Elnea knew all along that I was the one who had introduced paper manufacturing to this world; she had made it sound like it was entirely my fault and used the guilt I was feeling to force me into agreeing to help her handle the situation in her forest.
“You were playing it up so I’d help you, weren’t you?” I said, shooting her an accusatory glare.
“Not entirely; it is true that I am at my wit’s end with this situation and would like your help,” she replied with a small smile.
I sighed. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to go deal with the youngsters from a few villages, including Rorona’s.”
We had some ties with Rorona’s village, as it was located in the mythical beasts’ breeding grounds. I had met the teenagers living there a few times, but we weren’t particularly close or anything.
“You are the one who gave those novels to Rorona, are you not? The children who grew up listening to Fauzard reading her those stories are the source of our current predicament.”
I nodded. I hadn’t actively done anything to encourage the young elves to leave the forest, but when she put it like that, it was kinda my fault they got this idea in their heads in the first place.
“You sowed those seeds, Chise,” Elnea added to drive the point home. “For the time being, I expect you to keep a vigilant eye on the youngsters from a distance to ensure they refrain from doing anything reckless. And, if possible, try persuading them to go home.”
It seemed that she had already asked elves with more experience living outside the forest—as adventurers or otherwise—to convince the teens to return home, but there weren’t enough of them to deal with all of the runaways. That was why she turned to us, since we had experience traveling the world and some of the teens knew us.
“Fine. I’ll do my best,” I said.
“Teto will help Lady Witch!” Teto chirped.
A small smile curled on Elnea’s lips, and I could visibly see her relax, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“You have my thanks, Chise. Still, I am curious as to what aspect of human culture has captivated the youngsters to this extent. Ah, to be clear, I mean no disrespect towards humans,” she said, and I believed her.
“They probably just don’t realize how nice their own culture is,” I replied.
“If they knew more about their homeland, they’d like it even more!” Teto added, and I nodded in agreement.
Elnea brought a hand to her chin.
“So you are saying that if our young elves took pride in their own culture, they would be more inclined to stay?” she muttered before exchanging puzzled looks with Althea. “Is there anything of interest in our forest that would incentivize them to remain, though?”
“I am also struggling to find something...” Althea said.
The two of them stared at their coffee cups, deep in thought.
When I had first visited the elves’ forest, I had been mesmerized by all of the unique things they had to offer, from the acorn coffee to the woodwork made using tree bark in Rorona’s village or the magic silkworm fabric and indigo-blue dye of Elnea’s dress. But Elnea and Althea saw these things every day and had no idea just how wonderful they were.
While I found this thought amusing, I also couldn’t help but wonder if this was what made it so difficult to discover regional resources; we simply could not realize how good what we already possessed was. This was an interesting train of thought, but one for another day; right now, my main priority was to help Elnea solve the crisis in her kingdom. And so, without a moment to waste, I began to think of ways to convince the runaway teens to go back to their villages.