Generally, elves are born in the Great Forest and live there until the end of their lives.
Of course, there were rare cases of elves living outside, but they were usually outliers or forced to do so.
About 60% of the elves living in the Great Forest reside within the walls of Pelleadia, while the remaining 30% form villages throughout the Great Forest. Additionally, the dark elves, a minority group, had their own settlement.
However, just as there are refugees on Earth, there were also those in the Great Forest who did not belong anywhere and lived somewhere in the forest.
"H-Here it is…"
Iris and I followed the young elf, who introduced herself as Ellie, into the forest. Not long after, a small shack appeared before us.
"This is…?"
"Our home."
It resembled a house, but it was crude in many ways.
It wasn't the neat and charming house one might expect from a cabin.
Rather, it strongly felt like a novice had struggled to build the frame, forcibly inserting mismatched pieces of wood to create the walls.
"…I'm sorry our house is so shabby."
"Oh, no. It's a wonderful house!"
Iris shook her head in horror at the words of the elf named Luna, who was held in my arms.
'She seems to know the house is in bad condition.'
Since we were only planning to stay one night, I didn't pay much attention. Rather, I was concerned about Luna, who had been repeating like a parrot that her humble house was too shabby to welcome her benefactors.
Specifically, my gaze went to the bandage wrapped around her shoulder.
It was a wound caused by the arrow fired by the man who had been at the very back of the group of five.
Fortunately, the arrowhead had barely grazed her skin, so the wound wasn't very large. Of course, she had bled a little, but I had taken emergency measures with potions and ointment, so the wound shouldn't fester.
If I only considered this, it could be seen as a stroke of luck amidst misfortune, but my head was filled with lingering questions.
Clearly, the five were weak, but they were skilled enough to easily handle Luna, who hadn't awakened her magic. From the level of equipment alone, there was a significant difference. Moreover, with a younger sister to protect, it wouldn't have been easy to escape.
If they had used rougher methods, they could have easily dealt with the two before we even joined them, but they didn't.
Rather, I couldn't shake the feeling that they had intentionally reduced the power of the arrow. No, it was more reasonable to think that they had tried to avoid hurting the two as much as possible.
As if they were being careful not to damage the merchandise.
The nets hanging from their waists and the words of the man who I had first beheaded, that he was offering Luna and Ellie to someone.
From that one phrase, I could infer that the possibility of slave hunting, one of the most common developments in fantasy novels, was high.
Lastly, the fact that Luna hadn't been able to walk at all was another piece of evidence.
At first, I thought she was exhausted from facing the five alone until we helped, but after seeing her struggling to even move a finger and the sticky liquid on the tip of the arrow, I realized that Luna had been hit with something other than a normal arrow.
Probably a paralysis arrow, a preparation for capture rather than a deadly attack.
'I think I know why that dark elf woman told me to go southwest.'
If slave hunters were brazenly entering and trying to kidnap elves, it meant that the border southwest of the Great Forest was weak.
In such a situation, the question of why it had become weak was rhetorical.
Resillia had said that she was forcibly conscripting young men to prepare for war with the Northern Empire. Where would the gathered army go?
Naturally, to the northern part of the Great Forest, where the Northern Empire would invade. The border in the south, relatively speaking, would inevitably be weak.
Luna and Ellie had been unlucky enough to run into slave hunters who had crawled into the Great Forest hoping for a stroke of luck in that situation.
In short, they were unlucky.
I suddenly felt sorry for Luna. Ellie looked young, but Luna looked just as young.
"…W-Well, if you stare at me like that…"
A faint blush appeared on Luna's face, who was being held in my arms.
"How's your shoulder?"
"Ah, I think it's fine. Thank you so much. Thanks to you, Ellie and I were able to be safe."
Luna quickly bowed her head and expressed her gratitude. I stroked her head with the hand that had been supporting her neck and told her it was okay.
Although it had taken a lot of time to save the two and take them to their house, I decided not to worry too much. It wasn't in my nature to turn my back on a beauty in distress, and even if I had stopped the war by doing so, Iris would still have indelible guilt etched in her heart.
Besides, I could think of it as having set up a base camp in advance, although it was a bit early.
Ellie, who was walking ahead, struggled to open the door of the shack. Unlike its shabby exterior, the interior was quite neat. It was clear that the two women had taken good care of it.
I followed Ellie into the inner room. I carefully laid Luna down on the bed, which looked like it had taken some effort to make.
"I really don't know how to thank you… If it weren't for you two, we would have been captured by the humans."
"Don't mention it. We should help each other out when we're having a hard time."
Iris gently smiled as she tightly grasped Luna's hands. Even though she had slightly altered her appearance with recognition interference, her beauty hadn't gone anywhere.
Perhaps because she sensed that she was the same elf, a woman, and older, Luna's voice began to sound tearful.
After glancing at me, I slipped out of the room.
It was true that I had saved them, but I was still human.
It would be better to step aside for a while for the sake of the sisters who had almost been kidnapped by humans.
'Should I prepare dinner while I'm at it?'
If it had been a man, there was no way I would have done it, but when I thought of the fragile Luna, who was struggling with the paralysis arrow, my steps automatically headed toward the kitchen.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
As I was about to go to the kitchen, I was stopped by something embracing my waist.
It was Ellie, who was slightly shorter than my master.
"Oppa, you're human, right?"
"…Yeah?"
"Then I heard that humans like elves. Is that true?"
"Uh…"
Serious thoughts flashed through my mind. Do all humans really like elves?
My answer was no.
What humans liked wasn't elves, but pretty elves.
In my case, I wouldn't even glance at a man with dangling balls, whether he was an elf or a beastman.
In that regard, Ellie was a very promising beautiful elf girl.
When I nodded lightly, Ellie smiled brightly as if she was very happy.
"Then, Oppa, please marry me!"
"…"
…That's going to be difficult.
As I soothed Ellie, who was actively courting me, my brain seemed to shrink as I worried about how to solve this problem.
***
It had gotten dark.
The table in the cabin was full of the food I had prepared.
"D-Did Hyunwoo make all of this?"
"Tell me if you need more."
I could just take more out of my inventory anyway.
Luna moved without much difficulty, as if she had recovered from the paralysis poison. I was glad she had recovered quickly.
"Oppa, ah~"
"…"
If you're okay, can you take your sister away?
Ellie nestled between Iris and me, claiming that the seat next to me, her husband, was hers. It would be nice if Iris would stop her, but Iris was just looking at Ellie with eyes that seemed to say she was so cute she could die.
"…Ah."
If I kept refusing and Ellie started crying, I would become a traitor that day. I didn't have the confidence to endure Iris and Luna's coldly hardened gazes, so I obediently accepted the food Ellie gave me.
Ellie seemed to like that, and she brought me this and that food, shoving it into my mouth.
Her courtship was so aggressive that it was overwhelming.
"It's the first time I've seen Ellie follow anyone other than me."
"It's a wife's job to take care of her husband!"
"…"
"Oh my, I can't just stand by and watch, can I?"
Iris got up from her seat and came to my side. Naturally, I was pushed to the center, creating a structure where I sat in the middle, with Iris on the left and Ellie on the right.
The competition between the two was fierce.
My mouth felt like it was about to tear from the spoons being pushed from both sides. Of course, Iris seemed to be doing it as a prank to tease Ellie.
I hated Luna, who was smiling as she looked at us.
In martial arts novels, they repay the kindness of saving their lives, but perhaps because it's a fantasy novel with no roots, they're neglecting their benefactor.
"Oppa, do you like being called honey, or do you like being called my lord?"
"…"
The dinner, which was becoming more and more of a headache, continued for a long time.
·
·
·
As night deepened, we naturally split into two rooms.
Surprisingly, the cabin had separate rooms for Luna and Ellie. It seemed that elves respected each other's privacy.
Anyway, Iris and I used Luna's room, and Luna and Ellie used Ellie's room.
In the process of dividing the rooms, Ellie sobbed and clung to my pants, but this was something I couldn't concede.
"Haa…"
At this point, I wondered if Ellie would tear off my pants tomorrow morning when I left, rushing at me with a terrifying momentum.
"Hehe, Hyunwoo is popular."
"…Cut me some slack. No matter what, I can't do minors."
The dark elf I met yesterday had only not had her coming-of-age ceremony, but she was old enough to be an adult. Just like not issuing a resident registration card in Earth doesn't mean that people in their 20s are considered minors.
"Minors?"
Doubt arose on Iris's face.
"I'm talking about Ellie. I don't know what it's like in this world, but where I lived, it was a big deal if an adult dated a minor."
Of course, it wasn't just because of pathetic ethics or laws. How unattractive and pathetic would an adult have to be as a person to try to eat an unripe child?
This was a matter of pride.
"Well, I think there's one thing you're misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Yes, I heard from Luna that Ellie is an adult who is over 100 years old."
"…?"
For a moment, it felt like I had been hit in the head with a ladle.
She was over 100 years old with that appearance and physique?
Reflexively, Ellie's appearance came to mind.
She had a physique that was slightly smaller than my master's and had almost no chest, but even so, her face was a beautiful girl, as befitting an elf.
Suddenly, as I escaped the fate of social annihilation for being courted by a minor and thought about being courted by a 20-year-old beautiful girl, my lower body unknowingly throbbed.
Iris, who couldn't have missed that, reached out and gently wrapped her hand around my lower body.
"You said just a moment ago that you couldn't touch her because she was a minor, but as soon as you heard that Ellie was an adult, you perked up so stiffly…"
Iris stroked my hardened member under my clothes with sensuous hands.
My waist flinched unknowingly at her skillful touch.
As we had overlapped our bodies several times so far, I knew that this was a signal from Iris.
The Ellie thing was just an excuse.
I gently overlapped my lips and laid Iris down on the bed. Even with a small impact, Iris's chest shook so much that no man could take his eyes off it.
On top of that, she was wearing the negligee that I had given her, so the visual stimulation was enormous.
"The walls are thin, so they'll hear everything. Are you okay with that?"
Instead of answering, Iris overlapped her lips with mine once again.
"I think you can block them out."
I hugged Iris, who was giving me a seductive smile, and strongly grabbed her chest.
The night was deep, but dawn had not yet arrived.
"…gulp."
And Iris and I, without noticing that the door was slightly open, began to explore each other's bodies.