Chapter 206: The Elf's Journey Rides the Wind (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 206: The Elf's Journey Rides the Wind (2)
Alfia and Azyeth sat facing each other.
Azyeth sat demurely, staring blankly. Alfia, on the other hand, struck an arrogant pose with her legs crossed and arms folded.
She still remembered how she had rambled incoherently during her first meeting with Narsha.
Of course, her opponent had been the daughter of a noble house and the next leader of a merchant group, one who had survived the harsh world of aristocracy with her silver tongue alone. Alfia, by contrast, was a country bumpkin from the forest who knew nothing of the world.
Beating Narsha in a battle of words had been nearly impossible.
But not anymore.
She had honed her skills while spending time with Narsha.
“My name is Alfia. As you can see, I’m an elf.”
“Tinkerbell…”
“Would you stop with the Tinkerbell thing? I don’t even know what a Tinkerbell is. I’m just a normal elf.”
Azyeth’s face fell, and she lowered her head.
“What’s your name?”
“Azyeth.”
“Right, Azyeth. Nice to meet you?”
The most important thing in a first meeting was to gain the upper hand.
This was a truth Alfia had come to realize.
Especially when her opponent was another woman, another slave. In terms of time, Alfia was Azyeth’s senior. As the senior slave, she had to establish discipline.
“You’re the Master’s slave too, right?”
“Rami…?”
“Rami?”
“Rami.”
Rami must be her name for Karami.
It was a term of endearment one would only use with a lover.
In contrast, the names Alfia called Karami were ‘Hey,’ ‘You,’ or ‘Master.’
…
Compared to Azyeth, there wasn’t a trace of affection in her words.
“Fine. You win this one. I admit it.”
It was a clear defeat.
‘This isn’t going to be easy.’
A poker face even better than Narsha’s.
She couldn’t tell what Azyeth was thinking.
To be able to maintain such a blank expression.
She was no ordinary opponent.
But Alfia didn’t back down.
She suddenly untied her top, exposing her back.
“See this? This brand? It’s proof that I’m his slave. It’ll never disappear, you know? You don’t have anything like this, do you?”
It was Alfia’s ultimate move.
The brand Karami had carved on her back. A brand that someone else might want to erase even if it meant carving out their own flesh was, to Alfia, a uniquely precious symbol.
Even Narsha had been powerless before this brand.
It wasn’t because she was an exhibitionist.
Or maybe she was.
In any case, it was the moment Alfia was certain she had seized victory. Azyeth fumbled around and took something out.
“What’s that?”
“Rami gave it to me.”
The Snow White fairy tale book.
“I thought it was something special. It’s just an ordinary book, isn’t it?”
At those words, the corner of Azyeth’s eye twitched.
It was a fairy tale book Karami had made just for Azyeth. A one-of-a-kind treasure in all the world, one she wouldn’t trade for all the treasures in the castle.
She couldn’t forgive anyone for belittling it.
“It’s not… an ordinary book.”
“It looks high-quality, but you can mass-produce things like that at any printing press, you know? Even an ugly goblin could own one.”
“…It’s not.”
“Deny it all you want. In comparison, my brand is unique to me. It can’t be mass-produced. This is what you call a real treasure.”
It was a one-sided attack.
Azyeth’s eloquence was in a league of its own—the weakest in the world.
“It’s on a whole different level from a fairy tale book that only kids would read—”
Thump!
Azyeth shot up from her seat.
Alfia flinched.
“Wh-why did you stand up so scarily? You wanna fight? I’m confident in my fighting skills, you know!”
Had she gotten too carried away?
Maybe her words had been too harsh.
Azyeth, who had been staring at Alfia as if she could shoot lasers from her eyes, began to walk with long strides. She approached Alfia and then plopped down in the seat next to her.
“Huh?”
Creek.
Creeeak.
She wound the music box that was on the table and played its song. She placed the fairy tale book on their laps, between them, and began to turn the pages.
“Once upon a time… in a certain winter kingdom, there lived a beautiful, fair-skinned princess named Snow White.”
Azyeth knew she was weak with words. So the method she chose was to read the fairy tale aloud herself.
To show just how precious this book was.
To convey her feelings to Alfia.
It was the best choice Azyeth could make.
Azyeth read the book, enunciating more clearly than ever, her voice filled with conviction. Faced with this, Alfia couldn’t argue and had no choice but to listen attentively.
*
“…And the prince and Snow White lived happily ever after.”
Thump.
Azyeth closed the book.
“Hoo…”
She let out a long sigh.
Yeah. I did a good job.
I read it perfectly without making any mistakes.
This should be enough to get my feelings across.
It was a sigh of relief filled with such thoughts.
“S…o?”
She turned her head and stared intently at Alfia, her gaze full of tension. A faint sense of expectation also leaked out.
It was an overwhelmingly pure, earnest gaze you couldn’t bring yourself to challenge.
Alfia, finding the stare unbearably burdensome, finally couldn’t take it and looked away. Her lips twitched before she reluctantly answered.
“Well… it’s a nice story.”
At that, Azyeth’s expression brightened, like an ice crystal melting in the palm of her hand.
“Mhm, mhm.”
She nodded her head repeatedly in joy.
At that, Alfia completely lost her will to fight. Unlike with Narsha, facing Azyeth made a wave of guilt wash over her.
It felt like she was bullying a small puppy.
It felt like she was the only villain in the room.
“Sigh.”
She decided to end the war of words there.
It didn’t seem like her opponent was the type to be swayed by it anyway.
“Okay, I get it. I get how precious he is to you, and how precious that book is. But where did he go, leaving you behind?”
She had already noticed.
In this castle, no, in this entire vast kingdom, Azyeth was the only person.
Karami wasn’t here.
“He left. To another place.”
“Where to?”
“The Holy Kingdom.”
“You’re not going after him?”
“He said he’d be back soon.”
Just as she thought.
He had said the same thing to Alfia before he left.
No, he had disappeared without a word to her, leaving only a single letter, so her situation was even worse than Azyeth’s.
‘So he’s a habitual offender, huh?’
Maybe his promise to return was a lie from the start. Her decision to find him herself had been the right one after all.
“So what have you been doing here all alone?”
“Rami… said he wanted to see it. The kingdom bustling with people.”
“So you were making the statues?”
“Mhm.”
“All of those, by yourself?”
Azyeth nodded.
To Alfia, who didn’t know the meaning behind making the ice statues, it just looked like a bizarre hobby.
To the point where she could almost feel a hint of madness.
“I’m on a journey to find him right now. Since you said he’s in the Holy Kingdom, that’s where I’m headed next. What do you say, want to come with me?”
To Alfia, Azyeth was a rival, but at the same time, she felt a sense of pity for her.
She was also a slave who, just like her, had been left behind by Karami. Her situation, making statues all alone in this vast place with no one to talk to, was pitiful.
But Azyeth shook her head.
“I… will wait here.”
“Even though you don’t know when he’ll be back?”
“Rami said he’d be back soon.”
Seeing Azyeth’s infinite trust in Karami, Alfia saw a reflection of her past self.
There was a time when I was like that, too.
But no matter how long she waited, Karami never came. It went on for so long that Alfia, an elf accustomed to waiting, could no longer bear it.
In reality, far from returning, Karami had gone to an even more distant place to dally with other pretty slaves.
“I at least had people by my side, but aren’t you lonely? He said he’d be back soon, but years could pass, you know.”
“It’s okay. I’m… going to sleep now.”
“Sleep?”
The Azyeth of the past wouldn’t have cared about being bored or lonely. She had thought she would be fine on her own even after Karami left.
But that was a huge miscalculation.
From the moment he left, an unshakable loneliness had enveloped her.
It was the first time Azyeth had ever felt cold. A chill different from the dragon's curse—the desolation of loneliness.
Azyeth felt a slight regret.
If I had known it would be like this, I would have followed Karami.
I should have taken his hand then.
But it was already too late.
Azyeth stood up, then suddenly lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over herself.
She had finished all the work Karami had entrusted to her.
She had filled the kingdom with people.
There was nothing left for Azyeth to do.
All that remained was to wait for the day Karami returned.
Azyeth opened the fairy tale book to a page, set it on the nightstand, then folded her hands neatly and closed her eyes. Then, she began to minutely freeze her body from within.
Her cooling heartbeat gradually slowed before stopping completely. With the disappearance of her shallow breaths, all of her vital functions ceased.
Until the day her prince arrives to give her a kiss, the princess under the witch's curse will not awaken.
Forever.
Watching this whole sequence of events, Alfia couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. “Heh, heh, heh.”
“Wow. You’re no ordinary lunatic, are you?”
Not that she was one to talk, but to think she’d choose the path of becoming a frozen human just because she hated waiting.
It was a groundbreaking method. With that method, no matter how much time passed, it would feel like just falling asleep for a moment and waking up.
Of course, if Karami never came, she would never wake up and would simply die.
“I hope you get the ending you want.”
She stood up from her seat.
She had no more business in the Frisian Kingdom.
Having obtained the information that Karami had gone to the Holy Kingdom, Alfia moved on toward her next destination.