Chapter 137 – An Elf’s Story
Seluna Emeraldia, an outcast from the Kingdom of Alberium, was born and raised in the Great Forest and could be said to be a typical Great Forest Elf. .
She was born in the Great Forest and lived as a citizen of the Kingdom of Alberium. To her, the Great Forest was everything to her.
I don’t know if that’s why, but she never thought about the outside of the great grove.
The Great Forest was everything to her, and the area where the Great Forest spread out was her home, so there was no reason to think about the world outside the Great Forest from the beginning.
So there was a day when, living as an elf in the Great Forest, something happened that gave her an awareness of the outside world.
As usual, she was on her way back to her house after training to develop her affinity with the spirits.
‘What is it?’
On the way back to her house, Seluna saw a group of people dressed in colorful costumes that were not seen in the Great Forest.
After hiding behind a rock for a while, she gently sticks her head out and begins to observe their actions.
“Last year, the medicinal herbs collected in the Great Forest were of the highest quality and most effective. Customers who mainly do business with us were also very satisfied.”
“I’m glad the people who bought the herbs were satisfied.”
“I plan to buy as many herbs this year as last year.”
‘Who are those people?’
Seluna, who was hiding behind a rock and watching everything, began to wonder who those people were.
However, she couldn’t figure out how to intervene between the elf and the merchant who were talking.
From noble mtl dot com.
Because, the elf he was talking with was Serementio, the captain of the bodyguard leading Queen Rumio’s bodyguard.
Even from the elf’s point of view, Serementio was a being in a position that corresponded to a high-ranking person, so Seluna’s majesty made it impossible for her to come out from behind the rock she was hiding in.
The conversation, which lasted about an hour, ended with the merchants leaving first.
The merchants disappeared and Sermentio slowly turned his head to look at the rock where Seluna was hiding.
Seluna made sure she turned her head to look in her direction and hid herself behind her rock.
She would normally think she was properly hiding behind a rock, but in reality, one of her feet was slightly sticking out from the side of the rock.
“It’s okay. You can come out.”
Of course, Sermentio wasn’t just looking at her Seluna’s feet and noticing that she was hiding behind a rock.
After she reached the level of a sword master, it was a piece of cake for her to locate an elf kid.
Recognizing that Sermentio had called her, Seluna carefully raised her body and she pulled herself out of the rock in which she had been hiding.
Seluna appeared in front of Serementio with her nervous look evident, not knowing what kind of scolding she might receive.
But Sermentio didn’t scold Seluna or get irritated.
I just approached her cautiously and put her hand on her head on her celluna and stroked her.
“It’s okay. Curiosity is not a bad thing.”
“I-I’m sorry for watching you secretly.”
“I say I’m fine. No adult will be offended if a child who hasn’t even gone through a coming-of-age ceremony shows curiosity.”
Sermentio knew that her Seluna was afraid of him, so instead of scolding her, she comforted her.
“That, Mr. Serementio? Who are they?”
With Serementio’s consolation, Seluna mustered up the courage to ask who she was talking to.
Of course, they were merchants who made a living moving up from outside the Great Forest, but to Seluna, who had no outside experience, it was something she had never seen before.
Serementio showed her old self superimposed on her.
So, in her caring voice, she began to explain to Seluna who they were.
“They are merchants from outside the Great Forest.”
“Merchant…”
“Also, unlike us, they are short-lived species that live less than 100 years.”
“Is that true?”
The 30-year-old young elf, who must be very curious, widened his eyes at the word that it was a short-lived species.
“Yes. However, since they live a short life, they are also a species that works hard every day.”
“Wow…”
Since everything was a story she had never heard of, Seluna was responding with wonder.
In response to her reaction, Serementio told me more about this and that.
“Outside the Great Forest, where we live, there are many truly terrifying monsters, as well as many races similar to us but with shorter lives.”
“Can I go outside too?”
“Of course! But before that, you need to have the skills to survive outside. So, you have to train hard, right?”
“Yes! I will train harder from today!”
At Sermentio’s words, Seluna made up her mind that she too would one day go outside the Great Forest.
–
Now, about 120 years have passed since then, Seluna was talking to the bar owner at a bar in a city in the El Pario Empire located near the Great Forest.
“Welcome, Oshu. Are you an elf? What did the tribe of the forest bring to a place like this?”
The man who appeared to be the bar owner offered Seluna a standard beer and asked why she had come here.
“I’m here to find someone.”
Seluna held out one of her silver coins to her tavernkeeper.
By offering a silver coin to a free glass of beer, she indicated that she had come to buy information.
“Hmm. Judging by the way you look, it seems like you’ve been walking for quite some time, but with that appearance, no matter who you go looking for, you’ll be ignored. How about going to an inn somewhere and washing up before moving?”
I don’t know if her actions were correct, but the atmosphere around her bar owner changed in an instant, and she gave her some bone-chilling advice.
“I see…”
Now she was not in a situation where even empty words could say that she was good.
She walked for a long time. Her clothes and face, covered in dust and grime, made her look more like a soldier from the front line than a noble elf.
Like her bar owner’s advice, even if she went looking for someone like this now, she could have been ignored.
“So, who are you looking for?”
Well, since the bar owner couldn’t take care of that, he gave only simple advice and asked Seluna who she was looking for.
Of course, one silver coin was the minimum value to use the intelligence dealer.
Depending on the value of the information she wanted to obtain, the value of the information Seluna had to pay additionally was bound to change.
“He is a man called the White Death.”
“Hmm…”
When the story of the white reaper came out of Seluna’s mouth, the bar owner let her moan.
There was a reason why he moaned like that.
“Information about the White Reaper… Is difficult even for us to deal with. At least…”
“At least?”
Saluna asked the reason when the informant disguised as her bar owner groaned and responded that it was difficult to provide information.
“About twenty gold coins. At least that much.”
“One person’s information is 20 gold coins?”
Seluna was surprised that the price for the information she was looking for about her man, the ‘White Reaper’, believed to be Adalbert Lane Med, was too high.
For information about a person, 20 gold coins meant that the person was worth at least 10 times, no, 100 times that value.
If she wanted to get the right information, she would have to prepare 10 or 100 times more gold coins than the bar owner’s offer of 20 gold coins.
That was the world of information.
“It’s obvious. Information about him is strictly controlled by the higher ups.”
“Hmm…”
Seluna was worried about the price of 20 gold coins.
As for why she was troubled, it was because the only money she had in her hands was 40 gold coins.
It was no exaggeration to say that elves had little concept of earning money since they did not use a separate currency.
This money of 40 gold coins that Seluna had was money she had been collecting little by little whenever she went outside her Great Forest.
Literally, she had everything she had.
Should she give half of her fortune to buy information about the White Reaper when the tavern owner said the price of the information on the White Reaper was 20 gold coins? She had an idea called.
But she soon had to take twenty golden coins out of her pocket and hand them to her barkeeper.
“Here’s some rough information about the White Reaper. According to the most recent information, the White Reaper has headed to the Noble Academy, so she might as well go there.”
“……?”
“This is a service.”
The tavern owner who gave Seluna information about the White Reaper went back to being the tavern owner according to her information.
Seluna took the piece of parchment he gave her and left the bar.
Now it was time to move again.