WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 106: Elves

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The innkeeper put the returned meat back on the skewers and set them beside the hearth.

Determined to get their money's worth, the customers devoured the meat even more eagerly. Rombel, Marcus, and Sonia were no exception.

Elbridge rested his chin on his hand and thought about what had just happened.

'Something's strange.'

There was no denying that many elves were eccentric.

Still, from Elbridge's perspective, this was rather unusual.

Just as Sonia considered elves a noble race, elves tended to care about their public image. Of course, once they became close to someone, they often did strange things, but only in front of people they knew. It was rare for them to cause trouble with complete strangers like this.

'It's strange that elves came all the way to Norens City, too.'

Elves lived in the large and small forests of the North. Just as dwarves had once rarely left Mountain City Barquntol, elves rarely left their forests.

There was one difference between the dwarves of the mountain city and the elves. The dwarves had been half-imprisoned by the God of the Iron Anvil, while elves simply felt no need to leave.

Why would elves leave the forest and come all the way to Norens City?

Elbridge asked Rombel.

"Rombel. Don't you think those elves from earlier were a little strange?"

"Strange is normal for them. Have you ever seen an elf who wasn't strange?"

"..."

That was true too.

What Elbridge knew about elves amounted to little more than the fact that they tended to be that way. Elves were not a race that could be easily judged. There were always exceptions.

Rombel said, "Don't bother trying to understand elves. It's a waste of time."

* * *

The next morning, the group gathered in one room.

Elbridge said, "Let's split up and gather information."

They had come to the North to find out who had recruited Cowin, the High Paladin of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear. Whoever had recruited Cowin had most likely recruited someone in the North as well.

Elbridge pointed at himself and Rombel.

"Rombel and I will gather information from merchants."

Elbridge and Rombel planned to pose as a pair of merchants: a quiet but skilled dwarf, and a young merchant selling the dwarf's wood carvings.

Merchants tended to chatter about all sorts of things to build rapport, so they should be able to hear a wide variety of stories.

"I'll head to the Mercenary Guild."

Marcus was posing as the mercenary who had escorted the group to the North. Mercenaries dealt with all kinds of people, and few places gathered better information than the Mercenary Guild.

Lastly, Sonia spoke.

"I'll gather information at the inn."

"Which inn?"

"This one."

The others gave her cold looks.

Sonia did not care in the slightest.

"What are you looking at?"

Marcus said, "You sound awfully proud about saying you're going to eat and lounge around."

"What, should I go to the Northern Magic Tower by myself? It would take forever to get there. Besides, if word gets back to the Central Magic Tower that I've arrived at the Northern Magic Tower, the whole thing will be ruined."

"You don't have to go to a Magic Tower. There have to be plenty of better ways than lounging around an inn."

"I'm not going to lounge around. I said I'd gather information at the inn. If I sit alone on the first floor and slowly sip a drink, men will race over to tell me all kinds of things."

"...Where does that confidence come from?"

Sonia swept her thick black hair over one shoulder, drawing attention to the pale nape of her neck.

Then she looked at the group with a haughty expression.

"Because I'm beautiful."

"..."

Sonia was not the sort of beauty who would capture everyone's attention.

At the same time, what she said was not impossible.

The North was harsh. Regardless of gender, people dressed plainly and did little to adorn themselves.

Sonia, on the other hand, came from a noble family in the prosperous East. She had an elegance that clearly set her apart from the people of the North.

Unlike most women, whose skin was tanned from the sun, her skin was pale from living in the Magic Tower.

"...Fine, do as you like. If it works, great. If not, we'll find another way."

Elbridge gave them one final warning.

"Don't gather information too hastily. Remember, we came to the North instead of the central region to avoid suspicion. Gather information slowly and take your time. Dismissed."

* * *

Elbridge pulled a small cart through Norens City with Rombel.

The cart was loaded with all sorts of miscellaneous goods brought from the East, along with several carvings Rombel had made.

'There's no need to rush.'

On the first day, it would be enough to make an impression on the merchants and strike up conversations.

The first place Elbridge entered was a general store.

"Goods brought from the East? Let's have a look."

The store owner carefully inspected the goods on the cart and checked each price one by one.

Then they made an odd expression.

"I don't usually say this, but... you're selling these far too cheaply for goods from the East. Will you even make any profit at those prices?"

"We aren't planning to make a profit from our first deal. For a merchant, establishing a trade relationship comes first."

The store owner smiled with satisfaction.

"You know what you're talking about for such a young man. When you're young, it's better not to be impatient and to think long-term. Isn't that the privilege of youth?"

"Ha ha. Thank you. To commemorate our first deal, would you like us to carve a statue of you?"

The store owner glanced at Rombel and shook their head.

"I'm grateful, but I have no intention of buying something like that. It's not as if I could resell it. And since it was made by a dwarf, it would probably be expensive."

"We aren't selling it. We're giving it to you to commemorate opening a trade relationship. It's a gift."

No one disliked gifts. The store owner's voice softened, and they began showering Elbridge with praise.

"This young man has quite the talent for business. You'll become a great merchant someday. Remember me when things go well for you."

"Please thank Rombel, not me."

Scrape, scrape.

While Rombel carved a bust of the merchant from a handspan-sized block of wood, Elbridge continued talking with the store owner. His purpose was not trade, but gathering information.

"By the way, is something happening in Norens City?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I came to Norens City with my father when I was young, but I don't remember there being this many people."

"It's been crowded lately because of the refugees."

"Refugees..."

When Elbridge responded appropriately, the store owner eagerly continued.

"I hear the far North is a complete mess. All sorts of demonic beasts are wandering around, and there are all kinds of bizarre creatures. Bears three or four times larger than ordinary bears, eagle owls large enough to snatch up people, those almost sound harmless by comparison."

"What else is there?"

"They say there are swarms of rats that spread plague, and furry creatures that freeze everything around them solid. But demons are even scarier. Maybe the world really is about to end."

As though recalling something, the merchant stopped and asked Elbridge, "Oh, right. I heard a demon appeared in the East too. A giant covered head to toe in black flames appeared in Solenion."

"That's right. Brave Paladins drove it back. You know, from churches like the Order of the Bloodstained Spear and the Order of the Laurel Wreath."

The merchant waved a hand.

"No. From what I heard, it was... what was it called? Right. The Order of the Rusted Shield. I heard a Paladin from that order killed the demon."

Rombel, who had been carving the block of wood at a pace that matched the conversation, glanced at Elbridge and snickered.

"..."

The Order's name and his own existence had spread as far as the North.

Elbridge felt proud, but worry came first. If his appearance was known in the North, gathering information would become difficult.

Fortunately, his worry was unfounded.

"I heard the Paladin was twice as tall as an ordinary person, with arms as thick as a grown man's torso. Don't you know about him?"

"...I don't."

That was not a lie. Elbridge did not know any Paladin like that.

"They say he wrestled with the demon for three days and nights, then slammed the exhausted demon into the ground and killed it. I heard the Order of the Rusted Shield gained four seats this time because of that feat. You said you came from the East, so how can you be slower with the news than me?"

The merchant looked completely convinced that the rumor was true.

Rombel was struggling to hold back his laughter.

Just as Rombel was nearly done with the carving, the crowd parted and an elf appeared.

The store owner grumbled, "Those people are here again."

It was not one of the elves they had met yesterday. Still, their eyes resembled those of the elves from yesterday.

The eyes of a hunter searching for prey.

'It has nothing to do with us this time.'

Elbridge looked away.

The elf did not.

Their gaze fell on the block of wood Rombel was carving.

The elf pretended to be shocked and approached Rombel.

"To butcher an ash tree, the most precious sibling of elves, like that!"

Whether it was meat or wood did not matter to the elves. As long as they had an excuse to make trouble, that was enough.

Rombel grimaced.

"I'm telling you in advance, this block of wood was brought from the East. It's not your sibling, so go away."

"How narrow-minded. It merely put down its roots in another part of this land!"

Rombel frowned.

"No, even making things up should have some limits. What the hell are you..."

"Don't fight. Here, take this."

The store owner stopped Rombel and tossed several coins to the elf.

The elf quietly pocketed the coins and disappeared.

Rombel watched the elf leave and grumbled, "The elves I knew might have been eccentric, but they weren't this obsessed with money. What happened to make elves turn out like that?"

"They have a reason to need money quickly. People feel indebted to them, so they give them money even while complaining."

"A reason to need money?"

"There was a huge earthquake not long ago. The ground overturned and split apart, trees fell, and houses collapsed."

"That doesn't seem like a reason to let elves extort money from us."

When Rombel replied irritably, the store owner shook their head.

"No. That was no ordinary earthquake. They say it felt like the shaking was moving somewhere."

"A moving earthquake..."

The first thing that came to mind was Starwave, the enormous serpent.

"The earthquake was approaching Norens City. They say the elves set fire to a forest and stopped it. I don't know what fire has to do with an earthquake, but... if you head north, you'll see traces of the burned forest and overturned ground."

The store owner pointed north. The forest the elves had set on fire must have been in that direction.

The elves remembered how to drive away Starwave, so they must have used fire to drive Starwave away.

The excuses the elves had used yesterday and today were strange, but it was unquestionably true that elves loved nature. Along with their beautiful looks, it was perhaps one of only two things all elves had in common.

For such elves to set fire to a forest with their own hands, it could not have been an easy choice.

"The elves who lived in that forest suddenly lost everything without even being able to save their belongings. The people here owe the elves a debt, and they feel sorry for them, so they give them money as charity."

"Even so, it feels like they're taking too much money."

"Maybe the elves have somewhere they need to spend it. I haven't seen them living extravagantly."

Elves were not familiar with human society.

They were not good at cooking, nor could they make things as easily as dwarves. They had no building where they could conduct business. They could not swallow their pride and put on friendly smiles, either.

In the end, the only way they could support themselves was by making demands and extorting money.

"But we can't keep living like this, having money taken from us and putting up with their nonsense. At the latest, we need to drive them out by this winter, before its harshest period."

The elf who had just taken the coins could be seen wandering around, searching for somewhere else to get money.

Perhaps because Elbridge had heard the store owner's story, he thought he could see a faint trace of self-loathing on the elf's face. It was probably not just his imagination.

Elbridge asked, "Where will the elves go if they are driven out?"

"I don't know."

The store owner said, "All we can do is hope their god, the Goddess of Thornbush, watches over them."

Footnotes:

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