> too” The ground shook as the giant that appeared trampled on Chaga"s familiar.
“Ugh...”
He could no longer produce a sound.
It was too overwhelming.
His fighting spirit that earlier erupted in a blaze was extinguished by ice cold water.
“Grrr…...”
She had summoned a one-eyed cyclops.
It was the cyclops that had attacked the village and plunged his compatriots into the depths of despair.
Chaga froze at her laughter.
“Hey, hey. That isn"t your food. Seriously, even if their low intelligence make them easy to summon, this is why am I sick of them.”
“Eek…...”
“Hm? Have you given up? Your lack of tenacity was unexpected. Well, it is a good thing that you understand since we can skip the pointlessness.”
He could not fight back against her mockery.
He saw no way winning alone. His compatriots were either dead or captured alive. Neither the Chief nor Old Gran came. Verche was…...made into such a mess by none than himself.
Knees struck the ground of the forest. The sound of splattering mud stirred Verche.
“Chaga……?”
“Sob...sob...”
Tears filled his eyes upon hearing that the first thing she said was his name.
Verche was always the one pulling the cowardly him along. He had done something very cruel to her. Although he has to hate his opponent who made him commit such an act. Although he has to fight without sparing a thought for his life. The cowardly him couldn"t even do those and was simply s.h.i.+vering.
That made him very guilty and sad.
“Chaga? Are you crying? Are you sad?”
“Sorry, Verche……! I...I…!”
Verche slowly crawled beside Chaga, who had fallen to the ground, and gently embraced him.
Then, she faced Drei and said.
“Please…… Do not harm Chaga…...”
“Hmm?”
Drei rose her eyebrows as though she was seeing something new.
“That would depend on my master… Well, I could try negotiating. After all, you are the biggest contributor this time. I don"t mind doing that much.”
“Really…?”
“Certainly. It is my principle to never tell a lie. Though I wouldn"t correct somebody who was deceived. …...Well then.”
Drei who was done talking, removed her eyepatch again.
The violet eye stole Verche and Chaga"s consciousness.
“Feel free to take a nap. When you awake once more, you will be our comrades. I welcome you guys you know? Oh, white compatriots.”
His heart melted away.
A feeling similar to alcohol induced drunkenness.
Surrendering to that feeling, Chaga released his consciousness.
※ ※ ※
“Ahh, this really dents my confidence. I never expected to Fem to come back like this.”
I grumbled loudly while repairing the broken Fem at the atelier.
With a quick look, it could be seen that her left arm, face and flank were damaged. Apparently, the lightning magic had also caused serious damage to her internal mechanisms. You could say it was a miracle that her core parts, the computing unit and the generator, were still working.
To think my latest creation that I had enough confidence to send out could return in this tattered state. Was I over-confident or were the elves or the Chief in this incident that strong of a foe?
“Consider it from the other side, master. You were able to realised that you are too confident of yourself while losing none of your forces. Rather, this should be called a stroke of luck.”
Uni"s attempt at consoling was painful.
The result of making light of the bow-wielding and magic capable elves was this. What kind of a large spell could do this much damage to a body made of orichalc.u.m, a material well known to be resistant to magic? A mere village by the border had such hidden potential. I had to once again accept that the world was vast.
“zZZ…..Sorry, master. I have shamed you with my failure.”
“No, no, you are not in the wrong. It should be my responsibility since I suddenly sent you for a real battle as an ability test. It was really careless on my part.”
I scratched my head as I said.
I should have at least not been over-confident with Fem"s raw defensive power and should have at least given her some simple equipment to wear. In addition, I should have sent a few ma.s.s produced golems as escorts to reduce the risk of damage too.
The more I thought, the more many other areas of improvement became obvious.
I would definitely make good use of this lesson for the future. It is unlike me to carry risks and continue gambling.
“In any case…...this is a golem, huh? If not for the inside of her body being exposed, for real, I wouldn"t be able to tell her apart from a living being.”
Due interjected.
I called all of the Opus series to gather in the atelier. In order to not waste time, the arrangement was for us to have a reflection session while I fix up Fem. Recently, I have been extremely busy with a couple of projects. I suppose I have to quickly clear them all together.
As I attached a newly a.s.sembled right arm onto Fem"s main body, I replied.
“This is also part of this child"s concept. ‘A golem that exceeds a human in human capabilities". For that purpose, I had designed the complex ‘Orichalcus Brain"."
“A brain made of orichalc.u.m, huh…...I was thinking about making something like that too, Oubeniel.”
Charl said. Judging from what he said, he probably didn"t think of using of orichalc.u.m to make weapons or golem bodies or a replica of a human brain.
“In my opinion, nothing beats orichalc.u.m as a material for a artificial brain. For a material that is able to have various functions in relation to light, orichalc.u.m is extremely suitable to a small sized comp…...”
“Master. We are straying from the discussion.”
“Ah yes, sorry Uni. We were having an after-briefing on the elves capturing operation.”
As I apologised, I placed a completed head mask on Fem.
“And so. As we can see from the results, this time round, it is mostly a plus. The brain-altered elves would be of great service to the dungeon-ing of the mountains. After all, they are experts of the forests. It won"t be long before the regions outside the mountains would be filled with the lush forest.”
“The forest-type dungeon is to prevent intrusion on the lighting facility, that is currently being built. If we set free monsters there, certainly it would be impregnable.”
The biggest contributor to this mission, Drei, puffed up her chest with pride. Thanks to her, we saved lots of trouble. Capturing many of the elves will bring up the progress of the plan to transform the mountains into a forest-type dungeon. I estimated it to double or triple the speed of completion.
It is good that I do not have to worry about the maintenance of the forest after it is completed too. We do not have to send out any of us every single time since the elves live on-site and will manage the trees by themselves. Also, half-hearted adventurers would not be able to perceive nor break through the barrier set up in elves" village, and would reduce the risk from adventurers. There is the potential of using guerilla tactics in the forests when the time calls for it too. When a strong foe appears, the elves would put everything on the line to protect their home as well.
“This is truly a wonderful outcome, Drei. Even emptying the gold coffers of Marlan wouldn"t be enough to gather this amount of elves. You were able to obtain them at no cost.”
“Yes, I am deeply honoured by your praise, master.”
Drei energetically expressed her grat.i.tude to my words. In contrast, Due had a mixed expression.
“.....Are you alright with that?”
“About?”
Surely, he was worried because her elf village had been attacked. From what I have heard, Drei"s village had met its demise from invading humans. In a complete reversal, she was the perpetrator now.
However, that is all in the past. I had tampered with her past.
“Obviously? Everything I have done was to further the goal of our master as well as to receive praise. What are you worrying about?”
“Right, right! Due-senpai is acting weeeeird!”
Charl cut into the conversation with enthusiasm.
“Ah, yes! Why don"t we try looking for dark elves" village next? Dark elves live underground too. And for me who lives underground here, I would be very pleased to have them captured----”
“Are you stupid!?”
Due frantically grabbed Charl who spoke thoughtlessly.
Drei seemed to considering Charl"s suggestion.
“Oh? An excellent proposal for somebody with an empty brain.”
Drei said indifferently.
Of course it was like this. Her feelings towards her old clan and feelings towards the same race as her, a dark elf, has been completely changed. Now those feelings are directed towards my subordinates and I.
Currently, she would be unconcerned about her race. Maybe she feels a tiny bit of affinity, though.
“I know right!? And, if there is somebody cute, I would really like to have one --!”
“In the end, it"s about that? You are a pervert too, huh. …...Long-living samples are precious. We don"t have enough to allow any of them to be your plaything.”
“Let me remind you all that we have not discovered a dark elf village. And we do not have the order from master, so do not go searching on your own accord.”
Fem, whose repair was completed, added.
“For me, I think we should get our hands on the dwarves next. Their manufacturing capabilities are greatly desirable.”
“Wow, Uni-senpai has weird tastes!? Dwarf males are hairy and their females are stumpy, so I can"t get aroused at all!”
“Yes, they are indeed a bunch that seem to be useful to our master…...I don"t really like that mud-stinking environment too.”
Surprisingly, my creations were lively. Among them, only Due was silent. Unlike Uni or Fem, he wasn"t abandoned by all others except for me, nor was he like Drei and Charl, who had their allegiances switched to me. For somebody like him, he had his own peculiar anxieties.
Well, if I have still have uses for Due, I won"t say a thing.
“? What is it, Due. Why are looking so dazed?”
“......It is nothing.”
“Don"t say that, we are comrades aren"t we. If you make that kind of face, even I…...”
“Which is why I said it"s nothing!”
Rejecting Drei"s words of concern, he headed towards the door..
“The discussion is most over right? I"m out. …...I"ll be practicing my swings outside.”
Well, our discussion was indeed over, and I had no reasons to stop him.
Drei who seems to have reasons of her own, had a troubled look on her and hesitated to call him back.
Meanwhile, Due kicked open the door violently and left.
“If we don"t open and the close the door with care...”
“Yes. Due is all muscular strength, so it would be troublesome if the door breaks.”
Though, I could probably fix it right away with magic, just like I can for other things, except for Fem.
Throughout, I could tell from a side glance that Drei had been staring at Due leaving.
“......What happened. Why made him so offended? I had done a meritorious deed, haven"t I? He didn"t even give me any praise…...”
“Opus-03, I have a question. Are the words of our master, not enough?”
“That isn"t the problem. …...That isn"t it.”
“Oh, Fem-chan, Fem-chan. Don"t bring unnecessary trouble to yourself. Don"t venture in that direction. Oookay?”
Charl, who had been the junior, started to act like a senior. It would be incredibly helpful if he could maintain that calm composure all the time.
Which reminds me, I had forgotten something.
“It"s about something else but, Drei, about the thing you asked me about.”
When Drei brought the elves over, she had asked me. If I remember, it should be about a child she found in the village.
“Yes, is it about Verche? What is the matter?”
“Yes, about that…...”
※ ※ ※
Chronologically, this happens much later.
Chaga was hurrying back home.
The survivors and him have mostly gotten used to this new land known as Marlan.
Their daily life did not differ that much from the past. They took care of the trees, hunted the beasts that were multiplied too quickly and protected the barrier.
However, there were definitely things that have changed.
Firstly, the number of elves in the Witte clan had been reduced considerably. The lives that were lost that night did not return. The Chief, Old Gran, Chaga"s family and many other adults, disappeared in the ‘pruning incident" or more accurately, ma.s.sacre. For a simple reason that they didn"t have enough capacity to bring back all the elves, they were killed.
Regarding that, Chaga"s soul was unperturbed. There are two reasons for this transformation.
The elves of the Witte clan no longer subscribed to the great Providence of nature. Their target of wors.h.i.+p now was the devilish alchemist living underneath the mountains. Binding the spirits, nurturing the forest, taking good care of the family and bearing children were also all for the sake of that monster. Chaga and the survivors were altered to be unable to rebel even if they had such antagonism against him.
And the third change was,
“Oh, it is a big catch again today huh, Chaga.”
“Yes. While chasing a large deer, we also came across 3 stupid adventurers too.”
Walking towards him was not Verche, but her father. Just like the few remaining adults, he was altered, gained more power and now acts as the trainer for young elves like Chaga.
Training for what? Of course, hunting. Wild beasts that act as food, monsters that are multiplying too quickly, and finally, adventurers who intrude the forest. Chaga had learned from him, how to efficiently hunt to perform those tasks.
“But really, now that you have become such a competent hunter, I can hold my head up high. That a weakling like you could have grown so splendidly.”
“......Thank you.”
To protect the forest and his clan, he readies his bow at the unknowing and pitiable humans. As expected, he does not feel any emotions towards these people. These adventurers would attack elves just like they would on monsters or enslave elves to sell. And yet, they were shockingly weak foes. Whisper some honeyed words and they would easily believe you and expose themselves. Tell them about a safe place, lure them into a monster nest and all that is left is to shoot an arrow at their backs.
After taking down the adventurers, he would call Drei and the rest with his amulet-type equipment and hand them the adventurers. I hear that are useful materials for research. They welcome dead bodies but very much prefer a living body. Also, if we capture a skilled person, there would be rewards. Especially the precious imported spices -- everybody in the village would be happy to have them. Because it goes well with meat. That"s why adventurers who come trespa.s.s on the forest are considered as delicious prey.
Verche"s father continued in his speech.
“Could it be because of that? Maybe young men do change when they need to run a household.”
“......perhaps.”
“Hey, hey, what is with that half-hearted response? Even though the hunt wasn"t that tiring. Or is because you are worried about your wife who is waiting at home?”
“......that is so.”
Just as he has said, Chaga"s mind was all about his partner.
He wanted to quickly see her, and yet, that wasn"t exactly the case either. Nevertheless, whether it is the Chaga of today or the Chaga of the past, his mind was thinking about her.
As the conversation continued, they reached their village.
Compared to their warm and gentle white birth village, their new village was smaller, darker and intolerably gloomy.
Even then, it was their home. The important things are here.
…...Chaga and Verche"s father went the same path and went into the same house.
“Ohh, welcome back!”
“Welcome back, dear. Good work too, Chaga.”
Verche"s mom welcomed them as she carried around her stomach that had grown much larger. Normal elves do not give birth to many children. Especially so for parents who have raised a child as big as Verche. This was the instruction of the alchemist. All female elves that were able to to be pregnant were to make children. It was to increase the population of elves, he said. What comes after that? Was it simply to strengthen their fighting prowess or to use them for experiments? Chaga constantly prayed that his child does not end on the operating table.
While Chaga was lost in thoughts, Verche"s mom went inside the house and rose her voice.
“Come on, Verche! Come here too. Your beloved husband is here, you know?”
Immediately, the sounds of footsteps could be heard as she came over.
“Chaga,a!? He is back!?”
Verche spoke with a slight lisp as she flew into his arms.
“Chaga, Chaga, Chaga……! I felt lonely…...”
Crying like a child, she rubbed her head on his chest.
Verche"s parents gave wry smile, thinking, ‘That"s our child alright."".
“Good grief, I have told her so many times to be careful because her stomach is getting bigger…...”
“Really, she is still a child after so much time. She has never changed at all.”
“......”
Chaga was lost for words.
Once again, the thin fabric of hope he held onto, was crushed.
…...After that, the girl he was reunited with as his partner, completely became a different person.
“Regretfully, there are things I can do and there are things I cannot do.”
That alchemist had told him as he returned the transformed her.
“Her mind was long broken when she got here. She is trying to forget everything that happened that night, so it doesn"t seem like she would be cured even if I restored her memories. It would be meaningless to make her forget the things she has already forgotten, right? Well, it might be alright to forcefully fix her by altering her brain. Still, I do not how her brain was structured in the first place. If I altered her like that, she may or may not be the same person even if she has a functioning mind.”
In short, the Verche that Chaga once knew, was broken since that tragedy.
The culprit was none other than himself.
“Considering that risk, we can only wait and see if she recovers on her own. After all, elves do live for long. A peaceful lifestyle may someday bring her back to normal.”
At the end, would such a day really come?
As he asked, the alchemist revealed a wide smile.
“To raise that possibility, first of all, you need to ensure that the you, who she treasures so much, continue staying safe. So please, do not accidentally lose against those boring opponents. Well, you can rest a.s.sured. I will give it my all to improve your abilities. Among the samples we have collected in the village, you will be the last I would work on and that means, I can take my time to do so. This is also in a way, …...hmm, was it Verche? That child has been incredibly helpful this time, so this falls under compensation. Feel free to accept it, E-31 (Altered Elf-31).”
…...And so, Chaga gained power.
His hunting abilities was nothing like the past and his magic power was enhanced.
That is why he is one of the excellent warriors protecting the village now.
The village.
The village he wanted to protect no longer exists.
All that is left is the nest of familiars, that exists for that devil.
This is not the village that he wanted to protect together with Verche, the white birch village.
“Chaga? What is it? Are you sad?”
Verche made an equally sad expression as she asked.
…… She had really changed.
Her speech and behaviour was that of a child, and just a little bit would set her crying. She would worried when Chaga is not with her and on days he went out hunting, she would definitely be restless.
Even though she was the one who brought him out to hunt in the past.
“That is not true, Verche…...I am happy to be back home with you.”
“Really!? Waa!”
“Ahahaha! It"s getting heated, huh, newlyweds.”
“Yes, this reminds me of the past.”
Her parents laughed, unaware of her transformation.
This is also part of the arrangements by that devil.
He said it was to minimise the changes brought to the surroundings due to Verche being in her current state. It looks like he had tampered with their memories and made them believe that Verche was always like this. And so, this family continued on their daily business with little obstacles. Female elves originally did not hunt. They just need to virtuously support their husbands. Though her mental capacity is that of a child now, she was still able to slowly learn how to do some house ch.o.r.es. Thus, there were no problems.
In this village, there was no place for the proud female hunter. If there was, it only exists in his mind.
She begged for cruel things to not happen to him, and so, their memories together were taken away, and it can be said the cruel things did not happen.
For Chaga, though, that was a cruel choice she made.
Only he, who cannot accept the new her, is left behind.
Because of that, his anguish continues.
“Oh yeah! We caught a couple of deers! Here, look! Quality meat!”
“Meat? …...ughh.”
Verche cowered in fear at the meat her father was holding.
Was it because the faint memories of all those blood from that night remain? She have come to dislike meat. She could some small amounts of roasted meat but she avoided raw meat.
Surely she would no longer eat wolf meat.
“Come on, isn"t this the meat that your husband caught? It will be roasted nicely so make sure to finish all of it.”
“Chaga did? O-okay. Then, I will give it my best shot. If I do my best, will I be praised?”
“Yeah, if Verche tries hard, I will be happy too.”
After encouraging her, Verche smiled happily.
Chaga involuntarily thought that her smile was like a full moon.
A fleeting smile, like that of the moon from that night, which could be covered by rain clouds at any moment.
A smile like sunlight filtering through the trees, a strong and indomitable smile. That expression he fell in love with, no longer exists.
(This girl, isn"t Verche…...)
This was not the first or second time he thought this way
She now reminds him of the familiar he had summoned that day.
The outer appearance was the same, but the interior was completely different. That pitiful beast.
Her words which he thought to be cruel at that time, now seems to be correct.
He finally understood why it was kinder to respect and kill them.
(This was a punishment. A punishment on him for distorting Providence…..)
It was a punishment for using a spell that Old Gran, her magic instructor, did not teach, for betraying the Providence.
That punishment manifested itself as him destroying his beloved and having to live with the wreckage.
So when can he redeem himself?
Is it the day she returns back to normal?
Would such a day ever come? Would it?
…… An elf"s life was long. Compared to a human, it may seem like an eternity.
Rather than a blessing, it is more of a curse.
One that he cannot break free from. That devil wouldn"t like to have his subordinates to silently disappear, and so, have already made arrangements by altering his brain.
Chaga would have to face the proof of his sin for his entire life.
A long, long life.
“Chaga? What is it? Let"s have our meal soon?”
“Mm. That"s right, Verche.”
Verche pulled Chaga, who was deep in reflection, to invite him to the dinner table.
He stopped the painful thoughts and entrusted himself to her, who was pulling his hand.
It felt like his nostalgic first love.