Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Recap - 7
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I never thought I'd see hell this soon.
A repulsive iron cage, a tiny space she could cross from end to end in less than a second at her speed.
Rat corpses lay scattered here and there, while bugs crawled through the space as if it were their own home.
The insects from the forest had at least been cute, but the ones here were just vicious and repulsive, baring their teeth at one another.
"Hngh, ugh, kuhhhh..."
And the only intelligent being here had to expend all her experience, wisdom, and emotions just on feeling despair and pain.
"Why... ugh, why..."
It felt like her skin was being eaten away. No matter how many times she brushed at her body, there was no nature here to protect her.
"You think... you can do this to an elf... and get away with it..."
They were all traitors. She hated everyone who had done this to her.
The uncooperative porter, the princess who blocked her path, the soldiers who dragged her here—all of them.
The bread they gave her was so repulsive she couldn't believe it was made from grain from nature.
Having her freedom stripped away, chained heavily at one ankle, flailing in despair—this was a pain she had never felt before.
And amid that pain, the one face that kept coming to mind was that porter's.
Unrefined desires ravaged her crumbling mind. She had to meet him. Kneel before him. And then...
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"
The elf let out a scream of agony that tore at the air, in that refined and beautiful voice of hers.
She was afraid. She didn't know what was inside her. It felt like an invisible monster was devouring her body, bite by bite.
Delusions Nerwen would never think, desires she would never want—they had taken root in a corner of her mind at some point, as if they'd always been there.
Starting midway through the journey, they had appeared at some moment. They hid when she screamed, but grew steadily worse.
"...He's coming."
But when her pointed, sensitive elven ears picked up footsteps, her fit subsided a little.
Even locked in a place like this, she was still a noble being. She couldn't let them see her in such an ugly state.
Soon, two guards appeared. Nerwen suppressed her pain and sat with a dignified expression.
"You'll need to come out for a bit."
"Is it the trial?"
"Treatment."
Nerwen's face brightened slightly.
It might not be as good as visiting the World Tree directly, but with help from an elven healer, she might uncover the source of this pain.
And she might learn how this connected to the porter. His eyes hadn't seemed to lie, but it was clearly related to him in some way.
As the door opened and they entered, an elf who looked a bit more mature than her was waiting.
To a human, she might seem like a sister at most, but Nerwen knew it took countless years for an elf to age that much.
"I'm sorry to meet you in a place like this, Elder."
"It's fine... ngh."
The elf sitting before Nerwen cut off mid-sentence to pinch her nose.
Nerwen bit her lip. She had no intention of blaming her. Even she found the underground prison's environment disgusting and filthy.
It was just humiliating that this noble elf, who shouldn't be in such a filthy place, smelled like "that kind of dirty person" to others.
"I'm sorry, Nerwen, Great Warrior of the World Tree. Unfortunately, I can't get you out of here right now. The Emperor is wary of you."
Anger flashed in Nerwen's eyes.
She had bowed her head once before, but that had only been a ceremonial gesture to avoid ruining the festival's mood.
Now that the Hero Party had disbanded, she was no longer just an archer following the Hero. She was Nerwen, the chosen elf who enacted the World Tree's will.
There was no reason for her to bow to any human.
"And so they treat me like this? Me, who helped vanquish the Demon King! Ungrateful bastards. I'll inform the World Tree of their betrayal right—"
Even if her imprisonment was politically unavoidable, it made no sense to throw someone of her noble status into a prison like this.
They should have confined her to a private cell with maids and servants, controlling her access, not left her to suffer here.
"It was Elenor who put you in here."
"That's..."
Nerwen had no choice but to accept it. Elenor, who never yielded an inch on principles and duty, wouldn't have given her special treatment just because she was an elf or a friend.
She would have demanded she live no differently from the other criminals who attacked nobles.
"But Elenor was very worried about you. She said you didn't seem like the Nerwen she knew. She was the one who called me."
Out of shame, Nerwen hadn't been able to tell others about her condition. She'd only vaguely described the symptoms to priests or mages, never opening up fully.
But she had no time for such luxuries now. Even if it cost her some dignity, she needed proper treatment.
"First, tell me your symptoms slowly."
This was an elf renowned for her wisdom, one Nerwen knew well. As an elder and healer, she could surely find a solution.
"There's a strange smell."
"A smell?"
"A smell I don't know..."
The elder tilted her head. Elves didn't know every smell they could detect, but Nerwen was young yet experienced.
The smell of fire from magic, of iron wet with water, of human corpses and blood.
There were many smells young elves might not know, but it seemed unlikely Nerwen would suffer over something like that.
"That's odd. Even if that's the issue, doesn't it seem fine right now?"
"It must be revolting, but just thinking of that smell makes me feel like I'm going mad... even now."
Even at this moment before the elven elder, Nerwen was contemplating how to escape and find the porter.
No, it wasn't her thought. Her elven reason and noble soul rejected such base desires, but the impulse was there in her mind.
As if it had been there since birth.
"Talking about the smell only confuses me more. Try focusing on your emotions?"
"During the journey, one porter... kept giving off a strange smell."
"The smell of his soul?"
Nerwen nodded.
"It got worse and worse, to where I even snapped at him sometimes. Every time I smelled it, a strange craving came over me. Like someone who's never drunk water feeling thirst..."
"Why..."
Ancient illnesses from thousands of years ago flashed through the elven elder's mind. The chances of something like this were very low.
"Was that porter someone important?"
"No. I heard he was a noble, but compared to an elf's nobility, he's utterly insignificant."
Nerwen gazed at the elf before her with a sigh. The elder's wisdom, now troubled, was her last hope for salvation.
"I really have no idea... It's unlikely, but Nerwen, listen carefully to what I'm about to say and don't misunderstand."
"Yes?"
"This isn't meant to insult or belittle you."
The elder endured the stench as best she could, trying to look Nerwen straight in the eye.
"Elves don't get sick. If it were a curse or magic, your friends would have noticed right away."
"Then what the hell..."
"Elves were created for noble purposes, but we don't have only the essential organs. Just as we have vestigial ones without purpose, there are smells like that too."
"What are you..."
The elven elder sighed deeply and looked at Nerwen with worried eyes.
"We all come from the World Tree, but we can use other methods too. Like humans and other races, birthing new life in the natural way."
"No matter how natural it is, it's still revolting."
Nerwen bit her lip, not hiding her disgust.
"I won't deny it's natural... But that method is done to satisfy base, filthy bodily desires, not out of responsibility and love to create new life."
Elves don't bear children with their bodies. They offer their essence to the World Tree, and it creates their child for them.
Not babies born from mere chance and desire, but ones born amid love and blessings, under the sacred tree's grace.
Elves born this way naturally saw other races as barbaric. They believed themselves superior, touched by divine hands from birth.
But not everyone rejected the other way.
"Why even bring up such a topic..."
"Are you in love with the porter?"
The elder posed a question Nerwen had never even imagined.