"There is something wrong with this house. Heck, there is something wrong with this whole village. It is far too quiet out here for my liking."
Shimi could not keep her words to herself anymore. She needed to tell the grandmaster what she was feeling. Maybe her weird feeling was being mirrored by the Grandmaster as well.
"Hmm, I will have to agree with you regarding this topic. This village does seem to have a problem. The lack of people is making me worried."
Once the grandmaster had pointed that out, Shimi instantly knew why he was feeling this weird feeling. It was because the Shimi had never seen the village this empty before.
When she had lived here in the past, this village was always filled with people. People liked to point at her and ridicule her for things she could not control on her own.
But now that she was back, she had yet to see even a single soul coming close to her. And this quietness caused Shimi to shiver.
"I…this place does feel emptier than it used to before. Maybe something did happen here."
It was an impossible thought to phantom. Especially since the elf village was surrounded by the elf forest. And that forest was impossible to navigate without proper aid.
"Let's go inside and see what is wrong."
The pair finally entered the main house. And the grandmaster snapped his finger to signal his arrival.
As expected, Master Hana's worried footsteps arrived outside in a matter of seconds. She bowed down to greet the Grandmaster.
"Greetings, Grandmaster. I was waiting for you. As you might have noticed, this place is in dire need of your help."
Shimi was annoyed when she was ignored by Master Hana. but she tried not to take the insult personally since there were more important things to worry about.
And she was also curious how Master Hana had managed to find her way to this village. As far as Shimi knew, Master Hana did not have anyone to guide her this way.
"Grandmaster, as you already know, our branch of the guild alliance has dealings with the elves. But for some months, they stopped replying to our messages. So, I decided to have a look at the village directly. And I found the village like this."
'By this' Shimi must mean that she found the village to be empty. It was a shame that the village had no elf or anyone else to explain what happened.
"Do you know how long this village has been like this? Elves do not like to generally leave their territory. So, I doubt they left voluntarily."
Shimi added her wisdom. As a half-elf, she was qualified to say all this. She knew her race better than anyone else.
Meanwhile, the Grandmaster had a complicated expression on his face. He seemed to be deep in thought and Shimi wanted to know what he was thinking about.
......
Elf village was different from what Keith imagined it to be.
It looked a little primitive and lacked the most basic human technology, but there was a comfortable feeling that surrounded the village.
Since Keith was already here, he decided to look around. How could the whole village disappear like this without a clue?
But he was sure that Master Hana had conducted her investigation already. And if she had not found anything, how could Keith possibly hope to find anything?
He was about to give up when he felt someone looking at him. This paranoia was raising its ugly head and Keith instantly picked up a nearby decoration and threw it toward the direction of that gaze.
Keith had now thrown the decoration with as much accuracy as possible, but he was not trained to throw things.
So, it missed its mark and ended up smashing into the wall just beside where he had felt the feeling of those eyes.
"Grandmaster, is everything alright? I saw you throwing the decoration so I got worried that something might be wrong with you-"
Shimi was startled, not noticing the extra presence in the room. But Master Hana's sharp gaze did not miss the flash of blond at the corner.
"A person? How did I miss the presence of a person? Maybe because it was not strong and hostile until now? But do not worry. I will go and check up on the situation right now."
Master Hana stretched her hand and then made weird hand motions. Soon, a small figure came out of the corner where Keith had sensed a human presence.
Everyone was taken aback when they first noticed the small child. Familiar blond hair and blue eyes on a familiar face.
It was almost as if they were looking back at s younger Shimi.
They all could not help but look at Shimi and then back at the child in front of them. The resemblance was uncanny.
"W-What are you all looking at? I m-mean, how dare you look at my supreme self like that? You shall be punished for this ordeal. I-I will punish you."
The child was shaking in her place. Her body looked seconds away from falling unconscious and the lack of energy also seemed evident in the child.
There was a weird sound the child emitted and a blush covered her face. If not for her hasty action of covering her stomach, Keith would have never guessed that the child was hungry.
"Hey child, are you alright? I do not think you should stay here anymore. It does not feel safe for you."
Hana tried to coax the child out of her frozen state but it had the opposite effect on the child.
Instead of looking calmer, the child looked tenser for some reason. She looked at Hana with suspicion filling her eyes.
"W-Who are you? How did you get to this place? You are no elf and-"
And then the child saw Shimi and let out a startled yell.
"G-Ghost. You are a ghost, right? M-Mother is dead. And Dead people cannot come back to life."
The child was shaking in her place. Looking at her made Keith feel sorry for her. In the end, he signaled for Shimi to take care of the younger.
Shimi did not look happy, but she had also guessed what kind of relationship she shared with this kid.
"You are right. Dead cannot come back to life. And I am not 'mother' but your half-sister. I think you would have heard about me. My name is Shimi."
The elf-child finally calmed down once she heard Shimi's name.
Suddenly, the fear the child felt turned into ridicule as she looked at Shimi's form.
"I know you. You are the 'disgrace' mother always talked about. She said not to talk to you and ignore you if I ever saw you. But you just look like an elf to me. Why did Mother say all that to me? Did she not like you?"
The elf child was curious about her half-sister. She had always been told that her half-sister was an evil person who was not worth getting to know.
But the child had never taken those words to heart. She had always wanted to meet her half-sister in real life and got to know her.
And when she finally got to meet her half-sister, it was under the worse circumstances imaginable. What a turn of events this turned out to be for her.
"You should not take what the adults said about Shimi to heart. They were wrong and there is nothing wrong with Shimi. Now, can you tell me what happened here?"
Master Hana asked as she kneeled in front of the child.
The child considered if she wanted to tell these people anything or not. They had appeared out of nowhere and started to look around. But they also had an elf with them so the child did not feel afraid anymore.
"If the handsome mister carries me around, then I might get in the mood to tell you all what happened."
Both females in front of the child had sour and complicated expressions on their faces. It seemed like they did not like the idea.
But the child did not care about that. She liked the man's face so she wanted to be carried by him. She was sure that the man would not be able to ignore her cute charms as well.
After all, she was the elf princess and the most beautiful girl in the world. Everyone said so to her so it must be true.
She waited for herself to be picked up any second but then something unexpected happened.
"No"
At first, the child thought she had heard the man wrong. There was no way she had gotten rejected.
But then the man did not move toward her, signifying that she had not been hearing things.
'S-Such a humiliation will not go unnoticed. I will not tell these people anything-'
*growl*
Her stomach roared in hunger which made the child feel desperate. She had not eaten for days.
"Hey kid, so I have a proposal for you-"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l