We came back to Reina’s tent after seeing that Xellos and Merlin are feeling better.
Luna and Elga are very happy with all the fish they caught. She even named the first one she caught. I just hope she doesn’t cry when it’s time to eat it…
But right now I’m sitting on my knees, looking at Luna and Elga through my peripheral vision and looking up at Reina.
“Can I ask you a question, Arata?”
“…Yes.”
“How can you pick up trouble even when you’re just going out for a walk?”
“No Reina, listen. I was just fishing. And then… You know… Hum… I caught her…”
I say while looking away, even though it’s all true.
My voice gets lower and lower as I talk, but what can I do?
“It sounds like you’re aware of how strange you sound.”
Reina looks exasperated, and she lets out a small sigh while looking at the tent, where the girl that looks like an elf is sleeping.
Thankfully, she’s breathing relatively normally despite almost drowning, so I didn’t have to do artificial respiration for the third time since I arrived on this island.
Even if it would be to save her life, I’m glad I didn’t have to touch an unconscious girl’s lips with mine.
I could have asked Merlin to do it, but she didn’t look like she was feeling well due to magic energy intoxication. I’m glad the girl’s breathing was stable.
“You just went out for a bit and caught some trouble… Well, I guess we just have to expect that from you.”
I feel like she casually said something mean. Well, if she understands, there’s no point in stirring this hornet’s nest any further.
I look up at the sky, and see the sun is turning red.
It’s not quite dusk yet, but night comes pretty early on this island. If we keep playing around, it will be night before we know it.
“Anyway, is it time to start preparing dinner?”
“Yes. Apparently Luna and Elga are staying for dinner too, so I should make more.”
I let out a dry smile at how Reina is counting them like it’s obvious, and get up.
Not that I’m good enough to help Reina with her cooking.
She still lets me help from time to time, but Luna’s here today, so I’m better put to use hanging out with her.
“And since Luna and Elga caught all that fish, how about we have fish for dinner?”
“Oh, nice!”
We’ve been eating a lot of emperor boar, because we have so much of it and we need to consume it. But that means Reina’s cooking repertoire has been focused on meat.
There’s also the fact that Tiltue and Luna prefer meat to vegetables.
The meat is really good too, but I think it’s natural for a former Japanese person like me to want to eat fish.
“Ah, by the way, we got new meat too…”
“New meat?”
“Yes, this…”
“No!”
The moment I try to take the shantak bird out of my storage magic to show to Reina, Luna runs towards me and raises her voice.
“We can’t eat it before Tiltue sees it!”
“Ah, that’s right, sorry.”
“Geez! We’ll show it off to Tiltue, and then we’ll all eat it!”
Luna looks pretty cute, raising her arms while puffing her cheeks.
I keep that to myself, because she’d probably pout even more if I said that to her, but I also see Reina trying not to laugh.
I guess it’s funny to her that a kid like Luna is scolding me.
I’d probably think it was funny too if our positions were reversed.
“Fufu… Well then, I’ll get started on dinner, so go play until it’s ready.”
“We’re eating the fish Luna caught too?”
“Yes, we might as well.”
“Oh… I see…”
Luna looks at the fish she caught with admiration.
This small fish that looks like a sweetfish is swimming around in a bucket made by carving rock.
She gave it a weirdly cool name before, so maybe she’s becoming attached and doesn’t want it to be eaten.
“Luna..”
If that’s how she feels, that’s fine. She’s still a young girl at heart, so it might be a good chance for her to learn how precious life is.
And just as I’m thinking that…
“Drool…”
“…Should I wipe that?”
Apparently she’s just imagining how it tastes. What a waste of perfectly good emotions on my part.
Reina is still cooking, so I go back to the tent to see how the sleeping elf is doing.
“Ou, Arata?”
“Thanks for watching over her, Elga.”
“It’s no big deal. And I’m gonna get myself another tasty meal after this too.”
We don’t know what this elf girl is like, so we need someone watching over her.
But having her face an unknown human when she wakes up will probably confuse her, so Elga ended up taking that task.
“Where’s Luna?”
“She’s watching Reina cook the fish.”
“…What’s so fun about that?”
“Who knows? I think most people wouldn’t want to see fish they named get skewered.”
I walk over to Elga’s side while we talk, and look at the sleeping elf.
I couldn’t tell before because she was soaked, but she has a face like a doll.
Her hair is down now, but it was tied in twintails before.
She looks to be around Reina’s age, but even thinner than Reina’s slender body. It looks like she would break if I touched her.
Her skin is light brown, and overall she looks different from what I imagine when I think of an elf.
“She’s an alfar.”
“Alfar? Is that different from an elf?”
“They have the same origin, but different spheres of life. We call them different things to differentiate them, but their most distinctive feature is their skin color, as you can see.”
I thought those two different words meant the same thing, but I guess the ones that look like dark elves are alfar, and the ones I picture when I think of elves are called elves.
It’s weird for me to talk about these things like I’m used to them, because I’ve never actually seen an elf, but I’ll just make sure to remember what they’re called on this island.
“They live in different places and worship different spirits. Elves live in the forest, and alfar in the mountains.”
“What spirits do they worship?”
“Elves worship spirits of light and wind, and Alfar spirits of darkness, fire and earth. Well, the spirits don’t have problems among themselves, so these two races aren’t hostile with each other either, but…”
It feels like Elga didn’t finish that thought, so I tilt my head, and he sighs and scratches his.
“We divine beast people have a good relationship with elves, but not so much with alfar.”
“Eh? Really?”
“Yes… You know how Phoenix’s our elder? They’ve been arguin’ with us over her and their great fire spirit and who’s got the strongest flame that’s closer to a god and stuff like that for a long time. They’ve hated us ever since.”
Alfar think they’re the best, so they don’t accept that there’s a being that might be above them.
That, combined with the fact that their territories are pretty far from each other, means they don’t interact a lot, and that issue’s been dragging on all this time.
“That said, it’s been about a thousand years, so that’s ancient history.”
“A thousand…”
That’s longer than I can imagine. That should be enough time for even the Minamotos and the Tairas to shake hands and dance together. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
It will… Won’t it?
The sense of scale of the residents of this island is just too big, so there’s a lot that my small way of thinking can’t comprehend, and that makes me feel a little unsure.
“Uu…”
“Ah.”
“Oh?”
As those weird things cross my mind, the alfar girl makes a sound.
She slowly opens her eyes, and sits up while looking around.
Her disheveled hair that goes down to her waist shakes a little, and looks like fluttering branches of a large tree.
“Where am I…? No, more importantly…”
Her head is still not working to full capacity, since she just woke up, and she looks a little dazed as she puts her hand on her stomach.
“I’m… Hungry…”
She says as she looks this way with tears welling up in her eyes.
That really tickles the protective instincts within me, so we’ll talk more after she has something to eat.
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