English Novel
Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Just one more chapter and this series will be finished!
Confrontations between elves and humans regarding the forest had continued since the dawn of history without pause.
In every age, no matter which region it was, as long as there was a forest, there were elves. The elves would become angry at the humans who cleared the forest in the area they were in and in turn caused trees to encroach on the humans town for seven days and nights, completely transforming it into a forest.
If the humans burned the elves forest in retaliation to that, the elves would then turn the humans into fertilizer for the forest.
While it was rare for the conflicts to grow that violent, it was certain that the relationship between humans and elves as a species was more inclined towards conflict as opposed to coexistence. Otherwise, there wouldnt be any way to explain the reason as to why in the languages of countries all over the world, they shared the word elf as a common curse.
One of the reasons why the conflict had hardly ever evolved into a war was thanks to the elves management of the forest.
The forests where elves existed were plentiful. The forests that didnt have elves were meagre.
If an adult elf used a spell with their staff, they could fertilize the land and control plants. That is why an elfs forest rarely had a poor crop. It always had a plentiful harvest, and the animals that ate that harvest would in turn become plentiful as well.
To elves, humans were one of the animals in nature, and as such they would not say anything if they took a portion of the forests blessing.
The elves would only get mad when the forest was cut down on a large scale for lumber, or in order to expand the arable land. The humans would also, naturally, become enraged when the land that they had worked so hard to cultivate was turned back into a forest by the elves.
Even while the humans acknowledged that the elves made forests more plentiful, a large number of them thought of the elves as suspicious nuisances.
The fighting spirit of the elves were generally weaker than that of the humans during confrontations over the forest, and as such would usually end with them taking a step back and compromising. As such, the sphere of human activity gradually expanded.
Now then.
This was an event during the Spring of Year 20 of the Showa Era. Japan was right in the midst of the Pacific war, and was hastening the evacuation of its capital city, Tokyo.
With the memories and scars of the large-scale air raids that attacked Tokyo still fresh, an eleven year old boy, Ashida Kenjiro, just barely managed to escape from a fire caused by an incendiary bomb. Even while he felt a sense of displeasure from having been forced to the countryside, he felt relief from the fact that the fear of having his home set aflame had been diminished.
Kenjiros older brother, Kenichiro became a soldier and had gone to the frontlines to battle for the sake of the country. Kenjiro had to live properly in order not to shame his brothers name.
It was at the countryside village where Kenjiro had been evacuated that he saw an elf in the flesh for the first time. The outskirts of Tokyo that were being developed did not have any elves. The elves that he had seen in monochrome photos and paintings were completely different from a real elf, and were like beautiful foreigners with blond hair and blue eyes.
Somehow, Kenjiro could not believe the adults who spoke sternly of the elves, saying that the enemy nations spies are disguising themselves as elves to infiltrate. If it were just imitating their long ears then, well, that might be possible, but he couldnt believe that a human would be able to mimic the otherworldly spells and techniques cast with their staffs.
Kenjiro pretended to be searching for edible wild plants and rapidly entered the forest that the local children feared and did not go close to. It was there that he met a cute young elven girl and became friends with her.
She said that her name was Hachigatake Tsubaki. The elves used the name of their mountain as a family name, and then would attach the name of a plant to that.
Kenjiro was fascinated by Tsubaki.
His prejudice about the savages living in the forest by the countryside village being the same as those dodgy characters was soon swept away. Tsubakis appearance and gestures were similar, yet dissimilar to those of the noble wives that lived in town. He could understand that they had a completely different kind of a refinement to them.
After seeing the elegant and graceful Tsubaki, all the girls that were the same age as him seemed completely childish. When he said that, Tsubaki gently chided Koujiro, saying that Even if I look like this, Im going to become fifty soon so you mustnt compare us.
The way that elves and humans aged was different. Even though she looked a bit smaller than someone the same age as himself, Tsubaki was actually about the same age as his own grandmother. Nevertheless, Kenjiro still found himself attracted to Tsubaki.
Tsubaki taught Kenjiro how to play a leaf flute, how to create a boat made of tree leaves, and how to discern ripe fruit from unripe fruit.
On hot summer days, they would strip naked and play together in the waters of the forests mountain stream. Kenjiro burned the sight of Tsubakis beautiful body as she frolicked with the fishes under the sunlight that filtered through the trees into his eyes.
When Kenjiro gave a bit of what little sugar he had been distributed to Tsubaki, she delightedly gave him a traditional elven baked pastry in return. Just eating one of those baked pastries filled his belly so that he wouldnt have to eat anything else for a whole day, saving Kenjiro who had been feeling hunger when he was both awake and even when he was dreaming.
And then, those glorious memories of youth passed in the blink of an eye.
With the war having ended, evacuating was no longer necessary, and thus Kenjiro had to return to Tokyo.
Kenjiro exchanged his most valuable spinning top with Tsubakis small knife, and they parted tearfully.
The small knife that Tsubaki gave him was used solely to sharpen his pencils, and it would be ten years after the war, when he was studying engineering for university, that he finally realized its value. Tsubakis small knife clearly had the mark of a dwarven artisan.
The dwarves that had been merely a legend up until the 19th century once again appeared in human history when they bumped into one of their underground towns when digging a tunnel deep into the earth. Every single article that they made was of high quality, and were incredibly popular. However, due to concerns regarding thieves, robbers, and fraudsters if they carelessly spread their works around, their prudence caused very few of them to appear on the market. Depending on the work, a single sword was valuable enough to build a whole house.
Since long ago, it was said that the elves, harpies, mermaids, and werewolves had trade with the dwarves, but it seems that was actually the truth.
After graduating from university, Kenjiro took part in a job related to ships, and through many twists and turns, eventually started to work as a crew member on a ship setting off to explore the Antarctic.
Before setting off, Kenjiro utilized his long holiday to go to the forest by that countryside village for the first time in fifteen years.
Tsubaki, who welcomed him, had hardly changed at all. As Kenjiro had grown taller, his point of view had also become higher up, and as such, she felt even smaller than she was in his memories. Tsubaki, who had seemed so adult-like when he was young, was but a small child.
With Kenjiro having become an adult man, it was even more apparent now how the flow of time between them was different.
As they went fishing in the mountain stream together, when Kenjiro talked about how this time he was going to be heading to Antarctica, Tsubakis eyes brightened up and she bit into the topic.
According to the elven legends, Antarctica was where their Creator was. Their Creator was a mountain, and had lived since the beginning of Earth itself, becoming the founder of all the mysterious races on this Earth, and had watched over the prosperity and decay of all life.
What the Antarctic exploration team had found was probably that sacred mountain. Kenjiro hit the nail right on the head after hearing what she had to say. He had previously read a thesis that stated that after studying the geological layer at the base of the mountain, it became clear that it was an incredibly old mountain.
The elves could not live if there wasnt a forest around. The fact that they worshipped a sacred mountain said to reside in the most cruel of environments, enclosed in Antarctic ice where not a single tree could grow, was an incredibly strange story.
The sacred mountain in the South Pole still had not been climbed to its summit, and was said to be the last unexplored region on Earth. Like the elves, it was filled with mystery.
After promising that if he had the chance to talk(?) to it, he would tell the sacred mountain, Mt. Dragonends that Hachigatake Tsubaki was praying to it everyday, Kenjiro returned to Tokyo.
As he packed for the trip to the South Pole, Kenjiro thought to himself. The mysterious races that called themselves Children of the Mountain all had a single commonality in which they spoke of and respected Mt. Dragonends. If Mt. Dragonends = the sacred mountain in the Antarctic, just what was it? Humanity had still yet to figure out its true identity.
The 20th century was the era of science. Humanity would surely travel across Mt. Dragonends soon and dispel that mystery.
Kenjiro eagerly thought to himself, lets add my name to the bottom of that list of explorers!
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