Martial Elf

Demis, who was working, looked up at the familiar presence approaching him.

“How is it? Is it useful?”

Saraswati approached with a light gait and perched herself on the desk.

Demis furrowed his brow at her frivolous attitude, but in reality, the only sibling who listened to him among his sisters was Atira.

Although Demis was respected and often found it difficult to interact with all elves, his high elf siblings each had some eccentricities that diminished their majesty.

Rather than exerting effort on someone who wouldn’t change, Demis decided to give the answer that Saraswati was looking for.

He took his eyes off Saraswati and looked at the paper he had just been recording on.

He gently brushed over the blank areas to prevent the ink from smudging and spoke.

“The quality is so excellent that I can’t even remember what the paper was like a few years ago.”

“Hmph.”

Saraswati puffed her nose with a proud expression.

“Even with this quality, has the production quantity remained the same?”

“You can say it’s the same since we improved the production process. If you want to increase it more, we would need to cut down more trees.”

Demis gazed at the paper that Saraswati had improved.

Almost all useful tools currently used by the elves had come from Saraswati, but this paper was the only thing that hadn’t been made by her hands.

It had been ten years since elves were born from their mother, El Prigion.

The ecology of the elves had changed immensely.

1,007 elves, born naked due to their mother’s divine power, had fallen into a vast forest that flourished.

Being solitary beings, the elves had no significant predators in this huge forest, except for some dangerous beasts and wild gods. This allowed them to develop rapidly through collective behavior.

Though primitive shelter marked the beginning, within a year, all elves began to make clothes from leather and fibers obtained in nature to cover themselves.

Their living environments began to refine in many ways, and Saraswati accelerated that development by creating beneficial tools for measurement.

In their third to fourth year, there were conflicts between the elves spreading out to investigate the forest’s environment and apex predators or wild gods, but these were quickly resolved under the strength of the woodland guardians following Palas and Araya, with the mediation of Elmony.

By year five or six, more leaf elves had gained experience, so while the number of elves had increased to around 1,100 with some children being born, this was not a significant fighting force. Essentially, they were still estimated to be around 1,000 elves standing at the apex of a vast natural ecosystem estimated to exceed 3 million square Ronelte (3 million km²).

While the elves had shown astonishing developments that were shocking to other races, they had no contact with the outside world and could not view themselves objectively.

And after they began to stabilize, the elves felt the need for a recording medium.

Though the ecosystem was changing slowly, it was undoubtedly transforming over time, and the woodland guardians were not lacking in the quantity of records they reported about the changes.

Then, it was Atira who began recording the history of the elves.

Demis’ various administrative orders.

Originally, the recording medium was made by processing fabrics or leathers used as clothing, but the supply was far too limited.

Elves’ clothing does not get easily contaminated, but it wasn’t abundant enough, and processing large quantities of leather would inevitably lead to overharvesting.

Surprisingly, it was Araya who solved this issue.

The paper created from plant fibers that Araya developed resolved everything.

Demis remembered when he was holding the paper that Saraswati had brought, made by Araya.

To his elf siblings, Araya often had a troublemaker image for breaking more things than making them alongside Palas.

Perhaps it was out of a sense of pride, but while other useful items were being made in the workshop created by Saraswati and the elves that followed her, they consistently executed improvements on the paper.

And today, when Demis praised the paper, the result of their efforts, Sara’s face brightened.

Demis smiled lightly at his somewhat endearing sister and resumed his work, moving his hand again.

When Demis ignored her and returned to his tasks, Saraswati seemed to get annoyed for no reason and began to engage him in conversation.

“How’s the situation in the forest?”

“The woodland guardians, led by Palas, are doing well. Despite the large territories one must manage, they have been maintaining them diligently.”

“What about Elmony?”

“One of the woodland guardians discovered wild gods they had clashed with over territory, and Elmony has gone to mediate. He won’t be back for a few days.”

“Ah—”

“Atira is busy smoking fish and meat with the elves in the village in preparation for winter. Anart is probably somewhere playing with the spirits.”

Saraswati pouted her lips as Demis answered her questions without taking his eyes off his work.

The office was filled with the sound of scratching and the noise of Saraswati periodically swishing her legs due to boredom.

“I wonder what Araya is doing right now?”

At Saraswati’s musing, Demis’ hands halted again.

However, as he started moving again, he answered her.

“She’s probably doing fine. She’s the best woodland guardian, so she won’t meet her end anywhere.”

“That’s true, but… I always feel uneasy when I see her.”

To the high elf siblings, the youngest, Araya, was always an unpredictable younger sister.

From the moment she was born, she astonished everyone with absurd statements made to their mother.

When Atira tried to record that moment in the history of the elves, her antics caused her to be left out. However, according to Atira, she planned to secretly record it in a format called ‘Chronicles of Elf’s Secret.’

There were positive aspects to her being extraordinary as well.

Araya had developed a method of accumulating the natural energy called ‘Internal Power Method.’

Since elves are a race created to be harmonizers, they generally possess good sensitivity to nature and the outside world, and this Internal Power Method gave wings to that racial characteristic of elves.

It was true that, as individual beings, elves were superior to other life forms, but the significant development that put them at the apex of this vast forest in less than seven years was largely due to her.

Now, despite dividing into different necessary methods, all elves’ way of handling mana came from the roots created by Araya.

However, when Araya created this Internal Power Method, she caused a major incident.

“I’ve never seen mother’s will tremble like that before.”

Though the expression was contextless, Demis, recalling the incident Saraswati alluded to, felt a sudden headache and covered his forehead.

Without a doubt, the Internal Power Method created by the direct subject herself, Araya, was indeed exceptional.

It’s natural that those who created something understand it better than those who merely use it.

The problem was that it was outstanding to an excessive degree.

Fundamentally, high elves and elves originated from the world tree, a colossal existence that played a part in the natural ecosystem.

Due to this, they were a race loved significantly by spirits from birth.

Among them, Aranat, with her gentle personality and high affinity for spirits, was surrounded by primitive spirits that always stuck to her.

However, when Anart approached Araya, even the traces of spirits were nowhere to be seen.

Why?

Because the spirits were afraid of Araya.

It hadn’t always been the case.

Araya, being a high elf, had excellent sensitivity, just as other high elves did.

The issue arose when Araya created and used the Internal Power Method.

This method fundamentally took in external energy into the body but inherently possessed a suction capability for the energy around it.

Primitive spirits, on the other hand, are fundamentally weak in emotion, childlike, innocent, and pure beings.

They are crucial foundational elements within the ecosystem.

When Araya mistook the primitive spirits for the natural energy and absorbed all the friendly primitive spirits approaching her, turning them into her own energy, the scene left even her high elf siblings utterly aghast.

Seeing the intricacies unfold, it felt dangerous to intervene, so the world tree, which generally did not interfere but observed, could not help but witness the event.

When Araya finished the act of manipulating the energy, cheerfully smiling and commenting on how her energy had greatly increased, the feelings of those watching were akin to…

Seeing the youngest high elf, drenched in blood, innocently smiling after wiping out spirits, their traces clearly visible to the high elves and the world tree.

Since it occurred in the very early days, there were no spirits approaching Araya, and she became the only high elf among the high elves with high spirit sensitivity who had never seen a spirit properly.

“That’s how it was with Fenril…”

It was shocking that the youngest, who had gone out to the forest laughing until morning, returned nearly in pieces, exposing her spine, and was transferred to Palas as a virtual corpse.

When everyone was aghast, not knowing what to do, it was terrifying to think that if it hadn’t been for mother’s scolding and help, they might have lost their youngest then.

The fact that she charged fearlessly at the wild god, who was at the top of the forest’s ecosystem, was something that turned the family’s stomach.

“The problem with her is that she thinks she’s so brilliant while causing all sorts of accidents.”

In silence, Demis expressed his unspoken agreement to Saraswati’s harsh evaluation.

As the smallest among his siblings, perhaps it was a reaction to the desire to seem more mature.

Due to that, there had been no shortage of incidents over the past ten years.

While Araya had accomplished quite a bit, she had also caused enough trouble for Demis to bear the majority of the aftermath of the incidents she created as the leader of the elves.

Having suffered so through many incidents, when Araya announced she would be leaving, Demis may have felt some joy deep in his heart.

Feeling troubled by Sara’s chattering next to him, he sighed and gazed toward the east where the youngest had departed.

“I don’t have high hopes, but I just hope she doesn’t cause too much trouble and returns healthy.”

However, now, thinking of the youngest who might be causing accidents where he cannot see or reach, the eldest son of the high elf family and leader of the elves’ worries deepened even further.

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