WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 124: Parent of the Elves (1)

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On the road north from Hebron Fortress toward Thornbush Forest, Elbridge told the group stories from his childhood, along with old tales of the goddess and Hebron Fortress.

Rombel and the three elves, who had lived through that era themselves, were lost in old memories.

Marcus and Sonia were different. When would they ever have heard stories like these before?

Marcus asked, "Then Sir Elbridge, the God of Flowing Water wasn't the first divine descent you witnessed?"

"That's right. Near the end of the year, when we carried out missions in populated areas, the gods would occasionally make appearances. Gods become impatient when voting draws near as well... And it wasn't your first time either, Marcus. You saw the goddess in Mountain City Barquntol."

"I don't mean just appearing. I mean a god personally using their divine power."

"Ah. In that sense, it was the second time."

"When the God of Flowing Water descended, you were that shaken even though it wasn't your first time?"

Elbridge nodded.

"Didn't you feel it too when the God of Flowing Water descended, Marcus? The feeling that something had gone terribly wrong."

"Uh... I did."

"When I first saw the Goddess of the Rusted Shield descend, it was certainly unusual and unprecedented. But I didn't feel as though something was wrong. In the south, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield said that what mattered wasn't how divine power was manifested, but how much divine power was manifested."

In the past, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had displayed her divine power as two beams of light striking down from the sky.

The God of Flowing Water, on the other hand, had created massive waves and spray where there was no water, sweeping away thousands of wild boars and stopping the stampede.

Neither Elbridge nor Marcus had ever been a god, so there was no way for them to know exactly which god had used more divine power.

Still, they both believed the God of Flowing Water had used far more.

The God of Flowing Water had only one heavenly seat.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield, by contrast, had possessed twenty-two seats at the height of her power. As a deity of that rank, the amount of divine power she could use must have been vastly greater.

Marcus muttered, "So the Goddess of the Rusted Shield only used enough divine power not to cross the line, but still made sure to take credit for it. Is that what you're saying?"

An oracle from the goddess rang in Elbridge's ears.

- That insolent fellow is disparaging your goddess. Very few gods have taken the risk of intervening directly in the mortal world, so how could anyone know where that line lies!

Clear hurt filled the goddess's voice.

Elbridge immediately offered a prayer to soothe the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

"Goddess. Please calm down. I don't think the way Marcus does."

- Elbridge. At that time, your goddess truly made a tremendous decision to intervene in the mortal world. It was like walking toward a cliff with her eyes closed. I walked a little cautiously, while the God of Flowing Water simply decided to fall and ran at full speed.

Seeing Elbridge mutter a prayer, Marcus realized that the Goddess of the Rusted Shield was delivering an oracle.

If he said anything arrogant now, he might get struck by lightning. Marcus subtly changed the subject and emphasized the goddess's devotion.

"Of course! I don't doubt for a moment how much the Goddess of the Rusted Shield cares for you, Sir Elbridge. By the way, what price did she pay at the time?"

"All I know is that afterward, the goddess couldn't send oracles or grant divine power for at least fifteen days. There may have been something else I don't know about..."

The group continued onward, talking about all sorts of things.

Then, on the third day after leaving Hebron Fortress, an unusual forest appeared before them.

Selene said, "That's Thornbush Forest."

Compared to those in the south, trees in the north were relatively short. Yet the trees in this forest were even taller than those in the Great Forest.

It wasn't because they were a different species. They were simply old.

The group did not enter Thornbush Forest right away.

Selene hid at a considerable distance from the forest and took out a tiny flute no bigger than a finger.

Sonia asked, "Why aren't we going in?"

"There's no guarantee the area around the forest is safe right now. Demons have been appearing near Thornbush Forest so often lately."

"I can't see anything. Can't we just go in?"

"Just because you can't see anything doesn't mean it's safe. I'll send a signal, so wait a moment."

When Selene put the flute to her lips, Johannes and Aurelius covered their ears.

How loud could it be? Elbridge's group quickly covered their ears as well.

Yet no sound came from Selene's flute.

"What was that?"

"I sent a signal to the forest. I asked them to check whether it's safe."

"But it didn't make any sound."

Selene smiled like a cat.

"They said the sound is too high for other races to hear. I guess that's true... Anyway, there's no need to worry. The elves in the forest must have heard the flute."

A short while later, an elf emerged from the forest and waved an arm at them.

They didn't know elven hand signals, but they could more or less guess what it meant.

"They say it's safe now. Let's go!"

Elbridge's group followed the three elves toward Thornbush Forest.

The elf who had signaled them stood still and waited.

As they approached the forest, Sonia and Marcus grew gradually uneasy. Not because of demons, but because of the elves.

Hadn't Elbridge and Rombel said it not long ago? That elves all had a little madness in them. Selene, Johannes, and Aurelius did have strange sides to their personalities.

"You've arrived. Let's go."

When they joined the elf who had sent the signal, though, Marcus and Sonia were pleasantly surprised. The elf's appearance and manner were exactly what they had imagined an elf would be.

They couldn't tell whether the elf was male or female, but the elf was beautiful. Their voice was soft and quiet, and their movements calm.

As they passed through the forest's edge and headed toward its center, Sonia and Marcus's doubts deepened.

Elves could be seen everywhere. Every one of them looked calm and quiet. Even though four outsiders had appeared, they only spared the group brief glances.

Sonia whispered to Selene, "Um... Elves seem a little different from what I expected."

"In what way?"

"I thought every elf had a lively, unpredictable side like you three. But everyone here is so quiet."

She had put it indirectly, but Selene understood what Sonia meant.

"We're a little unusual because we're Pre-Sentinels."

"...Do you have to have a strange personality to be selected as a Pre-Sentinel?"

Sonia blurted out the rude question without thinking.

Fortunately, Selene did not misunderstand her intention.

"Not exactly. We work on developing this kind of personality after we're selected as Pre-Sentinels."

"...That kind of personality? Why?"

"Because of the racial traits of elves, and the duty of Sentinels."

"Racial traits?"

"Elves are a race that instinctively seeks harmony. We easily blend in with our surroundings."

Naturally, Elbridge's group couldn't agree with that. The strange things elves had done in Hebron Fortress and Norens City were far from harmonious.

Niserath, whom they had met in the south, had been just as odd.

The group's view of elves was that they were a shameless race that constantly behaved strangely.

"Elves who live among humans in the outside world are fairly outgoing. But the elves of the forest are different. They become calm as they blend in with the quiet forest."

Aurelius continued Selene's explanation.

"Put kindly, they're calm. Put badly, they get buried in their surroundings. Older elves often lose their sense of self. It's as though they end up standing on the boundary between living and inanimate things... That's fine for ordinary elves. But a Sentinel who has lost their sense of self can't fulfill their duty."

Elves were born with long lives. It was said they could live for a thousand years if nothing unusual happened.

The three elves who had received divine power from the Goddess of Thornbush, the Sentinels, were even freer from the limits of lifespan. Apparently, no one knew the ages of the two elves who had been the first Sentinels.

"We're Pre-Sentinels, so we have to prepare for the long lives Sentinels must endure. This sort of personality is part of that preparation."

"...Does having a strange personality have any advantages?"

Selene smiled at the question.

"To avoid blending in with your surroundings and maintain a clear sense of self, you need something that distinguishes you from everything around you. You could call it a point of difference that preserves the independence of your existence... By using that difference as a standard, you can distinguish yourself from the outside world and keep your sense of self clear."

"That's difficult."

"Think of it as creating a few rough edges of your own so you won't get swept away by the flow. That's the first thing you learn when you become a Pre-Sentinel. Be honest about every desire, show yourself without restraint, and act however you please. It's not as easy as it sounds. It goes against our race's nature."

It was a fairly deep and serious explanation, but Marcus thought it sounded oddly like an excuse.

My personality isn't naturally a complete mess. I have no choice but to become a complete mess for my duty and my race.

Wasn't that what they were saying?

Sonia looked at Elbridge and Rombel.

The two had given her inaccurate information about elves.

"...Rombel. What do you say to that?"

"I didn't lie. Every elf Elbridge and I met really did have something wrong with their personality."

Selene answered, "That's not strange. Elbridge and Rombel probably only entered the outer edge of Thornbush Forest. Most of the elves active in that area are Pre-Sentinels."

"Pre-Sentinels stay on the forest's edge?"

"Usually, we stay near the sacred tree. When it's our turn, we go out to the forest's edge. Sometimes we take outside missions like this and leave the forest."

A faint pride showed on the three elves' faces.

Even for Pre-Sentinels, missions outside the forest seemed to be rare.

Marcus cleared his throat and cut in.

"I understand. There's something I wanted to ask, though."

"Ask anything. We'll tell you."

"Where are we going right now?"

"We're heading to the sacred tree."

"...What's the sacred tree?"

"It's a holy tree at the very center of Thornbush Forest. It's a medium for communicating with the Goddess of Thornbush, and in some ways, it is the Goddess of Thornbush herself. It's also where Sentinels and Pre-Sentinels stay. Over there, see it?"

Selene stretched out a hand and pointed deeper into the forest. Countless trees stood where she pointed, but Elbridge's group immediately knew which one was the sacred tree.

It was not particularly larger than the other trees around it. If anything, it was smaller.

Yet in the middle of a forest filled with brown and green, the sacred tree was the only one that was pure white.

Pure white leaves and pure white petals. Whenever the wind blew, white petals fluttered through the air and blanketed the surroundings.

It was so beautiful that it made them doubt whether it was real.

Around the tree stood about twenty elves.

They were surely Sentinels and Pre-Sentinels.

Except for a brief childhood and old age, elves retained the appearance of their most beautiful and vigorous years for their entire lives. Judging who was older by appearance alone was not easy.

But among the nearly twenty elves, it was not difficult to tell which were Sentinels and which were Pre-Sentinels.

Every elf other than the three they had traveled with stood with their hands behind their backs, supporting their body weight with the crowns of their heads and their feet.

"...Impressive."

Elbridge's group found the elves with their heads planted before the sacred tree.

Footnotes:

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