At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 265
It seemed that in Seel’s world, words like ‘thank you’ or ‘I’m sorry’ didn’t really exist. Maybe, with power as immense as hers, there simply wasn’t much need for those words.
Still, Jiwoo could feel that Seel was genuinely trying, and that was enough.
It was a strange feeling, to be regarded as an equal by such a being.
But most of all, Jiwoo was simply overjoyed by what she’d learned through this whole ordeal.
“But… now I think I’m okay with it. It wasn’t just some overwhelming fate, it was my own choices that made this possible.”
Rather than just being swept along by circumstances, this was something that had come about because of her own decisions.
Jiwoo rummaged through the inside of her bag and found what she’d been looking for.
“This too.”
If she hadn’t helped others after coming to this world, she would never have obtained it.
A dark jewel, glittering like obsidian, now sat in her hand.
Inside the inky stone, a faint pinprick of light appeared, like a tiny flame.
It was the compass, its light pointing in a single direction. Where the light pointed was both where Jiwoo wanted to go, and where she needed to go.
For now, at least, those places were one and the same.
She knew the direction, but not how to actually get there.
Jiwoo hesitated, then remembered how Akarna’s power was influenced by her will. She wondered if she could approach this the same way.
‘If I just think of crossing over somewhere…’
When Jiwoo placed her hand on the light, she felt something like a wall, no, more like a door she could push. She suddenly had a strong feeling that this was the way.
She reached out to Seel, who had simply been waiting for Jiwoo to decide what to do.
But just before crossing over, a question came to mind.
“Oh, right. There’s something I’ve been curious about.”
Jiwoo could tell that Seel wasn’t opposed to questions just because she was silent, so she went ahead and asked.
“When I first came here, I asked if it was possible to end up with a female manifestation that emerged from the same tree as one was born from. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Why is that?”
Seel listened with a blank expression before replying.
“To the children of Ellandos, the tree is a parent, and a manifestation is seen as another soul inside that parent’s body.”
“…Oh dear.”
So, manifestations are like ‘another soul inside a parent’s body?’ Even if it wasn’t a perfect analogy, it made the manifestation feel more like a sibling.
‘No wonder they think it’s taboo…’
If that’s the case, do manifestations usually travel away from the tree that gave them life, wandering to other places?
Is that how they end up meeting children of other trees…?
It struck Jiwoo that it must be extremely difficult for the manifestations and the children of Ellandos to ever truly come together.
“So what happened to those born from the same tree that gave them their body?”
“There weren’t any.”
“There weren’t?”
“There’s almost no chance of them surviving until the tree reaches the central lands.”
Whenever Jiwoo asked these kinds of questions, she’d always been told it was impossible or too strange to imagine. Now, she was starting to see why.
“…You like to assume a lot of things, don’t you?”
Of course.
Those with little power have to imagine countless possibilities, just hoping their choices won’t end in failure.
In a way, this was no different.
“It’s really okay to cross over here, right?”
Even with conviction in her heart, Jiwoo hesitated one last time.
“I heard you can get seriously hurt doing this.”
Seel shook her head.
“They don’t know much about you, so they can only guess based on what they’ve seen before.”
Has anyone ever witnessed something like an Akarna turning into a tree here? Probably not. So they could only make guesses based on what had happened in El Ragneil.
Like how, if a manifestation crosses over into their original world, they supposedly can’t come back. Or that anyone who tries to follow a manifestation will be torn apart.
It was an instinctive fear, imprinted deep within.
But those predictions couldn’t all be true.
Akarna and manifestations were similar in some ways, but fundamentally different.
Even if something went wrong, Jiwoo thought, as an Akarna and not a manifestation, she could protect them.
“So I’m the only one who can do this, right?”
The ever-silent Seel just nodded deeply.
That alone was enough.
“Let’s go.”
Click.
With the sound of a wall sliding open, Jiwoo could finally go where she wanted.
***
The first thing Jiwoo saw was Kaman.
Since Kaman had driven a knife into Tyrinos without hesitation, thinking Tyrinos was trying to hurt Jiwoo, she half-expected to find them fighting.
But that wasn’t the case.
Tyrinos sat leaning against a tree, holding his wounded side, while Kaman was crouched on the ground, almost curled up.
He hadn’t even turned his head toward where Jiwoo had disappeared.
He wasn’t raging or weeping in anger or grief, he just seemed completely crushed by despair which broke Jiwoo even more.
Jiwoo stepped forward, and at the soft sound of grass underfoot, their ears twitched.
Kaman lifted his head. His face was soaked, his eyes still red from crying.
And then, at the exact same moment, they both called out—
“El…!”
“El?”
The words were the same, but each of them meant a different person.
“El!”
The moment Kaman saw Jiwoo, he stumbled and rushed over, nearly tripping.
He took Jiwoo’s face in both hands, looking her over anxiously, to confirm she was really alright.
“What, what happened, what’s going on… El? Are you okay?”
Strangely enough, Kaman looked far less okay than Jiwoo did.
Usually, he was always smiling slyly and full of confidence. Now, with tears streaking down his face and stammering over his words, he was almost unrecognizable.
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