Chapter 24: Elvish Princess

『What are you crawling back here for now, after all this time?』
『I have questions.』

The elf called Ultramarine snapped as if to pick a fight, but Nina answered evenly, as if it hardly concerned her.

『Since you’re the one who calls me a dropout, you obviously know, don’t you?』
『Hmph. Of course. There is nothing I do not know.』

Ultramarine thrust out her chest imperiously.

『Why is it that we live longer than rabbits or deer—and longer than they do as well?』

Nina flicked a glance at Ai and Dalga as she asked.

『Hah.』

Ultramarine snorted at her.

『…And why should I have to teach you something like that?』

She averted her eyes, sweat pouring down her face, as she said it.

Ah, she doesn’t know.

「Looks like she doesn’t know…」
「So she doesn’t know, huh…」

Ai and Dalga seemed to have thought exactly the same thing as I did, and murmured it at the same time, under their breaths.

『Well, I didn’t really expect you to know, to begin with.』
『I do know! I do, but I simply have no intention of telling you!』
『This is Ultramarine. She’s an idiot, but she’s not that bad. Be nice enough to humor her, okay?』
『Who are you calling an idiot—who!?』

Ignoring Ultramarine’s squawking, Nina turned back to us and explained.

「The one who seems to know is further in. Let’s go.」
『Hey, what was that! What did you just say!?』

Nina switched to Japanese and strode off; Ultramarine scrambled after her.

『Hey, listen when people are talking! Don’t tell me you’re heading to the Elder. Someone like you has no business meeting him. Hey—are you deaf?』

Ultramarine kept stubbornly trying to stop her, but Nina ignored her completely.

『Huh? Can she seriously not hear me? Heeey—can she not even see me? Did I turn invisible?』

Perhaps misunderstanding due to the sheer degree she was being ignored, Ultramarine started doing something like a ridiculous little dance. I almost felt sorry for her instead.

Even so, though we saw not a single other person, stares stabbed into us from all directions. It seemed a fair number of elves lived in this forest.
I’d thought elves lived solitary lives, but it turned out Nina was the exception.

With Ultramarine yapping away behind us, Nina kept walking, ignoring her, until at last a colossal tree came into view. On Earth, the thickest baobab is, what, a dozen-odd meters across? But the tree before us was clearly over a hundred meters in diameter.

Midway up was a great hollow, and a broad staircase led up into it like a temple. Without a moment’s hesitation, Nina marched up the steps.

『Hey, stop! Bear-ape, stop the dropout!』

She shouted that, but seemed unwilling to go inside the tree herself. Leaving her voice behind us, we stepped into the giant trunk.

「This is… amazing.」

I couldn’t help muttering as I looked around, taking everything in.
The inside of the hollow was flooded with light pouring down from above. The meticulously polished white wood reflected the sunlight, heightening the aura of mystery.

And in the midst of that overflowing light stood a tall elf with a long beard. He sat deep in a great chair grown as one with the floor; his white beard was so long it seemed to cover his whole body, marking him clearly as very old—and yet he showed no trace of age or frailty, wearing only a solemn presence like a sacred mountain or a giant tree.

「I have already heard.」

At the words of the elf who could only be the Elder, my eyes widened despite myself.
Because what came out of his mouth was Japanese.

「You can speak our language?」
「“Grass and trees are everywhere, child of the dragon.”」

Did that mean he had heard all our conversations before we even came here?
I wanted to believe that was bluster, but at the very least he did seem to have a fair grasp of our movements.

『To give you the conclusion—there are several methods of prolonging life that you seek.』
『Truly!?』

As the Elder switched to Elvish, I nearly leapt at him.

『Please. Teach me! I’ll do anything!』
『No need. I owe you a favor.』
『A favor…?』

I tilted my head; I had no idea what he meant.
I had once scorched the forest with a beam, but I didn’t recall doing anything the elves would thank me for.

『You saved our princess and brought her back to us.』
『Princess!?』

All our gazes snapped to Nina at once; she wore a sheepish expression.

「Nina, you’re a princess?」
「…More or less.」

Nina nodded, looking none too pleased.
It was clearly a subject she’d rather not touch.

『Then allow me to have you shown the way.』

When the Elder lifted his arm, another elf came and, saying 『This way』, led us on.
As we moved to follow, I glanced back.
Because Nina wasn’t moving from where she stood.

「Nina?」
「This is where we part ways.」
「Why!?」
「Because I ran away from home to begin with.」

Come to think of it, the Elder had said he owed me for “bringing her back.”
Could it be she’d come back here—where she didn’t want to return—just to grant my wish? That it was so hateful to her that even she, usually so unflappable, had gone pale?

「Don’t make that face. It’s not like we’ll never see each other again.」

As if sensing what I was thinking, Nina said that.

「But, Nina—」
「Ai is what matters to you, right? I don’t want Ai dying soon either. So this is fine.」

With that said, I couldn’t argue back.

「Goodbye. The ten-odd years I spent with you were fun.」

Nina smiled.
There was something fleeting about it, and for some reason that expression weighed heavily on my mind.

『This way.』

Before I could say anything, the guiding elf pressed us to hurry in a tone that brooked no refusal.

With Nina waving a small hand behind us, we left the hollow of the great tree.

No sooner had we stepped out than we found someone glaring at us with obvious malice. Ultramarine.
She stared fixedly at my face, as if with something to say.
But in the end she said nothing, and before long her figure blended into the trees and was gone from sight.

「Sensei… was it really okay about Nina-san?」

I couldn’t answer Ai’s question.
If she was a princess, then she must have some role to play in this settlement.
Perhaps if she didn’t fulfill it, the elven settlement itself would be in trouble.
If that duty ran against her own wishes, I didn’t know which I ought to honor.

『Please wait here. I will prepare the medicine.』

Eventually the guide led us to another similar tree hollow and left us outside while he went in. Similar, but this one was much smaller than the Elder’s. Even so, it was a massive tree, maybe ten meters across. It seemed the elves carved hollows into living trees and made their homes within.

『It is ready. Please drink this.』

After a short while, the elf emerged from the hollow carrying a wooden vessel.
Inside was a powdered medicine.
He had probably ground several ingredients together with a medicine mortar, like a yagen or suribachi.
Fine grains of different colors were mixed together here and there.

『What are the ingredients?』
『The tail of a desert spider, the root of the White Springwater Flower, the liver of a clubfish, and several kinds of mushrooms.』

I’d never heard of any of them.
I wanted to ask about side effects, but I didn’t know how to express “side effects” in Elvish. And it felt a bit awkward to ask the maker himself, “Is this harmful?”

「Then, I’ll drink it.」

Ai lifted the wooden vessel to her lips and tilted it.

Just before the powder slid between her lips, I slapped the medicine from her hands.

『What is the matter?』
「Sensei?」

The elf and Ai stared, wide-eyed, at my sudden action.

『This clubfish—does it look like this?』

I picked up a twig and drew on the ground. The thought had struck me just as Ai was about to drink the medicine—no, it would be better to say it came back to me.
No—perhaps it would be more accurate to say I remembered.

『You know it well.』

That fish could, admittedly, look like a club.

Before it inflated.

『Does this medicine only extend lifespan? Doesn’t it have other effects as well?』
『Yes. Not only does it lengthen life, those who drink it become quiet and obedient.』

The elf answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Just as I thought. I knew the name of this medicine.

On Earth, it has no effect on lifespan, but it does have a name that suggests as much.

It is called Zombie Powder.