Chapter 368: Competent Elucidator
「Just say it all at once, will you, go all out. I want to know everything if it’s about the king. 」
Hauron declared despite getting cold feet.
「But before that, I wanna know how you understand Khan’s situation first, Hauron. Is that okay? 」
Maybe his conjecture is correct; he’s just being sentimental.
「First, he’s already liberated from this land. That’s probably thanks to you, right? However, it must’ve been heartwrenching for the King to kill his most beloved spirit with his own hands. Even so, I still thank you. Just as I first proposed, I’ll hand all my grimoires, the treasures I accumulated, my secret techniques — I’ll give them all to you if you wish. Well, I’m not sure now if you still want those, though. 」
Hauron said the latter half with a sigh.
「Showing them to me is enough, I guess? 」
I’m not in need of money, and as for the grimoires, I already have the spirit library. Still, Hauron’s things seem interesting, so I want to see them too.
「Secondly, the progression of the King’s monsterfication is held back by his sheer will. He probably won’t be able to hold on for that long, but I’m glad that he at least can leave this rotting temple with flowing sand, and that he can now gaze at the sky. The king said he likes both the cloudless skies as well as skies filled with rain clouds. 」
So this is where the misunderstanding comes in!! So that’s the reason why Hauron seems to act sentimentally when he is facing Khan!!
「Maybe the King’s consciousness will be consumed soon and a powerful colossal monster will be born, we don’t know. When the time comes, I’ll be by his side trying my best to do something about it. 」
Hauron declared in a low but powerful voice.
「Stop making ridiculous resolutions on your own. 」
Khan entered with a hopeless expression pasted on his face.
「Welcome back. 」
Hauron still thought of Khan as the pitiful, tragic king, so I turned to the Khan and plead with my eyes that he do something about it.
「… 」
Our eyes met for a second.
「I’ll also show you guys the scene that Hauron’s father showed him. 」
Khan sighed, then he touched the cracked scrying bowl beside the throne.
Eye contact failed! I also want to see the scene from the past, but I ordered something else just now!
「Your Majesty will use magic? 」
「It’s not magic. What I can wield right now is far more primitive. 」
The King’s Bough stretched out from Khan’s hands, about to bud, as he answered Hauron’s question.
Black on one hand, white on the other.
The delicate, somewhat metallic branches of mistletoe stretched out towards the scrying bowl, then it wrapped and restored the basin, including the pedestal on which it was placed, back to its original form. The bowl was filled with water, which then overflowed upward towards the sky, creating a thin film in the process.
The scene of the hustle and bustle of an overground city appeared on the water— fountains dotted the parched, whitish streets everywhere and tall palms stretched their leaves. The River Es bended sharply and flowed relaxedly beside the palace.
The city was lively, and the people had smiles plastered on their faces. The king and the priests held a solemn ceremony in front of the pure white King’s Bough in the underground temple. An exuberant festival was held outside —
「Someday, I’ll gather my people and build a kingdom beside the Es River. 」
The vision on the film of water disappeared with Khan’s words.
I thought that if I freed him in the Central Plains, he’d become the greatest emperor of the century, but simply founding a nation isn’t enough, huh. Oh well, I guess this is his homeland, after all.
According to what Bayliss answered when I quietly asked her before, a battle among the Wind Spirit who became the chief deity, the dragons and the heroes had turned the place into a desert — or maybe it’s more accurate to say that the desert spread because of that.
The scattered cities and towns were burned or else blasted away along with the infrastructures. Only very few fire people survived, and most of them became citizens of Es Kingdom so it’d be very hard to build a new kingdom here.
However, I’m pretty sure Khan returns here from time to time using the teleportation plate. Teleportation crystals and other consumables are needed, so it’s not like he can come here as much as he wants. Still, if Khan might be able to manage it with Hauron’s 【Teleportation】.
「The King’s Bough… One side remained white…? 」
「The King’s Bough possessed me when it started going crazy, and we gradually blackened together. I already prepared myself to destroy the main body of the King’s Bough with the belief that there was no other choice, but Jean divided the white and black, contracted them and stabilized the King’s Bough. My blackening and monsterification also ceased. 」
White Shahira and Black Shahira appeared from Khan’s arms and flashed me a smile, before looking up at Khan with sweet, blooming smiles.
Bayliss encircled her arms around Khan’s neck from behind him, completing the image of the Casanova Khan.
「Since we’re already on the topic, might as well tell you that my body has assimilated with the King’s Bough, and our contractor is Jean. 」
Khan nonchalantly dropped the bomb.
「…. 」
Hauron slowly collapsed on the ground.
Are you alright?
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 hours
……hm. What a drama llama.