She berated herself for doing something so inefficient.
“—Do you like it?”
“Wow, your fingers! They look just like Mommy’s!”
“—A human child’s body, I see.”
The magically transformed Alice and Andeon looked like mere toddlers, maybe four or five years old at most.
The same age Karia had lost Eddie. And they had the same golden hair, as if the sun itself had melted into strands—just like Eddie’s. There was no way she could let them out in public like this.
In this country, blond hair symbolized royalty, and those red eyes… they almost made it look like these two were her own flesh and blood.
“Alice, what’s with your eyes… they’re blue? Ah, sapphire.”
Karia groaned and clutched her forehead. The precious sapphire Alice had worn around her neck had melted into the spell, turning her eyes a beautiful blue—and then vanished.
Still, Karia let out a deep sigh and hid her discomfort. After all, the children were ecstatic with their new bodies.
“Thank you, Master. I will use this body in your service until it breaks.”
“I’ll use it too!”
“Aaaah!”
At that moment, something crashed down from the roadside trees in the nearby garden with a loud “thud” and a scream.
“A-A-A-A-A Mage!”
The figure pointed a trembling finger at Karia, stammering in fear.
Skin pale as if glowing, a face of perfect beauty by human standards, clothes crudely woven from tree bark, and a slender frame.
Karia scowled and stared at the already pale man who now looked ghost-white.
She didn’t know his name, but she did know what he was.
“—One of those big-eared bastards.”
There was only one race in the world with such large ears—elves.
—
The Apple Tree Clan’s Red Wise faced his first real trial in his 99 years of elf life. He wasn’t even of age yet. Born in a peaceful and prosperous forest, he had never once encountered danger. And now—a mage? A mage! What on earth was happening?
“So, how many of you big-eared creatures live in this forest?”
“I—I am of the wise and proud elven race! You think I’d betray my kin under the threats of a vile mage?!”
“—Andeon.”
“Yes, Master.”
Under the mage’s command, her subordinate Andeon shook Red Wise, who was tied up to a tree like a windchime. Small and cute as he looked, he had the strength of a bull and knew exactly how to shake someone until they got motion sick.
To Red, the child in front of him looked more like a little devil than a kid. Through his spinning vision, memories of how he’d ended up here flashed before his eyes.
“I’m telling you, it was magic!”
Red’s declaration had made the other elves burst into laughter. The Wise Clan served the oldest apple tree in the forest and were believed to be blessed with wisdom.
Red, the youngest and least experienced among them, had fallen during a hunt, claiming it was because he saw a golden magical mist far in the distance. Of course, no one believed such nonsense.
“Red, mistakes aren’t bad. Everyone starts out clumsy. Though, not many are this clumsy right before adulthood… Anyway, there’s no need to lie. Even if you failed, we’d still share the game.”
“But I’m serious! Over by the ‘Fallen Mage’s Castle,’ I heard a huge noise and felt a massive flow of mana!”
“Probably just a big tree blooming. Red, how many times must I tell you? Mages went extinct over 500 years ago. If you’ve got time to make up stories, go help pick fruit for tonight.”
Indeed, mages—the elves’ greatest enemies—had disappeared long ago. Some say it was because humans, after unifying the continent, became lazy and stopped studying magic. Others claim magic caused so much bloodshed that nature took back its blessing to erase mages from the world.
Whatever the truth, stories of mages had become nothing more than exaggerated fairy tales, even for long-lived elves.
After their extinction, elves grew plants and trees to build the forest, which kept humans out. Centuries passed, and the elves grew in number, dividing into peaceful clans and living in harmony.
Hearing about a mage now was not something anyone wanted—even as a joke.
“Damn it, I’m almost of age and they still treat me like a brat!”
But unlike the others who laughed and dismissed him, Red Wise, deeply offended at being called a liar, was different.
Young and full of spirit, he set out to prove he was right and headed to the Fallen Mage’s Castle—a gloomy ruin that not even the Apple Tree Clan or other elves dared to approach.
It was said to be the home of the most powerful and most cruel mage in ancient times, who died a horrific death. People believed his grudge still lingered there, making the place feel cursed. No one dared to approach the vine-covered structure.
Red had only seen the castle from afar once as a child, during a test of bravery with other young elves. He had never gone inside—until now.
“What the heck is going on?”
Surprisingly, the old ruin no longer looked like one. Overgrown plants were gone, rust and decay vanished. The gate no longer looked broken.
Red was sure—it had to be magic. Nothing else could restore such decay.
He had crept in through the slightly open gate, and had Andeon not been distracted by Karia through a small window, he would’ve been caught instantly.
Red hid by blending in with the plants, unwilling to admit it, but exploring alone had been… a little terrifying.
So he waited—for proof. Waited and waited. Then Karia appeared through the front door.
“A human?”
At first, he thought she might be an elf from another clan, but—no. Her ears were wrong. They were round. Round ears! Just like the ones in storybooks.
Then she waved her hand in the air—and performed impossible feats.
He had come to find evidence of magic, but to see it in person—real magic right in front of him—was overwhelming. It defied nature itself.
In that one moment of shock, he got caught. And now, he was a prisoner.
—
“I’d rather die with honor than suffer this humiliation! Just kill me, you wretched mage!”
Red Wise of the Wise Apple Tree Clan swore he would never give in, no matter how afraid he was. He was raised to protect his kin and uphold elven pride. Even if he were to break, he would never bend when he believed he was right.
But Karia couldn’t care less what noble resolve he had.
“How is it that, even after 800 years, you big-eared folk still follow the same script? Mages are evil, elves are righteous. You invade other lands claiming it’s all ‘part of nature,’ yet shoot arrows at anyone who gets near your own settlements. You’re always so self-righteous, you weird not-quite-plant, not-quite-animal things.”
“Correct, Master.”
Karia scoffed at Red’s desperate outburst and mocked him with logic and words he had never even heard before.
Eventually, after a round of gagging, poking, and shaking, Karia and Andeon untied Red from the tree.
“If your buddies haven’t shown up by now, despite you hanging there like a scarecrow, I guess you came alone. Doesn’t seem like they’d send such a clumsy brat as a scout… What, did you get lost, kid?”
“Don’t call me a kid!”
“Loud for someone so small.”
Karia gazed thoughtfully at the young elf. He didn’t seem to have intended harm, but letting him go could still cause trouble. And killing him outright would surely ignite a full-scale war with the elves.
If an idiot like this was walking around freely, that meant there were more elves out there. But Karia didn’t have the time or interest to deal with who-knows-how-many of them.
“Master, what are your orders? What should we do with him?”
“Hmm—”
“Kill me! Kill me now! I won’t tell you where my clan lives or how many brothers I have!”
“So your kin live in clans, and your siblings number ten to sixteen. And based on your red hair… apple tree clan?”
“H-How did you—?!”
Red’s transparent, naive reaction made Karia frown. There was no need to probe further—elve
s had clearly grown weak living comfortably in their predator-free forest. In the old days, a whelp like this would never have survived to adulthood.
