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People struggled with accepting the happiness of their own families, let alone strangers. If elves suddenly appeared and treated Davey as the enemy, it wouldn’t be strange if others hopped onto the bandwagon and did the same.

“They won’t be able to do anything just yet.”

—They won’t?

“Yeah.”

The curses that the Death Lord had taught Davey were to combat and defend against other curses, and Davey had no intentions of letting all of those lessons go to waste. For the dozens of curses that he had cast, it would take at least a few months to a year to break them.

He hadn’t used their curses out of irritation but out of the expectation that he would have conflict with the elves someday. As such, he didn’t think it was a good idea to just take bold action right from the start.

“Anyway, what do you think?”

—About what?

“The fact that there are people trying to bring you back to life.”

Perserque looked at Davey with a bitter expression.

—I don’t know. Feels like that was the only truth that the World Tree said.

Perserque, who was speaking calmly, suddenly looked at Davey with wide eyes.

-Wait… Davey! If I can come back to life!

“...”

Perserque still hadn’t given up on the Transcendence’s Demise.

—Davey! Just leave this for now! I will find a body and come back to life for sure!

Perserque was completely motivated, but Davey wondered if the unknown beings who were trying to resurrect her would place some limitations on her revival. He muttered, “We’ll see.”

—I will come back to life! I have no intentions of entering Nirvana before having that beautiful staff in my hands!!

“All right, all right.”

It was a relief that news of the horrifying incident had not reached the territory.

As the night deepened, Davey looked down at the lively streets that were still in a celebratory and festive mood from the window. Then, he walked over to the small room on the quiet, upper floor.

“...”

In the room was a woman silently lying on the bed. Her sky-blue eyes shone.

“This is the first time that we are meeting like this, right?” Davey asked.

“How long…have you known this?” Aina asked quietly.

Davey shrugged indifferently. “From the moment I saw you.”

“...” Aina looked up at Davey in silence. She found that answer thoroughly ridiculous.

She was definitely an adult elf in terms of age, but she still looked like a child due to her short height.

“First, thank you for saving me.”

“Yeah, you should be. You can consider yourself to be in my debt.”

“They are separate matters,” Aina coldly criticized Davey, then her eyes widened as she realized something. She blurted out, “Then, what you said before about not liking elves?!”

“Of course, I did it on purpose.”

“You fraud!”

It was quite funny that Aina, who was quite cold and emotionless, was showing this much emotion, but Davey did not say anything about that. He simply commented, “Who are you going to blame? It’s your fault for falling for it. And besides, I didn’t lie.”

It was true that Davey still did not like elves. He had accepted the elves of the Moon Forest because they were a little more open at least, but he still did not view the old, rigid, pointy ears favorably.

“...How did you figure it out? The artifact that changes one’s appearance…”

“I know because I can see through it.”

“That… You said that to me when you first saw me.”

“I know. That’s why I said it.”

“Ha! I was completely played.” Aina sighed and lowered her head, as if feeling empty from the realization that she had been played this entire time.

“Well, I did respect your request and have brought you here where no one else can see you. So, why are you trying to hide? Elves are no longer a secret since there are elves in this territory now.” When Aina stayed silent even after his questions, Davey asked another. “It doesn’t seem right for you to hide just because you’re a Dark Elf. Wait, are you…?”

“Please, I am begging you. Please do not ask me anything,” Aina mumbled calmly with her head down. “No one in this territory can see my true self. That is why I worked in the disguise of a man. Although, that has now broken…”

Davey slowly nodded as if he thought about something. “That artifact. Are there no spares?”

“I made that artifact with the help of an oddball when I wandered around after leaving the forest. There aren’t any more of it since it cannot be detected by mana,” Aina answered.

Davey looked at Aina quietly before asking, “Do you want me to make you one?”

“Pardon?” Aina looked puzzled.

“Wait.” Davey then pulled out a simple ruby ring from his Pocket Plane. He released mana from his hand and channeled it into the ring.

[Metamorphosis]

[Illusion]

After using a simple illusion spell and an appearance-changing spell, Davey said, “It’s probably not as perfect as what you used before, but be satisfied with this for now. The activation word is [Change]. You will transform instantly if you blow a little mana into it.”

Aina looked surprised as she took the ring. Then, she cautiously put the ring on her index finger and mumbled, “[C–Change].”

As soon as she muttered the activation word, Aina’s physical appearance began to change right in front of Davey. Her frail physique became larger and muscular, and her light brown skin lightened. Noticing all of those changes, she commented, “I’m just not used to it… It’s a little uncomfortable.”

“I just made it, so of course it is slightly uncomfortable. It can be detected by mana, and the slightest impact will undo it. So, tread lightly.”

‘I’m doing a lot for you, aren\'t I?’

As Davey smiled, Aina took a deep breath before asking, “Now can you hear out my request?”

Davey nodded. “Well, I can hear it for sure.”

Aina pulled out a map that was ripped apart, then said, “It is a small island in the eastern continent’s western region.”

“Island?”

“Yes, it has become the Land of the Undead because the forest has become deeply corrupt.”

“So, you want to go on a treasure hunt?”

“Similar, but not quite. The thing we are after is not treasure but a piece of evidence; evidence that the Saint of the Divine Tree has betrayed the elves and is borrowing the power of the Undead.”

Aina was also fighting the Saint of the Divine Tree, but Davey was quick to give a firm answer without hesitation, “No.”

“Haah?!”

—What?

“Hm?” Aina quivered, surprised by the answer. She avoided Davey’s gaze as he stared at her like something was wrong with her. She murmured, “Y… You said you would grant it.”

“I don’t want to anymore.”

“Haah?!”

Davey heard another strange sound coming from Aina when he answered firmly. It wasn’t that he had misheard her, so he reflexively borrowed Perserque’s ‘Check Information’ powers and used it on Aina.

‘I have to find out if I don’t know.’

Bleep… With a sound that only Davey could hear, Aina’s information appeared on the status window in front of him.

“...” After taking a look, Davey felt like he didn’t want to know more.

—All these pointy ears are so ridiculous.

Some leader of a forest was hiding her sadistic nature, and now there was this. Davey couldn’t stop himself from frowning at the situation.

* * *

The festival was a success, but the other incident couldn’t be even more of a failure.

Last night, Davey had taken care of all the elves who had attacked the territory. He had led a small group of people to bury all five Ancient Guards before creating the headstones for them.

Davey felt most bitter about the elf who had committed suicide. He had no remorse for the woman named Penella, but he didn’t feel all that good about the fact that her unborn baby had died together with her. Whether elves or humans, it was never good to see an unborn child die.

Aina was strongly against making the headstones. In fact, she had argued with Davey because she couldn’t understand why he was making headstones for them when they had caused him such trouble.

However, Davey still made the headstones for his own reasons and purposes. If he didn’t have the reason for it, he would have just left them there, buried them, or cremated them. He didn’t want to hide the elves’ deaths. He wanted to have clear evidence that the elves had come to attack the territory and had died here.

Sometimes, to build toward the big picture, Davey had to take some questionable and small actions.

The headstones were empty and nameless. It was nothing but a cross made out of sticks being stuck onto the ground. Burying the bodies and then covering them up was also as easy as breathing to Spirit King Gnoass, so it was no difficult or long task at all.

It was quite amusing to see Aina’s shocked expression when she realized that Davey was contracted to Gnoass afterwards.

“Twinkle twinkle wittle staar!”

“H~ How I wonder what you are!”

Davey watched the two children show off their talents in amusement.

The children stood side by side and bent their knees together while shaking their hands. They were performing a simple song and dance Davey had taught them. It seemed that the girls found it interesting enough to practice and show it to Davey, who found the performance so cute that he wanted to bite their cheeks.

“Aw, so cute! Why are you so cute?” Davey sincerely hugged the two girls.

The girls giggled in delight and burrowed even deeper into Davey’s chest.

“Rinne, where is Myuu?”

“Rinne… Three people, too difficult a task… Require additional…pay…” Rinne, who was declaring a strike while limply lying on the floor, raised her head slightly and said, “Reporting that Myuu is working with Elf Yuria.”

“All right. I’ll take them today, so rest well.”

“Rinne… Appreciates the rest.” Rinne looked quite peaceful as she quietly closed her eyes as if she had fallen asleep.

Rinne sometimes chose to sleep like humans when she had to cool off her body that had overheated from too much movement. Thanks to that, she looked more like another species with wings and a halo floating on their head rather than a golem.

After the incident with Elder Condae, Yuria was taking extra care of Myuu. It could be said that she was overdoing it. She seemed to be trying to give Myuu all the love that she hadn’t been giving all at once, especially since she had the chance to do that now. Of course, considering what she had done so far, Davey wondered if that was the only reason.

“Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, where do you want to go with Daddy today?”

“T–The Food Market!”

“Delicious food! Um, um! A place with a lot of it!” The girls replied instantly. They were interested in the food market at the festival’s human section.

“Then, shall we go?”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

“Kyah!”

The girls rubbed their cheeks against Davey in a good mood.

“I like Dada!”

“Blue Ribbon likes Daddy more!”

The girls were seemingly competing against each other. Although they were swords in their true forms, they developed and grew just like other children. Thinking about that, Davey wondered what it would be like to have a mother figure who would comfort them and help guide them in the right way. The children did call Perserque ‘Mommy’, but she was just a spirit. The only person Davey could think of was…

—Of course, the only lady who would match your type seems to be that cute princess from the Lyndis Empire.

‘What about you?’

—Hey! I have no interest in a man who is more than a thousand years younger than me.

Perserque was not interested? Davey scoffed and stared directly at her.

‘You. We’ll see if you really are resurrected like the World Tree said.’

—Ha. Do you think I will be afraid of you?

‘I’ll let you borrow the Transcendence’s Demise.’

—Of course, my type is someone like you. Of course.

Davey wondered why Perserque was so easily bribed… Then, he chuckled.

“Dada! You like Red Ribbon?”

“Yes, I like both Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon.”

“Th–Then, kiss Red Ribbon on the ch–cheek!”

Just when Davey was about to smile at how the children innocently and openly expressed their love…

“D… Dad?”

Davey heard an unfamiliar voice that expressed bewilderment.

“Hm?” Davey momentarily froze before turning toward the voice.

There was a shocked little girl who was all dressed up. She stood in place with a tense face. Her fox ears on top of her teal-colored hair perked up like she was nervous; perhaps she was quite surprised by Davey.