I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 137 : Holy Nation (3)

Holy Nation (3)

The moment they arrived at the elf village, Pram said something strange.

"Young master? What do you mean by that all of a sudden?"

The accompanying High Priest Tyrone expressed his doubt.

The phrase "young master" was something she had constantly talked about ever since she received that injection.

Why would she suddenly bring that up now?

"The young master is here..."

"Hm..."

Tyrone just intended to ignore her, thinking she was about to say something odd again.

But then—

"What did you just say!!"

Suddenly, Bellain grabbed Pram's shoulders and demanded,

"Please say that again! Is that really true?!"

Bellain, who had remained composed until just a moment ago, changed upon hearing Pram's muttering.

With an air of fanatical obsession, he asked her again,

"Is that young master really here in this place?!"

"Sir Bellain! Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"

"Let go of her!"

Tyrone tried to calm him down, but Bellain shook off Tyrone's hand, showing continued fanatical obsession.

"You just said that the young master is here. I cannot stand idly by knowing that someone rated higher than me exists!"

Despite all the time and effort he had spent, it was not himself whom Pram longed for.

Other girls had obsessed over him, so why couldn't the Saint Pram do the same?

Did that young master exist to prove he was superior to himself?

He could not possibly accept that.

"Speak. Is he really here?"

Bellain shook Pram as he spoke again.

Even as he pressed with a maniacal expression, Pram just blinked and muttered,

"Well..."

Then she closed her eyes to think again.

"Hmm... Actually, no."

"What?"

"I guess I was mistaken."

When Pram said this with a bashful smile, Bellain was left with a blank look.

"But, older brother, why are you so angry? Are you jealous of the young master? Hahaha! Don't worry. At least you're better looking than the young master!"

"......"

It seemed as though she was complimenting him, but it didn't comfort him at all.

Bellain ground his teeth in fury.

"Are you joking right now? The Saint's mistaken perception made us look like fools!"

It was certainly Pram's blunder for saying the young master was here.

But still...

"How is it my fault? You're the one who got excited all of a sudden."

"What did you say?"

Bellain was so angry that his head felt like it would explode, and he clenched his fist.

He was about to threaten Pram with that fist when Tyrone hurriedly intervened.

"Please, calm down! Have you forgotten the purpose of coming here?"

"..."

Thanks to Tyrone's mediation, Bellain lowered his fist.

But he hadn't let go of his anger, because Pram was still giggling and smirking.

"Damn it!"

Bellain cursed and strode onward.

At the end of their walk, the elders, leaders of this village, were keeping vigil.

"We have been waiting."

"It's been a while, elders."

"Has anything of note happened in the meantime?"

"Nothing unusual for us."

Bellain, as the group's representative, exchanged handshakes with each of the elf elders.

Having already engaged in numerous sacred stone trades, their faces were very familiar to him.

Shaking hands was nothing new.

"But elders, why are you wearing gloves all of a sudden?"

Tyrone was puzzled.

Up to now, they had never worn gloves during meetings.

"Hahaha! These? There's a reason for this."

"What reason?"

"Well... We got involved in a big accident while conducting an experiment recently."

"We happened to injure our hands then, so we're covering them up like this. Hahaha!"

The elders laughed as they explained.

Seeing their gloves, it seemed they had gotten burns on their hands, but they laughed it off as if it was a trivial blunder.

"What kind of experiment was it that caused such injuries?"

"Haha... Don't even ask. Not long ago, an escaped human tried to leave the village..."

"We caught him and ran all sorts of experiments on him. And we didn't hold back at all!"

The elders' eyes gleamed as they continued.

"He was a truly insolent fellow! Even though we cared for him and gave him a place to sleep, he tried to report our village's realities to the Imperial Court—a real piece of trash!"

"How could we tolerate that after hearing such words?"

"Exactly! He repaid our kindness with enmity. Simple experiments weren't enough!"

So, they conducted overly harsh experiments on that human.

They claimed it was an experiment to turn not just a person's vitality, but even his bones and flesh, into sacred stone, though it wasn't a proven experiment and a massive explosion occurred as a side effect.

"We were too blinded by anger."

"Even if the guy provoked us, we attempted it ourselves."

"Haha! The results weren't all that strange."

"It was only what we deserved."

"... Is that so?"

When the elders explained, tyrone nodded.

After all, these weren't the kind of people to lie so brazenly in front of them.

'This place isn't suited for those kinds of tricks anyway.'

Tyrone squeezed his fist.

He considered emitting magic power into his hand, but nothing happened.

That was only natural; in this elf village, one absolutely could not manifest magic power.

"The spell sealing magic power is functioning perfectly."

"That's right. Only we elders can use magic here."

At that moment, the Weissman family couple following the group stood in front of the elders.

"It's good to see you."

"Oh ho. It's been a while for the both of you, too."

This time, the elders shook hands with the couple.

"I wonder if the production magitech devices we supplied are working properly."

"Yes, there is no problem at all."

"Even after seeing it many times, this spell is remarkable."

As expected, the couple couldn't activate their magic power, either.

Despite the inconvenience, the couple from the Weissman family seemed to marvel at it.

"This is the spell developed by Lady Mirianne through the World Tree, isn't it?"

"Experiencing it again, there could be no greater honor."

The Weissman family couple respected the Great Mage Mirianne.

A legend in the world of magic, she was respected by all.

"We'll guide you."

Guided by the elders, the group moved to the center of the village, to the World Tree.

They entered the building connected to the World Tree, with the rest of the soldiers standing guard outside.

"Hm?"

The White Knights from the Holy Nation, standing watch, frowned as they observed the village.

"Was this village always like this?"

"Senior, is something wrong? It seems normal to me."

"This is your first time here, right?"

After the new soldier responded yes, the senior White Knight explained.

"In this area, humans are supposed to live alongside the elves. So why is there not a single human in sight?"

"I heard all the humans here came as migrants from the Imperial Court, and now they do manual labor."

Then isn't it normal not to see them?

"No."

The White Knight refuted.

"When we came before, this area was definitely inhabited by human migrants from the Imperial Court. But..."

Not a single trace of human migrants could be found; only elves appeared to live in the area.

Other White Knights, also sensing something was amiss, questioned the local elves.

"Excuse me, wasn't this area originally where the migrants lived?"

"Oh, those guys?"

An elderly elf answered.

"The elders decided to uproot everything and took them all away. We don't know where, though."

"Is that so...?"

Even after hearing the answer, it was hard to accept.

While pondering this, the old elf offered the White Knight a cup with a drink.

"You must be tired from the journey. Have something sweet."

"Thank you."

Smelling it, it just seemed like ordinary juice, so the White Knight drank without suspicion.

Other residents also handed out the same drinks to the White Knights and soldiers.

The moment most of the troops brought it to their lips—

"Senior, what's wrong?"

Their bodies froze, with smiles fixed on their faces.

"Hehehe... Delicious. You should try it too."

Their expressions turned childish, as if regressing to little kids.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, led to the research facility by the elders, the party presented the sacred stones they brought.

Seeing their quantity, which was much more than usual, the elders' mouths fell open.

"Incredible. This is twice our usual amount."

"As expected, is this the power shown by the prophesied Saint?"

The elders looked at Pram with awed expressions.

Meeting their gaze, Pram yawned, looking bored.

"Haam~ I'm sleepy. Can't I just sleep for a bit?"

"..."

Her behavior, utterly lacking in seriousness, made everyone frown.

"It's fine. Just stay still."

"Okay~"

Since she agreed to behave if left alone, there was no reason to refuse.

So Pram laid down on the table at the center and fell asleep.

Seeing this, one elder asked,

"Is she really the Saint? She seems far from noble."

"It's because of the injection containing the fruit's ingredients. If you just say a few words, she'll move."

The elders, convinced by this, started asking about something else.

"Could you tell us how many Saint candidates the Holy Nation has gathered so far?"

"The girls enrolled as trainees, you mean?"

Tyrone explained what he knew.

Since they were all humans to be used as materials for the sacred stone, the elders' curiosity made sense.

"In total, about 100."

"Most aren't from the Holy Nation, right?"

"No. They're all selected from Imperial Court migrants. We don't use natives."

"But with the prophesied Saint here, will those girls even be helpful?"

As the elders showed a hint of concern, tyrone shook his head.

"Still, it would be a waste to simply discard them."

He then explained how the girls could be used.

Besides being materials for sacred stones, they had many uses.

For example, to fulfill the hungry desires of the White Knights...

"But when will the dead World Tree be revived?"

"Our elves and the Holy Nation did too much research in the past, so the World Tree completely died."

"I hope it revives soon."

Now, the elders revealed their own worries, and Tyrone snorted.

"What are you all worried about? As long as we collect lots of sacred stones, everyone knows we can make it look as though it isn't dead."

"That's true. We're lucky the Imperial Court hasn't caught on yet."

"When I consider what happened on the continent because of the World Tree's death, it gives me chills."

The death of the World Tree had brought a great disaster to the continent.

It sparked an enormous war that claimed countless lives.

"What's everyone so anxious about?"

Tyrone uttered the name of that war.

"No one knows the demonkin war started because of us. We just need to quietly keep producing sacred stones like we are now."

Tyrone, continuing without a care, suddenly felt curious.

"But why do you keep asking such obvious questions?"

He felt as though they were being led on.

Sensing that something was wrong, Bellain also asked,

"Why do you keep asking what you already know?"

"As a matter of fact..."

The elders revealed a shocking truth.

"We are no longer the leaders of this village."

"What...!"

Just as Tyrone and Bellain gasped, someone appeared behind them.

Turning at the presence, they saw a young boy standing there.

"It's not us... Now, it's him."

The elders pointed at the boy, who waved his hand.

"Hello?"

Louis greeted the group cheerfully.