The Origin of Elves (2)

“Don’t throw those away. I think we might be able to use them someday.”

“What? These clothes?”

When we arrived at Ethan’s mansion, which could be called home. As I changed clothes to rest a bit before departing, I instructed Lina to keep them safe.

Lina’s eyes widened. She wondered if there would be another occasion to wear such revealing and suggestive clothes that are difficult to wear casually, the kind that dancers in those places might wear.

“The spirits liked them more than I expected.”

I smiled bitterly and nodded. Actually, it was more the spirits’ wish than my intention. For them, who always want to be in contact with me, even the scraps of cloth I wore were obstacles.

I didn’t expect things to turn out this way either, but anyway, since it’s efficient for communicating with spirits, I couldn’t completely ignore their preferences.

While it’s impossible to wear those clothes in daily life, it seemed possible to wear them on special occasions.

“Ugh, this appearance…”

And I wasn’t the only one worrying about attire. Right beside me, Laila, who had changed into a maid uniform like Lina’s, was fidgeting awkwardly.

Laila, who was said to be the boss’s daughter and a well-behaved model student at the academy, seemed uncomfortable with the short skirt and exposed shoulders.

“It suits you well, so don’t feel too awkward. Just think of it as disguising for a mission. And you need to get close to the spirits too, so it can’t be helped.”

Seeing her like that, I smiled slightly.

To spirits, concepts like clothes are incomprehensible. For someone who wants to borrow their power through affinity with spirits, it’s only natural to accommodate them.

Laila knew her current situation, so other than blushing from embarrassment, she didn’t complain much.

“—?”

“—!”

The wind spirits actually communicating with me brought one of their friends after hearing my words. That one, hesitantly looking around, gazed at me with regretful eyes as I was already taken, and instead circled around Laila’s body.

“Can you feel the spirit’s energy?”

“Yes. This refreshing wind, could it be…”

Laila too felt the wind tickling her body and opened her eyes wide. True to the wind’s nature as the most free-spirited among spirits, it approached the human Laila first, showing interest.

“The spirit likes you. Even if direct communication is impossible, if you match well with it, it will lend you its power.”

The rest was all up to her. She would be the first to pioneer the path of a spirit knight that no one had walked before.

Fortunately, this fact seemed to motivate her, as Laila was no longer embarrassed.

“It seems Commander Ernst has received your letter. He’s stopped rampaging, but he’s probably very angry.”

“I’m prepared for that.”

“…I don’t want to be involved in this. He’ll surely send his subordinates to search for you.”

Later, Ethan, who had discreetly delivered Laila’s letter, told us about the situation in the place we had left. Since it’s natural for parents to search for a runaway child, Ethan grumbled anxiously, not knowing when Ernst’s subordinates might come looking for him.

“It doesn’t matter since we’ll be away from here for a while.”

On the other hand, I didn’t think much of it. We’re leaving this place soon to go somewhere else anyway.

And that place will be an unknown location not known to ordinary people.

“Patrick sent a reply saying he’s all prepared.”

“Good. Let’s all go meet up with Patrick, then go to the meeting place to meet Arisa. Arisa will guide us to the elf village.”

“Elf village…!”

Just then, Patrick was ready too. At the mention of the elf village, Laila, hearing about it for the first time, exclaimed in surprise. Come to think of it, I hadn’t properly explained to Laila what we were involved in and what we were going to do next.

“Then take care on your journey. I’ll be busy with my own work.”

“When we return, you’ll be the commander.”

Ethan shrugged as if he had nothing to do with that. In reality, having obtained everything he wanted, he only had to steadily climb up.

“…Surely not?”

“I need to give you travel expenses. Just in case.”

I grinned at him and held out my hand. I thought that all the power and wealth he now enjoys essentially came from me.

This is why I cooperated with him doing all sorts of things, so I boldly extracted a not insignificant money pouch from him. Unlike the Earth of the past, this world is developing a new civilization called mado-civilization.

While it certainly falls short compared to modern machine civilization in some aspects, the power of mana and magic sometimes shows miracles that surpass science.

“It’s better to travel comfortably, right?”

And this civilization is still only allowed to those with power. One of those powers is this money, so I smiled at Lina and Laila who were looking at me with incredulous expressions as I extracted money from Ethan.

* * *

“Look over there. It’s Patrick.”

“That guy, somehow he’s been doing well lately…”

In front of the square, the meeting place. Patrick, who was waiting there with his luggage packed, furrowed his brow at the voices of some adventurers whispering as they passed by him.

He had been active in this city for over 15 years. Naturally, there were quite a few people who knew him, but it was the first time he had become this famous recently.

‘Damn, should I cover my face too when I go out? No, why should I when I haven’t done anything wrong?!’

He wasn’t very pleased with such attention. It’s because this attention wasn’t gained solely through his own abilities.

The little bit of meddling he did, the snowball that started from there has now rolled this far.

The problem is that now there’s no way out. Since the being he got involved with wasn’t an ordinary one, he could only be drawn in deeper and deeper.

“Sigh.”

He was enduring it by looking at his increasingly fat purse each time. After all, income was the most important thing for an adventurer.

‘And if it’s a being of that caliber, they probably won’t die easily either.’

He resigned himself and just waited for them to arrive. It was then that familiar figures began to appear in the distance.

“W-what? Who is this person?”

“A new companion who joined us. Say hello. You’ll be seeing a lot of each other from now on.”

But Patrick didn’t know about Laila. While he was flustered by Laila’s appearance as she looked around nervously, Isilia, who was wearing a hood, just blurted it out very casually.

“This is Patrick, an adventurer.”

Lina stepped forward to introduce the two. They exchanged awkward greetings for now, but the awkwardness hadn’t faded for either Patrick or Laila.

“Another woman has joined.”

“Is that guy showing his true colors?”

At the same time, distorted rumors began to spread among the adventurers watching from a distance. Patrick trembled when he heard this.

He never imagined he would be called a playboy surrounded by women.

“Why are you worried about such things? And isn’t it good actually?”

“W-what nonsense is that!”

“Let’s just go. Arisa will be waiting.”

Isilia, who was essentially the culprit, made Patrick’s stomach churn by saying it wasn’t a bad thing with a smirk. Anyway, since it’s nonsensical to act separately at this point, they all moved together to where Arisa would be waiting.

The meeting place is a village near Id, the city they had visited last time. After arriving in the city in an instant using spatial jump points, they took a carriage towards that village.

“Elves are extremely wary of other races. Especially humans. The three of us are humans, is it really okay for us to go together?”

“It should be fine since I’m vouching for you. Anyway, they’re the ones who asked me to come first after learning about me.”

On the way to meet Arisa. Patrick, who was still feeling dazed, asked Isilia if it was really okay for them to come along.

Knowing what had happened to Arisa when she let her guard down for a moment, elves were also famous for showing hostility towards humans if given the chance.

It was the reason why rumors of adventurers being kidnapped by elves and going missing never ceased.

“You’re my companions. If they still treat you with hostility, I have no reason to go with them either.”

“Even though you’re an elf? Even though they’re your descendants…?”

Isilia even declared that if the elves were hostile to her companions, she wouldn’t bother meeting them.

That statement was quite surprising, and everyone in the group was shocked. It was because they thought Isilia herself would have a strong sense of kinship with the elves since she was also an elf.

“If I respect them as my kin, they should respect me as their kin too. Should we swallow what’s sweet and spit out what’s bitter?”

Isilia herself snorted. It was a kind of determination that she wouldn’t be swayed even if the other party were elves who could be called her descendants.