Reincarnated as a Son of the Sword Saint and the Sage

Things were getting complicated with the audience with the tree spirits in the throne room, and we decided to take a short break. It was a huge decision to make, and we could not just grant their request without thinking about the possible consequences.

While the three tree ladies were being treated as valuable guests in one of our VIP rooms, my family gathered up in a private room. When I said, family, it included Mom, Big Sis, as well as Iris and Sophia. Gabrielle was busy with her pregnancy, so she was not here.

"Did you just say that there are tree spirits here in the palace as we speak? As in those enchanted forest-dwelling beings in the stories?"

"That's true, Sis. They approached us just earlier and requested an audience with the queen."

As expected, they were surprised upon learning that tree spirits did actually exist, let alone knowing that there were three of them in the palace right now. Continue the saga on m-v-l-e-mpyr

Spiritual beings were rarely seen by anyone's eyes, as most of them were practically invisible. As far as I know, only tree spirits were physically visible, while spirits of other elements could not be seen by a naked eye.

However, if a person had Extra Skill: Spiritual Sense like Inari, Yuki, and I had, perceiving and seeing a spirit was possible. Almost all people just did not have the ability to sense them.

I had been seeing pixies, the basic stage of a spirit, almost everywhere in the form of a pingpong-size sphere of light. Each had colors depending on their element. Just like Aesfen said earlier, tree spirits did not spawn as pixies; instead, an Alraune sprouted from a World Treant.

"Spirits, huh?" Iris muttered. "My parents have mentioned them before, but I am yet to see one."

"Me too." Sophia seconded. "I only heard of them a long time ago in a book. To think that there are three of them in this place right now."

"Hey, ladies. If you are curious to see what they looked like, here are them."

Soon after, I cast a Projection midair and showed the images of the tree spirits to my girls. Not only them, but Mom and Big Sis were curious of what they looked like as well.

"Wow... They look so beautiful..."

They immediately admired their beauties.

"So, if they requested an audience, then there should be something that they wanted, yes?"

"Yes, Claire." Mother replied to Mom's question. "Apparently, they are seeking our protection, and we are taking a break to discuss it further with everyone."

"I see. It made sense why they came to us since we are the first nation to establish in the depths of the forest."

"I don't think that this is relevant, but," Big Sis then chimed in. "Why did they make contact with us until now?"

"Well, actually, it has something to do with Czarina, Sis."

"Czarina?"

Big Sis glanced at me with her brow up as if she were telling me I screwed up again. But yeah, it was partially my fault why the forest was in discord.

"Yeah, ever since she has become my subject, she has been living inside the dungeon. Removing her from the forest somewhat broke the balance of the forest, and now a lot of things emerged during that time."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Czarina's disappearance also encourages people to dive deeper in the forest. Some of them are probably trying to reach the place where those tree spirits live, which is located at the center of the Great Forest of Darkness. Cornering about their safety, they bravely revealed their existence before us and asked us to recognize them as our own citizens."

"That's a risky move on their side, but I understood them."

"In addition," I continued. "The tree spirits apparently possess something akin to the elves' World Tree called a World Treant. It is basically a World Tree but a gigantic monster."

"What...?! A World Tree?!"

My sister could not help but raise her voice when I splurted that highly valuable information. Mom was shocked too, but not as dramatic as hers. The same thing applied for Iris and Sophia.

"It's a World Treant, Sis. Technically, it is the other way around. The World Treant owns the tree spirits. It is where the majority of the forest's mana comes from, which covered most of the forest. Czarina had been incorporating her miasma with it, scaring weak beings to dive deeper into the forest."

"Oh, really? So that is probably what those people are after, huh? We don't know what would happen in the future, so they are desperate trying to reach out to us. But if we were to accept them, did they state what they could offer to us?"

"We have reached that part so far." Mother said. "But I assume that they are going to grant us some authority over the World Treant, or even own the whole tree itself."

"I think that's a fair trade," I murmured. "Considering that they aren't supposed to interact with humans or any other intellectual races, we should hide their existence from everyone so that the World Treant and the tree spirits could live peacefully like they always use."

Ever since we began tackling this topic, I noticed that Big Sis had been staring at me constantly. I did not know why, but she must be thinking something odd about me.

"What's up, Sis? Do you have something to say?"

"Seeing how they looked like, they should suit your taste, aren't you? Knowing you, you are probably thinking of giving a taste of their bodies in exchange for allowing them to assimilate into the queendom."

"W-what are you talking about, Sis?" I said as I rose my arms up.

When she uttered those words, our mothers and my fiancees started looking at me cautiously. I admitted that those three ladies were quite beautiful on their own, but as of now, I did not think about them indecently.

"You could not just assume that I want to hit every woman that I meet."

"That's who you are, Raphael. I think that you would even hump a table if I put a skirt on it."

"Stop it, you two."

Mother suddenly cut in to stop us.

"It's not the right time for that matter. We should be deciding whether to accept their request for or not."

"We are sorry, Mother."

From that moment on, my sister and I stopped arguing and focused on what to do with the tree spirits instead.