After arriving at Stella aboard the airship, Baek Yu-Seol was immediately greeted by a surprising scene.
"Hurry up! It's already been 37 minutes since the incident started!"
"Move faster!"
"Discipline has slackened! It's already late to be arriving at the scene now!"
"The bridge is in sight! Faster!"
What's going on…?
The knights of Stella were scrambling to board high-speed airships, heading out urgently.
If Stella's knights were moving with such urgency, it could only mean that something serious had happened somewhere.
"What's going on now?"
Major events and accidents weren't exactly rare. Baek Yu-Seol figured Stella would handle the matter just fine without him.
Besides, if the situation was significant enough for Stella to respond, there was a good chance other mage towers would send reinforcements too. There was no need for him to get involved.
But curiosity was hard to ignore.
After reporting his return at the faculty office, Baek Yu-Seol approached Instructor Lee Han-Wol and asked, "I noticed the knights were rushing out earlier. Did something happen?"
"Well… Generally, it's not appropriate for a mere student to concern themselves with the knights' affairs."
Lee Han-Wol smirked as he looked at Baek Yu-Seol.
"But I suppose you're an exception. About an hour ago, a Persona Gate opened in the Waning Moon Plains."
"A Persona Gate? Was it a significant one?"
"Significant is putting it mildly. Seven gates opened simultaneously."
"Seven…?"
"That's right. And now, the number of observed gates has climbed to 20. The situation is dangerous enough, but the real issue is the lack of manpower, which is why reinforcements are being dispatched."
"I see."
On his way back to the dormitory after the conversation, Baek Yu-Seol stroked his chin thoughtfully.
'This kind of thing happened in the game occasionally, too.'
At the time, players referred to it as a 'jackpot event for free EXP.'
Persona Gates would randomly spawn anywhere from 7 to 50 at once. The phenomenon was usually linked to Dark Mages, and players would hunt them down to earn plenty of equipment and experience points.
Additionally, each gate could be invaded and destroyed one by one, yielding even more EXP.
In short, it was an event optimized for boosting stats and skill levels. The downside, however, was that it couldn't be played cooperatively with other players online.
Since this event triggered randomly at certain story branches, players who encountered it often became the envy of others.
Baek Yu-Seol had experienced this event a few times himself. Not only did he know how to farm EXP efficiently, but he also knew an easy way to resolve the situation entirely.
'All I need to do is find the core gate and destroy it…'
At first glance, the sheer number of Persona Gates - dozens of them - might seem overwhelming. But in reality, there was always a core Persona Gate.
This gate supplied energy to the others, so destroying it would cause all the gates to disappear instantly.
Modern mages probably didn't know this, but with enough manpower deployed, they could brute-force their way through and destroy all the gates one by one.
However—
'That'd be a bit wasteful.'
With his status system, Baek Yu-Seol knew he could make excellent use of the Persona Gates to farm massive amounts of EXP.
Letting such a rare event, with its minuscule occurrence rate, slip away would be a terrible waste.
Moreover, Baek Yu-Seol was currently at a critical turning point.
He had recently gained the ability to harmonize the energies of the Twelve Divine Moons and had experienced significant enlightenment during his mission with Scarlet. Now, he needed practical combat to test his progress.
No matter how much he trained, studied, or practiced, real growth came fastest through actual battles.
Since he didn't have any important appointments for the time being, and Stella allowed attendance credits for students participating in field assignments or missions, there was no reason for him not to get involved.
After a quick shower back at the dormitory, he grabbed only the essentials and headed straight to the administration office.
When he handed over the deployment and field assignment request forms, the staff at the administration office gave him a weary look.
Baek Yu-Seol had been coming and going so often lately that even they had grown accustomed to his frequent absences.
"Heading out again right after coming back? Where are you off to now?"
The administrative officer in charge asked, and Baek Yu-Seol shrugged casually.
"I'm heading to the Waning Moon Plains."
"Hah. Now that you mention it, a few other cadets have submitted requests to go there too. I'm worried it might be a bit too dangerous for students to handle."
"Dangerous? Not really."
"Still, it's rare to see Persona Gates erupting like this all at once. It makes me a little uneasy."
"Hmm… It'll probably be fine."
After efficiently filling out and submitting the request forms, Baek Yu-Seol quickly exited the administration office and headed straight for the airship. His plan was to board the airship departing on schedule.
That might have gone smoothly… if he hadn't run into Scarlet, the Witch Queen along the way.
"…Baek Yuseol, wait a moment."
She was standing still in the reddish glow of the setting sun, her gaze fixed on him. Her expression didn't look particularly pleased.
"You're going to the Waning Moon Plains, aren't you?"
"Oh, how'd you know?"
"Your actions are so predictable."
Scarlet frowned, seemingly deliberating about something, her expression uncertain.
"If I told you not to go, would you stay?"
"Depends. Do you have a good reason?"
"No, not really. Just the Witch Queen's intuition. I've lived a long time, you know."
"If that's all it is, then no deal. My intuition's pretty sharp too."
"Sigh. Never mind. I'll just handle it myself."
"It's not easy for first-years to leave school for reasons like this."
It was spoken from experience.
"...Do I seriously look like a 17-year-old kid just because I'm considered a first-year?"
"Oh, right."
Remembering once again that Scarlet was the Witch Queen, Baek Yu-Seol nodded.
"Not sure what's making you so uneasy, but if something happens, I'll leave it to you to handle."
"Uh… sure..."
"You're the Witch Queen. Shouldn't you be able to handle anything easily?"
"O-of course!"
"Well, I'll be off now."
This wasn't part of the original plan.
Scarlet, with her thousand years of life and polished eloquence, had intended to persuade Baek Yu-Seol to stay at the academy. She didn't have solid evidence, but she was sure something was off and wanted to keep him safe.
But before she could make her case, she found herself swept up in Baek Yu-Seol's rhythm and let him leave without putting up much of a fight.
"Huh…?"
It felt instinctual.
She had answered his words without even realizing it.
It was as if she had been trained, and the thought left Scarlet feeling deeply unsettled. But what was done was done. She couldn't take it back.
"Haah…"
She ruffled her snow-white hair in frustration and shook her head.
"Ugh. This is annoying."
It wasn't just Baek Yu-Seol leaving that bothered her. There was also a strange, nagging sense that something else was wrong.
As the Witch Queen, Scarlet's senses extended across the entire world. She didn't need to be physically present to feel disturbances.
The situation in the Waning Moon Plains was significant, but her intuition told her that something equally unsettling was happening elsewhere.
Under normal circumstances…
She would have just kept an eye on it.
The Witch Queen no longer involved herself in worldly affairs.
But Baek Yu-Seol, as if it were the most natural thing, had passed the responsibility to her and disappeared.
And if something major were to happen while she stood idly by?
'… It'll feel like it's my fault.'
Was that why she'd felt so unsettled earlier? Was Baek Yu-Seol the cause of it?
"Ugh. What am I doing, worrying over nonsense at this age."
Muttering to herself, Scarlet trudged toward the wall. To anyone watching, what happened next would have been incredible: her body became translucent, almost ghost-like, as she effortlessly phased through the wall and disappeared.
If it had been another human making such a request, Scarlet would have ignored them… or turned them into her slave. But with him…
"How did it come to this?"
Shaking her head in disbelief, Scarlet rose into the air.
***
The Elf Kingdom, First World Tree, Root of Heavenly Spirit Tree.
At the peak of Sky Flower Cradle, the capital of the Elf Kingdom, stood a castle that shone like the brightest star in the night sky.
Often joked about as being more of a star than a castle, the Elf King's palace was constructed from Baekryun Wood, a material of astronomical value, even for a single branch.
Its abilities, however, were not particularly remarkable. All it did was help purify and facilitate the natural circulation of energy.
Yet, countless legends surrounded the Baekryun Wood, such as a sick person rising from their deathbed after drinking tea brewed from it, or a blind person regaining their sight. To this day, the exact reasons behind such phenomena remain an unresolved magical mystery.
So, why did Florin, living in a palace surrounded by Baekryun Wood, still suffer from unrelenting headaches?
Was it because her lifestyle allowed her less than seven hours of sleep per week?
Or perhaps it was the endless stream of incidents and accidents that kept her mind constantly preoccupied.
Sky Flower Cradle was no longer what it used to be.
With increasing interaction between races, the Elf King could no longer simply remain a figure who communed with the World Tree.
Now, much like human monarchs, they were required to govern and rule, draft laws, create systems, foster development, and defend their nation.
Thus, Florin had become the busiest Elf King in history.
Unless the matter was diplomatic, she rarely received visitors from outside.
"Your Majesty, individuals claiming to be Dark Elves have come seeking an audience."
"Dark Elves?"
Such a thing might have been impossible to imagine—until now.
"Dark Elves…?"
"I told them to leave, thinking it was a joke, but they presented evidence. So, I came to seek your opinion, Your Majesty."
With that, the attendant presented a pendant.
It bore a pattern resembling a fallen leaf.
Florin took the pendant and examined it closely.
'This pattern…!'
Dark Elves. A race passed down only in legends and folklore.
There were countless stories about them:
- Elves originally had dark skin, but as the population of pale-skinned elves grew, the dark-skinned ones hid their appearance.
- They were said to be a rare mutation that appeared sporadically.
- Others claimed that when an elf fell into corruption, their skin turned black, transforming them into a Dark Elf.
However, there were no verified facts about their existence.
It made sense. Such tales had disappeared hundreds of years ago.
While some elves had indeed fallen into corruption and become Dark Mages, no one referred to them as Dark Elves. Once corrupted, a being was simply a Dark Mage, regardless of its original race.
"This… I can't confirm if it's genuine. But this pattern isn't something just anyone would know."
"I've never seen this pattern before."
That was to be expected.
Documents related to Dark Elves had only been passed down among a select few high-ranking High Elves and the Elf King.
Her head throbbed painfully, but Florin forced herself to rise from her seat. With evidence presented, she couldn't simply dismiss the claim.
But what if they truly were Dark Elves…?
The thought made her uneasy. After all, despite the various legends about Dark Elves, there was a striking commonality among the tales.
'Dark Elves were the first fairies to protect the World Tree.'
'However, they fell into corruption, betrayed the World Tree, and came to hate it.'
'They left, harboring a burning hatred in their hearts, ready to erupt at any moment…'
That story was what made Florin feel so anxious.