Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 2===

The sun fully set while they were walking.

The dark elves apparently did not rely on firelight even when it was this dark out. Their hunting skills and pride would play a role there, but it mostly came from a fear of using fire carelessly.

Insects chirped and the starry sky hung overhead.

How much longer would this cycle last? Rosehera, the only hope elf in the world, would have finished the basic structure of her Levazastar Linked Magic Circle and would be beginning on the precise adjustments for this particular situation. She had said she would finish by dawn, but the exact limit was a mystery.

And it was all to stop Brashgain’s resurrection.

It was all to protect the humans, another species altogether.

“''What a disaster.''”

A largescale forest fire would soon engulf the forest.

When he explained the situation, Slender placed a hand on her cheek. That left her armpit wide open. A dazzling sight.

“''I can’t believe an elf would wield fire like that.''”

“''Eh? Is it that unusual?''”

“''It is. But this means we are even more pressed for time than I thought. Not even hiding in those tunnels would save us. We need to warn everyone in the village and prepare to fight that hope elf.''”

“''But…''”

“''Don’t say it.''”

Slender cut him off.

Rosehera and Elzane Livzy, who was borrowing Rosehera’s power, were the top fighters sent by the royal capital. They were a devastating pair. The dark elves had already been easily repelled by them. And that was when Elzane was only guarding the area they would use to prepare the magic circles.

Slender pointed out ahead.

“''There. That is our village.''”

Klaus nearly dropped his stick at how casual she was about it.

“You’re kidding, right? That’s the elusive village you only have one chance to find?”

“''Use our language.''”

Slender was super cute when she pouted her lips like that.

“''I didn’t expect something so normal. I was imagining some kind of secret place hidden by a magical barrier.''”

“''No one wants to live in a village that takes so much effort to move in and out of. Besides, not many humans are weird enough to willingly enter the forest.''”

So she thought he was weird, did she? He sighed.

“''Well, I won’t deny I’m horny for dark elves.''”

“''Bfff!?''”

“''Huh? Did I convert that wrong? It’s a two-letter shift, right?''”

“''Y-you had it right,''” replied a blushing Slender in a vanishingly quiet voice.

At any rate, he could see a campfire. He did not see any walls or fences, but a gate made from wooden pillars had been constructed at one point near the village. Two sentry dark elves stood at it.

“Hm. The one on the right will be Braid and the one on the left will be Freckles.”

“''What are you muttering about?''”

He named them out of habit, earning him a glare from Slender. ''Oh, right. Now that I know their language, I can just ask them their names. But if I change their names in the middle of my notes, I’ll get confused about who is who. What do I do!?'' He started trembling, but the two sentries were even more shocked.

“''Wh-who is that!? A human?''”

“''And isn’t he the one who escaped in the middle of the extermination ceremony!? Get him away from me!''”

“''I’ll cry, goddess dammit!! And you, the freckled one, I’ll hug you and rub my cheek all over you if you don’t take that back!!!''”

When Klaus snapped back at them, the two sentries jumped in fright and held each other in their arms. Their soft brown cheeks were pressed together. Their halberds, a combination of a spear and an axe, might as well not have been there.

The dark elf critic gave his opinion on the matter.

“''Yeah, a dark elf should really use a bow. Would a thick tome be the next best thing? No, maybe a whip. Eh heh heh.''”

“''U-umm, so what is this supremely creepy gentleman doing here?''”

“''Rosena, Patricia, he might spy on you in the nude and dive between your legs every chance he gets, but he isn’t a threat. As you can see, he can speak our language.''”

Was her explanation helping him or not? After Slender winked and vouched for him, the other two pulled back their halberds.

His dreams were collapsing around him. It all felt so ordinary. Was there not a single deadly trial he had to pass to gain entrance?

“''This is the secret village? Ahh, what a disappointment.''”

“''Why would we create a village where we threaten to kill everyone who comes along? C’mon, we need to hurry.''”

Klaus passed through the ineffective gate and entered the village with Slender.

He doubted there was any magic or a mystical barrier at play, but as soon as he was inside, everything felt strange to him. It was the sounds and the voices. The place was full of life. There were also campfires lit all over the place. They may intentionally have been producing so much light and sound to scare animals away.

The inside of the village felt like another world altogether. He was finally in contact with civilization again.

He saw several log cabins and a few groups were sitting around campfires in between those cabins. There was no light inside the cabin windows, so dark elves must not have used fire indoors, except maybe small candles and lamps. He recalled that they bathed in the rivers and springs outside their village. That meant they wouldn’t have any household baths.

The log cabins did not appear to use nails.

In fact…

“''Oh, I get it. They’re made to be dismantled and carried away. The village is so hard to find because it’s constantly being moved around the vast forest!!''”

“''Yes, and?''”

“''C’mon, you’re supposed to react with extreme shock!!''”

“''???''”

He was going to have a hard time sharing his excitement with someone who lived here. This meant recording the village’s location on his stick would be meaningless. Instead, he wanted to know how they decided where to go.

He detected the delicious scent of cooking meat. He discovered the dark elves really did use salt. And they also used herbs. He saw salad, stew, grain bread, and what looked like a risotto. It was distributed in ceramic containers. This was what you could do once you had mastered life in the forest. Klaus, a beginner who was forced to eat bugs and barely-cooked mincemeat, was way out of his league. He couldn’t imagine how many steps were involved in accomplishing all this.

The barrels he saw here and there appeared to contain iron sand, which was probably used to create metal products.

“''Wow, who is that? He has earlobes!''”

“''Is he a human? Ohhh, I’ve never touched one before.''”

The little dark elves approached him with no caution whatsoever. They wore the same white leather outfits as the others. The skimpy outfits looked so wrong on those small bodies. And they didn’t seem to be old ladies like Little Girl was. The adults…kept their distance, but they seemed to trust him since Slender was with him. They did not appear to be readying poison arrows to attack him.

One of the children massaged his earlobe when he crouched down for her to reach.

“''I bet it was a pain getting here.''”

“''?''”

The path here had taken him through a hellish world of survival and mistakes he would much rather forget, but that was not what the little dark elves were getting after.

“''She likes to guide people through the forest. Because she loves explaining stuff. So you must be exhausted after she talked your ear off the entire way.''”

“Eh?”

Klaus was legitimately surprised by this.

The children didn’t seem to be joking because more of them joined in.

“''She’s always saying how stressful it is to sit silently behind the bushes with her bow at the ready.''”

“''And that after work she goes and screams behind the waterfall to let off some steam.''”

Unable to stop the children from revealing her secrets, Slender grew flustered, her hands and her long ears shaking wildly.

“''N-no, don’t get the wrong idea! I only like to provide people with some basic information so I didn’t have to help them every time they stumble along the way! It’s all meant to help me in the long run, not because I feel lonely when I don’t talk with anyone for a while.''”

“''I see. You do like explaining things, don’t you?''”

“''Shut up. It’s none of your business!!''”

When he thought back, he realized Slender had not been alone all that often. Hadn’t she generally been with other dark elves?

“Was she contacting the others because she felt lonely?”

“''I can’t understand your human language, so use ours,''” said Slender, pulling up her rabbit ears hood as if threatening him.

She seemed like an entirely different person now that he could understand her.

For that matter, the dark elves weren’t exclusionary at all. Klaus had found nothing but surprises since he learned to understand them. Is this what Professor Dissection had wanted to slice open with a scalpel and what Elzane was trying to burn alive because they “had no other choice”? Something had gone horribly wrong in this world.

Among the children, he saw one holding a large paper book and he saw drawings on the ground, presumably made with a rock or stick. They may have had their own fairy tales and children’s stories.

Two of the dark elf children broke a fallen stick in two. But instead of throwing it on the fire, they shared the two pieces. Hooded Slender narrowed her eyes as she explained.

“''That is a legend from a children’s story.''”

“''?''”

Did the matching jagged edges act as a password or something?

When he started watching the dancers performing near a campfire, Short Hair blew him a kiss. No screaming and calling him a pervert here.

…''Come to think of it, isn’t this my first time seeing them outside of that weird ritual or spying on them from the bushes?

''Does that mean I’m an official part of their audience now? And does ''that'' mean I can watch as much as I want!? Where’s my stick – I need to take notes. I need to get some very close observations of the dark elf lifestyle. This will be one of the greatest research reports in the history of humankind!!

“''Hmph.''”

“Gah, ow!? What!? Did you just kick me in the shin!?”

“''I can’t understand human language.''”

Slender puffed out her cheeks and looked the other way, but one of her long ears was twitching and turning his way. She was looking away, but she was still listening in.

And…

“''You were awfully flexible when you were bathing, so were you perhaps interested in being a priest dancer instead of an ace hunt- gwah!?''”

“''S-s-s-s-stop making assumptions!! My reputation depends on it!!''”

“''A clenched fist this time…?''”

“''And what was that about me bathing?''”

Where would she hit him next if he didn’t learn to keep his mouth shut? He still had a lot of training to go before he could gladly accept a fisting from his wife, so he frantically shook his head and dropped that line of discussion.

…''Ugh, I so want to see her dancing in one of those skimpy outfits.

“''Yeah, you’re right. Dark elves look best wielding a bow!!''”

“''Y-you really think so?''”

“''You’re the wild type, not a graceful dancer! Ah ha ha. A dancer with this flat a body? Not happening!!''”

“''…''”

For some reason, she stomped on his foot, making him lose his balance and fall right into one of the dancer’s arms. Beads of sweat flew from Short Hair’s lithe, heated body. She did elegantly hold a hand to her mouth and let loose a shriek, but in a playful way.

…''But.

After that ordeal, Klaus noticed something odd. He saw several canoes or boats seemingly made by hollowing out logs or Witch Pumpkins, but the carving looked rough, imprecise, and poorly done. Plus, he saw no oars to use with the simple boats, so how could they operate them? There were no fishing rods or nets either. The dark elves must not have developed much of a fishing culture.

“''U-um.''”

“''Yes?''”

“''Do you dark elves not know how to swim?''”

“''Do I need to punch you again?''”

That suggestion upset her. Language was tricky. Being understood was not always a good thing. But it was true a species that couldn’t swim wouldn’t approach the rivers.

“Yeah, that makes sense. They do love bathing enough to do it more than once a day.”

“''Why do those human words sound so indecent?''”

…''Do they view the water as something that cleanses and washes away scents, not something you get stuff out of?

“''Eh heh heh. Yes, washing that beautiful skin clean.''”

“''What are you fantasizing about? I don’t like a single thing about how you’re acting here. Hey, answer me!!''”

Klaus was grinning and staring into space, so Slender grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard.

They were surrounded by a peaceful scene.

Dark elves gathered around the fire to eat dinner and laugh together. Children held out bowls and plates to ask the woman in charge of cooking for seconds. Quite a few scantily clad women were dancing and jangling their yellow gems in time with drums and flute music. A parent and child were leaning together while the mother pointed up into the starry sky, perhaps to teach her daughter about the constellations. They used different tools, but he had seen these exact smiles in the royal capital’s restaurants and public squares.

It all felt wrong to him. Weren’t these the people trying to resurrect Brashgain?

He had expected a strained atmosphere from their resentment of humans or for no one to be allowed out at night. And if they did hate humans, why would they accept him in just because Slender said it was okay?

“''It’s like I told you.''” Slender peered over at his face with her hands on her hips and her cheeks a bit puffed out. “''We don’t know anything about trying to resurrect Brashgain.''”

Ropes were tied to a tree’s thick branches and cloth sacks the size of heads dangled down. He had seen these disturbing pieces of art before, but now he saw the children were laughing while smacking them with sticks. It appeared to be some kind of game, but he couldn’t work out the rules.

Slender kept one hand on her hip and gave him a puzzled look with ears twitching.

“''Why are you covering your face like that?''”

“''It’s nothing. Just don’t look at me for a bit.''”

…''Goddess, I just want to die. Don’t remind me that I thought those were part of some kind of cult ritual.

But as civilized as the village was, it did lack one thing: the lighting of fires. They knew how to use fire, but they never seemed to light one themselves, by friction or flint. All of their campfires and torches were started from other fires they already had.

They probably had a fire preserved in a sacred altar, deep in a cave, or in the elder’s house. If that ever went out, their civilization would screech to a halt. It felt terribly fragile to Klaus.

“''Anyway, we need to see the elder,''” said Slender. “''It would be fastest to speak with her first. She might have some old text I’m unaware of.''”

“''Um, is the elder like the oldest woman here or something? Who is it? Please tell me I’m not going to find Little Girl seated atop a throne in the back of the village.''”

“''Who is Little Girl?''”

She showed him to the village’s largest house located a short distance from the others. It was large enough to be called a mansion. Since their village was mobile, a bigger building took more effort to move. Whoever lived here had to be powerful.

They must not have needed an appointment because they marched right on in and found the big boss waiting in the back of the mansion.

The elder wore white silk, green gems, and…

“''Glasses!?''”

''That makes sense,'' thought Klaus entering assessment mode. ''Glasses is more mature than Slender. By which I mean she has bigger boobs. Like, wow those are big. And she’s wearing that loose-fitting sheer silk instead of the white leather, so she must be a priest. Mature, intellectual, and a priest? Leaders are generally whoever can supply a steady source of food or the leader of an ancient religion, but it looks like the dark elves went with the latter.

Meanwhile, Glasses looked at him like he was a creep and held her arms protectively around herself with her long ears twitching. Unfortunately for her, that only caused her to lift her boobs from below.

“''Why did you bring this rude human to me? What kind of person calls someone Glasses just because she wears them?''”

“''That’s just how he does things. I fell victim to it myself. W-while I was bathing…''”

“''Yes. And I seem to recall his extermination ceremony was never completed since a certain someone took him away.''”

“''Oh? I am not accepting accusations from someone who ties people up and starts smoking them to death without bothering to explain it to them or to test if the treatment is even necessary.''”

''What’s this?'' thought Klaus, noticing something here.

Strange sparks were crackling between those two. He could have sworn he saw it.

Slender and Glasses pressed their foreheads together as they continued their exchange.

“''I always did think you needed to be taught some respect for your superiors. You could also stand to stop acting so brusque when we all know you’re the fragile bunny type that needs someone to talk to or you die of loneliness.''”

“''Oh, I have plenty of respect for you. Even if you do eat the deer and boars we worked so hard to catch without putting in any work yourself.''”

They could not afford to get into a fight now. Rosehera could set the forest ablaze at any moment.

Klaus lay down on the floor.

Drastic times called for drastic measures.

“''Now, now, my lovely ladies. If this is going to take long, why not take a seat right here? Yes, one of you on my face and the other on my hips! It’s the perfect position for three people who need to learn how to become very good friends!!!!!!”

“''Why in the world did you bring this scumbag into our village!?''”

“''?''”

Glasses shouted tearfully at Slender who didn’t know what he meant and only looked confused.

Slender loved explaining things, but that particular position was too high level for her and she gave up trying to figure it out. Glasses, realizing her outburst proved she did understand, blushed bright, puffed her cheeks out to the limit, and clenched both fists so hard they shook.

Klaus realized something from all this.

…''It looks like their official leader isn’t necessarily the most powerful person here.

Glasses glared down at him.

“''What? What did you just realize? Out with it, human.''”

“''Oh, I wouldn’t dream of realizing any great dark elf secrets, Lady Glasses.''”

“''Adding ‘lady’ to it doesn’t make the name any better!! D-do not forget that I am the village elder! I am the most important person here!''”

When she opened her eyes wide and raised her arms (with enough force to make her breasts jiggle up and down), the dark elves waiting outside the mansion silently responded. A composite bow made from multiple woods and animal tendons launched an arrow with greater force than the average mercenary and grazed Klaus’s nose.

It also shattered a window from the outside and pierced an expensive-looking liquor bottle on a shelf on the opposite wall.

Glasses froze with her arms still in the air and began trembling.

“''Ah, ahhh, ahhhhh…''”

“(Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.)”

“''S-stop that, human! What are you writing on that stick!? Don’t you dare leave any record of what just happened!!''”

The lovable elder grabbed at him to stop him and Slender winked.

“''This is what happens when you guard your mansion with hunters because we’re more effective. You might as well be putting up a sign saying the priests can’t do anything on their own.''”

“''Um? What can she do?''” asked Klaus.

“''I specialize in recovery magic.''” Glasses kept her cheeks puffed out while she crossed her arms, unintentionally lifting her large breasts. “''But with the long dark elf lifespan, our bodies never really show their age. I’ve had time to master my magic to the point that I can heal just about anything, but it’s almost never needed.''”

“''Yes, and you’re there whenever someone’s in trouble. You don’t need to be useful on an everyday basis, so make sure you do your job when it is needed.''”

…''So the hunters support their everyday lives and the priests are for emergencies.

If that was her role, Klaus couldn’t bring himself to laugh at Glasses. She was there when she was needed, but the dark elves lived such peaceful lives. Just like with a doctor or a soldier, it was best when she wasn’t needed.

“''What is that look of pity for, human?''”

“''Oh, I was just impressed that someone as incredible as you really exists. You’re so different from our shitty human king who’s obsessed with his own glory and won’t stop counting how many statues he has in the city.''”

“''Well, excuse me for having no glory or statues. Hmph!!''”

Glasses looked sulkily away. But just as he thought she looked kind of cute, someone stomped on his foot.

“''…''”

Slender was sulking even more with her arms crossed. She was even more cute.

Failing to realize his praise had been genuine, Glasses clicked her tongue.

“''So what do you want? You wouldn’t have visited me if it wasn’t a big deal.''”

“''It’s about Brashgain,''” began Klaus Knockburn. “But I’m not talking about the parasites you call the dragon bugs. My teacher, rotten though she may be, told me the dark elves are plotting to destroy the world by resurrecting Brashgain from his bones. And the humans – plus Hope Elf Rosehera – are responding to that accusation.''”

“''But I’ve never heard anything about resurrecting Brashgain,''” said Slender to the dark elf elder. 
“''Are you hiding something from us hunters again? If so, you need to tell us sooner rather than later.''”

Glasses slowly raised both hands and stuck out her tongue like a child.

She was aware her mansion’s hunter guards were not going to listen to her here.

“''You think we’re messing with Brashgain’s bones''?”

Klaus felt some relief setting in. Slender was a reasonable person after all. All the dark elves had been eating and smiling together. Even Glasses, their elder, was a playful person. The village was a pleasant place. It was overflowing with kindness. The contrast to the harsh and unpleasantly unpredictable forest was plain as day.

But it slipped his mind that this village was itself a part of that unpredictable Forest of No Return. 

Glasses smiled thinly and gave her answer with both hands still raised.

“''Of course we are. We would be fools not to.''”