Chapter 2: The Name of That Emotion is "Jealousy"

“Gazna! What in the world did you do?!” Sarona-san must have also sensed that something abnormal was about to happen, as she directed a sharp glare at Gazna. The surrounding elves also felt uneasy at the sound heading this way and the shaking ground, and began to murmur in confusion.

“H-Hey, what exactly is going on?” “I don’t know! There’s no way I would know that!” The twins were also looking around anxiously, on guard against their surroundings.

“Well, wouldn’t we find out if we just ask that guy?” When I said that and pointed at Gazna, the twins shifted their gaze to him, and the surrounding elves also turned their attention his way. Gathering the gazes of everyone present, Gazna was looking down, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Gazna… what in the world have you done? Speak honestly. If it is something that will bring harm to the village…” The Village Chief asked quietly, his voice laced with anger. Upon hearing those words, Gazna removed his hand from his mouth and slowly raised his head. He spun around, showing the surrounding elves a crazed, laughing face.

“Ah-hahahaha! That’s right! You’re anxious, aren’t you?! You have no idea what’s going to happen, do you?! Listen up, you foolish, comical, idiotic elves of this village! I’ll tell you! The great Gazna will! After all, knowing will make you fear my power even more!”

Yeah, yeah, we get it, just spit it out already.

“From this moment on, thanks to the activation of the black orb, hundreds of monsters living in this forest will swarm this place!” “””What—!”””

Voices of astonishment leaked from the surrounding elves, and they immediately fell into a panic. As if proving Gazna’s words true, the sound of something swarming toward us gradually grew closer.

Even hearing that hundreds of monsters from this forest would appear here, I just felt like, Hmm… and? I mean, even if you say hundreds of forest monsters, it’s just hundreds of things around the level of that giant scorpion, right? That’s not a problem at all. Rather, I was wondering if they could even manage to leave a scratch on me despite having those numbers.

However, it was different for the village elves. The elves frantically flew up to their treehouses, each of them gathering their belongings or taking weapons in hand. Amidst all that, Gazna’s laughter echoed once more.

“Hahahahaha! Cower! Be terrified! Run for your lives! You foolish elves!” “Gazna! Do you even understand what you are doing?!” “Of course I do! Sarona!”

With anger dwelling on her face, Sarona-san thrust her knife at Gazna over and over, trying to corner him with martial arts. However, Gazna skillfully defended himself by manipulating his longsword and the robe that had taken on the hardness of iron.

“H-Hey! We need to temporarily evacuate to the house too!” “B-But what about Sarona?” “She’ll be fine! To begin with, she won’t lose to Gazna, and right now she’s protected by the barrier. It’s a barrier set up by the Village Chief. Even the monsters of the forest won’t be able to break it!” “Y-You’re right!” “Wazu! Come on, let’s go!” “…Eh?”

While vaguely listening to the twins’ conversation, I was suddenly pulled and carried by Yuyuna to their treehouse. Hmm… Personally, I would have had no problem staying there, and I wanted to remain since I was worried about Sarona-san. But if I said that, the twins might say they’d stay too, so I suppose I’ll let them take me for now just to make sure they evacuate… Well, fortunately, the twins’ house is close, so I can still keep an eye on Sarona-san from here.

Sarona-san showed no signs of easing her attacks against Gazna, relentlessly unleashing slashes with her knife and strikes and kicks through martial arts. But due to the black robe’s iron hardness and auto-recovery, none of them could serve as a decisive blow. However, if things continued like this, Sarona-san wouldn’t lose. Because the black robe’s abilities are finite. Once Gazna’s magical power ran out, that would be the end of it. It would become nothing more than an ordinary robe. Even though Gazna himself should have known that, he continued to wear that nasty smirk. His demeanor made me feel like he definitely had another scheme prepared, leaving me with a lingering sense of anxiety.

“Why! Why would you do something like this that could destroy the village?!” “Why, you ask… That’s right… you wouldn’t understand, Sarona! It’s your fault… This is happening because you are here!”

Fortunately, the words from inside the barrier reached my ears. But at those words, Sarona-san’s movements stiffened for an instant, and taking advantage of that opening, Gazna’s longsword slightly cut her left arm.

And finally, the monsters invaded the village. Just as Gazna had said, hundreds of monsters appeared and rapidly filled the village. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any monsters capable of breaking the barrier, but the area around the barrier was completely occupied by the monsters. The elves watching this scene from their treehouses reacted in various ways—some trembled in fear, while others shot arrows or cast magic from above. Most of the small children broke into tears and fled deeper into their homes, though some children actually helped their families attack. Even so, the number of monsters didn’t decrease; in fact, it seemed to be increasing.

Beside me, the twins, despite being pale in the face, held their weapons, hurled an aimed spear, and discussed what to do next. Looking at the surrounding situation, I confirmed that everyone seemed to be okay for the time being and returned my gaze to the barrier where Sarona-san was. Seeing the situation of her brethren and confirming they were safe, Sarona-san let out a breath of relief and shifted her gaze back to Gazna.

“…Is this… the situation you desired?” “Yeah, it is! But it doesn’t end here!” “…You said this is my fault. What exactly do you mean by that?” “…Sarona. Ever since long ago, you’ve been praised as a genius by everyone around you, yet you never neglected your efforts. Even in my eyes… no, in anyone’s eyes, you’re an outstanding elf… Sarona, always standing at the very front… Someone like you could never… never! Understand my feelings! You, who acts as an insurmountable wall to me!”

Isn’t that what you call an unjustified grudge?

“Guh!” This time, Gazna went on the offensive. Since he was using his magical power on the black robe, he didn’t use magic, instead relying on slashes from his longsword. Sarona-san blocked the attacks with her knife and somehow dodged with her agility, but perhaps shocked by Gazna’s words, her movements had clearly worsened.

“Hahaha! Look, look, what’s wrong? You’ll die in no time moving like that, you know? Aren’t you going to use magic? If you want to do something about this situation, you have to kill me, right?” “…” “You can’t do it, can you?! Because I’m also an elf of this village! Because everyone in the village is precious to you! But is that okay? At this rate, everyone in the village is going to die! You don’t have time to hesitate, you know! If you don’t hurry up, all the other elves are going to die!” “—! You bastard!”

Her anger swelling at Gazna’s words, Sarona-san thrust her left hand forward. However, she remained frozen like that.

“…Pfft, hahaha! How unsightly! How comical! That’s right! Your magic is too strong! As long as this robe is functioning, the only way to deal with me is to kill me! This is great, Sarona! Seeing you agonize like that clears my mood a bit! That kindness you direct toward your fellow elves is your only weakness, Sarona!” “…” Sarona-san was biting her lip so hard it was bleeding slightly.

…Yeah. I’m done just watching. I turned back to the twins and raised one hand.

“I’m gonna pop out for a bit!” “”…Huh? Where?”” “What about Meal?” “Kyui!”

With a chirp, Meal gripped my head even tighter. Hmm, I guess that means you’re absolutely not letting go? “Alright then, make sure you hold on tight!” “Kyu!”

While the twins were completely dumbfounded, I patted Meal’s head and jumped down from the treehouse.

Having jumped from the treehouse, I was plummeting straight toward the ground. That’s right, plummeting. I mean, I can’t use magic, and with Meal’s size, she can’t fly while carrying me, so normally speaking, of course I’d fall. That said, whether I’d actually get hurt from the fall was another matter entirely.

Screams—or rather, worried voices—from the twins reached me from the treehouse. I was about to call out to let them know I was fine, but before I could, the sound of flapping wings and the roars of monsters closing in on me reached my ears. They must have flown in over the forest. Several large, bird-type monsters, perhaps recognizing me as food, attacked. Since the treehouses were protected by barriers put up by the magic-wielding elves, the monsters couldn’t touch them and apparently hadn’t been able to eat anything, so they locked onto me as the perfect prey.

Matching my descent, they opened their beaks wide and closed in to eat me. I punched the face of the bird monster that came at me first. With a massive KABOOOOM! sound, the monster’s face exploded, beak and all.

Still, what’s up with that? Why do they always explode like this? What in the world is wrong with my fists? Is the power just too high? Well, considering I could probably shatter a planet if I got serious, I guess it can’t be helped.

While thinking about such things, I kept my body moving. Using the momentum from the punch, I spun my body around. I used the corpse of the dead bird monster as a foothold like a roundhouse kick, and launched myself toward another bird monster. Meal flapped her wings to help make minor adjustments to my trajectory. The monster I flew toward panicked and tried to twist its body to evade, but its movements were way too slow compared to mine, and I kicked the monster with my full momentum.

With a sickening CRACK! SNAP! sound of shattering bones, its life was extinguished, and I used that monster as a foothold again to head toward the next one. As I repeated this action, the monsters flying in the sky vanished in the blink of an eye. Upon ending the life of the very last one, I grabbed its corpse and, using the momentum of my fall, slammed it down onto the monsters swarming on the ground.

With a resounding BAAAM!, a massive cloud of dust flew up. The spot where I slammed the monster cratered the ground as if it had been hit by a giant explosion spell, and all around it lay the figures of countless dead monsters.

I landed normally near there. Immediately, the surrounding monsters charged at me all at once. A muscular, one-eyed monster called a cyclops, easily twice the size of a human, threw a massive punch at me. I lightly caught and grabbed the fist, and since it was just the right size, I lifted the cyclops’ entire body and started swinging it around like a bat.

“Here we go! And again!” After spinning it around three times and trampling the surrounding monsters with the cyclops’ body, the cyclops became battered and couldn’t take anymore, so I just hurled it away to serve one final purpose.

The moment I threw it, I started running toward the barrier where Sarona-san was, but monsters kept appearing one after another to block my path. At times like this, my strength is really troublesome… It’s great against individuals, but… I wish I had a way to instantly annihilate everything like magic. I could just smash the ground, but if I mess up controlling my strength, I’d end up shattering the planet. Ah, what a pain in the ass…

While thinking that, I repeated a cycle of grabbing the first monster that attacked, swinging it around, tossing it, and advancing, over and over again. Since there were so many of them, I didn’t have the time to deal with them one by one.

As I continued forward like that, I finally arrived in front of the barrier where Sarona-san was.

“Yo! Sarona-san! Are you okay?”

Behind me, a staggering number of monster corpses were scattered about. Sarona-san glanced behind me for a second, then looked back at me, but her expression looked somewhat dumbfounded.

“Huh? Sarona-san?” “…U-Umm… How exactly did you get here, Wazu-san?”

Huh? Was she not watching? Maybe she was too focused on her fight with Gazna?

“Even if you ask how, well, I just normally ran here?” “…I-I see… you just normally… ran?”

Sarona-san shot a quick glance behind me. Eh? Is something there? Are there still surviving monsters? I also looked back, but there was nothing except monsters that had already stopped moving. Yep. Totally wiped out. No problem at all.

When I looked back at Sarona-san, she still had that dumbfounded expression. Looking closely, Gazna was completely frozen, his mouth hanging wide open. Well, whatever, I’ll ignore Gazna. I kinda hate that guy anyway.

“Alright then, Sarona-san! I’m going to kick the asses of all the monsters up ahead, so you hurry up and finish things with that guy! I believe in your victory! Do your best!” “Ah! Yes! W-Wazu-san, you um… do your best, too?”

I silently gave a thumbs up, brimming with motivation. Sarona-san cheered me on, so I’m really gonna do my best!

Then, the moment I turned my gaze toward the monsters up ahead, they all took a single step back in perfect unison. Huh? You aren’t coming? Hey! Just come at me! Despite my thoughts, the monsters didn’t move a single step.

Letting out a sigh, I figured it couldn’t be helped and took one step forward. Then, matching my movement, the monsters took another step back. I took three more steps forward, and the monsters backed up three steps.

What’s the big idea, you bastards?! The moment I charged forward at once, the monsters scattered and ran for their lives.

Huh? No, no, no, why are you running?! Hold on a sec! Sarona-san apparently didn’t see me fighting the monsters earlier! That’s why I was planning to work hard to show her how I fight and make her think I was even a little bit cool! So why are you running away?! You ruined it! Come at me! You’re monsters, aren’t you?! Dammiiit!!!

I slumped to the ground, drained of all energy. Dammit… That’s so unfair… running away…

“…Wh-What in the world… are you?” Gazna, despite being pale in the face, called out to me. I glared at Gazna.

“Hah? ‘What am I?’ I’m just a human who’s been in the care of this village for a little while?” Did you forget about me? Was I not in your field of vision?

“That’s not what I’m asking!” “…Hah?” Then what exactly are you asking? More importantly, I don’t really want to talk to you.

Standing up, my eyes caught sight of the elves in their treehouses. It seemed they still hadn’t recovered from the terror of the monsters, unable to come out of the houses protected by their barriers. Well, I don’t blame them. Anyone would react like that after seeing that sheer number of monsters. Even if you know it’s safe, it’s hard to force yourself to step outside. However, if things stay like this, I’ll have to keep talking to Gazna. I really want to be spared from that, so I was hoping Yuyuna or Ruruna would come down.

“…Impossible… this is impossible… Do you even understand?! These are the monsters living in this forest! It’s a horde of monsters that are at least B-rank!”

Yeah, I have no idea about that. I mean, on that mountain, there were S and A-rank monsters everywhere. For me, who survived that, B-rank monsters aren’t an issue no matter how many gather. Well, I have no intention of kindly explaining that to him, though.

The moment Gazna tried to open his mouth again, Sarona-san—having recovered, perhaps?—delivered a slash with her knife at Gazna, who had created an opening by talking to me. But even that wound healed in the blink of an eye due to auto-recovery. Even so, Sarona-san didn’t let up on her attacks. Even if they were blocked, she kept slashing, and even if it hurt her fists, she kept punching.

“…Hah… Hah…” “…Hah… Hah…”

After the offense and defense inside the barrier continued for a while, the two distanced themselves from each other. Both were breathing heavily. Sarona-san’s stamina had dropped from moving constantly, and Gazna looked like he was about to run out of magical power from continuously using the robe’s ability. Both were exhausted, but even so, it looked like Sarona-san still had some strength left.

“…Gazna, why don’t you give up? If you run out of magical power like this, even your life will be in danger, you know? Now that you’ve done something like this, I can no longer protect you. But at the very least, spare your own life!” “Guh… hahaha… I suppose you’re right. The outcome I envisioned has pretty much been shattered… I planned to massacre the villagers you cherish so much right before your eyes, but… it looks like I won’t be able to do that anymore… However, I can still accomplish the thing I wanted to do most! That’s right! Sarona! Killing you!”

Saying that, Gazna pulled a red orb out from inside his robe and tossed it into his mouth. At the same moment the sound of him swallowing was heard, Gazna let out a massive roar. “Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

The appearance of Gazna, who had swallowed the red orb, began to transform. His eyes turned pitch-black with red dots inside them, his face cracked, and tearing through his robe, black bat-like wings and an arrow-tipped tail sprouted from his back. His limbs swelled massively, and his nails grew into sharp claws. Ripping the black robe himself, his exposed body was bulging with muscles.

[Ahahahahaha! What is this? Power is overflowing from inside my body! I should have used this from the start! That peddler really gave me something good! With this, I can easily kill everyone in the village!]

Gazna’s voice had become severely garbled and hard to understand, mixed with a harsh static-like noise. Still, what in the world is this? I have absolutely no idea what happened to make him turn out like this. Well, the cause was undoubtedly that red orb, but…

“G-Gazna… what is that form?” [Hahahahahaha! Is that what you’re worried about? Sarona! There’s no point in worrying about such trivial things! What you need to be worrying about right now is your own life!]

The transformed Gazna instantly closed in right before Sarona-san’s eyes and drew his arm back for a massive swing. Sarona-san intercepted the arm with her knife, and while the knife did stab into Gazna’s arm, it couldn’t stop its momentum. Sarona-san was sent flying, crashing heavily against the wall of the barrier deployed right in front of me.

“Guh!” Sarona-san slowly slid down and collapsed on the ground.

[Oi, oi, Sarona! Where did those strong movements of yours go? All I did was lightly swing my arm, you know? Too bad, Sarona! Thanks to the barrier, you can’t run away, and the villagers can’t come to save you either! All that’s waiting for you is “death”!]

Saying so, Gazna pulled out the knife still lodged in his arm, crushed it in his grip, and slowly started walking. Just so he could make Sarona-san feel the terror of death.

To be honest, Sarona-san can’t handle that. She probably couldn’t win even in perfect condition. That’s how big the gap in power seems to be. This is an elf problem, and I preferred not to interfere if possible, but compared to just standing by and letting Sarona-san die, that kind of reasoning is completely meaningless to me.

I clenched my fists tightly and stood in front of the barrier. Just then, Sarona-san averted her eyes from Gazna and looked toward me.

“…Wazu-san. I’ll somehow buy time right here… so please take everyone in the village and run away.” [Hahaha! Too bad for you, too! No matter how you managed to chase away those useless monsters, as long as this barrier is here, you can’t interfere! So just stand there, watch closely as Sarona dies, and lament your own, and the elves’, powerlessness! And once the barrier is gone, I’ll instantly massacre all of you!]

Ah~, yeah, yeah. I launched a punch into the barrier, putting just a tiny bit of strength into it. Because if I overdid it, I might end up blowing Sarona-san away too. The moment my fist hit the barrier, it shattered with a resounding SHAAAAATTER!, turning into particles that vanished into the sky.

“””Huh?””” Sarona-san, Gazna, and for some reason the Village Chief from far away, all blurted out the same word in unison.

Hmm, is this what they call the bond of elves? I watched the fading particles of the barrier, thinking how pretty they looked, before turning my gaze to Gazna.

“Well then, since the barrier’s gone, here I come.”

Rolling my shoulders, I slowly walked toward Gazna. As I stood right in front of Gazna, he suddenly snapped out of his daze, narrowed his eyes, and glared fiercely at me. [Gaaaaaaah!]

Just when I thought he was glaring, this time he let out a scream and tried to tear me apart with his claws. I lightly caught that arm with my hand. Not just his transformed appearance, but with his voice now, even his screams sound like a monster’s.

When Gazna realized the arm I caught wouldn’t move, he tried his other arm, but I lightly caught that one too. He put all his strength into trying to swing at me, but unable to budge even an inch, his face turned bright red and his body started trembling violently. Next, he opened his mouth wide and spat out a black, ribbon-like laser beam. Since Sarona-san was behind me, I couldn’t just dodge it, so I moved instantly and deflected the beam into the sky with the back of my fist, like a backhand strike.

I honestly didn’t know how much power that beam actually packed, but I figured it was probably weaker than Ragnir’s Fire Breath. After all, it wasn’t hot, or even warm. Gazna looked at me with fearful eyes as if to say it was unbelievable, and staggered back a few steps. I shot Gazna a relaxed, confident smile.

“And?” […Wh-What… what the hell are you?!] Sigh… this again? […Are you… truly a human?] How rude! I’m definitely 88% human!

A little annoyed by Gazna’s wording, I took a step closer, which made Gazna take a few steps back. Huh? Even though I only moved one step, he moved back several… isn’t he a little too scared of me? Oh well, let’s just end this quickly.

[D… Don’t come any closer!] I slowly raised my arm and clenched my fist so Gazna could clearly see it. [Wh-Why?! Why is this happening to me?! You’re not even an elf, so why are you getting in my way?!] “Of course I’m getting in your way!”

I slowly poured strength into my body.

“You tried to kill Sarona-san!” [What’s wrong with that?! What does that have to do with you?!] “It has everything to do with me!”

In a flash, I closed in on Gazna as he turned on his heels to run. “Because! I’m attracted to Sarona-san, and I don’t want her to die!”

While shouting at the top of my lungs, I punched Gazna’s face fairly seriously. Gazna vomited out the red orb as he bounced violently off the ground, eventually cratering into it in a state where I couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead. Then, Gazna’s body reverted to his original elven form. Well, he definitely returned to his original size, but to be precise, his entire body was covered in cracks.

Well, in this state, even if he were alive, I figured he wouldn’t be able to do anything anymore. As I thought that, the red orb that had flown out of Gazna’s mouth melted into the air, turning into particles and disappearing.

With this, everything is resolved… except it isn’t. Right now, the biggest problem is what I just blurted out. I went and said, at the top of my lungs, that I was attracted to Sarona-san.

What should I do about this? But man, I already said it…

Deciding to just let whatever happens happen, I turned around. There stood Sarona-san, who had gotten to her feet, looking at me with a faint blush on her cheeks. Our eyes met, and my mouth suddenly went dry, freezing me in place.

“…U-Umm… About what you said earlier, Wazu-san…” …Gulp. “Your feelings… to be honest, they make me incredibly happy… If possible, I would want to reciprocate your feelings… but, I’m sorry…” “…Why?” “…I… I swore to my late parents that I would protect the elves of this village… Therefore, I cannot leave this village…” “In that case, I can just stay here—” “You can’t do that, can you? Weren’t you going to show Meal the outside world? Or are you the type of person who breaks his promises, Wazu-san?” “…That’s… true, but…” “Besides, I don’t think you are the kind of person whose journey should end in this village… So…”

Sarona-san’s expression was sorrowful, and she looked as if she was holding something back. I didn’t want Sarona-san to make that kind of face. After all, I wanted her to keep that smile that I had fallen for. That’s why I forced myself to speak in a cheerful voice. I definitely won’t show any tears… at least, not until I leave this village.

“I see! If that’s the situation, then it can’t be helped! Yep, yep, can’t be helped! Well then, I’ll be going now! The threat to the village seems to be gone, and I have a promise to show Meal the outside world, too! …Well then, um, take care!”

I put on the most forced smile I could muster and waved my hand as I walked out of the village. “I pray that you will have wonderful encounters, Wazu-san!” Sarona-san’s voice reached me, but not knowing how to respond to it, I said nothing, simply keeping my smile pasted on as I left the elf village that had taken such good care of me…