Martial Elf

“What does that mean? …Are you saying you’re going to fight against an Elf like me?”

There’s suspicion in his gaze.

He wore an expression that seemed to say, ‘If you’re thinking useless things, I’ll smack you on the backside.’

He’s in no position to even touch me in the first place.

“Have you never thought it was strange?”

“…Strange about what?”

“Our language.”

Do you think it’s sudden?

The way he tilted his head didn’t match his usual fierce appearance.

“Well, it’s true. Our mother is the World Tree.”

“Are you dissatisfied that our mother is the World Tree?”

Anger flickers across his face.

“No, no, just hear me out. It can’t be that. Why are you so energetic? Did something good happen?”

As I grumbled, he eased up on his anger and adopted a listening posture.

When it comes to stories related to siblings or our mother, rational judgment goes out the window.

I feel the same way, of course.

“The first thing is our appearance and form.”

“Form?”

“Yeah, form. We are the first kin, the sons and daughters of our mother. But our form is very different from her. We’re not even plants in the first place!”

And slowly, he unraveled a question that’s been brewing for a long time.

“Even if we look at the forest we ventured into, there aren’t any beings similar to us. Insects, squirrels, rabbits, deer, wild dogs, wolves, tigers.”

“Although they may differ in specific forms and species, generally, there are hardly any creatures that stray from this kind of similarity, right?”

“If it’s just about spreading life, our form doesn’t necessarily need to be like this. Through the ecological cycle, we could have been created as some kind of plant and still fulfilled that role. But we didn’t.”

“Up to this point, it’s fine. So it means we needed other kin that weren’t of the same form.”

“But, you see, there are no creatures in our forest that could be our original source.”

And he slowly gazed east.

“Be it our mother’s brothers or kin from long ago, or a creature currently spreading in the wild, there must be beings that are our origin.”

He shrugged.

“But in the first place, our mother said it, right? If we are too many, the balance will be disrupted. Because of that, I don’t know how long our lifespan will be, but considering the constraint of only being allowed one love, I’m sure there can’t be any beings as excellent as us as single entities.”

‘But if those beings swarm like insects, it would be tough,’ he added.

Considering that the population of the central continent, which was the heart of the world, is around 100 million, the population density isn’t something to be ignored.

Moreover, that’s just the population of the central continent; including the barbarians existing outside, it might well exceed double that.

I’ve heard that there are quite decent nations among the barbarians, like the Dongyi tribe in the east and the Daejin Kingdom, which had a massive power in the west.

As for the current Elves? They’re barely surpassing 1000.

This world wouldn’t easily permit weak humans to flourish, but thinking back to my previous life where humanity ultimately overcame countless natural competitors to become the apex of all living things makes me wonder how much it could increase if it gained speed.

“I don’t know what might pop out from that side, but there might be some creatures similar to us among them.”

“Those with innate strength and those who live by swinging fangs and claws are enough for now. But if there are things similar to us, what we have may not be enough.”

“Then we need to increase our weapons.”

I slightly bent my knees to meet his gaze.

There was such a height difference that even with Palas sitting, our eyes nearly met.

“Palas, my dear brother. Please take care of this place while I’m gone.”

It was a little embarrassing, but after kissing his forehead, I stepped back.

Palas, dazed as he touched his forehead, soon shot me a gruff glare before lying back down.

“Make sure your limbs come back intact. I’ll give you a good beating then.”

Is it funny that I feel more reassured by his prickly demeanor?

As I turned to approach Rudolf, he bent down to make it easier for me to mount.

When I looked at him with a surprised and grateful expression, he snorted and turned his head away.

‘Whether human or beast, all the men around here are just lacking in honesty.’

Would I have felt the same if I had proper human relationships in my past life?

As I climbed onto his back, he stood up and prepared to run.

“Take care.”

Feeling the swift rush, when I turned back one last time, an Elf lying in the open waved goodbye.

◈ ◈ ◈

“This isn’t as much as I expected.”

A large clump of water, condensed from the humidity in the air, floated in mid-air as Rudolf hurriedly licked it up.

Seeing that, I sighed.

It wasn’t that there was no water nearby.

In the first place, the river on the forest side came from outside the forest.

Thus, it’s branched out, and finding water to feed this guy from one of countless streams wasn’t that difficult.

However, on the first day while drinking, a huge, long creature – perhaps a type of fish or a giant salamander – tried to snap at me, and I blocked it right in front of me, so he’s been a bit jittery since then.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one of those giants; dozens of them were floating in the water, watching attentively.

Considering that there’s something like that in the drinking water, it’s no wonder he would be scared.

He may have been king among the forest deer, but among monsters that tried to eat him in one bite, he was just a deer.

With skin tougher than a lizard’s and unpleasant pupils that were vertically split, I observed them closely, but they didn’t seem to radiate any kind of malevolent energy.

This meant they were creatures that existed within the normal flow of life.

Killing those who charged at him wouldn’t be hard, but as the High Elf representing the Mother’s Coordinator, killing creatures that merely posed a risk without consuming them was rather…

Besides, I couldn’t always do that whenever I wanted to drink water.

There might be ways to intimidate them into retreating, but fundamentally, I didn’t want to shout ‘I’m here!’ like an excited hunter, not knowing what else might be lurking outside.

Shedding energy like that would also be wasteful.

So after that, I simply had him gather droplets of water using the techniques I learned from Saras and drink.

After he finished drinking and began walking while finding the right direction, I scratched my head.

“Hmm… The direction seems correct, but.”

Although I set my course towards where I felt a disturbing energy, I hadn’t made any significant discoveries yet.

I confirmed plant life I hadn’t seen in the forest, but the beasts didn’t deviate much from normal patterns, and I hadn’t encountered any intelligent life forms capable of conversation.

In the first place, I had no map, nor any suitable recording materials like paper or parchment to create one.

I was just navigating based on a rough feeling.

Moreover, with little else to do, my basic training with my pupils was all I was engaged in.

If there’s one single joy in this surprisingly mundane journey, it’s certainly this.

From inside the pocket of my clothes, I pulled out the honey snacks that Arti had prepared for me.

In a cheerful mood, when I picked one up and started to dissolve it in my mouth, I noticed Rudolf stopping in his tracks, looking weirdly at me as he craned his neck.

“…Do you want one too?”

Elves occasionally gather honey, boil it together with herbs, and mold it into snacks.

In a place where sweetness is overwhelmingly scarce, it’s the favorite treat among Elves.

As for me, normally a small eater due to being an Elf, having stepped into a specific territory, my food intake was very close to abstaining, but I frequently enjoyed the honey snacks made by Arti.

“…Is it okay to give this to a deer?”

Although it’s based on my past life’s knowledge, I hadn’t heard that sweets are good for animals.

There are tales of dogs who ate human food and died.

But seeing the guy stop walking and watching me with a sullen expression as he curiously craned his neck, it looked like he wouldn’t budge a step until I gave him one.

“Well, it probably won’t be a big deal. If it’s dangerous, I can just make him spit it out.”

And so a single Elf and a beast enjoyed sweetness while traveling.

After a while, I picked up something strange in the energy I spread.

‘It’s not an ordinary energy, is it? And the distribution is…?’

As I looked around in the direction where I sensed the energy, it was beyond a rocky mountain.

“Oh…”

When we passed through there, it felt ominous that something might appear and block the path.

Like a familiar friend from martial arts wanting to collect a toll for a poorly maintained road wearing a rough cloak and a scowl.

“Rudolf, let’s turn in that direction.”

Though Rudolf seemed ready to ask if that was slightly off from the energy’s direction.

“Let’s just go this way for now. This seems much more interesting.”

His face showed disbelief at my spontaneous declaration as he resumed walking in the original direction, but I fed him a honey snack, and we changed our path.

You might wonder why we would give up the smooth path on flat land to go up a mountain, but come on, this is an adventurous journey.

How many weeks have passed in boredom? When I return later, I want to meet something that can serve as a story for others.

After walking for a while and entering a hilly path, I felt two things that had caught my energy twitching.

Then, as there was a brief lull in their movements, a tremor was felt from the ground.

Thud! Thud!

As the unexpected ground tremor grew closer, Rudolf froze, halting his footsteps.

“Oh…”

“Brother, it’s a deer.”

“What? Is that all? I felt something big was caught, but just a deer? Huh? What’s that on its back?”

I slightly lifted my hat and turned my head to look up.

Between Rudolf’s antlers, I gazed at the enormous shadow cast by two figures rising in the east, blocking the sunlight.

“Wow… I saw a wolf that was 8 El-tall, but I never imagined there’d be an 8 El-tall human?”

---