Chapter 194
"Aiser-sama, did you know? You can eat this nut once you crack the shell!"
I smiled and nodded at Shies, the elf boy who eagerly explained it to me.
Of course I did.
Even if I didn't, the trees would tell me, so I didn't really need a guide to the forest. But I wasn't so heartless that I would reject a child's kindness.
He apparently considered himself my caretaker, but the elves in the settlement generally saw me as the one doing the children the favor of playing with them.
In fact, I often played with the other children in the settlement as well.
Some time had passed—just short of a year—since I blocked the gates of Zieden's capital with a rocky mountain, and the seasons had made one full circuit.
After that, apparently thoroughly startled, Zieden had sent envoys to the elven forests in various regions to request talks.
Presumably, the fact that I had acted while concealing my identity and never showing myself to them had done the trick.
Zieden had correctly recognized the threat: if I could suddenly block a city's gates with a rocky mountain, then perhaps crushing the royal castle beneath one would not be beyond me either.
But the elves' response was always the same: if Zieden wanted talks, it should let the caravans through. They refused to talk with Zieden directly.
Then Zieden, unable to feel secure without settling matters with the elves, had no choice but to invite the elven caravans from abroad into its country.
And that became the first display of weakness Zieden had ever shown to another country.
Since Zieden was inviting them of its own accord, it would have no choice but to make various concessions to the elven caravans.
After all, since the elves lived so long, they were more familiar with their society than ordinary humans could ever be.
Well, that probably wouldn't resolve all the current turmoil, but Zieden's actions would undoubtedly slow down.
In truth, there had been a slight element of risk in expecting things to go this smoothly.
The possibility that Zieden, frightened by the threat the elves posed and driven into a panic, might attack the forest had not been entirely out of the question.
Naturally, if that had happened, I had intended to stand at the front and fight in a way that would minimize casualties. So I was sincerely grateful to have been spared the unnecessary trouble.
I took the walnut from Shies, who was struggling desperately to crack its shell, and picked up another walnut as well.
With the grip strength of an elf, cracking a walnut shell by force without using a tool was quite difficult.
Shies had probably seen an adult elf cracking walnuts and thought he could do it too, but it actually required a bit of technique.
If you observed a walnut shell closely, you would notice that it had both soft and hard sections.
I held the two walnuts so that a hard section of one met a soft section of the other, then squeezed them tightly with both hands, causing the hard section to crack the soft one.
In other words, you used one walnut as a tool for cracking the other.
Because I'd mastered blacksmithing and swordsmanship, my grip was far stronger than an ordinary elf's.
So I could have crushed the shell by brute force without this little trick, but I wanted to teach Shies how to crack walnuts.
Of course, simply using a tool would really have been best.
After all, unlike in the past, tools made by dwarves from monster fangs and claws had been gradually making their way into the elves' forests.
For example, with a knife made by dwarves, you could easily cut a walnut in half, shell and all.
When I handed Shies the opened walnut, his expression was complicated.
His face was a mixture of admiration and dissatisfaction.
Ah, I see—he hadn't wanted to eat the walnut himself. He had intended to crack it and give it to me.
That was incredibly sweet.
The fact that I was a High Elf was probably a major reason he was so attached to me, but there was no point worrying about that anymore.
I wouldn't be spending much more time in the forest like this.
When the elven caravan Zieden had invited arrived, I'd join them.
At that point, I'd be saying goodbye to both this forest and Shies.
Elves lived a long time, so it might not be a farewell for the rest of our lives, but I had no idea when we would meet again.
Once I finished exchanging information with Airena from the elven caravan, I planned to head to the Kingdom of Rudoria.
I had also been thinking that it was about time I visited Kaeha's grave.
After that, what should I do?
Depending on the letter from Win that Airena brought me, I might head west. Otherwise... although I wasn't eager to do so, I might return once to the deep forest in the depths of the Purha Great Forest.
I suspected that the Immortal Bird, the means of reaching the giants' world above the clouds, was sleeping in that deep forest.
I didn't particularly want to listen to the High Elf elders' lectures, but if I wanted to fulfill my promise to take Airena to White Lake above the clouds, I'd have to return at least once.
The gift I'd take to negotiate a meeting with the Immortal Bird was a Peach of Immortality.
A Peach of Immortality seed should sprout in the deep forest and grow into a new spirit tree, unlike anywhere else.
If I offered the High Elf elders a new kind of spirit tree as a gift, there was a good chance they would grant my request.
...Of course, that still didn't make me any more eager to go.
No, I understood that already.
After traveling to all sorts of places, seeing all sorts of things, and meeting all sorts of people, I realized that the High Elf elders had generally been right, and that their way of life was meant to keep us from needlessly disturbing the world.
But I'd left in defiance of them, so showing my face just because I needed a favor was, well... awkward.
I couldn't help smiling as I watched Shies grip the two walnuts with his face flushed red, just as I'd taught him.
With the small hands and weak grip of a child not yet fully grown, he would struggle even knowing the trick.
Well, I'll think about what comes next when the time comes.
The turmoil in the central part of the continent had not settled down yet, either.
I'd keep watching how things unfolded for a little longer.
There might yet be a situation that required my help.