After a restless night of idle conversations and stargazing, we are now sitting at the Temple, a place usually reserved for the Mothers and Mages to meditate in peace. It is not my first time here though, I just noticed this is the place where I was born.
“Who are they?”
Nadya whispered to me, referring to Cedric’s candidates who were kneeling at our left side. The Temple consist of a pristine lake with a statute of Jörð at the center and a beautiful garden with flowers and trees I have never seen in my life surrounding it. Mother Eva, Lelyah and Cedric are looking at us from the land while we are kneeling at the base of the statue.
“They are the same as us, but for the hunters.”
Sadly, it just came to me that I did not know their names. In fact, this is my first time seeing them up close. I remember Cedric telling me that the candidates rarely leave their training inside the hunter’s camp.
“We are united he
Thank you all for reading!! Not gonna lie, we a reaching the final part of the first arc of the story and the chapters keep getting heavier. I hope you all enjoyed it.
“Are you ready?” After making sure I packed everything I needed, I changed into comfortable clothes and headed to the entrance. Nadya and everyone were already there and, after one last farewell speech from the Mothers, we finally left the Elven Village. Right now, I am standing next to Nadya a few steps away from crossing the barrier. “Y-yes.” Clearly nervous, she stumbled to give an answer while endlessly rummaging through her small bag. “Did you get everything I told you?” “Yes, I asked Mother Eva for the materials early in the morning.” This sure feels like I am back in the old days. “Good, let me go over the route once again. In case we lose each other at some point.” I started walking while explaining the plan I came up with last night. “First, we walk all the way to west until we reach the lake, it should take about five or six hours. It’s the longest path to get there, but the road is f
Aaah, as expected, traveling by bus is the worst. “Yuuukino, cookies please.” “I told you to save some snacks before leaving Haru, didn’t I? There are not going to be any stops before we reach the airport.” “Yukino, don’t be like that. You have at least two full boxes, I saw them while we were packing last night.” “And I don’t want them to be empty 15 minutes after we left, this a 2 hour trip. Now go back to your seat, you are bothering Hiro.” “I hope you get sick from eating them alone.” The two girls making a fuss behind me were Yukino and Haruka, I cannot stop being amazed by those two being such good friends. Yukino is a mature, tall and refined lady-like student with perfect grades to match and Haruka is your typical popular girl with flashy hair, clothes and make up, always surrounded by friends whenever she goes. Yet, it is impossible to find one without the other. “Is this really a 2-hour trip?” I asked painfull
Or so I thought. I do not know what happened after I lost consciousness inside that bus to hell, nor do I know how long ago it was. When I came back to me it was all dark, the weirdest feeling I have experienced thus far. It was not the darkness you experience inside a room with the lights out, it was true darkness, like everything surrounding me was gone. Nothingness. "Maybe I truly am dead." My senses were gone; I could not taste, feel, hear or see a single thing. I think I do not even have a body anymore, whenever I try to move any part of me, there is no reaction at all. I think I might have gone crazy, because I have no idea where my body begins and where it ends inside this infinite darkness. Time no longer makes sense; hours, days, years, it does not matter how much it passes if I cannot perceive it in some way. Will I be stuck in this void forever? If I am dead, this must be hell. It should be, I wasted my life after all. Never
"Should I useRed Cambria’sseed,MotherLelyah?" It has been nine years since I woke up here. Nine long and confusing years and I am still unaccustomed to this weird setting. The food, the animals, the people, the houses and even my clothes look like the ones from a fantasy movie. As bad as it would be, I go to sleep every night wishing to wake up in a hospital bed in Yokohama. I wonder what the world back home looks like now. "Remember Agafya,Red Cambriacannot be used unless you purify the base first." "Even if it is just the seeds?" "The seeds hold 80% of the poison." "Everything is poisonous here, isn’t it?" "That is MotherJörðkind protection, her way of telling the world that only we elves have a right to the sacred forest as her children." That is right, elves, and it is not as cool as it sounds. The first two years of my new life, I b
“It’s already getting colder.” Time here seems to go by really slow, the same as my potion making lessons. I have been going at it nonstop this past week and keep making the same mistakes. It is difficult to know if I am exceptionally bad at it when my point of comparison is the almost perfect Lada. Thankfully, today another elf returned from a 50-year trip to the northern region with an extremely rare grimoire and the Mothers did not want to wait a second to decipher it, which gave me a deserved day off. “Why aren’t you training?” Well, not exactly a day off. I am supposed to be practicing mana manipulation here at the forest, but instead decided to lay down and enjoy nature. That was until Lada interrupted me. “I’m training my meditation. What about you?” “I ran out of materials and figured I would come here to study some spells.” “You made that many potions and are still in one piece?” Lada is ages ahead of me when
It has been ten years since Lada’s death. “Winter is going to be rough this year too.” I am sitting at the top of a tree, contemplating the massive forest in front of me. A large green scenery extends as far as I can see and just Mount Krel stands where the continent ends, at the top of it all. “Getting flowers for you next month is going to be a challenge. I will probably have to walk to the southern hills and get some Hesperia.” After that fated day when my curiosity killed my only companion in this world, I isolated myself from everyone in the village for a while. I did nothing but read through the mountains of books at the library, one after another in an effort to become stronger. Something inside of me believed that magic powerful enough to bring her back existed in this world, but it was all wishful thinking. The village continued moving as if nothing happened, Lada did not have a funeral and I do not even think anothe
“Agafya… Agafya… Agafya…” In front of me, Mother Lelyah spoke with a smile on her face. Her white dress, perfect bright skin, golden hair and slender figure made it seem like an angel had descended upon Lake Eibsee. By my side the old man was frozen in place, every bit of his body tensed up waiting for our next move. The other two elves left following Mother Lelyah’s command without uttering a word. “It is truly interesting. You must have disposed of that filthy creature the moment you encountered it and yet, you spoke to and even protected it. I do not think I will ever understand you.” “Please Mother, he does not mean any harm.” “Is that so?” Mother Lelyah starts walking towards me, looking as terrifying as ever. “Its sole existence is an insult to our land. Even so, it dirtied our sacred forest and took the life of two of Mother Jörð’s children. Do you think that is not d
“Another impressive shot, Miss Agafya.” I am currently practicing archery in the outskirts of the forest, one of the hunters observes me patiently. It has been one year since the incident at Lake Eibsee, after which I figured out that investing all my energy into exploration and potion-making abilities would not get me that far once I start facing real danger. If I want to survive the outside world where everything is out to kill me, I need some offensive power, so I forced one of the hunters to give me a bow and started practicing archery every day. “Wanna see a new trick.” I shot an arrow into the sky and after a few seconds, it descends with an incredible force to hit a perfect bullseye into the piece of wood I have been using as a target. “As expected of an Apprentice, you have surpassed us in a few months.” “I wish. That was a magic projectile more than an arrow.” The poor elf did not notice, but the arrow I just
“Are you ready?” After making sure I packed everything I needed, I changed into comfortable clothes and headed to the entrance. Nadya and everyone were already there and, after one last farewell speech from the Mothers, we finally left the Elven Village. Right now, I am standing next to Nadya a few steps away from crossing the barrier. “Y-yes.” Clearly nervous, she stumbled to give an answer while endlessly rummaging through her small bag. “Did you get everything I told you?” “Yes, I asked Mother Eva for the materials early in the morning.” This sure feels like I am back in the old days. “Good, let me go over the route once again. In case we lose each other at some point.” I started walking while explaining the plan I came up with last night. “First, we walk all the way to west until we reach the lake, it should take about five or six hours. It’s the longest path to get there, but the road is f
After a restless night of idle conversations and stargazing, we are now sitting at the Temple, a place usually reserved for the Mothers and Mages to meditate in peace. It is not my first time here though, I just noticed this is the place where I was born. “Who are they?” Nadya whispered to me, referring to Cedric’s candidates who were kneeling at our left side. The Temple consist of a pristine lake with a statute of Jörð at the center and a beautiful garden with flowers and trees I have never seen in my life surrounding it. Mother Eva, Lelyah and Cedric are looking at us from the land while we are kneeling at the base of the statue. “They are the same as us, but for the hunters.” Sadly, it just came to me that I did not know their names. In fact, this is my first time seeing them up close. I remember Cedric telling me that the candidates rarely leave their training inside the hunter’s camp. “We are united he
As soon as I crossed the barrier, one of the Mages informed me that Lelyah was waiting for me inside the dining hall, ready to kill me. Our guests must have arrived long ago and I was supposed to be the main event, everyone is going to be extremely mad at me for disappearing today of all days. I rushed into my cabin to change my ragged clothes for a traditional dress and leave the map Jane gave to me, not even taking the time to hide it before rushing out. All the hassle and the furious Mage about to drag me into the dinning hall by the hair, kept me from remembering the things weighting on my mind right now; the biggest, darkest one being the impostor that might have been living under the same roof as me. “I am sorry Mother Lelyah.” Unsurprisingly, she was already waiting for me halfway down the road. “I am very sorry Mother; she just wouldn’t show up anywhere.” Ignoring her completely, Lelyah walk
This cannot be real. I already spent twenty years living like this, giving up completely on my previous life. I could have gone back this whole time; I could have done things differently. I want this to be a lie, I want her to laugh at me and tell she was just making fun of a dirty human.“Can I really go back?”“If that’s what you want, but it is not that simple, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Let me tell you my whole story, this is my second time coming to this world. The first one, I was just a farmer.”She put her cup back on the table and looked melancholically at the ceiling before continuing.“I lived my first life here just like you. Thinking I had died, and this was a sort of afterlife, until I died once again. Like most farmers, demons attacked my village and killed me when I was just thirty. To my surprise I didn’t really die, I woke up in a hospital bed back into my world and not even a year
This elf is not just a weirdo that happened to be close by. Now that I think about it, she teleported the massive kingor, appeared behind me hiding her presence until she spoke and used a healing spell, all within a few seconds. Only a high-class Mage like Lelyah should be able to do that without breaking a sweat. More worrying is the way she is speaking, as if she knows there is world apart from this one. “Are you there?” It seems I have been standing here with my mouth open for far too long. “I was born in the village. I have been there my whole life.” For now, I will keep pretending. If anyone finds out I am a former human, they will probably kill me on the spot. “That might be true, but you know what I’m asking you about. Why don’t you come to my house? I have been wanting to talk to you for a while.” “Sorry, but I should really be heading back to the village right now.” “Walking back will take you about f
“Another impressive shot, Miss Agafya.” I am currently practicing archery in the outskirts of the forest, one of the hunters observes me patiently. It has been one year since the incident at Lake Eibsee, after which I figured out that investing all my energy into exploration and potion-making abilities would not get me that far once I start facing real danger. If I want to survive the outside world where everything is out to kill me, I need some offensive power, so I forced one of the hunters to give me a bow and started practicing archery every day. “Wanna see a new trick.” I shot an arrow into the sky and after a few seconds, it descends with an incredible force to hit a perfect bullseye into the piece of wood I have been using as a target. “As expected of an Apprentice, you have surpassed us in a few months.” “I wish. That was a magic projectile more than an arrow.” The poor elf did not notice, but the arrow I just
“Agafya… Agafya… Agafya…” In front of me, Mother Lelyah spoke with a smile on her face. Her white dress, perfect bright skin, golden hair and slender figure made it seem like an angel had descended upon Lake Eibsee. By my side the old man was frozen in place, every bit of his body tensed up waiting for our next move. The other two elves left following Mother Lelyah’s command without uttering a word. “It is truly interesting. You must have disposed of that filthy creature the moment you encountered it and yet, you spoke to and even protected it. I do not think I will ever understand you.” “Please Mother, he does not mean any harm.” “Is that so?” Mother Lelyah starts walking towards me, looking as terrifying as ever. “Its sole existence is an insult to our land. Even so, it dirtied our sacred forest and took the life of two of Mother Jörð’s children. Do you think that is not d
It has been ten years since Lada’s death. “Winter is going to be rough this year too.” I am sitting at the top of a tree, contemplating the massive forest in front of me. A large green scenery extends as far as I can see and just Mount Krel stands where the continent ends, at the top of it all. “Getting flowers for you next month is going to be a challenge. I will probably have to walk to the southern hills and get some Hesperia.” After that fated day when my curiosity killed my only companion in this world, I isolated myself from everyone in the village for a while. I did nothing but read through the mountains of books at the library, one after another in an effort to become stronger. Something inside of me believed that magic powerful enough to bring her back existed in this world, but it was all wishful thinking. The village continued moving as if nothing happened, Lada did not have a funeral and I do not even think anothe
“It’s already getting colder.” Time here seems to go by really slow, the same as my potion making lessons. I have been going at it nonstop this past week and keep making the same mistakes. It is difficult to know if I am exceptionally bad at it when my point of comparison is the almost perfect Lada. Thankfully, today another elf returned from a 50-year trip to the northern region with an extremely rare grimoire and the Mothers did not want to wait a second to decipher it, which gave me a deserved day off. “Why aren’t you training?” Well, not exactly a day off. I am supposed to be practicing mana manipulation here at the forest, but instead decided to lay down and enjoy nature. That was until Lada interrupted me. “I’m training my meditation. What about you?” “I ran out of materials and figured I would come here to study some spells.” “You made that many potions and are still in one piece?” Lada is ages ahead of me when