“We’ve managed to get enough mana for now. If we take Iziuel out, we should be able to sustain the consumption as long as we keep this up. However, it’s a bit risky that the barrier is being held up by the people. IF they decide to stop giving mana, the barrier will collapse.” One of the elders replied with a shake of his head.
“Well that just means you need to treat the people good then don’t you?” Shiro smiled.
Hearing her response, the elder rolled his eyes since being too lenient to the people was bad as well. They’ll think they own the country despite not knowing how anything works.
“Well either way, you need to stop relying on a weak spirit. She’s going to die soon you know? There’s only so much mana they can recover through hibernation and with the tree constantly forcing her into mana deficiency, I’m surprised she hasn’t kicked the bucket yet.” Shiro shrugged.
“We understand Shiro. Don’t listen to this old goat, he’s just a bit worried about safety. We can go retrieve the spirit now.” Another elder cut in and hit the first elder on the arm.
Leading the way to where the tree is stored, the elders walked up to the sapling.
However, they did not expect that the moment the sapling saw Shiro, it would immediately extend its roots and cup them together in a way that wasn’t too dissimilar to a beggar asking for some food and change.
“Huh?”
Looking at Shiro in shock, they didn’t expect the violent sapling would actually beg her in such a manner.
“You want more?” Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
Nodding its roots quickly, the sapling seemed quite eager to get another dose of the life fire.
“Excuse me, would it be ok if you two leave for now? The tree wants something that’s… a little inconvenient for people to know that I own. It’s not you, it’s just the tree being picky.” Shiro asked with a shrug.
“Ah of course, do what you must.” The two nodded and left the room for now.
Standing outside, they looked at each other in wonder.
“What do you think she can give the sapling for it to beg like this?”
“I’m… not sure. Could it be that she has something that contains a large mana reservoir?”
“But she said that it was something that was inconvenient for people to know that she owned. Maybe it’s a very rare item?”
“It could be. But there’s only a handful of items that would get the tree to beg like this. Plus, even if she did have such a thing, wouldn’t the tree just attack her and take it for itself? Why is she being so docile?”
While the two were wondering about the cause, Shiro had given the sapling a flicker of Life Fire. Watching the sapling absorb it hungrily, she couldn’t help but be reminded of Yin.
“You know, I have a daughter that’s somewhat like you. The only thing on her mind when she was young was to constantly get food. Hell, she even ate quite a few of my food when I needed it too.” Shiro muttered with a chuckle.
Petting the roots gently, she crouched down and fed it some more life fire.
“I need to go on quite a journey so I don’t think I’ll see you again within a short period of time. Therefore, this will be a treat from me to you I suppose.”
Feeding it a continuous stream of life fire, Shiro only waited until it was about time to call the two back in.
Seeing its food disappear, the sapling tugged on her sleeves and tried to beg for more only to see Shiro shake her head.
“Sorry, I know how much energy you need but I can’t provide it you know. The elves in the county will take that job for me as long as you’re not picky.”
Removing the roots from her sleeves, she called the elders back in.
“Is the tree satisfied?” The first elder asked in concern since the world tree was of great importance to the elven race.
“Well… somewhat? Just don’t mind it. It’s probably having a tantrum since I wouldn’t give it more of what it wanted.” Shiro replied after looking at the sapling who seemed to be trying to pull a tantrum by coiling itself up.
‘Why does the world sapling look like a child right now?’ The elder asked himself since his view of the world sapling had just taken a very strange turn.
Shaking his head, he pulled out a crystal that had the mana collected from the elves all over the country.
Seeing the sapling refuse to even reach out to the crystal, the elder glanced over at Shiro with a complicated gaze.
“What? Don’t look at me, you coax it. Aren’t you an elder? Surely you’ve had some grandchildren right? Just coax this tree like how you would coax your grandchildren.” Shiro shrugged since it was their job to feed the tree from now on.
The elders smile faltered a little as he looked back to the sapling.
Swallowing his saliva, he took a deep breath and started to coax the tree into taking the mana crystal.
While that was happening, Shiro immediately activated her flight skill and flew up towards where Iziuel was. She didn’t need the sight of an elder disregarding his image and try to coax a tree sapling of all things.
Seeing Iziuel who seemed to be asleep right now, Shiro sighed since despite how peaceful she looked, It was actually a bad thing for her to be like this.
Removing the roots that wrapped around her body, Shiro carried Iziuel into a princess carry before flying back down.
“I’m taking Iziuel away so that she can be healed.” She said before entering the rift.
She didn’t wait to hear their response since she wasn’t asking for their permission. She was only notifying the two of them.
Looking at each other, the two paled before trying to coax the sapling once more. They needed to do it quickly or else the barrier would collapse without Iziuel being there.
###
Reappearing in her own room, Shiro set Iziuel down on the bed before healing her with the life fire.
Once she was sure that Iziuel’s complexion was back to normal, Shiro pulled the bed cover over her body before sitting down on the chair near the bed.
“Since she’s been exposed to mana deficiency for many years, there may be some hidden effects that we don’t know of yet. Healing her up to this standard is about as much as I can do for now. We can only take a wait and see approach.” Shiro sighed as Nimue’s body started to form next to her.
Sitting down next to Iziuel, Nimue cupped her face and closed her eyes for a moment.
“That’s fine. At least she’s still alive.” She replied softly.
“Mn. Say, Nimue, do you know where most of the spirits live now? While she may bring me a lot of benefits, I think we should also consider the possibility of taking her back and allow her to recover for now.” Shiro suggested.
“I don’t know. Since we’re in a constant state of danger due to the lack of a queen in our previous years, our capital had never been set in stone. We move to wherever is safe for us. Thankfully, this was possible because we spirits can live anywhere.
“That being said, you don’t have to worry about Iziuel’s recovery, my queen. Since we will reside in your mana realm, it’s actually highly beneficial since we’ll be in an environment that’s always filled with mana. Regardless of her internal injuries, being in such an environment should help speed up the recovery time.” Nimue smiled.
“I see. That’s good then. I suppose we’ll take her with us for now. Depending on what happens in the future, I say we should also try to find where the current spirit capital is. That way, we can somewhat see the state of the race and find out what we can do to help.” Shiro nodded her head.
“Thank you. Not only for this but also your choice of staying as the Sylph Queen. During the moment you had reached level 100, I opted to stay silent since I didn’t want to affect your decision. If you had chosen Void Ruler, I would have been fine with it too. After all, it’s your life and you’re only 1 person. If there is one, there will be another. It’s just a matter of waiting for the next queen to appear. But for you to disregard two hero classes and even one powerful class that grants you control over a different plane, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Nimue bowed her head in gratefulness.
Looking at Nimue, Shiro stood up and walked over to her.
“Well, I suppose I can’t leave a job half done now can I? Since I’m the queen, I’ll make sure to do my job properly.” Shiro grinned while patting Nimue’s hair.
