The Deep Forest (6)

I parted ways with Salix and headed alone for the center of the deep forest.

On the way, I nibbled on an Apua fruit I had asked a spirit tree to give me.

The satisfying firmness, the juice spreading through my mouth, and the well-balanced tartness and sweetness.

The familiar taste I had not enjoyed in so long filled me with strength.

The wind blew over me as if caressing me.

Salix had told me where the immortal bird was and given me permission to go there, but had forbidden me from contacting the other high elves.

Of course, the other high elves also had to be forbidden from contacting me.

But several high elves were trying to learn how I was doing via wind spirits, reasoning that if direct contact was forbidden, they could do so indirectly.

I didn't know whether that was out of curiosity or concern for me, as Salix had said...

In any event, I realized that when I had lived in this deep forest before, I had been blind to many things.

I had never even considered that the elders had reasons for their attitude, and it seemed they had also seen through my struggle to behave like a high elf as I tried to fit in.

In the end, I had memories of a previous life, so although I was only a child, I thought I was an adult; I convinced myself I understood everything and judged matters based solely on my assumptions.

I had been arrogant and narrow-minded.

I wondered what the older high elves—including the elders—had thought as they watched me back then.

...The more I thought about it, the more shame welled up, so... yes, I'd better not think about it too much.

The wind streamed around the hand I held out.

Ah, I recognized the feeling I got from this wind.

It was the wind of Viola, the high elf known as the Violet Flower, who had been my closest acquaintance in this deep forest.

A nostalgic scent tickled my nose.

Although I couldn't identify the other winds as clearly as hers, I could somehow tell who they belonged to.

Among them was the wind of the high elf who had given birth to me—my biological parent.

I had thought that high elves, who raised children as a whole settlement, effectively had no parent-child relationships. Even so, it seemed they still cared about me.

I was so happy that I found myself smiling.

"I'm doing fine. You don't have to worry about me."

Words like that should still fall within the bounds of talking to myself, so they shouldn't count as contact.

No... perhaps that was a somewhat strained excuse, but it was probably within the range they'd overlook.

Even on foot, it took me several days to reach the center of the deep forest.

Yet this journey through the deep forest presented no difficulties.

Monsters were kept out by the barrier, so whenever I grew tired of walking, I could sleep safely anywhere—even on a branch or at the foot of a tree.

The springs I occasionally came across were all crystal clear and pure; I could drink straight from them or even bathe.

It was neither cold nor hot, and with the forest's abundant bounty to sustain me, I had no need fear hunger.

Surely many people would imagine a place like this deep forest as paradise.

I was undeniably spoiled to have left after saying I'd grown tired of it.

But even so, my heart still turned toward the outside world.

Even now, after learning about the outside world and comparing it with the deep forest, I understood the forest's wonders better than ever—and still my heart turned outward.

And so I reached the central part of the deep forest, a domain normally off-limits to everyone except the high elf elders.

It was clearly marked off, surrounded by trees and leaves intricately intertwined with one another.

From this point on, not even the other high elves would send wind spirits.

That was presumably because Salix, one of the high elf elders, had given permission.

Even the intertwined trees did not halt me; they smoothly unwound and created an entrance.

Ah, that alone told me everything I needed to know.

Just from the presence leaking through that entrance, I could tell that an enormous being must be waiting inside.

But at this point, I wasn't going to stop.

I had seen plenty of other large, powerful beings during my travels through the outside world.

I drew a breath, then deliberately lifted the corners of my mouth into a smile and stepped inside.

To meet the immortal bird.