「I don’t want to know anything too difficult. I want to hear if something big has happened since the battle a thousand years ago, and I want to know your current impression of the country.」

「A thousand years ago? As expected, even I don’t live that long, so it’s only what I know from old story.」

Carena shows a dubious face when hearing a thousand years ago.

「I don’t mind, I'll leave the order of the talk you to make it easier to you, so can you please? 」

「Fine then. Ummm, let’s first talk about the impression of the country right now. Originally, even with their unsociable nature, they still interacted normally with other countries. That changed after the incident with Iyas.h.i.+ Tree I told you of before.」

「Ah, I remember that. The tree was endangered, so the distribution is restricted.」

Carena nods.

「Yes, but it was not only distribution that was restricted, but also people coming and going.」

Carena sips the tea to wet her tongue. Seeing that, Souta remembers the taste and grimaces.

「If you’re not a qualified merchant, have letter of recommendation from many countries, or are a strong adventurer with fame, it will take a long time just for inspection.」

「That … … have become troublesome.」

When Souta went there before, he had gone in smoothly without worry of anything troublesome happening.

「I will continue …… That’s why the unsociable race became more closed, as the amount of interaction declined, they came to look down on other races. This is called Elven Supremacy. And there were many elves captured by humans to be slaves, that’s why a thousand years ago, there was particularly strong hostility toward humans.」

Carena shakes her head.

「I was acquainted with people of other races, and of course, this includes humans. It was 150 years ago that I was disgusted with Elven Supremacy and left the country. Then, after moving to several places, I felt attached to this city and decided to stay.」

「Then, you are …」

「That’s right, I hate the current elven kingdom. Of course I know about slavery and feel irritated from it as well, but you won’t understand each other without looking at other people, right? 」

Carena pours the tea from the teapot, and she keeps drinking even while talking.

Carena tries to pour the tea into Souta’s cup although it’s still not empty, but Souta stops her with his hand.

「I. Don’t. Want. It!」

「Is that so? Even though it’s delicious…」

Rather than her taste buds, the scope of the word 『Delicious』 is vast for elves.

「I don’t know what you want to do, but I think it’s better to not have a high expectation if you go there.」

「That’s fine, it’s not like I particularly want to go there. Besides that, is there anything else that happened after the battle a thousand years ago? 」

Carena raises her gaze upward, and start talking while thinking.

「Ummm… since the elven hero was killed by the hero from a different world in a fight a thousand years ago, we have no goodwill for the people who summoned it. The relations.h.i.+p also worsened and then … something happened … …. 」

Carena presses her eyebrows with her index finger to try to digs out the memories she almost remembers.

「Surely my grandmother was saying …. Yes, certainly the princess, the fourth or the fifth, at that time, complained about improving relations.h.i.+ps with people, but the other n.o.ble and royalty didn’t like the idea. It was said that it was anti-state philosophy and she was to be executed. 」

「Executed…? Do you say that Dinarius was killed!!」

「Yeah yeah that, that is her name … It surprises me that you know. Even I forgot her name.」

Carena's surprised because he knows the princess’ name, and she says nothing about him shouting.

「Yeah, rather… … was the princess really killed? 」

「No, it seemed the king pardoned her out of mercy and it was canceled. But the n.o.bles were not satisfied. So she choose to get sealed in the Demon Crystal by herself.」

「No matter the race, the n.o.bles are irritating…」

「The reason seems to be that she is a child of a maid, and although she had a right to become successor, she was not from the primary line. And despite all that, she overstepped her authority by appealing to make peace with humans.」

Souta stares at the table without responding.

「You look scary …. Do you have some kind of attachment to the princess somehow? If you want to see her, you might as well go to the elven kingdom.」

Souta raises his head suddenly and sees Carena looking at him with a smile.

「I’m amazed by your surprised face. I said she was sealed, so she is still alive inside that crystal even now.」

「Even now … Is she not released? 」

「Yes yes, It seems that her sins would be forgiven after sealed for two hundred to three hundred years. It might be long from human perspective, but it’s not that long for elves.」

Souta continues to ask questions with a dubious face.

「If she was already forgiven, why was she still trapped in Demon Crystal? Does it have something to do with n.o.bles? 」

「That is… … I cannot remember what it was. The n.o.bles seem not doing anything about it… … Oh yes, they certainly did a liberation ceremony, but it seems it was a failure.」

This time she thinks while grinding her head with both hands.

「…… Umu~, I can’t remember. I heard it hundreds of years ago, it’s great that I can remember that much. I want you to praise me.」

Carena stands up and proudly puffs out her chest.

「Sigh … … it is certainly so, but it’s still better if you remembered the important things. So, can I even see that crystal? 」

「You should be able to see it if you can enter the country. It is decorated in the cathedral, but it is open to the public and travelers as well.」

「So the problem is whether or not I can enter the country.」

Carena nods vigorously, as opposed to her playful att.i.tude from before, her face turns serious.

From that expression, Souta knows it will be difficult for a human to enter the country.

「You will go, won’t you? It can’t be helped. I don’t know if it will work or not, but I will write a letter of introduction for you. Since I’m an alchemist whose name is quite well-known, perhaps an entry permit will come down.」

「Really!? Please, I’d like to increase the chance of it even by a bit.」

Souta lowers his head so much that his forehead gets on the table.

「You can stop acting like that. I understand …. In the first place, I would still write it even if you don’t lower your head.」

「Even then I would still lower my head, after all, you have been taking care of me a lot.」

「Hahaha, saying something like that, you're giving me gooseb.u.mps. Since you are going that far, let’s write it at once. I will also put the name of my master in the letter of introduction so that your chances will rise a bit. I will write it tonight, so you’d better come get it tomorrow.」

Like that, Carena wears gla.s.ses, gets a fountain pen, paper, envelope, and wax and starts preparing to write the letter.

Souta bows for the last time and leaves the room quietly.

t/n: so the name of heroine show up, after 33 chapter, let see if this can beat Legend in term of heroine appearance, it’s 50 something chapter i think?

ps: if you want to know if the next chapter finished or not, just check ToC page, so far i only add new chapter link when we finish the chapter, so if you see unreleased chapter listed there, it means the chapter is ready to get released