After hearing my simple and damning answer, the little girl seemed a little taken aback as she feebly responded:

“B-buy my mo-mommy wasn’t a selfish and b-bad person…”

“No, you might think that she wasn’t, but who’s to say really? Would you say that every person your mother knew was bad? Did your own mother not tell you that your grandmother wasn’t a bad person?”

After hearing this, the girl simply continued to look into my eyes, trying to deny the first sentence I said, but finding herself unable to do so as a result of the subsequent question. After a few seconds of thinking, she chose to answer the latter question I posed, saying:

“She-she did say my grandmother was a nice p-person.”

“Right, and yet look at what she did. No, for that matter, look at what all of them did!”

Leaning closer to the wide-eyed girl, I continued my words, poisoning her vulnerable mind as I said:

“You see my little half-elf, all people are selfish and self-centered creatures, doing whatever they can for their own whims and interests even at the expense of others. People will always do what’s best for themselves no matter what. Yes, sometimes people come and work together, but that’s only so long as it benefits them. I can’t tell you what reason the elves had for it, but they all had some sort of agreement that no one in their group chose to birth half-elves. This was something everyone knew, even your mother and grandmother. After all, look at what happened as soon as you were discovered. Everyone condemned you mother for it! Did they not?”

“But… But my mommy did nothing wrong!”

At this time, if I had been wiser and have taken the time to look into myself, even just to see what the notifications were about, I might have noticed the peculiarity in the flow of mana inside my body. However, because I was inexperienced at the moment and didn’t know the dangers lurking in the world, the phenomenon occurring inside of me at the moment would continue to go unnoticed by me for a long time, causing me great chagrin in the future when I finally discovered it. Thus, in my unknown ignorance, I continued to stare at the little half-elves eyes as my own bright glowing ones reflected off of them to look back at me, and said:

“But she did, did she not? After all, if she had done nothing wrong, she wouldn’t have had to hide you from everyone else. Your mother knew what was acceptable by the elves around her, however, she chose instead to go against their agreements and chose to live hiding you from them all these years.”

“But-”

Not giving her the opportunity to refute my words, I continued:

“Think about it, your mother never condemned the rest of her people, because even she believed that what she was doing was wrong. But she still went against her people. Why? Because of her own selfish love. You see, love is a very selfish thing, something we crave and desire, even if it’s wrong. It was because of her love for your dad and that she betrayed her people, even if she herself knew the consequences of her actions. After all, she knew what could have happened if she had you and you were discovered, but she still chose to have a daughter with a human, and not only that, bring her into this dangerous forest to boot!”

Shaken from my words, the girl took a step back. However, I immediately took a step forward to prevent her from opening up a distance between us and continued:

“Your dad too should have known what could have happened if he let you and your mother return to the forest. But in the end, he still chose to let you guys go. You could say he had responsibilities he needed to uphold, but at the end of the day, that just means he chose his fame as an adventurer over becoming a father. After all, did he not have a responsibility to you as a father? It was his actions after all that brought you into this world.

Yet despite this, despite choosing to have you, neither of your parents could make the most important sacrifice. To abandon the lives they had lived in order to give you a proper home. Your father chose his adventurer lifestyle over yours, and your mother put you in danger because she didn’t want to restart a new life in a new place. None of them could make that last sacrifice to give you the home your deserved. After all, people are selfish and greedy things, unwilling to throw away their comforts and burden themselves even if they have a responsibility to do so.”

As I continued speaking, I felt as if a connection was slowly forming between me and the half-elf in front of me, thus, not allowing this feeling to fade, I continued:

“Yes, maybe your parents did love each other and you, but they also loved the lives they had lived up to that point just as much. In the end, they just didn’t love you enough to put your happiness over their own…”

Normally, I might have felt my heart drop at seeing the shaking and terrified little girl in front of me. However, at this moment I simply squinted my eyes at her expression, and, although I didn’t know why, took pleasure in seeing unstable mana inside of her.

With my damning statements towards her family swirling around in her mind, even though her heart was desperately trying to deny them, the half-elf looked up at me with her quivering eyes and asked:

“T-then what do I do? If-if my own dad won’t help me, t-then who will?”

At this point my smile deepened slightly as I simply told her:

“No one, no one will help you.”

Seeing her expression turning despondent from my answer, I continued on poisoning her mind for a reason even I wasn’t aware of at the time as I said:

“No one will help a poor half-elf girl for no reason. I told you, people are selfish creatures, only choosing to help others when it benefits. Even I only helped you because it was in my interest to.”

At this statement, a strange phenomenon began occurring inside the little half-elf’s body as she asked me:

“T-then are saying you will he-help me?”

“If it benefits I will, after all, it’s not like it’s a simple thing to take care of another person. If I am to help you, what can you offer me? What can you do to make it worthwhile for me to care for and protect a defenseless little half-elf? Hmmm?”

At this moment, I saw both something activate inside of me, and at the same time, felt as if I could take hold of the very soul of the half-elf in front of me. While this strange sensation was permeating inside of me, the half-elf opened her mouth as she screamed out desperately:

“Anything! I’ll do anything!”

Hearing her answer brought me more joy that I could have ever thought myself to experience at taking advantage of a traumatized and vulnerable girl. So, riding off the momentum that I had been unknowingly building, I simply responded to her question telling her:

“Anything? Then it’s quite simple really… all I ask for is that you give me your everything~”