Sloan's Turn?
Objectively speaking, elves are a superior race to humans.
The mere fact that their numbers are so few proves it. In any ecosystem, don't higher organisms produce fewer offspring?
At any rate, it was hardly strange that Elisa had suddenly awakened such exceptional abilities. She had, of course, benefited enormously from Sloan's innate power — the ability to share her own strength with others.
"Windie stretches out dozens of kilometers in every direction and feeds me all the information."
"Windie…?"
"The name of a spirit I contracted with recently. A wind spirit. It's not weird that I, an elf, would get along with spirits, right?"
Having finally awakened as a spirit mage, Elisa preened as she looked at Camilla.
Communicating with spirits was a gift reserved for only the rarest geniuses. According to the records, their numbers amounted to a few hundred at most.
And the vast majority of those were nature-attuned elves. A handful of humans were included among them, but they never rose beyond treating mindless spirits as servants.
"A spirit mage, huh… I never thought you'd have talent for something like that."
"You're way too jealous. Your magic ability is better than mine anyway, isn't it?"
"Jealous? Pfft. You think I'm jealous? I'm simply rejoicing, pure and sincere, at a comrade's excellent progress."
"True. I heard mages would kill for a single conversation with a spirit. Since they have to beg phenomena just to scrape together a spell."
Their power struggle began without the slightest warning.
"Beg? That's going too far."
"Hmm? Ah, maybe it wasn't begging. Sorry! I must have misunderstood."
"Ha! You're probably the first person in history to disparage a great academic discipline with thousands of years behind it like that."
"Thousands of years? A bit young… I'm not one of them, but I think I understand why my kin look down on something called magic. Of course, I'm not one of them."
Repeating variations of I don't think that way myself over and over, Elisa kept the sparring match flowing with effortless flexibility.
"Ah, I hope you don't take it the wrong way. My kin tend to misunderstand a lot. Stubborn, you could say? That's one of the bad points of elves."
There it was! Dump every unpleasant remark up front, then lower yourself afterward — and not even yourself, but your entire race — until the other person has nothing left to say!
To think she'd mastered rhetoric this advanced. Had she gone to some university? Or did all pointy-ears talk like that?
I had to burn thousands of years just to learn that technique… What terrifying talent.
Once again, I was reminded never to pick a verbal fight with an elf.
So… how would Camilla respond? If it were me, I'd lose my words and fling out something else just to salvage my pride.
Or throw a punch. Knowing Camilla's temper, the latter seemed far more likely.
"Is that so? Well, elves don't age and live forever, so even if the body stays young, the mind might grow old. Fine, I get it. I should be the understanding one."
She was going for a frontal assault? And with composure, no less…!
Camilla trashed the entire elven race while simultaneously tapping Elisa's reverse scale with a crisp little tap as she sailed past.
That reverse scale was none other than age!
Of course, for elves, age was just a number. They didn't wither in the slightest even after tens of thousands of years.
But Elisa seemed sensitive about it. I had no idea why. Was it because of me, perhaps?
"Hold on. Why is age coming up?"
"Huh? Why wouldn't it? It's common knowledge that elves live long."
"No, no. You said something about my age."
"What are you talking about? It's not like you're that old."
Elisa was, appearances aside, an elf who had lived for hundreds of years. She would be older than Camilla's ancestors.
Of course, compared to me she was still a child.
Come to think of it — this little bastard was screwing someone who was essentially her ancestor? What a disgraceful woman.
"Hmmm… So that's how you're playing it? Fine."
In the end, the power struggle seemed to go to Camilla. In fights like these, the first to show emotion loses.
"Uh… girls? I have no idea what you're talking about. You know we don't have time for this, right?"
"Ah, right."
"Hmm… So what exactly did your Windie tell you? That a Demon King is nearby! That's a lie, right? You're trying to steal Vali from me."
Hey — my body is mine, okay? I can't even claim ownership of myself. Why do they keep trying to debate this?
"It's not a lie. There really is something nearby. Quite a large evil. Beyond anything I can even dare to imagine."
"No way… Really?"
"Yeah. If we go about sixty kilometers east, there'll be a city. A place ruled by a Demon King."
Elisa spoke with absolute confidence. And those words turned out to be completely true.
We decided to head there.
But walking a sixty-kilometer road consumes far too much time.
Since we couldn't cover it in a day or two on foot, we decided to rest along the way.
"Vali's mine right now, right?"
"No. We found a Demon King. Until we take care of that, he's still free."
"That's right. We don't know when enemies might show up. You're not thinking of playing with Vali, are you? That's not allowed."
"No… this isn't right."
Surprisingly, Elisa and Camilla — who had just been at each other's throats — united in the same opinion and pushed Sloan back.
Overwhelmed by the numerical advantage of two to one, Sloan had no choice but to comply with the very rule she had just invented.
"There's a suitable village right here."
In the territory we had occupied, there were quite a few human villages living as slaves.
Of course, from their perspective, the only change was that their human lord had been replaced by the Demon King's army. No matter the era, the lower classes were destined to be exploited.
"No real problems with resupplying? I thought we'd have to eat monsters or something."
"Right. And they're even giving us rooms."
Naturally, our kin weren't leisurely enough to bother with a village this small.
But didn't villages usually keep knights around to manage them? Maybe this place wasn't valuable enough for that, so they simply left it alone.
"Welcome. Our village is…"
"Ah, we're just travelers passing through. We need lodging for one night. And we'd like to buy a bit of food as well."
"Understood."
Because of all that, the whole village looked drained of life. Even this village chief fellow seemed somehow off.
"Let's take two rooms."
"Two?"
"Yeah. One large, one small."
The lodging Sloan assigned surprised me considerably.
Before, we had shared a room regardless of gender. Now she was separating us!
It couldn't have been a fairer arrangement. Even if she'd lost her mind, a hero was still a hero.
"Vali is… a man, so. It's right to take separate lodging. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Obviously."
Actually, there was another reason. If before they had thought of me as the party's pet — or mascot — now they seemed to see me as a man.
Well… whatever the reason, wasn't it fortunate that I wouldn't be sexually harassed?
I headed to my lodging with a cheerful heart.
"Then let's meet tomorrow morning!"
I could hear scuffling sounds behind me, but I lightly ignored them. Time to stop wasting my emotions on the women's fights.
"Phew… Now I can finally breathe a little."
Even though it was a small room, the mere fact of being alone brought me a deep psychological calm.
First wash up, eat, and sleep… Wait. I sense a presence?
My ears could not be fooled. That long life of struggling not to die had sharpened them. When someone approached, my keen senses could pull out specific information.
Three people coming from outside. One large, two small. And they were women.
Sloan, Camilla, and Elisa? Didn't seem like it.
Focusing my hearing carefully, I quickly figured out who they were.
"They definitely went in here, right? Can't we just jump them right now?"
"Shh, they'll hear…"
"Let's just check and go back."
Village residents? But the conversation content was suspicious.
Hmm. They were clearly up to something. I pulled a dagger from among my luggage. Ready to throw and kill if necessary.
Of course, I'd prefer to avoid killing if possible. Though I took murder opportunities when I could!
As I was checking the dagger, a knock soon came from the door.
"Who is it!"
"Uh… The village chief asked us to check if there's anything inconvenient for you."
"There isn't."
"Ah? Is that so. Understood."
Would they obediently leave? No. I couldn't hear a single footstep.
Meaning they were still loitering in front of the door.
"Just get lost, I said?"
"If you go tell the boss that, he'll cut your neck. Since we've come this far, we need to get something out of it."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean what. First let's break the door pretending it's a mistake."
A boss? So this wasn't just a regular village? My curiosity was slightly piqued.
Anyway — blood reeked wherever we went. Not a Hero Party, but a Murderer Party.