Individual deviation.
Regarding the words of Queen Asteria of the Elf Kingdom, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.
“Isn’t that just cutting off the tail?”
A common expression found in various media.
Whether in games, web novels, or movies, it’s an act often mentioned when an organization or group causes trouble and gets caught.
To express it appropriately in the Empire’s style, it would be like saying, “These aren’t our Dark Elves.”
“So you think so too?”
Queen Asteria placed her hand on her chest and sighed.
The white dress covered very little of her body, and the fabric was quite thin, making it rather embarrassing to look at.
“Is the Elven perspective different?”
“I think so too. If you look only at the Dark Elves, you could say ‘it’s possible,’ but the Empire is behind them.”
Queen Asteria offered me a twig.
“This is the memory of a spirit. You’ll understand as soon as you grasp it.”
As I grasped the twig under the queen’s guidance, a certain image began to form in my mind.
It was similar to a recollection spell in magic, but more fundamental and primal—a spirit summoning that reads the memories of plants.
The scene was fixed like CCTV, but clearer memories than those a recollection spell could show flowed into my head through the twig.
[Is it really a solo operation?]
In the center of a space made entirely of trees, Queen Asteria questioned a Dark Elf tied to a chair.
The Dark Elf was wearing hardened leather made from animal hides, not the cloth garments worn by the Elves—one of the typical black military uniforms of the Empire.
[Of course. I am an individual.]
The Dark Elf sneered at the queen with a sly smile.
With a violet glint in his eyes, imbued with magic, his blood-red lips stretched wide beneath his falling bangs as he chuckled—a clear sign of mockery.
It wasn’t just because I was directly watching the queen’s memory; even if I had been there in person, I would have clearly felt something from that Dark Elf’s gaze.
[That’s a lie.]
[What?]
[You’re looking down on us.]
The disdain and mockery toward the foolish Elves.
As the humiliation was revealed, the Dark Elf assassin’s expression gradually hardened.
[Unfortunately, we too have experienced ‘human thinking’ in the course of war.]
[You…!]
[You think and act like a citizen of the Empire more than anyone else. That’s what the Shield of the Continent, the Guardian of the World Tree, did before. He said—]
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped reading the memory.
“Queen, you don’t mean—”
“Shit never change.”
“No.”
The vulgar and naked words were unbelievable coming from the Elf Queen.
“Your Majesty, what are you saying…”
“Oh my, how could I forget what the Hero said when he saved the World Tree?”
“No, but—”
It was what I said when I learned that the dark mage leading the Orc army, the one trying to burn down the World Tree, was a magician dispatched from the Empire. I cut down that dark mage in front of the World Tree.
Shit never change.
Although I couldn’t say that in Elvish, the meaning of the phrase preceding it was enough to equate it to “citizen of the Empire.”
“We did not know the abyss of human malice. That is why we had no idea that the Dark Elves had accepted that malice and intended to attack the World Tree with it.”
Once, the World Tree was nearly burned down.
In the massive onslaught of over 100,000 Orcs, the High Elves summoned guardians to protect the World Tree, and among these were Dark Elves as well.
—How could we accept the fallen ones…?
—Though we walk the path of sorcery, we are Elves born from the World Tree!
At that time, I had warned that the Dark Elves were dangerous.
I said they might be spies from the Empire and should not be accepted.
However, the queen and the elders at the time accepted the Dark Elves, saying, “They are still Elves.”
As a result—
The damage inflicted by the Dark Elves from within—assassinating Elf elders, setting fires—was far more severe than the damage the hundred thousand Orcs inflicted on the Elf Kingdom head-on.
After such events, the Elf Kingdom began to study humans. And now, they know humans well.
The grotesque malice of humans.
“Still, the word ‘shit’ is a bit much.”
“Hoo hoo hoo. I’m joking. We officially call it ‘Empire citizens never change.’ For example, some of our sisters are still living as human slaves.”
“…….”
“Yes, although I know that humans in various kingdoms, including the Grates Kingdom, are not much different from those individuals….”
Elf slaves are not only in the Empire.
Officially, there are no Elf slaves in the Alliance, but surely there are some, hidden away.
“Still, it hasn’t been long since the war ended, so there’s no reason to pick a fight with the Alliance. The Elf Kingdom is still… at war with the Empire.”
“The Elf Kingdom has many concerns.”
“Many. The purification of pollution, the restoration of the forest, granting peace to those who became slaves, and so on.”
“…….”
At the word “peace,” I put down the twig.
“Queen. Don’t tell me—”
“Not yet. Not yet.”
“…As time passes, in the distant future, could it be?”
“We realized that merely protecting the forest was not enough to protect what truly matters, and now we understand the human way of thinking.”
Queen Asteria opened her arms to me and smiled.
“An eye for an eye.”
“Are you going to seek revenge on all humans?”
“Not all humans. Starting with the Empire, for now.”
“The end of the war….”
“For Elves, the peace treaty is but a brief moment. Even if it is said to last a century, a hundred years is nothing during negotiation.”
For humans, a hundred-year peace spans two generations. For Elves, it’s like ten years.
“Even though it’s not actually a hundred years!”
“…….”
“These are people who will start a war the moment the Shield of the Continent dies. They didn’t stop the war because they lacked the power to conquer the continent, but because they lacked the power to surpass Hans Wilhelm.”
“So the Elves will also form an army and develop national defense?”
“We were defeated because we didn’t have one. Is there any reason not to?”
Queen Asteria pointed to the twig containing her memories.
“The Dark Elves still think of us as foolish beings who only take the blows, and even after the peace treaty, they continue to attack under the guise of individual deviation. If a few Dark Elves come and commit acts of terror every month, can that still be considered individual deviation?”
“…….”
“What will you do, Grand Master?”
Queen Asteria asked me.
“The peace of this continent—”
“Whether the Elf Kingdom changes its direction or not, I have no intention of worrying about such political and complex issues.”
Before the queen could ask me further, I conveyed my own intentions.
“I just wish for men and women who get along to enjoy themselves in peaceful times. That applies to Elves as well, but also to Dark Elves.”
“Sir Wilhelm.”
“During the World Tree arson attempt, I personally dealt with the Dark Elves who committed murder. I also killed Master-level Dark Elves that the Elves couldn’t eliminate.”
“But you spared the Dark Elf who simply caused the arson.”
“Yes. I spared her.”
She was a beautiful woman, and I was drunk.
“That Dark Elf returned to the Empire afterward, but she never pointed a sword at the Elf Kingdom again.”
“What if women like that try to commit that ‘individual deviation’?”
“I will kill them. For the peace of the world, and for my well-being.”
“Even though she’s someone you were drunk with?”
“I didn’t spare her for that purpose. That’s something everyone on the continent knows.”
I spared many beautiful women during the war.
But afterwards, there were women who did the kind of things Queen Asteria described as Empire-like.
Some by coercion.
Some by their own will.
Some, unable to take revenge on me directly, took out their frustrations in other ways—by enacting revenge.
And they all died.
Some were killed by my own hand, others met their ends by different means.
“I ask Asteria, the monarch of all white Elves, the gardener of the World Tree.”
“Please speak, Grand Master.”
“As long as the Dark Elves don’t act like Empire citizens, do you have any intention of reconciling with them?”
“…We have come too far to use the word reconciliation.”
Queen Asteria shook her head firmly.
“However, if they do not provoke us first, we will not act against them.”
“The strength to nurture?”
For example, like the troops armed and blocking the entrance in front of the Elf forest—like a knight order.
“That is the strength to protect ourselves, and the strength to prevent them from playing such tricks against us.”
“…….”
“Grand Master.”
The queen reached out her hand to me.
“If you would become the guardian of the World Tree, we can offer you anything.”
“Anything?”
“Yes. Even if it is… your hobby.”
To mention it once more—
The queen greeted me from the beginning, wearing a dress that revealed her chest.
“How about it, Grand Master?”
“I’ll think about it. Oh, by the way. Queen, how old are you this year?”
“I believe it is considered impolite for humans to ask a lady her age.”
“So, how old?”
“…Hoo hoo hoo.”
Queen Asteria smiled with a benevolent smile.
“I am not yet a thousand years old.”
“…….”
