The beast man in front of the tent exudes incredible pressure just by standing there.
He has similar ears to the wolves we encountered in the forest. Is he a divine beast like Luna?
“My name is Elga, a divine beast warrior whose ancestor is the might Fenrir. Your name?”
“…Arata.”
“Arata? And you, girl in the back of the tent concentrating magic energy. If you want a fight, I’ll give you one, but if you don’t, stop that. You don’t think you can actually do anything with that much magic energy, do you?”
“…”
The man named Elga speaks to Reina, who fearfully comes out from the tent. She looks pale, and unlike me, she probably knows how strong this man is.
She’s one of the seven great magic, the greatest mages in the continent, but apparently even someone with that title is no match for the man in front of me.
I step between the two of them, and Luna suddenly smacks Elga on the back.
“Elga! I brought you here because you said you weren’t gonna start a fight!”
“I know! But they’re the ones gettin’ ready to attack.”
“It’s because you’re making that scary face! When I came here alone, they gave me a tasty meal!”
“…Tch…”
Elga scratches his face roughly after being yelled at by the small Luna, and looks kind of awkward. At least it looks like he he’s not here to fight.
“Hum, Mister Elga? What is your purpose here?”
“It’s just Elga.”
“Ah, sure.”
“Why am I here? Because you’re in divine beast territory.”
“Eh? Luna didn’t say anything about that yesterday…”
I look at Luna, and she tilts her head. Elga is also looking at her, and let’s out an exasperated sigh.
“She doesn’t know where our territory begins or ends.”
“I see. Sorry then. We washed up on this island, but we didn’t intend to come here in the first place. That means we honestly don’t know about your territory, let alone about invading it…”
“Hmph, of course. There’s no way humans would come to this divine island Arcadia by choice.”
Divine island Arcadia? I haven’t heard of that before, but I think it’s the same Faraway Island Reina talked about.
Is it called that because beings said to be divine live here?
“Well, if you’re not planning to do anything bad like destroy the forest, you can stay.”
“That’s nice to hear.”
“But watch yourselves. We divine beasts don’t normally look for fights, but youngster demon gods or ancient dragons might come and attack without mercy.”
It’s looking like he’s actually here to warn us. His tone of voice sounds harsh, but he might actually be a good person.
“Can you tell us more about this island…?”
“Tch, what a pain… But it’d be worse if you went around screwing up the island ’cause you don’t know anything. Hold on, I’ll go get a map.”
Says Elga before leaving without Luna. He dashes into the forest with an incredible speed, and it’s not long before I can’t see him anymore. Impressive.
“I mean, that’s fine.”
“Elga doesn’t sound nice and keeps acting annoyed, but he’s always taking the lead in doing things, so everyone counts on him!”
“That’s the feeling I get.”
Then I remember Reina is behind me, and turn around to see how she’s doing. She’s trembling and her face is completely pale.
“R-Reina? Are you all right!?”
“Miss!?”
“Yes, I’m all right. My body just started trembling after being hit with that unbelievable highly concentrated magic energy…”
Apparently Elga was hitting her with a lot of pressure by just standing there. I honestly didn’t feel that much, but it probably has to do with the special senses of a mage.
I move to support her slender body, and she obliges by putting her weight on me.
Elga was here for just a short period of time, and it took this much out of her. Maybe she should stand back next time he’s here.
“Is it Luna’s fault?”
“No, it’s not. And it’s not Elga’s fault either. It’s my own fault for being an inexperienced mage.”
Reina says as she pats the head of a worried looking Luna.
Reina is supposed to be one of the most powerful mages, so if she’s inexperienced, so are all the other mages on the continent. But she’s proud, and won’t do anything to put someone else down.
It would be easier to blame it on someone else, but she’s the kind of girl to take all the responsibility.
I respect that. It’s not something I can emulate.
“W-well then, let’s get breakfast ready. You’re eating too, right Luna?”
“Yes! I love your food Miss Reina!”
“Fufufu, thank you.”
This charming scene feels warm.
“Hey, I’m back!”
Elga comes back with the map as the three of us have breakfast together. It took about an hour, meaning they must live half an hour away from here.
Then again, Elga is faster than a car, so if it took him that long, it must be pretty far away.
“T-a-s-t-y!”
“…”
Luna ignores Elga after he went through all that trouble, as her attention is entirely on Reina’s food.
Elga is glaring at Luna and shaking with anger, because she was relaxing here and eating while he ran through the forest.
“Hum, do you want to eat too, Elga?”
“…Yes, thanks.”
Reina, unable to just sit and watch anymore, asks with a somewhat stiff expression on her face. Elga looks a little apologetic about it, but he sits next to Luna, takes some of her bread, and soaks it in the soup.
Luna is surprised by the sudden assault, but undauntedly keeps taking and eating bread, but after taking a bite, Elga keeps silently taking bread.
The difference in their sizes means Luna can’t do anything about it, and tears well up in her eyes.
“Auu…”
“Don’t cry, there’s more.”
“I love you miss!”
While this is going on, Elga suddenly starts trembling, gets up, and…
“What is this! It’s s-o g-o-o-d!”
“T-a-s-t-y!”
Elga looks up and roars, followed by Luna also yelling at the sky.
That’s enough to shake the atmosphere, and make the birds in nearby trees hastily fly away.
Is it in their nature that divine beast people can’t eat something good without yelling?
They keep eating and yelling that it’s good.
“Ahh… I’ve had my fill.”
“Me too.”
Elga and Luna lie down on the ground next to each other, seemingly satisfied with their full stomachs.
From what I can tell, Luna is a fox and Elga is a wolf, so I’m guessing they’re not blood related. But they sure act like brother and sister.
I leave them be for now, and go help Reina clean up.
I can’t cook, but I want to help with what I can.
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. You made that delicious meal, so cleaning up is the least I can do.”
“Geez, that’s not it.”
Reina suddenly thanks me while we take the tableware to the river we found yesterday. I think that’s strange, because I have no idea what she’s thanking me for, and laugh a little.
“You stepped in front of me when Elga was glaring at me, didn’t you? Thank you for that.”
“Ah… But he wasn’t actually being aggressive at all, so it’s more like I was meddling.”
“That doesn’t matter. I never thought I’d ever need to be protected from something, so it felt fresh, and made me happy.”
Now that I think about it, she was a top-class mage in the capital, so even if she fought in the front lines, there probably weren’t a lot of people that could keep up with her.
I wasn’t actually thinking about protecting her or anything, my body just sort of moved on its own, but I’m still a little glad to hear that.
“Anyway, after we’re done cleaning up, how about we ask Elga about this island?”
“Yes. And we need to decide what we are going to do from now on.”
Thankfully, Elga isn’t our enemy. It’s the opposite in fact, he seemed worried about us.
Surely Luna wouldn’t bring a bad person here in the first place.
Then again, I’m a bit worried about what might happen if he gets mad, but seeing him enjoy the meal like that makes me feel like it’ll probably be fine.
“We need to learn more about this island.”
I did ask god to live here permanently. I didn’t expect other people to be here, but let’s just think of that as part of the fun.
I think about that as I go back to the tent with Reina, where Luna and Elga are still lying on the ground.
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