N-M Chapter 205: Edelweiss Town
Chapter 205: Edelweiss Town
It took them almost another hour before the vehicle finally reached Edelweiss Town, or more commonly known as Greentouch by travelers and merchants.
Compared to the abandoned ruins outside, the place looked lively with smoke coming out from chimneys and children running through the streets while residents were busy trimming leaves and vines that started to turn yellow or orange that were growing in front of their own houses. Some didn’t even as it was almost winter.
The buildings themselves weren’t made from wood but living tree aberrants cultivated by the Greenwardens decades ago as an experiment to tame aberrants as they got it from the groove that naturally grows in Sandoro Highland.
Their trunks naturally formed walls while the branches intertwined into roofs and windows, making every house look like it had grown from the ground.
Since they were still aberrants, they never stopped growing and every few days the residents needed to trim new branches or vines that reached the road, though nobody complained since those tree aberrants were completely tame and only needed to be fed with aberrant meat once in a while before they eat the resident.
"I still think living inside an aberrant is weird," Otis commented while carrying his backpack.
Arthur didn’t even raise his head. "It’s cheaper than building a new house every winter and they naturally keep the temperature warm."
"That somehow makes it even weirder."
Jace ignored both of them and parked the vehicle in front of a small inn that looked exactly the same as every other building, except the owner had decorated the entrance with carved branches and hanging lanterns.
Behind the town stood the mountain everyone in this region knew.
Its name was Whiteveil Ridge, but very few people actually climbed it. From a distance it looked beautiful, the entire mountain covered by mutated Edelweiss until every slope became completely white as if snow never melted there.
Travelers often stopped just to admire the view without realizing those flowers were one of the deadliest flora aberrants discovered by humanity.
"Wow, that’s beautiful..." Otis’ eyes widened seeing the scenery he never saw before in their life.
"They release hormones instead of pollen," Arthur suddenly started explaining while following the owner’s daughter upstairs.
"People exposed to them for too long begin hallucinating and see whatever they desire the most. Some see their families, others see old friends or lovers, and once they start walking into the flowers, the colony gathers together and forms a human shape to guide them deeper."
Otis immediately frowned. "Like the siren story or inside of the mountain? Or the mountain caller? My grandma used to scare me with that."
Arthur nodded. "Sometimes women, sometimes men, depending on the victim. Greenwardens call them White Bride Edelweiss because nobody who follows them ever returns."
"Great. I officially hate flowers now. Damn, this world is getting worse every time I travel."
As they finally inside, Arthur made an agreement with the inn keeper for their room to be paid by the governor of Edelweiss Town since their arrival was expected by the governor himself.
Jace separated from the rest as he went to the clinic nearby to clean and stitch the wound on his arm.
"Take care, Jace..." Arthur said to the man who was already outside the inn as his face looked very worried.
He and Otis then went upstairs to their room to rest after a very long and traumatic day. Otis collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep almost immediately, still wearing his boots and jacket.
Arthur was the only one who couldn’t rest. He took out a small notebook from his pocket together with the samples collected from the Groove, placing the rotten canned food, the black substance and the mushroom fragment one by one on the table before writing everything while the memory was still fresh.
The ant colony, the dying Mycorrhiza, the parasite, the escaped Queen and the possibility of another evolution were all recorded carefully until several pages were completely filled with notes.
Every conclusion was followed by another theory and every theory created another question, making Arthur unconsciously continue writing until the lantern outside was already lit and the streets of the town became quiet.
Only after his hand started hurting did he finally stop and look at the last sentence he had written.
Possibility of S-rank aberrant or King candidate. Immediate investigation strongly recommended.
He quietly closed the notebook and put it beside the mushroom sample.
For once, Arthur hoped Jade would laugh at his report and tell him that every conclusion he made inside the Groove was completely wrong.
"Hey, so what do you think happened to them?"
Otis’ question startled Arthur. The man had been sleeping soundly only a moment ago, yet now he was already sitting on the bed with his hair completely messy.
Arthur didn’t answer immediately. He already had a theory, but there were still too many missing pieces.
"I think the ant queen and the disappearance of the Eagle Union members are two completely different phenomena," he finally said.
"Do you remember how strict Eagle Union is when it comes to food? They never accepted food or even water from Freebound when we were training together, and we kept calling them paranoid assholes."
"I think it makes sense now. They were practically in a cold war with the Order of the West. They probably thought someone would poison their supplies, especially after everything that happened to the old government."
"But inside their own headquarters, the danger came from something else. Senduro Highland is full of poisonous flora, parasites, and mutated fungi. There is no way they would accidentally eat a mushroom that was infected by a parasite."
He leaned against the chair and continued. "I think someone knew their habits well enough to put it in their food. I think there is a mole."
Otis frowned. "Then what about the Queen? Maybe she wasn’t that big in the beginning. Didn’t Leon Miller write anything about it?"
"She wasn’t as big as the one we saw, but she’s still naturally larger than every worker ant, almost twice their size. We already fought workers as big as humans, so imagine trying to hide something even bigger inside a military headquarters."
Arthur slowly rubbed his forehead. "There is no way Eagle Union missed it. Their patrols, sensors, and security are much better than ours. If that Queen had already been there, someone would have noticed."
"So the headquarters became empty first, then the Queen built the Groove underneath it?"
"That’s the theory that makes the most sense."
Arthur fell silent again. "Unless... Those two incidents are somehow connected."
"But why didn’t they eat the members of Eagle Union? We accidentally entered the Queen chamber ourselves and only found ant and aberrant skeletons. The Groove digests flesh quickly but leaves bones behind because they barely have any nutritional value."
Before Arthur could continue, the door suddenly opened.
Jace walked inside carrying a paper bag, his expression looking much better than before.
"Here," he said while putting it on the table. "I bought food and water. We almost died today, so this counts as a celebration."
Otis immediately moved over and started opening the leaves wrapping the food while Arthur kept looking at Jace without saying anything.
Jace noticed the stare and raised a brow. "What?"
"Did the doctor say anything about your wound?"
"They cleaned it and changed the bandage. It’ll heal in a couple of days as long as it doesn’t get infected."
He pushed one of the wrapped meals toward Arthur. "Stop thinking and eat."
Arthur accepted it, but his eyes unconsciously stopped at the bandage wrapped around Jace’s arm.
The wound had come from a Major ant.
Even if everything looked normal, he couldn’t stop thinking about the parasite hidden beneath the dying Groove... He silently hoped he was simply overthinking everything.
***
When morning came, they didn’t waste time to meet the governor and ended up waiting. The waiting room was surprisingly crowded with merchants, researchers, and even ordinary residents carrying piles of documents.
Yet instead of lining up in front of the governor’s office, almost everyone waited for the advisor’s room to open.
Arthur wasn’t surprised.
Governor Prado’s reputation had already spread throughout Senduro Highland. People often joked that the old man had spent eight years growing only one thing, his stomach.
Taxes increased every year, trade permits somehow became more expensive, and every project somehow ended with his relatives earning the biggest profit. Even so, nobody openly opposed him since he was a tyrant.
But still, the town continued growing, trade caravans arrived every week, and even the roads were well maintained.
The answer was sitting behind another door. Prado advisor named Teddy.
Nobody knew much about the young advisor except that he was still young and somehow handled almost every important decision in Edelweiss Town.
Merchants negotiated with Teddy, Greenwardens asked permission to do research by Teddy, and residents brought complaints to Teddy instead of the governor.
Otis looked around before lowering his voice. "So... we’re actually here to meet Governor Prado or?"
Arthur looked at the endless line in front of the advisor’s office and quietly nodded. "Officially, yes. But honestly, let’s just talk to his advisor."