The Demon's Arrival in Helbram Forest
Dark Elf Lye Soap Making. At first, it had seemed easy enough. ‘Soap’s just a matter of melting, mixing, and letting it harden, right?’ I’d thought too simply. But nothing about the process was simple, and making lye soap demanded an extraordinary amount of patience. The leaching stage in particular was enough to test anyone’s limits.
“Aaaagh! I can’t wait anymore! How much longer do I have to stand here?!”
[You have to wait.]
[I told you it wouldn’t be easy.]
[The leaching process is crucial.]
[You must watch the drops fall… with patience and perseverance.]
“Until when?”
[Until the color lightens from brown.]
[Brown means it still contains too much carbon. Even if it takes time, you have to go slowly…]
“Isn’t there another way?”
[There are other methods, but the only soap we can make right now is lye soap.]
“……”
Albert felt like he was going insane. He hadn’t expected soap-making to require this much patience and endurance. All he could do was stare at the water dripping, drop by drop, from the cloth stuffed into the hole. Time refused to move. Normally, hours flew by in the blink of an eye, but watching those droplets fall made every second stretch into eternity.
‘Who am I? Where is this?’
His mind grew hazy from the sheer boredom. It felt exactly like holding a plank during his first workouts—time slowed to a crawl. He was starting to feel like he’d stepped into some twisted room where time itself had stopped.
‘How the hell am I supposed to wait this out?’
Maybe he could just order Gaster to stand guard instead? A dragon’s pride might protest, but Albert’s fists had a proven track record of breaking draconic arrogance.
‘If I tell him to do it, he’ll do it.’
[But isn’t Gaster already busy with something else?]
[You dragged him off even though he refused, and now he’s casting spells on the city walls.]
[Even though he’s a dragon, he’s still a hatchling, so it’s taking time…]
“Ah……”
Gaster was already carrying out Albert’s orders—reinforcing the entire wall with protective magic. Albert had planned to leave Gluttony, Pride, or the others behind if he ever had to step away, but the wall was a precaution. No one knew what monsters might appear, so he’d ordered Gaster to layer the fortifications with enchantments ahead of time.
[Even as a dragon, he’s still a hatchling, so his enchanting is clumsy and slow.]
[He refused at first, but after you hit him, he’s doing it now.]
“Tsk.”
Come to think of it, Albert had already given the order. Gaster was probably sniffling while he worked.
[Still, aren’t you treating Gaster a bit too harshly?]
[He’s an important means of transportation.]
“I know. I’ll toss him a carrot later.”
Carrot and stick—both had to be used in proper balance. Push and pull. Pushing alone achieved nothing.
“Haa…… So how much longer do I have to wait?”
[Until the water’s color lightens.]
[If it doesn’t lighten, you won’t get good soap.]
[Patience and perseverance!]
[٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و ٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و]
[You must endure!]
“Is there really no way to speed this up? Magic? An item?”
[There isn’t.]
[If you want proper soap, you have to endure first.]
Albert let out a long, suffering groan. Just then—
“What are you doing?”
Hot had come looking for him. He’d spotted Albert crouched in the corner and grown curious.
“Making something.”
“Hmm. Up to your usual strange antics, I see.”
“What about you? Got nothing better to do, wandering around like this?”
“What!?”
Veins bulged on Hot’s forehead like writhing snakes. His face flushed red as he unleashed a roar worthy of a movie villain.
“You crazy bastard! Are you done talking?! What?! Nothing to do?! Do you have any idea how much work I have?!”
He began venting everything that had been building up inside him.
“Those Iron Ant shells you keep bringing me—I’m still extracting the metal from them! That’s not all! I’m forging nails, making farming tools for those damn humans, and on top of that—!”
Hot rattled off his grievances like a machine gun.
“You think that’s all?! That bastard Aiden keeps asking me to make dumbbells, barbells, and weight plates because he’s obsessed with training! How much work do you think I have?!”
Hot’s grumbling showed no sign of stopping.
[You seem to have pressed his berserk button perfectly.]
‘……’
Everyone had a trigger. Albert had apparently hit Hot’s by accident.
“Then make the others do it.”
“Haa, I’d love to if any of them were worth a damn! They learn so slowly. I, a dwarf, am personally teaching them, yet they can’t even absorb the basics……”
He spoke with genuine frustration. But the apprentices’ side of the story was worth hearing too. Hot was undoubtedly a master craftsman with godlike skill—his blacksmithing was unmatched. However—
[His skill as a blacksmith is excellent, but he has no talent for teaching.]
‘Just as ordinary people can’t understand geniuses, geniuses can’t understand ordinary people.’
Hot, being a dwarf, worked by instinct rather than theory. He talked about listening to the breath of fire, the breath of wind, hearing their voices—things only dwarves could do. For humans, it was impossible. The apprentices were probably suffering.
‘The sound of fire? How the hell do you listen to that?’
‘Breathing? Breathing is just breathing—what the hell is fire breathing?!’
‘Listen to the iron’s voice? That’s just tinnitus! It’s a medical condition!!’
Albert could almost hear their screams.
“Tsk. It’ll be a while before I can turn them into proper blacksmiths. Until then, I’ll just have to suffer.”
Still, Hot was diligent. Once he took on a task, he saw it through to the end. And—
[He’s also quite nosy.]
[Even when he doesn’t have to, if he sees something inefficient……]
‘Here come the unsolicited opinions.’
A true busybody. No matter what anyone was doing, Hot couldn’t resist offering his two cents. Albert, who had seen through him from the start, had been happily exploiting that trait.
“By the way, what exactly are you making?”
“Soap.”
“Soap?”
“Yeah.”
“Soap, huh…… Ah, that thing those black-eared bastards use.”
“Huh?”
When Albert looked confused, Hot spoke as if it were obvious.
“The black-eared ones supposedly make something called soap. They even gave us a few a long time ago, though we never had much use for it.”
“Black-eared…… You mean Dark Elves?”
“Yeah.”
Dark Elves. Ordinary elves had fair skin and pointed ears. Their appearance was so flawless that, in the other world, they could have been celebrities—truly a race of peerless beauty. Combined with their high affinity for nature, the entire elven race was known for producing rare spirit mages. While “race of beauty” referred to their looks, “race of the forest” referred to their combat prowess. And—
‘They were chosen by the World Tree.’
Dark Elves were the opposite. Their appearance was equally beautiful, but they had been abandoned by the World Tree—fallen elves. An elf’s soft, pale skin was both their pride and proof of the World Tree’s favor. But the corrupted Dark Elves’ skin had turned a coppery hue. Having lost their natural affinity, they could no longer form contracts with spirits. Yet what they lost, they gained in return. In exchange for spirits, Dark Elves possessed exceptional archery skills. They could hit a tiny insect from over a hundred meters away, earning them the title of forest hunters.
“Dark Elves use soap?”
“Those bastards value cleanliness. They said they make that soap using some special method of their own…… But why’s your face like that?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“Well……”
Hot analyzed Albert’s current expression with his dwarven artistic sensibility.
“You look like you’re already annoyed out of your mind but just found the perfect suckers to dump the work on?”
[Perfect analysis.]
[Your analytical ability is slightly below mine, but still impressive.]
Though they’d only known each other for less than a month, Hot already understood Albert far too well. His analysis came from hard-earned experience. Albert grinned.
“Hot, don’t you want some new colleagues?”
Dark Elves—those adorable slaves…… no, children. Where are they right now?
* * *
Helbram Forest. The densely packed trees formed a natural maze no one could penetrate. Even when the sun rose, the thick canopy cast perpetual shadow over the forest floor. Perhaps that was why an eerie atmosphere lingered, sending chills down the spine of anyone who entered. Humans instinctively rejected darkness. And in Helbram Forest, the sound of women’s laughter echoed like ghostly cackles, making people avoid it even more.
Deep within Helbram Forest—
BOOM!
In a hidden corner of the maze-like depths, two groups clashed in fierce combat.
“Sylph! Aid me! Strike down my enemy!”
Wind howled and compressed at a single point, transforming into a razor-sharp blade that flew toward its target. The one under attack bit her lip and drew her bowstring, firing an arrow. But—
Ting!
It was meaningless. The arrow shattered helplessly against the wind blade. All she could do was dodge with everything she had. She threw herself sideways with all her strength. The wind blade slammed into the ground, carving a deep gash. If it had hit her, she would have died.
“Oh my? You dodge like a rat. I suppose that’s to be expected from a Dark Elf living in the shadows. A fitting trait for you abandoned Nebulas.”
“Nebula” was a derogatory term created to demean Dark Elves—similar to calling a beggar a vagrant. It was a word meant to dismiss and insult them.
“……We are not Nebulas! We are Dark Elves!”
“Hohohoho, so you still want to be called elves? The word Nebula suits you perfectly—abandoned by both Mother and the spirits.”
The elf extended her hand, and another wind blade formed. At the same time, the other elves around her unleashed spirit magic at the Dark Elves.
“Salamander! Show my enemies the taste of fire!”
“Gnome! Show my enemies your unyielding will!”
“Undine! Grant me the blessing of your wrath!”
“Sylph……”
Attacks from the four great elemental spirits—water, fire, wind, and earth—were as spectacular and powerful as magic. Most importantly, they activated instantly. While magic required casting time and concentration, spirit mages only needed to give commands. That was the power of spirits.
“Kgh……”
“What do we do……?”
“We have no way to block that……”
“Damn elves…… They even found our sanctuary……”
Despair was etched deeply on the Dark Elves’ faces. They had fled from both humans and regular elves, taking refuge in the depths of Helbram Forest where they lived in isolation. They had tried to live peacefully, self-sufficient and harmonious, avoiding any entanglement with outsiders. Yet even here, the elves had pursued them.
“The tainted blood must be purged!”
“Nebulas are a disgrace to all elves!”
“They all deserve to die!!!”
To the elves, Nebulas were an abandoned shame, a stain that should never have existed in this world.
“The clan’s disgrace must be erased!!”
There was even a hint of madness in their eyes. In the next moment, the spirits’ attacks rained down. The Dark Elves tried desperately to defend themselves, but no matter how exceptional their archery was, they couldn’t overcome the spirits. Arrows were blown off course by wind, burned by fire, blocked by stone walls, or swallowed by water. No matter what they did, the Dark Elves couldn’t win against the elves.
And finally, only one Dark Elf remained.
“……Everyone……”
They were dead. Friends and family she had lived with for over ten years had been slaughtered by the elves in the most horrific way. Only she was left. Tears like chicken droppings streamed down her face as she glared at the triumphant elf looking down on her with a mixture of rage and despair.
“What the hell did we do wrong?! We were living quietly here! We never harmed you! So why?!”
Her voice rang out, filled with fury and injustice. But the elf’s response was indifferent.
“Why, you ask.”
“Because you were abandoned.”
“Abandoned by Mother and the spirits—can you even call yourselves elves? You’re nothing but a stain on our clan.”
“Nebula scum.”
Meaningless malice. To them, Dark Elves were simply Nebulas—beings that had to be erased.
“……”
The Dark Elf bit her lip. She was furious. If she had the power, she would tear them apart right now and avenge those who had died. But—
‘I…… have no power……’
She lacked the strength to protect her family, to take revenge, or even to resist. Nothing remained.
“Well then~ Let’s clean up the trash quickly~ Then we’ll deal with the rest of the garbage in the dump.”
“Kill them all?”
“Of course! Nebulas must disappear from this world! This is purification—a righteous cleansing of the world’s evils.”
“I see.”
The elves were merciless. They would probably slaughter everyone in the village—men, women, and children alike.
“Don’t you…… have any sense of guilt……?”
“Guilt? Puhahahaha, what a joke. Since when did Nebulas have such a sense of humor? There’s no reason for guilt.”
The elf grabbed the Dark Elf by the hair and forced her to look up, speaking with eyes full of contempt.
“Why would you feel guilty about taking out the trash? Do you feel anything when you pick up garbage from the roadside?”
“……”
“You’re noisy now…… Just die.”
‘If there is a god……’
The Dark Elf thought. Abandoned by the World Tree and the spirits, trapped in this hopeless situation, there was no one left for the Dark Elves to rely on. Yet even so, she sought a god. Even if that god had abandoned them…… the only thing she could do was pray.
‘Please save us……’
“Oh.”
At that moment—
In the depths of Helbram Forest, where no one should have come, on a battlefield soaked in blood and thick with tension—
“I heard there’s an elf here who knows how to make soap…… Did I come to the right place?”
Not a god.
A demon had appeared.