Chapter 27. Preparation (5)
Elves(Elf).
Before Akasha’s Great Seal, they had been the masters of the forests.
They worshiped the World Tree as their god, and the world knew them as a race blessed with beautiful appearances and hearts that cherished the forests.
In reality, however, Elves were nowhere near as docile as dreamers imagined.
They were the fairies of the forests and their guardians.
At the same time, they were virtually the overlords of those forests.
When it came to protecting their forests, they could become so warlike that they would throw away their lives without the slightest hesitation.
That was why Shane needed to reduce the Elves’ hostility before attempting to conquer the Great Forest.
Of course, he had already prepared a way to do so.
[Calm down. I did not come here to harm you.]
[……?!]
The Elf’s eyes widened at Shane’s voice, which rang directly inside her mind rather than coming from his mouth.
Naturally, Elves did not know how to speak human languages.
Before Akasha sealed them inside dungeons and Cradles, humans had been little more than a tiny, insect-like race.
There had been no reason whatsoever for Elves to learn human speech.
Naturally, the Elf who had been sold to House Alchin by the now-dead Count Salier could barely make sense of what was happening.
When did humans become this prosperous?
Why has the world changed so much?
How did an insect-like race that could not even wield Mana become the rulers of the world?
Trembling from humiliation, the Elf had tried to kill herself several times.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, every time she attempted suicide, her body refused to obey.
Whenever that happened, the accursed human who repeatedly subjected her to humiliation and degradation would laugh and say something she could not understand.
Naturally, it had been because of an Artifact nobles used to prevent valuable slaves from killing themselves.
Then, after enduring one humiliating day after another—
The man in the white mask appeared.
And he could use the language of the Elves.
[Wh-Who are you? I cannot sense the scent of my people from you. How can you use our Connect Road?]
Connect Road was the means by which Elves communicated.
Unlike humans, Elves conversed through a unique form of low-frequency Mana.
That was the language of the Elves.
But low-frequency Mana was not something one could reproduce merely by imitating it.
A special conduit of Mana was required.
A Leaf of the World Tree.
The leaf necklace Shane had taken from the Troll was precisely one of the Leaves of the World Tree that the Elves regarded as sacred.
[Who are you?!]
That was why the Elf could only ask the question in a trembling voice.
And the answer she received was arrogant.
[The one who will break the seal.]
[Wh-What?]
[The one who will bring freedom to the world, and the one who will become a friend to your people.]
[……!]
His eyes were unbearably arrogant, as though looking down upon the entire world.
The Elf, Ella Lu Orca, struggled to calm her trembling heart before finally asking,
[What do you want from me?]
[The freedom of your people.]
[What……?]
[Do you not desire liberation?]
[……I do.]
She could not bring herself to lie and say otherwise.
Even now, her people remained imprisoned within dungeons and Cradles, unable to escape the endlessly repeating cycle that bound them.
For reasons Orca herself did not understand, she had managed to escape the seal to a limited extent.
But before she could even investigate why, humans captured her and subjected her to days of humiliation.
Orca restrained her urgency and asked,
[What price must I pay for that freedom?]
She could ask because she had become convinced that the being before her had no intention of killing her.
[Your yearning for freedom. Offer that to me. That alone will suffice.]
[You want our entire race to become bound to you?!]
[No. I am telling you to use the strength born from that yearning for my sake. I will become your freedom.]
[I cannot trust you.]
Fear was one thing.
Conviction was another.
The convictions of Elves were unwavering.
Their delicate appearances sometimes led others to believe they would submit before the strong, but Elves were valiant warriors who had protected their forests even in the hellish ancient era.
They would never sell out their own people merely to protect themselves.
Not even if their own family members were murdered before their eyes.
That was why Shane had never expected to secure the cooperation of the Elf before him with a few words.
In that case—
He would simply have to let her experience it herself.
[You already know, do you not? Those of you trapped within the seal have had your time stopped. And even though you escaped the seal, you are no different. You know that.]
[…….]
Orca could not refute Shane’s words.
Everything he said was true.
The very time of her existence had been taken from her.
She could not grow.
She was an existence trapped in stagnation.
The blessing of life known as growth had been denied to her.
[Unless you escaped the seal through a new birth, time is not permitted to your kind. But that does not mean there is no way at all.]
Shane compressed the wavering darkness again and again as he gathered his Origin and Mana into both hands.
There was only a single rune.
Imitation.
The reason the corrupted Shane of his previous life had been able to reign as the First Legion Commander.
He recreated a single Mana pattern he had used so many times that he had grown sick of it, then passed it toward the Elf.
[Th-This is…….]
Orca tried to reject the Mana pattern she had never seen before in her life.
Yet her body accepted it naturally.
It was as instinctive as a child learning to crawl and eventually stand and walk on its own.
[Hup?!]
An irresistible presence of absolute authority emanated from the Mana pattern that had been absorbed into her.
The Mana pattern was qualitatively different from the power contained within Shane’s gaze.
And when it entered her—
Orca was overwhelmed by a sensation of liberation.
[Wh-What did you do to me……?]
[Liberation. Only briefly, but I lifted the seal that was binding you.]
There was no physical change.
But Orca was an Elf highly sensitive to spiritual energy.
She could feel an inexplicable freedom within her own soul.
It was a sensation reminiscent of the time before Akasha’s Great Seal.
[No…… No way…… A Dragon! Are you a Dragon?]
Mana capable of disregarding even Akasha’s Great Seal.
Only one kind of existence possessed such power.
Dragons, who had stood at the pinnacle of all races and served as the guardians of the world.
Demigods(Demigod).
Beings who had entered the realm of the half-divine.
[No. At present, I merely imitated it.]
[How is something like that possible?!]
[I merely showed you a possible future. Even what I did just now was only an incomplete imitation. Given time, the seal will bind you again.]
[…….]
Just as Shane said, Orca could feel the soul that had regained its freedom slowly becoming heavy again.
It felt as though chains were once more being wrapped around her soul.
Orca closed her eyes.
[I will follow you. But the choice must belong to my people.]
[That is enough.]
Because those of you who yearn for freedom will ultimately be unable to refuse.
A faint smile appeared behind Shane’s mask.
With that, the most important preparation for the Mezaia Great Forest was complete.
The incident at Liam Alchin’s villa did not become major news throughout the Allied Nations until the following day.
—
“Wow. This article is brutal.”
Sitting in the dining hall with the morning newspaper spread open before her, Delilah read the article with a grave expression.
[Exclusive! Another Noble Murdered in the Allied Nations. Was Demi-Human Slavery the Motive?]
[On April 27, Viscount Liam Alchin was discovered murdered at his villa on the southern outskirts of the Allied Nations.
The investigative authorities handling the case have stated that the horrific scene discovered last night appears to have been caused by the same individual responsible for the recent murder of Count Salier.
…….
Based on the methods and circumstances surrounding the deaths of both victims, this reporter has reached a conclusion similar to that of the investigative authorities.]
A noble had been murdered only yesterday.
Two nobles had already been killed in less than a month.
It was hardly an insignificant matter.
And for Delilah in particular, it struck even closer to home.
After all, Liam Alchin had reportedly been secretly keeping Demi-Human slaves before he was killed.
As evidence, a Transaction Ledger he had kept was discovered lying atop Liam Alchin’s corpse.
“Wh-What are you reading so s-seriously?”
The person who approached Delilah at the dining hall was Bernstein Auston, who had placed second in the Department of Command’s departmental exam.
“Huh? Oh. Look at this. Another noble got murdered.”
“Th-That’s disturbing.”
“Right? I guess I shouldn’t wander around at night anymore.”
“Th-This is the c-center of the Allied Nations. The chances of s-something this major happening here are l-low.”
“Ah, right. Good point.”
“M-More importantly, you’ve seemed b-busy lately.”
Delilah nodded at Auston’s question.
She had indeed spent the past two weeks following an extremely busy schedule.
“Do not even get me started. I was told to clear a dungeon under some ridiculous restriction. I thought I was going to die.”
“A r-restriction?”
Deciding this was the perfect opportunity, Delilah immediately launched into an explanation.
“See this? Your big sister here cleared a dungeon using nothing but this tiny amount of dirt. I thought my head was going to split open. I did improve a lot technically because of it, though.”
“H-Hmm…….”
Auston stared at the handful of soil Delilah held out.
Then he took a small monocle from inside his clothes and examined the soil more carefully.
The monocle was a Magic Tool that allowed Auston, who could not sense Mana, to see it.
“Th-This…… hasn’t Mana s-seeped into it?”
“Huh? Well, obviously. It’s the soil I’ve been using.”
“N-No. I do not mean it’s c-coated in Mana. I mean it looks like Mana has l-literally permeated the soil itself.”
“Huh?”
Only then did Delilah examine the soil in her hand more closely.
And just as Auston said—
She could faintly sense Mana coming from it.
“H-How did this happen?”
“H-Haha. Now you’re s-stuttering like me.”
“No, seriously. What is this?”
“H-Hasn’t it become easier to c-control this soil recently?”
“I did feel like I was getting a little more used to it……”
It was not particularly rare for Mana to permeate inorganic substances.
Magic Stones filled with enormous quantities of Mana were frequently discovered inside dungeons, and entire Magic Stone Mines existed.
Sometimes, Mana could even seep into an old object over many years, transforming the object itself into an Artifact.
But Delilah was shocked for one reason.
She had only been using this soil for two weeks.
If merely pouring Mana into an inorganic substance for such a short time was enough to make Mana permanently permeate it, Artifacts would be scattered everywhere throughout the world.
For Mana to naturally settle into an inorganic substance, an enormous amount of time was normally required.
“I th-think Shane wanted you to n-notice this.”
When Shane first imposed the restriction on her, Delilah had assumed it was simply a method for improving her Mana control.
And just as she expected, she had never controlled such a small quantity of soil this precisely before.
Her Mana control had improved day after day.
“No way……”
Even so, surely that could not be true.
How could someone who was not even a Subterranean understand the characteristics of a Subterranean better than she did?
In any case, it was hardly a bad development.
If anything, it was an extraordinary opportunity.
“Y-You could probably find m-more ways to use this, couldn’t you?”
“Hmm…….”
Delilah fell into thought at Auston’s words.
Soil permeated with Mana.
In that case……
“I could eat it.”
“Huh?”
“I can eat any mineral as long as it contains Mana.”
Delilah revealed the sharp teeth she normally preferred to hide as she spoke.
Auston nodded.
“But if th-this Mana originally came from you, w-would eating it actually increase your Mana?”
“If all I cared about was increasing the amount, it might be useless. But it would increase my understanding of my own Mana.”
Just as a person could not directly see their own internal organs, Mana worked similarly.
Understanding one’s own Mana normally required a great deal of time.
Yet Delilah could increase her understanding merely by consuming soil into which her own Mana had permeated!
It was a method ordinary humans would never have conceived of.
“Wow…… That’s incredible.”
Realizing just how useful her current training was, Delilah’s face brightened.
She had effectively discovered a way to grow without needing to consume expensive Magic Stones.
Naturally, she was delighted.
After Aneis joined the team, Delilah had briefly wondered whether remaining there was truly the right decision.
Now, she changed her mind completely.
“I’m sticking to this team like glue.”
“G-Good choice.”
—
Delilah was not the only one who felt that way.
Shane had told everyone to rest and manage their condition until it was time to leave for the Mezaia Great Forest, but Klein and Aneis both showed a strong desire to continue training.
They did not want to lose the realizations they had gained inside the dungeon Shane commanded.
Thanks to that, Delilah joined them as well, partly to earn money by clearing dungeons and partly to continue infusing Mana into her soil.
And inside the dungeons, Klein and Aneis constantly discussed swordsmanship.
“So what I mean is, Miss Aneis, your swordsmanship cannot necessarily be called bad. It only needs a very small change.”
“Right. But your swordsmanship is unconventional, and at the same time it relies too heavily on instinct. Because you instinctively target only the opponent’s vital points, it actually feels like you are killing the very unpredictability that makes it unconventional.”
“Ah, so that was why during yesterday’s spar……”
“Yeah. But the variation in the swordsmanship you used came from what kind of change in awareness……?”
While they continued training like that, the day promised to the Raviata Adventurer Party finally arrived.
The entire group gathered and headed toward the appointed meeting place, an upscale restaurant in the Kingdom of Hiel.
And then—
Their gazes naturally turned toward someone sitting in one corner.
Her appearance was too beautiful to describe with the word beautiful alone.
She was an Elf, Orca, a Demi-Human who seemed to radiate a faint halo even while sitting perfectly still.
[Human stares are as revolting as ever.]
[Endure it.]
[……Very well. For the sake of my people, I will.]
Using the hand missing her ring finger and little finger, Orca let her hair fall forward to conceal her face.
“H-Hey. How did you even bring that Elf here?”
Klein and Aneis wore expressions that showed they were wondering the same thing as Delilah.
“That is none of your concern.”
“What?”
“Do not pry too deeply.”
“……Damn you.”
“She is not a slave. I simply need her assistance with something.”
“What? What kind of assistance?”
“You will learn in time. Wait.”
“Urgh…….”
After a moment, Delilah’s expression relaxed.
She cautiously approached the Elf.
They were both Demi-Humans, after all.
An inexplicable sense of kinship began to rise within her, and she approached with an awkward but friendly smile.
“Uh, hello?”
“…….”
Naturally, Orca, who did not speak a human language, failed to understand Delilah.
She merely frowned and looked toward Shane.
[Do I truly have to associate with these things?]
[You cannot understand each other anyway. Ignore her.]
[I shall.]
“Hello? Excuse me? Hmm? Hey? Am I talking to myself here?”
And so—
Delilah’s first attempt at making a Demi-Human friend ended in failure.
