Chapter 62 – Girl and elves – part six

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I wake up, and I’m not used to what I see when I open my eyes.

There’s a wooden wall, but I don’t know where I am.
Why did I even lose consciousness in the first place?

Miss Lan was walking with me too.
Where is she? I look around but don’t see her.
I’m sure she was with me.
There’s a door, but the room looks empty.
Is this inside of a tree? I don’t understand.

“Are you awake?”

The door opens, and the old elf comes in.

He looks down at me.

“…Miss Lan?”

It’s the first thing that comes out of my mouth.
Where is she?

“That human woman is somewhere else.”

The old elf not only doesn’t tell us his name, but also won’t call us by ours.
It feels like he’s not trying to see us as individuals.

“I want to ask you something.”

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He says while still looking down at me.
Having to face him by myself makes me nervous, but I feel like the way our conversation goes will be important for the future, so I do my best not to look away.

“…What do you, want to ask?”

“…Did you see the spirit… Or perhaps even just feel the spirit?”

“…Spirit?”

I tilt my head.

Did I see a spirit? Or feel a spirit? Does that have to do with the strange presence I felt? Was that a spirit I felt?

“…The strange magic power, was the presence, of a spirit?”

The old elf sighs.

“For a human, and a little girl that probably does not even know magic letters no less, to be able to feel a spirit…”

“Do you hate humans, mister old elf?”

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“Mister old elf? Are you referring to me? Nevermind, I do not think well of humans.
They are savage lower beings that cannot even use magic, yet dare to enslave us elves.”

“…There are, a lot, of different humans.”

“Different? At the very least, the humans I know are not good beings.
Still, a human can feel a spirit…”

The old elf has been talking to miss Lan and I with a smile on his face, but this is how he actually feels about humans.
Maybe the humans that the elves met were all bad people.
I mean, normal people would never go to a place where they could meet elves.
Most people never even leave their villages.

I probably would have never left mine if I didn’t have a reason.

“Do you hate, beast people, too?”

“I can only say they are savages descended from beasts.
Few can use magic, and they cannot receive the blessings of spirits.
How could I possibly like them?”

I think that’s horrible, but that is how the old elf sees humans and beast people.
But why is he telling me this, if he’s keeping it a secret from everyone else? I don’t understand, but he keeps talking.

“…Although unintentionally, you can see the spirit.
We cannot treat a being such as yourself badly.”

Spirits are that important to elves.
That’s the feeling I get from what the old elf says.

I can feel the spirit, so the elves can’t treat me badly, he says.
But what about everyone else? What do they plan on doing with everyone else?

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“…What about, everyone else?”

“They are sacrifices.”

“Sacri… Fices…?”

I’m not used to hearing this word, but I know what it means.
It was mentioned in one of the topics miss Lan taught me.
It means to offer people to a terrifying being.

The thought of everyone being sacrificed makes my mind go blank.

“…To the spirit?”

“Do not say stupid things!!”

Miss Lan said that this terrible thing is done for superior and scarier beings than the ones doing it.
That’s why I said that, but the old elf yells and says that’s not it.

He looks like he’s mad because I talked about the spirit.
He’s angry and looking at me with very intense eyes.

I’m scared, but I have to ask.

“Then, who? And you told us, you welcomed us…”

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“…I do welcome you, as sacrifices.
There is no other reason for elves such as ourselves to welcome beast people or humans.
We can use lower beings as sacrifices instead, and that is all they are good for.”

One word sticks out to me, instead.
Instead of who? As I think that, I whisper.

“Instead of, elves?”

There are fewer elves than us.
I thought it was natural, but what if it isn’t? What if there were a lot of elves, but their numbers dropped because of the sacrifices the old elf is talking about?

“Sacrifice, to who?”

He says it’s not to the spirit, but if it’s not to the spirit the elves worship, then who? Elves are good at magic, so they’re strong, so who do they have to offer sacrifices to?

As I think about this, the old elf answers.

“A monster.
An intelligent monster, much like the gryphons and sky horse you brought along.”

—Girl and elves – part six

(The girl that is probably the miko talks to the old elf, and learns the elves’ true intentions.)