Chapter 52
#52. History of the Elves
The High Elf prince who suddenly attacked me was the fiancé of the Dark Elf standing before me.
How was I supposed to take this? Was this some kind of payback for trashing her fiancé?
No, that didn't seem right. She was being far too friendly toward me. If anything, hadn't she been glad I'd beaten him up?
So there was no need to get needlessly anxious. I should answer calmly.
“Well...”
But after more than ten seconds of thinking, that was all I managed to get out.
“You seem surprised? Don't worry, I'm not here to scold you. I told you from the start, I liked you.”
Eleanor waved it off as she spoke. Then what was she bringing this up for?
“It wasn't an engagement born of love, and that weak, pathetic guy isn't my type either. I prefer something a little more—”
-tap.
“—men who've been trained so fiercely they practically reek of blood.”
With a slightly flushed voice, Eleanor smiled sweetly and tapped my chest with a finger.
What the hell, where are you touching me?
I've lived my whole life as a shut-in loser, so I barely have any experience with this, but even I can tell.
“Heh-heh.”
This gesture definitely has some unusual meaning behind it!
I don't know if she's teasing me or what, but she's definitely got some kind of intention!
Then is this what they call flirting? Am I being flirted with by a *Dark Elf who already has a fiancé*?
If I were being flirted with by such a busty, sexy Dark Elf, I'd think I'd be happy, but something feels off.
“You’re quite shy for someone who looks like that, aren’t you?”
It was only after hearing Eleanor's satisfied laugh that I realized I was wrapping my arms around myself.
My God, since when could I make such a demure pose?
“Fuck, shit!”
I practically flailed my way out of the bath. This wasn't flirting.
This is molestation! And harassment! I'm being sexually harassed by a fucking Dark Elf!
“Honestly, it was just a joke. No need to freak out so much.”
“What the hell, why would you make a joke like that?”
“Come on, get back in. You'll cool off.”
In the end, I hesitantly got back into the bath. Of course, I kept a bit of distance from Eleanor.
“I'm not going to eat you, so sit a little closer. If you sit that far away, I can't even hear you!”
But Eleanor deliberately moved closer, and for a few minutes we ended up repeating that dance of drifting apart and drawing near.
“Then where should I start... Hmm, it would be best to begin with the history of us and those forest-dwelling bastards.”
It took quite a while before she finally got around to starting the story properly.
**
When I played RPGs, I was the type to skip long, drawn-out stories and lore first thing.
With my pathetic attention span, I couldn't understand that kind of difficult content anyway, and I had no intention of sitting still and trying to.
But Eleanor's story, perhaps because of her clear voice, was long and rambling yet easy to take in.
Of course, I couldn't help losing focus as I kept having to push away the black hand that kept creeping toward me during the story.
Anyway, the first half of the story was something I already roughly knew.
Forest Elves were born from the branches of the World Tree, while Night Elves were born in the shade of its trunk.
The two elves born under the same tree split the duties of guarding the World Tree and pioneering the forest between them.
As time passed, those divided roles gradually expanded.
The Forest Elves came to oversee the entire forest, preserve tradition, and even perform rites to the World Tree.
The Night Elves went beyond forest expansion and took charge of fighting foreign powers and battle.
But over thousands of years, that division of labor lost its essence and became corrupted.
The Forest Elves began calling themselves the superior elves, the High Elves, and started living like nobles.
The Night Elves, who handled battle and frontier expansion, came to be called Dark Elves and were treated as a lower class.
Then one day, the Dark Elves rose in rebellion against this warped class system, and war broke out.
Neither side could be said to have won the war, and all that remained was the deep rift that persists to this day.
The conflict that followed continued for thousands of years, and when the armies of the human kingdom moved in on the Great Forest, it devolved into a three-way struggle.
That is the backdrop for the faction quest that begins on the 7th floor of the Tower of Trials.
**
“You seem to know this much already? I guess it's fairly well known among humans too?”
I nodded and said roughly as much.
It was something I learned through the Community, but either way, it was definitely known.
“Anyway, feeling threatened by the human kingdom, those bastards belatedly proposed a truce. In the old-fashioned way.”
“Then the engagement...?”
“It was a political marriage. Our queen still has a lot of attachment to the World Tree, so she offered up her daughter without hesitation.”
She didn't say it outright, but if the story was true, Eleanor was the queen's daughter. In other words, a princess.
“But I have a lot of complaints about this engagement. Leaving aside the fact that he's not my type.”
Eleanor continued in a low voice.
“First of all, I don't dislike humans. And I don't have much attachment to the World Tree either; that tree lost its power long ago.”
That seemed to be the case. The Dark Elves didn't just dislike humans; they seemed to like them quite a lot.
“I have no desire to go back to the Great Forest I left thousands of years ago either. The place I was born and raised isn't the Great Forest—it's here.”
That seemed true enough. When I marveled at the scenery here, Eleanor had smiled happily.
“And I don't like those sly, narrow-minded forest-dwelling bastards shamelessly asking for reconciliation either. I'd rather they just drop dead.”
That made sense. Given the historical background, I'd have felt the same way too. From start to finish, the High Elves were the ones in the wrong.
“I'm not the only one. There aren't even any elders left who are as old as Her Majesty anymore, and the old name Night Elf has already been forgotten.”
Eleanor said that much, then took a brief breath.
[Quest Complete : Dark Elf's Book - Invitation]
And a quest completion notification appeared before my eyes. That meant Eleanor's purpose in inviting me had been fulfilled.
But since it was a linked quest, the only reward I got from this was a little EXP. The next quest would probably follow soon.
“Rather than making up with those guys and going back to the forest, I want to interact with humans and see a wider world.”
Eleanor's eyes shone like stars in the night sky as she said that.
That was a light far too distant from me.
No matter how you looked at it, that was the kind of light only a dreamer could give off.
“I was looking for something to pick a fight over with that prince. I wanted to break off the engagement no matter what.”
Eleanor placed a hand on my shoulder as she said that. When had she gotten this close again?
“And then, you appeared.”
She leaned in until our breaths almost touched and murmured softly.
“Listen carefully. From now on, I've fallen for you at first sight.”
“What?”
“You're pretty close to the ideal type I usually talk about. I'm sure everyone will understand.”
My head stopped working at the sheer suddenness of it.
What the hell was this crazy elf talking about?
**
It was Eleanor's next words that snapped my brain back to life again.
“And you've fallen for me too. That, too, will be easy for everyone to accept. I'm pretty, after all.”
Ah, now I think I know what she's talking about. It roughly matches the overall flow of the faction quest too.
She's asking me to be the pretext. So she can break off the engagement and pretend the truce with the High Elves never happened.
“You understand well. Help me break off the engagement. I'll make it worth your while. What do you say?”
Now I understood why the [Dark Elf's Book] quest had been registered as an Epic Quest.
I also understood what it meant for the rewards and objectives to change depending on how the quest progressed, and why it was classified as Epic.
This was definitely Epic-tier. The reward promised directly by a Dark Elf princess had to be amazing.
[Epic : Dark Elf's Book - Plan]
A quest window appeared before me. It looked like my answer now would determine whether I accepted the quest.
It was ridiculous in many ways, but there wasn't a single reason to refuse.
Pretending to be the lover of a ridiculously gorgeous Dark Elf beauty like this?
There would be plenty of Open Community ghosts willing to pay to do it.
“Yeah, sure.”
“You’ll do it?”
I nodded quietly. With the quest acceptance notification, Eleanor broke into a bright smile.
“Thank you. I knew I really liked you!”
But if you suddenly stand up like that—oh, shit, my God.
Anyway, Dark Elves are the best race.