Written by the Same Hand
“Familiar ceiling.”
Or not? The grain of the wood was slightly different from the one in my usual room. I could tell right away because I always lay in bed before sleep, staring at the ceiling and imagining shapes in the patterns.
The furniture arrangement was subtly off too, and most tellingly, there was Silleia, dozing peacefully on the chair right beside me, her breathing soft and steady.
This must be Silleia’s room.
Actually, something like this happened back in the rest village too. Was it the time she fell asleep at her desk waiting for Yisul? I woke up to find myself in Yisul’s bed and freaked out.
This time, though, the situation was a bit different. I’d have to carry the exhausted Silleia—who’d fallen asleep waiting for me—over to the bed first.
Her hands were gripping mine tightly with both of hers. I gently pried them loose without waking her and stood up quietly.
Then, slipping my arms under her armpits, I tried to lift her lightly.
‘Oh, this is harder than I thought.’
Silleia didn’t budge an inch from the chair. Was it because I’d just woken up and my body hadn’t shaken off the sleep yet? Or was Silleia heavier than she looked?
Even if she was an elf, it’d be rude to think a girl was heavy. Suddenly, Yisul seemed amazing for carrying me from the chair to the bed without waking me.
I didn’t have that kind of strength, so I had no choice but to change plans.
Tap tap—
“Hey, wake up for a sec. You should sleep in the bed.”
“Nngh…?”
With no other option, I woke her up and guided her to the bed by the arm. Still half-asleep, she mumbled incoherently, lips twitching.
“Uuuu… don’t goooo, Seha… Bellis……”
“……”
I quietly took her hand again. Maybe the reassurance that she wasn’t alone calmed her—her breathing evened out peacefully.
‘Leaving the soundly sleeping Silleia for now, let’s recap what happened with the Elder.’
I’d been explaining things from outside the forest to the elf Elder when a sudden dizzy spell hit me. It was too intense to dismiss as mere fatigue, especially since the ring on my left ring finger had glowed brightly.
My collapse must’ve been due to the ring’s influence. I’d thought it was just a passive that boosted luck, but apparently it had an auto-activation feature too.
‘So, why did the ring suddenly activate?’
It happened while I was describing events outside the forest to the Elder. Talking about the wolves was fine, no issues.
But the moment I was about to mention the dark elves, the vertigo crashed in.
What was the problem? Was simply talking about dark elves really a situation that warranted the luck ring’s activation?
I’d played happily with Bellis and Nairak. It wasn’t like I’d just lazed around—I’d even gathered some info.
‘Wait, thinking about it… isn’t there something off?’
All the elves had insisted the world outside the forest was corrupted. But when I investigated, it was nothing like they described—no trace of monsters or evil sources. It felt more like a peaceful countryside.
The dark elves were the same. The elves here thought of them as either imaginary or feral, mindless versions of themselves. But Bellis and Nairak were just normal elves—indistinguishable. They even said leaving the forest freed them from some oppressive force.
All these contradictions pointed to one truth.
‘The Elder’s been lying on purpose to keep the elves from leaving?’
It perfectly explained everything so far. The elves couldn’t leave the World Tree’s blessing, so they relied entirely on the Elder for outside info.
He was the one who asked me to hunt the outside monsters too.
The ring activating in front of him made sense the same way—telling him the dark elves were fine would threaten me. From his perspective, where he needed to instill fear of the outside, me knowing the truth would be irritating.
The ring must’ve intervened with that dizzy spell to prevent it.
But this theory had one big flaw: why would the Elder do that? What reason did he have to imprison his own kind with lies?
I racked my brain, but nothing came up.
Then, a knock snapped me out of it.
Knock knock—
“Seha, you still asleep?”
Rune’s soft voice came from beyond the door. Had she come all the way here worried about me?
I was tired of brooding alone, and just hearing her voice was a relief.
“I just woke up.”
Oh right—Silleia was sleeping beside me. I’d answered a bit too loudly by accident. Anxious I might’ve woken her, I glanced over.
Thankfully, she slept on peacefully, snoring faintly, her face serene as if deaf to the world. But she must’ve tossed in her sleep—her pajama shirt had ridden up to her waist.
“Silleia’s sleeping, huh. Sorry for interrupting her nap. Shall we talk outside?”
Rune had slipped into the room and whispered to me. Before following her out, I paused and looked back at Silleia.
‘Sleeping with her belly exposed like that… she might catch a cold.’
I carefully pulled the blanket over her pale, exposed navel. Only then did her expression soften into true comfort.
This should be fine—she wouldn’t feel neglected if I left now.
Out in the hallway with Rune, she turned to me with a worried face.
“Seha, do you know how worried I was? When I heard you collapsed at the Elder’s place, I lost my mind.”
“I’m really sorry. Um, out of nowhere, but can I ask about some things I’ve been curious about?”
There was still so much I didn’t know about this village and the elves. Fragmented info floated in my head, but it wouldn’t connect.
Time to get that final piece from Rune.
“I had some questions for you too. Let’s move somewhere else first. The study would be best for this talk.”
Perfect—the study had those ancient books stacked up, great for digging into history.
Following her to the study, early morning sunlight greeted me.
‘Right, this study has an open sky view.’
It always had such a nice vibe, no matter when I came.
As I looked around, Rune fired the first question.
“What exactly happened out there?”
“Straight to the point: I met dark elves. Normal ones I could talk to.”
“So my hypothesis was right? Wait a sec.”
Unlike her usual calm, she looked urgent, dashing to the bookshelf. She grabbed a few books as if she knew their spots by heart and hurried back.
“These books cover when the World Tree first descended here. Reading them, I’ve always wondered: what’s the Elder’s reason for existing?”
“Reason for existing?”
“As you know, the Elder is special among us. Born differently from regular elves, brilliant from childhood. Naturally, we all follow his words.”
This matched what I knew. But where did her doubts start?
She continued right away.
“Even before I was born, our trials were resolved under the Elders’ lead. But this current Elder… he’s been strangely passive about this one.”
“This trial—you mean the older elves’ life forces draining rapidly?”
“How do you…? Never mind, that’s not the point. Whether our kin pray endlessly in worry or flee outside in panic, he just watches as a bystander.”
So the Elder’s goal wasn’t just leading the elves?
Rune only had suspicions—no hard proof. Her words didn’t resolve the nagging discrepancy in my gut.
Frustrated, I started skimming the ancient books she’d brought.
“This one’s from the 7th Elder’s time. The village’s mana was depleting, so they offered tribute to the World Tree and fixed it.”
“And this must be the next generation.”
“Yes, the 8th Elder. Trees died off en masse for no reason. He manipulated mana to uncover the cause.”
Time flew as we pored over the records; birdsong echoed from outside.
Already this late? Rune checked the clock, startled, and hurriedly packed up.
“Seha, I need to get to work. Sorry I couldn’t make breakfast—have Silleia guide you to the Elder’s. Finishing yesterday’s unfinished talk there seems best.”
Going back to the Elder now raised too many red flags. As I checked the scattered books on the desk, something odd caught my eye.
“Wait! Who wrote these books?”
Considering elves’ lifespans, these spanned thousands of years, yet the handwriting was suspiciously uniform.
As if backing my doubt, Rune answered.
“Who knows? The official records are all penned by the Elder of the time. I’m out of time—gotta go.”
Alone in the study after she left, I pondered quietly.
From the 1st Elder to the current 29th, every record was in the exact same handwriting.
It was too much to blame on imitating predecessors—down to quirks like lifting pen strokes at word ends or dotting periods the same way.
‘The Elder’s born differently from normal elves.’
What if all the Elders were the same person?
I couldn’t know his motives, but he was surely plotting something nefarious.
If my guesses were true, I couldn’t afford to dawdle.
I rushed back to Silleia’s room.
“Seha, Mom just said to go to the Elder’s with you…”
“Not now. Let’s get out—outside.”
“Outside? You wanna join the search team together?”
“No—outside the World Tree’s blessing!”
I pulled the token from Bellis out of my pocket and showed it to Silleia.