?In a certain room within the supply station.
Several people sat around a large oval table. Heavy tension lingered in the room as everyone turned to look at Delilah, who was quietly sitting in her seat while briefly pausing her gaze on every individual in the room.
Wherever her gaze would pause, the individual under her gaze would slightly flinch.
Such was the terrifying nature of her gaze.
“Should we get started?”
Standing behind her was Patrick, who held a faint smile on his face.
“…..”
Delilah didn’t answer.
Her attention was currently focused on a certain individual in the room.
“Is it true that you don’t recall anything?”
“…..I apologize.”
Lennon lowered his head in apology. He too didn’t understand what had happened.
His memories were wiped, and all he remembered was waking up in the middle of the street with others around.
He knew that he had fallen for some sort of mental spell, but he didn’t know what it was or when it happened.
“Is the same thing true for all of you?”
Delilah asked the others in the room, who tacitly nodded their heads.
“I see.”
Delilah pursed her lips.
Then, looking around, her eyes fell on an empty seat.
She turned to look behind her where Patrick was standing.
“What about him? Why is he not here?”
“Ah, about that…”
Patrick lowered his head and whispered something in her ear. Delilah’s face didn’t change, and she soon closed her eyes.
‘Memories have been wiped, and someone is in a state of coma with hardly any brain activity. Time elapsed since the incident occurred is several minutes.’
The situation was weird.
Not only that, but when she looked around and saw the strength that the people in the room possessed, Delilah found the situation even odder.
“Did you find any clues about the situation?”
“No.”
Patrick shook his head.
“The only thing we found was this.”
He brought his palm forward to reveal a blood-red leaf.
“…..There weren’t many scattered around, but there should be no trees around here that produce such colored leaves. I’m having the observation squad carefully analyze the leaf for any clues.”
“…..”
Delilah sat quietly, observing the leaf.
It may not necessarily be a great clue, but it was certainly something. It was enough to give her an idea of what sort of ‘monster,’ if it was even responsible, to look for.
“Blood-colored leaf. Have you had anyone look for any information about a possible monster related to it? If we filter all the data, it shouldn’t be difficult to find the information.”
“We’re already on it.”
“No answer yet?”
“I have received several.”
“Hm?”
“…..I’m just looking through them to sort out which is the most likely candidate for the situation. I’ve narrowed it down to three possible monsters.”
Patrick carefully laid out three papers on the table.
“The first monster, the Redwheel.”
Delilah looked at the picture displayed on the paper.
It depicted a large, grotesque red sack with a leaf at the top. The sack was bulbous and veiny, pulsating with a sickly, rhythmic glow.
The leaf, blood-red and serrated, was strikingly similar to the one they had found scattered around the station.
Carefully examining the leaf, she noted its striking resemblance to the one in her hands, down to the intricate vein patterns and crimson hue.
“It’s a carnivorous plant that releases a mist from its body.”
Patrick explained while pointing towards the description where he started to read.
“The mist induces vivid hallucinations in all those who inhale it, distorting their sense of reality. Once they are ensnared in the hallucination, the plant releases several long, sinewy tendrils. These tendrils are covered in tiny barbs that latch onto the victims, drawing them inexorably toward the plant’s maw. The Redwheel then engulfs them, digesting its prey slowly within its pulsating, crimson body.”
Listening to the description, Delilah frowned. The more she listened, the more she found this creature to be the most likely culprit.
But there were still several things that didn’t make sense.
“How is it that nobody has noticed the plant…?”
She cast her gaze over the post-leaders.
“For people of your strength, detecting something like this shouldn’t be difficult. In fact, the reason why you’ve been selected as post-leaders is because of your strength. For something like this to occur…”
Delilah didn’t need to finish her words there.
Her face said it all.
In reality, she wasn’t that mad. She understood that most likely an outsider organization had tampered with them, resulting in this mess.
She knew this type of feeling all too well.
It was for that reason that she was being unreasonably harsh.
‘I’ll make sure to squeeze the Guilds for as much as I possibly can.’
Since they were responsible for the cadets, they were the ones at fault for what happened. That was enough reason for her to demand compensation and provide it to the cadets.
At the end of the day, things couldn’t continue like this.
She needed to get them strong, fast.
Taking a long sigh, Delilah turned to Patrick, who gave her a rundown of the second monster.
“Crimson Hand.”
Similar to the Redwheel, the monster had a distinctive red leaf that was similar to the one in her hand. Its effects were also similar, with it brainwashing those within its range.
Unlike the Redwheel, it resided underneath the ground, and the reason why it was called ‘Crimson Hand’ was because it was a gigantic red open palm.
But for it to take over the entire station…
Delilah looked beneath the ground.
…..It would without question be of a size unlike anything she had ever seen before.
“Lastly, the Ebonthorn Tree.”
Delilah’s ears perked up.
“This is the one with the least amount of information that we have. It’s a rather slippery creature that knows how to hide well and slowly consumes the minds of those it targets. The reason why we don’t have much information on this creature is because all those that have been subjected to it either die or forget everything.”
Frowning, Delilah looked at Patrick.
“But it’s not like there haven’t been cases where it has been defeated. Take a look here.”
Patrick pointed towards the document in front of Delilah.
“There’s a verbal recount of what happened in one of the past records that I managed to dig out.”
Shifting down, Delilah managed to catch a glimpse of what he was talking about.
There she could see a quote.
[I never noticed it until the end. I only noticed it when I started losing sight of myself. I started to grow moodier, my emotions dulled, and I was starting to change… Change into a completely different person. That’s when I knew something was wrong and fought my way out of the world. When I woke up again, those around me forgot everything. I didn’t. And the craziest part of it all…? Only a few minutes had passed in the real world.]
Delilah re-read the lines over and over again. Staring at the illustration which depicted the leaf, and then the one that sat on the table, she seemed to fall into deep thought.
With everyone around staring at her, Delilah tapped her finger on the desk before shifting the paper slightly forward.
“….This is the one.”
She was sure.
“The Tree of Ebonthorn.”
***
‘This is harder than I thought.’
Such was my thought as I stared at the statue before me. It wasn’t anything detailed. It was supposed to be an angel statue, but it came out more like a stickman with wings.
“…..”
The more I looked at it, the worse it became in my eyes.
To the point where I suddenly felt like throwing it away. The only reason I didn’t was because the very statue was Owl-
Mighty.
“…..You need to imagine it properly. It needs a lot of concentration.”
“Yes, I can tell.”
My head was still throbbing from my previous attempt.
It all more or less depended on my creativity and imagination. I could recreate things that I had previously seen, but it all depended on my memory of them. The fainter the memory, the fainter the image.
Not only that, but if I were to re-create a completely new piece that I had never seen before, then it would take a lot of mana and concentration.
This was my current limit.
If that wasn’t all, I could also not change the entire room at will like Owl-Mighty did.
I needed more practice to get to its level.
“Hoo.”
Taking a deep breath, I wiped away the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead.
“This might take me a long time to learn.”
Well, that was mostly dependent on how much I planned on training it.
Since the skill was essential, I planned on focusing a lot of my time on it.
“When are you going to teach me about emotions…?”
Suddenly, Owl-Mighty spoke.
Listening to its voice, I turned my head.
“It’s not easy to learn about emotions. It will take a bit of time.”
“Do you know of a way to make it faster…?”
“…..Hmm.”
There was a way.
Of course, there was a way. The first leaf. So long as I used that, I would have no problem injecting all the pent-up emotions into Owl-Mighty. In fact, it could also be a good thing since if I didn’t let all my emotions out, I’d find myself in a dangerous situation.
There was only one problem.
“You can’t handle it.”
“…..I can’t handle it?”
“Yes, you can’t.”
I didn’t doubt that the mental resistance of Owl-Mighty was high, but for someone who knew nothing about emotions, to be suddenly injected with such raw, intense emotions… they might implode.
Or at least, this was what I thought.
It could very well be the opposite, but it didn’t matter to me.
I wanted this relationship to last for a while. If the first leaf was to work, then there wouldn’t be any need for him to stay with me for long.
That would go against my ambitions.
“It might be fine since your real body is not here, but it is dangerous. The best course of action is for you to slowly learn a bit about emotions before I apply the skill on you.”
“…..”
Owl-Mighty didn’t reply, but it didn’t seem like it was against what I said.
I sighed in relief then.
“Since you’ve agr—”
I stopped halfway through my sentence.
That was because,
[Tree of Ebonthorn: You were able to overcome the event]
A notification flashed before my eyes.