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High Elf Village Part 2
“Well, we can’t just stand here and talk, follow me. It’s been a while since I’ve had a visitor. I’ll offer you some tea.”
“…Nn”
The image I had of where we were going was a deep forest with large trees thousands of years old and several houses on top of them, deer and rabbits grazing freely without fear of people, and a sparkling spring, but in reality, it was as if a deep fog had settled over the place. The only thing that appeared in a blank space was a tea table set.
The high elf sister waved her hand and suddenly a teapot and cups popped into existence.
The older sister…her attitude was so normal that one could not help but notice that although she looked young, she lacked a sense of supremacy, or seemed somewhat tired.
When I had no choice but to sit at the table and take a sip of the herbal tea she poured for me, she leaned forward slightly to rest her elbows on the table as she stared at me.
“Who are you? You look like a half-elf, but there are no elves with that kind of hair, and that seal is not supposed to be accessible to those with predestined lives.”
“Predestined…?”
“High elves like me don’t have a predefined life span. Well, what’s your name anyway? I’m Celurial, you can call me Celia.”
“Carol…”
Sweat beaded slightly on my forehead.
I’d always assumed that once I’d matured to my original form, I wouldn’t change my appearance again… but I didn’t expect that I would not have a lifespan.
“I see, Carol. By the way, what did that slime thing show you? It was supposed to show you a vision of seeing your family back home.”
“My family…the people who tried to pretend I didn’t exist? Or the people who tried to kill me because I was in the way?”
“Ah, so that’s why…”
The smile disappeared from Celia’s lips at my answer. She seems to have understood that, let alone a half-elf, even normal people experienced a certain amount of persecution.
And I guess the reason why the slime or whatever showed my family in my previous life instead of my family in this life was because I didn’t consider my blood relatives in this life to be my family at all.
But still–
“Where am I?”
“…Did you come here without knowing? This is the Fairy World, a world between the Physical World where mortals live and the Spirit World where spirits live.”
…That’s why the magical element or rather –spirit power– was so strong.
According to Celia’s story, there was the Physical World, where people and animals live, and the Spirit World or the Magic World, where spirit life forms such as spirits and demons live.
In between, there was the “Fairy World” where fairies live. Fairies were those so-called tiny winged creatures, but it seemed that elves, dwarves, and other creatures that appeared later were also included to be residents of the fairy world.
In the Fairy World, even human-like creatures could barely exist. The difference was that if a person with low spiritual power or weak resistance to magic elements – in other words, a Low-Level Person – spent a certain amount of time in the Fairy World, they would easily turn into a demon.
And they won’t just become common subhumans like beastmen or elves, but rather creatures like harpies or centaurs, which seem to be on the verge of becoming monsters. That was terrifying.
“There’s no one like that around here. This is my territory, you know. Anyone who loses their intelligence ends up returning to the Physical World.”
“What about the other High Elves?”
When I casually asked the question, Celia’s expression darkened slightly.
“About the High Elves…there are none left, except for me. Even if we don’t have a lifespan, we could still die in accidents and conflicts. Everyone has been dead for thousands of years now except for me.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not something to worry about now. So, Carol… why don’t you tell me what brought you here?”
“Actually…”
The humans had been trying to persecute and invade the subhuman races again. When I honestly told her that I had come to ask if I could borrow the Demon Lord’s relics, Celia blatantly scowled.
“Are humans still doing that? My children risked their lives to teach them the pointlessness of war….”
“Who are those children… wait, the Demon Lord?”
“That was my son.”
“…”
I never thought that the Demon Lord was Celia’s child.
“Carol…I won’t speak ill of you, but give it up. That child’s power increased because of the magical tool I gave him, but his life was cut down a lot because of it. That thing can only be endured by a pure species like the High Elves.”
“…”
“I have two children…my son Karm died as a Demon Lord to unite the subhuman race. My daughter was of strong elven blood and did not become half Daemon, but she promised to change humans from within, and she – Nym – married into a human royal family of a small country and finally died in the middle of a war.”
“…eh.”
She lived alone for thousands of years and lost the two children she finally had because of humans.
The Demon Lord -Karm- was a rare being, half Daemon and half High Elf, and her daughter was born as a normal elf.
But that name [Nym]…