Chapter 212: The Loli Hag Elf and the Barbarian Crow Girl

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I, Lind Dalaiya, threw myself onto the bed in a thoroughly good mood. It was already late at night. The guest room provided by Blondin-dono was well maintained, and the feel of the fresh sheets was pleasant against my skin.

“Ahh, drinking with a young man… I wonder how many hundreds of years it’s been. It really is a fine thing.”

The meeting earlier in the day had been dreadfully boring, but the drinking party afterward had been excellent. Drinking one-on-one with a young man—how many centuries had it been? …When I searched my memory, it felt like I’d never even had the experience of drinking alone with a man in the first place. To have lived this long and yet led such a colorless life… Haa…

“Elder-sama, weren’t you the one telling people to ‘be careful not to get softened by bonds,’ and yet you’re the only one having fun?”

The one saying that was my confidant, Uru of the crow folk. With half-lidded eyes, she glared at me.

“What nonsense are you spouting? The one enjoying herself the most is clearly you. Honestly, you’ve gotten all plump in no time at all… Before you know it, you might gain so much weight you won’t even be able to fly!”

The reduction of cultivated land and the resulting food shortages were extremely serious. In particular, the activities of the enemy elf flamethrower troops were a real nuisance, and just this year alone, a considerable number of  elf potatoes had been turned into roasted sweet potatoes underground before they could fully grow. Launching a siege by starvation against one’s own kind… What a truly worthless bunch…

Because of that, everyone in New Elfenia, from top to bottom without exception, was being forced to live on one meal a day. Sometimes there were even days when they ate nothing but water for a full twenty-four hours. In the midst of that, this crow girl had been enjoying a life of feasts with three meals a day, alcohol included, and men included, for quite some time now. How enviable it was.

“Well, it’s true this place is like paradise and all. But I know they’ve got their own intentions, and that they’re treating us well because they’ve got expectations.”

Flapping her jet-black wings, Uru let out a sigh. This crow girl was quite sharp-minded. She clearly understood that the people of Rysben were being kind to her in order to obtain information.

“That’s what you call a perk of the job. Well, you might as well enjoy it while you can.”

Laughing, I got up from the bed and set a bottle of liquor on the small table. It was that brandy Blondin-dono had given me as a souvenir. I took two small ceramic cups from the shelf by the wall and poured the amber-colored liquid from the bottle. When I handed one to Uru, she bowed slightly and said, “Much obliged,” before accepting it.

It was a strange thing for a superior like me to pour alcohol for a subordinate, but birdfolk couldn’t walk while holding objects, so it couldn’t be helped. Normally, it would be the job of an elf or a hume retainer to do this, but there was no such person here right now.

“……”

The moment Uru grasped the cup with her foot, she wore an oddly lonely expression and let her gaze wander through the air.

“What is it?”

“Well, how should I put it… Drinking with my own feet feels way lonelier than I thought. After all, the best is being made to drink by a man’s hands.”

“Someone made you drink…. And with a man’s hands to the boot?”

“……”

The crow girl nodded, her brown skin flushing bright red. She looked terribly embarrassed.

“Who was it? Was it Blondin-dono?”

“…Yeah.”

Averting her eyes, Uru nodded again. I couldn’t help but press a hand to my forehead. Among the birdfolk of Elfenia, receiving food or drink directly from someone was a special act done only between parents and children or between husband and wife. An unmarried man making an unmarried birdfolk drink… This was practically a proposal.

“…Does Blondin-don know about your people’s customs?”

Lowering my voice and returning to my usual speech, I asked. It was to guard against eavesdropping. Blondin-dono had welcomed us warmly enough, but the reality that this was enemy territory hadn’t changed.

“There’s no way he knows.”

“Then what’ll you do? Just enjoy some fake newlywed life and call it quits?”

I did intend to have Uru work in this city for a while longer, but it couldn’t go on forever. Looking at my subordinate, who was clearly getting carried away emotionally, I gave her a look of exasperation.

“We’ll both pretend we’re misunderstanding things and deepen our relationship, and once it’s too late to turn back, I’ll pretend it’s an accident and teach him our customs. Then I’ll go, ‘How dare you toy with my pure heart!’ and make a fuss. Then I’ll officially join the ranks of the married, you see.”

“You’re… You’re really something else…”

Even for my subordinate, that was shameless beyond belief. If she were an elf, she’d probably be told, “There’s no place in Elfenia for such an unmanly woman! Cut your belly open!” But she was a crow, so…

“It’s a political marriage, a political marriage. I’ll sacrifice myself for my homeland and marry into this country.”

“…I see.”

I looked at her with utter contempt and drained the brandy in my cup in one go. The high-proof alcohol burned my throat, and I nearly coughed. …As expected, I really preferred lighter drinks! Wiping away the tears that had formed at the corners of my eyes, I let out a sigh.

“So in the future, that means you and I will become sisters-in-law, won’t we?”

Returning to my usual tone, I grinned at her. At that, Uru raised her eyebrows and stepped closer.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly what I said. A political marriage! What a wonderful phrase. For a fossilized leftover like me to get a husband, it’s either by abduction or a political marriage. You understand, right?”

“W–wait, Elder-sama, you’re going after Albert-dono too!?”

“Shh, your voice is too loud! If they hear you, they’ll get suspicious. Speak quietly.”

“S–sorry.”

Uru puckered her lips and brought the cup to her mouth. She grimaced slightly and stuck out her tongue. As expected, this liquor was a bit too strong for us. Without diluting it with water, it wasn’t something we could really drink. Lord Blondin had spoken as if he normally drank this stuff straight, but that seemed a bit much to me…

“Once negotiations have settled to a certain extent, I’ll reveal my true status. Blondin-dono didn’t seem to want a war either. If we propose a political marriage from our side, he won’t be able to refuse so easily.”

Elves didn’t age. In other words, no matter how old they became, their sexual desire didn’t diminish. To be honest, Albert-dono’s body was quite enticing. Even while we were sharing drinks, I’d been constantly fantasizing about toying with that well-trained body in bed. Ahh, it was unbearable.

If I were to dote on a man so earnest and strong-willed, train him to show that indulgent face only to me… How adorable he’d be. Just imagining it made me so excited my thighs felt damp. Nfufufufu…

“How shameless.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!”

With a sour expression, I carefully sipped the brandy. Taking just a small amount into my mouth, a wonderfully rich grape aroma tickled my nose. The aroma was nice, but the alcohol itself… Well…

“I’ve already worked for my people for several hundred years. Isn’t it about time I retired?”

Especially since the eruption of Mount Rana, it had been nothing but hardship day after day. I was more than ready to rest. Normally, an elf would take a husband and retire after two hundred—three hundred at most—so why did I have to keep working for so unbearably long?

“Several hundred? More like over a thousand, right?”

“Ah, that’s right, ugh… well, in any case, bearing children, raising them, and then dying. That’s the proper way for a living being to live. I’m getting tired of going against the laws of nature. It’s about time my own life reached its finale.”

For elves, marriage and retirement carried the same meaning. After all, once an elf became pregnant, aging resumed. After that, she could live only a few more decades at best. Life after giving birth was like one long twilight.

Catching a young stud, spoiling him and being spoiled in return, and living out a decadent twilight… That had been my dream since I was young. Then bearing four or five children, and being seen off by them as I peacefully died of old age… Haa, what a captivating ending that would be.

“Well, since that’s what Elder-sama says, I won’t deny it.”

After sighing, Uru used the water pitcher on the table to dilute the brandy in her cup. She downed it in one go and exhaled again.

“For the sake of our happy marriages, we ought to slap as high a price tag as possible on Elfenia and sell it off to Albert-dono, huh. Do your best, Elder-sama.”

“Ah, leave it to me. Neatly wrapping up this tattered country as best I can… That will be this old woman’s final duty.”

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