Aura stood holding a bow, at a place some distance away from the village. Made of metal, it was far more burly than the ones the Dark Elves normally used.

It was also taller than Aura.

Aura drew and loosed the string repeatedly, making the bow screech. It was a greatbow that originally belonged to the village, one that even the strongest of them werent able to draw. The Dark Elves initially widened their eyes when they saw a child draw it so effortlessly, but they also immediately made expressions that said they had come to terms with it.

The way this was stored leaves a lot to be desired. Its making all these sounds because parts of it have deteriorated, you know? Is this why no one was able to draw it? Hnnn, it feels unstable. I wonder if the arrow will really go where I aim it at

Her current target was called a Giga Horn Elk, a magic beast similar to an elk. Despite its huge antlers, it could move gracefully inside the forest using [Forestwalker]. This ability made its charges extremely destructive.

Aura would have probably looked like a stylish hunter if she stood still while passionately tracking her prey with a sharp gaze, but Ainz couldnt see any tension in her side profileshe was just being her usual self. She was nonchalant, like she was just about to pick up some random stone and throw it.

In contrast, the other three rangers from the villagetwo men and one womanwere in a completely different stance. They were hiding from the preys senses, their faces the epitome of seriousness itself. Ainz didnt know how they did it, but they were also wiping out their presence by clearing their minds of all thoughts.

These dark elves had yet to nock their bows, although they were holding them.

Normally, they would all shoot at the same time to prevent the prey from escaping and to also reduce the chances of a disastrous counterattack, but they were not doing so now because they didnt want to get in Auras way.

The fact that they all stayed on the ground this time showed their intentions.

Normally, Dark Elves positioned themselves on trees that were as safe as possible, fearing counterattacks from prey. They would then wait for the kind of prey they could deal with. Bushwhack-style hunting, so to speak. The fact that they were on the ground despite that demonstrated their trust in Aura.

And what was Ainz doing as the one worst at stealth among the members of this hunt? He was using [Perfect Unknowable]. He was using it so much he started to feel uneasy, wondering if he was relying too much on it. Anyhow, after he hid his presence with it, neither the prey nor the dark elves looked like they had noticed him. He had been following them all through this hunt, but Aura was the only one who sensed him.

Aura released the arrow.

About the same timeor maybe just a little later, in the time it takes to blinkthe Giga Horn Elk moved its neck like it was trying to observe its surroundings.

It probably noticed the twang of the bow that sounded out of place in the forest.

Ainz thought that should not have been possible as the sound was extremely low. Furthermore, the target was so far away that it normally couldnt have heard it, so why did the Giga Horn Elk react then?

It was most likely just a coincidence, or maybe it had some sort of special ability. If it was none of those then maybealthough it was just Ainzs conjectureit preternaturally sensed the aura of an attack coming towards it.

But, for all its intuition, the arrow managed to sink into the Giga Horn Elks head without resistance, like it already predicted the monsters response before it was shot.

Even with the arrow sticking out of its head, its body twitched but did not collapse.

It didnt matter if it was a magical beast or just a normal one, animals as a whole had a lot of HP.

It would have been a fatal attack if Aura had equipped her usual YGGDRASIL-made bow, but it seemed like this bow borrowed from the village was not powerful enough.

{This clearly shows that the gear and weapons do greatly affect ones strength. Well, looks like Aura didnt use any special abilities this time, so maybe the results would change if she had used any.}

The beast tried to leap away with the arrow stuck deep into it. Deeply wounded, it chose flight over fight.

Aura loosed another arrow without any hesitation, like she had already predicted the elks reaction.

Pierced once more in its head, the Giga Horn Elk finally collapsed to the ground.

Well, thats how its done.

As expected of Fiora-sama.

In contrast to Auras calm, the nearest dark elf man raised his voice, full of passionate admiration. Hes Plum Ganen, the villages vice Master of the Hunt and the leader of the hunting party this time.

Ainz didnt feel that he was putting on an act and even considered him as a strong ally for Aura in a sense. Nevertheless, he made Ainzs face twitch.

His attitude was just too positive.

His fiery eyes were filled with a mixture of respect, adoration, and passionjust like how that girl with scary eyes in the Holy Kingdom looked after her resurrection. Frankly speaking, he should not be looking at someone who looked at least like a child on the surface with those eyes.

This was the second time she hunted with this party and it was not like this the first time.

It was true that Aura fought back the Ankyloursus, but Plum Ganen only considered that as a measure of her battle prowess and not her talent at hunting. In fact, while under [Perfect Unknowable], Ainz heard him saying that he proposed the hunt because they wanted to estimate her skill as a ranger.

But- the way Aura (effortlessly) traversed the forest gave Plum goosebumps, her ability to erase her presence bedazzled him, and by the time he saw her skill with the bow, his eyes started shining with admiration. It was a bit comical to see him standing there with his mouth wide open. And so, he ended up being the number one Aura fanatic in the village.

However, he was a painful impediment to Ainzs plan.

As long as someone like this existed, it would be hard to turn Aura back into a normal child in their eyes.

It could have been easily handled if this was just them cozying up to Aura to use her, but the fact that it was not the case troubled him the most.

{Killing them is only the last resort after all...}

Hey now! You can praise me later, cant you? Take it apart already! Yes! Understood, Fiora-sama!! Lets do it, everyone!

The two remaining dark elves, who were sending strange glances at Plum, also started moving out. They too admired Aura, but were able to remain cool-headed after seeing Plums extreme reaction.

The elks legs were tied with a rope, and the other end of the rope hung over a branch. They then pulled on the rope to try to hang the carcass upside down, but the elks gigantic body proved difficult for the three of them.

Aura reached for the rope and pulled it with a light hoy! The corpse that proved difficult for the three elves was easily raised up.

As expected of Fiora-sama!

Aura frowned a little at Plums praise.

Ainz could understand.

He nodded as the faces of Nazaricks denizens flashed across his mind.

Getting praised for the wrong things made one feel bad, but getting exaggerated praise for simple things was also weird in its own right. They might end up thinking about whether or not they were being made fun of.

While Ainz was wondering if it was his lack of self-confidence that made him feel that way, the field dressing continued. A male dark elf put his hand over the prey, covering the carcass in something like a white fog. It looked like a special skill that froze the preys body. Ainz didnt know any such skill from the rangers skill list, so its either a druid skill or something from other classes this dark elf had.

After that, they bled out the body and collected the blood in a bowl underneath. He heard that they did it to prevent the germs in the blood from multiplying. Maybe the aforementioned dark elfs power wasnt enough to freeze the entire body.

The blood collected in the bowl was also used for cooking.

During their first hunt, Ainz heard that they rarely took back the blood with them for the fear of drawing predators toward them.

They dug a hole and threw the head and entrails into it.

They would also take some of the offal with them usually, but the elks carcass was too large for them this time.

They stopped field dressing the carcass after that.

The Dark Elves custom was to perform the steps like skinning only after they had brought the game back to the village.

Although Ainz called it the Dark Elves custom as if he was knowledgeable on hunting, if one were to ask him whats the normal custom then? he could only answer that he actually knew nothing about hunting. Maybe the Dark Elves custom was the same as the common one.

The dark elves lowered the carcass to the ground and tied it to a pole. With a heave-ho! they raised it. It looked like they found it quite heavy. Although Ainz couldnt be sure, it looked like the adage half of what you bag is what you get to eat holds true.

Aura was not helping them carry it as she was entrusted with the task of guarding them.

The party started their journey back to the village.

Generally, a successful bushwhack hunt took a lot of time. However, thanks to Aura, this hunt has been completed relatively quickly, resulting in the joyful expressions on the dark elves faces. Though the dark elves lived in the forest, leaving the safety of the village exhausted them mentally.

Fiora-sama was totally awesome. That was some great shooting today.

Plum was the first to start talking after they started to walk back. Those were not words of flattery, but what appeared to be his feelings from the bottom of his heart.

Really? Well, maybe its awesome for you people...but theres always someone better than the best. How should I put it...a relative?...nn Maybe its rude. Well, anyway, theres someone more awesome than I am. Ah! I am not talking about my uncle.

...I heard that the uncle-dono and the brother-dono will be reaching the village today or tomorrow, but are they excellent rangers too?

No, they are not rangers.

Is that so? I thought they would be skilled rangers considering the two are crossing the forest alone...In that case what kind of people are they?

...its true that they are skilled people. As for what they are exactly skilled at, you will understand soon. Look forward to it. That aside, sorry, but can you let me concentrate on guarding the party? I can easily escape by myself, but with everyone in mind, noticing a threat even a second faster could be a matter of life and death, right?

She was probably unsure about how much she could talk about Ainz and Mare, so she used a good excuse to cut him off. The question was how the other side took it.

Could someone really accept if the person you were having a pleasant talk with suddenly cut you off, even if the reason made sense? Wouldnt the person feel hurt depending on their character?

{I think its fine because he is a fanatic, but he is also someone powerful in that village. I should prepare countermeasures in case he starts to hate Aura and drag down the village's opinion of her...}

Ainz thought that a fall in Auras status in the village was not necessarily a bad thing at present, but it would be troublesome if it deteriorated too much.

But Ainzs worries were useless, just as he had predicted.

Please forgive me! To think I didnt notice it!

Plum bowed with a tremendous force. If he werent carrying the carcass, he would have probably performed a dogezaor some Elven form of apology equivalent to it. This kind of excessive response was why he was thought of as a fanatic.

AahWell, you are moderately skilled yourself so you probably would have noticed it normally right? Looks like you were taking it a bit easy because I am here, but that only means you think highly of my skills, right? I am happy about that, but I want you to pay a bit more attention to time and place

{hoooShe is good at consoling someone from a superior position...Maybe that is her experience as a Floor Guardian speaking. I feel a bit happy if this is a sign of an NPCs growth...Or maybe is it something Bukubukuchagama-san left in her? That would be a thing worth celebrating in its own right, because its a sign of Chagama-san living through Aura.}

Imagining a pink blob behind Auracertainly not a good image to imagineAinzs immovable face made a smile.

The party heeded Auras words and continued their journey back without disturbing her. And like that, they reached the village without being attacked by beasts even once. After he confirmed that they had reached the village safely, Plum raised his voice.

Everyone! Rejoice! Fiora-sama bagged a big one this time as well.

Ainz clicked his tongue.

He expected this would happen, but also realized that he could do nothing about it. It was natural for hunters who headed out into danger to be proud of their kills, and it was also natural to let everyone know who hunted it. Plum probably did it especially because Aura was an outsider, in order to make her position better.

But Ainz didnt wish for such goodwill.

Villagers who were walking across the walkways spanning the Elf Trees gathered together, looking at the massive carcass with looks of admiration.

Okay then, Ill be going back.

Yes! Please leave the remaining work to us Fiora-sama!!

Leaving the work to Plum, Aura headed to the house the village lent her.

He wanted to go after Aura, who was walking back alone, but he couldn't do that. He needed to know how Auras position was changing inside the village.

Aura continued to walk, only turning her head to look back at the Ainz, still floating in mid-air.

{She looks so lonely...}

Maybe it was just Ainz being too sentimental, but thats what her side profile told him.

In this village, there were people who looked at Aura with awe and there were people who respected her, but there were none who would approach her as a friend.

She was not being seen as a girl on a journey, but as an existence above them all and someone to bow to in respect. Just like Ainz had thought before, that was not a bad thing in and of itself.

But, it was bad for Ainzs goals.

{I have to turn Aura from being the villages hero to just a regular child...but thats difficult whichever way I look at it. If I try to undermine the position she built up before I reached this village, I will be turned into a pariah instead...well, thats natural. After being helped by her, the village will obviously value Aura more than the relative who came afterward.}

Ainz remained in that place as the other Dark Elves started to gather one by one. Naturally, there were also Dark Elf children around Auras height in the group.

The carcass was being divided up and handed over to the villagers to cook.

Now, remember to be grateful to Fiora-sama for hunting this!

Every time a Dark Elf received their portion, they spoke words of gratitude with their faces full of smiles.

Even skilled hunters like Dark Elves cannot succeed in every hunt. It would appear that getting hold of such good meat was a rare occasion. Ainz heard about this the last time he listened in, or maybe it was the time before that.

The huge pile of meat was gradually portioned out, becoming smaller and smaller. The fanatic Plum continued to say this every time he handed out a portion to someone: be grateful to Fiora-sama.

Just as Ainz had repeated, he had no complaints about the act itself.

It was true that Aura hunted the prey, and it would be more offensive if someone was not grateful for that, but even so

As expected of Fiora-sama. She should be the one to lead this village.

Aah, absolutely. Not only did she drive away the Ursus Lord, but she is also a first-class hunter. The village would be in safe hands if she was to remain here, but...

No doubt, no doubt

Five dark elf adults gathered around Plum and continued to talk like this.

Their praise for Aura gradually increased. The fact that the children who gathered were also listening was extremely problematic.

...But Fiora-chan is still a child you know?

A dark elf male, who smelt of herbs, said suddenly.

The expressions of the fanatical gathering changed at once.

Thats the same as those elders...those old farts way of thinking!

It was an angry exclamation.

Plum, who had been smiling a few moments before, now looked completely different, breathing wildly.

What is age? Is just being older something great!? No! Certainly, there are people who have accumulated experience and have become skilled with age, but thats not something that naturally comes with age. Age cannot be the absolute yardstick we measure everything againstBut, you see! Only ability can be absolute!!

Ainz agreed with that opinion.

He saw it many times at his workplace. People who were good at something were good at it from the start, while those that were not would never become good no matter how many years they spent on it.

Superior talent! Thats the only power that can protect the most people in this dangerous place! Only ability is absolute! Even if it is someone young!

But...Isnt Fiora-chan a bit too young?

Another fanatic replied coldly to the woman who objected, isnt that how those elders think? So you are the same as those elders, huh

Haa?

The woman looked at the dark elf with hostility. Ainz could clearly see that the elders were very much hated.

{Frankly speaking, I feel like they are not doing anything that could cause so much hate...}

He didnt understand the reason why the younger ones had such a bad opinion of them, but its been only two days since Ainz started observing this village. Its not like he was observing everything either, so Ainz may have just missed it.

In order to reject the ideology of the eldersthat which prioritizes one's ageshould we not instead defer to talented Dark Elves like Fiora-sama and even possibly make her lead the village?

{Stop, please.}

Ainz grimaced.

This was not why he sent Aura into the village.

If Aura heard this and if he was unlucky, she might just agree with them and proceed to bring the village under her rule. You could even say that this was a great idea for Nazaricks expansion, but this was not what Ainz desired.

Ainz turned his gaze to the children watching the adults quarrel.

Unlike their expressions of joy at the food before, their faces were now clouded with unease.

{This is the main problem...}

Ainz wanted to make friends for the twins.

Unlike the children in Suzuki Satorus world, the children of this worldlike Nemucould approach Aura with innocence and curiosity. However, from what Ainz had witnessed and from what Aura had said, there was no one like that here yet.

Maybe they were used to suppressing their curiosity because growing up in a dangerous place like the Great Forest required them to do so. However, what was more likely was that they sensed the adults attitude towards Aura and formed an image of her as someone who lived in an entirely different world from them. In their eyes, Aura was a child who was also not a child.

He had even felt like he should directly intervene and make the villages opinion of Aura fall just so the children could approach her.

{Its probably hard to be intimate with...no, friendly with someone deeply respected by the adults... For example, even if the object of respect doesnt differ much from their age...or maybe it is all the more awkward because she is the same age? At least in the conversations I snooped on, I didnt hear parents telling their kids to not approach Aura or ordering them to treat her with the utmost respect. But is that a good thing, or a bad thing?}

Haa...Ainz ended up letting out a sigh.

There was no way they could make friends if this continued.

{In that case... should I make a move here and directly ask them to become friends? But I cant be sure that would lead to a good result Or maybe I should just hope that the situation will change. I wonder if every parent has to go through such hardship...}

Pondering over the same question as he had before, Ainz activated [Greater Teleportation], clutching his head at the final words he heard before he teleported.

First of all, what do you mean by Fiora-chan? It should be Fiora-sama!