Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 10===

Slender’s interests had been obvious from the beginning.

She tried to stay cool and collected, but he had glimpsed the way to her heart from time to time.

But Klaus could not create some intricate piece of jewelry even if he did find some gold or gems in the forest. Fortunately, he didn’t need to aim for a perfect score right away. Do that and you would be crushed by the yawning skill gap between the experts and an amateur.

…''There have to be plenty of handy materials around here. Like a hard nut or a shell in a mountain stream.

How he would go about gathering the materials and processing them into an accessory was an important question, but he wanted to know something else first. This was a dangerous move, but he wanted to get it done before he left Slender.

He only had to crouch behind cover, draw a perfect square in the green moss so it wouldn’t leave a permanent mark, and quietly recite the incantation within that magic circle. His example was right there through the trees.

“Of the three traits, I choose salt. Magic lifeform, mammal, primate, elf, dark elf, rulers of the forest who prefer the darkness. I have grasped thy nature like counting the corners of a polygon or star. The polygon emanates and the star gathers – together they symbolize the control of power. By knowing thee, I become one with thee.”

This time, he would be using the original unchanged.

Dark elves were a lifeform too, so this was entirely possible.

“Camouflize Decoration – now I am thee!!”

Illusionary white steam spread out and Klaus looked down at his body.

Long, silver hair tickled the skin of his shoulders and back. The skin reflecting the mottled sunlight was a healthy brown. Its color had never been so clear to him. Which made sense since this was an entire dark elf girl’s body with no clothing to cover it. Even the hair only covered the back and the nape.

He had wanted to try this out when he had some Witch Pumpkin stem to spare. No matter how much he built up on the inside, it would be digested away after a full day, so he might as well use it for something.

Now that he had gone through with it, he nodded in understanding.

(I don’t reproduce any kind of clothing or possessions when I camouflage as other lifeforms either, so I should have expected this.)

“Oops, my stick was camouflaged along with me.”

His voice had transformed to a girl’s one as well. He touched his throat and found no Adam’s apple. He had set down the soft gold earring to avoid crushing it when he sat down, but he could not take notes with just it.

Yes, he wanted to know Slender’s size. If he was going to, for example, make her a ring, he needed to measure her finger first. And needing to speak with her in order to prepare the very surprise gift meant to bring them together was nonsensical. So he had decided it was faster to camouflage himself as her and take the necessary measurements that way.

(These are pretty nice, though.)

He tried hopping up and down and two things his male body lacked jiggled softly. ''And she dares call herself Slender? Wait, no, I guess she doesn’t.'' The sound of his hands touching his skin was weirdly alluring, but now was not the time to act like a horny idiot. ''I won’t deny I am one, but I must resist!!'' The dark elf he had named Leader had turned out to be a low-level hunter, but the name he had given his future wife was dead on. He had had his suspicions when he saw her bathing, but this confirmed it. She really did use her vest’s strap to make them look bigger. He could focus on this later. Right now, he needed to be cautious. ''C’mon, now’s not the time for this. I mean it, me. N-nwohhh!

“Ahem.”

He had burned the image into his eyes, so now it was time to take a deep breath, refocus his mind, and try to be a scientist (in training) once more. First of all, he had learned he ended up naked if he camouflaged himself as a dark elf. That created a new task. The hunters wore white-bleached leather and the priests wore thin silk. Procuring clothing like that in the forest would be no easy task. His plan of transforming into a dark elf and sneaking into their village was looking a lot less realistic.

(Then could I camouflage myself as a fly or mosquito and sneak in that way? No, that’s a bad idea. Don’t forget how those termites almost ate me when I was a Witch Pumpkin. The rules of the wilderness apply out here. A harmless bug or a small animal might go unnoticed by the dark elves, but there are tons of predators out there. Besides, what if a dark elf spots me and pulls out a fly swatter?)

Getting to know Slender and gaining her cooperation was still the best plan. Why sneak into the dressing room as a mouse and spy on her boobs from a corner, when you could get her permission and actually touch them? He had gained a lot to think about, but it would be best not to change plans without thinking it through first.

He heard a flapping sound at his ear.

“?”

Thinking it was a big moth or something, he reflexively swung his hand past his head, but then he felt some pain in his ear. He hesitantly touched it and felt it. The ear was long and a little hard. It didn’t have an earlobe like a human ear did. He wasn’t sure how to best describe it, but he could freely move them. He could even move each one separately.

He had some difficulty without a mirror, but he managed to attach the earring to that long ear.

Then he moved the ear.

…''It’s kind of heavy. It feels like it would get in the way, but maybe she just really likes how it looks.

He could not tell the differences and advantages the long ear had compared to a human ear.

Camouflize only camouflaged him. It made him look like something else, but it did not actually transform him into it. That was why he had retained his five senses while in Witch Pumpkin form and how he had been able to look back over his shoulder while in mare form. There were exceptions, such as crushing an enemy with an extreme size difference, but camouflaging himself as something for offensive purpose was generally useless. He could not breathe fire just because he camouflaged himself as a dragon. So he could only make guesses here.

(Maybe it’s like a cat’s ears. They turn their ears in the direction they want to focus to gather sounds from primarily that direction. And they can use the auditory differences between ears to judge distances in 3D space, such as the distance to their prey. Maybe they can even focus on the sound of the wind or of magic, but I can’t say for sure.)

At any rate, the task at hand was taking Slender’s sizes.

In order to measure each part in turn, he ran his hands across his body like he was washing himself in the bath. He measured the fingers, the wrists, the ankles, the ears, the neck, and…where else could she wear an accessory? He measured every option he could think of and recorded the numbers on the ground with his bare heel. He could not use Camouflize repeatedly since that would use up his magic derivative, so he considered even taking her height, weight, and other basic measurements while he was at it. Wouldn’t it be a waste otherwise?

In dark elf form, he approached a thick tree trunk and tore off a stringy plant that measured several meters long. Was it a parasitic plant like mistletoe or dodder? He wrapped the pinky-thick plant around his bare chest. It lacked the marks of a tailor’s measuring tape, but he could accurately record the length by making a mark in it with his fingernail. This had seemed like a good idea at first, but it ended up prickling his skin a lot. Especially at the tips that were a shade lighter than strawberry milk.

“Hmm, not even 80cm. The actual numbers give a different impression than the visual.”

(Sigh. If I keep this up, I’ll be as bad as Professor Dissection.)

And.

He heard several small objects clattering to the ground.

“?”

Four-legged animals could not hold anything since they used all four legs to walk, so they could not drop something like that. Then what was this? ''Who'' had just dropped something?

In (naked) brown girl form, Klaus looked over curiously and found the answer past the bushes.

A girl with long, silver hair, brown skin, and an identical face was staring, wide-eyed.

That one was the real Slender.

“''Ik…''”

She had a look of utter disbelief in her eyes.

Following her gaze, he looked down somewhat. Yes, she was less focused on the “identical face” part than she was on the body. In other words, the chest and the part further down than the navel which were entirely bare in the mottled sunlight.

And her measurements were written plainly on the ground at his feet.

She did not speak his language, but she might be able to read the numbers.

“''Ikkkk. Ikkkkkkkk.''”

(Uh, oh. I screwed this up real bad.)

She had already seen his camouflage magic, so she would know exactly what she was looking at when she saw someone identical to herself. She would not suspect some other magical lifeform like the royal capital’s Doppelganger or that eastern nation’s Tomokazuki.

“''Ykiw wko konn ito bae gauqj!? Wkiw’v, ep, pb dagb! Iw noivw faxot uw er!! Tujkw wkuv uqvwiqw!!''”

Slender blushed, pointed vigorously at him, and shouted something with tears in her eyes. She had dropped the arrows from her quiver, but she didn’t seem to notice.

But what was this?

She was shouting an awful lot, but she never used any of that brutal Archdragon Magic that so easily defeated the knights.

“''Huqo, bae yuq. U gaq’w mqay ykiw muqg ah pijuf bae’to evuqj, dew u yaq’w munn bae hat qay. Uh u munnog bae naamuqj numo wkiw, u yaeng qoxot nuxo uw gayq aqfo wko awkotv haeqg wko dagb. Va levw jow aew ah pb dagb hat qay. Rnoivo.''”

“…?”

(Why isn’t she attacking? Does this mean…I really can make contact with her?)

He had no idea what she was saying, but if she was talking, she had to be trying to communicate. She was giving him a chance, so could he make use of this? He didn’t know what fidgeting Slender was thinking here, but she might be able to convey his thoughts to the dark elves like a translator.

He wanted them to stop resurrecting Brashgain.

They might attack him for knowing their secret, but it was worth trying.

When he had seen Little Girl running through the forest in tears, he had felt a squeezing in his chest.

When he had seen her reunited with Mother, he had breathed an honest sigh of relief.

They were enemies now and they were trying to hunt him down, but he wanted to avoid having to fight the dark elves if at all possible. Not just with Slender and Little Girl, but with all of them. Maybe that made him naïve, but he could never treat them the same way he did that deer he beat to death the night before.

If any of the dark elves got hurt, it would sadden Slender and Little Girl. He could not be friends with Little Girl ''and'' fight against Mother.

This was a first step toward communication, so Klaus Knockburn placed a hand on the center of his chest (while still a naked girl) to show he had no intention of fighting. He could not decode the dark elf language and what little elf he knew had failed last time, so he had no choice but to use human language.

“You-”

He was cut off by a strange explosion.

The world spun around him.

He had no idea what this meant. No one else had intervened, but this was real Archdragon Magic. The mass of air that erupted directly in front of him had come from Slender.

“''Ykiw yiv wkiw!?''”

“''Bae haan. Juxo ev i vujqin dohato evuqj pijuf. I nuwwno yitquqj yaeng kixo dooq qufo!''”

Was that Leader and Curvy? In his upside-down vision, he saw some other dark elves rushed over to join Slender. The world continued to spin around him a few times and he felt a squeezing in his stomach when he realized he still hadn’t hit the ground.

How far had he been thrown?

…''Oh, come to think of it, Slender seems to say “bae” a lot. Especially when she’s looking at me. Could that mean “you”?

He retreated into his thoughts during his extended airtime, but soon enough, he crashed into the ground like a catapult stone, tearing into the soft soil and bouncing a few times. Did those snapping sounds come from the short bushes he was crushing below him? He could not even consider bracing for impact. He happened to weave between some thick trees, rolled right past a giant Witch Pumpkin that had to be hard as rock, and eventually came to a stop.

(It’s no use.)

White steam burst out and the naked girl was a clothed boy once more. But the pain was still there. He could not move and he passed out while half-buried in some thick bushes.

…''I have no idea what she’s thinking. Maybe I was wrong to ever assume she thinks the same as humans do. Why would you do that, Slender?