humans into their forest. The last time I was there, they only granted me entry to their borders, and that's about it. Two years I stayed and trained there, yet not once was I granted access to their forest," I answered.
"You will be granted access to our forest this time. I made sure of it. Like I said, despite the odd explanation I told you, the elves in the forest usually don't seek help, unless the situation is dire. You will understand more once you're there. And besides, this is a good opportunity for you to make amends with them," he explained.
"Make amends? For what exactly?" I asked him with a confused look.
"You don't know? She didn't tell you?" he curled his eyebrow.
"Who? Lily? She never told me I had done something wrong there. Is this because of my fight with Tom? The elves themselves assured me that everything was fine before I left. Why would they not inform me if there was something I did wrong I? Wait— is that why Lily was escorted elsewhere after my fight? For something wrong I did? Why would they punish her for something I did? What was it? Tell me," I demanded an answer from him.
Lily always refused to tell me the reason why she had to remain there for a couple of years. If the Elementalist knew what happened, I'm eager to find out the truth about what had transpired when she was there.
"It was most certainly due to your fight with Tom. However, I'm afraid there is nothing further I can say. It is not my place to inform you of what had transpired. Perhaps there might come a day for her to inform you herself. Until then, our council's order is to never speak of that incident," he apologised to me with a bow.
"Why? Why can't you elves tell me what happened? Was she tortured? Was she imprisoned? Please, tell me. I need to know—," Rose grabbed my arm and shook her head. She's telling me not to push him for answers. But why? Doesn't she wish to know what really happened to Lily? I thought she cared for her like her own sister? Or does Rose actually know what had transpired?
"I'm sorry, Zen. I know this might sound impolite to you, but please respect our way of life. As much as I really wish to tell you, breaking the council's orders has dire consequences; even for a guildmaster," he bowed respectfully.
I exhaled loudly. Will there come a day where I finally find the answer? I certainly hoped so. What Lily did for me is something I should know before I marry her. It is invaluable for me to know what she had done for me.
"Alright, let's get back on topic. When shall we depart?" I asked.
"In three days," he answered.
***
Three days, huh? What can I even do with this short amount of time?
I sat in front of my alchemical equipment. I had plenty of ingredients at my disposal to create all the important potions I needed. But there were a few more things that I needed to figure out to bring on this trip.
First of all, Rose won't be following me on this journey. She needs to care for Daisy, and the last two adventures were more than enough for her to be separated from one of us. This means that Rose won't be there to heal me if anything bad were to happen to me. John will be tagging along instead. While he certainly adds more power points to our fighting force, he ain't no support team. I will have to depend on my healing items to keep as many people alive as possible. But healing gel only works for surface wounds. If you're bleeding internally, I've got no way to staunch the bleeding. Blood regeneration potion is far from perfect and it only keeps you alive until the end of the potion's duration or you eventually bleed to death. It is in no way a healing potion to heal all of your wounds. What I'm thinking is a potion that can boost the clotting mechanism of our blood to stop our wounds from bleeding, as in clotting where one is heavily wounded. Now that's gonna be a challenge.
Another thing that I need to figure out is a way to combat— bugs. Never thought I'll be forming such a sentence in my entire life. According to the Elementalist, those bugs are huge. Way larger than any normal bugs, and they are relatively resistant to physical attacks.
Hmm, is using wax good enough when physical damage is difficult to inflict? The best way I know when it comes to bugs is to use fire. Kill it with fiyah, as the saying goes. Fire wax, perhaps? Tengu-kaze seems to have good affinity for siphoning fire with its wind capability. Maybe I should try making fire wax. It's not going to be easy though when it's completely different from the usual wax that I've been making so far.
***
Uhh—okay, guess I was wrong. Turns out it was easier than I thought. But… this is just a normal fire coating. Using the slime from fire snails and some sparks from both weapons seems to do the trick. However, it would appear that Tengu-kaze is not able to siphon this wax coating. It's basically a normal flame and not some flame spell. Does it only work exclusively with spells and not real fire? Something is amiss; I'm definitely missing an important factor on why Tengu-kaze can only siphon spells.
Hang on, didn't Lily deflect the wind from Tengu-kaze before, and it became frigid cold? As I recall, it worked with frozen lightning. What do these two even have in common? Aside from it being spell-based. Hmm.
A light bulb appeared at the top of my head as I figured something out. Can it be? It—can't be, right? I summoned Inazuma and thought of trying something stupid. But I decided to head to another room in the house where it was more secluded and empty before I tested out this silly theory of mine.
***
*Rose's Perspective*
Zen will be going on another trip in three days' time. This has been a busy year indeed. Zen and I have been going on plenty of adventures lately, yet there seems to be more coming. Is this a sign of the Demon King's resurrection? I shudder to think of such a possibility. I decided that I won't be following him this around as I need to take care of Daisy and my flock. Is this a mistake? He almost died twice while fighting against Horrus. I don't want to lose him. Never in my life do I wish to lose my husband, my beloved Onii-chan. I would do anything, ANYTHING to keep him at my side.
The main reason as to why I've been pushing him to marry Lily is due to the fact that I'm afraid; so afraid that he might leave me or Daisy one day in pursuit of his fetish for female elves. I know deep down he's not that kind of person. I know full well of that fact. But I feel more at peace if Lily were at my side. We can discuss and figure things out together. Lily is aggressive in nature and I'm certain she can keep Zen in check if he decides to do stupid things. I'm confident both of us are able to handle him thoroughly, even if I were to pass on. I'm still wary about what Baku had shown me previously. It might have been a lie but it felt… real. Way too real for my comfort.
As for Lily, I still have no idea what she did to Zen when she brought him back to life. She was always reluctant to tell me what she did, despite having no hesitation in telling me anything else. She said she no longer has that thing that saved Zen previously, and every female elf is only entitled to one. But what is it? If it's so sacred, is that why Lily is in the West currently? Was she banished from the East entirely?
Sigh, I'm getting ahead of myself. What I'm rather certain of is that Zen is going to outlive me; for how many years ahead, though? Will he eventually outlive Daisy? Who knows how many years his life expectancy has been extended. Provided he doesn't get killed in combat by the many strong foes this world has been spitting out lately, I'm sure Lily will be there for him even if I'm no longer in this world. It'll give me a peace of mind when she's there for him and Daisy.
BBBBOOOMMMM!!!
W— what the fuck was that?! Are we being attacked?! That sounded like someone bombed us!
I rushed out of the house to look for the culprit, ignoring the fact I was wearing a common dress and apron. Is there anyone suspicious running away? I don't see anyone that fits that description whatsoever. A quick glance revealed that no one was running away from the scene. All of them were staring at the second floor of our house, which had a gaping giant hole with a bit of smoke. Isn't that room supposed to be relatively empty? How is it possible for something to have exploded in there? If anything were to explode, it would have been the alchemy room, which we made sure to fortify for such an event. Is Onii-chan in that room currently?
I headed back into the house and ran upstairs quickly. As I approached the room, I could hear him coughing loudly inside. What's he even doing? I pushed the door open and confronted him. He heard me and rushed towards me to grab my shoulders.
"Rose, I figured it out. I found the secret in using elemental spells! I found its true nature!" he screamed loudly like a little child.
"W—what are you talking about, Onii-chan? You blew a hole in our house! How're we going to get that fixed when you're leaving so soon?" I questioned him.
"I— I'll find someone to fix it. But this is huge, Rose. I never thought it was possible, but I actually cracked the code. The elemental guild is definitely not gonna like what I just discovered. Or will their God be hunting me down for discovering this?" he put on a thinking face.
"I'm— lost in what you're trying to say. What on earth are you talking about? What secret? Are you telling me that you can start using elemental spells now?" I shook my head.
"Well, not exactly. But with this information, I can start creating a whole different breed of weapon coating. I can't wait to make that breakthrough," he rubbed his hands together.
"Well, what is it then? Are you going to leave me hanging or something? Good thing Daisy isn't here, or I'll give you a proper smacking for putting her life in danger," she folded her arms.
"Alright, alright. Why did you think I even tested it in this room and when Daisy was out? What I actually discovered is— "lightning", is the base for all elemental spells," he grinned at me.
The hell did he just say?