50/50 Odds on Elves
In 50% of romance novels, the root of all conflict usually stems from a simple lack of communication.
Just blurt out right in front of their face, "I love you," and it's done. Yet the male lead or female lead can't manage that one easy line, dragging them through every trial and tribulation imaginable.
At least in novels, you can grit your teeth and bear it because there's that premise of a happy ending where they end up together. But in reality? Pull something like "abandoning your beloved without a word of explanation and heading off far away"?
Even if it's done out of genuine concern for your partner, no one would look kindly on someone who just up and leaves without saying a thing.
And even if you try to clear up the misunderstanding later? They'd just see it as a coward making excuses after ditching you.
"At least it'd be fortunate if it ended there."
The shock of being abandoned could twist the love you felt into something ugly, potentially leading to the worst possible outcome.
In that sense, resolving the current conflict between Veronica and the elves was surprisingly simple.
Meet them. And talk.
Why were the elves so pissed off right now? Because Veronica and her royal guards had tried to invade their Sanctuary.
The key here was not to center the conversation on the fact that they'd tried to invade the Sanctuary. The elves' current mindset was framed around "humans tried to invade the Sanctuary."
I didn't know the details, but the elves seemed to treat the Sanctuary as something incredibly important. Naturally, no words would get through under that frame.
Reframe it.
Regrettable as it was to intrude on the Sanctuary, Veronica hadn't known it was a Sanctuary. She'd only gone because an elf told her the Awakening Grass she needed was there.
In other words, shift the focus from "intruding on the Sanctuary" to "an elf cooperated." That alone would open the door to clearing up the misunderstanding through dialogue.
After that? "It's all because of that jerk Rakan anyway."
Pin the blame for trapping me in that bottle on the likely culprit—a pointy-eared elf—and stir up internal division among them. Then emphasize that Veronica and the guards did nothing wrong. That should get us out of this mess just fine.
"Well, if that doesn't work, we could always just hand over Veronica."
Yeah, the one who intruded on the Sanctuary was Veronica, not me, right?
Strictly a last resort. Just tuck it away in the corner of my mind.
But to execute the plan, the prerequisite was meeting the elves first.
So we needed to find where they were, but honestly, I wasn't too worried about that.
[Guide]
I know the way! Guides the lost to the correct path.
After all, I had the Guide trait.
There was one tiny issue with this trait, but even accounting for that, it was perfect for a situation like this.
Sure enough, just vaguely picturing elves in my head was enough for a sense of which direction to head to pop into my mind.
My [Instinct] told me that following my senses would lead me to elves too.
I confidently volunteered to guide Veronica, and so we set off toward the elves—
"Kekeke—!"
"Kihehe! Kieak! Kek!"
「…Diana-nim?」
"……."
「By any chance, do fairies call those kinds of monsters 'elves'?」
"Yes, …they do?"
—and encountered something vaguely elf-like.
「Then, could the ones that attacked us at night have been these 'elves' too?」
"……."
「Diana-nim? Why aren't you answering?」
"Yes—!"
Veronica's cold, pitiful stare stung like hell.
"…No, it doesn't."
「You clearly boasted that you could definitely lead us to the elves.」
"G-Guiding! It works, or… it doesn't."
「So, it was fifty-fifty.」
"A-Anyway—! We arrived!"
If there'd been nothing, that'd be one thing. But we did arrive somewhere with something, right?
They had long ears, properly proportioned limbs and heads like humans. And the green skin? Just camouflage cream for forest ranger duty…
…Honestly, it wasn't that hard to call them elves, was it?
Yeah. That's it.
"Kieeak, kiik, kik!"
"Keeeaak!"
(50% chance of guiding to a completely different place.)
From today on, those guys are elves.
My confidence in guiding crumbled the moment we failed, but only for a second. Diana puffed out her chest with a 'so what're you gonna do about it?' attitude.
Veronica let out a small sigh at the sight, then pulled a water-filled glass bottle from her backpack and gripped it.
'At least there aren't many of them.'
Two green monsters about Veronica's height. Physically, no matter what she did, she couldn't beat them. But.
"Keeeaak!"
There was no reason for Veronica to fairly arm-wrestle the monsters.
Startled by the sudden encounter for a moment, the monsters realized their numerical advantage and raised their clubs high before charging at Veronica.
Whoosh—!
The instant they reached her and swung their weapons.
Splash—!
Veronica swept her arm holding the bottle horizontally. Water poured out, scattering in a fan shape through the air.
"Kieak?!"
The monsters flinched and huddled in confusion from the sudden drenching. That hesitation.
Bzzz—.
"Icicle."
Was their fatal mistake. The pendant around Veronica's neck floated slightly into the air.
Shuuuk—! "Kieeeak—!"
The water droplets on their skin condensed, turning into sharp thorns that pierced into their bodies.
Looking down at the monsters writhing in agony as their skin split.
'Yeah, that should handle—'
Something caught Veronica's eye.
"!"
Another monster emerged from behind a tree.
'It was hiding…!'
An arrow shot from the bow in its hand.
Phewww—.
Rushed toward Veronica. Not enough time to muster mana again to block it.
'D-Dodge—'
She thought, twisting her body desperately—
Clang—!
"Kieak—?"
"Arrows, shooting. Elves shoot arrows, see? Proof complete. Elf subspecies…? Probably right!"
Diana casually blocked the goblin's arrow with her fork and stubbornly insisted they were elves.
"What does that even—"
As Veronica started to argue against the absurd claim.
Shiiiik— Thunk. "Gak."
The fork Diana threw pierced the bow-wielding monster's forehead dead-on.
"Bad elf! Diana took down the bad elf, so safe now!"
"……."
Diana then approached Veronica, pulled a new fork from her backpack.
Stab—. Stab—. "Kek."
"Keeak."
And drove it into the throats of the fallen monsters, finishing them off.
"Too bad for bad elves. No negotiation. Looking for elves that talk, right?"
She flashed a bright smile, covered in blood.
50 percent.
Out of 100 tries, it succeeds 50 times. Meaning one out of two.
So even if the first guide didn't get us to Saria or whatever elf we wanted, the next try had a high chance of finding communicative elves—
"Keeeaak!" Stab. Poke.
"Kiik, ihihik!" Stab. Poke.
"Kiyaaaak!" Stab. Poke.
「Diana-nim?」
"……."
…Looks like my [Guide] trait's success rate was independent trials.
Independent trials. In gacha games, the most hated, horrific thing is this independent probability.
Flip a coin for heads or tails; each flip doesn't affect the previous. So four heads in a row? Totally possible.
「Suspiciously many monsters around.」
"Not monsters! Green elves!"
「Uh, um… yes. Still, that… it might be rude…. Uh, how about calling them green pointy-ears instead?」
"Pointy-ears! Green pointy-ears!"
After accepting Veronica's word tweak, it hit me.
We'd never seen a single green pointy-ear in the forest before. But in this short time, they were everywhere, tripping over our feet.
"…No wolves?"
「Maybe the magical beasts' territories shifted…? 」
Not a single Gray Wolf in sight—the ones I'd vowed to get revenge on someday. Fine by me; fewer eye-sores, the happier I was.
"Veronica?"
「Mm….」
"Territory shift, problem?"
She seemed bothered by something. Frowning as she examined a dead bad green pointy-ear's corpse.
「Usually, monsters lurking near elf territory get cleaned up by the forest rangers in time.」
According to her explanation, elves tolerated magical beasts roaming the forest but despised monsters. Beasts coexisted with the woods; monsters destroyed and polluted it.
Especially here, near the elves' Sanctuary, they'd manage it tightly.
「Yet these mon— bad green pointy-ears are just wandering around….」
"Problem occurred?"
「Yes, probably.」
Veronica nodded slightly and adjusted her backpack.
「We should check the elf village once.」
Seeing that, I boldly stepped forward.
"Diana, will 'guide'!"
「…Can I trust you?」
"Tr-Trust, it will work…!"
Psh, no way. It's 50 percent— what're the odds of five fails in a row?