The Martial Unity

However, I won't supply intelligence if I have reason to believe that the way you humans act upon it will be to my detriment.

"That's how intelligence exchange agreements usually go," Rui replied calmly.

Good.

Rui turned to the Elder Tree with quizzical eyes. "Do you dislike humans?"

He wouldn't be surprised if it did. Humanity's constant encroachment into and colonization of the Beast Domain was one of the largest causes for the many disruptions that the area dealt with on a daily basis.

This, in turn, was the whole reason that the Elder Tree had created the Garden of Salvation. It did so in order to preserve the species in their environments and ensure they didn't fall prey either directly to humanity or indirectly to the spiked competition within the Beast Domain.

Thus, Rui would hardly be surprised if the Elder Tree harbored hatred for humanity. If it did, it was rational enough to recognize that cooperation was still the best way to go.

The Elder Tree was clearly aware of his thoughts.

I am incapable of hatred as an emotion. I am incapable of a lot of emotions that you of the animal kingdom are able to harbor. I am aware that you humans do not share this perspective, but I see humanity as a part of nature rather than something outside of it.

Rui's eyes lit up with intrigue. "…You're right; I've never thought of humanity as a part of nature."

Why wouldn't you be? Your species is of this world and of this continent, just like all other species. As a species, humanity is a descendant of the last unifying common ancestor that we all share from billions of years ago. The human species is undoubtedly a part of the natural order, as far as I am concerned. If anything…

Rui felt a pointed gaze from the Elder Tree.

…If anything, it is you who is not a part of the natural order. You of another world.

"…Thanks." Rui huffed wryly.

do not need to thank me. Ultimately, while I am not fond of the impact that humanity has had on the Beast Domain, I am cognizant of the fact that an overwhelming majority of species in this world would overrun every other species if they possessed the power to do so. Humanity

is true."

gained the power to prey on the entirety of the biosphere, then they would drive all life into

"You said you've been alive for a millennium,

I have lived approximately one thousand

life? And can you tell me what the world was like one thousand years ago?" Rui

was not a historian. However, he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about what happened during the Empty Ages. It was far too much of a mystery. It was especially difficult to halt his curiosity

Elder Tree was aware of what Rui

I also was not sentient when I was a mere sapling. Sentience and intelligence grow differently in the plant kingdom than they do in the animal

"I was hoping that

species. I do not know how I came to be. And while I was not sentient during my sapling days. My body did contain… impressions of what the world was like back

lit up

…A broken world.

Rui raised an eyebrow.

One that was healing.

his eyebrows.

know. But that is the only impression I

mean broken as in civilizationally, environmentally, ecologically,

am