CH 29

Chapter 29: Elves of the White Forest

“A kid? Why is she here alone at a place like this?”

The two young guys swept the undergrowth aside and, with shocked expressions, discovered Selene. Their long, pointed ears are their most distinguishing trait, along with their silver hair and ruby eyes. Selene immediately recognizes them as elves.

Ahhh, so this is the rumored elf, huh? Selene thought as she looked at them uninterestingly. This is her first time ever seeing another race with some intelligence, if you exclude the dragon.

Looking at her, the young men concluded that this young little elf girl is terrified of them—two adults she has never met. And to let her know that they meant no harm, they put their wooden bows behind their backs and slowly approached her.

“Ojou-chan, what’s the matter? Being here alone is dangerous, you know. Did you get lost on your way home? Where’s your village? We’ll escort you home, so don’t worry.”

“Ummm.”

It seems like the two men completely believed that Selene is an elf, so one of the men calls out to her in a calm voice. But then the young man at the back frowned as he noticed something.

“Hey, don’t you think that she’s kinda… feels off?”

“Off…… hmmm?”

The two gaze intensely at Selene. And sure enough, her hair color is too white to be an elf. The two young men has silver hair, but hers is completely pure white. Moreover――

“Round ears!? A-, are you…… a human!?”

“Un, yeah.”

Selene answers without thinking. Immediately after hearing that, the young man’s kind and gentle attitude suddenly changes. He frowns his brows hard as he brings his face so close to Selene that she can feels his breath on her.

“You scum, are you an ardvencharar!? How!? Tell me right now how you venture in this deep into the White Forest! Speak!” (T/N: Adventurer)

“Um, uhh, it’s…”

Being asked questions in rapid succession, coupled with his hostile attitude, Selene flinches back. That, however, was a bad move for her. The man thought that she was trying to escape, so he forcefully pulls Selene’s arm.

“Ow!”

Selene raises her voice in pain, but suddenly the elf who was holding Selene’s arm is blown backward, his body bending in a く shape. Surprised, the other elf that was standing guard behind him turns to Selene to see what on earth is going on, not even paying attention to his partner who got blown away.

『You scums! Not only have you touched my master without her permission, you even hurt her! Unforgiveable!』

The one who blew the elf away was none other than Butler, furious at seeing his master being harmed. The elf who got blown away slowly stands up, his hand clutching his stomach to suppress the pain. And that’s when the two elves finally noticed a small mouse standing in front of the pure white girl, protecting her.

Although they couldn’t hear what Butler said, but seeing that he’s baring his sharp front fangs and puffing himself up in order to intimidate them, they understand that this mouse is extremely furious. And they also noticed another thing, and that is the fact that this mouse is not an ordinary mouse.

“A-, a mouse? B-bro, you got blown away by that mouse?”

“*Cough*! I- I wanna know that too! The hell is up with that thing!? This doesn’t even make any sense!”

“Like hell I know! Let’s just focus on capturing that shorty for now!”

A mysterious human and a beast that suddenly appear in front of them. For elves, these two are enemies dangerous enough that they must stay on guard. The elf that was not blown away by Butler jumps backward, keeping his distance, and raises his bow.

His aim is Selene. He thinks that she is the mastermind who controls the mouse, which is her puppet. Selene, on the other hand, just stands there, confused. She is, after all, a person who was born in the peaceful country that is modern-day Japan, her brain couldn’t keep up with the reality that someone is aiming their weapons at her. For the elves, she’s an easy target who’s full of openings.

Pulling the string on his bow, the elf releases his arrow. His aim was Selene’s leg. If he kills this human right here, he’ll never know her identity. So he intends to immobilize her so that they can gather information from her.

The elf’s archery skill is superb. The arrow flies forward at atonishing speed, penetrating Selene’s leg without much eff―― or not. Before the arrow could penetrate Selene’s fair leg, the arrow was deflected away.

“Wha-!?”

The elf is taken aback. His surprise is understandable however, the sight of a tiny mouse leaping high into the air and snapping the arrow in half with his fangs is simply unbelievable after all. The bow that the elf used is just a wooden bow with ivy as its string, but it’s still a bow crafted from magically reinforced materials nonetheless. But the mouse easily caught the arrow mid-air and snapped it. It’s already at a level that can be called supernatural.

『Scumbags… You seriously dare aim your bow at Princess! Then I’ll take you scums seriously as well!』

Butler lets out a roar, intimidating them, before kicking the ground. His speed as fast as a lighting, so fast that even the elves with excellent vision are unable to keep up. Strength that of a bear’s, speed like a wolf, intelligence which surpasses even humans. Butler is a magic beast that possesses them all.

Butler dashes through the fallen leaves like a shadow in the dark, his sight set on the elf with the bow’s ankle, and he slams his body onto his target with full force.

“Gugh!”

The elf receives a hard blow to the ankle and falls to the ground. Butler suddenly brakes and takes a sharp turn. He dashes to the fallen elf’s face and kicks it hard. The elf suffered a strong concussion and fainted on the spot.

“D-, damn you…. Argh!!”

The elf who got punched in the gut earlier quickly unsheathes his short sword from his waist and thrusts it at the tiny mouse. But there’s just no way Butler couldn’t avoid an injured man’s blade. He jumps upward, landing himself on a tree branch, and from above the treetop, he dives down onto the back of the elf’s head like a bird of prey hunting its prey. Another direct hit, and the second elf falls face-down to the ground.

『Princess! Staying here is dangerous! We must run away!』

“Run? W-, where!?”

『For now, we must run to somewhere with less trees! I’ll protect you no matter the cost!』

“Got it!”

Doing what Butler told her, Selene runs through the White Forest that faintly glows under the moonlight. But no matter which direction she turns, there are just trees everywhere, Selene has no idea at all where she should run to.

She takes the path that seems to be the easiest to run through, weaving through the trees, but there are just white trees left and right, and her sense of direction is starting to go haywire.

But Selene continues to run nonetheless. She understood that elves are not very fond of humans, who knows what they’ll do to her if she’s captured. For the sake of her beloved Arue-neesama, she couldn’t bite the dust here.

“Hiie, hiiiie!”

『Princess, it might be harsh but please keep running!』

But despite her desperation, Selene’s legs wouldn’t move as she wanted them to. Not only that she absolutely despises exercising, she’s also the type of person who always stays at home, so her stamina is even worse than that of an average 8-year-old. Moreover, the ground is full of fallen white leaves and tree roots sticking out in places, making running extremely difficult.

“Are you okay bro?”

“Dammit! Who the hell are they!?”

Not long after Selene flees, the two elf men regain consciousness. And then they spot a white young girl and a mouse running away.

“That shorty… She’s not ordinary……! Call in the reinforcements!”

“B-, but bro, the nearest reinforcement right now is Sana-sama you know…… We shouldn’t call her unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“But we don’t have a frickin’ choice! We can’t let her escape no matter what!”

The two click their tongues. Since from the outside she looks like an innocent young girl, they had completely let their guard down. She could calmly enters the area where they live without being noticed, and she could even control a beast of extraordinary capabilities. It looks like it’ll be difficult to catch her alive.

After a moment of hesitation, one of the two young elves takes out a whistle from their chest pocket and blows on it. Wheeー, a high-pitch sound echoes throughout the forest, and immediately after, the two elves, once again, equip their bows and chase after Selene.

『I’m afraid they just called their reinforcements Princess! Kuh…., if only there’s a place nearby where we could hide……』

“Hahieeー!”

Selene keeps running even when it feels like her heart is about to explode. She doesn’t even know which direction she’s running to anymore, she just keeps running through the White Forest with all her might. Although there’re a lot of bushes where they could hide nearby, but there’s a risk that they’ll encounter another group of elves if Selene decides to hide in one of the bushes, since the first two young elves also came out of the bushes in the first place after all.

The elves are also desperate as well. Closing the distance between them and Selene should be a piece of cake. But that mysterious mouse besides her wouldn’t let them do that so easily. If the elves fired an arrow at her, the mouse would either deflect it by striking it down, snapping it off, or biting it to pieces. And if they’re not careful with how they shoot, the mouse will sometimes throw the arrow back at them.

Then how about getting close to her and using their short swords? That isn’t an option either. Butler jumps around in all directions, making a triangle shape as he uses the trees as his footholds, making it very difficult for them to approach her safely. He appears like a black bullet, ricocheting between the trees, creating a barrier around the girl.

Although Selene is extremely slow on her feet, with Butler interfering with the elves, they never manage to catch her. In the front is Selene running away from the elves; behind her are the two elves chasing her; and in between them is the Princess’s knight, Butler. The distance between them remains constant, and the situation is in a stalemate.

“You two! Get out of my way!”

But the stalemate didn’t last long as a new player joined the game. Suddenly, a dignified voice echoes throughout the White Forest. From the tone of the voice, it seems to belong to a young girl. The shadow behind the two elves is so far away that she looks like a tiny bean. The shadowy figure of a young girl wearing a white mantle slowly draws the bow in her hand.

『Their reinforcements arrived!? No matter how many of you come, it’s futile!』

Butler courageously stands on all four limbs in front of the elves in a menacing manner. The two young elves are frightened by Butler’s stance, but the young girl behind them doesn’t seem to care all that much and fires her arrow in a relaxed manner.

‘Hoh, she seems to be pretty confident in herself.’ (Butler)

Perhaps she still doesn’t fully understand the situation since she was just called by the whistle earlier. The unleashed arrow flies straight through the air without any resistance. Her aim seems to be Selene. But that’s futile. As long as Butler is still alive, no matter how many hundred arrows are coming her way, he’ll deflect all of them. Butler jumps up, trying to catch the arrow coming from a long distance away the same way he did as before.

“Loosen.”

The elf girl mutters shortly, and immediately after, the arrow suddenly turns soft and bendy like a string. That’s right, her true target was Butler from the start. If she shoots the arrow at the young girl, Butler will definitely deflect it. And that’s exactly where his weakness lies.

『What the-!?』

Butler’s sharp fangs cut through the emptiness as the arrow suddenly changes its trajectory.

“Tie.”

The elf girl waves her hand in a circular motion, and the bendy arrow suddenly coils around Butler like a ferocious snake, restraining his movements. With his limbs tightly bound, Butler’s entire body falls to the ground.

『Argh! What in the world!? Is this arrow a vine!?』

Butler struggles hard, trying to escape, but the sturdy vine won’t budge even with his extraordinary strength. It seems like what she shot wasn’t an arrow but a vine wrapped around a stick. And that she could control it with her hand at will, but it was too late by the time he realized that. 

“Butler!?”

『Princess! Please don’t worry about me and escape! I’ll take care of this!』

Butler screams. No matter how strong he is as a magic beast, if his movements are restrained, he’s no different from an ordinary mouse. Yet he still doesn’t give up, he intends to fight to his last drop of blood to protect his master. As long as he’s alive, there’s a chance that he could distract the elves, even for a second, and buy time for Selene to escape.

“No!”

But Selene didn’t run away. To Selene, Butler is her first ever true friend that she has made in this world. Selene in her previous life had no friends at all, so her previous self often talked to plants or animals as friends, being a somewhat weird person. That’s why she was so happy when she could talk to animals, which was usually a one-way conversation.

Selene might be an insufferable pervert, but once she loves something, she’ll pour all of her affection into that person. Even if said person is a mouse, that doesn’t change. And of course she loves Arue more than Butler; as for the human males, she doesn’t give a damn.

“How dare you!”

Selene picks up two fallen sticks near her, dual-wielding the sticks. Selene is no ordinary, vulnerable eight-year-old girl. Deep inside her fragile yet beautiful body lies the raging soul of a middle-aged man. Honestly though, she just has a slightly stronger fighting spirit than a typical eight-year-old girl. 

“Uwoooーーーhh!” (Selene’s battle cry.)

Selene swings the two sticks furiously without thinking, intending to hit the two young elves. The elves are taken aback by her action, seeing as she has been running away from them all this time, and she just suddenly decides to attack them head-on.

『Princess! Please stop! Please don’t worry about me!』

“Urraaaaーーーーh!”

But Selene wouldn’t stop. Selene is, after all, the type of person who, when blood rises to their head, would act without thinking about the consequences and then regret it when things cooled down later. The two elves finally come to their senses and hold their bows up. And once again, they draw their bow and fire the arrows mercilessly. There’s no Butler to protect her this time around, there’s only the reckless Selene left.

“Kyaaー!?”

Selene screams. She mindlessly rushes forward with two sticks in hand, looking only in front of her, and that’s when she stumbles on a tree’s root on the ground. Thanks to that, the elves’ arrows cut through the empty air and pierce the tree behind her instead.

“She evaded the arrows!?”

The elves are surprised. With that timing, they should’ve hit the bullseye. But the girl ducks just a moment before the arrows would hit her. As they thought, it’s not just the mouse, this girl is also dangerous as well. The elves’ vigilance rises by a notch once again.

However, Selene just lies there, not moving. Both of her hands are still holding the sticks even when she falls down really hard, face-first and fainted. The two young elves froze on the spot, not knowing what to do with Selene’s weird action.

“Wha-, hey…… did she… fainted?”

“No, stay cautious. She might be acting to make us let our guard down.”

The two young elves slowly and steadily approach her while staying vigilant. Butler’s struggling even harder, but completely powerless. His attention now is only on Selene.

『Princess! Are you okay!? Princess!』

Butler desperately cries out to Selene, but she didn’t respond.

The two elves poke Selene with the tips of their bows to check on her, and conclude that she really did passed out.

“What do we do? Just capture her?”

“No, ardvencharar like her is too dangerous. Let’s dispose of her here.”

『Wait! Please wait!! I beg you! Don’t do it!』

But no matter how much Butler yells, the voice he let out is only gii gii, like that of ordinary mouses. The two elves slowly take out their daggers. Selene, with her eyes closed, looks like a normal human young girl, so the elves felt guilty for having to do this, but they must remove any possible dangers.

“Hold on!”

The moment the young elf man brings his dagger to Selene’s neck, a voice rises up from behind them. The two elves turn back, and there they see an elf girl holding a bow.

Silver hair tied to the back, red pupils, and long ears. The only difference between her and the two young elves men is that she is about a head shorter and appears to be a little younger. 

“Sana-sama, but we must get rid of all ardvencharars.”

“That girl, she’s no ardvencharars.”

“Eh?”

The young elf man replies, dumbfounded. The young girl named Sana shrugs her shoulders, as if saying good grief.

“Just look, this girl doesn’t have any belongings with her. ardvencharars usually bring a lot of belongings with them.”

“Now that you mentioned it……”

The young elf men look at Selene closely again. She’s wearing a pure white dress, and other than that, she doesn’t have anything else on her. Although the elves are not very well versed in human clothing, at least they understand that this isn’t an outfit for a human to be wearing while walking in the middle of the forest.

“But still, she’s somehow here in this White Forest. If she isn’t an ardvencharar, then why is she here? And she even has that weird mouse with her too.”

“Oh, that mouse-kun huh. Yeah, that surprised me too. When I heard the whistle and came to see you two, I thought you guys were shooting at empty air since that mouse is so small.”

『I’m not mouse-kun! I’m Princess Selene’s butler, Butler!』

“Ah, I angered you? My bad.”

The girl named Sana laughs at Butler unapologetically. On her face is a carefree smile, but to Butler, she’s an enemy who hold Selene’s life in her hands. He bares his fangs, trying to intimidate, while still tied up.

“That mouse-kun is not ordinary, this human girl as well.”

“What do we do? Should we dispose her?”

“Hmmmー……”

Sana crosses her arms, her face suggesting that she’s thinking about it. She stares at Selene’s face. When Selene’s sleeping and not talking, she really looks like a beautiful princess from a fallen kingdom. Even Sana is surprised by Selene’s beauty, which, despite still young, is already in full bloom.

“Alright! Let’s bring her to the Chief and let him decide.”

“Chief… You mean Gee-sama?”

“Yup. I’ll be the one carrying her. You two take care of that mouse-kun.”

“B-, but, what about the danger? Wouldn’t it be better if we carry the girl……”

The two elves suggest Sana. From the elves’ point of view, Selene, who controls Butler the mouse, is far more dangerous than the mouse, and they should take extreme caution when dealing with her. And Butler is now tied up by Sana, so it’d be safer if Sana was the one who carried the mouse.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! This girl isn’t a bad girl after all.”

“Why do you think so, Sana-sama?”

“You see……”

Said Sana as she holds Selene’s small body in her arms even when the two elves are trying to stop her. Although Sana is also slender, but to the elves who move their body everyday to work, Selene’s body is as light as a feather.

“This girl has a scent of flowers on her.”

Sana buries her head into Selene’s silky white hair, her face blooming with a smile. To the elves who are close to nature, the scent of flower and grass on Selene helped them relax their guard.

That scent of flowers was stuck on her when she was rolling on the flower field in agony, but both the elves and Selene didn’t know of this, and it’s better that way, for ignorance is bliss.