Normalization of the Elf Kingdom
The dragon's appearance had been sudden and staggering enough on its own.
But Estelle's entrance was even more astonishing still — so much so that the elves, mid-flight, froze where they stood, feet rooted to the ground, and could do nothing but crane their necks upward to stare at her.
"—First of all, I imagine you've all had quite a shock."
Having seized the crowd's attention with that spectacular entrance, Estelle leisurely surveyed the countless gazes fixed upon her, then slowly began to speak.
"A dragon that shattered millennia of peace with its sudden intrusion. The fact that said dragon is none other than the infamous Tenebrix Nox. And finally… why such a terrifying being would be carrying an elven princess upon its back."
"The answer is remarkably simple."
"It is because this Tenebrix Nox and the Great Forest have entered into a pact of friendship!!!"
"A pact?! What do you mean? How?"
"Tenebrix Nox… friendly…?"
"Impossible… That dragon must have brainwashed the princess just to toy with us in the most wretched way!"
At the claim that Tenebrix Nox had behaved in any manner that could be called "friendly," the elves murmured among themselves, exchanging looks of utter disbelief.
After all, the words "Tenebrix Nox" — the dragon said to leave eternal black flame in her wake wherever she passed — and "friendly" simply did not belong in the same sentence.
"Yes. I expected you would find it hard to believe."
"But I ask you to trust me! That Tenebrix Nox stands with the elves, from this day forward and for all eternity!"
"And that she has formed a pact with me, Celebrian Estelle!"
Yet Estelle, as though she had anticipated every reaction, pressed her claim without the slightest falter.
"Tene, your part is extremely important from this moment on. You can handle it, can't you?"
"Yes — leave it to me…!"
Estelle gave the top of Tene's head a light pat and whispered the instruction. Tene clenched her fists in determination and answered.
"Ahem…! The reason I, Tenebrix Nox, formed a pact with the princess of your kind is simple."
"After my defeat in the Thousand-Year War, I spent thousands of years nursing the bitter humiliation of that first true loss, and I pondered."
"I, Tenebrix Nox — eternal darkness, death to all mortals, the immortal dragon whom even the gods cannot stop!"
"Am I weak? No. Were those who led me to defeat stronger than I? No!"
"Then why did I lose?! After that long deliberation, I reached a conclusion."
"I sought only destruction and scorned this world — and so I stood alone."
"And yet I was defeated by the likes of you, creatures no better than insignificant vermin. Why? Precisely because I was alone!"
"When those creations — dust, when taken one by one — gathered to face me and at last dealt a mortal wound to my dragon heart, I was clearly stronger than any of them… and still I fell."
"Thus I came to understand how one might reach a still higher plane. And as a result, I have decided, for the first time, to attempt something called communication."
"And as it happens, in this elf — your leader — I sensed a nature not unlike that of your ancestors, who once led countless elves and trained their bows upon me."
"Therefore, this time, not as an enemy but as an equal — the better to become a more perfect being — I have entered into a blood pact with this elf… Celebrian Estelle."
"So hear me!!! I, Tenebrix Nox, shall treat Celebrian Estelle, with whom I have shared a blood pact, and the elves she leads, with peace — until the moment that pact is broken!!"
"Such is the oath of blood! Who among you would dare cast doubt upon my word?!!!"
"Well done. Leave the rest to me."
"…Ahem!"
"You all heard her! That eternal darkness, Tenebrix Nox, has now become my — our — steadfast ally!"
"Why has Tenebrix Nox allied with us? Because the elves are great!"
"And here, in this very place, I, Celebrian Estelle, have shown you beyond all doubt just how great the elves are — just how magnificent a people we are!"
"Who am I?! Celebrian Estelle — daughter of the great World Tree, and your leader!!"
"Follow me! And I shall show you a still higher plane!!!"
Having brought Tene's speech to a suitably grand close, Estelle took up the megaphone once more and cried out with magnificent authority.
Even after Estelle finished her address, only a heavy, ringing silence hung among the elves who surrounded her and Tene, staring up at them.
And then, a moment later—
"Long live Celebrian Estelle!!!"
"True daughter of the World Tree!!!"
"The Third Princess has formed a pact with a dragon!!!"
"Long live Tenebrix Nox!!! Long live the Third Princess!!!!"
As if the earlier quiet had never existed, the plaza erupted with a roar that seemed fit to pierce the heavens — the voices of elves singing the praises of Tene and Estelle.
"Whoa… it's like a concert venue…"
"Hmph. Went over rather well."
Listening to the cheers pouring down upon her, Estelle smiled with open satisfaction and spread her hands, waving to the elves below.
Celebrian Estelle, royal of the elves and sole heir to the throne.
Entered into a blood pact with Tenebrix Nox — principal adversary of the Thousand-Year War — and achieved the unprecedented feat of establishing friendly relations between dragon and the elven nation.
Three days had passed since the blood-pact incident between Estelle and Tenebrix Nox.
Estelle had managed, one way or another, to bring the Council of Elders over to her side — but to fully seize the hearts of the elves, a people born to detachment and free of burning ambition, and to strengthen the royal authority enough to become a true leader, she had drawn Tene into the plan.
The spectacle of a pact with a dragon had shaken even the elves. And the fact that the Black Dragon herself — that proud creature who treated mortals (from a dragon's perspective, elves and humans were much the same sort of mortal) like insects — had acknowledged their leader and requested a relationship of equals was an extraordinary thing indeed.
For a people already inclined to consider themselves superior to every other race, the knowledge that their leader had been recognized by the strongest living being on earth was an event that far exceeded a lethal overdose of national pride.
After that day, the elves' support for the royal house — a house they had never given much thought to before (until now, royal blood had been regarded as little more than "something precious," without any real sense of loyalty or allegiance) — shot through the roof.
Having firmly secured leadership over the elven kingdom, Estelle returned to the palace and immediately plunged into a long conference with Freya, declaring that there was a great deal of work ahead.
And now, three days later—
Crunch—
"Mmm… you know, this really is fascinating."
"Right? The flavor itself is a lot like apple, but the juice — it's rich and soft, almost like a white peach."
"And it's delicious!"
"Yeah…"
While Estelle and Freya remained shut away in a temporary office conducting their marathon meetings, the rest of the party — more or less left to their own devices — had spread a picnic mat in a quiet corner of the elven capital and were enjoying a packed lunch.
Aside from Freya and Estelle, none of them would have been much help in those discussions anyway. (Strictly speaking, Felix could have sat in, but he found that sort of atmosphere unpleasant and bothersome, and had quietly excused himself.)
"It's good, sure… but most elves eat nothing but this for their entire lives, right? A few days of it and you'd get sick of it — and they do this forever? I could never."
"And elves live three thousand years as a baseline, so that's three thousand years of eating only this."
Having spent their time in the Elf Kingdom eating the local staple three meals a day, the three of them muttered in horror at the discovery that even their lunch boxes held the exact same menu.
The fruit they were eating — called Frumt — was the staple food of the elves.
So long as they remained within the Great Forest, elves could live on Frumt alone without the slightest difficulty, and so no other culinary culture had ever developed.
The taste was that of a high-sugar apple and a peach blended in just the right proportions — a genuinely excellent fruit. But to Rosaria and the others, the idea of living on nothing else was unthinkable.
Humans, with an average lifespan of around sixty, might just manage. Elves, though, lived anywhere from a thousand to three thousand years as a matter of course.
"Ugh… now I get why Salle buried her face in the plate when she visited our estate last time. I could never do it."
Some lived a comfortable five thousand years. The thought of eating nothing but this through all that endless time made it perfectly clear to Rosaria why Salle went wild for human food.
"Still, it's a nice place to live. Kind of… healing, you know?"
"Right? The mana here is so pure it feels like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket with the air conditioning on full blast."
"I sleep better than usual, too, and I wake up feeling more refreshed."
Even so, after several days living in the Elf Kingdom — a place where people lived as one with nature — they could feel for themselves that their bodies were lighter and more at ease than usual.
"Th-there… it's Lady Tenebrix Nox…!"
"There are humans with her…!"
"How incredible… wow…!"
"Tene, you're pretty popular."
As they lounged drowsily on their picnic mat at the outskirts, elves who spotted them from a distance began fussing as though they'd sighted a celebrity — then promptly fled the scene.
Some elves still feared Tene even after Estelle's declaration, but by and large the elves regarded her with goodwill.
They were a proud people to begin with, and now the greatest, most powerful dragon in the world — the most famous Tenebrix Nox of all — had acknowledged them. It was not so different from a national idol remembering a fan's name and mentioning it during a meet-and-greet.
"Heh. At last my true worth is showing. How satisfying."
"I am a dragon, you know? Hyung and Noona just don't get it — this is a perfectly ordinary reaction!"
Noticing the elves' response, Tene puffed out her chest, snorted with pride, and muttered to herself.
"You're still just a kid, though."
"Tsk… I'll be an adult in two years, you know? No — more precisely, in fifteen months!"
"Adorable. Total baby. Absolute baby."
"Oh, for crying out loud… Noona, you're only two years — no, eighteen months older than me!"
In the eyes of her siblings, though, Tene was still nothing more than a cute little sister, and the two of them were thoroughly occupied with teasing her.
"Haha! She said baby! Baby!"
—Baby! Baby!
"Hey, did you hear that? Even this one called you a ba… wait, huh?"
Rosaria, laughing as she echoed Felix's teasing, started to respond to the voice coming from her right shoulder — then her face went rigid.
"…Huh?"
"Oppa…? That thing on your shoulder…!"
"Wh-what is this…?"
Rosaria turned her head to look at her right shoulder.
—Baby! Baby! Heehee!
There, leaning against her shoulder, was a tiny girl no larger than the palm of a hand, beaming up at Rosaria with a great big smile.