Wooong. Wooooong.
The cubes floating around Ludger began to shift.
The cubes, each the size of a grown man’s head, split into dozens of much smaller ones that clustered together in midair, forming brand-new spears of steel.
The elves stared blankly at the sight, as if entranced.
Instead of launching the steel spears at them, Ludger drove them straight down into the ground between himself and the elves.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwak!
In an instant, a steel barrier rose up, and the elves, robbed of their fighting spirit, could not even bring themselves to charge at him.
“Alex. Do it properly. Don’t let water leak this way.”
“Ah, sorry. I’m still not quite used to it.”
From behind the elves of the Tri-Families came Alex’s death-laden voice.
Turning his gaze to the soldiers of House Dentis, Ludger spoke.
“What are you doing? Weren’t you supposed to fight for your house’s honor?”
“Th-that is...”
“Your head of house fights inside while the retainers stand idle? No wonder the prestige of House Dentis has fallen so low.”
At Ludger’s provocation, the Dentis soldiers’ eyes burned with anger as they glared at him.
“And what will glaring at me accomplish? Your true enemies are over there.”
With a jerk of his chin, Ludger indicated the elves of the Tri-Families.
“If you call yourselves retainers of House Dentis, then protect your house with your own hands.”
It was insulting to hear such words about their own house from an outsider, but the elves of Dentis knew well enough what was urgent.
They immediately rushed the enemy.
The fragile balance of standoff had already been shattered long ago.
On top of that, Alex was wreaking havoc within the Tri-Families’ ranks, overturning the tide again and again.
Now, with Dentis’s elite joining the fray, the outcome was all but decided.
What followed was a one-sided massacre.
Perhaps the blows were excessive, but it was the Tri-Families who had stormed into another’s house and picked this fight.
In truth, this was nothing short of war.
Still, Alex was not entirely merciless.
“Anyone who surrenders, I’ll spare your life.”
There was no need to kill them all.
Those who lost the will to fight could be urged to surrender and taken as hostages.
But Alex underestimated the elves of the Tri-Families.
He did not grasp just how overflowing with pride and arrogance they were.
Elves feared death, yes.
But even more humiliating than death was to receive mercy from a human. To the Tri-Families, it was a disgrace that would grind their pride into the dirt.
Seeing the anger, defiance, hatred, and murderous resolve burning in their eyes, Alex let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah. First time I’ve seen guys react like this when told they’ll be spared.”
Fine. This was better.
At least now, killing them all would leave no room for reproach.
“I warned you, didn’t I? You brought this all on yourselves.”
The elves of the Tri-Families charged Alex with desperate determination.
But their struggle looked no different than moths hurling themselves into the fire—a pitiful, inevitable end.
* * *
The battle was over.
Every elf who had dared to invade House Dentis lay cold and dead.
Just as the Dentis warriors might have begun to savor their victory, Vierno also emerged from inside, his fight already finished.
He returned with Viela at his side, his appearance so pristine that one would hardly believe he had fought at all.
Considering the tremors that had shaken the earth from afar, his bout must have been equally one-sided.
“How did the elders fare?”
“They have been subdued and restrained.”
Vierno answered in his usual polite tone.
Yet somehow, the word “subdued” did not sound as ordinary as it should.
Ludger glanced sidelong at Viela.
He had already thought her a rather spirited elf, but now she carried herself with strict discipline.
It wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, her respect for Vierno seemed to have deepened even more.
“In the end, so it has come to this.”
Vierno’s face clouded as he looked upon the aftermath inside.
He had vaguely expected something like this might happen, but to face it in reality was another matter entirely.
“What do you intend to do now?”
“House Dentis has already broken with the Tri-Families. But we cannot simply align ourselves with House Lifret either.”
“Which makes you, in effect, a third power.”
“Yes. It was something that had to be done sooner or later. It just happened more hastily than expected. As of now, Dentis lacks the strength to stand alone.”
“Will you manage?”
“There is a way. At this point, we can only seek help.”
“Help from whom...?”
“There is another house, one that has maintained neutrality as we have.”
House Burke—guardians of the forest’s outer rim.
In sheer martial strength, they were arguably at the very top of the Seven Houses.
“They’ve stayed out of all this strife. Will they really move?”
“...There is something I have not yet told you.”
“So, there is more to House Burke.”
“I apologize. I should have explained earlier, but circumstances pressed too quickly.”
At that moment, Hans and Bellaruna, who had been lingering near the underground prison, cautiously joined the group.
Seeing that all members assembled for Sedina’s rescue were present, Vierno spoke again.
“House Burke of the Oak Bark holds the duty of guarding the forest’s borders against outside threats. But you must have wondered—why entrust such a vital role to a single house?”
“It did seem strange,” Hans agreed with a nod.
The elves of the forest were not beings of eternal harmony.
Like humans, they formed factions, competed for power, and schemed against each other.
How, then, could a single house be left with the defense of the forest?
What if Burke decided to ally with outsiders and fling open the forest’s gates?
Of course, there were natural defenses—the forest itself was a fortress against invasion.
Still, to entrust so crucial a task to one house, and one that remained neutral, was riddled with problems.
“House Burke does not hold this duty by choice. They are serving a punishment.”
“A punishment?”
“They were once the house that loved the forest most, nurturing it with devotion. Their nature was not the hard bark and iron wall you see today.”
“In other words, they were exiled. What brought it about?”
“House Burke was once the closest vassal of House Plante.”
At the name Plante, everyone’s eyes widened.
Considering the present treatment of Burke, the revelation made grim sense.
“So, Plante and Burke... Those two houses once stood at the peak of elven society.”
“Indeed. But when House Plante was accused of smuggling the World Tree beyond the forest, they were annihilated—and Burke shared in their guilt.”
Thus, House Lifret rose to take Plante’s place.
Those who had helped topple Plante became the new house of the Shadewardens.
The roles once held by ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Plante and Burke were now occupied by Lifret and the Shadewardens.
“House Burke did not turn away from its crime but chose to accept the punishment. And so, they fought at the outermost edge, defending against outsiders—year after year. Always hoping that one day they might return to the glorious forest nearest the World Tree.”
“That explains why they’ve kept neutrality while others fought among themselves.”
“Exactly. No one wished to ally with them anyway. Even if it meant victory, few would tie themselves to a house branded guilty. Centuries have passed, yet the stigma remains.”
“And you mean to ally with them now? That won’t be easy.”
“The last blood of House Plante lives on. Until now Burke has responded only with silence. But this time may be different.”
“And what assurance do you have of that?”
It was Bellaruna who asked this time.
“They were punished because Plante acted independently to smuggle out the World Tree. Wouldn’t that mean Burke actually resents Plante?”
It was a sound argument.
For nearly five hundred years, they had borne that punishment.
A hundred years ago, in the race war, it was Burke who suffered the heaviest losses on the front lines.
What memories remained now but emptiness and anger—wondering why they had to keep paying this price?
Worse, no one could say when their punishment would ever end.
Even after the sacrifices of war, nothing had changed.
Perhaps it never would. Perhaps they were condemned to live this way forever.
What must the young elves of Burke think of Plante now?
“Maybe. But if they truly bore such resentment, they would have voiced it long ago. Yet even after the war, Burke made no claim to their rights.”
“So that is only how it appears from the outside.”
“Of course, there may be internal dissent we cannot see. But in the grand flow of things, House Burke has not outwardly resisted their fate.”
“Or else...”
Hans spoke, imagining the worst.
“...Perhaps they are secretly preparing a true rebellion.”
Even as he voiced it, the thought felt plausible. The others seemed to think so too.
“Yes. They may have nursed hatred all this time, waiting for a chance to strike. But even so, our course remains unchanged.”
“Right. However it plays out, Burke’s movement will matter.”
Naturally, Burke could not be blindly trusted.
They might still declare themselves uninvolved.
But even the deepest-rooted tree, when faced not with a storm but with an earthquake that tore up the very earth, would be forced to act.
“So you intend to reach out to House Burke yourself, Vierno?”
“We will have to send a messenger. But how long it might take...”
“Can’t you use the forest’s network to speak with them?”
“It isn’t so simple.”
Vierno explained the flaw in the elves’ forest network.
“The forest serves as our eyes, yes, but not everyone shares them equally. Watchers have priority, and even among them there is hierarchy.”
“So even watchers cannot freely invade another house’s network.”
“Correct. That is why territories are divided by house. No matter how skilled, a watcher cannot trespass into another’s domain unseen. Without stealth, the only way is official channels. And sadly, we know nothing of Burke’s connection to the network.”
“House Dentis doesn’t?” Ludger asked, surprised.
Vierno nodded bitterly.
“Not only Dentis. Even Lifret, the supreme authority of the forest, doesn’t know. Burke was banished, after all. No one bothers to mind such things.”
“Then wouldn’t it be harder to detect any betrayal?”
“To counter that, watchers from other houses monitor the perimeter around Burke constantly. From outside, at least, no suspicious movement has been seen.”
“So they’ve become almost an independent organization—detached from internal affairs, but still fighting to repel invaders.”
“That is what House Burke is.”
If even Vierno said so, then they were worth considering.
“The problem is, sending a messenger will take at least half a day. In times this urgent, that is a heavy delay.”
“I’ve been troubled over that as well. If only I had cultivated more ties with them beforehand. Viela, do you know of any way?”
“I’m sorry, Uncle. Even we have no connections with House Burke...”
Not even Viela, acting as head in her lord’s stead, could manage it.
As everyone wrestled with the problem, someone timidly raised a hand.
It was Bellaruna.
“Um...”
All eyes instantly shot toward her.
Whenever Bellaruna stepped forward in such moments, something was bound to happen.
“What is it, Lady Bellaruna? Are you perhaps thinking of bypassing into Burke’s network?”
Vierno’s eyes shone with hope, and Bellaruna shivered.
“W-well... that is possible.”
“...So it is possible, after all.”
Hans muttered under his breath in disbelief, but Bellaruna pressed on with what she had originally wanted to say.
“But we don’t even need that. I can already contact House Burke directly.”
“...”
It took everyone a moment to process her words—then they all shouted in unison.
“What?”