Chương 287: Wisdom's Intervention.

Elenara stood in front of Baron Lorbase and Evangeline with a flat expression. She was showing neither anger, dissatisfaction, or any emotion at all. Her posture was straight and formal, and her eyes similarly didn't let any kind of emotion be expressed through them. Baron Lorbase felt slightly strange when looking at her. Usually, Elenara was energetic and firm, and while there usually wasn't an expression, there was a sense of heroism in her adorable face, matching her slender body and gorgeous armor-like dress.

"Elenara, we need you to be here so that we can avoid the enemy's manipulation of the land below our feet. We've already lost more than eighty Earth Aether Mana users, and while they were relatively low level, it will hurt us in the long run." Elenara looked at Lorbase for a few seconds, and eventually, the tone of the sigh was clearly slightly tired and disappointed.

"Isn't there another option that you might want to consider, My Lord?" Baron Lorbase frowned deeply.

"What do you mean?" Baron Lorbase moved his mount forward and turned it sideways, looking down at Elenara.

"Do you not want to follow through with what this Lord is ordering you to do?" Elenara wasn't flustered at all. She calmly looked up, straight at him. She explained quickly and without hesitation.

"That's not the case, My Lord. I was considering what Kaedric told us in the past and the reasons for his attitude. Doesn't My Lord think that he had his reasons for telling us to retreat?" Lorbase had felt Kaedric's absence deeply. Even though he had been the one to push Kaedric away, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of betrayal, knowing the commander wouldn't follow his initial intentions.

To make matters worse, Kaedric had tried to dissuade him from pursuing his objectives altogether, further deepening Lorbase's grievances toward his army commander. Now, Elenara was metaphorically digging her finger into an old wound and opening it again. Lorbase's mood made a shift for the worse, and he became much more defensive.

"If you are going to suggest retreating, forget about me asking you anything, Elenara. Go back to your right-wing and stay there!" Elenara paused and looked at Lorbase for a few seconds. Without saying another word, Elenara turned and started walking away. Still, before she went too far, Elenara asked aloud.

"Lord Lorbase, since when were you swayed by emotion so easily? Haven't you noticed that your attitude has been slightly unusual lately?" Lorbase paused, but Evangeline quickly interrupted the flow of the conversation before something could come out into the light.

"Lady Elenara, you shouldn't imply such offensive things toward your superior, even when your superior is being harsh to you. Baron Lorbase is only thinking for the greater good of his fief and his people." Baron Lorbase felt that Evangeline's words were right, so he didn't say anything in the end, despite having doubted for a few moments. The loud silence after her question and Evangeline's words reached Elenara louder and much more harshly than ten thousand words.

Her lips arched wryly, her shoulders slumping for a second.

'I see… the Lord has been blinded by rage and revenge.' In Elenara's opinion, Baron Lorbase has been a strict lord but never overbearing. This time around, he came here with conviction due to the information he had gathered in the past, and to boot, even though no one knew, he was right! Liu Shu had actually killed his daughter in the past; she was the reckless woman who entered Flor's room as a false secretary out of curiosity, thinking that she would be free of consequences due to her status.

Sadly, she completely miscalculated how Liu Shu functioned, leading to her death. Hence, Lorbase's raid was objectively reasonable up until the point when Kaedric suggested retreat. It was at that point when Lorbase made the wrong choice: listening to Evangeline instead of his loyal commander. Such a choice led him and his army to their current situation. Looking at the retreating back of the Sylvan, Lorbase was in a short trance for a few moments.

Somehow, he felt that he was losing the loyalty of that person who had been serving him for decades.

'... Why am I so fixated on-'"Lord Baron." He blinked twice, looking sideways and seeing the gorgeous face of the mature and silver-eyed Sylvan. The Sylvan smiled faintly and said to him, her voice sounding mellow and sweet like honey.

"Lord Baron, we should continue forward. While we might lose some soldiers, the presence of this World Tree feels much weaker than the presence of the plant being by the lake's side. If we cross the forest, I am sure that attacks will stop." Baron Lorbase looked around him and realized that during this time, the enemy World Tree had not attacked once.

"... Why hasn't she attacked us while we discussed? It was a prime opportunity to cause chaos, right?" Stolen novel; please report. Evangeline paused, noticing that as well.

"... I am unsure. Perhaps she is reserving energy? The attack she did must've been difficult to do. After all, we are far away from her main body. World Trees have much more difficulty in manipulating their root net as distance increases since nobody's <Energy Cycle> is perfect." Baron Lorbase hummed.

"Right… as distance increases, the ability to transfer the ternary essences decays for World Trees. It is a significant factor when taking into account where to place borders between World Trees back in the main continents." Shaking his head, he ordered aloud, his voice booming and covering the entire army.

"The enemy has stopped attacking us! Take this chance and increase our advancing pace! Forward!" The army marched again, marching through the forest. Meanwhile, Wisdom looked at everything with analytical and extraordinary precision. [The enemy has marched again… Calculating way to create the most damage without pushing the army away.] That was the reason Wisdom didn't attack.

It knew and understood that if it had continued attacking during the conversation, the enemies might've thought that they were outclassed and fled. Wisdom's intention with this army was not to push the army back, not even close. Wisdom wanted to annihilate this army. [Method found. Currently detecting several allied signals approaching and entering the forest. Eila Neoflora noticed between them.] Eila, who was moving through the forest silently with an elite army of 100 people composed of only <Second Energy cycles>, suddenly saw the floor open in front of her, making her and the small elite group stop. Eila squinted and saw several roots appearing through the soil, all carrying Liu Shu's characteristic blue energy veins. Eila raised her eyebrow and whispered.

"Liu Shu?" The roots twisted, creating words that Eila could read. She read aloud, surprised.

"Incorrect… I am not Liu Shu…?" Eila frowned, looking at the roots and answering.

"Who are you and what do you want? How did you manage to control Liu Shu's roots?" The roots twisted again and quickly explained. Eila read aloud to those around her, including Liu Shu's right-hand man, Wert; Taro's right-hand man, Zoria; and Delia's close aide, Galia.

"I am Wisdom, Tianlian Liu Shu's subconsciousness and part of one of her skills…" Everyone looked at Wert, and the man raised his hands. He smiled wryly.

"I am as lost as all of you. I didn't know that our big girl had a secret… identity?" Everyone saw that the roots were twisting again, and they focused on them. The words created made their hearts jump. Eila muttered them.

"I have a plan to annihilate the army. I want your cooperation." Zoria raised his eyebrow and smiled, crossing his arms.

"I quite like this Wisdom character." Galia interrupted, looking at everyone who seemed about to jump to conclusions.

"Wait, wait, wait. How can you trust these random roots so randomly? We don't even know if… Wisdom? Even is our ally!" Wert looked at the roots and commented.

"I mean, Flor has shared with me some of Liu Shu's stats, and I can tell you that if something was able to manipulate Liu Shu's roots to this extent, it wouldn't need to hide and could probably slaughter all of us like chickens." Galia was a relatively short human woman with long brown hair and dark eyes. Her build was curvy, but nothing striking—just an ordinary, pretty girl next door. Her expression was sharp, though, her brow furrowing as she crossed her arms in thought.

Her demeanor was more serious than her appearance suggested; it was clear that she wasn't one to trust things blindly.

"Even if you say that, Wert, it's difficult for me to listen. I think we should continue with our original plan." Eila spoke aloud, looking at the roots that had changed to form another set of words.

"It won't work… Or so Wisdom says." Galia confusedly looked at the roots.

"How do you know our plan?" The roots twisted again, creating a new sentence.

"You've talked about it inside Liu Shu's domain. Hence, I know." A person behind Galia commented with a chuckle.

"That sounds convincing." Galia couldn't deny that, and knowing that they didn't have much time to ponder and discuss these things, she asked Wisdom.

"Explain our plan and tell me why it won't work. If you do that, I'll trust what you said." Everyone felt that was fair, so they looked toward the roots. With her suggestion, they started changing forms and explaining their intention of attacking the backline and picking up stragglers. Wisdom quickly denied their plan because the enemy had powerful individual characters that could just shift positions and even face them. At most, they would be an annoyance but not a threat.

Eila finished reading and turning toward the rest, she commented with a smile.

"Well, I am convinced. Galia, what's your verdict?" Galia looked at the roots, her dark eyes pondering for a few seconds, and then she asked aloud.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Everyone smirked and looked back at the roots. Then, Wisdom explained what it wanted to do in a precise and concise manner. Galia coughed and commented, her face strangely impressed and terrified.

"That's… Quite brutal." Zoria looked at Wert and asked, somewhat cautious.

"Hey… Is Liu Shu this ruthless usually?" Wert crossed his arms and snorted.

"Slander! My big girl is merciless, but she is not someone who would… would…" Looking at Eila, he saw that the Sylvan was looking at him with a waiting gaze, clearly ready for a rebuttal.

"... Ahem! Liu Shu is very gentle with those close to her!" Everyone deadpanned.

'If even this man who clearly has adopted Liu Shu in his mind can't lie and say that she is not ruthless, it seems that our resident World Tree is quite a brutal one, eh?' Meanwhile, Wisdom started mobilizing energy from Liu Shu's reserves, not affecting Liu Shu, who was entirely focused and absorbed in Fortuna's assimilation. When that energy gathered, she scattered it around the surroundings. Then, using that as a medium, Wisdom activated <Mind Echo>.