I Became a 10,000-year-old Elf

“Mayor! There’s an anomaly in the Forbidden Area…”

“I know. Quickly dispatch an investigation team.”

Wilren, the mayor of the free city of Suan, nodded at the urgent words of his aide. In an ordinary afternoon, a massive lightning bolt struck in an instant.

Of course, it wasn’t a bolt from the blue since the sky was cloudy. But the direction was the problem. The lightning struck the middle of a forest west of the city.

Though it looked like an ordinary forest on the surface, that forest was an important place that showed why this was a free zone untouched by the surrounding lords.

“Include Renia in the investigation team! She’s an expert on the Forbidden Area!”

Wilren instructed his aide to make sure someone was included in the team. Soon, a woman summoned by his call came with hurried steps.

Uniquely, she was a person with a pair of twitching animal ears on top of her long, flowing red hair.

“I heard you called for me, Mayor.”

“Yes. It seems there’s been an anomaly in the Forbidden Area. There are reports coming in of black lightning striking there.”

“Black lightning! Every time it struck, the things that popped out of the Forbidden Area were all terrible things that left marks in history!”

Her eyes widened at the mayor’s words. Not just her eyes, but her ears perking up fully made her look like someone facing a massive calamity.

“The Forbidden Area is one of the ruins created when the Tower of Calamity, which ended the mythical era in the past, finally collapsed…”

“E-Enough. No need for a history lecture. I know the history too. For now, since it’s quiet even after the black lightning struck, investigating the area is the priority.”

Wilren shook his head, grimacing as she naturally brought up academic talk. As he said, investigation was the priority now, so she also closed her mouth.

“I’ll grant you entry permission and provide armed forces. Please investigate what happened there.”

“I’ll lead the team there right away.”

Renia nodded quickly. For a magician and scholar studying the mythical era, the opportunity to research the Forbidden Area was one that couldn’t be missed.

Although dangerous, it was worth enduring if she could visit a place where investigation was extremely limited due to the risk of stimulating the Forbidden Area.

“Nerun! Quickly, the magic carriage!”

“I’ve already started it up, Professor.”

Leaving the mayor’s office, Renia hurried to prepare for departure by ordering her subordinates. Meanwhile, the carriage she boarded was a special one.

It looked similar to carriages littering the streets, but instead of being pulled by horses, it moved by other means.

“You must be Professor Renia. I’m Rakum of the guard, ordered by the mayor to escort you.”

“D-Did he authorize the use of mythical weapons too?”

“The place we’re investigating is that dangerous, after all.”

Meanwhile, someone approached Renia. She was surprised to see what the guard captain in armor was holding.

He showed it to her with a bitter smile. It was clearly a weapon with a completely different appearance from the sword at his waist.

“We’re about to enter the Forbidden Area. All of you, stay alert.”

Rakum disciplined his subordinate soldiers.

The place where Renia’s investigation team and the city guards arrived after riding horses and carriages was the entrance to the forest. There, a group of soldiers complaining of dizziness and headaches were sprawled on the ground.

“What’s going on here?”

“We received a report earlier. The moment the black lightning struck, all those guarding this place temporarily lost consciousness and collapsed. The soldier who woke up the earliest sent an emergency rescue signal through the urgent communication network.”

Rakum shook his head at Renia’s surprised words.

‘Something definitely happened.’

Renia swallowed dryly and gripped the staff in her hand. It wouldn’t be strange if bizarre monsters jumped out and they had to fight right away. This was the Forbidden Area, after all.

“What on earth is this?”

But when they entered the interior of the Forbidden Area with heightened tension, they were speechless at the sight of an empty forest clearing and ruins with nothing there.

All that remained was a single huge pillar of earth that had risen up. This cone-shaped structure, clearly artificially made and tens of meters high, was the only anomaly.

“Could it be because of this?”

Rakum asked Renia in bewilderment, but she silently picked up something that had fallen on the ground. Something was faintly written on the crumpled and deteriorated metal plate.

“It’s an artifact with writing from the mythical era. And it seems someone was here before us.”

Carefully handing the metal plate to her assistant, Renia swallowed dryly as she looked at several footprints on the ground.

One of them was a barefoot print without shoes, and the size was quite small, as if it belonged to a child.

* * *

“Hachi, let’s just go back, I’m telling you!? You know where this is!”

“I know. The soldiers who were guarding this place like a fortress all collapsed, and the protective magic was lifted. Don’t you think it’s an opportunity?”

Right after the black lightning struck, and before the investigation team departed, there were indeed people who approached this place first, as Renia had guessed.

They were far from the Forbidden Area when the lightning struck, so they weren’t caught in its aftermath, and by the time they approached, the protective spells and the guards in the Forbidden Area had long been wiped out.

“There must be something really precious hidden here, that’s why it’s so tightly sealed. We might be able to fill this month’s tribute in one go.”

“B-But still…”

They were people who were going to threaten travelers on the road today, or do low-quality work in the city slums.

As such, they were poorly educated. These people, who couldn’t even write their own names, didn’t properly know what kind of place this was or what was here, they had only heard rumors.

And they were also brave enough to dismiss and ignore such rumors as mere hearsay.

So, stepping into the Forbidden Area, they walked towards that mysteriously tall earthen pillar, using it as a landmark.

“Tch, it’s just an ordinary forest with nothing special.”

The man called Hachi complained as they kept walking through ordinary forest paths.

However, being so focused on what was ahead, he failed to notice that not a single bird or insect sound could be heard in this forest.

“…Huh?”

In this state, they discovered someone watching them from afar. Someone with a small and petite figure standing in front of the huge earthen pillar.

Long, voluminous silver hair fluttered in the wind, sparkling whenever sunlight peeked through the clouds.

“It’s an elf.”

Hachi, who approached as if enchanted, muttered blankly.

Red eyes in a shadowed face, a pure white body without a single thread of clothing, and long pointed ears.

The two stopped in their tracks and stared intently at her, captivated by her deadly beauty that seemed not of this world.

“Let’s catch her.”

“W-What!?”

When she seemed to falter in surprise at seeing them, Hachi spoke in a low voice. As if not hearing his friend’s horrified words, Hachi lifted the corners of his mouth in a grin.

“It’s an elf, if we sell her, we could get an enormous amount!”

Hachi’s eyes had already turned with greed. After all, elf slaves fetch a high price anytime, anywhere.

“A-Are you crazy? How could we catch an elf!”

Of course, such value comes with a price.

Only a few can avoid being called insane for messing with elves, who are generally stronger than humans on average.

“Looking at her, she seems like a kid, we might be able to do it. Come on!”

“Damn it all.”

But Hachi was already running towards her. In the end, the two decided to catch her, and together they rushed in, extending their rough hands without question.

It seemed like they could grab that slender neck and arms if they just went a little further.

“Aaaaargh!”

But they never reached her in the end.

At that moment, the ground in the area churned like water, split open, and swallowed them up in an instant.

Buried in the ground from feet to neck in an instant, they struggled against this unbelievable reality with only their heads above ground.

“Guhurk…”

Moreover, as the earth pressed on their bodies as if trying to crush every bone, they were on the verge of death, their internal organs bursting and breath stopping before their bones could break.

Their vision gradually blurred as they foamed at the mouth with purple faces, unable to move a single finger.

“Stop. Let them breathe.”

That’s when she spoke. Her eyes looking down at them were full of disgust. It was a natural reaction, having been suddenly attacked.

“P-Please spare us. Please save…”

“Who on earth are you?”

She asked them as they painfully begged. From the moment she understood their conversation, she realized that the language transcendence ability given to all climbers was still valid, so there was no hesitation in her question, and they had no choice but to reveal their identities in detail.

“Hachi and Wigo doing low-level work for an organization in Suan? What nonsense are you talking about? Is this really not the Tower?”

The problem was that she couldn’t understand their words at all. Thanks to this, they had to beg and plead tearfully for her to believe them.