Common Sense for Elves Is Endurance (3)
“Yes, yes. This is a story from back when Miss Eve was still the queen, right?”
“……?”
Eve froze up stiffly, as if someone had hit the pause button after having the initiative stolen from her. Right. This was supposed to be a secret for now, wasn’t it? Well, it wasn’t some ultra-classified information that absolutely no one could know. More like high-level intel that only certain people were aware of.
I hadn’t set an exact number of years, so I wasn’t entirely sure, but there was definitely a setting that quite a bit of time had passed since Eve’s retirement—even by elf standards. After I messed around a bit in the labyrinth, Lemon and Apple had complained that a queen who couldn’t bring in money was useless, and that the Elven Forest had been a republic for the past four hundred years. So I guess it had been a little over four centuries since Eve stepped down from the throne.
By human standards, that was long enough for an entire kingdom to rise and fall. But for elves, it was only about one or two generations. The pieces of memory clicked together neatly in my head.
While I was organizing all that information internally, Eve straightened her posture, which had been thrown off by her panic. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and neatly clasped her hands in front of her waist. Just a change in posture, yet the aura and presence radiating from Eve shifted completely.
As expected. So this is what it feels like to be someone who wasn’t chosen as queen, but was born to be one. Even I, who hadn’t been able to picture a clear image, had scribbled down that setting—and now it stood before my eyes in such a perfect form. How thrilling this was.
My lips curled up into a grin without me realizing it. Eve, receiving that smile, stared at me with her sparkling green eyes.
Eyes of Truth. The World Tree’s legacy peered into my deepest core, digging through it and dragging everything out without leaving a single thing behind. The anxiety and helplessness of having my most private domain trampled by muddy feet… or perhaps it was reverence.
Eve, who had now generously revealed one of the few remaining miracles of the Divine Age, opened her mouth.
“Since when have you known?”
I should have handled this faster (X)
No matter how much of an elf I am, I don’t want anyone finding out I’m four digits old (O)
Cute if you think about it. Chuckling at her adorable inner thoughts, I rose from my seat as well. Then I slowly walked toward Eve.
With every step I took, tiny sprouts bloomed at my feet. It was the final flourish I’d squeezed out using the last of my divine power… and honestly, it looked pretty cool.
When I finally stopped right in front of her—close enough that my face was almost brushing against her queen-sized chest—I clasped my hands behind my back and looked up at her.
“From the very beginning. Would you believe me if I said that?”
“…….”
The sense of disparity I felt from Eve’s eyes grew even heavier, the pressure intensifying. This wasn’t some fragment of authority I’d barely salvaged from the labyrinth’s distorted spacetime. It was the genuine miracle of a true god that had remained fully intact on the surface.
When we’d briefly crossed paths before, it had sent a chill down my spine for a moment… but now it wasn’t that bad. If anything, it felt a little friendly. Maybe I’d grown stronger in the meantime. Or perhaps it was the power of the Goddess of Love being transmitted through the fully upgraded statue… or maybe it was the pull between those who carried the same divine authority.
Whatever the case, to Eve’s eyes, it probably looked like I was speaking the truth. Since Eve and her past were all settings I’d written myself, it was only natural that I’d known from the moment we first met… no, even before that.
“…It’s the truth. Just how exactly do you know? There are no perfect secrets in this world, and my past is no exception… but it’s not the kind of thing just anyone would know. Above all, I heard that you, Miss Yona, came from the same streets as Lemon and Apple?”
Are you an agent sent by some organization? (X)
Kyah! It must be fate! (O)
Even now, her thousand-year-old virgin behavior was remarkably consistent. Anyway, since she’d asked a question like that, I needed to show her something at least somewhat convincing.
The ash tree crown was something I’d only just obtained, so it probably lacked persuasive power. That left only one option. I hadn’t expected to show this to Eve first, though.
I reached my hand into the subspace of my bracelet. A strange resonant hum spread out, sending ripples through the air. I pushed my hand in up to the wrist, then pulled it back out—holding a soft, chewy, non-resistant, warm mini statue of the Goddess of Love.
Whoosh—!
Just by taking it out, the space Eve had been dominating transformed in an instant. The divine power of the Goddess of Love shoved its way in, pushing aside the World Tree’s strength. The statue, which had been emitting a gentle, mood-light-like divine energy, reacted violently upon encountering another god’s power. It was almost like it was throwing a tantrum, refusing to let me be taken away.
…Wait, no way? It couldn’t actually be sending more power into the holy relic for that reason, could it?
I desperately hid the cold sweat trickling down my back and smiled nonchalantly.
“It’s because I have a constitution that makes me loved by someone rather high up. It’s not exactly a revelation or anything, but I just end up learning all sorts of things.”
“Oh World Tree…”
The one who inherited the World Tree’s power is an apostle of another god… I cannot accept this (X)
Does this mean the 100-Year Chastity Grand Plan is ruined…? (O)
??? What the hell are you talking about, Eve? And what the hell is the 100-Year Chastity Grand Plan? It sounds ominous as fuck. Also, how can that short sentence carry so much meaning? They say even a broken clock is right twice a day… is this translator actually broken and it just happened to be correct earlier by coincidence?
I spent a moment internally denying reality. Then Eve closed her wide-open eyes and returned to her usual squint. The oppressive pressure that had been weighing on me vanished as well.
“Haa… I understand. The Goddess of Love must have had a plan for all this. Even when we elves could not forget the World Tree who has entered her eternal slumber, she continued to bestow her unchanging love upon us.”
If only it weren’t for the Goddess of Love’s favor… what a shame (X)
No matter how much of the World Tree’s power I inherited after a thousand years, I was anxious because I’m human… but if it’s a saint, everyone will accept it (O)
I still didn’t know the exact reason, but Eve had been drinking nothing but kimchi soup since earlier. It was fun to watch, but if I just kept observing like this, something big was going to happen.
She might have turned into a total man-sniffer after living as a virgin for the past thousand years… but even taking that into account, Eve’s reaction seemed a bit excessive. That left two possible explanations.
1. Eve is a dangerous pervert who gets excited by little boys.
2. There’s some meaning to the World Tree’s power that I don’t know about.
It can’t be the first one. It absolutely can’t. Right…? To shake off the anxiety slowly creeping up on me, I asked the most important question.
“So? Could you continue what you were saying earlier? About what the World Tree’s power means to elves.”
“Oh dear. I was so surprised that I went off on a tangent. Let me start again from right after the War of the Gods’ Fall…”
What followed from Eve was a story that was interesting if you found it interesting, and pitiful if you found it pitiful.
The World Tree was dead, but the first floor of the labyrinth still bore her traces perfectly. And on the other floors, traces and fragments of authority from other dead gods had begun to appear. The elves, who still hadn’t shaken off their sense of loss, came up with an idea.
What if someone who obtained the World Tree’s power appeared? And what if, together with Eve who had been born with that power, they ruled over the godless elf kingdom… the Elven Forest?
To the elves of that time, who desperately wanted to feel even a trace of the World Tree, it was an urgent task that had to be accomplished on the surface. Of course, no matter what they tried, they couldn’t summon the floor guardian of the first floor, so it all fizzled out.
“…Does that still matter now?”
At my question, Eve shook her head as if in resignation.
“It’s still important, but it’s no longer something that would make every elf go wild like it did back then. Except for me, that is.”
“Pardon?”
“Ruling the Elven Forest together with me essentially means marrying me and becoming king and queen.”
“I suppose so?”
“In other words, no matter how much of a woman I am, I cannot carelessly share my body with another man.”
“Ah…”
In my setting, Eve wasn’t a heroine. I’d thought she was, but she was actually a mid-boss who would blacken for some reason and die at the protagonist’s hands. Still, I’d made sure to include the virgin setting. Because I thought it would be fun…
To think that a setting I’d decided on for no other reason than “it’d be fun” would end up with this kind of backstory. I patted her shoulder with sympathy. Eve’s long ears burned bright red all the way to the tips as she stammered on.
“U-up to this point, it’s still okay. If the situation changes, I can just retract it later… But back then, I was young and full of vigor.”
“Huh? I’m starting to feel a little uneasy here.”
“You have good instincts. That’s because back then, I swore upon my name to the World Tree. I vowed that I would not become deeply involved with any man who did not possess her power.”
“Oh my god.”
The World Tree was dead, but her power and authority had not completely vanished. It had been a rather impulsive oath, but regardless, Eve was a natural-born queen created when the World Tree herself had borne fruit. If she broke an oath made in the name of a god, her own power would turn against her. And with authority as powerful as Eve’s, simply having her divine energy run wild would put her life in danger.
“Die, or live as a virgin forever. That was the fate given to me. The price of my foolishness. Or so I thought… until you, Miss Yona, turned the impossible into reality.”
Having said that much, Eve made an utterly pitiful expression and took half a step back.
“Miss Yona. I am a woman who cannot marry anyone but you. Perhaps I have been waiting all this time just to meet you.”
“What? What are you…”
“Originally I should have taken more time to get closer to you and properly explained the situation… but since it’s come to this, I’ll be a bit bolder.”
Then she knelt on one knee, removed one of the rings on her finger, and held it out with both hands.
“Will you marry me?”
Become my political sacrifice (X)
Yo! Just accept it already! (O)
I mulled over the dizzying translator output that only became clear at times like this, then smiled brightly.
“No thanks?”