Despite the little prank the Great Elder had played on Elnea by hiding his identity, their meeting ended without incident; now it was time for Teto and me to show Elnea and Althea around. We called over the griffin whom we had preemptively summoned to the mansion.
“Oh, did this griffin come to greet us? It’s quite splendid, indeed! Come closer, you little darling, you!” Elnea exclaimed, holding out a hand towards the griffin and scratching the back of its neck.
The griffin closed its eyes in contentment.
As a high elf, Elnea had a boatload of mana. Perhaps the mythical beasts enjoyed snacking on her mana, just like they did mine.
“Our forest is about the size of a small country, so it’d take forever if we started showing you around on foot,” I explained. “That’s why I asked the griffin to give you a ride.”
“Teto and Lady Witch will ride on Lady Witch’s staff!” Teto added.
Elnea nodded excitedly. “Good thinking! I could do without its help, but not Althea. How long has it been since I last rode on a mythical beast?” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she climbed on the back of the crouching griffin, Althea following suit, albeit a lot more timidly.
“Everyone ready? Let’s go! Fly!”
My staff gently floated upward and the griffin followed suit, flapping its wings to take to the air. Beretta waved us off from the ground.
Elnea hummed. “Your forest really is young,” she commented.
“Well, it hasn’t even been a hundred years since we started developing it,” I replied.
“But Teto and Lady Witch are really proud of it!” Teto chirped.
Most of the trees in Eltar were more than a few centuries old, and their foliage was thick enough to obstruct the sunlight entirely. In the capital, the only light came from the mana emitted by the trees. In contrast, our forest was still, as Elnea had put it, quite young, so it mostly resembled a satoyama—a biodiverse environment mixing nature and settled land, with large grasslands sprawling in between the trees.
“Let us go see your World Trees first!” Elnea commanded.
“Sure. We’ll show you our biggest one!”
I adjusted the direction of my staff, and we headed towards the first World Tree we had planted.
“Oooh! It is just as young as the rest of your forest, but it is a splendid World Tree. I hope that the seeds you have given us will produce trees as beautiful as this one,” Elnea commented as we flew around the World Tree before her attention got caught by something.
“How peculiar...” she said, her eyes fixed on a group of creatures at the base of the tree.
“Ah, those are Teto’s bear golems,” I said.
Elnea looked like she was on the verge of bursting into laughter as she looked at the clay golems with mud balls on either side of their heads—hence the nickname “bear golems”—as they diligently tended to the trees around the World Tree. Thanks to them and the earthnoids and earth spirits, our forest had become a veritable treasure trove, teeming with fruit trees, edible herbs, and mushrooms.
“They’re all very hard workers! Don’t make fun of them, it’s not very nice!” Teto scolded Elnea.
“My apologies. I did not mean to ridicule your familiars; I had just never seen anything of the sort before. I could not help it,” Elnea said.
Most golems had a pretty solid and immovable appearance, but Teto’s bear golems were absolutely adorable, both in terms of looks and mannerisms. Even children loved them.
“Your forest teems with earth spirits,” Elnea commented. “I can sense a few plant spirits too, but no other types.”
This must’ve been due to Teto’s nature as a half-earth spirit. As for the plant spirits, we did have a few plant demons living in the forest—namely, the dryads and alraunes—so their influence might have been what had brought those spirits over.
“Is it a bad thing if the balance of spirits is skewed?” I asked.
Elnea shook her head with a smile. “That is not what I said. I simply observed that, for now, earth spirits are dominant. But as time passes, they may move on to other lands, and new spirits will emerge—whether from the souls of the departed ascending or naturally forming in places rich in mana.”
Elnea looked around, clearly able to see things that were out of my perception. She told the griffin to land near the World Tree, and it did just that. A lot of mythical beasts lived around the World Tree, and Elnea observed their nests one by one, visibly enjoying herself.
“Not only does this place have the protection of the goddesses, but the mana density is strong too. On top of that, you have mythical beasts and several World Trees... There is no doubt your land must attract all sorts of unsavory individuals, just like our great forest,” Elnea said.
I nodded. “That’s why I’ve asked for your help devising strategies to keep intruders at bay.”
“Your forest is quite valuable to us too. I shall lend you my aid.”
“Thank you, Miss Elnea.”
“In exchange, you shall show us more of your land!” Elnea declared.
“Of course!” Teto replied in my stead, her enthusiasm causing the rest of us to smile slightly.
The two of us resumed our tour of the forest, focusing mostly on the surroundings of the World Tree. After a while, we decided to return to the mansion.
“So? Are you satisfied?” I asked Elnea on the way back.
“I would have liked to explore more, but it is quite all right; I shall come again at a later date. It shall be enough for today.”
“Lady Elnea, please remember to invite Miss Chise over from time to time as well, rather than always imposing on her hospitality,” Althea reminded her. She must’ve remembered that Teto and I had said we’d like to explore their forest some more as well.
“Oh, good point, Althea!” Elnea said.
“Besides, we are not quite done here yet. Once we return to Miss Chise’s mansion, we need to give her and her attendants advice on how to deal with intruders,” Althea continued.
The plan was to have an impromptu meeting with Beretta and the other maids and to exchange technologies and ideas on how to strengthen our Forest’s defenses.
“We shall be having lunch beforehand, though, shall we not? I was so engrossed in exploring this land that I did not notice it was past mealtime,” Elnea said, looking up at the sky from her spot on the griffin’s back. The sun had already passed its zenith.
“Now that you mention it, Teto’s hungry!” Teto commented, her stomach growling.
“I am looking forward to seeing what delicacy you shall prepare for us, Chise. The curry you served me last time was exquisite. I would enjoy another rice dish,” Elnea requested unabashedly.
“Lady Elnea, that’s unbecoming!” Althea chided her, but Elnea paid her no mind, an amused smile curling on her lips.
“Lunch, huh? I wonder what we have that’ll satisfy Miss Elnea...” I pondered.
“For now, let’s head back to the mansion and decide when we’re there,” Teto suggested, and we did just that.
We thanked the griffin who had let Elnea and Althea ride on its back the entire morning and headed to the kitchen. I had decided that I would cook our meal this time.
“We have a bunch of rice in the preservation box, but we don’t really have time to make anything too complex,” I muttered.
Preservation boxes were a magic tool used, as the name suggested, to preserve food. It was much more efficient than a fridge, as it didn’t just cool things down; it stopped time for anything placed inside. As I looked at the rows of cooked rice and leftover dishes, pondering what to serve to our guests, my eyes landed on one pot in particular.
“We could use this,” I said.
“Oooh!” Teto cheered excitedly beside me. “Teto loves this!”
“Let’s add some pizzazz to it, shall we?”
I took the ingredients out of the preservation box and started cooking.
First, I added some butter to a pan and let it heat up before sautéing some freshly grated garlic until fragrant. Then I dumped in some cooked rice and stir-fried it with the garlic. I sprinkled some salt, pepper, and dried parsley over the buttered rice and set it aside.
Meanwhile, I beat a few eggs, which I then added to another frying pan along with some milk and pepper to make a soft and creamy omelet before repeating the process a couple more times. When I was done, I piled up some buttered rice on plates, topped them with the omelets, and served them to our guests along with a side salad and some soup.
“The smell of garlic and butter has tantalized my appetite since you began, but is that the meal you have prepared for us? A mere omelet on top of some buttered rice?” Elnea said, looking extremely disappointed.
Beside her, Althea’s eyes traveled between the omelet and me, an awkward look on her face.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s not done yet, but I wanted you to watch the next part. First of all, you have to put your knife into the omelet...”
I carefully cut open the omelet and—ta-dah! Creamy, fluffy omurice.
Elnea and Althea watched with attention as I cut open both omelets, while Teto was waiting spoon in hand for me to be done.
“Chise! Is it done now?” Elnea asked impatiently.
“Not yet. Now you have to add some stewed beef on top of the whole thing, some fresh cream, and a sprinkle of dried parsley... And, here you go: a perfect omuhayashi rice.”