Chapter 33

Chapter 33 – An Elf’s Past

We went to gather information on the fugitives .
Yet while we’d get some hits on names, nobody knew any of their actual whereabouts . Well, makes sense .

We end our information search and head back to the inn .
Phelia had been brooding ever since we left the station and had barely spoken .
Well, after something like an abduction, it’s a natural reaction .

When we get to the inn, Phelia speaks for the first time in a while .

“Yuri, I have something to tell you . ”
“…What is it?”

Her stiff expression instilled me with no small amount of nervousness .

“What happened earlier reconfirms my weakness . As I am, traveling with Yuri is simply out of the question . Especially when you factor in that I’m an elf, I don’t know who all might end up targeting me .
“…That might be so . ”
“So, I’m thinking of revisiting the forest where I was born and raised . Would you come with me, Yuri?”

I can’t read the true intentions behind Phelia’s unexpected words .

“Tell me the reason . ”
“I’m pretty sure I told you before that my talent was [Mind Read], but…That, actually it was a lie . ”
“A lie?”

I have some doubts .
I was sure that Phelia had been able to read my thoughts a number of times, yet what’s this about it being a lie?

“The truth is it’s a talent called [Mind Probe] . Regardless of the target’s intentions, it allows me to freely read into the thoughts of surrounding creatures to determine their true nature and abilities and such . Well, right now I can’t use it, so you could almost say that it wasn’t actually a lie . ”

…Yeah, I don’t get it .
Recently there’s been all sorts of things I couldn’t keep up with . I must be skimping on my brain training .
I lightly touch my head while thinking that I should have done some more training even if it was only headbutting rocks .

“Sorry . I don’t really understand, so could you reorganize your thoughts and then try telling me?”

“I understand,” Phelia responded with a nod then began to explain her circumstances .

“I think I told you a while back that I was being avoided by my peers, but [Mind Read]…or rather [Mind Probe] wasn’t the cause . It was due to [Wind God] . I’m actually a Dual . ”

Phelia says and smiles .
I could spot just a tinge of loneliness in her expression .
I see, so the wind magic Wind God she showed at the Magic Fighting Tournament was a mock reproduction of her talent [Wind God] .
In that case, being a Dual seems like it should garner respect, shouldn’t it? No wait, maybe it’s too strong…?
Being shunned for being too strong would be understandable .

“It all started when one day my talent manifested . Yuri might not know of it, but we elves are almost all believers of the Wind God . The Wind God is a god who governs over nature in this world or simply put the god of the winds . The village chief considered that I, who had a talent such as [Wind God], was basically a blasphemer who besmirched the face of the Wind God whom we all revered, and so from then on, I began to be discriminated against in various ways . ”

Phelia spoke indifferently as if what she recounted had happened to someone else .
And so, it became clear that my thoughts earlier had completely missed the mark .
Even though it should be common knowledge that one’s own talents are not the sort of thing that one can choose .

“Well, I was surprised, you know . For everyone in the village, even including the mother and father who had been so kind up until that point, to just act like I didn’t exist was something I never could have imagined . Not to boast, but even among the elves, I’m a considerable beauty . Perhaps due to that, everyone in the village had been quite kind to me up until then, so I ended up extremely shocked . ”

Phelia smiles self-mockingly .

“At such a change in behavior, I asked, ‘Why? Just why?’ . They would only grimace and tell me, ‘Could you not talk to us please…?’ . Thus, I would think, ‘Ah, I shouldn’t have been born . '”

Suddenly, tears flowed from her eyes making her cheeks wet .
Phelia herself even seemed surprised as she wiped at her tears with her sleeve .

“Then…it was a year later, maybe? I was depressed, but one day an unusually large magic beast appeared in the forest . Even everyone from the village together couldn’t handle it, and when the village was moments away from total destruction, an S-rank adventurer who happened to pass by took the beast down in one strike . Witnessing such a feat, I was inspired . ‘I want to be like that’, I thought . Well, children really are quite simple, yeah?”

Perhaps taking notice of how heavy the mood had become, Phelia tried saying something light-hearted .


I must give my appreciation to that adventurer . It was thanks to them that I could meet Phelia, after all .

“I tried leaving the village without letting anyone know, but after getting caught by the village chief, I got scolded pretty harshly . Using some sort of box that apparently came from the corpse of the unusual magic beast, my [Wind God] was absorbed . As a side effect, my [Mind Probe] was degraded into [Mind Read] . Rather terrible, don’t you think?”
“It really is . ”
“Well, not like all of that would discourage me, the excellent beautiful girl elf . ”
“Don’t say it yourself . ”

Discouraged or not, it has nothing to do with your appearance, right?

“Ehehe . Well anyway, I thought I’d try waiting for another chance to escape . ”

So she was undeterred, huh .
Phelia was surprisingly resilient .

“But you know, with the Wind God sealed, for some reason…everyone’s attitude towards me changed . Well, simply put, things went back to before . How it was before Wind God manifested . ”

Phelia’s body trembled .

“That terrified me to the core . When an elf who wouldn’t even say a word to me yesterday would suddenly tell me, ‘Phelia is as cute as ever’, I got goosebumps . Well from their perspective, I who had relinquished the Wind God had atoned for my sin, or so I supposed was the reason . Anyway, I was scared . ”

That would be scary .

“So, I wound up running away . Without Wind God my wind magic was weakened, which made things difficult, but conversely, it seems like the village chief and the others didn’t think I would even try to escape without Wind God . Wind magic was inherently my specialty and the magic beasts of the forest were considerably strong, after all . ”
“So then you escaped the forest while flying, and that’s why you ended up lost, huh?”

“That’s right~”, Phelia says as she snaps her fingers .

“While I was overcome by a newfound sense of freedom, I strayed into an unfamiliar forest . ”

Tehee~, she knocked her hand against her head . Sly .

“Don’t just go ‘That’s right~’, are you some kind of idiot?”

Was she in any position to be calling me a muscle head? That sort of recklessness is no different than how I was today .

“To think a day would come when I would be called an idiot by Yuri…”

Phelia hung her head .
Perhaps because she had gotten everything that had been weighing on her mind out, she seemed to be back to her usual self .
I’m quite thankful . After all, I’m not good at encouraging others .

“So Phelia, does that mean you’re going back to the forest to regain those two talents?”
“Yes . Having [Mind Probe] and [Wind God] would raise my combat ability, to the point where I should be able to deal with something like what happened today with a greater margin of safety . ”

I see . Certainly if it’s for self-defense, it would be better to have those talents .

“If that’s what Phelia wants to do, I have no objections . So after we make our preparations, we’ll be heading to the forest where you lived then?”
“There’s just one problem . ”

Problem?

“What is it?”
“I don’t know the location . I had never left the forest before, and once I left I was caught up in my excitement and didn’t really pay attention to my surroundings . ”
“That’s…Doesn’t that make this basically impossible?”

It’s hard to get somewhere without knowing where it even is .

“Yes . ”
“What do you plan to do?”
“Please do something about it . ”
“…Don’t ask for the unreasonable . ”

No matter how much of an intelligent muscle I am, there’s nothing I can do . I mean, the only clue is that it’s a forest .

“For now, I want to try visiting forest areas . ”
“Okay, sure let’s do that . ”

We were done talking now that we had decided on our next course of action .
Phelia dives into bed while I start a handstand . The same as always, it’s our usual routine .

Yet, no matter how much time passes, I don’t hear the sound of her sleeping breath .
When I take a glance her way, the futon is trembling just a bit .
I become aware of my own naivete .

To be abducted and nearly made into a slave—There’s no way she wouldn’t be scared .
I stop my one-armed elbow lever for balance training and approach Phelia .

“I’m sorry, Yuri . I’m too scared to sleep…”

I take a hold of Phelia’s trembling hand .
Her body quivers for a moment, but eventually her tension eases .
Her hand is soft like a child’s and white as snow .
Though she might be able to use magic, Phelia is just an ordinary girl .
I regret my own thoughtlessness for not realizing that .

“Is it really okay for me to stay next to you even though I might get targeted?”
“Of course . You don’t need to worry and just stay with me . I’ll handle it . Whether it’s a brokkina or some thieves, I’ll take them all out in one hit . ”
“Thank you…so much . ”

Overcome with emotion, Phelia starts to tear up .
She ducks her head under the covers to try to keep me from seeing her crying face .

“And if for some reason you start feeling anxious, then you should take a look at my muscles . These fully trained pecs and biceps, just looking at them should put your mind at ease . Want to try touching them?”
“No…that’s okay . Really . Really, I’ll be alright . ”

My proposal was firmly rejected .
And here I had only the best of intentions . Even though just looking at these muscles should make your worries all but disappear .

Eventually some twenty minutes later, Phelia finally fell asleep .
Confirming she was out, I try to separate my hand, and yet Phelia who should be sleeping retains her grip .
In the end I remained by Phelia’s side through the entire night .