Chapter 861: Visits from the Prostitutes 10
I ran back toward the 「Sexroom」, but the thick fog made me stumble once, slamming my face into the ground. I’d gone out to wash my face, but instead I’d just gotten it dirtier, what the hell was I doing? Feeling a bit ridiculous, I figured well, at least I’d achieved my goal of waking up, so that was good enough. Anyway, I ran again and dove back into the 「Sexroom」.
“Hey, hey! I just had some kind of weird experience!”
“What, what kind of……wait, you’re hurt!”
Breakcore sat up with a thud, then floated down from the bed and placed a hand on my face. Warm light welled up from Breakcore’s hand below my vision, and the pain from my scraped face vanished instantly. Medical light magic. This was exactly the kind of injury it was meant for.
“Ah, thanks”
“So what is it? Is there something around here that’s worth getting so flustered over?”
“Ho. It was just an elf calling out to you a bit, wasn’t it? Why get so flustered?”
Laila ran her fingers through her hair, looking puzzled. Had Laila’s hearing picked it up? No, just hearing it with her ears probably made it seem like nothing more than that.
“S, Suddenly appeared and suddenly vanished! That’s not normal!”
“?”
Breakcore and Laila looked utterly confused.
“An elf girl……well, maybe a girl, but young……wait, elves aren’t really young, are they? Anyway, she warned me about my footing, thanked me, and then vanished without a sound”
“What on earth are you talking about……?”
“This is bad. Did I push him too hard? Maybe he’s delirious from exhaustion”
Breakcore, you’re terrible. Well, I did push her pretty hard, though.
“But that happened yesterday too! Actually, I saw that kid near Diel’s place too! Something about her eyes, they seemed to glow strangely”
“Hmm”
“Laila, you saw her too, right? That girl! She vanished suddenly then too, it was weird. Maybe she’s a ghost or a spirit or something”
“A ghost? What’s that……?”
“Outside, it’s occasionally heard as a joke. The dead, without bodies, drifting around aimlessly, suddenly speaking to people to scare them.”
It’s not a joke. That’s what you call a ghost story. Or rather, is the concept of ghosts unfamiliar to Breakcore? Afterlife illusions certainly existed among the elves too, but to Breakcore, it probably remains nothing more than delusion. After all, they live in a world where death means instant resurrection.
“If Laila-dono saw it too, wouldn’t asking Diel clarify things? If two people witnessed it, it can’t be a hallucination. Surely it wasn’t an actual spirit sneaking in?”
Irina stretched like a cat, rose, and tried to head outside completely naked except for her collar. I grabbed her in a panic.
“Wh, What? Still not satisfied?”
“I said don’t go out naked!”
“I can’t exactly bathe inside the room. I need to clean myself outside before dressing, or I’ll get dirty”
“But if you go out like that, people will see you!”
“Don’t worry about it. Even if someone sees me, they’ll understand. I’m wearing my collar, aren’t I?”
“That’s not the point!”
Irina’s starting to develop exhibitionist tendencies too…….
Magic to clean a soiled body without water or eliminate odors doesn’t seem particularly difficult. When I asked if such spells existed, Christie and Selenium immediately cast them on everyone. I suspect Hilda and Laila could probably do it too if they tried. After thoroughly cleaning the soiled room, I went to talk to Diel.
“……Ah. The kid hiding her eyes?”
“That’s not just my imagination, right? Actually, I’m not entirely sure she even exists”
Even I don’t know what kind of agreement I’m seeking here. Part of me is hoping Diel might share some mysterious legend about it. But this village is barely two years old, so it probably doesn’t have any legends yet. Even Breakcore’s stories don’t seem to resonate here, and it’s unlikely they’d be passed down only among the elves.
“That girl……well, yeah. It’s complicated”
“……Eh, she exists?”
“…Why the disappointed look? Of course she exists. But, it’s just”
“What the hell? That’s a weird way to put it”
“……Yeah. Ah, where to start……no, I was just wondering if I should even explain”
Diel pressed a finger to his forehead. After a moment, he placed a hand on his hip and arched his back. After another moment, he crossed his arms, tilted his head, and grunted.
“I understand. Tell me first. This is something you want to keep within the forest, isn’t it?”
“……Do you understand, Christie?”
Diel opened only one eye to look at Christie. Maybe he was hoping for a lifeline. It was oddly petty, or……in a way, it showed he had a human side. Then, moving slightly away, he created a sound barrier, and the two began talking.
“Can’t Irina figure out something like that?”
“It’s not that I don’t understand, but if I speak to Diel, he treats me like a child. I deliberately let him have his way”
“But Diel isn’t the clan leader anymore. Your position should be higher now”
“Knowing it’s a troublesome matter, dragging him out by using my position as a shield would be suicide. I wouldn’t even know what the issue was, yet I’d suddenly be forced to take full responsibility”
Delicate matters apparently require their own kind of maneuvering. ……After a while, Christie made a gesture to release the sound barrier.
“……I understand the general situation. ……It’s a bit embarrassing, and putting Diel in the firing line would indeed be cruel”
“So what’s this all about?”
“……Besides half elves, there are other children in the forest facing similar treatment. That’s what this is about”
Selenium’s ears twitched. Her expression stiffened. Those words finally gave me a clearer picture. ……Meaning, if we spoke plainly, it would be a story that inevitably casts us, who aim to expand the rights of the discriminated-against half elves in the forest in a bad light. It’s about that child being in that position. If we told it straight, Diel would end up looking like the villain alone, representing the elves. Even though we’d grown somewhat close, I could understand Diel’s reluctance to take on that role alone against me and my companions, who were backed by powerful figures and a large dragon.
“I understand. ……Christie, you tell them”
“Yes”
I’d heard many times how half elves were called 「mixed-bloods」 in the forest, despised and excluded. That’s how Apple became a wanderer. But there are other 「Kin」 unwelcome in the forest besides them. That girl with the long bangs, for instance, is of that standing……which is apparently why she came to this Labyrinth Village. It doesn’t seem she has any strong desire to leave, but she doesn’t want to stay in her homeland either. She apparently endured constant uncomfortable treatment. The sole reason she wasn’t ostracized like the half elves was because she was the direct great-granddaughter of a clan chief. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be surprising if she’d been banished from the forest long ago.
“So even non-halves can be treated like that……wait, but how could someone who isn’t half end up like that?”
“……Beast-like. Or shadow-like. Such distinctive physical traits can appear in elves too……though the probability is low”
“That sounds like a nasty term”
“Yes. ……Her eyes adapt to darkness. So from certain angles, they appear strangely luminous. That’s why she hides them, apparently”
“……Eh, that’s all?”
“That’s all. ……But for elves who value pureblood, the birth of such a child inevitably raises suspicion of ancestral error. They fear she might be thought to carry dark elf or beastkin blood”
……Umm. It feels like the darkness of the elves has emerged after a long time. It’s disgusting, but on the other hand, I can’t say I don’t understand the feelings that drive them to act this way……I think. Considering the eyes of the conservative clan chiefs at the clan council, and those hard-line, stubborn people like that Faeser……if a child like that were born, it might be inevitable that they wouldn’t want to protect it. Of course, now that I have many allies, I can say with certainty that I would protect my child no matter what. But if I had been born in this elven forest, where a stubborn and unpleasant clan chief like Old Man Gast made all the decisions, and if a child with strange characteristics was born, causing not only me but also my parents and siblings to be blamed, would I really be able to protect that child? ……I wonder if feeling this strange sense of empathy is a sign that I’ve truly become an adult.
“……From my previous investigations, I’ve determined this trait appears with a slight probability in every clan, including the southern lineages. Those born with it are either exiled or killed in childhood. In other words, it’s a common occurrence, unrelated to blood defilement”
“You researched that too?”
Irina’s expression was half-impressed, half-astonished. I’d heard Christie was an excellent scholar, but I never imagined she’d researched something this specific. Yet Christie remained cool as a cucumber.
“It was incidental research while I was investigating the relationship between 『Qi』 and birth. Since I wasn’t rushing to draw conclusions, I discovered various other hidden aspects related to birth from tangential topics as well”
Scholars are amazing.
“Anyway, that’s why she doesn’t get close to other elves much in this Labyrinth Village either. ……My research and proposals haven’t been well-received either, but even if they heard it, elves as a race still wouldn’t change easily……but there must be something, right?”
She gave a small, self-deprecating chuckle.
“And Diel was worried that telling you about her like this……would just mean pushing the forest’s problems onto you again”
“……?”
“You’ve already solved so many forest problems. True to your nickname, 『Hero of the Forest』. ……He worries that before he can repay his debt for contributing to Polka’s development, he’ll be dragging you into another troublesome affair within a few years”
“Troublesome……I just asked about her background”
“Can you really leave a woman with no place to belong, treated like a half elf, and just walk away?”
“…………”
This time, I pressed my hand to my forehead, put my hands on my hips and arched my back, then crossed my arms and leaned to one side. No, I really have no reason to get involved, right……? That’s the textbook answer for elegantly avoiding the issue. I was just surprised by her appearance. I only asked if she was real. There’s no particular connection strong enough to get deeply involved. ……But is it really okay to just brush it off like that? I did owe her a favor for warning me not to fall into the stream. So, having asked, shouldn’t I at least invite her to Polka? That thought wasn’t entirely absent. But suddenly stepping that far in felt off. Wouldn’t it be too familiar? After all, I’d been doing whatever I wanted in that 「Sexroom」. Whether she saw or not, she could probably guess what I was up to based on my relationships with the women. Returning the favor with an invitation would only make it look like I was after something. The example of Princess Ran and the others, who got into a messy situation because of a careless invitation, was still fresh in my mind. So, what was the right thing to do? What kind of action was expected of me? ……I changed my pose several times while agonizing over it for a while.
“……Alright”
I made up my mind. I turned back to Breakcore.
“……Emm……can I pass on a message?”
If you’re interested, let’s talk properly next time. Given our current relationship, that’s about the limit of what I can say without sounding creepy. So, I’ll just have Breakcore relay that much. Now isn’t the time to meddle indiscriminately in Elf territory affairs. Getting Isabel back to Polka comes first. She should be able to rest more peacefully there than in this Elf forest, and I need her to keep the other ladies of the night in line. ……And so, waving back at Breakcore who kept waving from atop the temple hut, I departed the Holy Beast Labyrinth.
“It was quite the culture shock”
“Ahaha……well, I suppose it’s good to learn that there are lands like this and holy beasts like that”
Selenium laughed beside Isabel. Seems she intends to properly entertain me as her customer after all.
“Aren’t we going to have sex while flying back☆?”
“Let’s just calmly head back. We did it plenty yesterday”
“It might’ve been plenty for Andy-kun, but for Hilda-sensei, more would’ve been fine☆”
“Please restrain yourself. Andy-san needs his rest”
“……Y, Yeah, you’re right. Hurry up and re-tie your sash, you frustrated old woman”
“I, I was just adjusting it because it was too tight and uncomfortable! I didn’t mean anything by it!”
Well, I’m not exactly opposed to it, but couldn’t you at least let me sleep a little? ……Just as I tried to return to bed, Chibi Laila appeared softly on my shoulder.
『Master』
“Hmm?”
『……I just noticed, but there are signs someone opened the roof door』
“……Eh?”
There wasn’t a chance to open that this time, was there? After staring at Chibi Laila for a moment, I solemnly declared.
“……Descend”
And so, I declared.
And indeed.
“……Ah!”
Looking inside the attic storage, I spotted a stowaway sitting cross-legged. In the darkness, eyes gleaming from beneath her bangs, an elf girl.
“……Emm”
“…………About that”
We stared at each other for a moment, then I turned to Selenium, who was beside me, for help. Selenium also looked troubled.
“That’s not a place to sit. How about the room below?”
“……Yes”
Well, the message seemed like it was going to be wasted.