“Probably would’ve tossed her some flattering bullshit in place of a greeting, sure.”
Dine froze. And then she started trembling.
Menel…
“I don’t get you…”
“Ya, well, you’re so unused to women it actually makes me worried for you.”
There was a pretty big gap between Menel and me when it came to where we each stood in the world of chatting up women. It was probably on the same level as a Japanese person in my previous world compared to an Italian. Though that said, Menel could be pretty dense at times as well.
“With Ithil elves, once you’re able to recite a single love poem in front of a woman, that makes you an adult.”
“That’s why you Ithils are always called irresponsible!” Dine glared at Menel sharply with her violet eyes.
Menel shrugged casually. “Well, Remmirath folk are apparently a bunch of headstrong shrews.”
“Oh, you went there!”
Before I knew it, the argument had started up again. They both had tongues as sharp as swords, and as the verbal spar unfolded between them, the Elvish got faster and faster, and I could no longer pick the words out. When it came to these kinds of arguments, elves made heavy use of sarcasm and metaphor, which made it even harder to grasp.
But Dine kind of looked like she was having fun.
I suddenly thought back on the heavy expressions of the elves when we first arrived at the settlement. They’d lost many talented warriors and elementalists in the war-torn era of the Great Collapse and were cut off from civilization. Their forest was violated by curses and poisons, became isolated and diseased, and fell into decline. And two hundred years went by, during which not a single one of the brave elves who journeyed out in search of contact with the outside world ever returned…
Those years must have been so difficult that silly arguments like this went right out of everyone’s mind.
“You really are a !”
“And you’re a feckin’ .”
That one left her open-mouthed.
I wondered what those insults meant. If even the great Gus had no memory of learning them, I figured they had to be pretty bad.
After their argument had calmed down, I intervened and brought the conversation back on topic.
“So what was that about going somewhere?”
“The Lord of the Woods,” Menel said, clearly still in a bad mood. “The Lord of the Woods around here. I should be able to heal it a little.”
That was a good point. I had my hands full with healing yesterday, but I’d been thinking about discussing this with him when we got up. I figured Menel would be able to improve the situation in this forest a bit. However—
“We can’t possibly let you.” Dine’s response was curt. “No way.”
“For God’s sake…” Menel frowned, but Dine had her arms folded in a pose that indicated she wasn’t going to budge an inch.
The Lord of the Woods was the forest’s core, the being that was its greatest weak point. If something with power and malice came into contact with it, terrible damage could be done. We’d seen that just recently when Beast Woods had begun to be contaminated by that Cernunnos. Even if they were somewhat indebted to us, the elves who lived in this forest probably wouldn’t allow outsiders in so easily.
“Umm, but, Menel can be trusted. I swear it. If you need some kind of guarantee, you could take me hostage or…”
Dine shook her head, as if to say I’d gotten it all wrong. “It’s not that. We do trust you all.”
“Huh?”
“We trust you and we’re thankful to you. I don’t know how many people you must have saved just last night. If there’s something you seek, we want to do whatever we can to satisfy your request. If you ask us to provide you with military strength, we’ll give you warriors, and if you need to be shown the way, we’ll gladly guide you.”
“Then why?”
“If we could show you safely to the Lord of the Woods on your request, then there would be no problem.” Dine looked down. “The area around the Lord of the Woods is beast territory now. It’s no longer ours. We can’t guide you.”
“But that’s even more reason—”
“Even more reason for us to depend on you?” Dine tilted her head and smiled. “You saved our lives and gave us back hope. And you’re just about to head into battle. How could we possibly push another battle onto you, completely inconsiderate of your circumstances? ‘Oh, please, heroes, we’re in such trouble and we can’t handle it on our own, please drop everything you’re doing to help us, we beg you!’”
She shrugged. “I’m sorry, but no. As if we could make such a shameless request. This isn’t about asking others for help, it’s about clinging like a leech to people to whom we’re already indebted and placing further burden on them.”
Lost for a response, I unconsciously looked to Menel for help. Umm, what is
she… just… what?
With an incredibly complicated expression, Menel said simply, “See? Elf.”
I could only nod. They were incredibly noble and an incredible pain to deal with. I could understand what everyone had said about them.
This nature of theirs might have arisen from the way they lived such long lives in perpetual youth. As a result of hardly aging, there weren’t many children or elderly in the settlement who needed protecting. Most of them were physically young. That was what enabled them to make these choices. Humans who grow old in no time at all couldn’t hope to imitate them.
“That’s how it is, so thank you, but there’s no need for you to needlessly use your power to help us.”
As I was thinking about what I should do about this, Ghelreis lumbered over.
Because it was dawn right now, his hard expression, made sterner by the scar running down from his forehead, looked drowsy. His eyelids were still half-closed. “What is it?” he asked.
“Well, you see…” I explained the situation to him.
A deep expression spread across his face. “Truly, elves never change.”
“What do you think we should do?”
Ghelreis hummed and nodded. “Just do it, I say.”
Well said, I thought. It was clear that he was a veteran. “Alright, let’s just do it, then. Menel, can you tell where the Lord of the Woods is located?”
“It’s weak, but I can just about pick it up, sure.”
“Ghelreis, please gather Al and Reystov. Full gear.”
“Mm.”
“Once we’re all here, we’ll eat breakfast and go.”
Dine looked between us all, flustered. “W-Wait, what? Wait a minute. You’re talking as though you’re going on a stroll to walk off your breakfast. Where are you going?”
“Well, beast hunting.”
“B-But we don’t…”
“Who said we can’t help unless we’re asked? We’re sticking our noses in whether you like it or not,” Menel said lightly. “And more to the point”—he poked my arm—“there’s no way regular old beasts are going to wear us two down at this point.”
It really wasn’t much different from an after-meal stroll, and it would inconvenience me more to have to abandon them. I had sworn an oath to my god that as her hands, I would bring salvation to those in sorrow. In this world where gods existed, a very strong oath was a serious thing to make. It was even close to a geas, a type of vow from Irish mythology in my previous world. It was easy to imagine that breaking one intentionally wouldn’t bring about good results, and more importantly, if we came back here to find this settlement destroyed, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.