Chapter 66 To Live

All in all, both the elves were in a woeful state. But the elven girl was different. Even though she wanted to break off of it, she was still helpless and lost. Utterly lost. The adult elf wasn't in that more pitiful state. He could still see, anticipate, and plan what could and could not happen.

He could study his chances at victory, and cook up a brilliant plan to get the princess, his people's 'last hope', back. He could expect and foresee consequences that were to befall them if he acted this or that way. But the princess could not.

She was as if blind and deaf in total darkness. Her battle was a desperate one. But as she repeated, thanks to the boy who she had met that fateful night, she decided to be different. At some point, their argument had reached its paroxysm.

It wasn't so that, under the sorry sky, the drowning flowers were so intensely at each other's throat that the ruckus they made grew to the loudest, yells and wails resounding all around, no—rather, the feud of the drowning flowers' had reached a point where none of them had any more words to speak. That was the paroxysm I spoke of. A few feet separated the two of them. While the elven girl only distressingly trembled still and stared down at her feet, the other elf's legs were also as if planted in the ground, unable to move.

From up the hill, I stood up, still staring down at them.

When the elven princess said it again— "I want to leave… and go home…" —the other elf chose to break his promise. That was to say force the princess to follow him back to her sacrifice anyway. That was the way of a desperate man. Stepping up, he held elvish runes. With a jerky movement, he unleashed a sleeping charm on her. And the feverish elven princess only shrieked. She had been sure it would work—if she kept ordering the elf around, he wouldn't attack her, or else he risked losing his integrity as one of the forest's elves.

Well, the man attacked her anyway. His hands moved just like snakes and were ready to bite the lost lamb. Without hesitating, with a Quick Pace, I flew down to them.

I was the boy she had met, after all. If I didn't save the one person with whom I 'shared a soul', according to her words, what would I ever save? If I, the boy who felt sorry when nobody else did, didn't feel sorry for her now, when would I ever? If I—the monster who had shown her how to be strong, to stand up for herself, and to get the will to live—didn't go and tell her it was okay to want to live, just like it had been okay for me to wish to live, too, as that first swordsman cut me lifeless, leaving me full of resentment and tears on the ground; who would tell her?

Who would allow the princess? Who would take the girl home? I decided I would. Or maybe that wasn't entirely true. Maybe she was the one to take me home.

As I pierced my way through the air down to the elven princess like an arrow, fell down to the two elves, stepped up to protect the elven princess, brushed the elf's spell away, and kept him at bay, I decided I would be the kind, gentle boy that girl had met in the dark of our fateful night. If it was her wish, then I decided to grant it.

After all, if the kind ma'am was here, she would have pointed her finger at the girl and said 'There it is. The monster's home. Your home. Where you belong. Off you go, kiddo.'

I flew off from the hill and found purpose in what I did then. None of the two elves had expected me to appear then. The princess just had resigned herself to her fate, unable to be as strong as the soul she and I had shared. And the other elf's eyes widened in surprise as my feet landed on his stomach, blasting him away from my sight.

My human form proved to be mighty and able. This Character was mine—it was me. And the strength I showed was mine too. Without having to go by a Receptacle, I was stronger. For a second, I thought the Dwelling skill was crappy. Didn't it make me weaker? Sure, if the Receptacle died it wasn't like I would die too, so I wasn't left unprotected, but if it made me weaker, then it wasn't so good a skill. However, quickly going over it in my mind, 'Dwelling' must have been meant to be used against more powerful foes—that way I could only profit from it. But whatever. Enough of that, I had no time to pause and leisurely think about that kind of trivial thing.

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Upon seeing me send the elf flying, the elven princess, who had shrunk and shrieked in response to being assaulted, had crouched at once and kept muttering the phrase 'I forbid it' in panic, presently stood up, met my eyes, and took three hesitant steps back.

Then she just gulped, stopping on her feet. Her lips pressed together, she swallowed her dry saliva more and more, disbelievingly blinking at me ceaselessly. Seeing her confused and fearful gaze, my shoulders dropped. As I was about to sigh in defeat, thinking the person who ever truly accepted me for what I was, the person I decided to like, was afraid of me—

No, she interrupted me. "I-I'm not… afraid! I-Is it you… th-the monster?" I nodded at her, feigning a smile. 'The monster,' huh? "I-I didn't mean it that way! Your appearance has changed… Is that your true… self? …Persona?" With a tinge of sad disappointment on her face, her gaze dropped to the ground. "...I know... That's why you won't use me as a Receptacle anymore… M-Monster! Please! At least take me with you—" I turned my back on her. I meant to reply but couldn't answer anything.

"M-My dream… is to explore the… you thought of it as the Outside World, I believe… It's what I wish to do, too! I'll become an adventurer! And I-I'll be of use…! Please! Find it in yourself to take me with you!" The princess bowed her head to me, making it her request to me. "I fear you're my only way out… monster. E-Even if you weren't... I'd still want to go with... y-you... ...Help me! You have to!"

In her feverish state, she was bold and daring. In a situation like this, you normally said 'Be so kind as to grant my request,' but the girl told me I actually had to. She was feverish a lot, which made her delirious a bit, too. That's how she managed to be this bold and shameless about her request.

That girl said we had shared a soul. She said she knew me. That she felt sorry for me, too, similar to what I felt for her. She said she hoped I'd accept her. Similarly to me, she desired a home to belong to. I was the boy who taught her to be strong and fend for herself. After she spent a time with me, she said she saw what I saw and felt what I felt, as though we were one single soul, and after all this time, she said we were fundamentally alike me and her.

After all, we had been both equally weak, helpless, and lost. In a sense, maybe she knew all about me. Or my feelings, rather. I'll admit I had been lost and helpless, but it was before I even met her. Well, when she said we shared a soul, then, she may have been right. At any rate, her feelings were heavy on me, too. She said it meant a lot when I said I felt sorry for her, back in the inn at night. Well, I think it worked the same for me, right now.

I mean, she must have seen what a horrible monster I was—all I had done to protect myself, that was mostly killing humans without batting an eye, or simply be ready to do anything to achieve my own goals, really anything—and she still spoke fondly of me, saying I at least had protected her effectively, so she accepted me, and I can confidently say it meant a lot to me, too. She didn't reject me or think I should be dead.

She didn't spit on me for being a monster, despise and hate me with no end. With all the hardships and trials she had been through, I guessed she knew more about life, even as young as she was, compared to most people. Her words meant a lot. It really touched me.

She said that, unlike her elf attendant, I had protected her, taught her to be a brave, strong girl, and hence she would go travel with me and my old man… and also be part of our home.