Chapter 54
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Long-lived Species Are Weak to Complications
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"The plan to 'accidentally' eliminate Aira during the Proxy Blood Fate is canceled."
"...Pardon?"
Thirty minutes before the Proxy Blood Fate began.
Elcia, who had been immersed in meditation in one corner of the waiting room, widened her eyes the moment she heard her father's words.
A warning not to make any mistakes.
It didn't take long to grasp what that meant.
'Leave her alive... is that it?'
The family's disgrace.
The shame of their race.
A being so unworthy of being called a high elf.
She had flowed into Argent lands without even vanishing quietly like a dead rat, and now she was to be left alive with the slave's collar around her neck?
"May I ask the reason?"
Her voice was calm, but her jaw muscles were tightly clenched.
If that child somehow survived and bore the Argent bloodline, it wouldn't just be mere survival.
It would be an indelible stain on the future of the elf kingdom.
Elcia ground her teeth.
She could never tolerate the kingdom she would one day inherit and rule being sullied from the start.
But.
The one who had guarded the throne of the elf kingdom for 500 years was not Elcia, but her father.
Erdas.
Though age had weakened his power, the eyes of one who had endured those years remained undimmed.
Elcia herself could not deny that his foresight surpassed her own.
That was why she asked.
Why had this man, who had desired Aira's removal more fervently than anyone, changed his mind now?
And his answer was astonishingly simple.
"Aira is a sacrifice."
"...A sacrifice, you say?"
Elcia didn't comprehend it right away.
But then she saw Erdas's gaze as he spoke of Aira.
That look was not one of a parent beholding a child.
It was the gaze toward a radiant jewel or a priceless rarity.
Only then did Elcia begin to vaguely understand what her father meant by 'sacrifice'.
"Elcia Silvarion."
Erdas opened his mouth.
"Do you know what humans wielded in battle when you were born?"
"...Generally speaking."
Elcia thought for a moment before replying.
"Magic-enhancing staves, swords, spears, and the like."
"Not wrong."
Erdas nodded.
"But it was entirely different from now."
He turned his body, gazing up at the ceiling of the waiting room.
As if peering back through the mists of time.
"Back then, the very concept of a 'magic-enhancing staff' didn't exist. They were just well-crafted wooden rods, sufficient if they aided aim a little."
Elcia's eyes widened slightly.
"Steel swords weren't as sturdy as they are today. Smelting techniques were lacking. Humans fought constantly breaking their weapons, learning and repairing as they went."
Erdas's voice was steady.
But within it lay the conviction only one who had witnessed it firsthand could possess.
"Armor was the same. Without proper ventilation, soldiers collapsed before the fight even began. Bows were even worse. In an era without crossbows, no one could match elven archery."
He let out a short breath.
"But they didn't stop."
If there was no way to preserve food cold, they invented storage methods.
If bows were weak, they devised stronger designs.
If armor was heavy, they found ways to lighten it.
"In my father's time, more soldiers fought in leather than plate. Before that, they hurled stones. Then they saw elven archery and began imitating it."
Erdas's gaze returned to Elcia.
"Short-lived species die quickly. But they accumulate just as fast. They cling not to tradition. Yesterday's failure becomes today's material."
Those words sent a chill down Elcia's spine.
"That is why humanity always stands at the 'next stage'."
Elcia knew well that humans advanced rapidly.
Whether good or ill, they always hurried.
To long-lived species like elves, time was but a blink.
No matter what they did, time always remained.
Even if death came one day, it was a life they could accept as sufficiently lived.
Thus, most elves accepted death rather than mourned it.
The only thing they could not endure was humiliation and subjugation that lingered for centuries.
Humans were different.
They died all too easily.
No— they vanished far too swiftly.
Most didn't surpass 40 years, and even nobles in the best conditions rarely exceeded 100.
Perhaps that was why.
They clung to life more fiercely than any other race in the world.
Instinctively knowing that without leaving something behind in their brief time, they would amount to nothing.
Maybe it wasn't that humans were unusually fast, but that other races were slow.
And having watched humanity's explosive changes for centuries.
Perhaps even this impudent imperial princess he had met recently.
And the boy who, despite being a bastard, had all but declared war on a high elf.
Erdas might have been captivated by them.
"When we first sent Aira out of the kingdom."
Erdas spoke again.
"Didn't we ruin her mouth and eyes forever?"
"...Yes."
Elcia answered cautiously.
"But I hear they're fine now."
"Yes. Probably thanks to the Immortal Spring in Argent territory—"
"No."
Erdas shook his head.
"Not even the Immortal Spring, or the Abellan Empire's 'Water of Life', could perfectly restore something as delicate as teeth or eyes."
Elcia's eyes trembled faintly.
"Then... what restored Aira's body now was not a god's 'miracle', but—"
"Human 'technology'."
Erdas asserted.
"Technology accumulated by humans."
A moment of silence.
"And."
He added quietly.
"As the current king of the elf kingdom, I wish to preserve tradition... but acquire that technology."
Now I think I understand what Father is trying to say.
Long-lived species.
Beings born with lifespans of hundreds, even thousands of years—close to the 'immortality' humans envy most.
Humans covet such lives.
But that's merely the fantasy of short-lived species who haven't lived it.
In truth, many born as long-lived species grow weary of their endless years, even cursing them.
Living long means that when problems arise in the body, the suffering doesn't end in a few years like with humans.
At least decades.
Or even longer, they must live with broken bodies.
They don't die, but 'complications' that erode quality of life are even worse.
And then Elcia realized.
Why her father so desperately wanted to keep Aira alive.
No—
Precisely, why he coveted the one who had restored that child to her original state.
Those emerald eyes.
The elf slave who had lost them—the mark of a high elf—and been discarded, unable even to speak.
Argent wouldn't have gone mad enough to use the Immortal Spring just for her.
Thus, there was only one answer.
The owner who bought Aira.
The one who healed her body.
Lucas Argent.
The reason Erdas used Aira as bait to lure that human into the elf kingdom.
The conclusion forming in Elcia's mind was all too blatant.
"...No way."
A self-mocking murmur escaped her lips.
"Even at your age, you still crave a 'woman' that badly?"
Yes.
Erdas, already 500 years into his decline, suffered most agonizingly from one affliction among the many plaguing his aging body.
Erectile dysfunction.
Was it un-elf-like to be so lustful?
Thanks to that constitution, unlike most high elf kings who sired only one or two heirs in a lifetime, he already had four daughters.
One for succession, two for amusement, and one discarded as useless.
And yet he wanted to make more.
It wasn't funny...
"Normally, the Proxy Blood Fate proceeds by using a proxy slave to fight in one's stead, but..."
Elcia paused briefly before speaking calmly.
"Whether labor or duel, elves always bear their own burdens. If challenged to a Proxy Blood Fate or any duel, the principal steps forward themselves—that is the elf's honor and right."
"...! Y-Yes, understood!"
She asked no more.
Elcia turned and walked first into the arena where the Proxy Blood Fate would unfold.
And then.
She glanced briefly at her father, seated beside the Argent family head in the stands.
I acknowledge that humans advance quickly.
They constantly change, moving to the next stage.
By the time I reach my father's age, humans will surely look entirely different from now.
But that doesn't mean a noble high elf has reason to entangle with short-lived species.
No matter how technology advances, what humans do boils down to forging sturdier blades, more durable armor, and slightly more efficient magic amplification.
Can they fly the skies without wings?
Dive hundreds of meters underwater without a magic barrier?
Traverse a spirit forest thick with poison without a single breath?
No.
Human technology is always 'conditional'.
It requires tools, remaining mana, favorable conditions.
A broken sword ends it; depleted mana halts them.
High elves are different.
Their power is etched into their bodies, flows in their blood, exists from birth.
In the end, short-lived are short-lived.
Their explosive progress will one day hit an insurmountable wall, slow, and stagnate.
That was Elcia's belief.
Thus, Aira, who sought to grow under such a master's wing.
She intended to crush her completely here, regardless of His Majesty's orders.
For pride as a high elf.
And proof as the next queen.
That was when it happened.
...Drip.
"Huh?"
One minute until the duel began.
Elcia, staring at the opposite passageway where no one had emerged, suddenly felt an inexplicable presence.
"......?"
Instinctively, she brushed back her hair.
Her fingertips touched cold sweat.
As if prey before a predator reacted bodily before reason could comprehend.
Reason had seen nothing yet, but her body had sensed the danger first.