Dark Elf:Volume1 Prologue

Prologue

A legend. A true living legend stood before him.

The skinny boy named Klaus Knockburn had heard at the Court Magic Academy that the legendary dark elves could be found in this deep forest. Dark elves were featured in children’s picture books about as often as wicked witches, but this was his first time actually seeing one.

She looked to be around 15 or 16, but it was hard to judge the actual age of such a long-lived species. She was a little shorter than Klaus. Her silver hair fell to her hips and her skin was a healthy brown. Her eyes were large and ruby red. She had a small, beautiful face that drew the eye. Maybe that was thanks to the twitching of her ears that extended far to the side in a way human ears did not. Dark elves supposedly hunted and gathered herbs in the forest to survive, but her lithe and symmetrical figure was more reminiscent of a ballerina or gymnast. She was more lovely than a noble girl and more alluring than a bar dancer. And she also had a mystical feel that made you feel somewhat guilty when looking at her.

Klaus had forgotten to take notes. Even if he was still in training, that made him a failure of a fieldwork researcher. But he could not picture his rotten teacher’s mocking expression at the moment. He was too focused on something else.

Speaking of which, why could Klaus describe the dark elf’s appearance in such detail?

Because she was naked.

She had been bathing on the bank of a babbling brook.

An odd silence hung over them.

They were deep in the forest where the smell of vegetation was strong. The many conifer trees left just enough space for some mottled sunlight to filter through onto a river bank covered in smooth stones. But the river itself was shallow. The clear water only came up to the standing dark elf’s shins and sharp rocks could be seen jutting above the surface here and there.

The mottled sunlight and the clear water shined light across the scene.

A gold earring with a red gem glittered on the dark elf girl’s long right ear, so she clearly kept it on even when bathing. The entire world seemed to be shining. The long-eared girl stood in the water with her hands behind her head. She must have been gathering up her wet hair when she froze with beautiful eyes wide. The option of hiding must not have occurred to her. The clueless type, eh?

The boy had also frozen in place after walking through some vegetation covered in spiderweb-like strings, but he yelled out loud a few seconds later.

“Whaaaaaat!? That’s what girls look like down there!!!???”

“Bumov. Y-ykiw?”

She opened her mouth, but some weird sounds came out. Maybe that was the dark elf language.

The girl belatedly jumped and bent over to cover herself with her hands, but she did a poor job of it. Her defenses were woefully insufficient. Her surprise was winning out at the moment, so what she was covering up and what she should have been covering up didn’t match up at all. Klaus would have loved to warn her, but he couldn’t speak dark elf!! He settled on covering his face with one hand and pointing at the undefended locations with his other hand, but she showed no sign of catching on!!!!!!

…Wait…e-ehhh?”

He had been searching out the dark elves ever since he first saw them in a picture book as a child. Most of his childhood dreams had come and gone or evolved with time, but this one alone had remained firm. He had enrolled in the royal capital’s Court Magic Academy, he was learning magical biology in an elective taught by his rotten teacher, a known eccentric, and he had focused his learning on dark elves in particular.

And yet.

When he finally encountered one of those living legends, undoubtedly a historic moment, he found himself in a truly awkward position. If the academy back home asked him to explain what happened, would he have to tell it all in minute detail? He could easily imagine the (seemingly) young girl covering her brightly-blushing face with both hands. Really, the whole idea felt like a terrible violation of her privacy.

But there she was, right in front of him and close enough to reach out and touch one of those long ears!!

It was love at first sight. No one thing stood out to him. Her long silver hair, her smooth brown skin, her distinctive long ears, her gorgeous red eyes, the way she seemed so calm and composed yet grew innocently flustered instead of angry or tearful when someone saw her naked – every last bit of it was perfect!

…Thank the goddess I’ve never been popular.

Klaus was actually tearing up with emotion. Could it be that his lonely school life had been the goddess’s kindly making sure his first time would be even better than he had ever dared hope? He hoped so. If not, he might just impulsively strangle the goddess.

But wait. It was too soon to get excited. Now was not the time to be thinking with his dick. This was an important expedition for his magical biology research. He needed to take notes, write up a paper, and submit it. At this rate, he would look back at his notes and not know if “dark elf” meant this individual or the entire species. As a court scientist in training, Klaus knew he needed to be careful. It would be best to give her an individual name right away. One glance at the naked girl and he decided to call her Slender! What exactly he was looking at when that name came to mind is best left unsaid.

And after searching for this mystical species since he was little, he also knew all about their legends.

Didn’t they have a rule where a dark elf had to marry someone who secretly stole her weapons or armor…in other words, someone who saw her stripped bare?

It was a common enough cultural custom within magical biology. Stories of beautiful spirits having their clothing stolen while they bathed and then being asked to marry the thief could be found all over the world. There were also plenty of stories where a supernatural creature had to leave human civilization in tears after their true identity was discovered. Accidents that left nonhuman magical creatures defenseless were simply that important.

And dark elves placed a large focused on strength since they used hunting and gathering to survive. They especially valued the ability to hide your presence and take up a deadly attack position unnoticed. So the skills needed to silently approach close enough to steal their clothing and see them defenselessly naked was a show of strength.

Desiring a strong partner was a common value among nonhumans.

So this girl – Slender – would apparently ask Klaus to marry her.

“Y-yiuw.”

The girl’s cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, but her hands still weren’t covering the parts that really mattered. Did she not actually care if he saw that stuff? Or was she saying he alone was allowed to look? Whatever the case, Slender opened her lips in surprise.

But instead of screaming, she clearly tried to communicate with him.

“Ykiw ito bae gauqj wkoto? Uq hifw, ito bae amib???”

He once more observed the dark elf girl from head to toe. And he nodded.

…I bet she’s asking me to marry her.

He was certain of it. She did seem to be saying too much for that, but pessimism is a good way to live a dreary life. He could see it in her red eyes. The psychic waves were reaching him and how could those lie!?

This had all been an unfortunate accident, but what would happen to her if he refused her based on his own human rules? And what if he left the forest and walked right on back to town? Just think about it. She didn’t just want to marry him, she had to. If he ignored her here, she would be ostracized by her village for failing to follow their strict rules and this unresolved “engagement” would prevent her from ever finding love with anyone else.

…Then Slender would be all alone for the rest of her long life! For the nigh endless span of her elf life!! Left with only her own company to soothe her on those lonely nights! Actually, I kind of want to see that part, but I can’t doom her to a lifetime of it!!!!!!

That was a tragedy. A tragedy in his power to prevent.

…Yes, I need to do the responsible thing here.

Slender appeared to be using the local dark elf language and he had not yet checked to see if she was bilingual, so he used exaggerated gestures as he spoke. He spread his arms wide, spoke loudly, and enunciated each word as clearly as he could.

He slowly approached the girl and kneeled in the river with an audible splash.

Klaus Knockburn took her slim brown hand.

And he switched on his prince mode.

“I would be honored to take your hand in marriage and begin sharing a bed as soon as poss- gwah!!!???”

He was not permitted to finish his sentence.

A few more dark elves appeared behind him, seemingly out of nowhere, and treated him quite violently. He was pinned at their feet, his arms and head held down. He did not even have time for surprise. What level of expertise did it take to approach silently through shallow water?

Also, these ones were not naked. They wore white leather vests, blue tight skirts, and red jewels. They wore a quiver at the hip and held a long bow over the arm. They were stereotypical dark elf hunters. But Klaus knew he would get confused if he just called them all “dark elves”. Confusion was bad, so to help thoroughly research everything from their armpits to their pointy ears, he chose to name them.

…Okay, the one with the boobs too big for her clothing and the bare forehead will be Curvy and the relentless-looking one with the sharp eyes and the ponytail can be Leader.

Only after finding he could not use his arms did the boy realize he should have been taking notes. If he had to rely on his memories when writing his paper later on, he was bound to misremember some of the details. So during fieldwork, he was supposed to take notes of even the most insignificant-seeming things.

“Kob, Mouqi! Ykiw uv i kepiq gauqj uq koto!?”

“Ko…kivq’w dooq fitog hat? Uvq’w ko ihtiug ah wko gtijaq dejv!?”

With a short shriek, time seemed to speed back up for bathing Slender. She blushed and actually covered herself with her hands. It was kind of funny that she was freaking out now more than when Klaus, a boy, had been looking her in the eye.

Yeah, this makes sense, thought Klaus. That was a little too good to be true.

…Still, even if you’re capturing a blatant peeping tom, could you not pin me face down in the water? My whole face is submerged and I can only hold my breath for so long. Or is this the goddess’s kind way of letting me enjoy the same water those beautiful dark elf feet are soaking i-…gurgle, gurgle, gurgle…

He saw white. The view before his eyes grew so bright so quickly he could only perceive it as the color white. His blindfold had been removed. It took him a few seconds to realize he hadn’t been unconscious this whole time – his eyes had simply been covered.

“Hm? Ugh…”

His vision had returned, but his mind was having trouble processing what he saw.

He was standing up with his arms behind his back and his entire body was tied to a log. As soon as he realized that, he began to feel pain across his body like when you tied a string tight around your finger. But he was too preoccupied to grimace.

Coolheaded Leader, in her white leather hunter’s outfit, had a hand up to hide her lips while she whispered in the long ear of a priest-type in a loose silk outfit adorned with green jewels – he decided to call her Glasses for now.

“Wko kotdv ito toigb, Fiwkotuqo. Dew wkuv uv iq opotjoqfb, va wkuv yunn do hiutnb giqjotaev.”

“Yo kixo nuwwno fkaufo. Wkuv uv wko gtijaq dejv yo’to winmuqj idaew. Yuwkaew wkuv, ko yunn vetonb guo.”

A pile of dried plants lay at his feet. And all of the dark elf women and girls surrounding him were holding torches in the middle of the day. This did not seem to be a gathering of a specific group. The hunters with the white leather outfits and large bows were joined by the priests in thin, white silk and even a little girl in a sheer dress clinging to her mother’s hip.

The entire community had chosen this course of action. It felt more like a ritual than a crime.

“A-all this?”

He was about to be executed. Just like he occasionally saw in the royal capital.

“All this just for peeping on someone bathing!? Do you feel the need to fully cleanse even the smallest impurities you find!?”

Where was the girl from before – Slender!? Klaus moved his head around as best he could while tied to the log and found that girl standing within the crowd with a hand on her hip.

He strained at the rope and shouted over at her.

“Help me, Slender! If you tell them they’re overreacting, surely- ah!?”

He was dumbfounded. Did she just look away in a huff!?

…And come to think of it…

A fundamental question finally entered one corner of Klaus Knockburn’s mind.

The legends said a dark elf had to marry someone who stole all of her weapons and armor without her noticing.

Could it be that very human-friendly legend wasn’t even true!!!???

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