The Secret of Bolenan
Satou here. I like to relax after I’ve finished a job, but that’s always when some new problem rears its ugly head. In fact, I get even more nervous when I don’t receive any feedback, because it makes me think I must’ve missed a huge bug…
“Satou.”
Mia called out to me from across the crowd of elves.
We had just entered the Bolenan Forest, a huge forest in the southeast of the Shiga Kingdom.
After we left behind the old capital and our new friends, the hero and his party, we got caught up in a bit of intrigue in a town called Puta and ended up rescuing the white tigerfolk princess.
Somewhere along the way, I made friends with the black dragon Hei Long, who helped us cross a treacherous mountain range to arrive at the Bolenan Forest, Mia’s home.
When we reached a clearing there, tons of elves and fairies came out to greet us, including Mia’s parents.
As I was reflecting on these recent events, Mia came running up to me, pulling along an elf boy and girl who didn’t look any older than your average middle schooler.
Her pale-aqua-blue pigtails danced around her slightly pointed ears as she ran.
“Parents.”
They looked only a year or two older than Mia, but the difference was actually centuries.
Unsurprisingly, their daughter was the spitting image. From what I could tell, all elves seemed to have hair in shades of blue or green.
They were wearing what seemed to be the traditional clothing of elves: an emerald-green tunic with a leaf design and a green tricornered hat. Their shoes were made of brown cloth.
Overall, they looked like fairies straight out of a children’s book.
“I am Misanaria’s father, Lamisauya, son of Uramufuya and Laleilea. Satou of the Shiga Kingdom, I thank thee.”
“I am Misanaria’s mother, Lilinatoa, daughter of Trazayuya and Selinaria.”
…Trazayuya?
So Mia’s mother was the daughter of Trazayuya, the elf who made the Cradle?
I had better return his journals later, then.
“Satou of the Shiga Kingdom, I am in your debt.”
After their words of gratitude, the pair touched their palms to their foreheads and then their chests in some kind of salute, probably an Elvish gesture of thanks.
“It is my pleasure to return Miss Misanaria to your—”
“Mrrr. Mia.”
Mia grouchily interrupted as I was replying to her parents.
I was just trying to be polite, but clearly she didn’t like it.
Once I corrected myself, Mia introduced the rest of our group to her parents.
“Liza. Spear master.”
Beneath her crimson hair, Liza of the orangescale tribe blushed at Mia’s epithet.
Her orange scale–covered tail flicked back and forth, revealing her pride.
“Tama. Cute.”
The cat-eared, cat-tailed Tama giggled and then covered her face with her pink hood, hiding her white hair.
So even the laid-back Tama got embarrassed when someone complimented her.
“Pochi. Happy.”
With her brown bob haircut and dog ears, Pochi struck a triumphant pose.
Her canine tail was wagging excitedly.
“Nana. Big.”
Mia patted her own flat chest as she said this.
Her golden hair tied back in a ponytail, Nana was expressionless as ever as she pushed her ample breasts together with both hands.
Mia’s father let out a little “ooh” of admiration, prompting her mother to smack the back of his head. So he likes ’em big, too? We’ll get along just fine.
Incidentally, while Nana might look like a human adult, she was actually a homunculus and less than a year old, so there was no seduction intended in her playful movements.
“Arisa. Wow.”
“Wow?” Arisa repeated, doubt rising in her large eyes. Her purple hair, considered an ill omen by most, was covered by a blond wig.
She was probably trying to figure out whether “wow” referred to the fact that she researched magic with Mia or to the strange cultural things she tended to do and say as a reincarnated Japanese person.
“Lulu. Good cook.”
Lulu, with her dark eyes and Japanese features, bowed gracefully.
Her long, glossy black hair swayed smoothly, making her look all the more alluring.
Being in her early teens, she was far too young to be a romantic interest for me, but I couldn’t help admiring her loveliness.
Unfortunately, she was considered homely by the standards of most humans in this world, but it didn’t seem like the elves had a particular sense of beauty or ugliness. Good on them.
“Satou. Pretty.”
Wait, what?
That would be a valid assessment of Lulu, but me, on the other hand… No one in this world but Arisa had ever complimented my looks.
I hadn’t been treated like I was ugly or anything, but since being reborn from my twenty-nine-year-old body to this fifteen-year-old one, I still had the kind of face that just blended into a crowd.
Mia’s parents and the other nearby elves seemed to agree with my self-evaluation, as they simply looked at me in puzzlement. But then…
“Pretty!”
“Yes, very pretty.”
“I agree!”
The silver-eyed fairies sitting on Mia’s head and shoulders all chorused in agreement.
Mia’s mother’s eyes changed from blue-green to silver as she looked at me again.
“You’re right—it’s true! Pretty, very pretty indeed! What a marvelous variety of spirits, and so many, too! It’s hard to see, but the rainbow-colored spirit light is beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it!”
Mia’s mother sounded exactly like her daughter whenever she got excited or (on one occasion) drunk.
“Clearly he is beloved by spirits.”
“I have never seen such a gathering of spirits outside a mana source or underground vein.”
“How unusual. Why, it is almost as if Lady Aaze is here.”
Everyone who thus gathered around to proclaim my beauty had the skill “Spirit Vision.”
According to them, these so-called spirits were flocking around me like moths to a flame, making an aura called a “spirit light” that fairies were quite fond of. It sounded like it was quite a sight to behold.
Mia explained later that the reason she was able to find me no matter where I went was because she followed the souls of the spirits gathering around me.
That explained why she had asked if I was a “spiritualist” when we first met.
Using a fairy ring located in the clearing where the elves had met us, we followed Mia’s parents to their home.
This seemed to be a common method of travel in the elf village and fortunately didn’t require kissing any dryads.
According to my map, this forest was so large that it was four or five times the size of the vast Ougoch Duchy, but with teleportation, it was possible to travel from the outer edge of the forest to the center in an instant.
We found ourselves on a small hill in the middle of the forest, where we could see the mountain-like roots of the World Tree and the forest of Mountain-Trees growing around it.
It was amazing. Almost too much, really.
I looked up in awe at the overwhelmingly huge World Tree.
Clouds clung to its branches like snow.
High above the clouds, it spread out into more branches and leaves, but above that, its thick trunk alone extended beyond where the eye could see.
The Mountain-Trees, which were indeed the size of mountains, looked like ordinary shrubbery compared to the World Tree.
Honestly, the scale was so insane that I almost doubted my eyes.
“Satou.”
As I stared dumbstruck at the World Tree, Mia tugged on my hand, leading me down the hill.
“Treetop Village.”
Her slender finger pointed at a plaza built around a fountain. The elves’ houses were in the giant trees that surrounded it.
The mushroom-like formations growing out of the trunks formed the roofs of the houses and were connected to one another with something like suspension bridges. The AR display simply labeled them as tree houses.
Perfect. Now, that was a fantasy town if I’d ever seen one.
“““Mia!””” a chorus of voices cried. “““Welcome home!”””
Turning toward the source of the voices, I saw elves crowding at the windows of the tree houses and on the suspension bridges, waving excitedly at Mia. Some were even celebrating her return by singing or playing music.
Checking the map, I saw that there was another elf residential district in a semi-underground area near the roots of the World Tree.
I wasn’t sure what the difference was between the neighborhoods, so I decided to find out during our stay.
“<Stairs.>”
Mia’s father said the word in Elvish from atop a stone platform near the hill, and glowing sheets of light began to form floating stairs in the air.
“Sparklyyy?”
“The light turned into stairs, sir!”
Tama and Pochi looked at me, obviously eager to go racing up the stairs.
I would’ve liked to give them permission, but since there weren’t any railings, I had them hold hands with me so that we could walk up together instead.
When we placed our feet on the first step, it emitted a lilting note like a piano.
So the stairs themselves were instruments, too. It reminded me of the nightingale floors I saw on a Kyoto trip.
“Wow, what a fun staircase,” Arisa remarked.
Lulu nodded in agreement. “It’s very much what you’d expect from Mia’s hometown, isn’t it?”
Eventually, the stairway stopped at a tree house, and from there we transferred to a staircase of wood and ivy carved around the trunk.
“M-master, please be careful! The stairs move!”
Much to Liza’s alarm, the stairs began to move like an escalator.
“A wooden escalator, huh? That’s pretty avant-garde.”
Arisa looked unfazed, but the rest of the children tiptoed gingerly up the stairs.
I tried to help them along as I looked around the trees.
Aside from branches that were large enough to rival the Mountain-Trees, there were also short branches only a few feet long, from which various kinds of fruit were growing in jumbled bunches.
“Master, I have located fruits of the same varieties found in the Cradle, I report.”
Nana pointed to a branch that boasted pears and grapes.
Thinking back, I remembered that the Cradle of Trazayuya, where I rescued Mia, also had similar branches that bore multiple kinds of fruit.
“Looks yummyyy?”
“They smell good, sir.”
“Correct. Choose.”
Mia’s father nodded at Tama and Pochi, allowing them to take the fruits of their choosing.
His instructions were brief, to say the least, but the pair seemed to understand just fine.
Tama and Pochi grabbed some fruits, then looked back at me. They were probably waiting for permission, so I nodded to them, and they happily dug in.
“Deliiicious?”
“So crunchy, sir.”
Tama had chosen grapes, while Pochi chose a pear.
“Mikan.”
Mia pulled a few mandarin oranges off another branch and handed them to Arisa and Lulu.
“Mm, that’s the stuff!”
“So this is the legendary mikan, the fruit best eaten while sitting under a kotatsu. How wonderful!”
Lulu seemed exaggeratedly impressed, while Arisa simply peeled the little orange open and shoved as much of it into her mouth as humanly possible, chewing away in satisfaction.
“This grape has a very fine texture.”
“Agreed. It is delicious, I report.”
Liza and Nana, too, accepted some large grapes from Mia’s mother and ate them with pleasure.
I guess they’re all getting hungry, huh?
When we arrived at the veranda of a tree house, it looked like some of the girls might be too scared to get off the escalator, so I dealt with the situation by helping them down myself.
“I apologize for causing you such trouble, master.”
“Don’t worry about it, Liza.”
Liza looked ashamed, so I smiled reassuringly at her before Mia took my hand and led me inside.
The interior was large, much larger than I’d expected from the outside.
Grass covered the floor like it was an indoor lawn, and flowers bloomed from the ivy that crept around the walls and ceiling, bearing citrus fruits that produced a refreshing fragrance.
The grass was as soft as a luxurious carpet.
“<Mia!>”
“<Welcome home, Mia!>”
More elves who hadn’t been in the clearing before showed up to celebrate Mia’s return.
Sending silent waves of encouragement to Mia as she was jostled around by the crowd, I headed toward the center of the room with Mia’s parents and the rest of my group.
“<Table.>”
Mia’s father murmured in Elvish in the center of the room, and a tree stump–like table emerged from the lawn.
Next, Mia’s mother said, “<Chairs>,” and ivy sprouted from among the grass and formed seats.
Mia’s father snapped his fingers, and fairies brought enough goblets to the table for everyone.
Belatedly, I noticed there were two different kinds of fairies: Some had dragonfly wings, while others had butterfly wings.
When Mia’s father snapped again, growths that looked like pitcher plants lowered from the ceiling and poured a transparent, sweet-smelling liquid into the goblets.
It looked delicious, but it was definitely the sap of the pitcher plants.
Is that safe to drink?
“Yummyyy?”
“It’s tasty, sir.”
Unlike me, however, Tama and Pochi were already drinking the liquid and giving it rave reviews. That’s good, I guess.
While we were distracted by the fantasy scene unfolding before our eyes, it seemed we had neglected to stay alert for certain suspicious characters.
Only when I heard small voices of protest did I realize the danger.
“Leggo!”
“Hey, let go of me!”
“Help! Laya, help us!”
Turning, I saw that Nana had captured three of the winged fairies, who were tearfully crying out for help from Mia’s father.
One was held in each of Nana’s hands; the third, most inexcusably of all, was trapped between her breasts.
Trade places with me.
Mia’s father, too, was just staring at the fairy flailing about in Nana’s cleavage, making no attempt to help.
Eventually, his eyes met mine, and we exchanged a nod.
…Ow.
Arisa smacked my head from behind. Lulu had stepped in to rescue the fairies.
“What are you, pervs from Planet Cleavage?”
“You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Mm. Wrong.”
I turned away from the accusing eyes of Arisa and Lulu and sought out Mia, who was still being crushed by a well-meaning crowd.
Just as I’d imagined, most of the elves were quite slender. There wasn’t a chubby one to be found, nor were any of them particularly well-endowed in the chest department.
“<Geez, what a racket.>”
“<That girl oughtta learn some manners.>”
“<This one is comfy, though.>”
For some reason, the fairies who’d fled from Nana now gathered on my head and shoulders. One particularly peevish one was pulling on my hair.
It was actually a little painful, so I gently plucked that one from my head and lowered it to the table.
The fairies grumbled at that, until Pochi broke a pastry into pieces and fed it to each of them.
“<Oh! Now, that’s tasty!>”
“<You ain’t kiddin’.>”
“<More pleeease!>”
Powdered sugar was flying everywhere in the process, so I decided to clean up with Everyday Magic later.
Evidently hearing the pleased exclamations of their fellows, more winged fairies started gathering around with demands.
“<Hey, gimme some, too, huh?>”
“<Isn’t there any for me?>”
“Owie, please wait, sirs. I don’t have any more.”
The fairies were speaking in the Elvish language, so Pochi shouldn’t have been able to understand them, but somehow they seemed to be holding a conversation.
It was cute to watch Pochi get flustered at the fairies, but I decided I’d better throw her a lifeline.
I took a basket full of pastries out of Storage by way of the Garage Bag and put it on the table.
“Here you go.”
As soon as the basket touched the table, the winged fairies flocked to attack it.
Yikes.
Some of them got a little overzealous and disappeared so far into the mountain of sweets that only their feet were left sticking out, while others were flung to the other side of the table, clinging to their own pastries.
The elves who came over with Mia seemed interested in the baked goods as well, so I put another basket of them out on the table.
“Tasty.”
“Mm.”
“Good.”
Most of them gave this kind of single-word comment that I was used to from Mia, though a few went on longer tangents like her mother. Unfortunately, most elves seemed to favor the former.
“My, that’s delicious. They’re really quite tasty. Say, did you make these, Mr. Satou? Did you really?”
“They’re so good! I could eat a dozen of them.”
“Hee-hee, me too. Is this sweetness honey? Or perhaps snow sugar?”
I was beginning to build up something of a fan club, but not all the elves were quite so friendly toward me.
One elf boy in particular charged right up to me, prodding me in the chest.
“Lovers?”
Uh, come again?
I stared at him in bewilderment until Mia made a show of clinging to my side.
“Duh!” she exclaimed, despite all evidence to the contrary.
As it turned out, the boy harbored a crush of his own on Mia.
Well, I was calling him a “boy,” but he looked the same age as Mia’s father and was in fact two hundred years old, making him older than Mia.
“Why?”
“Pretty, nice, strong, fun…”
Mia’s response to the boy’s question went on for quite some time.
“…Satou rescued me from an evil magician. He saved me! It was amazing! I’m so proud! Even Red Helmet and Yuya couldn’t do that. It’s true!”
“Agreed. Master carried me out of the Cradle when it collapsed, I report.”
Nana boastfully added her own supplement to Mia’s extensive case.
Red Helmet was a ratfolk warrior who helped Mia during the Cradle incident, while “Yuya”—Yusaratoya—was an elf who owned a general store in Seiryuu City.
Nana was probably referring to after I defeated the Undead King Zen in the Cradle, when I helped her and her sisters escape as it self-destructed and turned into salt.
Unable to compete with Mia’s overwhelming declarations, the boy simply fled with a parting cry of “Won’t lose!”
“I am sorry, Mr. Satou. Do forgive him. Mia is almost like a younger sister to Goya. They grew up together, you see.”
Since all the elves looked so similar, I had already forgotten what Goya’s face looked like.
His name, on the other hand, would probably stick in my mind, since it strongly reminded me of the Japanese word for bitter melon.
“Goya is a good boy; he really is, you know? He’s a little too attached to Mia, that’s all. A bit overprotective, understand?”
I later learned that Goya had taken Mia’s fiancé claim seriously and had come to put a stop to it.
I would have to resolve that little misunderstanding before I left.
“This bread looks like the shell of a cream puff; it’s delicious.”
“It’s sort of like a Yorkshire pudding I had in a British restaurant once.”
The snack time had evolved into a full-on banquet, so my companions and I went around tasting all the delicious food the elves had to offer.
Piled up on the huge tree-stump table was a mountain of something like freshly baked Yorkshire puddings, surrounded by roast beef, meat pies, sausages, fish marinade, whole-roasted birds, and more.
In addition to the meat dishes, there were also berry pie, cherry pie, platters full of salad and cut fruit, and even a tower of jelly.
All of it was provided by the elves to celebrate Mia’s return.
Brownies, the short-statured house fairies, flitted about among the elves, endlessly arranging more food.
…Hmm? How odd. Something felt out of place, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“So chewyyy.”
“You can use it to pick up the roast beef, sir.”
“Master, please do try it with this teriyaki chicken, as well.”
The beastfolk girls showed me how to use the pseudo–Yorkshire puddings to scoop up meat, so I tried each of them in turn.
“Master, this pie is delicious, I report.”
Powdered sugar from the pie was collecting in Nana’s cleavage, so I tied a napkin around her neck to match Pochi’s and Tama’s bibs.
A sigh of disappointment arose from a group of elves who’d been admiring her chest.
“Welcome home, Mia! We brought sweet melons, your favorite.”
“You still haven’t put on any weight, eh?”
“We downed some ducks and deer during the hunt, so make sure you eat a bit of each.”
A group of high-level elves peered in through the entrance, bows still in hand as they showed off their prey.
Oh, that’s it! It was the meat that seemed out of place.
I had thought elves didn’t eat meat, but here they were presenting all kinds of artisanal meat-based dishes and eating away without a care in the world.
They weren’t as completely meat-obsessed as the beastfolk girls, but there wasn’t a vegetarian among the bunch.
Well, except for one.
“Oh, Mia! How will you ever grow up if you stay such a picky eater? You won’t, you know! Here, eat some meat; don’t be shy, now. Eat up, will you?”
“Mrrr. Uh-uh.”
“Eat.”
Mia was trapped between her parents, both of whom were pressing her to eat meat.
I guess I was wrong to think they were all vegetarians, then.
In retrospect, when I first offered Mia meat, she simply mumbled things like “elf” and “meat” and formed an X in front of her mouth. I assumed that meant “elves don’t eat meat,” but I guess it was actually “Mia the elf doesn’t like meat.”
Arisa had even said, Oh, so elves don’t eat meat? and Mia hadn’t corrected her.
So all this time, she was just being picky?
If it wasn’t a lifestyle choice or an allergy, then I should probably get her to start eating it.
She seemed to enjoy the tofu hamburg steak, so maybe that would make a good starting point.
“Wait.”
“No problem,” I answered Mia’s father.
“Mrrr. Tenth time.” Mia, who was watching from the side, glowered up at him.
Some elves had brought out a shogi board during the feast, and for some reason, I was now on a string of consecutive victories.
This was probably a combination of my high INT skill, which allowed me to clearly visualize possibilities for the next dozen moves, and my experience making a shogi app game, during which I learned most of the classic strategies for reference’s sake.
I guess the training hell I underwent at the hands of Mr. Tubs, the head planner for the shogi game, was still seared into my brain, too. He was a force to be reckoned with, having gone to national tournaments in his youth.
It was to the point where it felt a bit like cheating, so I was happy to acquiesce to any requests for extra time.
“Mr. Satou, would you like some fairy wine?”
“I’d love some. Thank you.”
I accepted the goblet of wine from Mia’s mother, savoring the beautiful ruby-red liquid with my eyes and nose before I brought it to my lips.
The wine had a very light body, but it was more delicious than any I’d ever tasted. The mild, mysterious flavor sank into my tongue.
Instead of assaulting the nostrils like strong liquor might, it had a gentle fragrance that roused the senses.
It wasn’t quite as intense an experience as dragonspring liquor, but it was still fantastic.
The cheeses, pies, and other delicacies the elves presented with it were good, but I thought it might make a good pairing with the Lessau County cheese I got in the old capital.
“My, what an excellent cheese!”
“It goes wonderfully with the wine.”
My intuition was right, earning praise from the elves.
“Done… Urgh.”
Once Mia’s father made his move after lengthy contemplation, I moved my next piece without a second thought.
“Master! This dish is incredible!”
“Master, this fluffy white substance is delicious, I report.”
Lulu was holding something like tofu cooked in miso, while Nana appeared to have located marshmallows. Both of them ran up and shoved a forkful into my mouth, then ran off to find their next dish.
Well, at least they were enjoying the party.
It was nice of them to feed me some and all, but I wished they’d be a little gentler.
“Is it true that you’ve eaten hamburg steak before?!”
Beyond the crowd of elves, I heard a cry from where the beastfolk girls were battling over the meat dishes.
“Of cooourse?”
“We sure have, sir! I can eat a hundred, sir!”
Tama and Pochi posed victoriously for the crowd of excited elf girls.
Liza was busy munching on a different meat entrée, so she simply nodded vigorously. The roasted drumsticks seemed to be her favorite.
Just because it’s delicious doesn’t mean you should eat it bone and all, though, Liza.
“Sir Satou! You know how to make hamburg steak, then?!”
“I do indeed.”
The girl who’d led the charge over to me clapped her hands together in delight and then pressed forward. “Please, won’t you teach me?”
I nodded, and she flung her arms around my neck, pressing her cheek to mine with delight.
“Would that mean you can make things like omelet rice and pizza, too?”
“Y-yes, I’d be happy to make those for you sometime.”
The second girl swooned at my response.
Then a third one pressed forward, full of anticipation.
“What about…c-c-curry rice?”
“Sorry, I—”
“O-of course, I should have known. Even Daisaku the Hero, who taught us the cooking of Nihon, said curry was too difficult to reproduce…”
Her shoulders slumped with disappointment, so I finished what I’d been starting to say.
“—I don’t have all the necessary herbs and spices on hand, but I do know the recipe.”
The elf girl raised her face with renewed hope.
“If you’d like, would you mind helping me collect the spices?”
“Yes, I’d be thrilled!”
The girl nodded eagerly, and I smiled in response.
Sweet. Always good to have help with that kind of thing.
The spice-based curry recipe was in one of the notepads I’d acquired at the black-market auction in Muraas.
There was other useful information in there as well, but my top priorities were the recipes for curry and chocolate. Oh, and ramen, too.
I promised the Elvish chefs I would exchange recipes with them, and soon we were having a lively discussion about cooking. Even Lulu joined in.
My game against Mia’s father was over in about an hour, and I declined the next match, citing my exhaustion from recent travels.
As night fell, I went out to the veranda and looked around at the elf village.
The sounds of laughter and music filled the air, suggesting that there were parties going on in other tree houses, too.
A large group seemed to be celebrating around a bonfire in the clearing below.
“Satou.”
“What’s wrong, Mia? Should the guest of honor really be leaving her seat?”
“Mm.”
Mia tugged on my hand and led me away from the tree house, passing by the party in the plaza.
“How far are we going, exactly?”
“Almost.”
As I followed Mia, I gazed around at the homes of the elves, so smoothly integrated with nature.
After we went down a mossy wooden staircase, we arrived in a clearing where colorful mushrooms grew in neat circles. These were fairy rings, the same transportation devices we’d used to get from the entrance of the forest to this residential area.
“Here.”
I followed Mia into one of the fairy rings.
“Teleport.”
At Mia’s command, the fairy ring shimmered and flashed.
I wasn’t sure where we were going, but knowing Mia, she wouldn’t take us anywhere dangerous.
The speed of the flashes increased, and the light emanating from the ground grew brighter. Then, once the flashing ended, we were teleported away.
An instant later, we were standing atop an open hill overlooking a town in a different part of the forest.
This town bore little resemblance to the tree houses that were built in harmony with nature. Smooth roads led up to the hill at even intervals, lined by perfectly spaced one-story houses.
It was systematically designed and constructed, almost reminiscent of a modern Japanese town or even city.
If the place we just came from was the home of the elves, then what in the world was this?
I let my eyes wander as I contemplated this puzzle.
Above us was a transparent canopy, supported by what seemed to be tree branches. It was large enough to cover the entire town.
No, those weren’t branches. They were the roots of the World Tree.
Feeling a tug on my sleeve, I looked down to see Mia, whose eyes held a mischievous glint.
“Real town,” she explained simply.
…“Real”?
Is the town up in the trees a fake, then?
Still confused, I opened my map to check our current position.
This seemed to be the other elf residence that I’d noticed on the map earlier.
“Do the elves normally live here, then?”
Mia’s only response was another “Mm.”
Still holding my hand, Mia led me to a nearby spot that appeared to be a tram platform.
Near it were some objects that looked like the Floating Boards produced by Practical Magic.
The boards were transparent, but they did have color, so this spell must not be the one I was familiar with.
Shortly after we reached the platform, a young boy arrived on another board.
He seemed young—that is, except that he was sporting a beard that didn’t suit his face at all.
It gave me painful flashbacks to when I’d tried to grow a beard myself.
…It’s all right. Not everyone looks good with a beard.
“Welcome home, Mia. You brought him here already? …Hello there, I’m Tutoreiya. Just call me Tuya, please. I was studying in the land of humans until about a hundred years ago.”
The boy seemed friendly enough.
According to his explanation, the village we were just in was constructed purely for visitors, intended to have “that elf-like touch.”
That being said, it wasn’t meant to be deceitful or mean-spirited. It was just a place for welcoming and entertaining guests. It was constructed about four hundred years ago, largely under the direction of the Saga Empire hero Daisaku, who grew weary of battle and came to live out the rest of his days in the land of the elves.
Now things were starting to make sense.
A forest village with tree houses was far closer to the image we Japanese people would have of an elf home than this semi-futuristic, half-underground city.
Getting fed up with my lengthy conversation with the boy, Mia yanked my hand impatiently, so I promised to chat with him some other time.
“Ride.”
Mia expertly hopped onto a Floating Board at the platform. It sank ever so slightly before returning to its original height.
At her urging, I jumped onto a board next to Mia’s. She stated a few numbers that sounded like an address, and the board took off.
Though I hadn’t given any commands, my platform shifted into motion to follow Mia’s.
Streetlights with a fluorescent-like brightness blinked as if to guide us along.
The houses were all fairly similar in size, on lots that were probably about seven thousand square feet. They all had slate roofs and walls of what looked like white resin.
Overall, the architecture struck me as more modern than anything fantastical.
It wasn’t long before I realized why: the windows.
In the Shiga Kingdom, most houses had relatively small windows made from wood boards, which were generally just holes for lighting and ventilation.
Here, though, the houses had large, clear glass windows and even had glass doors.
Duke Ougoch’s mansion did have windows made from orc glass, but they were used much more sparingly, and most of them had fixed fitting.
Here, the glass doors were set in frames that had a rail, so they could likely slide open and closed just like the sliding doors often found in contemporary Japanese houses.
Instead of metal walls or fences, the houses were generally separated by hedges or flower beds, mostly the latter, by my estimation.
But strangely, there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Were they all aboveground partying?
Our boards flew along at about twelve miles per hour, nearly skimming the ground as they went.
The road reminded me of asphalt or the surface of a hard court for tennis; it seemed to be made of tiny pebbles that looked like brown beads.
I asked Mia what it was made out of, but she only said, “Dunno.”
That Tuya fellow seemed pretty knowledgeable, so I figured I’d ask him next time I saw him.
Finally, the boards came to a gentle stop in front of one particular house. Then they descended soundlessly, disappearing right into the ground.
“Satou.”
Mia touched the front door, and it slid open automatically with a pneumatic hiss.
Once she led me inside, the door slid closed behind us. Overall, it was very science-fiction-y. It would’ve been better if they were double doors like an air lock, though.
The moon was visible through the transparent dome-shaped ceiling and beyond the canopy over the city.
Its light was faint, though, probably because it was behind two layers of glass.
Mia was still pulling me along, so I followed her down the hallway.
I guess I shouldn’t have expected that to magically move, too.
“Here.”
Mia led me into what appeared to be her room.
Her parents must have cleaned it often while she was away; there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight.
There was one bed and one desk. Next to the bed were some built-in shelves, lined with a cutesy stuffed penguin and other plushies.
The entire room had a subdued pink color scheme. There were no decorative plants or anything like that. Overall, it looked like a middle school girl’s room.
“What a cute room.”
“Mm. Comfy.” Mia smiled shyly at my compliment.
…Did she just want to show me her room?
“Wait.”
With that command, Mia flounced into a small room that resembled a walk-in closet.
Then she paused and stuck her head out. “No peeking,” she added before vanishing inside, closing the door behind her.
What, did she think I would peek if she didn’t tell me not to?
Since I’d left without a word to anyone, I used the Telephone spell to contact Arisa.
“Yesh, thish ish your beloved Arisha!”
“…Are you drunk?”
“Huh? I’m cone-shold stober!”
“Don’t go too crazy, or I won’t give you any hangover medicine tomorrow.”
“Okey-dokey, artichokey.”
Arisa was clearly very drunk, so I politely ended the Telephone spell.
Next, I tried using it to connect with Liza, but there was no response. She must be asleep.
Finally, I contacted Mia’s mother to let her know that we were at their house.
“Satou.”
Mia poked her head out from the walk-in closet, took a moment to work up her courage, and hopped back into the room.
It was a very cute outfit, with a long-sleeve white blouse and a miniskirt with thin pleats.
Probably the most noticeable part, though, was…
“Knee socks.”
Just as she said, she was wearing knee socks pulled up tight on her slender legs.
I hadn’t seen them in this world before. Incidentally, they were white with light-blue horizontal stripes.
“They look very nice on you.”
Mia smiled bashfully and did a little twirl, making her skirt flutter.
Judging by the matching low-rise undies I saw beneath, she was apparently fond of stripes.
“Mia, may I?”
“Mm.”
Mia nodded, so I pinched the fabric of the knee socks between my fingers and tugged it experimentally. It was a mysterious fiber, clinging tightly to her legs despite its elasticity not being particularly strong.
If I could find out more about this by visiting some workshops during our stay, I could really widen the range of potential outfits for my party members.
“Perv.”
I glanced up to see Mia blushing, her cheeks puffed indignantly.
Oops, I guess it’s rude to touch her socks while she’s still wearing them.
“Sorry, sorry. I was just curious about the fabric.”
“Mrrr. Indelicate.”
That was some pretty advanced vocabulary for someone so young… Wait, I guess Mia’s several times older than me, huh?
After I apologized, the rest of the evening turned into Mia’s fashion show.
There was a lot more variety in her wardrobe than I had expected: the traditional garb the elves were wearing up in the tree village, a dress, an outfit with a skirt and three-quarter-length leggings, and so on.
As I later learned, that first one wasn’t actually the traditional clothing of the elves but a design made by the hero Daisaku for the “elf theme park” that was the village in the trees.
Eventually, Mia got tired and fell asleep, so I put her to bed and ended up dozing off next to her myself.
Her soft, fluffy bed was too powerful to resist.
Before long, I was deep in a dreamless sleep.
“No-more-sneaking-out diiiiive!”
That shout, coupled with a sudden impact, shocked me awake.
Mia, who’d been asleep beside me, let out a rather unladylike “Geh!”
“Arisa, would you mind not diving on people first thing in the morning?”
As I grumbled, I checked the map.
Mia’s parents must have brought Arisa and the others to the underground town.
“This isn’t our usual joking around. This is your punishment,” Arisa intoned.
I was guessing she was making some kind of reference, but it went right over my head.
Since she didn’t seem to be hungover at all, the elves must have given her a hangover cure.
For some reason, she wasn’t wearing her blond wig, so her lilac hair was on full display.
“Mrrr. Heavy.”
“It’s your punishment for running away with master. Feel the wrath of the Lolita press!”
Despite both our protests, Arisa was still fuming.
“Master, this place is amaziiing!”
“We rode on a board, and the door opened all by itself, sir!”
Liza entered the room, holding the excited pair of Tama and Pochi under her arms.
“Arisa, you mustn’t be so rude to master.”
“C’mon, Liza, I’m punishing some criminals here…”
Putting Tama and Pochi down on the floor, Liza lifted Arisa off the bed and freed Mia and me.
“Master, the underground city is amazing, I report.”
“To think that the elves had such a remarkable place hidden here!”
Nana and Lulu sounded more excited than usual, too. None of them could hide their surprise at the semi-underground cityscape.
“I gotta admit—it is pretty cool. Like a space-age colony or a hyperdimensional fortress.”
Once again, I wasn’t sure what Arisa was talking about, but she probably meant that it was very sci-fi. Now that she’d calmed down a little about my sharing a bed with Mia, I guess even Arisa was impressed with the elves’ secret home.
“Good morning, Mr. Satou.”
“Mia!”
My group stepped aside for Mia’s parents, who’d guided them here to the underground civilization.
I greeted them in return, but Mia’s father was glowering at our sleeping arrangements.
Her mother’s remark and Mia’s response, however…
“Oh my, aren’t you two close? How lovely.”
“Mm. Lovers.”
…served only to aggravate her father’s misunderstanding.
“Interspecies. Can’t reproduce.”
“Please calm down, dear.”
“No!”
“Just a moment, Mr. Laya…”
Mia’s father swiveled to glare at me.
I felt a little like a man trying to ask his lover’s disapproving parents for permission to marry.
“…We fell asleep together and nothing more. The rest of the kids usually sleep in my bed, too.”
“Harem?”
I had offered that particular fact in the hopes of conveying that it was no different than children sleeping with their parents, but Mia’s father took it in the worst possible way.
In the end, I wasn’t able to pacify his anger until Mia’s mother stepped in to help resolve the misunderstanding.
Actually, I wasn’t sure she cleared things up so much as she simply drowned out his protests with her machine gun–like chatter.
After a great deal of talking, Mia’s mother finally came to her main point.
Please cut to the chase a little faster next time.
“Mr. Satou, at some point, please tell me the story of how Mia became so attached to you, okay? I’m looking forward to it. For now, I’d like you to go see the Council of Elders, if you wouldn’t mind. They asked for you personally, you know.”
I agreed right away, of course. I might get to meet the high elf I’d been hearing so much about, after all.
Based on the elves I’d seen so far, I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up for a dynamite bod, but I was looking forward to such a rare opportunity for a meeting with her anyway.
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