Ch.15Chapter 15: The Elf Princess

Valt seemed to be running a bit late, as Lisa was already waiting at the main gate.

Lisa immediately spotted Valt’s massive figure and waved her hand.

“Valt! Over here!”

But Lisa wasn’t alone.

‘Huh? Is that…?’

Someone was standing next to Lisa.

But not just an ordinary person.

Tall and slender with beauty that seemed inhuman, sparkling golden hair, and trademark pointed ears.

It was none other than an elf—the first thing anyone would think of when fantasy is mentioned—standing right beside Lisa.

‘Oh! An elf! No way!’

Seeing an elf in person was truly like looking at a painting come to life.

Now he understood why even in Korea, beautiful women were called elves—the appearance justified it completely.

Having spotted the elf, Valt casually asked Lisa:

“Who’s this?”

Lisa answered with a bright face and a giggle:

“My roommate! Oh my god! I get to share a room with an elf princess!! She came early like us! She said she had nothing to do, so I brought her along! Is that okay?”

Those in the know are aware that elves and barbarians don’t get along well.

The reason is unclear, but it’s probably because their natures are completely opposite.

But Valt had no such prejudice.

And Lisa seemed completely unaware.

“Of course. Nice to meet you, I’m Valt.”

The elf princess received Valt’s greeting with a somewhat displeased expression.

“…Arias.”

The fact that she responded to Valt’s greeting suggested she didn’t hold too strong a prejudice against barbarians.

Lisa excitedly took the lead.

It was only afternoon. The sun was still high in the sky.

The fact that they had plenty of time left.

Lisa was more excited than ever at the thought of strolling through the Imperial City with her new friends.

Plus, her first friend was a barbarian prince, and her second was an elf princess. Could her luck get any better?

“Wow! Coming to the academy was definitely the right choice!”

Her inner thoughts spilled right out of her mouth.

Lisa was truly glad she hadn’t given up and had followed Valt that day.

Thanks to Valt, not only had she experienced a thrilling adventure, but now she could look forward to an enjoyable life at the academy.

An excited Lisa grabbed both Valt and Arias by the hands and pulled them along.

“Let’s go, friends! Let’s have fun!”

The sight of two tall figures being dragged by the small Lisa somehow looked like a family.

Arias was at least 175cm tall, making them look like Valt was the father, Arias the mother, and Lisa, who was just under 160cm, the daughter.

Valt wasn’t unfamiliar with this kind of situation.

After all, Lisa had shown her remarkable ability to befriend everyone in just a single day during their merchant journey.

‘Lisa’s friendliness is really something else. By the way, is that what I think it is? Interesting.’

As he was being pulled along by Lisa, Valt noticed a cute little spirit on Arias’s shoulder.

When she caught the barbarian staring intently at her shoulder, Arias, feeling uncomfortable, remarked:

“What? What’s with that filthy gaze?”

Her prickly tone suggested she didn’t particularly like barbarians after all.

Slightly surprised, Valt tried to explain to Arias.

“Well, sorry. I just noticed something interesting on your shoulder.”

Flinch!

At Valt’s words, Arias responded with a disbelieving expression:

“Don’t lie! A barbarian can see spirits?!”

But what could he do when he really could see it?

“Yes, it looks like a small blue girl. Right now, she’s smiling and waving at me. Very cute.”

Lisa couldn’t understand what Valt was talking about.

“Huh? Something on Arias’s shoulder? There’s nothing there?”

At that moment, something sprayed out from the mouth of the pouting spirit.

Psst!

“Ah! Cold!”

From Lisa’s perspective, a small stream of water had hit her face from seemingly nowhere on Arias’s shoulder.

A startled Arias shouted:

“Stop it! Undi!”

Lisa, suddenly hit by a water gun, looked surprised.

“R-really? A s-spirit? I want to see it too!”

But Lisa’s eyes couldn’t see anything.

Valt said with a smile on his lips:

“Indeed. Right now, she’s rolling around holding her stomach, laughing hysterically because she enjoyed pranking you.”

Arias had no choice but to believe now.

The Undi she could see was doing exactly the same thing.

“A b-barbarian with spirit affinity! W-what are you, really?”

Valt was getting annoyed at Arias constantly calling him a barbarian.

“Stop calling me a barbarian. How would you feel if I called you a forest hick?”

At Valt’s words, Arias honestly apologized.

“Ugh… S-sorry. It’s just a habit…”

The fact that she could admit her mistake showed she was a good person despite being a supposedly haughty elf.

“Well, I’ll accept your apology, but I’m actually curious—what’s spirit affinity?”

When playing the game, Valt had focused solely on pure magic, so he tended not to know much about other aspects.

But he did know that barbarians had neither magical power nor spirit affinity.

‘A barbarian with spirit affinity? What exactly is this body?’

There was one possible reason.

‘Mixed blood’

Valt didn’t know much about his mother.

Until now, he had just thought she was from the Central region…

But he couldn’t jump to conclusions.

After all, there were certainly high-level spirit users among humans too.

“Yes, spirit affinity. Being able to see spirits so clearly means you have the potential to be a spirit user… but a barbarian with spirit affinity…”

“Oh? A spirit user?”

Even though Valt didn’t know much beyond magic, he understood how useful spirits could be.

Spirits that could produce effects similar to magic were enough to pique Valt’s curiosity.

His heart raced at another possibility.

“Does that mean I can summon spirits too?”

“That’s… unknown. But let’s say there’s a possibility.”

“Can’t you teach me?”

But Arias’s response was cold.

“Why should I?”

‘Tch, not so easy.’

It seemed they needed to become closer first.

“Hey, what are you two talking about? Include me too!”

‘There’s no rush. We can get closer gradually.’

Valt knew very well that human relationships weren’t straightforward.

Pushing further here might only make the elf princess more hostile toward him.

Since they were going out together, it was a good opportunity to build rapport.

“Well, if you don’t want to, I won’t force you.”

“Hmph.”

With that, the three headed out to the streets of the Imperial City.

***

“Wow! Arias, look at this, isn’t it pretty?”

“It is pretty.”

Typically, Lisa would speak, and Arias would respond.

Her expression was genuinely sparkling, as if she was having the time of her life in this street, but her tone remained prickly for some reason.

Lisa didn’t seem to mind Arias’s manner of speaking at all.

After wandering the streets for a while, Lisa spotted something and exclaimed:

“Oh!? It’s a barbershop!”

Then she stared intently at Valt.

Feeling Lisa’s gaze, Valt asked:

“What is it?”

Lisa, with half-closed eyes, stroked her chin as she examined Valt closely.

“This won’t do…”

In truth, Valt’s group was currently drawing everyone’s attention.

Aside from the appearances of Elf Arias and Lisa, Valt’s physique was too eye-catching.

His scantily clad outfit was one thing, but those muscles were impossible not to stare at.

“This won’t work! First, we need to do something about Valt. You can’t walk around the Imperial City looking like that!”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

“Of course! You’re showing too much skin!”

With those words, Lisa dragged Valt into the barbershop.

Conveniently, there was a clothing store right next door.

Barging straight into the barbershop, Lisa exclaimed:

“The latest Imperial City style!! And the shave needs to be super clean!!”

***

“The clothes are too tight.”

After trying on dozens of outfits like a dress-up doll for Lisa, Valt finally chose the most ordinary casual wear.

Despite being the largest size in the store, the clothes were on the verge of tearing due to his enormous muscles.

But with a clean shave and his hair neatly tied back, Valt’s distinctive silver hair gave him quite a princely appearance.

“Wow! Now that we’ve fixed you up, Valt, you’re super handsome! Make sure to shave every day from now on! Got it?”

Experiencing someone caring for him so much for the first time, Valt played along with Lisa quite well.

And Valt didn’t mind it either.

Arias seemed amazed both by Valt’s transformation and by the whole process itself.

“Humans are serious about strange things… Interesting.”

Valt asked Arias:

“Is this your first time in a human city?”

“Hmph, mind your own business.”

It didn’t seem easy to get close to her.

Still, the fact that she answered at all was meaningful.

“I’m hungry! Let’s go eat!”

The Imperial City had an incredible number of restaurants.

The sociable Lisa had asked random people and found a famous restaurant.

Valt was puzzled by the menu Arias ordered.

“Meat? I thought elves were vegetarians?”

A flustered Arias blushed slightly and defended herself:

“E-elves eat meat too, you know? We love plants, but only eating plants would be strange!”

That was logical.

Valt had always found that aspect strange too.

Yes, this made sense.

If you love plants, you eat meat.

If you love animals, you eat vegetables.

“Good choice. You can’t get strong just by eating vegetables.”

After all, muscles are made of protein.

By the time they finished their meal, it was already getting dark.

“We should head back soon. What a shame.”

To Lisa’s murmur, Valt added:

“This is just the first day. We still have a month before the academy starts.”

Lisa’s expression brightened at those words.

“Right! That’s true. You two have to hang out with me for the whole month…”

Just as Lisa was saying that.

“KYAAAAAAAH!!”

A blood-curdling scream echoed from somewhere.

“W-what’s that!?”