ALL NOVEL chapter 18
18 – The Forest of the Elves
The night Kir visited,
I relayed to Edwin exactly what Kir said,
Edwin, who knew everything from the first meeting with her to the information Kir gave her byway in the kingdom of Horon last time, said he trusted her words and dispatched Lucia and I to the Fjord Empire.
If it is the original bilateral relationship,
It’s not enough to secretly send an army to catch up, let alone provide support.
As I recently signed a contract with the kingdom of Argen, the empire seems to have made a decision like this this time because the empire is providing economic, military, and political support.
Because it was an opportunity to meet Irene, who decided to make a new warrior party with him, as well…
The road from the royal capital of the Argen Kingdom to the Fjord Empire takes a slightly detour to avoid the foot of the long mountain range.
In that case, it would take 2 days at the shortest and 3 days at the longest, so the wagon decided to cross the mountain range.
As the carriage entered the mountain road, there was the sound of the driver driving the horse, the sound of wooden wheels hitting stones, and the whole carriage twisting and creaking.
Still, the road didn’t look that narrow, perhaps because wagons often used to go there.
“Lucia, are you okay? Are you sick?”
Lucia’s face, which had always lived with a smile since entering her mountain path, was gradually hardening,
Every time I saw a sign with the name of the village in front of me, I frowned. It looked bad.
“Oh no…”
“No, I think it’s uncomfortable having a bad face… Where does it hurt?”
“No… It’s okay…”
It doesn’t look like it’s a face to anyone’s eyes, but Lucia forcibly smiles and says it’s okay until the end.
“Hey… Hero..”
“Huh?”
“Can’t we just take a detour right now?”
“Why not? We’re almost all the way to the Elven Forest.”
When she was told that she was almost at the elven forest, Lucia looked out the window with a worried face.
Feeling that Lucia’s condition was not good, I called her coachman and tried to turn her carriage around.
“Roman.”
“Yes. Warrior.”
When I called Roman, the coachman, he opened a small window connected to the coachman’s seat and answered.
“Shouldn’t we go to the elven forest and turn the wagon right now?”
“No, why? Are you all in the elven forest?”
“I just had a little situation.”
“Hmm… But the road here is narrow, so I can’t turn the wagon, so I guess I’ll have to go all the way to the entrance of the Celestial Elf Forest.”
At Roman’s words, I went back to my seat and looked at Lucia, and she looked even more nervous, perhaps because she had heard that she had to go to Roman’s entrance to the elven forest.
And how far did it go…
“Whoa.. That.. Hero?”
“Huh?”
“Do you think it will be difficult to turn the wagon…?”
“Is it difficult to turn?”
When I looked out the window at Roman’s words, dozens of elves appeared to be waiting for someone in front of the entrance to the elven forest.
Just like that, the wagon came to a halt without even time to turn, and the elves came rushing in and surrounded the wagon.
“I’m fine. Warrior. You can just… pass by.”
Lucia doesn’t look like that at all even though she talks like that.
“Welcome. Warrior. My name is Marwin, the chief of this forest. It is an honor to meet you like this!”
Marwin, claiming to be the village headman, came up to me and offered me a handshake…
It is normal for a village chief to be approached by an old man with a bent back holding a cane, but he was a young village chief who looked about the same age as me, probably because he was an elf with a long lifespan.
“I heard that the hero was passing through our forest, so I came out and waited.”
“Ah… yes… hello.”
“We will drive the wagon from here on. If you go into the woods even in broad daylight, it’s dark, so there are a lot of accidents with wagons.”
As soon as the village chief finished speaking, another elf who was standing behind sat next to Roman and took over the horse’s reins.
The village chief and I decided to take a wagon and move to the forest.
“Ah… Over there…”
The village chief, who got on the carriage, was staring at Lucia, who was sitting with a more anxious face…
“Ah, this is my party member Lucia.”
I introduced her to the village chief on behalf of Lucia…
For some reason, neither of them looked good.
And the awkward atmosphere inside the carriage…
“Hmm… The forest is darker than I thought.”
To break the atmosphere, I looked out the window and threw a word.
“Yes. Even though this forest looks like this, it is a very old forest, so the trees are dense. It’s a place popular with elves, to the extent that Her Majesty the Queen sometimes comes for a vacation.”
“Ah… Yes.”
“So, instead of turning on the light when the wagon is passing by, to preserve this forest, we drive through the forest instead of turning on the light, which is a risk of forest fire.”
The village headman’s bragging about the elven forest continued until they reached the village, and Lucia didn’t say a word until then, just staring out the dark window.
“Oh! Coincidentally, the village elves over there are waiting for you.”
The village chief pointed with his hand to the place where the elves were gathered outside the window, and there were many elves, both adults and children, staring at the carriage.
The carriage stopped in front of them, the door opened, and the village chief got off first, followed by me. The elves greeted me by cheering and giving me a bouquet of flowers.
The young elves were reaching out to grab my hand at least once.
I’m about to lead me to the town hall while receiving the hospitality of the elves…
In the carriage, Lucia did not get off and hesitated.
“Lucia, what are you doing? Without getting off?”
“Yes? Ah yes…”
Finally, Lucia got up from her seat at my call and slowly got off her carriage, and the noisy surroundings with him became completely silent.
Hung Sung Hung Sung
“Are you a half elf?”
“No, why is that half-ass in my town?”
The villagers who looked at her Lucia were buzzing, and Lucia, who felt the gaze of the elves, stood still in her place with her frightened face.
“Ah.. hahahaha.. hahahahaha.. Lu.. Miss Lucia is coming here too. A banquet is prepared inside.”
When I tried to notice something after seeing the villagers’ reactions and Lucia’s strange behavior, the village chief approached Lucia and led her to the village hall with a forced smile.
In the hall, it’s a banquet, almost like a village banquet, with food all over the place.
It’s full of rare fruits that are hard to see in the human world.
“Lucia, sorry.”
“Yes?”
“If you had such an uncomfortable relationship with an elf and a half-elf, you shouldn’t have talked about it.”
Looking at Lucia’s reaction before entering the elven forest, and her reaction after the village chief and villagers saw her, I was able to roughly guess.
Of course, even now, the villagers were whispering among themselves while looking at her Lucia,
The village chief was also looking at us with a disapproving face, but…
“No. Warrior. I’m OK.”
As soon as I put on an apologetic face, Lucia told me with a bright smile as if it was okay.
“Hero, are you not satisfied with your mouth? We cooked to suit the taste of the warrior as much as possible…”
“No, very tasty.”
As I continue to talk to Lucia without eating,
Finally, the village chief came over and pushed me to eat the food in front of Lucia, inviting me to eat.
“You don’t have to go this far, so I will take care of it.”
“Ah.. Yes.. Ah.. I see.”
As I pushed the food in front of me back towards Lucia and lowered my voice, the village chief broke into a cold sweat and returned to his seat.
I thought you would spend it quietly like that…
Elves with bows on their shoulders and swords at their waists entered the banquet hall and greeted me in the direction I was sitting.
“Hero, these are the warriors our village is proud of. They are the best warriors who can do anything with a bow, a sword with a sword, and even spirits.”
“Ah.. Yes…”
From my point of view, they looked like unusual people from their standing posture, but what I was concerned about was not them, but the village chief talking in front of me.
“In our village, warriors are only elected from purebreds, not hybrids. This is a method that has been handed down since ancient times because they are far superior to hybrids in combat and magical abilities.”
“…..”
“If you don’t know how to handle a bow, how can you call it an elf? Ha ha ha ha ha. It’s a world where every goblin passing by knows how to handle a bow these days.”
“…..”
The village chief’s mouth is talking to me, but his eyes are looking up and down at Lucia, who is sitting next to me…
“I heard that if you are the hero, you can change the party members… I don’t think it’s harming the reputation of the hero if you’re taking our purebred elves with you rather than those mongrel breeds….”
“…Please stop.”
“Ho.. Maybe! If you’re looking for an elf you need to sleep in, he’s more of a purebred than a mongrel…”
“… I will see all the crazy XX…”
The banquet hall, which had been noisy at the sudden swear words that came out of his mouth, became quiet in an instant.
Some elves, including the village headman, were frozen, staring at me as if their mouths were not shutting up in surprise.
“Let’s go, Lucia.”
I didn’t want to be here anymore, and the atmosphere wasn’t like that, so let’s get up first and reach out to Lucia.
She also took a look around her and quietly grabbed her hand and stood up from her seat.
“Lucia is stronger than anyone else here and is an indispensable and important member of my warrior party.”
I grabbed and dragged Lucia out of the banquet hall, then turned around behind her and shouted at the elves gathered here.
“If you insult Lucia in front of me again, I will treat it as her insult to our warrior party and take appropriate action.”
The village chief tried to get up to free me, but as soon as I said my last words, he probably sensed the flesh coming out of his body.