Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, there’s this phrase, ‘clumsy beauty’, which I think are much better than a ‘perfect’ beauty…Although, they seemed to only exist in TV shows, or online in my old world.”

 

The Council of Elders’ hall that Mia’s father lead me to, glancing at me with a barely perceivable frown fairly often, is located inside a part of the World Tree--deep in the Bornean Forest.

 

We arrived using the Fairy Rings in the underground town, to the surface town. I don’t know, because Mia’s father is speaking even less than his singular words, but it seems that this building inside the World Tree seems to only be accessible through teleportation.

 

Of course, I used All Map Exploration when I entered the area, but it seemed that there was something that resisted the All Map Exploration Skill--it’s good to know that something like this exists when I am not in enemy territory.

 

All I can gather from what my Skill managed to get, is that I am around 5 kilometers underground. The crust of the Earth is 10km thick, if I remember correctly. No trees on Earth could grow this deep, maybe the crust of this world is very, very thick--or it doesn’t have a magma core?

 

The roots of the World Tree expands all the way to the edge of the Bornean forest, and even further. Mia’s house is about 10 kilometers away from where we are now--I mistakenly thought that it was quite close, because the World Tree is bizarrely way too big.

 

Going back to the topic, there are a lot of Elves in here--about ten times as many Elves are on the surface. However, nearly everyone has the Sleeping Status. They’re comparatively high-leveled and older than the surface Elves.

 

Some of the younger Elves are only a couple thousand years old, but most of them are in their tens of thousands--some are in the hundreds of thousands, but they seem to be much deeper into the building.

 

Matching their rather long lives, their levels are mostly between 100 and 200--the younger ones, the few below two thousand years old, are only between level 80 - 90.

 

I’d like to know what the circumstances of these sleeping Elves, but I doubt that Mia’s father wants to talk right now.

 

Now then, as for the High Elves, there are only eight of them--however, 7 of them are Sleeping as well. They are level 200ish, except for the current awake one, who is only level 110.

 

Their lifespans however, are almost ridiculous when compared even to the sleeping Elves--the youngest, the one awake.

 

The only awake High Elf is waiting in the Council of Elders’ hall ahead.

 

I arrive at the destination while I’m still looking through the little bit of information that my All Map Exploration could glean. Again, the board that I am riding disappears as though sucked into the ground--the Elven city/cities are too large to walk everywhere, so people seem to ride these boards. They are almost like a Hover-board…The real ones, not the ones with wheels.

 

The door in front of me is a three meter wide octagonal wooden door--the corridors that I followed to get here seemed to be made from some kind of resin or amber, but it seems that the ones here are different.

 

Mia’s father takes a step forward and the door opens like an automatic door, there’s a 20 meter long passage on the other side, with a similar door, like an airlock.

 

I follow along closely behind Mia’s father.

 

***

“Tek of the Shiga Kingdom. We wish to express our gratitude for your assistance.”

 

“Tek of the Shiga Kingdom. We won’t forget the favour of saving the baby from the wicked Mage.”

 

“Tek of the Shiga Kingdom. We want to repay you for bringing back the baby to us from a distant land.”

 

It feels weird when they refer to Mia as a baby--especially after what we did last night…

 

I am currently in an auditorium with a large open space that looks like it could contain more than 1,000 people within. There are around 20 dignitaries of the Council of Elders sitting at the front row.

 

One-by-one, they’re saying thank you for bringing Mia back, but why do they start their sentences with “Tek of the Shiga Kingdom.”?

 

Is that phrase some kind of rule or ritual.

 

The Elders look about as young as Mia’s father, but their eyes look different. They look old--calmness, stillness that borders on apathy.

 

However, even though the Black Dragon Heiron is older than these Elder Elves, he feels like he is much younger. I wonder if it’s due to racial differences, or individual differences.

 

Then, as if waiting for everyone has finished saying their thanks, a thick curtain in the interior of the room rises, and people come out while riding a board of white light light. The long-awaited High Elf is on the center of the board, and four Elven Priestesses stand at the four corners, as though protecting the High Elf.

 

Unfortunately, I still can’t see the High Elf--that’s because bamboo blinds immediately float between the four standing Elven Priestesses. The board that that the Elves are riding on passes through, between the Elders, and stops in front of me.

 

““““Be silent.””””

 

The four Priestesses’ voices ring out in unison.

 

No one was talking, but it would be boorish of me to retort to that.

 

““““The Holy Tree will speak””””

 

The High Elf is called the Holy Tree?

 

Since her real name is Aialize, I wonder if that is her nickname, or the name of her position.

 

From her Heads-Up-Display, her title is Pure Maiden, and her occupation is World Tree: Ground Administrator.

 

The bamboo blinds open up, and the High Elf is revealed.

 

A little girl, huh?

 

The person I can see beyond the bamboo blinds is a little girl who’s really young, she looks to be between 5 - 8 years old. Her face looks a little bit like Mia, but with her silver hair and red eyes, she’s a bit different from the other Elves, who have green or blue hair and green eyes.

 

Out of curiousity, I checked her age--but I couldn’t quite decipher it. This is the first time that I’ve seen an age with hundreds of millions as the units--I feel dizzy, and keep losing my place, with all those ‘0’s…

 

However, her appearance is that of a little girl huh?

 

“Tek of the Shiga Kingdom. You’ve done well, escorting Misanalia back to the Bornean Forest, noja.”

 

Hmm?

 

“I…W-We, thank you very much. Noja.”

 

I wonder why it feels like her way of speaking isn’t natural. She sounded mostly normal, other than stumbling slightly over the ‘Tek of the Shiga Kingdom’ phrase--but when she said the second part, she started of saying ‘I’, and then changed it to ‘We’ and her voice sounded a little monotone for some reason.

 

When her wording was fluent, her voice was calm and gentle, but when she made that mistake--it was strangely high-pitched or faked. Similar to when someone who isn’t a voice actress, tries to imitate their favourite character.

 

The Elders are calm like before, but the four Priestesses are covering their faces--their shoulders are trembling.

 

“What’s wrong, no…ya?” The little girl tilts her head to one side.

 

I noticed it at first when I saw through Pochi’s ‘Human form’ at Muno City--but illusions don’t seem to work on me.

 

I can see the figure of a woman who looks like she is in her early twenties, who’s sitting--overlapped by the standing ‘little girl’. Blue eyes and light-blond hair, thin lips and nose, without a doubt, she’s a beautiful woman. I don’t know her height since she is sitting, but my guess would be around as tall as mine--before I was age-regressed…

 

“What do you wish, for--a reward? Noja.” The little illusionary girl speaks with an expression full of confidence--but the real girl has a slight red tint to her face.

 

It seems that she’s not doing this from her own preferences. Though, her timid, troubled, expression is fairly cute.

 

“Then, Tek of the Shiga Kingdom, I shall grant you a kiss as your reward. Noja.”

 

Oops, I didn’t really listen to the beginning or end of the talk.

 

I see an illusion of the little girl spreading out her arms, pushing her lips out like an octopus. The real form of the beauty seems to be embarrassed, so she’s closed her eyes.

 

If it was a real little girl, I would have declined, but I wouldn’t refuse such a beauty.

 

Well, I step forwards, placing my hands on the beauty’s cheeks, and lightly kiss her. I would want to kiss her on the lips, but she’s the representative of the Elven hometown, so I restrain myself.

 

Since it would look like I’m kissing a little girl--and they don’t know I can see through illusions…bad rumours would spread if I went for the mouth--they would think I was like the Hero.

 

I had seen Mia’s family kissed her on the forehead when they saw her again, and so had a few of the other elves, so I thought that it was normal for Elves--maybe like a handshake?

 

So, I kiss the High Elf on her forehead.

 

Since there’s no reaction, I drop my gaze--the High Elf fainted with her face so red that she looked like a tomato. She seems to have been so stunned that she fainted.

 

Perhaps, it was so bad?

 

***

Lua, please, give me some water.”

 

The beauty, who’s sleeping on a bed that shines with a strangely…transparent?…light--the High Elf, Aialize, pushes herself up while still half-asleep.

 

Lua, who has been waiting for Aialize to wake up, together with me, gives her some water that she poured from a pre-prepared pitcher.

 

The water cup looks like it’s made of glass, but it feels like plastic--such a mysterious material. The Heads-Up-Display says that it’s called an Alua Goblet.

 

“Uuu, Daisaku’s instructions must have been mistaken. He said that the High Elf appears as a silver-haired girl who uses ‘noja’ as an ending word--what does ‘noja’ even mean, ya?”

 

“Aze.” Lua says, glancing at me, before looking back at the flustered High Elf.

 

Since she’s frantically talking to herself, she doesn’t seem to notice me.

 

Daisaku is the name of the Hero from 400 years ago, the one who created the artificial town back then, according to Mia--she didn’t tell me his name though.

 

“I know already, you’re telling me to not speak ill of the deceased, right?” Aialize is pouting with inflated cheeks, like Mia tends to sometimes do.

 

“Aze.”

 

“Jeez--isn’t it alright, just for a bit? He must be thinking that I’m a weird woman. Even though he’s the benefactor who saved Mia, I wonder if he thinks badly of the Elven Hometown now.”

 

“Aze.”

 

I should probably talk soon, it is a little weird.

 

“Even though I went to the Surface Town to welcome Mia back last night, she wasn’t there. That’s right, that Arisa girl was also saying how a ‘High Elf has to be a silver-haired little girl, it’s the basics’, or, ‘Master will definitely refuse if a little girl offers him a kiss as a reward.’--but it’s totally different.”

 

“Aze.”

 

I see, so Arisa took part in this too.

 

“Jeez, Lua, what is it?”

 

Lua points her finger at me with a small movement.

 

I had thought that it might be a problem for a man to enter her room, and it probably would have been if I wasn’t following Lua in, she didn’t seem to mind. I don’t really understand the hierarchy of this Elven town--it seems like a Monarchy, but it also has a council, and it also seems like one large family.

 

Aialize turns her head towards me, moving mechanically, like an unoiled metal doll.

 

Our eyes meet.

 

Aialize become flustered, going, “Ahh, uhh.”

 

She seems to be a clumsy person, so let’s send her a lifeboat--I feel that she may think badly of Arisa and I.

 

“I’ve heard from Lua that you’ve had a fever since this morning--I’m sorry that you had to overdo it for my sake.”

 

“That’s right Aialize. Your fever still hasn’t subsided, so please get some rest instead of overworking yourself today.” Lua says with a straight face.

 

I quickly make eye contact with Lua.

 

After Aialize calmed down, I made a promise to Lua to visit them again, and decided to go back to Mia’s place--according to Lua, it seems like they have something to something to talk about. I feel that it may be something troublesome, but I may as well hear them out.

 

When I returned to Mia’s house, Arisa was smiling behind her hand.

 

Three of the Priestesses are also sitting at the table and eating baked sweets while happily laughing.