CH 35

Chapter 35: Meet by Chance

After Selene and Butler have spent their last night with the elves, it’s finally time for their departure with the elven escort, led by Gee and Sana. At the entrance of the village, elves of all genders and ages gather to catch a glimpse of the Dragon Shrine Maiden― Selene― before she departs. The atmosphere is very lively, which is unusual for the elves, who prefer calmness and tranquility.

“Alright, its about time we set off.”

“Don’t wannaaa.” (Selene)

It was at this moment that Selene started throwing tantrums. She knows that it’s too late to tell them that she actually wants to stay here, but she also doesn’t want to leave this paradise either. However, if she doesn’t return home, then she wouldn’t be able to bring Arue here, which is a tough dilemma.

“I’m happy that you’re love us elves and our culture, but the dragon wants us to send you home, you see. I’m sure we’ll meet each other again the future, if we have the chance.”

Trying to sooth the frustrated Selene, Gee pats her on the head rowdily. She might have the title of Dragon Shrine Maiden, but appearance-wise, she’s still just a little girl. Seeing her act and say things appropriate for her age, like she doesn’t want to go back because she loves everyone, even those of different races from her, really makes you smile. Though in reality it’s just an old guy whining, it’s truly not appropriate for someone that mentally old.

As for Gee, he still hasn’t thought about what to do after they sent Selene home. His plan right now is very vague, it’s something like ‘One day we’re going to have an exchange with humans’ and nothing else. For now, sending Selene home safely is their priority.

“Chance, make.”

But Selene won’t accept his ‘If we have the chance’ as an answer. If there’s no chance, then she just has to make one. Selene’s determination to return to the elf village after she goes back to Helifalte is at its full power, she’s true to her desires.

“……I see, well, I’ll leave it in your hands, ‘kay? Miss Dragon Shrine Maiden.” (T/N: He calls her -sama here.)

Seeing Selene reply back earnestly, Gee’s expression turns serious as well. You can’t just leave it to luck or chance, we must carve out our own paths; that’s probably what she wanted to say. Ever since he became the chief, every decision he made was quite conservative in nature, but it seems like the time to break that shell is getting closer and closer. At least that’s what he feels like after having met Selene.

“Thanks for waitingー! We’re ready to goー!”

While they’re conversing, Sana appears from the crowd, making her way through the villagers. Behind her are three elven youths. These three are considered the best of the best among the elves around here, combat-wise.

Everyone, including Sana, wears a pure white mantle that covers their entire body. The mantle not only protects them from the wind and rain but also provides them with camouflage in the White Forest. However, the thing that caught Selene’s attention was not their outfit, but the creature that they were riding on.

『What they’re riding on are quite bizarre.』

“Lizards?”

Butler looks at the creature with great interest while riding on Selene’s shoulder. Sana, who notices the two’s gazes, look down at them while riding the creature and chuckles

“You two have never seen a skink before? Well, it lives only in the White Forest after all.”

Sana pats the lizard she calls ‘skink’ on its nape, its size is about the same as a horse. Pure white scales covered its body, and its mouth is bridled with reins, a saddle, and saddlebags, which contain supplies required for the journey, attached to the bridle.

“I know it looks stern and scary and all, but it’s actually a herbivore and really obedient. Its tail is also cute, don’t you think so?”

Selene turns to look at its tail, and sure enough, its tail looks quite eccentric, shape-wise. It’s not your usual tail that gradually thins out at the tip, but a fat, round one that looks like Japanese sweet potatoes.

Approaching its tail, Selene reaches her hand out. The tail is plumpy and has this elastic feel to it, kinda like a cat’s paws.

“Plump.”

“That’s where they store nutrients and water after all. These guys can go for a month without ever eating or drinking, y’know? Their only flaw is that they hibernate during the winter.” (Gee)

“Wow.”

Selene stares at the lizard while Gee’s bragging about his beloved steed next to her. It seems like this lizard creature thing is the elves’ equivalent of horses. Its mobility within the White Forest, full of tree roots, fallen leaves, and whatnot, can only be called astonishing.

It has durable claws that can climb rocks to an extent, and in case they’re under attack by the enemies, these guys can also retreat back to the tree tops as well, all while the elves are still riding them.

“Enough chit-chat, it’s about time we move.” (Gee)

Behind the elves that Sana brought along with her is one additional skink. This one is particularly large, seems like this one is exclusive, only for Gee the Chief to ride. Gee nimbly jumps onto the skink’s back before turning to face everyone again.

“We’ll now begin the journey to send the Dragon Shrine Maiden back to the human world.”

Gee stops talking in an informal manner, explaining the plan for what to do next to the elves that accompanied them. The elves were going to bring a lot more people along at first, but skinks are valuable creatures, and the other elves in the village need to use them for other purposes, so it’s not like they can bring every skink they have on this journey.

If they move on foot, the speed will be painfully slow, and the risk of getting attacked by wild beasts increases many folds. At first, their plan was that they were going to drop Selene off while they were going about their business collecting the materials, but now the plan got an uno reverse card and the mission is to now send Selene back to the human world safely instead. If they have spare time and manpower, then they’ll collect some materials on their way back. And that’s why it was decided that it’d be better to bring a few but highly capable fighters along.

“Well, I’m not that good at fighting, actually.” (Sana)

Although Sana is not the best when it comes to fighting, but she’s the best at sight and hearing among the elves, not to mention that she’s also superb at handling magic power. With those abilities, she can detect enemies around her before they can even react.

“Let’s depart. Don’t ever break the formation. Always keep in mind that we have a human kid with us during this journey.” (Gee)

“Right back at you, never ever go on a rampage, got that?”(Sana)

“And that’s exactly why I brought you guys along. Make sure to detect everything near us, ‘kay?”

“I know.”

Once they’re out of the elf village, the five-man group forms a formation as per Gee’s instructions. The formation looks like a cross when viewed from above, with Gee leading, Selene and Sana in the middle, and the other three surrounding them for maximum protection.

With Sana in the center, she can instruct everyone in every direction. Fortunately, Sana’s a girl and Selene’s still a kid, so the skink has no problem carrying both of them at the same time.

“Fuhehe.”

But of course, Selene couldn’t care less about all these strategies carefully laid out just for her sake, the only thing she cares about right now is the fact that she’s being held by Sana. However, the escorts, including Gee, are still worried about how they can send her back safely to the humans.

“So, how can we send Selene-sama back to the humans?” (Sana)

“About that, y’see……” (Gee)

“You still haven’t thought about that, even with all the spare time we’ve got!?”

“I’ve been told that by other guys already. I’ve got no clue about the human world at all, so, yeah, it is what it is.”

“You can’t just say can’t help it!”

“So, for the time being, let’s just go until we’re almost out of the White Forest, and then we’ll wait for the dragon to pass by. After all, our mission is to safely escort Selene, so we’ll just tell the dragon that we’ve never been outside of the White Forest before and that it could be dangerous if it’s just us escorting her.”

“I’m not sure it’ll understand us so easily……”

Sana expresses her doubt. That excuse certainly makes sense, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the dragon would be convinced. And of course, Gee understands that as well.

“If push comes to shove, we’ll need to send her back to the humans by ourselves.”

“Does that mean, getting out of the White Forest?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s easy for you to say……”

“You’re more than welcome to go back if you don’t want to. We don’t need cowards as escorts.”

“I never said I’m not going!”

Sana blundered big time, putting her hand over her mouth to stop her words, but it was already too late. Gee knows perfectly what to say to get his desired answer from her mouth, and she can’t go back on her words now.

“I’ll let you know that I’ve never gone outside the White Forest before.”

“Me neither. But it’s not like we’re gonna die the moment our foot is outside the forest.”

“You really are happy-go-lucky…… I can only pray that nothing bad happens.”

“Yeah, keep on praying. Don’t get your hopes up.”

……And so, while such conversations are going on, Gee leads the group through the forest with no problems arising, yet. To them, this is no different from taking their usual route through this area, and with Sana’s excellent enemy searching ability, they’re already at two-third of their journey within two days. If everything goes according to plan, they’ll be out of the forest by tomorrow.

“Guys, let’s stop here.”

The journey went smoothly like butter, better than what they had expected. Gee decided to take an early rest even though the sun was still high in the sky. It’s just that there’s a small spring near here, and they always stop by the spring when they pass through this route.

“Heave-ho.”

Holding Selene in her arms, Sana nimbly jumps off of the skink’s back. Actually, Selene wants to ride the skink for a little longer because riding it feels better than she imagined, not to mention the soft feelings she felt behind her while riding, but if they’re going to take a rest, then there’s no helping it.

“Selene-sama, please wait for us for a little while, we’ll take care of camping preparations for you. Please don’t go too far away, okay?”

“Un.”

Sana said as she and the others started to unpack the tents that the skinks were carrying. Even if Selene wants to help, there’s not much she could do, and it’s not like the elves would even let her do the work in the first place.

Selene obediently waits for them, resting her cheek in her hand as she gazes at them, but before long she gets tired of it. She secretly sneaks away from the elves, entering a nerby thicket.

『Princess, it would be dangerous if you were separated from the elves.』

“Seeds, find.”

『Seeds?』

Butler asks her, and Selene tries her best to explain despite the difficulty. Back in Aquila, Selene used to collect mysterious seeds and plant them, but she hasn’t done it much as of late. And now, while she’s still inside the White Forest, she can’t help but wonder if there are any fallen magical acorns lying around.

There are no other humans in the White Forest. Meaning it’s definitely full of valuable seeds. She should gather them while she can, and then when she’s back at the elf village, she can grow them for fun. That’s what she has in mind.

『Excellent idea, Princess. We’re always taken care of by them, it’s natural that we repay their kindness by bringing food and material for medicine back for them.』

“You, most part, correct.”

『Understood. This Butler shall assist you. With the flute Gee gave you the other day, we can use it when danger occurs. With my hearing, I should be able to hear you even if we’re a little too far apart.』

“Thank you.”

Touched by Selene’s kind heart that wants to repay the kindness, Butler runs off immediately in search of any useful-looking seeds. It’s dangerous to leave Selene’s side, but the elves are here, and if he’s within the distance that he can rush to protect her, there shouldn’t be any problem. He judged so.

And obviously, there’s no way Selene would have something like an admirable heart, it’s simply that it’s her hobby and she has a lot of free time. She sloppily kicks the fallen white leaves, vandalizing the elves’ home as she searches for seeds.

“Sighー don’t want, go back.”

She kick the leaves again and again while cursing. Indeed, she wants to see Arue again, and Marie, and also Ibis as well, but she hates the idea of going back to that debauched Prince even more. When she goes back to Helifalte, she’ll do her best to meet the red dragon as soon as possible.

The red dragon would probably want to come see her at least once after she returned to human society. And when it visits her, she’d charm and command it to attack the Helifalte National University, rescue Arue from her confinement, and then return to the sanctuary where no humans could enter―― the elven paradise.

“Me, do best.”

Selene clenches her little fists, her fighting spirit burning fiercely. It’ll be only a short time before she returns to Helifalte, and this is where you have to think positively about it. It’s not “I’ll have to meet the prince again in a few days” but “I’ve got a few more days before I have to meet him“.

“……Selene!?”

“Eh?”

Someone calls out to Selene from behind her, and she turns around and nearly faints on the spot. The reason she almost faints is because the Prince, the one and only, is right in front of her eyes. He’s dressed in a thick traveler’s outfit, which he rarely wears. His clothes are filthy, but his sweet, handsome face tells her that he is, without a doubt, Milano.

“Phew― me glad, just illusion.” (Selene)

“You spoke……! Selene! I’m not hallucinating! You really are Selene!”

Selene thought she hated the prince so much that she began to see his illusion, so she shook her head to make him vanish, but Milano remained. He even begins to talk with her, forcing her to face reality.

Milano, like Selene, thought he was hallucinating because he wanted to see her so badly, but when he realized it was reality, his body trembled with joy. He’s looking at the real Selene, not a hallucination.

Now that he thinks about it, it was the same back when he first met Selene. When he first saw the pure white young girl praying in the forest—the scene that looked as if it came straight out of a fairytale—he thought he was dreaming.

“Prince, how!?”

In contrast to Milano’s relieved expression, Selene looks to be completely flabbergasted, to the point that her voice starts to crack. Why the hell is he here!? This doesn’t make any sense! How can you just appear outta nowhere!? I can’t hear him approaching at all, is he a ninja or something!? What do I do now?

“You must be surprised to see me here.”

While Selene’s mouth is closing and opening like a goldfish, Milano smiles softly at her to calm her down. He then slowly starts to talk about how he got here.

He talks about how difficult venturing into the ordinary forest is, and this White Forest is even more difficult as it constantly stresses out his mind, and that he has a much harder time than what he initially imagined. Although his group didn’t encounter any ferocious beasts, they did encounter a group of white lizards that looked very strong, sending chills to the bone.

“I found a spring nearby, so we planned to camp there for the night. I was walking around looking for firewood…… Ahhh, I didn’t expect to see you here at all……”

Milano reaches his hand out and is about to touch Selene, but in the next moment, something is thrown from the inside of a nearby bush. That something was aimed straight at Milano’s face, but he avoided it by moving his head just in time, dodging it by a hair’s breadth. It slightly grazes his cheek, leaving a straight red line oozing blood. The projectile flies straight ahead with great force before penetrating into a white tree.

“Ggkh!? What was that!? Was that a tree branch!?”

Milano turns to look behind him, and there he finds a young elven man, Gee the Chief, standing. Although this elven man looks lightweight, Milano immediately understands that he is extremely skilled.

“Good sir, are you an elf?”

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare get close to her! Ya’ damn disgusting ardvencharar!”

Ignoring Milano’s question, Gee leaps up agilely like a monkey, getting onto a nearby treetop. Using the branch as a foothold, he jumps over Milano’s head like it was nothing, landing between Selene and Milano, the sacred tree in his hand at the ready.