The Land of the Elves - 05
Rayna Forest.
I remembered her.
She had always been a skilled archer, and she had never liked extreme or reckless choices. That was why I had never been able to understand her decision, or accept it.
Among the members of the Hero party, I had always believed Rayna was the one most like me.
She possessed a relentless drive to finish whatever she set out to do, no matter the cost. That unyielding will had felt familiar to me, and our personalities had overlapped in so many ways that I had considered her a friend.
In the end, it might have been nothing more than the closeness I alone had felt.
“Rayna.”
“You really are alive… and I never expected to see you here too, Lois.”
“I didn’t think you would remember.”
“……”
The surrounding elves had their bows drawn taut, fingers ready to release at any moment. From the way they looked, it was clear they were not seeing me, but someone else.
Rayna was watching me, but the other elves were staring at Sylphy behind me.
Their faces were unmistakably hostile, and the reason was obvious: Sylphy was a half-elf.
I had heard from Lois that half-elves were hated in Elvenheim, so I was not surprised. But seeing that open, visceral hatred in their eyes felt entirely different.
It was hatred born of something that could never be changed.
Still, I had no right to condemn them for it.
I had once banished Lois simply because he was a commoner.
I could not turn my own hatred and fury toward those who discriminated by race simply because I had cast out someone whose nature could not be altered.
“Bringing a half-elf along, what were you thinking?”
“What do you mean by thinking… Livia?”
“Lois, I’m sorry. I’ll explain.”
“……”
Lois stared at me for a moment.
Perhaps it would have been better if Lois had spoken.
That way the story could be told more clearly, misunderstandings cleared away, and the conversation might have ended on a slightly more peaceful note. But I felt this was something I had to do myself.
Lois’s half-lidded eyes carried an inexplicable calm.
I wished I could borrow even a fraction of that calm.
It was often said that when you love someone, you become like the person you love.
If that were true, I wanted at least a little of Lois’s composure.
“I understand. I’ll leave this to you.”
“Thank you. It seems I’m always making you owe me.”
I offered a small smile, then took a few steps forward. An elf other than Rayna spoke up.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Whoosh! An arrow whistled through the air. Without hesitation, I caught it in one hand.
“What?”
“……I didn’t come here to fight.”
I dropped the arrow and continued.
Sweat poured down my face, and the awareness that my body was failing under the God of Death’s curse was growing stronger by the second.
It had not been this bad only moments ago, yet suddenly everything had worsened, the pain seeping into my bones like poison. It was an utterly unpleasant sensation.
It felt as though my own flesh were racing toward death, and that only made it worse.
“Don’t joke! Bringing a half-elf and what kind of scheme is this!? Destroying our forest isn’t enough, Hero!”
“Rayna.”
“……”
I ignored the shouts around me and fixed my gaze on Rayna.
Her eyes did not avoid mine, yet her pupils trembled.
She had made her choice, steeled her resolve, but her face carried the weight of guilt for her actions. That was unmistakably Rayna, and I knew it was not some mask she wore.
“I thought you would be furious the moment you saw me, and I even prepared myself to calm down, but it didn’t feel right. No matter how hard I try, I’ll probably just be broken as a human.”
Lois had said.
I had no talent for hating people decisively.
That was true.
The woman named Olivia Reinhardt had forgotten how to feel deep anger even when someone wronged her. After everything was over, I would have to train to revive that first.
I had been unable to distinguish between crimes to forgive and crimes not to forgive, and I had simply forgiven them.
It was as if I had become a saint.
Even I thought it was absurd.
But perhaps it was simply a slightly more selfish heart.
In any case, the members of the Hero party had entered my circle of protection, and I was weak to those I had opened my heart to.
I had a habit of devoting myself to people I considered mine, to the point where I could recognize it myself.
That habit, combined with my twisted way of life, had led me to the conclusion that I felt no anger toward Rayna.
Yet inside me, complicated emotions swirled like a spider’s web, as if touching one single thread would unravel everything.
My heart burned hot, and I wanted to determine right now whether this feeling was anger or something else.
I still did not know the name of the emotion I was feeling.
“Rayna, I want to talk to you.”
“Empty words.”
“Why empty words? I simply want to speak with you.”
“You’re too strong.”
“Hmm.”
I pondered for a moment, then drew the sword at my waist and let it fall.
“What are you doing?”
Rayna looked startled, but I remained silent, drew the Holy Sword, and drove it into the ground.
Then I slowly walked toward the Rayna perched in the tree above.
“How is it? Now I have no weapon, I’ve lost an arm and an eye, and I’m dying from something that might be poison or a curse. Can you see the sweat? Can you see my arm shaking?”
In truth, my condition was far from good.
My body had deteriorated so rapidly that calling it half a corpse was no exaggeration.
“Now you have a mind to talk? I didn’t come here specifically to fight.”
“……”
Rayna trembled slightly. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and said.
“You are a monster even with your bare hands, Olivia.”
“……So, it’s that frightening.”
“……”
“I never imagined that when we traveled together, you would fear me so deeply. My stubbornness, my insistence, every action I took believing I had to be a proper hero… none of it was wrong. I saved countless lives.”
That was why I felt no regret.
Even if it had been the hero’s will that drove me, not my own, I had saved so many people with that power.
It could not have been a mistake.
Therefore, if I returned to the past, I would still save people, and I would even catch the Demon King in the ordinary way.
Because saving people could never be wrong.
“But to you, I appeared not as a hero but as a monster.”
“No!”
Rayna shouted without meaning to and touched her neck.
I realized with some surprise that she had developed the habit of touching her neck.
“No, that’s wrong… Ugh! Anyway, since you brought a half-elf and destroyed our forest, we have nothing to do with you!”
“I have something to say. I want to speak with you alone. …I can speak here, but it may not be good for you, Rayna.”
“……”
The elves’ hostility toward me stemmed from the fact that I had ‘destroyed the forest and brought a half-elf back.’
There was no deeper reason. They had probably not mentioned the hero assassination story.
If I spoke, it was likely they would only tell Titania.
If the entire elf race knew about the hero assassination, it would become a problem for all of them. To avoid trouble in the event of a crisis, it was better not to tell anyone.
Regardless of her personality or moral standing, the fact that she loved her country deeply was undoubtedly true.
So I bet on that.
As expected, Rayna’s expression changed rapidly.
“You could strangle my neck with your bare hands. The journey is over, and there is nothing left to discuss.”
“Why are you so afraid? I didn’t do anything.”
“……”
Had I truly become the object of such fear among my companions during our travels?
I had not realized it, yet I had still thought of them as friends.
But to them, I was the monster itself—someone they might seize any thread and point a sword of ‘justice’ at.
I would have to reflect on that, and I would have to correct it over my lifetime, but even so, their sins would not disappear.
“I want to meet Titania. I need the sap of the World Tree.”
“Empty talk! Empty talk! Empty talk!! The sap of the World Tree is an elf’s treasure that only a very few outstanding elves receive! Would you give such a thing to you!”
“Exactly! Not only did you destroy the forest, but you brought a half-elf, and you are the kind of person we have nothing to give you! Go back!”
“……That’s what it says, Rayna.”
“……”
“Shall I decide it here? Will I say everything with my own mouth and carry the confusion with me? Or will you speak with me alone? I am fine with either, but time is short, so decide quickly.”
“Empty talk… Why do I have to speak with you alone? As I said, even if you are bare-handed, you can kill me.”
“I won’t kill you. …Do I look like someone with such flexibility? If that were possible, I wouldn’t be in this state.”
“……”
Rayna’s expression grew even more pained.
She touched her neck again.
Her eyes were anxious and trembling, and I could not tell what she was looking at.
But eventually she braced her arm holding the bow.
In the end, it was that.
“Sylphy!”
“Yes!”
“Huh?”
I was startled.
It was because Lois had called Sylphy’s name loudly.
At the same moment, Sylphy loosed an arrow that pierced the branch where Rayna sat and passed through it. At the same time, Rayna fell from the tree.
Since I had been quite close to the tree while approaching her, Rayna landed almost directly in front of me.
At the same instant, Lois leaped forward and shouted.
“Spirit Barrier!”
Water swirled violently, forming a barrier that enclosed me, Rayna, Lois, and Sylphy like a prison of water.
This barrier, woven from the power of nature, grew stronger the richer the natural energy. The forest of Elvenheim, protected by the World Tree, was nature itself.
Moreover, the water-spirit barrier possessed resistance to physical attacks.
It would take time to deal with the elves who excelled at arrowwork.
“I cannot hold it long.”
“Haa, haa… My heart feels like it will burst.”
“Well done, Sylphy. You hit it exactly on time.”
“Please, no more of this… I’m not suited for combat.”
Sylphy’s face showed surprise at the sudden real combat, but his reflexes and accuracy had not fallen behind Rayna’s.
Lois, thinking the same, smiled and said.
“No, you have talent.”
“Ugh.”
“Thank you both.”
I expressed my gratitude, then turned my head.
The gaze still fixed on me while I sat on the ground trembled.
Anxiety.
Fear.
I did not know what to say to the eyes filled with every kind of emotion.
“Well then, Rayna. You no longer have a choice.”
“……”
Rayna frowned and touched her neck.
“Shall we talk? This conversation will decide it.”
“What?”
I sat in front of Rayna as if matching her and said.
“How you judge the actions you took… exactly, about the punishment.”