Chapter 12 Two Actors

The interior passageways of the real estate company building are covered with vines, topped with purple flowers, winding and extending into a spacious, lush green courtyard.

Two rows of low houses were painted snow-white, with a paved path running between them. Bouquets of flowers, including zinnias, oleanders, and hibiscus, bloomed on both sides, all vibrant and enormous, as if welcoming guests.

In the very center of the courtyard, there was a church-like building without a roof, surrounded by artificial flower beds. The steps in front of the building were covered with roots, and an elf gardener in a black coat was watering the plants.

When the gardener saw someone coming, he raised his right hand to prevent them from entering.

Billis slipped the other man some silver coins, enough for at least half a month's allowance.

The gardener immediately shook hands with the person who gave him the money, as if he had received a grant, dropped the watering can, and let him in.

Sure enough, inside the square, roofless house stood an unusual oak tree. The oak tree had a face, with tendrils hanging down to the ground like weeping willows. Its eyes were particularly protruding and velvety green. Its two thick, strong forelegs and two thin, long hind legs were all firmly rooted.

The entire courtyard became both prosperous and simple because of him.

The Oak Druid seems to be taking a nap.

Billis couldn't sense the druid's breathing. The druid must be drawing water and nutrients from the ground by rooting itself in the earth. This was different from the fully reincarnated beings he had seen before; it was a more advanced and natural creature.

The real show is about to begin.

He yelled, "Hey! You blockhead! I must have been blind back then to cooperate with an idiot like you!"

The Oak Druid awoke, opening only one eye as he gazed upwards. His bald head gleamed in the sun, and swarms of colorful butterflies danced around him, forming a crown upon his head.

As they awoke, the life energy generated by the long years surged underground, giving rise to a number of bewildered and strange little creatures. Even the tiny pebbles sprouted legs, echoing the holy thoughts of the Druids.

The Oak Druid possesses terrifying and powerful magic. When it opens its other eye, all the previously silent creatures come to life. Stones pile themselves into moving statues, and even the smallest bits of soil rejoice and leap for joy, though they themselves do not know where they came from or why they suddenly came to life.

He saw a half-reincarnated being shouting and yelling.

The druid wrinkled his skin like old tree bark, and his throat made a sound like thick soup: "Who?"

Billis miraculously remembered the contents of the contract he had just reviewed, and pretended to be the werewolf partner.

"Forgot me? No wonder! A werewolf whose magic was stolen had no choice but to take human form. But you shouldn't pretend you don't know me!"

"Where are you from?"

"Valdan Forest!"

"oh."

The Oak Druid stretched, its branches grew taller, its leaves thicker, and a holy shadow suppressed the light.

The courtyard seems to be the birthplace of flowers and plants, with more and more unknown plants appearing.

Flower stamens, spinning violently in the darkness like shooting stars, sprout from the cracks in the rocks, while diseased tendrils and trembling fruits grow from the roots of trees, as if all plants have been endowed with great bodies and souls.

As soon as you get close, they unfold their wary leaves, and the pollen they carry spreads out in a poisonous rainbow.

This druid named Byrne seemed to have become more vigilant.

Billis continued, "A journalist chased me all the way here. They had no idea why I suddenly lost my magic, and even insisted that you and I were making a deal with the demons!"

What are you talking about?

"You should know what I'm saying, you blockhead! Look what you've done! Now you're getting your comeuppance!"

"I don't know you at all, and I don't welcome any journalists."

"Ah! The devil has come knocking, draining my magic, and you're just going to pretend you don't know me? Imagine if they found this place right now, would you still pretend to be deaf and dumb like you are now?"

The druid fell into deep thought, his body involuntarily erecting a wooden wall, carefully protecting something.

“I did not make a deal with the demons, and I suspect that you are not a werewolf at all, but just a half-reincarnated one. You are trying to take advantage of me.”

It seems the druid realized that Biris was trying to threaten him with some arrogant and rude words.

Billis also knew that this guy was not easy to deal with.

At this moment, another actor, posing as a news reporter, entered the scene.

Mia, wearing a uniform she'd casually stolen from the company, looked as if she'd been chased by a werewolf all the way from the Valdan Forest to the Hobrick region. She clutched her chest, panting heavily, and sweat poured from her body like boiling water.

She was pleasantly surprised to see the druid and immediately took out her microphone (actually, she turned the volume of her communication device to the maximum).

"You must be the famous philanthropist Mr. Byrne, right? This is the first time I've seen you in person off-screen!"

However, Druids have unwavering convictions and will not be swayed by a few words from a journalist.

He shook his head and said, "Please do not enter the courtyard without my permission."

"Now that you're here, please allow me to conduct an interview. I heard that your real estate company is currently negotiating a deal with Kurosagaya to move the undead residents out of the cemetery, but they disagree."

"Who told you all this? I have no interest in doing business with the undead!"

"You didn't sit down and discuss this properly? So you didn't know about the Demon Clan causing trouble in Black Rift Valley?"

"have no idea!"

"Someone is using the Demon King's name to threaten the undead in Black Rift Valley, which has angered the demons, and now the place is in chaos."

Billis pretended not to know Mia and continued the previous topic: "It was the demons who sent the little demon baby to drain my magic! It's all your fault! Bourne, you must have done something stupid and dragged me into this!"

The druid couldn't possibly think of all that at once; he moved his foot and pulled the roots out of the ground.

Then, a third eye opened from the giant texture of the central tree stump, and with a dizzying power, it said, "Who dares to frame me?"

The oak's voice trembled so loudly it shook the earth; to put it crudely, it could sweep the entire building away if it stood up.

"All powerful beings are creations of the gods. The passion and wisdom of the gods who created the sacred tree in Fa'an have forged the entire noble civilization of the Elf race. All lies that accuse the sacred tree will be exposed! And I am the sacred tree! I am the eternal discipline and bottom line of the Elf race! You two cannot deceive my third eye!"

Mia was deeply shocked by the druid's words, but Billis remained unmoved and even spat at the third eye.

"Pah! You won't admit your mistakes! You're the one who caused me to turn from a werewolf into a human, and it turns out you're the one who lured the demons here!"

Druids have no ears, but they can hear any sound through their roots, including powerful tremors coming from deep underground, like waves that recede and surge again.

He carefully sensed the surface of the earth and discovered that the temperature was rising rapidly.

Mia, mimicking Biris's expression, immediately exclaimed, "That's it! I encountered it once during my interview in Black Valley! The earth shook and the demons were coming!"

Billis immediately joined Mia in shouting, "That's it! The demon that sucked away my magic and turned me into this is coming!"

It was exactly noon when a sweltering heat, as if the earth were melting, suddenly enveloped the entire courtyard, startling the newly born creatures at our feet, who scattered and fled in terror.

The fiery tracks, like arched bridges, climbed higher and higher between the hard rocks on both sides, as countless tormented souls who had fallen into the lava stretched out their sulfurous arms, struggling to climb out of the ground.

A gate from hell loomed faintly at the druid's feet.

In order to avoid the hellfire, the druid was so frightened that he crashed through the back wall and fell off the altar.

The arms of those evil spirits greedily clung to it, and hell burned the sky like a curtain of blood; there could be no more terrible curse.

The druid's third eye looked like it had been burned; this didn't look like acting at all!

Just when he thought this was all of hell, a three-headed hound suddenly leaped out of the door, followed by a hellish warhorse spitting flames, and countless demonic infants, each carrying a fireball in one hand and a fork in the other.

"Admit your mistake now, you idiot! Only by admitting your mistake will the hellfire be extinguished!" Billy roared hysterically.

The druid wore a pitying expression, the sulfurous fumes quickly draining him of all his magic.

Billis, hiding behind, continued to roar, "It's all because of you! You used the Demon King to intimidate the valley's inhabitants! You angered the real Demon King! Even I've been implicated! Beg for forgiveness! Are you trying to kill everyone in this building?"

The hellhound and the nightmare's noses touched the leaves on the druid's body, and the leaves quickly turned yellow and withered.

The druid suddenly cried out, "It was me! It was all me! Please leave now! I will never again use your master's name to do evil deeds."

But these two little friends from hell don't seem to want to leave.

The druid cried out again, "The Karo River, Milogam, and Boga Bay—I did it all! I will return all the land! Please, don't come any closer!"

The gate connecting hell and the earth responded and quickly closed, plunging the surrounding air into silence.

The druid gasped for breath, his two empty eyes losing their eternal radiance and becoming filled with unbearable pain.

Biris and Mia didn't know when they left; the druid thought they had been swallowed by the Gates of Hell.