As I ruminated on how to convince the elven kids to go back to their villages, Teto and I pressed on towards the tree houses.
“Stop right there! Don’t get any closer!” a voice came from overhead.
I saw a few elven kids peering down at us from one of the tree houses, their bows and spirit magic fixed on us. They all seemed to be around what would have been middle-school age in my previous life. Although elves were long-lived, they aged similarly to humans for the first twenty or so years of their lives, after which the process ground more or less to a halt for the better part of their time among the living. Odds were that these kids were actually as young as they looked.
“Don’t point your weapons at Lady Witch!” Teto shouted back at the kids, overwhelming them with a burst of her mana, but I motioned for her to stop.
“Calm down, Teto. We can’t just use brute force against them, remember? Let me do the talking for now.”
“Fine...” she replied with a pout, reluctantly stepping back as I took a step forward.
“Miss Chii and Miss Teto?” a kid from Rorona’s village said, putting two and two together.
“What, you know them?” one of the other kids asked her. “They’re not elves, though, and it doesn’t look like they’re here to join us either.”
They were starting to grow a bit more hesitant and less ostensibly hostile, so I decided now was the time to open negotiations. “We have no intention of attacking you. We’re just here to talk. Could you please lower your weapons?”
“We don’t believe you! You’re just here because our parents told you to bring us back home, aren’t you?!” one of the youths’ voices echoed from up in the trees.
I opened my magic bag and fished out a little something-something I’d prepared for the occasion.
“Do feel free to open fire, if you like. Just keep in mind that I intend to shield my body with this,” I said calmly, holding up a book.
“Wha...?! Th-That’s volume ten of The Legend of the Heroes!” one of them exclaimed in shock, causing the rest to grow increasingly agitated.
That’s right; the book I was holding up was the newest volume of the series, which had just come out a few days ago.
The elves’ forest had a much smaller population than most human nations, so the market for novels was relatively limited. Therefore, these novels would first be sold in human towns before reaching the elves. Consequently, they were currently one volume behind on The Legend of the Heroes.
“So? What are you gonna do? Will you attack the book to force us away? Or will you lower your weapons?” I asked.
The elven kids started grumbling and muttering among each other. To them and their obsession with human culture, this book was practically their Bible—and here I was, dangling the newest volume right before their eyes.
“Gah, fine!” an elven boy—who seemed to be the mediator of their little group—exclaimed in resignation. “Lower your weapons and let them up, guys.”
The other kids did as they were told. The ones from Rorona’s village seemed really relieved as they beckoned us closer. They opened the fence for us, and we were led into a sort of open space surrounded by tree houses.
“So, what are you doing here?” one of the kids asked us. “And who are you in the first place? You’re humans, right? Why would you come all the way out to our forest?”
Other than the ones from Rorona’s village, all the teenagers were looking at us with suspicion.
“We’re adventurers. Miss Elnea has requested that we keep an eye on all of you,” I replied.
“Adventurers?!” one of the kids exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “That’s so cool!”
“What the hell are you saying, you idiot?!” his friend rebuked him. “She said that Lady Elnea sent them here! That was the important part!”
“Huh? You’re an adventurer, Miss Chii?!” a kid from Rorona’s village exclaimed in surprise.
Once again, the teenagers started growing more agitated, muttering to each other over these new revelations. Meanwhile, the boy who seemed to be in charge around here was glaring at us.
“So? Did you come here to tell us to go home, is that it?” he asked.
“Well, ultimately, that’s our goal, yeah. But we won’t force you to go back or anything—we wouldn’t want you doing something rash. We’re just going to watch over you until you get tired of this and go home by yourselves,” I shrugged.
Teto nodded excitedly beside me. “That’s right! You can have all the fun you want!”
On hearing my words, the boy stood there with his mouth slightly agape, clearly not having expected me to say that we’d just let them be. But then he seemed to have finally processed the second part of my sentence, and his face turned crimson.
“We’re not gonna get tired of this!” he exclaimed in indignation.
Grabbing his bow, he briskly strode out of the fenced area.
“Where are you going?” Teto asked him.
“Hunting! Don’t follow me!” he spat before disappearing into the trees.
After his departure, some of the tension lifted, and the other kids felt free to approach us.
“Can you show us the tenth volume of The Legend of the Heroes?” they asked me, eager to get their hands on the newest volume of their favorite series.
I handed them the book with a little smile. “Sure. Be careful not to dirty or damage it, though.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Hey, let me read it too!”
The kid who had gotten the book opened it right there and then, and two others clustered around her to take a peek. Every time one turned the page, you could hear the other two complaining that they were going too fast, that they weren’t done yet, to go back to the previous page, or on the contrary, to read faster.
“Sorry about that,” a fourth girl, who had been watching her friends from afar with an exasperated look on her face, came to apologize to us.
“I don’t mind,” I shrugged. “I have a question, if you don’t mind. You guys want to leave the forest, right? Can I ask why?”
“Why did you leave your homes and gather here?” Teto asked.
The girl looked, in turn, in the direction the boy in charge left and at her friends clustered around the book, her gaze wavering before she answered. “Well... We all have different reasons. Our leader and two of his friends want to become adventurers. The kid holding the book wants to live in a human town so she can buy her favorite books as soon as they come out. The other one says he’s just interested in human culture.”
“What about you?” I asked the girl.
She let out a pensive hum. “I just want some distance from my family,” she confessed. “I have little siblings, and my parents always make me look after them. I want some me time, you know?” she said with a wry smile. “Now it’s my turn to ask you two questions!”
She asked us all sorts of things, mostly about our adventures. This piqued the interest of the kids who were reading the new volume of The Legend of the Heroes, and they raised their heads to listen to us. Teto and I told them about all of the travels and adventures we went on—the good and the bad; happy tales and sad tales.
We spent the rest of the day chitchatting; before I knew it, the sun had started to set. The little leader came back from his hunting trip, and the kids built a fire before starting on dinner. The leader was still shooting us the stink eye, so Teto and I gave the kids some distance. We watched as they merrily ate dinner together while talking about their dreams around the fire. At night, some of them went to sleep in the tree houses, while others built tents on the ground. All in all, it reminded me of a youth summer camp; I found the sight quite heartwarming.
“Let’s head to bed too, shall we?” I suggested to Teto.
“Roger!”
I found a nice little corner in the woods and installed our caravan, which I kept in my magic bag.
For the next few days, Teto and I kept on watching over the elven kids.