Emiya calmly replied, "In fact, the news is very, very bad. You all seem to think that this burrowing worm incident is just a once-in-a-few-years incident, with a few unfortunate deaths, but that's it. In reality, the scale of the problem is limited. All we need is a few arguments to sort out the conflicts of interest, and then we can declare the matter a done deal. There's no need to worry about it any more."

Norwich's eyebrows furrowed. "What on earth are you trying to say? They're just a bunch of diggers. No matter how much you exaggerate, they're still just a bunch of diggers."

"I'm sorry," Emilia replied. "I suspect there's a demonic element behind this swarm of burrowing worms. In fact..."

Emiya stretched out her hand and used illusion to draw a rough map of Elturgard. "Just today, we set out from the Tyr Church headquarters and encountered burrowing worms about ten kilometers from Berdusk."

At this moment, only Terra's face showed an uneasy look: "--They're already this close?! Doesn't that mean we can't even get out of the door now? Then the plan to exterminate the burrowing worms must begin immediately!"

Emiya waited patiently for Terra to finish before adding, "In short, that's what we thought at first. And then, it was just our first contact, the first wave of patrols or vanguards or something like that, with the burrowing worms."

Emiya held up two fingers.

Fenwei tilted his head. "Two groups of burrowing worms have invaded more than ten kilometers from Berdusk...? This is indeed a big problem. The burrowing worms may be preparing for winter."

Emiya sighed and replied, "There were twenty burrowing worms in the first wave alone that tried to attack us."

Instantly, a single stone sent shockwaves surging. Hearing this, Terra nearly leaped onto the rafters. He stormed over to Woods, grabbing his fellow druid by the vine collar. "Are you even fucking druids? How dare you allow a swarm of at least several hundred burrowers to roam freely right under your noses?! And you didn't even bother to tell us the scale of the burrowers until just now!"

"Are a dozen diggers the same as hundreds of diggers?! Are one locust the same as ten thousand locusts?!"

"It's breeding season for the worms! Breeding season!!!! There are hundreds of them right now, spawning little worms under my fields day and night, and you were just so confident just a few days ago asking us to protect them!!!! Do you know that when spring comes, there will be thousands and tens of thousands of little worms crying out for food in Elturgard, you bastards!!!"

"Calm down, calm down! It takes a year for a digger worm to reach adulthood, and during mating, the female eats the male, using the nutrients in his body to feed the larvae..."

"I'm in no fucking mood to discuss the ecology of earthworms right now! I only care about wildlife and livestock, not earthworms, those mantis-like monsters that ate something that made them grow hundreds of thousands of times larger! I'm going to fight you today. Only farmers with land to farm and families to support are afraid of you! If we don't survive next year, you, the River Forest, won't have a good life either!!!"

Woods was so dizzy from being scolded by the priest of Chauntia that it took him a while to finally react. He replied, "Wait... wait! I didn't hide it on purpose! It's just that my subordinates have been busy controlling the range of the burrowing worms these days, and the River Forest hasn't started investigating the scale of the burrowing worms yet! I only just learned that the burrowing worms here have reached this level. That young man from Baldur's Gate was just guessing! Guessing! He didn't bring the burrowing worm corpse with him, did he?!"

Terra's roar continued unabated. "Bullshit! A burrowing worm weighs several fucking tons, stands over a meter tall, and is nearly ten meters long! It could devour a whole bull in one sitting! A thing this size wouldn't even fit into a dimensional cave. How's he supposed to get it here?!"

Although Woods had absolutely no desire to owe Emilia a favor, he finally grasped at a lifeline: "Besides! Didn't he say it was the devil's doing? The devil did it!!!"

The secret of the thirty-eight druids?

The only people in human society who could make the druids in the wilderness socially awkward were the druids of the Church of Chauntia.

They are not afraid of the druids' sense of moral superiority in the face of nature, but can instead fight back with confidence.

This is generally not a problem, because the druids and the Church of Chauntia in the wilderness are generally relatively good, and the two sides generally try to avoid direct conflict.

Today is probably one of the rare exceptions.

The Supreme Observer coughed lightly, walked forward, and gently patted the Chauntia Priest's shoulder. "Lord of the Harvest, let's resolve the current matter first."

Terra let out a long sigh. "Indeed. It's not long since the beginning of autumn... It's a delicate juncture. This wave of insect swarms is likely because last year's eggs have just reached adulthood. Actually, it's not a bad thing. If we hold on for a while, the burrowing worms will start mating, and once the females have eaten the males' heads off, the total number of burrowing worms will immediately decrease significantly..."

Having said that, the Lord of Harvest finally remembered another important thing.

He turned to Emiya and asked seriously, "Speaking of which, young man, you claim this wave of insects is related to the devil. What evidence do you have? What did you see?"

Emiya nodded and recounted what she had seen.

The two druids, Terra and Woods, subconsciously repeated what they heard, but with each paragraph, their faces grew darker.

"... nymphs, so they won't become adults, so they won't mate."

Woods whispered, "Then the males won't die. The burrowing worms won't suffer a significant loss of numbers due to reproduction."

Terra added: "Not being afraid of fire isn't a problem, but we can't burn the bugs that live ten meters underground..."

The problem is, I'm not afraid of toxins.

"Then we might not even be able to use smoke to force them to the surface. We'll have to go deep underground and fight them to the death!"

Emiya thought for a moment and replied, "With all due respect, this outbreak of the Digger Worms doesn't seem like an oversight. Rather, it seems like a deliberate act, a result that came sooner or later. To modify Digger Worms on such a large scale and then allow these creatures, which don't actually have a habit of living in groups, to roam freely, is not a coincidence."

Even more conspiratorial - these digging worms seem to be very suitable to be the devil's pawns.

"...Indeed." Terra took a deep breath and patted his head. "I have no objection to the Elturgard people marching towards Hell, but when the devil's dagger pierced my back, it truly was heartbreaking."

The Lord of the Harvest turned to Elturgard's supreme leader. "Well, Your Excellency, Supreme Observer. Old Midred is dead, and his descendants are all idle and dissolute. Therefore, I can represent Berdusk at this time."

"Now, people of Berdusk, the people of Elturgard formally ask you for the protection promised by Eltoril."

Craig didn't answer immediately. He stood there, pondering for a long moment before looking up and saying, "This isn't just a problem for Eltoril. All of Elturgard will do its utmost to eliminate the threat of the burrowing worms."

He stood up straight, walked into the middle of the crowd, and said simply, "Don't worry! I said before that I would send the Companion Knights to reinforce. But reinforcements alone are obviously not enough. In fact, I have just made up my mind - the city of Eltoril will come out in full force!"

"The Church of Thom will do its utmost to maintain basic administrative operations for the next period of time. All other idle personnel will be transferred to Berdusk."

"...As for the Church of Lathander, I'll put pressure on them, or flatter them. They're the ones who love the spotlight. These Cult of the Rising Sun don't like to preach in villages, or even do small things. But now, with the burrower tide threatening to sweep across Elturgard, they'll probably be eager to dress up in all their splendor and come to Verdusk for everyone to see."

At this moment, Norwich looked deeply at Emiya, stepped forward, and said loudly, "I will contact the Great Reader Christine! Although the Church of Oghma is devoted to knowledge, it will also stand idly by in the face of a catastrophe of this magnitude! Moreover, what exactly did the devil do to the burrowing worms? This is surely a piece of knowledge that will shine brightly at the Ritual of Truth and amaze the old readers of Candlekeep!"

Fenwei said apologetically, "The Sharptooth Forest Circle is a new organization, and we already have limited manpower. We are already busy with matters in our own forest. I can only promise that I will do my best."

Woods said reluctantly, "I've already told you that we've already been busy on this. I'll inform my men that you will be River Forest's allies in this matter."

Even at this point, the druids of the River Forest were still unwilling to conceal their xenophobia. If it came down to it, they would probably be largely ineffective.

Emiya thought about it.

Next, even if cooperation is to be achieved, it will have to proceed steadily.

Prevent the Diggerworms from expanding further, explore their nests, and finally mobilize massive forces to wipe out the Diggerworm tide in one fell swoop - these steps are step-by-step and cannot be rushed.

Emiya hesitated for a moment and said, "If the war goes badly and really threatens Elturgard..."

Before he could finish, Craig stepped forward and stood before Emya. "Mr. Emya of Lunya, your words speak for yourself alone—Elturgard isn't in such trouble that it needs to seek aid from Baldur's Gate. A massive invasion of Elturgard by the Flaming Fist is unnecessary."

Emiya shrugged and replied, "Okay. It's up to you."

Ultimately, relations between Elturgard and Baldur's Gate were not good. Even with Apodel Adrian now in power, the two cities had yet to establish formal diplomatic ties.

Even Emilia was one of the first envoys - although this mission was not particularly formal and the results were not very significant.

The Supreme Observer maintained a strangely distant attitude towards them, but seemed to have a closer relationship with Norwich.

Emilia pondered for a moment and replied, "In that case, please allow me to run an errand. The Conservators of the Church of Tyr seem to be leading a team to stake out the town of Trier, trying to find a lich's phylactery. He must have a large number of Hell Knights around him. I am willing..."

Now the entire Elturgard will probably start to requisition ships immediately. The Hell Knights near the town of Trier might not be able to find a ferry in such a hurry.

Then, it will be up to Emilia to help build the ferry to ensure that the Hell Knights in Trier Town can be transferred immediately and march to the vicinity of Berdusk in a short time.

At this moment, Archdruid Woods, who had been standing quietly by, suddenly stood up and said, "That's not necessary. We'll handle the notification!"

...?

Emiya was stunned for a moment.

The druids of the River Forest were not very active, so why would they suddenly take on the work at this time?

Yin had huddled in the corner of the room, reading a spellbook. Suddenly, she closed the book and said, "Emmia, do you remember what we saw with the Reconstruction Spell in that inn called the Glittering Gold Coin?"

Emiya's hand squeezed slightly.

Of course he still remembers.

There was one thing that everyone present seemed to be completely unaware of, except for the Archdruid of the River Forest.

*************

"The reason for the burrowing worms rampage in Trail has been discovered—a lich has awakened nearby, and its activities have spooked the burrowing worms."

****************

However, the reality is that the real rampaging burrowers are around Berdusk.

While both Trier and Berdusk were indeed located near the riverine forest, they were actually over a hundred kilometers apart, practically separated by the entire forest. The two towns relied solely on the Chongsa River for transportation, making them barely neighbors.

There are several possibilities now.

First, these are two completely unrelated things. Emilia is overthinking it.

Second, the devil's information was wrong, and the underground insect swarm actually broke out around Berdusk.

Third, behind these two things, there may be a common secret related to the riverside forest.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the druids are behind everything, but they are definitely involved.

To verify this, you can use a stupid method - poke it hard.

Emiya made up her mind and shook her head heavily. "After all, we don't even know the exact range of the burrowing worms' activities. We should start searching from all directions to determine the extent of the area they cover..."

"There's no need to go to Trail Town!" Woods's speech speed unconsciously quickened. "Going to Trail Town to look for burrowing worms? That's ridiculous! Trail Town is hundreds of kilometers away from here! And what's the point of going there?"

"Aren't you a wizard? If you want to send a message, a spell would be enough!" Woods said, "Why would you have to go there in person?"

Emiya replied, "Not only will I be sending a message, I also hope to bring back the Hell Knights there and their supplies. Thousands of people may be heading this direction soon, and the pressure on the supply of supplies will surely be enormous. We can't rely on Berdusk for everything. The supplies the Hell Knights have prepared for the Liches of Trier Town are exactly what we need right now!"

"You? Do you have this ability?"

Emiya shrugged and replied, "We'll know whether we can do it or not once we try."

"..." Woods's face turned pale and blue, his eyes drifting upwards slightly. Then, as if he had thought of something, his eyes lit up. "You have a point. I was not thoughtful enough. In that case, I will personally accompany you to Trail—"

Before he could finish, Terra interrupted Woods: "You are kidding me! You can't go anywhere! You must stay with us now. Otherwise, your druids will be disloyal to us, and you will follow a young man to the town of Trier. Who can we hold accountable?!"

Woods opened his mouth, but in the end he could only look at Fenwe with hope in his eyes: "...Then, Archdruid Fenwe, may I ask you to make this trip for me?"

"Me?" The pigeon Fenwei was stunned for a moment, then used its beak to adjust its feathers. "If this is your request, then I am happy to serve you."

As she spoke, her eyes met Emiya's: "-May our friendship last forever."

The Traces of the Thirty-Nine Dead Souls (Part 1)

Naturally, such an agency entrustment cannot be settled with just a few words.

Two great druids from both sides of the Chongsa River walked aside and whispered for a long time, obviously discussing the details of this trip.

At this point, Asul couldn't help but frown and pulled Emiya aside. "I remember you spent some time alone with the two archdruids regarding the matter of Miss Saint Dumbo. Did your relationship improve as a result?"

He hesitated for a moment and said, "A few days ago, that Archdruid Fenwe didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about you. If you really intend to go to Trier, then the Archdruid around you might be more troublesome than the investigation itself.

Clearly, traveling with a Wild Druid for an extended period of time was a daunting prospect for the Paladin. He thought about it and even said, "...To be honest, I think the Archdruid of Riverside Forest might be using this offer to force you to give up this idea."

Emilia's expression remained unchanged as she replied in a low voice, "If that's the case, then don't we have to go?"

Asul disagreed. He said, "Based on the intensity of his reaction, I suspect there's some secret hidden in Trill. But it's not a fatal secret. If it's discovered, he'll suffer some losses, that's all."

"If there really is such a deadly secret, we probably won't be able to find it in a few days." Emilia shrugged. "For a secret of this level, finding it would be the best, but if not, it doesn't matter. Our priority is to bring back those Hell Knights."

"That's true," Asur shrugged. "Although the number of Hell Knights accompanying the Keeper of Balance is small, they are a team specially formed to defeat the lich. They are the best of the best."

For Emiya, of course, there was an even more important reason—his teacher was there too.

A team that can defeat the lich, and seems to be formed with the goal of defeating the lich with low casualties, will definitely play a decisive role when facing a swarm of burrowing worms.

At this time, the druids on the other side also came to a conclusion. Fenwe transformed back into human form in the air, revealing her beautiful face and slender figure.

Miss Fenwei walked up to Emilia with a smile on her face and extended her hand. "Actually, our brief journey together searching for mammoth traces was quite pleasant. Will we be working together for a while longer?"

"Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Fenwë, a half-elf, and I am the Archdruid of the Sharptooth Forest Circle."

Naturally, Fenwë's attitude was extremely enthusiastic by druid standards.

Emilia hesitated for a moment, then went up to hold Fenwei's hand and said, "Please give me your guidance."

"Alright. Then let's hurry." Fenwei released his hand without any unnecessary movement. After answering questions one by one with Emiya and the others, he turned and said to everyone present, "If all goes well, we'll quickly confirm the situation in Trill. I hope the burrowing worm nest in Berdusk is an isolated case."

Craig nodded. "Then, everyone, take your positions. I'll return to Eltoril immediately to begin dispatching troops! Lord Tel, if we act quickly and deploy a large army for protection, can we still make it in time for the harvest?"

Terl sighed. "Even if I can't make it, I have to. I can only fight with all my might to try to keep the land sunny and ensure that you don't starve to death in Berdusk. This is all the priests of Chauntia can do."

However, the Archdruid of the River Forest kept winking at Fenwe, and Fenwe just responded with a faint smile.

*********************************

Druids have unparalleled mobility in areas with lush vegetation, and the Chongsa River, blessed with the sun's rays and watered by the river, is exceptionally fertile.

In a flash, Fenwe led the Emiya team across hundreds of kilometers. Several people emerged from an oak tree. The druid's Wood Release technique restricted them to visiting plants they had already seen. Therefore, Fenwe was quite familiar with this place.

As soon as she left the oak, she waved to the nearby treetops with a familiar look, "Watcher! Have you smelled any news of the wolves?"

A sudden reply came from the seemingly deserted treetops: "Elder, in the past few sunrises and sunsets, I have only heard that one-eyed, one-armed messengers have come to the nearby nest and once went out, but their target was not the riverside forest, and I have not personally heard their howling."

Druidic is, in a sense, more of a strange cryptic language—an ancient, vocabulary-poor way of speaking that contains almost no words for man-made objects, yet is favored by wild druids.

Trying to understand Druid was a painful task for an outsider, but Finwë simply nodded and replied, "Thank you very much! May you eat well and sleep peacefully every day!"

“May the sun rise every day!”

After exchanging greetings with the druids of the River Forest, Fenwë pointed north, signaling them to continue forward.

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