Chapter 70 : Chapter 70

Chapter 70. A Dragon? A Princess?

Deep within Nightsong Forest, the branches and leaves of the towering ancient trees blotted out nearly all the daylight, leaving behind only fractured patches of mottled light.

Eli walked forward with steady steps, his boots pressing into the thick, yielding moss and producing only the faintest sound.

Behind him, that round little figure dragged herself along sluggishly, panting every few steps.

“Hey! Human!” Gulu’s shrill voice rang out for what felt like the hundredth time.

“My legs are practically about to break off! Can’t you... show a little of that human knightly spirit of yours?

Carry me for a bit? Just a little bit!”

Eli did not even turn his head, nor did he slow his pace in the slightest.

“This is the fourth time I’ve answered. No.”

He could not even be bothered to explain further.

Gulu’s demands along the way had come one after another without end.

First she wanted food, then rest, then to be carried. Attending to her was more troublesome than serving a real princess.

“You! You’re cold-blooded! You’re heartless! You abuse small animals!”

Gulu stamped furiously behind him, waving her tiny paws in outrage, though sadly they struck nothing but empty air.

Looking at Eli’s tall, straight back, she could only lower her head in bitter indignation.

Resigned to her fate, she continued trudging forward, one uneven step after another, muttering complaints under her breath in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s hum.

They walked on silently for a while longer.

Eli’s gaze swept across the increasingly ancient giant trees around them, and the vigilance he held toward the depths of the forest never eased for a single moment.

Then he suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. “Gulu.”

“What?” Gulu responded irritably without even lifting her head.

“You said you were the elf princess’s most beloved and most trusted companion.

Then... your strength should be very formidable, shouldn’t it? At the very least, you shouldn’t be like this now...”

Those words were like stepping squarely on her tail.

“Yaaah—!” She let out a short, explosive shriek and sprang up like a firecracker that had just been lit.

Her whole body turned into a yellow-brown blur as she slammed viciously into Eli’s calf.

Thud!

Eli did not move an inch. He did not even frown.

Gulu, on the other hand, was sent reeling by the recoil. Dizzy and starry-eyed, she plopped onto the ground with a dazed thump.

Clutching her aching little head, she glared at Eli with blazing fury in her black bead-like eyes.

“What do you know! My power is sealed! Sealed, do you understand? It’s an extremely powerful seal!

The day I break it, I’ll be able to grind you into the dirt with a single finger!

Wretched human! How dare you look down on the great Lady Gulu!”

She flailed her tiny paws, utterly furious.

The corner of Eli’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

A seal? He was deeply skeptical.

The two of them—or rather, the man and the marmot—fell silent again and continued threading their way through the dense forest, one in front and one behind.

After about another half-hour of walking,

Eli’s steps halted without warning.

“Ow!” Gulu had her head down, still muttering “wretched human” and “I’m starving,” and ran smack into Eli’s solid calf before she could stop herself.

“Why did you bump into me?!” Gulu clutched her aching forehead and shamelessly turned the blame onto him.

But when her eyes passed beyond Eli’s leg and she saw the scene ahead, every trace of complaint and anger vanished instantly.

Eli paid her no mind.

His gaze, his entire mind, had already been seized completely by the sight before him.

Ahead, the dense primordial forest seemed to have been forcibly split apart by an invisible giant hand.

A vast lake of breathtaking scale appeared in his field of vision without the slightest warning.

Its waters were a deep, pure blue-green, as though the finest jade in existence had melted and spread itself across the earth.

The surface was so still that not a single ripple disturbed it. Smooth as a mirror, it reflected the sky overhead, fragmented by ancient branches and leaves, as well as the lush forest surrounding it.

The shoreline wound in graceful curves, dotted with countless unknown flowers that emitted faint glows or strange fragrances.

The air was so fresh it felt thoroughly cleansed, brimming with an intense vitality.

That perfect union of silence and grandeur left Eli’s mind blank for a moment.

He had seen the desolation of the wasteland. He had seen the smoke and life of Obsidian Territory. But he had never seen a natural wonder so pure, so utterly soul-stirring.

“So beautiful...”

That was the only phrase he could think of.

“Hmph, hmph!” Gulu hugged her little paws smugly across her chest and bounced over to Eli’s feet, lifting her head high.

“See that, puny human? This is what a truly good place looks like!

It’s ten thousand times better than your foul-smelling cities made of piled-up stone!

This is nature’s gift! The sacred land of the elves!”

Having finished her boasting, she ignored Eli, who was still lost in shock, and ran with her stubby legs to the edge of the crystal-clear lake.

Facing the motionless surface, she shouted with all the strength in her body,

“Hey—! I brought him here! Valerian—! Open the way—!!!”

Her shrill, clear voice echoed over the enormous lake and carried far, far into the distance...

Eli was jolted awake by her shout. In the very next instant, his pupils contracted to pinpoints.

The expanse of deep blue water in front of Gulu, which had been perfectly still, suddenly began to bulge upward.

The lake churned and parted as though it had started to boil.

A gigantic head covered in dark blue diamond-shaped scales slowly rose from beneath the water.

Water streamed down its smooth, cold scales like cascading waterfalls.

The outline of that head was... savage. Majestic.

Exactly like the descriptions in legend...

A dragon?!

Its massive eyelids slowly lifted, revealing a pair of enormous golden vertical pupils.

Those eyes were cold, ancient, and filled with a terrifying pressure beyond words, and they locked firmly onto Eli on the shore.

Buzz—

Eli felt a terror born from the deepest instinct of life itself sweep over his entire body like a tidal wave.

The hand gripping Silver trembled violently beyond his control.

A dragon?! A dragon was sleeping beneath the lake in Nightsong Forest?!

No! Wait!

As the gigantic head rose fully above the water, joined to a long, elegant neck, Eli caught the crucial difference.

The body connected beneath that head had no claws.

No thick limbs.

There was only a long, powerful, serpentine body covered in enormous dark blue scales, winding like a giant snake.

It looked like a dragon, but had no claws!

What was it?!

Valerian’s molten-gold vertical pupils merely swept indifferently over Eli once.

Then the colossal beast turned its huge head slightly toward Gulu, as if confirming something.

Next, under Eli’s horrified gaze, the giant beast Valerian opened that enormous mouth filled with grim, serrated fangs ever so slightly toward the lake before it.

There was no roar, no hiss.

Yet the water in front of it parted as though divided by an invisible force.

A transparent descending stairway passage formed from flowing water itself suddenly appeared above the lake’s surface.

On both sides of the passage flowed the lake water like crystalline walls.

Control over water!

The term flashed instantly through Eli’s mind, and the shock in his heart was beyond measure.

“What are you standing there for? Keep up!” Gulu turned and shouted at Eli.

She was the first to step onto that miraculous staircase of flowing lake water, bouncing along it on her little legs.

Eli looked at the passage leading toward the unknown depths of the lake, then at the cold, abyssal molten-gold eyes waiting at the entrance.

The pressure in that gaze had not fully vanished. It hung over him like invisible shackles.

He drew in a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the instinctive trembling in his legs that wanted to flee.

He inwardly cursed his own cowardice.

He had endured the bloody battle of the beast tide and faced the threat of death directly. How could he show fear now?

He stepped forward and climbed onto the flowing staircase one step at a time.

Beneath his feet, the water flowed yet remained solid, its touch cold and strange.

On either side, the walls of water continually shifted and changed. Through them, he could see enormous aquatic plants swaying like forests, while brilliantly colored schools of fish drifted leisurely only inches away.

The scene made Eli think, for some reason, of the underwater tunnels from his previous life.

Only this was far more wondrous, far more... unreal.

The passage sloped downward, and the light gradually dimmed, but the lake water itself seemed to emit a soft glow, so the surroundings did not feel eerie.

After walking for roughly several hundred steps, the path suddenly opened wide.

At the end of the passage was a vast, dry space.

An archway carved from a single block of jade-like stone that emitted a gentle white radiance stood in the very center of that space.

Gulu pressed one little paw against the massive gate.

A strange light flashed, and the giant door slowly opened.

She glanced back at Eli, who had caught up, and a trace of slyness flickered in her black bead-like eyes.

She deliberately cleared her throat.

“Hmph, hmph! Boy! Since you’ve delivered yourself right to our door...” She smugly patted the jade gate with a tiny paw.

“Then just wait obediently for death! Inside, there is—”

“That is enough, Gulu.”

A voice rang out through the vast space like wind chimes striking in a silent valley.

It was the very same voice as the ethereal whisper that had once spoken directly into his soul deep within Nightsong Forest.

Exactly the same!

The threatening words Gulu had been about to say caught in her throat at once, and she shrank her neck down.

She pulled a face toward the space ahead, clearly dissatisfied at having her performance interrupted.

As that voice sounded, the space ahead warped slightly.

Then, beneath Eli’s incredulous gaze, the air above the towering jade dais at the center of the palace rippled like water.

A figure appeared out of nowhere, soundless and sudden, as though she had always been there.

She sat upon a throne carved from a single piece of flawless crystal.

Her long silver-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall of moonlight, nearly reaching the floor.

Her features were so exquisite they seemed like the most perfect masterpiece of the Creator Himself; every line of her face carried a beauty beyond the mortal world.

Those eyes...

They were like the deepest starry sky, utterly calm and still.

She wore an ancient-style silver gown that outlined a slender and perfect figure.

Her very existence seemed to be the embodiment of the concept of beauty itself.

The instant Eli’s gaze touched that figure, his mind went blank.

He could even feel his heart skip a beat.

But his powerful will asserted itself in the next instant. He lowered his eyes,

forcibly suppressing the instinctive urge to drop to his knees in worship.

Taking a deep breath, he placed his right fist against his chest and bowed deeply toward the figure upon the throne.

“I am Eli Pendragon. I greet Your Highness, the Princess.”