17. unexpected solution
what is an elf
generally tall.
She is a beautiful woman regardless of gender with white jade skin.
Since it can communicate with other creatures, it avoids eating meat through killing and is passive about eating meat itself.
other than that?
First of all, it’s not a race that’s incredibly hard to see.
It’s rare, but you can see it, especially in crowded places like Supervia.
If that’s common, then it’s not.
There are people who live in uninhabited remote areas who have never seen an elf.
Where they came from, how long they lived, is unknown.
Even the imperial family could not grasp their origins.
I know only that much, common sense level, about elves.
Other than that, the only thing I knew was the individual characteristics of Mercy, rather than the elf species.
A lot of playfulness.
I want to be of any help.
The way he speaks is unique.
what things like that
by the way.
That Mercy… .
“… A princess?”
“Ahaaa, no where?”
No matter who heard it, Mercy denied it with an awkward voice.
“… Since when?”
“Well, I don’t know, so I don’t know? can you ask me? yes?”
“Princess Mercy! You’re all right!”
“Since that day, Your Highness has been very worried!”
The elves waiting inside heard the commotion and came out.
“Princess?”
“Are you really Princess Mercy?”
“She’s a princess!”
Various elves, young and mature, blonde, red and black, came out and recognized Mercy.
“Oh, isn’t it? no, it’s not… ?”
“… Excuse me for a moment.”
I apologized to the elves and dragged Mercy away.
The group of elves didn’t chase after them, they lingered in front of the door, then rushed inside.
He let Mercy go only after coming to a corner where people were rare.
“Yes, you are a princess.”
“Oh, didn’t you say no!”
“So you’re saying that those elves were hallucinating as a group?”
“Maybe… ?!”
“Ugh. That is a very probable thing.”
“… ha.”
Mercy let out a deep sigh.
“That, yes… ! I am the elven princess… ! Hurry up and set your example!”
It seemed that the operation had changed.
“Yes, Princess. It is an honour.”
“Now, stop calling me that… .”
Mercy suddenly blushed and murmured.
“… What rhythm should I tune it to?”
“Huh… .”
As if he had made up his mind, he sighed again and leaned his back against the wall.
“… Ian. How much do you know about elves?”
“Well. You might not know it, but I’m sure I’m only at the level of common sense when it comes to the species called elves.”
“… … .”
Mercy, who was agonizing with her arms crossed, looked up at me with a serious expression.
It’s been a long time since Mercy was so serious.
“The lifespan of elves is unknown, is that correct?”
“right.”
“That goes for us elves as well.”
“… yes?”
“Even I, an elf, do not know how long an elf can live. It’s because no elves have died of natural causes yet.”
“Then do elves live forever?”
“perhaps. However, no elf lived long enough to be called eternal life. Because the elf who lived that long… .”
Mercy laughed awkwardly.
“It’s because everyone commits suicide.”
“… Suicide?”
“Ian. Not knowing the end of life is quite painful.”
… In those words, there was something I could sympathize with.
Although it would be completely different from the end of the elves that Mercy was talking about.
Also, because of the time limit, it is impossible to guess when my end will be.
“100 years, 200 years, of course, up to 500 years. We can live that much, but we can’t endure and enjoy that time fully. In the end, we feel the boredom of life in that eternity of time.”
“That’s why we don’t burn life as passionately as you humans do. The skills and secrets you hone for 50 years are just a moment for us.”
“So there is no need to fight anyone. So it’s suicide. If I don’t kill it, I don’t know how long I will have to live this boring life. We often mock ourselves for being ‘cursed by time’.”
For the first time, Mercy opens up about the Elf species.
It was no different from his past.
Neither I nor Mercy were particularly curious about each other’s past.
Like Kati, Mercy was just with me.
“In order to withstand the curse of that time, we elves cling to something and live by clinging to it. Something you can hold on to until you die. Have you ever seen an elf who cooks the same dish for 300 years?”
“… no. I’ve never even heard of it.”
“There are many elves of that kind. To forget eternity. And among the dogs… .”
Mercy looked straight up at me.
Blue eyes shone brightly even in the shadows of the castle.
“There are elves who come out of ‘Yu-hee’ because they are curious about your human moment.”
“then… .”
“yes. I am one of those elves.”
I couldn’t speak
An elf who came out to watch humans burn away in order to appease the boredom of life.
However, what she experienced in human society must have been too unpleasant to be called entertainment.
Perhaps knowing my intentions, Mercy smiled mischievously as usual.
“Don’t worry. I have found something to soothe the boredom of my life. Well, it’s taboo among elves… .”
“… It’s taboo, but is it okay?”
At that question, Mercy looked up at me.
“yes. Of course.”
“… yes, what.”
“Aren’t you upset? Because I didn’t say… .”
“With something like that. Just because I know anyway, I’m not going to do anything to you.”
“… What do you mean by me?”
“No, nothing to do!”
“Huh… .”
Seeing you play with bullshit again, the mood seems to be back.
“Then that… . Are you from elves? Should I call it a city? Is there anything like that?”
“Yes, there is.”
“Did you not want to go back? Is there any reason not to?”
“… yes. There is that too.”
Mercy smiled.
It was a good smile, as always.
“I can understand why you worry about those elves because of me, but it will be okay. They, too, will have to make their own choices.”
“Do you want to stay in human society or go back?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm… . okay. I mean, it’s not the kind of thing we need to step up and help with.”
It’s terrible to come out to play in human society and experience that kind of experience.
And to remember that for a long time, perhaps until death… .
It’s a pity.
“Okay, I’ll pass it on to Wolfgang then. Anything else I need to know?”
“Um… . What? Although we are special, we are not very different from you humans. In order for a wounded person to adapt to this place again, they will need a reliable settlement or people. That’s all.”
“Hmm. okay.”
I felt like joking around.
“Thank you very much, Princess.”
“Ha, didn’t I tell you not to… !”
“Why were the other elves doing that when they were fine?”
“That, that… . Because you don’t usually call me that!”
“Of course, now that I know you are a princess.”
“Ah, anyway, if you’re not going to do it, don’t do it!”
“It’s tricky because I’m afraid I’m not a princess.”
“… … .”
*
I sat face to face with a man in a simple prison cell in the basement of the castle.
“Andrea?”
Andrea di Fiorene.
The eldest son, known as the only Superman among Lorenzo’s blood relatives.
“What.”
… But, it’s not too bad.
It felt different from the lofty arrogance typical of nobles.
“If you call me, tell me. Keep your mouth shut and don’t hold on to weight.”
It feels like seeing an adolescent boy who has grown up beautifully and is stained with bad and rough words and actions.
You seem to be older than me, but what you’re doing is like a kid.
“As soon as I arrived, the military police grabbed me and started yelling at me. What is your father rebelling against? what happened? I wonder if that makes sense… . You just annoy people.”
Instead of answering, I glanced at Wolfgang, who was observing the visit.
He shrugged.
It’s like he’s originally like this.
“… Can I stay with you two for a minute?”
“It is impossible in principle, but… . I’m in a hurry to go to the bathroom for a while, so I can’t help it at that time.”
“You go slowly.”
Wolfgang deftly left the room.
As soon as the door closed I slowly got up.
“So what?”
Andrea looks back and forth between the closed door and me, then laughs.
I didn’t know she had such a mixed personality, but I know a few things about Andrea.
However, to the extent that Lorenzo admires him, he is a definite superman in terms of talent.
Two, he has talent, but he is lazy and has no will to sharpen his talent.
In other words, he is much weaker than me.
-match!
One cheek at a time.
“Ouch! what… !”
-match!
two cars.
“This shit… !”
-match!
Generation.
I silently slapped him on the cheek without saying a word.
Andrea reflexively raised her arm to block it, but it was useless.
It’s enough to blow the cheek with the arm as it is.
“This bird… !”
-match!
Even if he raised his mana, he was still weaker than me.
It wasn’t until she was about ten years old that Andrea sat in her place, trembling, without saying a word or rebelling.
Now I can talk.
“This is my first and last word of warning.”
He went back to his seat and said.
“I have no intention of cursing like your father or servants, and since you are a witness, I am different from the military police who have not bothered to touch you yet. If you let her hands go one more time, then it won’t end in cheeks, so you should know.”
“… Yes, I understand.”
Andrea answered in an awkward way, wiping the blood dripping from her mouth with her sleeve.
Around that time, Wolfgang returned.
He looked back and forth between me and Andrea.
It wasn’t long before Andrea’s face was filled with unexpected anticipation.
“Hmm. You guys have been quiet.”
Andrea’s expression darkened even more at Wolfgang’s calm words.
“I’m going to ask you a few questions from now on, and if you answer them correctly, everything will be fine.”
“Yes… .”
“But if you stammer for an answer, or if you see him rolling his head to make up for it, that wolfgang will go to the bathroom again. I want you to cooperate kindly, even for the sake of Wolfgang.”
“Yes, going to the bathroom often is bad for your health.”
Now Andrea seemed completely resigned.
“Andrea di Fiorene. Is it you?”
“Yes… .”
“I am the eldest son of Lorenzo. Age is?”
“… It is 32.”
“… okay. He, what, are you currently working as a hero? Is that why you’re late?”
“no… . I just came to hang out with other aristocratic friends.”
“… Right.”
For some reason, I feel like my personality was brutally trampled on… .
“Does Lucia know?”
To that question, Andrea, who had been calmly giving an immediate answer, shuddered slightly.
But he did not delay his answer.
“Yes.”
“You should have known what kind of position Lucia was in the family.”
“Yes.”
“Is it yours?”
“Yes?”
“You asked for a curse.”
“… … .”
Andrea was the first to shut up.
At the word curse, Wolfgang also looked at me as if in doubt.
I didn’t give Andrea time to think.
“I told you not to roll your head.”
“Oh that… .”
“Answer me.”
“No, that’s right… .”
“Medium?”
“In my room… .”
I knew it would be like this.
The fact that Lucia, who was fine, started to get sick after moving into Fiorene Castle.
And, I thought it would not be an ordinary disease in that it was not cured even with that elixir.
Perhaps Lorenzo was not unaware of Lucia’s talent.
Andrea would have known.
Andrea, who was jealous and worried about that, put a curse on Lucia to keep her in check… That was my hypothesis.
Because there is no one other than this guy who has the right to do such a thing.
“Wolf Gang. Please ask him to search his room.”
“All right. But please explain… .”
“It’s a long story to tell… . It seems that the person I recruited this time named Lucia is cursed, so I stabbed the most likely suspect. It is possible to maintain the effect of a curse that inflicts a disease through ‘mediation’.”
When I pressed Andrea with a wink, he opened his mouth again.
“It is a decoration in the shape of a wooden sword… .”
“You’re a little compliant now.”
When Wolfgang returned from ordering outside, Andrea added a word.
“I… . Actually, the inherent curse is also because I… .”
“… what?”
The Wolf Gang, who had just looked down at Andrea in a pitiful way until now, also frowned.
“Now it’s called a unique curse… .”
“This crazy bastard is really… .”
*
After crippling Andrea, I left the room.
Wolfgang was watching, but it was okay.
inherent curse.
It’s one of the legally taboo spells in the empire, and even if you’re arrested as a red-handed criminal by the military police, it’s a crime you don’t have anything to say.
Depending on the severity of the crime, it is also the death penalty.
As the name suggests, the ‘unique curse’ means the only unique curse in the world.
Curses derived from sorcery have various modes of operation, and the same curse has only one mode of operation.
For example, in the case of the ‘Silent Seal’ seen in Arke Village, it works by engraving the shaman’s text on the tongue of the subject.
How to do it is also simple.
All you have to do is erase the shape of the shaman’s circle on the tongue in some way.
So, the way I did it in Arke Village was also simple.
The “Fire Hand”, which emits flames from its hands, was radiated extremely weakly, burning the surface of its tongue.
Anyway, in this way, in order to cast a curse, you need to know how it works.
What makes that impossible is the ‘unique curse’.
A curse that the practitioner created a unique operation method for only one curse.
It is impossible to do without the creator himself.
‘If I feed the elixir and take the potion, I can maintain it at a normal level, but it’s impossible to cure it… .’
Of course, the shamans who do this work are anonymous, so it’s hard to track them down no matter how much they rob Andrea.
Andrea, who was half asshole, was arrested by Wolfgang as a red-handed criminal, and I came to the room where Lucia and the party were waiting.
I pondered for a moment whether I should tell you this or not.
It’s a truth that might be better not to know.
However, it was presumptuous for me, a stranger, to judge whether I was better or not with the work of the person concerned.
“Lucia. I know the cause of the lesion, but if you don’t want to, I’ll just keep it a secret.”
I called Lucia alone and asked her doctor.
“What would you like to do?”
“I will listen. Well, it was much better… . I am curious.”
Thanks to the extra dose of elixir and breaking the medium, I’m sure my condition is much better.
However, traces of the inherent curse still remained.
The skin is red as if it has been burned.
“More than that, I want to hear it in front of other people.”
“Are you all right?”
“We will be together in the future, wouldn’t it be nice to know everyone together? I think it would be better to have as few secrets as possible.”
… Are you already thinking about that?
So, I called the whole party and revealed what Andrea had done.
Vivian, feeling all down on herself, stroked Lucia’s back, and Helena let go of her anger with a sad yet angry face.
It was a bizarre scene where Lucia, the victim, was the most calm.
Lucia asked.
“Then, is it a problem that cannot be solved at all?”
“Not at all… No, but not very likely.”
Perhaps, if you go to the Magic Tower, you will find a solution somehow.
Even if it’s a bit embarrassing to see that guy’s face, if there’s a way, it’s right to go.
I’m trying to decide my next destination to be the Magic Tower… .
Mercy quietly raised her hand.
“Mercy? why?”
“that… . If it’s a curse, I think I can help… ?”
“… you? Did you know how to handle witchcraft?”
“It is not… . That is, when I go to my hometown. There are many such experts… .”
I remembered what Mercy had said earlier.
An elf who repeated the same dish for 300 years.
What if there was an elf who had only studied witchcraft for 300 years?
“… Five.”
Mercy came up with an unexpected solution.