Dream's Unexpected Encounter – A Shock in the Elf Village
In the depths of his dream, the woman had finally stepped out of the realm of fantasy and into reality right before his eyes.
Lahan asked with a bewildered expression, “Um… who are you, miss?”
The chief, startled by the sight of his daughter sitting slumped on the floor, jumped to his feet in shock. He turned his gaze toward Lahan, answering in a flustered tone, “That’s my daughter.”
“…My daughter?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“……”
Lahan looked at the elf woman seated on the floor and thought, …This is crazy. The woman I saw in my dream turns out to be the chief’s own daughter.
Her face was flushed crimson, and she kept rolling her eyes side to side in embarrassment. She simply could not meet his gaze.
Only to him.
“Charlotte, what on earth happened? Is something wrong?”
Chief Alton approached his daughter, his voice filled with concern. The way he cared for her so tenderly showed just how much he cherished his child.
Charlotte, still seated on the floor, reached out to grab her father’s hand and stood up shakily. She replied in a trembling voice, “U-um… it’s just…”
“Why? Did something happen with these humans?”
That was impossible. This was the first time she had actually faced them directly in this place.
Naturally, the elder standing behind them shook his head.
“No, miss. You haven’t met these people before. According to Log, you were brought here immediately upon hearing the news.”
“Then this is strange. Charlotte, tell me quickly. What happened? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, it’s just…”
Even though her name was Charlotte, she seemed unable to gather her thoughts for some reason.
It seemed her ability from the dream had something to do with it. She had once shared a direct eye-contact-like connection with Lahan through the power of dreams.
Seeing Charlotte completely unable to speak, Lahan stood up and walked toward her, asking respectfully, “Have you seen me anywhere before?”
He addressed her in the most courteous manner possible. After all, she was the daughter of the elf chief, while he was nothing more than a stranger in this village.
Her answer came as she suddenly trembled all over, unable to respond. What was that? Did she feel ill?
Before Lahan could even think, Charlotte suddenly collapsed back onto the floor with a cry.
“Ugh!”
“C-Charlotte! Why are you doing this?! Are you hurt somewhere?!”
“Looking at how she keeps clutching her lower abdomen, something must be bothering her.”
The elder behind them spoke up, and the chief glanced at him before turning back to his daughter with worried eyes. He carefully supported her from the side so she wouldn’t fall again and asked, “Is that it? Then, please don’t speak. I’m sorry, but we’ll have to leave this place soon. My daughter’s condition doesn’t seem good. Let’s discuss the rest another time.”
“Understood.”
“……”
At that moment, Estella seemed oddly out of sorts.
Lahan felt a strange premonition and turned his head toward her. But what was this?
Estella was glaring at the Charlotte in front of them with an unusually fierce expression, as if she wanted to devour her with her eyes. Black aura was slowly leaking from behind her back.
Then their gazes met.
What was going on? Why was she so angry? This was the first time he had seen her like this.
Lahan had no idea what was happening. He could not understand why Estella was instinctively treating the elf girl Charlotte as her enemy, staring at her with pure animalistic hostility.
At this point, it felt as if Estella wasn’t even a person anymore.
Her back looked like a fierce black cat hissing angrily.
In the end, the meeting was cut short. They left the village hurriedly.
Lahan and Estella followed the elder’s guidance to an empty wooden house in the village. They loosened the rope binding their wrists, hoping it had relaxed the other’s guard.
Lahan rubbed his freed wrist and glanced at Estella, who was doing the same to hers.
“Estella… why were you staring at that elf woman so intensely earlier?”
“……”
Estella remained silent, merely staring back at Lahan with the same fierce expression.
“…Never mind. I asked something unnecessary. Sorry.”
Lahan looked at her and honestly felt a chill. He turned his head away without another word.
He didn’t know why, but a man’s instinct was telling him to stay quiet for now.
Lahan decided to obey that inner warning.
After some time, Estella, who had been quietly ignoring him, suddenly spoke from behind.
“…Lahan.”
“Huh? What is it?”
Lahan tensed slightly. He had never heard her speak like this before.
Charlotte, who had been staring at the floor, suddenly glanced at him and said bluntly, “If you cheat on me, I’ll kill you.”
“……”
Lahan simply nodded obediently in front of her, saying nothing.
…Because that statement sounded completely serious.
***
“Haah…”
The elf chief’s daughter, Charlotte, returned to her room. She wandered around the center of the room before stopping and letting out a deep sigh.
“What should I do… Ah, really! I’m such an idiot!”
Charlotte grabbed her own head.
She was still replaying every reaction she had shown when she first met Lahan.
She gently placed one hand on her belly and muttered to herself in a strange voice, “Earlier… something trembled here. Why?”
In the moment she had actually faced him for the first time, not just in a dream,
Charlotte had nearly committed a huge faux pas in front of her family, the elders, and the strange human woman and man.
A very embarrassing one.
“I’m going crazy. I almost lost consciousness just because I saw that man?”
Even as she spoke, her face flushed red again, and she fidgeted, looking utterly ashamed.
Charlotte quickly fanned her flushed face with her hand and walked over to her bed, collapsing onto it.
Seated on the bed, she covered her face with her hands, still embarrassed.
“I really am going crazy… What should I do? When I see him again, what kind of face should I make?”
Charlotte acted like an ordinary girl, endlessly replaying her mistakes and feeling endless shame.
Then she suddenly thought about Lahan’s actual appearance.
“…He looked quite handsome, even for a human.”
Honest-ly, aside from his hair and eye color, he seemed more attractive than any elf man in the village. No, he really did look that good.
“Good, the face passed… Yes. My future husband should at least be that handsome.”
Charlotte kept nodding to herself, lost in a fantasy where she imagined him as her actual lover and wife.
“Hee~ What about when we’re in bed? Would he ravish me like in the dream?”
Mid-sentence, her fair skin flushed with a shy pink. She quickly fanned her face again to cool the heat.
The next day at noon,
Charlotte realized something she had completely forgotten.
The man she had been fantasizing about for so long was standing next to a woman with black hair.
The memory of his betrayal forced itself back into her mind.
“Wait a minute… Who is that woman? And why is she glaring at me like that?”
She should be the one glaring, not the other way around.
There was Estella, whose gloomy aura was strong enough to make Charlotte feel uneasy.
“Ah, Miss Charlotte.”
Lahan, summoned by the chief, addressed her with respect. It would be difficult to speak first to the daughter of the elf chief who had caused trouble, especially since she looked young for an elf.
But that worry was unnecessary. Charlotte was actually quite young even among the elves.
“C-Charlotte’s fine.”
Charlotte spoke up.
“A-ah, then I may call you Charlotte?”
“M-mmm, call me whatever. But you… Who is that woman next to you?”
Instead of saying “the other person,” she directly called Lahan “you.” It was so casual it told Lahan something about her usual personality.
From yesterday onward, Lahan had kept glancing at Estella, who was acting unusually cold. He was about to answer her question when she spoke.
“She’s the woman I love.”
“……What?”
Estella’s gloomy atmosphere eased a little. But Charlotte, who heard the direct answer face-to-face, froze with a shocked expression.
“What did you say…?”
Lahan smiled faintly at her, as if confirming something. “The woman I love is my lover.”
“……”
Charlotte fell silent. Her mouth hung open in a daze.
She stared at Lahan and the woman beside him, who was secretly looking away so he wouldn’t notice, as if dying of shame.
Charlotte simply stood there frozen, her mind blank.