episode_0181

“Another goddamn winter…”

The life of a prairie elf is arduous.

Before coming under the Empire, they had to resort to pillaging and kidnapping to secure supplies and new elves just to barely sustain their tribes, so the hardship is not something that can be easily expressed in words.

After coming under the Empire, pillaging is no longer necessary, but even so, it cannot be denied that life is still tough.

Enduring sub-zero cold for nearly 5 months, and then, after the weather warms up, having to move and move without a single day of rest, is more complicated, difficult, and annoying than the life of settled people.

That’s why I grumbled softly while looking at the disgustingly cold sky compared to the warm sunlight.

Even after December and January, which were like hell with snow piled up to our knees and less than 1/4 of daylight, passed and February arrived, the terrible weather didn’t change.

Rather, the weather was more fickle than a consistently cold winter, and I had to pay close attention to the livestock that had become much weaker after a long winter, making it a more mentally exhausting moment.

But it’s not all bad news.

The fact that the weather is getting a little warmer and the days are getting longer meant that it was time to start traveling around again.

The grass hasn’t grown yet, so it will be difficult to let the livestock graze, but the road to the cities of the settled people will open.

And today was the day to check the condition of the southern prairie and head to the city of the settled people.

Of course, being able to go and actually going were different matters, so only a small number of people could go to the cities of the settled people. This time, I was very lucky to be selected as one of those few.

“Hehehe…”

It was a very happy February.

Since I didn’t have any money, there wasn’t much I could do even if I went to the city, but the city of the settled people was fun just to look at.

The humans also looked kind of naive and cute, there were many big and tall buildings, and there were so many things and food that there was a lot to enjoy even if there was nothing to do.

In this city full of things to enjoy, what we were waiting for so eagerly was not food or clothes, but newspapers.

Originally, newspapers were meaningless to us who lived on the prairie.

By the time they arrived, several weeks had already passed, and there was no useful news for us.

It wouldn’t matter if they were as fun as novels.

Newspapers that wrote about the tribal chiefs of the Empire bickering or the boring lectures of the shamans of the Empire belonging to a place called the church were not fun at all.

But why were we waiting for newspapers?

Recently, newspapers had changed strangely, and they were drawing pictures of forest elves.

Not every time, but occasionally pictures of forest elves were published, and they were quite popular.

Unlike prairie elves, they were delicate, so they weren’t great as brides, but their clothes were thin and pretty, so they were nice to look at like jewels.

They had many disqualifications as a main wife, but they were perfect as a third concubine.

So the tribal chief, without any tact, said something like, ‘I want a delicate wife like that too…’ and the sound of wailing echoed from the tribal chief’s tent that day.

It’s not that everyone doesn’t think that way, but there’s no reason to say it out loud.

“Pavel, while we go to the merchant guild, you get the newspaper first.”

“You mean search thoroughly from October?”

“Yeah.”

So, as soon as I arrived in the human city, my mission was to get the newspaper.

Since our footsteps to the city had become infrequent since October, the amount of newspapers piled up was about 4 months’ worth.

There would be about eight copies, so one of them was bound to have a forest elf picture.

“But, Mr. Stefan, what if there’s no forest elf picture?”

“Then, just buy the novel that Nadezhda asked for and come back. Why waste money on a bunch of boring paper?”

“Okay~”

After receiving exactly the money to buy a book and a few newspapers from Mr. Stefan, I fixed my hood so that my face couldn’t be seen and headed to the bookstore with light steps.

“Is the owner here? Come out quickly if you are!”

I went into the bookstore located near the gate, took off my hood, and looked around to find the owner of the bookstore.

“What a rude bastard…!”

Not long after shouting loudly, an old human appeared from the depths of the bookstore, showing a fierce face.

The human made eye contact with me, and his expression quickly brightened as he waved his hand happily.

“Pavel! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“It’s been a while, Jacob. It’s been a year, I’ve been so unlucky that it’s been hard to see your face.”

Jacob, who walked up to me with hurried steps and showed off his yellow teeth with a bright smile, patted me on the shoulder to show his joy.

“Since I haven’t seen you in so long, I thought I’d never see you again before I die.”

“What a fuss~ Judging by your condition, you’ll live for another 10 years.”

“Heh heh~ 10 years is nothing, it’s a miracle if I last 5 years.”

“Ha, a miracle my ass.”

I chuckled and rubbed my shoulder lightly.

The fist that hits my shoulder is as heavy as a young human’s, but he’s pretending…

“But you came a little early this year, didn’t you? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing special, but this year the winter is especially harsh, so there are too many things lacking, so I came out as soon as the weather warmed up.”

“Indeed, there was more snow and temperature this year than last year, so you must have had a hard time?”

“You have no idea, the tent collapsed and several livestock froze to death?”

“Tsk tsk~ That’s a terrible thing.”

“Ugh… I know, right.”

I shuddered, recalling the time when I had to repair the collapsing tent while it was snowing.

If the winter is this terrible in the future, I should quit the nomadic life…

“Enough of the terrible past stories, I want to buy novels and newspapers, do you have anything we can read?”

“If that’s the case, you’ve come at a good time, a forest elf picture was recently published in the newspaper, so I’ve packed two more for you guys.”

“Oh! Really? Give it to me quickly!”

A newspaper with a forest elf picture happened to come in.

I smiled brightly and followed Jacob, who was going to get the newspaper.

Jacob went to the counter, put his hand in the empty space below, took out two newspapers from there, and handed one to me right away.

I snatched the newspaper as if grabbing it, and carefully turned each page so that the newspaper wouldn’t tear, looking for the page with the forest elf picture.

The place where the forest elf picture was located was in the middle of the newspaper as usual.

“Ah!”

I exclaimed as I discovered the corner of the black and white picture, and spread the newspaper as wide as possible.

As the newspaper and newspaper opened, the picture that filled one side of the paper slowly revealed its appearance.

And when the newspaper was completely unfolded, and the whole body of the picture was perfectly revealed.

“Huh…?”

I couldn’t help but be shocked as if I had been hit with a hammer on the head.

That day, from the appearance of the forest elf in the newspaper, I learned what the true spirit and coolness of an elf was.

_

Forgetting to even buy a novel, I threw the money to Jacob as if throwing it away and ran to Mr. Stefan, and without saying a word, I spread the newspaper wide in front of the elves and showed them the radiant appearance of the forest elf.

“Wow~ Even though she’s a female elf, she’s damn cool.”

“Kuh~ If she had a cigarette in her mouth here, she’d be the number one bride?”

“Look at her firm thighs, doesn’t it seem like she can ride a horse well?”

“The elven coolness that we’ve lost all this time was here?”

The reaction was so fierce and explosive that we hurriedly bought the necessary items and drove the reindeer back to the prairie as if sprinting.

And we rushed into the tribal chief’s tent without warning.

“Tribal chief! Send us to the imperial capital before we start nomadic life!”

“Please send us as soon as possible!”

“What’s all this fuss in the middle of the night? Did you all go crazy after going to the city?”

The tribal chief, who had not yet seen the appearance of that forest elf, looked at us with a pathetic look as if looking at fools, but this was understandable because the tribal chief was still an ignorant elf who had not opened his eyes.

“We’re not crazy, we’ve just discovered the elven soul and coolness that we had lost.”

“Ha, don’t tell me that forest elf picture was published in the newspaper again?”

“It’s not just that, it’s a big hit, you know?”

“Pavel, you can’t explain the beauty in words, so show the newspaper to him quickly.”

“Yes.”

“Haa…”

At Mr. Stefan’s words, I immediately gave the newspaper to the tribal chief.

The tribal chief, who received the newspaper with his eyes half-closed as if he was tired, sighed and slowly turned the newspaper over.

“Hmm…”

And on one page, he stopped his hand, frowned, and stared at it intently.

“Eumm…”

His face slowly brightened, his lips opened, and.

“Wow…”

He exclaimed and broke into a smile on his face.

“This is the real elf, can forest elves be so wonderfully cool? I thought these prudes were just delicate, but an elf is an elf!”

“Right? If you wear this in the summer and ride a horse or reindeer, it’ll be really awesome, right?”

“It’ll be awesome just to walk around, Stefan, when is this newspaper from?”

“Early February… so it’s been out for a little less than 2 weeks.”

“2 weeks? Then it hasn’t been long, has it?”

“That’s right, so we have to go to the imperial capital quickly, if other people set their eyes on this outfit first, we won’t be able to buy it?”

“Eumm… that’s true, but…”

The tribal chief’s face, which had been fully relaxed at the word imperial capital, hardened again.

“Can’t we just copy it? It seems to be mostly leather, so we can make that much too, can’t we?”

“Still, it would be good to have one real thing to copy, and I don’t know what material the pants and shirt are made of, especially the pants are made of a fabric I’ve never seen before…”

“Eumm… can’t we just make it out of cotton?”

“Aish! If it’s just cotton, it doesn’t look like it’ll bring out the unique coolness of these pants!”

“Well… the material seems important too…”

With my and Mr. Stefan’s persuasion, the tribal chief’s attitude softened a little.

Judging by the fact that his brow was furrowing, it seemed that the tribal chief was also starting to worry a little.

“Isn’t the imperial capital too far? The weather hasn’t warmed up enough yet, so coming and going won’t be easy…”

“If we don’t go now, when will we be able to make it?”

“That’s right, we have to get the material or sample by this spring so that we can wear it in the summer, but if we don’t leave now, we’ll have to start nomadic life before we can find out anything.”

“Kkeueung… that’s true too.”

The tribal chief looked at the empty air with a serious face and stroked his chin.

“Hmm… certainly, it would be better if we knew how to make it… Stefan?”

“Yes.”

The tribal chief, who shifted his gaze to Mr. Stefan, frowned and said.

“Can you come back by mid-April?”

“Of course, if it seems like it will take too long, I will just find out the materials and come back quickly.”

“Okay… then prepare to go to the imperial capital from tomorrow, you two and one person who will find out how to make it, so three of you can go and come back.”

“Okay!”

“Yes!”