Chapter 106

“Ati, your eyes are scary.”

“Araya.”

“…Uh… What?”

“Come here.”

“…Why?”

“Come. Here.”

“Wait, Ati, I’m not a child anymore, and I have a social status outside.”

My legitimate argument didn’t reach Ati’s angry ears.

“…How old do you think I am?”

Is it reasonable to not be able to use the Spirit’s Armor and get hit so painfully red?

I grumbled while rubbing my sore bottom and stepped outside.

“Still, the air here is the same.”

The trees in Pohelrn looked humongous, towering high as if boasting their height, and the fresh energy they emitted filled the air.

I suppose they think of themselves as elves too.

After being away for eight years, one would expect the body to forget, yet everything felt too familiar, even down to my breaths.

“Even if it’s been eight years, things are changing really fast.”

The Palace in Elindium wasn’t a construction made by human hands like the bricks stacked up in Pohelrn’s palace, but it had its own distinct charm.

The palace originally existed at the spot where my siblings and I once stayed during the pioneering era.

It wasn’t far from where our mother was.

The palace of Elindium was so unique that it should rather be described as ‘the palace has grown.’

It appeared that the wooden exterior walls were infused with extraordinary energy, suggesting that it wasn’t merely constructed, but rather that mother had extended a branch to gift it to the elves.

Surrounding that palace, the living areas of the elves had also changed significantly.

In the past, there were many elves who had to sleep rough due to the insufficient materials, but now it seemed everyone built their homes within the trees.

“Lady Araya!”

“It’s Lady Araya!”

As I walked through the village, elves came up to me.

The elves born from my mother’s leaves were all adults, and even though the lifespan of elves is still unknown, eight years was hardly enough time to etch any marks of age on them.

I greeted the elves who looked the same as ever, responding in kind.

“…I see you have found a partner.”

“Of course, my child. Would you like to hold her?”

One elf with a generous figure extended her child from her arms toward me.

I received the child wrapped in somewhat coarse cloth.

“Kyah-”

The child looked at me and smiled innocently.

As I reached out in a daze, the tiny hand grasped my finger.

The grip was so weak that it felt almost ticklish.

“Isn’t she cute?”

“Certainly.”

I slowly looked around.

Children who seemed to be about four to six years old in human terms were playing around.

Among them, a few stared at me with wide, curious eyes as their parents gathered around.

The elves who emerged bare from our mother had started to form this much of a society in less than twenty years, even if it was still lacking.

As I felt my heart twitch with a sense of reward for the ten years of hardships since birth and the toils of my siblings, it also felt heavy.

If I were to fight Terato, currently, only elves and Roa could truly engage in a proper fight against giants on the western continent.

Many elves would go off to war.

I scanned the faces of the mothers and their children with a complicated heart.

How many among them had connected with the forest guardian?

Elf love is deep yet harsh.

They live timelessly, beyond common lives.

Moreover, they only love one throughout their lives.

Even if it might last for just twenty years.

For those who have vast stretches of time ahead, can they bear the pain of losing their partner?

They might endure it for now, but in the end, time would make that heart suffer even more.

Seeing the happy faces of those who have given birth and formed families made my heart feel exceedingly heavy.

“…I was short-sighted. The resolution I thought was enough is still lacking…”

“Kyah-”

While I smiled at the child looking up at me innocently, my complex feelings surfaced as another elf, the mother of another child, spoke.

“When do you plan to get married, Lady Araya?”

“…Huh?”

“Oh.”

For a moment, I was stunned, trying to grasp the meaning of her words.

“What… What are you saying? You!”

“No, Lady Araya, and even you High Elves, there isn’t anyone among you who has a partner yet.”

“Well, in your case, Lady Araya… it might be a bit early?”

“Have you grown… a bit since before?”

“Where…”

“What are you trying to touch now!”

I yelled, smoothly dodging the hand of the child stretching toward my chest to avoid shocking her.

The elves who found it amusing started chattering among themselves.

“Lady Araya will eventually love someone, give birth, and become a mother, yet you look so surprised.”

“That makes you even cuter.”

“Do you perhaps already have someone?”

“Speaking of which, my husband said that Lady Araya returned together with an elf.”

“Oh my.”

“I think I saw that person. He was a bit expressionless and seemed like wood.”

“What did he look like?”

“What can I say? He was handsome.”

“More than your husband?”

“Can he even be compared to that guy?”

“I honestly haven’t been saying this, but the clothes Lady Araya is wearing are strikingly similar to what that man was wearing.”

“Really?”

At that moment, all the elves’ eyes turned toward me.

“I… I think I will take my leave now. Here! Child!”

“Ah, yes.”

“Wait! Lady Araya! What kind of relationship do you have with that man?”

“How can you create such curiosity and just leave like that!”

“That’s too much meddling!”

After I yelled, I lightly stepped on the ground.

“Wait—”

In a single step, the elves trying to block my way vanished from my sight.

“Women… tsk tsk.”

How could they be so noisy about something as trivial as romance?

I simply couldn’t understand.

My mind was tangled with thoughts of war with Terato and giants.

How peaceful it was.

After complaining for a while, I eventually smiled bitterly.

“Still, that must be the best, right?”

What could be better than living without a worry and spending time with a loved one?

If ordinary village women had to worry about the threats approaching the world, that would also be an unjust situation.

“Marriage, huh…”

Honestly, it wasn’t a word that resonated with me particularly.

Even if everything regarding Terato ended in the best case and became peaceful, I couldn’t imagine it.

The life of my past self, Kongsun Hee, was too desolate, and I had never thought of parental affection or love between men and women.

“I can’t imagine it.”

Myself in a man’s embrace?

Even the thought was too terrifying.

Even if the emotions of my past life as a man have almost faded since I established El Araya.

“Above all, I have no desire to dote upon beings weaker than myself.”

Let alone being an adult with a child.

I shook my head.

“Right now, it’s an unnecessary thought for me.”

I walked slowly along the forest path.

Having returned to my hometown after a long time, perhaps I was too relaxed, or maybe my head was tangled due to the future events yet to unfold.

My thoughts began to wander.

Ah—ah—

As I walked like that, small lights of energy flitted about in a corner of the forest before coming near me.

“Ah. I guess I came a bit deeper.”

They were primal spirits.

They might not have a clear intellect, but they are one of the pillars that constitute this nature.

“Now they are approaching me.”

When I first commanded the Great Mother Earth, I had gathered a massive amount of energy from the surroundings.

At the time, I thought that it was simply a place with an unusually high amount of energy spread throughout nature.

“…I mistook the pure energy of the primal spirits for a chunk of mana and absorbed it.”

Because of that, the curse known as the Spirit Remnant, left by the primal spirits as they perished, had been etched into me.

Though I was unaware, it seemed my siblings all knew about it.

Since then, I had never seen a primal spirit or any approaching spirits while wandering the forest, but.

“I met Gal in the north and resolved it.”

Even after that, spirits with a degree of intellect approached, but none of the primal spirits came close enough to be seen.

“Has something changed since entering the Harmony Realm?”

I thought while gazing at the light of the primal spirit dancing around me.

“…Now I must be careful not to accidentally absorb these little ones.”

Fundamentally, I could now circulate energy naturally without settling into a lotus position and performing breathing techniques, so I wouldn’t make a mistake.

I approached the coming primal spirits with familiarity, not truly hindering them, and slowly began to move toward where my mother was.

Though I had just returned, I hadn’t been able to visit her properly as I had been scolded all day by Demis yesterday and also reprimanded by Ati.

“And… I have something to ask.”

She was someone who understood the responsibility of power.

Excluding the tasks she had taken upon herself, even if it were elves she had birthed, she hardly showed favoritism in matters concerning balance.

Nonetheless, considering the upcoming matters regarding Terato, it was indispensable that I have my mother’s support to win and minimize damage.

“…So many primal spirits are gathered around where my mother resides.”

I vaguely remembered the light that filled me when I was born from one of the early flower buds.

All that light was made up of primal spirits.

“…My mother must have had quite a challenge.”

While I didn’t know for sure, considering the attitude of the spirits I had encountered in the past who left many spirit remnants, primal spirits that were far more loyal to instinct than them, it was no wonder.

Every time I visited my mother, despite not being visible due to the curse, it must have been chaotic.

I smiled bitterly and reached my mother’s roots, preparing to leap as I looked up at the sky.

“…Gal?”

Gal had already met with my mother first.

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