Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

Part 3

「It seems she likes you」

Nut is saying so in a joking tone.

Certainly, I can feel something like goodwill from the elf girl.

The girl keeps walking ahead.

A while later, an unusual phenomenon happened in front of our eyes.

Though it’s still like a normal forest, I can feel that something is different.

「You noticed that barrier just now, it’s amazing right?」

「Barrier？」

「Yes, it’s a magic that will make those who enter the boundary to lose their way. That’s why, you must follow me」

The girl continues to walk ahead just like that.

And then, we arrived at the base of a big tree.

That was an extremely big tree. There are several houses on a branch of the tree.

I was unintentionally dazed as I looked at that. That was a tree house which I had only seen in the TV.

In fact, I have a bit for yearning for this kind of house, since it felt more like a secret base.

「This place is my house.」

So she says.

「Tess！！ ！ 」

A voice is calling from above. When I look at that direction, a woman comes out from one of the tree houses.

The woman looks like she’s just a few years older than the elf girl. That woman is getting down from the tree.

「Ah, mama！ ！ I’m back！ ！ 」

I’m surprised when the elf girl called that woman “Mama”. And, here I thought that she might be the elf girl’s elder sister.

「Tess！！ It’s not ‘I’m back’. Where did you run away！！ Moreover…」

The mother of the girl is looking at us.

「Who is this gentleman？」

The mother of the girl is staring at us.

She was a beauty just like her daughter. I just couldn’t keep my calm when I see her.

「Mama！ ！ He’s an amazing person you see！ ！ I mean, he’s the one who defeated that Scylla！ ！ 」

The girl introduces me to her mother while clinging onto my arm.

I can feel the softness of the girl’s body sticking on my body.

「Scylla…Is it the Scylla of that fountain?」

The mother is scanning me from head to toe.

「He… Doesn’t seem to be that strong, isn’t he?」

And then says those words.

「Mama！ ！ You’re being rude to him！ ！ 」

The girl is rebutting her mother.

「Ah, you’re right, my apologies. It’s my pleasure to meet a human gentleman such as you. I’m Davia of Hardy forest and the mother of that Tess beside you」

Davia offers her greeting. It seems the name of the elf girl is Tess.

「Yes, My name is… Kuro. I’m in the middle of a journey」

I pause for a moment and then introduce myself with an alias. Though it would okay even if I use my real name, there’s a possibility that my name will somehow reach Shirone and co.’s ears. So, the usage of my name is extremely restricted.

「Mama, Kuro is in the middle of a journey, so can he come to our house?」

Tess is trying to allow me to enter into her house even without her mother’s permission.

「Uhm, Tess-san…」

When I’m about to say whether it’s really okay to go without the permission of her mother.

「It can’t be helped then. Welcome to our home then, Kuro-dono」

But, she easily let me into the house.

Honestly, is it really okay for her to let an unfamiliar man into her house? Or rather, is it a part of their culture？

According to Ruugas, the elven race was not that friendly to humans. There’s no way for Ruugas’ knowledge to be incorrect.

Tess’ house is located high in the giant tree. There’s no ladder or stairs to ascend to her house.

How are we going to climb it? When I’m thinking about the problem at hand, Tess gently floats upward and reaches her house. Somehow, this height isn’t a problem for the elven race who are excellent in spirit magic.

「Come over here, Kuro！！ You should be able to fly, right? 」

Tess is showing a nonchalant smile.

Certainly, this height isn’t that much of a problem to me.

Since I’m interested in this tree house and her mother has also given her permission, let’s enter the house.

I arrive at the tree house while controlling my excitement.

And then, “Oops” is what I think upon seeing the tree house.

This tree house isn’t built on top of a tree. The tree house is growing on the tree; the tree has swelled to form a house. It was an extremely mysterious house.

It seems to be growing properly. When I look inside, the light that was illuminating the house doesn’t seem to be made of fire, but it was using light spirit. Upon looking at this, I remembered that in the world of humans, they were using a torch or an oil lamp as the source of illumination. From this, I came to a conclusion that the livelihood of the elves might be more dependent on magic.

The furnishings that I see inside the house is also splendid. It’s completely different from the world of humans. It seems that they have reached the point of using magic in their daily lives.

Though the houses of the elven race seem primitive at glance, the interiors seem to be far more comfortable than the dwelling place of the humans in this world.

This world is more developed in a certain way than my own world due to the existence of magic.

Maybe my world will also develop just like this one if it’s a world where one can use magic.

「Please sit down over there, Kuro-dono. I’m going to make tea right away. Come and help me, Tess」

「O~K」

After returning to the tree house, Tess and Davia are walking toward the place that might be a kitchen.

From the sign, it seems that the two of them are the only ones who live in this house.

The two of them come back a while later. They brought tea and snacks on a wooden tray.

The two place the wooden tray on the table in front of me.

A fragrant aroma is drifting from the red colored tea. The food is one big and flat bread, soup that boiled together in cabbage-like vegetable and round, sliced carrot-like vegetable, and the last one is a cake with dried fruit in it.

「Go ahead, Kuro-dono」

I’m sipping the tea. It was the first time I tried this taste, but it’s delicious.

And then I try the vegetable soup. To be honest, it’s a bit too mild, but I am still satisfied with it since I never had a satisfactory meal recently.

「How is it?」

Davia’s asking me.

「Well, I have never had a satisfactory meal until now. Even so, this meal is delicious」

The elven style meal is more satisfying to me than the human world’s. The gatekeeper in charge of the security for entering the Phteah city from before drove me out of the city as if I’m a suspicious person. In fact, though I might look like a suspicious person in this world, I don’t want to be treated that way.

And yet, Tess and her mother were giving a warm welcome to me which almost made me cry.

「Is that so, then please enjoy your meal」

Davia’s encouraging me to eat my food.

To be honest, it’s been a while since I had a decent meal.

Tess was looking at me with a friendly smile on her face.

「It’s finally a bed after a while」

As the night lingers on, I’m guided to a bedroom.

「This is a bit too strange, right…………」

Nut is saying so with a puzzled tone.

「Though I don’t know much about the elven race, why are they going as far as this to welcome us？ This is just incomprehensible」

I also shared the same doubt as Nut.

They just met us today. Everyone is extremely cold-hearted toward me when we made short stops at a few cities of the human race. Why the elves, basically not of my race, are so kind toward me?

Moreover, it seems that there’s a rare case of an elf falling in love with the youth of human race, but they were fundamentally not so friendly toward humans.

「But, you see Nut, I can’t feel any hostile intent from her」

I couldn’t feel any unpleasant feelings from the girl called Tess, rather it was only good intentions directed toward me.

「Are they not using spirit magic？」

「………..Nope, I can’t feel that sign」

It’s normal for Nut to ask that. Honestly, I can even say that my magical power is far superior when compared to Nut.

If they were using magic, Nut’s condition might become strange like the time with that Scylla from a while ago.

It will be a completely different case if the magic is only used on me, but Tess has seen me talking to Nut. So, I can take that it’s just common sense for her to notice that. Even if she’s scheming something, why would the magic be used only on me?

「But, maybe we can expect something…. Like something that she wishes from me」

I don’t know what is that something. Even so, I should return this favor of one night’s lodging and meal as much as I can.

「Maybe she has some kind of wish？」

「She has seen me defeating that Scylla. Maybe she’s going to ask me to exterminate another demon」

「…I see, that’s plausible」

Nut is nodding in agreement.

Then, he enters the bed after giving his agreement. I was surprised by the softness of the bed when I tried it.

「Amazing, even my world didn’t have a bed as soft as this one」

It’s just my imagination since I have never sleep on a high quality quilt, but this bed may be beyond that.

Tess even politely prepared a bed for Nut.

「Good night, Nut….」

「Good night」

It’s a proper bed after a long time. The feeling of a bed after such a long time smells good.

To be honest, I couldn’t sleep well along the journey. That’s why I’m extremely drowsy even though I’m just a bit tired.

I felt that my consciousness is slowly sinking into the darkness.

「Tess, it seems Kuro-dono is already asleep」

Mother is telling me that.

「Have you reported this to dear father？」

This is the bedroom of father and mother.

I told my father about Kuro just a while ago.

My father is sleeping on the bed where I’m sitting on. My father is always sleeping ever since I was born.

I think that he’s handsome since mother has fallen in love with him. Naturally, Kuro also won’t lose in that matter.

I have never see him wake up even once.

My father is a human. In the case that a female is born from an elf mother, her race is elf, and when a male is born, his race is the same as his father.

Because majority of us don’t want to copulate with ugly races like goblin or orc, it left us with just humans.

To be honest, I heard that my older brother and little brother were sent immediately to the dwelling place of the humans to get used to their customs.

Even now, my siblings were living in the dwelling place of humans.

And, since the elf who fell in love will kidnap the male human, the quarrel with the female humans never died out.

Even mother had a serious dispute with the humans when she kidnapped father. But then, mother, who defeated a female human without even using magic, is the best proof that father is mother’s possession.

But, seeing that father is a human with a short life-span, it’s just normal for him to die a short while later.

Even though the lifespan of the humans can be extended to become the same as the elves by using magic that is only usable by the queen of elves, the queen won’t use that magic on the person if they have no qualifications to become the knight of elves.

Thus, prolonging their life with everlasting magic along with sleeping magic becomes the most commonly used method.

Father, who received this magic, is always sleeping, even now on the bed.

Though he’s always asleep, father will be alive without dying, and since his physical body is still okay even when asleep, he can still make a child even when asleep.

In case we want to talk to him, we will enter into father’s dream with Mind Dive magic. I also talked to father in his dreams about Kuro just now.

「It seems he has a good sleep when I saw his sleeping face. I peeked a bit into his heart and seems like a kind person, since you have an excellent intuition just like me」

I nod upon hearing mother’s words.

「Of course he is, I mean he is the man that I chose. It felt like a fate when I saw Kuro for the first time」

I felt my heart beat when I saw Kuro for the first time. I felt the urge to make him into my spouse.

Mother said that intuition is important, since it’s just normal for us. Because it was also like this when father met mother, though mother forcibly abducted him by using magic. [TL : Did she tell her “When I Met Your Father”?]

Mother said that she had no problem, since he was pretty and it was better than bringing back an ugly human.

She said the same thing for Kuro. That’s why, I was happy since I can be together forever with Kuro in this place. Since he didn’t seem to show any signs of dissatisfaction toward me.

That’s just natural since I’m far more beautiful than the average human female.

「Well, mother, I’m going to Kuro’s room then」

I leave the bedroom of my parents and change places with mother.

I’m thinking about the conversation inside my dream with Kuro.

He is basically defenseless inside the dream. There are so many things that I want to hear from Kuro.

Thus, I head toward my bedroom where Kuro is sleeping.

「My deepest gratitude for your kindness」

Nut and I express our gratitudes to Davia and Tess.

Tess is looking at me with sad face.

I can’t see her entire face. Last night, Tess became my sweet lover inside my dreams. That dream strangely felt real to me. I feel extremely embarrassed since it’s inside my dreams.

「Be careful on the way」

Davia is also making a sad face.

「My apologies, I’m in a hurry since there’s a place that I have to visit….」

Tess and Davia didn’t even say their requests in the end.

It seems it was an act out of pure kindness.

But, something is worrying me in the morning. Tess was already awake when I woke up in the morning. She is acting a bit strange compared to yesterday. That’s making me worry about her.

But, I still have to go.

「Thank you very much. I definitely will return my gratitude for the kindness that you displayed yesterday」

I say so before I’m about to leave the tree house.

「Kuroki！！ 」

Tess is calling me.

「Tess？」

「Kuroki… We will meet again… right?」

Tess’s eyes are already brimming with tears.

「Yeah, we definitely will meet again, Tess」

I’m brushing Tess’ cheeks. I definitely will die from the shame for this kind of action which didn’t suit me, but it’s still better compared to what happened inside my dream.

Then, I left Tess while turning around to wave my hand so many times to them.

And then, I noticed a fact a little while after I left her hometown.

「Come to think of it, why does Tess know my real name？」

「Are you okay, Tess？」

I’m shaking my head upon hearing mother’s question.

「….I mean, it can’t be helped you know. I never expected that he’s a man of a different world… I’m sure that Kuroki has some kind of role in this world. There’s no way I can keep him for myself….」

The night that I enjoyed inside the dream with Kuroki will become the most important memory of my life.

I came to realize Kuroki’s true identity inside his dream.

Kuroki’s power was as amazing as those divine beings. I can make him mine forever with magic if he is a normal person, but my magic doesn’t work on Kuroki.

I didn’t even know what I have to do upon seeing that Kuroki is leaving.

I’m looking at Kuroki’s back.

Kuroki turned around so many times. At least he doesn’t hate me.

Maybe we can meet again.

「See you again, my kind dark knight」

「Diehart-sama. That is the Holy Republic Lenaria」

I’m looking at a big city from on top of the hill.

This country was located on the intersecting estuaries of the river and the holy sea that originates from Elios mountain.

Two days after separating with Tess, I finally arrived at my destination.

「Well, shall we go then, Nut?」

************************************************

The elves of this world have many similarities with a nymph.