The branches of the Divine Tree planted on the 83rd Floor are not expected to grow suddenly like those of the World Tree.
This is information from Colette and Esena, and while they haven’t confirmed it themselves, it’s almost certain to be true.
That said, Kousuke doesn’t intend to neglect it for months, but he also doesn’t plan to visit it every day.
What he wants to say is that while the branches are growing, they will go to investigate another barrier they have found.
If the Divine Tree’s branches don’t experience dramatic growth, they can use that time to check the remaining locations.
Since there’s only one left, they decided to finish the exploration quickly.
Of course, the branches of the Divine Tree planted on the 83rd Floor won’t be completely neglected.
There are wolves and foxes on the 83rd Floor, and Wanri and Nana will patrol occasionally. They’ve been told to contact them immediately if anything happens.
To facilitate this communication, they’ve prepared a communication device, allowing Kousuke and the others to set out with peace of mind.
With that, Kousuke and the same members from last time headed to the last no-entry area on the South Continent.
Upon arriving at the location on the floating island, Kousuke looked at Eiru and asked.
“Is this it?”
“Yes. It’s the widest area we’ve encountered so far, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t enter.”
“Ah, I see.”
In response to Eiru’s answer, Kousuke nodded and looked at Colette.
Colette, seeing Kousuke’s gaze, nodded with a bitter smile.
“I think we’re probably thinking the same thing, and you’re right.”
“Ah, really?”
Kousuke replied without changing his expression upon hearing Colette’s answer.
Silvia, who had been watching their exchange from the side, asked with a confused expression.
“Do you two already understand what kind of place this forest is?”
“It’s not that we understand it, but rather, it feels familiar… Well, we’ll confirm the specifics, so let’s go down first.”
“Yes. That would be best. It will become clearer once we go down.”
Colette agreed with Kousuke’s words.
Silvia and Floria noticed a somewhat anticlimactic atmosphere between Kousuke and Colette.
However, they didn’t understand the reason, so they simply followed closely behind Kousuke and Colette.
♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦
Kousuke, after finding a suitable open space and dismounting from the Hiryu, waited for the others to descend before speaking.
“We’ve landed, but it seems like I was right.”
“Yes. If this were wrong, it would be more surprising.”
Colette replied, nodding at Kousuke.
Floria, now addressing Kousuke and Colette who were repeating their previous exchange, asked.
“If you’ve gained certainty after landing, can you tell us now?”
“Ah, well. I suppose you’ll understand immediately if I say it… but this is an Elf Village.”
“Of course, it seems the World Tree is here as well.”
As Colette followed Kousuke’s statement, understanding spread across Silvia and Floria’s faces.
Kousuke had seen two World Trees in the world of Asgard so far.
Each time, he had observed the surrounding barriers, and the barrier here was made in almost the same way as those.
Naturally, they weren’t completely identical, but it was still clear that it was a barrier created by a World Tree.
Colette felt the same way, which is why they both stated it with such certainty.
Looking at the entrance to the forest, Kousuke tilted his head slightly and then looked at the other members.
“So, that’s how it is. What do you say? Shall we go in?”
“Just because it’s a World Tree forest doesn’t mean there won’t be a Divine Tree.”
Colette said this in response to Kousuke, who assumed that with a World Tree, their objective, the Divine Tree, wouldn’t be there.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. In fact, there’s a possibility that the World Tree is nurturing the Divine Tree.”
Unfortunately, there were no Divine Trees in the two villages they had visited before.
However, since the story of the Divine Tree has been passed down to the elves, Colette’s thinking was that it wouldn’t be strange for a Divine Tree to exist in a World Tree forest.
Upon hearing Colette’s words, Kousuke thought for a moment and then looked at Floria.
“So, what do you think?”
“No, why are you asking me? Shouldn’t Kou decide?”
“That’s true. Since it’s certain there are elves here, I thought it would be a political matter.”
By politics, he didn’t mean heavy and stiff discussions between countries, but rather that if Kousuke and his party entered an isolated Elf Village, some kind of disturbance would surely occur.
He asked because he considered interactions like these to be Floria’s forte.
Floria, understanding the intent behind Kousuke’s question, showed a brief moment of contemplation before answering.
“Do we need to think that deeply? If seeking the Divine Tree is not allowed, they’ll surely tell us. If they don’t mind, they’ll probably welcome us normally, right?”
The last part was a question directed at Colette, who was knowledgeable about Elf Villages.
“That might be true, but they seem to completely exclude anyone other than elves to begin with, so it’s questionable whether we can even talk to them.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. You can sort of tell that by looking at the barrier.”
Floria nodded in understanding upon hearing Colette’s answer.
“In that case, it might be safer not to go… but there’s one problem.”
“A problem? What’s that?”
Kousuke tilted his head towards Floria, not understanding what the problem could be.
“No, it’s a simple matter. If there’s a problem occurring in the Elf Village, we would be ignoring that as well.”
This was merely one possibility out of many.
It was purely speculative since they hadn’t confirmed if there was a problem in the Elf Village.
However, politics also involves identifying and responding to even the slightest potential problems.
Kousuke considered the two options of proceeding while ignoring the elves’ hermit-like nature (?) or returning while ignoring the potential problem that might be occurring. He smiled bitterly midway through.
“Why am I thinking about such complicated things? Basically, it boils down to whether I want to go, right?”
“Well, in the end, that’s what it comes down to.”
Floria nodded with a smile at Kousuke’s words.
There would come a time, no matter what path they took, where they had to choose one of two unappealing options.
Especially for Kousuke, choosing the path he preferred often led to better outcomes.
Whether this was because he, as an Avatar, attracted good results was unknown to anyone.
At any rate, Kousuke, saying this, smiled and continued.
“Since we’ve come this far, let’s go into the forest for now. And if the elves do something, we’ll deal with it as it comes.”
“I think that’s a good idea.”
With Colette agreeing to Kousuke’s decision, their future plans were settled.
And Kousuke stepped into the forest of the third World Tree in this world.
So, the third one was the World Tree’s barrier.
There were no special catches or anything lol.
