Chapter 321
Zeon and Brielle returned home.
The entire way back, Brielle wore a delighted smile.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the moment the mana generator she had worked so hard to create brought light to the underground world.
She felt like she would never forget the faces of the people crying tears of joy.
Brielle found herself wanting to help them again someday.
‘And one day, I want to give a mana generator to my village too.’
She secretly glanced at Zeon.
She could see the sharp profile of his face as he walked with his usual stoic expression.
A firm jawline, sharp eyes, and stubbornly sealed lips.
Merciless toward enemies, yet more dependable than anyone to those on his side.
If she asked him, he would probably take her back to the village she originally came from right now.
Regardless of her oath.
But Brielle could never return to the High Elf village.
Even if she wanted to, they would never accept her back.
High Elves were, true to their name, a noble race.
They valued purity and nobility above all else.
An elf tainted by worldly affairs or by humans was no longer considered one of their own—even if it was a daughter they had personally given birth to.
Knowing that, Brielle had never once told Zeon that she wanted to return to her village.
In the past, she had believed that was simply natural, but after spending a long time with Zeon, her way of thinking had changed.
Even the underground world had begun changing after receiving the mana generator. They longed for better lives and wished to progress.
That desire for change wasn’t a bad thing.
Purity and nobility were fine ideals, but if everyone else continued advancing while the High Elves isolated themselves within their own villages, they would eventually fall behind and become obsolete.
The village she had lived in also needed change.
Brielle believed this was exactly the right moment for it.
‘Once things in Neo Seoul settle down a bit, I should go to the village together with Zeon.’
She didn’t expect a warm welcome.
To the High Elves, a kinsman who had lost their purity was no longer family.
It didn’t matter if they welcomed her or not.
She simply wanted to give them an opportunity to change.
The mana generator she had created would be more than enough to serve as that catalyst.
After organizing her thoughts, Brielle took a deep breath.
“Hoo…”
“Why?”
Zeon looked at her with a puzzled expression.
Brielle smiled as she answered.
“Nothing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Nothing at all.”
“Alright.”
Zeon smiled faintly as well.
By the time their conversation ended, they had already arrived home.
Brielle tilted her head.
There were unfamiliar figures standing in front of the house.
Their entire bodies were concealed beneath loose robes.
Their faces were hidden beneath deep hoods, but Brielle recognized them immediately.
‘Elves!’
It was the distinct aura unique to elves that only another elf could sense.
Though greatly diluted after living in the human world for so long, traces of the elven scent still remained.
Zeon also recognized who they were.
Especially the elf among them with the strongest aura.
“Serian… ma’am?”
“It has been a long time, Zeon.”
The elf who had been addressed pulled back her hood and spoke.
With snow-white skin and platinum-blonde hair and eyebrows, the woman looked from afar like a white fairy.
She was Serian, ruler of the North District.
Zeon asked,
“What brings you here?”
“I came to thank you personally, Zeon.”
“You didn’t need to come here yourself.”
“Thanks to you, we were able to stop Eli before she caused even greater disaster. Just imagining what might have happened had we failed to stop her is horrifying.”
“It’s fortunate we managed to stop it in time.”
“It was all thanks to you. Because you eliminated all of the ‘Gu,’ we were able to prevent a catastrophe. At the very least, I had to personally come and express my gratitude.”
Serian’s attitude toward Zeon was extremely respectful.
She treated him as an equal.
That alone showed just how highly she regarded him.
Suddenly, Serian’s gaze shifted toward Brielle.
From the moment Serian and the elves had appeared, Brielle had pulled her pointed hat down deeply over her face.
She didn’t want their attention.
But ironically, that only made her stand out more.
Serian sensed the distinct aura unique to a High Elf emanating from Brielle.
She slightly bowed her head toward Brielle and spoke.
“It is an honor to meet someone so precious.”
“Tch! Keep it down. Don’t make such a fuss where the whole neighborhood can hear.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going inside first.”
Brielle hurried into the house.
‘Was it actually better back when I was addicted to drugs?’
When her body had been soaked in narcotics, the pure scent unique to High Elves hadn’t manifested.
But after completely freeing herself from drugs, the fragrance possessed only by High Elves had begun to emerge once more.
The elves born and raised in Neo Seoul couldn’t understand what Brielle’s scent meant, but elves who had crossed over from Kurayan, like Serian, recognized it instantly.
For Brielle, who simply wanted to live quietly, it was extremely troublesome.
Even in Kurayan, High Elves had been regarded as sacred beings.
Noble existences that connected the gods and the elves.
That was why even other elves worshipped them almost like deities.
Though they had crossed over to Earth after Kurayan’s destruction, the elves’ perception of High Elves had not changed at all.
That was why Serian immediately became respectful the moment she realized Brielle was a High Elf.
‘At least it stopped there because Zeon was here. If I’d been alone, they definitely would’ve dragged me back to the North District. They’d probably lock me in a room and pressure me to communicate with the gods.’
Brielle clicked her tongue.
The elves probably wanted answers from the gods, but there was no way the gods of a destroyed world would respond.
Perhaps the gods themselves had perished when Kurayan fell.
In any case, Brielle had no interest in communicating with gods.
That was a role for the other High Elves still living in her homeland village.
Bang!
Brielle entered her room and shut the door.
Immediately afterward, Zeon and Serian entered the living room.
All the other elves remained outside.
Serian looked around the house as she spoke.
“So this is what the inside of the fortress looks like.”
“You call it a fortress too?”
“Your house is simply known as the Fortress. I kept hearing it called that, so it naturally stuck with me.”
“Tch.”
Zeon clicked his tongue.
It wasn’t that he disliked the name Fortress.
He simply disliked drawing enough attention for his home to be called that.
Zeon gestured toward a seat.
“It’s shabby, but please, have a seat.”
Serian smiled and sat down.
“Thank you. There’s a very pleasant energy in your home, Zeon.”
“Pleasant energy?”
“Just entering makes me feel calmer and more comfortable. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
“It’s no different from any other place.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
Serian looked at Zeon with a meaningful smile.
As an elf who had lived for three hundred years, she had already realized this was no ordinary place.
Just by entering this place, both body and mind felt refreshed, and an inexplicable vitality coursed through her entire being.
Ever since crossing over to Earth, she had never experienced such a feeling before.
Serian believed there was something special about Zeon’s home.
It even made her want to remain here for as long as possible.
She was curious what exactly made this place so unique. But it seemed Zeon had no intention of satisfying her curiosity.
Zeon asked,
“So I doubt you came all the way here just to offer thanks. What business do you have?”
“First, I wanted to repay you.”
“Repay me?”
“Please accept this.”
Serian held out a small box toward Zeon.
“What is it?”
“Open it and see for yourself.”
Zeon opened the box with a puzzled expression.
Inside was a small key.
“What is this?”
“As you can see, it’s a key. A key to enter Elharun.”
“And why are you giving this to me?”
Zeon looked at Serian in surprise.
Elharun was a city created by the other races who had crossed over to Earth.
A key granting access to a city meant exclusively for non-humans—a place absolutely forbidden to humans.
Zeon couldn’t understand Serian’s actions.
“Isn’t Elharun a place that should never be revealed to humans?”
“But you already know Elharun exists near Magadan, Zeon.”
“That’s completely different.”
“It isn’t.”
“I’d like a more detailed explanation.”
“To be honest, I wanted to hide Elharun’s existence until the very end. That’s why I kept it secret even from my closest subordinates.”
“Then why did you change your mind?”
“You remember the incident when Balrog was summoned, right?”
“Yes.”
It would’ve been strange if he didn’t remember.
After all, Damian had been the one who summoned Balrog.
The unprecedented disaster caused when Damian—who had lost his father to the other races of Elharun—came to Neo Seoul together with the White Bear Caravan.
The aftereffects had left all of Neo Seoul suffering for quite some time afterward.
Damian had risked everything to uncover Elharun’s existence and, in the end, even sacrificed his own life.
That incident had deeply shocked Serian.
It made her question whether Elharun truly needed to be hidden to such extremes.
Serian had visited Elharun only once during its early days and never returned afterward.
She had simply never had the time while protecting the non-human races living in Neo Seoul.
And by the time the North District had stabilized enough for her to have some freedom, she no longer felt any desire to visit.
Too much time had passed, and her bond with them had faded.
Elharun was an extremely closed-off city.
They didn’t even share news about Elharun with Serian herself.
As a result, Serian had no idea how Elharun had developed over the years.
“To be honest, that incident shocked me deeply. I couldn’t understand what Elharun had done to plant such enormous resentment inside a single person. To burn away your entire life for revenge? That’s something completely incomprehensible from an elf’s perspective. And so I became curious. Curious about what was happening inside Elharun.”
“And that’s why you’re giving me the key?”
“To be honest, I don’t even know if this key still works. It’s already been a hundred years since the barrier was first created. They may not even remember this key exists anymore. A hundred years is that long a time.”
“And what if I use it to find Elharun and destroy it?”
“Honestly, even if I didn’t give you the key, someone like you could probably enter Elharun anyway, Zeon. So in truth, this key has no real meaning. Even so, I’m giving it to you because I want you to at least consider my thoughts once and look into their circumstances. You can think of it as a bribe.”
“A bribe, huh.”
Zeon rolled the key around in his fingers.
Truthfully, Zeon had no intention of seeking out Elharun yet.
Someday, perhaps. But there was no reason it had to be right now.
Placing the key into his pocket, Zeon spoke.
“Alright. I’ll keep the key.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s strange hearing thanks from someone after they’ve given me a gift.”
“To be honest, I was worried about what I’d do if you refused to take it.”
“So you have no intention of going to Elharun yourself?”
“If there’s one thing I realized after coming to Neo Seoul, it’s that clinging only to pure blood accomplishes nothing. Perhaps elves were an extraordinary race in Kurayan, but Earth is different. Here, we’re simply one race among countless others. We marry different races, have children, and those children have children of their own as everyone gradually blends together. That’s how the current North District was created. There aren’t many pure-blood elves left in the North District anymore. But everyone has adapted to life in Neo Seoul quite well. On the other hand, what about the elves stubbornly preserving pure blood while living out in the desert?”
“Most of them are living miserable lives.”
“Exactly. If the world changes, then the races who crossed over from Kurayan must change as well. But the people in Elharun chose isolation instead of change. You can tell just from the fact that they stopped contacting me long ago. They don’t want anyone knowing about their circumstances anymore. I believe Elharun made the worst possible decision. They need an opportunity for change as well. And I believe you, Zeon, could become that catalyst.”
“Or I could destroy Elharun instead.”
“Then that would simply be their fate.”
Bitterness lingered within Serian’s voice.
No one wished for their own race to be destroyed.
But if they remained isolated like this forever, they would eventually destroy themselves.
That was the law of the world Serian had learned while living in Neo Seoul.