“No way... You really are an elfin? But how can you use magic?”
Male elfins couldn’t use magic. Case in point: Epocha.
“I’m only half elfin; my father was a human,” he explained. “I might not look the part, but I’m actually 120 years old.”
“What?! I had no idea elfins could have children with humans!”
“My lifespan is probably shorter than that of a normal elfin. Then again, I’ve never met anyone else like me, so I can’t be sure of it.”
Elfins didn’t even marry within their own race, which led to a constant decline in their population. So, it must be extremely rare for one to have a child with a human.
“If what you’re saying is true, then Finis must live in that hidden village you spoke of, right? Where is it?” I asked.
“Here, in Hanche. That’s why I needed the Faith to leave.”
I was too stunned to speak.
“Hanche has barely any contact with the mainland, and there are many unexplored areas on the island. It was the perfect place to build a hidden village,” he explained before preparing a teleportation spell at his feet. “If I just bring the two of you over, they probably won’t be too mad at me. Would you like to tag along, Char? You’re Aurora’s husband, after all.”
Char took my hand in silence and nodded. “I’ll come. I want to know what kind of person Aurora’s teacher is,” he said, his own motivations subtly revealing themselves in his words.
Is that hidden village the one that Lance mentioned? I wondered.
I suddenly remembered something Vesper had told me when we’d first talked.
“Um, Vesper? Are you really okay with taking us there? It’ll add a detour, and you said that you wanted to head to the mainland as soon as you were done here.”
“I’m not in a hurry, so it’s fine. I just need to investigate a little something on the continent. We elfins can sense when one of our kin dies, and it seems one of us has recently passed. I’d like to know what happened.”
Uh-oh. I was pretty sure I had been involved in that case, and I couldn’t help a little “Ah...” escaping my lips.
I know what happened...
Beside me, Char eyed Vesper with caution. He, too, must’ve understood what the elfin was referring to.
“What’s wrong? Do you know who died?” Vesper asked.
Turning my head to look at Char, I whispered, “What should we do? Do you think he’s going to get angry if we tell him?”
“But if we hide the truth, it might come back to bite us later...” my husband replied.
“You’re right. Let’s tell him.”
Our resolve made, we turned back to Vesper. We did have a valid reason for doing what we did, after all.
“Um, Vesper...” I started. “I’m incredibly sorry to say this, but um... We’re the ones who killed Epocha—the elfin you’re referring to. We didn’t have a choice. He was a threat.”
“A threat?”
While I couldn’t say with certainty that Vesper would understand our circumstances, I still decided to tell him everything—from my death to the creation of the Motar Faith and all the horrible things Epocha had done. He listened to my explanation in silence.
“And so, after creating the Faith, Epocha kept trying to disseminate his dangerous items in the world. He even turned his own body into a magic item. Now that I think about it, becoming a magic item while still being alive must’ve required a lot of skill,” I mused.
An indescribable expression settled on Vesper’s face.
“Did you know Epocha?” I asked tentatively, peering at him. “Were you two friends?”
“Nope. I’ve never even met him. But I was always wondering why Finis hated him. I can hardly believe an elfin like him even existed.”
“Huh? My teacher hated him?”
That revelation came as a shock to me.
I’ve never seen her express strong feelings toward anyone before.
Most elfins had no interest in other people. They didn’t really get attached to anyone either. While they did like some people better than others, an emotion like hatred was rarely felt among them.
“Finis never really told me the whole story, but she knew that you died,” he said.
“Really? She must’ve been worried...”
How had she felt when she’d learned about my death, I wondered. While she didn’t form deep attachments, I couldn’t imagine her being completely unfazed to hear that the disciple she had raised was gone. I refused to believe it.
“Perhaps she even knew the circumstances behind your death—that it was Epocha’s fault,” Vesper continued.
That did sound possible. When she put her mind to it, Finis could uncover the truth behind anything and everything.
“Elfins are forbidden from harming each other, and Finis doesn’t like to mingle with humans, so I assume that’s why she didn’t kill that Epocha guy herself. Her reaction when we learned of his death was so unusual that I wondered what he’d done to anger her.”
Finis had indeed told me that elfins couldn’t fight among each other. The reasoning behind that rule was simple: Battles involving magic often spiraled out of control. Take Finis, for instance; she had lived for an incredibly long time, and her mana pool was enormous. As such, she could perform much bigger spells than I could. I’d always been jealous of her abilities, but the reality was that some races were simply more powerful than others. And if someone like Finis were to fight another elfin with similar abilities, they could accidentally blow an entire nation to bits. For that reason, elfins weren’t allowed to fight among themselves—men and women alike. Although I didn’t know how many elfins were left in this day and age...
Master was angry at Epocha on my behalf?
Finis never expressed any feeling other than annoyance. While she had raised me from a young age as both her daughter and her disciple, she had never shown me any direct affection. Hearing that she had been so overtly upset made me a little happy.
“I don’t think she knows you’ve reincarnated,” Vesper said. “But I’m sure that if she did, she’d want to meet you.”
“I want to see her too. There are so many things I need to ask her.”
Our parting in my past life had been so abrupt, it had left me unsatisfied. I’d been wondering if she would be willing to see me again, but based on Vesper’s words, it seemed that she wouldn’t mind me going to visit her.
“All right, then. If that’s settled, let’s go.”
Activating his magic, he teleported us over to the elfins’ hidden village. A faint green light enveloped us and when it faded, I felt the give of damp grass under my shoes, and the scent of fresh verdure filled my nostrils. I opened my eyes, which I had closed to protect from the light, and was met with a row of huge, moss-covered rocks, surrounded by enormous trees.
“What is this place?” I muttered.
“Somewhere deep within one of Hanche’s uncharted territories. These trees are older than elfins. This way.”
Vesper navigated through a gap between the rocks with nimble steps. As I scrambled to follow him, I slipped on the damp grass, but since Char was standing to my back, he was quick to catch me.
“It’s hard to walk here. Don’t run, Lam. You’ll fall.”
I grudgingly accepted the hand he held out to me, feeling like a child who had to rely on their parent for support, and Char followed Vesper through the rocks, his steps perfectly steady. He probably wasn’t even using magic.
“W-Wait, Char...”
My athletic abilities in my current body were quite poor. With no other choice, I activated a floating spell to hover over the grass, Char’s hand still gripping mine. At least I wouldn’t fall this way.
The stillness of the forest was incredibly pleasant. This must’ve been the type of place elfins felt most at home.
After weaving through the gaps between the rocks, we arrived at a living tree gate, which had obviously been created with magic, and Vesper stopped in front of it. Magic lanterns flanked the looming entrance, casting a dim glow over the shadowy woods, pinpricked by pale blooming flowers. There were thinner parts of foliage that let the sun stream through, peaceful and bright, but the canopy here was so thick that a gloom and slight chill crept in instead.
“Were you raised here, Vesper?” I asked.
“Yep, surrounded by elfins. But Finis often let me tag along on her travels when I was a kid. She said that, since I was half human, I needed to learn about their world as well.”
“I see.”
Since I had been a regular human in my past life, Finis had lived with me in the royal capital of the Ventre Kingdom. But with Vesper having a mixed heritage, I imagined that Finis must’ve gone through some trial and error to figure out the best environment to raise him in.
“There are only a handful of other elfins apart from Finis and me in this village. Well, ‘village’ is a strong word—it’s really just a small forgotten settlement.”
I peered through the gate. Though everything beyond it was still, as if time had stopped, I spotted several objects that looked like magic items: lanterns that resembled mushrooms and tree nuts, moving staircases... Surrounding them were enormous trees, big enough to fit entire houses inside, and I noticed that they also had additional items installed nearby.
“We live inside the trees,” Vesper explained. “With magic, you can create living spaces in them that aren’t half bad. Oh, and the decorative stones around the village are actually tools to control the temperature and humidity, so don’t touch them, okay?”
As we spoke, a blue bird jetted overhead and landed in a tree beside the gate.
“This guy here is the village sentinel. It’s actually an item that will teleport any suspicious individuals away from here. We’re not short on male labor, so we’ve got a bunch of magic items.”
“Male labor?” I echoed.