Medea’s POV

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After a short silence, Nasr-san said with a determined voice.

“If you don’t mind, please stay in my house. I am incapable of providing a great hospitality and comfort but I can not allow our Benefactor to sleep outside. “

Amongst the noisy crowd of people, the Village Head let loose a word in low voice.

“Nasr, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

“Thank you, Nasr.”

“It is my pleasure. Please follow me, Surges-san, Chris-san.”

Nasr-san ignored the people around him and started to led us to his house.

I was afraid because I was surrounded by Elven people, so while I kept my head down in order not to make any eye contact with them, without letting go of Chris-san’s hand, I went with them.

“I sincerely apologize, Surges-san, Chris-san and Medea.”

I was surprised that he apologized me as well so I raised my head and looked at Nasr-san.

“Do you know about Medea?”

“I will talk about it once we got into my house.”

“I see.”

We walked silently and arrived at Nasr-san’s house.

“This is my house. Please come in.”

“Are you living here alone?”

Chris-san inquired. Indeed, this house is too s.p.a.cious to live alone.

“I used to live with my family in the past. Anyway, I shall prepare the dinner. Please wait a while.”

“I will help you.”

Chris-san goes after Nasr-san.

“I can’t let a guest help me…”

For some reason, a dispute started between them but it seems Nasr-san yielded in the end.

Right now, only Surges-san and I were present in the room. I gathered my courage and asked after a while.

“Why did you help me, Surges-san?”

“So you are asking the reason why I helped you?”

Surges-san fell into deep thoughts. Meanwhile I continued to speak.

“I have been always yelled at and beaten up by people except for my father and mother. Even when I pleaded for help from others, n.o.body helped me. Why did you help me?”

“If I had left you at that house, you would be food for the monsters without a doubt. When monsters eat a human, they become even more stronger. That’s why I couldn’t leave you at that house. Would this be valid reason for you?”

“I see.”

When I heard his answer, I felt saddened for some reason.

“However, there is no need for a special reason to help someone. Even though I spent a very short time with you, I felt some attachment for you thus I simply thought that it would be a pity to let you die just like that.”

“There is no need for a reason to help someone?”

“I am sure that the ones who bullied you didn’t have a special reason for that as well.”

“That was because I was an Half-Elf.”

“Why is being an Half-Elf a reason to be bullied?”

“That is because I am different from others.”

“Then why is being different from others a reason to be bullied?”

I thought about it for a quite while but I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer for that.

“Not every actions of the people based on a reason. They might do something even when there was no reason for that.”

“Is that so?”

He gave me a similar answer but when I thought that there was someone else who would treat me nice other than my mother and father, I felt a warm feeling in my chest.

“It is ready!”

Chris-san came to inform that the dinner was ready.

The dinner was consist of deer meat baked with herbs and different kind of fruits and nuts you could find in the forest. Since the Elven village is in the forest, there is not enough farmlands. Thus the wheat is quite precious and as a result, the bread is something rare to eat.

We offered our prayers and started to eat.

“By the way Nasr, it seemed like you knew about Medea.”

“Medea’s mother, Misery, was my elder sister.”

Brother. Sister. These words sound quite nice. If I had a brother or sister, I felt like I could easily cheer up when something depressing happened.

“Apparently, Medea’s father, Carl-san was a human hunter who had lost his way and collapsed due to his injuries around this village. The one who gave Carl-san shelter and treated his wounds was my elder sister. The Village Head also allowed him to stay until he was recovered but I think they didn’t want to get separated. Carl-san was a resourceful hunter and he was also quite strong as a vanguard as well. Thus the casualties while hunting monsters decreased significantly. So he delayed his departure time little by little just like that. In the end, the Village Head got mad and tried to forcefully throw him out of the village but instead, two of them together disappeared from the village without a trace.”

Nasr-san speaks about his memories of the past one by one.

“I am surprised that they could stay safe until now in the middle of the forest.”

“Carl-san had high level [Presence Detection] and [Spy] skills and my elder sister was a Holy Magic user so she could heal the wounds like bone fractures quickly.”

“Then that’s strange. It doesn’t seem like those two would be the people who could be caught by a surprise attack. Would someone as strong as them be caught by a surprise attack so easily? Besides they say that the guards of the Elven village was also killed by someone and the village was caught by a surprise attack.”

I was also confused about this matter. Until now my father would always detect the enemy presence before hand. It was always like that. Besides even though it is not at my father’s level, I also have [Presence Detection] skill but I couldn’t detect anything at all.

“There might be something behind the a.s.sault of the Goblins.”

Surges-san said with a serious expression.

“How do you think they did it?”

Nasr-san asks.

“The first thing I can think of is the spell “Silent” of the Wind attributed magic. It is a spell which erases all of the sound in the area. And there is also a legend that s.p.a.ce-Time magic has a spell called “Teleport” which allows you to move a distance in an instant. No need to talk about s.p.a.ce-Time magic but in order to cast “Silent” on such a large group, Wind attribute should be at Level 4 or higher. It is not something a mere Goblin could acquire. My husband and I are patrolling around inside the forest everyday but it is very strange that we could not find any trace about the existence of such scale of Goblins. Considering all of these factors, I can guess that there is someone that is helping the Goblins. Besides helping them, they can also use such powerful magic, the only ones I can think of…”

“Demon race.”

Nasr-san completed the words of Chris-san.

I, too, know about Demon race. My mother once told me about Demon race.

Apparently they are an extremely strong and cruel race, so my mother had told me many times to run away if I ever encounter one.

Surges-san noticed my frightened face, and intentionally said with a cheerful voice.

“This is nothing more than a conjecture. If Demon race really were to appear, I could kill them easily.”

“That’s right. That’s not a topic we should talk during a meal. By the way, you had said that you had two sons. My late parents had two swords, two s.h.i.+elds and two bows. I want to offer them as a token of my grat.i.tude for saving and providing a shelter for Medea. Each of them was crafted by Elven craftsmen and [Magic Granting] was cast on each of them.”

“They are mementos from your parents. We can not accept them.”

“No, they are useless for me even as decoratives. Besides, even though they are mementos, you have saved Medea and provided shelter for her so you have every right to take them. Please accept them.”

Nasr-san pushed the armours to Surges-san after he said that.

“I understand. We will accept them with grat.i.tude.”

“Thank you very much. Elven race is not ungrateful. I’d like you not to take their previous att.i.tude towards you to your heart. “

“We are aware of that Elven race has reasons for it.”

After they decided to talk to the Village Head about it, I went to the bed early.

I was going to be taken to the Surges-san’s village tomorrow but my mother and father who had protected me were gone so I was feeling a little light-headed. Thus I was feeling nothing about it. I had gone through lots of things today, so I must be tired now. I will think about the things related tomorrow, tomorrow.(TL Note: It sounded a little weird but basically she says “I won’t think about anything related tomorrow now, I will think about them tomorrow.)

I opened my eyes at the first lights of the morning. I was bewildered for a moment when I saw the room which is different from my usual one but I remembered about yesterday and confirmed that it was real. And I felt a little sad.

Surges-san and others must have fought all day yesterday and got extremely tired thus they weren’t awake yet. I didn’t feel like going back to sleep and I had nothing else to do so I unconsciously got out of the house.

The winter was already quite close. Today was extremely cold so my body quivered because of the intense coldness. I couldn’t notice it yesterday because of the darkness but there was a huge tree with beautiful yellow leaves nearby. When I looked at the top of the tree, I saw some s.h.i.+ny glitterings that were reflecting the lights of the morning sun.

I guess it was rainy last night. Because when I looked closely, there were water drops on the leaves. Those water drops were the ones that were reflecting the lights of the morning sun. The whole tree was emitting golden lights. It was as if the whole tree was bathed in the golden lights.

“So beautiful…”

I unconsciously murmured.

I watched the tree which emits golden lights in fascination for a while. As the morning sun ascended, that golden light became subtle but it refused to disappear.

My whole world was only consisted of the surroundings of that isolated house in the forest but it expanded drastically in a single day. However if there were a whole new world outside of that house and it were full of such lovely things, I want to see them as much as possible.