I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 120

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 120
It seemed that even between two Elixirs, if the distance grew this vast, they could no longer sense each other.
“Where on earth am I?!”
How far have I traveled?!
I immediately opened the Planetarium and projected the cosmos. Even that alone left me coughing violently.
‘Let me see… where exactly is my current location?’
No matter how much I magnified the nearby planets, Rahnar was nowhere to be found.
In a universe teeming with hundreds of billions of celestial bodies, finding a specific planet was akin to searching for a pearl the size of a grain of sand on a white sand beach.
The only thing I could discern at this moment was the name of this world I had been separated into.
[Alfheim]
The moment I pronounced that word, the cottage door swung wide open.
The Pointed-Ear Youth I had first seen when I opened my eyes was stepping into the cottage.
Upon discovering me awake, he broke into a broad grin.
[Oh, you’ve regained consciousness for the fourth time, young astrologer!]
I quickly rose and bowed respectfully.
“Hello. I apologize for the late greeting.”
[Hm? You can speak Alfheim? Ah, you’re using magic for translation.]
A simple interpretive rune circle was spinning atop the Planetarium I had spread out beforehand, facilitating the translation.
Unfortunately, this was the highest-level sorcery I could currently manage.
The youth approached cheerfully and bowed his head to me.
[Wanderer who travels between the Stars. May you find peace cradled in the embrace of forest and lake.]
Before I could react in surprise, he gently pressed his cheek against mine and stepped back. This appeared to be their form of greeting.
The youth chuckled and introduced himself.
[My name is Urs. I am the guardian spirit of this Western Forest.]
“I am Rosien Wynack. Thank you so much for saving me and treating my wounds. I’ve imposed upon you greatly.”
[No, no. I’ve done nothing but bring you here and lay you down. How is your body feeling?]
“Yes, there’s no problem at all.”
I answered spiritedly, but Urs narrowed his eyes with a knowing gaze.
[It’s better not to lie to an elf. We can see through everything anyway.]
“I beg your pardon?”
[Why don’t you sit down and try eating something? If you keep getting up so recklessly, you’ll faint for the fifth time.]
Urs grasped my shoulder and sat me back down on the bed. My vision was still blurred, so I fumbled about, gripping the bedsheet, when a large plate was placed upon my lap.
By touch alone, I could feel something round and smooth, and something else slightly rough yet soft.
[Fruit and rye bread. Eat all the fruit—don’t leave any. It will aid your recovery.]
“Thank you.”
As I bit into what felt like a red apple, juice burst forth abundantly. I could barely taste it.
‘Did Kalien always feel this way whenever he ate?’
Swallowing flavorless, mushy, juice-laden food was quite an ordeal. Yet strangely, the more I forced myself to consume the fruit, the more vitality gradually returned to my weakened body.
[These are mountain berries that grow only in our forest. They infuse the forest’s essence to help circulate life energy.]
Forest essence, life energy—an endless stream of unfamiliar terms.
I barely managed to chew and swallow the soft, juicy fruit before asking.
“What kind of place is this?”
[This is Alfheim. It’s the world where elves live.]
‘Ah, elves…!’
A memory surfaced—something I’d read long ago in the Encyclopedia of Mysterious Otherworldly Creatures.
Pointed ears, enchanting beauty, warriors buried deep within nature and exceptional healers. This was my first time meeting an elf in person.
Urs was observing me with equal curiosity.
[Where are you from?]
“I’m from Rahnar.”
[Ah, Rahnar.]
Yet Urs showed no wariness or bewilderment at the sudden appearance of a stranger.
His explanation that followed revealed the reason.
[This place has an unusually strong pull toward other dimensions, so outsiders from different worlds often fall here. But I’ve never heard the name Rahnar before.]
“Ah, so that’s why I ended up here…”
When I opened the dimensional portal, Alfheim must have been the world with the strongest gravitational pull at that moment.
‘At least I fell somewhere relatively safe. If I’d landed in a desert or a savage planet teeming with monsters, I’d have been dead before regaining consciousness.’
Urs placed the back of his hand against my forehead with concern, checking for fever.
[You’ve been lying unconscious for a full month. If you hadn’t woken up today, I was thinking of taking you to the Elders.]
A month. My blood ran cold. I swallowed hard and asked him.
“What year and month and day is it today?”
[By Alfheim’s calendar, it’s the eighth day of the Month of Verdant Growth in the year 329.]
I’d harbored a faint hope, but his answer was bleak.
The Month of Verdant Growth would almost certainly be spring or early summer, yet when I died, Rahnar was entering deep autumn.
But I couldn’t simply assume roughly ten months had passed, because this wasn’t Rahnar—it was an entirely different world. Time doesn’t flow at the same speed across all worlds, does it?
It was as if someone had dumped ice water over my head. My mind snapped into sharp focus.
‘This… I didn’t anticipate this.’
Only then did I fully grasp the gravity of the situation.
I’d told Kalian to wait just one year, or at most a decade, but by Rahnar’s reckoning, I had no idea when I could return.
‘What if I go back and a hundred years have passed?’
It was a disturbingly plausible scenario. My anxiety surged again. Even if I could accept a hundred years, what if it were more?
Thousands, tens of thousands of years of temporal disparity?
The reverse was equally catastrophic.
If mere days in Rahnar equated to hundreds or thousands of years here, then I would be unable to see Kalian for that entire span of time.
‘That can’t happen…!’
I seized Urs’s sleeve desperately.
“If many outsiders have fallen here, have any of them ever returned to their original worlds?”
[Hmm.]
“Is there a way to go back…”
Urs scratched his chin and averted his gaze uncomfortably.
[Everyone who falls into Alfheim asks that. To spare you false hope, I’ll tell you plainly—not a single outsider has ever returned to their original home.]
“Not a single one?”
[That’s right. This place has a strong pull, so entering is easy enough—but leaving is another matter entirely. You’d need someone comparable to a Star to drag you out from beyond, or you’d have to break free with power that surpasses the world’s gravity. One or the other.]
“Then… it seems I’ll have to become the first human to ever escape this place.”
Urs raised an eyebrow slightly.
[You sound confident.]
I answered with a helpless sigh instead.
In theory, it was simple enough. All I needed to do was generate a long-distance teleportation portal using mana stronger than the force binding humans to this world. I’d set the coordinates for Rahnar.
I hadn’t managed to claim the Great Annihilation, but since my Planetarium was a Sacred Relic of the Omniscient Word Sorcerer, I didn’t think it impossible.
The problem was timing.
‘If I stay in this pathetic condition, I won’t be able to return even after a hundred years.’
Urs, who had been observing me tearing at my hair for some time, asked casually.
[It seems you have a reason you must return. Did you leave behind someone precious? A loved one?]
I nodded weakly.
[Family? A lover?]
“Family. …And a lover too. I can’t really define it in just one word, but there’s someone who needs me. I have to be right there beside them.”
[Hmm.]
“By now, they must be desperately searching for me. Or maybe… they don’t even know what to do first, so they’re just standing there helplessly doing nothing. Or perhaps the opposite….”
What should I do? Suddenly, tears threatened to spill.
The moment I realized how much time might have passed since the incident occurred, concerns about Rahnar’s peace or the survival of the Transcendent Families no longer mattered to me.
Whatever trouble Kalian might be causing—that no longer felt important either.
“If I leave your side, know that it contains not a shred of my will. So don’t be angry, don’t cry, don’t recklessly use your power, don’t let Rahnar fall to ruin. Just wait for me.”
I told them to do nothing but endure and wait until I returned. To simply stay obedient.
‘That wasn’t how I should have spoken.’
I hadn’t stopped to consider how cruel such a command would be to Kalian, who treated my words as the laws of the cosmos itself. I hadn’t even explained the full circumstances in detail.
Even as I admonished Kalian, I had been infinitely arrogant.
‘No, I just need to return. Right now, quickly.’
I rubbed my eyes furiously with the back of my hand. Tear stains dotted across my skin.
I had made a promise to return no matter what, so bearing that responsibility fell to me. My only hope was this elf youth before me.
“No matter how long it takes, I have to find a way. It’s shameless to ask, but if you know anything at all, could you possibly help me?”
[…Hmm.]
After a long silence, Urs made a suggestion.
[I can’t find a way for you, but I can take you to the Dimensional Rift where you were separated. It’s at the edge of this Western Forest. Would you like to go?]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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