Chapter 276 Emergency Meeting
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
After the meeting with Melgis, Diana, Lewya, Momoka, Ms. Iko, Mei, and Estesia had gathered in the office.
”Is everyone who can make it here now?”
”Yeah, Niya’s out in the forest, so she won’t be back soon. But since Momoka and I are here, the message will get to her. If Niya has any questions, I’ll pass them along.”
”I asked Zora too, but she’s tied up with the Sincere Dwarf’s work and said she can’t help with this kind of problem.”
”──Well, it’s not like things are definitely going to get violent, but I wanted as many opinions as possible.”
If anything, violence is the absolute last resort, something none of us want to consider.
But everyone here knows this situation doesn’t allow for ignoring that possibility.
”So? Diana told us something about that Golarf guy acting suspiciously, and that someone with the Spear of Shouhyou’s title is after him. But how does that connect to all the fuss about Origin yesterday? You’re saying Golarf’s behind that too?”
”I just recalled what happened a week ago and 3 weeks ago──the same times Estesia said she briefly sensed Origin.”
”A week ago and 3 weeks ago…? …! That lines up with…”
”Right, the day Golarf showed himself to us. Three weeks ago was when he visited the frontier settlement, and a week ago was when he came asking for Gioniium. Also, the dimensional magic isn’t lost; it’s just that only a few elves can use it.”
”The dates do match, but that could still be coincidence. And Estesia only sensed it for a moment; it’s not clear if he’s really moving through different dimensions or not, right?”
”Like Mei said, this is just a guess. Estesia-san only sensed magic for a moment, and one possibility is this otherworldly space, but it could be something else entirely. Especially since Origin is involved this time, and there’s still so much unknown about it, it’s hard to say for sure.”
”But Neil-sama seemed really sure about something back then. There must have been a reason for you to be that confident, right?”
”Yeah… Estesia-san, you said the Origin you felt wasn’t strong enough to be sustained by a living being, right?”
”I don’t fully understand Origin yet, so I can’t be certain, but if that was really magic… no creature could live while holding that much of it.”
”Origin is a power denser than magic itself, so it seems safe to say that much is true.”
”Just being dense isn’t enough, though. Since Origin and magic are different in nature, you can’t just say for sure. Thinking ‘this means that’ only gets in the way of advancing magic.”
”I see. Maybe I was too quick to be so sure. Sorry for interrupting──Alright, to recap: Estesia-san also said you can’t be sure because they’re different by nature. But I think it’s unlikely any creature could hold that much Origin. Realistically, whatever it is, it’s probably something storing Origin inside that otherworldly space.”
”Something that stores Origin… you mean Gioniium?”
”Exactly. Golarf-san was after Gioniium. We only learned yesterday that Origin can be stored in Gioniium, but Golarf-san’s an elf who’s lived over 3 hundred years. Origin itself is a common power that forms the world’s foundation, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Golarf-san figured this out long ago and decided to use Gioniium to store it.”
”Wait, if something like that were in the village, there would’ve been a fuss. Someone would’ve contacted me.”
”Golarf-san hasn’t returned to the village, Lewya. I think he’s in a different otherworldly space.”
”Why do you think that?”
I let out a slow breath before answering Lewya’s probing question.
”Phew… Lewya, you’re too honest.”
”……Are you the one to say that?”
”I thought the same thing about myself! But in Lewya’s case, it’s even worse than me!”
Lewya interjected with a serious retort, and I strongly objected.
I might be the same way, but Lewya’s naivety is on another level, and I don’t want to hear it from her.
”Remember when we first met, and at the end, you asked if he was going back to the village? Didn’t you notice there was something in Golarf-san’s words back then?”
”That time, yeah, I did notice something a bit off…”
”When you asked, ‘Going back to the village?’ he replied, ‘I live in the direction of the village.’”
The village direction──he’s talking about the south of the frontier settlement where the problematic Origin exists.
”I want to trust others as much as possible, but that doesn’t mean believing everything blindly. At least, I can’t pretend not to notice someone who’s upfront about ‘misleading’ right in front of me. That’s how obvious Golarf-san’s deception was.”
”Was it that obvious?”
”Yeah, he was like that with Lewya the whole time. His attitude was different when he was talking to me versus when he was talking to you.”
”I didn’t notice at all… Not even Neil missed it.”
Seeing Lewya’s shocked reaction at being considered below me, I couldn’t help but feel a little shocked myself.
Was I really that terrible in her eyes?
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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