Grandpa Becomes an Elf (4)
"What do you all think the elves' situation is like right now?"
"What else could it be? Peaceful and fine, isn't it?"
"Indeed, indeed. All thanks to the ancestors who, under the World Tree's guidance, diligently cultivated this land we live on—and to everyone else who applied their wisdom and humanity to achieve this age of peace."
"Should we not always be grateful for the present?"
The five Finger Elders of the Council, gathered for their usual tea time, each offered an answer to the Elf Princess's sudden, out-of-the-blue question. A life of peace and stability in the Great Forest, free of war and conflict. Time more precious than anything else.
"No. That is not so."
But Estel shook her head at the elders' answers as they nodded along at one another.
"In my eyes, the elves are nothing more than bluebirds locked in a cage."
"...Haha. So the princess has reached that age already."
"The princess is still young. She knows nothing yet of the world's hardships."
Hearing the princess's harsh words, the Council thought of Estel's age. Not yet even a hundred years old—from an elf's perspective, she looked no more than five or six. Her words felt much like a child's tantrum.
"Hardships? Hardships, you say... Can you even put such a word in your mouths?"
"...What?"
"You should be careful with that remark, Princess."
But Estel merely curled her lips into a sneer and lightly mocked them.
"What hardships do you speak of? Sitting stuck in these narrow wooden houses, letting the years drift by—is that what you call hardship? Well, even the best-maintained tool will rust and grow mold if left in a corner. If that is hardship, then I suppose you've hit the nail right on the head."
"Hmph... Young as you may be, the princess herself should know well that there are things one should and should not say. What is this disgraceful display!"
"Did you just call it a disgraceful display?"
"...?!"
"Have any of you sitting here changed a single thing? You simply stand on the land your ancestors cultivated and let time pass however it will. That sight is so pathetic and lamentable it makes me sick."
What they had first dismissed as a child's petulance grew increasingly radical, and the Fifth Finger, who had been shouting in anger, flinched under Estel's gaze.
What is this...! Am I actually intimidated by a child not even a hundred years old? Impossible...!
Estel, who was no different from a little girl, was somehow glaring at him with a charisma so fierce he could hardly bring himself to speak carelessly.
"You insolent brat! Do you know where you are?! Princess or not, showing respect and deference to one's elders is only natural—!"
The Fifth Finger bellowed in reflexive outrage, still unable to believe he had been overpowered in presence by a child at least three thousand years his junior.
"That's the problem with kids these days. Still wet behind the ears, and they think they've lived the whole world."
"Exactly. The words of our ancestors have never been wrong, not once."
"Mm-hmm. Perhaps she needs a sharp lesson."
As the other Fingers chimed in one by one, invoking age, and slowly began to rise from their seats intending to lecture the foolish little princess—
"...How about we hear her out first?"
"What? Are you saying you're fine after hearing that nonsense?!"
The Fourth Finger, who until now had done nothing but tilt his head and murmur "Is that so?" and "Is that right?", asserted his own opinion for the first time.
"Is that not the claim of a childish girl, as you yourselves put it? Even so, as adults, it would be better for us to patiently hear the child's story through before deciding. Would it not?"
"...Ahem. That is true enough."
"Yes, flying into a rage over the words of a green child is rather strange, isn't it."
"Ahem... hrm..."
"And Princess—I would ask that you, too, temper your anger and reduce the overt criticism for now."
"...Hmph. Very well. My apologies."
This old man. I took him for an empty shell, but he has more backbone than I expected.
Estel, discovering the unexpected side of the Fourth Finger who had kept silent until now and then sorted the situation in an instant, marveled inwardly and offered her apology to those present.
"I may have expressed myself a bit too aggressively in places, but I believe what I say is true."
"The elves are exceptional. That much is certain."
"We have long lifespans, and each of us possesses considerable talent. But in the end, we continue our lives bound like frogs at the bottom of a well. Without progress, any being will eventually fall behind."
Speaking a little more calmly, Estel rustled about in her robes and drew something out.
"This is a map showing the distribution of human powers from roughly a thousand years ago. I worried what I would do if even this didn't exist, but it seems not every elf was completely uninterested in outside forces."
What she produced was a continental map from a thousand years past. Material she had found while rummaging through the archives just in case had now become excellent groundwork for this very moment.
"After the war with the demonkin ended and the common enemy disappeared, the five races scattered, according to the records."
"The beastkin returned to the barren wastelands, the dwarves to their homeland of iron and boiling magma underground, the merfolk to the peaceful seas—and we elves returned once more to the Great Forest."
"But the humans, with their common enemy gone, made enemies of one another and scattered blood freely across this continent."
"To unify a torn and divided continent, they drew bows and swung swords at each other, soaking the earth with the blood of countless people as they cried out for war."
"Living as the human race, they founded countless nations, drew border lines again and again, and left themselves in ruins—all of it remains faithfully on this map."
With Estel's words, her finger came to rest upon the thousand-year-old continental map. Unlike the demonkin, who had declined from war until they were pushed into the shadowed regions far from the empire, and the other races living in their respective territories, the landmasses recorded as human zones were all divided into different countries and regions, crisscrossed with partition lines. And beside them, the elves' habitat—the vast Great Forest—was drawn prominently, making the humans' territories look terribly cramped and messy by comparison.
"Foolish. Truly foolish. The moment their powerful common enemy vanished, they immediately split into factions and spilled each other's blood. As an elf, I find it utterly incomprehensible."
"Mm, mm. Quite so. Short-lived races are always given to foolish behavior, are they not?"
The Second Finger, who deeply agreed with Estel's remarks, shook his head as if pitying the humans' folly. Though they said nothing, the other elders thought much the same.
"But look at this."
"This is a map from roughly fifty-four years ago—the most recent by elven standards. Unfortunately, I could find nothing more current."
And Estel drew a second map from her robes.
"—Hmm?"
"This is...?"
"Something has changed, has it not?"
When Estel laid the new map right beside the thousand-year-old one, the elders could naturally compare the two, and their reactions immediately grew restless.
"Those who had been fighting and flipping back and forth have come together as one."
A thousand years ago, dozens of nations had clung to the continent. Now, only a single nation covered that vast empire.
The Obina Empire.
A new unified empire named after Obina I, who a thousand years ago had unified the continent through wars of conquest and become the first and only emperor of the human race.
"Those we once pitied as fools a mere thousand years ago have, before we knew it, risen to stand proudly as the dominant power of this continent."
"Can you believe it? A thousand years. A mere thousand years."
"To elves, a thousand years is merely the time when an elf's life truly begins in earnest. To them, it was time enough to unify this vast empire, develop it, and rise as the strongest force in this world."
"Hrm... The rate of growth is steep, to be sure, but what does that have to do with what the princess is trying to say?"
As the Council stirred lightly at Estel's words, the Fourth Finger calmly asked her again.
"You still haven't realized, even looking at this? The race that conquered the continent in a thousand years is humanity. Their lifespans are short compared to elves—and precisely because of that, they leave their will to their children and their children's children, multiplying with tenacious grit."
"Then a thousand years from now—how far do you think the humans will reach across this continent?"
"........"
"Is the princess saying that the humans will stretch their hands toward this Great Forest?"
"Exactly. They will, without fail—without fail—cast greedy eyes not only on their own territory but on the remaining lands of the other races as well."
Estel answered the Council's question without the slightest hesitation. She was certain. After all, she herself had been human.
"But even so—could mere humans so easily pierce the Great Forest under the World Tree's protection? This fortress of nature?"
"In the short term, no. But if we continue to pass the years without progress, the humans will inevitably surpass the elves."
"You insolent brat!! I've heard enough—what did you just say?! Are you claiming that humans are superior to elves?!"
"I cannot listen to this. This is nothing but a child's bluster. Are the things you just said even remotely acceptable!"
The Second Finger and Fifth Finger, listening to Estel's story, finally could not hold back. They rose from their seats and pointed fingers at her, roaring. To them, a princess not even a hundred years old—still green as grass—was dismissing the high pride they held as elves and as a race.
"But... the humans do seem rather formidable as well..."
"Look here—on the thousand-year-old map, the forests near the Great Forest blessed by the World Tree were drawn as mere woods. Now the humans have settled almost up to the border..."
However, the First Finger and Third Finger tempered Estel's remarks with caution and found themselves somewhat agreeing with her.
"And you still call yourselves elves who live in the World Tree's nest?! To be swayed so easily by a mere young princess's words! You are unworthy of the title of Council members!"
"But looking at the materials the princess has brought, the facts themselves are correct!"
"Then what do you propose we do about it?! Whether the humans invade or not, we who are superior need only crush them!"
"Hah, have you forgotten? The elves may be exceptional, but the one who drove a sword into the Demon King's chest during the Thousand-Year War was a human, was it not?"
"That was only because our ancestors opened the path for that human's sword with their arrows!"
"Even so, we cannot dismiss them entirely!"
The Council, now split into two opinions, grew noisy as the Fingers passionately argued that each was right.
Then—
"Enough! That is enough!"
As before, the Fourth Finger, who had kept silent, barked at those raising their voices and silenced them.
"...Then what does the princess intend to do? Because the humans are strong, shall we go under them?"
"No. That is not it."
And when he looked at her as if demanding a clear answer to this dispute, Estel lightly lifted the corners of her mouth and spoke.
"I already said it, did I not? Humans band tightly together to face external enemies—but the moment those external enemies vanish, they transform."
"Right now they are bound within the framework of a single empire and running with thorough discipline. But humans are creatures who live and die by desire."
"Money, honor, love—and similar intense cravings. What do most humans, who devote their entire lives to satisfying those, want?"
"Money. It is money."
"Currency, gold coins, bills of exchange, credit, real estate. Humans yearn for all of these. They are people who live and die by money."
"For a single gold coin they will stab the parents who bore them. For a scrap of bread they will abandon a newborn child by the roadside. That is humanity."
"In a way it is truly foolish—yet I judge that it is precisely because of that intense, primal emotion that humans have been able to advance as they have."
"And I intend to use this thing called money as a weapon."
Thud—
"...!"
"Ugh...!"
The moment she finished speaking, Estel spread her palm and slammed it down upon the map she had unfolded. Beneath her palm lay the vast Obina Empire.
How can such presence come from a little girl like this...!
Intense—yet restrained, and refined.
At first I thought her foolish, but before we knew it every one of us was hanging on the princess's every word. We really have rusted away in the storms of time...
With every sentence she spoke in a stable, unagitated tone that drew their ears, followed by that powerful performance, Estel had in an instant seized the hearts of every elder present.
How shameful. What kind of elder am I, what kind of Council is this? To be lectured by this young elf not even a hundred years old—I am truly ashamed...
The elders of the Council looked back upon themselves once more. They who had swaggered about for living long, who had spent thousands of years in leisure—had failed even to notice humanity's hands creeping toward the Great Forest. Yet this still-young princess, unlike them, was worrying over the elves' situation. Who was the elder and who the foolish child? They could not tell, and felt tremendous disappointment and shame toward themselves.
"What of you? Will you remain stagnant here even so? Or will you follow me and make this Great Forest so great that no one will dare look down upon it?"
Even so, the princess laid out her will clearly and extended her hand to these foolish ones who had grown arrogant merely from sitting on the Council—and it felt as though the World Tree itself were looking down upon them with devotion.
"...Princess. No—Third Princess. As you say, it seems we have grown quite rusty and moldy."
At last, as Estel lifted the hand she had placed on the floor and extended it toward the elders, the Fourth Finger spoke.
"If Your Highness would permit it, I wish to scrape off this caked rust and mold."
The princess is no mere childish girl. How lamentable that I looked upon the brilliance in those eyes with clouded vision.
His declaration was radical. A scene in which a great sage of the Council—who had lived longer than most of the royal family—used honorifics and knelt before a princess not yet a hundred years old, though she currently held royal authority, would have shocked other elves into falling over backward.
"Fourth Finger of the Council, El Grindel Abraham. I wish to polish away this rust and become a gleaming arrowhead upon the princess's bow."
I thought I had reached the end of old age—yet somehow this old man's heart is racing.
Kneeling, Abraham muttered as he felt his heart pounding harder than it had at any time in all his long years. He believed without a doubt that the Estel before his eyes could become a true leader of the elves.
"...First Finger of the Council, El Delis Erich Brigitte. I wish to offer my loyalty to Your Highness."
"Third Finger of the Council, El Grisha Northen Geas. I offer my loyalty to Your Highness."
"Second Finger of the Council, El Longis Grimoire. Likewise, I offer my loyalty."
"Fifth Finger of the Council, El Licht Gehenda. I wish to become Your Highness's strength."
As the Fourth Finger of the Council, Grindel Abraham, bowed his head, the other Fingers likewise knelt before Estel and left their oaths of loyalty.
"...At last those two eyes are looking at me."
Receiving the gazes of elders whose eyes, once dull and vacant when she first saw them, now shone with true brilliance—worthy of being called great sages without the slightest shortcoming—Estel crossed her arms and smiled with satisfaction. The gesture was thoroughly arrogant, yet not haughty.
And so, roughly eight days after her possession, Estel had completely seized the authority to command the elves.