Chapter 145
We reached an elven settlement deep in the forest.
Just as I'd imagined, they were tall and slender, with blond hair. Their ears were long, and every one of them was beautiful or handsome.
The one difference between fantasy and reality was that they were a little too familiar.
They were basically an isolationist race, but once you got inside, that changed completely.
――Our first morning in the elven settlement.
When I got out of bed, elves were peering in through the window.
"Whoa!"
They were plastered against the glass like something out of a zombie movie, which made me panic.
Just how novel was I to them?
I'd locked the door before going to sleep, so apparently they hadn't been able to get inside.
Elven houses had only a single thin mat-like cloth for a door. That offered no security at all, so how did they manage?
Did they use some kind of magical barrier?
I pushed aside the elves clinging to the door and went outside.
"Haaaah!"
I stretched deeply and looked around.
We had arrived at night, so I hadn't been able to see the surroundings, but a lake lay right beside the settlement.
The morning sun glittered beautifully on its surface. I could also get a clear look at the settlement: everyone lived in crude huts made of grass.
The chief's house was the finest, but it was still a crude hut.
I supposed they built their own homes and lived in them because this was sufficient.
A little farther away, I could see women using fish from the lake to make dried fish.
The people gathered around me were probably the ones without work. They seemed to have time on their hands.
Perhaps because I was such a novelty, I was surrounded by about ten male and female elves.
"So you're a noble of the kingdom?"
"Yeah. I'm Hamada, the frontier count. Nice to meet you."
"You don't seem like a noble at all. Aren't nobles among the ordinary folk much more stuck-up?"
"Yeah, even though they dry up and die in no time."
Well, compared with the lifespan of elves, I suppose that was how it looked.
"I don't know much about elves, but how long do you live?"
"Hmm? About a thousand years by the calendar of the ordinary folk, I guess."
"Yeah..."
As I expected, they lived unbelievably long lives—which meant everyone here was an old man or old woman?
Living like this for a thousand years would drive me insane, but perhaps that was just a difference in values.
"Do you build your own houses too?"
"Of course. We all build them together."
A nearby female elf with a blond short bob shining in the morning sun answered me.
The women were all slender too; there didn't seem to be any particularly busty ones.
Their hair came in all styles—long, short, braided—but it was all blond.
"Do you weave those elven clothes yourselves too?"
"Yes. Aren't the blue and green pretty?"
Apparently they wove, dyed, and embroidered everything themselves.
After doing the same things for hundreds of years, had they naturally become master craftsmen at everything, enough to make veteran artisans turn pale?
"Is the fish hanging over there trout?"
"Hmm, I don't know what the ordinary folk call it..."
I took a rainbow trout from my Item Box.
"Is it this?"
"Oh, yes, that's it!"
"In my territory, we make smoked dried fish too. I think I still have a sample."
I searched through the list in my Item Box. Since it had no capacity limit, I had stuffed it with far too many things.
I kept thinking I should organize it a little—but I always put it off.
I took smoked salmon out of my Item Box.
"Here. It's pretty tasty."
"Huh? But that's raw, isn't it?"
"It's been dried and smoked, so it's kind of half-raw. We sell it in towns all over, and we've never had an incident."
I took a kitchen knife from my Item Box, cut off a small piece, and put it in my mouth.
"Huh? What is this? This knife is amazing!"
They were more interested in the knife than the smoked salmon?
"It's so beautiful! Was it cut from a single sheet of iron?"
"Something like that."
The knife I'd taken out was an inexpensive stainless-steel kitchen knife from Shangri-La, the same kind I'd used in my old world.
The blade and handle were one piece.
"Amazing!"
"A dwarf made this special metal. It doesn't rust easily."
That was, of course, a complete lie—but the elves' eyes sparkled as they gazed at the knife.
"If you want some, I could wholesale a few..."
"But we don't have any kingdom currency here..."
"If you're women, you could pay with your bodies—or so I'm kidding."
"Huh? I wonder what we should do~"
I'd meant it as a harmless joke, but the women blushed and fidgeted.
Were they a race with few hang-ups about that sort of thing?
When their long, slender, supple-looking bodies came into view, they seemed to notice me noticing them and struck blatantly provocative poses.
A brief adventure in the forest wouldn't be so bad—I was thinking that when I heard a voice behind me.
"Oh? Having an interesting conversation this early in the morning?"
Lilith emerged from the container house wearing pink pajamas, looking displeased.
"Good morning, Lilith. I was joking."
"Who knows... Still, taking a woman by force is one of the privileges of nobility. I won't deny it."
"Taking her by force? That sounds awful. I was just talking about payment for goods."
"Hmph."
She wasn't denying it, but apparently she was angry.
Of course, with my family here, I had no intention whatsoever of making a move on the elves.
The elves around us nodded when they saw Lilith.
"Ahh, I see. So the noble has that sort of taste."
"Hey, wait. What do you mean, 'that sort of taste'? In the kingdom, it's perfectly normal for someone her age to marry."
"Huh?! She looks so young. She's old enough for that?"
Apparently, to elven eyes, Lilith looked like a very small child.
"Of course. It's perfectly normal for someone her age to have children too."
By the standards of my old world, she was extremely young, but apparently it was normal here.
Whether commoners or nobles, many men and women married and had children.
"Really? There was another little one too, but that child is obviously just a child, right?"
"She's a mage, and there's nothing like that between us."
"She's a mage?!"
"She's our Grand Mage, and she can use Explosion."
While I was talking about Anemone, she came out of the container house rubbing her eyes and hugged me.
Seeing that, Lilith hugged me too.
"..."
All the elves turned suspicious eyes on me.
"Uh-oh."
At that moment, the container house door opened, and the beastfolk woke up and came out too.
"Morning, Boss!" "Meow!"
Bell slipped through the open doorway and repeatedly rubbed herself against my legs.
"Sleeping together with beastfolk and even a Forest Cat..."
"Hmm. He's no ordinary man."
The male and female elves folded their arms and stared at me. I couldn't tell whether their expressions showed contempt or admiration.
Feeling it would be difficult to explain myself, I gave up.
"What are the elves saying?"
Naturally, my family couldn't understand my conversation with the elves.
"They seem to want lots of things, but they don't have anything to pay with..."
"And so? Did you decide to take one of the elven women as payment?"
"I wasn't the one who proposed that."
Well, I had been the one to make the joke in the first place.
"Indeed, there's no way elves would have kingdom currency. Thinking of offering their bodies as payment is understandable."
"Exactly."
"Besides, I don't mind. If negotiations with another race go well, that's all to the good. It's far better than going to war."
"As expected of a royal princess who handles affairs of state."
"But! I understand that in theory, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it!"
Lilith glared at me furiously. When she was angry, she might look a little like Amaranthus.
They really were related.
"You don't have to glare so fiercely. I understand. It would be nice if they had something else to offer, though~"
"I am not glaring!"
"Giving women as gifts to establish friendly relations with another race or country is perfectly normal, isn't it?"
"That... may be true..."
"If it can be settled with just me, without giving away any women, isn't that a cheap price?"
"That's an entirely different matter!"
Lilith turned away angrily, so I pulled her close and tried to soothe her.
Seeing that, the elves began whispering among themselves again.
"Anemone, go change and help me prepare breakfast. Bake some bread."
"Okay."
I took tools and a table out of my Item Box, and the elves gathered around, apparently fascinated by those as well.
This was a rare sight, so I took out a camera and tried photographing the elves.
They apparently did the same things every day in this forest, so they must have been terribly bored.
They peppered me with questions.
"If you're interested, I can show you all sorts of things. Giving gifts as a sign of friendship is perfectly normal, after all."
"But... We can't very well become indebted to an ordinary person..."
All the elves looked at one another. If they were this wary, perhaps something had happened in the past.
One man stepped forward from the group.
"So, if we can settle it with the bodies of these old hags, it's a real bargain."
"Shut up, you men! Get lost!"
"Yeah! You'll ruin the negotiations!"
"What? It is a fact that they're old hags."
Well, if they were all several hundred years old, they certainly were old hags.
"By the way, are there any of you under a hundred?"
The women answered my question immediately.
"None at the moment. No children have been born for a while."
The bob-haired elf explained the outline of their tribe to me.
"Once elves turn a hundred, they go to another settlement."
"To keep the bloodline from becoming too close?"
"Yes. You understand quickly."
――So that means there are no parent-child pairs here.
"Heehee, that's right~"
Did they slowly increase and decrease in number over spans of several hundred years? What a long-winded way to live.
Anyway, enough of that. Let's eat breakfast—I was hungry.
The delicious smell of bread baked by Anemone's magic drifted over.
"Is that bread?"
The elves were intensely interested in the black, donut-shaped bread maker too.
Surrounded by huge elves, even Anemone seemed to be having trouble working.
"Here, if you want bread, I'll give you some of mine."
I bought bread from Shangri-La and held it out to the elves.
It was the kind of misshapen bread I always bought as a bargain. Even if it was somewhat lopsided or crushed, it was far better and sweeter than the bread in this world.
"U... uh..."
They clearly wanted to eat it, but they just couldn't bring themselves to reach for it.
"You don't have to refuse so stubbornly. There's nothing in it."
I opened the plastic bag, picked up a piece of bread, and took a bite.
"See?"
"Boss, give me some too." "Me too, nya!"
"Oh, come on! It'll be ready in a moment!"
"It's fine, Anemone. One piece won't hurt." "Nyaa!"
Did they suspect some hidden motive because we were so eager to give things away?
"Hey, Mother, explain to these elves that we're just being kind and don't have any ulterior motives."
I asked Bell to mediate with the elves.
"Meow."
When Bell walked a short distance away, the elves surrounded her in a circle.
The elven warriors helped persuade them too, so I figured things would work out somehow.
Anemone's bread finished baking, so we decided to have breakfast.
Instant soup, milk, and granola. Since they were easy and popular, that was what we always had when we wanted a simple meal.
Anyone who was still hungry, as usual, ate a boiled egg.
While we were eating granola, Bell returned, so I gave her a can of cat food.
The elves followed behind her.
"Meow."
"Thanks."
I stroked Bell's black fur.
"So you weren't trying to win us over with gifts, then force us to become your subjects or take our land?"
"Ah—that's what you were worried about. I suppose she told you, but I have absolutely no intention of doing anything like that, so don't worry. As lord of Hamada Territory, I declare it here and now."
"Meow."
Bell answered too.
"In that case...!"
The elves rushed over and reached for the plates of bread one after another. They even stuck their fingers into my bowl of granola.
"Hey, stop that!"
"Oh, so the white stuff is some kind of milk?"
The bob-haired elf licked her finger.
"Is milk forbidden? Does it violate some taboo?"
The bread disappeared in an instant, so I bought more from Shangri-La.
"Hmm, it's just not part of our diet..."
If milk was forbidden, there was only one thing left to offer.
I bought processed soy milk from Shangri-La.
Real soy milk was so beany that it was undrinkable, but this should be tasty.
I poured soy milk into cups for them.
"This should be fine. Try it."
"Huh? Isn't this some kind of milk too?"
"It's juice squeezed from beans."
"Beans? Really?"
"Yeah."
A female elf cautiously put her lips to the cup.
"Ah! It really isn't milk. It tastes like beans, but it's delicious!"
"Really?!"
"Really!"
They passed the cup around, and apparently it suited their tastes.
I brought out a table for them too and poured granola into deep bowls for everyone.
"This is wheat kneaded with nuts and fruit, baked, and crushed. You should be able to eat this too."
The elves picked up the granola and put it in their mouths.
"This is delicious too!"
"Delicious! There are definitely nuts and dried fruit in it."
"You soak it like this when you eat it."
I demonstrated by eating some granola, and the elves began imitating me.
"It's crisp and delicious!" "It's sweet~!"
"It has a nice texture, and this white liquid is made from beans...? But it really isn't animal milk."
They couldn't stop smiling, so they must have liked it very much.
While watching the elves eat, Lilith tugged at my sleeve.
"Kenichi, I'd like to try that bean juice too..."
"Sure."
I poured some into a cup, and Lilith stared at it for a while before taking a sip.
"Oh! It really isn't animal milk! How strange!"
"Strange? Here, do you want to try some too?"
"Boss, it isn't some kind of insect juice, is it..." "Nyaa?"
"No, it's genuinely soy milk—beans squeezed and processed."
The beastfolk cautiously put their lips to the cups as well.
"It really isn't milk!" "Nyaa!"
Anemone drank the soy milk along with them.
"It's tasty, but the aftertaste is like bean soup."
"You went to all this trouble to make something like this..."
"Some people don't like animal milk."
"Indeed. I've heard of even nobles having that problem. They break out in a rash when they drink it."
Ah, so allergies existed in this world too.
I wonder if magic could cure them.
"To put it simply, some people say animal milk belongs to the young of that animal, not to humans."
"I suppose that's true."
"Besides, animal milk is white, but it's the same thing as blood."
"Is that so?"
Lilith looked surprised, but milk was made from blood.
"Oh! I never expected an ordinary person to know that."
The elves were surprised, but apparently they already knew milk and blood were the same thing.
"You couldn't drink animal blood every day, could you? That's why elves don't drink animal milk either."
The bob-haired elf smiled at me while drinking soy milk.
Elves might be a little more scientifically advanced than the ordinary humans of this world.
Still, with a thousand-year lifespan, they had plenty of time for study and research.
We were all eating when I remembered something I'd promised the elves last night.
"Come to think of it, I promised you the bee larvae last night."
I placed the bee larvae and eggs on the elves' table.
"Ugh!" "Nyaa!"
Our beastfolk instinctively turned away, but the elves gathered around.
"Wow, what magnificent larvae! You're giving us these too?"
"Yeah. I promised the elven warrior last night. Misera, was it?"
"What? We've been holding ourselves back all this time for nothing?"
"Yay! Now we can make soup!"
Judging by their delighted chatter, these were ingredients they ate normally.
"Do you eat things like this all the time?"
"Not often. Even if we destroy a nest and collect them, they rot before we can finish eating them..."
"Exactly. Item Boxes are great, aren't they?"
"So all the bee larvae you collected are in that Item Box, right?"
"Yeah, the adults are in there too."
I took out an adult bee and placed it on the table as well.
"Whoa! What are you going to do with that?"
"I'm planning to study whether it can be used as a material. And if we soak it in alcohol, it can be used as a tonic."
"Ohh..."
Pickled hornets and honey-preserved hornets had been sold in my old world, so they had to have some medicinal effect, but apparently elves had no such culture.
And what was it called again...? Propolis? That should be in there too.
I had no idea whether bees from another world contained propolis, but it was worth researching.
"Don't elves have a drinking culture?"
"We have fruit wine and mead, but... they're precious..."
"I have mead too."
I bought a bottle of mead from Shangri-La for ¥2,000.
"Click."
What dropped down was a bottle of alcohol filled with golden liquid.
"Here. This is mead."
"Wow!" "It's beautiful! And it's in a glass bottle!"
"Can we drink it?"
"Of course."
The elves emptied the cups they had been drinking soy milk from and began pouring in the golden alcohol.
"It's sweet!" "Is this honey?" "But it's alcohol!"
"Hey, hey! If we go to town, can we get alcohol like this?"
"No, this is precious alcohol I have with me. They don't sell it in town."
The male elf who had been drinking joined the conversation.
"Hamada Territory, was it? If we became your subjects, would we be able to get it?"
"I wouldn't be opposed, but you need something to pay with to buy things. It would be fine if you elves had something of value to offer."
"Yeah, that's true..."
The elves nodded as they continued drinking the mead.
They must have really liked it.
"Here, I'll give you the kitchen knives you wanted too. Would ten or so be enough?"
"Amazing! They're beautiful!"
"Only ten?"
"That's fine. Elves share their tools."
Aside from a small handful of personal belongings, apparently all property belonged to the community.
Houses and tools were all communal property. When something broke, everyone repaired it, and everyone worked together to make new things.
They had no concept of marriage and slept with anyone; of course, they raised all children together.
"Seeing something this wonderful makes me think becoming your subjects might not be so bad."
The elves held the kitchen knives I'd given them up to the dappled sunlight.
"However, becoming subjects would mean being incorporated into the kingdom's economy—and that could change your culture..."
"Exactly."
A low voice I hadn't heard before rang out.
The one who came to the table was the elven chief.
He accepted some alcohol from the women, took a small sip, and looked at the knives.
"It would be a problem if you became too steeped in the culture of the ordinary folk. We have our own doctrine."
He seemed surprised by the alcohol, but somewhat displeased that I had shown them ordinary human culture.
Perhaps he was worried that the elves might grow enamored of human cities.
"I'm sorry. I only meant them as a sign of friendship."
The chief's arrival brought the breakfast gathering to an end, and the elves dispersed.
They carried off the bee larvae, so they were probably going to cook them. When I asked the chief, he said the ring would be ready tomorrow morning.
Then we'd be leaving tomorrow morning.
Nyamena came over to me.
"Um... Boss..."
I knew what she wanted.
"It's morning, so just a little."
I bought more mead from Shangri-La and poured a little for Nyamena.
"Heh heh heh—whoa! It's sweet! Just like honey!"
"It's sweet, nya?! I want some too, nya!"
"Even Myaaree, who doesn't drink alcohol, might be able to handle this."
I poured some into Myaaree's cup, and she began drinking happily.
"Myaa! It's sweet and delicious!"
"Then I want some too." "Me too."
"It's alcohol, so only a little."
I gave Anemone and Lilith some to drink too.
"Amazing, it tastes like honey!" "This is exquisite... We might be able to use it in sweets."
"Yeah. If we gave it to Sanbaku, she could probably make some wonderful sweets."
"Hmm, that sounds delightful."
Once we finished eating, there was nothing else to do.
We had until morning, so we spent the time relaxing, fishing in the lake and such.
I also surveyed the area around the lake while we were at it. Well, it was nice to have such a leisurely time in the middle of our journey.
Another harsh journey awaited us starting tomorrow.
――Then night fell, and we ate dinner after dark. The settlement was quiet and seemed no different from usual.
I had been wondering what to do because I wasn't good at welcome banquets and things like that, but inwardly I was relieved.
We grilled and ate dragon meat.
The elves didn't come over, but one woman brought us some white soup.
It was a thick white soup containing nuts.
"This is bee-larvae soup."
"That's right."
The beastfolk looked deeply uncomfortable at the smiling elf's words, so Lilith and I drank it.
"Mmm, it's sweet and delicious, with just a little saltiness."
But it was somewhat different from the bee-larvae dishes I remembered.
It shouldn't have had this much umami—there was no MSG, so had they used some kind of magic?
The nuts in it had softened from boiling and were faintly sweet, like chestnuts.
It felt like one hundred percent protein: high in protein and low in calories.
"Oh, this is quite a delicacy. I've never had soup like this before."
Of course, giant-bee larvae soup wasn't something one normally got—much less a dish made by elves.
This was the sort of rare cuisine one could eat only this deep in the forest.
Seeing Lilith and me, Anemone sipped the soup too.
She seemed to like it. When we returned to Sakura, I'd have to research bee-larvae soup.
The elves apparently didn't come over because they didn't eat beast meat.
Their usual source of protein was insects, though they said they sometimes ate meat, usually birds.
When we were resting after dinner, four or five elven women came over and tugged at my hands.
They were trying to lead me somewhere.
"It felt wrong not to give you anything in return."
"Exactly. And those bee larvae were delicious too."
The elven women pulled me away while Lilith and Anemone glared at me.
Even if they called it a thank-you, that didn't necessarily mean anything more.
It might be something else entirely.