Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Dark Elf
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Enri, Jason, and Speeder entered a room on the upper floor of Bio Vanguard and began their investigation.
“This is the place where the child was hiding.”
Jason muttered, looking around.
“Hmm… I see.”
Enri said as she rummaged through the boxes piled in a corner of the room.
Inside the boxes were pieces of mechanical equipment, seemingly developed in some factory, haphazardly placed as if they were defective products.
*Beep-*
*Crash-*
Speeder, apparently frustrated, lifted a large box and dumped its contents onto the floor.
A cascade of grotesque equipment in various shapes, from spider-leg-like devices to strange pincer contraptions, came tumbling out.
Enri examined the equipment intently.
“What on earth were these made for?”
Sensing a different tone in her voice than usual, Jason turned his head to glance at her.
She appeared calm, but behind her glasses, her eyes were clearly filled with worried anxiety.
Jason started tidying up the boxes and spoke to her.
“Is something troubling you?”
Enri snapped back to her senses the moment she heard Jason’s words.
She turned her head away as if embarrassed that he had seen through her expression.
“Ah… no! Of course, I am worried about our colleagues right now….”
“Is it what the child said that’s bothering you?”
Enri hesitated, her expression showing she was debating how to respond.
Seeing her reaction, Jason quickly offered an apology.
“Miss Enri.”
Jason paused for a moment before continuing.
“The reason that friend of ours, Park Shin-ju, came to America in the first place was to catch that Dark Elf, ‘Kai,’ wasn't it?”
“That’s right….”
“I believe that Dark Elf is deeply connected to this investigation.”
“As you know, circumstantially, it’s highly likely that this person named Kai stole Tibee-ra’s song.”
“He is the most likely suspect, I suppose.”
“That’s why I want to gather as much information as I can about his race. Since they’re from your home planet, I thought you might know more.”
“Hmm…. Yes, I understand.”
Enri let out a sigh and continued.
“The beings you call ‘Dark Elves’ on Earth… on our planet, we call them the ‘Nekhes.’”
“…Nekhes?”
“Yes. In our language, it means ‘the end of greed,’ or ‘those who lost their lives to their own greed.’”
Jason and Speeder listened intently to Enri while examining the equipment scattered before them.
“…They are very delicate and elegant. They are lovers of art and beauty.”
Enri continued, fidgeting with a piece of mechanical equipment in front of her.
“However, they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.”
She then tossed the device back into the box.
“They are also a race that enjoys cruel torture and considers betrayal and conspiracy to be a matter of course.”
Jason lifted the box filled with equipment and walked it over to a corner.
“Ah… so they’re the type to commit cruel acts in the name of art?”
“Something like that. Among the Nekhes I know, there’s even a woman who refers to herself as a ‘torture sommelier.’”
“Heh heh….”
Jason let out a dry laugh at the term ‘torture sommelier.’
Enri continued her explanation.
“Zydeline… their society is a strict meritocracy. It’s governed by a council formed by representatives of various noble families. But in truth… that’s just for show. In each city, a powerful family reigns like royalty.”
A hint of sadness flickered in Enri’s eyes behind her glasses.
“And the power struggles among them are so intense that any family that falls even slightly behind in power is often annihilated. They believe it’s best to completely eradicate their enemies to prevent any future retaliation, so there are almost no survivors from a fallen family.”
“Really? Not a single one?”
“The number of survivors is extremely small. I heard from my sister Furen, who was stationed in Zydeline for a time….”
Enri paused for a moment.
“The Nekhes from nearly annihilated families had been attempting to flee and escape to other planets long before the Planet Destroyers attacked….”
“Hmm… so it’s possible that this ‘Kai’ is a Nekhes who settled on Earth after losing a power struggle?”
“That’s right. But that history goes back quite a ways. It's also highly possible that Kai is the child of a family that settled on Earth long ago.”
“I see….”
Jason stroked his chin with interest and gazed into the distance.
Soon, he turned back to Enri.
“What is the relationship between the Nekhes and the Elves? Was it amicable?”
Enri’s expression softened for a moment as she smiled.
“If it’s more comfortable, you can just call them ‘Dark Elves.’”
Enri, out of consideration for him, suggested he stick with the familiar term and then continued to answer his question.
“Our relationship with them was somewhat distant. From my perspective, I’d pride myself on saying we both maintained a necessary distance….”
She shook her head.
“Our dispositions, ideologies, and certain religious aspects just didn’t align.”
“Were there any wars or fights?”
“We were occasionally in a state of confrontation over resources. But it never escalated into a major conflict.”
Jason nodded slightly at Enri’s answer.
He thought he understood why.
“Because if you fought, you would surely annihilate each other.”
“Exactly. It was like we maintained a minimum boundary….”
Jason briefly summarized the situation and continued.
“If you weren’t on bad terms… I think it’s possible a Dark Elf might have simply saved the young Bluerobic Elf. Surely, there must be some among them with a shred of morality?”
“Hmm… I’m honestly not sure.”
“Why?”
“The Dark Elves I know… wouldn’t hesitate to use even a child if necessary.”
Enri wore an expression of someone who couldn't quite make sense of it, no matter how much she thought.
“In any situation, they would have kept the child around to exploit for all they were worth… but to have saved them…. I don’t know.”
She looked up at Jason and shook her head gently.
“For me, it just doesn’t match the image of the Nekhes I’ve always known.”
“Hmm, is that so….”
Jason looked down at her, stroking his chin.
Seeing her ambiguous expression, he couldn’t think of what to say next.
Suddenly, a whistling sound came from the side.
Speeder stood there, eyes wide, holding a long weapon.
“Did you find something?”
“Oh!”
The moment Jason spoke, Enri quickly moved toward Speeder.
*Beep-!*
Speeder looked up at the approaching Enri with a startled expression.
Enri picked up the weapon.
“An Actrazer…?”
The weapon looked remarkably similar to Sharin’s.
Enri’s eyes gradually widened.
“Wait a minute… no way!?”
The image of ‘Java-Tamao,’ who had attacked her and Sharin before, flashed through her mind.
The assassin who had stopped her attack and vanished with an expression of someone who had achieved their goal.
Enri frantically began to rummage through the other boxes.
*Crash!*
Enri dumped all the equipment from the uninspected boxes onto the floor.
“This can’t be….”
She quickly scanned the chaotically scattered equipment, and her eyes widened in realization.
“What… what is it?”
Jason and Speeder stared at Enri with bewildered expressions.
“Bio Vanguard, these bastards… the weapons our colleagues used….”
Enri’s face darkened.
Her mouth slowly fell open.
“…they’re mass-producing them!!”
A seemingly endless, dungeon-like passage stretched out before them.
Jekovic kept sniffing the air as he walked on all fours.
A white, glowing sphere floated above him, illuminating the path ahead.
Shin-ju, walking behind Jekovic, was lost in thought.
He was contemplating the race known as ‘Dark Elves.’
The self-portrait resembling ‘Kai’ and the ‘Dark Elf woman’ in the giant cylinder flickered in his mind.
Shin-ju didn’t know much about them either.
It wasn't that they deliberately hid their existence, but there was very little information available.
All Shin-ju knew was that they had settled on Earth long before the Bluerobic Elves….
He looked back.
He saw the faces of Furen and Sharin.
The two were at the head of the group of refugees, leading them.
Shin-ju approached Furen and Sharin.
“Do you two have a moment? I have a question.”
“Hm? What is it?”
Sharin turned her head.
“It’s about the Dark Elves.”
“Dark… Elves…? What’s that?”
Furen tilted her head in confusion.
“Ah… ah! Um… that….”
Shin-ju frowned.
*Ah, right.*
*They must have a different name for the Dark Elves….*
*I think Enri told me once, what was it?*
*Hexen… was it? He… H… no, I think it started with an N?*
While Shin-ju desperately wracked his brain, Furen, beside him, eased his suffering.
“Are you perhaps talking about the Nekhes?”
“Ah!! Yes, yes! That’s it. Thank you.”
“Haha, well… so on Earth, they’re called Dark Elves?”
“Yes. An author you know, ‘Tolkien,’ referred to your people as ‘Elves’ in one of his books.”
Shin-ju explained, watching Furen’s reaction.
“And unlike the typical Bluerobic Elves, we call the dark-skinned Nekhes, Dark Elves.”
Furen smiled with interest.
“Oh… is that so. Did my friend Tolkien write books as well?”
Shin-ju felt a pang of envy watching Furen speak of Tolkien as if he were a friend.
“Anyway, what is it you want to know about them?”
“I’d like you to tell me everything you know about the Dark Elves… I mean, the Nekhes.”
“Why is that?”
Furen asked, tilting her head.
“I actually ended up here while investigating a case involving the Nekhes.”
Shin-ju paused for a moment before giving them a brief overview of the case he was investigating.
“The transmission of the Bluerobic song ‘Wind’s Hometown’ into space… is actually related to the Nekhes.”
Hearing Shin-ju’s words, Furen and Sharin’s expressions grew slightly more serious.
“Oh… is that so?”
Shin-ju briefly relayed the circumstantial evidence he had discovered so far to Furen.
“There was a self-portrait of that race here earlier, and the woman in the cylinder was also of the Nekhes race, wasn’t she?”
Shin-ju wore a worried expression.
“I have a feeling that the case I’m investigating is deeply connected to a much larger incident.”
After finishing his explanation, Shin-ju glanced at Furen.
Her expression looked complicated.
To be precise, she did not look pleased.
“It’s not that I can’t tell you, but… the Nekhes, they are….”
*BOOM-!!!*
Just as Furen was about to begin her explanation.
A massive explosion suddenly ripped through the wall beside them.
Dust from the blast billowed out, engulfing them in a wide cloud.
The figures of the refugees vanished into the dust.
“It’s an attack!! Everyone, prepare for battle!!”
Kirina, her eyes wide, let out a piercing shout.