The earliest memory Ventmin held of her childhood was of looking up at the World Tree, towering high enough to pierce the sky.
What she had felt back then was now hazy and indistinct.
Surely, like all elves who revered and worshiped that tree, she too must have thought it beautiful and worthy of devotion.
Ventmin had been born into a good family.
At that time, the Lifret family was not yet one of those directly bound to the World Tree.
They stood a tier below the Seven Great Families, a middling noble house at best.
Still, Ventmin Lifret was born with remarkable talent, and because of it, she easily entered the upper echelons of elven society.
She gained access to the royal palace of Serendel and was permitted to see the World Tree up close.
Ventmin believed she was a chosen elf.
Her gift as a druid was unmatched.
She was convinced she would raise the Lifret family to greater heights.
But that confidence crumbled the moment she met a certain elf.
The Plante family—guardians of the World Tree for countless generations.
And within it, the youngest family head in history had arisen.
Ella Plante.
Barely her peer in age, Ella possessed the greatest affinity with the World Tree ever recorded.
She heard its voice more vividly than anyone else, felt its will more closely than anyone else.
Even within the Plante family, her ability was so extraordinary it was called a mutation.
To elves who worshiped the World Tree as a god, Ella Plante was its apostle—divine messenger, object of reverence.
Ventmin felt both awe and envy toward her.
But she did not reveal her jealousy outright.
Instead, she buried herself deeper in effort, convinced her own inadequacy was the problem.
Through such devotion, Ventmin grew stronger still as a druid.
Her skill surpassed that of her peers, even her elders.
Her name became renowned throughout the Elven Kingdom.
And yet, Ventmin was not satisfied.
She could not be.
She would become a greater elf.
She would ascend higher, and carve her name into elven history so boldly that no one could contest it.
Even after rising to high rank within her family, Ventmin never relaxed her discipline.
Every day, she lived intensely.
Among elves, whose long lifespans bred leisure and unhurried lives, her ceaseless struggle was unnatural.
While others strolled, she bled and sweated as she sprinted forward.
But Ventmin did not care.
The results soon became clear.
Her natural talent, combined with relentless effort, brought her success.
She was allowed closer to the World Tree than others, permitted ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) to glimpse its will through the tips of its roots.
She was nearly confirmed as the next head of the Lifret family.
And still—
Ventmin could not be satisfied.
No matter how hard she worked, how high she climbed, one figure always loomed above her.
Ella Plante.
Ventmin could not understand.
Why was she unable to surpass her?
She had worked herself to the bone.
Not day by day, but moment by moment, never wasting a second.
Yet the gap never closed.
Did Ella work as tirelessly as she did?
No.
Ventmin had once spied on her in secret.
What she saw was simplicity itself.
Ella napped idly.
She wandered the forest after meals.
She even slipped away from rituals, hiding from her family to avoid the bother.
So this was the elf all others exalted? This girl of leisure?
Ventmin was dumbfounded.
Surely she must be hiding her true effort elsewhere.
Surely Ella wore a mask, deceiving everyone.
Driven by this conviction, Ventmin shadowed her constantly.
And so, by chance, they grew closer.
The occasion was trivial.
As head of the Plante family, Ella regularly performed rituals for the World Tree. But she found them tedious, and one day, she fled.
And by fate’s hand, the runaway Ella ran into Ventmin, who had been tailing her.
—Hi. So you’re the one, right? The elf who’s been rising with incredible skill lately. Ventmin Lifret, wasn’t it? Nice to meet you.
Ella recognized her and offered a greeting.
Even if Ventmin’s name was spreading, it hardly merited the personal notice of one who communed directly with the World Tree.
Yet Ella spoke as though she had heard much about her, praising her.
—The elders are always saying so, you know. That girl from the Lifret family, Ventmin—she works so hard. Then they look at me and sigh. Honestly, why did I even become family head? They pushed me into it, and now they scold me for it!
Ella was a strange elf.
She was talkative, her behavior flighty to the point of frivolity.
When she laughed, she cackled without decorum.
When she ate, she grabbed food with her hands, heedless of grace.
What barbarism was this?
Compared to the noble, sacred image Ventmin had always held of Ella Plante, it was too great a shock.
Naturally, Ventmin could not help acting like one of the family elders she herself disliked, nagging Ella.
Maintain dignity.
What sort of conduct was that for the priestess of the World Tree?
Behave as a family head should.
Skip fewer rituals, or at least don’t drag me into scolding for it.
Even as she said such things, Ventmin felt dissonance inside.
What was she doing?
Why was she helping her rival by lecturing her? Even she thought it strange.
And yet, seeing Ella like that stirred something she could not suppress.
So Ventmin scolded her endlessly, until her ears must have hardened.
But Ella never listened.
Instead, she pulled Ventmin along, showing her interesting things—dragging her even into the sanctum known as the Cradle, forbidden to outsiders.
Yes, that action had been born of goodwill.
Ella Plante treated Ventmin as a friend.
Though Ambella, the retainer of her family, looked at Ventmin coldly, Ella insisted they get along.
Ventmin was speechless.
What a ridiculous woman.
To treat the rival who chased her so fiercely as a friend?
Did she not even recognize Ventmin as competition?
Ventmin was not one to bottle such thoughts.
She snapped at Ella.
Would she really be fine, sitting so idly, if Ventmin took her place?
Perhaps it was Ventmin’s own form of goodwill, in a way.
Ella had shown kindness to her; it was only fair to offer a warning in return.
How had Ella reacted then?
She widened her eyes—then burst into laughter.
—Is that so? Then you’d be doing me a favor, sparing me all the tedious work!
Spoken without the slightest attachment to her own position.
Though she alone could commune with the World Tree so deeply, she regarded it not as privilege but as burden.
And ironically—
It was precisely this sincerity that crushed Ventmin with despair and jealousy greater than ever.
“Yes. My life has always been nothing but a struggle to surpass you.”
Ventmin’s voice dripped with venom as she spoke to Ella Plante before her eyes.
The place where she opened her eyes after losing consciousness must have been a part of the great consciousness of the World Tree.
Why Ella Plante was there, she did not know.
Perhaps it had happened because the factor inherited within Sedina Roschen’s blood had touched the World Tree.
That was not important.
What mattered now was that, standing before her eyes, was the one she had so desperately longed to surpass.
—You have not changed, then or now.
At the sight of Ella’s bitter smile directed at her, Ventmin bit her lip.
“Why do you look at me like that? I destroyed your family, I took your daughter as a hostage to offer her as a sacrifice. I gave up countless elven lives. And yet, you still look at me that way?”
—......
“You were always like that! No matter how much I lashed out, no matter how I mocked you, you always brushed it aside with a smile! Even so, I could never surpass you. Why? What was I lacking?”
Not only had she been unable to defeat Ella Plante, but what was even more absurd was that, the moment her daughter connected with the World Tree, Ventmin’s link had been cut off completely.
Though Sedina was of Plante blood, the idea that she could achieve such a thing the very first time she touched the World Tree was unbelievable.
More than the fact that her plans had collapsed entirely, it was the fact that her end had been sealed at the hands of the Plante bloodline that left Ventmin with a vast emptiness.
—What is built on blood and slaughter can never be justified, Ventmin. That is what I have told you since long ago.
“Do not dare to lecture me! Everything I have done was for our kin! Look outside this place! See how far humans have advanced! Do you know what kind of war they started a hundred years ago? And knowing all that, you would still spout idealistic nonsense?”
They had once exchanged such debates before.
Standing before the World Tree, Ella Plante had spoken after long thought about the future.
In a changing world, what path should elves follow?
Ella had spoken of peace and harmony, but Ventmin had disagreed.
Peace and harmony were nothing more than empty illusions.
Even among elves themselves, hierarchies existed between families, and there was a gulf between those with power and those without.
If elven society was like this already, how could harmony with other races, including humans, be possible?
The history of every race had been nothing but struggle and division, and within that, perfect peace had never once existed—so claimed Ventmin.
Ella had listened back then, acknowledged it could be so, yet had still refused to abandon hope.
The difference of opinion they had shared 500 years ago had not changed in the least, even now.
“All of it! All of it is your fault! Why must you make me so wretched? What have I done so wrong? Is it such a crime for an elf to act for the sake of elves?! Is it so wrong to fight to preserve the safety and welfare of my kin?!”
—And what of the kin who were sacrificed in that process?
“Nothing can be achieved without sacrifice! An elf like you, gifted with overflowing talent, could never understand! The desperate struggle of an elf who toiled night and day, hoping for the World Tree’s revelation! The world is not equal. If you do not want to be robbed, you must steal!”
—Do you not think such a world itself is wrong?
“So. You dreamed such lofty delusions about changing the world? That is why you dared to forcefully expand the World Trees? How could you—who received the World Tree’s blessing more closely than anyone—commit an act of betrayal against it?”
Ventmin let out all that she had bottled in her heart for so long.
Her jealousy toward Ella, her selfish conviction that she acted for her kin, her responsibility as one who stood at the top.
All of it tangled together, pushing her further into despair.
“......Yes. Even if I rage like this, it is meaningless. I have failed. And failed at the hands of the daughter you left behind, no less.”
Ventmin laughed in self-mockery.
She no longer had the strength even to be angry.
In the end, had she not been defeated?
And nothing was uglier than the lament of the vanquished.
“Congratulations, Ella Plante. In the end, you have won.”
Ventmin lowered her gaze to her own body.
From the extremities, her form was slowly crumbling into dust.
More precisely, she was being devoured by the vast data of the World Tree itself.
Just as the records of every elf who had died within the World Tree had been preserved.
Ella still looked at Ventmin only with pity in her eyes.
—......I never wished to fight you. I never intended to hinder you by using my daughter.
“And now you think to bestow pity upon the defeated?”
—Every word I speak is the truth. I have seen more after looking at the world outside. And after giving birth to my child, Sedina, I wished all the more for her to live a life free from elven society.
“What a laughable story. You are a criminal. You betrayed the World Tree we revere.”
—That itself is what was wrong.
What?
Ventmin, by now already missing her lower body, asked in disbelief.
—From the very beginning, I never betrayed the World Tree. This was, rather, the will the World Tree itself desired.
“What nonsense is that. You expect me to believe such lies?”
Ventmin tried desperately to reject those words, but the moment she looked into Ella’s eyes, she could not help but realize.
Ella Plante was telling the truth.
If she had not betrayed the World Tree’s will—
Then what did that make those who had heartlessly cast her out and driven her away?
At that realization, Ventmin could only laugh.
“Ha, haha. Ahahaha!”
Even as her body collapsed further, she could not stop laughing.
“So that is how it is. All of us believed you a sinner, but in truth it was the opposite.”
Ella Plante had been branded a criminal who dared betray the will of the World Tree.
Every elf had scorned her name.
But was that truly so?
If one thought about who it was that truly acted for the World Tree’s sake, the answer was simple.
Perhaps even Ventmin had known that.
She had simply ignored it, turned away from it, pretended not to know.
Ventmin gazed at Ella with eyes now clearer, and smiled brightly.
“As I thought, I hate you.”
With those final words, she was gone completely.
Her mind and memories became fragments of data, nourishment for, and part of, the World Tree.
Thus ended, quiet and still, the reign of the Lifret family head who had ruled the elven kingdom for 500 years.
Ella silently gazed at the empty space before turning her head.
Her face, steeped in sorrow, brightened.
—In the end, you did it. My daughter.
“Mother....”
—To think we would meet again so soon. I never expected this at all.
Once more connected to the World Tree, Sedina found herself face to face with her mother.