Chapter 101 - The First Act — The Final Act: Seeking Coexistence with the “Demonic Forest”
I wish to define myself as an explorer of the mysteries of the "Demonic Forest." A place where my gaze can stretch far into the distance, allowing me to reaffirm just how insignificant I am between the heavens and the earth. Such a place is exactly what I need right now.
I climb the winding staircase and reach the top floor of the watchtower.
Blue skies and white clouds. The vast panorama stretching into the distance is as magnificent as ever. The breeze is gentle, and the surroundings are neither too quiet nor too noisy. For someone about to plunge headfirst into the depths of their own thoughts, I can hardly imagine a more ideal setting. I smile to myself.
I settle into a chair and gaze out at the magnificent panorama surrounding me, lost in thought. Not as a researcher, but as an explorer. An exploration with a purpose. Objects of significance. Trials... Countless fragments of thought scatter in every direction. Even the majestic scenery before my eyes gradually fades into the whirlpool of my thoughts, dissolving into illusions and being swept away.
――――
I continued to ponder what I had witnessed in that place. I now had a clear objective for my exploration. Judging from how my friend had reacted, he might also be able to devise some means of dealing with the dense ambient mana swirling around that location. I began considering what I could do—and what I ought to do.
I brought the "structure" I had seen to mind.
A gigantic, multi-tiered structure rose abruptly from the middle of the forest. Even from a distance of ten kūron yalds, I could make out its shape.
That thing... It was undoubtedly man-made.
I could feel the memories of my previous life stirring violently within me. It stood more than six hundred yalds tall, its base rising straight up with sheer, vertical walls. Partway up, its shape gradually sloped inward, narrowing toward the summit. Furthermore, a spherical bulge protruded from its middle section, like a massive growth, with numerous holes arranged in orderly rows piercing its surface.
—It was a place where people "lived," "made their homes," and "worked."
It looked like a massive, multi-layered complex of high-rise buildings. Several similar skyscrapers surfaced in my memories of my previous life. No, it was more like a combination of all those structures. There was nothing in my memories quite as "enormous and complex" as that thing. It was almost as though someone had taken buildings from various memories, connected them, and piled them on top of one another.
And yet, it had withstood the forces of nature, remaining standing through an unimaginable span of time without collapsing... Who on earth had built such a thing? Even the knowledge and common sense I had carried over from my previous life could not explain it. It was something utterly unknown.
If such a colossal structure existed, what might lie at its base? I imagined a sprawling city. Surely, if I approached it, I would find that it was not the only high-rise building there. Around that tower, the tree canopies of the "Demonic Forest" rose in overlapping layers. They looked almost like clouds billowing upward. That was what I had observed.
In other words, I could reasonably conclude that a collection of similarly tall buildings lay submerged beneath the forest. They could be described as a cluster of urban skyscrapers, as we would call them in my previous life. No... I had never seen buildings packed together that densely. Perhaps the area surrounding the base of that sacred rock formation had already fallen within their domain.
I could only conclude that an entire city from ancient Estar had been swallowed up by the forest.
Surely, the remains of that place still preserved glimpses of the everyday lives of its ancient inhabitants. It was, after all, a place the Estarians themselves had designated as a "Forbidden Zone." A "tainted city" where those who had committed sins once lived. Who knew what might be lurking there? It was also a place where ambient mana was extraordinarily concentrated. There was even a possibility that the mana itself was surging upward from some kind of facility.
For now, I had no idea what that meant. But precisely because I did not know, I was free to let my imagination run wild.
My deductions gathered momentum, eventually leading me to a single theory. In ancient Estar, some kind of research had been conducted in that city. Experiments had been carried out and their results examined—until, eventually, an accident occurred.
That place... That very place was the Estarians' "proof of original sin."
The wind brushed against my cheek. The chair groaned faintly beneath me as I shifted my weight. Above my upturned gaze stretched an endless sky. I would be exploring the remnants of a civilization that had once existed in this world...
To accomplish that, I first had to understand the "Demonic Forest." I must not make an enemy of the "Forest." If we became its enemies, the "Forest" would reject us. And if it did, we would never reach the mysteries of ancient Estar. We would lose even the chance to meet the Estarian elders, leaving us with no way to uncover the "sin" of ancient Estar or the "punishment" imposed upon the Estarians.
The truth of the world would remain forever beyond our reach. We would only drift further away from "tranquility."
My "true ambition" would remain unfulfilled, and I would sink into the "darkness of ignorance." That was something I could not accept. Then what should I do? A single "conviction" took hold of me. Yes...
―――― Seek Coexistence with the "Demonic Forest" ――――
That was the only path by which I could reach the truth of the world. I understood that much.
And I was certain that my understanding was correct.
Because...
A pleasant breeze swept through my hair, brushing against it as gently as a caress.
It felt as though someone were gently stroking my head, and a sense of peace washed over me.
Almost as if someone were telling me, "Well done."
As though a higher divine being were "praising me."
――― That was exactly how it felt.
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