Clear Condition: Kill the Dark Elves
"Can that wretched form truly be Barkan?"
"Has it been ten years already, Ivelin? Ten years is scarcely any time at all for us elves."
"You dare call yourself an elf looking like that?!"
I knew it would come to this.
On the way back to the village, we inevitably ran into the search party led by Ivelin.
A search party charged with defending the village from outside threats. Dark elves, rumored to have lost all reason and turned savage. When those two forces met, a scene was only natural.
What I hadn't quite expected was just how violently Ivelin would react at the sight of us.
"Don't even think of setting foot in the sacred sanctuary of the World Tree with that filthy body!"
"Calm yourself and hear me out for a moment."
"I have nothing to hear from a dark elf twisted into something so grotesque. Breath of the World Tree—awaken once more at my fingertips!"
Ivelin shot a glance our way—at me and Sileia, specifically—and began to chant. The moment his magic took hold, a fierce wind surged up all around us. Even the mere brush of that gale against my ears felt as if it would tear them apart.
So this is what an elf's magic looks like at full power!
In the blink of an eye, a whirlwind of mana had formed around the bow Ivelin had drawn. I barely had time to marvel at its force before Barkan stepped out in front of us, planting a shield the size of his own body between us and the threat.
"Well now. First time we've fought like this since we came of age. Let's settle it here today!"
"Silence! Don't you dare mimic my friend with that rotten tongue! Every word that leaves your mouth is a grotesque insult to me."
Now I see how this is playing out.
Ivelin had been the one who stressed the danger of dark elves more than anyone. He'd even told me that if I ever left the forest, survival had to come first. Clearly he believed the dark elves had kidnapped me and Sileia. Vanishing without a word, only to be found surrounded by dark elves deep in the woods—it was an easy mistake to make. Especially when he seemed to hold both of us so dear.
If I just step forward and clear up the misunderstanding, that should be enough.
I was about to move when Nairak cut in front of me.
"Dad, I'll help too!"
"Hold on, Nairak—it's dangerous. Stay back."
In the middle of the tense standoff between the two elves, Nairak, who had been watching from behind, suddenly charged in. Spotting his son, Barkan hurriedly lowered his shield and went to him.
Ivelin's hands are shaking.
Perhaps it was the devoted fatherhood on display from a dark elf he had believed to be a monster. Ivelin still couldn't release the bowstring, murmuring under his breath almost to himself.
"…Is it really you, Barkan?"
"What, you can't recognize me just because my skin changed color? Your eyes must've gone bad in the meantime."
That was when Sileia, who had been hanging back and reading the room, finally spoke up. Unlike her usual self—who could barely get a word out in front of Ivelin—she called out with more confidence than I had ever heard from her.
"Even if they became dark elves, the elves inside them haven't changed! Uncle, Belis, Nairak—they're all still the elves we know!"
"…"
"…Probably."
Trailing off at the end like that… looks like she might be regretting it a little?
Getting swept up in the moment, saying something, then regretting it once she saw the atmosphere—it wasn't the first or second time that had happened. Fortunately, the situation seemed to be resolving itself without me needing to step in at all. Ivelin slowly lowered the bow he had been so reluctant to fire. Approaching us carefully, he spoke.
"I'm sorry. My eyes were blind, and I nearly committed a grave sin. Dying a thousand times wouldn't be enough to atone for it."
"A man can make mistakes. It happens."
Barkan clapped him roughly on the back as he spoke.
Even Ivelin can't handle that old man's hands easily.
Every time Barkan patted his back, Ivelin's body rocked forward and back. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had no choice but to yield before that overwhelming strength. The taut tension among us eased on its own, and I explained everything we had been through to Ivelin and the search party under his command.
"To put it simply—we've all been dancing in the Elder's palm this whole time."
"So that's how it is. I simply followed the Elder's will without question. The dark elves' corruption, the crisis of the World Tree… all of it was a lie?"
Ivelin's expression darkened more than I had ever seen it. It was hard to imagine this was the same person who always kept up that prickly, high-handed attitude.
Of all the elves I've met, Ivelin seemed to revere the Elder the most.
His hollow look made all the more sense to me now.
"All right—time we got moving!"
Barkan bellowed in my place, his voice booming where mine could not.
I actually tried shouting first, but nobody heard me.
There was a time my voice could shake an entire karaoke room. Now, no matter how hard I yelled, it came out as little more than a squeak. Moments like this made me bitterly resent this body that had turned into an elementary-school girl.
Counting the elves who gathered at Barkan's call, I put us at roughly twenty-five. Combining the original dark elf group with Ivelin's search party gave us about the size of an army platoon. Walking the forest with them, we soon came within sight of the village entrance. Since Ivelin himself had been the one managing the main gate, getting into the village was almost absurdly easy.
"What is that? Are those dark elves?"
"Why is Barkan—who left the village—standing there…?"
"What on earth is going on?!"
"And with Lord Ivelin, no less."
Naturally, the murmuring around us grew louder by the second. Even a large gathering of elves was rare in this quiet village—and now familiar faces had returned as dark elves, side by side with the search party. For an elven village, this was the kind of major event that might happen once a generation, if that.
This time, I need to take the lead.
When Barkan and Ivelin had been fighting, I'd just stood there watching until it was over. It wasn't that I had some main-character complex or princess syndrome—but as the de facto leader of this group, I needed to show something.
"Everyone, listen!"
Every elf nearby turned toward my voice. I didn't even need to raise it this time. Their attention was already fixed on us. I chose my words carefully, then continued.
"Do you see the dark elves behind me? We've gathered to defeat the Eld—"
I never finished the sentence. The moment the word "Elder" left my mouth, a wave of jeers crashed over me. If Barkan hadn't been standing solidly at my back, I was sure the elves would have rushed me on the spot.
Was the Elder's place among the elves even more absolute than I had thought?
I've never felt pressure like this. My hands are clenched so tight they're shaking up to my chin.
On the rest floors, whenever I stood in front of people, they had always looked at me favorably. Opening my mouth under gazes this thick with hostility was almost more than I could take. Even a pitcher dragged into the interview zone after a cold-game loss wouldn't feel quite like this. Tension burned in my throat like fire.
Rune's here too!
Among the crowd, Rune's small face came into view. She said nothing—just looked at me. Having spent so much time with her, I understood what that look meant.
She's trusting me right now.
Playing with Sileia. Standing out in Rune's magic lessons. Working hard through Ivelin's training. Everything I had shown so far was the basis for it. Yes—Rune believed in me.
Our eyes met, and only then did the tension ease. I took the small smile she offered me as fuel. Hopping up onto my tiptoes for a scrap of confidence, I opened my mouth once more.
"The Elder is a fraud who's been deceiving all of us! Outside the World Tree's blessing isn't corrupted by demonic energy at all—dark elves are living there just fine!"
"And how exactly are we supposed to believe that?!"
The rebuttal came at once. I didn't need to answer it myself.
"The proof is me. I came back perfectly fine, didn't I?"
Barkan, who had been silently watching my back, spoke those few short words. Having brought the dark elves into the village, the justification was already mine. Their very existence proved the Elder had been wrong.
Just as I expected, the surroundings plunged into uncontrollable chaos. Half-doubting a human like me, yet staring at actual dark elves and sliding into cognitive dissonance. Using the uproar as cover, I held a final strategy meeting with the elves who had followed me.
"So now we head for the Elder's house, right?"
"If you've drawn the sword, you might as well cut the radish."
"But do not take the Elder lightly. He has always produced solutions no one could have imagined."
A small mercy, perhaps—we didn't need to go looking for the Elder's house ourselves. The densely packed elves began to part left and right, a path slowly opening, and through it the Elder strolled into view with perfect composure.
"The sun is still high in the sky. What could possibly be so urgent that you raise such a clamor?"
He didn't become Elder for nothing.
A single cutting remark, and the entire crowd fell silent in an instant. Having successfully drawn every eye, he cleared his throat briefly.
"Very well. I'm sure you have many questions for me. If I told you that all of this turmoil was an arrangement for the World Tree's well-being—would you believe me?"
What is this old man even saying?
He had neglected the World Tree until it looked ready to topple over. And now he claimed the reason he had drained the elves' life force was for the World Tree's sake?
"That's ridiculous. There's no way!"
"Whether my words are empty or not—you may judge with those two eyes of yours."
The Elder answered me with a thin smile. A wooden staff had already appeared in his hand. He raised it toward the sky and began to chant.
Wait—I have to stop that magic, no matter what!
A chilling sensation racing down my spine screamed at me. If I didn't interrupt that spell right now, everyone would be in danger. I hurriedly adjusted my grip on my staff and poured every ounce of power into my magic—
"Regrettably, you are a step too late. The art is already complete."
The Elder's magic began to spread outward with the distant World Tree as its origin.
Ugh—my head feels like it's splitting open.
A wave of dizziness slammed into me and I lost my balance, collapsing. I ended up sprawled across Barkan, who had been guarding my back, which at least spared me any real bruises—but that wasn't what mattered.
"What is this…?"
Roughly half the elves surrounding us had simply dropped to the ground. Why only half of them, eyes unfocused and fallen? It wasn't some finger-snap from a movie.
Still reeling, unable to grasp the situation properly—the status window that had been lingering at the edge of my consciousness suddenly filled my vision.
"What now?"
Clear Condition: ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
The clear condition that had been buried under noise all this time. That noise began to peel away, little by little.
Kill the Dark Elves.
"…Huh?"
I couldn't help but stare in shock at the clear condition that had been revealed so suddenly.