Hurry

Thanks to the overwhelming radiance of Simurg-san—the Divine Bird who was absurdly important—we narrowly avoided the worst-case scenario of an interspecies conflict between my territory and the elves.

But we still carried the ticking bomb known as the dark elves, and Utena-san’s attitude toward us humans made it clear she didn’t see us as equals.

Probably, anything I said right now would be pointless.

Since it felt like trouble was the only possible outcome, I decided to just listen to Simurg-san and Utena-san talk for the time being.

“This Sanctuary and the World Tree perfectly controlled the flow of the leylines. There should be no disorder in the leylines, you see.”

“W-what…! As expected of you, Simurg-sama!”

“That is why I said there should be no disorder in the leylines, you see. Well, I suppose there might be a change on the level of… the amount of mana that could be drawn becoming slightly less than before.”

“Th-then it isn’t because of that World Tree!?”

“Probably. I would be glad if you could tell me the details. Um, your name was…”

“Utena! Utena Bibi Fontutu Gabil… (and so on)!”

“Hm. Then, Utena Bibi Fontutu Gabil… (and so on). Could you tell me the details?”

“A-at my full name… I am overwhelmed!”

With an exceptional memory, Simurg-san had memorized Utena-san’s full name in a single go… impressive indeed.

There was no doubt he was a handsome Divine Bird.

Meanwhile I had already forgotten everything after “Utena Bibi.”

From there, Utena-san—eyes sparkling as she stared at Simurg-san—told him a variety of things (of course, it was directed at Simurg-san; she didn’t spare me even a glance).

Apparently, something strange was happening in the place where they lived: Bibi Village.

And it turned out the cause was a disturbance in the leylines.

To identify that cause, Utena-san and the elves had employed magic.

Unlike dark elves, every elf could wield magic without any aptitude at all—they were magic experts.

When those elves used magic to detect it, they found what seemed to be the cause of the leylines’ abnormality.

That was the World Tree drawing enormous mana up from the leylines—meaning the great World Tree of Tree Village.

Utena-san served as the captain of that investigation unit, and she had come alone to Tree Village.

“What happened to the other elves, you see?”

“The abnormality isn’t only happening here. I believed there was something elsewhere too, so I had them split up and investigate separately.”

(Was that… Guinea?)

It seemed the change in the leylines’ flow wasn’t limited to this place.

What should I do? Too many things came to mind.

I had planted World Trees in all sorts of places, moved their locations with Tree Arrangement (Revised), created Guinea Village… I hadn’t thought of myself as using the leylines, but I had done quite a lot.

Maybe that was why problems were happening…

Aira wiped the cold sweat that trickled down my face.

“One of my frie— no, my… acquaintance Divine Beasts also built a village, you see. Mana should be drawn from the leylines there as well, but he isn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t blunder so badly that it affected other places, you see.”

Simurg-san kept correcting himself like he didn’t want to admit Wheel-san was his friend, but it sounded like he trusted him.

They seemed to go way back, and from an outside view, Simurg-san and the others were oddly close despite everything.

“Woody. So the cause of the abnormality in the elf village probably isn’t us. You needn’t worry, you see.”

“Phew… then I’m glad.”

“Try to remember, you see. When you reached the candidate site for Guinea together with Wheel, there was a time when a monster called the Tycoon Wolf was occupying a point connected to the leylines, was there not?”

That was from when we had traveled with Wheel-san and the others to create a new Sanctuary.

When we tried to create a Sanctuary, the Tycoon Wolf had been squatting there, and we had no choice but to defeat it.

According to Simurg-san, when monsters seized a point where the leylines welled up like that, they used the leylines thoughtlessly without caring how it affected other places.

In many cases, the places suffering abnormalities were simply paying the price in those situations—places that benefited from the leylines getting the short end of the stick.

“So it is likely that somewhere along a leyline connected to the elf village, a monster like the Tycoon Wolf is occupying it, you see.”

“I see…”

By Simurg-san’s conclusion, this incident seemed completely unrelated to us, which was a huge relief.

Well, it was still a problem for the elves, I supposed…

“Do you have an idea of what area the abnormality is occurring in, you see?”

“Y-yes… I do…”

What Utena-san produced was a world map.

It marked a far broader range than any kingdom map, and it looked impressively accurate.

There were four marked points, including Tree Village.

One of them was Guinea, which meant the culprit had to be at one of the remaining two.

Whatever monster was there had likely grown powerful by drawing massive mana from the leylines.

The Tycoon Wolf had been a formidable foe, after all.

“…”

After hearing Simurg-san’s explanation, Utena-san looked dejected.

It seemed she couldn’t forgive herself for being completely wrong—and for condemning us despite our lack of involvement. The rumor that elves had high pride seemed true.

“Woody. By her account, an elf group is heading for Guinea as well. Would it not be best to prepare for that on your end? …Leave things here to me, you see.”

“—Right, yes! Understood!”

I couldn’t just stand around.

If those aggressive elves started picking a fight in Guinea while I wasn’t there, it could turn into a disaster.

I hurriedly teleported to Guinea and went to explain the situation to Wheel-san—.