Great Forest (3)
I continued explaining things to this damned pointy-eared bastard.
That it had all happened long ago, at the very least. In other words, magically speaking, someone like him was nowhere near my level.
“It was far earlier than when His Majesty and Noah first met. The previous Olivia had already half-fused her soul with Noah’s.”
I finished the rest of the tale with a snicker, and a vein seemed to twitch ever so slightly at the Elf King’s temple.
Then our eyes met, and he nodded.
Trying to keep his composure? Compared to before, his patience had improved quite a bit.
“Well, that could be possible.”
“You accept it so easily.”
“I figured it could be. Who else but a shady mage like you would slyly portion out a soul and slyly covet a woman’s body?”
This damned pointy-ear? Was I going to have to make him understand all over again somehow?
Ah, I was getting a little pissed.
“Let me say this up front: I am also Olivia. Those words are rather unpleasant. Can’t you do something about that?”
I was the Taesa, after all. I’d shown him my identification to subtly remind him of my station, but the Elf King merely shrugged as if it were nothing.
“Well, isn’t life just like that?”
“Yes. You talk a good game.”
Should I just ignore him? Anger was rising in a different way from how it had with Gleisia. I was past caring. Dealing with him at all was the real hassle.
“It’s not as if you hate it, is it? In the end, if you look at it, this is all memories.”
“Yes. What wonderful memories. Though the person herself feels rather awful about them.”
“Think of it simply. Old comrades-in-arms.”
All the old comrades were dead. How could a guy like this ever count as my comrade? Dream on. As far as comrades went, all we’d ever done together was handle a few elven matters.
Still, I couldn’t simply declare that I hated it. Right now I had to play along with that attitude—before this mouth of his became a disaster aimed straight at the Empire.
“We’re not comrades, but for the moment I am a princess of the Empire and the Taesa. Since you’ve brought me to the capital of the Elf Nation, I believe I deserve at least that much consideration.”
“Anyway, we’ve spoken, so we’ll just spend a few days wandering the area and then leave.”
It wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the elves’ circumstances while I was here.
I could trust the Elf King, but the elves themselves might still be a problem.
“Hmm. Even if you didn’t come as a national representative, still—being the Taesa of the Empire in name—you’re just going to loaf about as a private person and leave?”
“Well, that’s our business.”
We had barged in uninvited, after all.
“Shariel is arriving soon. Don’t the two of you know each other?”
“Yes. I know her, but…”
We were merely classmates at Attelina, nothing more and nothing less.
I hadn’t particularly cared in the first place.
“I won’t tease you and will treat you as befits the Taesa, so stay. I’m an elf who hates awkwardness myself. Even if you keep your mouth shut, word will eventually reach the Emperor’s ears.”
“Ah. That’s true.”
Sooner or later it would reach the Emperor’s ears.
The Elf King had little contact with the Emperor, yet even so that bastard of an Emperor might stick his nose into the Great Forest using my affairs as a pretext.
That unpredictable human was the Emperor. Quietly sitting on the rumor of approaching war this time meant he had some scheme of his own.
So at a time like this I couldn’t hand the Empire any excuse to interfere in the Great Forest.
Strangely enough, that man grew sharp only when it involved me.
“Therefore we must preserve our dignity on this side as well. Don’t you agree?”
“Understood. Let’s do that.”
I agreed because I disliked being found out myself.
I had no idea what plots the Elf King might hatch in the process, but since he knew my strength he wouldn’t turn openly hostile.
“You’ll meet Shariel at the banquet tonight. I’ll have my guard elves prepare lodging for you. And you’ll get to see the World Tree as well.”
“Yes.”
Shariel was different from Ella, so there was no real reason to avoid her. At least I harbored no ill will toward her. She was sharper and more perceptive than her older sister.
Shariel returned to the Great Forest after a long absence.
She had been dragged along by the Hero Party, ended up training in Ashtar almost by accident, and shuttled back and forth to Attelina, enduring every kind of hardship. All she wanted now was a little rest.
Honestly, I’ve done more than enough.
She had truly worked hard. Her idiot of an older sister, the incompetent crown prince—no, Prince Aslan—all of them. She had poured everything into holding her place as an elf among those damned people, striving desperately not to look as useless as they were.
Especially after the Pector incident, she had worked even harder.
Just recalling that day… ugh.
The day Pector invaded. She had been caught up with that useless prince and nearly lost her life, only to be saved by Olivia Lapa Ashtar, the Saintess of the Empire. But unlike the other fools, Shariel herself was different.
She remembered that day with perfect clarity. One must never underestimate an elf’s latent potential. There was a reason elves possessed a sense of being the chosen people.
Shariel forced herself to recall every detail of that day.
The Saintess thrashing Pector, then thrashing the prince, the heir of a knightly house, and Shariel herself as well.
Gulp—merely remembering it made her body tremble.
She, a member of the royal line of the Elf Kingdom in name at least, had been beaten by that so-called Saintess.
Why she had been struck still felt unfair when she thought about it now, yet having witnessed that overwhelming power with her own eyes, she could never spread the story.
That instinctive terror still crushed her body.
If she ever spread it, that bizarre human would thrash her again. The mere thought made her skin crawl.
Forget it. I came back to rest, after all.
And yet, upon returning to the Elf Kingdom, she heard an utterly absurd piece of news.
Preparations for a banquet were in full swing, so she went straight to the Elf King to find out what was going on.
“Shariel, you’ve returned. And Ella?”
“That vulgar older sister of mine did not come.”
Watching a member of the noble elven bloodline rub herself against a single Hero and even offer up her virginity just to snag him was simply hopeless.
“Oh. The Taesa has come here, you say?”
“Indeed. The Taesa of the Empire.”
The Taesa of the Empire. In other words, the very Imperial Saintess she had been thinking of moments earlier.
A figure so favored by the Emperor that she was even called the Emperor’s woman. Some young ladies at Attelina went so far as to spit out conspiracy theories that the Emperor, smitten with the Saintess, had deliberately colluded with Ashtar to engineer the Lily incident and break off the engagement. She was the woman who had received the ancient Eastern title of Taesa—tutor to the Emperor—exactly as it had once been.
Why was the woman who had beaten her here of all places?
Rumor had it she had merely gone on a short vacation. Why in the world would she be in the Great Forest?
It made no sense.
Yes. It might not be her. Shariel might have misheard.
“If it’s the Taesa of the Empire, could it be the princess of Ashtar? The Saintess of the Empire?”
She checked just in case.
“Olivia Lapa Ashtar. Saintess of the Empire and Taesa. The woman who once stopped one of the Four Heavenly Kings and reclaimed Crad Castle during the Demon Realm expedition. One might call her a once-in-a-generation hero born from that rotten human nation.”
Of course the inside was mixed with that shady mage, so it was a bit different. Still, she had come as the Empire’s Taesa, so as Elf King he had to treat her well.
Especially if she was connected to Shariel, they might grow closer.
Even back in the days of that shady mage they had never become particularly close, so now might be the opportunity.
Even if that wench is unpleasant, the fact that she’s strong remains true.
Unpleasant, yet more than strong enough. Anyone who could use soul-fusion techniques was already highly skilled in that field as well.
Beyond her present strength, he was curious how she would change in the coming future. There was nothing wrong with staying on friendly terms.
“But why? Are you two well acquainted?”
“Huh? Yes. Ah, well, that is…”
“Why can’t you speak? The Taesa has come as an envoy of the Empire. The Emperor’s own tutor. In a certain sense, a figure higher than the Emperor himself has personally visited the Elf Nation. That you, Shariel, know such a person is a matter of importance.”
“Um… well, you see. I simply happened to be nearby when the Saintess fought Pector. We got mixed up somehow.”
She summarized it as simply as possible. It wasn’t a lie. They had seen each other before, but they had only been at the level of exchanging greetings, never close. There had been no reason to grow close, and with the prince and the nobles she had merely tried to stay moderately friendly as a foreign student.
“Hmm. I see. It would be good if you became closer to the Taesa. For the future of both elves and the Empire.”
“W-with that woman?”
“Yes. Why? Did something happen after all?”
“No, nothing.”
She absolutely could not say she had been beaten.
No matter how detestable that human was, the terror born of being thrashed like that would not fade easily.
She was the same person who had even beaten the prince’s fiancée. If she thrashed her own countrymen that thoroughly, and if word of that day ever spread…
Disaster could fall upon the elves. Even with the Elf King present, the Great Forest would surely be placed in danger.
For now, like it or not, she might have to treat her with courtesy.
After all, she herself was a candidate for World Tree Priestess of the Great Forest.
On the outskirts of the Great Forest, a single elf held a secret meeting with figures in robes.
“So Shariel has returned.”
Shariel had returned. That wench had finally come back.
She had expected the girl sent to Attelina to simply end as an imperial exchange student, yet the candidacy for World Tree Priestess of the Great Forest remained intact.
The World Tree Priestess—also called the Priestess of the World Tree.
It was the most glorious position among the elves, and in childhood this elf herself had been a candidate. Yet she had been pushed aside by Shariel, who possessed superior potential.
She had thought another chance might come someday, but if things stood like this, the story was different.
Those who called themselves apostles of a new god.
They claimed the World Tree had never belonged solely to the elves and intended to turn it into a vast circuit for birthing a new god who was not an elf.
It should have been rooted out long ago, yet their proposal was seductive.
A new world. Becoming the new World Tree Priestess.
To one who had been born destined to become the World Tree Priestess, the offer was irresistible. That was why she had allowed them into the Great Forest itself.
“It is time you made your decision. What will you do with the World Tree? Fortuitously, a guest has arrived from the Empire, so their vigilance will have grown lax.”
The foremost personage of the Empire was said to have come.
They would surely show her the World Tree, pride of the elves. The very fact that the Elf King had brought her into the capital was proof.
In other words, if the defenses around the World Tree loosened, they could strike at it.
This elf was growing excited at the thought of betraying her own kind.
Her body felt as if it were catching fire.
“The World Tree… fine. We’ll corrupt it. If I cannot have it, then it has no meaning.”
Before long her body was being eroded by dense demonic energy.
The most humiliating fate that could befall an elf—betraying her own people and the World Tree—unfolded within her flesh.
As her body gradually took on a pale brown hue, she at last became what was called a dark elf, a fallen elf.
Illustration of Pector with his helmet removed
