Arena

Chapter 63 Elf (Part 1)

The village that the elves live in looked like the world of a fairy tale.

With strong cloth fabric draped over a large tree as their homes scattered everywhere, and all kinds of spirits flying about.

Sylph and Kasa, of course, look like the water spirit Undine and the ground spirit Noam in their various shapes and forms. There are also spirits that look like little girls and spirits that look like Tinkerbelle.

“Huh?”

“It’s a human!”

“It’s a human!”

“Mr. Jake must have brought him.”

The young elves that were playing about with the spirits halted what they were doing and stared at me.

Sparkling eyes, half full of curiosity and fear.

‘Cute!’

The young elves are so cute that it randomly gave me the thought of wanting to have cute kids like them.

To try and kidnap such children, those were some bastards.

‘Brute men. It’s a good thing they were turned to mulch.’

Perhaps it is because of this recent kidnapping event that the young elves looked a bit frightened.

Should I show them Sylph and Kasa? That should make a good impression.

I’m thinking this when the man called Jake signaled to me.

“What are you doing? Follow me!”

“Oh, yes.”

I followed after Jake.

I don’t know if it is because he is tall or all elves are like this, but his pace is fast and it’s hard to keep up.

The adult elves in the village started to take notice of me as well.

Unlike the young elves who were flustered, the adults’ eyes are filled with coldness and alertness.

‘Everyone is beautiful.’

Men and women alike are all beautiful.

The women all looked like they could be models.

Hair let down to flow naturally, slender hips, smooth legs.

Their beauty is made more visible by their short pants and cropped tops that show a little of their breasts.

But I don’t feel a sexual attraction to them.

I sense a strong awareness that they are not human so rather than sexual attraction, I simply find them to be beautiful.

I think that the bastards that intended to slave the elves probably intended to keep them as art more than as sex slaves.

Of course, with excessive lewdness that gives way to sexual appetite, there must be humans that do find a sexual appeal in elves.

“Jake!”

A female elf approached us. She walked softly and lightly like a deer.

“Ella.”

“Jake, what is this? How is it you bring a human here?”

Ella looked at me with tempered stare.

Jake spoke.

“This human is a friend.”

“Friend? Jake, are you crazy? Have you already forgotten the last time?”

“How could I.”

“How could you do such a careless thing? Do you know how frightened Ellis got when she heard there was a human in the village?!”

“I am also another person that cares for my younger sister. Do not forget that the one freed Ellis was me.”

In the Arena, elves also use the expression persons.

Then again, unlike our world, higher intelligence isn’t only for humans here.

“And yet you bring a human here? What are you going to do for Ellis who is quivering in fear?”

Jake and Ella talked about the female elf and I got a gist of the situation.

Shameless human hunters kidnapped a young elf and she is their younger sister, Ellis.

When I appeared in the village, Ellis recalled her trauma from the kidnapping and was shaking in nervousness and her sister Ella is angry about it.

“It is also for Ellis.”

Said Jake.

“What does that mean?”

At Ella’s coy question, Jake pointed to me.

“When she sees this human, her anxiety will be calmed. She will understand that not every human is an embodiment of fear.”

“Why are you trusting of this human?”

“You will soon see.”

The cuteness of Sylph and Kasa are my proof of friendship…

“Just what exactly is going on? Weren’t you the one that was most upset at the humans last time?”

“Of course. Ellis is also my younger sister.”

“Jake…”

On Ella’s face, she is moved.

And Jake approaches her and lightly kisses her on the cheek. Ella’s pale face glows red.

Ah, they are lovers.

No wonder, their conversation sounded like a bickering argument of couples.

Ella glared at me.

“I will watch you closely, human.”

“Of course.”

I replied calmly.

Ella’s glare elevated to another level of tension. Did my response sound like a threat?

I once again followed behind Jake.

We headed towards the center of the elf village.

The center of the village is void of houses and is an empty space. It is filled with all kinds of flowers. More than anything…

‘Oh my gosh!’

What shocked me is the size of one tree.

‘Is this a tree or a building?’

It is a tree so great that it is beyond imagination. Based on the leaves, it looks to be a broad leaf variety but the height looks like it reaches the skies.

It makes me wonder if the tower of babel from the bible was this large.

But unlike the tower of babel’s sense of guilt, from this tree I can sense a great life.

A warmth like a mother?

Looking at this noble tree, I am moved, and Jake spoke.

“Wait here. Without permission from the mothers, a human cannot approach the tree of life.”

“I understand.”

Jake walked towards the great tree called the tree of life.

I am left alone and I take in the tree and am in thought.

‘It’s a matriarchal society.’

The elves’ important decisions are decided by women.

The ‘mothers’ that Jake mentioned are the rulers of this village.

Rulers?

I think leaders is probably a more appropriate term.

The free flowing atmosphere of the elf village makes it hard to believe that anyone is ruled.

Human society specialty is chaos and that isn’t here, it is carefree.

With that…

“That human is our friend?”

“Jake said so.”

“The human is iffy. What decision will the mothers make?”

“Hard to tell. But their decision is always right.”

The elves, men and women of all ages, gather around me.

There is no elf that comes near me to talk to me, but they gather around me like a monkey at the zoo and talk about me with each other.

“Should we go see what the mothers and Jake are saying?”

“No. The mother’s might not like that.”

There is no order for the elves. The mothers are the leaders here and anyone can freely approach them is proof of that.

“Last time, when Ellis was kidnapped, and the mothers were discussing countermeasures, those kids gathered and cried and made a mess.”

“Jake was so furious, at least he went after them.”

“But rather than blame the kids, don’t you think the mothers’ discussions are rather long?”

Hmm, having no ranking order has this downside too.

Elves don’t have rulers and subjects so due to this, the decision making process is slowed.

How much time has passed, I wonder.

I think about an hour has passed, but still, no news from Jake.

‘What are they talking about?’

They could just take the human in to meet them, what could they possibly be talking so long for?

I grow tired and I sit where I stand.

“He sat.”

“The human sat down.”

“He must be bored.”

The elves chattered again.

This is how celebrities must feel when they go out. It must make it hard to date.

I am the center of attention for the elves and staying still alone feels weird.

At the end of some pondering, I decide to summon Sylph and Kasa.

The elves began to stir.

***

“He is a trustworthy human. He is a spirit summoner.”

Jake asserted his opinion strongly.

Mothers…

Underneath the tree of life, from the outside appearance, many middle aged looking women are gathered.

It seemed all the older women in this elf village are gathered here.

Amongst them, one speaks.

“Jake, I am not doubting what you say. There is no evil in a human who is a spirit summoner. But a human is not always bad because he is evil nor is he always good because he is pure.”

“There is nothing wrong in what you say there but…!”

“More than anything, it is unnatural. The reason the human came all the way here is to be friends?”

“It is definitely strange. Humans aren’t a species that move like that without an agenda. He has an ulterior motive.”

“Even if he is a good human, he may be being manipulated by a bad human. When I was younger and observing the human world, I’ve seen it before.”

The mothers’ conversation keeps evolving into a theoretical discussion of the ethics of humans.

Jake, as the decision gets longer and longer, felt frustrated.

‘They are discussing other things again! This is the problem!’

The one issue the male elves have with them, is this.

No matter what the meeting is, there is a lot of chatter.

No matter the decision, the male elves move it to action right away, but the men have to wait until that decision is made.

Thank goodness the decisions they made after all that chatter was always right, otherwise, this matriarchal society would not have lasted very long.

And then.

“Mother!”

“Mothers!”

From far away, elves gathered in.

The mothers contemplate.

“Oh my, what are they doing coming here?”

“Oh goodness, well that’s the end of that meeting.”

“They must be curious.”

“They should wait a little longer, goodness!”

The elves, male and female, regardless of age, all gathered and shouted.

“That human is a friend of ours!”

“You have to accept him as a friend!”

“Yes!”

“Stop chatting and just meet him!”

“You cannot not accept him as a friend!”

“That spirit…!”

The mothers were at a loss for words.

Only Jake looked on at this situation as if I told you so.

***

The elves ran towards the tree of life as if to mob it, and hundreds of them make their way back towards me.

As that many people come at just me one person, I grew a little fearful.

“Gyahh!”

“I love this Sylph! Meow, meow!”

“Kasa is shaking his tail so fast, hehehe!”

Thankfully, I am reassured by the young elves that are playing with the spirits by my side.

A crowd of hundreds of elves gather around me, and Jake and middle aged women elf walk towards me.

They look aged, but incredibly beautiful.

They all look like ‘back in the day I was quite the beauty.’

They must be the mothers that Jake was referring to.

But their numbers are too many. 20 of them? 30?

‘I thought at most it would be a few women.’

It must be that no matter what, an older women elf becomes a ‘mother.’

No wonder the decisions are slow when there are so many decision makers.

“You are the human that Jake has told us about.”

Asked the women elf who looks to be the oldest.

She looked the oldest but she too is beautiful. Strangely, she doesn’t look aged.

“I am.”

I replied respectfully.

The mothers’ gaze turned to the children that were playing with the spirits.

The mothers see my Sylph and Kasa and sigh.

“How could they be so lovable…”

“But of course. We have no choice but to accept him as a friend.”

“Of course.”

I slowly began to worry about the elves’ future.