Volume 2, Epilogue 1.1
Volume 2, Epilogue 1.1
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Oh, Ortem～!」
「We have～!」
「Retuuurned～!!」
The next day after Aranwen and his drinking party, everyone was finally able to return to Ortem, which they had left alone for two days. Along the way, they had cut down the weeds and felled the trees that blocked the path in order to make the road more of a proper road. By the time they got back, it was already past the afternoon, and the sun had descended a good amount.
「Archem, are you alright!?」
「We worried about ye!」
Ignoring the oktogarls that had screamed out as soon as they entered the village, the elves rushed straight to Archem. Expressions of relief adorned their faces.
「Sorry for getting here late. Dungeons, temple maintenance, there were just so many things to deal with and I couldn’t get back soon enough.」
「Dun mind dun mind. We glad ye made it back safely.」
The elderly elf woman hugged Archem tightly while crying. Although she was one of the ones responsible for setting the old men on Archem for her sexual education, she did seem to have more love in her than the others. If one were to view her odd sexual curriculum as a type of parental affection, then that made sense. Although really, if she were in fact an onlooker attempting to force her values into Archem’s life, everyone would likely want to lecture her for an hour on the proper way to convey her love.
「But Chem……」
「Yes?」
「Ye changed quite a lot in two days, eh?」
「Yup yup.」
After they had enough time to rejoice over Archem’s safe arrival, Govejon had spoken up after observing her. Foredan and the other people seemed to have the same opinion.
「Did I really change all that much?」
「Ye seem like a super pretty lass, eh.」
「Yup. Plus it seems like there’s an atmosphere oozin’ out from ye.」
「What a fine lass.」
「Although ‘er chest ‘as been fine from the start.」
The villagers continued to discuss Archem’s changes. The 200, 300 year old younger elves were taken instantly in by Archem’s confused tilting of the head, averting their eyes bashfully as soon as their eyes met.
「Welp, I suppose I can see the atmosphere part.」
「Chem-chan awakens～」
「Priestess, priestess～」
「Nu～rse?」
「Hey quit it with the memes……」
Mio cut into the oktogarls’ dangerous references, as if telling them to be more considerate. She could vaguely understand the jokes, which made it slightly uncomfortable.
「Awakening, ye say?」
「Seems like she got a new priestess power from Aranwen-sama. Says she still ain’t used to it, but I say she’s gettin’ there.」
「Oh really.」
They understood the gist of Archem’s transformation from what Hiroshi told them. However, it was not a sufficient explanation for as to why she looked prettier than before. Then again, despite being in a relatively small community, elves were well ahead in terms of life experience. Some of them, especially the older elves, essentially figured it out from watching Archem’s demeanour as she looked at Hiroshi’s face.
「Wow Archem, yer becomin’ such a woman!」
「Two reasons fer celebratin’.」
「Eh? Eh?」
「How much longer yer gonna be childish?」
「Eh? Umm?」
Some of the elves had quickly come to an agreement over something, blurting various things out. Seizing the opportunity, the oktogarls began to clamor.
「Chem-chan love love～」
「Lotsa rivals～」
「No longer a love triangle, it’s a love swamp～」
「Disposed of～」
「Seriously, stop saying such scary stuff……」
Tatsuya commented in a tired tone. This time, it actually did feel like the oktogarls were ready to kill someone.
「Oh?」
「Hiroshi, ye really popular?」
「Girls’re already scary ’nuff as is, wow.」
「She gonna be a maiden fer a while yet.」
Listening to the oktogarls and observing Haruna and Mio’s reactions, the elves concluded thus. Apparently women were not the only ones who were interested in love affairs.
「There’s something I’m wondering about.」
「Whazzat?」
「Let’s suppose that Archem and Hiroshi had a baby. Would it be a half-elf?」
「Y’know, I get the feelin’ that a real dangerous ‘n impossible conversation just began……」
Archem, who had been rather embarrassed up till now, suddenly began to look as though she had been pierced by something. Of course, no matter who the person was, Hiroshi would always use the word “impossible”. It wasn’t like Archem was being singled out or anything.
「Sure they’d be a half elf. Why ye ask?」
「I figure elves hated that sort of thing.」
「Kids’re kids. Half, pureblood, who cares.」
「Yup yup. Sure, the parents might not be happy ’bout the shorter lifespan, but it don’t got nothin’ to do with the kiddies.」
「Kids gotta be fawned over, complemented, chastised, no matter where in the world ye are. Real adults wouldn’t treat ’em like an eighth of an elf just cuz they’re half.」
Apparently, elves couldn’t care less about whether their kids were half-elf. As per usual, the elves were looking to be more and more different from their stereotypes.
「Well if you say that you don’t mind halfs, I guess it’s just up to the people in question.」
「Yup. Seems like there’re regulations outlawin’ halfies in other villages, but we don’t care ’bout the small things.」
As expected of a large-scale sized elf village in a southern forest region, this village was quite lenient in terms of race.
「But it seems like that’s a tall order, eh.」
「When that man accidentally got pinned to the ground by Archem, his face looked like it was ready to spill his stomach out, eh.」
「Gynophobia～」
「Just one round and he’s out～」
「C’mon, quit it with the chit-chat……」
Tatsuya sighed after objecting to the oktogarls. After the elves commented on Hiroshi, they had blindly followed suit with their own worthless remarks. Besides, “one round and out” made the problem sound a lot less worse than it actually was. But it would still bring about plenty of other concerns, and that was in itself troublesome.
「Anyhow, haven’t seen ye guys fer a wee bit. Where were ye skulkin’ around?」
「Dungeon～」
「Dimensional rift～」
「Sucked in～」
「No escape～」
「Wow, sounds tough.」
The oktogarls spoke one after another, almost as if they were all part of one body. Somehow able to understand the situation just from that, the elves praised Hiroshi for saving the oktogarls from their plight in the dungeon.
「Seems there’s been a lot goin’ on, so how ‘bout we just have a feast, eh!」
「Yup yup!」
The eldest elf of the group raised their voice, which was followed by the simultaneous agreement of everyone around. On this day, the elves in the village would finish the remainder of their work at the highest speed in recorded history, all in order to hasten preparations for the largest feast in the village’s history.
「Margherita, first batch is done～」
「Every fried item is finished.」
Haruna and Mio figured they may as well help, volunteering to prepare several typical banquet-esque foods. They had Hiroshi make several makeshift stone ovens just so they could have pizza, and they gathered up as much of their food stand equipment as they could in order to pile on food after food for frying. Hiroshi, who had been helping out until now, had left his spot to work on something else.
Although Haruna had initially thought that to be a bit off-putting, she was soon forced to focus yet again on her task, her brain totally geared into cooking mood.
「Pork belly stew’s looking about right.」
「Haru, is the fried tofu dashi fine as is?」
「Mm, yeah, just leave it be. Ah, Archem-san, feel free to just go ahead and distribute the steamed bird stuff.」
「Understood.」
Completing each meal with terrifying dexterity, they distributed food on a wide scale amongst the throng of elves that had gathered around the open fire. Still, there was a staggering number of people. The villagers were also distributing cuisine of the elven variety (not as exaggerated as one might expect), but there was a major gap between the amount of people and the size of their stomachs, and it was quite difficult to keep it up. They had given up on the idea of getting all the food to everyone, only striving to feed as many people as possible, but they were still ensuring top quality rather than mere mass production.
Other than the cubed stew, which was difficult to cook without breaking form, and the tofu recipe, which needed a fine balance between dashi and fried tofu, the elves had learned how to make the majority of fried/steamed meals as well as pizza, getting right to making tons and tons of servings. Especially when it came to pizza, they made rather large ones, and even splitting a pizza sixteen ways was still rather overwhelming. Not only were there more than enough ingredients; they could make over ten pizzas at once. Going about it the right way, they could get it around to everyone.
「Ye all can go ahead and relax now.」
「You sure?」
「I’m pretty sure we still have to make a bunch.」
「Yer cooking is enough to give a plate to just about everyone. Besides, we can’t just make the stars o’the show work forever.」
The elderly elf said, and the other elves nodded at Haruna and Mio as well. Agreeing that this was a sensible time to stop working, they decided to rendezvous with Tatsuya and the others.