Chapter 100: Mother-daughter reunion.

The group of returnees, who had identified a few people revolving around the hero who was struck by the Saintess, turned their attention to the unexpected visitors barging into the guild.

“I’m Napier, the deputy guild master here.”

Napier, who had been engrossed in playing a game until a moment ago, stepped forward as the representative.

The Saintess had disappeared to undergo her awakening quest, and Lee Si-yeon, who founded the guild, was off destroying various dungeons.

Now was their chance to meet the Saintess’ former companions.

“Former companions? Then who exactly…?”

“Could it be those people from the hero’s party or something?”

It certainly looked like it.

“Oh, it’s the hero who was knocked out.”

Succubus narrowed her eyes and stared at the hero.

“Do you know me?”

The hero, who had been unconscious at the time, didn’t know what had happened, but this woman who appeared to be a succubus seemed to recognize him.

“Yeah. I was about to have a taste of you after the Saintess knocked you down in that dungeon, but she got in my way. Slurp. Now I see why.”

The succubus looked over the women surrounding the hero.

Just as the Saintess had said, the ties of fate ran deep.

It was clear that these two women had genuine love for the hero.

If she had touched him back then, she likely would have been beaten to death by them.

“Wait, who’s that elf over there playing a game?”

The elf from the hero’s party pointed towards another elf inside, who was playing a game on a monitor filling the wall.

“What? Elf? Do you know that slave elf?”

“S-slave elf? That’s my mother! She’s the queen of the Great Forest! She’s the mistress!”

Erin shouted in outrage.

How could they openly call her mother, her mother’s friend no less, a slave elf?

Is her mother really seen as a slave in this world?

“Ah, damn it. I died again. I should stop raiding.”

“What? That woman chewing on dried squid while playing a game… is the queen of the Great Forest?”

“Huh? M-mother?”

—Erin, you are a pure-blooded elf, one of the most noble of all.

—As expected, my beloved daughter.

How could the noble and graceful elf queen now be sitting there in revealing clothes, her bare legs and cleavage on display?

“Huh? Who is that elf?”

“Wow. A mother who can’t even recognize her own daughter?”

“Daughter? I left my daughter, Erin, in the other world.”

Though her memories were muddled, mixing with her past life, she was certain it was Erin.

Now that she looked, she did resemble her daughter.

She wondered if she had become a snow elf, one of those rare elves with pale skin who live only in snowy regions.

“Unbelievable. This world can even corrupt a noble elf queen.”

“M-mother! It’s me! It’s Erin!!”

“Huh? Erin? Really? What?”

Elena was momentarily flustered.

Of all times, it had to be her daughter.

How could her daughter show up now!

Her outfit was already inappropriate, and she was about to retry the raid.

How could this happen now?

It had been a long time, but by elf standards, she hadn’t exactly missed her daughter.

‘Honestly, I figured we’d meet again at some point.’

When you reach her age, you get a sense of these things.

An elf’s life is long, and being known among elves for her clairvoyance, she had a feeling she would eventually reunite with Erin.

Maybe in the distant future, when her spouse and children had passed away and she was feeling lonely.

But of all times, why now?

More importantly, she couldn’t let her daughter see her like this, as the Saintess’ slave.

Yet here Erin was, directly confronting her!

“Mother, what on earth are you doing here?”

“What do you mean? I’m playing a game.”

Why was she asking something so obvious?

“M-mother… why?”

“Hey, she’s still your daughter. Put the game down.”

“This crazy bitch! If I quit mid-raid, I’ll get banned permanently.”

“Well, nothing you can do about that.”

Raiding was serious business.

“Mom, did you just swear?”

“Come on, daughter. Don’t tell me you never swear.”

It was clear just from looking at her daughter that she was probably the type to swear a few times herself.

She might be pretty, but if her daughter had a hero for a partner, the guy would be in for some serious hardship.

“But Mother, you were always so noble, and your speech was always so elegant.”

Well, that had been true… back then.

She really had been a noble elf queen.

But that was in the past, and even back then, she’d only been pretending to be dignified.

In truth, she was a bit of a scatterbrained elf.

When she first arrived here, she had tried to maintain that image, but life has a way of changing people.

“That was in the other world. We’re on Earth now, so I have to follow Earth’s rules.”

Earth’s rules are different.

There was no use clinging to the ways of the old world.

Meanwhile, Erin found herself facing the worst possible scenario.

Her long-awaited reunion with her mother was, quite frankly, a disaster.

“But still, the difference is too much! And what about… my new father and my other siblings?”

“Your new father and siblings?”

“Stepfather and sibling? What kind of nonsense is that?”

“I know I have a younger brother. When did you get married?”

Elena’s heart dropped.

A younger brother?

No, that must mean her time as a man on Earth.

How much does Erin know?

“Well, that’s… you see…”

“I’m not trying to hold you accountable. If you were lonely, it makes sense. Sure, I should at least meet my stepfather and brother at some point. And I also need to know why you became a slave.”

She has a right to know that much.

“Well, the thing is…”

How is she supposed to handle this?

How could she possibly explain this in a way that makes sense?

No matter how much she racked her brain, no suitable answer came to mind.

She used to be a man, had a wife, and had a child.

If she says that, will Erin believe it?

She’ll probably just think I’ve gone mad.

How could it sound like anything else?

“Um… umm… you see, well…”

“What?”

Elena desperately tried to get her stiff brain to work.

She decided to think like the saintess who always charged forward and crushed any problems she encountered.

And then, she came up with a solution.

Yes, in this situation, there’s only one way forward.

Full-on confrontation.

‘Forget it! After all, this world has fantasy creatures. I reincarnated, didn’t I? It’s not like it’s impossible to explain!’

The person in front of her is her daughter.

She couldn’t deceive her beloved daughter.

“In this world, I used to be a man. I had a wife and a child.”

There were circumstances surrounding their separation.

“What? How can I believe something so absurd, even as a joke?”

“Why are you so concerned with my personal life? I had my reasons!”

Erin may be glad to see her, but it would be nice if she could be a bit more understanding of her situation.

She had been tied down as a priestess of the World Tree for so long, but now she was free.

Thanks to her priestess powers, she had always sensed that she would reunite with Erin someday.

“Hey, you could at least explain things properly! What do you expect your daughter to think?”

“What do you want me to do?”

Elena replied bluntly to Neipir’s question.

This is something that no one would understand unless they experienced a gender change firsthand.

In this world, it’s impossible to hide it.

If she tried and her wife found out, who knows what she’d hear.

She had already explained things to her, to some extent.

“You could at least explain it slowly and clearly.”

The fallen angel kept poking her in the side.

Fine, if it’s like this, I have no choice.

“Okay, daughter. In my previous life, I was a man in this world.”

If that’s what you want, I’ll explain it to you slowly.

“Huh?”

“I had a wife back then, and of course, we had a child. But then, I reincarnated as an elf because of the great cataclysm on Earth. Now that you’ve come to Earth, you should have some understanding of what happened, right?”

“Something like that?”

Is it really that surprising?

Even in the elf world, there are certain laws like that.

“Of course, when I reincarnated as an elf, I had no memory of my past life. But when I returned to Earth, those memories came back. That’s the story.”

“Wait, but a lot of time has passed, hasn’t it?”

Elves live long lives.

Her mother must be quite old.

Even if she returned to Earth, wouldn’t her family be long gone by now?

Even if she returned, they should have died by then.

“Time passes differently between Earth and there. My wife and children are still alive, and my memories have returned.”

Well, that makes sense, she supposed.

Still, isn’t her mother’s reaction a bit too cold for someone meeting her daughter after so long?

Shouldn’t she at least be happy?

“We haven’t seen each other in a long time, have we?”

“Elves live long lives, Erin. What’s all the fuss over meeting after just a few decades?”

“But…”

Even by elf standards, it seemed like a long time.

But Erin didn’t say more.

After all, her mother was the priestess of the World Tree, and an elven queen at that.

Her authority couldn’t be ignored.

So, she decided to roughly accept it.

Besides, pure-blood elves live for a thousand years, so what her mother was saying wasn’t entirely wrong.

“How old are you, anyway? You’re not the same age as me, are you?”

Neipir was seriously curious about how long this pure-blooded elf had been hiding her age.

“You shouldn’t ask a woman that.”

“Then, what about the whole slave situation?”

“That’s because I owed 2 billion. But the saintess paid it off.”

It’s a good thing that the 2 billion was repaid, but how did she end up becoming a slave?

The saintess is a bit of a lunatic, but she wouldn’t do something like that.

“The saintess paid off the debt, so you became a slave?”

“Yeah, the saintess wanted a slave. And my wife also told me to do 2 billion won’s worth of slave work.”

2 billion won worth of slave work?

What kind of person is her mother’s wife on Earth that she would turn her husband into a slave?

“But still, Mom, you’re the queen of the elves. You’re the priestess of the Great Forest. How could this happen?”

“That’s just how things are in life. Let’s end this conversation here.”

Erin thought about it.

‘Yes, I’m not a child anymore. I can understand Mom. Things like this can happen.’

At that moment, she noticed something.

Her mother was playing some kind of game.

Curious, she looked at the monitor and saw that her mother was playing the same game as her.

Could this be a chance for her to reconnect with her mother through the game?

She wanted to take a closer look at her mother’s character, but the nickname on the screen looked very familiar.

[SoonjungElf (InnocentElf)]

It was the name “SoonjungElf.”

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

Erin’s past memories came flooding back.

The game she played with a person who had shamelessly taken the noble race of elves as their nickname.

She had let the nickname slide because it was just a game.

But that same person, who cursed over minor mistakes like not hitting a critical spot on a boss monster…

-SoonjungElf: “What kind of idiot just keeps shooting arrows at the boss’s forehead? Why aren’t you using your binding arrow? Are you motherless or what?”

-YongsaElf: “How did you know?”

-SoonjungElf: “Sorry;; Anyway, be careful next time. I’m off to buy melons.”

A guy who would curse and then go off to eat ice cream… could that mortal-like person really be…?

Gulp.

I want to deny it, but the massive monitor, big enough to cover an entire wall, made it impossible to ignore.

Clearly displayed on the monitor was her mother’s game character, and the nickname was “SoonjungElf.”

“What the… Mom, do you play this game too?”

Elena was pleased to find that her daughter was playing the same game.

She had always envied parents who could play online games with their children.

Maybe she could play with her daughter now too.

“Uh, yeah… I do.”

“What’s your nickname?”

Oh no.

She needed to answer, but she was momentarily flustered.

After a brief rebellion in her heart, Erin slowly opened her mouth.

“YongsaElf (Heroic Elf).”

“Heroic Elf? That’s a pretty cool name. Wait… Heroic Elf? Is that the one who—doesn’t have a mother?”

Erin slightly nodded her head.

Elena turned her head away, embarrassed.

‘What should I do now?’

The strange atmosphere caused even the people around them to feel uneasy.

She needed to do something about the mood.

She couldn’t believe she had said something like “Are you motherless?” to her own daughter.

It was like spitting in her own face.

No matter how hard she thought, her mind was drawing a blank.

What would the saintess do in this situation?

She imagined the saintess, who was probably completing some awakening quest right now, and asked herself.

-Just break her skull until she forgets it.

No, that’s not helpful at all.

In that case, there’s only one answer.

“Um, well, you see… Erin…”

She spoke in the most kind and graceful voice she could muster.

“Yes?”

“Want me to carry you in a raid?”

“No.”

Erin’s firm rejection left Elena deflated.

Looking at her mother’s dejected expression, Erin realized once again: this reunion with her mother was truly the worst.