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Veronica asked Yggdrasil something that she had been thinking for a while, she wanted to see if she could go down in this avatar form and meet the bird-squid people that she had seen with Ervas. These people were very unique as they were not tailor made by the twins but surged naturally from evolution alone, becoming sapient life forms through such a cycle as that.
It wasn't magical evolution either, it was the old-fashioned selection-based evolution that took eons for something to actually happen, these animals were shaped through natural selection in a variety of ways until they reached sapience by themselves, and later on as they developed their sapience, these bird people actually found out ways to use magic, awakening ancient mana veins in their bodies, but mages seemed rare and high class in their society.
"Going to meet them? …I don't know." Said Yggdrasil.
"You don't know?! What?! You're coming yes or yes! There's literally no buts in here!" said Veronica.
"W-What? I won't!" said the tree.
"You're coming. Why are you neglecting them? They're also the children of the twins. You should recognize them." Said Ervas.
"I-It's not that I don't recognize them nor that I don't care about them! I had already approached them through oracles and also told them about the two goddesses…" said Yggdrasil.
"That's not near as enough tough!" said Veronica.
"Ungh, then what do you want me to do?! I am just trying to do many things at the same time." Sighed the tree.
"Well you're coming with us, and we'll present them to you, that simple, to be honest there's nothing overly complicated over this entire thing, stop being such a cowardly tree for once and do what we say, you're going to enjoy it more than you think!" said Veronica.
"You're very irritating… FINE." Sighed the tree, just to be left alone.
"Now let's go eat something I am starving." Said Aurora.
"A nice cafeteria was round here… ah, there!" said Kuro, pointing at the thing she held the closest to her heart, food.
"Well done, Kuro-chan! You always come in clutch." Said Aurora.
"Ngh, I suppose you were not going to do anything bad… I am going away for now, I don't want to waste anymore time with you." Said Yggdrasil, stopping and trying to go away. She didn't wanted to share a meal with everyone and felt it was awkward.
"What? Stay!" said Veronica.
"Just come eat with us." Said Ervas.
"I-I don't wanna! And I will go do my own things, you can't possibly stop me no matter what…!" said Yggdrasil.
"Come on! Don't be like that, Ervas wants to eat with you!" said Gaia, the adorable plant girl made Yggdrasil blush.
"Yeah, come with us to eat!" said Aqua, she was also cute and captivated Yggdrasil a bit.
"Don't go! Let's eat together, we'll invite you to a meal." Said Violet.
"Yeah, yeah! There's no problem." Said Aura.
"E-Eeh? T-This… I… I don't… I shouldn't… I…" muttered Yggdrasil, however, she was dragged into the cafeteria and forced to sit like anyone else. Despite being able to do this long ago, she never did it for some reason… and now that she was doing it, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
She didn't wanted this! but she was persuaded by cute girls, at the end, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the thought, and began to grow redder. A handsome butler attended the group, as they were served several tasty dishes made out of the delicious ingredients unique of this divine realm.
Everyone was eating and enjoying the delicious meals, sandwiches, ice cream, pastries, all sorts of filled baked buns, delicious salads, grilled meat, and more… the atmosphere was adorned by the colorful dishes and the good drinks, as the sun shone brightly atop the sky. Despite the perilous future ahead, these people had the shamelessness of actually enjoying this through? It almost felt as if they didn't cared about the future, such irresponsibility made Yggdrasil boil in anger.
"Hey, you've not touched your meals!" said Aurora.
"I just don't get it… You from all people who came back to redeem yourselves are just enjoying this leisurely… while the future ahead is so uncertain and filled with danger, you're simply sitting here and enjoying this food? To what purpose? Its all going to end anyways if we all die!" she said angrily.
"What are you even talking about? Of course we know about the future ahead, that doesn't mean we have to be bitter over it. also enjoying the present is important, if you don't enjoy life then you'll find yourself lost in what to protect. You'll find it there's no point in protecting and living a life you don't even enjoy properly…" sighed Veronica.
"AH…?!" Yggdrasil was left shocked by such a deep response.
"I agree, you have to enjoy life so it can be worth protecting. Smelling the roses as they say, stopping for once, sitting, and appreciating the world around you and the beautiful of it all." Said Ervas.
"…"
Yggdrasil suddenly felt shocked that she hasn't realized such an intrinsic truth. Her whole life since she was born in this world that she had been working hard in protecting it, in putting down the Hivemind, in all of this and more… due to this, she felt that interacting with the people here was meaningless and even more meaningless for the ones down there in Eden…
Due to that, she grew hollow in the sense of emotions, and couldn't believe nor understand what was so important and special about being friends with people and so on, she couldn't understand what was the point of enjoying a meal with people, nor what it meant to just sit down and relax…
She had been working relentlessly and nonstop her entire life, so she didn't knew the meaning of taking a break nor "smelling the roses"…
"You've worked pretty hard so, why don't you eat something with us for once?" asked Veronica, offering some food.
"Here, have some ice cream too!" said Kuro.
"Don't be shy." Said Ervas.
"…"
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