19-1 The Elves’ Feelings

That day, Ars came to my place.

“Yo, Alphonse-danna. Actually, the elf magistrate-san says he wants to go to the Spirit Forest. Could you somehow arrange a talk with Jolly, the Great High Priest of the Spirit Forest?”

Ever since the lewd elves—no, the elves—had arrived, that guy had been holed up in Elf New Town, and now he suddenly brought up a topic like that.

In response, I sought this impression from him.

“Was the crab good?”

The conversation was magnificently failing to connect.

Well, this area came down to the difference in values we each held.

The crab had completely stolen my heart ever since then.

Broadly speaking, even the little cat child had shared that passionate feeling with me.

Ars brushed off my deep emotion with a slightly wry smile.

“Yeah, it was good. Please do that again. Anyway, about the elves.”

“Got it. I was just thinking of bringing them some crab too. We can talk about that then.”

“Okay, please do.”

Ars did not point that out.

Once you became S-rank, having impossible demands pushed onto you was an everyday occurrence.

He had gotten completely used to it.

But something about him seemed strange.

The elves also had something about them, somehow.

The elves had continued living unchanged since one thousand years ago, since the dark age.

And even now, there apparently was no sign that their generations had changed.

What about the people in the elven villages?

Even if elves were long-lived, did they really live that long?

Not a single one of them showed even a fragment of aging.

They were like high elves from a fantasy novel.

It seemed there was some sort of circumstance behind it.

Maybe I would have to search for the elven villages too.

I tried searching the MAP on my magic PC just in case, but sure enough, I could not find them.

Later, I would question the living witnesses here and there.

And then… Ars.

Something about that guy had been bothering me for a long time.

When I first met him, it was in the line waiting for the entrance inspection at the Royal Capital.

And behind me, he had obediently stood in line together with me for three hours.

Even though he was S-rank and should have had a free pass anywhere, it was far too suspicious.

Even so, the reason I believed him was not just because of Armon’s words.

It resonated in my heart and in my soul.

And with the pride of blood inherited from my grandfather, and with the Seventh Sense I had encountered.

This man was worthy of trust.

The genes throughout my body, my instincts, or perhaps something beyond them, were shouting that with all their body and soul.

I had once experienced a similar encounter through the Seventh Sense in Japan as well.

I had already experienced it, so I believed it this time too.

But if that Ars seemed strange, then surely there was some reason.

Most likely, he had a reason he could not tell others.

I would not forcefully ask, but if you need help, rely on me anytime.

Because I am the headmaster, after all.

And so I headed to the mountain.

There was the old dragon Baldos, looking full of fighting spirit.

He was bare from the waist up and seemed to be in the middle of some kind of training or practice.

But I had never seen this old man looking this serious before.

Had something happened!?

“Haaaaaaah!”

“Grandpa, you’re so cool!”

It was nothing at all.

Jenny, the granddaughter this old man doted on like a cat—no, like a dragon—was with him.

Feeling a little foolish, I turned around and tried to go home, but someone called out to stop me.

“Oh! If it isn’t Al. It has been a while.”

As expected, this was starting to feel foolish.

Whenever I came counting on Grandpa’s wisdom, it was usually like this.

After living for five thousand years, what did he mean, “It has been a while”?

He probably did not think anything admirable like that even in the slightest.

“Hey, Baldos. Can you tell me about the elves?”

“Mm, those people. How pitiful.”

According to what Baldos told me, elves were originally supposed to live a few hundred years at most, even if they were long-lived.

It was said that spirits originally manifested, took on flesh, and became the ancestors of the elves.

That was why only elves could use spirit magic.

They were not bound by their own vessel or mana capacity like humans were, and could borrow the amount of power they could receive from spirits as spirit magic.

Only elves were not asked by spirits to pay mana in exchange.

Because they had originally been the same kind of existence.

Spirits were something like the power that circulated through the world.

A spirit was an individual, and also, as a whole, something like one of the laws within the world.

When I poured mana through the world broadcast, things became like that because of such racial traits.

Normally, they drew power bit by bit from mana particles, but they were drawn toward large mana sources like moths to a lamp.

That was the instinct of spirits, something they could not resist.

Even I could not use spirit magic.

I merely borrowed it in exchange for mana.

Among humans, only those with the blessing of spirits could use spirit magic, even in that form, and people like that were extremely rare.

There were people who were strangely loved by animals, and this was the spirit version of that.

I was not especially evil, and I had far too much mana.

The Seventh Sense probably had an influence too.

I also had the blessing of spirits, but mine was a businesslike thing that felt like, “It is in exchange for payment.”

Apparently, my contract terms were different from the elves’.

Annoyingly enough, it seemed I could not use spirit magic on my own.

Spirits were unexpectedly calculating too.

There was no particular reason for being loved by spirits, so one could not intentionally become that way.

People like that were usually humans with beautiful hearts.

When one’s heart became sullied, one could no longer see spirits.

However, spirits never left a human they had once loved.

There was also a theory that the ancestors of elves were spirits who did not want to leave the humans to whom they had given blessings, remained in the human world, and received bodies of flesh.

It seemed even the elves themselves no longer knew the truth.

Because of that, elves had originally received the protective power of Fals, but when the age without Fals began, they took in magic crystals, which were forbidden objects passed down among elves.

Through those items once created by an elven sage, many of them were artificially transformed into high elves.

Apparently, they looked no different from ordinary elves, but thanks to that, they avoided being killed by the Empire.

Those who did not become high elves also had their lifespans extended abnormally compared to ordinary elves, but like the high elves, they lost the power to leave descendants.

Those who did not become high elves should already have reached the end of their lifespans and lived out their natural lives.

Not all elves used magic crystals.

The remaining ones barely survived in the great forest while borrowing the power of spirits.

That was the elven village.

Now, its location was completely unknown.

The people of the village called those who had dabbled in forbidden power “the defiled” and loathed them.

The Empire captured high elves, and through the sacrifices of many high elves, succeeded in extracting magic crystals.

Every individual the Empire recognized as a high elf disappeared through those experiments.

There were only three magic crystals in total.

One of them was consumed in a mass-production experiment.

In order to find high elves, the Empire hunted elves thoroughly.

Fortunately, the Empire did not discover that magic crystals could also be taken from ordinary elves.

The elves other than the captured high elves were sold to nobles as pets.

Their magic was sealed by slave marks, and the elves had no power to resist.

During an experiment in a dungeon inside the Empire, they caused an intense stampede and brought about tremendous damage, so from then on, the magic crystals and the mass-produced mana-gathering stones made from them were left in a prohibited removal section of the treasury.

Until the tragedy of House Palmia.

After having their bodies and hearts trampled upon for so long, and being unable to return to their villages, what those unsaved people thought after becoming free was probably that they wanted to meet “Fals.”

It seemed that was all there was to it.

The emotional anchor of their souls as a race descended from spirits was Fal’s mother, who was in the Spirit Village.

Fal was also Fals, but the one they desperately longed to meet was Rain, who had been called Alpha.

Ah, damn.

Then there was no helping it.

I would take them to the Spirit Forest.

When I went next time, I had intended for it to mainly be related to the Royal Capital’s princesses, though.