Meanwhile, at that moment, children were huddling in front of the World Tree.
“That person is said to be the Elder of Elves in this forest.”
“…But they seem unable to move in front of the Nun, don’t they?”
“It looks like they are being scolded.”
The scene of Levynia and the Elder in front of the World Tree resembled a disciplinary moment.
Levynia, standing stiffly, looked down at the Elder with a fierce gaze, while the Elder, with their head bowed, trembled like a aspen tree.
Though they were too far away to hear their conversation, the hierarchical dynamic between the two was clearly discernible.
“Even the Elder of Elves can’t move in front of Levynia.”
“Well, the Nun is an incredible person chosen by the World Tree after all.”
“I sometimes wonder about the Nun’s past. They said they retired early as an adventurer due to lack of skill, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.”
Just as the children were blooming with conversation about Levynia, Rune quietly approached the group of children who were discreetly standing to the side of the World Tree.
However, she still maintained a somewhat distant relationship with the others, making it difficult for her to engage in conversation.
“……”
Rune bit her lip for a moment while looking at the children, then eventually began to quietly step backward.
But before Rune could distance herself, the most perceptive of the children, Iris, noticed her movements and calmly turned her head.
“What are you doing over there?”
At Iris’s softly spoken question, Rune flinched and immediately stopped.
With a suddenly flustered expression, her eyes darted around, but no words came easily from her tightly sealed lips.
“Are we making you uncomfortable?”
“Ah, no….”
“But why are you just standing there?”
“……”
By now, Rune’s gaze was directed at the ground.
Having never engaged in various conversations with peers before, she felt an immense burden and psychological pressure from Iris’s seemingly trivial question.
The children, who had been watching Rune intently, initially tilted their heads in confusion, but then one by one began to show sparks of realization.
“Ah! You’re now….”
While Ellie discreetly shut her mouth and exchanged glances, unlike Iris, Aizen, who always acted before he spoke, tried to make the situation even more awkward by opening his mouth.
At that moment, Ellie immediately reached out without hesitation, forcibly closing Aizen’s mouth with her hand.
“Be quiet, you fool…! Saying it like that suddenly only makes her feel more pressure….”
“Aizen has no sense.”
Overwhelmed by the sudden barrage of criticism, Aizen blinked in confusion, his expression bewildered.
Even after all of this, he remained oblivious to his mistake, prompting Ellie to let out an exaggerated sigh while furrowing her brow deeply.
“Rune is shy, so you can’t just say it like that. You need to approach her more gently.”
As Ellie spoke, she slowly removed her hand from Aizen’s mouth.
“Then, how should I say it?”
“Just watch how I do it.”
Ellie, for some reason, looked overflowing with confidence. She proudly approached Rune, who was coiling up like a pretzel, and wore a gentle smile that seemed familiar, softly speaking.
“You don’t need to say anything, just stay with us for now. Maybe after some time, it will feel a bit lighter for you.”
Ellie, who had never spoken honorifically to anyone except Levynia, suddenly began to use honorific language towards Rune while approaching her quite warmly.
Aizen, who was observing from a distance, immediately frowned, and Iris also tilted her head in confusion at Ellie’s behavior.
“Ah….”
Contrary to expectations, Rune also took a small step back with a troubled expression.
Ellie seemed taken aback and hunched her shoulders momentarily, but nevertheless kept her gentle smile while calmly speaking again.
“It’s okay… You don’t have to force yourself….”
“Hey, Ellie!! Are you mimicking Levynia’s way of speaking right now?! You don’t suit it at all, so stop!!”
A loud remark like a shout came from behind Ellie, made by Aizen.
The moment she heard that, Ellie’s head dropped low towards the ground, and a chilling aura began to seep from her, slowly creating a frightening atmosphere around them.
“……”
“I’m, I’m sorry…. I haven’t been in this kind of situation much….”
“It’s fine…. I don’t mean to pressure you, so just come over when you feel comfortable….”
Ellie left only those words and returned to her original place.
Though her body drooped with feelings of gloom and disappointment, it seemed that resentment and anger towards Aizen surged more powerfully than anything else.
“Are you stupid? Do you think shyness will just disappear like that?”
“The Nun’s way of speaking warms everyone’s hearts. That’s why it’s like that, so why do you have an issue with it?”
“That’s only because Levynia can pull it off. How would a short little brat like you make it fit?”
“What?! Short brat—?!!”
Recalling how Rune had spoken casually to Levynia, Ellie had tried hard to imitate her tone and behavior. Yet, even if she attempted to sound mature, Ellie, merely eight years old, still sounded like an eight-year-old girl in her tone and actions.
“With just strength and no brains to back it up—!!”
“Why do you think I lack brains?!! I’m surprisingly smart, you know?!!”
“Is someone who thinks they’re smart getting a zero in outdoor practical?!”
“What do you want me to do about it—!!”
At that moment, while Aizen and Ellie were in the middle of their argument.
Before long, Iris and Rune had settled down on the ground, silently observing the two fight.
Both were gently hugging their knees, only slowly blinking, resembling spectators watching a play.
“……”
“……”
Perhaps because Iris wasn’t particularly talkative, the silence between them didn’t feel awkward at all.
Instead, a comfortable atmosphere slowly flowed, easing the anxious heart of Rune little by little.
“You’re not really fighting seriously, are you…?”
“They’re fighting seriously.”
“Really?”
“But it’s okay. They often fight but it resolves quickly.”
“Somehow, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be resolved quickly….”
“If it seems like it might drag on, the Nun will step in, so it’s fine. If things escalate, they have to hug each other.”
Having often seen such situations up close, Iris was able to maintain her calm even as their voices grew louder.
However, for Rune, who was experiencing all of this for the first time, it was an utterly incomprehensible situation.
“They hug?”
“Yeah. The Nun makes them hug and resolve it.”
“…Will that really help them make up?”
“Whether it works or not, they have to. Otherwise, they’ll have to stay hugging in front of the Nun all night.”
Rune seemed quite shocked at this bizarre method of making amends she was hearing for the first time in her life.
The confusion reflected in her bright, round eyes perfectly conveyed her current feelings.
“How, how interesting…. That’s how they make up….”
“Don’t you have friends you’ve made up with?”
“…I don’t have any friends to make up with.”
“Why?”
“……”
Although it was a rather direct question, Rune revealed no signs of discomfort toward Iris.
“Nobody wants to be friends with me….”
“Were you in the wrong about something?”
“No. I haven’t really done anything wrong, but being an abandoned child seems to make other elves quite uneasy.”
“Oh…. You were abandoned.”
“……”
Rune attempted to put on an awkward smile due to an inexplicable awkwardness.
She scratched her head nonchalantly, but even that action only emphasized her awkwardness further.
Seeing this, Iris quietly added a word from the side.
“It’s okay. We don’t have parents either.”
Iris’s calm statement immediately left Rune bewildered.
“Y, yeah…?”
“My original village was attacked by monsters, and everyone died.”
“R, really…?”
“Yeah. I barely managed to escape, but if it weren’t for the Nun, I would have definitely been eaten by monsters or beasts in the forest.”
Rune was rendered speechless.
Because the children she had seen thus far appeared remarkably happy and peaceful.
“I accidentally found a church while running away from monsters in the forest, and the Nun just happened to be living there.”
“So you weren’t living together from the start….”
“Yeah. The Nun warmly welcomed us and took care of us.”
At Iris’s words, Rune seemed to ponder for a moment, before cautiously asking with an inquisitive expression.
“So what do you all do in return for her kindness?”
“…Do?”
“Yes. I stay in this village and do all sorts of odd jobs. They said that’s in return for her taking me in?”
This time, Iris’s expression became puzzled.
“We do nothing.”
“…?”
“The Nun thinks that us playing in the garden is helping her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. We do clean up once a day, but that doesn’t really feel like work—”
The children, who were living similar yet entirely different lives, left Rune feeling nothing but astonished.
No matter how hard she tried to understand, the words from the Elder who had taken her in continued to haunt her mind, causing confusion.
“Then you get to eat for free without any price for meals…?”
“Yeah. But the Nun can only cook meat. Every meal is meat. That’s why I like it.”
“What—?!”
Rune received a porridge every time in exchange for providing herbs and labor in the village.
It was not even three meals a day, but only a single bowl per day.
Receiving unidentifiable food made from who knew what, she silently accepted it, and eating it was part of Rune’s daily life.
It wasn’t particularly tasty, nor was it incredibly bad.
Being filled with the thought of just filling her empty belly, Rune accepted the porridge from the Elder without any complaints.
In her situation, Rune believed that was simply how it was.
“Th, that’s impossible…. Is that really possible…?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s so different from me…. The thought of eating meat for three meals a day is unimaginable.”
“That’s true. Back in my original village, we only ate meat on special occasions.”
“……”
Rune’s mouth was stubbornly shut.
At that moment, her mind was filled with a single thought.
“I’m jealous….”
Just as Rune was looking at the children with envious eyes, a loud voice that shook the entire forest suddenly erupted from Levynia’s direction.
“Are you kidding me?!!”
