The attack came without warning.
However, I had expected something like this, so I blocked Elfinire’s strike with my right hand, which I had transformed in advance.
Her fist stopped, Elfinire breathed heavily and shouted at me.
“Die! Die, human!”
“What did I do?”
“Y-You... You are asking because you truly do not know?!”
Yes.
I genuinely had no idea.
I blinked my wide, innocent eyes several times and tilted my head. Elfinire’s pale skin turned red before my eyes.
After confirming her reaction, I smiled.
“I will be going now. See you later.”
“Get lost! I never want to see you again, so get lost!”
I had no idea what she was saying.
It must have been some foreign language, because I could not understand a word.
Grinning broadly, I left Elspear behind and walked away from Elfinire’s house.
Elfinire continued shouting furiously after me.
***
As planned, I would not encounter Elfinire again today.
I had not intended to meet her just now either. I had merely visited once because I was curious whether everything was proceeding properly.
‘Tomorrow, I will follow her around all day again, then give her another period of freedom.’
If I continued driving Elfinire into an extreme situation like that, her shaken mind would become more likely to reveal things she normally would not say.
‘I did not want to do this.’
But what choice did I have?
There was no other method.
If she fled whenever she saw me, I merely had to exhaust her until she no longer had the strength to run.
‘Judging by her condition just now, this may end sooner than I expected.’
The day after tomorrow.
No, perhaps even tomorrow?
I had expected it to take at least a week, but she had already been pushed far closer to her limit than I anticipated.
“Which means I should rest today as well.”
I did feel guilty saying that after driving someone into such a state, but what else could I do?
I shrugged and took Cheori, who had been sleeping, out of my pocket.
“I have not been paying much attention to you lately, have I?”
“Kkyung, kkyung.”
He cried as though telling me it was fine.
Cheori was sucking eagerly on a yellow stone the size of a fist.
“...Are you saying you only need food?”
“Kkyung.”
What an obvious question.
After looking at me with an expression that seemed to say precisely that, he resumed sucking on the yellow stone—the Mana Crystal—as though it were the most delicious thing in the world.
I sat down on a nearby bench and muttered seriously as I watched Cheori eat it.
“...Does a Mana Crystal taste good?”
“Kkyung?”
“Why do you eat that?”
“Kkyung, kkyung, kkyung.”
Cheori twisted his body from side to side as he tried to explain something.
I could understand almost everything else he communicated, but not this.
Based on my best guess...
“You gain strength when you eat it?”
“...Kkyung.”
It seemed I was more or less correct.
Cheori nodded with a somewhat uncertain expression, and I chuckled.
“Very well. Eat as much as you like.”
“Kkyung, kkyung.”
At my words, he turned away and resumed eating the Mana Crystal.
At some point, my pocket had become both Cheori’s home and a storage compartment for Mana Stones.
‘It is fortunate that the pocket of my coat is deep.’
Had it been shallow, Mana Stones would have been rolling across the ground by now.
I closed the pocket and stared blankly up at the sky.
The sky was almost unbearably peaceful and clear.
***
As expected, the elves of Elsid treated me kindly.
Wherever I went, they greeted me warmly and gave me food and various other items.
‘I have no idea how they learned my name.’
It felt strange when elves I had never met approached me while calling my name.
In any case, every elf was unfailingly kind.
After spending such a peaceful day in Elsid—
“...What exactly are you trying to do?”
“I am going to kill you.”
At sunset, I was abruptly abducted and taken into the forest.
I stared at Elfinire, whose bloodshot eyes were fixed on me as she breathed heavily.
It was true that I had pushed her to her limit.
That much was undeniable.
However—
‘This is far beyond anything I expected.’
I had never imagined this.
Elfinire looked completely deranged, like a rabid dog.
As though she did not even need an answer, she continued repeating the same words.
“I will kill you... I will kill you no matter what.”
“......”
“Even if I cannot kill you, I will kill you. I will drive you out, even if I have to kill you.”
Hmm.
Perhaps I had gone too far.
I hurriedly looked around.
Where was Elspear?
Where had that bastard gone?
As I searched, I spotted a pale-green-haired elf frantically waving his hands in the distance and looked at him pleadingly.
‘Good luck!’
He raised his thumb toward me and disappeared.
Hey.
Do not encourage me. Help me.
Come down here and stop her.
They said there was no one in the world you could trust, and they were right.
I let out a long sigh, slowly rose to my feet, and looked at Elfinire.
“Why do I have to fight you?”
“Humans must die. There is no reason.”
“Because the five humans who came ten years ago killed the wardens?”
“Shut up!”
BOOM!
The green Mana surrounding Elfinire erupted and expanded in an instant.
Startled by the raging torrent of Mana, Cheori poked his head out of my pocket.
“It is all right.”
I lightly patted his head and stared at Elfinire.
She bent her knees and took a stance, preparing to charge at me.
Mana gathered within her heavily muscled legs.
Once she had accumulated enough, she straightened her bent knees.
And then—
“HRAAAH!”
She closed the distance in an instant and drove her fist toward me.
CRRRAAACK!
It was a powerful iron fist, one whose pressure alone swept across the surrounding area.
This should have knocked him unconscious.
She would quickly treat him and throw him outside the forest before anyone saw.
Thinking that, Elfinire tried to pull back her hand.
Or rather, she attempted to.
“How dangerous.”
Her fist had been caught by my monstrous right hand.
Black Dragon’s powerful right hand could easily lift a single person.
Holding Elfinire by the fist, I raised her into the air and swung my arm from side to side.
Elfinire flailed helplessly through the air.
Then I slammed her into the ground.
“GACK—!”
The earth split apart.
Her body bounced upward from the impact.
For a moment, her vision turned completely white from the tremendous shock.
She gritted her teeth and regained consciousness, but before she could correct her posture, something filled her vision.
“Ah...”
Black letters spelling—
Death—
“That is enough.”
Tap.
My fist stopped directly in front of her.
The black letters that had approached her eyes disappeared along with the calm voice that reached her ears.
Elfinire dropped helplessly, rolled across the ground, and looked up at me with her face covered in dirt.
“...Are you not going to finish me?”
“Why would I?”
Did she want the elves to brand me a traitor?
I shrugged, released Black Dragon, and sat down heavily in front of Elfinire.
“Now, are you willing to talk?”
“......”
“It appears that you are.”
She looked reluctant, but she no longer seemed inclined to flee.
Perhaps this method had worked a little too well.
Thinking about it that way made me feel rather guilty.
I sighed softly and stared directly into Elfinire’s eyes.
Her dark green eyes had sunk into shadow.
When she met my gaze, she flinched and lowered her head.
“I do not like speaking indirectly, so I will ask you plainly.”
“......”
“Why do you hate humans?”
Elfinire bit her lip hard at my question.
I could sense Cheori looking up at me from my pocket as though wondering why I had asked such a thing.
However—
Everything Elumia and Elspear had told me was merely conjecture, not the answer itself.
If I dared to judge, no one had ever spoken this directly with Elfinire.
They had all lived while vaguely assuming that this must be how she felt.
They treated the very word human as though it were taboo around her.
‘That is why Elfinire never asked anyone for help.’
Not even the other High Elves.
Not even Elspear.
She never asked anyone to help her.
She merely isolated herself, despairing and trembling in fear.
Perhaps my guess had been correct.
With her head bowed deeply, Elfinire muttered in a voice as quiet as an ant crawling across the ground.
“...Because humans killed my sisters and brothers.”
“Do not tell me... You saw it yourself?”
“......”
Nod.
She nodded silently, then slowly began to speak.
“It was a forest covered in twilight. My sisters and brothers were found torn to pieces.”
She had not wanted to believe it.
At first, she too had believed that monsters were responsible.
The humans had been too weak to kill the wardens.
And the wardens’ corpses had been mutilated too severely for it to seem like the work of humans.
However—
“Within the shadows of the forest... I saw human faces.”
She had sensed a presence somewhere nearby.
When the young Elfinire turned her head, she saw the faces of the five humans who had visited Elsid.
They hid within the shadows, watching the young Elfinire and smiling.
Even after all these years, Elfinire remembered that moment with perfect clarity.
Cold sweat covered her body as she trembled violently.
“They... watched me collapse in terror and lose consciousness. Then they disappeared. I survived only because the Chieftain arrived afterward.”
“Did you not tell the Chieftain?”
“Of course I did! Do you think I never tried?!”
She seized me by the collar and shouted.
However, the hands gripping my clothes were so weak that they seemed ready to collapse. Even in my current state, I could have easily pushed her away.
“But the Chieftain’s Blessing judged my words to be a lie!”
“......”
“I saw them clearly with my own eyes! But the Chieftain and Elspear only kept repeating that those humans were not the sort of people who would do such a thing!”
Had what she seen been an illusion?
No. It had been real.
But if the power Mother had granted declared it a lie, did that mean she was the one who was wrong?
Still only a child, Elfinire had made a decision amid the confusion.
She had made it to keep herself from breaking apart.
What she had seen could not have been wrong.
“That is why I hate humans. You will deceive Mother’s eyes with your mysterious lies and slaughter us all again!”
“......”
“Go on, human. Say it yourself. Say that you are not that kind of person and that I was mistaken!”
Elfinire glared at me with a face twisted by rage and desperation.
I understood why she hated humans.
After experiencing something like that, she must have despaired when even her own people refused to believe her.
Yet because they were her own kind, she could not blame them.
And because it was Mother’s power, she could not call it false.
She had no choice but to keep everything buried within herself, grit her teeth, and raise her spines like a hedgehog.
That was why I decided to answer her.
“Very well. I will tell you plainly. I am not that kind of person.”
“Ha! I knew—”
“But you were not mistaken either.”
“...What?”
Ever since Elfinire rescued me and I awoke in Elsid, there had been something I wondered about.
The question had remained with me ever since I heard the explanation about the Mutant.
“What exactly is Demonic Energy?”
“...I do not know the details either. I only know that Demonic Energy is corrupted Mana.”
“It is extremely dangerous, correct?”
“Of course. It kills Demonic Beasts that become consumed by it, and even if they survive, it corrupts and mutates them.”
“Monsters... In other words, Demonic Beasts are living creatures just like humans, correct?”
“Fundamentally, yes...”
“......”
“......”
Elfinire stared at me blankly.
I gave her a small nod.
“T-Then the ones who killed my sisters and brothers were not acting of their own will...”
“They were probably consumed by Demonic Energy.”
Being consumed by Demonic Energy.
Hearing it explained aloud made it sound simple, as though that were all there was to it.
However, after being directly exposed to Demonic Energy myself, I knew it was nothing so simple.
The moment Demonic Energy touched the skin, the flesh began to melt.
Being consumed by such an energy was no different from endlessly enduring the agony of one’s skin dissolving.
That raised a question.
Could a living creature consumed by Demonic Energy truly retain its sanity?
I doubted it.
At the very least, it would go mad.
‘Or Demonic Energy would seize control of its will.’
From what I had experienced firsthand, Demonic Energy was more than capable of doing so.
Therefore—
“What you saw was not a lie. What the Chieftain said was not wrong either.”
“I-I was not mistaken...?”
“Demonic Energy was simply blinding everyone’s eyes and deafening their ears.”
“Ah... Ahh...”
Drop. Drip.
Tears fell from Elfinire’s eyes.
The resentment that had built within her for ten years—
The chain of hatred that had needed someone to blame—
It shattered in a single moment.
I took a handkerchief from my pocket and held it out to the crying Elfinire.
Then I smiled in satisfaction as a system message appeared.
[Earn Recognition from Elfinire, Warden of the Forest]
[Achieved]
[Success]
[Moving to the next floor.]
I had completed the condition I expected to be difficult far more easily than anticipated.
Chuckling, I turned my head and shouted loudly.
“Elspear! Come out! We are more or less finished!”
“...Elspear?”
“He was watching from a distance. For the record, Elspear was also the one carrying me around yesterday.”
“T-That damned bastard!”
“How else could I possibly have moved that quickly?”
Even while crying, Elfinire shouted furiously upon learning that Elspear had helped me.
They truly were a close family.
Chuckling, I waited for Elspear’s answer.
I waited.
And waited.
But no answer came.
What came instead was—
“...Human. What is that?”
“...!”
A blood-soaked elf falling from the sky—
Alongside a severed right arm.