Do Elves Dream of Freedom? (1)
Evan ran with more force than he ever had in his entire life. Now that he'd rescued Seolhyang and Anya, only one thing remained: revenge on the elves who had laid hands on them.
He sprinted until his lungs burned, reaching the vicinity of the World Tree, and immediately raised his sword high above his head, bellowing—
"I'm here—! You damn elf bastards, where the hell are you—!"
"Oh. You've arrived. Evan."
"Where the hell..."
Arriving at the scene, Evan could only let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Rainia waving cheerfully at him.
For there, subdued before her, the Spear King, and Ryung, were the three elves.
"...No. No way."
"Heh heh. You're far too late."
Rainia let out a snicker at Evan's flustered expression.
"We already ate all the good stuff."
The fight was already over. Whether Evan participated or not made no difference at all—the three of them had successfully subdued all of the elves' guardians.
His sword, raised high in the air, was rendered meaningless.
It was the kingdom's victory.
"You damn inferior species—! Don't you dare lay a hand on— *gag*!"
"Shut your trap, you defeated trash!"
The kingdom's knights and soldiers began binding the elves and hauling them away one by one. Under normal circumstances, the guardians would never have stood by and watched, but now that they had lost in a battle of Transcendents, things were different.
The three guardians, perfectly subdued so they couldn't exert any power at all, could only watch as their own kind were dragged away—without receiving any humane treatment in the process.
"—*gag*!"
The Great Mother, Erzsebet, reacted especially violently. She who had the duty to protect all elves reacted as if her own son were being dragged away.
Seeing this, Rainia sneered at her with a look of pure satisfaction.
"You looked so happy torturing others. And you can't even stand this much, woman? Your mental fortitude is pitiful."
"*Grrr—*!"
"Your words are obvious enough. Let me guess. 'I'll never forgive you. I'll definitely kill you.' Something like that, right?"
"*Grrr—!!*"
"Of course, of course. I hope you succeed."
Watching the struggling Great Mother Erzsebet, Rainia let out a snicker. At the same moment she laughed, the chains binding Erzsebet began to glow purple.
It looked like something was about to happen, but the opposite was true. Nothing happened at all. Erzsebet, who had been trying to do something, stiffened her expression as if she couldn't believe the reality that she couldn't do as she pleased.
"What's that?"
"Hmm? Ah— It's a special chain made by the kingdom's mages. It was designed for Transcendents, so even if you're a Transcendent, you can't use your power while wearing it."
"Wow— If you have something like that, aren't you the strongest? Just throw a chain at any Transcendent and bind them, done."
"No. Any Transcendent can break free before being bound. That thing can only be used when a Transcendent binds themselves, or when one Transcendent subdues and captures another."
The fact that the condition for using an item designed to subdue Transcendents was being a Transcendent strong enough to subdue another Transcendent without killing them told you exactly how useless the item was.
If you had a Transcendent like that on your side, why would you even need such an item? You'd just kill all the Transcendents who resisted you, and that would be that.
But the kingdom, with its overflowing budget, had gone ahead and made such a thing anyway. The item, which had been gathering dust in a corner of the kingdom's warehouse, had finally found its use today.
"Well, we've taken various other measures besides that. There's poison made by alchemists too."
"Really thorough, aren't you."
"Thorough? If I were truly thorough, I'd have cut off all their limbs, gouged out their eyes, and made their brains completely melt away through drugs and hypnosis magic. I'm only not doing that because it wouldn't be much different from killing them."
"...Why aren't you killing them?"
"Because there are still plenty of places where we can use them."
At the phrase "use them," Evan felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine. But he decided not to get too involved.
He decided to think of whatever happened to them as their own fault. They had declared war on the beastmen over resource shortages, and in the process, had kidnapped his acquaintances under the pretext that the World Tree had collapsed.
It was unexpected that they weren't being killed, but that didn't erase the elves' crimes. They had simply not crossed an irreversible line.
'That's just my subjective opinion, though...'
Evan looked around at the knights and beastmen loading elves onto carriages. The knights' expressions showed no particular emotion, but the beastmen were different.
To them, elves were eternal enemies. Shameless invaders who had attacked first. A trash-like race that still held their heads high despite their defeat.
Even elves who hadn't committed any crime would be wanted dead simply for being elves. And if their acquaintances, family, or comrades had died in the elves' attacks, they'd want it even more.
'...We're clearly looking at the same thing, but what we see is completely different.'
That's how it is with everything in the world. People look at the world through a small window in their hearts. And each person's window has different smudges on it.
Even if you wipe the smudges and widen the window, you can't say what you see is the whole truth. Because someone else might have a cleaner, bigger window.
In other words, everyone lives looking at their own world. There is one world, but as many small worlds as there are people.
'And that means...'
"—Evan?"
"Ah, yes!"
"Over there. Someone seems to be calling you."
The thread of his realization. Evan, who had been feeling a tickle of something, suddenly snapped back to awareness at the sound of Rainia's voice calling him. Thanks to that, the realization that had been creeping into his mind washed away like water, but he didn't mind much.
He had a gut feeling that even if he had lingered here, writhing and clinging to it, it wouldn't have improved much. It wasn't something light enough to be mastered in a single moment of insight.
Satisfied enough with just having discovered that such a path existed, Evan approached Mirinae, who was raising her foot toward him.
"What is it?"
"*Gag.*"
"You want me to untie you? That's a bit..."
"*Gag gag gag.*"
"Hmm— I'll go ask first. Your Majesty the Spear King—!"
Seeing that Mirinae seemed to have something to say, Evan went straight back to the Spear King and asked if he could temporarily loosen her gag.
After a moment of thought, the Spear King granted permission on the condition that Evan take responsibility if anything happened, and Evan loosened Mirinae's gag with his hand on his sword hilt.
"Puhah—! Thank you!"
"So, what did you want to say?"
"What would a defeated person have to say? It's obvious."
With her gag removed, Mirinae spoke quickly.
"—Please, I beg you to spare my life. If you do, I will do anything with my life on the line."
"*Grrr—!*"
Erzsebet, who had been listening from beside her, began to go berserk as if asking what in the world she was doing.
But Mirinae's resolve remained firm. Even Evan, watching her, was moved for a moment.
"No, I don't particularly want to kill you... Your Majesty the Spear King probably feels the same. The other two as well..."
Glancing over to read Rainia and Ryung's expressions, Evan realized that neither of them had any major grievances against Mirinae.
But that wasn't what Mirinae was talking about. She knew the Spear King wouldn't kill her. But.
"An example needs to be made. If someone has to die, it should be the oldest one—me."
"...You don't want to live?"
"I do want to live. But in this situation, I can't shamelessly beg everyone to be spared—this is the duty of the eldest."
Mirinae looked at the elves around her with a bitter expression. Many elves had already died in the war. That alone was sad enough... She didn't want more dying here.
She was willing to do anything for that. Even if it meant becoming a footstool for those beasts over there—she had the maturity to put aside her pride.
"I'm begging you. Swordmaster. There's no need to see blood, right?"
"...I'll go ask."
While somewhat sympathizing with her words, Evan turned toward the Spear King. It wasn't he who had captured them—it was the Spear King and the two beastmen of Nine Lives. That meant the right to decide their fate belonged to others, not him.
He relayed Mirinae's words to the Spear King, and surprisingly, the Spear King readily agreed.
"—So as long as she doesn't die, that's fine."
"...Don't torment her too much."
"I was planning to do that anyway— I promised that if the three of you show responsibility as guardians, I won't lay a hand on the other elves."
"...I'll keep my promise."
"*Gag!*"
"..."
"As for these two, I'm not sure."
The Spear King smiled slyly.
After the war with the World Tree Alliance ended, the capital released several pieces of information.
One was that Erzsebet, the leader and Great Mother of the World Tree Alliance, had become a concubine of the Spear King.
The other was the establishment of the Elf Prison.