The Elf Village, Elcid
Romantic notions about elves were rampant even on Earth.
Even before monsters like orcs appeared in reality, elves were already famous as a species.
Since orcs existed exactly as imagined, surely elves did too, somewhere in the world, just as expected.
A lot of people thought that way.
And I had been one of them.
'Ignorance really is bliss.'
After a short but endless stretch of time,
I finally snapped out of my shock and stole a glance at Elpinire's body, packed solid with muscle.
At first, I'd thought she was just an unusually bizarre elf. But no.
"Look at that. A human."
"Oh my, a real human?"
The chatter buzzed around me.
Before I knew it, other elves had gathered to gawk.
Male or female, every single one was bulging with muscle.
Only then did I finally understand why elves were all muscle-bound.
'They probably couldn't avoid it even if they tried.'
How could they not build muscle eating meat all day?
Three square meals of meat. No grass whatsoever. Zero carbs.
With a diet like that, who could possibly gain fat?
'But can you even survive like that?'
I had no idea, but since they'd lived this long, it must be fine.
I smacked my lips faintly and shot a sidelong glance at Elpinire, who stood there with her arms crossed and a pouty scowl.
"......So why are you following me?"
Just moments ago, when we'd left the house,
she'd glared at me the second the door opened.
Since she'd even healed me, I'd tried to slip out quietly without protest, but she'd tailed me right away.
Thanks to her, I'd been stuck with this awkward companion for over ten minutes already.
Elpinire snorted loudly at my words and bellowed,
"You think I'd just let an outsider—a human—wander the village unsupervised? Even if you took down that mutated thing, I still don't trust you. Leaving me behind? Not a chance, human."
A perfectly elf-like reason.
She wouldn't leave me alone, so what could I do?
I let out a small sigh, resigned to dragging this uncomfortable duo along, when—
"Elpinire, that's enough."
"Gah?!"
A sudden hand slammed down hard on Elpinire's head.
She crumpled with a short yelp.
I froze, staring at her twitching on the ground.
"Sorry about that, human. She's got a severe distrust of outsiders—especially humans."
I turned with a creak in my neck.
There stood an elderly elf woman with a wrinkled face, covering her mouth as she chuckled leisurely.
My eyes trembled wildly as I took in her body. Her face was pure grandma, but...
Why was her physique even better than Elpinire's?
"I'm Elumia. Embarrassingly, I'm just one of Elcid's elders."
The elderly elf who introduced herself as an elder bowed slightly toward me.
"I heard you took down a mutated creature tainted by ma gi."
"Yes."
"We owe you our deepest thanks. If it had spread the ma gi to other beasts, it could've been disastrous."
She expressed her genuine gratitude in a sincere voice.
Then her gaze turned icy as it fixed on Elpinire, who was staggering back to her feet.
"Elpinire. Do you realize what you're doing to our benefactor?"
"But he's a human! You know what humans have done!"
"I do. But is this man one of those people?"
"......"
Elpinire clenched her fist tight.
Her knuckles whitened, trembling violently.
She ground her teeth, then erupted in a surge of verdant energy and vanished in a puff of dust.
"Oh dear, she's run off."
I had no clue where Elpinire had gone.
But Elumia did, apparently.
She shook her head, eyes fixed on some distant point.
"Well, now I suppose I'll have to show you around Elcid myself. May I have your name?"
"Ah. Han Mir."
"Please take good care of us while you're in Elcid, Mir."
Elumia smiled brightly and extended her right hand.
I stared at it intently.
"I hear humans greet like this. Am I wrong?"
"No, this works too."
I clasped her outstretched hand lightly.
Her palm felt rough, like gripping a rock.
With the greeting done, Elumia clasped her hands behind her back and turned.
"Anywhere you'd like to see?"
"Not really."
"Then I'll guide you as I see fit."
Elumia started walking ahead.
I glanced around the now-silent surroundings and hurried after her.
She smiled at me and spoke with evident delight.
"It's been ten years since an outsider last visited Elcid. No wonder everyone's excited."
"Ten years?"
"Yes. Ten years ago, humans lost in the Evergreen Forest found Mother and made their way here."
Elumia stopped and turned to gaze somewhere.
I followed her line of sight.
There, dominating the heart of Elcid village, stood a colossal tree asserting its presence.
"The sentinels went out and brought them here. There was a critically ill one, so they stayed until recovery."
Elves were children of the World Tree.
Thus, they couldn't stray far from it.
They favored places infused with its lingering aura and never left its side.
These forest-dwellers, when they encountered outsider humans...
"Elcid was buzzing back then."
The five humans soon grew close to the elves.
They stayed in the sentinels' homes until fully healed.
'......Hold on.'
Sentinels' homes?
Something felt off. I turned from the World Tree to Elumia.
She, who had been gazing at it, now looked down with a bitter expression.
"On the day those five humans departed, the sentinels left to see them off, abandoning a young elf who dreamed of becoming one herself. And the sentinels never returned."
"......"
She was looking at me now.
I met Elumia's green eyes steadily.
"To that young elf, the sentinels were family. But days passed with no word. Desperate, she left the village alone to find them."
"No way......"
"Yes. She found her family slaughtered. But no sign of the five humans."
The family had left to see off the humans.
Yet they were dead, and the humans' bodies were nowhere.
Many elves argued, based on the time spent with the humans and the traces on the corpses, that it wasn't their doing but some beast's.
But the child who lost her family clung to the belief it was humans.
She had no choice.
She was too young to endure without hating someone.
"That's why that child—Elpinire—can't trust humans. She's good at heart, so please don't hate her too much."
"......"
"And as the last remaining sentinel, she brought you here responsibly."
With that, her bitter look vanished as if it had never been, replaced by a bright smile as she pointed at the World Tree.
"Since fate brought you to Elcid, would you like to see the World Tree?"
"......Pardon? Can we even go there?"
"Of course. The chief's residence is inside the World Tree. I, as an elder, stay right in front."
Didn't elves avoid harming plants?
But living inside a tree—their "Mother" no less?
Wasn't that harming it?
Elumia burst out laughing as if I'd told the funniest joke.
"Elves don't eat only meat."
"Really?"
"Naturally. We just prefer not to harm plants, but if needed, we eat them. That child's just special."
"Ah......"
"Besides, the space where the chief lives was carved out by Mother herself for him. It doesn't harm her."
Elumia wiped tears from her eyes and nodded.
"Shall we? It's best to greet the chief."
"Sure."
Now that I was out here, the other elves—minus Elpinire—didn't seem wary of me.
My status showed as "???", but I still needed their acceptance.
I didn't want a fuss, so greeting the chief made sense.
I nodded and followed Elumia toward the World Tree.
"It's huge."
It had looked massive from afar.
Up close, the World Tree was so immense the word "overwhelming" came to mind unbidden.
Elumia lightly tapped my shoulder as I gawked upward and pointed to one spot.
"Over there."
"......Is that a root?"
"Yes. A dead root Mother raised from the ground for the chief."
Dead root.
Since it no longer functioned, it didn't harm her.
I approached the root, which protruded just slightly above ground yet loomed like a subway car.
As we neared, Elumia gestured for me to wait and called out,
"Chief! I've brought the human Elpinire escorted."
"Oh, yeah. Come on in!"
Bam!
The root's surface shattered with a crisp crack.
I gulped as shards flew everywhere, then locked eyes with the old man standing atop the wreckage, one foot planted on a broken chunk.
He eyed me beside Elumia, slid up his sunglasses, and bellowed,
"So you're the human my granddaughter brought, huh?"
His ornate jacket hung open, revealing chiseled abs that gleamed.
He snapped the sunglasses back down and grinned wide.
"Welcome to Elcid, human!"
"......"
"Hm? What's with the face? Something not sitting right?"
"N-no."
Just...
'Guess I still had some fantasies left......'
I swallowed the words rising in my throat and forced a smile at the chief—
"Hm?"
Wait.
Did I hear that right?
I dug in my ear and stared at him.
I mean...
"Granddaughter?"
"Elumia must not have mentioned it. Elpinire's my granddaughter by blood."
"......?"
She'd just said the sentinels were her family.
I whipped my head toward Elumia.
She felt my gaze but pretended not to, humming and looking away.
"What'd you think of our next chief, from an outsider's view? Be honest."
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
My mouth went dry as a desert in real time as I faced the chief.
'One slip and I'm done for.'
This was the elves' top authority.
A single mistake could spark the very commotion I wanted to avoid.
'I'm screwed.'
This moment felt more nerve-wracking than battling the Tutorial Tower guardian.
I swallowed hard and slowly opened my mouth toward the chief, who leaned expectantly from the root.