For a few seconds, both of us remained silent. All I could do was slowly exhale while Leal was staring at me with great confusion on his face. His eyes were twitching while her mouth was slightly shuddering.

"Uhm... Casimir, I have been wondering about this lately, have you by chance... lost your memo-"

"No. I don't have amnesia." I immediately cut him while waving my hands.

As if he was processing the thing that he just heard, his eyes turned blank and widened. "Then, would you mind telling me wh-"

"Nope. Not a chance."

He slowly nodded. "I... I see. If you say so."

Oh wow, he is a lot easier to convince than I thought.

I raised my gaze at the massive tree in front of us, the gentle wind blew above that made its leaves move very slowly, I brushed my hair up as the soothing breeze swayed my bangs. "Were you present when that happened? How about you tell me about it?"

"I am afraid that I wasn't there when that incident occurred. However, My father and my mother, along with the two princes saw how everything transpired, they experienced it firsthand."

As I looked back at Leal, I found him staring at the tree. For some reason, I could not see any signs of a negative impression on his face despite what he just said. All I could see was tenderness on his stupidly beautiful face.

And now that he mentioned it, if the queen had experienced it firsthand, how come she's still kind to me? I could not feel even a little bit of resentment coming from her as we talked earlier.

"I see," I replied.

"It happened about 80 years ago." Leal started.

Oh, we are starting the story now? Okay.

"Back then when my father, the king, was still a blind devotee of the Elder council. Under the order of the Elder council, my father once tried to capture what they believed was a cursed fairy with an intention of executing her. But in return, what this kingdom received was a great tragedy. That fairy's friend immediately came into this kingdom with the sole purpose of vengeance in mind, easily collapsed the barrier with her bare hands, destroyed a massive part of the kingdom, including the tree of Erela, and massacred tens of thousands of elven warriors like they were just a swarm of helpless ants who were fighting against the burning fire of destruction... And despite having no possession of any Supreme class skill, she still possessed such power on par with the most powerful individuals in the entire Ulterra at that time. An embodiment of catastrophe itself, the disaster that almost brought our entire nation upon its very end." Leal stared at me with his eyes showing no emotion in them.

Man, just by seeing the state of the tree of Erela, I can easily tell that the meruem who attacked this kingdom did not even try to hold back. That person went full 'The Punisher' on this one.

Welp, at least that meruem did not end up  completely destroying this poor tree.

"She was so powerful that one of the Four Pillars of Ulterra, The Fairy king himself, had to step in just to stop her from rampaging," Leal said in a surprisingly calm manner. "If the Fairy king did not arrive that day, this kingdom would have been just one of many ruins of fallen kingdoms these days."

"And that meruem name is..."

Leal exhaled and looked at me with his expressionless but somewhat gentle face. "That meruem's name was Cahira. The Black plague, Cahira."

I get it now.

Eliminating a person just because she's different, huh? 

This is the very first time I've heard an entire story about a race that I have become. And it's a story of how that person rampaged and tried to obliterate an entire nation all on her own, and actually almost did it.

For some reason that I can't comprehend, even though I haven't met her, somehow, I fully understand and agree with the horrible thing he had done to this kingdom. And I can see myself doing it as well if I were in her position.

I know it sounds terrible, but...

"And the cursed fairy that you mentioned earlier..."

Leal nodded. "Yes. That fairy was Tanya. And Cahira was Tanya's friend... an extremely close friend. And the reason why Tanya lost her was this kingdom's selfishness. That's why she hates us, it's because we took away the very first person who gave her the genuine affection she was longing for since the very day she was born."

Tanya.

How much pain she had gone through back in that day when that incident happened?

The cause of the pain in Tanya's eyes that I have been seeing... is this place.

It's a good thing I did not force her to go here. It would have been a very painful experience for her if I did.

I rubbed my palm on my forehead before turning my back to the giant tree. I shifted my eyes to the white infrastructure at the side of the road. "It seems this place managed to recover after that incident." I walked forward and put my shivering hands in my pants pockets.

"Yes. It took years. But some things could never be brought back, just like the former state of the tree of Erela."

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, you are right, there really are things that can never be brought back." I stopped walking and repeatedly exhaled while looking up.

"Is there a problem, Casimir?"

I turned my gaze at Leal and smiled. "Nothing."

"Really? Your hands have been shivering uncontrollably. Is there a problem?"

"Are they?" I chuckled. "Maybe due to the cold. It's quite cold here, isn't it?" I continue walking.

Leal chuckled. "You are right, it's quite cold today due to the breeze coming from the forest."

We remained quiet for a few seconds as we walked down the road. 

"Tell me, Leal. The meruem, Cahira, do you hate her?" I asked.

Surprisingly, what I received was a gentle smile coming from him. "No. I don't. Maybe due to the reason that I wasn't even born yet when it happened, also, my father fully acknowledges that it was his fault that the incident happened, and he already learned from his mistake. However, knowing what your people are capable of, I can say that I am afraid of anyone who belongs to your tribe. Up until I met you, I was always praying that I would never come across such terrifying people like you. Although my point still stands to this day, the good thing is... we are on the same side."

That explains his actions when I first met him.

I chuckled and raised my already calmed hand and put it on his shoulder. "Anyway, why did they name Kuro after her?"

"Based on what I heard, it was because Cahira had the same type of advanced class skill as Kuro." Leal non hesitantly answered.

Erosion type advanced class skill, huh?

I nodded. "Although I would say that Cahira is a cool name, the name Kuro fits her more because of her beautiful black hair and pair of black eyes. After all, even though I know that it's just a complete coincidence, Kuro means black in one of the languages I know."

I am a fucking weeb! Japanese is cool!

However, my hand immediately fell as the person I was leaning on immediately stopped. As I looked back, I found Leal looking at me with his enlarged eyes.

What? Did I say something bad? Oh, maybe he doesn't like it when I am complimenting his girlfriend right in his face. I mean, who would? I should stop that bad habit before it causes trouble for me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Is there a problem, Leal?"

Leal just stared at me for a few seconds, before shaking his head and walking toward me while chuckling. "Nothing. Don't bother about it, I just suddenly remembered something. Anyway, let's go to the other places."

Bruh! You looked like you'd just seen a ghost!

I nodded. "Uh... sure."