Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World - 28 - Chapter 4.8 And The Forest Began To Breath (8)
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- Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World
- 28 - Chapter 4.8 And The Forest Began To Breath (8)
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The small amount of human-like facial features that remained on the slime’s head. Even that has disappeared.
His eyes, nose, and mouth were lost, and he was left with a lump that looked like something between meat and jelly. However, only the mouth-like hole remains exposed. Like a primitive predator in the deep sea, it lifted its sickle head in a mouth-centric movement – drooling and biting into a crumbling wooden doll named Asakura Rensuke, who was unable to move.
That was the end.
This was supposed to be the end.
Then, in my dark vision, I saw a downpour.
The downpour was coming down vertically from directly above. Realizing that they were like machine gun fire, the slime tried to jump away. Not everything can be avoided though. Some of them are repelled by the solid surface, while others gouge the monster’s thick flesh and cause it to moan. Many of them fall to the ground. Kyu~don don don don… Many of them pierced the ground like a waterfall, and I finally realized that they were countless arrows.
Arrows.
A few moments later, someone landed in front of me.
Ah, my lips twitched.
Her light-colored hair fluttered softly. A white shirt and short skirt like that of a typical high school girl. Her brown skin is filled with the healthy smell of nature. Just by looking at her, my heartbeat that had almost disappeared intensifies, my chest heats up, and it’s as if a happy substance is generated in my brain.
That was her figure.
She had been standing with her back towards me, then spun around and faced me.
“YOU-REALLY-ARE-AN-IDIOT!”
She suddenly became very angry.
“What is it with you? I really can’t believe it. Do you really think you can fight a magical species by yourself? Since I’m not around, you should run or call for help! Why would you do such a thing?”
With her words, I can only squint my eyes and feel dejected.
“Until now, it has been…”
“Haha… Hahaha. As I thought, you came. I knew you would come…”
I knew it’s not the right time, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing in relief.
Sheena’s gaze sharpened again, and her canine teeth bared in anger again.
She suddenly pivoted and swung the bow in her hand. The slime had turned part of its body into a large centipede, which attacked her like a whip. She managed to flick it with her bow, but the vicious jaws at the tip of it – reached her body.
“Tsk…!”
“Sheena!”
This was no time to be laughing. The battle wasn’t over yet.
Ah, but… What can I do without my limbs anymore? My head might be half blown off even if I can’t see it. I do not care. Move. Move and help her. MOVE, MOVE!
As I was flailing about, she looked at me with dismay.
“Really Rensuke… haven’t you gotten stupider and stupider since we met? What are you trying to do in your current state…?”
I don’t care about that. It’s just that I have to move and help.
“Buhahaha! You’ve arrived, Dark Elf! But you’re too late. Your entire partner was already in that state! Taste the difference in strength!”
The monster slime said with amusement. Sheena, unfazed, glared at Aguyanuba.
“You’re right. That’s why I’m waiting.”
“Waiting?
The power difference is too great in this state. That’s why we have to run away and buy time to regain our position. I’ve already made the preparations.
Then Sheena looked up briefly.
A moment later, a rain of arrows similar to the one that had just fallen once again between her and Aguyanuba. The slime that was trying to close the gap was distracted by it and paused for a moment.
At that time, Sheena picked up my body, which had been reduced to half its volume, and ran away at once.
“How did you do that?”
“I simply shot the arrows right above me so that it would fall with a time delay! I really didn’t want to do that because it would have taken a lot of arrows and mess!”
We jumped over thickets, ducked under fallen trees, and continued running through the forest for several minutes.
After confirming that there was no sign of the pursuers, Sheena finally stopped.
“For the time being, I think we lost him. I’m not sure how good his nose works but I’m sure he’ll keep looking for us in earnest. For now… we need to buy time as much as possible.”
She gently laid my body down on the ground.
Then she closed her eyes and took one big deep breath – *swoosh*.
After a long pause, she opened her eyes.
“All right. Let’s talk about it while there’s still time. But I don’t like complicated and troublesome things. So I’ll be honest from here on out. You should do the same too!”
She said this to me while pointing her finger at me.
It seemed very Sheena-esque, and all I could do was nod with a wry smile.
“Talk… What do you want to talk about…?”
“What has been done and what will be done. There is nothing else to talk about besides that.”
Ah, so that’s what she meant. The thing we need to talk about. If she is going to face me straight, I can’t be smiling at her for assuming that she came for me.
I have to face her, too.
“Let me tell you this. I was really angry. Because you heard it like that. And in regards to what that woman said. Ignore, shut it or don’t give an answer… that’s why I got fed up. Alright, let’s hear your side of the story.”
“Sorry, that’s all I can say.”
I sincerely apologized. There wasn’t much time to spare.
“I understand. From your point of view, you probably thought of me as your partner and a friend, so I wish I could have agreed faster with either of those two choices.”
“O-oh.”
Sheena nodded her head, as if she had been a little distracted by my honesty.
“But I thought I had made up my mind to follow you, but I got confused. I wasn’t prepared, and I let you down by being half-hearted. I can only imagine. You came to this world alone, you made a partner, a single companion, and then you ended up… thinking that I was different.”
Admitting it took all my courage. But since it was true, I couldn’t look away.
This could be the last time.
“Yes… you and I are different. You are a human and I am a dark elf, we are not the same.”
Sheena’s eyes wavered as if in shock. Her ears drooped, and her gaze fell to her feet.
Ah, that’s not it. Hold on, Sheena.
But still, what about it?
“But… that’s a given. Just because we are different doesn’t mean we can’t be together, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t want to be together. We should have just acknowledged… our differences and talked about it. We could have just accepted that we’re different. We shouldn’t have run away from it.”
“Hmm, so in short. What are you trying to say…?”
I stared straight at Sheena. Even though I was lying on the ground and couldn’t raise my head, and my vision was severely cramped due to the fact that I only had one eyeball, I still managed to look her in the eye.
Like I was making a vow of some kind.
“My wish is the same. I want to be with Sheena forever. I will do what is necessary to achieve that. That is why I will kill the slime. But I’m a human so I don’t want to kill the class president. That’s the truth. And I don’t lie about anything.”
Sheena’s eyes fluttered.
With difficulty, I forced my mouth into a curve.
“… You’re being very ideal.”
And she smiled at me while saying that.
“What’s up with that? Isn’t that too selfish? What would you do, for example, if you found Aguyanuba sleeping in some house and that woman was guarding the front door?”
“I can either tie the class president up with a rope, incapacitate her, and then kill the slime, or I can go around the back of the house, sneak inside, and kill the slime. I can also set fire to it from outside. I’m serious about wanting to kill that guy.”
“Well, I can see that now. But you know what?”
Sheena shrugged her shoulders in exasperation, her words and her gaze took on an air of seriousness.
“The partner in particular was born from the magical species’ magic power. The closer the magical species is, the more power the partner will have, and of course, I know where you are, just as I was able to follow you this far. So from that, if the magical species die, the partner will probably be unable to survive. It might be just like that, you know?”
“I figured. I know it’s selfish but still. All I’m saying is that I don’t want to directly deal with it. That’s all I want. Even though it’s the worst.”
“Aah, it’s the worst alright.”
Sheena nodded her head in easy acknowledgement. However, the next expression on her face was one of genuine happiness – a smile that had the same sunny tinge that I had seen in the past.
“However, it’s okay since you said it honestly. I will make at least one of your selfish wishes come true, partner.”
Ahh~ a shiver ran down my spine.
This is exactly what I wanted to see. This is what I’ve been looking for.
I’ve taken a needless detour.
I selfishly weighed the differences between her and myself, and I couldn’t go anywhere, so I kept shutting myself down. I almost lost everything. The very fact that I thought I could measure it so simply may have been the limit of a person who only knows this world. It’s just that this dark elf doesn’t care about the details. She only cares about what’s fun. That was the kind of existence she had. I should have just believed in that “difference” more.
However.
“Why…”
My mouth was moving on its own.
The vision was too dark to see.
Because my instincts told me that this might be the last time.
Perhaps it was greed.
“Why is Sheena being so nice to me…? Even you came here to help me, right? Why did you give me a second chance to start ove─?”
“Ah. About that part? Yahh~ I know right? Maybe I’m a little crazy?”
Sheena averted her gaze and rubbed her cheek in embarrassment.
“Well, I can’t help it, though. I just promised to be honest with you. Mmm… I was also confused, so I just sat on a tall tree, basking in the wind. I was thinking about what I should do. But every time I thought about you, you were irritating me, and I was annoyed that you kept not making it clear.”
I let out a sigh.
“Yeah, so that’s it. That’s what happened. I’m in a place where I like to relax, you know? And yet, even in that place, if I can’t stop thinking about not being with you ─ it means that somehow, being with you has become more valuable than basking in the wind atop a tree.”
「…………?」
That was some shocking stuff. But my nearly finished brain was clumsy at comprehension, so I could only stare.
Sheena’s gaze suggested that she was pursuing something further as she wandered uncertainly.
“You want to know why, too? I-DON’T-KNOW. No, seriously, it’s the truth. Because you know, I─”
She looked away, seemingly embarrassed.