Right now, I sat in a seiza position with Gen. Mayers, Emilia and the others standing behind me. 10 people with long ears and blonde hair with green pupils. She also sat in the same position in front of me. They wore kimonos and their beautiful visages practically screamed what their race was.
They were elves...
The reason why we were sitting like this was because we were having a Japanese style tea ceremony. I’m guessing you’re wondering why we are doing this. Well, for that, let’s go back to three days prior when Mary and Victoria just arrived in my home.
Liza had a very excited as she waited with me, along with Emilia, near the gates for Mary and Victoria. My younger brother and Cecilia, Duke Mearess’ daughter, were playing inside along with my mother. As for Carlos and his twin servants, they were strolling around my home with a very bored and irritated expression. Thanks to my ultimate skill, [Ignore], his expression didn’t bother me one bit.
After a while, the carriage that carried Mary and Victoria arrived, Liza immediate ran towards the gate in high spirits. At the same time, Emilia received a white envelope. It had Gen. Mayers’ seal on it and judging from the residual mana around it, it seemed to have been sent to her through magic. She then asked for my permission to read the contents and walked away. As such, I became the only one received Mary and Victoria.
As we conversed, Emilia suddenly arrived with a really pale face. With a very nervous voice, she whispered the contents of the message to me. Hearing the contents, I quickly stood up from my seat and headed to the place where my mother was. I then told her that I was headed to the borders, where Gen. Mayers was.
I had thought that she was gonna stop me, however, she gave me a wry smile and told me that it was okay. Honestly, I was glad and melancholic at the same time. I was glad that she gave me the okay but was sad because she said it too easily. Well, because of the content of the message, I didn’t spend too long wallowing in my emotions.
With a tight face, I gave my mother a deep bow and said, “I’ll be back.”
Ordering Emilia, who stood behind me, to pack my clothes, I quickly headed to the outside and met the bewildered Liza, Mary, and Victoria. I then explained the content of the message and told them to get ready. Liza quickly ran towards her room to pack her clothes to prepare for the journey. As for Mary and Victoria, they waited along with me near the carriage.
As we waited, a wild Carlos suddenly appeared. I used [ignore] against him, but I was countered with [annoying questions] rapidly. As such, I used [run away], however, he used [chase while asking annoying questions]. He then activated his active skill, [annoying aura] and it proved to be super effective against me.
As such I conceded against him.
Since Mary was spewing an aura like Emilia’s, I unconsciously gave her the task of explaining the message to Carlos. When Carlos received the message, he quickly ordered the twins to pack some clothes. I was taken aback by his order. It was because he arbitrarily decided to come with me, however, if I reacted to him, I would feel like I lost to him. As a result, I gave him a poker face and waited for Emilia and Liza.
The moment they arrived, the five of us and Carlos’ group, quickly flew to the sky. It took us two days and one night to arrive at the place where General Mayers was stationed. The scene we saw looked quite tense.
General Mayers rode on a horse with his aides besides him. Looking closely, I found three familiar boys near him. Behind them, I saw an uncountable number of soldiers standing in files. Seeing this, I moved my gaze towards the scene they were looking.
What I found was a group of people with long ears. I quickly noticed that they were elves. However, unlike the human side, they only numbered a few. They numbered a hundred. What’s more, a few paces in front of them, I saw an elf sitting on top of a tatami drinking on from a clay cup. He looked very relaxed as he drank from it.
I then landed beside Gen. Mayers and asked him when they arrived. He answered me that a few days ago, they sent a messenger to the fortress he was stationed. According to him, he told me that they wanted to have a discussion with a refined individual that belongs to the human race. As such, when the elves arrived three days ago, Gen. Mayers decided to be the one who’d talk to them.
However, when he met up with them, the strange customs they had left him confused and bewildered. Because of that, he was deemed by them to be unworthy. He was at a loss as to how he was gonna deal with them.
When he was about to give up, Anthony told him about the weapon I used in the duel. He told him that my weapon, during that time, had a very striking resemblance to the weapons their warriors had. By the way, the weapon I used during my duel against Carlos was the Wakizashi.
As such, Gen. Mayers quickly ordered to deliver me an emergency message of the highest priority. As he ended his explanation, I quickly turned around and headed to the place where I saw the elf. Gen. Mayers, along with Emilia and the others, followed shortly behind me.
When we arrived to where the elf was, I quickly removed my shoes and sat in a seiza in front of the elf while he ordered a servant to prepare tea.
“It seems like you’re familiar with our customs.”
The elf spoke in a deep voice in a relaxed manner.
“Not at all, I’m only copying what you are doing.”
I replied to the elf with a smile. Actually, back in my previous life, I used to watch a lot of things that contained a lot of Japanese stuff (Anime). As such, I was a bit familiar with this scenario.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
We exchanged very few words. I could’ve said more words to him, but because I felt really nervous right now, I wasn’t able to think of anything more. I moved my eyes to observe what was happening around me.
Emilia and Mary stood behind me like maids waiting for my orders while Liza and Victoria looked very uneasy. When my eyes stopped at Gen. Mayers, I discovered that he, along with three boys, were doing their best to keep Carlos at bay. He had a very irritated expression as he tried to force his way into the tatami. But thanks to Gen. Mayers, He was stopped.
When my attention returned to the elf, I noticed that the servant had finished brewing the tea and was now delivering the cups to us. I received the cup and turned it with my hands before drinking the entire thing in one gulp.
Haa~ so it’s green tea huh…. Un, it’s quite delicious.
“Thank you very much for the delicious tea.”
I placed the empty cup beside me and gave the elf a deep bow as I thanked the elf.
“I’m very glad you liked it.”
The elf showed me a wry smile as he returned my bow.
“I think it a good time to introduce ourselves. My name is Aeris, the third son of the elven chief that hails from the Silverwood forest.”
That hails from where? I’m sorry, I don’t know where Silverwood forest is. I’m just a humble individual who belongs to a race that hid behind a barrier for a thousand years. So forgive my ignorance.
“I was named by my parents Lumina, I belong to the noble house of Chis Chem.”
Aeris, who received my introductions, showed a shocked face for a moment. It was then replaced with a smile. I also returned his smile as a servant delivered some sweets to us.
They were dangoes.
Seeing the dangoes, I quickly took one of the sticks and ate one of it. Seeing me, Emilia’s face became really pale as I chew the dango with a very satisfied expression. Aeris also did the same thing as me.
“May we know the reason for your abrupt appearance here?”
I asked Aeris-sama as I swallowed a dango.
“I actually came here as an envoy of peace and war.”
“An envoy of peace and war?”
One of my eyebrows twitched when I heard the word ‘war’. Who wouldn’t?
“Ee, actually, the reason why we're having this tea ceremony is to test your race.”
“Of whether we are cultured enough or not?”
“Yes.”
The elf made a very satisfied nod to my words.
“If your race possesses an individual that’s able to talk to us in a civilized manner, then I’ll come as an envoy of peace. However, if your race doesn’t, then I’ll come as an envoy of war.”
“I see.”
I took the cup of green tea that was presented to me as I answered him. I was drinking slowly as I matched the current situation as to what had happened in the game.
If memory is correct, this didn’t happen. In the game, the elves just one-sidedly attacked the human race the moment the barrier was broken.
Don’t tell me…
Did this event actually happen and because the nobles they sent were all obnoxious and such? And because of that, they failed the test. As a consequence, the elves attacked the human race.
My goodness… I need to do my best to pass this test.
Go me! Let’s do our best!
Ei Ei ooh!
As I pumped myself in my head, I gathered my courage and met his eyes with mine.
“Aeris-sama, may I ask a few questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Is this all of the test?”
I asked him in trepidation.
“Yes, this is all.”
“Then…”
“Your race has passed the test. As such, I have come here as an envoy of peace.”
I patted my chest in relief when I heard his declaration.
“Thank you very much (Anime).”
Receiving my heartfelt thanks, Aeris-sama showed a radiant smile. Actually, I noticed that this person gave me different kinds of smiles. Just how many of those does he have?
“May I ask for a person behind me to join us? I am still a child and as such, I do not possess any influence as of yet. Because this is a political matter, I need an adult to supervise the discussion that may follow.”
Hearing me, Aeris-sama’s eyes opened really wide.
“You’re still a child? Because of how you acted, I thought you were an adult.”
I made a wry smile and said:
“I’ll accept your words as a compliment. However, it is a fact that I’m still 12 years old and from our race’s viewpoint, I am still a child. I still need 6 more years before I am considered an adult.”
If I add my previous life’s age to my current age, I should’ve been an adult already. However, because I thoroughly enjoyed my life here, I forgot how old I was in my previous life. So, let’s just say I’m still 12 years old in this world.
“It’s the same for our race then. However, for us, a 12-year-old child is still an infant. For a child to reach your height he’ll need 50 years and for him to become an adult, he’ll need 400 more years.”
“I see.”
“Yes.”
The two of us drank the green tea at the same time. It felt really weird to be in sync with him.
“Forgive me if you’ve taken offense now that you know that I’m a child, Aeris-sama.”
“Ah, no, I was just shocked.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
The two of us then picked up a dango stick and bit on a dango at the same time. Stop doing that already!
“Then, I shall have an adult come here.”
“Yes.”
I then told Emilia to call Gen. Mayers here. She gave me a slight bow and headed towards him. After a while, Gen. Mayers arrived and introduced himself. He didn’t sit in a seiza though, he only stood closer to us.
“My name is Gen. Hawthorn Mayers, because of my son, I now serve the house which Lumina-sama belongs.”
In the party, he didn’t call me with a ‘-sama’. Still, hearing an older person, with a social standing higher than mine really, call me that gives me goose bumps. Please stop…. Please.
“So you belong to an influential house, Lumina?”
Aeris-sama asked me as he sipped on his cupped.
“Not exactly, lots of things happened and because of that, it resulted to this.”
I replied to him as I placed my cup down.
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Then, with him here, let’s continue our discussion.”
“Before we start, please have some of this mochi.”
“With pleasure~”