Like a Leaf in the Wind
There was no sudden shift in attitude—no “Oh, I see! So you’re the traveling companion of our people’s benefactor! Welcome!” kind of instant reversal.
“I had heard something of the sort. That a place dealing in our kin as slaves within Tellaia Kingdom’s territory had recently been wiped out.”
“It wasn’t Tellaia, it was inside Brien Kingdom’s borders. Close to the border, though. The Brien royal family probably wanted to prove that the kingdom itself had no connection to the slave trade.”
It would have been stranger if she’d believed me right away. To test the waters, I deliberately radiated a thick surge of divine power, letting light bloom around me so she could see at a glance that I was the Saintess.
“By the way, how did you end up all the way out here?”
“First of all, I don’t even know exactly where ‘here’ is. I was traveling from Tellaia down to Tesselia when, in southern Tellaia, I saw hundreds of kobolds attacking a small fortress. I tried to help, but then some black-haired guy—some incredibly powerful Demon King or high-ranking demon—kidnapped me.”
“Kidnapped? To this place?”
“I detonated my divine power to interfere, and the next thing I knew I was falling here.”
After I finished speaking, I felt the tall elf with the light-green hair staring at me intently. She had been watching me the whole time, but now her gaze felt like it was peering even deeper. A moment later she lowered her bow, and the other elves around her all lowered theirs in unison. There was no other reaction until she came bounding toward me with light, springy steps.
“There is no falsehood in your words. Since I can tell you truly are the Saintess, would you mind extinguishing that light?”
“Ah, sorry. It’s become a habit—whenever something feels off, I do this. By the way, where exactly are we? I fell somewhere in the middle. This isn’t past the desert to the south, is it?”
“Beyond the desert there are no forests this vast, human Saintess. This is our Great Forest. Our sanctuary, bordering all four human kingdoms.”
“……It felt like only about twenty seconds had passed. I didn’t realize I’d come this far south.”
The Great Forest lay even farther south than the original destination of Tesselia Kingdom. Its territory was so enormous that, as the light-green elf had said, its borders touched all four kingdoms. And somehow I had landed right in the middle of it. At least I hadn’t fallen into a lake or river; still, what kind of coincidence was this?
“I understand what happened. The Demon King of Space must have seized a good opportunity. Isn’t that right?”
“He moved before I could even register it. There were ten mercenaries with me, all objectively skilled, and they couldn’t even lift a finger.”
The mercenaries had certainly been first-rate. After all, they were escorting the Saintess; even if faith had been the top criterion for selection, they still possessed solid ability. My own physical capabilities were negligible—my only real strength lay in divine power—but those mercenaries were different. If people of that caliber couldn’t even react before their legs were broken, then the so-called Demon King of Space had to be monstrously strong.
“Yes, that is how he operates. In a prepared location, he is a Demon King of that caliber. Elsewhere, he is not so impressive.”
“Wait, so……”
“I do not know the full situation, but he must have spent several months preparing. You were simply unlucky, human Saintess. Or perhaps he predicted your movements well.”
Probably the latter. After all, if one stopped at the Romano Cathedral before heading south, passing through that route was only natural. So that was why he had gone to the trouble of driving so many kobolds into the siege.
“Ugh……”
“So, what will you do? Will you return? If so, I will not stop you.”
“Um, well… could you possibly help me a little? I don’t have any money on me right now, but I can offer far more than enough compensation, and as the Saintess I can provide many conveniences for the entire elven race. Honestly, without your help I don’t think I can even get out of here. I don’t even know where I am.”
The atmosphere had begun to suggest they might simply tell me to leave on my own, so I didn’t hesitate to ask for help directly. How on earth was I supposed to get out of here alone? I had no idea where I was, which direction to go, or how far I would need to travel. This world wasn’t the kind of place where you could simply follow a river and expect to find civilization. The events right before I was kidnapped by that Demon King of Space were proof enough of that. If I ran into people with similar inclinations during this return trip, I couldn’t even imagine what kind of fate awaited me. I might be treated as a slave, or worse, offered as a sacrifice to a Demon King. Just thinking about it was horrifying. At the very least, I needed to reach somewhere the title of Saintess still carried weight.
“Hmm. Then how would you like us to help? I personally find pretty, clean people like you quite likable, but my kin seem to harbor deeper concerns.”
“If you could at least tell me where we are and how far I need to travel to reach a church, I would be grateful. Or, if you could take me there, I would be even more thankful.”
Something about the way the light-green elf spoke bothered me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what. No, seriously, something felt a little… off.
“I see. Then shall I help you personally? That way, when the human Saintess returns the favor, the burden will be much lighter, yes?”
“If you would be so kind, I would be deeply grateful.”
It was common knowledge that owing a personal debt was far easier to repay than owing one to an entire race. The scope of what could be demanded as compensation would be completely different. Just looking at the way the other elves—especially the one standing closest—let out a deep sigh and shook their heads told me everything. They had just lost the chance to saddle the entire elven race with a debt from the human Saintess, all because it had been reduced to a personal matter.
“You heard her. I, the Forest Priestess, will help the human Saintess personally. Do any of you have objections?”
“None, Forest Priestess. How could we possibly disagree with your words?”
Forest Priestess? At the sudden title, I could only blink stupidly.
“Forest Priestess?”
“Indeed. I am the Forest Priestess, the one who communes with the World Tree, the spiritual guardian of the elven race, and the mental pillar of every tree.”
It sounded a bit like boasting, but every phrase she used was literal. The Forest Priestess was exactly that—the spiritual pillar of the entire elven race and the Great Forest. If I had to nitpick, it would be more accurate to call her a religious pillar. While the human nations of this world were built on a single faith, the elves formed a semi-theocratic state that essentially worshipped the World Tree as a living deity. That was precisely why enslaving elves became a national issue. The moment the elves declared a holy war in the name of the World Tree’s will, the targeted nations would have to bear the full burden. And the Forest Priestess before me was the very person who could declare—or give final approval for—such a holy war.
“The human Saintess offers her belated greetings to the Forest Priestess. And I sincerely thank you for choosing to help me personally.”
“It is nothing.”
“……Pardon?”
Even so, I was the Saintess. The only person who could match the Forest Priestess in status would be the Pope, and even a Saintess who appeared after fifty years didn’t carry quite that much weight. So I had offered a formal greeting again, only to receive “It is nothing” in return.
“First, I would like to know your name.”
“Ah, it’s Lucia. Just Lucia. I have no other titles or surnames.”
“Lucia. What a lovely name. And so, it is not the Forest Priestess helping the human Saintess. It is simply I, Aurelia Trianus, helping Lucia.”
Ah, so that’s what she meant. Something about this still felt strange. It was certainly more advantageous for me, but surely the Forest Priestess named Aurelia-whatever had her own reasons for doing this. The problem was I couldn’t even begin to guess what those reasons might be.
“Yes. Aurelia Trianus, I express my gratitude that you, as an individual, are personally helping me, the human Saintess……”
“No. Aurelia Trianus is helping Lucia.”
“……Aurelia Trianus is personally helping me—Lucia—and I thank you for it.”
At that, she broke into a deep, radiant smile. Perhaps because she was an elf, it was an incredibly beautiful smile that somehow also looked pure. Hmm. Maybe it really was just my imagination? Seeing her like this, she didn’t seem to be plotting anything in particular. In fact, before any scheming, I should probably just be grateful. Right. Right. So, let’s see exactly how she plans to help me.
“Yes, Lucia. Feel free to call me Elia. Now then, I shall invite you as my personal guest. Will you accept?”
The sun had already set, and the Great Forest was a dangerous place to wander without an elf’s guidance. I pretended to hesitate, but in truth I had no choice. Even if she gave me rough directions and distances, trying to move alone through a forest at night was out of the question. I had wondered if she might simply assign one elf to escort me, but since it was already night and I would need to rest anyway, accepting her invitation was clearly the better option.
“I gratefully accept your invitation, Aurelia Trian……”
“Elia.”
“……Elia.”
Ugh. Something about this felt a little—actually, it felt really……
“Then come this way. The distance is quite far; if you tried to walk there yourself, the sun would rise before we arrived.”
Was there some kind of magic involved? With that thought, I stepped closer to the Forest Priestess—Elia—when she suddenly scooped me up in her arms. Her right arm supported my back, her left arm slid beneath my knees in a perfect, textbook princess carry.
“Ah, wait, is this really neces—”
“Shh. In the Great Forest at night, one does not raise one’s voice recklessly. Everything is asleep now, so you must stay quiet, Lucia.”
What else could I do? I couldn’t walk there on my own two feet, so I had no choice but to remain obediently in her arms. The way elves moved was no joke. They leaped from branch to branch atop massive trees, and at times seemed to ride the wind itself, clearing several trees in a single bound. Watching her do all that while carrying me made me realize that trying to leave this place alone really would have been disastrous.
Of course, that didn’t mean I simply thought, Oh, I see, and left it at that.
“Are you alright, Lucia?”
“Yes, thanks to you. It’s so fast, yet there’s no shaking at all. It’s really amazing.”
She had told me to be quiet, yet here she was asking me questions in the middle of it. This was definitely what I thought it was. She was trying to look cool and impress me. And when I responded with appropriate praise, her reaction was so easy to read. It would be difficult to do this among humans. With people watching, openly creating this kind of atmosphere between members of the same sex could easily lead to social death. But elves were a race that had built a completely independent domain. While dwarves sometimes shared living spaces with humans, elves—though they might travel alone—never established settlements outside the Great Forest.
Therefore, I couldn’t help but carefully consider how to make a safe exit from this situation. Because if things went wrong here, they could go very, very wrong indeed.