"I... fell asleep?"
Irilanze stirred awake on the vine bed, her thoughts still too hazy to hold together.
"A witch cursed you. Only a kiss could wake you, so I kissed you awake."
A face she had been longing for suddenly filled her vision.
The weak elf, drowsy a moment ago, rallied and activated her sluggish Mana Vortex. "Binding Spell! Animate Tree Roots! Weaken Will! Charm Spell!"
Control and weakening spells slammed into Annan all at once. He could not even raise a hand before Irilanze lunged at him—
"No... it wasn't me, it was Tadel... help—"
Caught in his own trap, Annan was knocked down. Tadel quietly left the Treehouse.
A few minutes later, Irilanze emerged looking refreshed. Annan followed with his clothes in disarray, complaining that Tadel had not helped him.
"The books say I shouldn't interrupt you at a time like that."
"What kind of books have you been reading...?"
"Books about love and death."
"Those pretentious books are the worst."
With Irilanze revived, only Lord Emerald's child remained.
Irilanze went with him, mainly because she wanted to hear what had happened after she lost consciousness.
Annan and Tadel headed for the Jade Ancient Tree. Dark Night and the High Elves followed behind him—Dark Night to protect him, the High Elves to keep an eye on him.
Prince Aidan, the culprit, was dead, but the problems he had caused were not over. There was the conflict with the Kingdom, and then there was Annan.
The High Elves remained hostile to Annan. He, too, had set foot in the Forbidden Grounds, and that was unforgivable.
Had Lord Emerald not said that the deity had permitted Annan to do so, the High Elves would never have stopped making trouble for him. Even so, they still disliked him.
The feeling