The Time-Stop Breeding Uncle Wants to Retire – Chapter 75

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Emily walked proudly at the front and behind her, the tracking team marched in perfect formation.

It felt like we were watching a North Korean propaganda march.

Hans stuck close to Clara’s side, afraid of being separated from her.

If he got separated from Clara in this situation, he wouldn’t be able to counterattack Emily at all.

As if deliberately toying with them, Emily placed Clara and Hans at the very front.

As a result, Hans was dying from having to act.

Fortunately, Emily wasn’t paying much attention to them.

Otherwise, he would have been discovered long ago.

Emily and the tracking team entered the center of the forest.

The beautiful scenery they had seen from the outside was gone, replaced by a filthy forest entrance.

Purple moss emitting a toxic stench and sticky spider webs were polluting the forest.

Could demons be involved?

Hans had that thought briefly, but soon dismissed it.

The Elven Forest was one of the few areas that survived until the end in the original work.

Although the forest was polluted and its power greatly weakened compared to its heyday, if demons had been involved, the Elven Forest wouldn’t have fared any better than the Dwarf Republic or the 12 tribes.

However, the cause of the forest’s pollution had never been properly explained.

So the community had speculated there must be another reason.

Could this also be Emily’s doing?

But there was too little information to be certain.

“No matter when I come, it’s such a filthy place~”

After walking for some time, Emily whistled and muttered upon reaching the innermost part, but since no one else was making a sound, her voice echoed particularly loudly.

Hans silently observed it.

It could be called a tree, at least, but it was different from ordinary trees.

First, it was incomparably larger than normal trees, however, its condition was also abnormal.

Countless eyes were writhing on the trunk of the tree, and roots that had shot up from the ground were chewing and swallowing everything.

It was closer to a living creature than a tree.

It was more like a monster.

Hans swallowed the nausea that nearly came up at the horrific sight.

He tasted the acidity of stomach acid.

“Poor, poor Cluna. Working hard to sacrifice herself today too.”

“Emily?! How did you…”

“You know, I never understood. Why do we, who have power, have to sacrifice ourselves?”

And finally, they were able to meet Cluna again.

Cluna was covered in wounds and bleeding profusely.

Could it be, was she fighting that tree? All by herself?

No, no. Let’s stay calm for now.

Emily used the expression “sacrifice”.

That meant Cluna was being sacrificed to that tree alone.

As his head was becoming complicated, Emily laughed loudly.

“We just need to offer useless things as sacrifices, right? Then at least it’ll be quiet for about 100 years. Isn’t that right?”

“I’ve told you many times. 100 years isn’t enough time for the next generation’s saplings to grow…!!!”

“So what? If it’s 100 years, we can just offer another sacrifice then. Maybe it’ll be 200 years if we’re lucky?”

“Emily, you…!!!”

“Oops, don’t move on your own. That is, if you don’t want to see this child get hurt.”

At that moment, Clara, who had been right next to Hans, moved.

She walked forward.

As Clara stood beside her, Cluna, who had been watching, was shocked.

“You can recognize her without taking off the mask, right?”

“Clara…?! Why! Didn’t I tell you to go back?!”

“I had it reported that way. You know? The Elven Forest is already as good as in my grasp.”

“…What do you want, Emily.”

“For you not to die. That’s all I need.”

Ah, now he understood a little.

Inferring from his experience of reading numerous anime and novels, the cause of the forest’s pollution was that tree.

If sacrifices were offered to that damned tree, the pollution decreased.

But they couldn’t offer just anyone, and the time the tree remained silent increased depending on the quality of the sacrifice.

He wasn’t sure of the details, but it probably increased based on the amount of magical power.

In other words, Cluna had intended to sacrifice herself.

She was going to offer herself as a sacrifice to the tree to fully restore the forest, but because she couldn’t tell Clara that outright, she had no choice but to leave for the forest, saying she was going on vacation alone, but Clara hadn’t stayed still either.

As mother and daughter, she must have instinctively known her mother was in danger.

“I’ve finished figuring it out.”

“What?!”

Hans clicked his index and middle fingers together.

As the sound of the click echoed, the surrounding scenery turned gray.

Only then could he take off the mask.

He turned his head.

He saw the elves wearing masks.

Looking at them, he sighed.

When the hell was he going to take all those masks off?

Damn it.

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When did the pollution of the forest begin?

That was a fact unknown to all but a very few elves.

Then was being among those very few elves a blessing or a curse?

Cluna couldn’t answer that question.

If it had just been a tree, they could have considered destroying it, but it wasn’t just a tree.

It was the World Tree that had been worshipped continuously since ancient times.

It was no different from religion for the elves.

That was why elves tended to regard nature, and by extension trees, as sacred.

It was less so now, but in the past, they had even forced this value system on other races.

Thanks to that, elves had once experienced ruling over more than half the continent.

Although they were eventually defeated by the allied forces.

[Can’t we just cut it down?]

[We can’t do that. The World Tree is what maintains our forest.]

[Then what about us?]

No adult answered that question.

Cluna had thought this since childhood.

Isn’t prosperity that comes only through someone’s sacrifice worse than not having it at all?

And that thought became even more firm when her mother was chosen as a sacrifice.

The thing called the World Tree swallowed sacrifices and used them as nutrients to endure and make the forest prosperous.

The elves kept this fact strictly hidden.

Human sacrifice would cause revulsion among other races.

Even though they knew it was an action they couldn’t be proud of,

They, or rather we, couldn’t break away from the old ways.

The elders had the right to choose the sacrifice, and the next sacrifice chosen was none other than Clara, her daughter.

[Why has my daughter been chosen as the sacrifice?!]

[Do not forget your duty as a guardian, Cluna.]

[Originally you were to be the next sacrifice, but because of your many merits until now, we conceded to your blood kin instead.]

[This is nonsense…!!!]

It was nauseating.

In the end, it was nothing more than bait to draw her in, but she couldn’t turn a blind eye.

What about the innocent elves out there?

If she ignored this and ran away, someone else would be sacrificed.

Cluna couldn’t allow that.

Because she was Cluna who had learned much from the first hero.

[Then, I will become the sacrifice.]

In a way, making such a choice was natural, but although she said that, she had no intention of just submitting meekly.

Because now she had enough power.

So she decided to deal with the polluted World Tree.

If she failed in the fight, she would become the sacrifice.

If she won, she could return.

It was a fairly good plan in its own way.

“Poor, poor Cluna. Working hard to sacrifice herself today too.”

“Emily?! How did you…”

However, an unexpected interferer had stepped in.

A comrade who had fought together with her until now.

Emily had meddled on her own since originally, she had been excluded.

[Why don’t we just offer other elves instead of Cluna or Clara? We have plenty of numbers, don’t we?]

She had been flatly rejected for suggesting such an outrageous opinion in front of the elders, but to think she would come all the way here, and with a group of elves too.

Cluna tried to stop it.

Because she knew what Emily would do, but she couldn’t.

Because she recognized the elf that appeared behind Emily.

“You can recognize her without taking off the mask, right?”

“Clara…?! Why! Didn’t I tell you to go back?!”

She was wearing a mask and her body was covered by a robe, but her movements and height were unmistakably Clara’s.

Could it be fake?

No, she wasn’t stupid enough to not be able to distinguish a fake.

This was undeniably the real Clara.

At the same time, Cluna realized Emily’s intentions.

She intended to use Clara as a hostage and offer the elves behind her as sacrifices.

“…What do you want, Emily.”

“For you not to die. That’s all I need.”

As expected, the answer was the same.

Emily was the type of person who would really do it if she said she would.

If she attacked Emily, she might be able to kill her, but the problem was what came after.

It seemed she had engraved a mind-controlling inscription.

She could give an order just before dying to have them offered as sacrifices to that tree, and that would include her daughter.

But if she chose her daughter, the elves behind her could be sacrificed too.

She couldn’t guarantee they were all innocent, but there would surely be innocent elves mixed in who knew nothing.

In this moment of crisis, ironically, the only person she thought of was a single human.

“I’ve finished figuring it out.”

And, as if by magic, that human’s voice was heard.

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[FUCK THAT BITCH SAW HER FUCKIN ARMS OFF GODDAMNIT, cuz it seems like she wants to fuck our girl cluna which aint happenin on my watch]