After a restless night of idle conversations and stargazing, we are now sitting at the Temple, a place usually reserved for the Mothers and Mages to meditate in peace. It is not my first time here though, I just noticed this is the place where I was born.
“Who are they?”
Nadya whispered to me, referring to Cedric’s candidates who were kneeling at our left side. The Temple consist of a pristine lake with a statute of Jörð at the center and a beautiful garden with flowers and trees I have never seen in my life surrounding it. Mother Eva, Lelyah and Cedric are looking at us from the land while we are kneeling at the base of the statue.
“They are the same as us, but for the hunters.”
Sadly, it just came to me that I did not know their names. In fact, this is my first time seeing them up close. I remember Cedric telling me that the candidates rarely leave their training inside the hunter’s camp.
“We are united he
Thank you all for reading!! Not gonna lie, we a reaching the final part of the first arc of the story and the chapters keep getting heavier. I hope you all enjoyed it.
“Are you ready?” After making sure I packed everything I needed, I changed into comfortable clothes and headed to the entrance. Nadya and everyone were already there and, after one last farewell speech from the Mothers, we finally left the Elven Village. Right now, I am standing next to Nadya a few steps away from crossing the barrier. “Y-yes.” Clearly nervous, she stumbled to give an answer while endlessly rummaging through her small bag. “Did you get everything I told you?” “Yes, I asked Mother Eva for the materials early in the morning.” This sure feels like I am back in the old days. “Good, let me go over the route once again. In case we lose each other at some point.” I started walking while explaining the plan I came up with last night. “First, we walk all the way to west until we reach the lake, it should take about five or six hours. It’s the longest path to get there, but the road is f
Aaah, as expected, traveling by bus is the worst. “Yuuukino, cookies please.” “I told you to save some snacks before leaving Haru, didn’t I? There are not going to be any stops before we reach the airport.” “Yukino, don’t be like that. You have at least two full boxes, I saw them while we were packing last night.” “And I don’t want them to be empty 15 minutes after we left, this a 2 hour trip. Now go back to your seat, you are bothering Hiro.” “I hope you get sick from eating them alone.” The two girls making a fuss behind me were Yukino and Haruka, I cannot stop being amazed by those two being such good friends. Yukino is a mature, tall and refined lady-like student with perfect grades to match and Haruka is your typical popular girl with flashy hair, clothes and make up, always surrounded by friends whenever she goes. Yet, it is impossible to find one without the other. “Is this really a 2-hour trip?” I asked painfull
Or so I thought. I do not know what happened after I lost consciousness inside that bus to hell, nor do I know how long ago it was. When I came back to me it was all dark, the weirdest feeling I have experienced thus far. It was not the darkness you experience inside a room with the lights out, it was true darkness, like everything surrounding me was gone. Nothingness. "Maybe I truly am dead." My senses were gone; I could not taste, feel, hear or see a single thing. I think I do not even have a body anymore, whenever I try to move any part of me, there is no reaction at all. I think I might have gone crazy, because I have no idea where my body begins and where it ends inside this infinite darkness. Time no longer makes sense; hours, days, years, it does not matter how much it passes if I cannot perceive it in some way. Will I be stuck in this void forever? If I am dead, this must be hell. It should be, I wasted my life after all. Never
"Should I useRed Cambria’sseed,MotherLelyah?" It has been nine years since I woke up here. Nine long and confusing years and I am still unaccustomed to this weird setting. The food, the animals, the people, the houses and even my clothes look like the ones from a fantasy movie. As bad as it would be, I go to sleep every night wishing to wake up in a hospital bed in Yokohama. I wonder what the world back home looks like now. "Remember Agafya,Red Cambriacannot be used unless you purify the base first." "Even if it is just the seeds?" "The seeds hold 80% of the poison." "Everything is poisonous here, isn’t it?" "That is MotherJörðkind protection, her way of telling the world that only we elves have a right to the sacred forest as her children." That is right, elves, and it is not as cool as it sounds. The first two years of my new life, I b
“It’s already getting colder.” Time here seems to go by really slow, the same as my potion making lessons. I have been going at it nonstop this past week and keep making the same mistakes. It is difficult to know if I am exceptionally bad at it when my point of comparison is the almost perfect Lada. Thankfully, today another elf returned from a 50-year trip to the northern region with an extremely rare grimoire and the Mothers did not want to wait a second to decipher it, which gave me a deserved day off. “Why aren’t you training?” Well, not exactly a day off. I am supposed to be practicing mana manipulation here at the forest, but instead decided to lay down and enjoy nature. That was until Lada interrupted me. “I’m training my meditation. What about you?” “I ran out of materials and figured I would come here to study some spells.” “You made that many potions and are still in one piece?” Lada is ages ahead of me when
It has been ten years since Lada’s death. “Winter is going to be rough this year too.” I am sitting at the top of a tree, contemplating the massive forest in front of me. A large green scenery extends as far as I can see and just Mount Krel stands where the continent ends, at the top of it all. “Getting flowers for you next month is going to be a challenge. I will probably have to walk to the southern hills and get some Hesperia.” After that fated day when my curiosity killed my only companion in this world, I isolated myself from everyone in the village for a while. I did nothing but read through the mountains of books at the library, one after another in an effort to become stronger. Something inside of me believed that magic powerful enough to bring her back existed in this world, but it was all wishful thinking. The village continued moving as if nothing happened, Lada did not have a funeral and I do not even think anothe
“Agafya… Agafya… Agafya…” In front of me, Mother Lelyah spoke with a smile on her face. Her white dress, perfect bright skin, golden hair and slender figure made it seem like an angel had descended upon Lake Eibsee. By my side the old man was frozen in place, every bit of his body tensed up waiting for our next move. The other two elves left following Mother Lelyah’s command without uttering a word. “It is truly interesting. You must have disposed of that filthy creature the moment you encountered it and yet, you spoke to and even protected it. I do not think I will ever understand you.” “Please Mother, he does not mean any harm.” “Is that so?” Mother Lelyah starts walking towards me, looking as terrifying as ever. “Its sole existence is an insult to our land. Even so, it dirtied our sacred forest and took the life of two of Mother Jörð’s children. Do you think that is not d
“Another impressive shot, Miss Agafya.” I am currently practicing archery in the outskirts of the forest, one of the hunters observes me patiently. It has been one year since the incident at Lake Eibsee, after which I figured out that investing all my energy into exploration and potion-making abilities would not get me that far once I start facing real danger. If I want to survive the outside world where everything is out to kill me, I need some offensive power, so I forced one of the hunters to give me a bow and started practicing archery every day. “Wanna see a new trick.” I shot an arrow into the sky and after a few seconds, it descends with an incredible force to hit a perfect bullseye into the piece of wood I have been using as a target. “As expected of an Apprentice, you have surpassed us in a few months.” “I wish. That was a magic projectile more than an arrow.” The poor elf did not notice, but the arrow I just