Although I wondered what kind of things I would do when I was told that I was welcome, it was largely as I expected.

　The elven settlement is modeled after a city somewhere else, with a square in the center and houses lining the perimeter of the square.
　The square is large and can easily accommodate a hundred people, but it was now teeming with elves.

　It's already noisy and, moreover, festive with an appetizing smell in the air.
　No, ...... or, indeed, for them, a festival itself.

　It was a welcome banquet, that is.
　I was called in because I was ready, and this is how I was supposed to participate.

　The situation, as I mentioned earlier, is what you could even call noisy.

"...... Well, I guess that's not too much to ask.

　It's a good idea to have a drink that was handed to you a while ago, while watching such a scene.

　There are a lot of elves around, so why are you observing your surroundings alone?
　You will be able to find out what you need to know about them.
　But after a few conversations, he seemed to be in a jovial mood and quickly went away, and this has been going on ever since the party began.

　Although I thought of elves as being a bit quieter, they are probably drunk.
　Not because of the alcohol, but because of the situation.

　I don't smell of alcohol, and elves should have been basically weak to begin with.
　This is just a fruit juice drink, and there is no alcohol in it.
　And yet, the fact that he's able to be so jolly...

...... That's how anxious I was, I guess.

　Remembering what Henriette told me earlier, I took another sip.
　And.

. do you have a minute?

　I'm not a fan of talking to bigwigs, but I do know that it's not that kind of atmosphere.
　I don't really like talking to the big man, but ...... and looking at the way he looked, I know that's not the case.

　And Allen is now alone with his free time.
　Unfortunately, there was no reason to refuse.

Go ahead. I was bored, as you can see.
"Well, ......, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry to say that you're welcome to .......
No, I don't want to be taken too seriously, do I?　And, well, what can you do?　Everyone seems to be into someone else.

　I don't need to tell you who this someone is.
　If you observe your surroundings a little, it's obvious who everyone's attention is focused on, and in fact, that person's location is clearly different from the number of elves gathered there.

　Of course, it was Noel.

"I told them not to bother you. ......
Well, I guess I can't help it, can I?　And we're talking about the absence of the king for the last ten years.

　At the mention of the subject, the man twitched one eyebrow slightly.
　I knew it, or should I say, this is a topic that makes me nervous.

...... Is that from Master Henriette?
"Well, yeah. Shouldn't you have listened to that?
No. ...... If we are the king's friends, that's fine. And by the looks of things, someone will have slipped up anyway. Or maybe it's already too late.

　So Allen chuckled, and indeed, he was right.
　At least twice, Allen had heard of the subject.
　You don't need to hear it from Henriette to know that.

　But you wouldn't have known the details of the situation without hearing from Henriette.

From the looks of it, you've heard about our race's characteristics.
If I hadn't asked that much, I wouldn't have understood the story, indeed.

　No matter how long-lived the elves are, if the king had been gone for ten years, they would have chosen the next king.
　It's not like the empire where the candidates are just firing each other up.
　This is evident from the fact that this man is acting as the deputy.

　But at the same time, the man is just the deputy.
　Henriette says that there is no one with the king's blood left.

　It is common knowledge that elves are especially fond of blood.
　But it cannot be helped if the blood is gone.

　Someone else should have been chosen ...... but they did not--

Elves can only be governed by the blood of the king. Or, to put it more strictly, they have the characteristics of a race that grows in accordance with the nature of the king, culminating in and following the blood of the king.

　In short, an elf can only grow by having a king's blood as king.
　Or rather, they cannot grow in any other way.
　For the elves have long ago defined themselves as such.

　The elves are a race of spirits.
　When the spirit fell to become a seed, it became an elf. ...... The remnants of the spirit's former life existed in its body.
　It's the one thing that can't grow on its own.

　Spirits cannot grow.
　Because they are a phenomenon with a will, they can change in size but are not associated with growth.
　No matter how much effort or time passes, a spirit based on a phenomenon cannot grow, no matter how much effort is put forth.

　And that nature remained even after they became elves.
　But the elves were a species of mankind and growth was necessary.

　If not, other species will destroy you. ...... is not the case.
　Things are more pressing.

　If they don't grow up, they can't have children.
　Elves may live a long life but they are not immortal if they do not live forever.
　One day they must die, and to fail to carry on the bloodline would be synonymous with the slow death of the entire species.

　But strangely enough, only one of them was able to grow up.
　He was the first to become an elf, and by crowning him king, strangely enough, others were also able to grow, albeit gradually.



　Therefore, the bloodline of the king is something the elves must protect above all else.
　And yet, ten years ago, the king and his child fell ill from an unknown illness and passed away.

I honestly thought at that time it was hopeless. "I honestly thought at that time that we were going to die a slow death.
Well, from what I've heard, I can see why you would think that.
But it was Master Henriette who saved us. She showed us ...... that there was hope for us.
"Hope for ......?
Ah. About fifteen years ago, there was an elf who became a stray. An odd one. He was an elf who was only interested in blacksmithing. Then he went to .......
The elf had the blood of a king, and
Yes. I don't know how Henriette came to know about it. We could only despair, and that was enough for us.

　So today we have someone who I believe is actually of the same blood, huh?

Well, it could have been something like that.

　Everyone's attention is on Noel.
　There's no doubt about it.

　But even less than that, Henriette has also attracted people.
　Moreover, it's different from the elves that come to Allen and the others.

　Although Leeds and Milene are also seated in a remote part of the square, the elves who come there, just like the elves who came to Allen's place, only come because they want to know about Noel.
　It is easy to see that, and because they were told not to bother Noel too much, they are distracted by hearing from others.

　And the reason why they leave so soon is to share that information with their friends.
　That's why there's a lot of commotion here and there.

　But the elves who come to Henriette's place are clearly after her.
　And from the fact that Henriette looks vaguely confused, she must have been thanked.

　The figure, the story--

Well, that's very typical of Henriette. I mean, isn't it also Henriette's fault that there are house and other tribal influences here, anyway?
"...... Oh . She would deny it. Even if a city were built right next to us, we wouldn't go there. We've been here long enough. But she brought a city thing with her at every turn.
That way, some people will be naturally interested in it.
"Those who went out, Master Henriette somehow took care of them. As a result, more and more people are making their way easily to that city ...... and the city is now full of the comforts and conveniences that other species use.

　It really was a typical story.

　She basically does not do anything for herself.
　She says she does things for herself, but in the end she does something for someone else.
　Although Allen knew her mainly when she was an apostle ...... it was probably not because she was an apostle, but because she was.

　Allen certainly saved a lot of people in a past life.
　But it was only as a result of that, and she got there because Henriette moved to save those people and told Allen about it.
　She couldn't help them directly, so she had to leave it to Allen.

　It's a good thing that you have a good idea of what you're looking for when you go to ...... to know that you're doing such a thing in this world.

"Oh, yeah, by the way, there's one thing I wanted to ask you.
"Want to hear it?　What is it?　It's not that I say welcome, but I can't do a good job of welcoming the wabbit substitute ......, but if I can answer that question, I will.
"Yeah, I think it's going to be okay. It's not that hard to do.

　As he said this, Allen turned his attention to his surroundings.
　With a sideways glance, he turns toward the edge of the square, where he sees a man following him.

　It's a child.
　Except--

I thought we had all gathered earlier, but some of you didn't come over there, did you?　Like that kid. There was a kid there earlier, so it's not like he's a kid, either.
"Yeah. Well, as you can see ...... this is an elf forest, but some of us are not elves.
'Yeah, well, I knew that because I 'saw' ......, so that's what I wanted to hear.'
"That thing?　The one I just mentioned is only for the elves to serve the king, so it is only natural that no one but elves would come.
I'm just wondering why the devil is here.

　The moment Allen interrupted the man's words and said so, the man's eyes widened in astonishment and stopped moving.