A Question for the Ancestral Tree God

After a night of heavy drinking, Naelle had woken up in Jain's room. The sudden, shocking confession made Flora completely lose her composure. "Really? You mean it?" In her astonishment, she grabbed Naelle by the shoulders and shook her with all her might. The commotion drew every elf in the tavern over to them.

"Flora, u-um, I'm getting dizzy. Let go."

"It has to be a misunderstanding, right? Tell me exactly what happened and under what circumstances!"

"But..."

"Hurry!"

Pressed by Flora's near-demanding insistence, Naelle began to stammer out the events of that day.

"So, um, we were lying on the same bed and..."

"The same bed?"

"We were holding hands and..."

"Holding hands?!"

"And for some reason, the clothes I had been wearing were neatly washed and folded, and I was wearing Jain's white shirt..."

"Her boyfriend's shirt?!!"

Flora let out a string of screams. She wasn't the only one. The elves who had gathered around them all wore expressions of pure shock. Flora slammed her glass down on the table.

"Then that bastard did it, didn't he!"

Was he insane? He puts his hands on her and then has the nerve to get angry? Flora was genuinely dumbfounded. Murderous rage boiled inside her.

But Naelle continued to stammer. "N-no, I don't really know... I drank way too much, so I think I threw up. I was that drunk. Maybe he only changed my outer clothes because they got dirty from the vomiting."

Flora listened to Naelle's words with a grave expression. Everyone else did the same. Naelle kept going.

"Anyway, at the time I was just flustered and ran out of the room. But a few days later, I realized something. The, um, proof of my virginity was gone."

"Oh my god..."

"But I had no memory of doing anything like that. So I thought maybe it disappeared from training, or a monster got me, or something. I didn't think much of it..."

Only then did Flora understand what Naelle had been afraid of. That was why she hadn't been able to deny it properly that day.

"What if there really was some kind of accident back then?"

"What do you mean, what if! Go grab him by the collar and make him take responsibility! It's that guy's fault!"

"Exactly!"

"How dare he do that to our Naelle!"

"We should cut that bastard's dick off!"

Flora's statement was met with furious voices from behind. They were the enraged cries of Elvenheim's residents, who usually adored Naelle like an idol. One grandmother who treated Naelle like her own granddaughter took off her glasses and blew her nose with a loud honk.

But Naelle pressed her lips together and shook her head firmly. "But even if that did happen... I'm the one who kept feeding him drinks until he reached that state. If he had been sober, he wouldn't have done it. He might not even remember. So it's my fault."

Flora's head throbbed. "Do you like him that much?"

"Yeah. He's a good friend."

"Then why did you shoot an arrow at him?"

"An arrow?"

"You shot an arrow to stop him when you got angry at the hero, right?"

"That was because Bong-pal is a friend too. If I killed a friend over some misunderstanding, I'd regret it terribly later. So I just wanted to cool his head and stop him."

"What if he got hurt?"

"Jain is strong. There's no way my arrows could hurt him."

Flora sighed and asked in a scolding tone, "Then didn't you ever think you might be hated for it?"

"Hated?"

"That man might think you like the hero more than him."

"Really? Did I make a mistake? Then... will he hate me now?"

"Of course."

"But we're all friends..."

Naelle had lost her parents at a young age by elf standards and had lived with everyone in Elvenheim like family. She had never once experienced romantic feelings. That was why she seemed so clumsy and immature in so many ways.

Naelle clutched her glass tightly with her small hands and sniffled. The sight was so adorable that Flora smiled despite the situation. She felt the urge to tease her a little more.

"Then let me ask—if the hero and the dark mage both fell into the water, who would you save?"

"If they fell in the water? Um..."

After a brief moment of thought, Naelle reached her conclusion easily. "Jain. I owe him."

"Then if I and the dark mage fell into the water, who would you save?"

"That would still be Jain."

"Wow, that was even faster than before. So you like the hero more than me, and the dark mage even more than the hero?"

"H-huh?"

"Aah, I don't have any friends besides you, Naelle. If I fell in the water, I'd just flail around and drown with a glub glub."

"Ah, no! Then I'd save Flora."

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When Naelle panicked and grabbed Flora's hand while saying that, Flora smiled with satisfaction.

"I'm just joking. I'm a good swimmer, so you can go ahead and save that man."

Naelle withdrew her hand, embarrassed. She took another swig of the honey liquor and said, "Anyway, that's why I've been drinking all the time."

She set the glass down and stared at the table with a sorrowful expression. The oak grain stood out clearly.

"If it really was because of me... if I did that... I have no reason left to keep living."

Whenever she drank and retraced the incident, those words always rose to the surface at the end. The things Jain had said and the expression on his face kept flashing through her mind. Because of her mistake, she had made a precious friend wear that look. Just thinking about it made her chest ache so badly that her tear ducts opened on their own, and bead-like tears fell plop by plop onto the oak table.

Flora watched her and let out a long sigh. It seemed her only friend was experiencing love for the first time. She herself didn't seem to realize it yet.

After some thought, Flora took something out of the pendant she always wore.

"Then take this."

"Huh?"

With bead-like tears clinging to her long lashes, Naelle sniffled as she accepted the talisman. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Eh, this is...?"

It was the Revirginization Talisman, the prize given to the winner of the Revirginization Ritual. Whoever carried it could climb all the way up Literhorn, the sacred mountain of the elves, reach the ancient shrine at its peak, and meet the Ancestral Tree God. The bearer of the talisman was permitted to ask the god one question about anything and receive an answer.

"Take this and ask the Ancestral God. Ask what really happened on the night you defeated Almesia. Ask whether you are still a virgin."

Flora was certain. No matter how drunk she had been, Naelle was not the kind of person to casually throw away her chastity or break a promise. There had to be some misunderstanding. That was why she had given her the talisman.

Naelle's eyes grew round as she hesitated. "But this is really valuable. Are you sure it's okay to give it to me?"

"It's something I earned because you put your bow away that time. I was planning to give it to you eventually, even if not right away."

"Thank you!"

"Don't mention it. I'm simply returning it to its rightful owner."

At Flora's words, Naelle broke into a bright smile as she accepted the talisman. It was a pure, clear smile that seemed capable of washing away the anger of the elves around them who had been cursing Jain.

Naelle immediately began preparing for her climb up Literhorn. The news that she was ascending the mountain spread like wildfire, and countless people gave her supplies while urging her to be careful. The volume of materials gathered was enormous. Her bag quickly swelled to several times the size of her small body.

"Well then! I'll be back!"

Carrying the mountain of a bag on her back, Naelle smiled brightly and waved goodbye to Flora and the others. Then she dashed off at once—toward the rugged, snow-covered peak of Literhorn.

The sacred mountain, Literhorn. Halfway up the forbidden peak where only elves were permitted to tread, two human men sat leaning back-to-back in silence. Though they faced opposite directions, their gazes were fixed on the same spot: a crevasse that gaped open like a demon's maw. That very crevasse had just swallowed an entire supply-laden dogsled.

"Want to smoke one?"

Both men were celebrated as the greatest mountaineers in the human world. Having conquered every mountain humans were allowed to climb, they had finally challenged the elves' sacred peak. If they could reach the ancient shrine as humans, they would seize unimaginable wealth and glory.

But that crevasse had devoured their dream along with the sled. Half their supplies were gone. What remained was not enough for both of them to summit and return.

Not for both of them.

"Smoke it sparingly. This might be the last cigarette of your life."

"Bullshit. That'll be you."

The two mountaineers were longtime rivals and friends. That was why they were thinking the exact same thing. If one sacrificed himself, the other could reach the summit and return. He could claim the honor of conquering Literhorn—an honor that belonged not just to the climber but to all humanity.

So they were preparing for one final draw. Whoever pulled the black lot would take a pack of cigarettes and walk alone into the blizzard.

"Alright, it's ready."

One man silently held out the lots. The other reached for one with a trembling, callus-covered hand.

That was when something came running toward them, kicking up a thick cloud of snow powder.

"Huh?"

It was Naelle. She was sprinting with a bag as large as a house on her back, clutching the Revirginization Talisman tightly, her eyes burning with determination. Even from her faint silhouette, they could tell she was an elf.

The mountaineers grimaced.

"Shit."

"We're fucked."

They were obvious intruders. If an elf caught them, she would have every right to shoot them dead on the spot. Yet the green-haired elf who approached them behaved in a completely unexpected way.

"Oh! Why are you two in a place like this?"

"Well, um..."

Before the man could finish, Naelle clapped her hands together. She had spotted the crevasse.

"Ah! You've had an accident! Right? You've been waiting for help?"

"Y-yes, O ancient one..."

The man spoke with the utmost respect. The mood seemed like it might end in imprisonment rather than immediate execution if things went well.

But the elf shattered their expectations once again. She smiled brightly, reached into her enormous bag, and handed them something.

"Please take this!"

It was supplies. High-quality ones, along with magical climbing tools crafted by elves. The two men stared at them in a daze. They now had even more and better provisions than what the crevasse had swallowed.

"O ancient one, why would you give us..."

"Humans are our friends now too! I don't like it when friends die. It's lucky we met here!"

She even puffed out her chest with a proud little huff. Her bright, innocent smile was so beautiful it was almost blinding. Perhaps it felt even more radiant because they had just tried to defile the sacred mountain with impure motives.

"Well then! Please return safely!"

After handing over the supplies, Naelle hoisted her bag again with a hearty grunt. Only then did the two men truly see her. Her hands and arms were covered in cuts and scratches from scaling the icy walls. Yet she ran onward with nothing but pure enthusiasm for the climb.

One of the men stared blankly at her receding figure and muttered, "I'm ashamed."

"Yeah. We should repent. There was a reason only elves are allowed to climb this mountain."

They burst into hearty laughter. The man holding the lots walked over to the crevasse.

"You were thinking the same thing I was, right?"

"Yeah. When we were kids, we both just climbed because we loved mountains."

He tossed the lots into the crevasse. The paper fluttered down slowly, like a funeral rite for the fallen sled dog, before disappearing into the depths.

The man turned around. "Let's descend together. Some mountains are more beautiful precisely because they remain untouched."

"I agree. Better to survive together—even if it's ugly—than die for honor."

The two mountaineers began their descent with arms around each other's shoulders. Their conversation turned to one topic.

"That elf who looked like a goddess—what do you think she was climbing this mountain for?"

"It must be something incredibly pure and innocent. Something important to the history of the world."

Meanwhile, Naelle was scaling the final ice wall leading to the ancient shrine. Squeezing out every ounce of strength to reach for the next handhold, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

The word echoed across the entire sacred mountain of the elves. She felt like she needed to shout just to keep going. Snowballs cascaded down and buried her, but she yelled again.

She kept shouting to drive Jain's words out of her head. It felt like the shouts gave her strength. That was the only thought in Naelle's mind.

Thanks to that spirit, she finally grabbed the last handhold on the ice wall and pulled herself over the top.

"Ah..."

Standing on the wide cliff, Naelle felt her heart swell. Before her stood the pure white shrine, rising majestically atop the blue ice sheet in all its architectural splendor. The joy of successfully reaching the summit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of Literhorn filled her chest to bursting.

"Huh?"

At that exact moment, a blue butterfly-shaped spirit flew toward her. She had heard about them. They said that reaching the peak of Literhorn would allow a snow spirit that played there to dwell within you.

"Do you want to stay with me?"

Naelle cupped both hands to receive the spirit. It fluttered its wings—a sign of agreement. With this spirit, she would be able to infuse her arrows with the power of ice and snow from now on.

Naelle smiled brightly and placed the spirit on top of her head. Then she walked into the ancient shrine.

When she set the Revirginization Talisman on the neat hexagonal altar, the divine tree behind it shimmered with spiritual energy. Soon that energy coalesced into the form of a beautiful elf. It was unmistakably the Ancestral Tree God, a deity formed from the collected memories the elves had left in the World Tree.

Naelle clutched the Revirginization Talisman tightly, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted. The question had been decided from the start.