Volume 2, Chapter 1
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Found the river!」
One week after the infiltration of the forest. Hiroshi had identified the sound of water about 30 minutes ago before returning with good news of the river they had been searching for.
「How far away is it?」
「’Bout 20 minutes if ya go around all the obstructions. But we could probably cut straight through in 10 minutes.」
「Just a bit more, then.」
If it took 10 minutes to go straight there, then that meant it was about a kilometer away. This explained why they could not hear the murmuring of the stream.
「But wow, it took us a whole week to find the river～」
「Which river would have been faster to travel upstream?」
「The closest place was 200 kilometers on the other side, so I’m pretty sure you’d get lost before you arrived here.」
You could tell just by listening to Haruna and Makoto’s conversation how cumbersome it was to find a settlement within a gigantic forest like this.
「But don’t you think it’s weird that there are traces of people moving through this deep forest?」
「Teres told me that adventurer-like merchants come ’round once a month. Maybe it’s them?」
「But can you make this much progress in a single month?」
「Even the elves git out twice a month to buy various things. The merchants prolly come ’round then.」
Even with plenty of salt, water, and food supplies, sometimes it was just easier to travel along the road to nearby towns to buy things. Maybe harvests didn’t always go as planned. The elves generally bought things based on how quickly they could get them or how much they had, so they hadn’t quite reached regular trade with humans, more content with supplying themselves as much as possible.
「Anyhow, now that we know people were wandering around here and that there’s a river, it can’t be much longer. Let’s give it our all.」
Everyone nodded at Haruna, trudging onward with hardly any space. Incidentally, the greatest reason for taking a week to get to this point was because they had messed up their directions several times. Teres had said it would take as much as 4 days, so you can imagine how much of a blunder they made.
Usually, wasting as much time as this would sow discord within the group, but as none of them were actually good at recognizing this fact, no fights occurred. At most, they grumbled about wanting to eat fish or how they had grown tired of the forest. Despite searching for an indistinct road on foot, they were still as nonchalant as ever. It was doubtful that they’d run into any issues.
「……I hear a stream.」
「Just a lil bit more.」
Hiroshi responded to Tatsuya, and 3 minutes later they saw a river. It was fairly big, with a width of 10 meters.
「Whoa～」
「What a pretty river～」
「Welp, this is a good time for lunch.」
Everyone agreed with Hiroshi and got to spreading sheets and preparing food.
「Think we should git some river fish?」
「If you can, yeah. I don’t want birds, snakes, rabbits, tanukis, or bugs anymore.」
「Alright. After lunch then.」
No one was concerned about how much time they had lost. Sure, there wasn’t any time limit per say, but couldn’t they be a bit more anxious?
「Wonder what we’ll find.」
「Doesn’t seem like y’all want bugs used as bait, so I’ll try ‘n make a lure.」
「I don’t think we’ll ever get out of this pattern, will we……」
Hiroshi had a habit of making things from scratch no matter the situation. You could tell how passionate he was, reflected in his handicraft. In all honesty, maybe him and Mio should stay in this world.
「We could even swim. That sounds fun, but……」
「It’s still a bit cold. I advise you don’t.」
「Yeah.」
Everyone figured they might as well fish. After finishing a tanuki sandwich, the Japanese gathered around the river holding the fishing rods Hiroshi had made off the cuff.
「Some of these fish have colors that don’t seem very tropical……」
Makoto blurted out after fishing up a metallic blue fish. It was quite the catch, with a size of 80 centimeters, but its color made her question if it was edible and she couldn’t really celebrate.
By the way, the thread Hiroshi had used to make these poles with was spirit thread. Despite being a legendary material, there was tons of it, so he slovenly used it for things like this even though there were probably better uses for it.
「Shocking pink is still passable, but I sure as heck ain’t seen lavender fish.」
「Think it tastes good?」
「Won’t know till we eat it.」
Everyone had nonchalant discussions as they hauled in fairly good fish. Amongst the normal fish like rainbow trout, salmon, and char were strange colored fish like shocking pink or lavender, in addition to fish that didn’t even look like fish.
Then again, what with how they were using makeshift lures, maybe even the normal fish like salmon and char weren’t the same as they were in Japan.
「What now? I feel we did pretty well……」
「Yeah. We’re gonna keep movin’ up the river anyway. Wanna call it a day?」
「Yeah. So are all these edible?」
「……What is a sea anemone doing here……」
「It has tail fins, pectoral fins, and dorsal fins, so it’s probably a fish, but……」
They saw strange-looking fish a little more often than they would like and gradually stopped talking. Some of them looked intimidating by inflating to around the size of Haruna’s face.
「I say we dissect ’em before eatin’.」
「You think they’d have useful materials?」
「Won’t know till I open ’em. Just feels like somethin’s tellin’ me to check ’em out.」
Hiroshi said as he worked on them gracefully, cutting through them in a flowing motion. After he took out several sections, he buried the remainder.
「Anything that looked useful?」
「Actually yeah, there was a portion that could be used for soma.」
「Sensei, what do you mean soma?」
「It’s a type of alcohol for the gods and has some crazy effects.」
「……That sounds awesome……」
「Well, the other ingredients’re only found in the Sea of Existence, so it ain’t like it’s that simple.」
Makoto gave a strange look when she heard that. The Sea of Existence was made up of the liquid from the pupas in the cocoons from which they had taken a large quantity of spirit thread.
「Well for now let’s just collect all these parts ‘n lock ’em up in storage.」
Hiroshi said as he did just that. It was fantastic to think they had come across such a rare item, and they intended to keep things that way.
「It’s very like you to get lucky and win rare items like these, Haruna. Great job.」
「Not really sure if that counts as a compliment or not……」
Tatsuya burst out laughing at Haruna’s comment on Makoto’s praise. Haruna did in fact have overwhelming luck. Other than how she was flung into a world, everything had worked out to her benefit after the berserk bear had attacked, allowing her to meet up with so many people.
With that being said, she was also the kind of person to come up with literally nothing, so rather than saying she had luck of the draw, it was more precise to say that when she scored big, she scored big, and when she lost, she lost hard.
「I think we’re fine right now, but it’d be bad to have rain fallin’ down on us, so let’s move a bit furtger away along the river.」
Hiroshi proposed after finishing up with the fish, looking over at them.
「Does it seem rainy?」
「Can’t say for sure. But it hasn’t rained all week. It’d be wise to anticipate it.」
「……Alright then.」
The sky was currently a beautiful blue, but weather always is a fickle thing. Even for Japan, whose weather forecasting of the 21st century was fairly spot-on, unexpected things happened more than you would think. It was impossible to completely accurately predict the weather in this satellite-less world.
「Think you have the path along the river memorized well enough?」
「I pretty much do, plus there’s a distinct path, so no worries.」
He said, turning back a bit and indicating a hardened area of land that was difficult to differentiate from the rest of the land around it once you could no longer see the river. Needless to say, no matter how long they’d been at this, Majoto, Haruna, and Tatsuya did not clearly remember the way back to their camping ground from the previous day. The paths were much too similar.
「I think we just need to pass through here.」
「How can you or Mio even find these indistinct paths……」
「Cause otherwise we’d never level up our harvestin’.」
Hiroshi said to Tatsuya with a faraway expression. Even in the game, he had struggled with recognizing paths like these. It had truly been a daunting experience trying to even go get materials a step above the rest solely because of the roads.
「This is unrelated, but it looks like there are other humanoid settlements as well, y’all.」
「On what basis?」
「Too many traces of them to be just wanderin’ humans. We’re talkin’ quite the frequency here.」
「Oh really now?」
It was unlikely that elves would go all the way out here on a three day walk just to hunt. Maybe there was more than one elf settlement, but if that were the case then there would have to be more elves visiting these other towns. If there was actually another village nearby, it was unlikely that there would be just one person coming to-and-fro twice a month. In the first place, elves had a long lifespan and not as many members in their race, so they couldn’t make too many villages.
With that information in hand and the quantity of side paths, there was a high probability that there were other races who counted this area as part of their territory.
「So. I don’t recall precisely what race they are since they don’t come out often, but who do y’all think they most likely are?」
「Mm～、could definitely be goblins.」
「Or maybe beast-people of some sort?」
「Maybe even ogres.」
Once they had listed off the typical forest-dwellers, Mio spoke up.
「I don’t think that ogres or forest giants are in this area.」
「Why’s that?」
「There’s no trace of creatures that size.」
「Oh, I get what you mean.」
Tatsuya knew exactly what Mio was saying. Ogres were more than 2 meters tall, while forest giants were more than 3 meters tall on average. There would be a lot more open space if creatures of that size were roaming around.
「I think goblins are the likeliest out of this group.」
「Yup.」
「Plus Nora did mention that most beast people live fairly close to human settlements.」
「That’s because Farlane is a kind country to all races.」
Farlane was a peace-loving country when it came to other races, and there were not typically instances of discrimination or expulsion. As long you did as the Romans do in Rome, no personal fights would ever lead to villages or towns agitating for expulsion.
As a result, you were practically guaranteed to find multiple races in bigger towns. In Wulls, even races with scarce populations like elves or mora could make colonies if they wanted to. Then again, it was also true that populations of less than a thousand weren’t much to brag about.
「What’re goblins like in this world?」
「In the game, they looked as you might expect, albeit closer to regular people in terms of personality. There were ones acting as active monsters, but there were also ones that were friendly NPCs.」
Haruna answered Makoto’s question. As fiercely dedicated to the battlefield as she was, Makoto had not had the opportunity to encounter goblins.
「You’ve had quests like that before, Haruna?」
「Yeah. Multiple times.」
In other words, the goblins in Fairy Tale Chronicles Online were close to fairies. In other games, goblin extermination missions tended to appear in the prologue, but this was not the case in Fairy Tale Chronicles. There weren’t even all that many opportunities to fight goblins as active monsters. Even if you did encounter goblins, it was generally as part of a different mission that involved going through their territory. As no one knew their language, everyone tended to wipe them all out.
Digressing a bit, there had actually been an online discussion board geared towards players who had become on friendly terms with NPC goblins and wanted to learn their language. There had actually been quite a number of people who had stood up for the goblin race after hearing them lament the destruction of their homes. As a result, a decent amount of players had learned the language and tragedies had decreased by a significant amount. For a game that had been particularly harsh toward craftsmen, it was oddly pastoral in this regard.
「Well, how about we check it out just in case?」
「Check what out?」
「Can everyone speak the goblin language?」
Everyone knew where Hiroshi was going with this when he said that. They made their personal statements in order.
「I never learned it.」
「Me neither.」
「I can speak it.」
「I can also speak it.」
「Annnd that perfectly aligns with our combatant group and non-combatant group.」
Everyone grimaced at what Hiroshi said. It was as clear as day where they had each allocated their resources to.
「Then what about the elven language?」
「From what Teres said, they can all speak the standard Farlane speech.」
「……That’s odd.」
「Hey, don’t ask me, man.」
Elves in this world were different in the strangest little ways. Nothing particularly important, but that still made them taken aback.
「Well, whatever. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. Time to pick up the pace.」
「Alright.」
They started moving faster as prompted by Tatsuya. They didn’t even bother to hide the sound of their footsteps, as it was simply too much to think about. As they rushed past all sorts of strangely colored vegetation, they simply looked back at it as they rushed forward without even questioning whether they were going the right way or not.
The scream was heard two days after they had gone upstream, in the afternoon.
「Hiroshi-kun, Mio-chan.」
「Mm, I heard it.」
「Sounds like a female voice.」
They answered Haruna before identifying the direction of the scream, re-brandishing their weapons and changing course. They seemed to be one of the presences that Hiroshi and Mio had sensed. While shaking for more reasons than one, Hiroshi standing valiantly at the vanguard ended up being a bit pitiable. They didn’t seem to be too far from their target. With a full-on sprint, it would take only a minute.
At the place in question, they could see the aforementioned blonde female bound hand and foot between ivy and branches, soon to be engulfed by a big tree.
「Oh crap!」
「Get the heck over there!」
Getting into a big panic in a situation that did not allow for delay, Hiroshi decided to start out by activating Outface as he threw a handaxe at the tree. Makoto used her novice long-distance sword skill, Sonic Slash in order to cut off the ivy. The handaxe cut through the ivy at their feet, and Sonic Slash sliced through the upper half of the ivy that had the female in its grip.
「Hiro, any ingredients we can glean from it?」
Confirming that their first attack had rescued the female, Tatsuya decided to ask Hiroshi. Before the female could fall to the ground, Haruna had used acceleration magic in order to quickly move over there and retrieve her before promptly withdrawing.
「It’s ’bout two ranks higher than most wood.」
Hiroshi answered Tatsuya as he approached the tree with his pole axe. This pole axe happened to be one that Hiroshi had remade from the materials that Layotte had provided. When Layotte had heard from Rayna about Makoto’s apprehensions, he had decided that nothing else would do, forcing them to take along magic iron and mythril, even going so far as to update their smelting furnace.
「Then we’d better not burn it.」
「Plus it might spread fire, mate. Best not to.」
「Then I guess we can just burn the roots or something.」
Tatsuya said as he proceeded to cut the roots to pieces with earth-style offense magic. Once the effects had gone, Hiroshi made a hearty swing with his pole axe and pounded it into the base of the roots.
Having just sliced into one-third of the base, the pole axe made a hearty sound as it came back for more to the exact same spot. If this were a sword, even if someone of Makoto’s prowess were to use it, not even a regular attack could go this far. Axe-type weapons were the most suitable weapons against tree monsters.
「You just don’t know when to quit.」
Mio said with an expressionless face as she shot the ivy that was scrambling at Hiroshi with a wind-clad arrow, felling it. Not even a second later, Hiroshi pounded in the last attack, finally felling the entire miasma-transformed tree with a resounding crash.
「We got some wood, y’all!」
「Oi!」
Hiroshi was overjoyed as he lopped off branch after branch, momentarily forgetting their objective. Tatsuya interjected mercilessly with his staff.
「Umm, hello? We need to first see if the person is okay.」
「But I thought that Haruna-san was takin’ care of that.」
「I realize that, but don’t you think it’s polite to at least ACT like you’re concerned?」
Not only had Tatsuya objected to his behavior, but now Makoto was objecting as well. Hiroshi agreed with painful reluctance as he followed them to the female. By the time she could be completely seen, Haruna and Mio had taken nearly all of the ivy off, revealing her beautiful form for all to see.
As expected, the female was an elf. Her pointy ears proved this. Her hair had unraveled in this scuffle, spreading out blonde, soft, thread-like hair that was thinner than Haruna’s. Unusual for an elf, her large, drooping eyes were a green color, fitting in perfectly with the folk of the forest. Judging from the shape of her face, she felt a bit on the young side, but definitely not younger than Mio or Aearis.
However, her most remarkable characteristic was not her face. It was those ridiculous proportions, uncharacteristic of an elf. She was still in line with the average elf with her tall stature and dainty body, but that protrusion pushing up the chest area of her grass-colored clothing was unmistakably superior to that of Haruna’s. Perhaps because it had caught onto the branch or because of Makoto’s attack grazed her shirt, it was dangerously torn in the chest area, from which ripe, forbidden fruit seemed like it would fall out at any moment. Tatsuya didn’t know where to look.
As Tatsuya was looking around awkwardly, Hiroshi was shivering in the corner of the room, making a face like he was begging for his life. For some reason, he and Makoto were both gazing intensely at the elf. There was no lust in Hiroshi’s eyes, but rather, fury at something unbelievable he had just witnessed. His gaze was actually a bit unpleasant, like the preamble of an apocalypse.
「U-Umm……」
Although she didn’t quite like the gazes that either of them had, the silence was also a bit too much to handle, and the elf had decided to open her mouth and express thanks when Hiroshi and Makoto cut through what she was about to say.
「Apologize……! Apologize to Tolkien!!」
「Would you quit it?!」
At the same time that Hiroshi and Makoto had suddenly spurted out nonsense, Tatsuya silenced them in a slapstick fashion. Meanwhile, the elf had no idea how to react to this sudden demand for an apology.
「But elves are supposed to have less chest armor!」
「Elves are only elves if they’re tall ‘n flat as a washin’ board! Big or gigantic juggers are outta the question!」
「Still, this isn’t the time or place to discuss that!」
「Tatsu, isn’t that essentially a roundabout way of agreeing with them?」
「No!」
After Mio made an unwanted comment, the conversation further derailed into a vicious argument. As she shook her head at them, Haruna decided to forcefully steer the conversation onto the right track.
「I could care less about whether elves have big or small breasts. Let’s just hear what she has to say.」
Feeling a bit off-put about Haruna’s comment as well, the elf girl decided to first hide her breast area before expressing her gratitude. When Haruna saw this, she took out a spare upper garment and put it over her.
「U-Umm, thank you!」
「No worries. We just happened to be passing by.」
「Welp, more like we wandered here.」
The elf girl and her timid tone, Haruna and her laugh as she responded, and last of all Hiroshi, who casually and bluntly remarked on their situation.
「Wandered, you say?」
「Yup. Just a lil visit to an elf village, or more precisely, an errand with the temple of the forest god……」
「The side paths were more numerous than we thought, and now we’re relatively lost.」
The elf girl thought about it for a bit.
「Umm, if you might be so kind as to inform me of what errand you have with the temple?」
「We thought we could get in contact with the forest god, Aranwen-sama if we went to the temple. Is that right?」
「Aranwen-sama, you say……」
The elf made a rather mixed expression at Haruna’s words. Haruna continued with a worried expression.
「Oh, is it bad to want to meet with Aranwen-sama?」
「Umm, not necessarily. It’s more like I can’t make a judgment on this……」
「Do we need the permission of a higher-up?」
「Yes. If you had come around 30 years sooner, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but a lot has happened as of late.」
It struck them immediately with how different time was for elves with that statement about 30 years being recent. But that was to be expected from the longest living race in this world.
「Have tensions increased with outsiders? Maybe we shouldn’t be here……」
「Oh, no no. Humans don’t come nearly enough for that to happen.」
「Yeah, wouldn’t expect them to……」
Tatsuya couldn’t help but agree with the elf. No one generally entered this area unless you were as whimsical as they were. It was probably impossible to rouse a problem on a wide scale with outside relations even if you wanted to.
「In that case, would it be alright if you escorted us to the village?」
「Yes. In fact, we greatly welcome you.」
The elf’s eyes glinted as she declared this to Haruna. You couldn’t possibly mistake that for anything other than welcoming them.
「Then does that mean we won’t have to walk along the animal trails for a while?」
「Yeah, does it?」
「If you were to line up the extent of human technology with ours, there would not be a significant difference, or so I have heard.」
「So that means there are plenty of easy roads to walk?」
「Yes.」
Haruna’s face became happier as she heard this. Even she had grown tired of constantly walking along the difficult animal trails. She had not become weary due to having access to a portable bath and massage chair, but she was now longing for the scenery, culture, and scent of civilization.
「Oh, right.」
「What is it?」
「We haven’t introduced ourselves yet, have we?」
「Ahh! That’s right!!」
Both of them had personalities that meshed so well together that they had completely forgotten about introductions.
「Terribly sorry. My name is Archem. I am the daughter of Meza and Leichem of Alt Ortem.」
「Alt Ortem?」
Tatsuya made a puzzled face when he heard this strange introduction. The others also didn’t really seem to get what she meant.
「Alt Ortem is an old Elvish word meaning “the oldest land in Ortem”. Simply think of it as the name of my hometown.」
「You don’t have a surname or family name?」
「Even Ortem, the biggest amongst the elf villages, only has around 5,000 households, so it’s generally easy to tell who lives where and who’s related to who. Also, the children are essentially raised by the village as a collective whole, so everyone generally knows each other.」
「Oh, I see.」
While being a bit astonished at how there were more than 5,000 households in this forest, Haruna managed to understand the system. Unlike dwarves, their lifespan was long, which also meant they were more lax about having children. This scale alone was impressive.
Incidentally, Teres happened to also have the same kind of naming, but as it was nearly meaningless in human towns, she merely shortened it into the more suitable format of Teres Farm. Hiroshi and the others also wondered why they had introduced themselves in a different manner, but had figured it was something along those lines and let it slide.
「Uhh, my name’s Toudou Haruna. Toudou is my family name and Haruna is my personal name. Everyone here has the same type of name. And this mature-looking man over here is Katsuki Tatsuya-san. He’s the only married one. The other male here is Azuma Hiroshi-kun, and the shorter-haired female is Mizoguchi Makoto-san. The youngest one here is Mizubashi Mio-chan.」
Hiroshi and the others followed suit in introducing themselves. When she heard each of their names, the elf mumbled them silently in order to match it with their faces before reconfirming all of this and bowing her head in relief.
「Well then, we’re all done with the introductions, so now it’s straight sailing to the elf village!」
「Hold it mate.」
They were all pumped up when Hiroshi had to interrupt.
「What is it?」
「Still haven’t finished with this hunter tree. C’mon, I ain’t just gonna leave such a fine quality wood lyin’ here.」
Everyone simply groaned at Hiroshi as he grinned, holding up a hatchet and handaxe. They ended up leaving about 15 minutes later than planned.
「Who ever thought there’d be such a splendid village inside this forest……」
「Don’t you think this place is actually bigger in scale than Leite Village?」
Upon reaching the Elf Village, which took an hour with the guidance of Archem, everyone couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
「You know, I never saw elves as being involved in agriculture, but this place is totally a farming village, isn’t it……」
「Darn skippy. Plus it feels like the good ‘ol mountain villages of Japan.」
They exclaimed as they looked at the vast fields. From what they could see, the field in front of them had already been harvested from, so it wasn’t possible to tell what had been growing there. The fields in this area, in fact, were all merely organized neatly but without anything growing. Judging from this fact, it was reasonable to assume that all winter harvests had been collected, or otherwise, that they were either letting the fields rest or planning to grow crops from summer to fall.
Maybe not so much for potatoes, beans, or wheat, but planting corn in the given area would no doubt make harvest quite troublesome. After all, the corn that was generally cultivated in Farlane happened to also be a plant-type monster. With that being said, much like pom, it was not carnivorous and was quite capable of becoming docile given a certain amount of time. Then again, it was different from pom in that it normally took its time spreading its roots, like any other plant.
So yes, corn plants were not only docile, but grew well in wastelands, yielded much harvest, and were easy to cultivate. However, when harvest season came, the plants would start trotting around on their own, attempting to run around and find new lands to multiply. Since they resisted fairly violently whenever you would try and grab them, only people with a decent amount of training could hope to avoid their wrath. Quite honestly, getting slapped by branches hurt intensely when lightly clothed.
Then again, it was always possible that there were non-monster corn crops and that Hiroshi and the others had yet to find them.
「What’re you growing in these fields?」
「Well in this area, we generally grow beans and roots. There are always stragglers who attempt to escape, so there’s always a big commotion twice per year.」
「The…beans try to run away? Or the root vegetables?」
「Both of those crops have several varieties. The worst of them all are the big oro roots, because they run away quickly.」
Big oro roots were big roots that split down the middle about 5 centimeters in. Unlike the regular roots, these ones had a unique sweetness to them that made them a good combination with corsomme or shellfish. Put it in Terona and you’d get yourself a great flavor, so it was a popular ingredient for winter meals. Apparently it was best to raise it in a comparatively warmer region, and in the case of Farlane, it was raised in the southern regions. However, at least in the case of Haruna and Tatsuya, they did not know it was a plant-type monster.
「It’s purty darn surreal to see them big roots restlessly runnin’ ‘round.」
「It sure is……」
The big roots would run restlessly around the snow, busily moving their short legs all the while. It was quite the surreal sight. Although snow only ever piled up two or three times a year, there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t pile up in harvest season. Therefore, they would probably lay their eyes on this sight once every few years.
「Seriously, it’s a lot of work to harvest when snow has piled up……」
「I take it you’ve experienced this more than just once……」
「Once was more than enough……」
Tatsuya couldn’t help but send a sympathizing gaze at Archem as she sighed, clearly fed up.
「In addition, we have revve beans, and you would not believe how violent some of them become year-round. Our stock just keeps going down because of all the beans they start throwing around, and it’s always when we’re wearing lighter clothing, which seriously hurts……」
Who would have thought that Archem could talk so much about farming? Agriculture over here also seemed to be quite the hassle.
「Revve, ya say? Well if I be darned. That’s some harsh stuff to grow.」
「Well, revve is very compatible with winter vegetables, and although it may lose to big beans, it still has excellent nutrition and harvest amounts. It’s just that those attacks are nothing to laugh about……」
「Ever try steel plates?」
「I don’t even want to think about using such hot, heavy objects for farm work in the middle of summer……」
Archem grumbled, and Hiroshi didn’t blame her. He had also cultivated some back in the game, and thankfully, he had already gained plenty of HP and defense, so he was able to harvest without taking any damage from the cannon fire of those beans. With that being said, the procedures, time needed for growth, and everything else was so different compared to the game that there wasn’t much point in remembering such things.
「Still, who would’ve thought that elves were an agricultural society……」
「What did you think they were?」
「I thought they were a race that primarily hunted and gathered, coexisting with the forest as their leader.」
「You can’t be serious. Even if this is a fruitful, abundant forest, you could hardly call the elven race one of the supposed “great” powers if that was all our lifestyle consisted of.」
「Can’t deny that……」
What Archem had been saying had truly put a dent in Tatsuya’s perception of the fantasy genre, but he couldn’t help but agree. The life of a narrow-minded hermit was sustainable precisely because of their scarcity in number. Although this village only numbered in the 10 thousands, the total population of elves in the world numbered over a million. There was no way that all elves could survive merely off of the blessings of the forest.
In a sense, this Japan-esque mountain village lifestyle could be seen as essential.
「Besides, even this village required steady cultivation and richening of the soil in order to restore places that couldn’t initially grow plants. We had to work patiently, little by little in order to avoid hindering the forest before expanding.」
「Well that’s purty straightforward……」
「Y’know, this is just destroying my image of elves more and more……」
All the Japanese people fully agreed with Makoto. In actuality, their perception of what elves were like was also shared by other races. In that sense, maybe these elves were the ones who were strange.
「……Hm?」
As they were chit-chatting about things like agricultural crops, normal life, and the structure of the village, Hiroshi suddenly displayed interest in something along the side of the farm road.
「What is it?」
「That corner over there looks a mite interestin’. Whaddya think?」
「What……」
Frowning at the sudden question, Tatsuya observed the section that Hiroshi was pointing at. After a brief moment, he understood what Hiroshi had found so interesting, an expression of astonishment on his face.
「H-Hey, Archem……」
「Yes, what is it?」
「What kind of crop do you have growing over there……?」
「Ah, yes, that’s our staple food, raas wheat.」
While a bit dejected at how simple the answer was, Tatsuya still wanted to press on.
「And what kind of crop is this raas wheat?」
「Umm, what kind, indeed……」
Archem pondered how to answer Tatsuya’s question. It was supposedly wheat, but was shaped differently from regular wheat when it was ripe. It would be difficult to explain without a side-by-side comparison.
「Ah, yes. The lunch that I didn’t get to eat earlier was a raas ball, so I’ll show you that.」
As she was wondering how to explain it, she had remembered her lunch from earlier, clapping her hands together. She then took out a leaf-wrapped rice ball from a preservation bag, opening it up to show everyone.
「I thought so!」
「It’s here! It’s finally here!!」
「This is……Unbelievable……!」
「No way……! I can’t believe this……!」
「They actually cultivated it here!」
Archem was taken aback at the reactions they made. But of course. After all, her lunch happened to be a salted japonica rice ball.
「Umm, is there something odd about this raas wheat?」
「See, that stuff’s called rice back where we live and is our staple food. But I ain’t never seen it cultivated in Farlane.」
「Ah, is that so. But you don’t refer to it as wheat?」
「Wheat ‘n rice’re crops with purty different attributes, so in our hometown they’re treated differently.」
Archem made a puzzled face. Apparently elves could not see a discernible difference between wheat and rice. They were both part of the poaceae family, though, so in that sense they weren’t wrong.
As they were having a heated Q&A, someone ran up to them along the path behind them, making a loud metallic noise as they did so.
「Archem! ＠※＞＜＄＃％＆!?」
「Chett?」
Archem turned around with a puzzled look on her face in response to the voice of a young male elf she knew very well, wearing full-plate armor like that of Douga. He rattled on in a language that Tatsuya and Makoto couldn’t understand. His face was that of your typical handsome elf, but the neck peeking out of his armor was exaggeratingly big. He must have a massive body.
「Chett, we have guests, so could you switch to Farlane?」
「I-It be rude of me, noble visitors. Govejon-san say somethin’ about a hunter tree blockin’ the way from the village, so I be searchin’ frantically for you, Archem. I be glad that you’re safe! The hunters who went out searchin’ found only hunter tree remains and your bow on the ground, I was worried, worried……!」
The handsome elf spoke in a stiff Farlane accent. Especially when he said the word “Govejon”. That sounded to them like “Goblin” and they couldn’t unhear it. The moment he had finished speaking, Hiroshi and Makoto could no longer contain their suppressed emotions of shock, screaming.
「Apologize……! Apologize to……!!」
「I said shuddup!!」
Although their voices were simply stifled the next moment when Tatsuya silenced them like a pin needle.
「Oh? So you be wanting a talk with Aranwen-sama.」
「Yes. Hence why we’re seeking permission from someone in charge.」
Despite having yelled at him a moment earlier, Makoto was now conversing with Chett like normal. Whenever she would explain about things like the reason they came to the village or how they rescued Archem, the elves would express their gratitude again and again, making her feel strangely sweltering.
After Hiroshi and Makoto were forced to keep their mouths shut, Chett whistled, and then burly elves had surrounded the place. Their build was so massive that it was hard to believe they were elves, and they overwhelmed the place. Their faces did not match their bodies.
「But I be really grateful to ya!」
「Archem be the youngest girl in all of Alte Ortem. I-If I ever seen ‘er get swallowed by a hunter tree, why I, why I!!」
「Hey, it’s okay.」
Makoto comforted him with a grimace on her face, a bit fed up with all this tear-ridden elves. For whatever reason, she was the most popular girl with the elves. Her face was young and had beautiful form, in addition to how she spoke like an older person. But despite being surrounded by all these elves, she didn’t try and scream again.
「Oh right, you said that she’s the youngest in Alte Ortem, but are there any other children?」
「Aye. There be about a hundred o’them in the entire village.」
「It just be that the last child to be born be fifty years ago. And that child be now finally able to have children.」
「And that’s Archem? Wow, that’s been a while.」
「Cause elves be havin’ a long lifespan, eh? But that also ends up makin’ the body take a while to mature as well. Sure, ye can get pregnant at 12 years of age, but the body isn’t properly ready till much later than them humans or beastmen.」
Apparently there wasn’t any difference between elves and the other races for the minimum amount of maturation. Having a long period of weakness as a youth was a risk that affected the entire race. In that respect, it wasn’t all that strange to have secondary sexual characteristics occur earlier.
「So you could freely travel to and from the temple 30 years ago, right?」
「Aye. There wasn’t any funny grass growin’ at that time.」
The middle-aged, young-looking elf gave a curt response to Haruna’s new topic.
「Funny grass? So the reason you need permission to go into the temple……」
「Aye aye. Carnivorous plants started growin’ over there and ye can’t enter lest ye know how to protect yerself.」
「We tried expellin’ them but they reproduce hella fast.」
「We even tried usin’ weed killer on ’em an they just adapted.」
Everyone gaped. If these massive elves couldn’t even handle these carnivorous plants then they must be quite tough.
「Well, we’re almost at the chief’s house, so ye can hear the rest from them.」
「Kaaay.」
They replied as their destination came into view. This house did seem a bit bigger than the other ones. If they were meeting there then this must be the house of the chief who ruled the village.
「I leave the rest to ye Archem.」
「We’re gonna let ’em know of yer safety and the safe arrival of guests.」
「Tonight’s a welcome party for ye’all.」
「Gotta tell Govejon-san as well.」
They all said, scattering in various directions with no apparent caution for outsiders.
「They sure are trusting……」
「It’s rare we get visitors, so it’s always fun when we do……」
「I notice you don’t really have an accent.」
「That’s because I’m in charge of outside negotiations.」
Or at least that was what she claimed, but sometimes Mio noticed her slip when talking to the elves.
「Anyhow, I’ll let the chief know about this. Could you wait a moment?」
「Okay, thank you.」
After about a minute, several figures emerged from the house.
「Apologies, my visitors. Feet just don’t work how they used ta.」
An aging male elf came out from the house. You could say his head resembled that of a kappa. His cheeks had excess skin to where it looked like they were dripping off. And what really set the deal was his beer belly, completely different from what they thought elves to be like.
「Apolo……!」
「Give it a rest!」
Sure, he did somewhat agree, but Tatsuya once again shut them up.
「Sensei. That is unrelated to what we came for.」
「Right, sorry. Kinda just came to me.」
Hiroshi made a genuine apology while the people who had scolded him found themselves at a loss for words since they understood where he was coming from.
「Anyhow, gotta discuss somethin’ with ya.」
「And what be that?」
After Hiroshi had regained his composure and spoke, the elder who had heard the gist from Archem spoke back while giving him an evaluating glance.
「Y’know that raas wheat that we call rice? Couldja help us spread the cultivation knowledge throughout Farlane?」
「We’re not here to discuss THAT!」
Hiroshi suddenly diverted from the group’s original objective, and Makoto, who had generally been on his side, burst out at him. The elves simply looked at these foreigners in confusion.