“If I can last a whole entire month, we’re good. We two’ll solve the rest.”
The Lord of Oak was silent for a while, and then said, “But if the Lord of Holly is already lost, your soul will come to ruin after a month.”
“Ya, I guess it will.”
“Why would you go so far?”
“Because I swore to atone for my sins and live a positive, forward-looking life.” There wasn’t a hint of embarrassment in Menel’s voice as he told this to the lord of the woods. “That was the vow I made to a great god through my friend, who rescued the soul of someone I owed a lot to. That’s it, no other reason.”
The Lord of Oak fell quiet again. After a long silence, Menel’s self-imposed challenge earned his approval, and he declared that he would set a trial for Menel.
“This trial is a secret rite of the woods. You — strong warrior, wielder of magic, agent of the god of the flame — you have no right to join him.”
“I understand that,” I said. Menel and I looked at each other; I nodded to him, then turned back to the Lord of Oak and said, “I’ll wait. Right here, for as many days as it takes.”
“I’m not gonna take that long, brother.” Menel laughed and told me to quit worrying. Then he and the incarnation of the Lord of Oak left me behind and headed into the depths of the lord’s domain.
I never found out what happened in there, how much hardship Menel had to endure, or what he had to overcome. But after I had waited patiently for one night, he came back the following morning with a face full of fatigue, but smiling proudly in spite of it.
After that, we immediately headed for the domain of the Lord of Holly.
The rest of the journey proceeded wonderfully swiftly. Now that Menel had received sovereignty over the woods, not a single tree or bush obstructed his path. We discovered demons in the Lord of Holly’s domain, destroyed them, and that was everything up to the present moment.
“…”
I was kind of getting the feeling that problems caused by demons were on the rise again around here recently.
There were some that we’d handled ourselves, and others that we’d just heard reports of from other adventurers after they’d solved the issue independently.
They were all kinds of different incidents, really, but… now that things had escalated to demons capable of breaching the domain of a forest lord and laying a curse upon it, I felt that things were getting a little bit serious.
As I wondered what was behind all of this, my mind was filled with a hazy sense of anxiety difficult to put into words. It was like I was overlooking something, but I had no idea what.
My thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
“You, children of men.”
I looked to see another person’s figure at the altar. Wait, was it actually a person? People didn’t have skin like bark, and they certainly didn’t have plant leaves and ivy in place of scalp and facial hair. But both Menel and I had a familiarity with this figure’s appearance; the incarnation of the Lord of Oak had looked very similar.
“I am the Lord of Holly,” said the incarnation in a gentle tone. “Truly I thank you and commend you for your valor in removing those brazen invaders, and for your bravery in traveling to this domain to transfer the sovereignty. But first, I must restore order to these woods. A moment, if you will.”
The lord’s incarnation spread his arms. A recitation I couldn’t understand spun fluidly from his mouth. This Word was probably another of the woods’
secrets, and might even have been completely unknown to humans.
A short while after he began reciting, the ground gradually began to rumble.
Tremors emanating from the old tree known as the Lord of Holly could be felt through the whole domain. They continued for a while, and then gradually settled. The moment they could no longer be felt, the change occurred.
Jets of clean water spurted one after another from the toxic bog that surrounded us. Menel could have done something similar when he had been in possession of the sovereignty, but not on anywhere near this scale. The poison was washed away with the force of a tsunami, and in no time at all, it had been diluted to nothing.
Many trees had succumbed to the cursed poison and withered, some falling down tragically and others dying upright; but now, life sprouted from them and grew before my eyes, becoming seedlings, then saplings, then adult trees, and blossoming with all the flowers of summer. A fresh scent drove out the foul odor.
Plants, flowers, and mushrooms began to spring up around the trees. The life of the woods returned to the poison-damaged earth. Leaves grew, the wind danced, and glittering beams of sunlight shone through the trees.
“Wow…” Like watching a film being played in reverse, it was a sight of rebirth that shook the soul. Even Menel was captivated by it. “Lord of the Woods, huh. He’s using that crazy power like it’s a natural extension of his body…”
Menel had groaned with pain every night while the sovereignty had been with him. Even though he hardly even used its power, the simple act of holding it within his body had caused him such great pain that even my benediction couldn’t ease it.
Menel shrugged a little, accepting this as the difference between a person and a Lord of the Woods. But then the Lord of Holly spoke, having now completed his recitation in its entirety. “This is thy future also, child of man and fae.”
Those words seemed to stun Menel. Finally, he said, “What?”
“The sovereignty of the woods dwelt in thy body for a time. Gone though it now may be, the blood and power of man and fae already flowing in thee have begun to incline to the fae and steadily become more fit for a Lord of the Woods.”
“Huh?” I froze in surprise as well.
“Worry not. The change is not immediate.”
Easier said than done, I thought… and Menel still looked frozen.
“Umm… What’s going to happen to him?” I asked.
The Lord of Holly answered, but to Menel. “If thou dost not neglect thy training, thou wilt live far longer than a century, and thereafter become a new Lord of the Woods.”
At about that point, Menel finally started working again. “Ohh… ohh, uh…”
Menel clapped a hand to his forehead as if he were fishing up some old memory.
“Now that you mention it, back in my old home, I heard the oldest of the elves talking about this once. Elves acknowledged by a forest lord form a contract with him, and when their life draws to an end, they go into the forest before passing away. Their body becomes a wild animal, or a boulder, or a tree…”
And their soul became a lord who ruled over the forest.
“Yes. Thou madest such a contract with my brother, the Lord of Oak.”
“That’s not what I thought I was doing.”
“Be that as it may, such is signified by thy acceptance of the woods’
sovereignty, sapling.”
“Can I refuse?”
“It is possible. Thou could die as a human, were that thy desire.”
“I see…”
“Think not of it now, but the time shall come.”
Menel nodded, his jade eyes remaining firmly fixed on the Lord of the Woods. His expression was serious.
“And to thou, human child, disciple of the flame. There is something I must tell thee.” The Lord of Holly turned his gaze to me. “Thou surely knowest of the mountain range to the west, rich in reddish-brown stone.”
“Do you mean… the Rust Mountains?”
Their color was said to come from large deposits of red iron ore.
“Indeed.”