It is said that elves are long-lived.
Strictly speaking, they are not … like trees, they are long-lived when there are no daily changes.
When they are in human society and go through turbulent days, their life span is shortened.
“A tree that is continually exposed to storms will fall faster.”
So goes the Elven proverb.
Is it really possible to live like a tree and still be alive?
There was a man who conceptually spoke to me about life and death.
“If you’re forced to live unwillingly, that’s not living …… from my perspective. I value it, and that’s why I care about quality.”
I was very surprised.
I wondered if he was a strong person.
But the fact is that I was strongly repulsed by his overly decisive way of speaking.
I felt as if he was pointing out something about me, and it made me uncomfortable.
Until I heard this line, I had vaguely thought that …… he was a kind person.
There was no deep meaning to the fact that we began to travel together.
I thought he was a gentleman and would protect those who were in trouble.
In a world where you can’t touch the descendants of apostles, he would help me as if it was natural.
I just thought that if I could rely on this person, I would be able to reach my destination without worry.
It was a lonely and uneasy journey that I had suddenly decided to take alone.
But after he allowed me to accompany them, it became a very fun and lively trip.
Silvana, who was to accompany me on the trip, and I soon became friends as women and started calling each other Vana and Mil.
I’ve been living in seclusion, avoiding the public eye, so this is very refreshing.
◆◇◆◇◆
When we take a bath together, we often talk about the opposite sex.
Vana loves such stories.
She says she aims for an apostle, but she loves love stories.
“That virgin says he’s 36, but he looks very young.”
I don’t know if you should call him that, but I smile and nod in agreement.
Vana nodded her head there.
“On the contrary, Al, you’re a mystery. He’s sixteen, you know? Can you see that to him? Impossible, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if his virginity and age were reversed.”
“Well …… yeah. Al is very calm.”
“Sometimes …… I think Al can read people’s minds.”
“Is that so?”
“He wants to know everything. But it’s all about how the world works.”
“He sounds like a scholar.”
“I mean, the first thing he asked me was about magic. I was shocked.”
I imagined the scene and laughed.
“Scholars are like virgins, they don’t have any sense of delicacy.”
It’s true that Fabio-san seems like a child who is not used to women.
“Al is, strangely enough …… never goes into anything you don’t want him to touch in private.”
“That’s strange.”
Vana laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Then I end up talking too much.”
Vana suddenly looked as if she had an idea.
“I’ve been thinking, you know.”
“What?”
“I think Al and Mil would make a good match.”
“Wait! Wait, what are you talking about all of a sudden!”
“It’s just a woman’s intuition. It’s called chemistry.”
I was surprised, because I had never looked at him like that before.
I felt embarrassed, so I decided to change the conversation ……
“What about Vana? You seem to like Al a lot.”
Vana chuckled with an unusually complicated expression.
“Hmm~ I don’t hate him. I can accept it obediently if it’s a fiancé my parents’ decision and we’ll get along fine. It would be great if it’s a friend.”
It was a subtle expression.
Vana tilted her head slightly and then opened her mouth.
“If you were to ask me, “Do I like him as a person?” I don’t think so. But if he says he likes me, I’ll say yes and I’m sure we’ll be happy. Do you know what I mean?”
“I don’t know, it doesn’t ring a bell, but I kind of get it.”
“It’s not that I don’t find Al attractive. It’s just that …… it’s too unique. It attracts certain people very strongly, but it doesn’t resonate that much with others.”
Vana is basically a free-spirit, with a keen sense of intuition and an instinctive sense of judgment.
I can say that I don’t know about you being a magician like that, but …… I see.
She doesn’t say anything out of line.
If she wasn’t drinking …… though.
I think back to Al.
If you ask me what I think of him, I don’t have any special fondness for him.
He’s a nice guy …… was the end of the story.
That’s exactly the kind of thing Vana was talking about, “But if he says he likes me, I’ll say yes”.
Even though I had lived for almost 100 years, I hadn’t gained any particular experience.
It was just a repetition of the same routine, so inside I’m no different from a human girl.
So when someone suddenly brought up the subject of the opposite sex, I became strangely conscious of it.
I was a little nervous when Al told me that he had something to ask me.
But it wasn’t anything sexy at all, and I felt a little disappointed.
He asked about me and my relatives, but I could tell he was asking with some certainty.
He was trying to hide it, though.
I was almost alarmed, but I knew he wasn’t an enemy to begin with.
He has no reservations about apostles and their descendants.
If you do something wrong, it’s wrong whether it’s the apostles or their descendants.
He is a person who not only says but does what is difficult in this world without hesitation.
It seemed natural that I might be able to tell my story to this person.
I wonder if this is what Verna meant when she said, “Then I end up talking too much”.
If I had been forced to talk, I wouldn’t have felt like talking at all.
He was just calmly waiting for me to speak.
I was drawn into talking.
It was a dangerous topic, and if the church or anyone else heard about it, they’ll definitely kill me.
But Al was like, what does it matter?
He also said that he would protect me.
I had no idea why he would side with me even if I was the enemy of the world.
Is it possible that he likes me?
I took the liberty of thinking that, and it made sense.
But if there was someone else like me, he would try to protect her.
I found myself feeling frustrated by that.
I don’t want to tell anyone that I was moved to tears by these feelings of happiness and frustration.
He probably knew, but of course, Al pretended to be oblivious.
◆◇◆◇◆
After that day, I became more conscious of Al.
However, I felt uncomfortable with such a condescending line.
“But it’s impossible to disagree, can you live with that? Isn’t that an unwanted way of life? Are you happy to live like that?”
I was shocked when I was asked that.
I felt as if I had been denied the chance to live my life in hiding, and I even felt as if my feelings had been betrayed.
But Al is not the type to simply deny others.
I thought to myself …… I think Al hates himself.
I think that harshness is only directed at Al himself.
If he’s only harsh, he won’t realize and take into consideration what people don’t want to hear.
I guess because he is so hard on himself, he can’t easily step into people’s minds.
Thinking back on what he had said and done so far, I was convinced of that.
He seemed to be a very dexterous person, but he also seemed to be quite clumsy.
When I noticed that …… The repulsion I had felt earlier had disappeared.
“I want to create a world where people can live without relying on drugs called apostles. I don’t want to involve others who are compromised or convinced. I don’t like the world, so I want to pry some of it open and create a world I like. It’s okay to take a little bit of the world. It would be nice to have a place where people who have no place in the world can laugh and live.”
I was truly surprised by these words.
""
He wants to create a world where people like me can live and have fun.
He hates himself but tries to do something for the happiness of others.
And then I thought.
A person who hates himself and tries to do something for the happiness of others.
If such a person would do something for me.
I’ll end up liking Al and want to do something for him.
It is said that elves are long-lived.
Strictly speaking, they are not … like trees, they are long-lived when there are no daily changes.
When they are in human society and go through turbulent days, their life span is shortened.
“A tree that is continually exposed to storms will fall faster.”
So goes the Elven proverb.
Is it really possible to live like a tree and still be alive?
There was a man who conceptually spoke to me about life and death.
“If you’re forced to live unwillingly, that’s not living …… from my perspective. I value it, and that’s why I care about quality.”
I was very surprised.
I wondered if he was a strong person.
But the fact is that I was strongly repulsed by his overly decisive way of speaking.
I felt as if he was pointing out something about me, and it made me uncomfortable.
Until I heard this line, I had vaguely thought that …… he was a kind person.
There was no deep meaning to the fact that we began to travel together.
I thought he was a gentleman and would protect those who were in trouble.
In a world where you can’t touch the descendants of apostles, he would help me as if it was natural.
I just thought that if I could rely on this person, I would be able to reach my destination without worry.
It was a lonely and uneasy journey that I had suddenly decided to take alone.
But after he allowed me to accompany them, it became a very fun and lively trip.
Silvana, who was to accompany me on the trip, and I soon became friends as women and started calling each other Vana and Mil.
I’ve been living in seclusion, avoiding the public eye, so this is very refreshing.
◆◇◆◇◆
When we take a bath together, we often talk about the opposite sex.
Vana loves such stories.
She says she aims for an apostle, but she loves love stories.
“That virgin says he’s 36, but he looks very young.”
I don’t know if you should call him that, but I smile and nod in agreement.
Vana nodded her head there.
“On the contrary, Al, you’re a mystery. He’s sixteen, you know? Can you see that to him? Impossible, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if his virginity and age were reversed.”
“Well …… yeah. Al is very calm.”
“Sometimes …… I think Al can read people’s minds.”
“Is that so?”
“He wants to know everything. But it’s all about how the world works.”
“He sounds like a scholar.”
“I mean, the first thing he asked me was about magic. I was shocked.”
I imagined the scene and laughed.
“Scholars are like virgins, they don’t have any sense of delicacy.”
It’s true that Fabio-san seems like a child who is not used to women.
“Al is, strangely enough …… never goes into anything you don’t want him to touch in private.”
“That’s strange.”
Vana laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Then I end up talking too much.”
Vana suddenly looked as if she had an idea.
“I’ve been thinking, you know.”
“What?”
“I think Al and Mil would make a good match.”
“Wait! Wait, what are you talking about all of a sudden!”
“It’s just a woman’s intuition. It’s called chemistry.”
I was surprised, because I had never looked at him like that before.
I felt embarrassed, so I decided to change the conversation ……
“What about Vana? You seem to like Al a lot.”
Vana chuckled with an unusually complicated expression.
“Hmm~ I don’t hate him. I can accept it obediently if it’s a fiancé my parents’ decision and we’ll get along fine. It would be great if it’s a friend.”
It was a subtle expression.
Vana tilted her head slightly and then opened her mouth.
“If you were to ask me, “Do I like him as a person?” I don’t think so. But if he says he likes me, I’ll say yes and I’m sure we’ll be happy. Do you know what I mean?”
“I don’t know, it doesn’t ring a bell, but I kind of get it.”
“It’s not that I don’t find Al attractive. It’s just that …… it’s too unique. It attracts certain people very strongly, but it doesn’t resonate that much with others.”
Vana is basically a free-spirit, with a keen sense of intuition and an instinctive sense of judgment.
I can say that I don’t know about you being a magician like that, but …… I see.
She doesn’t say anything out of line.
If she wasn’t drinking …… though.
I think back to Al.
If you ask me what I think of him, I don’t have any special fondness for him.
He’s a nice guy …… was the end of the story.
That’s exactly the kind of thing Vana was talking about, “But if he says he likes me, I’ll say yes”.
Even though I had lived for almost 100 years, I hadn’t gained any particular experience.
It was just a repetition of the same routine, so inside I’m no different from a human girl.
So when someone suddenly brought up the subject of the opposite sex, I became strangely conscious of it.
I was a little nervous when Al told me that he had something to ask me.
But it wasn’t anything sexy at all, and I felt a little disappointed.
He asked about me and my relatives, but I could tell he was asking with some certainty.
He was trying to hide it, though.
I was almost alarmed, but I knew he wasn’t an enemy to begin with.
He has no reservations about apostles and their descendants.
If you do something wrong, it’s wrong whether it’s the apostles or their descendants.
He is a person who not only says but does what is difficult in this world without hesitation.
It seemed natural that I might be able to tell my story to this person.
I wonder if this is what Verna meant when she said, “Then I end up talking too much”.
If I had been forced to talk, I wouldn’t have felt like talking at all.
He was just calmly waiting for me to speak.
I was drawn into talking.
It was a dangerous topic, and if the church or anyone else heard about it, they’ll definitely kill me.
But Al was like, what does it matter?
He also said that he would protect me.
I had no idea why he would side with me even if I was the enemy of the world.
Is it possible that he likes me?
I took the liberty of thinking that, and it made sense.
But if there was someone else like me, he would try to protect her.
I found myself feeling frustrated by that.
I don’t want to tell anyone that I was moved to tears by these feelings of happiness and frustration.
He probably knew, but of course, Al pretended to be oblivious.
◆◇◆◇◆
After that day, I became more conscious of Al.
However, I felt uncomfortable with such a condescending line.
“But it’s impossible to disagree, can you live with that? Isn’t that an unwanted way of life? Are you happy to live like that?”
I was shocked when I was asked that.
I felt as if I had been denied the chance to live my life in hiding, and I even felt as if my feelings had been betrayed.
But Al is not the type to simply deny others.
I thought to myself …… I think Al hates himself.
I think that harshness is only directed at Al himself.
If he’s only harsh, he won’t realize and take into consideration what people don’t want to hear.
I guess because he is so hard on himself, he can’t easily step into people’s minds.
Thinking back on what he had said and done so far, I was convinced of that.
He seemed to be a very dexterous person, but he also seemed to be quite clumsy.
When I noticed that …… The repulsion I had felt earlier had disappeared.
“I want to create a world where people can live without relying on drugs called apostles. I don’t want to involve others who are compromised or convinced. I don’t like the world, so I want to pry some of it open and create a world I like. It’s okay to take a little bit of the world. It would be nice to have a place where people who have no place in the world can laugh and live.”
I was truly surprised by these words.
""
He wants to create a world where people like me can live and have fun.
He hates himself but tries to do something for the happiness of others.
And then I thought.
A person who hates himself and tries to do something for the happiness of others.
If such a person would do something for me.
I’ll end up liking Al and want to do something for him.
