Extra 60: The people that make forests and the people who live in forests

The elf whose name is the most known in Tsige is the adventurer Luisa.

There’s one other elf in Tsige who a certain group of people would even avoid saying the name of, but that’s solely just a number of people.

When it comes to the representative of the elves in the public of Tsige, it would be without doubt her.

She, who is currently in the top ace party Alpine, is also the strongest sniper in Tsige as well.

When speaking of elves, you would normally think of the residents of the forest that have more magic power than a hyuman but slightly lower than demons, and are a long living race that specialize in bows and magic.

You could say Luisa is a hunter that excels in the bow even within those people.

They are not great at speaking with Spirits, but it is possible for them. Because they can use magic that is pretty useful in forests and places with a lot of vegetation, they are often thought of as being all-rounders in mid range which is a bit troubling in itself.

“…Another notice to return to the village, huh.”

The one other thing that has been worrying Luisa recently are the persistent letters that she gets sent.

Telling her to ‘return to her home village’.

The home village of Luisa that is far from Tsige, is not affiliated to any hyuman nation, and is located in the base of a certain mountain.

There are no few elves who live and die in the same forest.

You could even say the elves that go outside as adventurers and mages are in the minority.

Because elves have a long lifespan, there’s often cases when they would find it hard to adapt to hyuman and other demi-human settlements for a long time.

On top of not having a high birth rate, the chances of giving birth when breeding with a different race are not that good.

In the end, most elves would decide that it is better to just stay at their place of birth together with other elves as it is the most comfortable.

But there’s also exceptions.

“What, Luisa. Is it the usual request?” (Ranina)

“Ranina, huh. Your place is nice. There’s barely any annoying letters coming your way, right?” (Luisa)

“You could say that. The Earth Spirits are open-minded! As long as you send booze to your home every now and then, not only will you not get complaints, you will even be thanked!” (Ranina)

“…You can’t send a child after all. It would be great if things could just be wrapped up with alcohol.” (Luisa)

“Is your place lacking in children?” (Ranina)

“Seems so. They are telling me that I have raised my level enough, so I must already be satisfied with the hyuman cities. When I responded to them that I originally departed to investigate the Forest Onis, they told me that I have already found them, so I should return.” (Luisa)

“Hmm, they must have high expectations of you as a woman with a high level.” (Ranina)

“Don’t joke around. Even though I told them that I want to stay single for 500 years. Good grief.” (Luisa)

“Oh, really? But…” (Ranina)

“What?” (Luisa)

The priest warrior dwarf Ranina seemed to be thinking of something, and Luisa made a dubious expression in return.

Considering the lifespan of an elf, continuing single for 500 years is not weird.

“You see, hyumans give birth to children after 20 years of life, right?” (Ranina)

“…Yeah.” (Luisa)

“Tsige is also within those. In other words, our surroundings are marrying one after another, giving birth to children, and raising them.” (Ranina)

“They probably will.” (Luisa)

“There’s elves and dwarfs who would get influenced by the marriage of close ones and would make them want to marry too. I simply thought it would be better to not announce carelessly that you will be single for 500 years.” (Ranina)

“Hmm…I see. It is true that a heart can change depending on the surroundings. I can’t really say I am an exception to this. Thanks for your good advice, Ranina.” (Luisa)

“Also…” (Ranina)

“There’s more?” (Luisa)

“Even if it isn’t really something you desired, right now you are the elf that’s known the most in Tsige, and if we are talking about an adventurer dwarf, it would be me. If people like us were to stay single the whole time, the elves and dwarfs apparently would be reserved too.” (Ranina)

“Huh?” (Luisa)

Luisa could tell that Ranina said this while knowing that sounds stupid, but she still ended up letting out a silly reaction.

She is known as a representative of sorts, but it is not like she is a court lady or anything, so they should just marry if they so wish.

That’s the honest feelings she had.

“I did shoot that down telling them that they should just marry if they please, but it did have me thinking for a bit that making a name for yourself in a city comes with pains.” (Ranina)

“…Even if so…” (Luisa)

““I have no intentions of leaving Tsige.””

“…Haha.” (Luisa)

“…Right.” (Ranina)

Both of their voices overlapped. They looked at each other and laughed.

It is true that the lifespan of elves and dwarfs is different to that of hyumans, and their senses of time are different too.

However, there’s powerful instant stimulation in hyuman cities that can even surpass all that.

This is especially true for Tsige.

Luisa and Ranina seem to have already decided that Tsige is their second home.

They at the very least have no intention of leaving until the party they are in is dissolved.

“But if it is due to the lack of children, their letters won’t stop.” (Ranina)

“That’s why it hurts my head.” (Luisa)

“Hmm…This is something I heard from Hazal and Rinon, and it isn’t really directly related to children, but…” (Ranina)

“?” (Luisa)

“How about utilizing your standing?” (Ranina)

“My standing?” (Luisa)

“Umu. Putting it simply, there may be elves who are thinking of retiring and moving away from Tsige, so how about you write a referral letter of the village to them in your name?” (Ranina)

“?!”

“There’s a lot of demi-humans here who have left their own hometowns in a bad fashion after all. It is not exactly connected to the lack of children, but I think introducing them to people would be a good plan.” (Ranina)

“Ranina, that’s a splendid idea.” (Luisa)

“I also have another one. I have heard that elves have a strong interest towards knowledge and magic. As long as your ways are not super abnormal, there should be a lot of people who would have an interest in your bow.” (Ranina)

“Of course. My place has quite the high interest when it comes to spells relating to the forest and the bow. There’s a lot of them who would register as adventurers and devote themselves to the bow even if they rarely go outside.” (Luisa)

“In that case, how about introducing them to the talks of the Forest Onis and the latest practical magic used here?” (Ranina)

“?!”

“Also, there’s that bow god in Tsige, you know. That personages…kyudo <japanese archery>, was it? How about introducing them to that little by little too? By telling them about the information and experiences you can only gain here, they might adhere to different responses instead of requesting for your homecoming. If that does happen, wouldn’t you have it in the bag?” (Ranina)

Bow god and kyudo.

There’s only one person who fits that description.

Luisa has taken in part of it in training, but it doesn’t seem like it has served her of any use at all, but it had the mysterious effect of increasing her performance all around in areas like accuracy and power. She could only be shocked by this.

She has the feeling that, if she were to tackle it seriously, there might be some sort of astounding secret hidden in it.

Even Luisa still can’t brush away her view of its unknown nature; that’s kyudo.

Seeing how she washes the kyudo uniform clean and uses this uniform that Makoto sent to her as if nothing, there’s no doubt she is tackling it with quite the interest.

By the way, when Makoto first saw Luisa in the kyudo uniform, he did a pensive look and muttered ‘I have seen something nice’.

The first kyudo lesson Luisa had devolved into a target shooting competition because of that, with the intrusion of even Tomoe and Mio, and it ended with the punishing fist of Makoto… But well, that’s simply a page of life.

“…Ranina.” (Luisa)

“Hm? What?” (Ranina)

“You are the best friend.” (Luisa)

“It is embarrassing to be told this with a straight face, but it does make me happy.” (Ranina)

“…Was it Toa and the others?” (Luisa)

“…So you could tell, huh. Well, if we see a comrade of ours worrying the whole time, we would of course want to extend a hand, right?” (Ranina)

“Sorry for the trouble.” (Luisa)

“I simply gathered information in the bar. Toa and Rinon went around asking a variety of people. Hazal as well…did his best in his own way.” (Ranina)

“…? In his own way, as in?” (Luisa)

It is only with Hazal that Ranina left it vague.

It would be pitiful to not touch on it, but it was clear that she didn’t want the topic to be pursued if possible, but Luisa mercilessly stepped into it.

“He has been inviting you to meals over and over lately, right?” (Ranina)

“Speaking of which…now that I think about it, it is rare for Hazal to invite me. Even though it would usually be you or Toa.” (Luisa)

“Hazal was also worried about you. He thought about keeping you company while drinking and relaxing.” (Ranina)

“…Ah, so that’s what it was. I did something bad then. It would be boring to drink when my mood is down, so I refused him. I see, so that was his invitation to drink with just the two of us, huh. Is that so…” (Luisa)

“Well, after getting shot down for several days straight, he ended up going nuts and saying ‘Might as well marry Luisa-san, have a baby, and return to her village to show it to them. Fuhahaha’.” (Ranina)

Ranina quoted Hazal to Luisa.

The only male member of the party, Hazal, has no stories of him being steady with any one of the members as of currently, but they have become bar topics.

Hazal falls in love relatively easily and tends to get absorbed into things completely, but his abilities have been acknowledged, and rather than being a target of admiration, he is considered more of a person that is easy to get close to.

Hazal himself doesn’t seem to like this image of his though.

“…That’s just like him.” (Luisa)

“Fufu, yeah, it is indeed like him.” (Ranina)

And Luisa and Ranina don’t think badly of this hyuman called Hazal.

Even if there’s no certain love yet, there’s without doubt affection between them.

“Well, the safe way would be to write about the Forest Oni-donos and kyudo for now.” (Ranina)

“Kyudo gets scary at times when you try it. Dropping that all of a sudden would be difficult. Right, let’s push the way of life of Forest Onis and how to interact with them.” (Luisa)

“If it goes well, treat us all to a nice meal. See ya.” (Ranina)

“Yeah, as much as you want. Thanks.” (Luisa)

Ranina exited the room satisfied.

Thinking about it, even having a home as a party is difficult.

They have been reckless.

They have also been on the verge of death.

She felt as if she had been reborn after tasting both heaven and hell.

All of it is Luisa’s fortune.

It would be pushing it to have the elves living far away at her home village to suddenly understand this.

In that case, Luisa thought that the first thing she should tell them about is the ancestors of the elves which she learned of precisely because she has gone to the outside world.

“Right. The first thing would be to tell them the fundamental difference between us and the Forest Onis. The title will be: The people that make forests and the people who live in forests.” (Luisa)

In the end, the advice of her comrades was a big success.

The number of people in the village of Luisa that have gotten an interest and want to know more deeply about the knowledge, sensitivities, and the many techniques of the Forest Onis have increased.

Kyudo has also shown definite effects as they taught that path, and its popularity has grown explosively in the village.

Kyudo and the kyudo uniform had become extremely popular at a certain village unbeknownst to Makoto.

Makoto wouldn’t even begin to imagine that he is being called the bow god.

The bow training that’s a minor practice even in Tsige was taking root at an unexpected place.