CHAPTER 523: HEALING TIME [II]

Leaning the unconscious dragon knight on the nearby rock, Elaina observe the surroundings for any signs of the worms in the vicinity.

"Is it really safe to keep the Dragon Knight here? Isn’t it a bad idea considering those worms still attack?" Elaina is worried.

That’s when the Goddess of Taming decided to answer her question. It seems that she was just keeping quiet and let the two gods do the talking. She remained on standby just in case and it is her time to actually be useful.

"[Good question, Elaina! But the answer is also simple! The answer is no! And the main reason for that is that the Worms might be voracious and quite a bottomless pit of a monster when it comes to its appetite, but it is also not a mindless monster that only knows eating and nothing else. It can also think and feel things that don’t feel right or things that may be dangerous to them. If they think they are dangerous, their very first response is to flee due to how weak they are in reality.]"

"Uh, how does that even connect with the Dragon Knight, though?" Elaina frowned.

"[Relax, Elaina. I am not yet done explaining things. Remember how the Pixies can’t get too close to the Dragon Knight’s location, even though everyone wanted to come and check the next tree? Well, that is because it is one of the dragon’s main defense mechanisms to fight the dangerous and those who want to attack it by ambush. They send out torrents of pressure in their surroundings by using mana in the air and overloading them with it. One wrong move and every enemy near the Dragon Knight feel indescribable pain and danger that they will feel. The feeling the pixies felt is more likely amplified by the same defense mechanism the dragon knight uses and the rot of the World Tree.]"

"Wait, that was an innate power the Dragon Knight has?!" Elaina was flabbergasted. She always thought that was an aftereffect from the holy rot itself, but it turns out, the Dragon Knight has it as an innate thing? No wonder the Elder Pixie immediately left after casting the spell on the Dragon Knight; he is already feeling the defense mechanism the Dragon Knight is releasing.

"[Yes. The only reason you don’t seem to feel it...is because of your constitution of being unable to feel any mana in your surroundings. Thanks to that, even if the Dragon Knight continues to pump the same power with more intensity, you are more likely to feel like a little goosebumps on your skin and nothing more.]" the Goddess of Taming properly explained, and now Elaina felt like an idiot for thinking the Dragon Knight is defenseless.

"Does that truly work on the worms?" Elaina asked again just to make sure.

"[Yes. And yes, you shouldn’t worry too much about the Dragon Knight that much; that is also one of the main reasons the Dragon Knight is being removed near the second world tree. Without him there, his influence on that area will soon disappear, and the only remaining power left there would be the holy rot itself, but seeing how the Pixies seem to be fine around the holy rot, it is not a big problem, and maybe around three to five days, they will be able to enter and check that area for themselves.]"

After hearing the brief things that she needed to know and ensuring that the Dragon Knight would be safe from the worms no matter what, Elaina sighed in relief. She returned to the Pixies and said goodbye to them temporarily. Since she found the area where she needed to work with to restore the land of the dead back to its former glory, Elaina reopened the portal that connects to her farm and decided to anchor that portal entrance near the cave and the dragon knight so that she has easy access anytime she needs to go there.

She returned to the farm when it was getting late. She hoped no one had noticed since she disappeared.

...

...

...

Upon returning to the farm, Elaina was welcomed by none other than Julia, seemingly fuming.

"Sis, where did you go earlier?"

Elaina was startled upon seeing Julia, her arms crossed and a stern look on her face, her right foot stomping like a Mother confronting her son or daughter who had sneaked away from a chore she had assigned.

"W-what? W-where else? In my room, of course!" Elaina awkwardly smiled while sweat was coldly dripping on her forehead.

"In your room? The whole day?" Julia frowned, further pressurizing Elaina to make more reliable alibis on the go.

"Y-yeah! Yes, of course. I felt a bit tired, so I decided to rest for a bit and let the farm run with the Feys."

"Really, huh? Is that really the case, Sister Elaina? If that is the case, how come I couldn’t even see you when I was checking your whole room not too long ago? I stayed inside your room for a few hours...and yet I barely see a trace of you sleeping or even resting inside. I doubt you have done that, right?"

Elaina’s alibi quickly crumbled the moment Julia revealed the truth. And because she wasn’t there to begin with, her narrative of staying there the whole day...is immediately destroyed with the cold, hard facts that Julia revealed to her. In short, Elaina dug her own grave in the process, spectacularly failing to escape the carefully crafted trap that Julia set for her sister, who constantly makes alibis and various other excuses.

"The cat is out of the bag, huh?" Elaina sighed dejectedly. There is no way out and no way for her to even crawl her way out of this one. She has to properly explain things to Julia.

And so, Elaina was forced to spill the reason she was gone and how she had done it in the process. She was also forced to reveal how she got a new ability to open up a portal for herself that she can enter and exit as she wants. Since Julia was not easily convinced, Elaina had to demonstrate it to her, just to make sure that the girl believed her entirely. Thankfully, after the demonstration she had done in front of Julia allowed her to be convinced about it.

"That’s a bit of a convenient ability, Sis. Not only that, but you are now actively helping out to restore the Land of the Dead and return its former glory. That is not an easy thing, I tell you, Sis."

"Indeed, it isn’t. And because I can only use the portal myself and no one else can do so, I have to do the tasks all by myself and can only ask for help that can be done by gathering information from the Land of the Dead and bringing that said information here for everyone to see and analyze," Elaina explained, sighing as she revealed the secret about the portal. Of course, she kept it silent that she received it due to the favor she received from the Creator God, and also why she was doing her best to make the Land of the Dead recover from its former glory.

"Now I know why you have a pot of soil that came directly from the Land of the Dead last time. It felt kind of weird for you to have it, considering the Land of the Dead is very far from Darcero Kingdom, and considering the distance, I didn’t even think you would be the kind of person who would buy a soil that is not only unable to grow anything, but also considered a defective soil."

"Yes. Now, will you forgive me for hiding this information? After all, I thought that you won’t believe me, considering I don’t have the ability to cast spells in the first place."

Julia shook her head and seemed disappointed. "Sis, are you really that in low favor for us to think we wouldn’t believe what you will say? Sis, I can easily tell if you are joking or not, so if you said something like that, I wouldn’t say it is some kind of joke. After all, where is the punchline if it was some kind of joke in the first place? It wouldn’t make sense, and it isn’t funny in any way at all. Therefore, it is best you tell us about it more than to say nothing and keep it a secret from us."

Elaina scratches her head in embarrassment. "Sorry about that, Julia. You are right, I was too naive to think that no one would believe me."

Julia smiled and hugged Elaina. "Good to know, Sis. Remember that your secret is safe with us, and besides, we are family and we help each other, right? If you keep on doing these kinds of things would just make a rift and doubt among everyone of us, which is pretty bad in my opinion. So next time, be transparent to us, we are family."